206 I don't believe I know you?

After the white light vanished, Yao Jun found himself standing on a barren plain that was cracked open, streams of lava flowing in the cracks. Because of the lava, the temperature of the plain was incredibly high, Yao Jun's skin feeling as if it was about to melt and slide off his body. He also noticed that he wasn't alone on this plain, standing a bit of a distance away from him, a Demonic beast towered over him.

The Demonic beast had the body of a bear, but the head of an eagle, and the wings of a bat. The fur of the beast was crimson in color, tongues of fire spreading up from the feet of the monster, coiling around its entire body.

The beast let out a loud roar, the air and land trembling from the might of the roar, pillars of lava shooting up from the cracks. Despite the heat, and the monster in front of him, Yao Jun's face didn't show a hint of panic, examining the beast with interest as he muttered to himself.

"Such a lifelike illusion, it's like I am truly facing the beast. Could the brain inside the crystal be taken from the beast, allowing this illusion to be so lifelike? Or maybe it's so lifelike because the insight into the law of illusions of whoever set up the array has reached an incredible height?"

Since Yao Jun knew that this was nothing more than an illusion, he wasn't worried in the slightest. The beast didn't seem to enjoy being ignored, as it let out another loud roar, charging at Yao Jun. The earth cracked with each step the beast took, lava splashing up and shooting towards Yao Jun.

But Yao Jun was still completely calm, taking one step back and to the left causing him to suddenly appear a few meters away, easily dodging the charge of the beast. He didn't launch any attacks of his own, cocking his head to the side as he continued to observe the beast and the world around him.

Yao Jun had access to mental energy, so he was technically able to create illusions as well. But his mental energy was only a side path for Little Gray, it wasn't his main focus. This caused the mental energy to be somewhat weak, and also caused Little Gray to not really know how to best use it. Now that Yao Jun had such an advanced illusion to study, there was no way he was going to let the chance slip through his fingers.

The beast continued to attack Yao Jun, charging at him, shooting flames and lava at him, at one point even splitting into three separate creatures, a bear, an eagle, and a bat. But even when it split up, it was still unable to land a hit on Yao Jun, who continued to casually walk around, vanishing from the beast's sight and senses with each step he took. It was only after observing the illusion for half a day that he decided that he had seen enough.

"Alright, time to end this."

After the words sounded out, Yao Jun stopped moving, standing completely still with his hands behind his back. The split up beast looked wary at his calm demeanor, but even if it had a rudimentary intelligence, it still had to follow the orders implanted into its mind. The three parts of the beast roared out and charged at Yao Jun, two from the air and one from the ground.

But just as they started their charge, all the flames around their bodies suddenly vanished, even the lava in the ground retreated deeper underground. A large shadow appeared behind Yao Jun, a large crimson dragon, at least 300 meters long, appeared behind him.

Its four thick limbs ended in claws that dug into the ground as if it was butter, the two leathery wings on its back spreading out and turning the land beneath it dark. Its thick tail didn't move, but just the weight from it alone was enough to crack the earth, the two backward facing horns that adorned the dragon's head ended in sharp tips, large black spikes running down the spine of the dragon.

This entire place was just an illusion, so while Yao Jun couldn't actually bring out any of his Demonic beasts, creating an image of one of them wasn't hard. The dragon behind him was what Zhuyin had turned into after the last two years, her growth pleasing Yao Jun. Dragon's grew much larger as they got stronger, so he wouldn't be surprised if she would become over a kilometer long after reaching the Earthly Deity realm.

What he conjured up was just an image of Zhuyin, but since Zhuyin could almost be considered a part of him, the image was incredibly lifelike, even holding her aura. Facing the aura of a true Divine beast, the three beasts in front of Yao Jun instantly started to cower and tremble. Yao Jun only sent them another glance, waving his hand in a casual manner.

"Burn them."

Zhuyin opened her mouth and sent out a thick wave of fire, scorching the land and the beasts to ashes. Her fire was no longer the crimson that it used to be. After eating so many fire element resources and Demonic beasts, as well as absorbing some of the heavenly fire that Yao Jun had been forced to endure during the heavenly tribulation he experienced when he broke into the middle stage of the Immortal Rebirth realm, her flames had turned deep blue in color, growing quite a bit stronger.

The flames turned everything in front of Yao Jun to ashes, the image of Zhuyin vanishing right after. And shortly after that, the entire world in front of his eyes started to turn blurry, a white light flashing in front of his eyes as the world vanished and he found himself back in front of the crystal. The Final Fire clan elder, Shurimen, nodded at Yao Jun and indicated that he should head over to where the other contestants that had finished the trial were waiting.

Yao Jun headed over to the others, who were waiting in front of the square stone stages, some nervous and some calm. Yao Jun simply sat down on the ground in front of the stages, closing his eyes and quietly cultivating while he waited for the second trial to finish.

He had now reached the middle stage of the Immortal Rebirth realm with his Qi cultivation, so each subsequent breakthrough would take longer and be harder than the previous one, so he had to grasp all the cultivation time he could get. He could cut short the needed cultivation time by absorbing a strong Demonic beast, but he had yet to find one that he felt was good enough to not just be absorbed by his other Demonic beasts.

There was also his body cultivation, which had yet to break past the first Boulder Crusher realm. This was mostly because he hadn't acquired any cultivation manuals, so there wasn't much he could do. But every time he absorbed a Demonic beast, his body would grow a little stronger, so once he did get his hands on a cultivation manual, he would already have a solid foundation he could build upon.

The second trial quickly continued while Yao Jun was cultivating, some people being sent back and some people being sent over to where Yao Jun and the others were waiting. After three days passed, the final person had been tested, so Shurimen spoke out in a loud voice.

"The second trial has concluded! We have tested your foundation and determination, as well as your will and courage, so now we will test your actual fighting strength. Once your tablet lights up and leads you to one of the arenas, head there and face your opponent. We will announce the results of this third trial after we have felt that we have seen enough!"

Yao Jun opened his eyes and ended his cultivation, standing up and stretching his body. He wondered what they would consider to be 'seeing enough' but he doubted that they would answer him if he asked, so he held his tongue.

As he glanced at the stages, it also seemed like he didn't have to wait for too long for his first fight, his token lighting up immediately. He followed the guidance of the token, quickly arriving at a stage that was located a few kilometers to his right.

He stepped onto the stage and faced his opponent, a youthful girl with flowing blonde hair and dazzling pink eyes. He could see that there were sparks of fire dancing around within her pupils, so she seemed to cultivate the law of fire. Strangely enough, when the girl saw him, a charming smile spread on her face.

"So it's you! Who would have thought that I would end up meeting you here! Perhaps you'd be willing to join me for some tea after this?"

The girl was Margery Teffan, a girl who had spent two months trying to get Yao Jun's attention while he was cultivating as the ship he was riding on was heading to Four-Peaks planet. Of course, as Yao jun was fully focused on cultivating during this period of time, he had no idea who this Margery was. And because of that, he cocked his head slightly, speaking a few words that infuriated the girl.

"I don't believe I know you?"