Chapter Forty-Four: Let Me Feel It Again...

"Reporting to you, Marquis, yes."

From the way he was addressed, this was a marquis of the Sun Moon Empire. Behind him stood a gaunt, middle-aged man, his eyes utterly calm.

"Are you sure this lake can block that bitch's family from using Guest Elder Xun's abilities?"

The marquis gazed at the clear water in the valley and spoke in a low voice. It didn't seem very reliable.

Half a month ago, he had returned from the border, hoping to surprise his wife. He hadn't expected her to surprise him first...

His wife had been carrying on with one of their family's guest elders. He'd flown into a rage, killed the guest elder on the spot, then confronted his wife.

But she'd replied with arrogant defiance. "I've fallen in love with someone else. What are you going to do about it? Kill me? You wouldn't dare."

Her words had enraged him beyond reason, and then he'd acted on impulse...

Only when his wife's blood splashed across him did he come to his senses and realize he'd done something unforgivable.

His wife's grandfather was a duke! He owed his rise to the rank of marquis to his wife's grandfather.

The duke doted on his granddaughter. If he learned that the marquis had killed her, the marquis would never escape punishment.

He only had to keep the duke from finding out. Get rid of the bodies, then make up a lie? Easier said than done. A duke's power was not to be underestimated.

As far as he knew, the duke's household had a guest elder whose real name was unknown. The duke usually called him Guest Elder Xun. He was the duke's right-hand man. His Martial Soul was a compass, and he was a control-type Soul Master, yet he had several Soul Skills that could cause a real headache.

One could search for someone, alive or dead, as long as there was a medium—an item carrying the target's aura. If the person was dead, the search would reveal where the body was. Even if the body had been destroyed, it would reveal the last place the body had appeared.

The other was retrospection. If the person being searched for had died, it could show the scene of their death.

Why would a control-type Soul Master have Soul Skills like that?

Of course, there was a limit: the target's Soul Power Level could not be more than two major ranks above Guest Elder Xun's.

Guest Elder Xun was a highly secretive figure—in other words, someone the duke kept in the shadows. The marquis hadn't known about him until he married his wife, and had only been fortunate enough to see him once.

He was a burly old man, an eighty-first-rank Soul Douluo. That meant his search skill could only locate people at the Soul Emperor level or below.

And his wife had been a Soul Emperor...

Two days passed, and the marquis grew increasingly anxious and troubled. Just then, the gaunt, middle-aged man beside him found him and immediately revealed what he'd done.

The marquis was understandably shocked. He'd already killed everyone who had witnessed it. How could anyone have found out...?

Then the gaunt man told him he had a way to make Guest Elder Xun's search and retrospection Soul Skills useless.

That was another shock. He'd said Guest Elder Xun worked in secret, and very few people knew about him. So how did this gaunt man know?

But what choice did he have? The gaunt man, Feng Wei, was a Soul Douluo, while he was only a Soul Saint. With no other option, he agreed to Feng Wei's demands.

Feng Wei then brought him here.

"Of course, Marquis. Time will prove it, won't it?" Feng Wei smiled insincerely.

"Mm."

The marquis simmered with anger. This was nothing but a scam! Was he supposed to believe Feng Wei just because he said so? What nonsense about West Mountain becoming a mysterious place after the ritual. He'd grown up in Sun Moon City—how had he never heard of it?

But there was nothing he could do. The other man had him by the throat.

He could only hope Feng Wei's plan worked.

In truth, Feng Wei himself had doubts. The Holy Cult's Titled Elder had told him about this place; his only task was to guide the young marquis here.

The marquis said nothing more. He took seven sacks from his storage Soul Guidance Ring and tossed them into the middle of the lake.

The adulterous pair weren't the only ones. He'd also included the people who had witnessed what happened.

Feng Wei raised a finger. Black light flashed, piercing all seven sacks one after another. Blood flowed out.

The marquis asked no questions. He watched the sacks sink toward the center of the lake as blood stained the water red.

"Marquis, we should leave too. Otherwise, we won't be able to get out after an hour." Feng Wei had great faith in the Holy Cult's elder.

"Mm. Let's go."

With that, the two flew away.

A few minutes after they left, ripples spread across the lake. The blood slowly faded, and golden and silver light surged into view.

When Huo Yuhao had been drawn into the Valley of Love and Emotion, he had thought of the God of Love legend. One part of the tale went: Because her beloved had betrayed her, the God of Love despised those who betrayed their partners. If someone like that fell into the Sun Moon Lake in the Valley of Love and Emotion, they would incur her wrath, and the Trial of Love and Emotion would begin.

The marquis's wife alone was enough to qualify as "someone like that."

She and the marquis had once sworn eternal love to each other, after all!

Besides, the guest elder and the people who had witnessed the killing might also have included others who were "like that."

Once the Valley of Love and Emotion was activated, after an hour, no one inside West Mountain could escape—not even gods or ghosts...

Just before the hour was up, the Spirit Saint Elder brought Zheng Li and the others into West Mountain.

Even the Spirit Saint Elder couldn't cross the mountain range so quickly on his own, much less with Zheng Li and the others in tow.

And so, the Trial of Love and Emotion began.

Consciousness returned.

Zheng Li found himself in a transparent world. Everything around him seemed to be made of golden and silver crystal. He was inside a bubble, standing on a vast circular platform.

It matched his hazy memories.

There were eight platforms beneath him, and not all of them were occupied.

Of the five Holy Cult members who had kidnapped them, only the Spirit Saint Elder was there.

Seeing him, Zheng Li felt puzzled. He remembered that people who were too old were judged incapable of falling in love. Wasn't that what had happened to Xuan Zi?

Actually, Zheng Li had remembered wrong. In the original story, Xuan Zi had been the first to leave, and that had been the reason. But Xian Lin'er and the other Sea God Pavilion Elders, who had also been there, hadn't mentioned it.

Nan Qiuqiu and Jing Ziyan had been there too, but they'd gone through a different Trial of Love and Emotion.

Even Tian Meng and the Ice Empress inside Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness hadn't escaped it.

So, did they sort people into different categories?

Had the others been assigned to a different category from Zheng Li?

Zheng Li had no idea.

The other four Holy Cult members had already been eliminated. The Valley of Love and Emotion's judgment was simple: they had no true selves.

The other children around Zheng Li's age, who had no lovers, had been put into another category.

Zheng Li looked over the bubbles on the other circular platforms.

Besides the Spirit Saint Elder, he saw Wang Xin'er, two middle-aged men, and a middle-aged woman.

Two question marks seemed to appear on Zheng Li's forehead.

"Is this little girl, who isn't even eight, supposed to take a Trial of Love and Emotion too?"

Could the girl have a lover?

If she did, at that age...

Well...

What had he been doing when he was seven?

Chapter Forty-Four: Let Me Feel It Again...

"Is the little girl... still asleep?"

Zheng Li looked at the bubble containing Wang Xin'er in surprise. Her eyes were closed, and she hadn't opened them once. He couldn't help wondering whether she'd fallen asleep.

No sound could pass through the bubbles.

At that moment, golden mist appeared. A golden beam, like the hand of a clock, emerged from the center of their circular platform and began to spin.

"Random selection? Not even a warning?"

Zheng Li muttered, and the golden beam stopped over the small platform where the Spirit Saint Elder stood.

The bubble above the small platform rose and burst.

"The Trial of Love and Emotion begins. A test of sincerity and courage."

A calm voice rang out. It sounded neither male nor female; there was no telling its gender.

"Is there someone you love? If you don't answer within three seconds, the penalty is death."

The Spirit Saint Elder's gaunt face showed his surprise. He couldn't use his Soul Power.

Hearing the calm voice's question, the Spirit Saint Elder thought of what Zheng Li had said. The child seemed to know something. Should he listen to him?

"Three seconds have passed. The penalty is death!"

The calm voice spoke again. It remained even, but carried a note of coldness.

Unfortunately, the others couldn't hear their exchange, and they couldn't see one another either.

The Spirit Saint Elder: "!!?"

He hurriedly opened his mouth to say something, but a flash of golden and silver light passed over him, and his body vanished without a trace...

In a fantastical space of gold and silver, hazy mist of both colors filled nearly every corner.

A blurry figure stood in the mist, its form indistinct, let alone its face.

The figure muttered to itself, "That disgusting power aside, he'd cheated on her several times before his wife ran off..."

The voice was the same as the one in the transparent world. It was impossible to tell whether it was male or female; it had to be the same voice.

"Let's continue..."

The golden beam, shaped like a clock hand, spun rapidly again. When it stopped, it pointed at the middle-aged woman.

Golden light flashed. Her small platform rose, and the bubble burst.

"Is there someone you love?"

"Hm?" The middle-aged woman froze.

"Is there someone you love? If you don't answer after three chances, the penalty is death." The calm voice repeated.

She remembered what Zheng Li had said. Should she tell the truth? But...

She glanced at the bubble containing her husband. After a moment of silence, she answered, "Yes."

"Who?"

"Chen Biao."

As soon as the middle-aged woman spoke, another small platform rose with the golden light. The middle-aged man in the bubble heard their exchange. When the bubble burst, Chen Biao landed on the small platform. He glanced around in confusion, then saw the middle-aged woman and cried out joyfully, "Wife!"

Hearing that his wife loved him made him happy, of course.

At the same time, he knew that there was no resisting this mysterious place.

His Soul Power and Martial Soul were sealed. More than that, he was powerless.

The middle-aged woman gave him a strained smile. Seeing it, he sensed something was wrong...

Sure enough...

The calm voice continued questioning her. "Is he the one?"

"Yes."

"Is he the person you love most?"

The middle-aged woman froze when she heard the question, unable to answer.

"If you don't answer, the penalty is death."

The middle-aged woman stayed silent. Seeing her like this, Chen Biao understood. His heart sank to the bottom.

"Do you really have to ask such a cruel question?" the middle-aged woman challenged.

"If you don't answer within three seconds, the penalty is death." The calm voice had grown much colder.