Xia Yushan waved his sword and two five petaled, five colored lotuses appeared in front of him and blocked the lightning that was barreling towards him. Standing in front of him was San Mirong of the Eternal Night Sect, her fingers were smoking after launching the lightning at Xia Yushan. The two were surrounded by a fog that blocked everything from view, even their spiritual sense was unable to penetrate the fog.
Not just the two of them inside this fog, all the other Nascent Soul disciples were also wandering inside the maze and occasionally bumping into each other. When they met each other, if it was from the same sect or the same continent they would group up, but if it was against the other sects they would immediately attack.
The reason was very simply, because this was the task set by the second trial.
When the group of disciples and elders entered the gate, they were all transported into a miniature realm and scattered throughout it. From there they realized they had conveniently entered a trial realm, as long as they passed the trials they would benefit greatly.
The first was simple, in the miniature realm there was a set number of entrances. In order to pass you simply needed to use those entrances to leave the miniature realm. But the entrances would seal up once they have been used, so the number of slots to the second trial was limited.
In addition, throughout the miniature realm were numerous spiritual herbs and magic beasts from the Qi Gathering realm to the Unity realm that have gone extinct in the modern era. Just by staying in the miniature realm and harvesting these beasts and herbs was enough to make the trip worth it.
But humans were creatures that were never satisfied with what they had. Since there were better rewards awaiting them if they continued the trial, why would they be satisfied with what they could attain in the first trial?
Thus many fights broke out between competitors and even those of the same sect occurred occasionally. Many also fell to the magic beasts and even plants that have opened their spirituality, becoming nutrients for their growth. The Trial Land was not merciful at all, if one died in the trials then their corpses would be recycled and used by the Trial Lands.
The second trial was a fog maze and each participant was given an emblem on their body. The goal of the participants was to collect five emblems, including their own. The way to collect emblems was to defeat the other participants.
There were no rules except those that voluntarily threw away their emblem would be teleported out from the Trial Land. The participants could band together and hunt the scattered participants, they could even choose to go alone as long as they collected five emblems in the end.
Xia Yushan had already collected a total of three emblems including his own, so he only needed two more. One was from a Core Formation realm disciple and the other was a Nascent Soul realm disciple of another sect.
Core Formation disciples, Nascent Soul disciples, and even Unity realm Elders, all of them were undertaking the trial at the same time as if there was no difference in realms between them. If they happened to meet a cultivator of a higher realm and different faction then they could only blame their bad luck.
Earlier San Mirong had immediately attacked Xia Yushan once she caught sight of him, but Xia Yushan’s reaction was quick and blocked her move.
Now the two looked warily at each other.
Very soon San Mirong turned into a streak of lightning as she flew away. They weren’t the only two participants of the second trial, it was simply not worth it to fight it out between them. If San Mirong had been able to successfully gain the upper hand with her sudden attack, she would have continued her assault, but she gave up upon seeing Xia Yushan block her attack easily. It wasn’t that she wasn’t able or willing to duke it out, but the cost wasn’t worth it since their main goal was to move onto the next stage.
This was also the reason why Xia Yushan didn’t block San Mirong from fleeing.
But Xia Yushan didn’t allow himself to relax and tightened the grip on his sword as the fog surrounded him and hindered his vision once more. There was no technique Xia Yushan could use to navigate the fog maze. Sight, touch, spiritual sense, smell, sound, none of those could be used. It was as if the fog was a black hole that absorbed everything emitted from living beings.
Xia Yushan’s luck was actually quite good, despite having encountered a Unity realm Venerable, he was able to escape. Soon afterwards he found two more Nascent Soul realm disciples and defeated them, gaining the last two emblems needed.
Once he obtained all five emblems, Xia Yushan was covered in a silvery white light and teleported out of the second trials. When Xia Yushan regained his sight he was in an enclosed space but he didn’t panic. He was also teleported here. Last time he was here he received five swords that were at the Nascent Soul realm that were perfect for his Five Element Sword Arts and able to establish a formation using those five swords.
And now before him was five peacock tail feathers, each one contained one of the five elements.
Xia Yushan’s eyes brightened at the five peacock tail feathers. Although he couldn’t use them right now, Xia Yushan was able to recognize that these were the five tail feathers of a Five Element Peacock that was in the Transcending Mortality Realm or at the Earth Immortal realm.
If he used it correctly he could use it to forge an artifact at the Unity realm at the very least. If he was fortuitous enough, there was even a chance he could even refine it into a immortal realm artifact.
Once Xia Yushan stored away the five peacock tail feathers, he felt his body shift again. When he opened his eyes once more, he found himself standing in a circular hall with an arena in the middle. The only other person aside from Xia Yushan was a Core Formation disciple from the Eight Pillars Sect.
Xia Yushan glanced at her. She was a beauty that seemed to have been carved from a block of ice. Her aura was extremely cold and extremely memorable. Xia Yushan searched his memories but couldn’t recall seeing her at the Three Heavens Connection Meeting. As a Nascent Soul realm cultivator, Xia Yushan’s memory was extremely good but despite this he could not recall who the Eight Pillars Sect disciple was.
Her aura was very similar to Yang Linyin to the point that if it wasn’t ice cold, Xia Yushan would have mistaken her for Yang Linyin if only he used his spiritual sense to observe the girl. But Xia Yushan didn’t allow his curiosity to get the better of him as he leaned against one of the pillars.
As time passed, more and more people began to appear.
Ji Shuye, Heng Huesheng, Wei Daiyin, Nanfang Wubai, Duan Muli, San Mirong, Li Mu…
In total there were sixteen people total.
Five came from the Saint Scholar School, five came from the Buzhou Immortal Sect, three came from the Eight Pillars Sect, two from the Eternal Night Sect, and one from the Myriad Sun Sect.
Xia Yushan was surprised to see none of the Unity realm Elders present. Speaking logically, they were the ones with the highest chances to pass the trials, unless they entered a different location? Aside from that, Xia Yushan was also surprised to not see his junior brother, Xi Tianyi. Out of all the Core Formation disciples from the Buzhou Immortal Sect, he had the highest expectation for Xi Tianyi.
Before Xia Yushan had the chance to ask his fellow disciples about Tianyi, an old man materialized above the arena. He had white hair and an aged face with white robes. His size was over ten meters tall but translucent. This was the Trial Spirit that had appeared when they entered the miniature realm and explained the rules of the trial.
“Congratulations juniors, for reaching the third and final trial. The final tournament is a simple tournament. Oftentimes in the world it is not your potential or your strength that decides the victor but how you use utilize what you have. You will each be pitted against one another, one on one. The one who becomes the final victor will receive this.”
A ethereal lotus seemingly containing all the colors in the world on all of its petals at the same time appeared before the elder. But when one looked closer they would discover that it wasn’t actually a lotus but a mirage created from a lotus seed.
“This is the Heavenly Lotus Seed, there are many uses and it is an ingredient for numerous pills and artifacts. But even directly ingesting it will allow the ingester to increase their ability to comprehend the Dao. During the era of the Immortal Court, it was listed as the number seventh useful treasure in attaining comprehending the dao. There are no other rewards aside from this in the third trial.”
Hearing that the reward would be the Heavenly Lotus Seed, many of the disciples there couldn’t contain their excitement.
There was no longer any Heavenly Lotus growing in the modern era, at least in the Huang Realm. It was said that Heavenly Lotus was birthed from the primordial chaos and a lotus world would also be born within it at the same time. If a cultivator were to refine and absorb a Heavenly Lotus, they would directly enter the Immortal Realm!
Although the seed of a Heavenly Lotus was not as heaven defying, it was still an incredibly precious treasure. Even those at the immortal realm would covet it, much less these Core Formation and Nascent Soul disciples.
The first round was Ji Shuye against a disciple of the Saint Scholar School.
Both of them floated on the stage, the wind causing their clothes to flow and creating a picturesque scene. The man was talented, and the woman beautiful; it was a scene straight out of a painting.
“Buzhou Immortal Sect Disciple Ji Shuye, please advise.” Ji Shuye said, her voice was gentle as water.
“Saint Scholar School Disciple Long Wanji, likewise.” The scholar’s voice was as light as the wind.
The two started fighting, trading spells back and forth without anyone having the upper hand.
“Did any of you see junior brother Xi?” Xia Yushan asked while paying attention to Ji Shuye’s fight.
The disciples of the Buzhou Immortal Sect looked at each, but none of them had any positive confirmation.
“Junior brother Xi might have been unlucky and was unable to pass the second trial or the first trial. Maybe he has regrouped after being sent out of the Trial Land.” One of the disciples said.
“That seems to be the only possibility.” Xia Yushan said. Although those were his words, his brows furrowed as his intuition told him that this was not the case.
Back on stage Ji Shuye and the disciple of the Saint Scholar School traded spells back and forth like a dazzling performance of technique. Suddenly Ji Shuye stopped and jumped back causing the scholar to also stop and give a slight smile at her.
He was at the mid stage of the Nascent Soul realm while Ji Shuye was at the early Nascent Soul realm from the vibration of her qi. His smile froze when he felt Ji Shuye’s early Nascent Soul realm suddenly rise to become the late Nascent Soul realm.
Previously Ji Shuye had been giving off an impression as being as gentle as water, but now that water had turned into scalding hot steam. With a wave of her hand, a halberd that was two meters tall appeared in her hand. Ji Shuye swung it a few times displaying her immense familiarity with it before brandishing it toward her opponent.
“This…senior sister was actually at the late Nascent Soul realm?” a disciple couldn’t help but cry out. Not only was he surprised but aside from Xia Yushan all of them were surprised.
“Senior sister Ji is actually a cultivator of the martial path. But because of certain reasons, she decided to hide it and only expose her spiritual path cultivation.” Xia Yushan couldn’t help but twitch his lips as he recalled the reason.
He had joined the sect only a bit later than Ji Shuye so he was there to witness her prodigious talent in the martial way despite having a Double Spiritual Vein. Back then she was incredibly valiant to the point that no one could see her as a woman.
“To think that senior sister was actually hiding so deep!” Words of amazement flowed out from the rest of the Buzhou Immortal Sect disciples causing Xia Yushan to tremble from trying to suppress his laughter. Xia Yushan knew that Ji Shuye was paying attention to him and the rest of the disciple. If he laughed, there would be a beating later for him.
“Take my strike!” Ji Shuye cried out as she leapt forward with her halberd ready to deliver a devastating blow. Her hair no longer had any accessories as they had been blown away from her by the force she generated. The scholar was shocked by Ji Shuye sudden change in demeanor, but he quickly regained his calm and unleashed a number of spells at Ji Shuye.
But a black glass like armor appeared and covered her whole body, blocking those spells like they were minor annoyances. The scholar saw that his spells weren’t working immediately made to dodge, but at this moment Ji Shuye’s speed suddenly increased and she became a blur in the scholar’s eyes. The next thing he knew, he felt a mighty blow on his stomach.
He had been struck with the back of the halberd and was sent flying out of the arena and crashed onto the walls with a resounding impact. He vomited blood out of his mouth and felt his bones fracture and his organs broken. He paled when he thought of what would have happened had he taken a blow from the blade of Ji Shuye’s halberd.
He cupped his hands and said.
“Thank you for showing mercy.”
Ji Shuye smiled and stepped off the stage. Her halberd had been stored and although her hair was no longer tied she exuded a gentle aura as if her previous valiant self had been an illusion. When she returned to her fellow sect members she saw Xia Yushan trying to hold back his laughter at the fearful and awestruck look of her junior brothers.
Ji Shuye glared at Xia Yushan, causing him to burst out in laughter. He was rewarded with a fist embedded into his stomach.