At a Location inside the Qin Palace:Three groups of youngsters surrounded a large circular diagram inscribed on the ground.
It was filled with ancient symbols and runes beyond the current day"s knowledge.
Everyone present felt a sense of mysteriousness leaking from it.
Clearly, this is an array!
Arrays are not your normal drawings.
They are inscribed with special liquids and pure profound energy.
The array structure follows certain patterns.
The patterns are based on the Laws of the Dao. In this is way, a cultivator can use the Laws of the World to his own use despite comprehending them.
Each array is different.
Arrays can be used for teleportation, killing, defense, increasing the density of profound energy and more.
Sheng Tian curiously observed the large array in the centre.
A small ray of light shone from the center of the circle. In time, the entire circle was filled with a bright blue light.
A group of Elders was standing behind the youngsters.
The Clan Head Qin Feng, Grand Elder Qin Mu and the Alchemist Yu Yang stood at the centre of the elders.
"Winner is the King. He who wins is destine to lead the Clan." the plump old man-Grand Elder Qin Mu waved his hand.
Qin Lie clenched his fist, Qin Qing took a deep breath while Qin Cheng remained nonchalant as ever but there was a sharp glint in his eyes that was hard to notice.
With a "whoosh", they disappeared in the next second.
..... ..... .....
..... ..... .....
Sheng Tian opened his eyes as his body felt a bit nauseous.
Looking around, he found himself in front of a Blood Red Lake. Surrounding the lake is the flora painting the scene with greenery.
Far away, he could see a dense Forest-Forest of Bones.
The lake is called Blood Lake and is one fo the trials of the Ancestral Grounds.
Everyone is teleported randomly, to either the Lake or the Forest.
Only after traveling entering both the Lake and Forest would they get to the final destination.
Since he promised Qin Qing that he would help her find the Jade Seals, he should honour his words.
But the thing which needed the most attention now was the lake was several kilometres long in length and radius.
"Splash"
"Splash"
The people transported to this lake entered the lake already.
Without further ado, he too jumped into the lake.
Cultivators could see in the water without problems.
Sheng Tian saw the whole water being red with a glimmering green occasionally.
He looked around but didn"t see anything except water.
He dived in further and his vision caught a s.h.i.+ning red crystal. At the same time, he felt the blood in his body becoming a bit chaotic.
He recalled Qin Qing"s words "Blood Lake is a place of risks and benefits. You can find the blood crystals in the lake which can help you strengthen your blood and improve the quality of it. This, in turn, increases your physical strength and also overall capabilities."
When he dived in the pressure increased but it didn"t affect him much and just as he was about to take the crystal into his hand, a red figure appeared near the crystal in a flash and took it away.
Sheng Tian then saw it clearly.
It is resembling a Piranha with its large teeth and the length of half a meter.
It is definitely not aesthetic to a beauty lover like him. It is kind of creepy with its bulging red scales.
Then as if to justify the situation, Qin Qing"s speech continued in his head " The deeper you go, the higher the chances of getting the blood crystals.
At the same time, the pressure of the lake water on you would increase. There is also a possibility that the blood in your body might lose control and erupt leading to demise.
There are creatures living in the blood lake that love to suck blood. Individually, they are not an issue, the problem is they always attack in groups."
As soon as the introduction was finished, Sheng Tian saw the debut of a group of piranha.
The group of piranhas came to him at fast speeds with their speeds reaching that of an Earth Realm cultivator and in the blink of an eye, they are in front of him.
At the pack of fish, Sheng Tian shook his head and used Destruction Fist which was boosted by his Physical Strength.
*Boom*
The Fishes were blown away turning into minces of meat due to the sheer shockwaves of his attack.
The water was pushed away and replaced by vacuum at the spot he punched he punched!
Sheng Tian didn"t care about the aftermath and took the crystal.
He held it in his arms and felt the surging energy in it.
He sat down crosslegged in water and used the crystal. A stream of energy flowed into his blood berserkly.
When he was about to control the Energy, the Dragon G.o.d bloodline in his body churned and released a roar as the energy was blasted back to the crystal as it shattered to pieces.
"f.u.c.k!" Sheng Tian cursed speechlessly at the situation. He felt annoyed due to the intervention of his bloodline.
Then he thought of the possible reasons.
It could either be due to the Superiority of its bloodline but it never really tried to dominate his human bloodline, so the problem must lie in the energy of the crystal that it felt instinctive rejection.
Sighing at his misfortune, Sheng Tian dived deeper and saw another pack of the monster fishes.
This time, at the center of their group, a green glow was radiating. Sheng Tian who saw instantly knew what it was and quickly made his way to it.
Without wasting his time, he punched out and caught the glowing object.
Opening his hand, he saw a green jade in the shape of "J".
Despite the glowing red water, its green luminescence stood out.
This is one of the supposedly twelve Jade seals present in the blood lake.
The maximum number of Jade seals found in the blood lake till date was only 11.
The last one was supposed to be present at the bottom of the lake.
However, trying to go there only means courting death as the Physical Pressure increases exponentially and the blood in a cultivator"s body would go berserk as one goes deeper.
Earlier, there was a cultivator who cultivated in Body cultivation and made his body strong enough to even withstand the attacks of an Earth Realm cultivator by the age of 19 and his Energy Cultivation was at the Earth Profound Realm.
He is praised as a peerless genius by countless people.
Unfortunately, he met his demise when he tried to reach the bottom of the lake to retrieve the final jade seal.
The onlookers stated that his physical body with the protection of profound energy withstood the pressure but his blood burst from inside exploding his body leading to a gruesome death.
So, the scary part about the lake is not the pressure but its blood control.
And the scarier part was one wouldn"t know for sure if his blood was going to explode until it actually does.
You can only feel your blood is becoming more berserk and have no idea if it can bear any more before exploding.
Hence, the partic.i.p.ants that go down would only feel their blood being a little berserk and a.s.sume it is the effect of the lake. But when their blood is about to erupt out, it would already be too late.
Sheng Tian recalled these stories he was told.
Honestly, they did seem a bit scary but he had complete confidence in himself.
He started going deeper to pressurise his body and stimulate his body to practice Celestial Body Tome while searching for the remaining Jade seals.
... ... ... ...
... ... ... ...
Forest of Bones, Qin Ancestral Grounds:
The tall green trees towered the sky. There was little to no sunlight reaching the ground.
The ground was, however, not wet. It was as dry it can it get.
Amid this beautiful yet dangerous scenery, a young woman was moving as her body shone with a green glow.
Suddenly, a sharp beam of profound energy shot towards the woman.
She jumped up in the air and spun gracefully dodging it.
The glow covering the woman vanished revealing a beautiful face-Qin Qing!
She gathered profound energy in her sword and slashed at a normal tree.
Before the Slash even came close, the tree uprooted its root from the ground and opened its green eyes and a scary square shaped mouth.
Its brown branches shot numerous green spikes each an arm"s length towards Qin Qing.
The spikes were filled with profound Energy and Qin Qing was sure that each spike could easily cut Iron like b.u.t.ter.
Then, the tree monster used its branches and created a s.h.i.+eld powered with Profound Energy blocking the attack only suffering light injuries.
She flew high into the air to dodge them. The spikes, however, changed their direction and continued to target her.
Qin Qing created a barrier and blocked the spikes without breaking a sweat. Then she closed the distance between the tree monster and slashed into two halves at a quick speed.
After the Tree monster was dead, she looked into her pockets and saw the Jade Seal she found.
She made her way forward into the forest trying to find more seals.
A glittering green light caught her eye. Qin Qing was excited
When she reached the site, the Jade Seal simply lying on the ground without a soul in the vicinity.
Qin Qing had a bad feeling about this.
There is no way obtaining a Jade seal would be this simple.
This is a trap!
She hurriedly dodged to the side.
With a piercing sound, a sharp light flashed and cut her sleeve revealing her jade-white arm.
"Tsk, Tsk, no less from the Young Miss of the Qin Clan. Not bad, eh? There is not a single cut on your skin!" a female voice came from the trees as a pretty young lady walked out.
She looked pretty but the expression on her face was full of playfulness and disdain.
She was around 19, dressed in orange robes. The belt on her waist had a symbol of Sun rising between the Valleys.
"Rising Valley Sect Disciple?" Qin Qing was a bit stunned.
"Not bad, Miss Qin. Little Jing, you missed such an easy target. Don"t come crying to me if you become a laughing stock." a rough male voice sounded as a young man who seemed to be in the late teens stepped out.
"Che, So what Brother Yang? It"s not like I lost or anything. There is no way she is gonna escape." the girl sneered hatefully.
"What do you want?" Qin Qing asked as she s.n.a.t.c.hed the Jade Seal on the ground and kept it insider her pocket. When the two jade seals came closer, they glowed more.
The Jade Seals cannot be stared in Storage rings.
"You are a clever person. So, you better give the Jade Seals. Otherwise, I can only ask for forgiveness." the Young man talked casually but he already took out his Spear in a threatening gesture.
Qin Qing didn"t answer but gripped her thin green sword.
With one person appearing in front and one at back, they seemed like they planned to seal her way.
Even though they had the same cultivation as her, she wasn"t afraid.
In one vs one, she can be sure of escaping even if she couldn"t win. But if two people attack her, then it is difficult to say.
This is why the number of Contestants in a group matter.
The more the people, the better the chances of b.u.mping into the person of the same group and looting the individual opponents with a collective force.
Even if they didn"t meet in the beginning, in the end, the combined force of the group with the most number of partic.i.p.ants would be generally greater.
Her younger brother, Qin Cheng had the highest number of contestants, 13 members thus increasing his chances of winning the trial.
*Swish*
Qin Qing made the first strike as she struck at the girl in front. The girl brought out a fan and blocked her attack.
Without giving her a chance to breathe, the young man attacked her from behind.
Qin Qing flipped and attacked him but at the same, the girl used her fan to attack her with wind-based strikes.
Even though she dodged, A small cut appeared on her left arm. The fight however continued. The duo is draining her without giving her a chance to escape.
Because she is also at the 5th stage of the Earth Profound Realm, the same as them, they didn"t take her lightly. Their teamwork was perfect and it seemed like it was not their first time fighting two against one.
Qin Qing recently brokethrough after the journey to the forbidden land, otherwise, it would have been difficult for her to even keep up with these people in a fair fight.
The two people are older than her by at least two years and they are fighting two on one so, the fight was never fair.
As Qin Qing was about to use a Profound Art which would cost her Blood essence to escape.
a sharp light shot at the Young Man who was about to thrust his spear into her.
He had no time to dodge and could only use his spear to negate the attack. However, due to the rebound, his profound energy turned chaotic and he coughed up blood.
"Hold your horses! Oh my! Oh my! Two grown-ups joining hands to bully a little girl. Don"t you have any shame?" an amused and ridiculed voice sounded as Ling Chen appeared.
The young man immediately covered his privates.
He shouted indignantly "Fellow Cultivator, you are misunderstanding something. If you think you can use your power to force me into something, I would rather die than submit. I don"t swing that way."
Ling Chen, who just thought that he made a heroic entry almost spurt out blood upon hearing those words.
"f.u.c.k. I don"t swing that way either. I"m straight." Ling Chen hastily looked at Qin Qing and tried to explain.
"I believe you. I totally believe you and Young Master Qin Lie." the young man nodded his head, but quickly tried to escape, still covering his privates.
Ling Chen couldn"t help but feel ashamed. Without a face to face the enemies, he caught the dumbstruck Qin Qing and ran off.
Aii, my poor hero.