Chu Tian paid no attention to the battle between the two individuals, as it was not something he could participate in.
Crawling forward beneath the crowd, he quickly approached the other side of the bridge.
He checked his skill cooldowns; Charge had three seconds remaining.
After three seconds, he transformed: Bear Form.
Charge, once more targeting the furthest NPC.
*Swish...*
The bear's body became a blur, charging directly off the floating bridge and reaching the opposite side.
Simultaneously, *Boom...*
A massive explosion.
The scorching airflow sent Chu Tian's bear form flying.
-3549!
Huge damage numbers appeared above Chu Tian's head.
He checked his remaining health, only 201 points left.
Chu Tian inwardly trembled. If he hadn't been in Bear Form, which increased his health and defense, his health reaching 3750 points after the bonus, he would have been instantly killed by that blow!
The entire floating bridge was now cleared; all the wandering NPCs had turned to dust, and the entire space appeared hazy.
The floating bridge, however, remained undamaged, only shaking violently before slowly calming down.
On the floating bridge, the fiery red figure now had its entire left arm missing.
In contrast, the strange burly man was unharmed, though the chain and giant hook in his hand had significantly dimmed.
However, Chu Tian noticed something peculiar: the hazy gas that formed from the dying NPCs was constantly converging towards the weapon in the burly man's hand.
Yet, he failed to notice that the badge he wore on his chest was also quietly absorbing the hazy gas, albeit very subtly.
Chu Tian, the wearer, remained oblivious.
The red-haired woman, after this blow, was heavily injured.
She turned and fled, heading straight for the large gate she had come from.
But as she reached the gate, the strange burly man's chain suddenly elongated, traversing a thousand meters like a venomous dragon.
"Chii..."
Just as the red-haired woman was about to reach the gap in the gate, her body was pierced by the giant hook, and she let out a shrill scream.
The woman's body instantly shriveled, finally turning into mist and being completely absorbed by the giant hook.
The strange burly man retracted his chain and began walking back towards Chu Tian.
Upon seeing this, Chu Tian bolted. There was no point in staying; he couldn't even defeat the woman, so facing this burly man would surely mean his death.
After crossing the bridge, the number of wandering NPCs significantly decreased. Chu Tian transformed into Deer Form and galloped away.
As he ran, he pondered the nature of this trial. There were no quest prompts, only these level one wandering NPCs, aside from the two incredibly powerful strange beings he encountered earlier.
Chu Tian had tested this by killing a couple of NPCs, finding that there were no quest prompts or similar notifications.
He used his Inspect skill on these NPCs. They were all level one, with varying health points. Killing those with more health resulted in a denser grey mist.
Unable to comprehend the purpose of this trial, Chu Tian could only continue to press onward.
He overtook various NPCs and arrived at the edge of a black lake. Chu Tian followed the line of NPCs' progress.
On the lake, there was a series of floating logs leading to the opposite bank.
However, Chu Tian halted his advance because he saw many NPCs, while walking on the floating logs, being attacked by silver strange fish that leaped out of the water.
Chu Tian approached the water's edge and found the black lake water to be as dark as ink, completely obscuring the view below.
The NPCs who were pulled into the water by the strange fish did not sink but were instead corroded and melted away the moment they entered the water.
Their mouths were open in silent screams, but no sound emerged.
Chu Tian felt his scalp tingle.
After observing for a while, Chu Tian realized that the attack power of these silver strange fish was not very strong. They couldn't even kill the level one NPCs with no defense.
Their leaping attacks were merely intended to knock the NPCs off the logs and into the water.
The real danger came from the extremely small black fish in the water. Once an NPC fell in, they would be instantly surrounded by these fish.
Initially, Chu Tian thought the lake water itself was corroding the NPCs.
Later, upon closer observation, he discovered that they were being gnawed to death by this swarm of black fish, which were only as large as fingernails.
The black lake water, the black small fish, densely packed, were barely visible if not observed carefully.
But upon closer inspection, someone with trypophobia might faint on the spot.
He wouldn't be foolish enough to be knocked by the silver strange fish like those dazed NPCs.
Seeing no immediate threat to himself, Chu Tian transformed into Leopard Form and leaped onto the first floating log.
He expertly navigated the logs, deftly dodging the attacks of the silver strange fish multiple times.
Midway, he even tentatively attacked one. Although his Inspect skill couldn't determine the level or health of this silver strange fish, he bit down.
-1632! No critical hit.
The strange fish lost about one percent of its health.
Calculating this, its defense was almost zero, and its health was around 160,000.
However, after being attacked once, the fish dove back into the water, making it impossible to kill.
He shook his head regretfully, wondering how much experience killing a fish would yield. With such high health, its level must be quite high.
And it had no defense, he really wanted to kill one to see.
While he lingered on this floating log, other NPCs arrived.
Because Chu Tian was blocking their path, they wandered aimlessly, causing the floating logs to sway.
Chu Tian quickly jumped to the next log. However, the few NPCs who had been on the previous log were not as fortunate.
*Plop, plop...*
A series of splashes. Chu Tian looked back, his expression apologetic.
But immediately, several silver strange fish attacked him.
He quickly continued forward, and the attacks from these strange fish became more frequent.
Instead, the NPCs following him were no longer attacked by any strange fish.
Chu Tian cursed inwardly, "You're quite vengeful, aren't you? Are you made of bees?"
He dared not linger, accelerating his speed. The black cat's form leaped between the floating logs, evading the fish's attacks.
Soon, Chu Tian arrived at a stone platform on the opposite side of the lake.
On the stone platform stood a stone tablet with three bloody characters etched into it.
"Huang Quan Lu," Chu Tian murmured.
But upon closer inspection, these three characters were not the Chinese characters for "Huang Quan Lu."
For some reason, he simply recognized them!
The Undead Realm, the Blood Abyss Bridge, the Yellow Springs Road!
"Is this the Underworld?" Chu Tian thought, "The Heavenly Dao world's map is truly comprehensive."
Looking at the wandering NPCs, were they souls of beings who had died and arrived in the Underworld?
If he continued forward, would he reach the Ghost Gate? And after passing through, would he reach the Hall of Yama?
A stream of thoughts emerged in Chu Tian's mind.
At this point, he no longer cared whether he was in a trial or what the trial's content was.
All that remained was his curiosity!
Furthermore, he discovered that if one was not mentally unsound, there wasn't much danger in this Underworld.
He had not seen any of the terrifying beings described in ancient myths: the rampant evil spirits, the Ox-Head and Horse-Face demons.
Thinking of this, he recalled the strange burly man on the other side of the Blood Abyss Bridge, holding a chain with a giant hook, which somewhat resembled the soul-snatching chains of the legendary Black and White Impermanence!