Was this supposed to be a virtual reality setting? This was quite interesting.

However, there was a massive bottomless hole next to him, and the hole was entirely inky-black in color. There were some indescribable auras rising up from down below, causing his mind to shudder slightly.

He inspected his internal condition, and sure enough, he could no longer sense his soul power. It was as if his soul power vortex had completely disappeared from within his body. Thankfully, his bloodline vortex was still there, and his blood essence power was still extremely abundant, so he hadn't been impacted much

Right at this moment, light flashed and the female major appeared beside him. She was in the exact same attire as before, but when she caught sight of him, a different expression finally broke through her cold facade; it was surprise!

"How did you get in here so quickly?" the major asked.

"Is there a competition for speed?" Tang Wulin answered her question with one of his own.

The female major's expression returned to normal, and she pointed into the abyss. "Jump into it."

"Alright." Tang Wulin did as he was told and leaped into the black hole without any hesitation. He didn't know what was down there, but this was only a simulated world, so there was nothing to fear. After everything that he'd been through, would he be afraid of falling to his death in a simulation? Furthermore, with his current physical constitution, it would be quite difficult for him to fall to his death even if he tried.

The major also jumped into the abyss right after him.

Everything in the surrounding area began to turn dark, but Tang Wulin's eyes glowed with purple light as he unleashed his Purple Demon Eyes.

Cultivating the Purple Demon Eyes could improve his spiritual power, and conversely, after one's spiritual power reached a certain level, it would also begin to reciprocate their Purple Demon Eyes. As such, Tang Wulin was already beginning to progress toward the third level of his Purple Demon Eyes. Even though there was still quite a gap for him to bridge, the cultivation of the Purple Demon Eyes was a process of accumulation anyway; after cultivating it for a long enough time, everything would naturally fall into place.

Through the use of his Purple Demon Eyes, he was able to discern that this was a cave. The walls of the cave were quite uneven, so it didn't appear to have been artificially excavated. After falling for around 100 meters, a massive net appeared down below to stop their fall.

As their bodies gradually stabilized, Tang Wulin caught sight of a series of holes beside the net that had broken their fall. The holes were all of different sizes; the largest ones had diameters of around 10 meters, while the smallest ones were only around two meters in diameter. Furthermore, these holes were very irregular in size and seemed to have been smashed into the rock faces by something.

The female major climbed along the net toward one of the holes while waving a hand toward Tang Wulin. Tang Wulin quickly followed along with his staff in his hand.

After he arrived beside the major, she said, "From now on, there could be danger at every turn. What you have to do is progress onward while protecting me. The result of your trial will depend on how deep you can go, understood?"

"Yes!" Tang Wulin nodded in response. He then brandished his staff and led the way into the hole.

The hole that this major had chosen had a diameter of around three meters, and it was completely pitch-black in here as well. Tang Wulin's eyes narrowed slightly. Even though he couldn't use his soul power, he still had full access to his spiritual power, and with his sensory abilities, coupled with his Purple Demon Eyes, he could just barely see around 30 meters away from him. This was already quite a remarkable feat in this cave with barely any light.

However, the further he progressed, the darker the surrounding area became, and even the effect of his Purple Demon Eyes was rapidly on the wane.

Tang Wulin wasn't walking very quickly, and the major followed him in an unhurried manner.

Tang Wulin suddenly wished that he had an infrared thermal imaging device with him; that would make things a lot easier. As things currently were, he could only rely on his own senses.

However, his alloy staff was also somewhat useful in this situation as well. He was able to use it as a guide stick, occasionally striking the rock faces on either side, as well as the ground up ahead, in order to ascertain whether they were in a safe setting.

All of a sudden, a gust of wind surged toward them, and Tang Wulin reflexively swung his staff toward the gust of wind while retreating a half step with his right foot to position his body in front of the major.

A dull thump rang out, and Tang Wulin could feel that he'd struck something. He focused his Purple Demon Eyes up ahead to discover that it was a bat-like creature. It wasn't very large, but it possessed considerable ramming force that was most likely several hundred kilograms on impact. That wasn't much to him, but if a normal person were in his shoes, they would've most likely been completely bowled over.

Even after being struck by his staff, the bat-like creature didn't die. It let loose a sharp screech before springing up and pouncing toward Tang Wulin again, scratching toward his body with its four claws.

Tang Wulin certainly wasn't going to allow its attacks to land. He struck the bat with his staff with unerring accuracy, and on this occasion, he used a lot more of his strength.

Another dull thump rang out, and the bat was sent flying through the air. In the next instant, its body exploded in mid-air. Tang Wulin had controlled the power of his strike to perfection. He condensed his power to within the end of his staff, and only allowed it to erupt after the staff struck the bat, thereby allowing him to immediately send it flying.

The major behind him raised her eyebrows slightly, but Tang Wulin naturally couldn't see her expression in the darkness. He continued onward after only a brief pause.

While passing by the carcass of that bat, he squatted down slightly before focusing his gaze on it.

Much to his surprise, the bat's body was rapidly shrinking, and it disappeared right before his eyes. At the same time, he was struck by a faint notion that some type of energy seemed to have proliferated through the air.

Was this thing not an actual being of substance? Tang Wulin's brows furrowed slightly, and he recalled back to the instant that he'd pulverized the bat's body. No blood had appeared, and instead, a ball of energy seemed to have exploded in that instant.

However, in contrast with the Spirit Ascension Plane, this energy didn't replenish his body, nor did it bolster his soul rings.

Had these creatures been created solely for the purpose of this trial?

Tang Wulin continued onward with a hint of befuddlement in his heart.

Another gust of wind swept forth, but it wasn't alone this time. Instead, several gusts of wind were hurtling toward them from up ahead at the same time. Tang Wulin remained completely unflustered as he injected his power into the staff, then gently swept it through to lash out at all of the oncoming assailants. At the same time, his own body remained as still and resolute as a mountain.

"Thump, thump, thump!" Three dull thumps rang out in rapid succession, and three bats' bodies exploded. The carcasses then quickly began to vanish just like the body of the first bat.

Tang Wulin continued onward, and bats appeared one after another. At times, they emerged one at a time, while at other times, as many as six or seven of them would appear at once. On those occasions, their bodies would fill up virtually the entire cave.

However, not even a single one of them managed to break through Tang Wulin's defenses, and all of them were destroyed by his staff.

After forging ahead for about 100 meters, light gradually began to appear, and the number of bats also began to decrease. The light wasn't very bright, but it was still better than having no light at all.

After reaching the conclusion of the tunnel, Tang Wulin turned left, but he stopped cold in his tracks after taking just a few more steps. At the same time, an astonished look appeared on his face.

They had arrived in a massive cave with an area that was comparable to that of a sports stadium. On one face of the massive cave were around 100 holes of different sizes, and they were situated at heights of around 100 meters. At this moment, there were at least 100 of the four-claws bats that he'd just faced flying in the air within the cave, and even more of these bats were flying out of the holes up above.

The light was also coming from those holes, and it wasn't very bright, but it was enough for Tang Wulin to see everything with his Purple Demon Eyes.

Was the objective of his trial to defeat these bats?

Tang Wulin's expression changed slightly, and right at this moment, the major arrived beside him before suddenly raising her head and smiling at him.

This was the first time that Tang Wulin had seen this major smile, but no matter how he looked at it, he couldn't help but feel that this was quite a sinister smile.

Immediately thereafter, the major said to him, "Make sure to protect me."

She then abruptly stepped forward and began to charge into the cave up ahead.

Tang Wulin's lips twitched upon seeing this. Was she artificially increasing the difficulty of his trial?

Despite his disgruntled thoughts, he reacted extremely quickly, and he immediately sped over to behind the major after stomping a foot into the ground.

All of the four-clawed bats began to emit sharp screeches at the sight of the intruders, and one bat after another descended from the sky, hurtling toward them from all directions.