Aotian continued walking forward before the ocean of spectral needles, without even furrowing his brow.
His calm walk through that corridor, which had previously seemed endless, in fact did not last long, and with the fall of the last needles, the path ahead was cleared, finally allowing the end of the long corridor to be seen.
There was, in fact, a large circular hall there, and as soon as Aotian arrived, a few gazes fell upon him.
"You took your time," the owner of one of those gazes spoke, rolling her beautiful blue eyes in his direction.
Aotian raised an eyebrow at his wife, who was already there, arms crossed, smiling lightly at him.
"I was taking a look at the arrays in the place before moving on," he explained simply, shrugging as he approached her, also leaning against the wall beside her.
Rihai merely shook her head, both helpless and amused at the same time, as if she had already expected something like that.
She was not teasing him, just curious, since she knew that with her husband's strength, he should have absolutely been the first to arrive.
Aotian smiled faintly to reassure her, and only then began to observe the hall more carefully.
And indeed, he had been the third to last to arrive there. With him, 25 of the 27 disciples of the sect who had entered were already present in that enormous, plain red circular hall, which, strangely enough, had exactly 27 corridor entrances, in addition to another one in front that seemed to be the exit.
Aotian did not believe that was a coincidence and judged that both the hall and the corridors had been created by formations, with the number increasing or decreasing according to the number of participants.
Observing the other disciples, who at that moment were calmly waiting by consensus for everyone to arrive before advancing, he nodded inwardly in approval at everyone's test of stability, loyalty, and team awareness.
Even the little girls Lin Xiaoxue and Bai Jingjing were simply playing together in a corner, whispering, without trying to rush out first in anxiety.
He had never demanded this, so that decision had been taken by their own initiative.
Respecting that choice, Aotian also did not advance upon arriving and simply waited, speaking softly with his wife and exchanging polite nods with the others.
Thus, the minutes passed calmly, with everyone waiting for the last two.
Fortunately, not long after, Aotian raised his eyes along with the others, as they felt a presence approaching through one of the corridors, exuding an enormous amount of energy, which seemed unnatural, considering that everyone had passed calmly, without using much energy.
After all, the test was aimed at each person's realm, and the disciples of the Infinite Dao Sect should not even be mentioned in comparison with others of the same realm—they were in a completely different league.
Because of that, Aotian's mouth twitched slightly upon feeling such a large amount of energy being used, as he had an idea of who was coming.
A few seconds passed while everyone looked toward the entrance of a specific corridor.
There, facing the seemingly endless needles, was a shining man.
Around him, several gleaming layers of energy shields existed, with defensive talismans stuck within them, revealing their origin. The problem was that there were hundreds of them.
And the man blatantly wrapped in barriers was still holding another dozen talismans in his hands, with a tense look, as if ready to activate all of them at once at any moment.
Meanwhile, the test corridor's arrays kept launching needles incessantly, almost frantically, as if they wanted to destroy the talismans at all costs, just to minimally test the man rather than his wealth. Even so, whenever they barely managed to destroy a single barrier, the wretch would activate two more to ensure his safety.
In the end, to the despair of the arrays, the man set foot in the hall without ever having been touched by even a single strand of external energy. The ocean of needles could only retreat lamentably upon his arrival at the objective.
Aotian's mouth twitched again, and for some reason, it even seemed as if the needles were retreating in despair after having been subjected to such mental torture.
Meanwhile, Cang Song, who was the one who had arrived, received the silent gazes of everyone in the hall, smiled awkwardly, and bowed respectfully to them, trying to ease the situation.
Hui Lang, one of his best friends in the sect, almost opened his mouth for a moment to ask whether he didn't know that those needles couldn't do anything against the perfection of the foundation they had created with the sect's techniques. However, upon seeing the hundreds of barriers around Cang Song, which because of them had made him the most radiant man in the hall, he wisely decided to shut his mouth, which twitched violently.
As an old friend, he knew that that cowardly fellow, even with 99% certainty, would still activate the talismans just to reach 100%. Being a talisman master, Hui Lang could only sigh bitterly at such waste.
Meanwhile, almost at the same instant that Cang Song arrived, another sound of footsteps echoed, signaling that the last person, Lei Yun, the former Mahayana, had also appeared, unscathed and indifferent to the needles.
Aotian imagined that he too had been analyzing the arrays of that place, and that was why he had taken so long.
Setting that aside for the moment, he lightly nudged his wife.
Since Aotian had been one of the last to arrive, he judged that it was not appropriate to rush into leading everyone to the next stage, especially since he was one of those responsible for the delay. His wife, on the other hand, who had been the first to arrive, was perfect for the task.
Without needing any signal to understand what her husband wanted, Rihai nodded gently and took a step forward.
"Since everyone has arrived, let's move on," with firm words, she began to lead, holding her husband's hand.
The other disciples nodded, and those who were seated stood up immediately to follow her, without hesitation.
Aotian nodded inwardly, feeling that it was truly good to have a reliable wife.
As the leader of the operation, there would be no problem at all for him to give the order, and everyone would follow obediently if they didn't want trouble. Moreover, he was a figure of admiration and authority among them, which would make everything even simpler.
Still, if a simple action like that could make everyone obey without anyone even grumbling, even unconsciously, he would do it without thinking twice.
In any case, in the next round he would not waste any more time, so by then his authority would be completely restored.
Thus, Aotian and Rihai once again led the group of disciples toward a final corridor of the circular hall, located diametrically opposite to the corridors through which they had arrived.
After entering it, the walk this time was not long, and soon everyone was about to cross that new red corridor, finally reaching a completely different place.
An intense light came from the end, and as soon as everyone crossed it, they let out a light sigh.
A gentle, refreshing breeze brushed their faces, and they found themselves at the peak of a great verdant mountain.
With their powerful eyes, they could see far into the distance several other peaks, as well as grasslands stretching far away, creating a scene of immortality.
There was also much life in those places, with cranes beautifully flapping their wings as they flew among the white clouds, wolves running through the forest, and lions dominating their territory. These were just a few examples of all the life that existed there, and none of them were ordinary animals, but powerful spiritual beasts, exuding strong spiritual pressure.
After admiring for a moment that breathtaking scenery outside, they finally began to analyze some details about the place where they were at that moment in that world, the top of a mountain.
The mountain in question was not the largest, from what they could see, since farther away it was possible to see others that were even higher. However, the most important thing was the existence of a faint barrier around them and some large, sturdy stone slabs, with inscriptions carved into them, arranged about a hundred meters away, at the center of the peak.
And when they looked back, there was no longer any red corridor from which they had come.
Aotian did not feel that they had been teleported, so he judged that either the structure had become invisible, or it had been removed from there without them noticing.
Upon realizing this, a trace of reluctance arose in his heart.
'The power of my main body is still too weak,' he sighed inwardly.
No matter how strong or skilled he was, if arrays of a much higher realm operated near him discreetly, without being actively probed, they could still carry out actions without him noticing, since his senses were still too dulled toward high-level energy with that body.
If it had been done subtly enough, perhaps they had even been teleported without him realizing it.
And when he looked at Lei Yun nearby, who was lightly furrowing his brow as he stared at the place behind them, both seemed to be facing the same problem.
Shaking his head in slight amusement at that thought, Aotian soon set those thoughts aside and focused on the present. His growth was already fast enough; there was no need to be so anxious, as that would only be a waste of time.
Taking a few steps forward to better observe what he was dealing with, he began to see the contents of the stone slabs more clearly. As expected, the inscriptions were spells, their quality beyond doubt.
But Aotian did not seem surprised to see that.
'Cliché.' He clicked his tongue discreetly, as if he had already read about such situations hundreds of times, which he had.
Without wasting time, his eyes swept over each slab, engraving every word into his mind.
His thousands of minds began to process everything at high speed, like a computer running code. His eyes grew brighter and brighter as he advanced in the analysis, discovering something extraordinary there.
"Are these Core-Tier, Nascent-Tier, and Formation-Tier spells?" Rihai, who was by his side, asked as she raised an eyebrow after superficially analyzing the thirty stone slabs there.
The other disciples also looked at them with curiosity. Although they were incomparable to what they could obtain from the sect, there were still spells from realms they had not touched, which in itself already stirred great interest.
Lei Yun was also there; he crossed his arms and, with narrowed, thoughtful eyes, analyzed the slabs. He quickly seemed to notice something and raised an eyebrow.
Aotian naturally saw all of this and smiled at his wife before turning his gaze back to the slabs and revealing aloud what he had noticed, without hiding anything.
"Well, these thirty stones are indeed from the realms you mentioned. But they are not thirty different spells, but ten," he stated, scratching his chin.
"Ten?" it was not only Rihai who exclaimed, as the other disciples were also confused by such a statement.
Among everyone, Lei Yun was the only one who did not show surprise; he merely looked at Aotian attentively, thoughtful, not too surprised by him discovering such a thing.
But inwardly, he was wondering who that young man really was, and what his true identity in the immortal world might be.
Meanwhile, the disciples, surprised by the new information, quickly returned to analyzing the stones and, little by little, began to perceive the patterns, guided by Aotian's words.
In the spells arranged there, for each realm there were ten of them, and for each of them, there seemed to exist an advanced version on the slabs corresponding to the next realm.
"These are not different spells, but spells of higher realms that were castrated and adapted to function in lower realms, divided among these three realms. If I'm not mistaken, analyzing their nuances and the places where they were cut, the true realm of these spells is above Formation-Tier, and if I'm not mistaken, considering where we are, they may be of Mahayana-Tier."
As his words echoed, everyone's breathing tightened slightly.
It was no longer just a matter of whether or not they were spells from their sect, but the fact that they came from such a powerful cultivation realm that it took their breath away.
Cultivators of that level could almost be said to already have one foot in immortality.
And immortality was the aspiration of every cultivator in the world.
After taking a deep breath and calming themselves, they began to analyze more clearly, with focus and determination, those stones that had previously seemed simple, but which they now knew concealed a much greater depth than expected.
But at the same time, a doubt also grew, which was… what exactly they needed to do there.
Fortunately, someone took the initiative to bring up the matter.
"Junior Brother Long, how will we fulfill the sect's mission?" Xiao Ling asked, looking at Aotian with doubt and confusion.
Although they had completed the corridor challenge and now received a reward in the form of spells with such a special background, it still seemed that they were far from achieving the sect's true objective.
Aotian met her eyes, smiling lightly at the blue-haired girl to reassure her, but that earned him a gentle and discreet pinch from a wife seized by a sudden bout of jealousy.
Controlling himself so as not to let his mouth twitch helplessly, he explained to Xiao Ling.
"Whether or not we'll be able to gain control of the mansion is something we'll only find out once we reach the end of the tests here, which likely seek an heir for it. And these stones…"
He said, pointing his thumb toward the slabs covered in spells.
"…I believe they're just another stage of the test. We probably need to learn them, and the better we do, the higher our score will be, or something like that."
"I judge that at least to get out of here, it may be necessary to learn at least one of these spells within a certain time. Or at least it should be something like that."
"In any case, just try to learn them, and if everything goes wrong in the end, the elders will come and get us out of here."
He shrugged as he laid out his conclusions, receiving determined nods from all the disciples.
Thus, sitting cross-legged on the mountain grass, everyone began to stare at those stones, trying to learn with renewed focus everything they could from them.