"You've traveled your path too quickly and too smoothly. Your strides have been too large, and that may become a hidden danger in the future." The Kunpeng King spoke up, a rare occurrence.
Ever since returning from the ancient cave, he had been silent, as though asleep, until Xi Yue had almost forgotten him.
"I think so too. That's why I need to find somewhere to temper myself." Xi Yue nodded. She had also recognized her own problem: she possessed the cultivation realm, but had not undergone enough tempering.
This was deeply wrong. If it continued, serious problems were bound to arise!
"I know of a perilous place where you can temper yourself and undergo a transformation," the Kunpeng King said.
The Western Wasteland was a vast wilderness. Yellow sand filled the sky, ancient beasts prowled everywhere, and roars rose one after another. Heaven and earth lay desolate and bleak, displaying all the primeval wilderness's untamed grandeur.
Mountain ranges stretched endlessly, and several figures traveled through this boundless wilderness.
"Third Granduncle, that perilous place should be just ahead," a young woman among them said.
She was graceful and slender, her skin fairer than snow. Yet blood stained her face, and she bore several wounds, lending her a different kind of beauty.
The young woman was Xi Yue. Following the Kunpeng King's guidance, she had learned that a perilous place lay deep within this wilderness. It held imprints of the various races and was an Ancient Trial Ground used to temper their younger generations.
She had immediately decided to explore it. Such a rare opportunity to temper herself could not be missed.
Along the way, they had encountered many savage beasts and fierce birds of prey. Raised in the wilderness, these creatures were naturally ferocious beyond measure. Only through bloody battles had she carved a path through them.
Countless savage beasts had died at Xi Yue's hands, including a fair number of heaven-tier beasts and primordial variants.
Although Xu Tianheng, a mighty cultivator of the Escape One Realm, accompanied them in secret, he only intervened to kill exceptionally powerful beasts. Otherwise, he stood aside, treating this as a trial of tempering.
Xi Yue herself had requested this. She was thrilled, her blood boiling within her, desperately craving a great battle.
"Miss, are you really all right?" Even Qing Shuang could not help worrying. Her young mistress was acting far too wildly. There was not a trace of an immortal maiden's grace about her-she was clearly a terrible beast in human form.
She had personally witnessed Xi Yue tear a taotie apart with her bare hands. It had been so brutal that her heart had pounded in fright and a chill had run down her spine.
Even Xu Tianheng, watching from the shadows, could not keep the corners of his eyes from twitching. Wasn't this girl's fighting style a little too savage?
Still, he did not interfere. As long as she did not stray too far, there would still be a chance to set her right.
After crossing the untamed mountain ranges, they arrived at a perilous place.
Ahead lay an abyss, pitch-black, spewing dark light and emanating a sharp, menacing aura.
From time to time, it gave off a mournful moan, like the long howl of some savage beast or the whispers of evil ghosts in hell. It was terrifying, vast, and ancient, with an indescribable sorrow.
This place was sinister. An inexplicable rule shrouded the abyss's interior, preventing divine sense from penetrating it.
Nearby stood several stone inscriptions recording fragments of information.
Their general meaning was that this was an immensely dangerous trial ground. None but those with peerless talent could enter; anyone else would surely perish within.
"To think such a place really exists. Little Yue, are you truly going down there?" Xu Tianheng was worried. This place was far too dangerous. If anything happened to Xi Yue, he would regret it for the rest of his life.
After all, he had secretly brought this little ancestor out, without even notifying his dear nephew.
"Don't worry, Third Granduncle. I know what I'm doing. Nothing will go wrong," Xi Yue reassured him. She also instructed Qing Shuang to remain outside. This, too, was a precious place for cultivation, where she could temper her body.
Qing Shuang's talent was by no means poor. In Xi Yue's eyes, she had considerable potential. If she could grow strong, she would be better able to face the great calamity to come.
The future was far too tragic, filled with blood and chaos. She did not want those around her to wither away one by one, until only a boundless world and an eternal empty sky remained, sharing her sorrow and solitude.
Xu Tianheng still could not rest easy letting her enter alone and proposed accompanying her. He was ready to throw caution aside and risk his life to keep her company.
Left with no choice, Xi Yue released a wisp of aura. Xu Tianheng immediately relaxed. With that thing present, what did he have to worry about?
It was a wisp of the Immortal King Burial Shroud's aura. At some unknown point, Little Pagoda in her sea of consciousness had gathered it in. Even she had only discovered it recently.
This made her realize how extraordinary Little Pagoda was. At the very least, his fundamental nature far surpassed that of an immortal artifact.
After all, the Immortal King Burial Shroud rivaled a Quasi-Immortal King weapon. Little Pagoda had actually suppressed and gathered its aura. The difference in their standing was clear at a glance!
Xi Yue was not so bullheaded that she would enter a dungeon without some equipment to protect her. If disaster struck, who could she possibly appeal to?
She stepped forward and leaped down, disappearing into the abyss.
It was pitch-black inside. The rules obstructed her divine sense, restricting it outside her body. Moreover, some kind of law prevented her from flying.
Runes flickered in her eyes. This was the embryonic form of the Martial Dao Heavenly Eye, which she had developed long ago.
As expected, the rules here could suppress divine sense, but her heavenly eye still worked. Piercing the murk, she saw the surrounding stone walls clearly.
Specks of blood marked the walls, left by creatures from some unknown era. Some had not dried even now and still emitted a faint radiance.
"Someone else came here before me?"
Xi Yue was not surprised. Although this place was extremely remote, it was not hidden from the world. Perhaps some creatures had stumbled into it by accident.
According to the Kunpeng King, this had once been an ancient battlefield, where unimaginably powerful beings had fought bloody battles.
Even now, their weapons remained embedded in the stone walls, undiminished by the passage of time.
This caused Little Pagoda in her sea of consciousness to tremble. He revealed his true form outright, refusing nothing as a vortex appeared around him and he madly devoured the broken weapons.
Some weapons still retained their owners' resentment from life and tried to resist. But with a slight tremor from Little Pagoda, they were all suppressed and refined in an instant.
"You really have no dignity." Xi Yue pressed a hand to her forehead. This pagoda ordinarily could not even be bothered to acknowledge her. Only the sight of divine treasures like these could excite him so much.
The Kunpeng King, who witnessed this, was stunned, his heart anything but calm. Great chaos is coming!
Naturally, Xi Yue heard none of this. At that moment, she held Little Pagoda in her palm and was examining him closely.
Come to think of it, this was her first time touching the pagoda's true form. Perhaps because he had devoured those broken weapons, ancient patterns had now appeared on his body.
These patterns were exceedingly ancient, profound, and unfathomable, bearing the weathered weight of eternal ages. They seemed to have existed since heaven and earth first opened, enduring countless cycles of epochs
and remaining undying.
As she gazed at these patterns, she vaguely sensed something strange, as though she resonated with them. In a moment of abstraction, she gained another insight.
"Hm? You're actually incomplete?" She had not noticed before: this pagoda did not merely have five stories, but a full nine!
However, only five stories physically existed. The remaining four were illusory, glowing with brilliant light like projections.
Upon the pagoda's body, she could vaguely make out an illusory piece of cloth, stained with blood and riddled with holes.
Xi Yue knew it was an imprint of the Immortal King Burial Shroud-or rather, a wisp of its projection.
After studying him for a while, she returned Little Pagoda to her sea of consciousness.
"This pagoda is extraordinary. Unless absolutely necessary, do not reveal him before others, lest you invite a great disaster!" the Kunpeng King warned.