Chapter 444

I should've known better than to try testing him.

Curiosity killed the cat.

Even though my heart resisted utterly, there was no choice now but to face it head-on.

After all, I couldn't run away…

Yan Mu took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly.

Huh~

"Please, Elder, guide me!"

As his words ended, his right hand rose, fingers loosely clenched—space trembled, faint five-colored qi swirled around his palm, with a single point of Qian Yuan Yu Qing Bu Mie Xuan Guang harmonizing at its center.

Mind governs the five qi; Xuan Guang harmonizes them.

Though it looked unremarkable, the power it contained was terrifying—it was Yan Mu's trump card.

It was something he had awakened from Zhao Ruoming's hidden primordial technique during the last Xian Sect Grand Competition, intending to use it only when challenging him again…

But now…

He had no choice but to use it!

"Good." Xu Xing nodded slightly. "Catch this sword."

Zong~!

A clear, resonant sword cry rang in his ears; no blade was drawn, yet crimson light flooded the heavens like a tidal wave crashing down!

Radiating in all directions, encompassing the entire cosmos.

Everything in his perception was swallowed by this crimson sword light—vast, boundless.

His琉璃-like Primordial Spirit emitted boundless radiance, striving as it had in the last Xian Sect Grand Competition to discern the essence within this sword.

Yet all he perceived was a single thread of sword light, utterly without "thickness," hurtling toward him—everything split apart became absolute void.

Was it boundless, overwhelming sword radiance—or a single thread severing the void?

This bizarre, contradictory scene made Yan Mu feel as if he wanted to vomit blood.

Just as the sword light was about to strike, at the last possible instant, he gritted his teeth!

Then, like an ordinary mortal with no cultivation, he punched straight out—five-colored qi swirling around the single point of Qian Yuan Bu Mie Yu Qing Xuan Guang, meeting that thread of sword light.

Boom!

With a deafening crash, unbearable agony—as if a thousand blades carved his flesh—silenced all sound; before his eyes, he could not tell if it was blinding "light" or pure, unblemished "void."

His mind seemed to reach eternal stillness.

In this strange state of perception, his Pure Primordial Spirit, forged by the Supreme "Self" Transmission Method, finally saw that single sword stroke.

Brilliant as the first rays of dawn, clear as the moon's pure radiance…

His dimmed Pure Primordial Spirit cupped its hands, cradling a luminous disc like rippling water—besides the traces of Qian Yuan Bu Mie Yu Qing Xuan Guang and other techniques, a faint mark, like the first spark of dawn's fire, quietly imprinted upon it.

The next instant, his consciousness plunged into utter darkness.

When all the strange phenomena faded…

Xu Xing stood with sword in hand, the blade's crimson glow still flowing.

Near him, Yan Mu lay on the ground, surroundings in ruins, yet not a single wound on his body—he had simply lost consciousness entirely.

"Brother Dao's attack… was more like guidance."

As the voice echoed, a Daoist with white beard and hair, clad in a green Dao robe, stepped from the void beside Xu Xing—ethereal and dignified.

It was Dan Zu.

He gazed at Yan Mu lying nearby, piercing through appearances to see the anomaly upon his dimmed Primordial Spirit.

Had Brother Dao not deliberately guided him, this youngling, even with his entry into the "Self" Supreme Transmission, could never have glimpsed even a fraction of the essence in that sword.

"My sword strike matches his current level—if he can't withstand it, he's eliminated. That counts as an attack."

Xu Xing's palm flickered red—the crimson sword vanished.

"As for 'guidance'… it was merely a casual gesture."

Dan Zu did not press the matter further, turning his gaze elsewhere.

"The others are nearly done too—the results are much the same as yours. It seems this generation of younglings are quite decent."

As for whether they held back?

Obviously—they'd be dead if they didn't. Who here could survive a full strike?

The purpose of stepping in personally was to test them, not to eliminate them outright.

The two turned and walked away.

"By the way, the young ones from Tai Shang Dao Sect are all within the safe zone," Xu Xing said.

"The young ones from Shen Ji Lian Bao Ge too," Dan Zu added.

…

…

On another front, Seeing Hong Zun casually pointed, knocking out a sword cultivator practicing a sword formation.

Then he looked toward the safe zone.

These little rascals—all huddled inside the circle!

"Hmph!"

With a sweep of his sleeve, Seeing Hong Zun vanished.

In a remote ravine under the jurisdiction of Xue Jin Gang Si.

Qi Zun casually slapped the roaring giant unconscious, then stared into the safe zone, lost in thought.

During the second round of safe zone updates.

In the main timeline, only seven people in total remained outside the safe zone.

Sword Sect and Longxiang Qingtianzong each had two, while Hehuan Sect, Jishi Valley, and Ling Yin Fang each had one.

Taishang Dao Sect... no need to elaborate on this — Zhao Ruoming was still inside Zhitui Xiancheng crafting talismans, while Zhao Ruohan had been ambushed by means the Tianling Sect had set up in advance and was hiding somewhere recovering from her injuries.

The rest were mostly steady, cautious Dao cultivators, who naturally wouldn't do something so 'suicidal.'

Divine Mechanism Treasure Refining Pavilion — every one of them was still hiding away refining ore veins and forging large-scale combat dharma artifacts; none had gone out to 'seek death.'

Actually, there were still a few who wanted to step out of bounds to probe, but midway unexpected things happened — like running into other contestants, or witnessing something they couldn't stand by and watch.

So they didn't make it in time; it's hard to say whether they'd still step out of bounds afterward.

And among those who stepped out to probe this time, although not a single one was eliminated directly, all of them suffered injuries that weren't light, and recovery would require quite a bit of time.

Of course, the process of clashing with the Immortals also brought them some gains.

Whether that was fortune or misfortune would depend on how they themselves thought about it.

In the remaining two timeline branches, naturally there were also some who wanted to probe; in number, it was about the same as the Soul Transformation group.

As for the result... it wasn't as optimistic as the main timeline.

In the Nascent Soul group, a total of six people stayed outside the safe zone to probe the pursuers, and as a result two were eliminated directly.

The Jin Dan group had the most — a full ten people stayed outside the safe zone wanting to probe the pursuers, and ultimately four were eliminated directly.

Overall, the group with the highest comprehensive level was still the Soul Transformation group.

…………

Night, the moon was bright and stars sparse, a cool breeze drifted by.

One by one, the gorgeous strange flowers and the evergreen auspicious grasses drew in the moon's essence, tinged with a layer of faintly glowing white light.

Above the plump spirit fruits hanging from the branches, auspicious mist swirled, sending forth a rich fragrance.

A scene like a dream, like an illusion.

Before long, one could see the plump spirit fruits hanging from the branches, strands of auspicious mist interweaving with the moon's essence, finally condensing into a drop of moon dew that emitted a faint glow and dripped down.

Yet it didn't fall onto the ground, but dripped onto a fair, smooth forehead.

A person was clearly lying in front of the tree.

Perhaps stimulated by that drop of moon dew, the tightly shut eyes finally stirred; after a slight furrow of the brow, they finally opened with difficulty.

A flash of confusion passed through her clear, spirited eyes, and then she covered her forehead and sat up.

This... what happened?

Her mind was a complete mess; in the blurry memory, only a peerlessly elegant, endlessly enchanting figure in a red skirt remained.

Hiss~!

She instinctively shivered.

Then, after staring blankly at the bright moon on the horizon for a while, Chi Jiayu finally came to her senses.

Holy shit!

It's already night?!

Just how damn long was she unconscious?!

In Chi Jiayu's memory, she only remembered drawing her sword and charging at Master Mei Zu, and before her blade even landed, she was blocked by a single red thread.

And then...

What happened after that?

She couldn't quite remember clearly.

In any case, one moment her eyes closed and the next they opened, and the blue sky and white clouds before her had become the moon and stars...

【Warning!】

【Detected that you are not within the safe zone. Please proceed to the safe zone as soon as possible.】

【Hint: You have already encountered one attack; the intensity of the next attack will increase!】

【Attack Tiansheng Daoji: 11:23:37】

The warning that suddenly popped up made Chi Jiayu's heart tighten.

The intensity of the next attack will increase?!

Then are you even letting people live or not!

The current intensity is already plenty inhuman, alright!

Only when the final countdown appeared did she finally relax.

Eleven hours... even if she walked backward she could make it to the safe zone!

"Cough cough!"

Chi Jiayu, who had just finished putting on a brave front in her heart, suddenly went pale, then coughed急促ly twice, coughing up a mouthful of blood directly.

The fresh blood splashed onto the flower petals before her; the life essence contained within directly dyed the leaf veins red, causing the entire flower's vital energy to undergo an earth-shaking transformation.

A wisp of extremely faint spirituality was born along with it, carrying longing and greed, reaching toward Chi Jiayu.

The blood of Soul Transformation, self-generating creation.

F**k your *!

A broken flower actually dares to treat me as food?!

I've even stewed a phoenix into soup and drunk it!

With a flick of her finger, she sent out a wisp of sword light, directly erasing the spirituality that flower had generated.

Then she took out a pill and swallowed it, before crawling up from under the tree.

After wiping the blood from the corner of her mouth, she looked around.

Master Mei Zu was already gone, and there was no one else around.

"I wonder how Little Ye is doing now."

She's far worse off than me, having to face both Senior Yuanjun and Senior Lingzu.

emm……

She couldn't have been eliminated already, could she?

How about... going back to take a look?

Anyway, there are still eleven hours left, and this is time I worked hard to争取. Going into the safe zone this early would be a waste!

After making up her mind, she summoned her Natal Sword and prepared to head back for a look.

But she stopped again almost immediately.

She gazed at the strange flowers, auspicious herbs, spirit fruits, and purple bamboo carpeting the ground, lost in thought.

So many spiritual materials — leaving them here like this would be a waste, wouldn't it?

And so, half an hour later.

The spiritual ground that had been covered in strange flowers, auspicious herbs, spirit trees, and purple bamboo was now nothing but a barren patch.

Everything had been uprooted wholesale by the 'thrifty' Hehuan Laozu, not even half a leaf left behind.

A streak of cyan-dark sword-light shot into the night sky and vanished in a flash.

……

……

Two minutes later, a meteor-like streak of sword-light cut across the night sky.

It didn't look particularly swift — none of the urgency she'd had while fleeing in broad daylight.

After all, there's no pressure now, and she's Suffered Heavy injuries, so flying slowly is fine — no need to rush like mad.

But before she could reach her destination, she crashed head-on into a streak of escape-light woven from cyan and crimson.

The sword-light and escape-light dissipated almost simultaneously; the two stopped, hovering in the air as they sized each other up.

Ye Zhiwei was disheveled, her eyes dim.

Chi Jiuyu's face was pale, her aura weak.

'This girl really couldn't escape it either!' Ye Zhiwei felt considerably more at ease.

'Little Ye is pretty impressive — facing both Senior Yuanjun and Senior Lingzu and still not getting eliminated.' Chi Jiuyu inwardly marveled.

Of course, the fact that she herself had escaped from Senior Lingzu and Senior Yuanjun meant she was clearly a cut above.

"……"

The two had different thoughts on their minds, and the atmosphere was just a tiny bit awkward.

In the end, it was Ye Zhiwei who broke the silence first.

"You really did run fast earlier."

"Didn't we agree? Whoever runs slower takes the front — you can't blame me for that!"

If you want to morally blackmail me, that's not happening.

"And I even gave you a heads-up while running!"

See how loyal I am!

"……" Ye Zhiwei was silent for two seconds. "Who did you run into?"

She'd almost been one-shotted — this girl definitely wasn't in much better shape!

"Someone very powerful, of course."

"Senior Jianzu?"

"Not exactly…"

She wondered who was so unlucky as to run into her martial uncle.

emm……

But logically speaking, her martial uncle should have gone easy on her, just like Senior Mei Zu must have gone easy too.

Otherwise she'd have been done for long ago.

"Then who was it?"

"Ah, just someone very powerful." Chi Jiuyu spoke vaguely.

After all, Little Ye had faced two while she'd only faced one — saying it outright would give the feeling of being a head shorter than her.

So she simply changed the subject.

"Forget that. I got a batch of spiritual materials — refine some pills for us and we'll heal up outside the safe zone first, yeah?"

Hm?

Where on earth did you get spiritual materials in this godforsaken place?

"Related to whoever you ran into?"

"Mm-hmm, pretty much."

Sigh~!

Speaking of which, these spiritual materials were Master Mei Zu's own 'entrance special effects' — does this count as her having dug up Master Mei Zu's 'entrance special effects'?

"But I don't know which ones are usable — you sort them out for me later."

"That's no problem…"

She's a prideful disciple of Jishi Valley — something like refining pills is a piece of cake, not even worth mentioning!

Damn it!

That dead Chi really does have great luck!

"But this time let's head to the edge of the safe zone, so we don't run out of time."

After being ambushed once, he really didn't want to go through it a second time.

This time he was truly behaving himself.

"Yes, yes! That's what I was thinking too."

The two reached agreement once again.

After all, both had Suffered Heavy injuries, so they could only continue cooperating — when the lips are gone, the teeth feel cold, as they say!

Any random contestant's condition was more than they could handle.

Soon, sword-light and escape-light flared up, rushing toward the direction of the 'Safe Zone'.

Dawn and night stretched across the sky, a brilliant host of stars.

Not long after the two had left, two figures appeared beneath the night sky.

It was precisely Xu Xing and Dan Zu.

After all, among the contestants of Ji Shi Valley, only this one person had come outside the Safe Zone, so Dan Zu naturally had to come take a look.

"That disciple of Sword Venerable is indeed a bit of a quirky little imp."

"That junior from your friend's sect is quite interesting too." Xu Xing gazed into the distance. "This junior's younger sister is in an online romance with the offspring of Daoist friend Seeing Hong Zun — does Daoist friend know about this?"

"Hmm?" Dan Zu raised an eyebrow.

This he truly did not know; with no reason, he wouldn't go prying into the private affairs of his sect's people either…

Earlier, in the venue, the son of Daoist friend Seeing Hong Zun had kept glancing toward Ji Shi Valley's team — he had even thought it was because he took an interest in this junior.

He never expected it was this junior's younger sister…

The world of young people is truly complicated…

Wait!

Daoist brother's situation is also quite complicated! (End of this chapter)