After a short moment, the youths were led into a square hall.
The entrance had an archway that depicted clouds and rays of light emanating from a crescent within a circle, which was placed at the top centre of the arch, and countless human figures kowtowing were engraved at the bottom.
They were revering the sky and the mysterious object beyond the clouds.
There was a spiral staircase beyond the hall. One would pass under another archway, one depicting the same crescent within a circle, but the human figures were gone; the clouds had lowered, and stars accompanied the central image high above.
Thus, one could liken the mysterious object to the loftiness of the stars themselves.
Besides this intricate symbolism, the square hall contained several shelves full of ceramic vats, glass jars, and these peculiar-looking pots.
Within the centre of the hall was a cauldron that was half black and half white. It was currently empty.
"We will now begin the second proof of your Initiation."
As the grey-skinned man guided the youths to group together against one of the walls, he approached the cauldron.
His left hand grasped the air in the direction of the shelves, seizing about a dozen vats and jars with a mystical, formless force, and bringing them to his direction.
With a wave of his hand, he caused the contents within the vats and jars to spill into the cauldron.
Dull red pills, pristine red pills, dull grey pills, and so on.
Each vat and jar held pills of different colours, and the dozen colours were poured into the cauldron with a faint pita-pat.
While most of the other youths did not recognise these pills, Wu Xue Yue was familiar with them.
'Blood-Circulating Pills, Blood-Vitality Enhancing Pills, Bone-Strengthening Pills... these are all the standard types of pills that reinforce the body...'
He himself had consumed many of these pills when he became a pseudo-Clan Leader and forcefully awakened his Cultivation.
However, Wu Xue Yue did not bother thinking further about these pills; instead, he held an expectant light as he watched the grey-skinned man seize one of the oddly-shaped pots from afar.
As the pot floated above the cauldron and tipped over, a thick white liquid poured outward, emanating an ethereal sheen.
Just the sight of it caused Wu Xue Yue to absentmindedly salivate in his mouth, swallowing occasionally as he watched the otherworldly liquid flow into the cauldron.
It mixed with the red powder for several breaths of time, but the white liquid did not dye any shade of red; it remained a pristine white.
"Young Master, please, step forward and accept Her Hallowed Visage's Divine Essence into yourself...!"
At the grey-skinned man's call, Wu Xue Yue approached the centre of the square hall, feeling a bone-chilling sensation rising from the cauldron's depths.
"As you are of the pure bloodline, your Initiation is different from ours of the lesser pure bloodline.
"The lesser pure bloodline's initiation refines the body to attain 'proofs' of one's devotion, but your body is already closely affined due to the blessing your great ancestor received from her Hallowed Visage.
"You must simply be anointed to complete the initiation, but undertaking the proofs of this Initiation requires you to undergo the Three Detriments, which will be far more grievous than the first proof of Self Sacrifice and this second proof of Receiving Love!
"Now... raise your 'first proof'."
Wu Xue Yue raised his left hand, the hand he ruptured just moments ago. It was not bleeding, but it was still a grotesque sight.
Waving his hand, the grey-skinned man commanded that the otherworldly liquid in the cauldron rise and flow through the air. It seeped into the shattered expanse of Wu Xue Yue's left hand and entered his bloodstream.
"...!"
An intense pain shook the muscles in his arm, and those spasms slowly climbed their way into his shoulder and spread through his chest, before coalescing into his heart.
The grey-skinned man's eyes narrowed with concentration, calmly stating as he discontinued the flow of liquid,
"You have already awakened your Cultivation and refined your Qi Cores, which is the secondary goal of Receiving Love. Because of this, your second proof is hereby concluded."
With a raise of his finger, the grey-skinned man tapped over the left side of Wu Xue Yue's chest, and the pain seemed to settle, but each beat of his heart brought along the sensations of needles piercing his organ.
"The youths will take longer to conclude their second proof of Receiving Love, so you must continue onwards by yourself."
With a hand grasping the fabric over his chest, nails digging so deeply that he could still claw at his skin, Wu Xue Yue's breathing turned heavy.
"The primary goal is to imbue the love of Her Hallowed Visage into yourself. Can you feel the heat of her love? Can you feel the weight of it all? You must bear through the sensation of her love and ascend the Arches Staircase, the first Detriment."
But Wu Xue Yue was not listening.
With a step forward, then another, he slowly began walking past the grey-skinned man without looking or talking back.
"..." With another sigh, he dropped the theatrics and bid the boy one last worried farewell, "Please, do not fail, Young Master."
Wu Xue Yue trudged under the second archway and stood at the base of the spiral staircase.
Looking up, he tried to see just how far up the staircase went, but he could see no end to it.
From the outside, this should be the tower of this building, which appeared to be one hundred meters tall, but the interior surpassed that by manyfold, or so it seemed.
'The first Detriment... Arches Staircase...'
Wu Xue Yue had already heard of the three Detriments, but was only familiar with the names.
He absentmindedly dropped his gaze to the ground, catching his breath and trying to steady himself.
Beneath him were the intricate grooves within the floor. They formed some sort of channel that converged into a single point of the floor, being a small hole in the centre.
It could be some odd sense of aesthetic, but it seemed to be some sort of drain that receives and directs the flow of liquid.
Without paying the sight of it much thought, Wu Xue Yue took his first step onto the staircase.
A painful throb and surge of heat ignited in his heart.
He staggered, catching himself as he leaned over in pain.
"This heat...!"
He could not think clearly, let alone move without his steps staggering; the pain in his heart was searing, boiling his blood, and bringing about an intense pain that threatened to bring him to his knees.
A thought rose in his mind, 'this is not love', which troubled him.
He abhorred the heat and pain, the nauseating memories it brought back to him is partially responsible for his mind's lack of clarity.
This was not love, merely hot pain and horrid memories.
But even so, he carried on.
This was the first Detriment, the Arches Stairway; if he was overcome by these horrid sensations, then he would have already failed at the first step.
And so, he took the second step.
There was no handrail; the steps jutted out of the walls in a spiral ascent.
Wu Xue Yue felt like a woman in labour, with a heavy weight in his body; the heat and pain threatening to pull him over the edge.
So, like an infant taking their first steps—raising his head and his feet—he used the wall to stabilise himself as he slowly staggered up the steps.
...
...
...
Splat!
That sharp noise rose from below.
All of Wu Xue Yue's concentration was focused on ascending the Arches Staircase while not tumbling over the edge.
The sudden noise caused his body to jolt, and he crouched down to not tumble over the edge of the stairs.
"That sound...?"
He questioned, but didn't dare look over the edge.
Should he have looked, however, he would have been looking down from a height of a few hundred steps, unable to clearly see what lay on the bottom floor.
On that bottom floor, within the square hall, the youths were called up by the grey-skinned man to receive their second proof and challenge the Arche's Staircase.
Over half an hour had already passed, and three youths had been sent up the Arches Staircase behind Wu Xue Yue; this fourth youth had just passed under the archway leading to the base of the stairs.
There was the same hot and painful presence that belonged to the second proof; she clutched her chest with shuddering breaths.
However, before her, a sharp splat erupted from the ground.
'Splat' went the body of a falling youth, who would've fallen from quite a tall height.
As a hot sensation splattered across the hem of her robes, a dazed expression fell on her face.
"..."
She went silent; one could only hear her faint breathing and the faint, throbbing heartbeat within her chest. There was even a droplet of blood that managed to stain her right eye, but even that didn't excite any reaction from her.
She was stuck in her stupor. Until...
"...ah..."
There was a low, sputtered exhale that slipped from the fallen youth's lips. His eyes opened with tremors, but his vision was half-clouded and half-dyed red.
"Wei Zi...!" The girl quietly muttered, collapsing to her knees as her hands hovered above the boy's crumpled form.
"Oh? He survived...?"
The grey-skinned man was already approaching, having turned away from the other youths awaiting their second proof.
He stood beside the girl, stuck in her panic, and looked down with a scrutinising gaze hidden behind an apathetic face.
"...h-hng... L-..."
Boom!
An even more violent sound erupted from that fallen youth. His body exploded, reduced to a foul, bloody stain that smeared the ground with red meat paste.
The girl who was just kneeling before the fallen youth went pale, eyes widening and sinking with horror.
Not a whimper or cry of shock left her mouth. Her breathing grew heavier as she quickly stood up, but as she tried to take a step back...
"Don't."
A firm hand pressed against her back, lightly pushing her forward instead. As the girl whipped her head around to face the grey-skinned man, he calmly recited,
"Do not turn away. This is the consequence for those who can not bear the burden of Her love. All of you will carry a piece of Her Hallowed Visage within you; this is what 'Receiving Love' means!
"If you want to turn back now because you fear losing your lives, thus outright rejecting her love, then I will gladly reduce you to meat paste!"
He was not only addressing the girl, but also addressing the youths behind him as well.
The girl merely turned her gaze back to the bloodstain, watching as the intricate grooves of the floor drink the blood and splattered paste of the once 'fallen youth'.
Following the slowly flowing blood along the intricate grooves, her gaze was led to the centre of the floor, then she looked up from there.
She could not see the top of the staircase, nor could she see the other two youths who had ascended the staircase before her.
A painful throb rattled her chest, and a shaky exhale followed forth.
"Carry on now."
The grey-skinned man's apathetic voice left behind those three words before he turned away to tend to the other youths.
This caused the girl's gaze to shift towards the base of the staircase, choking on her breath as she silently willed her feet to move and approach the beginning of it all.
"Oh... Wei Zi..." She quietly whimpered, taking her first step up the Arches Staircase.
The painful throbbing of her heart never once subsided through the events, but instead amplified with the pain of sudden loss.
With careful, almost delicate steps, she, too, began ascending the staircase.