Because Gong Chenying was still in mid-air, although only a zhang or so high, her line of sight was much wider than Li Yan and the others below. What Li Yan and the others could see now was just the endless street twisting and extending forward. They had already experienced many such turns in the past half-hour. At first, when many of them saw such a turn, they subconsciously thought that there would be a new scene around the corner. But every time they fought their way to that point and turned a corner, they were met with another winding street and endless shops. After experiencing this multiple times, many cultivators had placed their last hope on the ten-li mark. If it was still the same after ten li, it was hard to say if they would break down. After all, this place was like an endless dead loop.
"There's no street five hundred meters ahead," a flat voice sounded in the ears of the people below. But to the Qi Condensation cultivators, this voice was like heavenly music, and low cheers could be heard.
With their confidence boosted, the group of cultivators covered the few hundred meters in less than twenty breaths while running and defending. After blocking another wave of various debris attacks from the ruins Gong Chenying had created, they cautiously walked around the street corner. Their eyes lit up. The road ahead was blocked by a giant, yellow, glowing sphere.
They quickly looked at Gong Chenying. She had already landed, her short hair soaked with sweat, clinging to her heroic cheeks and steaming. To turn a Foundation Establishment cultivator into such a state in just ten li showed how difficult this journey had been. Ten li was usually just a few dozen breaths of leaping for a high-level Qi Condensation cultivator who couldn't fly.
Gong Chenying looked at the giant yellow sphere, then back at the sky they had come from. The giant black shadow was now less than four li away in a straight line. Judging by its speed, it would arrive in less than half an incense stick's time. And this was the distance they had managed to create by giving it their all.
Gong Chenying walked a few steps to the yellow sphere. The green light on her poleaxe flared, and she spun her arm, making the spear tip dance. With a thrust, she stabbed the sphere's wall. With a soft "chi" sound, the poleaxe had penetrated halfway. She shook her arm, and the poleaxe was retrieved. She looked at the spiritual light on the spear tip.
"In," she said, and plunged inside.
Li Yan and the others did not hesitate. Looking at the giant black shadow pressing down from the sky, they had no choice. They entered in single file according to their squad order.
Li Yan's squad was the fourth to enter. After he went in, he saw the people in front of him standing there in a daze. At the very front was Gong Chenying's tall figure. She was holding her poleaxe, looking around. As she turned her head, Li Yan saw her furrowed brows.
This was an enclosed space, about forty zhang in size. Apart from the rippling water-like entrance they had come through, there were no other exits.
"Is the exit hidden too?" a Qi Condensation disciple asked the person next to him in a low voice after looking around.
"Possibly," another sturdy man replied with a puzzled look.
"I wonder if the black shadow outside is close. This is another enclosed space."
"Can this place withstand the black shadow's attack?"
They had been ordered before entering to listen to their team leader and not act on their own. So, although some were discussing in low voices, no one touched the walls of the sphere. They were all on edge, their hands on their storage pouches. They weren't sure if there would be sudden, inexplicable attacks here like on the street outside.
Gong Chenying stood at the front and looked around. Then, she swung her right hand, and the poleaxe turned into a ball of green light. With a "dang," she had planted the poleaxe into the hard stone floor. Then, she quickly formed a hand seal in front of her chest. With a separation and joining of her hands, a large amount of yellow sand shot towards the four walls. The next moment, a sound as dense as rain hitting a sandy beach echoed through the space. Li Yan and the others were all on high alert, ready for any sudden changes.
After the dense yellow sand hit the inner wall of the sphere, apart from the ripples in the direction they had come from, the other places were like mud oxen entering the sea, without the slightest fluctuation.
Seeing Gong Chenying's action, Li Yan thought for a moment and understood her intention. Gong Chenying was not just probing for anything unusual here, as she had done in the cloth shop, but was also looking for a way out.
Sure enough, after seeing the result of her attack, Gong Chenying turned to the cultivators behind her. "There's no way out here. It seems we have to wait for some trigger. Then we will either be teleported to another place or meet another group. Otherwise, this trial is a dead end."
Everyone nodded upon hearing this. With no way out, they could only wait for the black shadow and the unknown to arrive.
"Then hurry up and meditate to rest and recover your strength as quickly as possible," she said. Without waiting for a reply, her figure flashed, and she went out through the sphere wall they had come from.
At this moment, apart from a dozen or so cultivators at the late-stage tenth level of Qi Condensation and above who still looked calm, most of the Malevolent Spirit Sect cultivators had consumed a huge amount of spiritual energy. Hearing her words and seeing her leave the sphere, most of them, after looking around, took out Spirit Stones and sat down to cultivate and recover. However, seven or eight cultivators at the late-stage tenth level and Perfected Qi Condensation scattered and looked around the space with interest. They walked around, touching the sphere wall from time to time, and occasionally patting it gently with their palms wrapped in spiritual energy.
Li Yan looked at Gong Chenying's disappearing back, his eyes flashing. He didn't immediately sit down to recover his strength either. With interest, he also went to the sphere wall, reached out, and pressed it. A soft elasticity bounced back. This action caught the eye of a few high-level Qi Condensation cultivators, who were somewhat surprised. They didn't expect Li Yan not to seize the time to recover but to observe here like them. It seemed Li Yan's spiritual energy, comparable to the tenth level of Qi Condensation during the sect competition, was not just for show. But they only gave him a glance before turning back to their exploration. Li Yan, like the others, walked around, occasionally patting the sphere wall gently, and looking down in thought from time to time. Soon, he had walked around the entire forty-zhang space. When Li Yan looked up, he found he was the only one still standing. The few high-level Qi Condensation cultivators had apparently not found anything and had already sat down with Spirit Stones to cultivate and recover.
He chuckled softly, then also found a corner to sit down, took out a Spirit Stone, and closed his eyes. He could guess that Gong Chenying had gone out to see when the black shadow would arrive, so she could plan her next move.
Gong Chenying stood outside the sphere. The faint yellow light from the giant sphere behind her shone on her tall and beautiful figure. Against the dim yellow light from the sky opposite her, her face was cast in a magical play of light and shadow. She looked at the giant black shadow slowly pressing down from the horizon and silently calculated. It would probably take at most half a quarter of an hour for the black shadow to arrive. If no restriction was triggered by then, the final moment would be upon them. She didn't know if this glowing sphere could withstand the giant black shadow in the sky, and even if it could, for how long?
According to the information she had, besides being able to slightly delay this black shadow with the Blue Rhomboid Crystal that activated the Wheel of Life and Death, anything that came into contact with it would instantly turn to dust and disappear from the world.
The breeze blew through her hair, making her clothes cling tighter to her body, accentuating the astonishing curves of her large chest and slender waist. It was as if this figure was the only thing standing in this vast, empty world. She tilted her head in thought, then her figure flashed and disappeared from her spot.
A short while later, the sphere wall rippled, and Gong Chenying entered again, her poleaxe gone. Her arrival went unnoticed. She swept her gaze over everyone, then found a place and sat down cross-legged with a blank expression.
She had just been outside confirming the approximate arrival time of the giant black shadow. She had then circled the area several times, trying to find a switch to activate the restriction here. But to her disappointment, apart from the occasional residual attacks from the ruins, this giant sphere just stood in the middle of the street like a mountain. There was no way to see the other directions. As long as she touched the sphere, a suction force would pull her in. In other words, the visible part of the sphere from the street was just an entrance, with no other purpose.
Since that was the case, there was no choice but to wait. She didn't believe they would die instantly when the giant black shadow reached the sphere. That was not part of the trial's design. After sorting this out, she entered the sphere and sat down cross-legged, taking out a Spirit Stone to recover her strength. Normally, it would take more than just half a quarter of an hour to recover spiritual energy; a full day might not be enough. But the rich spiritual energy in this Secret Realm was several times denser than outside. Without Spirit Stones, a Qi Condensation cultivator could probably recover fully in one or two hours, and a Foundation Establishment cultivator could recover to seventy or eighty percent in two or three hours. Now, with the frantic absorption of Spirit Stones, a Qi Condensation cultivator could recover forty percent, or even more, in half a quarter of an hour. A Foundation Establishment cultivator could probably recover an additional twenty percent. Fortunately, those who had consumed the most spiritual energy still had about forty percent left. In half a quarter of an hour, they could probably recover to sixty or seventy percent of their usual level.
But things didn't go as they wished. Just as less than half a quarter of an hour was left, Gong Chenying and Li Yan opened their eyes at almost the same time. Gong Chenying's eyes flashed with surprise again, and she had already stood up, shouting, "Someone's here!"
The cultivators opened their eyes in a daze. Two figures were already standing among them, looking vigilantly at the sphere wall twenty zhang ahead.
Everyone quickly jumped up and formed teams for defense. Only then did some of them look at the two figures again. One had a curvy figure, undoubtedly Gong Chenying. The other made them pause. It was the Little Martial Uncle from Little Bamboo Peak with the lowest cultivation but a strange air about him. Only then did some of them recall Li Yan's almost beast-like intuition on the road. They thought to themselves, 'Could this Little Martial Uncle be a demonic beast transformed with some innate talent for alertness? There are many Perfected Qi Condensation cultivators here, but none of them have ever given an early warning.' But this thought only flashed for a moment, because at that moment, a spot on the sphere wall in their line of sight rippled, and a figure appeared.
"The Pure Land Sect?"
"The Malevolent Spirit Sect?"
Many voices sounded at almost the same time. The voices of the Qi Condensation cultivators from the Malevolent Spirit Sect who said "Pure Land Sect" were numerous and mixed with surprise. But only one person said "Malevolent Spirit Sect," the figure who had just entered the sphere.
Li Yan squinted. While cultivating just now, he had felt the spiritual energy cycle at a certain point on the sphere wall stagnate and pause. He had woken up with a start. Before he could give a warning, a clear, bell-like voice had sounded coldly. When he looked over, he saw Gong Chenying looking at him with surprise, and he couldn't help but smile wryly. Since arriving at this Secret Realm, his True Scripture of Gui Water seemed to have changed beyond his own recognition.
Amidst the shouts from both sides, the light behind the person from the other side rippled continuously, and people appeared one after another. Soon, there were eighteen of them. At this time, the Malevolent Spirit Sect did not rush forward but stared coldly at the other side. They had already guessed, 'The two paths have intersected. The final battle has come.'
According to the information from before, when the cultivators on two paths fought in the end, the team leaders could not intervene. Otherwise, the giant black shadow would accelerate its devouring time. Now, the team leaders of both sides didn't know how to face this sudden change, so they waited for things to develop.
The first to enter from the Pure Land Sect was a Chan Monk in a yellow kasaya. He was about twenty-five or twenty-six, with a gaunt figure, a long face, and dark skin. His dark eyes were calm and waveless. After seeing the people here, apart from his initial shout, he said nothing more. He placed his hands together and quietly looked at Gong Chenying. Gong Chenying already had her poleaxe in hand, her lips sealed tight, meeting his cold gaze.
The light behind the gaunt Chan Monk only flashed a dozen or so times before it stopped. The gaunt Chan Monk looked back at the eighteen monks in grey robes, a look of pain flashing in his eyes. The eighteen grey-robed monks and he himself were all injured to varying degrees. Many of the monks still had bloodstains on their faces and bodies. Their monk robes were stained with mud and blood, and many places were tattered. The thought of the damned muddy mountain path and the martial nephew who had stayed behind in the heavy rain to form the Eighteen Arhats Formation to protect them brought a surge of grief. 'Damn the uphill rainy path, damn the heavy rain, damn the black shadow in the sky, and this bunch of damned Malevolent Spirit Sect cultivators in front of me.'