Chapter 96: Infiltrating the Trial

Three months later, at the foot of a towering mountain that slanted into the clouds, one hundred and forty elves stood in seven neat ranks. These were the elves who would enter the Blood Rift to undergo the trial. This ordeal was held once every ten years, with all seven elf clans sending twenty of their finest younger talents. This year marked the two hundred and eighty-seventh trial.

In the far-right formation of the Blue Elves, Blue Tide stood among them. Her height, among so many elves not even three feet tall, made her seem strikingly tall and conspicuous. Right behind her was a dark-skinned, slight-built elf whose eyes were also blue, no different from those of the Blue Elves. Only when he occasionally smiled did a tiny, charming canine tooth unconsciously peek past his lip. If it was not Thunderclap, who else could it be? Yet his stature at this moment was at least a third shorter than before. Why was that?

At this time, seven elders from the various elf clans stood before the ranks. An elderly elf in a purple robe, five feet tall, stepped forward to speak. From his attire alone, one could tell that he was the elder of the Purple Elves, the clan most imbued with noble bearing. He was announcing the rules of this trial and the matters requiring attention.

After hearing him, Thunderclap frowned. This trial was clearly highly unusual. In the past, everyone had to emerge within nine days, or else be trapped inside; this time, the limit had been extended to fifteen days. In the past, it had always been stressed that activity was permitted only in the outer regions, but this time the elves were allowed to go anywhere, even into the deepest layer of the Blood Rift, so long as they had the ability. In the past, there had been prizes in three different tiers, but this time there was only one special reward. The prize was lavish beyond measure: a secret cultivation manual never before revealed to the elf clans, several top-grade elixirs of the elves, and one joint empowerment from the Elf King and the seven great elders.

Any one of those rewards alone would drive people mad with desire, so the one hundred and forty participating elves were all itching for action, each glaring at the others with undisguised hostility. Thunderclap learned that every trial had always been bloody, with fewer than half surviving. And because of the special nature of the Blood Rift, elves with slightly higher cultivation could not enter. Thus, those who came each time to seek the elf clan’s necessary spirit herbs and spirit water were always the brightest talents of the younger generation. But since the prize this time was so tempting, what exactly was the item they had to obtain?

Fire Spirit Autumn.

That was the highest objective of this trial, and the only one. Whoever obtained Fire Spirit Autumn would claim the grand reward. Even Thunderclap felt somewhat tempted. Still, he understood that the real purpose of infiltrating the trial this time was to search for Soul-Luring Herb. After more than a month of investigation and analysis, he had concluded that the probability of Soul-Luring Herb appearing in the Blood Rift was at least sixty percent. That was why he had brought Blue Tide to take part in the trial. This herb had to be refined into medicine and taken without delay, or it would lose all value once the time passed.

By then, the Purple Elf elder had finished speaking. Ignoring the murmurs among the crowd, he raised his hand and tossed out a gleaming cylinder. Once it enlarged, the seven elders worked together to drive it. From the cylinder shot a beam of seven-colored divine light, slowly scanning the immense mountain. Suddenly, the multicolored radiance paused at a certain point on the back slope. At once, the elders rose into the air and flew straight toward it, with the rest of the elves following after.

The elders who arrived first had already unleashed their respective powers, attacking one point in concert. The trial participants could only watch from afar, unable to help in the slightest.

Three days later, the seven elders, weary in body and mind, finally broke through that point. After a sound like shattering glass, the entire mountain dissolved into countless specks of light and vanished. There was nothing left here but an empty expanse. Forcing themselves onward, the elders performed another act. A magical artifact shaped like a spinning wheel turned ceaselessly, and seven-colored divine light shot out once again. After the time it took an incense stick to burn, a miniature formation appeared on the barren ground.

"Line up and walk into the formation. Quickly!"

At the Purple Elf elder's call, everyone filed in. The miniature formation, only about a yard across, somehow truly held all one hundred and forty elves, like a mustard-seed world. It was astonishingly wondrous. Once everyone had entered, an elder with red hair shouted, "Remember the ultimate target of this trial, Fire Spirit Autumn. You have only fifteen days. If you do not come out within fifteen days, the teleportation array will close automatically, and your lives will be left to fate." As he spoke, he glanced toward Blue Tide. "Elite members of the Red Elves, remember your mission as well. I will be here awaiting your triumphant return."

The other six elders each issued their own parting instructions to their clansmen, after which the seven elders jointly activated the teleportation array. Following a wave of dizziness, Thunderclap was flung into a stretch of nothingness. Since the teleportation was random, no one could tell whether they would be sent together. Each clan had already made contingency plans. Before coming, Thunderclap had agreed with Blue Tide that once they were teleported in, they would immediately use the communication pod.

The pairs of communication pods taken from the Green Queen long ago had already been distributed to the Blue Elf participants, each set to a different channel so that everyone could contact one another with ease.

This was also the condition for Thunderclap to take part in the trial. Without those communication pods, how could the Blue Elves possibly let an outsider like him enter so casually?

The peanut-shell-shaped communicator was already connected. Thunderclap sent in a thread of divine sense, and after waiting a long while, he finally received Blue Tide's reply. Delighted, he followed the direction indicated by the communicator, all the while staying in constant contact through it. At last he found Blue Tide and six other Blue Elves, and they regrouped to continue searching. By calling through the other channels, they worked for an entire day and managed to locate a total of eighteen Blue Elves. The remaining two could not be contacted at all and were likely in dire straits. Two had already perished the moment they entered the Blood Rift. This made everyone feel a chill in their hearts.

Everyone knew the Blood Rift was fraught with danger, but the unknown dangers were the most terrifying of all, the kind that gave no warning and left no chance to hide. One could even die without ever knowing how. After some discussion, the elves decided to split into three groups to search for Fire Spirit Autumn. The Blood Rift was divided into three layers, and in previous trials they had not even reached the outer layer. This time, however, in order to complete the mission, they would search the outermost perimeter, the outer layer, and the middle layer separately. The inner layer was far too mysterious, and given their strength, they could only choose to abandon it.

Thunderclap and Blue Tide, along with three others, were assigned to search the middle layer. They did not choose the same route as the other two teams. Instead, they resolutely headed toward the void, because during the preparation for the trial, Thunderclap had exchanged spirit stones and other items for a great deal of information, gaining a preliminary understanding of the Blood Rift. Before entering, he had already formed a mature plan.

Within this Blood Rift, there were no lofty mountains or great rivers, no plains or marshes. There was nothing at all. Only a gray-toned emptiness stretched in every direction. Because there were no landmarks, even if one entered dozens of times, one still could not find a path. Yet after much effort, Thunderclap had learned a piece of information from an elf who had once participated in the trial. The Blood Rift was teeming with fiends and strange beasts, and eighty percent of them were nameless creatures, or at least creatures unknown to the elves. Among them was a colossal burrowing beast. By nature it was gentle, yet it loved to dig tunnels and possessed astonishing persistence.

In spaces like this, self-repair was automatic. Whenever the burrowing beast dug a hole, the space would mend itself at once, forcing the beast to continue digging forward. In this way, it could tunnel from the outermost layer all the way to the inner layer, and then continue from the inner layer to the opposite outer layer.

This had been discovered by chance by an elf who survived the trial. He had simply followed the beast, tunneling all the way from one side to the other, and thus escaped with his life. Without that beast, he would likely have long since been buried there. Having learned this, Thunderclap decided to follow a burrowing beast into at least the middle layer, search for Soul-Luring Herb there, and then find another beast to tunnel back out.

Aside from Thunderclap and Blue Tide, the five-member group included one petite female elf and two short but sturdy male elves. One of the men, a dwarf-like fellow, led the way, while Thunderclap brought up the rear.

Because flight seemed to be forbidden here, Thunderclap and the others could only travel on foot. As they walked, he opened his divine sense to its fullest, yet could detect nothing at all. It seemed that this Blood Rift was indeed rather strange. So he activated Divine Thunder Slash, and pale blue light flickered unpredictably in his eyes.

This time, by relying on the underground spiritual vein of the Ryukyu Islands, he had successfully formed his core. Though this had drained that enormous vein and caused the entire island to sink into the sea, Thunderclap had also gained a considerable amount of divine thunder material from the heavenly tribulation in the sky. Moreover, by borrowing the final might of divine thunder, he had tempered his own Divine Thunder Slash, bringing it to a qualitative leap. Before the trial, he had even seized every spare moment to combine Divine Thunder Slash with the mysterious blue light in his eyes, creating an upgraded version. Its power had more than doubled.

Suddenly, the blue light in Thunderclap's eyes flashed wildly several times, and he cried out sharply, "Everyone, get down!"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a black dot appeared in the distant sky. Moving as fast as teleportation, it rushed forward and in the blink of an eye had reached a point ten yards ahead. Then the lone dot became a swarm. It was a flock of black demon beasts baring their fangs. They were not large, but besides having a pair of wings on their backs, each had a fleshy spike standing upright along the spine. Bits of flesh, skin, and even beast brains hung from those spikes, as though they were little boats raising flags.

Everyone was stunned rigid by the scene before them, but Thunderclap seemed to have seen this long ago. His first reaction was to reach out and press Blue Tide and the female elf down flat. Then, like an old man crawling under a quilt, he himself slid to the ground, while at the same time he kicked the man in front, the dwarf-like one, onto his back.

Thunderclap's reaction could not have been quicker, yet the flagpole beasts were even faster. In the blink of an eye they had already rushed overhead. The male elf who had been leading the way had no time to react before several pairs of sharp claws seized him, flung him onto the dorsal spike of one of the flagpole beasts, and turned him into a new "banner."