Chapter 321 - Chapter 321: Chapter 23: The First Trial, Failure

Chapter 321: Chapter 23: The First Trial, Failure

Lin Jing took two steps forward and arrived beside the stele.

This stele had been damaged by someone unknown; its upper half had already broken off and vanished.

Of the lower half, Lin Jing could only make out the two characters ‘之地’ (this place); the rest was no longer there.

Turning his head, Lin Jing looked again at the stone platform built up from large rocks. From the message left by the Lin Family’s ancestor, Lin Jing knew that to leave, one had to reach the summit of these steps.

At the top of the stone platform was the Teleportation Array to leave Immortal Crossing Island.

Of course, the Lin Family ancestor hadn’t been able to reach the top and hadn’t seen the Teleportation Array with his own eyes; he had also received this information from elsewhere.

Moreover,

the Lin Family ancestor had left a warning not to attempt to force one’s way through recklessly.

Because within the Trial Grounds, bans and restrictions were everywhere; a moment of carelessness could trigger a chain reaction of these prohibitions, and it might turn the entire Trial Grounds into a deadly battlefield.

And the people within the Trial Grounds, needless to say, would not be spared.

Now with his condition not at its best, Lin Jing intended to return to the System Space first to recuperate.

At the same time, he wanted to see if being inside the Trial Grounds had any effect on entering the System Space.

Afterward,

Lin Jing silently thought to himself, “Enter System Space.”

After a moment of the scenery shifting, Lin Jing found himself within the System Space.

Immediately, countless streams of Spiritual Power surged towards him, rapidly replenishing the Spiritual Energy that had depleted within the Trial Grounds.

Lin Jing didn’t immediately heal his injuries; instead, he summoned the System and entered Observation Mode.

He wanted to see what exactly was at the top of the mountain.

After entering Observation Mode, when Lin Jing looked towards the Trial Grounds again, there appeared to be no change inside.

Lin Jing then controlled the observational viewpoint and continued his exploration.

However, when Lin Jing tried to explore the mountaintop, he discovered something extremely abnormal.

It was as if the stone platform, which should have been right in front of him, couldn’t be explored no matter what he did.

It was as if the stone platform didn’t exist at all.

After pondering for a while, Lin Jing decided that it was better to heal first. After recovering from his injuries, he would climb the Trial steps.

After his reflection, Lin Jing exited Observation Mode.

Inside the System Space, he sat cross-legged and began to heal his injuries.

The injuries were not severe, so Lin Jing didn’t take any Elixir Medicine.

……

Four hours later, Lin Jing’s injuries were healed.

And his condition had recovered.

Thereafter, Lin Jing left the System Space.

Back within the Trial Grounds, Lin Jing looked around before stepping decisively onto the staircase in front of him without any hesitation.

Just stepping onto the first step, Lin Jing felt his body suddenly become much heavier, and innumerable pressures squeezed him from all directions.

This sudden onslaught of pressure almost caused the unprepared Lin Jing to kneel.

And this was not all…

In addition to this pressure, a majestic Divine Sense pressure struck, forcing Lin Jing to gather his Divine Sense to resist forcefully.

Along with the pressure from all sides, and the Divine Sense pressure, from the front came a strong force trying to push Lin Jing down the steps.

Feeling this pressure, Lin Jing couldn’t help but frown.

He had already known about this from the message left by the Lin Family’s ancestor.

But, he hadn’t expected

that just the first step would have such a powerful pressure.

Lin Jing then lifted his head to look ahead.

He saw that there were a total of 81 steps from bottom to top.

Ahead, the mist around the mountaintop had dissipated.

At the summit, Lin Jing could clearly see the edge of a Formation.

It seemed that what the Lin Family ancestor said was correct; there indeed was a Formation at the top.

After surveying for a while, Lin Jing again took another step upward.

This second step’s pressure was greater, but Lin Jing had already prepared himself.

So, nothing unexpected happened.

After stabilizing himself, Lin Jing then stepped onto the third step; this step was not much different from the previous ones and within his range of endurance.

After adjusting for a while, Lin Jing stepped onto the fourth step…

The fifth step…

The sixth step…

…

…

In the end, Lin Jing directly ascended to the ninth step.

The pressure on this ninth step had almost doubled compared to the first one.

Overall, it was still tolerable for Lin Jing.

If it continued like this, the trial should not be too difficult.

Lin Jing felt that many people should be able to get past it.

But since no one had ever left Immortal Crossing Island before, it was evident there was more to come.

And it had also been mentioned in the message left by the Lin Family’s ancestor.

Every nine steps, the difficulty would escalate to a new level; the exact increase was related to the Cultivator’s level of Cultivation who entered the Trial Grounds.

Therefore, Lin Jing was unclear about the exact intensity of the next level of steps.

He could only step on it himself and personally test it out.

Afterward,

Lin Jing prepared himself thoroughly on the ninth step and, after making all necessary preparations, he stepped firmly towards the tenth step.

No sooner had he set foot on the tenth step than an extremely strong force tried to push him down from the steps.

However, fortunately, Lin Jing had made ample mental preparation; thus, he landed firmly on the step and was not pushed down by that fearsome force.

As Lin Jing steadied his footsteps…

Next, that terrible gravity struck again; the pressure on the tenth step was overwhelming.

Lin Jing felt as though his whole body was being tightly constricted by something, nearly suffocating him.

At the same time, that dreadful Divine Sense pressure returned once more, equally terrifying. The dual pressure on both body and spirit made Lin Jing dizzy for a moment, almost causing him to fall from the step.

Fortunately, Lin Jing, accustomed to alchemy all year round, had an incredibly tenacious divine sense. Gritting his teeth, he quickly recovered, thus preventing a fall.

Afterward, he took a seated position with legs crossed and committed all his efforts to counteract the omnipresent pressure and the coercion of divine sense.

This time.

Lin Jing rested on the tenth step for a good four hours.

During this period, he constantly circulated cultivation, nourishing his body with his own spiritual power, in order to adapt quickly to the pressure there.

At the same time, Lin Jing also noticed that under the coercion of the divine sense, his divine sense also seemed to have changed a bit, as if it wasn’t as uncomfortable as before.

After adapting,

Lin Jing then stood up, stretched his body, and prepared to take another step forward.

This time was just like the previous few steps.

With one step onto the stairs, both the gravity and the divine sense pressure were significantly less than when ascended from the ninth to the tenth step.

On the eleventh step, Lin Jing spent another two hours adapting.

After getting used to the gravity, Lin Jing did not choose to step onto the twelfth step.

Because.

His spiritual power was almost completely depleted at this point.

Lin Jing then started the second task.

It was also the next plan he had in mind.

That was, to enter the “System Space” while on the steps.

Next.

Standing on the twelfth step, Lin Jing silently commanded in his heart:

“Enter System Space.”

As Lin Jing’s words fell, his body instantly vanished from the twelfth step and appeared inside the System Space.

Upon entering the System Space, the surging spiritual energy directly flooded into his body,

After several hours of torment without spiritual energy, Lin Jing couldn’t help but take a deep breath, then let out a satisfied sigh.

Thereafter, Lin Jing spoke aloud, calling out the system:

“System, enter Observation Mode.”

Lin Jing did not start meditating to recover right away, but used the Observation Mode to check the situation first.

At the same time, Lin Jing also thought of the Fixed Point Teleportation function.

It was uncertain whether this system’s Fixed Point Teleportation function could allow him to bypass the 81 steps directly and appear above the Teleportation Array on the mountaintop.

Lin Jing wanted to try it…

As Lin Jing’s voice trailed off, he directly appeared outside in Observation Mode.

This observational perspective showed no anomalies; Lin Jing directly controlled the viewpoint to rise.

He wanted to see what the situation was like on the mountaintop.

The observational perspective rose all the way to the top of the mountain.

Finally, Lin Jing saw what the mountain’s summit looked like.

There, atop the summit, was a massive circular formation; at the center of the formation was a deep pool.

The pool was bottomless, as if it led directly to the sea bed.

Moreover, the water in this deep pool spun continuously, forming a vortex as if it wanted to devour everything.

Around the Formation, a total of nine Formation Patterns sparkled with peculiar thunder arcs, connected to the central array, becoming one.

Among these nine peculiar Formation Patterns, one of them lit up with white light, and the thunder arcs on it had already vanished. The bright light from that peculiar Formation Pattern extended to the larger array, lighting up a small part of it.

Next to it, another peculiar Formation Pattern also lit up partially, looking to be about a quarter as much.

The thunder arcs on this Formation Pattern seemed somewhat dimmer.

Seeing this, Lin Jing understood what was going on.

This large array was likely closely related to the steps below; only by passing the test on the steps below would the array be fully activated.

And that deep pool might very well be the exit from Immortal Crossing Island.

After observing, Lin Jing did not use the Fixed Point Teleportation function.

On the mountaintop, though Lin Jing did not understand the peculiar Formation Patterns with thunder arcs, he felt inexplicably uneasy just from observing them.

Especially those thunder arcs.

Lin Jing suspected that if he suddenly appeared on the array, the thunder arcs on those peculiar Formation Patterns would launch an attack against him.

Since the Trial Grounds had stopped so many people, the strength of those thunder arcs went without saying.

With Lin Jing’s current level of cultivation, being struck by those thunder arcs would leave not even ashes behind.

Upon reflection, he decided to let it be.

Lin Jing determined to rely on his own strength to make it through the Trial Grounds.

……

After resting completely in the System Space and fully recovering his spiritual power, Lin Jing reappeared on the twelfth step.

Thereafter.

Lin Jing continued like this, resting for a while as he reached each level.

Before long, Lin Jing had already reached the eighteenth step.

At this time, Lin Jing looked ahead.

He knew that the nineteenth step below was where the real challenge lay.

Lin Jing rested directly for twelve hours on the eighteenth step to fully adapt to the pressure and divine sense coercion there.

After fully recovering, Lin Jing prepared himself and once again climbed upward.

However.

This time, Lin Jing wasn’t so fortunate.

No sooner had he climbed onto the nineteenth step than he was immediately pushed down by the powerful force.

As Lin Jing fell off the step, a phantom-like waterscreen appeared behind him.

The scene within the waterscreen was the same pond that was in the oasis before.

Lin Jing directly fell into this waterscreen, which rippled waves upon waves, and he vanished within the Trial Grounds.

Before Lin Jing could react, the scenery before his eyes rapidly shifted, from the steps, stone platforms, and vast yellow sand.

Suddenly, it transformed into blue sky, white clouds, and lush greenery.

And then came a “plop”…

Lin Jing fell into the pond he had entered before the Trial Grounds began.

This first attempt to conquer the Trial Grounds had ended in failure for Lin Jing.

However, this was an expected outcome.