178: Chapter 178 Reincarnation Trial

Everyone looked nervous.

A line of small text appeared below the prompt, which everyone noticed.

"Challenge failed: Level reduced by 10."

This trial was almost identical to the Class Advancement Trial; the penalty for failure was a reduction in level.

However, they only had one chance. Once they failed, they weren't sure if they would still be able to return to the real world.

Everyone's trial scenario was different.

Before splitting up, Jiang He distributed a dozen or so bottles of god-tier red potion to everyone—these were leftovers from the last Class Advancement Trial. As for anything else, there was nothing here.

Swish, swish, swish—several streaks of white light flashed by.

Jiang He watched as everyone disappeared from where they stood.

"Master, you must be careful too!" Ah Li said worriedly.

"Mm-hmm."

Immediately after, his body flashed with light.

When his vision cleared again, he was already standing in the middle of a desolate, uninhabited desert.

Besides the endless yellow sand, there was only the scorching sun overhead. The entire world was so clear that there wasn't even a single cloud.

"Damn it, what kind of place is this?"

Jiang He had been walking in the desert for who knew how long.

There were no reference points in the surroundings; if he couldn't see his own footprints when he looked back, he would have suspected that he had been walking in circles the whole time.

"Ahhh—where exactly is this? Where are the monsters?"

Jiang He was on the verge of a breakdown.

Shouldn't trials be filled with crises and endless monsters the moment you enter, leading straight into a fight?

But here, let alone monsters, he couldn't even hear a rustle of wind, aside from the sound of his own voice.

It was unsettlingly quiet.

One day, two days, three days...

He walked forward aimlessly. The sun was scorching during the day.

Although this was a virtual world and he wouldn't actually be injured, he could clearly feel the moisture in his body constantly draining away.

The sensation of his mouth being parched grew stronger and stronger.

Several times, he even started hallucinating.

He had no choice but to take out the god-tier red potion and chug a few mouthfuls, only then managing to barely recover.

Whoosh—Jiang He slipped and fell onto a sand dune.

He panted weakly, staring at the terrifyingly blue sky.

His eyes were unfocused as he lay there motionless.

The only thing he could hear was the creaking of his knuckles as he clenched his fists.

"Damn it, let me out! I want to get out!"

He waved his hand violently, wanting to unleash a skill to vent the frustration and anger in his heart.

But the next moment, he was completely dumbfounded.

"My, where are my skills?"

Whoosh—He tried waving his arm again, only to discover that he couldn't trigger any skills at all.

At this moment, he truly panicked.

He quickly steadied himself and shouted into the air, "cheat system?"

After waiting a few seconds, there was no response.

He became anxious and screamed like a madman, "cheat system? cheat system, are you there??"

Thump—Jiang He's legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the scorching sand, wailing in pain.

"cheat system, are you really there or not? Stop sleeping, come out and talk to me... I, I'm so scared..."

[Aha...]

Suddenly, a yawning sound, as if someone had just woken up, rang out.

Jiang He immediately wore an expression of wild joy, shouting with tears still on his face, "cheat system, is that you??"

[Alright, stop shouting... are you wailing like a banshee?]

Confirming it was the voice of the cheat system, Jiang He couldn't hold back anymore and burst into tears.

"Damn it, are you dead asleep? I called you so many times and you didn't answer me?"

The cheat system responded lazily, [Who knows? I've been sleeping incredibly deeply these past few days. If it weren't for you yelling, I wouldn't have woken up. How annoying!]

Jiang He wiped his tears and asked urgently, "Hurry and think of a way! I've been walking in this godforsaken place for days! If you keep sleeping, we're both going to die here!"

The cheat system was silent for a moment. Suddenly, it exclaimed in shock, [Holy crap! How did you end up here!?]

Hearing the slight tremor in the cheat system's voice, Jiang He's heart sank.

"You know where this is?"

[Sigh... I do.]

[This place is called 'The Barren'.]

"The Barren? What does that mean?"

The cheat system sighed and, relying on its memory, slowly explained the origin of this "The Barren" to Jiang He.

It turned out that this place was also part of the Immortal Realm world, but it was completely different from the Immortal Realm.

It was forbidden for any human or beast race to enter here.

Legend had it that an ancient tribe lived here.

Unlike the people of the Immortal Realm, they weren't born with innate Superpowers and the ability to cultivate.

But even so, no human or beast race ever dared to provoke them.

Because as long as anyone possessing a Superpower stepped in here, they would lose all their abilities, and wouldn't even be able to beat the ordinary people here.

According to the cheat system's memory, a group of humans once accidentally arrived here and encountered the people of that mysterious tribe.

At first, the two sides got along quite harmoniously.

But later, the group of humans accidentally discovered the tribe's secret.

Originally, people in the Immortal Realm had very long lifespans; barring any accidents, they could usually live to be around five thousand years old.

But here, it was completely different.

Five thousand years old didn't even count as a young person here.

At that time, the group of people were curious and asked the tribe's oldest elder how long they had lived.

The answer they received was: "I don't know."

Ever since this tribe existed, he had been there.

The group of humans stayed in the tribe for a while and got along quite well with everyone. But suddenly one day, they discovered that the people in the tribe had a strange habit—

Every month, the people in the tribe would collectively disappear once.

As for where they went? No one knew.

The group of people felt something was off, so they decided to continue lurking and observing.

Later, they discovered that the disappearance followed a pattern.

According to the modern calendar, at midnight on the first of every month, the entire tribe would head to an altar in unison.

That night, the group of people secretly followed behind.

When they reached the altar, they saw the people of the tribe all kneeling below the platform, and on the altar sat an egg-shaped black stone, covered in runes.

Then, led by the elder, everyone walked up to the black stone one by one, cut their palms, and pressed them onto the stone.

After everyone had offered their blood, the runes on the stone began to emit a faint red light.

Seeing this, everyone hurriedly knelt and kowtowed, chanting words they couldn't understand.

This continued until dawn.

After the red light disappeared, a strange thing happened—

Clear water droplets seeped out from the surface of the black stone.

The elder hurriedly stepped forward to catch them with a container.

After the last drop of water was collected, he divided the water equally among the people of the tribe to drink.

Once everyone had drunk the water, they all left together.

The group of people were particularly puzzled at the time: Why use blood for sacrifice? Why did water droplets appear? And why did they have to drink it?

Just then, one of them, who was quite bold, said, "How about we try it too?"

The others didn't speak.

Since arriving here, the people of the tribe had been quite friendly to them, providing food and lodging, and even saying that if they wanted to leave, they could send them off at any time.

Now that they had discovered the tribe's secret, wasn't it a bit inappropriate to go up and touch it without permission?

The person who had just suggested it wasn't happy when they heard that: "What's the big deal? It's just a few drops of water; they shouldn't be that petty."

Everyone thought about it and agreed.

So they walked up to the black stone, circled it a few times, and didn't find anything special.

The water droplets had been collected cleanly by the elder; not a single drop remained.

At this moment, someone suggested: "How about we try it using their method?"

Everyone nodded.

Swish—several people cut their palms, and just as they were about to press them onto the stone, a roar suddenly came from behind: "Don't touch it—"

They saw that the tribe members were standing behind them, a vast, dark crowd, all glaring at them furiously.

But it was already too late.

One of their hands had already pressed onto it.

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