The following really was painful for them…
It took a total of ten times for them to finally reach the oasis.
Each time, there was a different twist that happened.
The fourth time was a large sandworm that was much bigger than any that they had seen before. This was a large sandworm that was over ten meters tall that could have blocked out the sun for them if it stood up straight.
But a single large sandworm was much better than a wave of smaller sandworms.
Since it was so big, it wasn’t as mobile and they were able to easily dodge the sandworm’s attacks.
Lin Fan was able to use the time that the elders bought him to appraise the large sandworm and find its weakness.
For this large sandworm, its skin was just too hard for them to pierce, so they had to use a different method.
If its skin was too hard, they would just have to directly attack its insides.
So they threw attacks into the mouth of the large sandworm and tore it up from the inside.
It took a lot to take down this sandworm, but they were able to do it in the end.
The fifth time they were met with a swarm of wasps.
Just a single prick from the wasp was enough to poison them to death.
Luckily, the wasps were easy to take down, so they were able to gather them all together and burn them all away so that all of the poison was also burnt off.
But it was hard for them to gather since the wasps were also fast.
The sixth time…
A total of ten different times where they had to face a new trap, naturally that wore down on the elders and their morale had been completely crushed. They really wanted to stop following Lin Fan and they were planning rebellion, but they just hadn’t figured out how to do it yet.
Of course, it wasn’t a true rebellion.
They wouldn’t stab Lin Fan in the back no matter what happened since he was their sect master.
They just thought that he had gone crazy in this desert, which was why he kept insisting on heading towards the oasis.
They thought that the heat and stress had gotten to him, so they were planning on finding a way to knock Lin Fan out so he could rest. They believed that as long as he was able to get some rest, they would be able to convince him out of this crazy plan.
So they continued following Lin Fan, waiting for a chance.
But before that chance came, they arrived at the oasis.
“Huh? It’s actually real?” That was the reaction that most of the elders had when they arrived at this oasis.
None of them had believed that this oasis was actually real, so they were shocked when they found that they had actually reached it.
Lin Fan didn’t waste any time with them as he started going around the oasis.
As he looked at the plants around him, he saw the same description as before pop out.
It was only then that he was certain that this was the same oasis that he had been heading towards all this time.
There had to be a reason why there was an oasis here, so he wanted to search for that reason.
But before he could, the elders suddenly surrounded Lin Fan.
Lin Fan looked at them with confused looks when this happened, but Senior Brother Ying came forward to say, “Sect master, you’ve been running around all this time. You should take this chance to rest up before anything else happens.”
Lin Fan was about to shake his head and reject this idea, but he could see the expressions on the faces of the elders around him.
If he was a woman and he was surrounded by them like this, he definitely would be scared.
So in the end, he gave up on that idea and said, “Alright, but while I’m resting, you should explore this oasis to see if there’s anything special about it.”
Senior Brother Ying gave a sigh before saying, “Alright, we’ll explore. But you have to promise that you won’t struggle and run off.”
Lin Fan just gave a nod in agreement.
Like that, they split off into two groups.
One that would set up camp in this oasis while the other one would search the oasis to see if there was anything special.
The group that would set up the camp had another job which was to protect Lin Fan.
During their way to this oasis, Lin Fan had been the one that had gotten them through every trap. He had been the one that had seen through each trap and given them a way to deal with them.
So they were certain that he was the most tired one of them all.
Lin Fan was indeed exhausted, but he had wanted to sate his curiosity which was why he had wanted to search this oasis.
It didn’t take long for the group that went to search to find something.
“What is this?!” A loud voice came from somewhere in the oasis.
As soon as they heard this, everyone stood up and headed in that direction. Even Lin Fan was allowed to go since they knew that it would be safer to go together.
When they arrived, they found…a clearing in the center of this oasis.
They had been at the edge of the oasis, so they didn’t see it earlier. But when they came to the center, they found that there was a clearing just like the ones that they had seen before.
In the center of this clearing was something else that they were familiar with.
In the center of this clearing was another pillar.
This pillar was just like the other pillars that they had found before.
This pillar was their third trial.
Lin Fan was about to step forward towards this pillar, but the elders immediately stopped him.
Senior Brother Ying quickly said, “Sect master, we have no idea what the pillar will do this time. We should rest up before we approach it.”
Lin Fan looked down at his own hand before looking back up to give a slow nod.
Even though it was so close, it would be dangerous for them if they went in without recovering from the trip. The various traps that they had to face had drained them and if there was another fight, they wouldn’t be able to defeat whatever came at them.
They needed to take some time to rest up so that they could be in peak condition when they approached this pillar.
So they went back to the camp that they had set up, leaving a few elders behind to watch over the pillar just in case anything happened.
An hour later, they came back fully prepared.
Not only did they spend the past hour resting up and recovering their spiritual energy, they had also prepared different talismans and artifacts to counter any situations that they faced.
When they stood in front of this pillar, they all looked at Lin Fan.
He was the one that had all the marks of passing the trials, so they were waiting for him to take the lead.
But Lin Fan didn’t take a single step forward as he looked around the area first.
He had been rushed out of here by the elders previously, so he hadn’t taken the time to see what was here.
It was just too bad that he wasn’t able to find anything in the end.
So Lin Fan slowly started moving towards the pillar in the center.
The elders were about to follow, but he raised his hand to stop them before going forward alone just like before.
The same thing happened where there was no reaction at all from the pillar until he was close to it. Then when he approached, there was a light that appeared around the pillar just like with the other pillars.
This pillar lit up before gathering the light at the very tip of the pillar and then projecting it out like before. The light that was projected out gathered in front of the pillar and took the form of Feng Yu again.
Lin Fan just calmly stood there, waiting for him to form.
Once Feng Yu finished forming, he said, “Welcome to your first trial.”
He basically said the same thing as the other pillars.
It seemed that all of the messages had been recorded beforehand and they all said the same thing…
All of them seemed to call themselves the first trial even though Lin Fan had already finished two other trials previously.
It seemed that there was no censor for the proof that he had already finished two other trials…the two dots that were on his hand.
After the same thing was said, Feng Yu finally moved onto the instructions for this trial.
“This trial that you will face will be a trial of determination. It will test how determined you are to get this proof that you passed this trial.”
Determination…
How was he going to test for that?
Lin Fan could think of many possibilities based on what he had gone through previously, but the actual answer shocked him.
The actual answer was something that he never would have guessed.
“The trial is to make it to this oasis and by reaching this place, you have already passed the trial of determination.”
Lin Fan and the elders all revealed shocked looks when they heard this.