Crossing Paths

The next day.

In the underground palace of the Heavenly Tyrant Sect's sacred mountain.

All the lower sect personnel gathered here.

Wang Yiyun and Luo Yuan stood on the high platform, beside them were a dozen young disciples in uniform attire.

Their faces were filled with pride, and they were extremely confident in today's competition.

Because this competition was originally held for them.

And the disciples of the lower sects below, although renowned as geniuses from various sects, were essentially just their foils.

The elders of the lower sects were also encouraging their own disciples.

After all, they never considered the disciples of the Heavenly Tyrant Sect as their opponents. In any case, their performance didn't matter as long as they could secure a good ranking among the lower sects.

"Announce the rules of this competition."

Above, Wang Yiyun's clear voice rang out.

"Once the competition begins, you will be teleported into the underground palace of the sacred mountain. All competitions will take place within the underground palace."

"The underground palace of the sacred mountain is a small world created by our sect's ancestors, containing various traps and formations."

"The first stage of the competition is to pass through the main passage of the underground palace. This main passage is a hundred miles long and is equipped with not only simple traps and formations but also illusion formations, killing formations, hallucination formations, and distractive teleportation formations. For example, just as you think you're about to reach the end, you might accidentally enter a teleportation formation and be sent back to the starting point. Additionally, at the end of the passage, one of our elders will act as the gatekeeper. He will suppress his strength to 80% of your level and you must defeat him to pass."

"Those who successfully pass the first stage can immediately enter the second stage. The second stage is the true interior of the underground palace. Here, there will be contract spirit beasts from our Heavenly Tyrant Sect guarding the path. These beasts vary in strength, and if you encounter one that’s too strong to handle, you can instantly teleport out by using the jade talisman provided to you. Of course, if you teleport out, it means you forfeit the competition. Therefore, this stage tests not only your strength but also your luck. You might encounter only weak beasts, or you might directly face an unbeatable one, forcing you to quit immediately."

"Those who clear the first two stages will be scored based on their completion times and then enter the third stage, the arena competition. The arena competition will be decided by lottery, with both victory and defeat affecting the score."

"Finally, I’ll remind everyone once more that we’ll be waiting for you on the arena stage in the third stage. No one will be present in the first two stages except the gatekeepers, so if you encounter any insurmountable dangers, please immediately crush your jade talisman to teleport out. After all, forfeiting the match is preferable to forfeiting your life."

Wang Yiyun's voice, infused with immortal energy, spread throughout the venue as she explained the competition rules to everyone.

At this moment, Luo Yuan walked up to her side and whispered, "Wang Elder, there’s something I need to inform you about."

"What is it?"

Wang Yiyun paused and couldn't help but ask.

"The gatekeeper for the first stage is no longer me, but Deng Chao, the ancestor himself!" Luo Yuan said.

"What? Ancestor Deng Chao is personally guarding the first stage?"

Wang Yiyun was slightly surprised.

But she understood within her heart that Ancestor Deng Chao's arrival was likely for Yi Feng.

Therefore, she suppressed her surprise and did not spread the news.

"Everyone, come and collect your jade talismans before entering the competition!"

Wang Yiyun announced loudly.

Under her announcement, the disciples of the lower sects, comforted and instructed by their elders, entered the underground palace of the sacred mountain.

"Uh, may I ask, can we use mounts or fly in the main passageway of the competition?" Yi Feng, holding a jade talisman, couldn't help but ask Wang Yiyun.

"The process does not restrict any means," Wang Yiyun replied to Yi Feng, her attitude somewhat gentle.

"Oh, that's good," Yi Feng breathed a sigh of relief. A hundred miles of running would likely leave him with sore feet.

Holding the jade talisman, Yi Feng was teleported into the underground palace.

"He’s in, he's in."

In the crowd below, Jiang Zuo and Jiang You hid in a corner, watching Yi Feng enter the competition.

"Whew, finally inside."

Jiang Zuo exhaled, not because they didn’t want to send Yi Feng off, but the thought of him being instantly teleported out made them too ashamed to face it.

Now that Yi Feng had entered, it was better this way.

They would just wait here for him to come out and then take him back to the Hundred Refinements Sect.

At this moment, Yi Feng had already entered the main passageway of the underground palace. Looking around, the surroundings were shrouded in a misty fog.

This main passageway was vast, and Yi Feng couldn't see other disciples when he entered.

Occasionally, a few disciples who appeared after him would fumble forward and quickly disappear, not knowing where they went.

"Formations.

This place is full of formations, damn it, I don’t know anything about formations!"

Yi Feng looked around and scratched his head. It seemed he could only force his way through.

After all, he was a powerhouse above Level 60 in the Golden Immortal realm.

He had nothing to fear.

With that in mind, he summoned "Man Man" (nickname of his mount).

He crouched slightly, patted Man Man's head, and said softly, "Man Man, keep rushing forward as fast as you can, got it?"

Man Man looked at him with a blank expression and nodded.

Yi Feng then held his sword in his left hand, the jade talisman in his right, and plopped onto Man Man's back.

"Let's go."

Yi Feng kicked his legs.

In an instant, Man Man dashed out.

At the same time, near the end of the main passageway, Deng Chao sat on the ground, watching the direction of the starting point and couldn’t help but curl his lips into a smile.

"True Immortal Twelve."

"I’ll have to see your true strength. Don’t disappoint me!"

Deng Chao murmured softly.

Suddenly.

A gust of wind swept past Deng Chao’s ears, chilling him.

Deng Chao couldn’t help but cover his neck.

"Huh?"

"That’s strange, where did this wind come from?"

He looked around but saw nothing with his sharp eyes.

So he didn't pay it any more attention and continued waiting for Yi Feng.

However, Yi Feng was now completely dumbfounded.

He was shocked to find that he had already arrived at the teleportation point for the second stage.

"Did… did I just get through the first stage like that?"

Yi Feng's mount was fast, so a hundred miles in an instant could be understood. But what about the various formations and traps?

"Looks like absolute speed renders everything else insignificant!"

Yi Feng let out a hearty laugh.

He never expected that he would clear the first stage in just a moment.

Outside the underground palace of the sacred mountain.

Seeing all the disciples enter, Wang Yiyun and Luo Yuan still stood at the forefront.

In front of them was a huge stellar chart.

Within the stellar chart were countless small light spots, though these light spots were all at the edge.

In essence, this stellar chart was a scaled-down map of the underground palace, with each light spot corresponding to a contestant.

Through this stellar chart, they could monitor the progress of each participant at any time.

Of course, besides the contestants, there were other special marks on the stellar chart.

For example, at the end of the main passageway of the first stage, a red mark represented the first gatekeeper, indicating that Deng Chao was stationed there.

In the second stage, there were also various other marks.

These marks included birds and beasts.

It was clear that these marks represented the spirit beasts guarding the second stage.

"How long do you think Yi Feng will take to pass the first stage?" Wang Yiyun couldn’t help but ask. "And will he be the first to pass the first stage?"

"That’s hard to say," Luo Yuan smiled faintly. "The underground palace was created by our ancestors with the help of countless powerful formation masters. Its purpose was to provide a refuge and a place to recuperate in hiding in case our sect faced annihilation."

"So the underground palace itself is a grand formation that, when fully activated, renders it impossible for anyone below the True Immortal Fifteen realm to break in."

"Even now, during this trial, the array of the Sacred Mountain Dungeon isn't fully activated, which greatly increases the chances for these disciples to pass. However, the difficulty of overcoming it still exists."

"Although he has high cultivation, don't forget the most distinctive feature of our Sacred Mountain Dungeon in order to conserve the resources needed for the great array to operate."

"That is, it adjusts according to the user's strength—the stronger the challenger, the stronger the array, and the weaker the challenger, the weaker the array!"

"So, even if he has high cultivation, the difficulty compared to other disciples remains the same. At most, due to his experience with high cultivation, he might handle it more easily than the others."

"But, it's also possible that he might encounter some disciples with better luck who don't trigger as many arrays, allowing them to pass ahead of him."

Luo Yuan smiled lightly as he explained.

"That makes sense," Wang Yiyun also smiled and nodded, agreeing with Luo Yuan's point.

However, in the very next moment, an unbelievable event occurred.

On the Celestial Map of the Sacred Mountain Dungeon, they could see with their own eyes that a light dot instantly teleported to the entrance of the second checkpoint.

And what's more, it even brushed past the checkpoint's guardian red dot.