Trials of the tomb. (4)

Yao Jun's gaze turned back towards Sirius and the others after he dealt with his own attackers, but it was clear that things would also finish up there soon. The three people were already starting to show clear wounds, but glancing at the faceless figures that surrounded their battlefield drained them of all will to escape. The three men locked eyes, their expressions hardening as they seemingly came to an agreement.

All three of them burst forth with every ounce of energy they could muster, two of them launching all-out-attacks at Sirius and the others. And during the second that Little Gray and the others used to take care of the attacks, the third man charged past them and headed straight for Yao Jun. With how bad things were looking, their best option was probably to take a hostage they could use to improve their position. But sadly for them, this was an act that was tantamount to suicide, it was true both in the past and now.

"DON'T YOU DARE!"

The forest shook under the unbridled fury in Ba-Shei's voice, the temperature in the area skyrocketing in an instant. He stopped bothering with the part of the attack that came at him and swept out his hand, all the darkness within several thousand kilometres roiling and seething as dark flames burst to life.

The darkness gathered together into two giant draconic wings as Ba-Shei revealed a bit of his true form. The man only had a single second to reveal a look of terror and despair before the two wings made a flapping motion, eviscerating everything they came in contact with. The man, the trees, the nearby faceless figures, the two other men that were standing by Sirius and Little Gray, everything was sheared away in a neat and clean manner.

All of a sudden, a large open area had been created in the forest, the unchanging night sky above them bathing the ground with its faint light. But just like the faceless figures rose without end, the trees immediately started to grow back to blot out that silver light and plunge the forest back into its usual darkness. Yao Jun didn't even glance in the direction of the man that had tried to charge at him, placing his hand on the shoulder of Ba-Shei, who had reached him in that instant of pure rage.

"Calm down, acting up will probably only draw more people this way."

Yao Jun was actually a bit happy about Ba-Shei's reaction, he too had reacted like that a few times in the past, it was one of the purest display of care. With the enemy taken care of, and Yao Jun's hand landing on his shoulder, Ba-Shei immediately regained his mind, and realized what he had done wrong.

"Forgive me, My Lord, I lost my cool."

He tried to drop to his knees as he apologized, but Yao Jun held onto his shirt so that his knees couldn't actually touch the ground.

"It's fine, it shows your care, but try to take the surroundings into consideration next time."

Yao Jun spoke so, not realizing the irony in the fact that the words were spoken by someone who had destroyed an entire planet in a similar rage once. Ba-Shei and the others weren't keen on explaining this irony to Yao Jun, congregating around him now that the enemies had been dealt with.

Yao Jun once again allowed his gaze to drift towards Zhuan Yi, who was slowly gaining the upper hand against her opponents. They had seen the attack just now and knew that they were the last remaining people of their group, a fact that pushed them to fight more desperately, and thus with more openings in their movements. But thinking about the commotion they had just caused, and what the overseer of the trial might pull, Yao Jun still decided to speed things up.

"Ah, sorry, can you give her a hand again so that we can get out of here a bit faster?"

He didn't direct the request at any of his three companions in particular, but all three of them came to the same conclusion and nodded their heads. Ba-Shei gathered up a dense orb of his burning darkness and Sirius surrounded it with a layer of wind, the whistling sound it unleashed suggesting that it was composed of countless sharp blades. And then Little Gray took charge of sending the attack on its way, space around it warping as he put his full focus on it.

A very slight ripple ran through the surrounding space as the orb vanished, the man in charge of defence and control immediately feeling a deathly chill assault him. He didn't try to defend and instead chose to dodge, but it was already too late. He managed to take half a step backwards, but half of the orb still appeared in his stomach, the other half appearing outside.

And the moment it appeared, it burst open in a violent display of power. The sharp winds lacerated him from inside and out, the burning darkness reducing the chunks that flew off his body into ashes while also jumping towards the closest person. It was different from how they dealt with the three opponents they faced in front of the mountain they had been at earlier. It was an attack with barely any finesse, it focused solely on packing as much power as possible into it to decimate their target in a single second.

And it did the trick perfectly, the defender of the group fell apart without resistance, and the shock only pushed the two others deeper into their despair. With that, it only became easier for Zhuan Yi to eliminate the two others, one losing his head under her hand while the other had his skull crushed by her other hand. She wasn't shy about storing the two corpses into her interspatial ring, her gaze landing on Yao Jun and companions.

"Quick and neat, huh? My bet is already starting to show signs that it was the correct choice, isn't it?"

Her bet was indeed already proving itself to be the correct choice, and Yao Jun himself had yet to even make any move to reveal his secrets. Yao Jun shrugged his shoulder, he wasn't terribly interested in commenting on Zhuan Yi's bet. They had also dealt with their opponents, so the faceless figures were already starting to rush at them again, so it wasn't like this was the perfect time to make a remark on her thoughts.

The group started to move again while enduring the onslaught of the faceless humanoids, the passage of time still impossible to tell from your surroundings. The moment you stopped keeping an eye on the passage of time it was likely that you would lose grasp of it, which would greatly speed up the pace at which you found things to become monotonous and hopeless.

But as they were walking and tearing their way through the faceless figures, a change finally occurred. The figures quivered for a few second and then melted into the ground, the ever-expanding forest in front of them suddenly vanishing as the loud voice they heard as they entered the tomb boomed out once more.

"Three days have passed, new challengers have been sent in. Trial-takers, persevere, adapt, overcome, those who reach my sanctum will be rewarded."

Seeing as it was the same thing they heard when they entered the tomb, it was probably a pre-recorded message that had been set up by the tomb's creator rather than something the test overseer said. But that was an unimportant fact that Yao Jun discarded as it popped up into his head, his gaze drifting towards the seemingly endless plain that spread out only a few steps ahead of them.

"End of the forest huh, things'll be a bit more difficult from this point on so be careful, no idea where they'll strike from."

He didn't know if the first trial ended for everyone after three days or if it was just them, but whatever the case was it was clear that they had at least been deemed good enough to pass the first trial. Sirius and the others nodded their heads, Zhuan Yi mimicking their actions unconsciously thanks to the calm and naturally dominant tone that Yao Jun unwittingly exuded.

Yao Jun's group set foot on the plain, which was brightly lit contrary to the dark and dreary forest they had been travelling through just now. They couldn't see anyone else as they observed their surroundings, in fact, they couldn't see a single thing around them. It was just plain as far as the eyes saw, ankle-high grass brushing against their feet with each step they took.

No faceless figures spawned from the ground as they walked, so their journey felt a lot faster, yet also more boring and monotonous, than their time in the forest. And just like the first trial, a part of the second trial seemed to be rooted in the word persevere, as the first and second day passed without them seeing even a single shadow. But just as Yao Jun realized that the second day was about to end, his gaze turned downwards, Sirius' gaze turning skyward at the same time.

"Three coming from below."

"There's a further two coming from the sky, it seems like the plan is one for each of us."

The enemies arrived just at the time most people might start to lower their guard, it was a bit too coincidental to be an actual coincidence. Little Gray raised his head to the two enemies that were descending from the sky, orbs of murky gelatinous material identical to the faceless figures they faced in the forest. His gaze settled on the orb that released the energy of a cultivator at the middle-stage Earthly Deity realm, just half a step away from the late stage.

He raised both hands and gathered his Qi with a serious expression, space in front of his palms distorting so violently that it seemed to fold into multiple layers. He unleashed his Qi just as the orbs were only 100 metres away, the orb he was targeting suddenly splitting into several parts. It didn't look like it was cut apart, it looked more like the split up parts had never been connected in the first place.

Whatever Little Gray had done to it, it seemed to do the trick, the orb falling apart into tiny pieces and disintegrating before it even touched the ground. And with the only opponent that matched Yao Jun's cultivation realm taken care of, Little Gray lowered his head slightly.

"I've taken care of yours, Milord, so please just rest easy and watch us."

Yao Jun wasn't sure what he could possibly say in this situation, this was beyond dealing with the enemies as they charged at him. He hadn't even given the opponent that was likely produced for him the chance to fully form, decimating him so that he couldn't show the slightest bit of aggression towards Yao Jun. In the end, all he could do was shrug his shoulder and spread out his arms, gesturing that they could do what they pleased as he proverbially leaned back to enjoy the show.

And as he leaned back, the other orb that descended from the sky landed, and the three that were approaching from beneath the ground also bubbled up to the surface. The four orbs morphed into four humanoid figures, but these stood at two metres tall and each had six arms that constantly wiggled about and changed shape. The strength they radiated varied slightly, three of them at the late stage of the Heavenly Deity realm while the fourth had already reached the early stage of the Sovereign God realm.

They were clearly quite a bit stronger than the faceless figures they faced in the forest, Zhuan Yi and the others putting on serious expressions as they positioned themselves in front of their enemies. They hadn't encountered any enemies yet, but there was no telling whether or not these figures would be the only enemies they had to face so it was hard to know if they could afford to go all out.

But that was probably something planned by the overseer of this trial, something to push the mind to the edge to truly see if you could persevere. Yao Jun had the luxury of being a bit more relaxed than them, but he didn't allow his vigilance to waver for a single second, locking his senses on the surroundings and his eyes on his companions. His enemy had been taken care of so the task he would take up was observation and inspection, and hopping in to aid should anyone need