Since Gong Chenying was still in mid-air, though only a little over z zhang high, her vantage point gave her a much clearer view than the others below. From Li Yan’s position, all they could still see was the endlessly winding street stretching forward.
They had encountered this kind of curving street many times over the past half-hour.
Many cultivators, upon seeing a corner up ahead for the first time, instinctively assumed a turn would lead to salvation, that light might break through the shadows. But every time they fought their way to that bend, all that awaited them was another winding road and an endless parade of storefronts.
After so many repetitions, most had pinned their final hope on the ten-li mark. If things remained the same even at ten li, it was hard to say how many would break down. This place truly felt like an infinite, inescapable loop.
“One hundred-odd zhang ahead, the street ends.”
A calm, emotionless voice rang in everyone's ears. But to the Qi Condensation disciples, it was as if a divine melody had descended from heaven. Suppressed cheers erupted among them.
A hundred zhang was a trivial distance, and with renewed hope in their hearts, they charged forward while defending themselves. It took less than thirty breaths to reach the corner.
After enduring another wave of shards and fragments launched from the ruined structures, courtesy of Gong Chenying’s counterattacks, the group carefully rounded the bend, only to be greeted by a glowing yellow sphere blocking the street ahead.
All eyes immediately turned to Gong Chenying. She had just landed, her short hair drenched in sweat, clinging to her resolute features, faint steam rising from her body.
That such a state could befall a Foundation Establishment cultivator after merely ten li showed just how grueling the journey had been. For ordinary Qi Condensation disciples, ten li would usually be nothing more than a few dozen leaps, even without flight.
Gong Chenying stared at the glowing orb, then glanced toward the sky behind them. The massive black shadow was now less than four li away.
Judging by its speed, it would reach them in less than half a stick of incense's time and that was with everyone pushing their limits just to gain this small lead.
Gong Chenying strode toward the sphere, her long halberd bursting with azure radiance. With a twist of her wrist, she spun the weapon and thrust it into the glowing wall.
A soft hiss echoed as the halberd pierced in halfway. She gave it a slight shake before pulling it back, checking the spiritual light dancing along its tip.
“Go!”
With a shout, Gong Chenying stepped forward and vanished into the sphere.
Li Yan and the others didn’t hesitate. With the black shadow looming behind, they had no other choice. The teams followed in order, filing in swiftly.
Li Yan’s team was the fourth group to enter. Once inside, they found themselves in a closed-off space. The cultivators ahead were standing frozen, and at the forefront was Gong Chenying, long halberd in hand, glancing around warily. When she turned, Li Yan noticed her furrowed brow.
The space was enclosed, roughly forty zhang in diameter. Besides the direction they entered from, where the surface still rippled faintly like disturbed water, there were no visible exits.
“Could the exit be hidden?”
A Qi Condensation disciple asked in a whisper after scanning the area.
“It’s... possible,” a brawny cultivator beside him replied uncertainly.
“The shadow outside, how close is it now? If this really is a sealed space, how are we supposed to proceed?”
“Can this place even withstand that thing’s attack?”
They had received strict orders before entering: follow the team leader’s commands, no acting on their own. So although murmurs passed between them, no one dared touch the spherical walls.
Everyone stood tense, hands on their storage pouches, uncertain if this place might erupt into violence like the streets outside.
At the front, Gong Chenying surveyed the area. With a swirl of her arm, her halberd became a spinning sphere of azure light, then plunged into the stone floor with a resonant clang.
She swiftly formed a hand seal at her chest. With a sudden motion, a wave of yellow sand shot toward the walls, filling the air like a sandstorm.
In the next moment, the space was filled with the sound of grains pounding the walls like rain on the beach. Li Yan and the others instinctively raised their guard, prepared for any sudden change.
The yellow sand struck the interior surface of the sphere. Only in the direction they came from did the wall ripple with soft waves. Elsewhere, it absorbed the sand like a sponge without the slightest reaction.
Seeing this, Li Yan understood Gong Chenying’s intentions. This was like probing for weak points in a cloth stall, both a search for anomalies and a hunt for an exit.
As expected, after observing the results, Gong Chenying turned to the rest of the cultivators.
“There’s no exit. Most likely, some kind of trigger event must occur. Then, we’ll either be transported elsewhere or meet others from a different route. Otherwise, this trial ends here in a dead end.”
Everyone nodded in agreement. With no other options, they could only wait for the shadow and for the unknown.
“Take this time to meditate and recover your strength.”
Without waiting for a response, Gong Chenying’s figure flashed and disappeared back through the glowing wall.
Besides a dozen late-stage Qi Condensation cultivators who still appeared calm, most others were significantly drained of spiritual power. Upon hearing her words and seeing her depart again, they immediately took out spirit stones and sat down to cultivate and recover.
Meanwhile, seven or eight tenth layer disciples began to wander the enclosed space, examining the glowing walls with evident curiosity. Some brushed their hands along the walls, even gently tapping them with spirit energy.
Li Yan’s eyes followed Gong Chenying’s disappearing form. His gaze flickered with thought. Instead of sitting down to meditate, he too approached the wall and placed his palm upon it. A soft, elastic force gently pushed his hand back.
His actions drew a few surprised looks from the other tenth level disciples, who hadn’t expected him to be doing the same as them instead of recovering.
But after glancing at him briefly, they returned to their own probing.
Li Yan continued pacing around the space, tapping here and there like the others, occasionally pausing in contemplation.
Soon, he had completed a full circuit around the forty-zhang chamber. By the time he looked up again, he was the only one still standing. The others, having discovered nothing, had all sat down to rest with spirit stones in hand.
He let out a soft chuckle and chose a quiet corner to sit down, pulled out a spirit stone and closed his eyes.
He could easily guess where Gong Chenying had gone, likely to check how close the black shadow was, so she could decide their next move.
Outside the glowing sphere, Gong Chenying stood motionless. The soft yellow light radiating from the massive orb behind her spilled across her tall, striking figure. Facing the dim golden glow of the sky, her face flickered between light and shadow, casting an otherworldly illusion.
She stared at the immense black shadow slowly descending from the sky, silently calculating. At most, it would take another quarter-hour before it arrived.
If no hidden formation was triggered by then, what awaited them might be their final moment. Gong Chenying didn’t know whether the glowing sphere could withstand the colossal shadow overhead and if it could, for how long?
From what she knew, the black shadow could only be slightly delayed by the blue crystal in her bosom that activated the Wheel of Life and Death. Anything that came into contact with it would disintegrate into dust in an instant, vanishing completely from existence.
A gentle breeze stirred her hair and pulled her garments tighter against her body, accentuating the towering curves of her chest and the alluring arch of her waist. She stood like a solitary figure between heaven and earth, proud and unyielding.
After a brief pause in thought, her figure flickered and vanished from sight.
Moments later, the sphere’s surface rippled as Gong Chenying re-entered. The long halberd was gone from her hand. She swept her gaze over the gathered cultivators, then without a word, sat cross-legged in a corner.
While outside, she had circled the area several times after confirming the shadow's estimated time of arrival, trying to find a formation that could trigger the sphere’s protective function.
But to her disappointment, aside from the occasional attacks from the ruins, the glowing orb simply stood there in the middle of the street like a mountain. No other direction could be seen from outside.
Touching the orb would trigger a suction force that tried to draw her inside. That meant the visible portion from the street was simply an entrance, nothing more.
Since there was no other option, waiting was all they could do. She didn’t believe they would perish the moment the black shadow arrived. That wasn't in line with the nature of this trial.
With her thoughts settled, she began restoring her spiritual energy. Under normal circumstances, even a whole day might not be enough to fully recover, let alone a mere quarter-hour.
But the spiritual energy in this secret realm was several times denser than the outside world. Even without spirit stones, a Qi Condensation cultivator could recover fully within an hour or two. For Foundation Establishment cultivators, two or three hours could restore seventy to eighty percent.
With the aid of spirit stones now, Gong Chenying estimated that she could restore around sixty to seventy percent of her spiritual power within a quarter-hour.
But things never go as planned.
Just as the time neared a quarter-hour, both Gong Chenying and Li Yan opened their eyes simultaneously. Gong Chenying, sensing his reaction, flickered with a brief flash of surprise. Rising smoothly to her feet, she barked out:
“Someone’s coming!”
The cultivators stirred, confused, and opened their eyes. Two figures were already standing, both staring alertly toward a spot on the sphere’s wall several dozen zhang away.
Everyone quickly leapt up, forming into defensive formations. Only then did they look again at the two standing figures.
One was the sharp, curvaceous unmistakable silhouette of Gong Chenying.
The other made them freeze in surprise: the lowest cultivation among them, the odd little martial uncle from Bamboo Peak, Li Yan.
Only now did some recall Li Yan’s uncanny, almost beast-like instincts along the way. A thought flashed through their minds:
“Could this little martial uncle be some kind of beast in human form, blessed with some innate sense for danger? There are so many disciples here whose cultivation far surpasses his, yet not a single one of them sensed anything in advance…”
The thought passed quickly as the sphere’s surface was now rippling, someone was stepping through.
“Pure Land Sect?”
“Wraith Sect?!”
Several voices rang out simultaneously. Those shouting “Pure Land Sect” were more numerous and chaotic. Only one voice said “Wraith Sect” the figure who had just stepped through.
Li Yan squinted. During his meditation, he had sensed a subtle disruption in the spiritual energy flow at a certain point on the sphere, which startled him into waking. Before he could speak, a cold, clear voice rang out.
He turned to see Gong Chenying watching him, her expression touched with surprise. He could only smile bitterly to himself, ever since entering this secret realm, his Guishui True Scripture had begun acting in ways even he couldn’t understand.
While the shouts still echoed, more figures emerged behind the newcomer. Ripples spread as one after another stepped through, soon numbering eighteen.
The Wraith Sect cultivators did not rush forward. Instead, they stood coldly, watching the other side.
They had already guessed,
“The two paths have intersected. The final battle is upon us.”
According to the information before they entered the trial, when the two groups finally met, the leaders were forbidden from participating. If they did, the black shadow would accelerate.
Now that both sides had met, neither leader dared act rashly. All they could do was wait and see what unfolded.
The first to enter from the Pure Land Sect was a monk clad in a yellow kasaya. He looked to be around twenty-five or twenty-six, lean and long-faced with dark skin and calm, inky eyes.
After recognizing the situation, he said nothing more beyond that single shout. Pressing his palms together, he silently gazed at Gong Chenying, who stood ready with her halberd, lips pressed tightly as she met his gaze with icy calm.
Behind him, the ripples faded after only a dozen flickers, no more figures came.
The gaunt monk turned and looked at the eighteen gray-robed monks behind him. A flicker of pain crossed his eyes.
All of them bore wounds of varying severity, blood stains covering robes already muddied and torn. Many bore gashes across their faces and bodies.
Thinking of that damned muddy mountain path, and the group of junior brothers who had stayed behind in the pouring rain to form the Eighteen Arhats Formation just to protect them, sorrow surged in his heart.
“Damn that mountain path, damn that storm, damn the black shadow… and damn every last Wraith cultivator before me!”
(Chapter End)