After all, Gu Chengming was only an Outer Sect Disciple. It would have been one thing if a core true disciple had instantly broken through the Illusion Realm, but for some obscure junior, aside from a malfunction in the Formation, they simply couldn't find another explanation.
Ren Wencai, of course, knew Gu Chengming had broken the Formation through his own ability.
But he was always a crafty one. Not only did he offer no defense, he rose with a solemn expression and declared righteously:
"Younger brothers, you're absolutely right! The assessment concerns the fairness of the sect, and we must not be careless in the slightest."
With that, he looked at Gu Chengming below the stage and said sternly, putting on an act:
"If you have doubts, then the result cannot stand. Gu Chengming, do you dare to take the test again in front of everyone?"
Gu Chengming was just about to say he had already broken through the Formation when he looked up and met Ren Wencai's gaze.
He understood at once.
Elder Ren really loved putting on a show. Was the last attempt over too quickly for anyone to see? Did he have to set up a stage so Gu Chengming could perform again?
If that was the case, he'd play along.
After all, Elder Ren had helped him quite a bit before. Now all he had to do was help him put on a little show.
With that in mind, Gu Chengming's expression turned solemn. He cupped his hands and declared loudly:
"This disciple obeys. I am willing to take the test again."
"Since this is a retest, we can't use the great Formation again."
Ren Wencai stroked his beard. His gaze swept over the elders, then finally settled on Zhao Wuji with a genial smile.
"Junior Brother Zhao, I remember you're especially skilled in Divine Soul Daoist Arts like the Spirit Guiding Art. Since everyone thinks the Formation was faulty, why not have Junior Brother Zhao personally test this disciple? That would show fairness and convince everyone beyond a doubt. What do you think?"
The surrounding elders all nodded in agreement, finding the arrangement quite appropriate.
Only Zhao Wuji's expression was strange.
That old fox was usually the most protective of his own. If this disciple really lacked ability, he would have already found a way to make excuses and cover things up. Why would he voluntarily stick his face out to be slapped?
There had to be a trick!
Zhao Wuji's thoughts raced, but seeing the expectant gazes of the elders around him, he knew that refusing now would make him seem cowardly or as though he were targeting a junior, both beneath his dignity.
"Since Senior Brother Ren thinks so highly of me, I'll have to make a fool of myself."
Zhao Wuji agreed with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. He rose slowly, and his originally clouded eyes instantly grew unfathomably deep. An invisible pressure spread from his body, making the air around them seem to congeal.
"Boy, my Spirit Guiding Art is nothing like that gentle great Formation. If your will isn't firm, your Divine Soul could be damaged. Recovering for ten days or half a month would be the least of it. You can still back out."
Gu Chengming's expression was calm, neither servile nor arrogant.
"Please enlighten me, Elder."
"Good!"
Zhao Wuji snorted and said no more.
He took a deep breath, crossed his right index and middle fingers, and formed a hand seal.
With a low shout, a dim light shone at his fingertips.
The Spirit Guiding Art wasn't a particularly lethal technique, but it excelled at stirring up the deepest fears and obsessions in a person's heart. It seeped into every crack, and was even more insidious than the Great Dream Floating Life Formation.
Gu Chengming didn't dodge. He let the dim light enter between his brows.
As the light entered his body, Gu Chengming felt a slight chill in his sea of consciousness. He was just about to speed through the test again.
And then... nothing happened.
Gu Chengming stood where he was, eyes closed, and waited for a long while.
One breath passed.
Three breaths passed.
Ten breaths passed.
All around him, there was only the cool mountain wind and the faint chirping of birds in the distance.
Gu Chengming was puzzled.
What was going on?
Had Elder Zhao aimed the Daoist Art wrong? Or did the Spirit Guiding Art have some kind of casting time?
Just as he was wondering and about to open his eyes to check, a line of text suddenly appeared in his vision.
[Hundred Bones Ming was horrified. Where is this?!]
A question mark popped up over Gu Chengming's head.
"?"
Wait, why were you the one who went in?
Chapter 46
Hundred Bones Ming's experiences in the Illusion Realm began racing across the system interface.
The text refreshed at a startling speed, as though someone had held down the fast-forward button.
Before Gu Chengming could react, he felt the densely packed information surging toward him like a tide, nearly leaving him dizzy with information overload.
He instinctively tried to rub his eyes, only to realize he didn't even have time to move.
The images on the screen had already begun.
[Hundred Bones Ming saw a sea of blood surging all around it, with countless broken swords and severed limbs hurtling toward it from every direction. It was a terrifying scene unlike anything it had ever seen in its cultivation career!]
[Hundred Bones Ming anxiously called out to you, but aside from the dead wind all around it, there was no response.]
[Finally, in a corner of the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, it found a broken "corpse."]
[Though the face was unrecognizable, that familiar aura and handsome skeletal outline left no doubt: it was you—Gu Chengming.]
[Hundred Bones Ming was struck as if by lightning.]
[At last, it faced reality.]
[Gu Chengming, you were dead.]
Gu Chengming stared at the enlarged, bold red letters, his face darkening as the corner of his mouth twitched. *You're the one who's dead.* He'd wanted to gripe about it, but the plot Hundred Bones Ming was sending back through the system gave him no chance to catch his breath.
[Hundred Bones Ming thought that it seemed the world was always targeting supreme geniuses like itself.]
[Why? Why had the heavens taken him away just when it had finally met a Golden Finger that understood it?] [It was furious! It was unwilling to accept this!] [But it was all right. It would avenge you!] [Even if it was the only Cultivation Method in the world, it would still ascend to the peak of the immortal path and make all the gods and buddhas in the heavens pay the price!] [It would never forget its promise to you. Once it became invincible, it would surely reshape your body and reverse Yin Yang!]
At this point, Gu Chengming's urge to complain faded a little.
Whatever else one could say, Lao Bai was undeniably loyal.
The text on the screen began refreshing at a dizzying speed, recording the long years Hundred Bones Ming spent in the Illusion Realm.
[In the first year, Hundred Bones Ming merged with a sword and hid in the wilderness, absorbing the essence of the sun and moon day and night as it repaired its broken body.]
[In the third year, it passed through a city of mortals just as the "Heavenly Treasure Pavilion" was holding an auction. It sensed a piece of Primordial Refined Iron inside the pavilion, a perfect material for repairing its body.]
[At the auction, a young master from a wealthy family made insulting remarks, mocking it as a piece of scrap metal. Hundred Bones Ming sneered without a word, silently committing the man's aura to memory.]
[Late that night, the young master was found dead in the street, and the Primordial Refined Iron had vanished. Hundred Bones Ming had hidden its merit and fame. Such was the cruelty of the cultivation world: killing and taking treasure was only natural!]
Gu Chengming's eyelid twitched.
Wait, that's not how a righteous protagonist behaves.
[In the tenth year, Hundred Bones Ming entered the "Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain Range" and encountered a fifth-tier demonic beast, the "Purple Flame Demonic Lion."]
[The demonic lion exuded overwhelming ferocity and opened its mouth to swallow it. Hundred Bones Ming calmly pulled a freshly grilled fish from its Storage Bag and sprinkled it with special cumin and chili powder.]
[The aroma filled the air, and the demonic lion instantly began to drool.]
[Hundred Bones Ming asked if it wanted some.]
[For the sake of that grilled fish, the demonic lion lowered its noble head without an ounce of dignity. From then on, one Cultivation Method and one beast rampaged across the mountain range.]
Gu Chengming held his forehead.
[In the fiftieth year, an ancient secret realm opened. The prodigies of the major sects gathered to fight for the legendary "Emperor Venerable Inheritance."]
[Everyone else fought until they were battered and bruised, but Hundred Bones Ming took another path and leaped off a cliff!]
[Sure enough, there was another world at the bottom of the cliff. A white-haired Remnant Soul was waiting there for someone destined to find it.]
[Hundred Bones Ming received the power of a great expert, and its cultivation soared. On the day it emerged, one Cultivation Method swept through the secret realm, suppressing all the so-called sect prodigies and looting their Storage Bags.]
[Looking at the spoils scattered across the ground, Hundred Bones Ming felt a pang of sorrow.]
[It thought, "Gu Chengming, how wonderful it would be if you were here to see these resources."]
The story progressed at a breakneck pace. In the Illusion Realm, Hundred Bones Ming was practically cheating. It found dusty divine weapons in roadside bargains, and accidentally blew up its furnace while refining pills only to produce peerless divine pills... It went through every classic protagonist trope in the fantasy cultivation genre. Finally, when the story had reached roughly the "five-hundredth year," it finally uncovered the mastermind behind the one who had "killed" Gu Chengming.
[After investigating every lead, Hundred Bones Ming finally identified a mysterious organization called the "Soul Palace."]
[The organization specialized in controlling Divine Souls and was sinister and vicious. It was the culprit that had created the Illusion Realm and killed Gu Chengming!]
Damn! Why had the Soul Palace shown up too?
So I'm the old master spirit, then?
The words on the screen grew impassioned.
[On the day of the decisive battle, dark clouds loomed over the city.] [Hundred Bones Ming charged alone into the Soul Palace's headquarters.] [The battle shook heaven and earth, blotting out the sun and moon. Hundred Bones Ming used everything it had learned to shatter the Soul Palace's Mountain Protecting Array!] [Gu Chengming, watch! This was what happened to the people who harmed you!] [The Soul Palace Master begged for mercy in terror, offering all its treasures.] [Hundred Bones Ming said it didn't want the treasures. It only wanted him dead!] [Thus, the Soul Palace was destroyed.] [At that moment, blood rained from the sky. Floating above the ruins, Hundred Bones Ming wept bitterly.] [Gu Chengming, I avenged you!]
Gu Chengming: "..."
Lao Bai, your revenge was certainly tragic and stirring, but why couldn't I bring myself to feel moved?
[After taking revenge, Hundred Bones Ming did not stop. It continued cultivating, determined to fulfill its final promise—to reshape your body.]
[One thousand years. Ten thousand years.]
[It traversed the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, searching for Divine Medicine; it broke into the Netherworld and searched through the Book of Life and Death.]
[Unfortunately, it was simply too difficult. Too difficult.]
[Even after it became the Supreme Merit Emperor, even bearing the weight of the abyss, holding the Hundred Bones Divine Palace in one hand and carrying all living beings on its back, invincible in the world, it still couldn't bring the dead back to life.]
*Could you please stop already? If you keep going much longer, you'll get sued for plagiarism.*
[So Hundred Bones Ming changed its approach and secluded itself to comprehend the Law of Time. It sat in meditation for a hundred thousand years.]
[The seas turned to mulberry fields, and the years rolled on. At last, one day, the ancient longsword trembled violently, and a force of law that towered above heaven and earth burst forth.]
Before you continue