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nChen Yiming chatted with the girl who had her hair tied up.

nThe other party was not from East Lake City, but from another province in the mainland. She had been arranged by her clan to enter the Mantis Snake Sword School to practice martial arts. Their goal was obvious. They wanted her to enter the Myriad Phenomena Sect through the school.

nChen Yiming didn’t care about the specific matters regarding the running of the Myriad Phenomena Sect. The position of sect master was like that of a figurehead, and he didn’t interfere with the rapid development of the sect.

nFurthermore, using his name, the Myriad Phenomena Sect could recruit people with astonishing potential from all over the country.

nThe Jiangnan provincial government also gave various benefits to the Myriad Phenomena Sect. For example, there was no time limit on the tickets to the base city for the disciples of the Myriad Phenomena Sect.

nAnother example was that in the stronghold in the otherworld, the Myriad Phenomena Sect had received many good positions from the start. Now, it has already become an important faction in the development of the otherworld.

nHalf an hour later, Chen Yiming and Chen Yingying walked out of the shop.

nAround them was a bustling street filled with traffic. There were colorful neon lights everywhere, and many pedestrians were coming and going. The noisy environment forced people to raise their voices when talking so that the people beside them could hear them clearly.

n“If only I had started shopping from the shelves over there from the start!”

nChen Yingying had a look of regret on her face. By the time she turned to the shelf where the Spirit Slaying Sword was, it was already in the hands of the two girls. Furthermore, there was only one such sword in the entire shop, and the other spirit-slaying weapons were not suitable for her.

n“Those two girls are disciples of the Mantis Snake Sword School. One of them is a warrior like you. They are also preparing to go to the trial grounds.”

nChen Yiming reminded his sister to prevent her from slacking off after breaking through.

nChen Yingying was stunned at first, then she nodded and lowered her voice.

nThe Mantis Snake Sword School in East Lake City was only a faction under the Myriad Phenomena Sect that was used to nurture talents for the sect. It was not a place for the young people who had true talent to stay long at.

nThis made her fall back down to the ground after she started floating for a while. The sense of urgency she had felt previously instantly returned.

n…

nThe next morning, Chen Yiming left East Lake City with Chen Yingying and headed to the trial grounds. They arrived at the place where the encirclement of the strange mountain village was previously.

nAlong the way, they encountered many people heading in the same direction. Everyone maintained a certain distance from each other and did not take the initiative to socialize.

nOn the surface, they might be able to laugh and joke around, but there were too many people who would stab others behind their back.

nNot long after, the friends they had just made might become their rivals. No one was willing to let others know about their true abilities beforehand.

nAfter more than half an hour, Chen Yiming and Chen Yingying finally arrived at a military camp to the northeast of the trial grounds.

nThere were many other such military camps. As sentries sent to monitor the trial grounds, the military did not prevent people from loitering nearby.

nTherefore, the civilian warriors used the military camps as temporary stops when they entered and exited from the trial grounds.

nNot far ahead was the outer area of the trial grounds. Behind them was a forest in the wilderness. From time to time, some birds would fly past in the sky.

nAt this moment, the environment in front and behind her looked exactly the same, but since she knew beforehand that she was about to enter the trials ground, the images of the deformed monsters appeared in Chen Yingying’s mind. She thought of the expert’s explanation that the ghosts could turn humans into deformed monsters through manipulating one’s will.

nShe instantly felt a quiet, cold, and dead aura surge towards her. She subconsciously held her breath and stood rooted to the ground like a statue.

nChen Yiming chuckled to himself when he saw Chen Yingying’s expression. “Who was the one who suddenly became so confident yesterday and told me that I shouldn’t help unless her life was in danger?” he thought.

nHe walked towards a team of adventurers by the roadside.

nThere was a man in the team who was holding a stack of maps. Many people passing by were buying them.

n“Give me a map of the trial grounds!”

n“Do you want a rough map of the terrain, or a map of the distribution of deformed monsters within a range of 1,000 meters?” the man asked cheerfully.

n“Is that real?” Chen Yiming asked doubtfully.

nHe could not believe that an adventurer team by the roadside had the ability to draw a detailed map of the trial grounds.

nAs if he knew that the other party would ask this, the man explained, “It’s only a map of the outer area, but our team can guarantee that the map was drawn within the day. You won’t regret it if you buy it.”

nChen Yiming nodded and said, “Alright, give me a detailed map.”

nAfter receiving the payment, the man handed over a two-fold map. Chen Yiming spread out the map and glanced at the dense red crosses drawn on it.

nEach red cross represented the location of a deformed monster, and there were thousands of them.

nChen Yiming realized that Chen Yingying was still in a daze.

nHe deliberately coughed to wake his sister up. Then, he handed over the map without any explanation and said, “This is a map of the deformed monsters drawn by the adventurer team.”

nChen Yingying took the map.

nAt this moment, her movements were stiff, as if she was a robot. When she looked at the dense red crosses on it, her face immediately turned pale.

nLast night, she was firmly opposed to being watched over too carefully while she trained. But now…

n“Go on!” Chen Yiming turned to the trial grounds and gestured with his eyes.

nChen Yingying opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but in the end, she kept quiet.

nBefore she set off, she turned around and whispered, “Brother, don’t go too far away, and don’t get distracted.”

n…

nAfter arranging for the spiritual figure to secretly follow Chen Yingying, Chen Yiming chose a random direction and entered the trial grounds out of curiosity.

nEver since he arrived at the military camp outside the trial grounds, he had noticed a phenomenon among the surrounding people. A few of them had very active spiritual power.

nIt was a little like shaking off the dust on one’s body or taking a shower.

nIf those people realized this, and they immediately calmed down to focus on the transformation of their internal force and the fusion of their internal force, there was a high chance that they would make visible progress.

nHe thought about how fighting with the deformed monsters and ghosts to disperse the power of corruption was essentially a form of spiritual cultivation.

nThis was similar to patients who had a terminal illness. Some people maintained an optimistic attitude and had extremely strong willpower. They did not end up thinking that there was no hope or living a life of despair every day.

nBefore they died, they were suddenly blessed by a miracle. The immune cells in their body successfully killed all the diseased cells, and they were reborn.

nAfter some people found out that they had contracted a terminal illness, they fell into despair on the spot. This was especially true for those who were weak in spirit. The feeling of falling behind was like the god of death waving a sickle, wanting to take their souls away.

nAfter they returned, they would completely lose their energy and age overnight. They would die in a few days, even if there was originally a chance for them to be cured.

n…

nSomewhere in the forest, there were a large number of rocks and thick trees scattered around. There were naturally a large number of obstacles everywhere.

nA seven-man team was using a team strategy to surround and kill a deformed monster.

nThe deformed monster had abnormally long fangs and rotten skin. Its eyes were filled with bloodlust, madness, and anger.

nLooking at its overall figure, one could barely make out that it was originally a black panther.

nEvery time the deformed black panther pounced, a corrosive zone would be created, leaving behind a pool of liquid that no one dared to come into contact with.

nWhen the people who were targeted saw this, they did not dare to fight head-on and retreated without hesitation.

nThe others attacked from afar, using grenades, incendiary bombs, arrows with internal force…

nAt this moment, the weakness of the deformed monster was revealed. It was clearly stronger than any of the seven of them, but it was only a killing machine and did not have much intelligence. It was actually being played by a simple team tactic.

nSuddenly, someone shouted, “Don’t retreat anymore. Go to the right!”

nThe reason why they were forced to do this was because if they retreated any further, they would enter the territory of another deformed monster. Their team tactic might not even succeed against one deformed monster. If they attracted the attention of another monster, they would have to consider how to escape with their lives.

nAs the person being targeted was forced to make a turn, the deformed black panther instantly closed the distance between the two sides. The situation changed drastically, and the strategy of the humans seemed to be about to cause one of them to be killed first.

n“Find an opportunity to take some hits in exchange for a chance to escape, then inject the suppressant.”

nWhen the person chasing after the black panther saw that his companion was about to be caught, he reminded him loudly again to prevent his companion from being stunned and not being able to react properly.

nThe black panther could not understand human language. When it entered its attack range, it spat out a pungent liquid that emitted smoke.

nImmediately after, it prepared to pounce and watched the direction in which the human in front of it was going to escape in.

nThe person who had fallen into a desperate situation had a flash of inspiration and threw out the long saber in his hand. The long saber was thrown out with a special attack. Regardless of whether the black panther monster dodged it or not, its path would still be blocked.

nAt this moment, escaping with his life was the most important. He rolled to the left, but did not immediately stand up. He rolled to the right again and returned to his original position.

nThe black panther had misjudged the situation. First, it allowed the long saber to stab into its body, causing its body to instantly stiffen. Then, it pounced at the spot that the human had rolled towards.

nAs soon as it landed and wanted to pounce again, it was hit by the grenades, incendiary bombs, and arrows with internal force, allowing the human to escape.

nChen Yiming watched the entire battle from afar.

nHe had originally planned to secretly stop the black panther, but he did not expect that person to be so lucky.

nNext, the seven-man team fought while they retreated, reaching a stalemate with the black panther.

nThe person who had been targeted earlier was lucky enough to not be injured by the power of corruption at all. However, the dangerous situation gave all of them a shock.

nDue to the terrain and the threat of the other deformed monsters, it seemed like their tactic could be used to find an opportunity to kill the monsters in a battle of attrition.

nOn the other hand, the human team would not be able to withstand even a small mistake. However, it was difficult to execute their tactics perfectly on the battlefield.

nThey were already considered lucky that no one had died in the incident earlier.

nNot long after, the human team retreated far away from the territory of the black panther. They did not stay in the trial grounds any longer and retreated towards the military camp.

nAfter a fruitless battle of attrition, their bodies were no longer at their top condition. It was not wise to provoke other deformed monsters at this time.

n…

nWatching the seven-man team leave, Chen Yiming secretly observed a few more teams.

nHe realized that during the battle between humans and the deformed monsters, when the two sides did not come into physical contact with each other, or when the humans won with an overwhelming result,there was limited effect on their spiritual cultivation.

nIn the former case, they would only consume a large amount of their physical strength, and they would be more afraid than excited. If they took on a huge risk and fought the deformed monsters for nothing, the price they would have to pay and the reward they could receive were far from proportionate.

nAs for the latter, the battle ended quickly and easily, but it could not really excite them, nor could it stimulate their spiritual power.

nA phenomenon that truly caused one’s spiritual power to become active appeared in battles where the humans and the deformed monsters were evenly matched.

nThere was another tough condition. These people had to suffer injuries on the surface of the skin, where they could inject a suppressant on the spot to prevent the power of corruption from spreading through their bodies. Then, they could get rid of the portion of the flesh that had been contaminated and eventually survive.

nThose who were severely injured could not withstand the corruption spreading in their bodies.

nHowever, there were very few such battles. Not many people could really set their minds on it and place their lives on the line.

n“It seems that in order to fight in the trial grounds and use this special method of spiritual cultivation, we still need to deal with the problem of people not daring to come into contact with the power of corruption.”

nChen Yiming could tell that there was a critical problem.

nHe immediately communicated with the spiritual figure and arranged for it to use its spiritual power to secretly suppress the deformed monster so that Chen Yingying and the monster would be evenly matched.

nThis was too easy for him and the spiritual figure. After all, there was a huge difference in reaction speed, perception, and control. He could always balance the scales with his power.

n…

nIn the evening, near the military camp.

nChen Yiming lay on a large rock with his eyes closed.

nChen Yingying, who was at the side, used a tree trunk in the distance as a target. She shot out arrow after arrow, causing tremors in the forest and creating small windstorms.

nShe had an epiphany regarding the usage of internal force in archery at the warrior realm. The internal force was firmly attached to the arrow, as if there was a third hand helping to stabilize it.

nThe improvement in her control over internal force was visible to the naked eye.

n“Brother, stop sleeping. Get up and see if my archery skills have improved.”

nChen Yingying had an excited expression on her face. She really wanted to share her joy with someone else.

nWhen she first entered the trial grounds during the day, she saw that most people moved in small teams. She had moved alone, and she could not hold it back any longer.

nAfter studying the locations marked on the map, she carefully checked out several places. She only glanced at the deformed monsters from afar.

nThen, she observed how a team fought the deformed monsters from afar before trying it out on her own.

nAfter repeatedly comparing the strength of the deformed monsters, she chose the weakest one.

nHowever, one’s appearance would often be deceiving. The deformed monster she had chosen was not very strong, but it was small and agile.

nAt normal distances, Chen Yingying’s arrows could not hit it at all. She also did not dare to rashly give up her advantage in long-range attacks.

nTherefore, the first battle was fruitless, and Chen Yingying took the initiative to retreat.

nAfter that, Chen Yiming arranged for the spiritual figure to secretly make a move.

nIt did not matter if Chen Yingying no longer took the initiative to attack the deformed monsters. The spiritual figure directly chased a monster over from afar, forcing the battle to break out.

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