Chapter 1530 — 1530: Road trip

"Are you absolutely sure about this?" asked Souta, a look of extreme doubt on his usually stoic face.

"Yes, yes, definitely sure about this," said Rafael, waving his hand to shoo his Japanese companion away while he studied an ancient relic. "Like I said, the Trial of Eternity is the perfect place to undergo our Earth tribulations. It will be more dangerous, yes, and the tribulations will be stronger, yes. But we have a rare window to take advantage of while the realm is still drained from the mega storm it recently experienced.

"If all of us trigger the tribulation at the same time, then the additional strength of the unique realm will be divided amongst all of us, and due to the drained state of the realm, it'll just barely be enough for us to tolerate. Trust me, there's a reason why it's important we undergo our Earth tribulation there.

"Since this place is so sensitive to tribulations, the baptism we'll receive here after becoming immortals will far surpass any other baptism we can get anywhere else in the realm. It'll automatically give us a huge advantage facing any other Earth Immortals. Considering all our competitors are already Immortals, and have been for much longer than us, we'll need every single advantage we can get."

Souta looked towards Anakin, whose expression looked dark, and not just because his mastery of darkness had improved by leaps and bounds.

"Rafael, do you not remember what happened when we came here? How over a thousand immortals died here because of the previous tribulation that occurred here? Over a damn thousand immortals! How do you expect us to survive that? Do you remember what the tribulations looked like? Is that something we're supposed to be able to survive?" Anakin questioned, a heat rising in his chest. "Not to mention, you saw how his tribulation was, right? How are we going to fight off those lightning monsters as tribulations? That's not normal!"

He knew it was too good to be true. Rafael had been acting like a heaven-sent commander, and each of his commands was enigmatic but turned out right, allowing them to gain massive points in the previous rounds of the Champions tourney.

Sometimes the situation had been entirely unexpected, but Rafael always knew exactly how to resolve the problem. It was almost like he could see the future.

Even his decision to remain in the Trial of Eternity to uncover this ancient hidden temple that apparently no one knew about was extremely absurd, but they actually found it, thus further cementing that Rafael knew what he was doing.

Within this temple, they may really find the history of the Trail of Eternity, and why the barrier between this isolated region and the rest of the Origin realm was thinning. Anakin could not even imagine how valuable such information would be!

Just when everyone was getting used to his unusual leading style, the maniac went ahead and said he wanted to take their Major tribulation within Trial of Eternity!

"Actually, considering how ancient the darkness here is, I'd thought you'd actually prefer to take your tribulation here. Wouldn't it be the perfect opportunity for you to gain a few additional benefits?"

"That's besides the point!" Anakin exclaimed, though he could not help but feel tempted. By now, Anakin's cultivation style was entirely unique, no longer absorbing spiritual energy, but a special kind of energy that was only born in darkness. The darkness in the Trial of Eternity was especially potent for him to absorb.

Rafael turned away from his document and looked towards Anakin, who was glaring at him with resigned anger. Souta, too, looked troubled, though Larry and Alexander did not seem too bothered by the impending danger they were about to face.

"Anakin, when have I led you astray? Trust me, if I wasn't confident in myself, I wouldn't be joining you all as well, would I? Not to mention, I've even arranged for my dad to join us. Trust me, as long as we follow my plan, nothing will go wrong. Besides, Lex's tribulation was a little too abnormal. We won't face anything like that."

Larry opened an eye and looked at Rafael.

"Don't say stuff like that. It's bad luck."

Rafael chuckled, and turned back to his document.

"I don't believe in luck. I believe in my preparation."

"No, you don't understand. When you're chasing after a girl, the moment you become overconfident or cocky, you'll lose her. What you're doing now is called raising a flag. Repent, before you get us into trouble."

"Don't you have a girlfriend? Should you really be talking about chasing girls?"

Larry coughed into his hand and looked away, returning to his silent meditation.

Rafael looked at everyone else in the room, and when he saw that no one else had any other complaints, he turned to look at Alexander.

"Why do you look so glum? It's not like you?" he asked.

Alexander sighed, then opened his eyes and explained.

"My family is secretly preparing to retake Earth and the solar system from the Deities and the A.I. They're setting up alliances and laying the groundwork for our return."

"So? I don't see why something like that should depress you. Are you intimidated by the strength of the enemy?"

Alexander shook his head, as if the burden he bore was too great for him to mention.

"What is it? You can tell us," said Rafael, suddenly feeling concerned. He had never seen Alexander so depressed.

"It's just that… while every other force was weakened after leaving Earth, the Morrison family's strength has grown exponentially. Don't even talk about our armies - we have so many Nascent realm soldiers underneath us that it's become imperative for multiple family members to become immortals if we're to retain control of our forces.

"But that's not really an issue. My parents and grandparents are all more than capable of becoming immortals, I'm sure of it. It's just that… since the size of our forces have grown too large, my grandfather declared that we need to grow the size of the family. My grandmother is… expecting, and now so is my mother. Now my grandmother sends me a letter every week asking me when I'm going to bring a girlfriend home. This… this is ridiculous. I don't know how to respond to these people."

Everyone was dumbstruck, and turned to look at one another, as if to confirm that they had all heard the same story. Once they were sure, they all simultaneously burst into laughter, quickly forgetting about their tribulation in the Trial of Eternity, the very same place where Lex had undergone his own tribulation.

Within the eerie darkness of the Trial of Eternity, far away from any other living being, their group didn't bother to hold back their laughter. They looked more like a group of friends on a road trip than participants in the Champions tourney.

Then again, one reason they were so relaxed was because Rafael had never led them wrong before. With him in the lead, they were certain they'd be able to handle whatever issue they faced.