Withered Firmament III

The Trial Ground was a cave entrance near the wall of Black Mountain. Before its gates crouched two black animal statues, neither quite cat nor dog.

The ground was inlaid with black pearls the size of longan fruit. Blue Light occasionally flashed across the ground and stretched deep into the cave.

Again and again, the Blue Light illuminated the darkness within before quickly fading away.

Faintly, one could see many sharp white stalactites hanging everywhere inside. There also seemed to be many sculptures of mysterious outlines on either side.

"This is the Trial Land."

Deputy City Lord Ye Zifeng stopped at the entrance and said,

"Crown Prince Your Highness, the trial is to enter and remain inside for three days and three nights."

"Remain for three days and three nights?" Lin Xin narrowed his eyes slightly. "That simple? What is inside?"

Ye Zifeng shook his head.

"We do not know either, Your Highness. This trial has been passed down since ancient times. Even Elder Yuan Jing would be walking a road to death if his strength were insufficient. It is said to be connected to the key to Thousand Prison City's prison array. Even as Deputy City Lord, I do not know much about it."

Nan Shunqing spoke coldly.

"This is clearly an extremely sturdy Sealed Space, is it not? What if, after Teacher enters, the grand array outside is activated and seals off the entrance and exit? Who will guarantee the trial's fairness and safety?"

What he asked was precisely what Lin Xin wished to ask.

The array on the ground before them was not merely a sealing array. It was actually a special fifth-grade array linked to another space.

With such an array, if one was carelessly transported too far away, returning might only be possible countless years later.

Even though he was deeply versed in the Array Talisman Dao, he did not dare confront its edge head-on.

Standing before the cave entrance, he too halted and did not advance.

How could Ye Zifeng not understand this concern? Yet he could only smile bitterly, not knowing how to answer.

Duan Chizi stood at the side in silence. She shared a deeper bond with Yellow Ape True Lord and was quite unfamiliar with this junior brother whom she had never interacted with much. Affection and estrangement naturally differed; she hoped Lin Xin would simply turn around and leave.

Thus, the group stood stiffly at the entrance to the Trial Ground.

Lin Xin stood with his hands behind his back, silent. He merely narrowed his eyes at the array before the gate, and no one knew what he was thinking.

The others knew his emotions were somewhat extreme and volatile, so none dared make a disturbance. No one knew what the trial contained, and it was only natural for him to have concerns and hesitation. Thus, everyone waited quietly.

Before long, half an hour passed.

Another black streak shot over from afar through the air.

With a whoosh, it landed on the ground behind the group.

"We have not been apart long, yet Junior Brother's strength has advanced greatly, reaching such a level already. Congratulations, congratulations!"

The newcomer's voice was seductive. Her tight black dress covered only one-third of her thighs; it seemed that with a slightly stronger breeze, one could glimpse the mysterious ****.

Her figure was even more voluptuous, while her delicate features carried an eerie seductiveness. She was none other than the Great Princess Inu-sha Ying, whom Lin Xin had met before.

"Greetings, Great Princess!"

Ye Zifeng hurriedly led the others in paying their respects.

Inu-sha Ying's beautiful eyes fell directly upon Lin Xin, and a trace of burning heat surfaced in their depths. She walked gracefully toward him.

"What is it? Is Junior Brother hesitating over whether to enter the trial?"

Lin Xin smiled and glanced at her.

"I will definitely enter. But how can I ensure that this Trial Ground cannot be controlled and sealed by outsiders?"

Inu-sha Ying smiled. "Is that not simple? Only a very small part of this array can be controlled. The rest is an ancient array designed by the founding patriarch to absorb the power of demon gods."

"Junior Brother is a master of the Array Talisman Dao. Would turning it under your own control not remove all your doubts?"

The Yuan Dou Demon Sect had no master-level Array Talisman Masters. Lin Xin knew that much.

The Array Talisman Dao consumed an appalling amount of materials and resources. To reach the master level, one needed at least a thousand years of full accumulation and supply, piling up mountains of resources merely for the possibility of producing one master.

And that was only if a talented seed in the Array Talisman Dao could grow safely.

If Lin Xin had not possessed skill transformation, allowing him to perfectly replicate a second success, a third success, and even countless further successes after succeeding once, thereby saving an enormous amount of resources—

then with his original aptitude, reaching the master level would have been nothing but a dream.

Upon hearing Inu-sha Ying's words, Duan Chizi's expression changed slightly.

"Senior Sister, those words are improper. The Second Trial is meant in part to test courage. Outsiders must not interfere. Are you planning to reveal its secrets yourself and cause the trial to fail?"

"Junior Sister, you exaggerate." Inu-sha Ying smiled, a hint of snowy white cleavage faintly visible from the black dress.

"Competition within the sect—if such a minor hint can determine success or failure, then the position of Sect Master would be far too easy to claim."

Duan Chizi stared at her coldly without saying a word.

Inu-sha Ying yielded not in the slightest.

The two women confronted each other for no apparent reason. It seemed they were not as harmonious as the rumors claimed.

Lin Xin stood to one side. Among those present, only he could speak; the others lacked either the cultivation or the status.

"Did Teacher enter this trial back then?" he asked blandly.

"Of course he did," Duan Chizi nodded.

"Was there anyone holding the array?"

"Of course!"

"Who?"

"City Lord Yin Pengzi."

"I have no one strong enough to hold the array, and I do not trust those present. Yet I wish to enter the array as well. How would you advise me?" Lin Xin asked calmly.

Duan Chizi paused at his words and studied Lin Xin carefully.

"Martial Uncle Bai Suozi has always been at odds with Teacher. She lost in the competition for the position of Sect Master back then. You may ask her to hold the array."

"That will not be necessary." Lin Xin smiled and lightly pointed through the air at the array on the ground.

Hiss!

An invisible finger force shot out, instantly breaking open a tiny mark in the ground array.

Silently, the array rapidly dimmed. The flickering Blue Light vanished at once, and the entire ground became nothing more than an ordinary engraved pattern of runes, devoid of any further use.

"The array is temporarily under my control. Does anyone object?"

Lin Xin had observed it for so long precisely in order to see through this array.

With his master-level attainment in arrays, making slight alterations to gain control over this grand array was something he could accomplish.

The Yuan Dou Demon Sect had no array master capable of controlling ancient arrays. If he still dared not enter after this, people would truly look down on him.

"Please proceed, Junior Brother," Duan Chizi replied without betraying anything on her face, though her pupils shrank slightly.

What shocked her was that this thousand-year-old ancient array, even if it was not the grand array designed by the founding patriarch himself, was still part of that ancient array. Yet Lin Xin had found a method of controlling it so quickly and seized partial control.

Such attainment in the Array Talisman Dao was truly terrifying.

If fifth-grade masters were all this terrifying, would the mountain-protecting grand arrays of the various great sects not be mere decorations?!

Lin Xin reached out and tapped the key point of the array, then nodded and strode toward the cave entrance.

The array had been disabled, but only a few breaths after entering the black cave, he felt the heavens and earth overturn around him. In an instant, he was twisted and transported elsewhere.

"Just as expected, it is teleportation!"

Lin Xin's heart settled slightly.

Only after the teleportation ended did he begin examining his surroundings.

He had entered the cave for barely a dozen meters, yet he was already in the sky above an incomparably vast black plain.

Below lay a boundless, level wasteland. There were no trees, no lakes or streams, and still less any grassland.

There was only pitch-black soil.

In the sky, countless extremely long black whiskers like threads drifted and danced everywhere. They occupied nearly the entirety of the surrounding sky.

Some of these black threads were short, only several meters long. Others were extraordinarily long, with hundreds or even thousands of meters not being rare.

From time to time, they would wriggle, like living worms, arching up and even crawling through the air.

It was like green caterpillars crawling across solid ground.

"So this is the trial? Remaining here for three days and three nights?"

Lin Xin became vigilant. Since the task was merely to remain for the allotted time, there was clearly some unknown, mysterious danger here. Otherwise, the trial would not consist of nothing more than staying long enough.

Sure enough!

In the blink of an eye, a black thread tens of thousands of meters long came crashing down from the sky.

That black thread seemed to have a clear target, shooting directly toward Lin Xin.

It was incomparably fast. A distance of dozens of miles was crossed in an instant.

Lin Xin's brows twitched. As demonic power surged through him, the phantom of Withered Firmament appeared behind him, condensing a sword light that slashed fiercely at the black thread.

Clang!

Amid the ringing clash of metal, the black thread was utterly unafraid. It merely shook once, without pausing in the slightest, and continued lunging straight at Lin Xin.

"Interesting!"

Even fifty percent of his strength could not halt its momentum. Lin Xin immediately knew he could not meet it by force.

He flashed aside. With his evasion attribute as high as two thousand points, his ability to foresee danger was astonishingly powerful. Even among Divine Beast Bloodlines in Yuan Jing, with their numerous innate divine abilities, there might not be one as miraculous as his.

The black thread grazed past him by a hair's breadth, its momentum unchecked as it shot fiercely into the distance.

Hiss!

Lin Xin's expression suddenly changed. He caught sight of something on the surface of the black thread and instantly dodged left.

The head of a section of black thread pierced out from the spot where he had just been. It had actually passed directly through space and emerged!

"This is...?!"

He dodged right again, and another section of black thread pierced through space, bursting from where he had been moments earlier.

For a time, he dodged repeatedly. The black thread was terrifyingly fast, traversing space almost as easily as breathing and piercing the spatial laws within the surrounding area until they were riddled with holes.

Its speed was like lightning; the moment one attempt failed, it immediately continued its spatial traversal.

Since Lin Xin had recognized what it was, he no longer intended to resist or make contact with it.

"Nine Twists Worm! I never expected there to still be demonic insects here that had already gone extinct in the primordial era!"

"But... the Nine Twists Worm can freely traverse space and devour yin energy. Why are array markings appearing on its body? Those markings were clearly inscribed later..."

Lin Xin was puzzled.

His body moved like lightning, shifting constantly. Every time, he narrowly evaded the Nine Twists Worm's attacks by the smallest margin.

The finesse of it was no less than that of the finest evasive movement techniques.

He knew how troublesome this insect was.

Its body was incomparably tough. It could freely gnaw through space, creating holes to travel through, and fed on the most yin of energies.

Most crucially, this insect was something that had to be introduced into the body after the Withered Firmament Demonic Body had been successfully formed.

To break through the ninth layer, one needed a sufficiently powerful Withered Firmament Demonic Body, then had to introduce this insect and let it reside within as a parasite, devouring the impurities in the demonic body and transforming them into a special substance that could nourish it even further, perfect it, and raise it to a higher level.