Zhang Er Gou continued to walk forward, but his vigilance was raised to the highest level.
He subtly probed his divine sense, only to find that this place was a natural屏蔽 (píngbì - shielding) area for divine sense.
His divine sense could only extend a few meters around him; any further and it felt like hitting a natural barrier.
With no other choice, Zhang Er Gou had to rely on his eyes.
As he carefully surveyed his surroundings, the area was unnervingly quiet.
Zhang Er Gou could even hear his own breathing.
"Strange," Zhang Er Gou muttered to himself.
The dangerous feeling in his heart grew stronger.
He feigned ignorance and continued to walk forward.
Bang!
Zhang Er Gou suddenly turned around and swung his spear towards a direction.
A violent collision sound echoed, and Zhang Er Gou saw a "giant rock" slide in an arc, landing not far away.
"A rock?"
Zhang Er Gou abruptly looked at the surrounding giant rocks, which were moving and changing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"What the hell is this?"
Zhang Er Gou turned to another direction and found the situation was the same.
Could he be this unlucky, to have fallen into a den of rock monsters?
At this point, Zhang Er Gou no longer thought these were ordinary stones.
Putting away his spear, he powerfully swung a palm strike at a giant rock beside him. Su Dan Novel Network
...
Swarms of wolves charged relentlessly towards a figure in the center.
Li Xun's body was already covered in bloodstains.
Countless wolf corpses, split in two, lay on the ground.
Li Xun had completely gone berserk. The tenacity of the wolf pack surpassed his understanding; they seemed to be fearless of death.
With no fear in their eyes, ferocious giant wolves attacked him from all sides, seemingly desperate.
Gradually, Li Xun noticed that the wolf pack was forming a systematic encirclement.
Only one direction was devoid of any wolves, while the other three were completely surrounded.
The sword in his hand had not stopped swinging since the beginning.
"It's moving, the points on the leaderboard have changed."
Outside, Dan Feng and others stood before a giant light screen.
Everyone stared intently at the fluctuating points of the disciples participating in the assessment.
The first to change was Li Xun's score, which jumped from 0 to a hundred in a quarter of an hour, and the data continued to climb madly.
The scores of other disciples had also changed to varying degrees.
Li Zhan and Qu Yao's scores had already reached several tens of points.
However, everyone noticed that Zhang Er Gou's score remained unchanged for a long time, stuck at 0.
A full hour passed, and Zhang Er Gou's score still showed no change.
Meanwhile, Li Xun, who was ranked first, had accumulated three hundred points.
"Haha, it seems that killing demonic beasts still relies on us sword cultivators."
Jian Ying laughed heartily. More than half of the disciples in the top ten of the leaderboard were sword cultivators.
Zhang Er Gou, who had previously suppressed Li Xun, having no movement on his score, greatly relieved Jian Ying's lingering resentment.
He instantly felt the spiritual energy on the alliance's main peak become even more refreshing.
He even took a few deep breaths deliberately.
"Look at you, so smug. This assessment has just begun, and the secret realm assessment will last for three full days. Being smug now is perhaps a bit premature."
Dan Feng naturally couldn't stand Jian Ying's smugness.
In every secret realm assessment, their Dan cultivators always came in last.
They were always ridiculed mercilessly, and most of the mockery came from Jian Ying.
Seeing Jian Ying acting so arrogantly now, he naturally couldn't stand it.
"Haha, Brother Dan, are you perhaps jealous, jealous that my Sword Peak disciples are so outstanding?"
Jian Ying would not miss such a good opportunity to mock Dan Feng.
Such a good opportunity was rare.
He naturally had to seize it.
"Hmph!" Dan Feng snorted coldly and ignored Jian Ying.
...
"Senior Sister Qu, let's head in that direction. Perhaps we can find someone we know."
After throwing a hidden weapon and eliminating a demonic beast lurking in the shadows, Li Zhan led Qu Yao away from the area.
They had heard sounds of fighting earlier and followed them.
But the person there didn't seem to welcome them. After killing the demonic beast he was fighting, he left in a flash without saying a word,
leaving Qu Yao and Li Zhan to stand in the wind, utterly bewildered.
Fortunately, the demonic beasts they encountered along the way were not of high cultivation and were all alone.
With their combined efforts, they had also killed more than a dozen.
Apart from the initial sounds, they hadn't encountered another person for most of the day.
"Li Zhan, do you know how big this secret realm is?"
"No," Li Zhan truthfully shook his head.
He didn't know everything. This secret realm was used by the alliance to assess young disciples, and they were only told about it after entering.
No information had been leaked beforehand.
Li Zhan naturally hadn't paid attention to inquiring about the place.
As a result, the two of them were now completely in the dark, only able to move forward based on their intuition.
...
"Damn it, this is so difficult."
Zhang Er Gou swung his spear again, shattering a giant rock into pieces. However, after a short while, the rocks reassembled.
To this day, Zhang Er Gou still didn't know what kind of monster he had encountered.
He also realized that he seemed to have fallen into a natural formation.
No matter how he tried, he couldn't get out.
The surrounding giant rocks came alive, not only smashing towards him from all directions,
but also falling from the sky.
He couldn't defend against them.
Zhang Er Gou had tried many methods but found no way to deal with these monsters.
Using fire, not only were the stones undamaged, but they became even harder.
Using his spear or palm techniques, the shattered stones would re-converge shortly after.
He couldn't find any weaknesses.
Looking at the stone monsters surrounding him, Zhang Er Gou felt his scalp tingle.
What kind of monsters were these? They had no aura, like ordinary stones.
Yet they actively attacked him.
If they were lifeless, Zhang Er Gou wouldn't believe it.
...
"It's moving, everyone look quickly, it's moving!"
Suddenly, an excited voice broke the temporary silence of the plaza.
"What's moving? The leaderboard has been moving all along, what's so surprising?"
Jian Ying gave the elder who spoke a dismissive look and said unhappily.
"Peak Master, you all look, Zhang Er Gou's score has moved."
The person completely ignored Jian Ying's reprimand and said even more excitedly.
"Zhang Er Gou's score has moved?"
Instantly, everyone, including Dan Feng and Jian Ying, turned their attention.
They looked towards the giant screen.
"Where is it? I don't see it."
Jian Ying looked at the bottom of the giant screen but couldn't find Zhang Er Gou's name.
"I don't see it either," Dan Feng shook his head, a hint of disappointment appearing on his face.
"Look up there."
The Peak Master surnamed Liu patted the shoulders of the two and pointed to the very top of the giant screen.