"There are many unstable factors in the Demon Refining Tower. Please be careful."
The second round of trials of the Ten Dharma Assembly began at noon on the day after the Lantern Festival, in front of the famous Demon Refining Tower.
As a representative of the elders, Tian Xianzi stood at the entrance of the towering white tower and gave a speech like a mobilization meeting for the final exams.
While Ningning was listening to him explain the rules, she looked up at the majestic white shadow not far away and couldn't help feeling a little shocked.
The Demon Refining Tower is located on Lingtian Peak in Kunshan. The top of the peak is covered with clouds and mist. Occasionally, cranes cry as they fly by, leaving a fleeting shadow across the sky.
The sunlight penetrated through the layers of fog, like thousands of golden swords tearing through the smoke, allowing the majestic shape of the giant tower to gradually emerge.
The tower is built of snow-white marble. It is tall and slender, reaching into the sky, like a giant sword standing on the top of a mountain, with golden light appearing in the sunlight.
There are six corners on the eaves of the White Pagoda, carved with various talismans and spells. Each corner is like a bird with its wings spread, rising upwards, as if it is about to soar into the sky like a broken bamboo.
According to Tian Xianzi, the Demon Refining Tower was formerly a dangerous devil's land where evil demons and monsters lurked and often went to the human world to commit crimes.
Fortunately, the founder of Kunshan came forward to subdue the demons, and used all his strength to create a secret realm, suppressing all the demons in the area. Outside the secret realm is a pure white tower.
Later, perhaps out of habit, and because the tower itself possessed a strong suppressive power, the descendants of Kunshan often imprisoned the subdued evil spirits in the tower, which was named the "Demon Refining Tower." To put it bluntly, it was actually a prison for holding evil spirits.
"The Demon Refining Tower has a total of one hundred floors. The higher you go, the stronger the demons imprisoned there will be."
Tian Xianzi sobered up and stood upright in front of the tower. He looked quite high-spirited, and it was hard to associate him with the drunk dog galloping on horseback that day. "You will be randomly sent to different levels of the tower. The level number will be marked at the entrance to the secret realm. If you feel powerless and unable to defeat the monsters on that level, you can choose to exit this level and start the next round of random selection."
“Isn’t this a great degree of freedom?”
Zheng Weiqi rubbed her hands together, her eyes flashing with impatience: "I thought we had to climb up level by level, but if that's the case, there's no need to waste time on the lower levels."
If you are going to fight, you have to fight the strongest opponent. The eldest senior sister is truly a typical swordsman in the Nascent Soul stage.
Ning Ning sighed inwardly, and suddenly heard a disciple ask: "Elder Tianxian, won't the Jindan Yuanying stage disciples be separated this time?"
"good."
Tian Xianzi curled his lips and smiled: "When you step into the real world of cultivation and fight against the evil spirits, why would it care whether you are of the same rank? But having said that, this trial is different from the first round, and there is another rule-"
"In the Demon Refining Tower, no one is allowed to harm other disciples. You have learned how to compete before, and in this round, you should try to cooperate."
Someone wondered, "If that's the case, then wouldn't fellow disciples be able to collude with each other and let their Nascent Souls lead their Golden Cores to kill people everywhere?"
“This brings us to another very interesting rule.”
Tian Xianzi smiled mysteriously, with the corners of his eyes curled up in a playful arc as if he was watching a good show.
"The tower floor you enter is completely random. Teammates fighting side by side on a certain floor will definitely be separated when entering the next floor."
He explained patiently, "Moreover, each floor can only accommodate a limited number of people, and each person's chance to exit a floor and reselect is also limited. If you want to reunite with your fellow disciples through random chance, you might as well give up the idea as soon as possible."
In other words, this trial has a very high degree of randomness.
You have no control over your teammates and opponents. The only way to score more points is to work together with disciples from various sects and defeat the monsters in the White Tower.
"Each floor of the tower is a completely different fantasy world, with more than one evil demon inside."
Tian Xianzi was very interested, and seemed to be eager to watch the progress in front of the mysterious mirror. He spoke much faster: "When the demon dies, everyone on the floor will get corresponding points. The higher the tower floor and the stronger the demon, the higher the score you can get."
He raised his eyebrows and glanced at everyone present: "Do you understand? Is there anything else you don't understand?"
It was silent.
After a brief silence, someone finally plucked up the courage to raise his hand and ask, "Elder Tianxian, I heard that you performed a beautiful sword dance with a monk last night. What was the name of that dance?"
Tian Xianzi narrowed his eyes, and the veins on his forehead formed a “井” shape.
Tian Xianzi: "It's 'If you ask again, I'll kill you'."
=====
To be honest, Ningning was still a little nervous about entering the Demon Refining Tower.
This tower has always only existed in stories used to scare people. Unlike the pagoda tower of the Xuanxu Sword Sect, it is not an illusion. The demons imprisoned in it are all real. Any one of them, taken out alone, can make a child cry at night.
When she read the original text, one of the passages that left a deep impression on her was Pei Ji's experience in the Demon Refining Tower.
He never seemed to feel timid, and even when he reached a high position, he would still draw his sword and meet the enemy without hesitation. Even with the protection of the protagonist's halo, he was still covered in wounds and blood every time, grasping for the last chance of survival in desperate situations.
This distracted her and she started thinking seriously:
Is there anything in this world that would make Pei Ji afraid or hesitate? Would he, like everyone else, back off at times?
Ningning couldn't think of it.
He seemed to be working hard all the time and never stopped.
She walked to the main entrance of the Demon Refining Tower with a confused mind.
The pure white tower gate was wide open. Although the sky outside was clear and the sun was shining brightly, the inside of the gate was dark and murky, as if it was filled with ink, without any trace of light.
In other words, that space seemed to not exist at all.
Ningning gripped the hilt of the sword and stepped forward. The moment her right foot stepped into the door, in the blink of an eye, the scenery in front of her changed.
The first thing that invades all the senses is the bone-deep cold.
Everywhere she looked was a vast expanse of white, with heavy snow flying all over the sky like goose feathers. In the white snow, as soon as she lowered her head, she saw the stone tablet beside her.
Ice and snow condensed on the stone tablet, and rime swirled and spread like a spider web. She looked carefully and finally made out the numbers engraved on the tablet.
Fifty.
A number that is neither good nor bad, just right in the middle.
But it is precisely because of this that it is difficult for her to judge the difficulty of this level.
The howling wind sounded like the howl of a wild beast, accompanied by bursts of coldness gnawing at her earlobes. Ningning subconsciously covered her cold arms and looked around.
The withered branches of the trees looked like skeletons crawling on the ground. Everything was white as far as the eye could see. There was no other sound except the howling of the winter wind, which reminded her of the long mourning at the funeral.
The entrance to the fantasy world where she was was a dilapidated open space, which should be a safe area that would not be invaded by demons. To go to the more open main venue, one must cross a single-plank bridge that spanned two cliffs.
And in front of the single-plank bridge, there stood a very familiar figure.
Ning Ning was startled and called out the man's name: "He Zhizhou?"
Hearing her voice, He Zhizhou turned around suddenly, showing an expression of excitement that was about to cry: "Ningning!"
It’s fate! It’s destined! There are so many disciples participating in the Dharma Assembly, and to be able to meet the most reliable one in the sect is simply a blessing he has earned in three lifetimes!
"Should we go across this bridge?" Ningning said as she walked forward and looked down the cliff.
It was pitch black and she could faintly hear a few strange and low howls. No matter what, she absolutely did not want to go and experience it in person.
It was at this moment that she finally understood why He Zhizhou hesitated in front of the single-plank bridge.
He is afraid of heights.
Because of his severe fear of heights, this person's sword-flying skills are still at the kindergarten level. He once threw Xu Ye off his sword in Xiaochong Mountain.
Flying with a sword is not allowed in the Demon Refining Tower. Now that he is facing this steep cliff, he must be timid and dare not take a step forward.
“This, this, this is too scary.”
He Zhizhou used up all his courage to look down, but soon took a step back and shrank back: "This bridge looks very precarious. It won't break when we are halfway up, will it? Even if it doesn't break, it is snowing so heavily, the bridge must be full of water and ice. If we happen to touch it, we will slide down - it's too scary!"
This is the mental journey of a person with acrophobia. No matter what, they can always imagine countless ways of dying while standing on a high place.
Although what he said was exaggerated, there was some truth in it. Ning Ning was still young after all, and was also a little scared of the abyss before her. After thinking for a moment, she had an idea: "I have an idea - you follow me."
He Zhizhou looked at her blankly.
The elders outside the mysterious mirror also watched her every move intently.
"What do you think she'll come up with?"
Ji Yunkai laughed and said, "This bridge looks particularly fragile. If we use swordsmanship on it, it might break immediately."
Zhenxiao answered honestly: "There is no other way except to walk across the bridge. If there is any other way... maybe I can hang my body in the air, hold the bridge with both hands, and swing across like holding a rope."
"Isn't this more difficult than simply walking over there?"
Tian Xianzi glanced at him and said, "If you ask me, Ning Ning's habit of not following the beaten path might make her lift He Zhizhou above her head. You've all seen acrobatics, right? If she uses him as a wooden pole to balance her strength, she can easily get past him."
Ji Yunkai rolled his round eyes upwards, and the scene he mentioned instantly appeared in his mind.
Ningning was like a loving old mother, lifting up the disabled but strong-willed body of her idiot child with her thin shoulders. When she stepped onto the single-plank bridge, He Zhizhou's upright body trembled in the wind, with his extremely ferocious facial expression.
Inscription on the picture: "Heroic Mother".
Oh, how weird.
Ji Yunkai: "It's a bit like the movements of Elder Tianxian's butterfly dance last night."
Tian Xianzi: "Get lost!"
Tian Xianzi lowered his head while cursing, and continued to focus his gaze on the mysterious mirror.
It was at this moment that I finally couldn't help but widen my eyes.
Ningning moved her frozen hands and feet, then turned around and gave He Zhizhou a thumbs up.
Then without hesitation...
Lying on the ground?
The elders of Xuanxu Sword Sect concentrated and held their breath, staring at Xuan Jing intently. As Ningning moved, the tremors in their pupils grew bigger and more violent.
No words could describe her state at this moment.
Ningning's hands and feet twisted into a strange right angle shape, and her whole body suddenly shrank to the front left, while her left hand and left foot moved forward at the same time.
Then in the next moment, as if flowing water, he repeated the action on the right side of his body.
Her movements became faster and faster, and the two sides of her body were like a twitching toad, constantly alternating forward. She crawled rapidly on the single-plank bridge, with her whole body tightly attached to the wooden board, which was extremely strange.
And Ningning herself actually raised the corners of her lips when she was about to reach the finish line, and laughed wildly in the cold wind with the attitude of a winner.
It was so horrible that I cried and hugged myself in horror. It was so horrible.
This is definitely not an action that a human could come up with.
Tian Xianzi almost felt that his good disciple was possessed by the octopus spider spirit.
“Actually, actually—”
The eyes in front of the mysterious mirror were extremely shocked. Only He Zhizhou's voice resounded through the snowy plain. It was inexplicably filled with a touch of emotion and a tearful tone of homesickness. He spoke each word with full force: "Military training rule number five, crawl forward!!!"
Tian Xianzi and others did not know what "military training" was, and had never heard of "crawling forward" what it meant. They could only watch with different expressions as the two people crossed the bridge in this posture one by one. When they reached the other side of the cliff, they saluted in tacit understanding.
Although they are now surrounded by snow and ice, they seem to have returned to that past summer.
Neither of them knew anything about this level of the tower, and every step forward was risky.
Ningning originally planned to discuss the next battle plan with He Zhizhou first, but at the moment this thought came to her mind, she heard an unexpected loud noise from the vast snowfield not far away.
It was so quiet all around that the loud noise stood out. Ningning's heart was filled with alarm. She looked towards the source of the sound and couldn't help but tighten the Star Mark Sword in her hand.
Two figures rushed over from a distance, as if they were fleeing in panic regardless of everything; and behind them was an incomparably huge snow-white skeleton. Its fleshless hands waved forward, causing the mountain top to tremble violently and snow to fall.
"That's a dead spirit demon. I heard that it can determine the location of its prey by its breathing. Any species that breathes can be sensed by it—"
He Zhizhou paused, his tone showing a hint of shock: "Wait, the one running in front... isn't that Xu Ye? What's that posture?"
Ningning looked at it intently and frowned slightly.
Xu Ye and another strange disciple whom she had never seen before walked side by side. Although their bodies were facing forward, their heads were facing each other, like two crooked trees that had become spirits, running desperately in a very twisted posture.
And in their mouths, there is a hollow bamboo tube.
After roughly guessing the two people's thoughts, Ningning's expression became a little stern, and she suddenly realized.
I see!
Because everyone can breathe, as long as they use a bamboo pole to connect each other's mouths, they can achieve continuous exchange of oxygen. Back and forth, they can always keep breathing smooth without oxygen overflowing.
In this way, even if you keep breathing in and out, the evil spirit will never notice it!
He is truly a perpetual motion machine for breathing. He was able to come up with such a brilliant idea. He is truly a dragon and phoenix in the world of cultivation. One can't help but bow down to him and admire him!
——What a hammer! ! !
Isn't this just like sucking in a lot of carbon dioxide from the other person's mouth?
Help! The movements of these two running wildly with their necks tilted and their hands swinging are really weird and scary, as if they are acting out "Revenge of the Conjoined Twins"! Moreover, Xu Ye's face had turned the color of liver, and he started rolling his eyes while running!
He must be out of breath. He must be out of breath! Both of them have started to feel weak in the limbs and twitching all over, and are about to die, so who came up with this bad idea?
One of these two dares to think, and the other dares to do. They can be regarded as the well-deserved young talents in the world of cultivation and a perfect pair.
Before Ning Ning could help, Xu Ye rolled his eyes and leaned back wildly in a heart-wrenching posture like a falling flower. His liver-colored face seemed to have been stir-fried and dyed a shocking red.
He spat out the bamboo tube, and under the thrust it suddenly poured into the mouth of another disciple. The two bodies were like two blooming flowers, one in front and one behind, one left and one right, leaning to both sides.
Outside the mysterious mirror, there was silence.
The trial had only begun for less than a cup of tea when the elites from each sect showed off their skills, shocking the entire sect.
First, Xuanxu's disciples transformed themselves into human toads and crawled across the bridge. Later, the Wanjian Sect was not to be outdone and performed suicide in public while being hunted by evil demons. What a true example of "my destiny is in my own hands"!
I really don’t know what kind of tragedy will happen next. The Ten Dharma Assemblage is so terrifying!
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