“Could it be that this is the mystery of my Spiritual Embryo?” Chu Huaixu fell into thought.
Seeing that the illusion had been broken but he was still frowning and contemplating, Han Shuangjiang did not disturb him.
As far as she was concerned, as long as he didn’t look at the puddle of water stains behind him, he could do whatever he pleased.
At this moment, she even looked back with a bit of curiosity.
Ten paths all led to this open space paved with bluestone slabs.
“Before the illusion, was it really a maze?” she thought.
“Everyone else is still trapped inside, and I’m this lucky, choosing correctly at all ten forks in the road?” She still didn’t quite believe it.
Besides this, Han Shuangjiang had another doubt in her heart.
“Where is the next level?”
There was nothing here, and no path ahead.
It couldn’t be that this Secret Realm was a prank, that this was the end, and that the deceased predecessor had left nothing behind in the Secret Realm, could it?
Having just entered the Daoist Sect, she didn’t know that such a situation did exist, where some disrespectable old folks would deliberately mess with their descendants.
Of course, this was only a minority of the minority.
Chu Huaixu couldn’t fully comprehend the small black sword in his sea of consciousness, so he started looking around to see how to proceed.
There was a stone wall ahead. He walked over and searched carefully, patting it casually, and actually found a mechanism.
He pressed a protruding part with force, and a stone door opened.
It was obvious that the focus of this level was the illusion ahead, and the mechanism was not the main point; it wasn’t deeply hidden.
After exchanging a look, the two walked forward together.
The stone door closed again, as if it had never opened.
Along the way, Chu Huaixu muttered, “The illusion ahead should still be usable, right? It wasn’t destroyed?”
“What’s wrong?” Han Shuangjiang asked, puzzled.
“When Liu Chengqi and the others get out of the maze, we can trap them!” Chu Huaixu said as a matter of course.
The great block of ice let out a soft hum. She hadn’t even thought of that.
The two talked as they walked and soon emerged from the stone path.
What met their eyes was an underground river.
It was about fifty meters wide.
On the other side of the underground river, there was a stone pillar more than a meter tall.
On the stone pillar, there seemed to be something resembling a compass.
Further beyond that, there was another stone door.
“What is that?” Han Shuangjiang also spotted the compass.
“That’s the Spirit Disk,” Chu Huaixu was much more knowledgeable than her.
He explained, “It’s used to test the grade of a Spiritual Embryo.”
He hadn’t expected that a Spirit Disk would be placed before the stone door here.
Under normal circumstances, one could use blood to check the grade of another’s Spiritual Embryo.
For a powerful cultivator like Liu Chunsong, who was in the seventh realm and very knowledgeable, he could detect that Han Shuangjiang had the Profound Yin Physique with just a drop of blood.
However, ordinary Cultivators didn’t have such high cultivation. Take Liu Tianfeng, for instance. Even if given a drop of Han Shuangjiang’s blood, at most he could mistakenly identify it as a High-grade Spiritual Embryo!”
But in reality, Spiritual Embryos were divided into ten grades: the lower three as Low-grade, the middle three as Mid-grade, the upper three as High-grade, and above that was the exceptionally rare Supreem-grade!
If one’s cultivation was below the fifth realm, even if a person with a High-grade Spiritual Embryo stood before them, they wouldn’t be able to finely distinguish which of the upper three grades it was, let alone a Supreem-grade Spiritual Embryo.
The Spirit Disk could serve this purpose of fine division.
But such items were expensive and generally only used by medium to large sects.
Sects of the lowest tier like the Joyous Sect, lacking any truly powerful cultivators, relied on the most primitive method – blood testing for Spiritual Embryos.
Han Shuangjiang’s Profound Yin Physique, a rare phenomenon once in a hundred years, could be considered a pearl buried in dust wherever it was placed.
Upon seeing the Spirit Disk, Chu Huaixu’s face revealed a smile.
“This thing is very expensive; we can sell it to the sect for contribution points,” Chu Huaixu said.
As soon as he mentioned it was expensive, the pauper beside him began to stare at it intently.
Chu Huaixu turned to look at her and said, “My choice was indeed correct. I should have brought you with me; you are my lucky star.”
Hearing him emphasize it again, Han Shuangjiang felt a bit embarrassed, but she still maintained a stern little face and asked, “Why do you say that?”
He pointed forward and said, “It’s obvious that this predecessor had a bias towards Spiritual Embryos.”
“Look, by placing the Spirit Disk here, with the stone door behind it.”
“I estimate that if the measured grade is not high enough, that stone door will simply not open!”
Chu Huaixu couldn’t help but recall an ancient web novel he had read on Earth, the first chapter of which was “The Fallen Genius.”
But at least Xiao Yan was measured to have “Qi Condensation, Stage Three!”
If he placed his hand on the Spirit Disk, it would be the lowest of the low, a pitiable Level 1 Spiritual Embryo.
Of course, with this great block of ice’s talent, opening the stone door would be a trivial matter.
With this thought, Chu Huaixu smiled and said to Han Shuangjiang, “So, you are my key.”
“What ‘yours’ and ‘mine’,” Han Shuangjiang’s cheeks flushed a faint red at his words.
First, a lucky star, then a key – talking nonsense!
But she basically agreed with Chu Huaixu’s reasoning. Otherwise, why would they place a Spirit Disk here?
She looked at the underground river ahead and said, “So, we just need to cross the river?”
“It definitely won’t be that simple,” Chu Huaixu stared at the river.
He walked towards the underground river, squatted down, and examined it carefully.
The river water was very clear, but the current was slow.
On the stone wall at the bottom of the river, there were four holes, seemingly with mechanisms.
On both ends, two stone walls formed by giant rocks were suspended, appearing as if they would fall and block the water flow.
“This Secret Realm can only be entered by mortals or those in the Meridian-Opening Stage.”
“For us, we can only swim across,” Chu Huaixu said.
If their cultivation were higher, they could simply leap across, but they couldn’t.
“Moreover, since this is part of the trial, I suspect that using other means to cross the river will also be met with obstruction,” he analyzed with his experience.
Chu Huaixu looked around, picked up a small stone, and threw it forcefully towards the opposite bank.
As expected, the stone hit a transparent barrier, causing a semi-transparent ripple in the air, unable to penetrate at all.
The stone then fell into the river, but it did not trigger any anomalies.
He continued to try, throwing several more stones into the river, even picking a particularly large one.
The result was still no reaction.
“It’s estimated there’s a Magic Array, and it will only activate when someone goes in,” Chu Huaixu said.
He had a rather divergent way of thinking. He also looked around for something, saying, “I wonder if there are any rats or anything, to see if the array is triggered when a living creature enters the water.”
Han Shuangjiang looked at him, seriously suspecting that if Liu Chengqi and the others were also standing by the river now, this sly fox would kick one of them in to test the water.
The great block of ice changed her thought: “Since Liu Chengqi isn’t here, does that mean… it’s only me?”
“Shall I try entering the water first?” she suddenly said.
Chu Huaixu was stunned for a moment, “Huh? Don’t joke around!”
Han Shuangjiang’s pair of dark, beautiful eyes stared directly at him, and she said seriously, “I’m serious.”
Seeing that he didn’t nod immediately, she pointed towards the opposite bank of the river.
“Besides, didn’t you also say that only I can open that stone door? Then I definitely have to get in the water,” she said.
“I’m not sure what type of Magic Array this is,” Chu Huaixu looked at her, stating the facts.
Although he had rich experience in dungeons, he wasn’t omniscient.
“It’s fine. This Secret Realm was originally prepared for disciples in the Meridian-Opening Stage, so it shouldn’t be too difficult,” Han Shuangjiang appeared quite uninhibited.
“If I’m afraid to even make such a small attempt, how can I possibly prove the Supreme Dao?” she retorted to Chu Huaixu.
Han Shuangjiang, despite her young age, inexplicably possessed a commanding aura. With words like these now, she appeared even more dominant.
Chu Huaixu looked at her and muttered in his heart, “As expected, she’s the one who got the ‘Great Female Lead’ script in The Borrowed Sword.”
Among the player base, her female fans outnumbered her male fans.
This was because the grown Han Shuangjiang was truly formidable, perfectly fitting the “sister kills me” standard.
“Let me try first,” he made a final attempt. “After all, I’ve opened five orifices, and you’ve only opened four, right?”
Yes, after a night of cultivation, Han Shuangjiang had actually quickly opened another orifice. It was terrifyingly fast!
Upon hearing this, she looked back and asked, “Is there enough time now?”
“If the illusion outside is still effective, then there should be abundant time. They won’t break through it anytime soon,” Chu Huaixu shrugged and continued,
“Of course, if they come in, I can kick Liu Chengqi in then.”
Han Shuangjiang: “…”
– This sly fox really was thinking that!
The Profound Yin Physique looked at him and said, “It’s good that there’s enough time.”
With that said, she directly sat down cross-legged beside Chu Huaixu and actually began cultivating the Art of Icy Purity.
After skillfully circulating it for one Heavenly Cycle, she opened her beautiful eyes.
“Now, I am also at five orifices,” she said.
