A group of hundreds of people stepped onto the stone path orderly and moved forward slowly in the silent space.
No one knew if the first level was, like what Tian Sanren said, at the end of the stone path, so the entire group couldn’t increase their speed.
Su Li walked alone behind Wang Yu, and Jin Ying was held by Wang Yu. Wang Yu was more satisfied with how Jin Ying had behaved along the way.
Behind Su Li followed Dongfang Yi, who had deliberately controlled his speed and lagged behind.
Sensing someone watching her back, Su Li didn’t mind and remained calm as she walked forward.
A moment later, the practitioners had gone far on the floating stone road, and the stone platform was no longer to be seen. They looked from afar like ants crawling on a rope, small and lonely.
As Tian Sanren was about to suggest an acceleration, the stone road shook violently suddenly, and everyone’s expression changed slightly.
Immediately afterward, the last person of the group suddenly lost his footing and fell directly into the endless nothingness with a scream.
The miserable screams echoed, which scared everyone.
“Hurry! The stone road is crumbling. Speed up!”
Tian Sanren at the forefront shot out, and his nervous roar spread out far away.
In fact, he didn’t need to remind deliberately. The moment the unlucky man walking at the end of the group fell, everyone burst out with their fastest speed and exerted all the strength they had!
Wang Yu was at the back of the group. When she saw this, she did not care about Su Li, who was still behind her, picking up Jin Ying and escaping at speed. Jin Ying screamed with fear.
“Master, the junior sister apprentice is still back there!”
Wang Yu, however, seemed to be deaf and went even faster.
Actually, only one sacrifice was needed, and she couldn’t guarantee her own safety, let alone Su Li’s.
The eyes on Su Li’s indifferent face were narrowed. As she was about to use some of her real strength, she stopped at this critical moment.
And then she felt being picked up and embraced into warm arms. The blemish of the otherwise perfect thing was that the his heart was beating too fast.
“Hold tight!”
Dongfang Yi gritted his teeth and broke out at his maximum speed. He didn’t know why he would save Su Li, for he was barely able to keep himself safe, but did so subconsciously.
“It will take me quite a bit of time to leave this girl behind, well… leave it to fate!”
Trying to give himself an explanation, Dongfang Yi laughed bitterly inside and fled desperately towards the end of the stone path along with the frightened crowd!
“Ah!”
“Help!”
“Help me, Master!”
Miserable screams constantly came from behind, and it was getting closer and closer. Cold sweat broke out on Dongfang Yi’s forehead, but he had no intention of putting Su Li down.
“This lad obviously has difficulties in escaping on his own…”
Su Li shrank in Dongfang Yi’s arms, found it somehow funny, and was about to help him secretly. Suddenly, as she blinked–
The crone in red appeared!
Old Lady Duhua, who had escaped far away, suddenly came back. Ignoring Su Li in Dongfang Yi’s arms, she grasped Dongfang Yi’s back collar, turned into a red thunderbolt, and fled.
Rumbling–
The stone path continued collapsing at a fast but limited speed.
Everyone used their own ways to save their lives and landed on a wide and flat ground at the end of the stone path.
Plop!
Old Lady Duhua loosed her grip, and Dongfang Yi, who was holding Su Li, fell to his knees. But at the moment, he couldn’t make a move and was filled with the luck of escaping.
“What a reckless boy! You have practiced a hundred years for nothing! Didn’t your father teach you not to be easily moved with compassion?”
Old Lady Duhua scolded with a gloomy face. If that person hadn’t told her that she would have some serendipities with this kid on this trip, she would’ve not taken the risk.
Dongfang Yi smiled awkwardly and cupped his fists, “Thank you for saving my life, Senior!”
Old Lady Duhua snorted coldly and stood aside without speaking.
Dongfang Yi didn’t care, but he got much less suspicious of Old Lady Duhua. At least for now, Old Lady Duhua had no intent to kill him. Otherwise, she didn’t have to risk her life to save him.
“Brother Dongfang, your palms are sweaty. Can you stop rubbing them on me…”
An extremely whispered reminder sounded in his ears and interrupted Dongfang Yi’s strained nerves. He looked down in dismay and confronted with Su Li’s blank and disgusted gaze just in time, which he found both funny and embarrassing.
He didn’t expect to be disgusted by this little girl after he saved her life.
But it seemed that she didn’t understand what just happened, did she?
“Junior sister apprentice!”
At this moment came Jin Ying’s voice. Su Li turned around and found Jin Ying running over with tears in her eyes. She held Su Li tightly, sobbing, “You scared me to death, junior sister apprentice. I’ve thought you might…”
Wang Yu didn’t expect that someone would save Su Li under such a circumstance. Seeing that Su Li didn’t seem to realize that she had been abandoned before, Wang Yu felt a little less embarrassed and immediately cupped her fists to Dongfang Yi, saying shamelessly.
“Appreciated! The situation was chaotic and dangerous. If you hadn’t saved her, I would have lost a beloved disciple forever.”
“Never Mind! I just lifted a finger.”
Dongfang Yi waved his hand hurriedly with a faint smile on his face, but felt weird and disgusting.
He had seen the scene clearly when Wang Yu left Su Li alone. She had no feeling to the little girl as her Master, so she must have some other purposes to bring them here.
Seeing Wang Yu leave with Su Li and Jin Ying, Dongfang Yi pursed his lips but didn’t go to stop her eventually.
“She is already at Jindan Realm, and my power is still no match to hers.”
Dongfang Yi took a deep breath and tried to become ruthless. As Old Lady Duhua said, it was still unknown whether he could survive on his own. He could save that little girl once, but couldn’t save her every time…
After a short break, Tian Sanren took a headcount, and he was shocked slightly.
The group of over 150 people was reduced to 81 now.
“Nine times nine is eighty-one. It happened to be a number of poles. Could it imply that all this was manipulated by something?”
Many people were horrified to know this number, and the atmosphere became stagnant.
“Look, what’s that?”
A young practitioner of Zhuji Realm pointed into the distance and shouted. Everyone looked in the pointed direction, and a pyramid-shaped building fell into their eyes.
“There’s no way back. Let’s go over there together.”
Tian Sanren said in a deep voice, and everyone agreed with him and moved quickly to the front of the pyramid-shaped building together.
The surface of the building was unusually smooth and it was so simple that there was no pattern, so a stone tablet next to the pyramid stood out.
The crowd consciously moved closer to take a look, and Su Li saw the words on the stone tablet too.
“Texts from the ancient cultivation era! This cave was really left by ancient practitioners. But what exactly is the Thunder of Pureness? Unfortunately, the connection with Black Lotus had broken again after she entered the cave, just like the last time in Chuangxing Path…”
As Su Li was thinking, Wang Yu and other practitioners were shocked, and many lost their cool and spoke out in ecstasy.
“An ancient cave! It is a real ancient cave!”
“I have no regrets to enter an ancient cave in this life, even if I die here immediately!”
“Bah! You jinx! What are you talking about?”
“…”
While the common practitioners were talking intensely, Tian Sanren and others had already focused on the content of the stone tablet.
“Fellow Practitioner Tian, you’ve been studying the ancient cultivation texts for many years, so you don’t have difficulties in reading the words on this stone tablet, do you?”
Yuan asked tentatively, and Tian Sanren’s lips curled as he smiled lightly, “Sure thing, Fellow Practitioner Yuan. Don’t worry, even if I’m wrong, many other fellow practitioners in the audience also understand ancient texts. So I’ll start off and tell you about the contents of this stone tablet.”
As soon as the words were spoken, everyone immediately concentrated on listening. Tian Sanren pointed on the contents of the stone tablet and spoke without delay, “My name is… Cang Lei! Foreigners had invaded us, and I barely survived the war. But I felt hopeless about my salvation, so I spent a thousand years building this cave of inheritance. And I finally succeeded!”
“Those who are destined to take up my mantle should take responsibility for the survival of this region and contribute his part to Qingshui Circle.”
“If not, those who can pass my tests will not return empty-handed either!”
“This tower is the first level of the test, named Sanjin Tower. If you can reach the top of the tower within 100 breaths, you will pass the test! Everyone can only take the test once in their lifetime!”
“Junior practitioners, the only way to break away from slavery is to strengthen yourself! I hope you won’t disappoint me…”
As the last words of Tian Sanren were spoken, all the eyes of the rest 80 people brightened.
This… seemed to be very different from the six levels Tian Sanren had mentioned before. They had originally thought that each practitioner assigned to a level would be able to keep the entire level’s treasure all by himself but never expected that everyone could have the chance to take the test.
It seemed that Tian Sanren hadn’t expected it either, and he looked a little embarrassed, apologizing, “What I said before was just deduction from ancient texts, so it’s normal to have discrepancies. However, one chance becomes six, and it’s not a loss for all of you.”
As he was saying, he looked towards the chunky elder in a green robe and a tall and thin man in grey, who had originally been arranged for the first level, and said with a smile,
“The first level is obviously a test of speed, and you both are the fastest of all of us in terms of bodily movement. You might try it first. If you can’t pass, the rest of us won’t need to try.”
The green-robed elder laughed at the words, and one of his injured pustules ruptured suddenly, from which a mass of flesh jumped out. In the blink of an eye, it turned into an ugly monster full of sharp teeth, and shrieked full of killing intent spreading far and wide.
“It’s well-known among practitioners from Jiuzhou Region that Tian Sanren is well-informed and it turns out he deserves his reputation. He even knew my speedy treasure! Thanks for Fellow Practitioner Tian’s praise. I’ll give it a try!”
The green-robed elder patted the monster’s head, and a green light flickered in his eyes. The ugly monster immediately roared and turned into a ray of light, rushing towards Sanjin Tower!
The tall and thin man looked indifferent and inscrutable as he stared at the monster climbing up Sanjin Tower. No one knew what he was thinking. The rest of the accompanying practitioners, however, were a little bit awestruck with their pupils contracted, and got a few scruples.
This monster was really fast and seemed to be very strong. Wang Yu took a fleeting glance at a green-robed elder, whose face was covered by pustules.
If one pustule could change into a monster, so many pustules… Wang Yu swallowed hard. If the green-robed elder gave her a feeling of disgust before, now… it was fear!