Li Xiu got up and left the room, heading to Old Gu's former office, where there was a separate bathroom, complete with a flush toilet with a water tank and a shower.
He took off his clothes, revealing his beautifully contoured muscles. Li Xiu touched his right shoulder with his left hand, as expected, he could feel the edge of the dead skin that had been torn before.
Piece by piece, Li Xiu tore off the dead skin; you can hardly imagine how much dead skin could be torn off a person's body.
His fingers slid across the scalp, and dead skin fell like dandruff. Li Xiu was uncertain whether there was any difference between the two; regardless, watching it made his scalp tingle.
The dead skin looked grotesque and disgusting, yet while tearing it off, there was an inexplicable sense of relief in his heart.
More than half an hour passed before Li Xiu had torn off a layer of dead skin all over his body; if all the dead skin were pieced together, it would form a complete human skin.
Making sure there was no more dead skin on his body, Li Xiu flushed all the dead skin fragments into the septic tank.
After a shower, Li Xiu carefully checked his body and found no discomfort other than the dead skin he just removed.
Beneath the dead skin was tender new skin, fully developed, and the process of tearing off the dead skin had not caused any bleeding.
Li Xiu now couldn't find a single pigmented scar or spot on his skin, not even a trace of the old scars left from training.
All the skin looked as delicate as that of a newborn baby, smooth and seemingly gleaming.
If a woman had skin like this, she would be ecstatic; however, Li Xiu was somewhat worried, fearing it might be poison or aftereffects left by the Demon Armor Spirit that died inside him.
Aside from shedding skin, could there be other symptoms?
Even if it were just shedding, if it happened daily, it would be psychologically challenging to accept.
With things having reached this point, the only option was to take it one step at a time. After ensuring his body was temporarily fine, Li Xiu returned to where A Fei was.
"Why did it take you so long? Time is almost up," A Fei, who was packing up, spoke without looking up upon hearing Li Xiu's footsteps.
"While we have a bit of time, let's go over our previously decided choices again," Li Xiu didn't answer A Fei, but sat on the bed and recited what they had agreed upon.
"Your memory is excellent, not a single mistake, no need to go over it again." A Fei continued packing; she had found many useful items at the base and planned to take them.
"Your memory should be excellent too, right?" Li Xiu said as he watched A Fei's busy silhouette.
Upon hearing this, A Fei paused her task, turned to stare at Li Xiu and said, "If you don't trust me, you can go find someone else to participate in the Ends of the Earth Trial."
Li Xiu met A Fei's gaze, yet said nothing, quietly taking the backpack and Magic Armor Box he'd packed earlier. Once up, he said, "Let's go, it's about time."
The two arrived once more in front of the blue stone door. At the time A Fei calculated, she took out the remaining blue gemstones from Old Gu's box, embedding them one by one into the door's grooves.
Once all the grooves were embedded with gemstones, they lighted up, and then the patterns on the door lit up, and the stone door slowly opened.
The two exchanged a glance and entered the trial ground one after the other.
Not the familiar arena; Li Xiu found himself atop a peak with a platform.
The peak seemed like a sharp sword piercing the clouds; Li Xiu looked down and saw only a vast sea of clouds and a ninety-degree stone cliff.
The platform was a square, with sides about five meters. In the center stood a one-meter-high column with black and white buttons on the round top.
Besides this, there was nothing else, and A Fei was nowhere in sight.
"Welcome to the Sea Heaven Trial Ground. S-level trials are initiated. Trial participants: 2, automatic team formation, directly starting the final trial. The trial rules are as follows..."
Above the sea of clouds, a phantom screen appeared, floating mysteriously.
Li Xiu finished reading the rules and found them consistent with what A Fei had said, except for a slight difference.
A Fei mentioned ten questions; however, Li Xiu saw eleven, marking one round of trials, no rewards before completing a round.
Moreover, according to A Fei, her trial had only one button, unlike the two shown here.
"Are the number of questions varying for each trial, or did A Fei get the count wrong?" Li Xiu pondered, frowning.
The trial didn't allow Li Xiu much time for thought. As the countdown ended, the first question appeared on the screen.
"Black or white, choose one answer. Team members' answers must match; differing answers lead to team trial failure... Answer countdown starts..."
If it were two people entering the Ends of the Earth Trial for the first time, they would have no opportunity to communicate, making getting this first question right a fifty percent possibility.
Having to select the same answer for all eleven is unfathomably low in survival odds.
Additionally, it's a double failure mode; one death means both die, making the S-level difficulty much higher in mortality rate than before.
However, the two already made agreements, having more than one plan, so even with slight deviations, like two buttons instead of one, they could still coordinate.
Li Xiu glanced at the black and white buttons, directly pressing the black one.
They previously agreed to choose the first answer in case of two options.
Choosing the wrong answer would mean A Fei dies as well; Li Xiu wasn't worried about any mishap on A Fei's side.
"Team answers matched; first question passed. Entering next trial after countdown ends."
Between questions, there weren't any physical enhancement rewards; the second trial began swiftly.
"Are you male or female? Male: white button, Female: black button..."
Such a question would make choosing difficult for a male-female pair without tacit understanding. Fortunately, the two were already in sync.
Li Xiu unhesitatingly chose the white button, quickly passing the trial once again.
The initial questions passed using the first option preference, but the method ceased working by the fifth question.
"What's your favorite color? Counting down... ten... nine... eight..."
Li Xiu frowned at the black and white buttons before him; only these two colors could be chosen, but which should he pick?
No order in answers and unable to communicate with A Fei, the ten-second countdown was quickly nearing its end.
The two had previously discussed numerous plans; however, none included such a question, perhaps because A Fei had participated in an Ends of the Earth Trial before, prompting increased difficulty against her.
Black or white?