Chapter 538

Chapter 538: A Small Boat Rocks and Sways
“Elder Sister Yan!”

Dong Fang Yue glanced anxiously toward the boats, then called to Bei Ming Yan again.

Bei Ming Yan gritted her teeth, then said: “Alright, we’ll go together.”

“Mind taking me along too?”

Nan Gong Jie walked over right at that moment.

Bei Ming Yan instinctively looked toward Nan Gong Yin.

She happened to see Nan Gong Yin boarding a boat alone.

Thinking about how they had often acted together in the past, Bei Ming Yan did not turn Nan Gong Jie down.

Just as the three of them reached an agreement, Dong Fang Yue’s Younger Brother, Dongfang Yu, suddenly appeared beside them.

He did not act like he was asking for a favor at all. As soon as he came over, he said bluntly: “I’ll be in a group with you.”

Dong Fang Yue curled her lips, clearly unwilling, and stared at Bei Ming Yan with wide, pleading eyes.

Bei Ming Yan did not disappoint her. She gave a polite smile and said: “No need, we already have enough people.”

Dongfang Yu’s face darkened. He looked at Nan Gong Jie and said: “Young Master Jie, you’re not going to embarrass me like this, are you?”

Nan Gong Jie shrugged: “I’ll listen to Bei Ming Yan.”

Dongfang Yu let out a heavy snort, flung his sleeves, and left.

Once he was gone, Dong Fang Yue actually got a little nervous.

“Will he hold a grudge against us?”

Nan Gong Jie almost burst out laughing at her innocent question: “Dong Fang Yue, aren’t you asking that a bit late? If he wanted to hate you, he would have done it long ago. This doesn’t make any difference.”

Dong Fang Yue’s face turned slightly pale. For a moment, she did not know how to respond.

“Alright, let’s go board a boat too. We shouldn’t fall behind them.”

Bei Ming Yan smoothed things over. The three of them soon got on a boat and rowed away.

Outside the Daqian Alliance.

The Pavilion Master of the Heavenly Sound Pavilion exchanged a smile with the Wending Gate Master of the Qingxu Sect.

Just now, Su Qing Wan and Lu Jiu Yuan had chosen to form an alliance and cross the Dead Sea together.

Although their two sects usually did not get along in the Bi Fang Realm, out here they could still put aside old grudges and support each other.

The mood of the Eight Great Clans was nothing like their relaxed happiness.

The Patriarch of the Huo Clan spoke first: “Auspicious Palace specially sent someone to say they would take part in this selection, but among all the cultivators here, there isn’t a single one who matches the conditions. Did they actually send anyone or not?”

Ever since they received the message, they had been worrying. Now they had watched for a long time and still could not pick out anyone from Auspicious Palace. Their hearts were truly uneasy.

The other Patriarchs clearly had the same concern. Their brows were tightly furrowed, a cloud of gloom hanging between them.

Tu Zhen Yue quietly watched everyone’s expressions. His own face stayed calm, but inside he felt very pleased.

With Tu Xiao dead, the Tu Clan’s hope of passing this selection was very slim. Of course he did not want any other clan to pass either. The more chaos, the better.

On Ancestor Sui Bian’s side, the group had also dropped their usual lively, carefree manner. Each of them wore a long, mule-like face, their expressions heavy and grim.

The Dead Sea.

The atmosphere was dark and oppressive.

Wooden boats moved forward. Their oars cut through the sea’s surface without making any sound, as if even sound itself was swallowed by the heavy water.

The sky above reflected the same deep, heavy color.

Yu Zhao slowly pulled at the oars, carefully feeling the strong resistance of the sea, lost in thought.

Rowing was tiring, but it was not truly difficult. Crossing the Dead Sea seemed to be only a matter of time.

But could the second trial that the Daqian Alliance had prepared really be that simple?

She did not dare relax even a little. Her eyes stayed fixed on the water.

After thinking for a moment, she took a Spirit Stone out of her Storage Space and tossed it into the Dead Sea.

The Spirit Stone fell into the sea without the slightest sound and was instantly swallowed by the thick water.

Yu Zhao focused her sight through the surface of the sea and watched as the Spirit Stone was quickly corroded. In less than a single breath, it completely melted into the seawater.

Her gaze grew darker. Very soon, she took out a defensive Magical Artifact from her Storage Space.

This defensive Magical Artifact was of middle grade. It could block three attacks from a Nascent Soul cultivator.

She threw the defensive Magical Artifact into the Dead Sea as well.

This time, the Magical Artifact held out a bit longer, but it still did not last more than three breaths.

Even a Magical Artifact of Nascent Soul level could be corroded. If she, a Divine Transformation cultivator, fell in, her ending would probably be the same.

The Dead Sea not only could not support floating, it was also extremely corrosive. The true test should be hidden within the Dead Sea itself.

Just as Yu Zhao reached this conclusion, her heart trembled. She suddenly noticed something she had ignored.

It was far too quiet above this Dead Sea.

Even if the rowing made no sound, the other teams of cultivators should not all be silent.

But ever since she boarded this boat, she had not heard a single sound.

Yu Zhao looked back and could not help but take a sharp breath.

On the surface of the sea, several small boats rocked gently. Strangely, there was no one on any of them. Only the oars were still moving.

Where were the people?

The skin on Yu Zhao’s scalp tingled. The scene before her eyes was not bloody at all, yet it still filled her with fear for no clear reason.

She tried calling out.

There was still no sound at all.

Her mouth opened. She felt the strain in her throat as she forced out a shout, but from the moment she tried to make a sound, it was as if her voice was swallowed into nothing, creating a space of absolute silence.

Yu Zhao bit the tip of her tongue, forcing herself to calm down. Then she changed her angle of thinking, trying to stand in the Daqian Alliance’s place and guess their goal.

The first trial had tested Dao intent and mental state.

[If I were from the Daqian Alliance, what would I test in the second trial?]

Her eyes went unfocused as her gaze fell on the drifting boats.

No one knew how long it took before the boats’ positions began to shift.

Yu Zhao’s blurry sight slowly sharpened. When the boats changed position again, a bright light flashed in her eyes.

“It’s a formation!”

Those trapped inside are always the most confused.

Yu Zhao had been puzzling over where the people on the boats had gone. She had not paid attention to the exact positions of the boats, or to the arcs the oars were rowing, and how all of that was subtly connected.

Only when the formation shifted again did she finally see the pattern hidden in their movement.

She took out a blank Jade Slip and marked the position of every boat on it. Then she turned each oar into a line and connected all of them.

“So that’s how it is!”

In her excitement, Yu Zhao did not control her strength and crushed the Jade Slip in her hand.

She tossed the Jade Slip shards into the Dead Sea, grabbed one of her oars, and threw it toward the boat behind her on the right.

The oar silently pierced through the wooden boat.

As the boat broke apart, the scene in front of her twisted violently.

It was like waking from a deep sleep. Silhouettes suddenly appeared on all the once-empty boats. The sound of wind and the noisy shouts of cultivators slowly returned to her ears.

The formation was broken.

She was back.

The corners of Yu Zhao’s lips curled up.

On the Dead Sea, nothing could float. Only the wooden boats and the matching oars were exceptions.

The key to breaking the trial had been hidden in those plain oars.

Yu Zhao had been able to see through it so quickly, not only because of her careful mind, but also because she understood both the Dao of formations and the Dao of illusions.

But the other boats did not necessarily have cultivators who were skilled in formations or illusions.

Sure enough, once she returned to the real world, she saw only chaos.