“Impossible!” Stricken with incredulity, Lu Yun couldn’t believe his eyes.

Though his realm was very low at simply peerless immortal, his cultivation had long reached unfathomable heights. His combat arts could reign supreme in the chaos, with worthy opponents below sovereign realm in short supply.

But that lizard at the same level as him had broken his combat art with just a sweep of its tail!

It charged over before he could collect his wits, sending him flying again with a soft brush of its front claws.

He could clearly identify the lizard’s move this time, but couldn’t pinpoint a way to counter its blow. It was such a simple motion, but he had no idea how to handle it!

“The greatest of dao is simplicity? Spacetime reincarnation? That blow was more terrifying than the purest essence of dao!” Eyes wide open, he permitted himself to fly wherever momentum took him.

The essence of dao merely followed the trajectory of space and released its power. It seemed like a crude gesture, but it was inordinately profound. While the lizard’s movement didn’t seem clumsy, it was very simple. Inordinately simple.

It also happened to completely stump Lu Yun. He couldn’t see through it or even react to it. He could only stand there and watch as it landed on his body.

There was a saying on Earth that a straight line was the shortest distance between two points. However, the lizard’s movement utterly violated this principle. There was no line drawn between its claws and Lu Yun. It just… happened, as if it was only right and proper that it exist in the same point as its target.

Lu Yun crashed to the ground and the lizard swiftly approached him before he could get up. So fast that they blurred into afterimages, the lizard’s two front claws and tail pummeled the human with a barrage of blows.

Lu Yun furiously exerted his power to break out of this offensive storm, but the lizard’s range of attack was as if a large net, confining him within a tiny space.

What the fuck. It can kill me with one blow but it insists on tormenting me like this… Lu Yun cursed inwardly.

The lizard possessed the same level of strength as him, but its combat arts were far more sophisticated. It would be no challenge to kill Lu Yun, but it didn’t seek to land a fatal blow from beginning to end. It was just torturing him like this, filling him with injuries but refusing to kill him.

……

After who knew how long, Lu Yun suddenly felt a lot lighter and the bloody path in front of him disappeared. He once again appeared before the tomb doors.

The path still shimmered with bloody light; the little fox and Qiu Luoyu also returned to him. He also saw others around him. Most of those that’d taken the path inside milled around him in a large crowd.

“What was that?” He looked around blankly.

“A test.” Qiu Luoyu shook his head ruefully. “I’d thought that I could break through whenever I wanted, that I was invincible beneath sovereign realm. Who would’ve thought that I’d be trampled by a beast in a trial of the Tomb of Heaven and Earth?”

Lu Yun looked around him, seeing the same helpless and frustrated mixture on everyone’s face, including some of the old farts from the nine sacred lands. He frowned slightly, realizing that everything from moments ago had seemed to be an illusion.

The chaos dragon form that’d disappeared from his body also reappeared, as if nothing had taken place at all.

The young lord of the fire origin land doesn’t seem to be here. Lu Yun’s frown deepened. He’d made a mental note of all the important figures of the sacred lands, including Chi Wuxia, Huo Shentong, and some other geniuses.

Huo Shentong and Chi Wuxia were unparalleled geniuses within the chaos. His thirty-six warriors had naturally heard of their name and Lu Yun had even paid specific attention to Huo Shentong before this.

He didn’t know whether Chi Wuxia was dead or alive, but Huo Shentong definitely was. That genius had set foot onto the bloody path without being affected by the illusion. He wasn’t among the crowd, so the only explanation was that he’d passed the trial of the bloody path and entered the tomb proper.

At a time like this, Lu Yun didn’t dare make any brash moves. He sat down cross-legged and carefully recalled the three-headed lizard’s techniques. He also quietly called upon formula dao to derive those combat arts’ weaknesses and to design a way to counter them.

“This isn’t enough… It’s not that my opponent is too strong, it’s that I’m too weak!” Lu Yun murmured to himself. “I’d always thought that I was invincible among my peers, that even the geniuses of the chaos were inferior to me. It looks like I was gazing up at the sky from my seat in a well.”

Huo Shentong’s absence delivered an enormous serving of humility to Lu Yun. He was certain that any who failed the trial would be sent back here at the same time. The trial also wasn’t one of life or death as the three-headed lizard never made any moves to claim his life. Therefore, it was purely one of basic strength.

In addition, Lu Yun noted that apart from Huo Shentong, a few other familiar faces were also absent.

Slowly refocusing his mind, Lu Yun concentrated on formula dao and deriving the lizard’s combat arts. The little fox sprawled mutely in his robes, staring off into the distance.

After a while, some among the crowd stood back up and set foot onto the bloody path again, wanting to challenge the lizard a second time. Lu Yun remained seated, still deep in his theorizing.

Instead of emphasizing the lizard’s combat arts or finding ways to defeat it, he analyzed himself and how he might grow stronger. Even if he found the way to progress past the lizard, he would still be defeated if he ran into a second or third trial, or even a battle to the death. Not only would he be defeated, he would be defeated in a thoroughly humiliating way.

The only true way was for him to become stronger himself.

No matter what combat arts or battle techniques his opponent brought to bear, defeating them in his own way was the right way to walk the dao.

……

Lu Yun stood up after an indeterminable period of time.

“I’m going in, how about you guys?” he asked quietly.

“Let’s go together.” Qiu Luoyu didn’t mind, but the little fox remained staring off into space.

“Miao?” asked Lu Yun.

“Huh? Oh yeah, I’ll go too!” She came back to herself and looked at Lu Yun slightly differently from before.

However, that went unnoticed by the young man as he set his sights on the bloody path. The three-headed lizard appeared once again as soon as he took a step onto it.