Because no matter where you are, the grassroots population at the bottom of the pyramid will always be the largest.

Some are as strong as Jiang Li who can fight against the enemy to build the foundation, while others are as weak as the rookie who has just cultivated a breath of spiritual energy and can't even use a piece of talisman paper properly. In essence, they are all cultivators in the Qi training stage.

As long as you meet the age requirement, you are eligible to participate.

Due to the previous agreement on the distribution of benefits, each sect can only send fifteen people to participate in the competition, and they have to be divided into five foundation-building and ten Qi-training.

And since independent cultivators do not have the right to participate in the resource allocation of the Medicine Garden Secret Realm, and it is instead an alternative disciple recruitment activity, there is no limit on the number of independent cultivators that can participate.

So much so that for a time, the number of Qi-cultivating monks who registered in the venue was overwhelming.

They are a mixed bag of good and bad, and there are even some casual cultivators who are in the middle or even early stages of Qi training and just want to try their luck.

Especially those who were in the early stage of Qi training were really careless. This was not a martial arts competition within the sect, but it could kill people. Even Jiang Li, when he was in the early stage of Qi training, had never done such a thing.

Nearly three thousand people rushed in at once, forcing the joint organizers to call an emergency stop.

After discussion, several registration rules were temporarily introduced. Monks participating in the competition need to pass several simple tests, such as speed, strength, and the power of spells.

In fact, the passing requirement of the test is not high at all, and you only need to pass one item to pass. But even so, a large number of applicants were still eliminated.

For this reason, a gray industry has emerged near the registration venue.

Some unscrupulous merchants specialize in selling low-quality talisman paper with extremely short validity and poor stability, which is said to just meet the registration standards. After collecting a large amount of spiritual stones in this way, they still sent a group of cannon fodder seeking death into the competition circle.

The day of the competition arrived not long after.

Due to the number of monks participating in the competition, the normal arena competition obviously could not accommodate such a number of monks, so a round of brutal survival competition was temporarily added to the Qi Refining stage arena for this competition.

Jiang Li came out of his retreat and came to the survival competition venue with a group of fellow disciples.

As disciples of Sutra Valley, they received some preferential treatment even in the competition.

For example, the independent cultivators all had to stand and wait for the competition to begin, but they could sit down, and not only that, they could also enjoy tea and pastries.

Even on Jiang Li's side, there are beautiful girls serving him.

"Brother Jiang Li... your shoulders are so stiff... there's so much moisture..."

The person who came over to give Jiang Li a massage was a registered disciple of Huichuntang. After all, it was Huichuntang next door, so there were actually quite a lot of female cultivators who were interested in him.

This is only for him, others don't have this kind of treatment.

Jiang Li's skin was thick and tough, and he made the girl want to cry but couldn't. It wasn't so strenuous even when he was massaging the bull demon.

Jiang Li thanked her reluctantly, then declined her offer to help him further. Instead, like most of the participating monks, he began to observe the venue he was about to enter.

It is called a venue, but in fact it requires many monks to start from the inner circle of the Misty Mountains, pass through the mountains which are actually distributed in a circular shape, and finally arrive at a destination set outside the Misty Mountains.

Normally, for a group of Qi Refining monks, crossing a maze of this level is tantamount to seeking death.

But the maze was originally set up to drive away living creatures and it does not have much lethality, so it is naturally extremely difficult to get in from the outside.

But the difficulty of walking from inside to outside is greatly reduced.

Moreover, the joint team composed of many sects has already figured out the formation terrain of this area, cleared out some overly powerful monsters on the mountain, and deliberately suppressed the power of the illusion formation on the ground along this route.

As long as the participating monks do not take detours or fly in the air, and proceed along the designated route, the difficulty level will still be within the range that a normal Qi Refining monk can handle.

Jiang Li has also seen the route map. There are four connected mountains that can directly penetrate the circular foggy mountains.

Each monk who participates in the competition will be assigned a flying talisman, and then these uncontrolled flying talismans will randomly drop everyone onto the first mountain.

While overcoming the harsh environment, monster attacks, and competition from rivals, they trudged all the way towards the finish line at the foot of the fourth mountain.

During the process, you may encounter some other difficult levels. No matter whether the monks unite or fight, as long as they can reach the end, they will get the opportunity to participate in the next round of competition.

The organizers gave the monks half an hour to memorize the topography of the four mountains.

Because the location you are dropped into is completely random, and under the cover of thick fog in the air, you can't even use the sun to determine the direction. You can only rely on the terrain and the memorized map to determine your location and the direction to go.

Of course, a good memory is not as good as a bad pen, and most of the disciples were working hard to copy the map.

In half an hour, the Qigong practitioners can remember and draw as much as they can, which may determine the success of their journey in the next few days.

Soon, the jade wall recording the detailed map was removed, which also meant the start of the martial arts competition.

The monks took turns to step forward one hundred at a time, and after being affixed with flying talismans, they turned into one hundred crooked meteors, disappeared into the thick fog, and flew into the mountains.

Covered by this thick fog, even the future flight trajectory cannot be predicted.

Affected by the formation, the fluctuations of spiritual energy are difficult to propagate over long distances, and the communication spirit stones cannot be used at all.

It seems that after entering the mountains, it is quite difficult to reunite with fellow disciples.

"Brothers and sisters, this is for you. If you are in danger, blow this. If I am nearby, I will try my best to rush to support you."

Although Jiang Li called the others senior brothers and sisters, it was obvious that the other nine people tacitly accepted him as the leader. After all, the gap in strength was there, and there was nothing to argue about.

Jiang Li handed out nine white metal whistles and kept one for himself.

The white whistle is just a short tube the size of a finger, with a carefully polished reed stuck in the middle of the short tube.

This thing did not have any spiritual energy fluctuations, so when the other disciples got it, they were all confused.

They are not so ignorant that they don't know what a whistle is.

The problem was that there were more than 4,000 monks participating in this round of competition. There were only ten people in the Sutra Repository Valley. Under such circumstances, they had long given up hope of successfully joining together.

If a signal is sent out at this time, there is a fear that companions will not receive it, and a group of malicious enemies will come first.

Jiang Li didn't think they could understand any scientific knowledge. Facts speak louder than words. He just blew a long breath into the whistle in his hand.

The sound of the white whistle was not loud at all, but instead it just made a slight buzzing sound like the flapping of mosquito wings.

Just when the other nine people thought that Jiang Li's whistle was broken, the whistles in their hands actually began to tremble slightly, and the trembling arc became more and more obvious, and soon they made the same buzzing sound.

"It's ringing... and there's no spiritual energy fluctuation at all."

The nine people looked at the things in their hands in surprise, and they couldn't understand how such an ordinary little gadget could suddenly vibrate in their hands.

Several inner disciples have lived in a world based on spiritual energy for too long, so it is inevitable that they will feel novel about things outside of other systems. But that's all.

Infrasound is the vibration of air. Its propagation does not rely on spiritual energy and cannot be captured by ordinary human ears. This is its advantage.

However, its range of transmission and the content it conveys are indeed limited. This small prop can only let them know that there are people nearby. No matter how many there are, it cannot even point out a direction. It is only slightly better than having nothing.

Unless... someone among them has super hearing that surpasses ordinary humans, like someone who has mastered the Guanyin Heart Sutra.

After they had worked out a general plan of advance and whistle signals, it was their turn to set off.

Jiang Li looked at the expressions of the crowd, and they were still more excited than afraid. The whistle was just for insurance. After all, they were disciples of the four major sects of Dachong Mountain, so it was not their turn to be afraid.

The other monks should be trembling in front of them.

"My fellow disciples, may your immortal fortunes flourish!"

"May the immortal fortune flourish!"

Jiang Li then stuck the flying talisman on his body, and the gravity on his body suddenly disappeared, and a force pulled him into the sky.

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This was fine at first, but after entering the area covered by the fog, he felt like he was spiraling into the sky, and the flight path was so floating that he felt "flying dizzy".

That's because the effect of the maze acted on him and the talisman paper respectively, but the directions of being misled were not consistent. After the directions were confused, this situation occurred.

After flying for a distance, Jiang Li could feel the spiritual energy of the talisman paper on his body gradually being consumed, and his altitude gradually decreased.

Finally, after descending to a certain height, it escaped from the fog.

The talisman paper on his body automatically turned into ashes, and the last bit of spiritual energy dragged Jiang Li slowly to the top of a tree.

There is fog two meters above my head. No wonder I can't fly.

If you are flying in the fog and spinning in place it would be fine, but if you accidentally fly to other mountaintops, then your life and death will be in the hands of fate, and your wealth and honor will be in the hands of God.

Jiang Li took out a whistle and blew it. After waiting for a moment, he received no response. It seemed that his fellow disciples were not within the coverage range of the whistle.

He took out a map from his arms. It was the map that the stadium staff had given him, folded under the talisman paper when they gave him the flying talisman.

Along with the map, there was also a small string of thunder bombs.

For outstanding disciples of a large sect like them, there is still a way out if an accident happens. This kind of string of thunder is obviously of better quality and can rise to a very high altitude. There will always be flying boats patrolling above the clouds and mist. Once someone sends a signal, they will go down to rescue.

This was the reason why he joined the sect instead of practicing on his own.

Since privilege and injustice exist in this world and cannot be eliminated, why not make yourself one of those people who enjoy the privilege?

Comparing the map with the location, Jiang Li determined the position and walked slowly towards the destination.

He took out the coffin from his arms, and the coffin lid slid open automatically. A black gas floated out from inside, fell to the ground, and quickly turned into a graceful figure.

After Qin Shuman came out, she bowed down and knelt in front of Jiang Li.

"Sir, you are looking for me."

Qin Shuman is now quite respectful to Jiang Li.

Jiang Li couldn't guarantee whether the other party was truly devoted to him, but as long as he could ensure that the female ghost could not escape from his control and was easy to use, that would be enough.

"This place is inside a large maze, which was built by monks using the natural terrain. Go and take a look. It will be very helpful for you to comprehend the Record of Illusionary Laws and Floating Life."

Jiang Li pointed at the fog above. He didn't want the other party to break the fog. That was just a foolish dream! It had only been a few days since this female ghost got the Taoism. If she could break the secret realm illusion array, then how could the other cultivators in the Dazhongshan Immortal Cultivation World have the face to live in this world?

But as he said, it is not always possible to observe this level of illusion array up close in a safe manner, which is of great benefit to the practice of illusion.

Especially when the power of the formation is deliberately suppressed, the context will undoubtedly be clearer.

"Yes, young master."

Qin Shuman floated above his head and observed carefully under the fog. As Jiang Li moved forward, she slowly followed.

Jiang Li was not walking in a completely straight line, but was trying to find some pattern, and digging the soil from time to time.

For him, this large formation is also a top-level teaching and observation opportunity.

In terms of scale and use of the power of heaven and earth, even the protective formation of the Sutra Valley is far inferior to this.

As he walked, the route that he had originally been able to move forward became even more tortuous, and he was running around in the mountain like a headless fly.

After a long while, he finally found a place and took out a mid-grade yellow-level magic weapon with earth attribute.

It was a large shovel for digging.

This thing is really powerful. For things like digging a hole to bury a body, just push it on the ground and it will directly make a two-meter square pit. It's effortless at all.

This is a magic weapon that Jiang Li specially asked the Weapon Refining Hall to make. It can be easily mastered without the need for earth-attributed spiritual roots.

Although it has no offensive power, it is extremely professional at digging holes and soil.

He dug a few times in the ground casually, just like playing "Minecraft". One cube of earth after another was dug out from the ground and placed neatly aside.

In just a few moves, a pit more than ten meters deep appeared under his hands.

Ding! Then the big shovel in his hand suddenly poked something hard. After Jiang Li peeled off a layer of soil, he felt a little happy.

Sure enough, there is an array base node here.

The terrain of this misty mountain range is not as perfect as the Five Elements Peak of Mount Shu. If you want the formation to work well, you must guide the ground veins through an artificial formation base.

This is the place where Jiang Li concluded, after a lot of calculations, that the formation node is most likely to exist.

This stone must be worth a lot of money.

Jiang Li touched his chin and thought for a while, but finally decided not to dig this thing away. Instead, he took out a bunch of formation layout materials from the coffin and arranged them around the formation base.

It was not easy for him to come here, and as a rune array master, he must leave a back door here.

(End of this chapter)