Chapter 64: Feng Ting's Trial

Initially, the mirror displayed the first trial. Soon, the figure of a Golden Core-stage beast appeared in the center of the screen, while a flash of white light flickered on the right. A familiar figure materialized right in front of the beast—it was none other than Feng Ting, who had just entered the pagoda.

"Ah!" True to form, the very first sight of the beast terrified Feng Ting. She stumbled back several steps, instinctively searching around for her companions. Realizing she was entirely alone, her rosy cheeks turned deathly pale in an instant, and she began to panic, desperately looking for a way to hide.

Roar~~~~

Perhaps never having encountered such a soft persimmon before, the beast of the first stage grew even more excited. It let out a deliberate roar, bared its massive jaws, and lunged straight at her.

Where had Feng Ting ever witnessed such a savage scene? She immediately let out a continuous stream of piercing shrieks, "Aahhh... Help!"

Reflexively, she scrambled backward, but the space inside the pagoda was strictly limited. In moments, she retreated all the way to a corner, with nowhere left to run, while the beast pressed closer step by step.

"Aahhh... Don't come near me, stay away!" By this point, Feng Ting's rationality was on the verge of collapse. Completely forgetting about cultivation or mystical arts, she merely flailed her hands wildly to ward off the approaching monster, screaming at a pitch that grew more shrill by the second.

Yet the beast had no intention of granting her wish. It directly opened its mouth wide, preparing to sink its teeth into her. Just as everyone expected Feng Ting to faint from sheer terror right there in the first stage, her frantically flailing hands somehow struck the underside of the beast's neck. Almost purely by reflex, her fingers suddenly clenched and grabbed a death grip on the beast's throat, abruptly halting its advance. Following that came a scene that left everyone utterly stunned.

Veins suddenly bulged across the back of Feng Ting's hands. She tightened her grip on the beast's neck and slammed it fiercely against the ground, all the while letting out a series of shrieks that nearly shattered the eardrums, "Don't come near me, don't come near me—aahhh!"

While screaming for dear life, her hands did not hesitate for a fraction of a second. She grabbed the beast as if it were a sack of grain, hurling it ruthlessly to the left, then to the right, against the floor. A series of dull, heavy echoes resonated throughout the entire trial zone, filling the space with loud, rhythmic thuds.

The beast didn't even have time to let out a dying wretch before it was literally beaten to death by sheer force.

Unaware of what she had done, Feng Ting kept frantically pounding the ground until the first stage cleared automatically. The beast in her hands vanished, and she was automatically teleported to the second floor. A larger beast appeared before her eyes, and then...

A new round of trials commenced.

Continuing the cycle of fear, screaming, fleeing, outburst, and tossing the sack...

Feng Ting executed the entire routine with absolute smoothness.

The cyclic sounds echoed continuously in the ears of the onlookers.

"Don't come near me (thud, thud, thud)... Help meee (thud, thud, thud)... Sister Xiao Ci, Sister Xiao Ci (thud, thud, thud)... It's so scary, wuwu (thud, thud, thud)..."

Qiu Ci: "..."
Tang Qian: "..."
Zhen Yi: "..."
Jing Hong: "..."

An instantaneous silence fell over the group.

Who were they, and where were they? Was the person on that screen truly the delicate and helpless Feng Ting they knew?

>.<

The four of them simply watched as Feng Ting transformed into a screaming chicken, running amok across the entire stage while weeping, before beating the gate-guarding beasts all the way into submission, successfully clearing eleven floors in one breath.

"Well, hehe... Fellow Daoist Chu, your young friend certainly possesses... extraordinary talents!" City Lord Tang offered an awkward chuckle, a nameless sense of dread rising within him. Having managed Yuanhai City for so many years, he had never laid eyes on such a ferocious challenger. Other people cleared the trials at most with a single sword strike; this young lady not only beat them to death alive, but even pinned their corpses to the ground to smash them through several extra rounds.

How brutal... How terrifying...

Yet, because Fellow Daoist Chu had just saved Yuanhai City, he could not bluntly voice his critique. He could only desperately scrape together a positive highlight to praise: "This young friend truly has... astonishing physical prowess! It is my first time witnessing someone battle beasts using pure brute strength. Could it be that she is a body cultivator?"

Forget City Lord Tang; even Qiu Ci was seeing this for the very first time. She recalled never having taught Feng Ting to tackle beasts in such a fashion. But upon observing the state of her outburst more closely, she began to understand. A peculiar surge of vital blood energy was currently swirling around Feng Ting's body; it would have been undetectable to anyone not intimately familiar with her. Recalling that Feng Ting possessed the ancient Kuiniu bloodline, it was likely she had triggered that ancestral power. For her to have such an outburst was... perfectly normal?

"Being in the Golden Core stage is still manageable. If she enters the Nascent Soul illusions above the twelfth floor, relying solely on physical strength will put her at a disadvantage," Tang Qian added.

Indeed, the illusions across the first eleven floors were all beast matchups. From the twelfth floor onward, the opponents would be the phantom projections of human cultivators. Each projection possessed different mystical arts and combat techniques, making it virtually impossible for Feng Ting to clear the stages relying solely on panic-driven explosive strength.

Sure enough, the very next moment, Feng Ting materialized on the twelfth floor, where a human-shaped phantom stood in the center.

Perhaps because she had finally laid eyes on a human rather than those terrifying beasts, Feng Ting stopped screaming. Instead, she whimpered softly and asked in a trembling voice, "Excuse me..."

Swish...

The phantom in the illusion possessed no sentience; the very next instant, a wave of sword Qi lashed out toward Feng Ting.

"Ah!" Before she could mount a defense, Feng Ting was sent flying several meters away, crashing heavily onto the ground with a loud thud.

Immediately following came the second strike... the third... the fourth...

Unmerciful attacks rained down one after another. Far from closing the distance to utilize her bloodline advantage, Feng Ting had zero room to evade. Like a broken ragdoll, she was sent airborne and hurled to the ground repeatedly by her opponent's onslaught.

"Feng Ting..." Zhen Yi stepped forward anxiously. Even knowing that the injuries sustained inside the pagoda were only temporary and would fully recover once she exited, he was still frantic. Feng Ting's condition looked utterly tragic. He even forgot that he was watching a playback and blurted out urgently, "Quick, let Feng Ting out right now."

Though deeply distressed by the sight, Qiu Ci remained calm. "Once she voluntarily forfeits, she can naturally come out." The fact that she hadn't come out meant she had not yet given up.

Before long, Feng Ting's body was covered in wounds inflicted by the sword Qi. Particularly after the final blow, she collapsed straight to the ground and lay motionless, as if she had exhausted every last ounce of strength.

"It should be over now," City Lord Tang sighed, figuring this must be the girl's absolute limit.

The phantom on the twelfth floor delivered one final strike, intending to conclude the match and eject her from the pagoda. A striking bolt of white sword Qi cleaved through the air, heading straight toward the prone figure on the ground.

Suddenly, a golden defensive barrier flared around Feng Ting, blocking the lethal sword Qi with a resounding crash.

The figure lying motionless on the ground finally moved!

That delicate silhouette slowly staggered to her feet. Her face was still stained with blood, and her once-pristine Dharma robes had been shredded into rags, yet she managed to prop herself up, swaying unsteadily.

The look of stark terror that had previously marked her face was entirely gone, replaced by—anger? Indeed, she stared directly at the phantom in the center. Her towering fury seemed to materialize into substance, tinting the golden barrier surrounding her with a faint reddish hue, before she finally roared out every single word with intense wrath:

"I already told you not to come closer! Why do you all... have to bully me!"

(▼皿▼#)