Chapter 343: Chapter 342: Failed?
After shattering the vines coiling around him, Yi Tianyun quickly flew up into the sky. The moment he was airborne, several towering trees shot up from the ground, aiming to impale him.
The branches of these towering trees were as sharp as spear tips, stabbing at him again and again in an attempt to run him through.
BAM!
Yi Tianyun couldn’t be bothered to deal with the branches. He let them strike him. The moment they touched his body, they all shattered on impact, having no effect whatsoever. While the attacks were undeniably powerful, they were meaningless against his terrifying Defense Power.
These attacks were much stronger than what he’d faced before, but as long as they weren’t at the Void Spirit level, he felt nothing at all.
Though unable to harm him, the towering trees continued to burst madly from the ground, stabbing upward again and again. Each strike was swift and sudden. But when they hit his body, they merely shattered, failing to affect him in the slightest.
’I must be close. I’m about to reach the next boundary.’
Yi Tianyun looked ahead and, just as he expected, saw a golden world at the boundary. It was just as he had guessed: a world of the Gold Attribute, the Golden Road. The Golden Road looked no different from the outside world. It had mountains, rivers, flowers, and trees. The only difference was that everything was made of gold, giving it a fantastical appearance.
However, anyone who treated this as a normal world and entered would surely be torn to shreds.
Sure enough, the moment he stepped inside, the surrounding flowers, grass, and trees instantly transformed into a storm of countless sharp blades, piercing toward him. They were so dense there was no room to evade. Even the ground beneath his feet and the stones turned incredibly sharp, shooting toward him as well.
Things that had looked perfectly ordinary were instantly transformed into lethal weapons capable of reaping lives. All of them were condensed from Gold Attribute energy, striking at him like powerful blades.
CLANG!
Whether it was a stone or a leaf, it rang out with a clear, crisp sound upon hitting Yi Tianyun before being repelled by his Evil Dragon Set. They had no effect whatsoever and were completely deflected.
’Not bad. The power is a cut above the last trial. As expected, it gets stronger the further in I go... but to me, it’s still meaningless.’ Yi Tianyun shook his head and continued walking forward. All attacks along the path were useless against him. No matter how rampant they became, they couldn’t overcome his Evil Dragon Set.
As he progressed, he soon reached the next boundary. This time, he could see nothing ahead but a blanket of dense fog. It looked eerie, but no matter how strange it seemed, he had to walk in and investigate.
The moment he stepped inside, Yi Tianyun immediately felt a strange energy envelop him. It tried to invade his body from all directions, but it only covered the surface and failed to penetrate completely.
After walking for a while, a blurry silhouette suddenly appeared before him, gradually taking on a human shape. As time passed, the figure became clearer and clearer, until he finally realized that the person it had formed was himself!
Its appearance was identical to his, though it wasn’t his true face—it was a copy of the one he was currently wearing. Its clothes were also exactly the same. The moment the figure solidified, it lunged at him without hesitation, swinging a heavy fist.
Yi Tianyun didn’t even try to dodge, allowing "himself" to strike. The fist landed on his body with a THUD, and the entire phantom was sent flying back from the recoil. As it flew backward, Yi Tianyun reached out, grabbed it, and slammed it hard onto the ground. With a BAM, it was smashed into mist, which then merged back into the surrounding fog.
It was completely effortless.
’Isn’t this a little too weak? Its strength is pathetic, and its cultivation is even worse...’ Yi Tianyun shook his head. He knew it was because it had been created with insufficient data, so the "self" that it formed was naturally fragile.
’It copied my fake face, so how could it have any real power? It didn’t replicate my Evil Dragon Set or my Physique, so naturally, its power was severely lacking.’
After he defeated his opponent and its remains merged back into the fog, the surrounding mist quickly dissipated. Revealed before him was a long, narrow corridor, identical to the one he had entered at the very beginning.
’So it was an Illusion Array all along? This Illusion Array is quite ingenious. I fell into it without even realizing it, and the effects felt completely real...’
Yi Tianyun was stunned for a moment. He really hadn’t expected to be caught in an Illusion Array; he had walked seamlessly from one stage to the next. He never imagined that defeating "himself" would reveal the true path!
He turned his head to look back and saw the entrance he had come through. It was, indeed, still the ice cave entrance; that part hadn’t been an illusion. Only the ice section was real; the later stages were all fake.
No wonder the Ancestor said everything was random and that other types of trials could appear. His trial had consisted of these five attribute tests, plus the challenge of defeating himself. If it had been someone else, they likely would have faced different challenges.
’There is always a mountain beyond a mountain, and always someone better. Even though I’ve reached the level of a Divine Rune Master, I still walked right into an Illusion Array without noticing.’ Yi Tianyun shook his head. ’It’s a good thing I’m strong and this place wasn’t too dangerous, otherwise I could have easily been defeated here.’
He immediately looked ahead. Several white lights were flashing in the distance. That had to be the finish line.
Without overthinking it, he started walking. After passing through the corridor, the space before him opened up. What came into view was a massive stone tablet; or rather, it was carved directly into a stone cliff face.
This cliff face, a hundred meters tall, was covered from top to bottom with densely packed Divine Runes. Looking closely, he found they were all quite common—basically, every Divine Rune up to the Master level was carved on it.
None of the Divine Runes were particularly Rare, and Yi Tianyun recognized most of them. Some Divine Runes unique to the Spirit Race were not carved here. He wasn’t sure what the significance of that was. It was very possible that a Spirit Race ancestor had simply been bored and decided to carve something on it.
’Do I just have to stand before this tablet and see if I can gain its recognition?’
Yi Tianyun walked up to the cliff face and placed his hand on it. The wall immediately emitted a green light that instantly enveloped his entire body, making him feel pleasantly warm.
A moment later, all the light vanished. The entire cliff face was still. It hadn’t given him a single Divine Rune.
’I... failed?’ Yi Tianyun was dumbfounded.
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