After a moment of thought, Li Yan shook his head and looked down at the earth below. Although his physical body outside was protected by the Ghost-Chariot Talisman, it wasn't entirely safe. Now was not the time to consider these questions. Everything that had just happened took place within his divine sense; though it seemed complex, no more than a single breath had passed in the outside world.
The ground here was also azure green. On this land, there was a winding path. If not for this path, Li Yan would not have been able to distinguish the earth from the sky. Looking closely, ten semicircular objects stood on this path at intervals, shaped like the archways of the mortal realm. At this moment, the first archway was lit, while the other nine were dark.
'It seems these are the ten gates of this trial. If I'm not mistaken, of the thirty-seven light spots in the sky, the large one represents the leading cultivator with the highest cultivation, and the small ones represent the thirty-six lower-level cultivators. I confirmed this when I probed the blue rhomboid crystal in Senior Sister Gong's hand. However, in her crystal, thirty light spots are purple, and seven are gray. This should mean thirty people are still alive, and seven are dead, which matches the numbers in our team exactly. The thirty-seven light spots here are all gray, meaning all thirty-seven from the Supreme Mystery Teachings are dead. Although there were fewer than thirty-seven of their cultivators in the sphere, the missing ones must have died on the paths of the previous trials.'
He had already discovered the path on the ground when he entered the core of all the blue rhomboid crystals before. The paths in all three were identical. Li Yan guessed that the ground displayed a topographical map of the current trial. The ten semicircular archways, upon closer inspection, seemed to divide the path into ten roughly equal segments, which he guessed were about one li apart. The lit gate probably indicated the current position of the team. Senior Sister Gong and the others had just set out, so the first semicircular archway was lit.
Li Yan focused his attention and observed, calculating silently in his heart. After about three breaths, he noticed that the light from the first gate was slowly beginning to fade, while at the same time, a faint, dark light seemed to be rising from the bottom of the second gate.
'It seems Senior Sister Gong and the others are going all out to clear the trial. They've probably gone at least two or three hundred meters by now and are approaching the two-li mark. That's why the second gate here is starting to show a faint light, while the light of the first gate is slowly dimming as they move away, and will eventually turn completely dark. Each of these gates should be at the beginning of each li. In that case, this first gate should be near where I'm standing. That's it. If not now, when?' In about four breaths of time within his divine sense, Li Yan had quickly made his judgment.
The wind and snow howled. Li Yan's body stood motionless amidst the falling snow, the Ghost-Chariot Talisman on him flashing, its ancient runes flowing continuously. Suddenly, his body trembled. He opened his eyes, and in the next moment, his figure had already shot out diagonally. At the same time, the wisp of divine sense he had left in the blue rhomboid crystal firmly locked onto the first arched gate on the ground within the core. After he shot out, his figure paused slightly, then he adjusted his angle again and flew swiftly. At this moment, the first gate within his wisp of divine sense was growing larger and larger.
Outside the blue rhomboid crystal, Li Yan's face was expressionless. Through his divine sense, he continuously made micro-adjustments. The massive snowy mountain wall beside the path was rapidly enlarging in his vision. In the next moment, with a deafening "boom," Li Yan felt his body truly crash into a great mountain. He was then thrown backward, and with another "thud," he landed heavily in the snow on the road ten meters behind him.
Several breaths passed before Li Yan shakily stood up from the snow pit, the light from the Ghost-Chariot Talisman on his body flashing rapidly. The impact had left him completely dazed. If not for the talisman's protection, his bones would have surely been broken.
Gong Chenying's party, three to four hundred meters ahead on the road, heard the earth-shaking boom behind them. Their hands paused, and they turned to look back, only to see a sky full of flying snow. They couldn't see a thing. Someone swept their divine sense backward. Several hundred meters away, they saw Martial Uncle Li, looking battered and bruised, shakily climbing out of a snow pit.
After a quick scan with her divine sense, Gong Chenying also shook her head slightly. 'Seven breaths. It seems it was just a guess after all. He can't get out.' Her hand seals then became more urgent, and her charge quickened. The little bit of strength she had been reserving was now gone. She knew Li Yan would catch up in a few breaths, so her previous offensive had not been at full strength. The others also withdrew their divine senses, their faces filled with astonishment and confusion.
"What did Little Martial Uncle trigger in the sphere? The black shadow shouldn't appear for another hour," Cheng Jingnian whispered to Ding Yiwei beside her.
"It seems an unknowable change has occurred in the sphere," Ding Yiwei's divine sense scanned a wider area. He discovered a deep, human-shaped imprint on the wall of a snow mountain, which had pressed some of the snow into the rock face itself.
"Could it be that the poison he was exposed to in the sphere has only just taken effect, causing him to lose his mind? Did Martial Aunt Gong leave him behind to take an antidote, just so he wouldn't lose face in front of us?" a disciple from Lord Lao Peak muttered in a low voice. He clearly still held a grudge about Li Yan's nonchalant stroll through the poison-filled sphere.
"Be careful..." A series of explosions followed. Just as some people had withdrawn their divine senses for a brief whisper, several strange, transparent giant birds attacked, throwing them into a flurry of confusion. They quickly withdrew their senses and focused all their attention on dealing with the attacks from the sides of the road, not daring to be distracted again.
Li Yan shook the snow from his hair, and the dizziness finally began to subside. 'Can't get out.' His first reaction was that he had failed.
'Was my guess wrong? Can't I get out through this gate? Then what's the point of having these gates in the core?' Several questions quickly rose in Li Yan's mind. He looked up at the vast snowstorm ahead, thought for a moment, and did not immediately set off in pursuit.
His divine sense once again entered the core of the blue rhomboid crystal. He looked at the circular archway, which was now very close. The light from this gate had mostly faded, with only the top remaining bright. The middle of the gate was only faintly lit, and the bottom was already pitch black, like a light gate with decreasing brightness levels. At this time, the bottom of the second archway was already brightly lit, the middle part less so, and the top was completely dark, the exact opposite of the first gate.
'It seems Senior Sister Gong and the others are already approaching the two-li mark. If I delay any longer, I'm afraid I'll be exhausted by the attacks from the sides before I can even catch up. I must make a decision as soon as possible.' Li Yan began to feel anxious. He looked up at this world of azure green. The space was not very large; he could see all of it at a glance. Besides the thirty-seven gray light spots in the sky, there was only the winding path on the ground with its ten archways.
He quickly flew a circle along the path but found nothing new. To put it bluntly, the ground was just a curved line. He touched it with his divine sense, but there was no reaction. He then slowly extended his divine sense towards an archway. Although he was anxious, he still didn't dare to be careless.
His divine sense soon touched the circular archway. Apart from some spiritual energy being emitted, there were no other symptoms.
At the same time, Gong Chenying, who was moving forward, spread her powerful divine sense backward. In an instant, her face darkened. 'How can this little martial uncle be so reckless? I agreed to five or six breaths, and I gave him ten. We're about to pass the one-li mark, why is he still standing there?' Just as she was about to use her powerful divine sense to transmit a message telling Li Yan to hurry over, she was stunned in the next moment.
Li Yan had started moving again. But this time, the blue rhomboid crystal in his hand was flashing with a dazzling azure green light. He then crashed fiercely into the same mountain wall he had hit before. Then, to her astonishment, a pure wood spiritual power she had never seen before erupted from Li Yan's body. The moment he hit the snowy mountain cliff, it was as if he had hit empty air. With a flash of green light, his body vanished into the mountain wall. All of this was seen only by her divine sense; the others were all fighting for their lives.
Li Yan felt a brilliant green light flash before his eyes, followed by a tightening sensation all over his body, as if he were being squeezed in a narrow space. The Ghost-Chariot Talisman and the protective light shield around him emitted soft "kaka" sounds. Just as he was feeling surprised, he heard a "pop" in his ear, as if a water bubble had burst. Then the pressure on his body eased, and his vision opened up to a five-colored world.
Li Yan quickly formed a hand seal, on full alert. After looking around for a while, he relaxed slightly, his eyes filled with a strange light. This was a five-colored, resplendent world, like a space made of glazed glass. Li Yan was now floating in the air. Behind him, a giant purple ribbon of light waved and floated, like a ribbon tied at one end and floating in the wind. The purple light flowed over it, and the scenery within was hazy and indistinct. To his left and right, about several dozen li away, there were also giant ribbons of white and yellow light, waving and floating. Li Yan felt like a lonely traveler, wandering under a starry sky.
The green light in his hand had dimmed. Looking back at the purple ribbon of light behind him, a flash of understanding crossed Li Yan's eyes. 'So that's how it is. One blue rhomboid crystal can really only be used by one person. If I had tried to bring even one more person, I probably would have been stuck halfway through the gate. That immense crushing force... even a Foundation Establishment cultivator probably couldn't last a single breath. I was only able to pass smoothly under the protection of the green light. That crushing force made me feel the fear of death. I estimate that if the green light had disappeared and I hadn't come out, I really would have never been able to come out.'
In the core of the blue rhomboid crystal just now, Li Yan had searched for a while with no results. The circular archways, the path, and the thirty-seven gray light spots in the sky—none of them reacted to his divine sense or spirit power. He had no choice but to withdraw, planning to immediately catch up with Gong Chenying and the others, or he really wouldn't have to leave at all. As his divine sense was withdrawing, he passed through the five-elemental space outside the core. A thought suddenly struck him. 'Five elements? Space? Ever since I came here, everything I've discovered has been related to the five elements. Do I need to use the power of the five elements to get out? But just now in the core, I already touched everything inside with various spiritual power attributes, and there was no difference. Why is that? No, this core is a single-attribute spiritual energy, and it's surrounded by a five-elemental world. Is it just to prevent the blue rhomboid crystal's five elements from being imbalanced? The single spiritual energy of the core can make the five-elemental world lose its balance, so can the surrounding five-elemental world be reduced to a single one? Is this the secret to getting out of the blue rhomboid crystal? But to unify the five-elemental spiritual energy within this crystal... that's easier said than done.'
Thinking of this, Li Yan's eyes lit up. Others couldn't transform the five elements into a single attribute of spiritual energy, but he could. His True Scripture of Gui Water could arbitrarily transform the five elements of spirit power into one or more attributes. A light flickered in Li Yan's eyes.