Amidst the disciples' whispers, a voice echoed through the heavens and the earth. "Cultivators participating in the Wheel of Life and Death, step forward with your sect elders. The Wheel of Life and Death opens now!"
As Li Yan observed the spherical mountain in the center and listened to the discussions around him, he suddenly heard a cold shout. It was the voice of Sword King Xiahuà from the Ten-Pace Courtyard.
Following that, he heard Elder Peng's low command, "Go!" He had already risen and flown towards the central spherical mountain. Baili Yuan, Gan Shi, and Gong Chenying followed, and after taking flight, the three of them released their respective flying artifacts. Li Yan and the others understood that as Qi Condensation cultivators, they lacked the ability for long-distance flight and quickly darted towards their team's flying artifact.
The moment Li Yan took to the air, a charming voice sounded in his ear. "Little Junior Brother, be careful!"
Li Yan recognized the voice as Li Changting's. He couldn't help but look back and saw Li Changting and Zhao Min standing together like two twin lotuses. However, their complexions were not good; a single night had clearly not been enough to recover much of their vital energy. Seeing him turn around, Li Changting winked at Zhao Min beside her. Zhao Min, still with her icy expression, gave a helpless, slight nod to Li Yan.
"Eldest Senior Sister Li of Little Bamboo Peak, treat me to wine when I get back!" Li Yan shouted back loudly before flying forward.
His voice was not quiet, and many people around heard it clearly. They were stunned and all looked towards Li Changting. Li Changting was taken aback at first, then a smug expression appeared on her face. She looked at the embarrassed Li Wuyi with a mix of reproach and amusement and whispered, "Mhm, there's wine, good wine. Good wine with lots of Gu-insects."
Hearing this, a smile bloomed on Zhao Min's pale face, like a lily opening, a solitary beauty.
Gong Chenying's flying artifact was a small White Jade Skiff, which Li Yan had seen before in the Spirit Plant Garden. Baili Yuan's was a giant gourd, and Gan Shi's was a large banner. Every Qi Condensation cultivator had already been informed of their squad yesterday. The thirty-six of them quickly ran towards their respective team leaders' positions. Two breaths later, the three artifacts were already chasing after Elder Peng.
Soon, the various parties arrived above the spherical mountain. After stopping at a distance from each other, it was once again Elder Peng, Sword King Xiahuà, and Yin Congfeng who each took out a triangular brown object and threw it into the air. They then formed hand seals and directed them at the brown objects. The three brown objects trembled for a moment and then assembled into a compass shape again. Only this time, no one from the Pure Land Sect or the Supreme Mystery Teachings stepped forward to assist. The compass was already spinning rapidly. As it spun, beams of various colored lights were flung out as if by centrifugal force, striking the spherical mountain below.
Li Yan stared at the scene above, which resembled a spinning firework. He didn't need to look to know that the faces of the elders from the Pure Land Sect and the Supreme Mystery Teachings must be extremely grim. Li Yan saw the compass spin rapidly, shooting out twenty beams of different colored lights before stopping. It didn't expand and hover in the air like it did at the valley. Instead, it quickly separated and shot back towards Elder Peng's trio.
The twenty beams of light landed on different areas of the spherical mountain. The green vegetation in the corresponding areas distorted, and then a transparent passage slowly extended out from the plants. Above each passage entrance, twenty translucent Blue Rhomboid Crystals slowly rotated. They were dazzlingly beautiful and captivating. At the core of each Blue Rhomboid Crystal was a dot of a different color. This meant that above each passage entrance, there was a choice of twenty colors for the Blue Rhomboid Crystal's core. When another passage entrance chose the same core color as you, your path would never intersect with theirs. However, a single color could only be chosen by a maximum of five passages, otherwise, it couldn't be opened. Each passage had to be led by one high-level cultivator and thirty-six cultivators of a lower realm. If the number or realm did not match, it could not be opened. And if all twenty passages were not simultaneously occupied by qualifying individuals, they could not be opened either.
"Team leaders may now step forward and choose a Rhomboid Crystal Key," Sword King Xiahuà said coldly after retrieving his brown object.
Gong Chenying and the other two looked at each other, then led their squads to three adjacent passages. The other three sects and the demonic beasts also landed at their respective passage entrances.
After Li Yan and his group arrived at the passage entrance, they disembarked from the White Jade Skiff and stood at the entrance illuminated by light. Beneath their feet was a transparent path paved with white light, leading straight to a distorted opening in the vegetation below. Inside the opening, a white mist swirled, as thick as a ball of blinding white liquid.
Seeing everyone in position, Baili Yuan, Gan Shi, and Gong Chenying exchanged glances, then looked around. Seeing that the other sects had not yet chosen their Blue Rhomboid Crystals, Baili Yuan pointed to one above his head with a purple core. The other two understood. The three of them reached for the purple-cored Blue Rhomboid Crystal above their heads. The moment they grabbed the crystals, a brilliant purple light erupted from above the three passages. Even the transparent path at their feet and the thick white liquid in the opening instantly turned a more dazzling purple. For a moment, the three teams seemed to be enveloped in a purple world.
This scene made the cultivators at the other seventeen passages, who had not yet acted, all look over. At this time, among the twenty Blue Rhomboid Crystals above their heads, there were still some with purple cores. If they still chose them, then at most two more passages could be chosen, and they would never have to fight Li Yan's group.
As Gong Chenying and the others were choosing their Blue Rhomboid Crystals, Li Yan had already raised his eyes to look at the other seventeen teams. As he watched, his eyes narrowed, and a cold smile appeared in his heart. 'So, apart from the demonic beasts, the other three sects used this kind of method. They had decided on their team leaders for the Wheel of Life and Death long ago. No wonder they didn't allow us to choose anyone from outside the harvesting participants.'
The Ten-Pace Courtyard's Wang Lang, Liang Liang, and Miao Zhengyi, the Supreme Mystery Teachings' Quan Jiuxing and Qiu Jiuzhen, and the Pure Land Sect's Chan Monk Zhiliao and Chan Monk Zhiwei were indeed among the team leaders. Li Yan just didn't know the names of the other person from the Supreme Mystery Teachings and the other Chan Monk from the Pure Land Sect.
The Malevolent Spirit Sect had noticed these few people yesterday. After they came out of the harvesting, they were all full of energy. Li Wuyi and the others had been keeping an eye on them. Later, after the team leaders were assigned, the Foundation Establishment cultivators had also discussed it. They had mentioned that because they saw that some people from the three sects were in such good condition, they had paid special attention. When these people handed over their sect's storage pouches, the Golden Core elders didn't seem to care much about the contents, but more about each person's physical condition.
This discovery gave Li Wuyi and the others some insight. They guessed that those storage pouches probably didn't contain anything valuable. And why not? The answer should be that these people might not have tried their best after entering the harvesting, or had even found a place to hide, all to conserve their strength for the Wheel of Life and Death.
This was also why Li Wuyi had reminded Gong Chenying and Li Yan again before they came to reconfirm the team leaders of the other factions. The three sects' conspiracy had become an open plot, clearly aimed at trapping the Malevolent Spirit Sect and the demonic beasts of the Secret Realm. Although the demonic beast side also had expected candidates like Jin Chuiyan, Wu Wu'an, and Yue Henguo, each of them was injured to some extent, clearly having been through a great battle.
Of course, the three team leaders, Gong Chenying included, also saw this, and their eyes grew grave.
While Li Yan and his group were observing their opponents, a gaze swept over them, sending a chill down the spines of the Malevolent Spirit Sect's Qi Condensation disciples. They looked over and saw it was the sharp-browed and bright-eyed Wang Lang from the Ten-Pace Courtyard. They had chosen a white-cored Blue Rhomboid Crystal. A cold smile played on his lips, but his gaze was as cold as ice as it swept over the Malevolent Spirit Sect, as if looking at a group of dead men.
Then, several more malicious gazes swept over the Malevolent Spirit Sect. They came from the three teams of the Supreme Mystery Teachings and several demonic cultivator teams. It was clear the demonic cultivators had ill intentions towards all the human teams. In fact, for their own eight paths, they had even chosen eight different colored Blue Rhomboid Crystals. Their killing intent was extremely heavy. As for the Pure Land Sect, after their monks chose three identical core-colored Blue Rhomboid Crystals, they lowered their eyes, their faces full of compassion.
Li Yan observed the nine teams from the three sects. Apart from their undisguised killing intent towards the Malevolent Spirit Sect, they did not exchange information or behave abnormally in any way. How were they going to target the Malevolent Spirit Sect? Even now, there was no unusual movement.
'Could it be that they will only make a move the moment we enter the passage?' Li Yan thought to himself.
He then stared at Wang Lang without blinking, hoping to see some clue. If something were to happen, it would most likely involve the team leaders. It was unrealistic to watch all the team leaders; focusing on one was enough.
"Since you have chosen, open!"
With a loud shout, Li Yan's hope was dashed. He didn't notice anything wrong with Wang Lang. On Sword King Xiahuà's command, all the cultivators, led by their team leaders, holding their Blue Rhomboid Crystals, plunged into the passages. The last time Li Yan glanced at Wang Lang's side, he had already entered the passage first. He made no move until the very end. If there was any action, it was simply holding the Blue Rhomboid Crystal and being the first to step into the pure white passage.
A world of bizarre and motley colors flashed before his eyes. The passage was an intertwining of bright and dark purple light, with spots of various colors streaking across the sky. It felt like a century had passed, yet also like the blink of an eye. When Li Yan's vision cleared again, he found himself standing on a street. He looked around in confusion. The thirty-seven of them were standing at the beginning of a dimly lit street. The street snaked into the distant twilight. On both sides were shops of various kinds—inns, stores, their doorways hung with all sorts of canvas signs and banners that swayed and fluttered in the gentle breeze. But what was eerie and sinister was that there were no sounds of hawking, no bustling crowds, no crowing of roosters or barking of dogs. There was only silence, a dead silence. Even the swaying signs and banners in the breeze were soundless. The silence was so profound that a sense of sorrow rose from the depths of one's heart.
Looking at the few fallen leaves swirling on the street, Gong Chenying, standing at the very front, put away her Blue Rhomboid Crystal. Then, she cautiously stepped onto the street. With a soft "pat" of her footstep, the silence was instantly broken. The sudden sound made even Gong Chenying herself pause. After confirming it was her own footstep, she glanced back at the others.
The people behind her were also startled by the sound of their leader's movement. Seeing Gong Chenying look at them, they exchanged glances and followed. Instantly, some life was added to this space.
"Maintain a distance of two zhang from me. Form six teams of six and keep watch in all directions," Gong Chenying said without turning her head. Her voice floated faintly in the space, sounding very crisp.
Everyone had been assigned their roles before coming. They quickly formed six small teams, their divine senses probing in all directions.
"Little... Little Martial Uncle, has it begun?" a voice sounded in Li Yan's mind. This startled the fully focused Li Yan. He turned his head and saw it was the horse-faced, scar-faced, dark-skinned "Senior Brother Wu" from Spirit Insect Peak who had brought him into the sect. Next to him was another person Li Yan was familiar with, "Senior Brother Yu" from Spirit Insect Peak, who was also smiling and nodding at him. Li Yan had a good impression of these two. Although he knew yesterday that they were in the same team, since the Spirit Insect Peak members formed their own group, Li Yan had no intention of going over to talk. He didn't expect these two to come to his side now and even send him a divine sense transmission. But seeing "Senior Brother Wu" address a disciple he had brought into the peak as Martial Uncle, it was clear he was still a bit uncomfortable.
"I don't think so," Li Yan replied succinctly.
"Oh, why do you say that?" "Senior Brother Wu" asked with some hesitation.
"Because the giant black shadow isn't behind us yet," Li Yan transmitted while glancing back again.