In the end, the Immortal Alliance evaluation was determined to be a trial by fire inside a secret realm.

The location of the trial by fire was at a place called the Heavenly Spirit Ruins. 

The enchantments placed inside the Heavenly Spirit Ruins weren’t any ordinary magic spells.

Legends say that this place was an abandoned ruin left behind after the fall of ancient mythical beasts. Over the years, it has attracted the attention of countless cultivators, demons(妖), and other supernatural creatures because of its abundance in spirit energy and the countless opportunities inside it. However, because of the harsh environment in this otherworldly location, it became known as the Heavenly Spirit Ruins.

Hundreds of years ago, the Heavenly Spirit Ruins was acquired by LingXiao Gates. Now, after some alterations from the Six Sects, it has been transformed to the location of the current Immortal Alliance evaluation.

“LingXiao Gates.” Feng Ci frowned. 

Currently, they were riding on the flying ship dispatched to Shaman Valley by the Immortal Alliance. The flying ship traveled through the layers of clouds and was on the path to LingXiao Gates.

“That’s right. LingXiao Gates.” Xiao Guo could pretty much guess why Feng Ci responded this way. He sat leaning against the soft chair inside the flying ship. Lazily puffing at his pipe, he smiled ambiguously: “Wasn’t LingXiao Gate’s act of rebellion before… orchestrated solely by Elder Cheng Chao? Now that Elder Cheng Chao has died, are we not even allowed to give them a fresh chance to reform?”

Feng Ci looked at him in silence.

Sometimes, he really couldn’t tell if the words from Xiao Guo’s mouth were his true thoughts or sarcasm. But LingXiao Gates…… The image of Xuan YangZi cleaning up Cheng Chao and the captured group of rebel disciples in LangFeng City still remained clear and fresh inside Feng Ci’s memories.

Just that one incident made it impossible for Feng Ci to trust LingXiao Gates fully.

However, the decision to place the Immortal Alliance evaluation inside LingXiao Gate’s magic arrays must have been approved by Pei QianYue.

According to Feng Ci’s knowledge, Pei QianYue also didn’t trust Xuan YangZi and LingXiao Gates, so he must have his reasons for agreeing to this decision.

However, the only way Feng Ci could verify this was seeing Pei QianYue after reaching LingXiao Gates. 

The Shaman Valley didn’t seem to participate in the struggle between the Six Sects. Feng Ci didn’t plan to reveal too much to Xiao Guo and continued to ask him: “What about after entering the Heavenly Spirit Ruins? How are they going to be tested?”

The content of the evaluation assessed the sects’ strengths. All sorts of treasures, fortuitous encounters, and opportunities were hidden within the secret realm along with demonic beasts, monsters, and harmful items. Every sect participating in the Immortal Alliance evaluation will select 5-10 people to enter the secret realm to exterminate the monsters, obtain treasures, and acquire opportunities, which are then calculated as points.

Every 24 hours, in other words every day at noon, there’s a tally of each sect’s individual scores. The sects with scores at the bottom half of the rankings are eliminated directly and transported out of the secret realm.

After three days, the sects that still remain inside the secret realm will pass the evaluation officially. 

After Feng Ci finished listening, he said pensively: “Interesting.”

“There’s something even more interesting.” With a smile, Xiao Guo said slowly: “I hear that this time, the evaluation does not restrict personal battles amongst each other. However, the result of the fight doesn’t count as points.”

Feng Ci blinked.

Unrestricted personal battles… This was pretty similar to the Spirit Deposit struggles of the past. 

Before the establishment of the Immortal Alliance, the different sects inside the cultivation world fought for control over Spirit Deposits using their own unique skills. One fight often resulted in countless deaths and injuries; no one gained much advantage from this. However, after the establishment of the Immortal Alliance, most of the Spirit Deposits and resources were acquired by the Immortal Alliance. There was no longer any need for those kinds of primitive conflicts.

Yet the trial inside the ruins this time… ultimately, it’s a struggle for treasures and beasts. If it were like other trials that didn’t permit harm to fellow cultivators, the treasures and beasts would automatically belong to the person that finds them; it’s inevitable that some people might gain advantage through pure luck rather than their own abilities.

Thinking about it from this perspective, such a rule was actually very much necessary.

However, this also increased the difficulty level exponentially. 

Not only were people required to adapt to the harsh environment of the secret realm and the extremely dangerous demons(妖) and beasts, people needed to also guard against others.

Feng Ci understood the main point here and nodded his head: “It’s indeed very interesting.”

The survival of the fittest. To be expected of Pei QianYue’s proposed evaluation method.

Feng Ci then asked: “How many cultivation sects are participating this time?” 

Xiao Guo said: “The evaluation did not conduct a preliminary round of elimination this time. It’s been determined that 120 cultivation sects are participating currently.”

“With this calculation……”

Eliminating half of the numbers every day for a total of three days, in the end, there will be less than 20 cultivation sects to join the Immortal Alliance successfully.

In other words, more than 100 cultivation sects were in danger. 

And amongst these, how many were on that list?

Feng Ci closed his eyes.

If the Heavenly Principles were truly allowed to slaughter them one by one, thousands of people would be killed and injured.

Feng Ci didn’t say anymore. Xiao Guo also stopped conversing with him. He lifted the curtain next to him and looked outside. The flying ship was currently flying over an endless mountain range. 

“This new flying ship from WanFa Pavilion is really pretty nice. The speed is even faster than the one from LangFeng City.”  Xiao Guo said exuberantly: “With the current speed, we can reach LingXiao Gates in two hours.”

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The wings on the two sides have also switched to a brand-new style. When flying through the clouds, the ship looked like a lively and spirited bird. 

Feng Ci watched for a while. For some inexplicable reason, he felt something seemed different. He pondered for a while without figuring out an answer, so he stopped worrying about it.

Xiao Guo wasn’t fully accurate in his estimation. Before two hours, Feng Ci already felt the flying ship starting to descend slowly.

The clouds dispersed, finally revealing the scenery of the place below.

When Feng Ci entered secluded cultivation, it was winter. Now it was spring. What entered his view was a vast green mountain range with towering peaks that were surrounded by fog and mist. 

In the location that the flying ship was set to land, a Daoist temple stood quietly in the distance on a mountain peak.

Daoist temple.

Feng Ci’s expression turned heavy.

He has seen this Daoist Temple before. 

Inside his dream.

Reconsidering the events now, perhaps it’s because Feng Ci’s soul still had a certain connection to his physical body that he kept dreaming about his body previously. The only true dream bestowed to him by the Heavenly Principles was that one time inside the Phantom Spirit Cauldron when he had encountered the Heavenly Principles.

Meanwhile, the other few times were nothing more than the connection between himself and his physical body, which allowed him to view everything his physical body saw and heard.

This Daoist Temple was the one that he saw through the physical body when he was at Broken Sword Manor. 

So this place was LingXiao Gates.

“We’re about to arrive.” As Feng Ci contemplated to himself, Xiao Guo suddenly spoke up next to him: “If City Master Pei learns that Saint Sovereign has exited secluded cultivation, he’ll definitely—”

“Valley Master Xiao.” Feng Ci interrupted him: “I just remembered there’s something I need to do. Can I leave the flying ship first?”

Xiao Guo was stunned: “You’re not going to LingXiao Gates?” 

“No rush.”

“But City Master Pei……”

“He……” Recalling Pei QianYue, Feng Ci had a bit of a headache. However, his current investigation was even more important. He pinched his brows and said: “Don’t tell him that I exited secluded cultivation yet. Later on……”

“Oh, I understand.” Xiao Guo realized with a start: “Saint Sovereign, you want to give him a pleasant surprise, right?” 

Feng Ci: “……”

Feng Ci: “Something like that.”

As the flying ship hovered over LingXiao Gates, a small opening quietly appeared. A sword figure swiftly flashed through the gap and silently landed on the mist-covered mountains.

Feng Ci appeared on the summit of a cliff. 

LingXiao Gates has always been a Daoist Temple. This entire mountain range was part of its territory, so it wasn’t easy for Feng Ci to find the specific mountain peak that he saw inside his dream.

Feng Ci looked up at the sky briefly.

The Heavenly Spirit Ruins will open precisely at noon, which was less than 4 hours away.

There wasn’t much time left. 

However, Feng Ci was not in a rush.

His connection to his physical body during the dream state had indeed been a coincidence. It’s because when dreaming, people are not disturbed by worldly things; their senses reach a pure and unadulterated peak.

However, since he could feel the connection in his sleep, there was no reason why he couldn’t do it while awake.

Facing the breeze from the mountain peaks, Feng Ci closed his eyes. The senses of his current physical body, which has fully accommodated the power of his soul, became extremely sharp and keen. He could feel every minute breeze passing through the forest, every leaf floating down and falling to the ground, as well as every wisp of smoke distributed throughout these mountains from the incense stick burning slowly inside the Daoist Temple. 

Yet merely these were still not enough. Like a huge net, his incorporeal senses continued to expand.

The subtle unnoticeable presence in the air. The marks left behind by people long gone……

Feng Ci opened his eyes. The corners of his lips curved upwards in a shallow arc.

Immediately afterwards, he turned around and walked towards a direction. 

Feng Ci swiftly advanced through the mountains.

This was his first time here, but he found his way with ease, like a walk through a park, confident and prepared. A moment later, he found the place he was searching for.

This cavern was probably used by LingXiao Gates for secluded cultivation. It wasn’t big inside. Practically one glance was enough to look through the entire area. There was no one inside the cavern, nor were there many hints of people living here previously. Behind the stone bed, which was placed in the innermost area, was a mystical Bagua Map. Other than this, there was only a table and a chair, as well as the already burned down candle on the stone table.

This was indeed the cave that Feng Ci saw inside his dream. 

Feng Ci searched around in the cave, didn’t find any clues, and then walked out again.

Standing on the cliff in front of this cavern and looking into the distance, he just happened to see the main peak of LingXiao Gates.

LingXiao Gates… was more ordinary than Feng Ci had imagined.

From its outer appearance, it’s nothing but a normal Daoist temple. Both its tiles and bricks looked pretty old. There were even old, mottled marks created from some kind of blade or weapon left behind on them. 

The color of those marks has already turned very light under the erosion of time, but they were still very distinctive.

There were marks of vicissitude everywhere.

Feng Ci suddenly remembered. Pei QianYue once told him, LingXiao Gates was the sect that had lost the greatest amount of their mystic texts during these thousands of years of inheritance. They were also the sect that experienced the greatest turbulence.

The incense that they received wasn’t bad, but they weren’t as elegant and prosperous as QingJing Sect. 

They were more like a slowly dying old man, who was unwilling to disappear into the long river of time and as such, struggled bitterly against their fate.

No wonder they were eager and impatient to retrieve those lost mystic texts.

With this trip that he took, Feng Ci was not able to find his physical body, but he didn’t mind it. He followed down the mountain path and walked towards the main hall. Before he walked far, he suddenly heard the sound of footsteps in front of him.

He silently climbed a tree and saw a few LingXiao Gates disciples. 

“You guys go that way. You guys go this way. The secret realm is about to open. We need to patrol carefully. There can’t be any issues, understand?” A young man in Daoist robes instructed. He was leading some young disciples who were around the same age as him. The young disciples saluted, said ‘yes’, and left in two separate paths.

Feng Ci jumped down and patted the young man’s shoulder: “Hey.”

The young man jumped in shock and subconsciously reached to pull out the horsetail whisk on his waist. With a light push, Feng Ci pressed it back in place.

“It’s me.” Feng Ci said with a smile: “Meng-Shixiong, forget me so quickly?” 

The young man in front of him was indeed Meng ChangQing.

Meng ChangQing finally got a clear look at who had arrived and said delightedly: “Shidi!”

“Why would you be here? Did you come to watch the Immortal Alliance evaluation as well? Why aren’t you together with the LangFeng City disciples? You—”

With his excitement came a string of words. Feng Ci had a headache from his chattering and hastily stopped him: “It’s a long story. Slow down, slow down.” 

Meng ChangQing finally calmed down slightly.

He looked at the mountain path behind Feng Ci and realized something: “You… You didn’t come down from there, right?”

Feng Ci didn’t conceal the truth: “That’s right.”

“How did you barge inside there!” Meng ChangQing exclaimed and then looked around in all directions to check if anyone noticed. He dragged Feng Ci to the side of the road and asked quietly: “You didn’t bump into anyone else, right?” 

“No.” Feng Ci asked him: “What’s up there? I can’t go there?”

“That’s LingXiao Gate’s forbidden grounds. Of course you can’t go there!” Meng ChangQing reprimanded: “Just look at you. Coming to LingXiao gates without even letting me know ahead of time, getting lost all the way into the forbidden grounds, aren’t you afraid of getting captured like a thief by others?”

……Getting lost.

Very good. This was still the same old Meng ChangQing who’s missing a few screws inside his head. 

Feng Ci didn’t explain either and went along with his words, saying: “Then I’ll be troubling Meng-Shixiong to lead the way.”

Meng ChangQing didn’t suspect Feng Ci at all and guided him towards the direction of the Main Hall.

As they walked, he continued to chatter nonstop: “In the last few days, I don’t even know how many people I’ve picked up who had got lost wandering around randomly. However, they’ve all been wandering around the front mountains of the Main Hall. Not like you, to lose your way all the way to the forbidden grounds.”

Feng Ci seized the opportunity to ask: “I didn’t see anything special on that mountain. Why is it forbidden?” 

“Who knows?” Meng ChangQing said: “Since I entered the sect, that’s been the forbidden ground. The Sect Leader only said that no one is allowed to go on that mountain. He never said why.”

Feng Ci: “I see.”

There were numerous paths within the mountain. Meng ChangQing guided Feng Ci through a quiet and reclusive little road. Very quickly, they reached the main peak.

Over 100 cultivation sects were participating in the Immortal Alliance evaluation. Right now, in the front mountains of the main peak, it was already crowded with people. Green pines were planted around the plaza in front of the main peak. An empty space was reserved above the high platforms up front. At this moment, hundreds of mirrors of light hung in that space. 

Those mirrors were currently turned off. Once the magic arrays activated, the mirrors would also light up accordingly and transmit everything occurring inside the secret realm.

“LangFeng City……” Meng ChangQing mumbled to himself: “Where did we arrange the LangFeng City disciples? Why can’t I seem to remember……”

Reaching here, Feng Ci no longer needed to stay with Meng ChangQing.

He was just looking for an excuse to sneak away to go find his own family’s little black snake when a slight commotion broke out in the surrounding area. 

“They’re here!”

Someone shouted loudly toward the air. Feng Ci also looked up and over. A flying ship slowly descended not too far away.

That flying ship was not the same as the one he sailed on today. The middle was round. The size was huge. A familiar symbol was carved on the lower part of the flying ship.

It was LangFeng City. 

Meng ChangQing smacked himself on the head: “Oh right, LangFeng City didn’t even arrive yet!”

Feng Ci: “……”

Now this was a bit awkward.

Feng Ci shifted his gaze nonchalantly and looked ahead, as if nothing happened. The hatch of the flying ship opened. A black robed figure walked out from inside first and foremost. 

They haven’t seen each other for three months.

Different from the reluctance he felt prior to his secluded cultivation, these three months actually weren’t as unbearable as Feng Ci had imagined. During this period, he had been cultivating calmly and quietly the entire time, basically not even really thinking about this person, much less having the time to miss him.

He even thought that he didn’t have any thoughts of longing.

Until now. Upon seeing him. 

Pei QianYue had already switched back to his LangFeng City Master attire. Black silk covered his eyes. His handsome face was cold as ice. He walked very steadily with every step. Everywhere he went, the crowd parted and saluted respectfully.

This was a completely different Pei QianYue from how he behaved in front of Feng Ci, but Feng Ci’s heartbeat still sped up involuntarily.

This heart, which has never rippled in thousands of years, suddenly started to clamor uncontrollably at this moment.

Again and again, drumming against his chest. Even the temperature in the surroundings seemed to be rising at the same time. 

He had really missed him alot.

Unfortunately there were too many people here.

Feng Ci thought internally.

Otherwise, he definitely would have yanked that person over here and gave him a good, thorough kiss. 

He really missed him greatly.

Meng ChangQing seemed to have said something next to Feng Ci, but he wasn’t paying attention at all. Since the moment of Pei QianYue’s appearance, the only thing that could remain inside Feng Ci’s eyes and heart was this person.

A gentle expression appeared in Feng Ci’s gaze that he didn’t even notice. The corners of his lips also curved upwards unconsciously.

He rubbed his finger softly against the base of his ring finger for a brief moment. The vibration of the red string transferred to Pei QianYue’s hand. The latter halted in his steps slightly. 

The smile in Feng Ci’s eyes deepened.

He had concealed his presence within the crowd. Pei QianYue couldn’t see, so he might not have been able to sense Feng Ci.

However, this way he’d know Feng Ci’s location.

Sure enough, Pei QianYue turned and walked towards Feng Ci’s direction. Feng Ci was just about to step forth when the other passed by directly in front of him without even turning his head. 

As if he didn’t see Feng Ci at all.

The instant they passed each other, Feng Ci even heard a cold ‘hmph’ that transmitted over through the red string.

Feng Ci: “……”

How absolutely childish!!!