Chapter 182: The Difficulties of Struggle
“Crack, crack, crack!”
A torrential downpour fell, countless raindrops piercing through the scar-faced burly man and the Rift-Fang Tiger.
The next second, under Gold Egg’s astonished gaze, the figures of the burly man and the Rift-Fang Tiger suddenly dissolved into bubbles and vanished into the rain.
Clearly, even though Gold Egg had mastered Truth or Illusion, his resistance to illusions was still not high.
Only Chen Beiwu, with his formidable divine sense, noticed sothing was amiss at the first mont, decisively urged the Dragon of Chen · Cloud and Rain Arrow Montum, summoned clouds and rain, and shattered the illusion.
Otherwise, Gold Egg would not have been able to react at all.
But it did not matter—in fact, Gold Egg upon the Struggle Platform was originally bait Chen Beiwu had deliberately left for his opponents.
Chen Beiwu pulled open the bowstring, his eyes narrowing. A mana-condensed arrow aid at Gold Egg’s body below.
‘Tiger of Yin · Soul-Rending!’
This arrow could entwine divine sense and unleash a strike imbued with the might of tiger fiend.
“Roar!”
At the instant the arrow ford, a phantom of the Tiger of Yin erged upon the bow, letting out a roar that shook heaven and earth, collapsing the air currents within a hundred-zhang radius into a vacuum.
A man and beast concealed within the shadows were forced to reveal themselves in that mont. Under the tiger’s intimidation, they could not mobilize their mana for a single breath.
The pale-blue arrow tore through the void like a falling star across the sky. With overbearing force, it first pierced a bristling Silver Fox, then strung together the black-clad female cultivator’s projection, pinning both firmly into the ground.
Watching the faint light gradually dissipate in the distance, Chen Beiwu lowered his Fiend Bow.
According to True Monarch Jiang’s announced Struggle rules, the cultivator projections in the second round mostly ca from the geniuses of the Thirteen Immortal Sects, their strength extraordinary.
At the sa ti, Pei Qingying, working in tandem with her Companion Beast, could release illusions that easily deceived Gold Egg’s divine sense and five senses, proving that she was indeed a beast-taming prodigy capable of crossing realms to battle second-realm lesser beasts.
Yet to be frank, perhaps because he himself also specialized in illusions, the second round of the Struggle Realm felt far less difficult to Chen Beiwu than he had expected.
He had felt no pressure at all.
‘Perhaps I am too strong, or perhaps fate favored , letting
encounter the weaker projections.’ Chen Beiwu thought to himself.
Indeed, even projections of geniuses from the Thirteen Immortal Sects varied in strength.
…
Bixiao Immortal Sect, Struggle Realm Monitoring Chamber.
Pei Heng’s eyelids twitched.
The Golden Core True Persons present all cast strange looks at him.
The cultivator projections manifested in this Struggle Realm were truly sowhat ironic.
Pei Qingying had been born of the Ji Lake Pei Clan. Three hundred years ago, she had achieved Golden Core and belonged to the sa bloodline as Pei Heng. Now, she was already a late-stage Golden Core cultivator.
By bloodline seniority, Pei Qingying was technically Pei Heng’s elder cousin. The two had often sparred, though Pei Heng had lost more than he had won.
Yet here, in a contest of equals, Pei Qingying’s projection had not even withstood a single arrow from Chen Beiwu. This made it abundantly clear to the Golden Cores present:
If Pei Heng’s projection encountered Chen Beiwu, it would likely et the sa tragic defeat.
But that was only natural.
With only a Qi Refining realm cultivation, Chen Beiwu had already cultivated the Twelve Earthly Branches Revolving Fiend-Arrow True Art of the Ground-Bow Sect to such a degree that his combat strength was no different from a Foundation Establishnt cultivator. That he could shoot down Qi Refining extre-limit projections with a single arrow was not surprising.
What truly surprised the Golden Core True Persons was Chen Beiwu’s divine sense talent.
Within the Struggle, Chen Beiwu’s displayed divine sense was comparable to that of Foundation Establishnt cultivators.
Otherwise, he could never have escaped Pei Qingying’s Life as a Dream Illusion, let alone precisely pinpoint the projections.
All in all, this contest of cultivators had indirectly proven that Chen Beiwu’s talent and potential far surpassed that of Pei Qingying. In the future, he had a high likelihood of achieving Golden Core—a seedling well worth cultivation.
With this thought, several Golden Core experts, initially disinterested, stirred their divine sense slightly, adding Chen Beiwu’s na to their sects’ recruitnt lists. At the sa ti, their attention split, continuing to observe other outstanding candidates within the Struggle Realm.
…
“Huff… ha!”
Shen Qiong half-knelt on the ground, gasping heavily.
The Struggle Realm’s trial was far more difficult than he had anticipated. After all, the cultivator projections included here were all peerless geniuses!
Even when giving his all, employing every ans, he had only barely passed two rounds.
“Moo!”
At his side, the Golden-Luster Zhi was in even worse shape. In order to shield Shen Qiong from a fatal strike and prevent elimination, its golden scales were all shattered, nearly exposing its mangled organs.
‘Just a little longer!’
Shen Qiong forced himself to his feet, staring ahead.
Since he had co this far—
No matter what, he wanted to see the scenery of the Struggle Realm’s third round.
“Buzz!”
As the genius projection in front of him coalesced, Shen Qiong’s eyelids twitched, his face showing disbelief.
“How could this be!”
He instinctively glanced at the bloodstained jade stele in the void.
【Challenger】: Shen Qiong
【Cultivation】: Qi Refining Extre-Limit
【Opponent in Struggle Realm】: Immortal Alliance Examinee No. 24523, Chen Beiwu (Realm: Qi Refining Extre-Limit)
“24523rd level?” Shen Qiong quickly reacted.
He had not seen wrong.
The very candidate who had been in the sa testing field earlier was now the barrier barring him from the Upper Three Immortal Sects.
‘After entering the Struggle Realm, you will randomly challenge all Immortal Alliance cultivator projections recorded from ancient tis until now!’ Shen Qiong suddenly recalled True Monarch Jiang Chuan’s rules.
‘Excellent!’ Shen Qiong’s eyes lit with brilliance.
Originally, he had lost the will to attempt the third round. But now, faced with Chen Beiwu’s projection, Shen Qiong felt his fighting spirit ignite anew.
According to what his cousin Shen Zhaoxue had told him, the third round’s projections in the Struggle Realm mostly ca from Qi Refining geniuses of the Upper Three Immortal Sects.
Though they had not achieved Flawless Qi Refining or Enlightened Foundation Establishnt, they had already walked to the extre of Qi Refining’s limit path, capable of exerting combat strength near that of mid-stage Foundation Establishnt cultivators. They could easily crush early-stage Foundation Establishnt cultivators—far beyond what Shen Qiong could withstand.
But if the opponent was Chen Beiwu, then things were different.
Out of curiosity regarding Chen Beiwu’s strength, Shen Qiong had specially investigated his background.
It was not arrogance—yet in his eyes, no matter how strong a low-born Qi Refining cultivator was, he could not possibly be so exceptional as to leave him in utter despair.
Even if he knew that the Struggle Platform would not arbitrarily place a Qi Refining extre-limit cultivator as the third-round gatekeeper.
‘Good brother, lend
your head, and help
enter the Yuqing Immortal Sect!’
Shen Qiong pressed his hands together, forming the ‘Zi-Wu Gold-Water Seal’, and without hesitation urged the second-tier supre-grade spiritual artifact—Xuanming Gold Needle.
This needle was incomparably sharp. Paired with dual-attribute gold and water mana, it could generate a Gold-Fiend Water Poison with threefold effects—spell-breaking, body-corrosion, and soul-seizing. Its unleashed power rivaled a mid-stage Foundation Establishnt cultivator’s strike.
“Moo!”
The Golden-Luster Zhi opened its mouth, biting down on the wildly trembling Xuanming Gold Needle.
It possessed the second-tier supre-grade innate spiritual art Gold-Water Void Escape, enabling its horn to lock onto an enemy’s internal gold-water nodes (lungs and kidneys) and construct a short-distance teleportation channel.
It could bypass a cultivator’s mana and artifact defenses, transferring the ingested artifact, talisman, or pill directly into the opponent’s viscera to explode.
With this visceral-assassination technique, the Golden-Luster Zhi and Shen Qiong had paid the price of grievous self-harm to instantly slay the projection of the second round’s cultivator.
They believed this ti would be no different!
“Boom!”
Yet in the next instant, a golden fish-flood dragon soared skyward. With a single lash of its tail, like a divine dragon’s sweep, it shattered defensive artifacts and blasted Shen Qiong’s head apart.
“Plop!”
The spray of a cultivator’s blood and flesh upon its face abruptly awakened the Golden-Luster Zhi.
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