Chapter 89.1: Part 1 Those Who Shouldn’T Be Saved (I)
Although Ji Wujiong said that, there was no sarcasm in his tone. His injuries were not light. Talking seemed to aggravate his wounds, as he raised his hand and pressed the area around his shoulder in pain.
“How are you?” Meng Qi hadn’t yet completely recovered from the effect of her breakthrough. However, she clearly felt the surging spiritual aura in her body and the expanded spiritual sea, which was ten times larger than before. The expanded spiritual sea was now finally fitted to be called a ‘sea.’
In addition, the small sphere spinning above the spiritual sea was still trickling with strands of spiritual aura, slowly refilling the broad sea below. Although a golden core obviously wasn’t an endless source of aura, once a cultivator reached the Golden Core stage, their body indeed could slowly recover the consumed aura on their own.
Therefore, there was a saying in the Three Thousand Worlds: only when a cultivator successfully formed their golden core that they truly entered the path of cultivation.
Both Foundation Establishment and Qi Condensation cultivators were just a bit stronger than ordinary people. They could absorb aura from their surroundings and use it to do some little tricks. However, only after reaching the Golden Core Stage that the traces of time on cultivators’ body would slow down and fade away.
Cultivation was an act against heaven. Reaching the Golden Core stage was a small achievement for beginners. From that time, every time cultivators broke through the next stage, they would attract a thunder tribulation.
At this moment, Meng Qi’s body contained ten times more aura than before. She subconsciously raised her hand, feeling her fingertips were slightly swollen as if they were about to burst with spiritual aura.
“I guess…” Even though he was speaking slowly, Ji Wujiong’s face distorted in pain. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to finish the sentence: “…you have passed the test, and this is your reward.” He took a deep breath and asked, “What did you see just now?”
Meng Qi was startled. She looked around. On the black cliff, only the place where Ji Wujiong sat leaning against the boulder could be considered to be safe.
As for her…
Meng Qi lowered her gaze to the ground. Under her feet was the same black boulder on the top of a cliff. Above that was gloomy wind, blowing fiercely. The cliff was also surrounded by a vast and seemingly boundless black sea. Huge black waves rolled up frantically, smashing against the cliff walls with powerful momentum that seemed to be about to smash the entire cliff she and Ji Wujiong were standing at.
After the huge waves rolled in, they dissipated into the air and did not fall back to the sea. Meng Qi stared at them, and only then did she discover that the sea was not filled with black water, but with pitch-black devil aura, so thick and dense that it seemed to almost manifest into something tangible.
“Hiss—” Meng Qi subconsciously took a deep breath. She was standing very close to the cliff and quickly took several steps back as she turned at Ji Wujiong. They were standing on the same cliff, separated by a fissure around twenty meters wide and filled with a huge wave of devil aura that constantly rolled around crazily.
“Are you injured?” Meng Qi asked.
“Um.” Ji Wujiong changed his posture to make himself sit more comfortably, “Just small injuries.”
Meng Qi looked at Ji Wujiong’s right hand, which hung listlessly on his side. Ji Wujiong’s fingers were originally beautiful; they looked slender and strong, but also sickly pale. At this moment, those sickly pale fingers were stained with brown-red dry bloodstains. Ji Wujiong himself was leaning against the boulder as he spoke to Meng Qi, but he never stood up.
——His injuries are definitely not light nor small.
Ji Wujiong’s temperament was proud and arrogant. If his injuries were really nothing, there was no way he would just lean against the boulder and half-sit on the ground.
Meng Qi took two steps forward. She observed the violent wind below the cliff and the sea of devil aura with its fierce waves before looking at Ji Wujiong again: “I think the third test is an illusion array.” She said seriously.
“Huh?” Ji Wujiong was stunned.
Meng Qi looked around: “After I left the passage, I couldn’t find you. It’s only after the illusion was broken that I see you again.” She paused. “I thought it had been a month.”
“Nine days.” Ji Wujiong took a deep breath and said, “I am here for nine days.”
“Hmm.” Meng Qi nodded and continued to look around, “I think this array shows different illusions from person to person. What I encountered is the one I wanted to see—”
Meng Qi suddenly shut her mouth.
Not only Ji Wujiong looked at her curiously, but even the little guy inside the beast house also opened his eyes and glanced lazily. The little white tiger stretched out his front paws and scratched the bamboo bed somewhat absentmindedly.
The one Meng Qi wanted to see? The thing she desired the most? What was it?
Was it the place, or was it that person…
The little white tiger squinted his eyes slightly as his two small fluffy ears erected in vigilance, waiting for Meng Qi’s next words.
Meng Qi paused. Seeing Ji Wujiong’s curious eyes, she continued: “It was the one place I wanted to see the most. I always want to go back there and see that person again, so this time, I saw him.”
“Oh.” Ji Wujiong snorted and asked back: “Is it the person who taught you arrays?”
“Yes.” Meng Qi nodded.
Ji Wujiong stared at Meng Qi and snorted again: “Then you found that he was just an illusion created by the array and saw through everything?”
“Yes.” Meng Qi nodded again. She faintly felt something was not right. If one only had to see through the illusion, wasn’t this test too simple? After all, this was the third test. The second test was harder than the first. But compared with the previous two, this third test was a bit like child’s play.
Moreover, this sea of devil aura should be the illusion created for Ji Wujiong, so why could she enter it?