Before the Flesh-Tree, the time it took for an incense stick to burn was not particularly long, but counting down every second made it truly hard to endure.
At last, when the thin incense formed from the white mist before him burned out, Yang An finally let out a long breath.
Time was up!
To be safe, he waited several more seconds in this place where consciousness could be divided before withdrawing his consciousness from the Flesh-Tree.
When Yang An opened his eyes, he had indeed returned before the towering golden Buddha statue.
Looking around, of the original eleven people, himself included, only four still sat upon their lotus platforms, the phantom golden bodies around them completely intact.
The others, meanwhile, had already lost their phantom golden bodies. The black-gold lotus platforms beneath them looked as if they had melted, becoming twisted, irregular masses like black mud that coiled around their bodies.
These people had already lost consciousness, and even their heartbeats had become exceedingly faint as they lay collapsed on the ground.
The fates of those who succeeded and those who failed were worlds apart.
If not for the Flesh-Tree, Yang An might have ended up the same way.
Yet after merely glancing at them, Yang An and the others withdrew their gazes and instead turned their attention to the other three who had passed.
No one had expected that, of the more than eighty people who had arrived at Yan'an Temple, only four would remain after merely the second trial.
Once the third trial passed, how many would remain?... Or perhaps not a single one?
As everyone rose from their lotus platforms, the golden Buddha statue before them and the black-gold lotus platforms beneath them vanished in an instant, and the scene returned once more to Yan'an Temple.