32: Chapter 32 The Trial of the Secret Realm (Part 1)

Soon it was the night of the full moon. The moonlight, like water, spilled onto the earth, painting it silver. This was the time of the month when the moonlight was most saturated and bright, and also the night when the aura of darkness was at its lowest.

Yun Che and Third Elder Meng Youyi appeared at Mount Xike in the west of the city, the location of the Meng clan's ancestral secret realm.

This secret realm only opened once a year. Each opening required a massive amount of abyss crystals, and a maximum of only fifty people could enter. Those who had entered said that this was the place where dreams began.

Because of the request from the Peacock Divine Concubine, Meng Kongchan had made special arrangements for Yun Che to enter the secret realm alone for cultivation.

Third Elder Meng Youyi asked, "Jianyuan, are you ready?"

Yun Che nodded.

Third Elder Meng Youyi instructed, "Remember! First, absolutely do not use profound arts, weapons, or heaven-earth profound treasures. You must rely solely on the power of your own soul to resist the various trials. Second, do not attempt to seal your soul sea. You must keep your soul sea open to test the limits of what your soul can withstand. Third, I give you this small jade pendant. If you encounter danger, crush it, and you will be teleported back to your original spot."

After speaking, he channeled his profound energy toward the front. In the night sky in the distance, a white circle appeared, with intersecting, swirling, and twisted patterns in the middle, looking like some kind of ancient profound formation.

Then, he threw a drop of Meng Kongchan's fresh blood into the pattern. The figure slowly twisted and deformed, and finally, a gate resembling nothingness appeared.

Yun Che leaped and disappeared into the gate.

What met his eyes was a small platform, about five hundred square meters in area. Outside and below the platform was an endless dark space, so deep that even divine sense could not probe it.

In the center of the platform was a colorful, translucent sphere, hovering about five zhang in the air. Directly below the sphere was a gray-white stone tablet two zhang high, with faint cyan characters flickering on it.

Yun Che looked closely. At the very top of the tablet were five large characters: "Divine Qualification Ranking," and below it were the names and scores of many people.

"First Place: Meng Wangu, Ten Points. Second Place: Meng Bugui, Ten Points. Third Place: Meng Cangjing, Ten Points... Fifth Place: Meng Kongchan, Ten Points... Eighth Place: Chief Elder Meng Nanxian, Nine Points... Twelfth Place: Divine Son Meng Jianxi, Nine Points... Twentieth Place: Meng Jianyuan, Eight Points... One Hundredth Place: Meng Duanli, Five Points."

The stone tablet only displayed the top one hundred. The last one was actually the deceased Meng Duanli, who also had five points of divine qualification.

Yun Che couldn't help but be curious about who the first-ranked Meng Wangu was. Suddenly, a resonant voice came through.

"Dreams enter the clouds, thoughts vast and boundless; through the ages, time drifts and sways."

The voice came from the five-colored sphere. Apparently, it had sensed Yun Che's question and actually spoke on its own.

"This deity is the founder of this secret realm, Meng Wangu! To be precise, I am a remnant soul."

"Oh."

Yun Che couldn't help but sigh, suspecting that this remnant soul was the first-generation Meng ancestor, so he asked, "Then, does that mean, Senior Wangu, you are from the Eternal Pure Land?"

"That era is too long ago; I don't even remember where I came from. The abyssal dust of the abyss destroyed part of my memory, but I certainly didn't live here at the beginning!" the five-colored sphere sighed and answered indifferently.

Yun Che then asked, "Why, despite both being ten points, is the current Sovereign, Divine Venerable Wumeng Meng Kongchan, only ranked fifth?"

"He has an innate divine qualification of eight points, and later awakened an additional two points of divine qualification. There is still a big gap compared to a true ten-point divine qualification."

"Although protected by the barrier, the abyssal dust has caused irreversible damage to our bodies. Each generation's natural talent is worse than the last. Since my first successor, Meng Bugui, there has never been another innate ten-point divine qualification!"

Yun Che couldn't help but think that it seemed in the current era, Meng Jianyuan having an innate eight-point divine qualification was indeed peerless and unmatched in the world.

The five-colored sphere continued, "Young man, state your name and hurry up and test! The real trial is still ahead, hurry up!"

"I also have some questions to discuss with you, but I must wait until you finish the test trial."

Yun Che took a step forward, looked up at the five-colored sphere in the air, and announced his name loudly: "Meng Jianyuan!"

The five-colored sphere began to rotate slowly, emitting a gentle five-colored beam of light that enveloped Yun Che's entire figure.

Soon, a unique line of golden text appeared at the bottom of the tablet: "One Hundredth Place: Meng Jianyuan, Five Points!"

However, this line of text did not stop but quickly moved upward.

"Sixtieth Place: Meng Jianyuan, Six Points!"

"Thirty-fifth Place: Meng Jianyuan, Seven Points!"

"Twenty-first Place: Meng Jianyuan, Eight Points!"

"Seventh Place: Meng Jianyuan, Nine Points!"

Yun Che thought to himself that seeing him surpass Divine Son Meng Jianxi and Chief Elder Meng Nanxian was effortless; it was no surprise that these two had partially awakened their divine qualifications later.

At this moment, the five-colored sphere began to accelerate its rotation, and the light it emitted became significantly more dazzling!

"Second Place: Meng Jianyuan, Ten Points!"

The rotation of the five-colored sphere became even more intense, and the sphere even began to shake slightly.

Yun Che was bewildered. It's just a ten-point divine qualification, is it really necessary to be this exaggerated?

However, the shaking of the sphere intensified, and it made a "clatter—clang—" sound, and several very fine cracks appeared on the surface.

At this point, even Third Elder Meng Youyi, who was outside the secret realm, felt something was wrong. Although he did not know what exactly happened, the entrance gate of the secret realm displayed an abnormality compared to usual, flickering constantly and emitting five-colored light.

Yun Che sensed that the situation was not good, so he hurriedly leaped backward and quickly exited the area covered by the five-colored light circle. He definitely did not want to destroy this five-colored sphere. The five-colored sphere then returned to calm and said in a tone as if it had been frightened, "Unable to grade!"

Yun Che did not speak, silently watching the stone tablet in front of him. He saw that the position at the very top of the stone tablet had already changed.

"First Place: Meng Jianyuan, Unable to Grade!"

And the original first place, Meng Wangu, retreated to second.

After the five-colored sphere returned to normal, its attitude toward Yun Che was obviously different. It said very kindly, "Congratulations to the Prince for obtaining a world-shocking divine qualification. Your future achievements will certainly be limitless."

"There are a total of nine levels in the subsequent secret realm tests. Because your divine qualification is extremely rare and you are gifted, your trial will start directly from the seventh level."

As soon as the five-colored sphere's voice fell, in the thick, ink-like darkness in the distance, a pitch-black small boat appeared, as if it had sailed out from the netherworld, emitting a mysterious and eerie aura.

The hull had no light at all, and the bow was as sharp as a blade, constantly cutting through the darkness to move forward.

As it approached, an oppressive atmosphere enveloped everything, as if bringing endless Yin evil energy.

Only when it approached the platform could Yun Che barely see the outline of the boat. The mast on the boat was towering, but no flags were flying; only a few wisps of faint mist lingered around it.

Standing on the bow was an eerie boatman, holding an ancient oar in his hand. His figure was hunched, and a black robe fluttered slightly in the darkness. His face was covered by a shadow mask, making it impossible to see his features, only revealing a pair of eyes flickering with ghostly light, like ghost fires hidden in the darkness, emitting a mysterious and unfathomable aura.

Yun Che leaped into the boat and disappeared into the darkness along with the black boat.

The black boat traveled for about an hour before finally docking next to a courtyard. It looked like a slaughterhouse. At the entrance of the courtyard, a faint light flickered in the cold wind, as if it could be extinguished at any moment.

Twelve people walked out of the courtyard. They were all short and stout, with fat waists and thick limbs. They looked very fierce and vicious, and each of them had a cold, gleaming, and extremely sharp knife tucked into their waists.

Judging from the aura they emitted, these twelve people were all at the middle to high stages of the Divine Extreme Realm, and the leader was actually at the peak of the Divine Extreme Realm.

These people didn't speak, and as soon as they came over, they wanted to grab Yun Che.

Yun Che wanted to channel his profound energy to resist, but remembering Third Elder Meng Youyi's instructions, he stopped and let this group of people handle him. The main reason was that, facing twelve people at the middle to high stages of the Divine Extreme Realm, his resistance would not have much meaning.

After Yun Che stopped resisting, this group of people became even more unscrupulous. They scrambled to lift Yun Che from the boat and took him into the courtyard. Some grabbed his arms, some grabbed his legs, and some pulled his hair...

The inside of the courtyard was similar to the outside, with only a few extremely dim lamps flickering with faint light. After entering the courtyard, Yun Che realized that this was truly a place of slaughter. The ground was covered with flowing blood—some from animals, but more from humans.

The ground everywhere was a mess. Those human and animal bones were discarded randomly without order, appearing exceptionally pale under the dim light. Nearby, some muscle tissue and various internal organs were scattered messily, some of which had already begun to rot, emitting a nauseating odor.

Such a scene was truly terrifying, as if it were a scene moved from hell. If an ordinary person saw this, they would probably be scared to death on the spot with just one glance.

This group of people was not polite at all. They tied Yun Che to a large chopping board made of a special material, and then they reached out one after another, took their knives, reached into Yun Che's soul sea, and stabbed and hacked at Yun Che's soul.

That was truly a stinging pain that went deep into the soul, and the level of pain exceeded any time Yun Che had experienced before.

Yun Che was almost tortured into fainting by the severe pain. However, at this moment, he absolutely could not lose consciousness and had to remain clear-headed. He tried his best to endure the heart-wrenching pain, one hand already tightly grasping the escape jade pendant that Third Elder Meng Youyi had given him.

Nearly an hour passed slowly. This group of people never stopped their cruel actions from beginning to end. They continuously tortured Yun Che's soul, as if they were tireless, without a moment of rest. Under their ravaging, there was almost no intact part of Yun Che's soul, and it was covered with scars everywhere.

Yun Che struggled bitterly in this endless pain. He bit his lip hard, trying to use the pain of his body to distract from the torture his soul was suffering. His lips had long been bitten through in many places, and blood constantly seeped out, staining his chin red. But he was completely unaware of it, just holding on with a tenacious will. The stubbornness in his heart made him unwilling to surrender.

Finally, the leader of the group said the first sentence: "Didn't you cultivate the Great Dao Pagoda Art? I will give you half a quarter of an hour to heal your injured soul!"

Yun Che secretly thought to himself that this terrible torture was finally over; he had almost lost his life in their hands. Thinking of this, he still had lingering fears.

Subsequently, he hurriedly began to operate the Great Dao Pagoda Art. In less than half a quarter of an hour, the injuries to his soul had basically recovered.

The leading man looked at Yun Che's recovery and nodded with satisfaction.

The twelve people took action again, rushing into Yun Che's soul sea to ravage his soul unscrupulously, to an even greater extent than before!

Yun Che was so angry he almost fainted. He had thought it was going to end, but it turned out it had just begun. However, with the experience of the first time, Yun Che knew they would not harm the foundation of his soul. He simply didn't care, lying flat and letting them slaughter him, and endured for another hour.

Then, the leading man ordered Yun Che to operate the Great Dao Pagoda Art again to heal his soul, and then the twelve people harvested it again.

A total of three times, each for an hour, each time more cruel than the last. This group of people tortured Yun Che in such an inhumane way.

This time it was truly over. Yun Che lay weakly on the chopping board, covered in blood, his eyes staring straight at the pitch-black night sky.

"You performed well!"

A leisurely voice came, seemingly from the end of the sky, yet also sounding right beside Yun Che's ear.

"If you had shown any resistance midway, or if you couldn't bear the torture and crushed the jade pendant that Third Elder Meng Youyi gave you, your trial would have ended."

Yun Che was already very angry. After more than three hours of inhuman treatment, just to get a word of praise from you? He said unpleasantly, "If I guessed correctly, you are Senior Meng Wangu, right! May I ask what is the point of this trial? Is it just to satisfy your sadistic perverted psychology?"

"Hahaha—Hahaha—" Meng Wangu laughed loudly, "Prince, why don't you check your soul before complaining?"

"I went to such great lengths to bring you here and analyzed your soul from the inside out. I cleaned up all those filthy, unspeakable dregs, evil, lewd, obscene, despicable, shameless, sinful, violent... things deep in your soul. You don't thank me properly, but instead, complain here?!"

Yun Che then remembered to inspect his soul, and sure enough, he found that all the various negative and passive factors that had accumulated over a long time had almost been washed away. His mental pressure and burden were also much less, and his whole person felt refreshed.

Yun Che couldn't help but lick his bloodied lips and said awkwardly, "Alright, but couldn't you have told me in advance? Do you know how many times I wanted to run away or kill your twelve disciples during that time?"

"Others can be told in advance, but you cannot!" Meng Wangu said seriously, "You possess the best talent I have ever seen throughout the ages. If I had any mercy or relaxed the requirements for you, it would be a waste of natural gifts and an act of disrespect to the Heavenly Dao."

Yun Che knew it was unlikely to blackmail him again, so he had to give up, silently operating the Great Dao Pagoda Art to heal the pain all over his body.

Then, he left the courtyard and boarded the black boat that had been waiting for him for a long time.