Chapter 450: Twelve Bridges

“There are twelve bridges here. Everyone choose one and go!”

Gongsun Hong said. He then leaped up and, like a brisk swallow, floated about a hundred feet out before steadily landing on one of the bridges in the middle.

He looked back at everyone, his gaze momentarily stopping on Yi Yun, “It is your turn now.”

Yi Yun clearly felt the warring spirit in Gongsun Hong’s eyes.

Yi Yun could understand Gongsun Hong’s thoughts. He was a proud person, so he could not accept that he had been completely overshadowed in the first trial. Besides, Gongsun Hong believed he was the strongest person in the group. Gongsun Hong was indignant having lost to Yi Yun who had used trickery.

He wanted to win the number one place back.

“Let us go on up.”

The young cultivators leaped onto the bridges. Some were full of confidence, while others were very careful.

Yi Yun was also one of them. When Yi Yun landed on the bridge, he could feel many gazes landing on him.

Clearly, Yi Yun’s performance in the first round had attracted too much attention. Although people no longer thought that Yi Yun would be easily eliminated, no one believed that he would achieve any more amazing results.

Yi Yun was unaffected by this hostility because they could not attack him inside the Great Empress mystic realm.

On the bridge, the strong winds blew. Gongsun Hong was in the lead. He was using Sweeping Figure Sword Steps, so three of his afterimages were in front of him, paving the way. More than a hundred sword Qi beams were flying around. These sword Qi cut through the wind, reducing the pressure on Gongsun Hong. This resulted in him being able to proceed easily without needing to spend much effort.

This scene made many people secretly horrified. Even Yi Yun felt that Gongsun Hong’s abilities were indeed exceptional.

And Gongsun Hong was older than Yi Yun by a bit. If Yi Yun really fought Gongsun Hong, he was not sure who would win as there was no way of estimating. He had several hidden killer moves, but Gongsun Hong, who was the best amongst the internal disciples of the Li Fire Sect, probably had quite a number of killer moves as well.

“Ah!”

At this moment, there was a shrill scream. The storm in front of them exploded and a two-meter long black shadow charged from the storm, heading straight towards Gongsun Hong who was leading the way!

This black shadow suffused a metallic sheen. It looked like a wolf, but there was a pair of metallic wings on its back, allowing it to fly freely in the storm.

Metallic desolate beast!?

Gongsun Hong was alarmed, but he was strong and he had fast reactions. While he shrank backwards, three sword Qi beams whistled forward!

“Chi! Chi! Chi!”

The sword Qi cut the metallic desolate beast at its four limbs, and soon, it was torn apart!

“Peng!”

The corpse of the metallic desolate beast exploded.

Gongsun Hong gave a sigh of relief. If his reactions were not fast, the metallic desolate beast would have succeeded in its attack. The results would have been disastrous.

The metallic desolate beast’s speed may be fast, but its defenses were inadequate. As long as one dodged its attack, it was not difficult killing it.

Gongsun Hong was secretly rejoicing. At this moment, a light dot separated from the remnants of the metallic desolate beast, landing on Gongsun Hong’s arm.

Gongsun Hong only felt a prick on his arm. The light dot entered his skin, and became a tiny pattern, like a tattoo.

“Oh? This is…”

Gongsun Hong was slightly surprised. What was this?

Everyone’s eyes landed on Gongsun Hong’s arm. The Shen Tu family clan’s youth pondered for a while before saying, “Young master Hong, this tattoo looks like a small portion of an Empyrean Mark.”

The Shen Tu youth’s words reminded Gongsun Hong. He compared the tattoo with an Empyrean Mark on his arm and indeed, he noticed some similar patterns on the Empyrean Mark.

Gongsun Hong was overjoyed. This could mean that killing every metallic desolate beast would reward him with a tiny portion of the mark. These portions would slowly form a full Empyrean Mark.

Then if this went on, as long as he killed enough desolate beasts, he could obtain a new Empyrean Mark.

It seemed like there were plenty of opportunities to earn Empyrean Marks in the Great Empress mystic realm.

Upon thinking of this, Gongsun Hong glanced at Yi Yun. Yi Yun had only 36 Empyrean Marks, so Gongsun Hong felt he could catch up with Yi Yun eventually.

“So this bridge actually is also an opportunity!”

“I wonder how many desolate beasts needed to be killed in order to obtain an Empyrean Mark. From the size of the small tattoo, it probably needs tens of desolate beasts to form one.”

The elites present quickly made their analysis. It was clear that the further one was in front, the easier it was to fight a desolate beast This also meant more Empyrean Marks. But it was also more dangerous. If one was careless, it was possible that they could fall off the bridge.

It was definitely not a simple task to kill enough desolate beasts to form one Empyrean Mark.

“There are so many martial geniuses in the Tian Yuan world. If I don’t fight for it, I will vanish amongst the crowd. I have risk it!”

A youth from a large family clan jumped forward and chased after Gongsun Hong.

“I have the same thoughts as well!”

The Shen Tu family clan’s youth chuckled and charged forward as well.

Behind him, Lin Xiaodie and Lin Fengyue also kept up. Even Lin Yu wanted to give it a try.

“Yi Yun, are you going forward?”

Lin Xiaodie looked at Yi Yun.

Yi Yun smiled and said, “I’ll be watching first.”

Just now, when the metallic desolate beast charged at Gongsun Hong, Yi Yun had instantly turned his energy vision on. He had probed the body structure of the metallic desolate beast.

It was not a real desolate beast, it was a metal puppet. It was made of metal whose shape was changed by the ancient Great Empress using arrays and energies.

Its body had an extremely small energy crystal core. It could not be compared to the ancient relic that resided in the huge desolate beast from before.

Besides, Yi Yun had discovered that the metallic puppets did not have any weakness. One had to use absolute power to kill them.

As such, Yi Yun could no longer resort to trickery. So he decided to observe first.

“The Great Empress mystic realm considers every aspect. It can’t just test one’s judgment. Although I have the Purple Crystal, I cannot always rely on it to find weaknesses to obtain the core heritage of the Great Empress mystic realm… ”

Yi Yun secretly thought. Although he had perfectly completed the first trial, he was still very serious about the situations he encountered in the future.

He could not be reckless. He had to carefully analyze the situation, so as to find a path to the Great Empress’ vault amidst the Great Empress mystic realm that was fraught with danger.

With this thought in mind, Yi Yun’s speed naturally slowed down. In contrast, many young elites had charged forward, including Lin Yu.

“Yi Yun, you won’t always have good luck!”

Seeing Yi Yun not intending to rush forward, Lin Yu gave a scornful laugh. He then plunged into the debris storm.

Yi Yun looked at Lin Yu’s back without any expression. What sort of figure was the ancient Great Empress? One had to pay a sufficient price in order to obtain great rewards in the mystic realm she created. It was definitely not a place filled with easy benefits for the picking.

…

Gongsun Hong was extremely powerful. He was rushing at the front and he had unsheathed his sword. He was fully using his Sweeping Figure Sword Steps, so there were 36 sword Qi avatars in front of him.

Every place the avatars passed, the sword Qi flashed past.

“Peng!”

Gongsun Hong’s sword Qi hit another metallic desolate beast and it was torn apart!

After the metallic desolate beast died, it formed an energy tattoo that engraved itself on Gongsun Hong’s arm.

Gongsun Hong took a deep breath. He no longer had any joy in his eyes. Compared to the complete Empyrean Mark, the two tattoos he had earned so far combined were far from it.

This way, to form a complete Empyrean Mark, he had to kill about 30-40 metallic desolate beasts. This would consume large amounts of Yuan Qi, and when he was exhausted, he probably would not even be able to form two Empyrean Marks.

This could not work!

Gongsun Hong was considered to be in a better state. Behind Gongsun Hong, there were people already struggling to move forward. Resisting the storm was not easy, so fighting the metallic desolate beasts in the storm was even more difficult. If they were not careful, they would fall off the bridge.

Wo! Wo! Wo!

The storm roared and it became even more intense. People were already approaching the core of the storm. More and more desolate beasts arrived here.

“Roar!”

A beast roar sounded out like thunder. A bridge on one side vibrated violently, as if it was going to completely tear apart.

On this bridge, a youth cried out as his body was hit by a tremendous force!

“That is!?”

The pupils of people constricted. They saw a huge eagle, that was more than a hundred feet in length, flap its wings, sending the youth flying!

The eagle’s wings were as sharp as knives. The youth’s body was covered in blood, dyeing the sky red. It was shocking.

“Ah–”

The youth screamed but his body was caught in the turmoil of the storm. He was like a kite that had its string cut off. His voice was shredded by the storm as it became staccato.

“He’s dead?”

People looked at each other. They did not know what the youth’s outcome would be, but they felt a chill.

And at this moment, the huge eagle no longer attacked anyone else after sending the youth flying. It flapped its wings and flew off.

“Terrifying… ”

People secretly gave a sigh of relief. They were still shocked out of their wits. A desolate beast of that grade was not something they could handle.

In the area around the core of the storm, there were not only desolate beasts like the metallic wolves. There were many types of desolate beasts, with varying sizes and strength.

Some desolate beasts would not take the initiative to attack the youths. But if one was to accidentally provoke them, then the outcome would be like that youth killed by the eagle.

“When we attack the desolate beasts in the storm, not only do we need to withstand the pressure from the storm, we still need to distinguish which desolate beasts we can’t defeat in such a chaotic environment. If we attacked indiscriminately, there is possibility of death… ”

Many of the youths had ugly expressions. Such a trial was too difficult.

It was a simultaneous test of strength, insight, reaction and stamina.

What made people most speechless was that according to what the Great Empress mystic realm said, this was not even a trial. This was just a passage from the first trial to the second trial.

A passage itself was already so difficult!

Many people looked at the Empyrean Marks on their arms that were not even a fifth done and they had the mind to retreat.

It was very difficult to obtain even a single Empyrean Mark in the Great Empress mystic realm!

The thoughts they had before were too naive.

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