The black radiance from between Potian's eyebrows swept through the air. The moment the black radiance touched the roiling red mist, a continuous hissing sound erupted. Like melting ice and snow, the blue sky slowly revealed itself overhead. This further provoked the red, flat monsters on the palace walls to let out even shriller cries. Their attacks became several times more ferocious, but often, the moment they came into contact with the black radiance, their bodies would begin to melt like the red mist, turning into water. Before they could even hit the ground, they had already evaporated, instantly clearing a large space ahead. This allowed Potian and the demonic beasts behind him to immediately increase their speed.
Potian looked at the ten first-tier demonic beasts behind him, a smile on his lips. these were all his good boys. Although he had just activated his innate divine ability, he believed that by the time they reached the ten-li mark, after putting some distance between them and the giant black shadow in the sky, he would still have time to recover.
But just as he flew about a hundred meters, his heart suddenly chilled. In his divine sense, a massive red tide was rapidly flying towards them from the front. Countless red monsters, screaming, charged at him ferociously. Potian was both shocked and enraged. The attacks from the front were now charging towards the rear. This was not something that should happen during the trial. He roared repeatedly, "This is not a normal... Wheel... of... Life and Death!"
He just didn't notice that amidst this sky-covering red cloud, a few surviving Bee Gu were flying about chaotically. Even if he had seen them, he might have just assumed they were also creatures from this place.
After exiting the yellow ribbon of light, Li Yan had already rushed towards the white ribbon of light on the other side. A smile touched his lips. 'I imagine that when Senior Sister Gong and the others encounter this team of demonic beasts, the pressure on them will be much less.'
The Bee Gu he had just released was a type that didn't require vital blood to cultivate and won through sheer numbers. He had asked Zhao Min for them during these past few years, partly to study the poison of Gu-insects and partly out of curiosity. Zhao Min had given him some relatively common Gu-insects, and the Bee Gu was one of them. The kind of Gu that required vital blood to cultivate were extremely rare, and every disciple of Never-Parting Peak treated them as treasures. They were basically cultivated with one's own vital blood from the pupa stage and were connected to one's own mind, so they would never be given to others.
After obtaining these dozens of Bee Gu, Li Yan first tested their poison and found that they posed no threat to him at all. But he still found them novel and didn't return them to Zhao Min. Instead, he practiced with them for a few days and was able to simply command them. Later, he lost interest and put them in a Spirit Beast Pouch that Zhao Min had given him. When entering the secret realm this time, Li Yan thought about it and still brought these few types of Gu-insects with him. He wasn't sure what he would do with them, but he figured it wasn't any trouble, just hanging the Spirit Beast Pouch on his waist. But he hadn't noticed that when he entered the secret realm, a pair of beautiful eyes had swept over the Spirit Beast Pouch on his waist several times, even though it was just the most common low-grade Spirit Beast Pouch.
After entering the yellow ribbon of light just now, Li Yan discovered that the occupants were not from the three sects. An idea struck him, and he thought of the Bee Gu. The purpose of releasing the dozen or so Bee Gu was that wherever they went, they would trigger the originally dormant restrictions. At that time, the attacks that would have been triggered one by one as Potian and his team fought their way through would all be triggered in a short period of time and erupt in advance. In that case, the demonic beasts in the passage would not just be facing a small area of attack, but the full, stormy assault of all the traps at once. The number of attacks in the passage would instantly multiply several times over.
Li Yan looked at the pure white ribbon of light ahead, which was getting closer and dancing like a willow branch in the wind. A murderous glint flashed in his eyes. His divine sense fully opened, sweeping his surroundings, but his feet moved even faster. In just a few flashes, he was already standing on the pure white ribbon of light, his figure rising and falling with its dance.
Wang Lang's handsome face was covered in a layer of cold frost. He looked at Quan Jiuxing beside him, then at the forty-three Qi Condensation cultivators from the two sects behind him. One hand held a blue rhomboid crystal, while the other would occasionally form a sword-finger. With a single wave, dozens of sword lights would whistle from the sky, appearing without a trace and vanishing like lightning, striking the swarm of strange eagles above the iron-chain bridge. For a moment, feathers and flesh flew everywhere.
These strange eagles were entirely black, but their bodies were like refined iron. The Qi Condensation cultivators behind them, unless they were at the tenth level or higher and attacked with their full strength, could only injure them. At most, they would just knock them back several dozen feet into the air. The strange eagles had long, sharp beaks like a crane's, about two feet long and shining with an eerie, ghostly green light. Each peck seemed to tear the air into fissures, creating a harsh, grating sound like cloth being violently ripped, but dozens of times louder, making one's teeth ache and eardrums feel like they would split, causing a headache. The power of these beaks was astonishing. The protective spirit light of a Qi Condensation cultivator would often shatter into points of light after just two or three pecks. If they failed to dodge in time, they would be pierced through. The eagles' claws were even more peculiar, with only two talons arranged vertically in a line. The two ends were two exceptionally sharp hooks, and the belly of the one-line talon had stark white, blade-like bone spikes protruding from it, like a long knife. While cutting the opponent, the two ends could bend inward and contract, instantly squeezing and cutting whatever was caught between the two talons into two pieces.
At this moment, they were standing on an iron-chain bridge. There were several long iron chains as railings on both sides. Under their feet, besides square wooden planks laid on several iron chains, there was nothing else. And beneath the planks and chains was a raging, turbulent river, its waters roaring ceaselessly.
Quan Jiuxing was fully occupied with dealing with the small golden snakes that continuously leaped up from the raging river below. These golden snakes were as thin as thread, about half a foot long, with extremely sharp triangular heads. A pair of small eyes on them showed a bloodthirsty light, and rows of fine, sharp teeth glinted coldly. They shot out from the roaring river in swarms towards the cultivators on the bridge. Whether it was a cultivator's longsword or spirit artifact that struck them, sparks would fly, and they would fall back down. But they would often just use the force of the waves stirred up by the river to once again charge fearlessly at the cultivators on the bridge.
For a time, between the gale-force winds from the giant wings of the black strange eagles in the sky, the golden snakes being repelled and hitting the bridge, and the ceaseless surge of the cultivators' spiritual power, the iron-chain bridge in the middle of the river was battered and swayed unceasingly. The people on the bridge swayed with it.
This was already a headache, but the most terrifying thing was the raging river below. It was unknown what kind of water it was. When the angry waves splashed up, if a single drop landed on the bridge, the wooden plank there would be instantly corroded away. When the long iron chains were touched by the river water, a puff of black smoke would rise, and a deep pit would be left on them. And those small golden thread-like snakes would bring up a lot of river water each time they leaped from the river. This caused the cultivators from the Supreme Mystery Teachings and Ten-Pace Courtyard to suffer immensely. Fortunately, Wang Lang and Quan Jiuxing were each responsible for dealing with the attacks from the sky and the river below. They each held a blue rhomboid crystal in one hand and protected a large area with the other. Only a portion of the attacks would fall on the Qi Condensation cultivators. Even so, about a quarter of an hour after entering this trial, their number had already been reduced from forty-nine to forty-three. This was after advancing only about four li, and under the full protection of two top-tier Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Looking at the mist rising from the river ahead, shrouding the iron-chain bridge, although they calculated there were still about six li left, for a time, they felt the bridge was endlessly long. Every step felt extremely difficult.
"This trial is so difficult. It seems the later trials will only get harder. At this rate, our losses in this trial will be even greater than in the sphere just now," Wang Lang said in a low, gloomy voice to Quan Jiuxing, who was fully engaged in fending off the attacks from below.
"Does Brother Wang have a solution? There are no tricks to be played here. We can only take it one step at a time. But at this rate, by the time we reach the ten-li meeting point, we'll probably only have about thirty people left," Quan Jiuxing said, having lost his usual refined elegance, his face looking grim.
For a time, besides the sounds of various explosions, there was silence between the two. After a long while, Wang Lang couldn't help but sigh. "It seems our luck this time is not too good. In the first trial, we both encountered demonic beasts. We only converged in the second trial. And in this third trial, we've run into demonic beasts again. Why are we so unlucky? Not a single encounter with those evil cultivators from the Malevolent Spirit Sect. The demonic beasts of the secret realm are as fierce as the rumors say. In the last trial, we lost a full eleven Qi Condensation cultivators to annihilate their six demonic beasts."
"I think it probably won't be the case in this trial. There are a total of eight demonic beast teams. We've already met three in these first three trials. The probability of encountering the Malevolent Spirit Sect or the Pure Land Sect in this trial is very high," Quan Jiuxing's handsome face was also filled with a heavy killing intent and unwillingness.
This was understandable. There were only eight demonic beast teams in total, and they had encountered several of them in succession. Although they were re-matched after each trial, the probability was still extremely high.
Wang Lang suddenly broke into a smile. "Brother Quan, you won the chance to enter the sphere in the last trial. This time, it should be my turn." His tone clearly revealed his unwillingness. In the last trial, the two had made a bet, but he hadn't expected to arrive a step behind. The sword fanatic's flaw had shown itself on the road. After setting a goal, Wang Lang and his team had charged straight ahead, seemingly invincible. But when they reached about the eight-li mark, they had slowed down due to insufficient remaining strength, allowing the Supreme Mystery Teachings to slowly catch up. This wasn't to say that the Ten-Pace Courtyard's sword cultivators were inferior to the Supreme Mystery Teachings' cultivators. On the contrary, if they fought face to face, the Ten-Pace Courtyard would likely win seventy percent of the time.
Wang Lang wanted to be the first to reach the yellow sphere, so his attacks were naturally more ferocious than before. But he had overlooked one point: his subordinates were all Qi Condensation cultivators. It was already difficult for them to keep up with his pace under such high intensity. Although almost all of them were at the tenth level of Qi Condensation or higher, in order to deal with the Malevolent Spirit Sect, these cultivators had been painstakingly sought out by the three sects from all over the Desolate Moon Continent over several decades. Although the aptitude of miscellaneous spirit root cultivators was extremely poor, they still possessed spirit roots. It wasn't as if you could find one just by looking. Often, after much effort to find someone with a spirit root, it would turn out they were not a miscellaneous spirit root holder, which was a great disappointment. This situation, if spoken of, was truly bizarre.
These miscellaneous spirit root cultivators, selected through various channels, would normally have found it almost impossible to cultivate to the sixth level of Qi Condensation, let alone being cultivated to the ninth or tenth level. That could only be achieved by piling up a massive amount of medicinal pills. Therefore, the cultivation of these cultivators was not built on a solid foundation, step by step. They were lacking in both comprehension of immortal arts and the depth of their spirit power. In a prolonged battle, especially a high-intensity one, they could hold out for a while, but this weakness would become apparent over time.
In contrast, although the Qi Condensation cultivators of the Supreme Mystery Teachings were also miscellaneous spirit roots and had also been cultivated with pills, they had a set of interlocking formations. They coordinated with each other steadily. This was quite similar to Li Yan's team's fighting style. They moved at a steady pace, and although there was a sense of speed, they basically advanced with formation cooperation, consuming much less spirit power and appearing to have greater stamina. Near the nine-li mark, they had actually overtaken the Ten-Pace Courtyard cultivators, finally gaining a slight upper hand. This made Wang Lang's face sink like water, and he looked at his group of Qi Condensation cultivators with displeasure. Fortunately, these cultivators had been trained under him for decades, and batch after batch had already died. The remaining ones had long since become indifferent to life and death. Although their hearts trembled, their faces remained expressionless.
In the last trial, Quan Jiuxing had to lead the cultivators of both sects into the sphere, leaving Wang Lang alone outside, nervously looking at the giant black shadow in the sky behind him, his heart filled with dread.