When Li Yan entered the sphere, besides seeing the cultivators of the Malevolent Spirit Sect, he saw even more corpses littering the ground. And at this moment, it was strangely quiet, so quiet you could hear each other's heartbeats.
The sphere was filled with strangely shaped corpses with various expressions. Their deaths were extremely gruesome. Some were curled up in a ball, some were rotten all over, some had faces twisted and swollen purple, some had two large eyeballs bulging out of their sockets, some had tongues lolling out so long they hung down to their chests. One person held a bloody heart in his gore-stained hand, a gaping hole in his own chest. Another hugged a head, its stark white teeth stained with red and white matter, the head itself only half-remaining. Still others had their bodies twisted into the shape of a pretzel, their hands having pulled out many of the green veins from their own legs and thrown them on the ground. There were even two male cultivators embracing each other, their faces flushed, completely naked, their lower bodies aroused, dying in each other's arms with expressions of satisfaction...
This was the scheme Gong Chenying had arranged. As soon as they had charged into the magma-filled black hole, she had been calculating. In the previous trials, they had suffered few, if any, deaths on the road. But the number of deaths inside the yellow spheres had begun to increase dramatically. This meant there was a huge disparity between casualties on the path and casualties from fighting other people. Moreover, fighting others involved far more uncertain factors.
From this perspective, as long as one became familiar with the attack patterns of a given trial path, one could generally pass. Therefore, the greatest casualties occurred in the battles inside the spheres. Since casualties were unavoidable, they had to be targeted to reduce their own losses. After consideration, Gong Chenying decided to shorten their time on the path. By compressing that time, they could arrive at the ten-li meeting point early. There, they could use the Malevolent Spirit Sect's strongest weapon to ambush the enemy—poison. That was their ultimate strength. But this would inevitably increase the probability of casualties on the path. She weighed the options and still decided to adopt this method. Compared to the final life-and-death struggle inside the sphere, this method had a better chance of reducing their mortality rate.
She simply transmitted a few words to the cultivators behind her, and without even waiting for their reply, she increased their speed severalfold. How could the Qi Condensation cultivators behind her object? Gritting their teeth, they followed. They all understood that their martial aunt was merely informing them; their agreement or disagreement wouldn't change the outcome. But in doing so, Gong Chenying also had to bear the pressure. If her decision led to too many deaths, it wouldn't matter if they all died here. But if they were lucky enough to get out, the Qi Condensation cultivators would certainly report the situation to their respective peak elders.
It wasn't that the death of a Qi Condensation cultivator here was of no consequence. Several of them were direct descendants of certain Foundation Establishment or even Golden Core elders. For example, the fatty, Mei Bucai, was the direct great-great-grandson of a late-stage Golden Core elder from Lord Lao Peak. It was through this connection that the fatty had managed to join the Malevolent Spirit Sect. It was said that when he first arrived, he spent all day crying and clamoring to go back to his leisurely life of an idle rich boy, unwilling to cultivate. In the end, that Golden Core elder locked him in the Nine-Flame Crimson Fire Cellar on Lord Lao Peak for a full month. When he came out, he was as thin as a stick, his skin as red as blood. Later, in Mei Bucai's own words: "That old geezer is too vicious! He threw me in the Nine-Flame Crimson Fire Cellar and just ignored me. You could cook an egg in there in a few breaths. I had no choice but to grit my teeth and force myself to circulate my energy to resist. Even so, sweat was pouring down like rain, and the old geezer wouldn't even give me water. He said I could make my own water to drink when I learned the Cloud and Rain Manual. So I had to desperately meditate to resist the high temperature while desperately practicing immortal arts. But with the temperature in there, even when I finally managed to learn the Cloud and Rain Art, any little cloud I gathered would be instantly evaporated by the heat. I really had no tears left to cry. In one month, I went from two hundred and eighty catties to one hundred and one. Water, that was all water! From now on, if anyone says being fat is just fat, I'll fight them to the death."
However, this fatty was truly remarkable. His innate talent was extremely high. Despite his lazy personality, he had reached the peak of Qi Condensation in just seven or eight years and was also a skilled alchemist, though the uses for his pills were quite vulgar. Mei Bucai had originally had no intention of participating in the Wheel of Life and Death, but before the grand sect's Qi Condensation competition, that Golden Core elder had only said one thing to him: "If you place below fiftieth, you'll spend two months in the Crimson Fire Cellar." This scared him so much that he, with his fat quivering, fought his way into the top forty-nine. If he were to die here, that Golden Core elder would probably just pretend he never existed. But if Gong Chenying's actions led to Mei Bucai's death here, it was likely that even with Wei Zhongran's protection, Gong Chenying would certainly be punished before the matter was settled.
Gong Chenying naturally had her reasons for doing this. Besides the increased casualties on the road due to the accelerated pace, the benefits—whether from their own side being able to utilize their strengths or from the predicted outcome—were self-evident. She had considered the feasibility several times and believed there should be no problem. As for the yellow sphere, as long as both sides didn't enter at the same time, it would basically remain about forty fathoms in size. This was a terrifyingly dense area to deploy poison, no matter its form, making it easier for the poison to take effect. In such a small space, they could set up more targeted ambushes.
And so, after they fought their way to the end, Gong Chenying entered first to scout. When she confirmed that the other party had not yet arrived, she breathed a huge sigh of relief. She then led the cultivators from Lord Lao Peak and Four Symbols Peak inside to set up the ambush. Of course, she wouldn't leave out someone like Li Yan with his Fragmented Poison Body.
After they entered, Gong Chenying and the cultivators from Four Symbols Peak began to set up concealment formations to mask their auras and secretly lay the poison. The cultivators from Lord Lao Peak also set to work. Some placed colorless and odorless deadly poisons; others used the Four Symbols Peak's formation as a trigger, arranging various strange and deadly poisons within it; still others used the dust on the sphere's floor and even the light to create chain-reaction poisons, where touching one spot would ignite a continuous release like a lit barrel of oil. Li Yan, on the other hand, just strolled around, occasionally stopping to pat a few places with his hands. He didn't take out any porcelain vials, nor did he cast any immortal arts. This left some people speechless, wondering if this little martial uncle had set up anything at all. Meanwhile, the fatty Mei Bucai, while acting furtively, secretly took out some bottles and jars from his storage pouch. With a lewd grin, he would occasionally take out a small pinch of something from a vial and carefully place it. The people next to him broke out in a cold sweat and quickly moved away from him. Two female cultivators, after seeing the powder Mei Bucai poured out or the gas he waved around, turned bright red. One of them went up and kicked Mei Bucai, who was bent over with his butt in the air and a lewd grin on his face. Mei Bucai nearly scraped the mouth of the vial against his own nose and was greatly alarmed. He turned to glare at his junior sister. "This is years of my hard work! You almost ruined a masterpiece for no reason!"
This group of people were all old hands at using poison. Even Li Yan had nearly five years of experience. They worked incredibly fast. In less than half an incense stick's time, they had filled the sphere with death. According to one cultivator who came out later, the amount of poison they used wasn't just for a forty-fathom area; if it were released in a small city, it would instantly turn it into a city of the dead. It was just that setting it up felt quite satisfying, so they had lost all sense of proportion.
The reason the cultivators from Spirit Insect Peak and Never-Parting Peak were not brought into the sphere for the ambush was that these two peaks specialized in controlling poisonous insects and beasts. Although they also refined the fluids of these creatures into their own bodies, this type of poison was mostly used for direct combat. In comparison, Lord Lao Peak and Four Symbols Peak were more subtle when it came to setting traps.
However, there was another way for Spirit Insect Peak and Never-Parting Peak to set a trap. Gong Chenying and the formation experts from Four Symbols Peak could have set up concealment formations within the sphere to hide the poisonous insects and beasts. When the enemy entered and triggered the formations, these poisonous creatures could break out. But Gong Chenying rejected this idea after considering it. She couldn't be sure if the presence of these creatures would cause the sphere's rules to judge that both parties were present and automatically expand the space. If that happened, their meticulously planned deployment would have massive loopholes. At the same time, if the rules judged that both sides had entered and sealed the entrance to the sphere, her group waiting outside for the result might end up caught in their own trap, erased from existence by the black shadow. She could not take that risk. She had to ensure there wasn't a single living being from their side inside, to guarantee the sphere's rules would judge that only one party was present and not expand the space.
As for the possibility of the enemy realizing something was wrong and fleeing back through the passage they came from, this was another reason she had brought the Four Symbols Peak cultivators in. Their formations weren't just for concealing auras; they also had another function: to set up a one-way formation along the edge of the sphere. This formation could only be entered from one direction. To exit, one would have to break it, but in the process of breaking it, the attacks hidden within the formation would be activated.
Li Yan and the others hid outside the sphere, only entering at the last moment. They were still worried that the other party hadn't entered, or had only just entered. In that case, their entry would also trigger a battle. To prevent this, Gong Chenying's considerations were extremely thorough. She set up a small formation at the sphere wall on their side of the passage. This formation had no offensive capabilities; it was purely defensive, like an isolated fortress. When the black shadow finally arrived, they would immediately enter the sphere and land within this formation, protecting themselves while also isolating them from the enemy's attacks. However, Gong Chenying wasn't confident about the ultimate capability of this formation. If the enemy fought with desperate madness, their potential would be immeasurable. It was possible that by the time they entered, the formation would have already been broken, and they would be met with a final, overwhelming counterattack from a dying foe.
The result was clearly exhilarating for them. Their defensive formation was still intact, and the enemy seemed to be all dead. At least, from their current position within the formation, there were no signs of life in the sphere besides them. But when Li Yan entered, he didn't see expressions of excitement on the faces of the others. Although they saw a ground full of corpses, the smiles were frozen on their faces, replaced by looks of astonishment. A brief, terrible silence fell over the sphere. Then, their expressions slowly turned to disbelief.
Before them lay a field of no fewer than fifty corpses. What chilled Li Yan and the others to the bone was that the clothing on the bodies belonged to two different sects: Ten-Pace Courtyard and Supreme Mystery Teachings. What was especially terrifying was that on the ground near the center of the sphere on the other side, two people, seven paces apart, were clutching blue rhomboid crystals. One was lying on his back, his clothes, soaked with black blood, clinging to a skeleton. His robes had been corroded, leaving only fragments covering the bones, but upon careful inspection, one could still vaguely identify him as a cultivator from the Supreme Mystery Teachings. The state of his head was nauseating. Large patches of skin had rotted and fallen off his face, revealing a bony framework still clinging to dozens of bloody threads. A few pieces of uncorroded flesh remained on some parts. His eyes were dried and shriveled, the sockets black holes, leaving only two shrunken, desiccated black objects. A hand, now just white bone, gripped a blue rhomboid crystal. Seven paces away, another person clutched a blue rhomboid crystal, lying prostrate on the ground, his head facing the sphere wall, his features obscured. One hand was curled as if casting a spell. This person was swollen, black, and shiny all over, his clothes stretched taut. If the sect uniform hadn't been a low-grade spirit artifact, it would have surely burst. From his attire, he was from the Ten-Pace Courtyard.