Chapter 120: Desolate Ancient Path

Amidst a dense forest within the Wheel of Life and Death, a narrow path wound its way through the trees. A pack of demon beasts charged forward with shrill cries, while the forest leaves, as sharp as arrows, hurtled toward them in a torrential volley, slicing through the air with piercing shrieks.

This was a beast horde dominated by reptilian types, mainly two powerful clans: the Earthspike Lizards and the Six-Tailed Venom Centipedes, accompanied by a few formidable stragglers of other species. Though they had suffered losses, they had hacked their way through the wilderness to arrive at this stage.

“We need to hurry. That way, we’ll be able to rest and regroup before ambushing the next team, just like we did in the last round. Don’t forget how troublesome that team of human sword cultivators was. If we face such opponents again, we must have time to recover, otherwise, we’ll all die!”

At the head of the group was a late-stage second-rank Earthspike Lizard. Its body stood half-upright, covered in densely packed spikes that resembled a natural suit of armor. Its head was blocky and broad, and it flicked its long tongue in and out as it wielded two massive cleaver-like blades. It barked out orders to the twenty-two beasts behind it.

In the previous round, they had encountered the cultivators from Ten-Step Court. The ensuing battle had cost them ten of their own, with four more gravely injured, those four had eventually become nourishment for the survivors. After all, injured beasts were liabilities and it was better they contribute their strength in death.

Just recalling the sword rain from those cultivators’ flying sword cases made the demon beasts’ scales crawl with unease. The sword cultivators’ attacks had been terrifyingly fierce. Even the most naturally defensive among them had been skewered like hedgehogs when struck directly.

Worse still were those without sword cases, their sword strikes seemed to appear from thin air, cutting down several beasts before they even realized danger was near. If not for their ambush, the outcome of that battle might have been disastrous…

At that moment, Li Yan waved his hand and unleashed a ribbon of blue light. A thick blue stream surged upward to intercept a massive arm, one thicker than his entire body, that had burst out from the sand.

The limb belonged to a “Guanyin arm” that had erupted from the ground, its ancient surface mottled by time, pockmarked and flaking, each broken patch revealing deep brown pits. It howled through the air as it smashed downward.

With a swirl and pull, the blue water ribbon wrapped around the limb and hurled it far off to the side, where it crashed into the sand beside the ancient path with a bang!

A cloud of dust exploded into the air.

Looking around at his fellow cultivators, each of them also struggling to cope, and then at the endless broken limbs of divine statues rising from the desolate desert interspersed with strange black-and-red sandworms, Li Yan felt his scalp tingle.

The assault this round was far more intense than the last. In just half a quarter-hour, they had advanced less than five hundred zhang, and two teammates had already been bitten by a red lizard-like sandworm.

One had fallen unconscious, the other had lost all combat ability. Fortunately, their group specialized in poisons, and quick application of several antidotes had curbed the toxins’ spread. The two were then stored inside Gong Chenying’s Spirit Storage Pouch.

Ordinary storage bags could only hold inanimate objects; anything living placed inside would suffocate and die. But a Spirit Storage Pouch contained a tiny spiritual vein, allowing living beings to survive and even cultivate within.

These pouches were extremely rare and valuable. Among all the Wheel of Life and Death participants, only the three team captains had each received one, in case injured teammates needed to be hidden away for safety.

The elders had stressed countless times that the pouches must be preserved and returned to the sect after the trial. However, in the previous round, Gong Chenying had also acquired a second pouch from the corpse of Master Zhi Zhong, which now hung from her waist.

Whether the Pure Land Sect would reclaim theirs was out of the question, if Gong Chenying and her team had died, the pouches would have been taken anyway. That was simply fate.

Each Spirit Storage Pouch carried a spiritual imprint of its original owner, usually a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Gong Chenying could not yet use the one from Master Zhi Zhong, it required time to erase the lingering imprint.

As for those red lizards, they were small, their heads long and spindle-shaped, covered in gleaming, vivid red scales. They moved at incredible speeds and often concealed themselves in the sand clouds stirred up by the divine statue limbs.

They were as fast as lightning, and anyone below the tenth level of Qi Condensation had virtually no chance to block them. Their protective barriers shattered upon the first impact.

Currently, aside from Li Yan, the six cultivators below the tenth level had already applied a Ghost Chariot Talisman to their skin. This talisman could defend against attacks from a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. Each participant had been issued three of them before entering the trial. Judging from the pained expressions of the elders who handed them out, they were clearly of extraordinary value.

Li Yan had not used his Ghost Chariot Talisman. He had previously been ambushed by one of those red lizards and, caught off guard, had only managed to pour his spiritual power wildly into his protective shield.

With a piercing screech, the lizard had driven its snout half an inch into his barrier…

After weighing it for a moment, Li Yan still chose not to use his Ghost Chariot Talisman. He had a strong premonition that the attacks in the later stages would only become more intense. Since he could still defend himself for now, it would be foolish to activate the talisman early. Once triggered, its power would continuously drain over time.

Li Yan might have had that confidence, but the other Qi Condensation ninth-level cultivators did not. Seeing two people lose all combat ability after being bitten by one of those red, lizard-like sandworms, the remaining three gritted their teeth and each activated a Ghost Chariot Talisman of their own.

Some cultivators closer to Li Yan exchanged glances of surprise. They couldn’t help but reevaluate this so-called junior martial uncle. Everyone knew Li Yan had only joined the sect about five years ago. Back then, he was just at the second level of Qi Condensation. Now at the eighth, yet already fighting on par with peak ninth-level experts, he was no ordinary disciple. No wonder Peak Master Wei of Little Bamboo Peak had accepted him as a disciple.

More than that, his poison arts were strange and formidable. Even though the others had studied poison techniques for over a decades, none had ever encountered the poisons Martial Uncle Li Yan used. When they asked the martial uncles and elders, all they got were evasive looks and quiet headshakes, none dared explain.

The red sand-lizards, though dangerous, were relatively few in number. They only struck occasionally and if they missed, they’d instantly recoil and hide, waiting for another chance to ambush, clearly displaying a level of intelligence not expected of simple beasts.

Gong Chenying, at the front, seemed to draw the most attention from these creatures. Yet every time they surged within a zhang of her, she unleashed a terrifying force that shredded them to dust, leaving the others in awe. Gong Chenying at full power was like a goddess of war descending upon the world.

But what gave Li Yan a real headache was a kind of black insect. These tiny creatures had hard carapaces and buzzing wings that beat out a droning hum as they flew. Individually, they were weak, just a single wind blade could cleave through dozens of them. The danger came when they grouped into swarms of a thousand or more, forming dense black clouds.

Even worse, these insects seemed to know formations. They shaped themselves into spearheads, triangles, even giant hammers. As they moved, their wingbeats emitted strange sounds, piercing shrieks, chest-tightening rumbles, blood-boiling cries, or sleep-inducing murmurs. These sounds stirred up illusions and heart demons, causing mental distractions mid-battle.

More than once, the cultivators nearly let their guard down. In one of the worst instances, a few red sand-lizards broke into the defensive array during the confusion. The group barely repelled the assault, beads of cold sweat dripping down their backs.

Time passed slowly. After half an hour, they'd managed to push forward just over six li, and not without cost, one more cultivator had been injured. Most of them had burned through nearly a third of their spiritual power and used up a good portion of their defensive talismans. The realization that they were still only in the second trial weighed heavily on their hearts.

During that time, after observing the attacks coming from deep beneath the ancient path, Gong Chenying began to suspect something. This might not be like the last trial, where they were confined strictly to the street. She decided to test it and struck toward the side of the path.

When she attacked to the side, Li Yan and the others followed, and sure enough, this round didn’t force them to stay on the road.

In mere moments, they had veered dozens of zhang off-course. Strangely, the number of incoming attacks was cut by more than half.

The reason was soon clear: before, they were taking hits from both sides of the path, now, they only needed to defend from one direction. And even then, the intensity had clearly lessened.

They concluded that as long as they roughly followed the direction of the ancient path, it didn’t matter if they left it entirely.

But after walking a bit further, many began to feel uneasy. The path ahead seemed far too smooth.

This was the Wheel of Life and Death, no one believed smooth sailing was part of the design.

Just as Gong Chenying sensed something was wrong, they had already gone about a hundred zhang diagonally into the desert. At that point, attacks had dwindled to only the occasional one or two.

Yet the unease in their hearts kept growing, especially for Li Yan. His spiritual power was circulating like mad, the Five Elements cycle within him accelerating to more than ten times its usual speed, as if warning him to get out as soon as possible.

(Chapter End)