Nightmare Immortal Era

Chapter 103: Beginner's Trial - First Blood

This is a huge square with intricate runes painted on the ground. Twelve square pillars stand beside it, with complex patterns carved on them.

This is a teleportation array, and it can teleport over a great distance. Otherwise, there would be no need for such a large formation!

"Here, take this!" Yun Lang handed Yang Ning a drop-shaped stone. It was bright red, with a purple liquid bead wrapped in the center. "Do you know what this is?"

"Purple Heart Stone?" Yang Ning asked.

Why is the technique of Subatomic Vajra so widespread in Extreme Eternal?

It's because of the existence of the Purple Heart Stone. It is a material that allows zero-threshold use of the Subatomic Vajra technique. By adding the Purple Heart Stone to a ring, one can obtain a storage ring.

By adding the Purple Heart Stone to an array plate, one can obtain a Subatomic Vajra formation with an expanded space.

However, Yang Ning had only seen powdered Purple Heart Stone before. This was the first time he had seen a complete one.

"That's right!" Yun Lang nodded. "But this one is special. It is engraved with symbol runes, a counting rune, and a part of the teleportation array. When you collect more than ten pieces of Purple Heart Stone, you can activate the runes and activate the teleportation array to send you back!"

"Drop your blood on it!"

"Then, hand over all your robes, items in your storage bag that prove your identity as a disciple of the Immortal Ascension Academy!"

"Oh, and your cellphone!"

"Uh..." Yang Ning blankly took out his previous identity token and the cellphone he had just received. What's going on? Can't I reveal my identity?

"Give yourself a code name, preferably one that sounds intimidating and can make people's legs go weak just by hearing it!" Yun Lang added.

"Then let's go with Bai Qi!" (Note: Bai Qi is a famous Chinese general known for his ruthlessness and military prowess)

"Bai Qi?" Yun Lang was a bit puzzled. "Does this name have anything to do with intimidation?"

"I think it does!" Yang Ning said seriously. Throughout history, there shouldn't be a more intimidating term than Bai Qi, right?

"Alright, it's up to you!" Yun Lang nodded and added, "Ten pieces of Purple Heart Stone are just the minimum requirement. If you can bring back more Purple Heart Stones, you will receive more rewards! For example, you can exchange one hundred pieces for a Spirit Weapon, and one thousand pieces for a Dao Weapon!"

"Is that true?" Yang Ning was shocked. That's a Dao Weapon! Can it really be obtained so easily?

"Of course it's true!" Yun Lang said. "But so far, I haven't seen a disciple who can bring back one hundred pieces of Purple Heart Stone!"

"Is that so!" Yang Ning already guessed what he was facing.

"Well, I hope you'll be the first!" Yun Lang smiled and asked, "Are you ready?"

"I'm ready!"

"Now, let's go!" Yun Lang pushed Yang Ning onto the teleportation array and activated it with a single hand gesture.

Yang Ning felt a tremendous force of compression coming from all directions, as if he were in the deep sea.

Not only did his vision blur, but his thoughts also became fuzzy for a moment.

When he opened his eyes again, the entire environment had changed from the square to a desert.

Behind him was a huge sand dune, and in front of him was a crescent-shaped oasis with a diameter of only four hundred meters. There was a small pond in the oasis, as well as some unfamiliar desert plants.

A young man with a scruffy beard, dressed in white clothes and wrapped in a headscarf, was sitting by the oasis, enjoying the cool breeze while holding onto a camel. When he suddenly saw Yang Ning appear, his body trembled and he immediately knelt down: "Please don't kill me, I don't have any purple heart stones!"

"Sure enough, the purple heart stones are brought by people, and they can only be obtained by killing others. I wonder where the participants in the test come from." Seeing the young man's reaction, Yang Ning suddenly thought of another question.

Since he didn't have anything on him to prove his identity, perhaps others didn't either, so he might have encountered outer disciples of the Extreme Eternal Sect.

But because both sides didn't know each other's origins, would they have to kill each other if they met?

"The Dark Forest?"

What could be more challenging than a battlefield where one is surrounded by enemies on all sides?

Even if someone had a weak and indecisive personality, as long as they could survive this test, their character would definitely become stronger.

But, is the purpose of this test only to make students born in ivory towers see blood?

The young man in the desert saw that Yang Ning didn't move and seemed to have no intention of killing him, so he became bolder and cautiously stood up from the ground, then invited: "Sir, would you like to take a rest? The water in this oasis is very sweet!"

"I won't drink the water. Tell me where this place is!" Yang Ning said coldly.

"This is the Tasi Kingdom!" the young man hurriedly said, "My name is Kakadota, I'm a villager from the nearby Chuanxiong Village!"

"I see!" Yang Ning nodded, took his hand out of his sleeve, and casually waved it. Four blue light needles swiftly shot out like lightning and instantly pierced the camel's eyes and a sand fruit tree.

But the young man who should have been in front of the sand fruit tree suddenly dodged to the side in the instant Yang Ning raised his hand.

"Your speed and reaction are not like those of an ordinary villager!" Yang Ning laughed.

"How did you recognize me?" The young man's innocent smile instantly turned into a sinister expression.

"If you were a local, encountering a cultivator who kills on sight, you wouldn't have had time to hide, let alone invite someone to drink water," Yang Ning laughed, "And this lightning needle of mine may look intimidating, but in reality, it can't blind people, it only causes temporary blindness. You overreacted!"

The young man's face turned black, so I was tricked?

"You damn it!" He angrily stretched out his hands, accompanied by buzzing sounds, a large number of wasps, centipedes, and scorpions crawled out from his robe sleeves, flying and crawling towards Yang Ning.

"Are these insects or gu?" Yang Ning remained calm, took out a bottle of liquid from his storage bag, took a big gulp, and then lit a lighter near his mouth, spraying it fiercely!

With the cultivation of the Ninth Layer of the Physical Body Realm, a mouthful of alcohol was actually sprayed out with a powerful fire extinguishing momentum, reaching more than thirty meters away, covering all the poisonous insects.

"What a joke, do you think my insects are afraid of fire?" The young man remained unfazed. Water and fire techniques were common in the Extreme Eternal Sect, anyone would know a little bit about them. Naturally, they would cultivate their insects to be resistant to fire.

Scorpions and centipedes could burrow into the sand, naturally extinguishing the fire.

The young man was happily waiting to see Yang Ning's expression, but soon his face turned black again.

Because the wasps were unexpectedly falling down.

That fire unexpectedly continued, the wasps could resist it, but it couldn't burn forever!

"What kind of fire is this?" The young man exclaimed, "You're only at the Physical Body Realm, how can the fire you sprayed be so powerful?"

"It's gasoline fire. How about it, pretty effective, right?" Yang Ning smiled and poured all the liquid from the bottle onto the sand, then lit a fire.

Gasoline would flow down the cracks in the sand, and the flames would naturally follow the flow of gasoline, spreading all the way to the scorpions and centipedes beneath the sand.

The young man saw his trick fail, and his face immediately turned dark, mixed with a hint of fear. His voice trembled as he said, "Alright, I surrender. Spare my life, and the purple heart stone is yours, okay?"

"Fine, throw it over!" Yang Ning said.

"Hmph!" The young man raised his hand and took out a piece of purple heart stone, then threw it over.

Yang Ning caught it with one hand and carefully examined it against the sunlight. "It's actually genuine?"

"Of course it's real, but it's a pity that you can see it, but you can't use it!" The young man's voice instantly came from ten meters away to Yang Ning's front. "Remember, the person who will kill you is Xuan Shui Dao Ji Yun!"

A pitch-black long sword swiftly pierced into Yang Ning's abdomen, and he groaned, "You!"

The next second, the sword swung horizontally, and Yang Ning's head flew high into the air, with blood spraying more than half a meter high. Then, his head and body fell heavily onto the scorching sand.

"Tsk, playing with fire in this day and age!" The young man sneered. "Dying in my Inch Fire's hands is also your honor!"

"Why is it Inch Fire again? So who is Ji Yun?" a voice sounded behind him.

Inch Fire was startled and quickly turned around, only to see a young man in a white coat sitting next to his camel, appearing out of nowhere.

This person looked very familiar, wasn't he the one Inch Fire had just killed?

He quickly turned around to look again, but there was no corpse on the ground, no head either.

"You're not even willing to tell the truth to a dead person, how cautious!" Yang Ning exclaimed. "In just a moment, you were able to mention three names, you're quite something!"

"What was that just now, an illusion?" Inch Fire's expression became cautious. "Nine Illusion Sect? Fox Spirit Sect? But these two sects only recruit handsome men and beautiful women, and you obviously don't meet the requirements!"

Yang Ning's face turned dark, and he said speechlessly, "You're blind, I'm very handsome, it's just that my appearance is sealed by glasses!"

"No matter who you are, you will eventually die!" Inch Fire pointed his long sword at Yang Ning. "Your biggest mistake was not killing me when you controlled me with illusions just now. You won't have another chance in the future!"

"Do we really have to kill each other?" Yang Ning asked. "I don't think the solution to the test is that simple. Maybe this is the source of the purple heart stone, and the sect's intention is for us to unite, stand together, and mine together!"

"What a joke, this place is full of sand, not even a single stone, where would there be any mines!" Inch Fire said impatiently. "Why do you talk so much nonsense, can't we just fight?"

"Ah!" Yang Ning sighed. It was a common problem for people in this world, they didn't like to think.

Just discussing it, why resort to violence?

Yang Ning raised his hand and pointed at Inch Fire, then lightly said, "Bang!"

A flash of electricity passed by, and Inch Fire fell down.

This was a move from the Wind and Thunder True Body technique, turning thunder into highly condensed thunder needles. Originally, it was a control skill used to paralyze the enemy with voltage.

But when combined with Yang Ning's ability to control electricity, it possessed strong killing power. The key was that the quality of the thunder needles was almost zero, which resulted in extremely fast speed that was almost impossible to dodge.

Of course, it was not impossible to avoid it. By using spiritual manifestation to constantly monitor Yang Ning's movements, one could predict it in advance. However, Yang Ning could also hinder the enemy's spiritual manifestation with his own spiritual power.

Clearly, Inch Fire's mental strength was inferior to Yang Ning's, so he died.

Looking at Inch Fire's body, Yang Ning felt a bit melancholic for a moment.

He had killed people before, when he was an official in Yue Kingdom, he had ordered the execution of corrupt officials and scoundrels, but this was the first time he had personally killed someone.

"It's a pity, he was just an unknown person!" Yang Ning shook his head, then looked at Inch Fire's storage bag and immediately became happy.

Picking up Inch Fire's storage bag and dripping blood to recognize it as the owner, Yang Ning found that there were actually two purple heart stones inside.

In addition to that, there was a pile of clothes stacked like a small mountain, more than ten black swords, and a stack of silver ingots, probably around thirty thousand taels.

There are three jade slips left.

Yang Ning took out the three jade slips and sensed them.

"Surprisingly, they are three martial arts techniques: 'Mysterious Water Sword,' 'Ice Jade Finger,' and 'Mysterious Yin Technique.'"

After briefly looking through 'Mysterious Water Sword' and 'Mysterious Yin Technique,' Yang Ning put them down. They were just some techniques that manipulated qi and blood, nothing worth mentioning.

On the other hand, 'Ice Jade Finger' seemed interesting. It allowed water to condense into ice and cover the five fingers, greatly enhancing their defensive and penetrating power. It was like wearing a suit of armor when fighting.

Yang Ning spent thirty seconds studying the underlying principles of this technique that manipulated qi and blood, and then spent ten minutes evolving 'Ice Jade Finger' into 'Ice Jade Crystal Body.'

He could create a suit of ice armor that covered his entire body, not only enhancing his defense and reducing air resistance, but also allowing him to cut through enemy attacks as if he had eaten a slippery fruit.

However, the problem was that they were in the desert, and this move required a lot of water.

"Deep Blue, where are we?" Yang Ning asked.

Although Inch Fire had just mentioned it, can his words be trusted?

"We are in the northern part of Extreme Eternal Star's Jiangyun Continent, in the territory of the Ten Thousand Gods Temple!" Deep Blue immediately transformed into a planet, marking Yang Ning's location and providing information about the Ten Thousand Gods Temple.

After the collapse of the Jiangyun Kingdom, it was divided into two major forces: the Great Principle Sect in the south and the Ten Thousand Gods Temple in the north.

The Great Principle Sect, also known as the Great Principle Kingdom, was formed by the people of Jiangyun Kingdom following the last princess. However, because the power of the country was controlled by the Great Principle Sect, outsiders referred to it as a sect rather than a country.

However, the Great Principle Sect only nominally ruled the country. In reality, various factions within the sect held their own territories and did not listen to orders.

The situation in the Ten Thousand Gods Temple was similar to that of the Great Principle Sect, but the division was even more severe due to the absence of a princess.

As for why one was called a sect and the other was called a temple, it was because the Jiangyun Kingdom had a divine technique called the "Unparalleled Divine Ability: Imperial Dragon Sealing Technique." The emperor of the Jiangyun Kingdom used this technique to grant titles to various ministers and generals, resulting in the emergence of gods who cultivated their powers through the worship of incense and spiritual energy.

There were tens of thousands of gods, hence the name Ten Thousand Gods Temple.

This place was even more chaotic than the Hundred Tribes Battlefield in Southern Mire. At least over there, they knew why they were fighting, but here, they fought purely for the sake of fighting.

Because the gods were immortal, they had to kill all their followers first, so battles here often ended in complete annihilation, and there were frequent incidents of wiping out entire tribes.

As for those who cherished the memory of the former Jiangyun Kingdom and therefore distrusted any gods, they would be captured and sold as slaves to other places. Jiangyun Hao was in such a situation.

"Why test in a place like this?" Yang Ning furrowed his brows as he read this information. What made it even more uncomfortable was that this place was located on the equator, with a high evaporation rate. His Cloud Mist Information Matrix evaporated completely within a minute.

"It seems that I need to develop some other reconnaissance techniques!" Yang Ning thought of Enel's observation Haki, which could monitor the entire island for hundreds of kilometers using electromagnetic waves. He also had observation Haki and could control electricity, so theoretically, he should be able to develop a similar range of observation Haki.

He changed his position and sat down. Inch Fire, the camel, was not afraid and knelt down beside him. They leaned against each other, as if entering a dreamland.

But in just an instant, Yang Ning opened his eyes again, his spirit soaring. His powerful spirit spread in all directions, attached to electromagnetic waves, and expanded.

Grass, sand dunes, pedestrians, camels, villages, pedestrians...

The various desert ecosystems appeared before Yang Ning's eyes like a black and white painting, filling his heart at this moment.

"A diameter of 40 kilometers, a straight-line distance of 260 kilometers!" As soon as the map lit up, a sense of security emerged.

He stood up and pulled up the camel as well. "Brother, let's go!"

"Oh, by the way, brother, do you have a name? If not, I'll give you one. Let's call you Avanti."

(End of this chapter)