Resting time passed quickly.

It took nearly two hours just to barely recover his spiritual power, and the swelling sensation in Lin Guang's mind was finally suppressed.

After recovering, he opened the rankings.

[Rank 1: Jiang Nalan: Thirty-three thousand zhang]

[Rank 2: Lin Guang: Thirty-two thousand seven hundred zhang]

[Rank 3: Zuo Qingtian: Thirty-two thousand six hundred zhang]

[Rank 4: Zhao Yue, Thirty-one thousand eight hundred zhang]

[...]

After the eighth trial, Jiang Nalan had already overtaken him.

Even Zuo Qingtian seemed to be fiercely catching up.

This result was not unexpected for Lin Guang.

After all, the combined strength of these two individuals was like an unfathomable abyss, entirely worthy of being called the strongest of their generation that he had ever seen; no one knew what kind of depth they possessed.

Although Lin Guang completed the eighth trial perfectly, his time was almost up, while those two must have used considerable force in the previous trial, completing it at a speed far exceeding Lin Guang's, hence their higher scores.

However...

Although it seemed like he was falling behind, Lin Guang did not feel he had done anything wrong, because his intuition told him that making his contractual partner consume as little as possible to pass the trial was the most correct approach.

After all, the Secret Realm Master who controlled this place... was still alive.

In his previous life in the "Spirit Battle Chronicles," Lin Guang still remembered the experiences of falling into traps within the Secret Realm, which were quite reminiscent of the current situation.

Though the inheritance permissions of the second trial provided more than the first, it did not offer supplies like before, and even added penalties. From the perspective of stage design, it seemed somewhat disjointed... as if it had been tampered with.

From this point of view, the possibility that "Liu Cheyi" tampered with it is definitely not small.

Moreover, as the second trial neared its end, more than thirty True Men outside were still missing.

Were the True Men prepared to back them up... or were they intercepted by it?

What was the intention behind the actions of the other party?

Even though "Liu Cheyi" gave out such many permissions, it still was the master of this Secret Realm.

To what extent did his control of this Secret Realm reach?

Was there a deeper meaning besides increasing the trial's difficulty by suppressing Spirit Beast recovery in the first trial?

As the only person present with experience in this type of situation—though it was mostly theoretical—Lin Guang had to consider more.

But...

So he said.

Having come this far, Lin Guang now felt considerable pressure.

Since the eighth trial required constructing a Tier Four Spirit Rune Array, the difficulty of the ninth trial could be imagined.

Relying solely on Array Formation to perfectly clear it was probably not feasible.

Lin Guang picked up the compass again and spoke softly.

"The final stage of the second trial is probably the toughest challenge so far."

"Everyone, please lend me a hand."

[I've been waiting impatiently for days, haven't I? If we don't act now, my bones will rust!]

[Lisa is ready too!]

[You can count on me.]

Lin Guang's expression eased slightly.

——Thankfully, they were here.

Otherwise, spending so many days alone in the trials and encountering such traps, the loneliness and isolation would be unimaginable.

After adjusting, Lin Guang took a deep breath, discarded distracting thoughts, and channeled his spiritual power into the Inheritance Compass.

[Seventh Gate Opened]

[Remaining time: Twelve Shichen]

Accompanied by a slight dizziness, the scene before him shifted and changed once more.

The next moment.

Lin Guang suddenly felt a hard-to-describe, nauseating smell rising in his nose, mouth, and spiritual power's attached ether perception.

That came from a familiar black fog.

But before Lin Guang could even observe the surroundings closely, his ears were filled with chaos and clamor, like the sounds heard only on a tragic battlefield.

Boom!

Bang! Bang!

Explosions, blasts, wails, roars...

Lin Guang instinctively looked up.

The first reaction was...

The sky had cracked open.

The sun was nowhere to be seen, making it hard to distinguish day from night, as the entire sky was filled with suffocating crimson and darkness.

A gigantic, irregular, and elongated dark red rift stretched across the high sky for tens of thousands of miles, as if an invisible giant hand ripped open the sky, with the edges of the crack glowing with eerie blood light.

It seems that the entire world, no matter north or south, as long as you lift your head, you can see this crack.

Pale ominous black clouds roil and spread in the sky, making the world within sight look as if it's covered by a dim filter.

At this moment, countless terrifying and bizarre alien monsters, unlike anything that could naturally come into being, dance and roar in the sky and on the earth.

But in the sky, there are also many escape lights maneuvering through the battlefield.

Those are the silhouettes of cultivators.

They are fighting against those monsters, the sword light, the rosy glow, and various kinds of colorful and varied magic, exploding upon collision, creating deafening roars.

Demon Race.

Demonic Qi.

These two words flashed through Lin Guang's mind.

Every elementary school student on Blue Star knows.

The Demon Race is the public enemy of all intelligent life, roaming through the endless void like a natural disaster, invading various worlds.

The spread of demonic qi is essentially them assimilating and eroding the environment of this world.

Is this... the Demon Race invading the Refining Heaven Realm where Liu Cheyi was born?

[Ninth checkpoint activated.]

[Time remaining: twelve hours.]

"Mr. Lin, what's the matter with you?"

An urgent voice brought Lin Guang back to his senses.

He lowered his head, looking at the young cultivator beside him, with a handsome face and well-defined features, especially those bright, pitch-black eyes, dressed in a clean white robe.

At this moment, the young man looked extremely nervous, with fine beads of sweat on his forehead, tightly pursed lips, and white knuckles. When he saw Lin Guang looking at him, he spoke:

"Could it be... you want to leave Beishan City?"

"Even though Beishan City is an important settlement under the Golden Mountain Sect, at this moment the main sect is preoccupied with its own struggles, with support uncertain when it will arrive. If the city falls, out of the hundreds of thousands of civilians, not a single one would survive."

"The City Lord, the commanders, and the soldiers are all fighting desperately, but even so, combat power is steadily decreasing. Without strong enough medical Dao cultivators, we won't last long."

There was a hint of plea in his eyes: "I beg you not to leave, save Beishan City!"

At this time, Lin Guang noticed that he seemed to be on a ship, standing at the edge of the deck as if he had just boarded the ship.

This ship is quite large, roughly a hundred meters long and twenty to thirty meters wide, the entire body is a bright blue color, seemingly made from a kind of spiritual wood, with energy flowing within it.

At this moment, it is hovering a thousand meters above the ground, without any support below, but floating in mid-air by some means, constantly firing magic such as flames and lightning from the ship, shooting down flying Demon Race attempting to approach, like a moving aerial fortress.

Is this... a flying artifact-type spiritual artifact? Magical treasure?

Instinctively, Lin Guang looked down.

Below was a rather large square city, composed of an inner and outer part nesting together.

It was apparent that this city was built on a vast plain, with a well-planned layout and imposing architecture, surely magnificent and grand in its prime.

But at this moment, the originally prosperous outer city seemed to have been completely abandoned, turning into a ruin filled with human corpses and alien remains, with only an inner city about twelve or thirteen miles in diameter still being defended.

A nearly invisible light screen on the roughly ten zhang high, blue-gray city wall was struggling to hold, only faintly lighting up in a cyan ripple when occasionally hit by distant energy attacks or the aftermath of duels.

Every certain distance along the city wall, black-robed cultivators stood at the convergence points of the spirit rune array lines, controlling the array, constantly firing streams of cyan and green light at the distant Demon Race.

Outside the walls, over a thousand armored cultivators were battling the Demon Race on the ground, while those who could control the void were showcasing divine technique formulas in the air.

They fought the Demon Race, wielding swords and spears, talismans, magical treasures, or even sweeping through the battle formations with their bodies, using a variety of methods to contend with the overwhelmingly more numerous Demon Race, forcibly maintaining the current situation.

Several other flying ships were also circling in the air.

But it was clear to see that the current situation was perilous and seemingly about to collapse.

From time to time, escape lights dimmed amidst the battle, unsure whether it was due to exhaustion or injury.

Lin Guang witnessed a cultivator in armor being dragged by several Demon Race before being overwhelmed in a tide of demons, exploding into a burst of white spiritual light with a diameter of several dozen meters, with a brilliant sword qi storm spreading out, eradicating all enemies nearby.

"..."

Lin Guang's thoughts raced, quickly comprehending the situation.

However, he furrowed his brows slightly, not making any immediate moves.

Where was the notification sound?

The notification sound at the start of the checkpoint, the inner voice of the "protagonist" of the illusion realm, why hadn't any of them sounded in his mind?

Moreover...

Mr. Lin? Medical Dao cultivator?

This checkpoint, what on earth is my identity...

Seeing Lin Guang still unmoving, the young man became anxious: "Senior!"

Several other cultivators on the deck couldn't help but look over as well, with eyes that were also filled with pleading.

However, the next moment, Lin Guang suddenly turned his head, looking at the sky to the side of the deck.

Swish——

A sharp, dark green shadow suddenly appeared from the blind spot of vision, rapidly charging toward this flying ship.

It was a Demon Race creature shaped like a centipede, with twisted skeletal wings like dry, twisted branches attached to its body. Its segmented body was over twenty meters long, with blade-like sharp claws spinning rapidly together, like a whirling blade ring in the air.

The pupils of several cultivators on the deck instantly contracted, immediately preparing to take action.

But...

Just as they formed the thought, someone acted much faster than them.

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