Chapter 288 - What Luck!

If it was any other time, the fact that the young man before his eyes was a human would have meant little to Lu Tianzi.

After all, Lu Tianzi understood fully well that the young man lying on the bed was not real.

But along the way, the poison mist obstacles were all controlled by detection formations that ran on Spiritual Essence energy.

Because of that, he already had a hunch since earlier, and now this feeling was amplified even further.

This owner of this tomb, the ancient poison master that the elders of the Healer Circle had been referring to, should be none other than a human!

Since most people would first think of using their own race as a template when creating models, that would explain why the model used in this virtual world was a human.

However, this only brought more questions to the table.

If the ancient poison master was a human, then why was the tomb currently under the charge of the Healer Circle, an organisation of demons?

From what he had seen so far, the mechanisms within the ancient tomb had been rather unfathomable. Be it the lethal poison mists, the alluring blue orb, or the intricate formation array running underneath, all of them required means beyond his understanding just to set them up.

Lu Tianzi did not believe that anyone at the Origin Core realm would have been able to come up with such a construct. In fact, even those at the Overlord realm might not be able to do so!

With such a spectacular heritage, surely the descendants of the ancient poison master would have the resources to set up a strong influence of their own?

Lu Tianzi quickly shook off these distracting thoughts.

Now was not the time to think about such things.

After all, who knew what was happening outside right now while his psyche was trapped in this virtual world?

On top of that, he even saw Beiwei Jinguo and Nanlan Qianxue reaching out for the blue orb as well.

Beiwei Jinguo might still stand a chance if he had been pulled into a similar world, but Nanlan Qianxue would definitely be completely clueless.

The worst case scenario would be that all three of them currently had their real bodies incapacitated out there. It was rather unlikely, but there was still a chance that some unforeseen danger might befall them while they were completely incapable of defending themselves.

With how things stood, his top priority right now should be to clear the test and get out of this virtual world as soon as possible!

Lu Tianzi turned his attention back to the young man lying in bed.

The young man's eyes were shut tight, and his condition did not look good at all.

Sweaty forehead, weak breath, pale face, blue lips.

These symptoms were nothing uncommon, which meant that it would be rather difficult to diagnose the actual affliction.

Or at least, that would be the case for most others.

A silver light flashed across Lu Tianzi's eyes as his gaze bore deep into the young man's inner world, unravelling it completely to reveal every flow of energy within.

So that's it…

Lu Tianzi let out a confident smirk.

Without turning around, Lu Tianzi spread his Origin Force out to reach the shelves behind him, picking up numerous items at once and pulling them over to the table.

At this moment, Lu Tianzi could not help but sigh in lamentation.

Unfortunately, this was a virtual world where only his psyche had entered.

If his physical body had been pulled into a separate space instead, then he would not have hesitated to store all these precious items into his spatial ring!

But now, no matter how hard he tried, he simply could not establish a connection with the spatial ring on his finger, as though it was nothing but an ornamental accessory.

This virtual world might feel just like the real world, but it was ultimately different.

Well, there was nothing he could do about it.

Lu Tianzi let out a deep breath before picking up a set of mortar and pestle from the table.

While he could have used his Origin Force as well, he was still more used to using his hands. This way he could control his strength and energy output with maximum precision, and thereby minimise any complications that could occur during the concoction of the antidote.

Lu Tianzi was no stranger to dealing with raw materials.

The poison arts overlapped greatly with the field of herbalism, and the art of inscription required one to first go through the processing of raw materials as well.

As if that was not enough, he had also seen for himself how the poison masters of the Healers' Meet handled their mortar and pestle, processing the raw materials with various techniques.

Now, Lu Tianzi could already be considered to be extremely familiar with the process.

His hands moved in a flash, even faster than any of the top eight poison masters of the Healers' Meet.

A silvery light remained in his eyes as he constantly made sure that everything was moving on perfectly.

At the same time, materials floated towards him from different corners of the table, pulled over by his Origin Force.

The table looked like a chaotic mess as ingredients continued to float in and out, but there was also an inexplicable order to the chaos.

After half an hour, Lu Tianzi finally opened the boiling pot sitting on the table in front of him.

Sizzle-!

A thick cloud of steam escaped from the interior of the pot along with the opening of the lid, revealing the black mixture that continued to bubble within.

Lu Tianzi carefully poured out the steaming hot mixture into a bowl before leaving it to cool for a few minutes. After which, he brought it over to the bed where the young man was still groaning in agony.

"Are you able to sit up?" Lu Tianzi asked.

The young man only answered with even more groans.

Lu Tianzi did not know if the young man was unable to answer because he was only a model, or because he was in too much agony. Either way, that just made things easier for Lu Tianzi.

"I am going to help you now, just relax and leave everything to me," Lu Tianzi spoke disinterestedly.

Since this was supposed to be a test, he might as well just do everything properly.

The other party naturally did not reply this time either, and Lu Tianzi proceeded to prod up the young man and open up his mouth using Origin Force.

Lu Tianzi fed the black mixture to the young man, careful not to come into any direct contact with the other party in the process.

He understood very well that this was an affliction that could infect anyone who came into direct contact with the patient.

After consuming the antidote, a healthy pink started returning to the young man's face, and his lips began to recover its original colour.

At this point, the young man finally opened his eyes and looked at Lu Tianzi who was standing by his bedside.

A smile crept across the young man's face as he sat up straight all of a sudden. In a flash, all traces of his weak state from before had completely vanished without a trace.

"Well done, you pass."

The surroundings started to warp after the young man spoke.

Before he knew it, Lu Tianzi found himself back in the dimly lit environment within the ancient tomb.

He was currently seated cross legged in front of the blue orb, with Nanlan Qianxue and Beiwei Jinguo in the same position beside him. Their eyes were closed and their breathing was steady, as though they were in deep meditation.

At this moment, Lu Tianzi sensed some movements at the other end of the chamber. A portion of the brick wall grew translucent, as though it was fading out of existence. Through the translucent wall, Lu Tianzi could actually see a new passageway leading out of this chamber.

Lu Tianzi stood up and walked over, standing right before this piece of translucent wall.

He hesitantly stretched out his hand, reaching for the translucent bricks.

To his fascination, his fingers passed right through the bricks, as though they were not even there.

It seemed that after passing the test, a new path would be open to him. As for where this path led, there was only one way to find out.

Not yet, though.

First, he had to stand guard over Beiwei Jinguo and Nanlan Qianxue.

Speaking of Nanlan Qianxue, just how was she supposed to extricate herself from the virtual world?

There were no doors or windows in the virtual world, but the walls were not nearly high enough to stop an Essence Condensation realm martial artist from leaping over.

However, would she really be able to get out by doing that?

With time on his hand, Lu Tianzi walked over to the blue orb and started examining it in closer detail.

Now that he had cleared the test, the blue orb no longer gave off the same mysterious sense of allure from before.

With his Limitless Mirror Eye, Lu Tianzi could see a huge amount of energy flowing up from the underground formation array, through the talon statue and into the blue orb.

As for what were the properties of this blue orb, Lu Tianzi truly had no clue.

No matter how he looked at it, it looked like just another beautiful blue stone.

Whike he was still examining the blue orb, Lu Tianzi suddenly felt movements from his two companions.

To his surprise, the first to awaken was actually Nanlan Qianxue.

Nanlan Qianxue's eyes opened slowly, her gaze as cold as always. But when she saw that Lu Tianzi was already awake and looking at her, a faint smile spread across her face.

"Did you pass?" Lu Tianzi asked sceptically.

"Hmm?" Nanlan Qianxue was confused for a moment before coming to a realisation. "I guess I failed. Did you pass?"

"Yeah," Lu Tianzi nodded. "Were you also transported to a room without a roof though?"

"No," Nanlan Qianxue answered while slowly getting to her feet. "It seems that we went to different locations. I was on the roof of a high tower."

"You were on the roof of a high tower?" Lu Tianzi asked. "How did you get out then?

She could not possibly have jumped off the tower, could she?

"I just fed the injured girl some random stuff on the shelves and she died shortly after," Nanlan Qianxue shrugged. "The next moment, I am already back here. This probably means I failed."

Lu Tianzi felt the corner of his lips twitch. "I guess you are right…"

"It seems I am the last one to clear the test?" Beiwei Jinguo said in a somewhat disappointed tone.

He was almost sure that he would be the first to pass the test, only to open his eyes to see that both Lu Tianzi and Nanlan Qianxue were already awake.

Just who were these people exactly?

But right after he spoke, Beiwei Jinguo suddenly turned his attention to the other end of the chamber.

"You see it too?" Lu Tianzi smiled.

"Mm," Beiwei Jinguo answered, his attention still fixated on the brick walls.

"Let's go then," Lu Tianzi suggested. "We should be done here."

Lu Tianzi took one last look at the blue orb, contemplating over whether he should take it along with him.

But he decided against it in the end.

From the looks of it, the blue orb seemed to be an integral part of the underground array formation. Who knew what would happen if he forcefully removed it from the talon statue?

"Where are we going?" Nanlan Qianxue asked in bewilderment.

She thought that they were going to turn around and leave, but Lu Tianzi suddenly started walking towards the other end of the chamber.

Lu Tianzi was just about to answer when Beiwei Jinguo suddenly chimed in. "Yeah, why are we going in this direction?"

"What do you mean?" Lu Tianzi frowned.

He could understand if Nanlan Qianxue was not able to see through the translucent brick walls. But how could Beiwei Jinguo not know either?

"Shouldn't we be heading over there?" Beiwei Jinguo pointed in a completely different direction.

The frown on Lu Tianzi's face could not help but deepen. "Wait, what do you see over there?"

At this point, Beiwei Jinguo had realised that something was wrong as well. "The walls have become almost invisible, revealing a passageway that leads out of this chamber."

"There's such a thing?" Nanlan Qianxue remarked in fascination.

"As expected, we are seeing different passageways," Lu Tianzi sighed. "The one I see is over here instead."

"So that's why," Beiwei Jinguo nodded. "Which way should we go then?"

"I will be going this way, to the passageway that I can see," Lu Tianzi said. "It is up to you if you wish to follow me, but I have a feeling that you will be better off going to the passageway that had been revealed to you."

"I think so too," Beiwei Jinguo bit his lower lips in deep contemplation. "I think I will take your advice. For some reason, I have this strong feeling that I will be missing out if I chose not to go over to the passageway that has been revealed to me. "

It was a tough decision to make for Beiwei Jinguo.

He could only have gotten this far with Lu Tianzi's help. For him to voluntarily break away from Lu Tianzi right now, it felt like nothing more than a gamble.

Yet sometimes, a martial artist's intuition was not something that should be ignored either.

His decision could very well end with a tragic outcome, but Beiwei Jinguo still wanted to take the chances.

After all, the potential benefits were simply too attractive!

"I understand," Lu Tianzi claspd his fist towards Beiwei Jinguo. "Stay safe."

"May we meet again soon," Beiwei Jinguo returned the greeting.

With that, the group split into two.

Lu Tianzi led Nanlan Qianxue towards the new passageway, while Beiwei Jinguo treaded his own path.

Initially, Nanlan Qianxue found herself blocked off, unable to pass through the translucent brick wall.

But much to Lu Tianzi's relief, as long as he was physically holding onto Nanlan Qianxue, the latter would also be able to pass through the translucent brick walls unobstructed.

They walked along the winding passageway for around ten minutes before they finally arrived at another chamber.

But this time, they were no longer alone.

"You guys actually managed to get here too?" Elder Xiquan's mocking voice immediately rang in their ears. "What luck!"