Chapter 5967
Chen Ping glanced around, and the Illusory Origin Star within his primordial space shimmered.
After a moment, he shook his head: “This is the real thing…”
“Excellent!”
The Crimson Cloud Demon Lord took a deep breath. “This Eye of Return to Nothingness truly holds a hidden world. However… it’s too quiet, unsettlingly so.”
Chen Ping shared the same sentiment.
The scenery was beautiful, but it felt lacking in genuine vitality. The spirit deer and cranes seemed somewhat vacant, their movements appearing to follow fixed patterns.
Moreover, he could keenly sense an extremely subtle yet immense field existing in this world, similar to an array or restriction, but more like the inherent laws of this world itself.
He took out the guiding talisman again.
This time, the talisman no longer pointed in a specific direction but was slightly warm, its runes flickering, as if resonating with something here.
“The cave should be deep within this paradise. Be careful; this place is far from simple.”
Chen Ping put away the guiding talisman, gripped the Dragon-Slaying Sword, and led the way along the stream into the depths.
Crimson Cloud Demon Lord followed closely behind, his demonic senses highly focused, scanning for any potential danger.
The initial stretch of the path was calm and uneventful, except for the almost unreal, perfect environment.
Chen Ping even cautiously collected some ancient-looking, spiritually rich herbs along the way.
When they passed through a dense bamboo forest with leaves as green as jade, both Chen Ping and Crimson Cloud Demon Lord stopped.
Just moments before, the people from the Nether Spring Sect had been attacked in this very place.
However, that was an illusion, not the real Eye of Return to Nothingness.
Nevertheless, upon reaching this point, both of them felt somewhat uneasy.
“Chen Ping, do you think we’ll be attacked here too?” Crimson Cloud Demon Lord asked.
“Probably not. After all, this isn’t an illusion; this is the real Eye of Return to Nothingness. If…”
Boom!
Before Chen Ping could finish speaking, the surrounding scenery abruptly changed!
The bamboo forest vanished, the green mountains and clear waters disappeared.
In its place was an endless starry sky, and beneath their feet lay cold, hard meteorite ground.
The surroundings were deathly silent, save for the distant twinkling stars and the nearby floating fragments of celestial bodies and dust.
“An illusion?”
The Crimson Cloud Demon Lord exclaimed in shock, unleashing a claw strike that shattered a small, floating meteorite with a realistic tactile impact.
“It’s not entirely an illusion,”
Chen Ping frowned, sensing a significant weakening of his connection to the outside world, and a sluggish flow of power within his body. “It’s spatial displacement, or… domain suppression. We’ve been pulled into a special trial space.”
Chen Ping was certain this was a real space, not an illusion. After all, he possessed the Origin of Illusion; if it were an illusion, he couldn’t have been completely unaware.
The sudden change in environment could only be explained by one thing: they had been pulled into another space by some force.
Perhaps this space overlapped with the Eye of Return to Nothingness; to them, it appeared as if the space of the Eye of Return to Nothingness had collapsed, revealing another space. As
soon as Chen Ping finished speaking, starlight gathered in the starry sky ahead, coalescing into three blurry figures.
The figures gradually became clearer, revealing three figures dressed in simple hemp robes, their hair tied up in high buns, their faces blurred yet exuding a vast and ancient aura.
They held no weapons, simply standing there calmly, yet seemingly integrated with the entire starry sky, radiating a suffocating sense of oppression.
“The lingering image of an ancient Qi cultivator? Or a manifestation of a restriction?”
Chen Ping’s heart skipped a beat. These three figures, while their energy intensity didn’t seem to exceed the Celestial Immortal realm, possessed a terrifyingly primal and untamed power in their very nature and application.
The middle figure slowly raised his hand, pointing at Chen Ping, and a grand yet indifferent voice resounded directly in their minds.
“Later cultivators, wishing to enter our cave, must pass three trials. This is the first trial, testing your ‘control of power’ and ‘ability to adapt.'”
“Disperse our lingering image, or withstand the force of an incense stick’s burning without defeat, and you will pass.”
Before the voice finished, the three figures moved simultaneously.
There were no dazzling magical lights, no earth-shattering roars.
The figure on the left took a step forward, the meteorite beneath his feet silently turning to dust, and charged straight at the Crimson Cloud Demon Lord like a cannonball.
He unleashed a punch. The fist’s force was condensed to its extreme, compressing the air to form a visible white shockwave, causing the space to ripple slightly in its path.
The figure on the right, however, held his hands in a fist, starlight gathering around him, transforming into a shimmering whip. The whip’s tip trembled slightly, like a venomous snake flicking its tongue, locking onto Chen Ping .
Its trajectory was unpredictable, containing a sense of sealing off space.
The figure in the middle was the most peculiar; he didn’t attack directly, but instead sat cross-legged, his hands forming a strange hand seal .
Instantly, Chen Ping and the Crimson Cloud Demon Lord simultaneously felt the gravity of the surrounding starry sky increase dozens of times!
Moreover, the direction of gravity was constantly changing, sometimes pulling downwards, sometimes dragging to the left, incredibly bizarre, greatly interfering with their balance and power.
“What a strange method!” the Crimson Cloud Demon Lord roared, his demonic body expanding, directly clashing with the ancient punch that was coming.
Boom!
Fists and claws clashed, producing a dull, thunderous roar.
The Crimson Cloud Demon Lord was actually forced back three steps, the shockwave from the punch leaving several bloody welts on his demonic arm.
“Hiss… that’s some real strength! And the power is terrifyingly solid!”
On the other side, Chen Ping swung his Dragon-Slaying Sword, its sword energy surging, attempting to sever the starlight whip.
However, the whip was unusually agile, seemingly alive, wrapping itself around him, not clashing head-on, but constantly deflecting and guiding the force, leaving Chen Ping’s swordplay feeling stifled and powerless.
At the same time, the unpredictable gravity caused him to stagger, his swordplay frequently veering off course.
“This can’t go on!”
A fierce glint flashed in Chen Ping’s eyes. He realized that the attack methods of these three illusory figures were vastly different from the current cultivators’ methods of releasing and transforming energy.
They focused more on the concentration and application of the essence of power and the control of the environment.
“Since you’re testing control, then try mine!”
Chen Ping took a deep breath, no longer pursuing the elegance and power of his swordplay, but instead focusing his mind on his inner self.
Within his dantian, the light of the primordial stars flowed, and he attempted to mobilize the four initially fused forces, not simply by superimposing them, but by searching for their point of resonance.