The Essence Aura on the body of the Qing Hua Vice Academy Master converged back, reverting to the appearance of an eighty or ninety year old crone.
She said to the ten young trainees sitting on the griffin’s back, “There are many incomparably powerful savage beasts surviving in the Heavenly Demon Ridge, and some of them, even if I encountered them, I could only run away.”
“The deeper you enter the Heavenly Demon Ridge, the more powerful the savage beasts you encounter will be. In the future, if you guys enter the Heavenly Demon Ridge to practice, you must not intrude into the depths, there are many forbidden areas in the Heavenly Demon Ridge for you.”
The griffin flapped its feathered wings and continued to fly in the direction of the Red Sky Secret Mansion.
Half a day later, it came to a barren territory.
It was said that back then, the battle between the human army and the four-winged Earth Dragon had reduced this piece of land to ruins, with not an inch of grass growing to this day.
At the bottom of the earth, a huge canyon thousands of metres long and two hundred metres wide was cracked open, going straight downwards, so deep that it was like the mouth of the earth, which could swallow up everything in the world.
Standing at the side of the canyon, looking towards the ground, it was pitch black, and one could only see strands of black miasma, emerging from the ground.
At the edge of the canyon, a narrow stone staircase was cut out, all the way down, leading deep into the earth.
It was said that underneath the ground was the lair where the four-winged Earth Dragon once resided, the Red Sky Secret Mansion.
When Vice Academy Master Qing Hua brought the ten cadets from the Western Academy to the top of the canyon, the cadets from the Eastern Academy, Northern Academy, and Southern Academy, all of them were already standing at the edge of the canyon.
The East Courtyard Vice-Master gave a cold and craggy laugh and said, “Vice-Master Qing Hua, you West Courtyard came too late, everyone has been waiting for you for a long time.”
The Qing Hua Vice Yard Master pinched his wooden staff and hobbled his steps as he said, “On the way here, I encountered a Xuan Jiao and came a step too late.”
The East Courtyard Vice-Master said, “According to the old rules, the order of entering the Intermediate Ruins must be according to the order in which we arrived here. Therefore, this year’s trainees from the Western Courtyard are the fourth in line to go in.”
“No problem!” Vice Yard Master Qing Hua said.
The first to arrive at the mouth of the canyon were the cadets from the Eastern Academy, so the tenth ranked cadet from the Eastern Academy was the first to enter the Intermediate Ruins.
The tenth ranked cadet from the East Courtyard was Dugu Lin.
Dokgo Lam stepped onto the stone staircase leading to the bottom of the ground, performed his body technique, and quickly rushed towards the bottom of the ground.
About three minutes later, standing at the edge of the canyon, Dokgo Lam’s figure could no longer be seen.
The tenth ranked student of the Northern Academy also went into the canyon and rushed towards the bottom of the earth.
Next was the tenth ranked cadet from the southern courtyard.
When the cadet ranked tenth in the Southern Courtyard also disappeared into the ground, Zixi, the cadet ranked tenth in the Western Courtyard, headed towards the ground.
Cadets participating in the Intermediate Ruins Exploration Exam had to enter the underground one by one. Moreover, the cadets with low rankings went in first, and the cadets with high rankings went in afterwards.
The reason for following this way was actually to avoid mutual killings between the cadets.
After the low realm cadets went in first, they would be able to immediately go forward to the depths of the Red Sky Mystic Mansion or hide.
If a trainee of a higher realm trapped first, they might wait at one of the entrances under the ground and kill the trainee of a lower realm behind them.
Xun Guihai stood between the cadets of the Eastern Academy, his eyes coldly staring at Zhang Ruochen, not even hiding the killing intent in his eyes, his heart was very annoyed, “Zhang Ruochen, so what if you are engaged to County Mistress Smoky Dust? As long as you die in the Red Sky Mysterious Mansion, by then, County Mistress Smoky Dust will already be my woman.”
He glanced towards Guo Haidong, the fifth ranked cadet of the East Courtyard next to him, and said in a low voice, “Guo Haidong, you entered the Red Sky Mystic Mansion before Zhang Ruochen, so you can wait for him at the bottom of the ground, and once he enters the Red Sky Mystic Mansion, he must be killed at all costs.”
Guo Haidong had obtained the five drops of Semi-Saint True Liquid given to him by Xun Guihai and had already promised to help Xun Guihai kill Zhang Ruochen.
Guo Haidong smiled confidently and said, “Senior Brother Xun, I am an expert ranked 874th on the Xuan Ranking, so killing Zhang Ruochen will definitely be an easy task.”
Xun Guihai said solemnly, “You mustn’t be careless, although Zhang Ruochen’s martial realm is inferior to yours, his Sword Intent realm has already reached the peak of Sword Follows Heart. If you realise that you are not a match for Zhang Ruochen, try to stall him as long as possible, as long as you wait until Wave Heart arrives, the two of you will attack from the front and back, and Zhang Ruochen will have no chance to fly.”
Xun Guihai glanced towards Waveheart who was standing beside him.
Wave Heart nodded and said, “Zhang Ruochen actually dares to rob Senior Brother Xun’s woman, that’s going against our Eastern Academy.”
Wave Heart was ranked fourth in the East Courtyard and ranked 580th in the Xuan Ranking.
Duanmu Xingling stared at those trainees from the East Academy, his eyes narrowed slightly as he reminded, “Senior brother, after you enter the Red Sky Mysterious Mansion, you must be careful of Guo Haidong and Waveheart from the East Academy, they are both Xuan Ranking martial artists, extremely strong, and one of them entered the Red Sky Mysterious Mansion in front of you, and the other one entered the Red Sky Mysterious Mansion behind you. If the two of them join forces against you, it will be difficult for you to escape even if you want to.”
Zhang Ruochen followed Duanmu Xingling’s gaze and happened to see the two young trainees standing beside Xun Guihai and made a note of their appearance. He said, “Entering the Red Sky Mysterious Mansion will be quite dangerous, Senior Sister Duanmu, you need to be careful as well.”
At this moment, Guo Haidong, who was ranked fifth in the Eastern Academy, walked towards the mouth of the canyon, and before he walked down the stone staircase, he glanced towards Zhang Ruochen, his lips hooking slightly as he revealed a cruel smile.
Immediately after that, the fifth ranked cadet from the North Courtyard and the fifth ranked cadet from the South Courtyard also entered the canyon one after another, and finally, it was Zhang Ruochen’s turn.
Zhang Ruochen had just walked to the edge of the canyon when he felt a bit dizzy, a sign of poisoning.
The miasma in the canyon was very powerful, fortunately, Zhang Ruochen wore the Poison Avoidance Pearl on his body, which blocked the vast majority of the miasma. Otherwise, if even just a mouthful of miasma was inhaled into his body, Zhang Ruochen would have fainted on the ground due to poisoning.
Zhang Ruochen mobilised his Jade Pure True Qi and ran it through his meridians for a week, immediately purifying the poisonous Qi in his body and recovering again.
Executing the Steps of Wind-Resisting Flying Dragon Shadow, Zhang Ruochen’s speed reached its fastest, like a spirit ape jumping on a treacherous cliff face, darting towards the ground.
There was only three minutes left, and after three minutes, the fourth expert of the Eastern Academy, Wave Heart, would enter the ground.
If Guo Haidong, the fifth expert of the Eastern Academy, was really waiting for him at the bottom of the earth, then he would have to get rid of Guo Haidong within three minutes. Otherwise, once he was caught in a back-and-forth attack by two Xuan Ranked martial artists, it would be quite unfavourable for Zhang Ruochen.
Although Zhang Ruochen was certain that he could defeat either Guo Haidong and Waveheart, who dared to guarantee that they were not carrying killing moves on them?
Once they entered the Red Sky Mysterious Mansion, any means could be used, and it would not be as simple as a simple competition.
The canyon was extremely deep, and Zhang Ruochen flew down the stone staircase for more than a thousand metres, but still had not reached the bottom of the ground.
Standing at the bottom of the ground, the surroundings were pitch black.
Zhang Ruochen looked up and saw that the mouth of the originally thousands of metres long canyon had become only as big as the eye of a needle, emitting a faint white light. It gave people the impression that it was like the pitch-black night sky had cracked out a very small white slit.
To Zhang Ruochen, it felt as if he was now being swallowed by the earth and would never be able to see the sky again.
If one had a poor mental quality, at this point in time, they would feel incomparably fearful and would even collapse.
Zhang Ruochen looked downwards, and a dark red colour appeared in the depths of the earth as a heat wave surged up.
“If there are really many evil people and devils being held underground, it would indeed be quite a torturous thing for them.
Zhang Ruochen channelled his true qi into his eyes as he continued to rush towards the bottom of the earth, the temperature in the air was getting higher and higher, and the rocks were also very hot.
Fortunately, Zhang Ruochen had purchased a Cold Essence Ice Spirit in advance, hanging the Cold Essence Ice Spirit on top of his neck, not only did Zhang Ruochen not feel the heat, but he was also very cool.
I don’t know how deep I reached the bottom of the earth, but I finally came to the bottom, and a huge stone door appeared in front of me.
The stone door was one hundred and thirty metres high and twenty seven metres thick, the surface of the stone layer was inlaid with metaphysical iron, forming the form of an iron dragon.
The two huge stone doors, which also weighed an unknown number of ten thousand pounds, now had a two-metre wide gap open.
Zhang Ruochen pressed his palms on top of the stone doors, turning his entire body’s true qi into action, and gave a forceful push.
The stone door, did not move at all.
“What a heavy stone door, it is estimated that only a Heavenly Extremity Realm powerhouse from the Martial City School Palace can push the stone door.”
Zhang Ruochen stared at the gap in the gate, which was only two metres wide, and his eyes stared slightly, becoming cautious.
“Space-Time Domain!”
Zhang Ruochen unleashed the Space-Time Domain, covering a space of eighty metres in a radius, and with the power of the Space-Time Domain, he probed if Guo Haidong was hiding behind the stone door.
A moment later, Zhang Ruochen detected Guo Haidong’s aura inside the Space-Time Domain.
Zhang Ruochen took out the Snow Dragon Sword, dragged the long sword, and walked towards the stone door.
“Boom!”
Zhang Ruochen had just stepped into the stone door when a crimson spear, carrying a wave of scorching fire, stabbed Zhang Ruochen in the back.
Zhang Ruochen had already prepared for this, his body catapulted up, easily dodging the spear’s attack.
He jumped up five metres and stabbed his sword at Guo Haidong’s neck.
Guo Haidong felt a trace of coolness appear on his neck, his face changed and he immediately retracted his spear and sprinted backward explosively, narrowly dodging Zhang Ruochen’s stabbing sword.
After dodging this sword, Guo Haidong was still a little shocked, his mind saying, how did he know that I was hiding behind the stone door?
Zhang Ruochen retrieved the Snow Dragon Sword and stared at Guo Haidong, saying, “That sword just now was considered a warning to you, if you still want to kill me, I will not be polite!”
Guo Haidong carried his spear, putting away the shock he felt just now, recalling what Xun Guihai told him, if he couldn’t defeat Zhang Ruochen, he would stall him first, wait until Wave Heart arrived, and combine the strength of the two of them, and together, they would clean up Zhang Ruochen.
Guo Haidong smiled faintly, bowed his hand and said, ”Worthy of being the number one freshman in the four academies, your martial arts cultivation is admirable. Actually, I only wanted to test your cultivation, and didn’t really mean to make a move.”
How could Zhang Ruochen not see Guo Haidong’s intentions and said, “If you still don’t die, I assure you that you will not be able to walk out of the Red Sky Secret Mansion alive.”
Seeing Zhang Ruochen’s eyes, the smile on Guo Haidong’s face disappeared with him, although he was afraid of Zhang Ruochen’s Sword Technique, he also had a bottom card. Even if he was not Zhang Ruochen’s opponent, holding Zhang Ruochen up for a few minutes was definitely doable.
