Inside the Xumi Jiezi Map, Zanxing slowly walked while carrying her staff.
In the examination ground, one could not feel the passage of time. The sky would neither grow brighter nor darker, like a painting that remained unchanged once drawn, forever maintaining that twilight hue of dusk approaching but never arriving.
Without any indication of examination time limits, Zanxing walked and rested intermittently. With the Torch Eye Talisman, she wouldn’t encounter any high-level Mo Xiu she couldn’t handle. She estimated that her ranking along this journey should be somewhere in the upper-middle range. Going higher seemed somewhat difficult.
Dealing with high-level Mo Xiu was still somewhat strenuous for her Mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivation. Rather than challenging high difficulty from the start and finishing early, it was better to solve more basic problems.
As she was thinking this, there seemed to be sounds ahead. Zanxing’s heart stirred, estimating she had encountered a fellow disciple, so she walked forward a few steps.
Here, except for that young disciple she met at the Two-headed Ashura, she hadn’t been able to see any fellow disciples. The martial uncles probably feared that disciples would team up to defeat Mo Xiu, making it difficult to allocate Yuanli, so they simply distributed each disciple far apart. This map lived up to its name, “Xumi Jiezi”—appearing to be just a small area, yet seeming to have no boundaries when walking.
After just two steps, the dense forest ahead opened up, becoming a wilderness. In the wilderness, a giant bird was diving down. This bird appeared to be the size of a hawk, covered in red feathers, with an extremely long and sharp beak. It swooped toward the person ahead, who dodged sideways. The bird’s beak pierced into a piece of azure stone, instantly shattering it to powder.
Zanxing watched with secret amazement—if this bird’s beak struck a human head, it would probably bore a hole through it.
But the next moment, the person in front wearing a golden gauze robe raised his sword and struck. Only a sharp bird cry was heard from the air as the giant bird’s body was cut in two by the sword, then quickly dissipated into a wisp of green smoke, disappearing into the air.
It was taken down with just one sword strike.
The man in the golden gauze robe turned around, revealing a familiar face. He seemed not to have expected to encounter Zanxing here either. First showing surprise for a moment, his face then revealed wild joy as he said: “Yang Zanxing, it’s you? This is truly heaven helping me!”
Zanxing: “…”
In this vast sea of people, in such a large examination ground, she encountered Hua Yue again. She knew it—that damned thing in the original story absolutely could not let her off this easily.
“Hua Yue,” Zanxing stared at him, saying coldly: “Every move you and I make in the Xumi Jiezi Map can be seen from outside. Do you think the martial uncles would stand by and watch if you attacked a fellow disciple?”
Hua Yue laughed heartily several times, as if he had heard a joke. He said arrogantly, “That’s indeed the case, but I never planned to attack you personally.”
He stared at Zanxing, his eyes seeming to show satisfaction. Zanxing suddenly felt a burst of fire rise from her chest. Looking down, she saw the exit talisman hidden in her chest had already burst into flames, quickly turning to ashes.
She frowned: “What did you do?”
“Yang Zanxing, now, unless you’re beaten to near death by Mo Xiu, you cannot voluntarily exit the examination.” His sword tip lightly scraped across the ground. Zanxing watched as a bright orb of light, large as a carriage cover, emerged from that patch of earth, then slowly spread outward.
Her heart tightened—this was not the level of Yuanli that a mid-level Mo Xiu could manifest.
The next moment, the sword in Hua Yue’s hand thrust toward Zanxing.
The sword tip, carrying tremendous Yuanli, rushed toward Zanxing’s face, but stopped when it drew near, abruptly wrapping around Zanxing’s iron staff. Mid-stage Foundation Establishment Yuanli, compared to post-Golden Core Yuanli, was truly insignificant. Not to mention the precious sword in Hua Yue’s hand.
In an instant, the iron staff was swept along and struck toward the ground, causing the earth to shake violently.
“This is bad.” Zanxing’s heart sank.
Under the enhancement of the Torch Eye Talisman, she could see clearly that the Yuanli orb rising from the ground appeared more brilliant than any she had seen before. This was a high-level Mo Xiu, and a very powerful high-level Mo Xiu.
Hua Yue couldn’t see the Yuanli orb, but only sensed that there was a high-level Mo Xiu in this area. Disciples couldn’t attack fellow disciples in the examination ground, but Mo Xiu could. Zanxing certainly wasn’t a match for a high-level Mo Xiu. Although the Mo Xiu in the Xumi Jiezi Map were fake creatures outlined with Yuanli, the injuries from actual combat were real.
Zanxing would be severely tortured by this high-level Mo Xiu. He only needed to watch the show, and when Zanxing was near death, interrogating her or directly seizing the secret treasure she was hiding would be a natural progression. All of this was within Hua Yue’s plan. The only variable was whether he could encounter Zanxing in such a vast examination ground. But sometimes, even heaven stood on his side—wasn’t this just a pillow delivered when he was sleepy? Yang Zanxing had delivered herself right to his door.
All of Zanxing’s attention at this moment was focused on the rapidly expanding Yuanli orb before her. The ground beneath her feet shook violently, almost making it impossible to stand steady. Then the trembling gradually subsided, and the crimson-tinged earth began to squirm slowly, as if it had gained life.
Looking closely, Zanxing saw that on the ground beneath her feet, a giant human face had somehow appeared, complete with all five features. Its eyes were like winnowing baskets, like a giant hidden underground who had expressionlessly opened his eyes.
It was bone-chillingly terrifying.
“Tomb of the Dead…” Zanxing murmured.
The Tomb of the Dead was a type of high-level Mo Xiu, or rather, it couldn’t be considered Mo Xiu at all, but rather a piece of cursed land that had gained life. Many years ago, there was a village that suffered from severe drought during a disaster year. Countless people starved to death in the village, followed by an outbreak of plague. To prevent the plague from spreading, the city lord ordered the village to be sealed off and all the villagers to be buried on the spot. When they were buried, many villagers were still alive.
Perhaps because the resentment was too intense, this piece of land generated demonic energy and gained consciousness, becoming a demonic tomb. As the name suggests, the Tomb of the Dead usually slept, but when people passed by, a giant human face would appear on the ground, swallowing all passersby to become “nutrients” for the land.
“How did you release such a terrifying thing?” Zanxing took a deep breath. This human face looked exactly like an ordinary human face, and the more it looked normal, the more eerie and disgusting it felt.
Although Hua Yue sensed there was a high-level Mo Xiu in this place, he hadn’t expected this Mo Xiu to have such a disgusting appearance. Nevertheless, he maintained his stance as a bystander, laughing loudly: “Now that your exit talisman is destroyed, Yang Zanxing, enjoy yourself!”
Outside the Clear Heart Mirror, Li Danshu, who had been watching drowsily, suddenly jolted awake and sat up: “Oh no, this girl encountered a Tomb of the Dead!”
“Fourth Martial Uncle, what is that?” Zi Luo was also seeing a Tomb of the Dead for the first time and asked: “Is it Mo Sha?”
“The terrifying aspect of the Tomb of the Dead lies in the fact that this land itself is a land where plague once broke out. Once injured by the demonic tomb, one will also be afflicted by the plague. While it won’t cost one’s life, it will damage one’s cultivation. When ordinary disciples encounter this demonic tomb, to avoid injury, they immediately crush their exit talisman and leave. But now that the talisman has been destroyed by Hua Yue, this girl can only fight the Tomb of the Dead.”
“What if she can defeat the Tomb of the Dead?” Meng Ying spoke from the side, her expression as cold and indifferent as always.
“That would be very difficult.” Li Danshu shook his head: “She’s a new disciple and doesn’t know this demonic tomb’s weakness, so she can’t possibly defeat it.”