The trees in the forest were towering and the ground was covered with fallen leaves. Lu Zhaozhao moved through the forest, leaving behind a rustling sound of dry leaves wherever she went.
Having just gone through a fierce battle, she dared not stop for a moment. After quickly stopping the bleeding, she continued running.
He ran while clutching his injured shoulder, afraid that even a drop of blood would attract the wounded spiders behind him.
Lu Zhaozhao's mind raced, her five senses alertly observing her surroundings.
The most urgent task is to find a hiding place, after all, this place is full of dangers, and there are many more dangerous creatures than that spider, and her current condition is really too bad.
Lu Zhaozhao scanned her surroundings and suddenly spotted a cave about the height of a person not far away. She quickly moved and slipped inside.
The cave entrance was covered by weeds, and the cave was pitch black inside. The moment Lu Zhaozhao stepped into the cave, she lit the mermaid candle.
Warm light filled the entire cave.
After thoroughly searching the cave and confirming that there was no danger, Lu Zhaozhao set up a formation at the cave entrance and tied a hexagonal bell to it as a warning, before collapsing completely to the ground.
The prolonged battle and the untreatable injuries had taken a toll on her mental and physical health, and she desperately needed rest.
Her consciousness gradually became hazy, and her eyelids kept closing. Since transmigrating into the book, she had never felt so tired as she was now.
Lu Zhaozhao held Niye tightly and fell into a deep sleep.
When I woke up again, the wounds on my body had begun to scab over thanks to the rapid recovery of my body after the body tempering.
She didn't know how long she had slept. Lu Zhaozhao rubbed her sore shoulders and took out the Yuanxu Mirror.
The mirror was covered with dense cracks, one of which ran through the entire surface, splitting the reflected image in two.
Lu Zhaozhao stroked the mirror with a bitter expression. This mirror had helped her block many attacks, and now that it was broken, it was quite heartbreaking.
She channeled a wisp of spiritual energy into it, and only after exploring it and discovering that it had indeed become an ordinary mirror did she finally give up hope.
Turning it over, the only good news was that the structure on the back used to tell time was still intact, which made Lu Zhaozhao breathe a sigh of relief.
After all, the back mountain doesn't experience the changing seasons, so it would be troublesome without a tool to determine the time.
Although the battle was fierce and the casualties were significant, there were still gains to be made.
Lu Zhaozhao sat cross-legged in meditation, and she could feel the spiritual energy that had been stagnant for a long time beginning to flow into her dantian.
She seems to have improved a lot compared to before, and perhaps it won't be long before she reaches the Great Perfection of the Golden Core stage.
The debris beside him was easily flipped open, and a figure appeared—it was Wei Zhanjie, whom he had been unable to summon for so long.
Lu Zhaozhao looked at him with a hint of resentment.
Feeling a little embarrassed by the stare, Wei Zhanjie scratched the back of his head and said, "Let me explain!"
“I’ll listen to your excuses,” Lu Zhaozhao replied.
"Hey, you're mistaken. I'm doing this all for your own good!" Wei Zhanjie said confidently. "Look, that spider is at most at the early Nascent Soul stage. Although it might be difficult for you to kill it, you can see how easily you injured it. And you've gained quite a bit from this battle!"
Lu Zhaozhao listened to his endless nonsense without refuting him, after all, she had indeed gained something, even though she almost lost her life.
"And then what? What should I do?" Lu Zhaozhao interrupted Wei Zhanjie's incessant chatter.
"And then? Then you can continue fighting monsters and cultivating." Wei Zhanjie said casually, "I just used my spiritual power to investigate, and it seems that there are also level rules here. The strength of the demons in the outer layer is about the same as that spider from before. Once you stay here until you reach the Great Perfection of the Golden Core stage, you can go in."
Lu Zhaozhao nodded, replied "Okay," and closed the book, cutting off the endless stream of nonsense that followed.
After closing the book, she quietly began to ponder in her mind.
There are still a little over four years until the Golden Palace Banquet.
In her memory, the previous champion was Yue Cong, a disciple of Qing Songzi from Wenyuan Academy, whose cultivation level was at the mid-Nascent Soul stage.
Ahead was her senior brother, Ying Che, whose cultivation level was at the late Nascent Soul stage at the time.
Further back was Zhou Liang, the son of Emperor Huizong of the Qing Dynasty. At that time, he had been trapped in the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm for twenty years and was undoubtedly the number one person below the Out-of-Body realm. After winning the championship, he went down the mountain to travel far away and has not returned to this day.
Almost all those who made it onto the Golden Banquet list were at the Nascent Soul stage and were already somewhat famous in the cultivation world before participating in the competition.
Therefore, her most urgent task is to advance to the Nascent Soul stage in order to have any fighting power.
Besides, cultivation alone is far from enough.
Among those who participated with Yue Cong were not those with the same cultivation level as him, and some even had higher cultivation levels. The reason why he was able to overpower the crowd was inseparable from the profound foundation of Wenyuan Academy.
Weapons, techniques, moves, etc., apart from those of independent cultivators, are all backed by sects, and major sects have a unique advantage in this regard.
Yue Cong's cultivation level may not be the highest, but he was the strongest in terms of overall strength in that generation. Just the moves he used were enough to make him compete with those in the late Nascent Soul stage.
Therefore, among the three major sects, apart from the Tianyin Sect which is not good at fighting, the leaders who eventually ascended the Golden Terrace were basically from Wenyuan Academy and Qing Huizong.
Of course, it's not impossible for disciples outside the three major sects to be included.
A hundred years ago, Fu Zhuchen emerged out of nowhere, overpowering all the sects with his own strength and ascending to the Golden Terrace alone.
After the competition, people searched for information about him and discovered that he was just a rogue cultivator who had been cultivating in the mountains for many years. He had only come down from the mountains by chance and participated in the Golden Banquet because he saw the grand occasion. After winning the championship, he went back to cultivating again.
The Golden Palace Banquet has a long history, and many of its members have come from small sects or independent cultivators. But regardless of their origins, they all share one thing in common: they were all undisputed number one in their time!
Lu Zhaozhao let out a long breath, rubbing her still slightly sore left shoulder. Beneath her long, distinct eyelashes, her gaze remained intensely fixed on her.
She looked towards the cave entrance, where the soft sound of bells occasionally rang out, probably because some monsters were passing by, and she was about to chase after them.
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