Trial Peril, the Unexpected

Lu Qing had no intention of stopping to see what was happening.

He had no idea what those flashes of spiritual light were.

Not until he saw that familiar little stream, and the gloomy forest beside it, as though it had never seen daylight all year round, did the tension visibly drain from his face.

"Damn it, I finally made it here."

He could not take it anymore. His Spiritual Power had nearly been squandered dry, leaving only a pitiful final trace—enough to unleash his trump card, the sword formed from Spiritual Power.

He had not forgotten that his Golden Finger had not matched him with the great skill Turn Calamity into Fortune. The slight Cause and Effect that followed the Calming Hexagram also kept Lu Qing from fully relaxing.

Rustle, rustle, rustle—

At that moment, Lu Qing abruptly retreated, and a Spirit Sword shot from the sleeve of his Dao Academy disciple robe.

"Slash!"

The Spirit Sword instantly pierced an unknown body. Blood sprayed from that slender, soft black form, thick pitch-black blood flowing down.

"Trying to launch a sneak attack, are you?"

Lu Qing kept himself on guard at every moment.

Seeing the black snake's head and its eyes wide open in death, he immediately swept out the last of his Spiritual Power and crudely, brutally crushed the ambushing black Snake Demon into a puddle of pus and blood.

"Good thing it's in the early Qi Nourishment Realm. I can still handle it, but that venom really is vicious."

Lu Qing looked at the blades of grass corroded black and promptly moved away from the area.

The venom was two realms below his own, so it would not poison him to death.

"What exactly is this slight Cause and Effect?"

Lu Qing wished the Divination would just spell it out plainly.

When he had first landed, the Divination had told him to leave this place immediately.

Yet now it had sent him back here. Clearly, this black Snake Demon could not pose a mortal threat to him.

"No, no. Could this black snake have some kind of backing?"

"The Divination only resolved this particular predicament. It seems another deadly situation will arise afterward."

"Could that be the slight Cause and Effect?"

Lu Qing could not make sense of it. He had not even been on the path of cultivation for a full year.

When dealing with such things, he could only rely on the scattered thoughts racing through his mind.

"A Purple Mansion Realm demon merely rolling over created a deadly predicament with no chance of survival."

Lu Qing found a massive boulder and sat cross-legged upon it. With clusters of unknown thorny trees on both sides and umbrella-sized leaves overhead, he physically concealed his tracks from view.

Rumble—

Rumble—

At that moment, the earth shook and the mountains swayed.

It seemed as though heaven and earth themselves were spinning.

Of course, that was an illusion.

What came as no surprise was that the demon beast had rolled over.

Lu Qing's expression hardened. He rose to his feet and pushed aside the leaves beside him. Half his Spiritual Power had recovered, enough for him to steady his mind.

"That direction..."

He looked toward the source of the fiercest rumbling, a place unimaginably far away.

Yet even from where he stood, Lu Qing could still hear the sound of mountains collapsing and rocks smashing into the earth.

"It really happened."

Boundless smoke and dust became a vast cloud spreading across half the Sky Screen.

The gray, smog-like cloud layer was heavy as the earth. In an instant, the two Great Suns in the sky were completely obscured by that curtain of dust.

As though night had fallen, Lu Qing stared at that darkened expanse, goosebumps rising across his skin.

"This is the power of the Purple Mansion Realm."

The pressure was simply terrifying.

Lu Qing did not leave. Instead, he sat back down cross-legged and waited until the trembling around him ceased.

"Vile beast!"

He had thought it was already over.

But then, a sharp rebuke suddenly rang out between heaven and earth.

A vast sea of sword light surged forth, like ocean waters rushing ten thousand miles, instantly tearing apart that black curtain.

At the same time, the place that had been pitch-black erupted with sword light so dazzling it reached the utmost extreme.

Lu Qing narrowed his eyes. He could not see the figure behind that sword light, but the one who had arrived was undoubtedly an elder responsible for the trial.

Lu Qing did not know whether more people would be drawn into the situation over there, but this was the Trial Microcosm. Dao Academy elders surely kept constant watch over it.

Even so, the incident had erupted far too suddenly.

Lu Qing had fled the moment he saw the deadly predicament. Did that not mean that, even if rescue was possible, there was likely no way to save the disciples within several hundred li of the lake island's center in a single instant?

"The Purple Mansion Realm... I wonder how they'll deal with this afterward."

The sword light was even more dazzling than the suns in the sky, while the black curtain had no power to resist it whatsoever. What did a Purple Mansion Realm demon beast amount to?

In the Outer Academy, there were disciples capable of killing one.

Since this elder had personally intervened, Lu Qing felt the trial should be ending.

This wide-ranging, indiscriminate attack against disciples at their level was simply a disaster fallen from the sky.

"All disciples, leave the Trial Microcosm and return to the Dao Academy."

At that moment, Lu Qing heard the call to return.

He touched his storage pouch. Over the past five days, he had gathered enough spirit herbs, along with the corpses of more than a dozen lesser demon beasts.

Ever since he had learned that the disciple jade token contained a Mission Hall, he knew that posting and accepting missions, or choosing to trade, could all be done through it.

"Once I'm back, I'll sell some of it for Spirit Stones."

Lu Qing did not know how to do anything yet, but fortunately, he was in no rush.

He planned to begin with Spirit Plants. There was no helping it—after cultivating the Profound Heaven Origin Scripture, he had discovered that this superior cultivation method was truly suited for farming. Scratch that, no—it was truly suited for cultivating Spirit Plants.

Moreover, Spirit Plants and spirit herbs both had the word "spirit" in their names, but missions involving spirit herbs had a far higher threshold. They not only required cultivation, but also connections and background.

After all, one step beyond spirit herbs led to involvement in the Dao Academy's alchemy industry. Those were all prized morsels.

Spirit Plant missions, on the other hand, were widespread and accessible. Besides, working the fields and farming every day did not exactly carry the carefree, immortal bearing of a cultivator.

Lu Qing had no such mental burden. By then, he had already left the Trial Micro-Realm and was waiting in the original plaza with some other disciples.

Most disciples emerged with the frightened expressions of people who had narrowly escaped death.

Lu Qing wore much the same expression.

Sweeping his gaze over the crowd, he found that quite a few more people were missing.

Lu Qing recalled the scene when disciples had been selected and felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.

"The road of cultivation is perilous at every step."

Fortunately, I have a Golden Finger.

Inwardly, he rejoiced that he had still been playing that game before dropping dead from overwork. Otherwise, he might not have drawn this skill.

"This Trial Micro-Realm trial has now officially ended."

The purple-robed elder appeared. With a comforting expression, he looked at the disciples below the platform and spoke at great length.

In essence, he said that an unforeseen reason had caused this unexpected development, and that the disciples would be issued an additional allotment of Spirit Stones, along with a whole lot of other drivel.

After his long-winded speech ended, many disciples went from their earlier panic to showing traces of excitement.