Giant Beast Skeletons Pile Up Like Mountains

The leopard-bodied woman heard Chen Qing's roar, turned her head, and burrowed into the mountain cave behind her, disappearing in an instant.

"Don't run!" Chen Qing angrily chased to the cave entrance. It was pitch black ahead, so he stopped.

Chen Renfeng and Bai Xue also ran over, panting.

The cave was about two people high, dark inside with no light whatsoever. They had no tools for illumination and dared not rashly follow inside.

"Professor, that leopard is strange," Chen Qing said in a low voice, vigilantly observing their surroundings.

Chen Renfeng didn't answer. His gaze was drawn to the ground at the cave entrance. A viscous, dark red liquid was slowly flowing out from the depths of the cave, following the terrain and heading towards the dense forest they had just passed through.

The area around the cave was bare mountainside, with no vegetation, only jagged, strange rocks.

Chen Renfeng walked to the side and bent down to move a loose stone.

The stone was heavy. He called Chen Qing over to help. The two of them exerted force and lifted it. "Hiss!" The sight below scared them, and they quickly retreated, sitting on the ground.

Bai Xue looked over, her mouth agape in surprise. She let out a scream, "Ah!"

Beneath the stone was not soil, but the head of a decaying animal corpse.

Chen Renfeng and Chen Qing got up and moved the more than ten connected stones aside.

There were more corpses.

Some had twisted, giant horns growing from their heads; some had broken bone wings on their backs; others had their limbs facing upwards, their claws shattered.

They were neither dinosaurs nor any known prehistoric creatures, more like monsters that had crawled out of the Classic of Mountains and Seas.

"What... what are all these?" Bai Xue's voice trembled, her face pale. The scene before her was beyond her comprehension.

Chen Renfeng frowned. He and Chen Qing then moved stones dozens of meters away. Without exception, they were all the skeletons of various bizarre, giant beasts.

The entire mountain seemed to be piled up from these remains.

"Is the Primordial World truly this terrifying?" Chen Renfeng said gravely, his tone heavy.

"The Primordial World?" Chen Qing and Bai Xue asked simultaneously.

Chen Renfeng was unwilling to explain until he understood.

"Let's find a way out first!"

A sense of foreboding crawled up Chen Renfeng's spine, cold.

Bai Xue spoke first, "Professor, let's go back! Back to the lake! It looked safer there at least!"

Chen Qing shook his head. He pointed at the mountain of bones before them, "That forest earlier was too strange. Why don't we climb over this mountain? Perhaps the other side is an exit?"

"I won't! There might be living monsters on this mountain!" Bai Xue objected.

"Then let's go into the cave below and follow the leopard?" Chen Qing retorted.

Bai Xue was even more unwilling and shook her head.

Chen Renfeng looked at his two team members with differing opinions and quickly weighed his options.

"Retreating to the lake seems safe, but it's actually waiting for death. Moving forward, though unknown, might offer a glimmer of hope."

Chen Renfeng finally decided, "We'll climb over this mountain. If anything happens, we'll retreat immediately."

With their opinions unified, the three of them went to the edge of the forest they had passed through and gathered some thick, tough branches. They used the folding knives they carried to shave off the smaller twigs, making simple wooden staffs, which served as both tools for probing the way and "weapons" for self-defense.

Once prepared, the three began to climb the slope of the bone mountain.

The ground underfoot was unusually soft. Every step felt like stepping on decaying organic matter, emitting a muffled "plop" sound. The mixed smell of rot and fishiness became even more pungent.

When they reached a large stone platform halfway up the mountain, Chen Renfeng signaled for them to stop and rest.

Looking down the mountain, the forest, lake, and grassland stretched out in a continuous expanse, exuding an ethereal aura.

Just as the three were admiring the scenery.

Suddenly, a leopard, after lurking for two steps, pounced on Chen Renfeng from behind.

The leopard's claws pressed down on his shoulders like a thousand-pound boulder, rendering him immobile.

In a panic, Chen Qing grabbed the wooden staff in his hand and thrust it towards the leopard's head. The leopard flicked its head, bit down on the stick, and with a flick of its tail, sent Chen Qing flying several meters away.

Bai Xue, terrified, opened her mouth wide. "Ah!" she screamed, hastily drawing her dagger and stabbing at the leopard.

At close range, the dagger grazed the leopard's abdomen. The leopard contracted its body, but its vital lower abdomen was not spared.

With a roar, the leopard's claws loosened their grip. Chen Renfeng flipped over and kicked the leopard's vital spot, sending it tumbling down the mountain.

Bai Xue's face turned ashen with fear, and she immediately dropped the bloody dagger!

A woman's voice echoed in Chen Renfeng's ear: "Congratulations, Fellow Daoist! You have passed the third trial of the Path of Cultivation!"

"We will meet again!"

In a bedroom within the cave at the foot of the mountain, the leopard transformed into a woman and lay down, murmuring, "To be hit by such a vicious move without using any magic power!"

"I never expected her innate power to be so formidable!"

"Hiss!" With a soft groan, blood flowed from her vital spot again, staining her clothes.

The woman conjured the Su Se Yun Jie Qi, wrapping it around herself. Instantly, it shimmered with light, and she plunged into the Qiankun Mirror opposite her. When she reappeared, she was in the Pan Tao Yuan.

Chen Renfeng and the others finally arrived at the mountaintop.

"We finally made it up!" Bai Xue let out a long sigh.

Strangely, Chen Renfeng didn't head back down the mountain.

The path down they had anticipated didn't appear. The other side of the ridge wasn't the valley or plain they expected, but was blocked by an invisible, resilient barrier.

Chen Qing poked forward with a wooden stick. The tip of the stick seemed to hit a highly elastic rubber wall, unable to advance even an inch.

He pushed hard, but the barrier didn't budge. Instead, it bounced his force back at him exactly as it was, nearly sending him rolling down the mountain.

"What is this?" Chen Qing asked angrily.

Chen Renfeng and Bai Xue also stepped forward to try, with the same result. The barrier extended upwards, its top out of sight, and looking left and right, they couldn't see any end to it.

It was like a giant, transparent bowl, inverted over this area.

"It seems we're trapped in a sealed space," Chen Renfeng's expression grew grim.

"Professor, what do we do?" Chen Qing asked, panting heavily.

"Since we can't climb over it, we'll have to search along the edge of the barrier for a possible opening," Chen Renfeng said calmly.

The three adjusted their direction and began moving horizontally, staying close to the invisible wall.

The mountaintop wasn't large. After walking about a kilometer, they started descending. Along the way, there were still skeletal remains. The three supported each other, moving cautiously.

After descending further, the skeletal remains gradually decreased. Sparse weeds began to appear on the ground, followed by low bushes.

After walking a bit more, they were stunned to discover a familiar scene ahead—a grassy field and a sapphire lake.

They had walked in a big circle and returned to the starting point!

Was this space a closed loop? Was there no exit at all?

Chen Qing threw the wooden stick in his hand forward like a javelin. It hit the barrier and bounced back.

He slumped onto the ground in frustration.

Chen Renfeng silently recited, "System, golden finger." There was no response.

Suddenly, Bai Xue's foot gave way, and she fell straight backward!