"Could it be that this is the secret of my Spirit Embryo?" Chu Huaixu fell into deep thought.
Seeing that the illusion was broken but he was still frowning in contemplation, Han Shuangjiang did not disturb him. To her, as long as he didn't look at the puddle of water behind them that she had made, he could do whatever he wanted.
At this moment, she even looked back with some curiosity. Ten paths, all leading to this open area paved with bluestone.
"Was it really a maze before the illusion?" she wondered.
"Are the others still trapped inside, and was I so lucky that I chose correctly at all ten forks?" She still couldn't quite believe it.
In addition, Han Shuangjiang had another doubt in her heart.
"Where is the next stage?"
There was nothing here, and no path forward. Could it be that this secret realm was just a prank, that this was the end, and the deceased predecessor had left nothing behind in the secret realm?
Having just entered the Dao Gate, she didn't know that such situations did indeed exist. Some disrespectful old geezers deliberately played tricks on future generations. Of course, this was a minority within a minority.
Chu Huaixu temporarily couldn't figure out the small black sword in his sea of consciousness. He also began to look around to see where to go next.
There was a stone wall ahead. He walked over and searched it carefully, randomly patting it, and actually found a mechanism. He pressed hard on a protruding spot, and a stone gate opened.
Clearly, the focus of this stage was the illusion before; the mechanism was not the main point and was not hidden very deeply.
After exchanging a glance, the two of them walked forward together. The stone gate closed again, as if it had never been opened.
Along the way, Chu Huaixu even muttered, "The illusion up ahead should still be usable, right? It wasn't destroyed, was it?"
"What's wrong?" Han Shuangjiang was perplexed.
"Once Liu Chengqi and the others get out of the maze, we can use it to trap them!" Chu Huaixu said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
The Big Ice Cube let out a soft "uh." She hadn't even thought of that.
The two walked and talked, and soon they emerged from the stone passage. What greeted their eyes was an underground river, about fifty meters wide.
On the other side of the underground river was a stone pillar over a meter high. On top of the pillar, there seemed to be something resembling a compass. Further beyond that was another stone gate.
"What is that?" Han Shuangjiang had also seen the compass.
"That's a [Spirit Compass]," Chu Huaixu said, much more knowledgeable than her.
He explained, "It's used to measure the grade of a Spirit Embryo."
He also hadn't expected to find a Spirit Compass placed before the stone gate here. Under normal circumstances, if one wanted to check another person's Spirit Embryo grade, a drop of blood was enough. A great power like Li Chunsong, at the seventh realm and widely experienced, could detect that Han Shuangjiang had a Profound Yin Physique with just a single drop of blood.
But an ordinary cultivator without such a high cultivation level, like Liu Tianfeng, even if you gave him a drop of Han Shuangjiang's blood, at most he could only misidentify it—this is a high-grade Spirit Embryo!
But in reality, Spirit Embryos were divided into ten grades. The bottom three were low-grade, the middle three were mid-grade, the top three were high-grade, and above that was the once-in-a-century supreme-grade! If one wasn't above the fifth realm, even if a person with a high-grade Spirit Embryo stood before them, they couldn't distinguish which of the top three grades it was, let alone a supreme-grade Spirit Embryo.
The [Spirit Compass] could serve the function of detailed classification. But this thing was expensive to make, and basically only medium to large sects would use it. A third-rate sect like the Joyful Sect, which didn't have any Great Cultivators, still relied on the most primitive method—dripping blood to test the embryo. A once-in-a-century Profound Yin Physique like Han Shuangjiang's was like a pearl covered in dust over there.
Seeing the Spirit Compass, a smile appeared on Chu Huaixu's face.
"This thing is very expensive. We can sell it to the sect in exchange for contribution points," Chu Huaixu said.
The moment she heard the word "expensive," the poor ghost beside him began to stare at it intently.
Chu Huaixu turned his head to look at her and said, "My choice was indeed correct. I should have brought you with me. You're my lucky star."
Hearing him emphasize it like this again, Han Shuangjiang felt a little embarrassed, but she still kept a straight face and asked, "Why do you say that?"
He pointed forward and said, "It's obvious. This predecessor discriminates based on Spirit Embryo."
"Look, there's a [Spirit Compass] here, and behind it is a stone gate."
"I estimate that if the grade measured is not high enough, that stone gate won't open at all!"
Chu Huaixu couldn't help but think of an ancient web novel he had read on Earth. The first chapter was titled "The Fallen Genius." (T/N: A direct reference to the famous novel Battle Through the Heavens.) But at least that Xiao Yan had tested as "Dou Qi, third stage!" If he were to put his hand on the Spirit Compass, it would be the lowest of the low, a pitiful grade-1 Spirit Embryo.
Of course, with this Big Ice Cube's talent, opening the stone gate was a small matter.
At this thought, Chu Huaixu smiled at Han Shuangjiang and said, "So, you are my key."
"What's with this 'yours' and 'mine'," Han Shuangjiang said, her cheeks flushing with a faint blush.
First a lucky star, then a key. Nonsense!
But she basically agreed with Chu Huaixu's reasoning in her heart. Otherwise, why put a Spirit Compass here?
She looked at the underground river ahead and said, "So we just need to cross the river?"
"It's definitely not that simple," Chu Huaixu said, staring at the river.
He walked towards the underground river, crouched down, and examined it carefully. The river's water was very clear, but its flow was very slow. On the stone wall below the river, there were four holes, which seemed to be part of a mechanism. At both ends, two giant stone walls rose up, looking as if they might fall and block the water flow.
"This secret realm can only be entered by mortals or those in the aperture-opening stage."
"For us, we can only swim across," Chu Huaixu said.
If their cultivation were higher, they could just leap across, but they couldn't do that.
"And, since this is part of the trial, I suspect that using other means to cross the river will also be obstructed," he analyzed based on his experience.
Chu Huaixu looked around, picked up a small stone, and threw it hard towards the other side of the river. Sure enough, the stone hit a transparent barrier, and a semi-transparent ripple spread through the air. It was completely impenetrable. The stone just fell into the river, but it didn't trigger any anomalies.
He continued to try, throwing a few more stones directly into the river, even specifically picking an extra-large one. Still, there was no reaction.
"I reckon there's a formation. It will only activate when a person goes down," Chu Huaixu said.
This guy had quite the divergent thinking. He even looked around for something and said, "I wonder if there are any rats or anything, to test if a living creature entering the water will trigger the formation."
Han Shuangjiang looked at him, seriously suspecting that if Liu Chengqi and the others were standing by the river now, this dead fox would kick him in to test the waters.
The Big Ice Cube thought again, "Since Liu Chengqi isn't here, does that mean... it's just me?"
"Should I go in the water and try first?" she suddenly said.
Chu Huaixu was stunned for a moment. "Hm? Don't be ridiculous!"
Han Shuangjiang's dark, beautiful eyes stared straight at him as she said in a dead-serious tone, "I'm serious."
Seeing that he was still hesitating to nod, she pointed to the other side of the river.
"And didn't you also say that I'm probably the only one who can open that stone gate? Then I definitely have to go into the water," she said.
"I'm not sure what type of formation this is," Chu Huaixu said, looking at her, stating the facts. Although he was very experienced in running dungeons, he wasn't an expert on everything.
"It's fine. This was originally a secret realm prepared for disciples in the aperture-opening stage. I imagine it won't be too difficult," Han Shuangjiang said, appearing quite nonchalant.
"If I don't even dare to make such a small attempt, how can I ever attain the supreme Great Dao?" she asked Chu Huaixu in return.
Han Shuangjiang already had a strange "older sister" vibe at a young age. Now, saying such words, she seemed even more assertive and cool.
Chu Huaixu looked at her and muttered to himself, "As expected of the person who got the [Strong Female Lead] script in "Borrowing a Sword"."
Among the player base, her number of female fans was even greater than her male fans. Because the grown-up Han Shuangjiang was truly cool and impressive, perfectly fitting the "Sister, kill me" standard.
"I should still try first," he made a final insistence. "After all, I've already opened five apertures. You're only at four, right?"
Yes, after a night of cultivation, Han Shuangjiang had actually quickly opened another aperture. Terrifyingly so!
After hearing this, she looked behind them and asked, "Do we have enough time now?"
"If the illusion outside is still effective, then we should have more than enough time. They won't be able to break it for a while," Chu Huaixu shrugged and continued, "Of course, if they do get in, I'll be able to kick Liu Chengqi in."
Han Shuangjiang: "..."
—This dead fox really was thinking that!
The Profound Yin Physique looked at him and said, "It's good that we have enough time."
After speaking, she sat down cross-legged right next to Chu Huaixu and began to cultivate the 'Ice-Pure Art'. After circulating her technique for one cycle with extreme proficiency, she opened her beautiful eyes.
"Now, I'm also at five apertures," she said.