Looking at the towering mountain peak ahead growing larger in their vision, with the metallic orb drawing ever closer, Gong Chenying suppressed the restlessness within her dantian’s purple chamber.

This restlessness had already appeared several times during their journey here. A powerful force was circulating within her dantian, and it seemed increasingly agitated.

“What kind of pill did Little Junior Brother give me? Could it really be a sixth-grade high-level pill? Otherwise, how could the medicinal power be so strong? After my injuries healed, there’s still such vigorous medicinal power remaining. I need to enter secluded cultivation as soon as I get out.”

Previously, when she had seen herself recover so miraculously from severe injuries, she had guessed that the pill Li Yan gave her might be fifth-grade high-level or sixth-grade initial-level. Although she had never taken pills above fourth-grade, she tried her best to estimate.

Especially after leaving the cave, the remaining medicinal power in her body showed no signs of dissipating. Instead, it grew increasingly vigorous, making her suspect that the pill Li Yan had given her was indeed sixth-grade, or possibly even higher.

Thinking of the preciousness of this pill, her heart ached more and more. If this could be brought back to the sect for research, even if everyone died in this Life-and-Death Wheel trial, it would still be worth it.

At the same time, in the depths of her heart, a string was inexplicably plucked, passing through that distant bamboo tower and seeping into her heart under the moonlight.

“He gave such a precious pill to me without hesitation. Although he doesn’t know the pill’s grade, from its appearance and scent, he should be able to judge its precious nature…”

Thinking of this, Gong Chenying’s heart surprisingly gave birth to a strange feeling she had never experienced before.

Though she had tried her best to guess, she was still far from the actual situation.

From its name, the “True Essence Pill” appeared to be a pill for strengthening foundation and cultivating essence, but this was far from an ordinary foundation-strengthening pill. The True Essence Pill’s name came from the Daoist concept of “dual cultivation of nature and destiny, true essence at the critical juncture.”

Its raw materials were rare even in the Immortal Spirit Realm. Beyond strengthening foundation, healing injuries, its greater purpose was for cultivation at the Void Refinement stage and above, allowing the spiritual power within the body to achieve perfect harmony. This single pill could easily cause endless slaughter in the Mortal Realm. Even someone of Pingtu’s level needed to use such items when recovering—that was how heaven-defying it was.

If Gong Chenying used the remaining medicinal power for secluded cultivation, her cultivation level could almost quickly break through to late-stage Foundation Establishment perfection, or even possibly condense the golden core she had long dreamed of.

If Gong Chenying knew this, one could only imagine how shocked she would be. If stepping into Foundation Establishment was like millions of people crossing a single-log bridge, then condensing a golden core was like hundreds of thousands of people rushing across that same bridge.

Although she didn’t know the pill had such heaven-defying abilities, this didn’t affect some of Gong Chenying’s judgments. She had a strong feeling that as long as she entered secluded cultivation, she might reach late-stage Foundation Establishment, or even perfection.

“He’s so generous. Even if his cultivation is low, what does it matter? With this medicinal power, when the time comes, I should be only one step away from Core Formation. At least I’ve saved decades of bitter cultivation, and I’m countless steps closer to fulfilling my wish. He is my man.”

As Gong Chenying’s thoughts wandered, her heart grew increasingly chaotic, once again breaking the tranquility she had maintained for decades. Combined with Li Yan personally admitting he had seen her navel ring, this was the second time she had lost her usual composure. Her face immediately flushed, her jade neck turning pink. In her bones, she possessed the fortitude and stubbornness of Tianli clan women, and her thoughts differed from other women.

Li Yan had no idea what Gong Chenying was thinking. He simply looked around, occasionally glancing at the tall, curvaceous figure ahead, his heart stirring with ripples from time to time. What young man doesn’t feel stirred? What young woman doesn’t harbor spring feelings?

But seeing Gong Chenying’s somewhat dazed expression, he couldn’t help but feel puzzled.

“Why is Senior Sister’s neck red again? Is the medicine Senior Pingtu gave really effective? Sometimes it makes her temperament unpredictable, sometimes causes blood to rush upward. It seems this medicine shouldn’t be used carelessly.”

Li Yan stared blankly at the slender figure, thinking with some lingering fear.

While the two remained silent yet lost in their own thoughts, the white jade boat had arrived at the peak of the central mountain in the region. The metallic orb and enormous platform came into view.

Li Yan couldn’t help but stand up. The fluctuation of qi behind him immediately sobered Gong Chenying considerably. She secretly spat at herself again, immediately focusing her attention on the platform and the semicircular archway, spreading out her divine sense.

After a moment, her delicate brows furrowed slightly. She hadn’t discovered any problems, but this made her feel even more tense.

Normally speaking, they were already late. There should have been people here earlier, even leaving some traces. Yet this place was terrifyingly quiet—nothing had been discovered.

She couldn’t help but turn to look at Li Yan, but saw him staring blankly at that semicircular archway, his eyes flashing with uncertain light, not knowing what he was thinking.

“You… what did you discover?”

After a slight hesitation, Gong Chenying still asked.

“That door is identical to the invisible doors from the previous trials that allowed exit.”

Li Yan withdrew his gaze and looked toward Gong Chenying. He didn’t notice that she no longer addressed him as “Little Junior Brother,” but directly used “you.”

“Oh? You mean the doors you used to exit the passages?” Gong Chenying’s expression became serious as she asked with confusion.

“Yes, but I can’t tell if there’s a problem. This is the only entrance door here.”

Li Yan couldn’t see any problems for the moment, but he had already guessed this should be the passage door to exit the Life-and-Death Wheel. Anyway, within this Life-and-Death Wheel, he wasn’t afraid—with Pingtu present, what could happen to him?

“It’s just that this place is strangely quiet, with no other people. But when divine sense touches that door, it gets bounced back. We’d better be careful.”

After thinking for a moment, Gong Chenying spoke. Just now, the instant her divine sense touched that semicircular archway, it was directly repelled, making her feel even more uneasy.

“Perhaps those who arrived first have all entered the orb. We Read on Jormuntl need to be extra careful when we enter, in case someone ambushes us.”

Li Yan’s eyes flashed. Hearing this, Gong Chenying nodded lightly—she had the same thought.

The two slowly lowered the white jade boat toward the platform. Throughout the entire process, no accidents occurred, which relieved them both. The silence here was so profound it made one’s heart race and kept their nerves highly tense.

But just as the two had stepped onto the platform and Gong Chenying had put away the white jade boat, a sudden change occurred. A crisp bubble-bursting sound came from beneath the platform, followed by a bubble appearing around their feet with lightning speed, instantly encasing them both.

This sudden change startled Gong Chenying. By the time she reacted, the bubble had already wrapped around them both and was rapidly flying toward the semicircular archway. Her reaction was swift—her jade hand had already slapped against the storage pouch at her waist.

But from the corner of her eye, she saw Li Yan’s expression was stunned, as if he had been shocked senseless by the sudden change, making no defensive gestures whatsoever.

“What are you dazing about? This bubble is strange!”

A cold voice rang in Li Yan’s ear. The next moment, light flashed on Li Yan’s body as a “Ghost Cart Talisman” was placed on him—Gong Chenying had taken it from her storage pouch and slapped it onto Li Yan.

She herself had placed other talismans on her body, with much weaker defense than the “Ghost Cart Talisman.”

Li Yan couldn’t help but smile at her. He knew Gong Chenying only had two “Ghost Cart Talismans” stolen contentin her storage pouch—the ones he had returned to her earlier. One had been corroded by the tea water shot out by “Moon Becomes Shadow” when fighting Wang Lang.

Now she had taken out the last one and placed it on him.

Actually, Li Yan also had a “Ghost Cart Talisman” in his storage pouch, but he felt it wasn’t necessary. Pingtu wouldn’t let him die so easily—he didn’t sense any death aura.

So although the bubble came suddenly and startled him momentarily, he quickly regained his composure and made no moves. But this expression surprised Gong Chenying, causing her to directly slap the last “Ghost Cart Talisman” onto Li Yan.

“Senior Sister, this should be a rule within the Life-and-Death Wheel. If it were going to attack, it would have attacked already. From the attack speed just now, we couldn’t have defended against it anyway. There shouldn’t be any problems.”

Li Yan smiled and spoke.

Gong Chenying tilted her head and thought about it, feeling he was right. But this head-tilting gesture made Li Yan stare in amazement—this was clearly the appearance of a young maiden, obedient and lively.

While the two were talking, the bubble had already carried them directly into the semicircular archway. After the bubble flew into the archway, the scene inside the orb was directly presented to them both.

Within the hundred-zhang space inside the metallic orb, three circular platforms arranged in descending steps from high to low sat motionlessly there like dead objects.

What made Li Yan and Gong Chenying freeze was that there was actually another bubble in the space, where nine people visit our sitesat cross-legged, staring intently at this suddenly entering bubble.

“Wraith Sect!”

“It’s people from Wraith Sect!”

“Gong… Chen… Ying!”

Several light exclamations came from that bubble. At the same time, Li Yan and Gong Chenying also clearly saw the nine people in the opposite bubble.

“Grand Profound Sect, Qiu Jiuzhen!”

Gong Chenying said calmly, though her hand had already moved to the storage pouch at her waist. At this moment, she had recovered sixty percent of her strength, so she wasn’t too afraid of Qiu Jiuzhen. She was only worried about Li Yan due to their numerical disadvantage.

The one who had called out Gong Chenying’s name almost word by word was indeed Qiu Jiuzhen. After seeing Gong Chenying and Li Yan, she turned a deaf ear to Gong Chenying’s words, only murmuring to herself.

“It’s not Senior Brother Jiuxing and the others. Could he have already entered the top three and been transported away?”

After both sides clearly saw each other’s faces, strangely, not one of the nine Grand Profound Sect members stood up to attack Li Yan and [visit our site]the others. This situation made Gong Chenying and Li Yan even more vigilant.

But soon, the two understood the situation here. They clearly saw the killing intent in the opponents’ eyes, yet the opponents didn’t make a move.

Looking at the two independent bubbles, Gong Chenying and Li Yan were intelligent people who immediately guessed the bubbles were strange—they probably couldn’t get out.

The two had been instantly brought here by this bubble and hadn’t yet had time to try exiting it. But the opponents had arrived so early yet still obediently remained in their bubble—they must have tried attacking it and found it completely unbreakable.

Gong Chenying’s beautiful eyes flickered as she extended her slender jade hand, spiritual light blazing from it. She slowly pressed her jade hand against the bubble in front of her. Immediately, a strong repelling force transmitted from her palm. She withdrew her spiritual power accordingly, her heart already certain of her thoughts.

Li Yan observed coldly from the side. Seeing this, he reached out with one hand and actually removed the “Ghost Cart Talisman” from outside his body, placing it in his storage pouch.

“Senior Sister, it seems we’re late. The top three spots have already been taken!”

Li Yan directly ignored the tidal waves of killing intent from the opposite bubble and looked toward the three rotating platforms.

(Chapter End)