Chapter 50 - The First Trial Bloodbath

As he finally entered the inheritance, Yaan couldn’t help but gasp. He had imagined what might lie within the inheritance many times throughout the past few months, but this…was simply far too grand!

After stepping through the entry gate, everyone was separated. Yaan wasn’t anxious, as he already knew that this would be the case, but the thousands of pawns recruited by the Ghu Clan were clearly shocked. They were all looking around hastily, scared that they had been separated from their friends, but also stunned by the vast majesty of this cavern.

When it was said that they would be stepping into a cavern, most people though of a huge cave, but this wasn’t just huge, it was so enormous that it was impossible to see the walls or the ceiling. It was also dark, but anyone willing to risk their life in this inheritance, at least had the ability to see through this low light.

Yaan was entranced by the feeling of ancient emptiness which pervaded the atmosphere throughout this cavern, but quickly snapped out from his daze and raised his guard. He knew what was about to take place, so he quickly began to scour the crowd as he searched for Nadda.

However, he had even less time than expected.

WHOOSH!

A gust of air suddenly erupted throughout the region, startling all of the scared people below. As a brilliant red light lit up from above their heads, it became impossible to look away. Yaan was aware this would happen and originally intended to ignore this event, but he also became dazed, unable to draw his eyes away from the sight before him.

Unknowingly, Yaan’s jaw dropped.

‘Nadda mentioned that the trial spirit was quite large and imposing, but what an understatement that was!’

Yaan felt speechless right now. When he imagined a ‘large trial spirit’, he imagined an old man standing at ten feet tall, not a damned red skinned devilish looking creature that towered above them all by countless miles!

“Challengers…”

An eery voice reverberated throughout the cavern. It was clearly spoken by the devilish spirit, but it seemed to echo from every direction. As the spirit spoke, every single person present had the distinct feeling that it was staring directly into their soul!

Its piercing red eyes made Yaan shudder, but he narrowed his eyes and stared intently. After that experience with the mysterious woman and the celestial demon general, this sort of pressure against his soul was something that Yaan was able to tolerate and even understand somewhat.

Yaan didn’t doubt that this spirit could destroy his soul with a single glance. He no longer had access to that woman’s soul force…he possessed only a mortal soul and couldn’t hope to contend against this creature!

The spirit completely ignored the shivering fear of the masses below, continuing on with its ‘welcome speech’.

“10,000 participants have entered the first trial. To progress to the second trial, your numbers must be reduced by one thousand. Until then, all will be trapped within the initial cavern…”

Just as it appeared without warning, the spirit rapidly faded away, until it vanished entirely and could no longer be seen.

There was clearly shock prevalent amongst everyone within the cavern, as the majority of the entrants had no idea that they would be faced with such a brutal trial right from the beginning. However, there was another feeling present too, a certain solemness that everyone felt, after they witnessed such a shocking entity. Even those who had been here before, still felt like ants beneath the majesty of that devilish spirit.

“It’s just as teacher said, such a ruthless inheritance! Fuu, right, I reached the Qi Temple realm, I have nothing to be afraid of!”

Yaan was startled for a moment, and turned to his side with a very strange expression. The girl he just turned towards glanced at him cautiously. She was evidently feeling unnerved that someone would look towards her, right after they had been pushed towards killing one another.

Whilst Yaan’s appearance was hidden from view by the mysterious hat, his small stature was still quite unexpected to this girl. She was shocked that a child would enter such a place!

No, there was no child with an aura such as this…an expert, a peerless expert who had retained their youth after ascending early on in life! She herself had the fixed appearance of a 15 or 16 year old girl, but the person before her must have a physical age of around 10 to 12!

However, the girl was completely oblivious to the fact that Yaan was feeling far more dumbfounded than her right now. The absurdity of this unlikely encounter even made him forget about his plan to find Ghu Nadda for a moment.

“Zue Yin!” He muttered without thinking.

He couldn’t help it, it was too unexpected that he would actually run into Zue Yin, his first opponent in the nine factions competition, in this place! This girl left a bit of an impression on him, both due to her unbridled arrogance and her heaven shaking cultivation talent.

Zue Yin, the young prodigy of the Zue Clan, possessed the legendary ‘extreme talent’! Even in the Ghu Province as a whole, such people were exceedingly rare.

“Huh?” On hearing the childish figure mutter her name, Zue Yin’s eyes widened for a moment, She opened her mouth to speak, seemingly forgetting their environment in her bewilderment.

Unfortunately, she was quickly reminded of where she was.

Whoosh!

Yaan’s eyes shone. He saw an arrow shooting towards Zue Yin’s head, and on reflex, he used his Agile Sword Arts to step forwards and grab it.

Ti!

A faint sound echoed as Yaan caught the arrow. Zue Yin’s eyes widened, turning ninety degrees and quickly understanding that this person had for some reason saved her life!

The sound of Yaan catching the arrow was faint, but it was as if this sound triggered the entire bloodbath that was assured to take place within the first trial.

BANG!

Someone had a burning talisman slammed onto their chest by a nearby ruthless looking individual, causing their body to immediately explode as they were caught off guard.

CHI!

Yaan saw a sword pierce through the throat of a different young girl besides him, leaving her pale dead face eternally plastered with a helpless, unwilling expression.

“Hey, you- wait!” Zue Yin cried out when she saw the mysterious child slipping past multiple people, soon vanishing into the crowd. She saw a flash of his sword after a couple of seconds, followed by three people dropping dead to the floor.

She was left standing with her jaw agape for some time, because…

‘That technique, that sword, it’s him!’

Zue Yin quickly snapped out of her daze when a True Yuan Qi realm burly man charged at her from ahead. Gritting her teeth, she removed her melancholic thoughts of Yaan from her mind, focussing on her assailant.

CHI!

She overpowered him by far, piercing her sword through his throat. She stared dazedly for a moment, feeling strange as she realised that she had really just killed someone…

Yaan continued to move further away from Zue Yin. He was silent, drifting past every battle like a spectre of death. Whenever someone tried to attack him, they would instead find themselves to be the one laying dead in the dirt.

In this place with such weak spiritual energy, the Qi masters felt drained, tired and weak. Their spells were less effective and their movements slowed, yet Yaan wasn’t the least bit affected by this.

‘I did something unnecessary, there was no reason to save her…’ Yaan sighed to himself. He realised that no matter how hard he tried to let go of his past, no matter how distant he felt that he had become, there was still some lingering emotion regarding all the people he had met in the Greenwood mountain range.

He tried to forget…he tried to let go of his feelings towards the people in his past, both positive and negative. He tried to forget about and leave behind those he had cared for, he tried to move on from those he hated. When he moved to North Ghu City, he had truly wanted to start anew…unfortunately, such a thing was more difficult than it sounded. Yaan knew that he still wasn’t perfect, he was still bound by such weakness, but he was determined to continue working on these ‘imperfections’.

However, that emotion wasn’t strong enough to impact his rationality. Yaan had no intention of sticking around and protecting Zue Yin…but he didn’t particularly want to kill her either. So, he left.

Swoosh…ch chi chi!

As a group of four attacked him, Yaan’s gaze flashed with cold light. He stabbed two through the heart, slit the third’s throat. As his blade seemed to transform into a stream of water, killing those three, the fourth was bewildered as the ground below him formed a wave. The wave slammed into him and pushed him into the midst of a battle between two Qi Temple realm old men. As soon as he turned to stare at where that ‘wave’ had been, he was stunned to see that the ground was actually undamaged, as if it had all been an illusion…

BANG!

One of the old men snorted coldly, waving his hand and exploding the body of the unwanted intruder.

“Hah…” Yaan exhaled slightly. He already knew that all of this would happen, he was already mentally prepared to deal with this first trial, but…

This was complete insanity!

Never before had he witnessed senseless carnage on such a scale, where people were battling, killing, dying all around him. Even back at Heavenly Path Mountain, he only saw the aftermath of the sect wide massacre.

Of course, Yaan was no stranger to blood, danger and death. Although shocked at heart, he maintained a calm thought process and continued to slip through the various battles, searching carefully for Nadda.

Yaan tried to stay low key, but whenever a Qi Temple realm Qi master targeted him, he flashed out a pulse of his aura, displaying his status as a fellow Rank 3 lifeform.

Generally speaking, a Qi Temple realm Qi master wouldn’t bother targeting another person at this same level, unless they had some prior grudge between them. Most people didn’t want to take such unnecessary risks in this first trial. In fact, many Qi Temple realm Qi masters who possessed flying treasures chose to fly up above the crowd, completely avoiding the ongoing melee. Not everyone had such treasures though, and flying was something that required practise in order to become proficient.

Truthfully, the only real danger in the first trial that Qi Temple realm Qi masters might face, was that of their enemies in the outside world whom had also entered. The majority of those to die here would be sacrifices at the True Yuan Qi realm.

The bloodbath continued, whilst Yaan went on with his search for Ghu Nadda. Whilst he didn’t find Nadda, it wasn’t long before he was able to feel a powerful aura, the aura of a 6th layer Qi Temple realm Qi master!

Yaan knew for a fact that there was only a single 6th layer Qi master to enter the inheritance this time around. He also knew what he was supposed to do on sensing this aura.

CHI!

Yaan’s gaze became colder as his objective solidified in his mind. His body seemed to become liquid as he slipped forwards, then suddenly, his sword stabbed through a man’s chest. This person did nothing to antagonise Yaan, but Yaan had already decided before entering…he would be as ruthless as he needed to be in this inheritance! Anyone entering this place should have resolved themselves for death anyway, so he would not show mercy, nor would he mourn their deaths!

The bearded man was stunned, but before he even had time to look down, his body exploded backwards, a sea of blood and organs creating a shockwave that slammed into those in the surroundings, thrusting them away.

Step…

Yaan drifted past him like a gust of wind. Placing his foot down ten feet beyond the man’s body, Yaan quickly used his Agile Sword Arts to pass by the remaining stunned Qi master’s unnoticed. From start to finish, nobody even saw that it was he who caused that shocking scene.

Nobody but Ghu Lin.

As Yaan arrived besides the Ghu Clan crowd, many of them raised their weapons and stared at him with deep killing intent. Yaan paled slightly and halted his footsteps. Even for him, so many vicious gazes directed towards him triggered a feeling of alarm.

“Hold back, this person is a Ghu Clan Guest.” Ghu Lin’s words reverberated through the air and immediately, everyone stood down.

In the first trial of the inheritance, there would definitely not be any cases of Ghu Clan members turning on their own or on their guests. Such acts were banned by the clan’s higher ups in the first place, and in the first trial, it would be impossible to do such a thing without being noticed. The leader of the Ghu Clan exploration definitely wouldn’t attack anyone within his own group anyway.

Yaan exhaled as he felt some relief, then briefly glanced back at the gap between the Ghu Clan crowd and the other Qi masters who were battling to the death. He turned back towards Ghu Lin and clasped his hands as he walked forwards, giving a slight nod. Ghu Lin nodded back, not minding that he was staying quiet, since he was already well aware of Yaan’s identity. Actually, he knew no less about Yaan than Ghu Nadda did…perhaps even more. Ghu Lin watched Yaan as he joined the Ghu Clan crowd, his gaze lingering on him for an unusually long period of time. However, the young Ghu Clansman was impossible to see through, he continued to wear that same calm and composed expression.

“Yaan…!”

Just as Yaan arrived besides the group, he heard a familiar voice and turned around with a smile. However, as soon as he caught sight of Nadda flying towards him whilst standing upon a bone-sword, a bright red light flashed from the centre of the cavern. The red light expanded at an impossible speed, encompassing every living person within the first trial.

Yaan blinked, then rubbed his eyes. He hurriedly looked around and raised his guard after realising that he was already in the second stage of the trial! The first trial lasted not even three minutes…three minutes for 1,000 pitiful Qi masters to lose their lives…