There seemed to be no end of the stone forest. The three had searched around for days, but found nothing besides some medicinal plants.
In the middle of the thousand-meters-high rock were three caves, ten meters apart from each other. The mountain caves were made by Ye Chen and the other two, couple of meters wide and dozens of meters deep.
Sitting within his cave, Ye Chen sat on the ground with his feet tugged under his body while holding one Sky Demon Flower petal in his hand.
"Once my body"s strength has reached an extreme, the effect of me strengthening it more would be insignificant. So, I can only use it to recover my wounds from now on."
Although Ye Chen did not train body arts as his main martial arts, after Sky Demon Flower"s medicinal effect came into action, his body condition would definitely be one of the top amongst the Astral Reaching Realm warriors. It would be extremely hard for warriors at the same cultivation level to harm him.
Putting away the Sky Demon Flower petals, he put his focus on the Nine Twist Spirit Plant in his storage ring. After giving it some thought, he tore one leaf down from the plant. The leaf was the size of a finger, and there was a hint of blackness within the crystal-looking body. It looked like a beautiful jewel.
He put the leaf into his mouth, and after seeing nothing out of place had happened, he chewed and swallowed it.
A fresh taste soon spread out on his palate and continued to the end parts of his limbs. In the deep end of his body, a vague, colorful vibration immediately elevated and shot out to the center of his brows, to the center of his soul.
Within a second, waves had been brought up in the ocean of his soul. Without him noticing, the level of the ocean had risen. Right then, he could obviously sense that his soul power had increased a bit, as a result of which, his mind was clear like never before.
"This plant indeed has the effect of enhancing soul power. I had no idea what would happen if I swallowed the whole plant."
With that thought in mind, he did not hesitate much longer before taking out that plant which he had torn a leaf from and ate it whole.
More fresh sensation spread on his tongue and spread to the rest of his body. The colorful vibration was like a clear stream of water, reaching right towards the center of the soul ocean and then bringing up huge surging waves, which were hundreds of meters tall.
Boom!
The center of his brows rose up slightly. It was like a steel ball which brought Ye Chen to the deepest level of enlightenment.
The soul sea was the origin of one"s soul. Its depth and the width represented how powerful one"s soul was. A whole Nine Twist Spirit Plant had brought an extreme effect on it, and all Ye Chen could feel right now was that his body was so light that his soul could lift him up in the air. Meanwhile, he could see a blurred door was opening up for him.
When he opened his eyes again, one day had pa.s.sed.
"Is having a powerful soul the real power?"
Ye Chen"s general power did not change, but he felt more confident and full of power. He felt that he could scare his opponents into submission with one look of his. It was a sign of true power which came out from within.
Letting out his soul power, he realized that his scanning radius had increased about thirty percent, from the forty miles before to fifty-something miles now.
"I have already consumed one plant. I will save the other for later on when I want to cook some pellets."
Pellets were the creation of mankind"s intelligence. Compared to the original medicinal power from plants, the pellet could increase the original medicinal effect to a higher level.
He stood up and flew out of the cave.
Grand elder Chen and Liu Mei had noticed Ye Chen"s movement, and they followed behind.
The two exchanged a look with Ye Chen and suddenly felt a tremor in their hearts, as a wave of numbness spread out in their bodies. Ye Chen"s pupils were pitch dark, deep like a black cave. Wherever he looked, the air there was frozen, as a vague mental power was influencing the environment.
"I can see such strong power through his eyes. How can this be?"
Grand elder was surprised at what he saw. Although there were people with more powerful minds than Ye Chen and were able to acc.u.mulate warrior spirits, they were all more powerful inside than Ye Chen. But, even they could only keep the power within and not actually use it to influence people around them. Even Seas of Souls Realm warriors could not manage to do so. Only Extreme Seas of Souls Realm warriors could pull something like this off.
Waiting until the numbness had disappeared, grand elder Chen and Liu Mei felt respectful for Ye Chen almost unconsciously. This young man in front of them was way more horrifyingly powerful than they had imagined, and it was not something that could be achieved with just one Nine Twist Spirit Plant.
Seeing the changes of the two"s expressions, Ye Chen thought for a minute before saying, "Shall we keep on finding a way out?"
"Alright!"
The deeper they dodged in, the higher the rocks in the stone forest got. Soon, the three stopped in front of a three-thousand meters tall rock.
At the bottom of the rock was a thirty-three meters tall stone door, which was shut close. There were human figures carved on the right and left doors.
"Mental power Door!"
Grand elder Chen was twice as old as the other two"s ages combined. Therefore, the richness of his knowledge was not something that the two could compare with. He had recognized the meaning behind that stone door the second he saw it.
"Mental power Door? I have heard about it before. It seems like if we want to open the stone door, we would have to go through the test of the mental power through the carvings. If we fail it, then our entry would be rejected." Liu Mei took over the conversation.
Grand elder Chen nodded, "With the door here, there should not be a second door in. If we break in by force, then there will be a disaster that awaits us behind that door."
"Then, we go through the front door!"
Ye Chen reached for the door as he said, trying to push the door open.
Wooo!
The two human figure carvings came to life and groaned angrily. An invisible mental power had made the air thick like water, covering the three within.
Ye Chen looked right at them. His back was straight, as if nothing could break him right now. His own sword intent clashed with the mental power of the carvings on the door, while he did not move even an inch.
Grand elder Chen was extra messed up. Although the mental power attack was relatively surreal, it could be converted into reality where he thought he was wounded, which made him actually wounded.
Pooh!
Puking out a chunk of blood, Grand elder Chen"s face turned extremely pale.
Liu Mei was not much better than grand elder Chen. Under the attack of the mental power, she saw the image of herself being blown away, and flew backward while puking out blood, which had eventually become a reality.
"Kill!"
Standing right in front, Ye Chen had taken on the most powerful attack. He felt like he was a small fragile boat in the middle of an endless ocean, following the wave wherever it took him. That ancient long sword in the middle of his soul ocean vibrated as he pushed his sword intent, cutting through that mental power with his condensed sword intent. There was no hallucination in his mind.
After a long time, the mental power eventually disappeared, and the stone door was opened.
Whoooo!
Letting out a breath, he turned his head to look at grand elder Chen and Liu Mei. The two were sweating all over, their faces extremely pale as a hint of terror was still reflecting in their eyes.
"Wounding people with mental power… How incredible is that? How powerful do you have to be in order to do that?" Ye Chen could not imagine how horrifying that mental power those carvings on the door had, but he was able to hold on to his own mind and fight it with his sword intent before in facing the attacks.
After resting for a while, Grand elder Chen and Liu Mei recovered almost completely.
"Let"s go inside, shall we?"
Grand elder Chen really wanted to know what was behind the door. He was sure it would be amazing.
After entering the stone door, there was a huge open area in front of them. Right in front of the yard were eleven huge statues standing there in some kind of order. They were made with normal materials which made it look very grey and ordinary. It looked like they would fall when pushed with the slightest amount of power. They seemed nothing special.
Ye Chen realized that there must be more statues here because between some statues, there were some broken stones which would make up to the shape of a statue. But obviously, they were all broken down. Scanning around the room, there should be seven more statues, which would make up to eighteen statues in total.
Grand elder Chen froze right where he was standing, "Mental power Statues… a whole eleven of them! They are the things even more horrifying than the door itself."
Hearing him, Ye Chen frowned as he slowly walked towards the last statue.
On the ground in front of the statue was a stone plate with three characters carved on it, the Golden Hand King!
"Golden Hand King!"
"A king!"
"Is it really a statue of a Life and Death Realm warrior?"
Ye Chen gasped. A mental statue of a king realm warrior, it must not be something simple. Who had set these eighteen mental power statues here though? What happened to the broken ones? And why were there eleven more perfectly reserved ones?
All of a sudden, thoughts rushed across Ye Chen"s mind.
Grand elder Chen and Liu Mei walked over, even more shocked by what they saw. The mental power statues could also be separated into different levels. Without a doubt, the king warrior statue would be the most powerful one here.
Grand elder Chen froze there for a long while before coming back to reality and saying, "The mental statues are not the same like the door, which was used to test the intruders" mental power and could not benefit the warriors in any ways. However, the mental statues can enlighten the right warriors. For example, if the owner of the mental statue was a blade artist, then a blade art warrior should be the one to accept the test from the statue, and so on. Those broken ones should have been already used by someone before us. The remaining eleven of them have not been used yet."
"I think I will pa.s.s on the test. The door had almost broken me down. The king warrior"s statue might actually do it." Liu Mei took a deep breath, her eyes never been this pure.
Grand elder Chen nodded, "The mental power of a Life and Death Realm warrior could already affect the reality. Although there is only a small trace of mental power left on the statues, but it could still not be compared with the door. Of course, the amount of the mental power attached to the statues might not all be the same, since it could increase according to the mental power of the warrior receiving the test. If the warrior was already at Life and Death Realm, then the mental power appearing on the statue would be at its highest limit. To sum up, it is all about the intensity of one"s mental power."
"Grand elder Chen, are you going to accept a test?" Ye Chen asked.
The latter hesitated, before forcing a laugh and saying, "I think I will pa.s.s too. It is too dangerous for me."
"Alright then. I think you guys should go out first."
Liu Mei was not sure what he meant by that, "Are you going to take the test?"
"Indeed!"
Accepting the test was a very dangerous thing to do, Ye Chen had to ask the other two to leave. Otherwise, if either one of them decided to cause him harm at the most critical moment, he would not have the energy to stop them, which would be something he did not want.
The two both understood him, so they turned to walk out of the stone door.
Boom! Boom!
The stone door was closed once again. If the two wanted to come in again, they would have to go through the challenge again. Before, they had only been slightly wounded because Ye Chen had taken most of the attack. Without him, they would not be able to get in at all.
Taking a deep breath, Ye Chen walked back in front of a statue.