Arden was covered in injuries and eventually lost consciousness, collapsing on the ring. Shortly after, his body was teleported away, while Qi Yu continued to persevere.

Ten days have passed. Qi Yu's hands are now a bloody mess, and his vision is blurred. He is moving entirely by his body and by instinct. His spiritual energy is being depleted, and the hand holding the sword is even bone-deep. His gray robe is covered in blood. Qi Yu stares intently ahead, his mind filled with thoughts of his wife waiting for him to return.

Under this pain and torment, Qi Yu took out spiritual water from his pocket and poured it directly into his mouth. His body regained a lot of spiritual power. He continued to persevere and picked up his sword again. At this moment, time seemed to stand still. Under such heavy pressure and tempering, his body actually produced blood mist little by little.

Thirty days have passed, and Qi Yu is still fighting against the vengeful spirits. Time is passing, and his whole body seems to be undergoing a transformation. All his skin and flesh are being torn off and then growing back. Pain, despair, and the feeling of collapse are intertwined, and everything is heading towards darkness.

One or two years passed, then three or four, time became infinite. Despair was reborn from pain, and Qi Yu's power was growing wildly. By the tenth year, his hair was completely white, and he held the sword tightly in his hand, pointing it forward. At this moment, a pleasant voice rang out, "Congratulations, fellow Daoist, on breaking through the secret realm test. Here is a spatial ring. Please do not refuse it."

After the voice disappeared, a platform appeared in front of him, on which sat a withered hand bone with a ring on it.

Qi Yu trembled as he stepped forward, took the ring, bit his finger, and let the blood drip onto the ring to form a contract. After the contract was formed, he took out something crucial from the ring—a sword that looked sinister. He held it in his hand, infused it with spiritual power, and dripped blood onto it. The sword finally calmed down.

After the contract was signed, Qi Yu was teleported to another place, a swamp. As soon as he landed, Arden immediately walked to Qi Yu's side. "You've finally come. I think I had a terrible dream. I dreamt that I fought with vengeful spirits for three days and three nights. In the end, I passed out. When I woke up, I was teleported here. I've been waiting for almost half an hour for you to arrive."

"Okay, let's go, take this with you."

As he expected, time was indeed different inside than outside; ten years inside was only about an hour outside.

Qi Yu took out a bottle of medicine from his spatial storage. Arden looked at the bottle of medicine, not understanding what to do with it.

"Apply these medicines to your skin; they will be useful later."

After handing the medicine to the guard, Qi Yu took out some food from his spatial storage and began to eat. The trial he had just experienced felt incredibly real, and he felt so hungry that his stomach was practically sticking to his intestines, and his internal organs were devouring each other.

Although he was perfectly fine in reality, this feeling was still consuming everything. Arden was also eating. After the two ate and slept, and applied enough medicine to their bodies, they walked forward. Ahead was a swamp, and the two used their spiritual power to leap between the trees.

At this moment, an incredibly terrifying snake appeared. The spiritual pressure released by this snake was at least that of a seventh-tier magical beast, two tiers higher than the Sacred Jade Poison Python that Qi Yu had previously schemed and fought so desperately to defeat.

Arden's legs almost went weak. Even a god-level expert wouldn't dare face such a raging flood alone. He wanted to cry. Had he entered the gate of death?

Just as the two were jumping, the Sacred Jade Serpent King opened its blood-red maw and swallowed them whole with incredible speed.

The two followed the Sacred Jade Serpent King Beast into its stomach. The Sacred Jade Serpent King Beast's stomach was enormous. Arden had never encountered anything so terrifying in his life, and he was certain that he was going to die.

Qi Yu, however, remained calm and took out a sticky, glove-shaped object from his spatial storage and handed it directly to Aden, saying, "Put this on; you'll need to climb above the Serpent King Beast's stomach later."

Inside the snake's stomach, their feet were constantly being eroded. Arden was grimacing in pain; he was no longer an assassin, but a dying man. Taking the gloves, the two of them used them to climb onto the snake's stomach.

"Master, you deliberately went into this snake's stomach, didn't you? I want to know, why do we have to be here? We'll be digested, won't we?"

Qi Yu remained silent and continued climbing. When he reached the top, he lay quietly on the ground. Time passed slowly, and soon the giant snake threw another prey into its stomach—a level seven lizard monster that had already been strangled.

"Stay put." Qi Yu said expressionlessly. The two waited, and after a cup of tea, the king cobra began to release stomach acid into its stomach. The large lizard was thus corroded, and a foul stench wafted over.

Qi Yu endured it, showing no expression. Half an hour later, when the stomach acid stopped being released, Aden could no longer hold back. "Master, why did you choose a dead end back then?"

He originally thought that his master would at least choose a door to go in, but you guys had the misfortune of choosing a dead door. This place is just too dangerous.

"This is the gate of life. Entering through any other gate means certain death. This is the only gate through which you can survive."

Qi Yu explained calmly, and time began to stretch on indefinitely again. After the Sacred Jade Serpent King Beast finished releasing its stomach acid, the two of them were still anxious to get down, since they couldn't be sure whether the lizard under them was dead or not.

Two hours later, Qi Yu opened his eyes and said calmly, "It's okay, you can come down now."

After saying that, he let go and jumped down. The lizard was gradually dismembered by the stomach acid, turning into blood and bones. Arden endured the pain of being corroded by the stomach acid and followed Qi Yu forward.

Qi Yu took out a strange sword from his spatial storage. The sword was broken and seemed to be filled with a frightening power.

He plunged the sword directly into the giant serpent, the blade continuously releasing power. A terrifying force swept over, and Arden was completely shocked. When did he get this sword? Why was it so powerful? And what was the source of this terrifying spiritual energy?

All of this was too fantastical. A tremendous force swept over, and the body of the Sacred Jade Serpent King Beast was being drained of its life at an incredible speed. White spiritual energy swept over, and the Sacred Jade Serpent King Beast turned into a corpse.

The number of vengeful spirits within the sword decreased, turning into streaks of white light and disappearing.

"I will become the one in power."

Qi Yu brandished his sword, piercing through the body of the Sacred Jade Poisonous Python King and emerging into a damp cave. Aden, still shaken, sat on the ground, applying medicine to his rotting legs.

For some reason, Aden felt he was about to break through, his body filled with spiritual power. He immediately dropped the medicine, sat cross-legged, and prepared to break through to the Nascent Soul Realm. Heaven knows, as a Golden Core cultivator, he might not be able to break through to the Nascent Soul Realm even in five or ten years. This place is really strange.

Qi Yu was also sprinting along the side; he was about to reach the Nascent Soul stage, and he had made a fortune from this trip to the secret realm.