“Mm, this air bubble should be what the classics record as ‘Final Chapter, Slaughter Ceases, Time to Return!’

The final stage – all killing stops, the top three are transmitted to the reward ground, while the rest wait for the final moment to be automatically transmitted out. The reappearance of this air bubble should be the method to prevent final slaughter.”

Gong Chenying slowly spoke, her other jade hand already moving away from her storage pouch. Those who had arrived here could no longer attack each other.

“It’s just unknown which people entered the reward ground.”

Li Yan’s gaze looked toward the three rotating disks.

“Senior Brother Baili and the others should have secured a position. You said Senior Brother Gan and the others have already converged – their overall strength has definitely increased greatly. Perhaps they’ve already found Mei Bucai and the others.

Take another look at Mei Bucai and the others’ current situation. If they haven’t been found by Senior Brother Baili’s group, they should be arriving here soon too. As long as they reach here, they’ll be completely safe.”

As she spoke, Gong Chenying’s jade hand patted her storage pouch, but the next moment her expression froze. In her divine consciousness, the blue rhombic crystal in her storage pouch had mysteriously disappeared.

Li Yan smiled bitterly. Seeing Gong Chenying’s expression, he already knew what had happened. The two blue rhombic crystals he had obtained had vanished after Pingtu sent him out of the secret chamber.

“Senior Sister, my two blue rhombic crystals are also gone.”

After hearing this, Gong Chenying also recalled some records about blue rhombic crystals in the sect classics. She could only shake her head and give up. Mei Bucai and the others could only leave it to fate – even if they wanted to go out and search, it was now impossible.

For a moment, the people in both air bubbles had their own thoughts and maintained silence, all sitting cross-legged in meditation, waiting for the final moment of transmission.

Li Yan, however, looked around with great interest, occasionally smiling as he glanced at the several Qi Condensation cultivators whose gazes were full of hatred. His smile made those Grand Profound Sect Qi Condensation disciples even more furious, but they were powerless to act here.

As for Qiu Jiuzhen, after initially glancing at Gong Chenying, she hadn’t looked at Li Yan, this Qi Condensation junior, even once. Instead, she sat cross-legged with her beautiful eyes closed again.

However, from her occasionally trembling long eyelashes, one could see she hadn’t truly entered meditation, but was merely contemplating matters with closed eyes.

After about half a cup of tea’s time, everyone felt their vision blur as another air bubble appeared in this space.

“Who is this?” “It’s someone from Ten-Step Court.” “How is there only one person?” “…”

Amid a chorus of surprised exclamations, everyone’s attention was drawn to the newly entered air bubble, all looking toward that bubble.

The newly arrived bubble contained only one person, and that person’s eyes were tightly closed, with two extremely serious wounds on his chest and back, his entire body covered in gray water stains.

These gray water stains had soaked through his robes, and what made people feel eerie was that his exposed skin showed a stone-like gray color. This person’s head was full of lusterless graying hair, his appearance extremely aged, his face piled with wrinkles layer upon layer – he was an extremely elderly man.

But from his clothing, one could determine he was a Ten-Step Court sword cultivator, currently fallen into unconsciousness.

“Who is this person? How have I never seen him before? How did he enter the Life-and-Death Wheel?”

The Grand Profound Sect members focused their gazes but didn’t recognize this person. In their memory, when entering the Life-and-Death Wheel, this person had definitely not been there.

Li Yan and Gong Chenying in the air bubble in another direction couldn’t help but exchange glances after seeing this person, especially Gong Chenying’s gaze was filled with shock.

She first recognized from this person’s clothing that he was a Ten-Step Court cultivator, but when looking at his appearance, she similarly didn’t recognize him – he was a dying old man. In her memory, among the Ten-Step Court disciples who entered this time, there was definitely no such person.

However, when her gaze fell on the wounds on his chest, abdomen, and back, she immediately thought of someone. Looking more carefully at that aged face, she felt a sense of familiarity.

“It’s Wang Lang!”

Gong Chenying finally confirmed the newcomer’s identity in her heart. This person who had fought with her several times – his current appearance filled her heart with tremendous shock.

“Little Junior Brother’s Fractured Poison Body is actually this formidable. He’s reached the twilight of his years…”

Although Gong Chenying had previously seen Li Yan poison Foundation Establishment cultivators to death, it was far from as shocking as seeing a jade-like handsome young man step into old age in just about an hour, becoming a gray-haired, wrinkle-faced dying elder.

This might be related to women’s natural love of beauty, sometimes valuing appearance above all else. Even Gong Chenying, who normally didn’t pay much attention to appearance, unconsciously revealed this nature.

Li Yan initially also didn’t recognize him and was somewhat dazed, wondering how such a person had appeared here. But then from this person’s clothing and wound locations, he also knew the newcomer’s identity.

He felt depressed in his heart. His “Bone-Clinging Maggot” poison actually hadn’t been able to take the other party’s life. It seemed the red light Wang Lang had swallowed was quite extraordinary – otherwise, forget about his body turning gray, his entire body would have corroded into a pile of gray ash long ago.

When he saw the shocked gaze Gong Chenying cast over, Li Yan merely smiled.

After seeing another air bubble enter, Qiu Jiuzhen immediately focused her attention, holding a thread of expectation in her heart. Subsequently, great disappointment rose in her heart – the newcomer still wasn’t Quan Jiuxing.

But amid her disappointment, she was also filled with astonishment. Although the newcomer’s appearance had greatly changed, the aura on his body was quite familiar – just over an hour ago, this aura had appeared in her divine consciousness.

“Is it Wang… Lang?”

Qiu Jiuzhen stood up from her cross-legged position, carefully looking again at the unconscious old man, finally calling out somewhat uncertainly in a low voice filled with disbelief.

Just as Qiu Jiuzhen’s low exclamation emerged, the area behind her immediately fell into silence – deathly silence. After a while, a disciple hesitantly spoke up.

“Senior Aunt Qiu, is he… Senior Uncle Wang Lang?”

Following this person’s words, the remaining seven people either cast their gazes again toward the unconscious old man in the air bubble, or looked at Qiu Jiuzhen with confusion. No matter what, they couldn’t connect this nearly ancient old man before their eyes with that jade-like handsome young master.

Qiu Jiuzhen didn’t turn around, also staring at the old man in the air bubble with shock. Although divine consciousness was blocked by the air bubble here, scanning at close distance was still barely possible – the aura on that person was indeed Wang Lang’s.

After several breaths, she spoke with some dryness.

“It’s him. But how did he become like this?”

“Who used what vicious immortal technique to severely wound Senior Uncle Wang? Could there be others behind?”

“It should be people from Wraith Sect or demon cultivators.”

“I think not necessarily. Every restriction here is strangely vicious. Many restriction attacks are unheard of – otherwise we wouldn’t have had so many fellow disciples die just in the process of passing levels. Perhaps Senior Uncle Wang encountered some strange attack at a certain level.”

“Senior Uncle Wang has already fallen unconscious with extremely severe injuries. His Ten-Step Court group doesn’t have a single surviving disciple, so no one can treat his wounds…”

Several Qi Condensation cultivators continuously discussed in low voices, occasionally stealing glances at the slender figure ahead.

Qiu Jiuzhen also stared ahead unblinkingly, her beautiful brows slightly furrowed.

“This Wang Lang clearly just suffered severe wounds again while chasing someone. Previously in my divine consciousness, although he had injuries, he could still move normally. But the person he was chasing – I wonder if it was mutual destruction, or if they escaped.”

Thinking of this, she cast her gaze toward Gong Chenying, but only saw Gong Chenying’s serene and composed appearance, showing no fluctuation whatsoever due to Wang Lang’s entry.

“I’ve long heard that this Gong Chenying has formidable combat power. Seeing her now, it’s indeed true – she has a completely energetic and spirited appearance. She should not have fought recently, so it shouldn’t be her who encountered Wang Lang.

And the other two Wraith Sect teams were clearly behind Wang Lang before. When I left, they hadn’t caught up yet. So was Wang Lang chasing someone from the demon cultivator side?

But who among the demon cultivators could make him so filled with resentment at that time? Perhaps he encountered them in the passages before? That’s not right either – when encountering someone in the passages, only one side can come out alive.

Unless it was like when I met Baili Yuan – encountered but transmitted away before they could fight. Otherwise, this explanation doesn’t make sense either…”

For a moment, Qiu Jiuzhen couldn’t help but feel a headache. The more she analyzed, the more confused she became. Finally, she simply moved her gaze away from Gong Chenying and focused again on the unconscious Wang Lang.

“Senior Brother Wang’s unconsciousness isn’t entirely due to severe injuries – he should have been hit by some extremely vicious method or deadly poison. His exposed skin is gray, as if covered by a layer of death qi, forming a layer like keratin.

But without being able to personally examine him, I can’t make further judgments. However, given this situation, it won’t be long before nothing can save him.”

After carefully observing Wang Lang for a while, Qiu Jiuzhen could only shake her jade head lightly. Although she had the heart to ​Read on Jormuntl​save Wang Lang, she simply couldn’t get close.

“I don’t know when the transmission here will activate. If the transmission is timely, perhaps Senior Brother Wang can still be saved. Otherwise, we can only leave it to fate.”

Thinking of this, Qiu Jiuzhen felt even more irritated. Quan Jiuxing and the others still had no news. Had they already passed through those three rotating disks and entered the reward ground, or had they…

She couldn’t continue thinking. This made her somewhat restless.

Just at this moment, the entire metal sphere suddenly began to shake violently. As the trembling of this space intensified, the three air bubbles all floated up.

Under the somewhat wary and vigilant gazes of everyone, the three air bubbles rapidly crashed toward one side of the sphere wall. Before everyone could react, the bubbles had entered a five-colored space, tracing three lines of light that quickly disappeared within…

Outside the Life-and-Death Wheel, the sky remained azure blue, gentle breezes still carried white clouds slowly coming and going.

However, neither the four sects nor the demon cultivators showed any leisurely expression. They stood tall on the surrounding peaks, staring intently at the spherical mountain peak in the center.

Several hours ago, the spherical mountain peak had suddenly emitted a series of thunderous roars, shaking even the peaks they stood on with continuous trembling. Many broken stones rolled down into the deep mist below with clattering sounds.

This sudden change left the cultivators and demon cultivators on the surrounding peaks stunned. This situation had never occurred before. Immediately after, in everyone’s sight, the remaining final seven light bands that had been flickering on the mountain peak all disappeared at once in the trembling.

The entire spherical mountain peak’s light dimmed, but then the spherical top of the mountain lit up with vast light, like sunlight spreading out, illuminating the small upper half of the spherical mountain peak’s top.

This made those densely covered forests seem to be rendered with a layer of glazed light, truly dazzling and mesmerizing. But after these forests were bathed in the glazed radiance, the spherical mountain peak had no further movement, and those seven light bands never reappeared.

This left the surrounding cultivators and demon cultivators looking at each other in bewilderment. This situation had never occurred in previous Life-and-Death Wheel trials. For a moment, everyone didn’t know what had happened, only staring blankly at that eerily beautiful forest bathed in glazed light.

(Chapter End)