Defying despair to overcome the treacherous, the path to immortality and love gradually clears.
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Shen Yi stepped onto the newly formed stone steps and leapt onto the platform. The freshly picked Seven-Star Grass leaves between his fingers still bore fragments of starry sand. Casually tucking a leaf behind his ear, he hummed an unfamiliar tune as he surveyed his surroundings—this was no ordinary immortal sect trial ground; it was as if the entire starry sky had been shattered and spread beneath his feet.
“Daoist Shen truly is skilled and daring,” came Feng Yi’s voice suddenly from behind. Shen Yi turned sharply, nearly colliding with three suspended bronze bells. Raising an eyebrow, he looked at the young man who was materializing again from the blue smoke, the dark embroidery of bamboo on his robe seeping an eerie blood-red glow.
“Brother Feng, your smoke escape technique is rarer than the candy paintings of Old Wang at the street corner,” Shen Yi said while flicking the bronze bells with his shoe tip. The tinkling mingled with faint mechanical clicks. “But how could you part with even your life token?” He shook the storage ring on his left pinky finger, the ring’s surface reflecting Feng Yi’s suddenly darkened face.
On the viewing platform, Gao Yao’s fingertips gripping the communication jade talisman turned pale. The arrangement of the bronze bells in the water mirror clearly formed the Nine Nether Soul Lock Formation—a forbidden array far beyond the reach of someone at the Qi Refining stage.
Just as she was about to rise, the mark of the gecko tattoo on her wrist suddenly burned—black starry sand clung to her hair strands, crawling along the dark silk into her scalp.
“Master Ling Xian!” Gao Yao called out urgently, but it was already too late. A suppressive aura from the late Foundation Establishment stage suddenly enveloped the entire viewing platform.
Ling Xian’s jade ruler emitted a blue glow. “Leaving your seat during the trial is prohibited.”
Deep within the labyrinth, shadows twisted into a whirlpool as Mo Yu produced a bone flute from the void. When he played the third note, all the bronze bells in the trial ground simultaneously exploded into violet mist. The starry sand beneath Shen Yi’s feet suddenly writhed as if alive, coiling around his ankles.
“Carnivorous plants—what are they?” Even as Shen Yi was dragged upside down past the stone wall, he calmly finished patching the dog-headed figure’s tongue-out expression on the wall with the green vine.
Feng Yi emerged from the purple mist alongside five other trial participants, their pupils stained with the same blood-red glow as the bamboo embroidery.
“Brother Shen, do you know the jackpot for this trial?” Feng Yi’s fingertips condensed into an ice spike that grazed Shen Yi’s ear and impaled the stone wall. Inside the blossoming ice flower crawled countless bloodthirsty ants.
Shen Yi’s system display flickered wildly: [Detected spiritual power below 30%. Recommend immediate consumption of Three Seven-Star Grass.]
He bit down on a grass seed hidden beneath his tongue, swallowing the bitter juice mixed with the metallic tang of blood. “Brother Feng, you wanted new clothes so badly, you should have said so earlier.” Suddenly, the green vine surged, flinging the nearest trial participants into the swarm of bloodthirsty ants.
The water mirror on the viewing platform clouded with blood mist. Gao Yao heard her heartbeat drown out Ling Xian’s reprimand. The golden light of the gecko tattoo tangled with the black starry sand beneath her skin. She suddenly recalled how, three days ago, she had caught Shen Yi secretly planting drunken dragon grass on the back mountain—when confronted by her sword qi, he had drawn a crooked rabbit in the dirt with his toes.
“Break!” Ling Xian’s jade ruler cleaved through the blood mist. Amid the startled cries, the trial ground transformed into a web-covered abyss.
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Shen Yi’s garment was torn to shreds by fierce winds. When his back struck the rock wall, the jar of starry sand in his arms shattered with a sharp sound, the cerulean granules entwined with drops of blood forming a strange totem.
“System alert: Ancient demon residual array detected. Calculating survival rate…” The mechanical voice exploded inside his head as Shen Yi saw blood-colored jade talisman phantoms appear on the chests of Feng Yi and the others.
Coughing up blood, he laughed, his bloodied fingers tracing on the rock wall. “Old Mo Yu, watch closely—”
As his final stroke completed, the entire trial ground fell silent.
Among the uproar on the viewing platform, Gao Yao stared blankly at the dog-headed figure painted in blood within the water mirror, which gradually overlapped with the rabbit drawn in the dirt three days prior.
The black starry sand on her wrist suddenly faded, and the golden light from the gecko tattoo shot directly into the water mirror.
From the depths of the labyrinth came the sound of the bone flute shattering. Mo Yu stared at the cracked blood jade in his palm; the once flattering smile reflected on it had been replaced by the mocking grimace Shen Yi had painted with his own blood.
In a furious rage, Mo Yu crushed the blood jade. Meanwhile, Shen Yi was being swept by the fierce wind toward the darkest part of the abyss.
As he fell, Shen Yi’s hand brushed against a hard object at his waist.
The system display suddenly flashed an unprecedented azure color: [Special item activation conditions met.]
Before he could examine it, an agonizing chewing noise echoed from the abyss floor. Tendrils emitting a fresh woody fragrance wrapped around his ankle... His booted sole scraped the abyss wall, moss breaking into tiny glowing sparks in the fierce wind.
The tendrils glowed with a jade luster. He suddenly recalled the demon-devouring vine he had planted three days ago beside the cliff—when ripe, it had gnawed his bronze hoe for farming down to half its handle.
“System bro, you better not be lying to me.” Shen Yi poked the hard object at his waist. A wine gourd rolled out of the storage ring.
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