"Not on Shangqing Mountain?" Mie Shi Ling Huo was stunned. "Kid, what are you talking about?"
Ye Ling withdrew his spiritual energy and said in a deep voice, "I couldn't sense Tian Xing's aura just now, so I tried to probe beyond the Shangqing Mountain barrier. I discovered that the outside was filled with spatial turbulence, and it wasn't Qingyun Town at all!"
"The Shangqing Mountain we are currently in should be an independent world created by the Shangqing Palace, a one-to-one replica of the real Shangqing Mountain!"
"An independent world? Kid, are you serious?" Mie Shi Ling Huo was shocked by Ye Ling's words. He immediately probed beyond the barrier and found that it was indeed as Ye Ling had said!
Mie Shi Ling Huo composed himself and said sternly, "Damn it… The Shangqing Palace actually used a teleportation array to send us into an independent space. What do they want to do?"
"This kind of independent world is somewhat similar to the Tianyun Island I encountered before. I wonder if this is another stronghold of Tianyun Island…" Ye Ling murmured, thinking of A Yun from Tianyun Island and the eyes in the Book of Origin.
He had a vague feeling that there was more than one place like Tianyun Island!
As Ye Ling discovered the secret of Shangqing Mountain, the trial participants who remained in their original positions also finalized their action plans and set foot on Shangqing Mountain.
Seeing everyone start to move, Mie Shi Ling Huo urged Ye Ling, "Kid, there's no point in us just thinking here. Everyone else has gone in, so let's go up the mountain too, lest the Shangqing Palace discover something is amiss."
"Alright." Ye Ling didn't dwell on it, put away his thoughts, and followed the trial participants up the mountain, feigning participation in the trial.
The entrance trial of the Shangqing Palace was also very conventional. The first half of the mountain path was set up with all sorts of obstacles. Some required agility to pass, while others required strength. In any case, it tested the various abilities of the trial participants. Only those with overall passing qualities could proceed.
Along the way, Ye Ling had already encountered many cultivators whose strength was insufficient and who were stuck. They were basically blocked by the obstacles and could not proceed further.
Cultivators who were injured for various reasons were also picked up by disciples of the Shangqing Palace and transported outside Shangqing Mountain.
All of this seemed like a genuine entrance trial.
However, when Ye Ling reached the latter half of the mountain path, the path of Shangqing Mountain began to fork, and the danger increased significantly, with more and more cultivators getting injured.
The trial participants continued to advance along their chosen paths, and Ye Ling also successfully found an opportunity at the fork to break free from the surveillance of the Shangqing Palace's strongest experts and head towards the so-called Sacred Spring Forbidden Area.
When Ye Ling left the main mountain path, crossed an iron chain spanning a valley, and headed for the forbidden area, the style of the Shangqing Mountain trial instantly changed.
Large numbers of fierce beasts swarmed around the mountain path, attacking the trial participants who trespassed into the forbidden area.
Along the way, Ye Ling saw many severed limbs and bodies, with injured or dead trial participants scattered everywhere.
The severely injured trial participants were not rescued by any disciples of the Shangqing Palace. They could only wail on the mountain path and then be devoured by the fierce beasts in despair.
"As expected, the trial participants who chose to investigate the three Sacred Springs are the targets the Shangqing Palace is screening!" Ye Ling saw the injured or dead trial participants along the way but did not stop. He continued to advance deeper.
As Ye Ling got closer to the so-called Sacred Springs, the number of injured and dead trial participants decreased significantly. The remaining ones were basically the elite of the elite.
Ye Ling roughly calculated that two-thirds of the trial participants with the highest talent and strength had given up the trial and chosen to investigate the Sacred Springs in the forbidden area.
And among this group of trial participants who entered the forbidden area, less than one-third successfully reached the location of the Sacred Springs.
When Ye Ling arrived at the bank of the Sacred Spring and saw the Sacred Spring emitting a divine aura ahead, his pupils constricted slightly, and he exclaimed, "Tianyun Sacred Spring?"
The Sacred Spring in Shangqing Mountain, which emitted a divine aura, was almost identical to the Tianyun Sacred Spring he had seen on Tianyun Island… except for the difference in the power it contained!
And those trial participants who had endured hardships to reach the Sacred Spring began to soar in strength after stepping into it, just as Ye Ling and Ji Ning had when they entered the Tianyun Sacred Spring!
The surge in cultivation made the trial participants go mad. They gradually forgot how much danger they had experienced before and began to rush into the depths of the Sacred Spring, eager to find the treasure first.
After all, the jade token clearly stated that there were as many as three Sacred Springs in Shangqing Mountain!
"Such divine energy!"
Mie Shi Ling Huo sensed the divine aura emanating from the Sacred Spring and asked Ye Ling, "Kid, did destiny really originate from this kind of spring?"
"Yes…" Ye Ling nodded solemnly. "Don't be fooled by how pure this spiritual energy is and how it has no harm to oneself. It can indeed give rise to destiny and gradually replace the consciousness of the owner's personality."
"To be safe, let's not enter this spring. I don't want to create another destiny."
Ye Ling said in a deep voice, using runes to conceal his aura, and moved along the edge of the Sacred Spring, observing the situation of the trial participants who had entered the spring from the periphery.
Fortunately, the Sacred Springs here were not as wide as the Tianyun Sacred Spring, and the mist was not as dense. Ye Ling could see the specific situation of the trial participants with his naked eye.
The cultivation of the trial participants who entered the Sacred Springs had already increased dozens of times without them realizing it. The jade tokens on their bodies also began to emit a milky white light, surging like breathing.
Some trial participants fell directly into the Sacred Spring shortly after stepping into it, gradually being swallowed by the Sacred Spring and disappearing.
However, the trial participants were deeply attracted by the power of the Sacred Spring. They had no idea, nor did they care about the other trial participants who disappeared into the Sacred Spring, and they continued to advance.
The three Sacred Springs were adjacent to each other, and the energy contained in each was stronger than the previous one, appearing as if they were specifically set up with a gradient to select something.
And when the trial participants stepped into the third Sacred Spring, only three remained.
However, their realms had all reached the逍遥仙 (Xiaoyao Immortal)!
That's right…
It was 逍遥仙 (Xiaoyao Immortal)!
The three trial participants with the strongest talent, after being strengthened by the first Sacred Spring, then comprehended a completely new cultivation system in the second Sacred Spring. When they stepped into the third Sacred Spring, they naturally reached the realm of 逍遥仙 (Xiaoyao Immortal)…
If this continued, breaking through to the 无我境 (Wuwo Realm) would only be a matter of time.
Mie Shi Ling Huo watched all of this happen with disbelief and asked Ye Ling, "Kid… am I seeing things?"
"How are those little brats practicing the cultivation system you created, and how is their cultivation progressing so quickly!"
Ye Ling said in a deep voice, "They all received corresponding inheritances in the second Sacred Spring. It's probably because I bathed in the Tianyun Sacred Spring before, and the Tianyun Sacred Spring recorded the cultivation system I created…"
While Mie Shi Ling Huo and Ye Ling were talking, two more of the genius trial participants who had entered the third Sacred Spring could not withstand the power of the Sacred Spring and fell into the spring, being swallowed by it.
Of the hundreds of trial participants who came to explore the treasure of the Sacred Spring, only one remained!
And that trial participant, as if he could not see his companions fall, continued forward without looking back, his power climbing again!
However…
That trial participant did not manage to take more than two steps before falling directly and being swallowed by the Sacred Spring.
All trial participants, annihilated!
"Sigh… Still none from this batch… Let's move on to the next batch."
At this moment, a familiar voice to Ye Ling echoed from the depths of the Sacred Spring, causing Ye Ling's expression to change slightly.
"A Yun?"