Before long, Zhao Xuan and his group finally arrived at the small ruin site located in the Wutong Mountain Range to the west of Tongcheng.
Fortunately, the ruin wasn't deep within the mountains. Even if there were other ruins hidden farther inside, the Tongcheng Ability Users' Guild simply didn't have the power or resources to develop them.
Generally speaking, small-scale ruins were developed by city-level guilds, while medium-scale ruins required provincial-level guilds—such as the one located above Beihu Lake in Jiacheng.
After all, the weakest creatures appearing in medium-scale ruins were Tier Three, with plenty of Tier-4 and Tier-5 beasts as well.
A single city's strength was far from enough to handle that kind of threat. Only when the power of an entire province was mobilized could a medium-scale ruin be safely explored.
As for large-scale ruins—those demanded the strength of the entire nation.
Ahem! Anyway, back to the main story.
At the entrance of the ruin, the place was bustling with noise and activity.
Everywhere Zhao Xuan looked, there were ability users—without exception.
Most were Tier Two, with a few Tier Three among them.
"Guildmaster!"
"Guildmaster!"
"…"
As soon as Lian Jie arrived, many ability users turned toward him.
And with him standing there, Zhao Xuan instantly became the center of attention as well.
"Who's that young man beside the Guildmaster?"
"No idea. Never seen him before."
"Could he be the young master of one of Tongcheng's noble families? Maybe, like the Eldest Miss of the Di Family this morning, he's here to take the ruin's qualification trial?"
"Hmm, it could be!"
"Tsk, I've gotta say, young people these days are something else. That Di Family young lady—when she came this morning, she made it all the way to the eighth trial in one go! Too bad she couldn't pass it in the end."
"Still, at least she showed us what the eighth trial actually was."
"Nine Tier-3 Darkfeather Birds! Honestly, I can barely handle one of them, let alone nine!"
"I could maybe take two, tops!"
"The Eldest Miss of the Di Family is only eighteen, just graduated high school, and she's already that powerful—it's unbelievable!"
"…"
A chorus of chatter and admiration spread through the crowd.
"The Eldest Miss of the Di Family? You mean Di Ruqing from Fengming High School?"
Zhao Xuan narrowed his eyes slightly.
If he wasn't mistaken, Di Ruqing would likely become one of his toughest rivals for the upcoming National Examination qualification.
According to Guildmaster Lian, the seventh trial required defeating six Tier-3 Darkfeather Birds.
Since Di Ruqing had reached the eighth trial, that meant she already had the strength to take on six at once.
"A worthy rival indeed…" Zhao Xuan thought.
Fragments of information about Di Ruqing surfaced in his mind:
Di Ruqing—daughter of Tongcheng Governor Di Wenbin.
Awakened Armament Haki in her third year of high school.
Possesses the Logia-type Magma Fruit ability…
He'd picked up these bits and pieces from idle classroom gossip.
They might just be rumors—
but as the saying went: where there's smoke, there's fire.
As Zhao Xuan pondered Di Ruqing, Guildmaster Lian was already leading him to the ruin's entrance.
Eight massive stone steles stood there, each inscribed with intricate, mysterious patterns.
At that moment,
The first seven steles were glowing with a faint golden light.
Each stele represented one of the ruin's eight trials.
Whenever someone cleared a trial, its corresponding stele would light up.
When all eight glowed at once, it meant that someone had successfully completed every trial within the ruin.
"Zhao Xuan, my young friend," Lian Jie said kindly, "the rest is up to you now."
"Mm, I'll do my best."
Zhao Xuan nodded, then stepped forward under the watchful eyes of everyone present.
He stopped before the eight glowing steles,
raised his hand—
and pressed it against the crystal sphere at their base.
The next instant,
a crack appeared in the air and pulled his entire body inside.
At the same time—
the seven glowing steles dimmed one after another.
The trial had begun!
"So it's true! That young man really was brought here by the Guildmaster to take the trial!"
"I wonder how many stages he can pass?"
"Since the Guildmaster personally brought him, his strength shouldn't be bad."
"But who exactly is he? I've never seen him before."
"Zhao Xuan! His name's Zhao Xuan!"
A rough voice suddenly rang out from the crowd.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Everyone turned toward the speaker.
"Cao Hu, you know that guy taking the ruin trial?" asked a Tier Three ability user.
Cao Hu nodded. "Yeah. Yesterday I had to go back to Tongcheng for some business and happened to pick up a Tier Three assessment bounty. He was my target. Guess what happened?"
"What happened?"
"Come on, Cao Hu, stop being so mysterious!"
"Yeah, spill it already!"
Urged on by the others, Cao Hu rubbed his chest with lingering fear. "The moment I got on the stage, he kicked me off with just two strikes. The whole thing took less than three seconds!"
Whoosh—!
An uproar rippled through the crowd.
Among them, a young girl stood quietly, listening intently to every word Cao Hu said.
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