There are twelve masters of the Golden Palace, and if the number of cultivators entering is greater than twelve, it means competition and elimination are inevitable.

According to Qiu Changtian's speculation, the Orthodox Church originally arranged for twelve people to enter, on the one hand to avoid excessive competition, and on the other hand to prevent being discovered by the Demonic Cult.

After all, the more people who know about the secret realm, the easier it is for the information to leak out.

On the contrary, if the scale is controlled in the hands of a few elites, it will be relatively safer - after all, the probability of a traitor appearing among the elites is the smallest.

Unfortunately, the news eventually leaked out.

Judging from the relationship between the righteous and evil factions, the subsequent competition and elimination will inevitably be extremely cruel, and they will most likely attack and kill each other as soon as they meet.

Qiu Changtian pinched his left hand and made a Taoist gesture to evaporate all the moisture on his body and Junior Sister Xu's body. Then he carried her and walked out.

If you think about it carefully, the Jindan Zhenren who enter the secret realm can be roughly divided into two types:

The first type is to take the initiative to attack and kill others; the second type is to try to hide oneself and avoid conflict.

After all, as long as there are no more than twelve people left, it will be fine. Unless you are absolutely confident in your own strength, you don't have to take the initiative to fight others. It is actually more beneficial to preserve your strength.

However, the rules of this Golden Palace Secret Realm really just require us to fight each other until only twelve people are left?

Qiu Changtian was deeply skeptical about this.

After walking for a while, a few maids suddenly appeared from the front and said with a smile:

"Sir, you are here. My master wants to see you."

Qiu Changtian:?

He soon realized that these maids were all illusions and had no physical existence.

"May I ask who your master is?" he asked cautiously with a frown.

"My master is Lord Liandu." The maids said with a smile, then came over to surround Qiu Changtian and led him forward.

After turning a few corners, you will enter a main hall.

The hall was magnificent, with two rows of tables and many rare and precious fruits displayed on them. There were also fairies playing the zither, singing and dancing in beautiful clothes, and the sound of stringed instruments was endless.

Sitting in the main seat was an old man wearing a seven-star crown, a blue crane robe, and red shoes. At the table below, sat several Jindan Zhenren.

Qiu Changtian swept his spiritual sense over them and saw that two of them were unfamiliar Demon Sect masters, one was the Golden Core Master from Mount Shu (his Taoist name seemed to be Miao Dan), and the other was none other than Luo Baiyuan, the senior sister who was at the Kunlun Golden Core Realm.

Although the four of them looked calm, they could not hide their anxiety.

"Two more distinguished guests!" The old man in the upper seat clapped his hands and said with a smile, "Come, please take a seat!"

Qiu Changtian was about to answer when he felt a force pushing him to sit next to Luo Baiyuan.

"The person in your arms has suffered damage to his consciousness." The old man said with a smile, "You only need to drink half a liang of wine to recover."

"Thank you, my lord." Qiu Changtian did not doubt him. After scanning the wine in the cup, he fed it to his junior sister in his arms.

After a few breaths, Xu Yinglian woke up slowly, propped himself up and looked around.

After a moment, she realized that something was wrong and asked Qiu Changtian a few questions in a low voice.

"I don't know either. I think it's a trial arranged by the secret realm." Qiu Changtian replied, calmly tasting the food and wine on the table.

Seeing his senior brother so calm, Xu Yinglian felt relieved and just glanced around vigilantly.

After a while, the round of singing and dancing ended, and the old man waved his hand to ask the musicians and dancers to leave, saying with a smile:

"I am the True Lord Liandu. I have invited you all to come here because I have a favor to ask of you."

The real people looked at each other in silence.

It’s not that no one wanted to leave before, but as soon as someone tried to stand up, they were immediately pressed back into their seats by some invisible force.

Acting in such a domineering manner, it is obvious that he is trying to force his way through. Calling it "asking for help" is just a fig leaf.

So the Miaodan Master from Shushan asked with an unpleasant expression:

"I wonder what you want from me, Master? I am so weak in magic power that I am afraid I cannot do what you ask me to do."

“Hahahaha.” True Lord Liandu stroked his beard and laughed, “No problem, just listen to me first.”

"In the Golden Palace, there are twelve main seats, each held by one of our twelve True Lords stationed in the secret realm. If you want to take a seat, you must first pass our test."

"Of course, there were more contenders in previous years, so there were usually several rounds of tests, which would screen out a large number of contenders."

"Only twenty-four people entered this time, so there will only be one round of testing."

Only 24 people entered? A thought flashed through Qiu Changtian's mind.

In other words, the Demon Cult only sent out twelve people.

If the Orthodox Church sent out twelve people in order to control the scale as much as possible and avoid the news from leaking out, then why did the Demonic Cult, as a latecomer, also choose to control the scale?

Combined with what this True Lord Liandu said, it is not difficult to draw the conclusion:

The more people there are, the more difficult the test becomes, in order to eliminate as many people as possible.

The number of participants is limited to a minimum of twelve in order to reduce the difficulty of the test as much as possible.

In other words, the basic difficulty of the test itself may have reached a level that it is difficult for us to pass...

"My test is very simple." Liandu Zhenjun said with a smile, "I made a bet with Jiuhua Zhenjun next door. I will choose one of you to teach you a Taoist method."

"Before noon tomorrow, if any of you can guess who I have chosen, then I will change the person I originally chose to the one you guessed correctly."

"As for the original chosen one who was guessed, it is considered that he has failed in my trial. It is impossible for him to get the position of Golden Palace from me. He can only try his luck with other True Lords."

"Of course, if the guess is wrong, the person who guessed wrong will also be considered to have failed the trial."

"On the other hand, if someone can tell me who the chosen one is from Jiuhua Zhenjun's side at noon tomorrow, I will hand over the Golden Palace position in my hand to him."

"On the contrary, if the people on Jiuhua Zhenjun's side guess who my chosen one is, then you will all be considered to have failed the trial."

"What if someone on both sides guesses it correctly, or what if neither side guesses it correctly?" Xu Yinglian suddenly said.

"Whether both sides guessed correctly or neither side guessed correctly, it will be considered a failure in the trial." Liandu Zhenjun said leisurely, "Of course, the teaching of the Tao is still valid."

Qiu Changtian: ...

What a trouble!

If the test content is a battle royale where everyone eliminates each other, then it is actually simple.

Now we have to compete with wits and strategies, which is obviously much more troublesome.

To put it simply, we must try our best to find the chooser of the opposite Jiuhua Zhenjun, and prevent the chooser of our Liandu Zhenjun from being found by the other side. It is a psychological game of guessing identities like Werewolf.

However, due to the possibility of informing the True Lord in advance and then replacing someone else, this test is much more complicated than guessing the identity in Werewolf.

You know, as long as you guess the chosen one, you can replace the person who learns Taoism from the True Lord with yourself.

For example, if I find out that the chosen one is Miaodan Zhenren from Shushan, I can secretly inform Liandu Zhenjun and replace the chosen one with myself.

Because of the existence of the above rule, everyone has a strong enough motivation to do this.

In this case, not only will we have to compete with the real person on the other side, but we can't even trust our companions here...

Um?

If it was Junior Sister Xu, she wouldn't have hidden it from me, right?