Trials of the tomb. (3)

And so, the group of five started to walk in the random direction that Zhuan Yi had picked, the featureless humanoids constantly spawning around them. The first ones that spawned were only at the Immortal Rebirth realm, but it would hardly be a trial if that was all they faced. The figures gradually grew stronger, but stayed the same size so that more of them could fit into any given area at a time.

Time passed without halt as the group pushed their way through the horde, but it was impossible to tell the passage of time in the forest. The moon and the stars never moved, the sun never rose, it was just perpetual darkness that worked to throw their senses into whack. That was another aspect of this trial, to struggle and persevere without even knowing how long you had spent. Monotony and hopelessness were the death of determination, and those who would succumb to something as small as that were not worthy of reaching the Thousand-Arms Master's sanctum.

But it was still a trial after all, one that the creator and overseer wanted people to be able to clear so that they could pass on their relics to the worthy. As such, there was a certain balancing aspect present to it, albeit one that could be considered slightly skewed. The humanoid figures that started swarming Zhuan Yi after one day of walking were all at the middle or late stage of the Heavenly Deity realm, but the ones that swarmed Sirius and the others were only early-stage or middle-stage Heavenly Deities. The few that tried to approach Yao Jun were even weaker, late-stage Earthly Deities at best.

Sirius and the others were Divine Beasts, a fact that obviously couldn't be hidden from the overseer of this trial, so their difficulty received a slight bump to accommodate it. But Yao Jun had nothing like that, he seemed like just a normal body and soul cultivator at the early stage of the Earthly Deity realm, he didn't even have a bloodline, so what he faced was a bit gentler. Of course, that was if you could consider it gentle to make him fight against enemies that were two small realms above him.

But then again, he didn't even have to lift a hand since not a single figure was allowed close to him, Sirius and the others dealt with them the moment they even looked in his direction. And the enemies they had to face were also dealt with quite easily, they were after all Divine Beasts that even had access to a supreme technique like Crumbling The Nine Heavens.

Yao Jun glanced over at Zhuan Yi as they walked, his eyes practically spinning as he observed her arms. They swung around without pause, and while she didn't carry a weapon, each hit of her was enough to make the enemies explode. The gelatinous goo sprayed all around her as she practically danced in a mad flurry of attacks, but Yao Jun could see that the situation wasn't as good as it appeared.

True, her attacks made each figure explode, but each attack only made a single figure explode. When you were besieged by almost a hundred figures, what good was it that you managed to kill almost 20 of them each second? The remaining 80 would still attack, and new ones would spawn without end, so being overrun was only a matter of time, even if the enemies were a bit weaker than her.

Gazing at her figure as she did her best to cut a path forward, Yao Jun realized another one of the reasons she had sought him out to form an alliance. She wanted to cover up for her weakness, she knew that group battles were something she wasn't suited for so she allied herself with someone else to make up for it.

And as she glanced sideways and saw the ease with which Sirius and Ba-Shei erased scores of enemies, she knew that at least part of her bet had already paid off. Yao Jun also knew the same, it was part of the oath they had sworn after all, so he turned to Ba-Shei and made his request.

"Ba-Shei, can you give her a hand?"

Part of the oath was specifically to help the other person get through the trials, so if Yao Jun didn't do anything and let her keep on like this for too long then he would be going against the oath. And that would bring with it repercussions he couldn't afford, so he had to help her before she was swarmed completely by the horde of figures.

Ba-Shei gave a short nod of acceptance and swept out with his arm, darkness glittering with quiet flames spewing forth and washing over the figures that were swarming Zhuan Yi. He shot towards her the moment he unleashed his flames, entrusting Yao Jun's safety to Little Gray and Sirius.

With the ravenous Ba-Shei aiding her, Zhuan Yi found things much easier to handle. And seeing the strength she unleashed, she came to the conclusion that she also had to properly look at this Divine Beast that she had somewhat overlooked earlier. True, he was a Divine Beast just like Sirius and Little Gray, but those two also carried pieces of a minor universes' Origin Heart so they were beings working on transcending the Divine classification. When compared to something like that, a normal Divine Beast could be easily overlooked.

But here he was, tearing through swathes of figures with relative ease. And the darkness he commanded was crackling with black flames, something she hadn't seen before, so there was a chance that he wasn't just a normal Divine Beast but a mutated one. And it clearly wasn't a detrimental mutation but rather a beneficial one that strengthened him, and that was something that could never be ignored.

The group's speed increased slightly thanks to Ba-Shei aiding Zhuan Yi, but whether or not that was something that would actually help them clear this trial faster wasn't something they knew. They were constantly beset by the faceless figures, every second one spent embroiled in battle. But that didn't mean that they were the only people in this forest, a fact that became apparent halfway through the second day.

"Hoh, we actually ended up running into them?"

Yao Jun's head was turned slightly to the side as he looked at the group of people that had stumbled into their path. They were the first people they had encountered after entering the tomb, and they just so happened to be positioned in such a way that they were just a few steps away from blocking their path. Looking past them showed that they had just cut a straight path through the forest, it was just a coincidence that they ended up in this particular position. Zhuan Yi also observed the opposing group, the sharp glint of vigilance flashing in her eyes.

"You've got some thoughts on it? Anyone you know?"

Yao Jun hadn't joined up with this group when he first arrived so she felt like the chance of him actually knowing them was low. But since he commented on their appearance, it was clear that he had already formulated some thoughts about the situation. Hopefully, it wasn't something unfavourable to them. And luckily, Yao Jun shook his head lightly.

"No, I just feel that it's a bit too coincidental to be a coincidence, it fits a bit too well if you want to phrase it like that instead."

He really didn't know them, the reason behind his earlier comment was simply the composition of the opposing team. Three people at the late stage of the Heavenly Deity realm, one of which was at the very peak of the Heavenly Deity realm even. Three of the other members were at the middle-stage of the Heavenly Deity realm and the two final ones were two of the four other Earthly Deities that had arrived by the tomb, one early-stage and one middle-stage.

They had more members, but if you thought about it in terms of overall strength then they were about the same as Yao Jun's group. Two Earthly Deities to deal with him, three late-stage Heavenly Deities to deal with Zhuan Yi, and three middle-stage Heavenly Deities to deal with Sirius and the others. Zhuan Yi could discern the meaning behind his words, but she looked at it in a much simpler way.

"Perhaps the controller of this trial wants to see a nice even fight, he did say we had to persevere and overcome after all. And look, the figures stopped spawning when they arrived, the overseer definitely has a hand in that."

It was just as she said, the faceless figures had stopped spawning the moment the two groups crossed paths. Or rather, to be more specific, they had stopped spawning in a certain area, which just so happened to form an empty circle that was a few hundred metres in diameter. Beyond that circle stood countless faceless figures, just waiting to start their assault again.

It was as if the tomb was egging them on, pushing them to fight, it might have even set things up so that the groups encountered each other. The bronze plate hadn't mentioned anything about fights like this getting set up, but it was just like Ba-Shei had said earlier, they had to be prepared for the unexpected to happen.

The opposing group did the same as Yao Jun's group, they quietly whispered amongst each other for a few seconds to understand the situation they were faced with. And they quickly came to the same conclusion as Yao Jun's group, this was probably set up by the overseer of the tomb so it was best to go along with it and fight.

Of course, the unspoken truth was also that both groups were probably interested in the items they could snatch from the loser's side, but Yao Jun was probably the only person present fine with displaying such greed if he felt it. The opposing group split up slightly, dividing themselves into the small groups that Yao Jun had assumed when he saw them, only the two Earthly Deities stayed in the back. Zhuan Yi slowly moved to the side to open up a bit more space, Yao Jun calmly gesturing with a wave of his hand.

"You guys can just go, I'll be fine."

It would be hard for Sirius and the others to properly fight if they clung too closely to him, they would constantly worry about hitting him with their attacks. It was easy with the figures since their actions were much easier to predict, actual living opponents were an entirely different matter, they were much harder to understand.

Little Gray and the others accepted Yao Jun's assurance and sprang forward, bursting with energy so that they could finish things as quickly as possible. Yao Jun glanced sideways at Zhuan Yi to see how she was doing, but she was momentarily holding her ground against the three others.

Their composition was quite good, two focused on attack and one on a mixture of defence and control using the law of plants and the law of metal. But Zhuan Yi clearly wasn't a weakling, her bare hands leaving gashes in the metal created by the defender while also bouncing back the attacks that came at her. But just like with the faceless figures, she was having a hard time dealing with them all since she was focused more on single-combat. With two others always present to back up the remaining person, it was hard for her to land any definitive attacks on her enemies.

Yao Jun's gaze slid sideways to spectate Little Gray and the others, and things there were a bit slower than he initially expected. The three people clearly weren't weak, no Heavenly Deity was, but these three were clearly a cut above the rest. It wasn't to the point of beating Sirius and the others, but they were at least able to prevent themselves from getting beat too badly.

After checking on how Sirius and the others were doing, he didn't even bother looking towards the two Earthly Deities. He knew that they had already left their position, his gaze drifting towards the earth beneath him. His senses had been cut drastically short after he lost his God Gate, but he could still spread out his Anima Essence or Monarch Essence to observe his surroundings.

And thanks to that, he knew that the two Earthly Deities were currently moving through the earth while heading towards him. They couldn't interfere in the other fights so they knew that they could only do one thing, and that was to target the opponent's Earthly Deity. But what a shame, their target was Yao Jun, who wasn't an easy mark even in his greatly weakened state.

"Decent idea, just a poor matchup. You can just stay down there."

Yao Jun crouched down while muttering, placing a hand on the chilly ground. His Monarch Essence poured forth, a dim crimson light throwing a sinister glow on the surrounding trees. He didn't have his Qi, but that didn't mean that his laws couldn't be used. He could still activate his various laws with his Monarch Essence or Anima Essence, it would just be at a heavily reduced efficiency since both of those energies weren't an elemental match to the laws he used, unlike the Qi that was generally used to first touch upon the laws in the first place.

And the law he touched upon right now was the one he started studying after absorbing Shan Zhu, the law of earth. A low droning rumble ran through the immediate area, the earth beneath the surface shifting as it followed Yao Jun's command. It smashed into the two people burrowing through it, crushing their bones as it twisted and contorted around them, bending and crushing their bodies in the process.

And just like that, a new unmarked tomb appeared beneath Yao Jun. But a thought flit past Yao Jun's mind just as he was about to stand up, his finger curling slightly as he sent out a bit more of his Monarch Essence. The moist soil grew a bit damper as a dark spot appeared on it, blood seeping out from the earth and entering Yao Jun's interspatial ring so that it was saved for later.

He straightened his knees and removed his hand from the ground when he finished dealing with the two others. Was it cruel to kill them like that? Maybe, but they had hardened their determination to attack him, and Yao Jun didn't have the mercy to spare an enemy. So he struck to kill without hesitation, and he would do so again and again if he was given the chance, the notion of mercy was already something that had become blurry in his mind.