The journey to find the ore went smoothly, without the slightest disturbance. Aside from encountering a few Demon Beasts along the way, they ran into no further trouble. Yet Fang Zheng was extremely tense inside, because he knew very well that according to the original plot, Elesio, one of Zagato's Four Heavenly Kings, should have been obstructing the three protagonists every step of the way. But Elesio had yet to appear... This was not a good sign.
Although all four Four Heavenly Kings had been in the castle at the time, and Fang Zheng had burned the entire castle clean with a single blaze, he did not believe the Four Heavenly Kings had truly vanished just like that. After all, only Fang Zheng's Divine Beast form was here, and the power he could use was extremely limited. If Fang Zheng himself had been here, even a tiny spark would have been enough to send those people to Western Heaven. But now... that was harder to say.
Soon, under Fang Zheng's guidance, the three of them arrived at the location of the legendary spring, Eludina. But to their surprise, the legendary spring was actually just a line!
It was only after Fang Zheng directly took them up to a high place that they discovered the so-called legendary spring was actually a two-dimensional spring—well, a two-dimensional thing in a two-dimensional world was indeed very two-dimensional.
"Next, you will face a trial."
Fang Zheng did not spoil things outright, but for them, a small hint was enough.
"This may be difficult for you, but you must understand that if you cannot pass the trial, there is only death waiting for you... You need to understand this. A battle with your lives on the line has never been easy."
"..."
Hearing Fang Zheng's words,