The heavy mist obscured the road ahead, and a sense of decline flowed in from all directions.
Luo Qingyao wore a blank expression, staring straight ahead, walking step by step. The dark green flying sword slowly circled around her, like a comet, trailing a fierce tail of immortal energy.
Even though she couldn't see the road ahead, she stayed perfectly on course, moving straight forward.
After a while, she stopped, watching the flying sword circling her, thinking, my flying sword takes five breaths to orbit around me, but I feel like nearly a quarter of an hour has passed...
The flying sword couldn't deceive me, which means my perception is deceiving me.
She stood still immediately, closed her eyes, and adjusted her breath bit by bit, aligning her sense of time passing with the time it took for the flying sword to circle her once.
The moment she finished adjusting, she opened her eyes.
The scene before her had already changed, the thick fog had dissipated considerably, like a clear morning after rain, and a pleasant smell wafted from the front. Her nose twitched slightly, and her eyes lit up immediately... This is, Senior Brother is making immortal food!
Joy welled up in her as she shed her aloof aura, moving directly in the direction of the tempting aroma.
From a distance, she called out,
"Senior Brother~"
Breaking through the last wisp of mist, the scene suddenly opened up, and everything became clear with clouds disappearing and rain ceasing.
Luo Qingyao saw Fan Wubing by the babbling stream, setting up a pot, starting a fire, and washing a young lamb with the flowing water. He squatted there, with a gentle demeanor and a serene face, as if he weren't washing ingredients, but appreciating lively fishes swimming in the stream.
This scene reminded her of the night she first met Fan Wubing. The moonlight dripped on him; just one glance and she thought he was a divine being.
Fan Wubing beside the creek raised his head and said with a smile,
"You've passed. I was just preparing to reward you with some food. Come quickly, tell me properly, what exactly did you encounter on the first level of the prison."
Luo Qingyao paused slightly, then smiled and went over,
"Alright!"
She sat beside him, attentively watching Fan Wubing cook.
After a while,
Fan Wubing tore off a leg of the steamed young lamb and handed it to Luo Qingyao,
"Here, Junior Sister, try it while it's hot."
"Senior Brother... hehe, Senior Brother... smells so good, Senior Brother, it smells so good..."
Luo Qingyao was eating and mumbling incessantly.
Fan Wubing chuckled lightly,
"Don't rush, there's more. You can have as much as you want."
"Senior Brother, you're so good to me!"
"Of course, I'm your Senior Brother. If I don't treat you well, who will?"
Luo Qingyao suddenly fell silent,
"If only you were really my Senior Brother..."
"Junior Sister, these words—"
Flying sword, come forth!
A dark green shadow shattered the warm atmosphere, piercing through the center of Fan Wubing's brow.
Watching as the illusion of Fan Wubing disintegrated before her eyes, bit by bit vanishing, Luo Qingyao turned her head with reluctance,
"Even if it's fake, my heart hurts so much!"
"Junior Sister, why?" The illusion of Fan Wubing asked, eyes wide open.
Luo Qingyao bit her lip, and shouted loudly,
"The real Senior Brother only calls me 'Junior Sister' when he needs my help! He usually calls me 'Junior Sister Luo'!"
Saying this, she started to cry.
She wiped away her tears,
"Indeed, I still want to hear the real Senior Brother call me like that even in normal times."
She stood up and walked away, without looking back, speaking as she went,
"We'll never meet again, though you are fake, I will still cherish these memories. After all, you are the best Senior Brother in my heart."
In the Immortal Performance Hall,
the Elders remained silent once again.
One Elder first broke the silence, letting out a dry laugh and saying,
"This young lady from the Changsheng Continent is truly different. She saw through the illusion with just a few words."
In fact, Luo Qingyao took a whole two hours to break the illusion… This result was really not fitting to her status. Many disciples far inferior to her had passed the level within the first hour.
Mei Jinqiu coughed and said,
"Actually, she saw through the illusion as soon as she saw Fan Wubing in it."
Lin Xing asked,
"If that's the case, why didn't she break the illusion immediately? Why did she have to go and entangle with it for so long?"
Everyone looked at him in unison, thinking, can't you understand such a simple question? No wonder your two hundred years of cultivating life have not led to a single companion!
Lin Xing saw everyone looking at him with pity and was a bit confused.
Did I say something wrong?
...
Luo Qingyao shattered the illusion and stood up from the cell, immediately seeing Fan Wubing guarding the door. She furrowed her brow slightly and tentatively called out,
"Senior Brother?"
Fan Wubing came back to his senses and looked at her,
"Junior Sister Luo, congratulations on passing."
Luo Qingyao let out a long sigh of relief and murmured to herself,
"It's real."
"What?"
"Nothing, nothing!"
Fan Wubing nodded and then said,
"Since that's the case, let's proceed to the second layer of the prison. Quite a few disciples have already gone ahead; we shouldn't fall behind."
Luo Qingyao asked quietly,
"Senior Brother, what about the reward?"
"What reward?"
"I broke the illusion, isn't there a reward?"
Fan Wubing raised his eyebrows at her and then headed to the next level, saying as he walked,
"It took you half a day just on the first level, and you still want a reward... Hurry up, the prison trial has a time limit. If you're eliminated here, it would be embarrassing. After all, you were the top in the entry test..."
Luo Qingyao cried inwardly, thinking, why do you think it took me so long to break the illusion! Was the time I just spent merely an illusion! Damn it...
...
The illusionary mist on the first level of the prison took too much time, falling behind significantly in progress.
Originally, they wanted to catch up on the second level, but the design of the second level was different from the first, which was about passing through the illusion mist by completing individual task events to clear the level.
The second level's design is very traditional, with linear real puzzle-solving, and it locks everyone's cultivation.
Spiritual energy here is restricted by some power and can't be used.
It can be said that this is purely a test of intelligence.
Starting with riddles, to brain teasers, mazes, and then escape rooms... one after another, fully involving cultural knowledge, spatial imagination, direction sense, logical thinking, and counterintuitive judgment abilities... covering all aspects.
It's like a series of small puzzle games pieced together.
Compared to the illusion mist on the first level, this level is more like a relaxation, playing puzzle games.
Fan Wubing and Luo Qingyao couldn't claim to be the smartest among the disciples, but they surely aren't fools, solving these puzzles isn't hard.
But, the issue isn't the difficulty, but... it's too time-consuming!
If there were only a few puzzle challenges, there wouldn't be much to say.
But this second level is clearly an extreme load! Finishing one brings another, with many challenges being the type that you understand instantly, but solving them requires lots of time... this reminded him of some unpleasant memories, like when playing "The Long Path of Immortality," where the developers ran out of ideas and filled the large map with numerous small puzzle tasks.
Three hours later.
"This isn't working, it's too time-consuming."
After walking out of a giant maze, Fan Wubing looked ahead, not seeing the end. He glanced at the time limit in the Sect Token,
"Who knows how many more challenges are ahead. The prison trial is limited to twelve hours, and six have already passed. We don't know if the third level of the prison will be time-consuming... We need to change our approach."
Luo Qingyao, shoulders slumped, said with a tearful face,
"Sorry, Senior Brother, it's all my fault for wasting too much time on the first level."
Fan Wubing shook his head,
"Don't be discouraged. Junior Sister Luo, what matters most for a cultivator is morale, don't lose heart. If one way doesn't solve the problem, then try a different way. As long as we're willing to think, there are always more solutions than problems."
"Senior Brother always knows how to say such amazing things." Luo Qingyao regains her spirit, "I won't let Senior Brother down! Let's just smash through these challenges!"
"With your sealed cultivation, where's your strength?"
"Then what should we do?" Luo Qingyao looked around, "The only route available is this line filled with puzzle challenges. Everywhere else is toxic, stagnant water, it's impossible to traverse."
They were essentially on a bridge, with both sides flanked by a river flowing with toxic water.
Fan Wubing thought for a moment, taking out a fishing line, tied it to a stone, and immersed it into the toxic river water.
After reaching the bottom and pulling it up, in just a short moment, the stone had turned black, and the fishing line was corroded, its toughness greatly reduced.
"Judging by the second level's structure, the riverbed should be flat. The depth is... about three feet, roughly reaching above my waist..."
"Senior Brother..."
Luo Qingyao was about to speak when she saw Fan Wubing jump down, immediately startling her,
"Senior Brother, don't think about it! It's just a trial for newcomers! Can't we just not do it!"