When Dyon was in the process of taking out the soul contract, before anyone could see what happened, Elder Nove's hand shot forward at blinding speeds, destroying the parchment.

Dyon's eyes sharpened at this action. He could very clearly see Elder Nove's actions. However, he was surprised to find that even if he wanted, he couldn't have dodged him.

In that moment, Dyon's brain went into overdrive. Just why would Elder Nova destroy the parchment and so blatantly? In fact, from the looks of it, his power far surpassed Elder Rhode, or else he would have noticed Elder Nova's actions

Elder Nova stepped forward, hiding Dyon's awkward position as though nothing had happened and taking out another parchment paper from his own ring.

When Dyon saw the type of parchment paper it was, he immediately understood.

'Is the hate of the soul really so deeply ingrained in this quadrant that they don't even allow the use of soul contracts?' At that moment, Dyon was very thankful. Although he wasn't afraid of the experts of this quadrant, if he so blatantly incurred their wrath, his mission would basically come to an end before it even began.

"Let's sign a blood contract then." Elder Nova said with a smile. He was confident in Dyon to understand the meaning of his actions. Or, more accurately, he was testing Dyon. If this young man couldn't understand, he wasn't worth helping at all.

"Good." The red robed elder's eyes gleamed, clearly confident in his victory, completely unaware of the fact that his long-time "rival" had surpassed him by more than a thousand times over, long ago.

Elder Nova sent a casual glance back toward Dyon. Seeing that he was standing calmly, with his hands clasped behind his back, Elder Nova nodded in satisfaction. However, he also began to wonder just who Dyon truly was. By all logic, a true member of the Jafari family should understand the taboo of soul related cultivation and treasures here Unless, Patriarch Bol purposefully hid it from his son. After all, for Dyon to show up here alone, he clearly didn't have the full support of the Jafari family.

'Unless Is the Jafari family already here?' Elder Nova's brows slightly tightened. But, in the end, he couldn't figure out the truth and could only let it be.

After the two parties worked out the contract and dripped their blood onto it, the brown parchment paper turned a bright shade of red before burning into nothingness. With that, the contract was complete.

**

"Asyna, why the fuck did you drag me out here? You know Lilith told us to not move around so much."

A girl with an adorably round face, partially covered with bangs and cutely bob cut hair. While her hair was a glistening brunette, her eyes were large and a mesmerizing shade of blue. She exuded a doll-like air that made anyone who saw her have the instinct to protect her. It made everyone completely forget her foul language.

As for Asyna, the woman this supposed little girl was walking beside, she was on the complete other side of the spectrum.

Asyna had delicate chocolate skin. Maybe one wouldn't usually notice this first, but it was just that she exposed so much of it that it was hard for it to not be eye-catching.

She wore a tight-fitting leotard with such a deep 'V' down its center that her belly button was exposed. If one had the courage of their convictions to take a look at this seductress, you would notice that the ambiguous points of her nipples were prominent, while her outrageously large chest was the only thing holding her strapless leotard up.

Because of her dressing, her plump assets hung out proudly, whether it be her chest, or her ass, jiggling with her every step. They were incapable of being held back by the golden fishnet stockings she wore underneath her black leotard.

However, while she exuded an aura of temptation, the large and exorbitantly decorated ox tongue spear draped from her back, not to mention the skulls earrings that hung from her long and sharp ears, held a killing intent that made many not dare to approach her.

Hearing the girl's word, Asyna harrumphed. "Don't remind me, RolRol. They keep sending garbage from the dregs of this garbage quadrant to spar with us. I'm not satisfied.

"Plus, a moment ago I sensed something interesting."

"Something interesting?" The adorable girl named RolRol skipped to keep up with Asyna's long strides.

"I can't be entirely sure unless I go there, but if what I sensed is correct, my boredom will definitely be relieved"

Although RolRol looked like a cute little girl, she was still 14 years old. Not to mention the fact that she was very intelligent nonetheless. In her estimates, anything that Asyna sensed truly would be interesting.

They had come here to enter the tower, of course. However, there were a few things they had to deal with before they left. Under the orders of their leader, Lilith, they were meant to keep a low profile for now because the 98th quadrant wasn't closed off from the rest of the world.

Because of the existence of Soul Market, powerful existences visiting wasn't too rare, although they would keep their presences hidden. If they were in the tower, it wouldn't matter if they were exposed because they would only be dealing with members of the younger generation and they all believed that Lilith was undefeatable under such circumstances. However, the outside world was a completely different animal, so they had to be careful.

Unfortunately, dark elves had difficult to control personalities. As the leader of the dark elvin group that was sent, and Princess of their clans as well, Asyna didn't take too kindly to being ordered around, nor was her strength too far off from Lilith's as well. It was just that she was only 16 years old, so of course she was weaker.

Asyna grinned, "I sensed an Ancient Elvin bloodline. In fact, if I'm correct, although it's really faint, it's the royal bloodline too."

...

Back within the trial arena, the crowd had begun to gain its fire back. With the arrangement of the 5 branch peaks finished, it was time for the selections to begin.

For as long as anyone could remember, the Soul Rending Peak selections were all the same.

The first round begun with a test for age. No one above the age of 250 was allowed to participate. This was not only to mitigate cheating, it was also a small gauge of talent. As everyone knew, simply stepping into the peak of the foundation stage meaning fully tempering your body with essence energy gave one a lifespan of 500 years, while stepping into the meridian formation stage didn't add any years to one's lifespan.

Knowing this, if one couldn't become strong enough to join Soul Rending Peak within half of that time, they weren't worthy of joining to begin with.

The second round was a test of talent. This round might seem redundant in the face of what the third round would be, however, it had two purposes.

The first was to ensure that no one with high soul talent joined their school. This was a major taboo of their quadrant and could not be allowed.

Unfortunately, the instances of those with high soul talent being ostracized wasn't new, nor was it rare. Almost every selection there would be a handful of youths with high aspirations, not even knowing of their soul talent, who would be shocked by the result.

Because of this, the second round was the most stressful time for many first timers and was also the time where the higher ups of the Soul Rending Peak would finally show up to oversee the proceedings.

The second reason for this test of talent was to appropriately organize the groups for the third round. While this was a selection exam, it was also used by The Cathedral to raise public morale by providing entertainment for the masses. If two powerful candidates met early on, it would ruin this. So, in order to provide the best entertainment possible, the groups were selected in order to separate the most powerful and build up the anticipation.

As for the third round, it was where the true fighting began. The participants would be split into groups to decide a winner that would continue on to the final elimination round.