The next morning, they set off once again in a different direction.
lightsΝοvel The first trial was to the north, the second trial was to the west, so they were heading south this time.
The disciples had searched around the area even more during the night, so they had even more information to work with.
At the same time, they had swept through the spirit beasts that were in the forest to the south until there were less that appeared. It had created a safe zone even outside of the barrier to the south.
Of course, there were those spirit beasts that were stronger, but they were eliminated by the elders.
So Lin Fan’s group didn’t even bother searching the area around the barrier and headed deep into the forest.
But this time, it wasn’t all forest.
Instead, there was a large desert that suddenly appeared after they traveled through the forest for a bit.
This was a desert that seemingly spanned infinitely with no end in sight.
It was as if there was only desert in front of them.
This was definitely an environment that would be harsh to survive in and there was no way of knowing if their goal was even here. So they were not keen to explore this desert right away.
Lin Fan just narrowed his eyes as he looked at the sprawling desert in front of them.
Senior Brother Ying came forward and asked, “Sect master, are we going in?”
Lin Fan didn’t answer at first as he continued scanning the desert in front of them with his Appraisal Eyes. But he wasn’t able to find a single thing off about this desert even after scanning it for a bit.
He fell deep into thought as he considered their choices, but in the end said, “We’ll check the surrounding area first.”
When he said this, the elders let out a sigh of relief.
In truth, Lin Fan had wanted to dive right into the desert since he didn’t believe there would be a desert placed here for no reason. He was certain that this desert would have something to do with the trial that Feng Yu had left.
But he also had to think about the mentality of the elders.
He knew that it would take them some time to adjust to this desert, so he couldn’t just force them into the desert.
He knew that he would have to slowly ease them into accepting the idea of exploring the desert.
To do that, he would let them hit a dead end here first and make it so that they had no choice but to go into the desert.
The elders spread out after Lin Fan’s suggestion and they started searching the area in front of the desert.
But no matter how far they went, they weren’t able to find a single thing. The only thing that they found were spirit beasts, but those were no problem for them to defeat.
These were the strongest elders of the Love Sect, so it would be strange if they struggled against a few spirit beasts.
It was just that defeating them didn’t mean anything since they weren’t able to find any clues as to where to go.
In fact, it hurts them to waste this time to defeat these spirit beasts.
After an hour, they finally gave up searching the area since they couldn’t find anything.
There were thoughts about going further, but there was no guarantee that they would be able to find anything.
The longer they spent on this, the more time that they wasted. The more time that they wasted, the less daylight that they would have to explore this desert.
So in the end, it was all about whether to go into the desert or not.
After all, all signs pointed to going into the desert.
While they had been exploring the area, Lin Fan had actually walked around the edge of the desert and had been peeking in with his Appraisal Eyes.
He had been certain that whatever they were looking for was not in the forest around them, but rather in the desert in front of them.
But he also hadn’t been able to find a single thing while scanning the desert from a distance.
It was clear that he actually needed to go in to find what he was looking for.
The elders gathered around Lin Fan again and looked at the desert with hesitant looks.
They knew that they would need to go in to see what was in store for them, but they were still hesitant since they didn’t know anything about this place.
In the end, it was Lin Fan who said, “We need to go in. The longer we wait, the worse it gets.”
The elders revealed ugly expressions when they heard this, but they knew that he was right.
So with a sigh, they gathered together around Lin Fan and took a formation that would ensure that nothing would be able to sneak up on them.
Only then did they take the first step into the desert.
It was only a single step before they stopped moving and focused on the area around them.
They were afraid that just taking a single step would already trigger something.
But in the end, not a single thing happened around them.
There was only silence as the elders waited for something to appear.
Lin Fan just gave a sigh when he saw this.
He knew that this would happen already, so he didn’t panic at all.
He had been using his Appraisal Eyes the entire time, so there wasn’t a single thing that could escape his gaze. Even if he wasn’t able to appraise it, he would still receive a notification of failure to appraise.
Only if there was some kind of special high grade stealth array, they wouldn’t be able to hide from him.
These elders were even more cowardly than he thought…
After a long time, they finally started moving forward again.
They took small steps as they moved across the desert, making sure to pay attention to everything around them.
But the only thing that was around them was sand.
There wasn’t a single thing off about this desert.
However, that was also strange.
This desert was strangely smooth, very smooth. There weren’t any sand dunes at all in this desert like a normal desert would have.
Even if it was a manmade desert, the winds would eventually create something that was similar to a dune. It would make sure that there would at least be some kind of height difference in the desert.
However, that didn’t happen at all with this desert.
They could still see the forest that was growing smaller and smaller behind them.
At the same time, they could also see the spiritual energy rope that was coming from behind them.
They had made sure to tie a spiritual energy rope to one of the trees behind them so they could come back if they needed to.
Since there was nothing special about this place, they just kept going deeper and deeper into the desert.
Eventually, the forest disappeared from behind them though they could still see a faint green line on the horizon. At the same time, the rope was still connected to them, so they could follow it back.
But as far as they could see, it was as if there wasn’t a single thing in this desert.
They had already come this far, but it was still desert as far as the eye could see.
It was as if there was only desert and nothing else.
They didn’t know how wide this Minor World was, but they couldn’t help feeling that it wouldn’t end.
So the elders were feeling anxious.
Senior Brother Ying came over and asked, “Sect master, should we head back? We shouldn’t go too deep in today. We can go back and set up stops in between so that we can go further and further into the desert.”
This was a very reasonable suggestion that all of the elders agreed to.
Even Lin Fan had to admit that he was moved by this suggestion.
But before they could head back, there was something that suddenly appeared.
As soon as they sensed this thing, all of them immediately went into formation and raised their guard.
There was this spiritual energy fluctuation that suddenly appeared around them, but they couldn’t find the source of it.
They tried looking around for whatever was giving off this aura, but they couldn’t see a thing.
“Could it be that it’s invisible?” One of the elders asked.
The other elders knitted their brows when they heard this before one of the elders suddenly attacked in the direction that it came from.
When it was about to hit where the aura was coming through, it didn’t make contact at all. It just kept going past the area where the aura came from.
That elder had to quickly restrain themself or they would have hit another one of the elders standing in front of them.
They were able to stop, but then the sand suddenly erupted from below them.
If that other elder who had almost been attacked didn’t react fast enough, this elder would have been seriously injured.
There was this strange thorn that came out of the ground that the second elder was able to block with his barrier.
But before they could see what this thorn was, it disappeared along with the aura.
It was as if this enemy that they sensed had never existed.