Chapter 114 - At Wit’s End (1/2)
“What are you trying to do?”
All of a sudden, Jasmine felt the profound energy in Yun Che’s body begin to abnormally circulate, and immediately became alert. She asked him solemnly: “Are you trying to forcefully comprehend the fifth and sixth stages of this [World Ode of the Phoenix]? Have you gone mad!”
“A chance of a lifetime has been placed right in front of me. If I don’t attempt it, I will regret it forever!” Yun Che replied with his eyes closed. His consciousness was completely submerged into the soul imprint inside the jade rock. This [World Ode of the Phoenix] was recorded using a soul imprint, so one must use soul power to read it. If one managed to successfully comprehend it, it would then be genuinely recorded within one’s own soul. And if one was unable to comprehend it, after leaving the trial ground, the words, images, and methods to circulate profound energy that were recorded on the jade stone would be completely erased from his memory. Therefore, for Yun Che, who only had a month to comprehend the remaining portion of this fragment, it was fundamentally impossible for him to commit the fifth and sixth stages to memory as a temporary solution and then find the first four stages to comprehend in the future.
“Without the first four stages, how are you going to comprehend the fifth and sixth stages? Are you trying to go straight for the fruit when you don’t even have the roots? If you try to force yourself to go on the opposite path, the most likely outcome will be the distortion of your profound veins, messing up your channels, and even the profound entrances that you had fully opened would close one after another.”
“Since I don’t have the foundation of the first to fourth stages, I’ll build my own foundation!” Yun Che answered serenely.
“Build your own foundation? Do you know how many tens of thousands of years the Primordial Phoenix Clan spent to finally obtain this [World Ode of the Phoenix]? And do you realize how many revisions, changes and evolutions it underwent after it was first created? You only have a month’s time at most, and yet you still want to build your own foundation to comprehend the fifth and sixth stages?” Jasmine shook her head, “Even if you really are some peerless genius, it will still be impossible to do so!”
“At least let me attempt it!” Yun Che willfully replied in a low voice. Then, he cut off all other parts of his consciousness, and submerged himself fully within the soul imprint of the [World Ode of the Phoenix]...
However at this moment, neither Yun Che nor Jasmine noticed that under his outer clothing, an eccentric glow suddenly radiated from the pendant he had worn since birth... Which died down in a flash.
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Outside the seal formation, Lan Xueruo waited anxiously. One hour passed... Two hours passed… Twelve hours passed… An entire day and night passed… Her expression had long since darkened. The insides of Feng Baichuan’s heart went completely silent as well.
“Do people really die in this training?” Looking at Feng Baichuan who had walked over there again, Lan Xueruo turned to the side and asked with lifeless eyes. She had already asked this same question over a dozen times.
Feng Baichuan sighed deeply in his heart and could only try his best to console her: “Some of the clansmen have indeed died in this trial. But... we shouldn’t be this pessimistic; it cannot be said for sure but perhaps Little Brother Yun passed the training. Our ancestors who passed this trial, had stayed inside for more than a dozen days before coming out. So... let’s wait a bit longer. Maybe he’ll coming out any moment now.”
While saying this, Feng Baichuan, who had experienced the Phoenix trial first-hand, clearly understood that it was impossible to pass the trials with only a power of the first level of the Nascent Profound Realm. Since Yun Che had not come out yet, the only possible outcome was that he had already died in the trial grounds. However, at this moment, he could only use these words to comfort Lan Xueruo, and let her hold onto the traces of hope.
“Clan Leader Feng, do you have any way of letting me in?”
Feng Baichuan shook his head: “Only one person can enter the trial ground every month, I don’t have any ways to let you in.”
Lan Xueruo bit her lip and did not say another word as she silently stood in front of the trial entrance, blankly staring ahead; her heart franticly longed for the appearance of that figure… She did not know what was going on with her, to actually be secretly anxious and worried to this extent. Whenever she thought about the possibility of him dying in the trial grounds, her heart would experience a tearing pain.
Barricaded outside by the Black Demon Mercenary Group, the Thousand Meter Sound Transmission Talisman consumed, the Giant Snow Eagle still in slumber… None of these problems caused her to be at a loss. However, when Yun Che had not come out for an entire day, she mind was in a frenzy, and was unable to calm down at all.
Two days passed… Three days passed… Ten days passed… Fifteen days passed…
Yun Che still had not appeared.
So Lan Xueruo was unable to hold on to any more delusions, and had no choice but to painfully accept the fact that Yun Che had already died in the trial ground and would never come out.
She had been living in darkness these past few days, and the stabbing pain in her heart would not stop, day or night. Originally, she believed the reason for her pain was the loss of a “hope” she had finally found, but she was unable to suppress this kind of pain no matter what, and her heart tightened up whenever she recalled Yun Che’s face. She gradually became perplexed, because she could feel that this kind of suffering had long since exceeded the category of feeling sorry. But she had no idea which part had exceeded, because this kind of feeling was very elusive, and extremely unfamiliar.
“Damn it. Half a month has already passed and they still haven’t come out! Food was clearly prepared inside this cave!”
“What are you worried about! No matter how much food and water they have, there will be a time when their resources run out. Hmph, let’s see how much longer they can hold out.”