“That’s great.” Lu Ning continued, “We were talking about grouping just now. Shishi, do you want to join us?”
“Grouping?” Chen Yu was a bit puzzled.
“If people who are familiar with each other team up together, breaking through will be much faster and the possibility of finding the magic artifact will be greater.” Lu Ning introduced, “Daoist Liang, Guanhai, and Senior Brother Shao are in a group. I’m in a group with Yan Wei and Yan Xin. Do you want to join us?”
When Yan Xin heard Lu Ning’s invitation to Chen Yu, she was a little unhappy.
Chen Yu looked around, and then her eyes fell on the youngest, Qin Guanhai. He seemed to have a special ability if she remembered correctly.
“Can I join your group?” Chen Yu smiled and asked Qin Guanhai.
“Do you want to team up with us?” Qin Guanhai was stunned.
“Yeah. I remember that your sensing power seems to be particularly strong, so maybe you can sense the location of the magic artifact.”
Since even her grandpa didn’t know where that spiritual artifact was stored, instead of searching for a needle in a haystack, why not follow Qin Guanhai? Maybe, he would detect it out of the blue, just like he did with the Green Spirit Hairpin.
When Qin Guanhai heard Chen Yu’s blunt words, he was at a loss for words, so he looked askance at his Senior Brother.
Shao Qi was equally stunned with her proposal. He obviously did not expect someone to take advantage of someone so openly, but Chen Yu had saved their lives before, so Shao Qi could not say anything. He could only laugh dryly and said, “Daoist Chen, you have a high cultivation, so it’s naturally favorable if you team up with us.”
“There are two magic artifacts for this competition. I wonder which one Daoist Chen likes better?” Liang Guang suddenly asked.
“Isn’t there only one?” Chen Yu remembered that she had only released one magic artifact out ah.
“The Metaphysics Headquarters released a mission, saying that in addition to the magic artifact as a reward for breaking through the magical barrier, there is another special magic artifact hidden inside. If anyone can find it, he’ll receive a 50 million bonus,” Lu Ning explained.
Chen Yu remembered. Master Mao had said before that he would issue a task for the Celestial Masters participating in the competition to find the spiritual artifact together, so this was probably it.
“I want that special magic artifact,” Chen Yu said without even a second thought.
Everyone showed the same expression. Sure enough, Daoist Friend Chen’s love for money was deeply impressive.
With Chen Yu’s response, Liang Guang’s expression was much more natural. He was a 26 this year, and this was his last time to participate in the Profound Spirit Grand Competition. So, he was determined to win the magic artifact from the competition. Compared to the second artifact that needed to be handed over to the Metaphysics Network, Liang Guang naturally wanted the first artifact more. As for the money, he was not short of it at all.
Shao Qi’s main purpose this time was to accompany Qin Guanhai for training. His aim wasn’t the magic artifact, so as for Chen Yu’s joining, except for feeling that she was a bit cheeky, he wasn’t resistant to it either. Rather, with Chen Yu’s company, their safety factor was much higher. It was just that…
“I don’t know when the magical barrier will open either.” Shao Qi looked at the top of the mountain.
With his reminder, Chen Yu stomped her feet in annoyance. She almost forgot about opening the magical barrier again! After wallowing in guilt for a while, she didn’t dare to delay a minute longer. She found an excuse, slipped away, and then ran to the cave somewhere near.
Fortunately, the hand seal to open the magical barrier could be within ten meters from the barrier, and the cave was also within the barrier. Otherwise, Chen Yu would have to climb to the mountain summit.
Shortly after Chen Yu entered the cave, a golden light suddenly lit up from the top of the mountain, followed by a majestic spirit qi pouring down from the summit. The Celestial Masters in the valley raised their heads one after another.
“The magical barrier is open.”
“It’s finally open.”
“Let’s go.”
The Celestial Masters who had been waiting impatiently for a long time pulled out their mountaineering equipment prepared in advance and climbed up one by one towards the summit. The picture looked quite spectacular from afar.
Seeing hundreds of mountaineers for the first time, all of which were vigorous and physically fit, Chen Yu couldn’t help clicking her tongue in admiration. She exclaimed, “They are so powerful.”
“In order to participate in the Profound Spirit Grand Competition, everyone has trained in mountain climbing,” Lu Ning explained.
Who made the competition venue at the top of the mountain? How could they reach the top without climbing the mountain?
Chen Yu nodded in response. Afterward, she took out her phone and silently took several pictures and sent them to the old man, with the caption: (We have led the trend all along.)
Elder Wu replied with a carefully worded sentence: (Never ever let others discover it.)
How could Chen Yu dare to be discovered? If people in the Metaphysics world were to know the truth, they would most likely skin her alive.
The Metaphysics Celestial Masters were worthy of their special training. One by one, they climbed to the summit and stepped into the barrier-covered competition site.
If foreign mountaineering enthusiasts were to see this scene, they would probably be scared out of their wits. How could these people easily scale the mountain they struggled so hard to climb? These locals truly concealed themselves deeply.
The mountain summit was a spacious open flat land. The ground was covered with green grass and flowers, and there was also a blue lake in the middle. It made people fancy being in a dream.
“Which way do we go?” Liang Guang looked around blankly and turned to ask Qin Guanhai.
“I don’t know.” At present, Qin Guanhai did not detect anything special.
“Then let’s pick a random direction to check for now.” Shao Qi said, “Anyway, no matter which direction we enter, we have to break through the seven levels first.”
After five millenniums of record, they have long understood the levels in the Profound Spirit Grand Competition. They were classified into seven levels according to the difficulty of spells, formations, and exorcism. Only those who had broken through the seven levels in succession could finally see the magic artifact. If they failed to pass one level within a period, they would be ejected from the magical barrier and lose their qualifications for the competition.
“Brother Lu Ning, let’s go this way.” Yan Xin tugged at Lu Ning’s sleeve.
Lu Ning turned his head to the direction she indicated. Knowing that they would part ways sooner or later, he turned toward Chen Yu and said, “Then we’ll go in first, and I wish you guys good luck in finding the magic artifact.”
“Thank you, and good luck to you guys.” Chen Yu waved her hand and watched the three leave.
“Let’s go this way then.” Liang Guang pointed to the right and asked Chen Yu’s opinion.
“I’ll listen to you guys,” Chen Yu replied indifferently.
The seven levels appeared randomly, and whoever could find and unravel it the fastest could find the magic artifact the fastest. However, the positions of the levels were irregular, so everyone could only wander aimlessly within the magical barrier.
Finally, after wandering around for an hour, the group encountered the first level – exorcism.
Chen Yu looked at the team of bald malevolent ghosts in front of her who suddenly appeared, and the corners of her lips twitched. Sure enough, no matter how she looked, they hurt her eyes.
“Here they come, a total of sixteen malevolent ghosts.” Liang Guang drew his peach wooden sword and looked solemnly at a group of malevolent ghosts in front of him, exuding an eerie aura.
“Guanhai, go to the back.” Shao Qi pulled Qin Guanhai back.
Qin Guanhai knew that his cultivation was low, so he obediently hid behind the three. Chen Yu took a few steps forward and stood where Qian Guanhai had just stood.
Chen Yu took just one step forward, but the malevolent ghosts, who were approaching aggressively step by step, suddenly stopped in their tracks and stood still. Sixteen pairs of bloodshot eyes stared at them, and their gaze was especially bone-chilling.
“I am responsible for the five on the left. Shao Qi, you are responsible for those on the right. As for the remaining six malevolent ghosts, I’ll leave them to Daoist Friend Chen,” Liang Guang said, dividing the work.
“No problem.” Chen Yu answered and took out a Spirit-Repelling Talisman.
“Graaah!”
Chen Yu raised her head.
“Graaah!?”
Chen Yu took another step forward.
“Grah-grah-grah!!!”
A burst of black smoke drifted past, and sixteen malevolent ghosts fled neatly in unison.
Liang Guang, who was ready to face the enemy, was somewhat astounded: “What happened?”
“I don’t know either,” Shao Qi said. He, too, was at a loss.
I know, but I can’t tell you! Chen Yu decided to hide her merits and fame.
“The magical barrier didn’t eject us. Does this mean we passed the first level?” Liang Guang doubted.
As long as they failed to pass one of the seven levels, they would be ejected by the boundary and thus disqualified from the competition. The magical barrier, however, did none of that, so Liang Guang guessed so.
Although puzzled, the group could only continue to move forward. Soon, they again encountered the second level, a wave composed of fifty malevolent ghosts. When Liang Guang and Shao Qi were thinking about how to break through this second level, the fifty ghosts suddenly transformed into a larger puff of black smoke and drifted away in a haste.
What the hell was going on here?
Chen Yu: “…”
“They’re so strange,” Qin Guanhai couldn’t help but comment.
“Strange indeed. Why did they escape as soon as they saw us?” Shao Qi was also very puzzled. If they were to really fight fifty malevolent ghosts, the three of them could not necessarily match them.
“Also Senior Brother, how come all these malevolent ghosts are bald?” Qin Guanhai was a young teenager and his concern was quite different from his senior brother’s. “What’s more, they’re wearing the same clothes. Could it be that they were all monks when they were alive?”
“…” Shao Qi, who just discovered it, too.
“…” The frowning Liang Guang.
And the guilty Chen Yu.
“On top of that, the clothes they wear look familiar, especially like the novice costumes in a martial arts online game I’ve been playing recently.” Qin Guanhai said, “It turns out that ancient clothes originally looked like this.”
I’m not sure if ancient clothes look like this, but the designer must be playing the same game as you.
“It’s been five hundred years. We can’t find out what happened before. I think we’d better stop worrying about it and find the magic artifact instead,” Chen Yu said with a guilty conscience.
“Right, let’s look for the magic artifact first.” Liang Guang nodded in agreement.
Qin Guanhai also stopped dwelling on it. Thus, the group continued to break through the barrier.
Chen Yu walked in the back, patting her chest to get over the scare: Gosh, I almost blew up my cover!
The author has something to say:
At the end of the major competition, Chen Yu ran to question the malevolent ghosts.
Xishi: Why did you flee during the competition? You almost blew up my cover, you know?
Malevolent Ghosts: Grah-grah-grah!
Xishi: What are you roaring about? I don’t understand.
The malevolent ghosts paused for a second, raised their hands, and pointed neatly at their bald naked, and then continued: Grah-grah-grah! ~~~
Xishi: …(She suddenly wanted to apologize, damn it!)