The Trial Ends, Only Two Remain!

Before the Ancient Hall, the dust settled.

Four trial participants lay several yards away, their groans faint. They had completely lost the ability to fight.

The Luo God Sword gripped tightly in Luo Li's hand slowly lowered, its tip touching the ground.

She looked at the black-clad youth who had suddenly appeared beside her, his calm profile reflected clearly in her glasslike eyes.

His attacks in that flash of lightning had been faster than her senses could follow.

Just four simple punches and kicks, without any flourish, yet they had routed all four opponents in an instant...

So strong!

Even stronger than he seemed when we first met in the Safe Land!

"Why did you help me?" she asked, a trace of confusion in her voice.

She remembered perfectly well that, earlier in the square before the City Lord's Mansion, she had explicitly refused his offer to work together.

At her words, Mu Chen turned to face her and smiled naturally, warm as sunshine.

"Two reasons." He held up two fingers. "First, I like the look of you."

Luo Li's long lashes fluttered.

The answer was unexpectedly blunt and unexpectedly unreasonable, yet it made her heart tremble with a strange feeling.

Without waiting for her response, Mu Chen continued, pointing at the four fellows on the ground who could not get up just yet. "Second, I need their tokens."

He crouched and searched the four with practiced movements, soon gathering four Blood Tokens in his hand.

"Everyone who sees them gets a share." Mu Chen weighed them in his hand, divided off two in a not entirely fair split, and offered them to Luo Li. "Two for you."

The blue-robed youth's token was in his hands.

Luo Li's gaze fell on the two tokens he offered, but she did not take them.

"You defeated them, so their tokens rightfully belong to you." She shook her head. "I don't need a share."

"Even without you, I could have defeated all four and taken their tokens, so I don't owe you a favor."

"But thank you all the same. Otherwise, I would have been injured."

She had her own principles and would not owe anyone favors. Her grandfather had told her that on the path of cultivation, favors and feelings were the most entangling things, of no benefit to cultivation.

The smile on Mu Chen's face did not change, as though he had expected her answer. He simply tossed the tokens to her.

"These two don't count as a favor you owe me. Consider them a bonus because I like the look of you. Take them. Don't you want to grow stronger? The more Blood Tokens you have, the more spiritual energy you'll receive in the infusion."

"I still have other trial participants to find." Mu Chen gave her no chance to respond. He brushed nonexistent dust from his hands and turned to leave. "See you later, then."

"Oh, right, my name is Mu Chen. Make sure you remember it!"

Luo Li stood where she was, watching that black figure disappear beyond the rolling contours of the wasteland as decisively as he had arrived.

Her long silver lashes lowered, her gaze falling on the tokens in her hand.

Mu Chen...

That name, along with his smile, was etched clearly into her heart.

The feeling he gave her was different from anyone else's.

To her surprise, she felt no aversion, only a flutter she could not put into words...

Luo Li shook her head, trying to cast off these distracting thoughts that had no place in cultivation.

Before long, her glasslike eyes regained their usual clarity and calm.

Only, something seemed to have been added to them.

The remaining time in the trial flew by amid a subtly changed atmosphere.

For the vast majority of the participants, this trial could only be called a nightmare!

The black-clad youth named Mu Chen seemed to have become an unstoppable natural disaster within these Trial Grounds!

His whereabouts were unpredictable, yet he seemed to be everywhere.

He did not deliberately hunt them down, but whenever he encountered them, the outcome was beyond doubt!

Their Blood Tokens were seized, and they were casually knocked unconscious and abandoned where they lay.

Perhaps their only consolation was that this god of slaughter had killed every spirit beast in the Trial Grounds...

At last, on the fifteenth day after the Trial Grounds opened, the instructor's grand, indifferent voice, devoid of all emotion, suddenly resounded through every inch of the Trial Grounds like a decree from Heaven itself!

"The appointed time has come. The trial is over."

"Everyone, proceed to the Central Reception Platform immediately. Those who fail to arrive in time will be deemed to have forfeited and will remain trapped here forever."

The instant his voice faded, a point of blazing white light appeared out of thin air in the sky above the center of the Trial Grounds. It rapidly expanded and stretched into a brilliant gateway dozens of yards wide!

From every corner of the Trial Grounds, figures darted out, converging toward the central gateway with the relief of survivors of a calamity.

Mu Chen chose a relatively open spot, stopped, and waited quietly.

The participants arriving around him all underwent drastic changes in expression the instant they noticed him. They hurried away as though fleeing a plague, clearing an empty zone around him.

The gazes cast his way were filled with fear, awe, resentment, and profound helplessness.

No one dared meet his eyes, much less approach him by even half a step.

Mu Chen seemed oblivious to it all. They were merely a bunch of defeated opponents who lacked even the courage to join forces against him, not worth mentioning.

His gaze finally settled on the other side of the crowd.

There, an incomparably cool and aloof silver figure had also arrived.

As though sensing his gaze, Luo Li turned her eyes slightly. Her glasslike eyes met his for a moment, and she nodded.

Half an incense stick's worth of time soon passed.

In the sky, the instructor saw that no more youths were arriving below and gave a slight nod.

So many more than expected...

The instructor was mildly surprised. In previous trials, having twenty or thirty left at this point had already been considered good, yet this time there were nearly a hundred!

His gaze blazed like a torch as it swept over those below, and he soon discovered the clue. Most of them had weak auras and fearful faces, their fighting spirit broken.

"Very well." The instructor gathered his thoughts, his expression turning solemn as he announced, "The trial is over. According to the rules, we will check your points and determine the rankings."

"Take out your Blood Tokens!"

As his voice fell, the square first went quiet, then a slight commotion arose.

Yet several breaths passed, and only two people moved as instructed?

The instructor's brows slowly drew together. An invisible pressure quietly spread, making everyone below catch their breath.

"What? Have you all gone deaf? Or must I take them myself?" A trace of coldness had entered his voice.

"Instructor, Luo Li and I are the only two who have tokens. I took theirs, so naturally they can't produce them."

Under countless gazes, Mu Chen walked out of the empty zone around him, his expression composed and his smile utterly matter-of-fact.

He took... everyone's tokens?

A flash of shock that was difficult to conceal swept through the instructor's eyes. He wondered if he had misheard, then immediately appeared before Mu Chen to tally his points.

"Mu Chen... two thousand seven hundred and eighty-two points!"

Heavens! It really was true!

In the other Guardian Land, Ji Xuan, who was said to have already been reserved by the Sacred Spirit Academy, had scored only sixty-four points!

How many times greater was this?

Even taking every youth's tokens couldn't add up to so many points, could it? Had he slaughtered every spirit beast in the Trial Grounds?

Suppressing his shock, the instructor tallied Luo Li's points.

"Luo Li, twenty-four points."

"The points have been checked, and the rankings determined. Mu Chen stands alone at the top in points and is the champion of this trial! Luo Li comes second! Everyone else... is eliminated!" the instructor said with difficulty.

The prerequisite for selecting thirty people was that they possessed Blood Tokens. Without them? Then these youths could only be eliminated...

From this Guardian Land, only two people remained to enter the Final Spirit Road!