The timing incense had already burned down to only a small portion remaining.

Zi Luo looked at the cultivators on the mushroom mountain. At this time, most of the cultivators had already stopped continuing to climb upward and instead turned to attack those around them.

“Senior Sister, they’re all unwilling to climb up anymore,” said the young disciple beside her.

Zi Luo sighed and shook her head: “These cultivators fear difficulties and dangers, unwilling to continue upward. Little do they know that the higher up the Mountain Chain Flowers are, the more abundant the spiritual energy contained within them. That one at the mountain peak is comparable to a Second-Grade spiritual medicine.”

After the trial ended, the Mountain Chain Flowers picked by these cultivators would all be given to them as rewards. If they could climb a bit higher, the rewards would be more generous. What a pity.

“Wait,” another fellow disciple pointed toward the heights: “There’s still a young man up there.”

Zi Luo looked over and saw that on the stone mountain above, there was still a young man in ochre-colored tight-fitting clothes struggling to climb upward. He wasn’t very old either, with large beads of sweat emerging on his forehead. He climbed with particular difficulty, but his steps never stopped.

Zi Luo revealed a satisfied smile: “This fellow Daoist truly has a determined cultivation heart. Not bad.”

“Senior Sister, do you think he can pass the trial?”

“Very likely.”

On the other side, Zanxing was still climbing at her unhurried pace.

To be honest, having climbed this far, she didn’t want to continue climbing upward anymore. This mushroom spun until her head felt dizzy – she was truly afraid that while spinning, her eyes would suddenly go black and she’d fall.

Probably because she appeared weak and fragile, and was low-key, careful, and inconspicuous, surprisingly, no cultivators had come to rob her flowers along the way. Zanxing planned to pick a few more flowers and then find a deserted place to hide. The time was probably almost up.

Just as she was thinking this, a voice came from beside her: “Yang Zanxing.”

Looking up, it was Wang Shao and Duan Xiangrao. What a case of enemies meeting on a narrow road.

“You managed to get this far,” Wang Shao stared at her, his gaze full of amazement.

That Yang Zanxing could pass through that Yuanli Gate, Wang Shao had already found quite incredible. Now she could make it this far, on par with himself – Wang Shao almost felt like he was dreaming.

“Thanks to your blessing,” Zanxing replied perfunctorily. “Just good luck.”

This attitude of not taking him seriously once again infuriated Wang Shao. Just as he was about to explode, Duan Xiangrao beside him coughed lightly. Only then did Wang Shao remember what he wanted to do, and he softened his voice: “Give me your flowers.”

“What?” Zanxing looked at him, suspecting this person’s brain had broken.

“Miss Yang,” Duan Xiangrao spoke softly, “you came to participate in the selection trial simply wanting to enter Taiyan Gate and obtain spiritual medicine to heal your facial injuries. Once Young Master Wang enters Taiyan Sect, he will naturally seek spiritual medicine for you.”

“That’s right,” Wang Shao put on an act: “I’ll also give you sufficient Spirit Stones and pills. I won’t let you suffer a loss.”

Zanxing asked: “Are you afraid you can’t enter the sect yourself, so you’re targeting me? This is cheating, isn’t it?”

“Yang Zanxing, don’t speak so harshly,” Wang Shao became angry from embarrassment. “I’m showing you respect by saying this!”

“Thank you for your respect, but I’m unwilling.”

“Miss Yang,” Duan Xiangrao smiled as she spoke: “The path of cultivation is long and endless, lonely and bitter. Why should ordinary women suffer this torment? If you sell your flowers to Young Master Wang, and heal your face in the future, find a good man, and live in harmony – wouldn’t that be good? A woman’s entire life is just hoping for a good destination. Why fight and kill, making yourself coarse and rough?”

Zanxing: “I have marriage phobia.”

Duan Xiangrao was struck speechless.

Wang Shao could bear it no longer and angrily said: “Why waste so many words with this ugly woman? Yang Zanxing,” he sneered: “Since you refuse the toast and choose the punishment drink, don’t blame me for not remembering old feelings!”

Listen to what he was saying – was this human speech? Forget Mu Cengxiao, even she as his former fiancée wanted to beat Wang Shao to death after hearing this. This person was truly too detestable.

Before his words finished, Wang Shao grasped the stone wall with one hand and struck toward Zanxing with the other.

When talking nicely didn’t work, he resorted to open robbery.

Zanxing dodged sideways, barely pressing against the stone wall to avoid it. Her two hands grasped the stone wall, nearly falling.

“I’ll say it one more time,” Wang Shao stared at her coldly, his tone violent with a trace of anxiety: “Give me the flowers!”

“No.” Zanxing’s expression also turned cold.

In the original story, this scene should have been the plot between Mu Cengxiao and Wang Shao. Mu Cengxiao had formed a deadly feud with Wang Shao because of killing “Miss Yang.” Wang Shao, during the selection trial on the mushroom mountain, secretly tried to kill Mu Cengxiao and steal his flowers, but unexpectedly was counter-killed by the male protagonist, fell from the big mushroom, and in the end didn’t even touch Taiyan Sect’s gates, suffering a miserable first-round elimination.

But now without this deadly feud, this plot had happened between her and Wang Shao!

Could this be hinting that now she had taken the male protagonist’s script, so all the face-slapping plots arranged for the male protagonist had to be taken in full?

This was not a good thing!

The smile on Duan Xiangrao’s face also faded, her gaze becoming sinister. She said: “There’s no time left. Let’s attack together!”

The timing incense was about to burn out completely.

Another wave of cultivators had their flowers stolen and were pushed down from the mushroom mountain by fellow participating cultivators, forever losing their chance with the sect.

“Time is almost up,” the young disciple said, looking into the distance. “I wonder if the people remaining on the mountain are enough to make one hundred and twenty.”

Zi Luo remained silent. The closer to the final moment, the more crucial it became. Sometimes it was just those few breaths of time when the situation could suddenly change.

On the mushroom mountain, Zanxing struggled to dodge the pincer attack from the two people in front of her.

Wang Shao was truly too shameless, actually fighting two against one. In the original story, Duan Xiangrao didn’t exist, but perhaps because “Miss Yang’s” plot had gone awry, this setting had forcibly created a second vicious female supporting character.

Duan Xiangrao blocked Zanxing’s forward path. Zanxing could only use one hand to block while gripping the stone wall with the other. Wang Shao took the opportunity to approach, reaching out to snatch the basket on her back.

Unable to spare an extra hand to resist, Zanxing’s expression changed. In an instant, a bold idea emerged. She activated the Xiaoyuan Pearl within her body and violently injected the Mountain Chain Flower Yuanli that had been completely absorbed earlier back into the stamens of the flowers in her basket.

A burst of golden light suddenly erupted from the basket.

Those picked flowers suddenly seemed to come alive. The moment Wang Shao’s hand approached, they violently elongated and transformed, forming dozens of purple-black withered hands that fiercely clawed toward Wang Shao’s face.

Wang Shao was unprepared and was struck in the face by a ghost hand. His feet slipped, and he fell straight down.

“Young Master Wang!” Duan Xiangrao cried out in alarm.

“Clang—” came a tremendous sound.

The giant white mushroom slowly stopped rotating, and all the purple flowers on the stone walls disappeared. The firelight extinguished, and the last bit of incense ash fell on the table and was blown away by the wind.

A woman’s clear voice resounded throughout Wangxian Terrace.

“The trial is over.”