Law Techniques... automatic updates!

The next day, after just one night.

Several carriages, pitch-black all over and without even windows, arrived at the clearing halfway up the mountain.

The crowd assembled. After checking his register and counting everyone, the man in black ordered them aboard, ready to head to the entrance trial grounds.

Over the past two years, the young cultivators had long since learned of the devil sect's savage, ruthless methods. They obediently boarded, embarking on the trial that would decide their fates.

Once aboard, they stayed there for three full days.

As the carriages stopped, the young cultivators disembarked one after another.

Dazzling sunlight poured down.

Qi Yun, the last to emerge from the carriage, narrowed his eyes and surveyed his surroundings.

Before him stood the entrance to a sinister mountain valley.

Dozens of cultivators in identical black robes stood like iron nails around the valley entrance, their faces cold and hard, their gazes sharp as hawks, filled with undisguised scrutiny and pressure.

Each held a long staff wrapped in purple-black talismans, a dark gleam faintly circulating around its tip.

At the sight of these stringent defenses, Qi Yun slowly furrowed his brow, feeling a trace of unease.

"What took so long?"

At the head of the carriage convoy, a man who looked about forty, with a goatee and meticulously combed hair, swept his gaze over the young cultivators before him.

"We weren't slow. We had to pass through the Zombie Alliance's territory this time. We couldn't make a big show of it."

The black-robed man responsible for transporting them let out a long breath and handed over a register filled with names, family backgrounds, and relatives. "My job's done. It's up to you now."

Then he turned to glance at the young cultivators behind him, most of whom looked bewildered, and a playful curve tugged at his lips.

"Mm." The goateed man casually tucked the register into his robes and slowly stepped forward.

His icy gaze swept over the young cultivators before him. With a turn of his right hand, a pitch-black bronze bell engraved with ancient seal-script patterns appeared out of thin air.

Ding, ding, ring-!

His five fingers abruptly tightened, and the bell shook violently!

A visible sound wave instantly exploded outward!

The next second!

In the next instant, an indescribably piercing shriek, accompanied by an agonizing pain as though their hearts were being crushed in a fist, made all the young cultivators grunt in unison. Their faces turned white as paper, veins bulged in their necks, and they clutched their chests as they sank painfully to one knee, as though they might suffocate and die the very next second.

A Law Artifact?

Forcing his head up, Qi Yun stared fixedly at the black bronze bell in the goateed man's hand, his face pale and his teeth clenched.

A show of force?

"Now, I speak, and you listen."

The goateed man's indifferent voice rang out, the lingering force of the bronze bell still trembling in the air:

"To have received our Holy Sect's nurturing and glimpsed the immortal Dao is your great fortune across three lifetimes.

"Today, you have been summoned here to receive an immense blessing.

"If you pass this trial, you may formally enter our Wuji Sacred Sect, hear and comprehend the Great Dao, and seek immortality!"

At these words, the expressions of the young cultivators below changed somewhat, a trace of longing emerging on their previously silent faces.

Forcing a faint smile onto his face, the goateed man continued:

"You are fortunate. This trial is very simple.

"Once the trial begins, you may enter the valley first.

"Half a day later, my fellow disciples behind me will enter the valley to search.

"As long as you last one day without being found.

"You may join our Holy Sect!"

At these words, the young cultivators' tense expressions visibly relaxed.

They only had to last half a day?

It sounded as though... there really was hope.

"Then... what if we're found early?" After a brief silence, one young cultivator asked.

At this question, everyone present turned their eyes toward the goateed man.

Feeling their gazes on him, the goateed man leisurely stroked his short beard and said flatly:

"What do you think?"

Understood.

Failure still meant becoming human material.

"All right, it's getting late. Prepare yourselves, everyone. The trial officially begins in fifteen minutes."

Putting away the bronze bell, the goateed man gave the young cultivators one final sweeping glance. His lips curved, and he turned away with a sweep of his sleeve.

As soon as he left, whispers surged through the crowd.

Every conversation concerned the trial and the horrifying fate of being reduced to flesh-and-blood human material after failing.

"Qi Yun, want to move together once we enter the valley? With more people, we'll be a little safer, at least."

Looking at Tang Shun, who had come to form an alliance, Qi Yun hesitated briefly before nodding.

"All right. There's strength in numbers. Count me in."

"Mm, it's settled, then."

Meanwhile, besides Tang Shun, the other young cultivators present were also spontaneously forming groups. After all, the trial sounded simple, but who knew whether there were hidden traps and pitfalls?

Three cobblers could match a Zhuge Liang. Going alone at a time like this would most likely be courting death.

Fifteen minutes passed quickly.

When the goateed man returned, the young cultivators began walking toward the valley before them under the watchful eyes of the cold-faced cultivators in identical black robes beside them.

The valley entrance towered steeply overhead, its rock walls hundreds of meters high exerting a heavy sense of oppression.

Howling winds lashed fiercely at their robes, making them flap loudly and nearly drowning out every other sound.

Qi Yun followed close behind Tang Shun and the others. As their group reached the edge of the entrance, he instinctively glanced back.

The black-robed cultivators previously scattered around had silently gathered on either side of the goateed overseer, fully prepared to move!

Hmm? Could it be...

His gaze sharpened as a possibility suddenly occurred to Qi Yun, and his expression immediately shifted.

Quite a few others noticed the anomaly as well.

Their hearts sank slightly. Not daring to say anything, they merely quickened their steps and plunged into the valley's shadows.

Watching the valley swallow the last cultivator's figure, the goateed man stood with his hands behind his back, his voice cold as iron:

"Get started.

"Remember, make it clean. Keep the corpses intact as much as possible.

"Martial Uncle Song has reserved this batch of 'human material.' If their condition is poor, he won't take them."

"Yes!"

With that response, nearly twenty black-robed cultivators immediately strode toward the valley, carrying their long staffs wrapped in purple-black talismans.

Half a day? Hah.

If they really believed that, they deserved to become part of the Holy Sect's flesh-and-blood stockpile.

"The first law of cultivation-never trust others lightly.

"This lesson, I hope you all..."

The goateed man stared into the secluded valley, radiating a chill of indifference toward life and death.

"...remember with your lives."

What that old bastard said earlier was most likely a bluff.

Giving us a half-day head start...

Could the words of devil sect members be trusted?

Realization dawning, Qi Yun's gaze grew grave. He was just about to discuss the abrupt change in their situation with Tang Shun and the others when he looked up, and his pupils suddenly contracted.

Where was Tang Shun? Where was anyone else?

There was only deathly silence!

Ancient trees towered overhead, blotting out the sky and sun. The light was dim, and the smell of decay permeated the cold air, as though he had stepped into a graveyard.

"This is... random teleportation?!"

He looked around without seeing a single person. For a group of forty or fifty young cultivators, that made no sense at all. Qi Yun's expression darkened.

Were they forcibly separating us to keep us from grouping up?

"Find somewhere to hide first." After a brief silence, Qi Yun immediately set off. If his guess was right.

The Limitless Devil Sect's people would probably enter the valley to search for them at any moment.

Right now, time was life. One step too late could send him plunging into the abyss.

But just as Qi Yun turned to leave, a chill made his entire body stiffen.

A leopard, black as ink all over, crouched on a branch. Its eyes were orange-yellow, and its wrinkled muzzle exposed two sinister fangs.

Undisguised ferocity and hunger surged in those bestial eyes, thick saliva dripping down...

Was his luck really this rotten?

With a helpless sigh, Qi Yun's expression sharpened. The five fingers of his right hand danced, forming three hand seals in an instant.

Gentle Breeze Instruction!

The True Qi within him circulated with the hand seals, surging from his fingertips into heaven and earth.

From the unseen, a strand of the power of heaven and earth responded, becoming a faint breeze that swirled around him and lifted his body.

Clear Breeze Technique!

A Law Technique that summoned a gentle breeze to bolster him and increase his movement speed.

Run!

The instant the breeze lifted his body, Qi Yun lightly pushed off with his toes, his figure shooting away as lightly as a white feather.

"Awooo!"

But the leopard in the tree clearly had no intention of so easily abandoning this "delicacy" that had fallen from the sky. With a low growl, the muscles in its four limbs bulged, unleashing terrifying force. It became a bolt of black lightning tearing through the shadows, pursuing relentlessly!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Qi Yun drove the Clear Breeze Technique to its limit, darting rapidly through the forest and leaving trails of afterimages.

Yet the dull, rapid pounding behind him clung like maggots to bone. Far from shaking it off, he found it drawing closer and closer.

Its rank breath nearly sprayed against the back of his neck.

This was bad!

This wasn't an ordinary wild beast, but a variant on the verge of becoming a spirit!

Though Qi Yun was astonishingly fast with the Clear Breeze Technique's enhancement, two legs ultimately could not outrun four.

Especially when those four belonged to a variant.

Fortunately, though this variant was fast, its bulky body made it slow to turn. Relying on his agility, Qi Yun dodged and weaved, managing to maintain the stalemate for now.

Leaping over a fallen dead tree, Qi Yun was about to use the terrain to kite it some more when his expression suddenly froze.

Hmm? This was...

Just a moment ago, a sudden stirring had welled up in his heart, as though he had sensed something.

And the source of that stirring... was the mysterious panel.

Go take a look!

In his current predicament, the mysterious panel was his last means of breaking free. Glancing at the leopard as it adjusted its stance to pursue him again, Qi Yun immediately leaped toward the source of the stirring.

Several minutes later.

In the middle of a winding, murmuring stream, atop a few pieces of broken rock, a tender blade of grass swayed in the breeze. Its entire body was translucent, like glass or crystal, seeming both illusory and real.

The next second!

A large hand swept through the air, seizing the precious herb born and nurtured by nature with perfect accuracy.

"Got it!"

Looking at the precious herb in his palm, Qi Yun had yet to examine it closely.

A mysterious suction suddenly surged from his palm, refining and absorbing it in an instant.

At the same time, the lettering on the mysterious panel began to change.

The progress bar behind [Clear Breeze Technique] began filling at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In the blink of an eye.

It was full!

[Law Technique automatic update complete]

[This update is a minor version update...]