The night on Golden Ao Island had never been so quiet.
In the past, immortal music drifted through the air, the thunderous clashes of Dao techniques rose and fell, and disciples either talked freely or drank and sang, creating a scene of immortal prosperity.
Today, everything was silent.
Only the wind whimpering through the forests sounded like the wail of a primordial spirit being torn apart.
Not a single light shone from the tens of thousands of cave dwellings.
All the disciples who had experienced the baptism of the Cycle Mirror curled up on their Prayer Mats, their bodies trembling uncontrollably.
Whenever they closed their eyes, they saw the countless golden beams of the Golden Light Array.
They saw the bone-eroding poisonous water of the Red Water Array.
They saw Ancestor Minghe's unreasonable, irresistible blood-red sword qi.
The shadow of death had become the deepest nightmare, hanging over every heart.
The Divine Abilities they had once been proud of, their unshakable Dao hearts, had all been crushed to pieces by those hundred-plus experiences of real death.
No one slept.
The next day, dawn had barely broken.
When the assembly bell rang, tens of thousands of disciples were already standing silently in the Martial Arts Arena.
There was none of yesterday's laziness or resistance.
The Martial Arts Arena was filled with a deathly stillness.
Everyone was pale, their eye sockets sunken, as if every trace of spirit had been drained from them.
As they looked at the enormous Cycle Mirror atop the platform, their eyes were filled with fear that had seeped into their bones.
Chen Changsheng slowly stepped onto the high platform.
Behind him, Daoist Duobao and Zhao Gongming stood solemnly, like two iron towers.
"Looks like all my fellow disciples rested well last night."
Chen Changsheng's voice was calm.
No one dared answer.
"Then today's lesson will continue."
The moment he finished speaking, a subdued commotion swept through the crowd below, and many disciples swayed on their feet.
Zhao Gongming stepped forward, unfolded the register, and spoke coldly.
"Those who failed to complete the 'Hundred Deaths Achievement' yesterday—first batch, Enter the Mirror!"
This time, the disciples whose names were called did not hesitate in the slightest, nor did they utter a single unnecessary word.
Like puppets on strings, numb and despairing, they walked toward the bronze mirror.
Mirror light flashed, and the Killing Tribulation began anew.
The brutal cycle of death from yesterday played out once more in the Martial Arts Arena.
But everyone noticed a slight difference.
The disciples in the mirror no longer tried to force their way through or break the Ten Absolute Arrays.
They began using every unimaginable method possible to evade and hide.
The instant one disciple was transported before the arrays, he immediately exhausted all his mana to dig a deep pit beneath his feet. Then he buried himself inside and used a spell to conceal every trace of his aura.
Three breaths later, the Earth Blazing Array activated. Red Sand swept through the area, peeling away even three feet of ground, and the disciple silently turned to dust.
[Destroyed].
Another disciple brought out a robe capable of imitating mountain rocks and pressed himself against a massive boulder without moving.
The next moment, the Gale Wind of the Wind Roar Array swept past, pulverizing both the boulder and him into dust that filled the sky.
[Destroyed].
Others tried to play dead, lying on the ground and allowing Killing Intent to erode them.
They were crushed beneath the feet of Yin Soldiers patrolling the arrays.
[Destroyed].
Attempt after attempt failed.
Death after death began anew.
The atmosphere in the Martial Arts Arena grew oppressive to the extreme.
Yet gradually, the disciples watching from the sidelines found something besides fear in their eyes.
Thoughtfulness.
They frantically analyzed the causes of every failure in the mirror, deducing ten thousand possible ways to survive in their minds.
"No, he shouldn't have hidden to the left. The left is a blind spot in the Golden Light Array, but the aftershock from the Cold Ice Array would hit him."
"Digging a pit is an idea, but he dug too shallowly, and he didn't set up an isolating formation."
"Playing dead is useless. Those Yin Soldiers have no intelligence. They only clear out all living things."
Without anyone realizing it, the mindset of the entire Interception Sect was undergoing a heaven-shaking transformation.
From "how to defeat the enemy" to "how to survive."
Just then, the image in the mirror locked onto an unremarkable Outer Sect Disciple.
His name was Wang Youcai. His cultivation was ordinary, his treasures were ordinary, and among tens of thousands of disciples, he was the sort who could be tossed into a crowd and never found again.
After entering the mirror, he made no unnecessary movements.
He simply ran at full speed in the direction opposite the Ten Ultimate Arrays.
He was not fast, and his posture was utterly miserable as he stumbled and crawled forward.
Everyone revealed puzzled expressions.
This space was sealed. Where could he possibly run?
Wang Youcai ignored the Killing Intent soaring behind him. He stared fixedly ahead, as though searching for something.
At last, he lunged toward a jagged stone wall.
Beneath that stone wall was a natural crack barely half a foot wide.
Wang Youcai's eyes burst with ecstatic light.
Without the slightest hesitation, he used the Bone Shrinking Technique and forcibly squeezed himself into the crack.
Then he took out a black stone from his robes and blocked the entrance. He sealed the gap with mud, then circulated the most basic Turtle Breath technique and completely cut off his own aura.
He completed all of this in less than ten breaths.
By then, the killing intent of the Ten Absolute Arrays had only just begun to spread.
Time passed bit by bit. One incense stick's time passed.
Two incense sticks' time passed. Half an hour passed.
On the mirror's surface, there was still no movement from the corner where Wang Youcai hid, as though it contained nothing more than an ordinary stone.
Yet the breathing of the tens of thousands of disciples in the Martial Arts Arena had long since stopped.
They stared fixedly at that corner, their hearts pounding wildly.
He succeeded?
He really... hid through it?
How was that possible?!
He had survived a Killing Tribulation arranged by a Sage by relying on a dog hole?
This was simply trampling on the Dao hearts and dignity of every one of them!
On the high platform, Zhao Gongming's mouth twitched as he looked at Chen Changsheng.
"Dao Protector, this... this works too?"
Chen Changsheng did not answer. He merely watched quietly.
Finally, after a full hour had passed within the mirror, a majestic voice rang out in the mirror world.
[Trial complete. One survivor].
The mirror flashed, and Wang Youcai's mud-covered, bedraggled figure was transported out, falling to the ground.
He was still somewhat dazed, having no idea what had happened.
After an entire hour of deathly silence, the Martial Arts Arena erupted.
"He survived! He really survived!"
"Heavens! An entire hour! Even Senior Sister Yu couldn't last three breaths against Ancestor Minghe!"
"So... so this is possible! Why did we have to charge into the arrays? Why did we have to throw our lives away?"
One disciple suddenly slapped himself, his face filled with regret and fervor.
At that moment, an entirely new Great Dao called "survival" began spreading wildly through the hearts of every Interception Sect disciple like a virus.
What invincible Divine Ability?
What heaven-reaching treasure?
Before death, none of them were as useful as a dog hole that could hide someone!
Wang Youcai was startled by the thunderous cheers. He stood up blankly and looked at the inner sect senior brothers around him, their gazes mixed with shock, admiration, and even fanaticism. For a moment, he did not know what to do.
"Wang Youcai."
Chen Changsheng's voice came from the high platform.
Wang Youcai shuddered and hurriedly knelt on the ground.
"This disciple is here!"
"You did well."
Chen Changsheng nodded. He was extremely satisfied with this result.
He looked toward Daoist Duobao beside him.
Daoist Duobao understood at once. He stepped forward and declared loudly.
"Outer Sect Disciple Wang Youcai successfully survived for one hour within the Myriad Tribulations Samsara Mirror, opening an entirely new line of thought for all disciples."
"With the Dao Protector's special permission, he shall be rewarded!"
He waved his hand.
Two radiant treasures flew from his sleeve and hovered before Wang Youcai.
One was an almost transparent robe as thin as cicada wings.
The other was an earthen-yellow jade talisman.
"This is the Invisibility Immortal Robe, a High-grade Houtian Spiritual Treasure. It can conceal one's form and block detection!"
"This is the Ten Thousand Mile Earth Escape Talisman. Once crushed, it can randomly escape ten thousand miles away!"
Daoist Duobao's voice echoed through the entire arena.
"Both treasures were recently refined by the Calamity Aversion Department, specifically for... preserving one's life!"
The crowd erupted completely.
Everyone's eyes turned red.
They looked at the two treasures, then at the completely unharmed Wang Youcai, their breathing becoming incredibly heavy.
So surviving really came with rewards!
And such precious life-saving treasures at that!
At that moment, the last trace of pride belonging to "Interception Sect disciples" completely collapsed within all of them.
In its place was an unprecedented desire to survive.
"Dao Protector! This disciple requests to Enter the Mirror right now!"
"I want to go too! Isn't it just dying a hundred times? For the Invisibility Immortal Robe, I'd be willing to die a thousand times!"
"Don't fight me for it! That dog hole is mine!"
In an instant, the scene transformed from despairing wails into a fanatical scramble.
Looking at those excited, twisted faces below, a faint smile finally appeared on Chen Changsheng's calm face.
The battered giant ship of the Interception Sect had finally been forcibly turned onto a new course by him.
However, just as this unprecedented wave of enthusiasm for studying the Dao of Survival on Golden Ao Island reached its peak—
Above the nine heavens, the winds and clouds suddenly changed.
Before you continue