The Romantic Cultivator



Ji Yuan had called out to the rest of his faltering group, "Follow me!"

Chu Lixue was curious as she followed him, "You have a way to get us out of this desert?"

Ji Yuan nodded, "Maybe. I have to test it out first."

Chu Lixue slowly nodded. "This is supposed to be just the first trial and also the easiest one. And we are struck."

Ji Yuan took a look at the remaining 6 other champions behind them. "Yeah, and we've already lost 2 champions in our team."

Then he started to move in a weird zip zap direction and every now and then, he would flicker his fingers as he fired a sword burst into the sand. 

There were at least 3 times that the sands would suddenly move when Ji Yuan had fired his sword burst with his sword fingers.

Luckily for them, they were not beneath the sands and were not swallowed up by the primeval monsters that were underneath it. 

Chu Lixue asked him, "I can't even sense these hidden primeval monsters. How did you even manage to sense them?"

Ji Yuan laughed, "I didn't. While we are on the slopes of these giant sand dunes, we are safe. But not if we are not on the sand dunes. I'm just randomly testing if the ground is solid or not."

When he had said that, they had suddenly realized when Ji Yuan was walking weirdly and often up the tiring slopes of the sand dunes instead of the flattened ground where they could move on much faster.

Xiao Muhan muttered, "I see now."

Even Ma Huarong who was a super cultivator looked impressed when he had heard Ji Yuan even though just a few moments ago, he was about to rebuke Ji Yuan for wasting the time of everyone. 

Two hours later, Ji Yuan went up to the sand dune again and he was grinning as he said to the others. "We are now 600 miles away from the desert fire."

Xiao Muhan was startled, "We are now moving further away from the desert fire. What did you do?"

The others were all curious as well.

Ji Yuan said slowly, "It seems that there is a powerful array in this place that completely distorts our concept of space. At first, I thought that we should just follow the sun and we should be away from the desert fire. But I was wrong."

Then he pointed at their shadows, "I notice that for every 100 steps that we take, the direction of our shadows will be different. This means that the sun that we see above us, isn't real. Of course, there is no sun. This is the Spiritas Tower. But the direction of our shadows will indicate to us where the exact position of this 'sun' is…"

"I've tested 8 different directions so far and only one direction is the way out. All the other directions will lead us to the desert fire, in varying speed." 

When he had said that, the answer stunned all the others.

Xiao Muhan stammered, "Isn't this trial a little too hard? Most of us won't be able to get out of this desert alive…"

He was not the only one that was thinking the same. 

Yi Ling said weakly, her lovely voice was faltering due to her injuries. "Is this even count as the first trial?"

Ma Huarong bitterly said, "This sounds more like the final trial…" 

The sweet voice of Spirit Consort Miao Humei was stammering too, "Usually the past first trials are way easier. The Spiritas Tower seems to be acting quite strangely… let's hope that this isn't what I am thinking."

Xiao Muhan asked Ji Yuan, "Are you sure you didn't offend the Goddess Ai Tina or something? Or some other powers?"

Ji Yuan: …

"What do you think then?"

Xiao Muhan smiled bitterly, "If that is so, then I think we are all screwed."

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In the Divine Temple of the Goddess Ai Tina and the colosseums, many of the divine consorts and the speculators were also looking quite shocked.

More than 75% of the teams were moving toward the desert fire and the causalities rates were also climbing. 

This was not an easy trial at all! 

Everyone seemed to be asking the same thing.

"What is going on here?" 

"More than 100 champions have perished in less than 1 day…"

"This high incident rate has never happened before…"

"Many of the teams seem to be heading toward the desert fire where the risks are higher there…"

"The nearer to the desert fire, the more dangerous it will be…"

"Two entire teams have already completely perished…"

At the Divine Temple of the Snowy Pavilion City, Xu Yifei and the others were quite relieved to see that Ji Yuan and his team had somewhat moved away from the desert fire. 

Sun Dingjun was muttering weakly, "Ji Yuan's team has 2 casualties…"

Maiden Flower Ju was bleary when she saw that Xiao Muhan was injured…

Ding Jie'Er had turned to ask Xu Yifei and the other divine consorts, "Why is this trial so hard? There is even a powerful array that can confuse their sense of direction. And there are also terrifying monsters in this desert…"

Dongfang Xin was nodding weakly too, "This trial seems to test everything, whether it is their intellect, fighting skills, arrays and more…"

Tang Manni who had been watching Ji Yuan and his team intensely looked a little relief now that Ji Yuan team had moved away from the desert fire. 

Although she could not hear what Ji Yuan was saying to his team but she noticed that Ji Yuan seemed to have a plan and he had been moving weirdly.

Also, Ji Yuan was able to avoid the dangerous sand monsters under the sands; many of the champions were not so fortunate though.

However, the trial had not ended yet and she was still nervous about any new dangers that Ji Yuan and his team may yet to encounter. 

The other divine consorts shared her concerns too and they were all looking at the trial imageries nervously. 

The difficulty for this first trial was simply too wicked and too high! 

Xu Yifei was nervously wondering to herself: Did something happen in the Greater Spirit Realm that is causing this to happen?

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Author Note:

1. I'd really appreciate it if the readers can contribute power stones to this story as a show of support even if you are reading from other websites. Your spirit stones are crucial for motivations and releases. Also, it means alot me/ story, Many love and thanks! ლ(⌒▽⌒ლ)