“What… what are these monsters?!”

The end of the valley was finally in sight. They could vaguely see some castle walls with countless lifeforms climbing over them.

Those lifeforms had upper bodies like humans, but lower bodies like lizards. They were three meters tall with scales covering their entire bodies.

They had human faces, but their mouths were strangely large, the tips almost reaching their ears. They had sharp teeth, and their pupils were vertical like an alligator’s. A long horn could be seen growing out of their foreheads.

Everyone’s pupils shrank upon seeing those lizard monsters. They sensed a fatal threat from each one of them.

Within the broken down castle in front of them, they also saw several huge light barriers. They were round, each covering a hundred-mile space.

Just as they were bewildered by this sight, Su Mo’s voice rang out in the air, “This is the final step of the trial. These are the strongest monsters from the Devil World that you’ll face in the trial: Bloodthirsty Devil Lizards. Each one of them is extremely powerful, comparable to a late eighth rank Magical Beast. Furthermore, they have no obvious weak points. There’s no trick you can use, and the majority of you will die here…”

Hearing his emotionless words, everyone felt a chill. They could practically smell the bloodthirsty air coming from those lizard monsters.

At this time, Su Mo’s voice rang out once more, “However, this trial is not a path of absolute death. Within this abandoned castle, the Dao Sect has set up several forbidden regions. Those forbidden regions are the balls of light you see. Each one of them contains an extremely powerful Bloodthirsty Devil Lizard. They are the trials for the commanders. Each faction can choose their strongest expert to challenge the monster inside the light barrier, and if they can kill it within a set amount of time, they will become a core disciple. Furthermore, a few breaths after they kill the monster within, the light barrier will fade. Once it fades, all the disciples in their faction will count as passed and be transported to safety.

“Let me warn you, as soon as you enter the light barrier, the countdown will start. During this time, you cannot retreat from the light barrier or it will be viewed as giving up on the trial and will signify failure. That’s all I have to say. The rest is up to you.”

“The Bloodthirsty Devil Lizards have arrived!”

A fearful shout rang out. People activated their Treasure items to attack the lizard monsters charging at them.

But they were horrified to find that the lizard monsters’ scales simply lit up, and their full-strength attacks were only able to knock them a few meters back. They weren’t injured at all.

“AHH!” A miserable scream rang out as a lizard monster charged its way into the Hegemon Hall, its claw knocking aside a disciple’s weapon and its other claw grabbing him. In the blink of an eye, it ate half of the disciple’s head, and his miserable scream had barely been released before it bit off the rest of his head.

That lizard monster chewed, releasing the chilly sound of bones crunching. Looking at its bloody mouth and its sharp teeth, the disciples were terrified.

“Everyone, listen! Tighten the battle formation. Dragonblood warriors, spread out to guard the outside. I’ll leave the flame dragon here to help you. These Bloodthirsty Devil Lizards are too strong, and there’s no time to study them. I will kill the monster inside as fast as possible. Just hang on.”

Long Chen shot straight toward the castle. He could already tell that these lizard monsters had some kind of special defensive ability. Their scales seemed to be able to automatically release something similar to a defensive magical art.

He had personally seen that when others had activated the true forms of their Treasure items to attack, the scales on the lizards’ bodies had flashed for an instant, and the space around them had twisted. Those people’s attacks had rebounded.

That was the most difficult thing. Their offense and defense were both so powerful, and their movements were nimble. There really weren’t any particular weak points to them. The only way to kill them was through absolute power.

Even the Dragonblood warriors would be in danger facing them one on one. As for the others, they were pale. These opponents were not ones they could fight simply by putting their lives on the line.

So Long Chen left behind Huo Long to help them while he rushed off. The others also shot over.

Hua Shiyu, Fan Song, Hu Guishan, Que Xinyan, and Wang Zhen all moved at practically the exact same time as Long Chen. They could all see that they were in a race against time.

Long Chen was surprised to see that Que Xinyan had also left behind his flame beast to protect his people. But very quickly, his pupils shrank.

Que Xinyan had summoned another flame beast. This flame beast was a giant leopard, and its aura was even stronger than his other flame beast.

“Damn, he actually subdued two kinds of Earth Flames? No wonder he’s such a poser, he really has the qualifications to do so.” Although Long Chen looked down on Que Xinyan as a person, he had no choice but to admit that he was powerful.

In the Eastern Wasteland, he had never encountered anyone else in control of an Earth Flame. But here in the Central Plains, he immediately encountered someone with two Earth Flames, both of which were stronger than his Earth Flame. That made him sigh at the difference.

Seeing Long Chen looking at his Earth Flame, Que Xinyan sneered. A sinister glint appeared in his eyes.

Long Chen’s heart suddenly shook as he sensed some kind of danger. Que Xinyan had definitely thought of some plot to use against him. Fuck, did he really think he was so easy to bully?

He knew Que Xinyan was hostile to him, but he didn’t care. If Que Xinyan dared try anything, he would put him in his place.

The six of them rushed over to the center of the large but broken down castle.

It was unknown how long ago it had been destroyed. It was in ruins, and an aura of rot filled the air. When Long Chen saw that there were six light barriers, he sighed with relief.

Even the Elders watching sighed with relief. Long Chen’s appearance had been extremely unexpected. There had originally only been five core disciple spots, but because of Long Chen’s power, they had sent in an application to the Xuantian Tower to prepare another spot for Long Chen.

But there had been no reply the entire time, causing them to worry. However, the Hall Master, Li Changfeng, and a few others didn’t find this the slightest bit odd.

“One for each person. Good, then I’ll be fast. Those children won’t be able to last much longer.”

Long Chen saw that the others had all chosen their own targets. He chose one of the light barriers at the edges.

As soon as he entered, he saw that the space inside was far greater than what it appeared on the outside.

An ear-piercing roar suddenly came from the center of this space. He saw a Bloodthirsty Devil Lizard that was similar to the others outside, but its body was three times bigger, and its scales were silver-white. It hissed at him, revealing a viper-like tongue.

“There’s no time.” Long Chen’s divine ring appeared behind him, rapidly circulating. “Split the Heavens!”

A blood-colored saber-image filled the air. It slashed down right on the silver Bloodthirsty Devil Lizard.

Long Chen was surprised to see the lizard send out a punch with one of its claws.

BOOM!

Long Chen was blown back, his hand feeling numb.

“It’s this powerful?!” Long Chen was shocked. Just now, although he had merely used the first form of Split the Heavens, after all the nourishment he had given the divine runes in his acupuncture points, its power was several times greater than when he had previously used the second form of Split the Heavens.

But such a powerful move still ended with him being blown back. As for the silver lizard, its claw wasn’t damaged at all, and it once more charged at him.

The silver lizard was large, but its movements were still extremely nimble. A claw came crashing toward him, and Long Chen hastily dodged. The sharp claws narrowly passed by his face.

“Lightning Finger!”

At the same time as he dodged, Long Chen pointed out a finger. A bolt of lightning shot out at the lizard’s eyes.

Its reactions were fast, and it sent out a claw that broke apart the bolt of lightning. However, when it was struck, it clearly stiffened slightly.

“It works!” Long Chen was pleasantly surprised to see this. He hadn’t expected a little test to cause such a reaction. This armored monster was actually afraid of lightning.

This was unexpected as lightning was most effective against creatures of the sea, and then furred Magical Beasts. But its effect sharply decreased against armored Magical Beasts. Some armored Magical Beasts were even immune to thunderforce.

But this little test exposed one of the silver lizard’s weaknesses to Long Chen, delighting him. He was just about to take advantage of it when he sensed a strange stream of air behind him. He almost instinctively swung his saber behind.

BOOM!

Long Chen shot off like a cannonball, tearing through the ground.