Chapter 426 - 426: Desert of bodies

"It looks like the tests are over. See, The Skill Hall already selected a skill for you," Xun said smilingly as she pointed towards a book that was lying in front of Long Chen.

"I just pray that it would be a good skill," Long Chen muttered as he looked at the book.

He stepped forth and picked up the book.

"The Art of Thoughts?"

He was surprised as he read the title of the book. It didn't sound like a skill, but more like a self-enlightenment book from his old world.

He opened the book and read the short description of the book.

"Amazing! This is really good!" He exclaimed with a wide grin on his face.

"What happened? What's that book about?' Xun asked as she saw him happy.

"It's about mind-reading," Long Chen said as he grinned.

"After learning this skill, I should be able to read people's thoughts," Long Chen further explained.

"That does sound like a good skill, what are its limitations? There's no way a skill like that would have no limitations," Xun said to Long Chen.

Long Chen heard her words and smiled wryly, mostly because she was right. There were indeed limitations to this skill.

"The limitations are that I can't use this skill on those that have a higher cultivation than me, but other than them, I can use it on anyone at any time," Long Chen replied to her.

"I'm glad you found a decent skill. I don't think I would be able to listen to you complain about the skill as you complain about the gloves," Xun said jokingly.

"I wonder how Chu Miao will be. Would her test be just as difficult? Her test should be the same as mine from what I believe. I don't know if she would succeed," Long Chen muttered as he put the skill book in his storage ring and walked out of the room.

He was back into the main hall, where Chu Miao was sitting.

"The heck? How are you out faster than me?" Long Chen asked her in surprise.

"Uhmm, I picked a book and walked out," Chu Miao replied.

"What do you mean, you picked a book and walked out?" Long Chen inquired.

"When I entered the room, I was brought to a different room where thousands of books were floating. I picked one of the books, and I found myself back in the old room. I stepped out," she told him. "Why are you so late? Were you having a hard time selecting books?"

Long Chen just looked at her blankly for a brief moment.

"This is partiality," he muttered as he shook his head.

"What do you mean?" Chu Miao asked in confusion.

"Ah, nothing. You are right. I had such a vast number of books to choose from, it took me some time," Long Chen responded as he smiled wryly.

"Which skill did you get?" Long Chen asked her.

"I got the Queen's Gaze," Chu Miao answered him.

"The Queen's Gaze? Sounds like a powerful skill. What does that do?" Long Chen inquired.

"It decreases the strength of the person I use this skill on, for a short period of time," Chu Miao replied.

"Decrease the strength of the opponent? So it works similar to the Flute of War, but instead of increasing our strength, it decreases their strength," Long Chen muttered. 

"How much strength does it decrease?" he asked.

"I don't know exactly how much it weakens them, that part was pretty vague, but the decrease in Strength should depend on my level of understanding of this skill," Chu Miao replied.

"Even though it's not clear how much it weakens the opponent, that skill is definitely good. If you kept progressing with that skill, it would only get more and more useful," Long Chen told her as he brought out his Spirit Sword from his storage ring.

"Let's leave," Long Chen told her as he started walking towards the exit.

His Spirit Sword flew around him, and Chu Miao followed after him.

They stepped out of the Skill Tower.

"Not much time is left before the 14 days are over. Although we've found the treasure hall and the skill hall, both these have only been completely opposite our expectations, and we couldn't get many things from there, but the rewards are decent. Let's do one last stretch before it's time to leave," Long Chen said as he extended his hands towards Chu Miao.

Chu Miao held his hands. Long Chen pulled her closer and picked her in his arms like a princess before he stepped on his Spirit Sword that was flying in front of him.

His spirit sword carried him along as it started flying ahead.

Long Chen flew for the rest of the days, but he didn't find any other prominent place.

The 14 days were over, and a portal appeared before them.

Long Chen had already been explained about it. He had known that the portals would appear before them after the time is over. As soon as they stepped inside the portal, they would come out of the Divine Heaven Sect.

He was also told that the portal would only remain open for 5 minutes. If they still didn't enter the portal, they would never be able to leave the sect. They would forever be trapped in the sect and die.

"I guess that's all the time we had. Well, we did see most of the significant places, at least. It was a rewarding trip," Chu Miao muttered as she saw the portal.

"Let's go," she said to Long Chen.

"Wait a minute," Long Chen said to Chu Miao.

He put his treasure robe inside his storage ring and wore his old robe. He also put his Spirit Sword in his storage ring.

"We can leave now," he said as he held her hands and walked towards the portal.

"Oh right, don't tell the sect what we found. There is seriously something wrong with the sect. Just talk about the gravity that we faced and that we weren't able to enter any significant places," Long Chen told Chu Miao before he entered the portal with her.

He stepped out of the other side and found himself outside the sect.

Chu Miao heard his words and grew confused as to what he was saying. She wondered if he was saying that because he didn't want to give the Flute of War to the sect, but after going through all this with him, she trusted Long Chen even more. She decided to do as he said.

*****

As soon as Long Chen stepped out of the Divine Heaven Sect, a shadow appeared some distance away from where he was standing. 

"Tian... Shen... " the shadow said as it looked towards the portal before it disappeared.

Long Chen had stepped out of the Divine Heaven Sect, not knowing of the fact that he had missed something.

If he had just a little more time, If he had traveled for another half an hour in the same direction, he would have reached a place that he would never have imagined.

There was a sand dessert ahead of him, which he would have reached after flying for half an hour. There were tens of thousands of bodies lying in the desert, lifeless. The sand in that desert was blood red in color.

****

Long Chen left the Divine Heaven Sect and saw the Elders of the other sects standing there.

"Looks like we lost the bet. 2 Members of the Dark Soul Sect survived," an Elder said with a disappointed look on his face.

"So what if they had people that survived? Only 2 of them survived. The number of survivors would be the lowest compared to other sects," the Elder of the Dual Cultivation Sect said.