As the sand dune was blown away by the spiritual power of Ancestor Bao, more and more of the enormous golden gate buried beneath it was revealed.
'Probably the last time this gate was opened must have been a few hundred years ago. Although, from what I've heard, the last time someone entered wasn't that long ago.'
Aotian reflected as he watched, eyes narrowed, the gate being exposed. The great movement caused the sand to whip around, lightly striking his body and that of the others.
'They say the gate itself sometimes sends spatial ripples into the surroundings, dragging passersby into the manor, as if it were proactively seeking people to carry out its test… which must indeed be what it's doing.'
As he reflected, time passed, and more and more sand was swept away by his avatar. At a certain point, enough had been removed, and with his main body, he began to float downward, reaching the newly revealed base of the gate, with the other disciples right behind him.
Ancestor Bao also appeared there at some moment unknown to them. It was as if, in one second, he was in the sky commanding the sandstorm, and in the next he was already on the ground, in front of the gate, as if nothing had happened.
When their feet touched the sands that still lightly covered the lower part of the golden gate, which exuded an extremely powerful and ancient aura, everyone began to observe it with curiosity.
"This is… just an entrance gate?" Bai Yan asked, astonished and confused, scratching his head. "Where's the rest of the manor?" He began circling the enormous gate, trying to look behind it for other buildings, but saw only sand.
In the entire surrounding area, not even a fragment of other constructions remained. Only the gate existed there, as if it had always been the only thing in that place.
He was not the only one confused by this, and all the other disciples shared the same feeling.
The only ones who seemed to understand a little of what was really going on were Lei Yun, Aotian, and Rihai, who knew more about the matter, but they did not speak at that moment.
"Ancestor Bao, where is the manor? Could it be buried deeper?" Xiao Ling approached Bao Wuji and asked respectfully in her gentle voice, unable to understand the situation.
In fact, she had already interacted with that ancestor before, since he occasionally came to cause trouble with his grandson, Bao Hui, who was her master.
These interactions between the two always left her torn between exasperation and amusement, and also allowed her to better understand the true personalities of both. Because of that, she grew fond of that stingy ancestor, who had revealed a deeply kind nature, and she asked without fear, even with a bit of familiarity.
"Little girl, so you're here as well." Old Bao smiled gently at her and stroked his beard as he greeted her with a nod. "Well, there's no need to dig any further. The entrance is already right before you, just enter."
He explained it clearly, but to the ears of the disciples, it sounded as if he were speaking enigmatically, after all, to them it was just a gate with nothing behind it.
But then Aotian stepped forward and faced them with a serious look, drawing everyone's attention.
"As the ancestor said, this is the entrance. Mahayana manors usually do not exist in the same space as the main world. What you see here is just the entrance to a small world, which basically functions like a storage ring."
He explained with a serious gaze, while raising his hand and displaying his own storage ring with fluid movements.
"This gate is not an ordinary entrance. To help you understand better, imagine it as an anchor, something that defines, isolates, and maintains the private space and its coordinates, just like the ring. So, by passing through this gate, we will be directly entering its internal space."
Aotian illustrated as everyone's eyes wandered from the ring in his hand to the great gate behind him.
Seeing that everyone nodded in understanding, even if not complete, and still had eyes filled with awe and admiration, he turned back toward the gate, gently holding the hand that had at some point been captured by his.
The one beside him was his wife, Rihai, and the two of them, hand in hand, exchanging looks of affection, concern, and resolve, prepared to enter that unknown world, filled with riches.
Bao Wuji merely observed the entire interaction among the disciples with a gentle smile and finally spoke again when they finished, positioning himself directly beside the gate.
"It seems the boy Long has already explained everything to you, so this old man can only serve as a disinterested gatekeeper this time," he joked, laughing softly, and then pointed his hand toward the gate, which suddenly vibrated and shook violently as his energy impacted it. "Enjoy the trip and don't worry about things beyond your levels. The sect will deal with that. Just be careful with what you yourselves can face."
The ancestor continued to explain as the movement of the gate grew increasingly violent and fierce, as his energy forced its opening more and more powerfully.
Such efforts quickly proved effective, as a fissure suddenly opened from top to bottom at its center, and the two halves began to separate.
This action was accompanied by powerful gusts of wind suddenly emitted from the fissure, coming from within, carrying a large amount of high-level spiritual energy that, upon emerging into that spiritually barren environment, seemed like a lake being poured all at once into the desert. Even if useless, it was astonishing to behold.
At the same time, the strong gale ended up expelling the mounds of sand that tried to enter the interior of the opening gate. This expelled more than expected, revealing the bottom, which in fact had nothing beneath it, as if there were no real support for that gigantic gate to remain upright.
And indeed, there was none. The gate simply floated in place, unsupported by anything, and the sand was merely the result of accumulation around it, not a true ground.
Bao Wuji continued smiling as he remained focused on his task of opening it, but inwardly, Aotian could not help but grow more serious, for within the spiritual energy leaking from the gate's interior, he felt something extremely familiar… impurities.
And not just any kind, but those fierce and twisted impurities he had dealt with before.
Taking a deep breath, and after confirming once more that the danger still remained within what the elders of the Missions Pavilion could handle, he prepared himself.
With his main body, he stepped forward, holding his wife's hand as he led the disciples.
Passing through the powerful wind, their firm steps did not waver, and soon they entered the rift of the great gate, which was already wide enough for everyone to pass side by side.
Then, with a flash of light, they disappeared from there. And with their departure, the gate slowly closed, no longer having Bao Wuji's energy to force it to remain open.
Staring at the now-closed gate and the storms and gales that gradually calmed down, leaving only the enormous gate floating silently in the air, Ancestor Bao murmured softly, with a complex look:
"Good luck… for all of us."
With those words, his body slowly disappeared into the void, leaving no trace that he had ever been there.
…
In an unknown place, Aotian suddenly found himself returning to his senses.
Upon realizing that he was lying on the ground, he placed his hands beneath his body and slowly stood up, carefully.
He had not fainted or anything like that, merely been teleported.
As he got up, he quickly began to analyze his surroundings, and soon realized that he was in a large corridor, with red walls and a gray floor.
Behind him there was only an enormous wall, also red, stretching several meters upward, sealing off his path of return, until it met an equally red ceiling above, filled across its entire length with small, symmetrical golden crystals, illuminating the environment as if it were daytime.
The walls of the corridor beside him were simple, with nothing besides the vibrant red color and faint ripples of spiritual energy, almost invisible to an untrained eye. But to Aotian, it was clear that they must be filled with arrays along their entire length.
As for what lay ahead, there was only a long, straight corridor that continued for a great distance, until it vanished into the distance at a black point.
Narrowing his eyes, he muttered as he realized that he was completely alone, without his wife around, which indeed made him uncomfortable.
'Haah…' he sighed. 'Well, such a separation isn't something I can say was unexpected. In every xianxia I've read, something like this tends to happen in some test that appears along the way. It's basically a cliché, one I hoped wouldn't happen, but it seems to be beyond me,' he complained inwardly, shaking his head as he sent his energy to explore the corridor's arrays.
At the same time, he continued creating missions and assessing the level of danger to guide himself and prevent anything bad from happening. Even though this was putting some pressure on him, since he was also constantly creating missions to ensure that his divine incarnation in the Shadowfallen Burial Domain did not suddenly collapse in the middle of its own mission.
After a few minutes, confirming that there were no problems, he, with his main body, took his first step forward since arriving in that place, beginning to walk slowly down the corridor.
He had not gone very far when runes suddenly began to glow on the walls.
Countless light-blue spectral needles—extremely sharp—rapidly took shape in all directions, surrounding him.
Aotian did not seem surprised or shocked; he merely raised an eyebrow, looking at the spectral needles with interest.
The instant they appeared, they hovered in place for only a brief moment before suddenly shooting out like torpedoes, surging forward at full speed and mercilessly piercing Aotian's body, as if intent on turning him into a sieve.
But strangely, Aotian did not react, or rather, did not want to react, and simply allowed them to pierce him, as if they were nothing.
Yet the moment they entered his body, like rabid dogs, they began trying to destroy everything, whether his flesh, blood, roots, or dantian.
However, before his near-perfect foundation and his equally impressive, powerfully refined physique, those needles shattered like fragile pieces of glass, dissipating uselessly.
As they broke apart, they were not without benefits either. They left behind a peaceful and powerful energy that Aotian could refine if he wished, seeming to be quite beneficial for cultivation.
Even so, he hesitated for only an instant before shaking his head with an ironic and helpless smile.
As tempting as that energy was, he had already gone too far down the path of perfectionism and considered it not a good choice to discard that in favor of slightly faster growth. If he were to follow that path, it would be better to rely on his pills and other methods instead of an unknown energy whose origin he was not certain of.
Decided, he quickly processed that energy and expelled it from his body, while continuing to march forward, receiving more and more waves of attacks from those needles.
The farther he advanced, the smaller and more powerful the needles became, as well as more precise in exploiting and attacking weak points and flaws in opponents' foundations.
But those needles that would make others' scalps tingle and fill their hearts with despair were, before Aotian, like novice players encountering the final boss.
No matter the effort, no matter the power, everything was useless before Aotian's perfect and untouchable foundation.
It was like flower petals trying to shake a rock, an effort that simply had no return at all.
Aotian marched as if none of it existed, as if that sea of phantom needles were not even before his eyes.
If a force far above his realm were used, he might become serious, for even though his foundation was incredible, it would not withstand power several realms above his own.
But this was not a defensive measure against enemies, but a trial to select a successor, and for that reason Aotian remained so unconcerned.
His actions, advancing without fear or difficulty, ended up drawing the attention of a certain being that inhabited that place.
And that being observed the scene with eyes wide open and mouth agape.
It was not only Aotian who made that being feel as if it were seeing the world for the first time, but also all 27 disciples that the Infinite Dao Sect had sent this time, who were simply demolishing the first test as if it were nothing.
In another corridor identical to Aotian's, Xiao Ling walked with a thoughtful look directed at the ceiling, paying little attention to the needles.
"These illumination stones on the ceiling seem valuable."
Her murmur echoed through the empty corridor.
In another place, a similar scene occurred. Bai Yan yawned, bored, while massaging his neck.
"The strength of these needles isn't good enough to relax my muscles."
In Lin Xiaoxue's corridor, the little girl hopped cheerfully, murmuring a song, not caring about the world around her.
As for Hui Lang, the former toothless old man, he walked with firm steps, a distant gaze, and his hands clasped behind his back, like a master, crossing the sea of needles as if it were nothing.
Each disciple displayed their own peculiarities, but they all had one thing in common: an extremely powerful foundation, superior to that of all their peers.
This allowed them to treat the corridor of spectral needles not as a test, but as a source of benefits, since the energy they carried was still very good.
Meanwhile, contrary to the relaxed mentality of the disciples, the being observing all these scenes remained frozen, its mind blank and with only a single question echoing in its thoughts.
'W-Who the hell are these people?!'