"What spirit stone mine? I have never met you before. I must have mistaken you for the wrong person!"
Chen Mo answered without hesitation, which made the red-haired male cultivator frown.
But soon, his forehead relaxed.
"Junior Brother Chen... you are still as cautious as before!"
The red-haired male cultivator continued to say with emotion:
"Qinfeng County, Yupei, now there is no need to doubt that I am a member of the Tianjian Sect, and I am here to deliberately deceive you."
"I guessed it was you, Senior Brother Liu Qing, stay safe!"
Looking back on the experience of the two of them teaming up to escape from the Lingshi Mine, more than ten years have passed. A long drought was met with gentle rain, and old friends met in a foreign land. Such a scene of old friends reuniting made the always cautious Chen Mo finally put down his guard and hurriedly greeted him. Go up.
The four hands were clasped together tightly, and the surprise on Chen Mo's face was beyond words.
"I've discovered you on the island a long time ago, but I'm just not sure. I didn't expect that you would actually join the Fuyun Sect of the Wei State..."
"It's a long story!"
Chen Mo knew that if he told his story about how he became a casual cultivator and how he traveled to the Wei Kingdom with great difficulty, he would not be able to finish it all day and night.
He also knew that Liu Qing also had countless secrets. As a close friend who had passed away, if he asked himself, he would more or less tell some.
But now is not the time to drink and talk freely about spiritual practice.
"Senior brother, when the trial is over, let's find an opportunity to have a good chat."
"Okay, it's a deal!"
Liu Qing saw that Chen Mo was injured and needed to be nursed back to health, and that he still needed to pull weeds. After clearing the doubts in his heart, he decisively said goodbye to Chen Mo and continued on his next weeding trip.
Chen Mo, who was watching him go away, also had important things to do.
If he could not adjust his condition back as soon as possible, his chances of being eliminated from the next trial would increase. Therefore, under heavy pressure, he had to drink a few more sips of the thousand-year-old spiritual liquid in the small bottle.
Counting the consumption in the past few years, he only has five bottles left in his hand at this time.
"Practice to the end is all about fighting for resources!"
This is Chen Mo's most intuitive feeling. His bottle of thousand-year-old spiritual liquid must be worth a sky-high price at the auction house. But at this moment, in order to recover quickly, such a luxurious spiritual liquid is wasted.
"How about a fight? How about refining a magic weapon?"
"There will be a balance between consumption and output in the world of cultivation, but if the balance is broken..."
When Chen Mo thought about this, he realized something was wrong and stopped his thoughts.
After all, the mainland's resources are limited, but the number of cultivators is constantly increasing. The higher the level of cultivators, the stronger their desire for longevity. In the same way, the resources they can obtain are more terrifying.
Chen Mo didn't dare to think about it anymore. This was not something he should be concerned about during the foundation building period.
Perhaps the continent's cultivation resources are much more than he imagined, and it would be too sensitive to worry so unfoundedly.
While he was thinking about it, the nourishment of the thousand-year spiritual liquid also circulated for a long time. The damaged internal organs and spiritual veins were rapidly recovering. In another hour or so, he should be able to return to 30% of his full strength.
The total amount of spiritual power stored in the body of the Millennium Daoji is too huge. Unless Chen Mo dares to be extravagant enough to drink an entire bottle of spiritual liquid, it will undoubtedly be a drop in the bucket.
"The remaining deficit can be recovered slowly by absorbing the spiritual energy between heaven and earth."
Chen Mo thought like this in his mind, as time passed and the number of monks coming and going gradually increased. Lin Yuqin's figure was easy to identify, and it reappeared in front of him soon.
The light under his feet dissipated, and Lin Yuqin said excitedly:
"Brother, I met a weirdo on the road! She didn't say anything and suddenly threw me five straws. Counting this trip, there were six!"
"A red-haired monk?"
Chen Mo was shocked and subconsciously guessed that it was Liu Qing who did it.
"It's not a redhead, it's a woman."
Lin Yuqin wanted to get some clues from Chen Mo's face, so she asked tentatively:
"Brother, is she... the nun you went to the market with that time?"
Chen Mo knew that she was talking about Li Shuang, a female cultivator in the middle stage of foundation building, but this was absolutely impossible.
The value of the five-root grass cannot be given away unless someone is extremely close to them. In order to win over him and join their alliance in name only, it would be a big loss. As long as Li Shuang was not a fool, he would not do this.
"It's not her, it's another friend of mine."
Chen Mo was almost definitely Liu Qing. He didn't want to be burdened, so he deliberately found a helper.
He glanced up and saw that Lin Yuqin was still curious, so he added helplessly: "Man."
After being exposed what she was thinking, Lin Yuqin's face turned red: "What's the relationship between men and women? I'm just asking."
According to Chen Mo's previous calculations, pulling out seven grasses was the bottom line of not being punished, but based on his observations of other people, even including the eliminated monks, this number would still increase.
"Now that I have fourteen grasses in my hand, let's try again and let Senior Brother Ye help with the rest, so that neither of us will be punished..."
After a sudden turn of events, Chen Mo thought about it in his mind, and without letting Lin Yuqin rest for too long, he came up with the idea of going into the fire scene himself.
This was naturally opposed by Lin Yuqin, and the two had another verbal tug-of-war. In the end, she compromised and Chen Mo rejoined the trial.
From dawn to sunset, the trial has progressed to this point. Even the stupidest cultivator has roughly figured out the rules of the whereabouts of fireballs.
One word spreads to ten, and ten spreads to hundreds. More and more people know how to avoid it, which undoubtedly speeds up the process of the trial.
The figure of the monk in the fire scene was still in a hurry. The two of them had no dangers along the way. When they arrived at the end, there was almost nothing on the slope, only a handful of isolated weeds, as if they had lost their lives. hanging down.
Taking advantage of the moment when everyone was stunned and surprised, Chen Mo, with quick eyes and quick hands, suddenly shot out a stream of spiritual power from his fingertips, quickly entangled the two shaken weeds in his hands, and quickly returned with Lin Yuqin, ignoring the angry looks of several people behind him.
And just as they turned to leave, Lu Manshi's voice finally echoed in the sky:
"The trial will end in ten minutes!"
As soon as these words came out, it was a sign that there was no grass on the slope. Some of the monks who came with hope suddenly lost their expressions. With no choice but to bear the fireball, they reluctantly headed back.
In less than a day, the spiritual consciousness of more than 200 monks seemed to have been tempered for a month.
As long as this trial is taken seriously, everyone's consciousness will be more or less improved in the tense atmosphere.
Chen Mo has the three-color Xuantian Lotus, which has the most obvious feeling of improving his spiritual consciousness, but he can't see anything once or twice. If he exercises in this way for a long time, it may really have an effect.
On the way back, Chen Mo's guess was confirmed.
Although there is not much divine consciousness left in the sea of consciousness, the speed of using it outside the body has indeed become faster.
Not only that, the distance that Chen Mo could originally detect with his spiritual sense has also increased. From the beginning, he could only feel the position of the fireball through the distorted air as it fell, to now he can capture the movement of the afterimage of the fireball, which is a qualitative leap.
The frequency of fireballs falling has decreased. It seems that Master Geng Liang deliberately released the water. When many monks returned to the starting point, Ye Lantian had been waiting there for Chen Mo and the two of them for a long time.
Ye Lantian said straight to the point: "How many grasses were pulled out?"
Chen Mo said: "Something happened. Two people only have sixteen."
"I have twenty-one straws. I will give each of you four straws. Twelve straws are almost enough. This is the first trial. There is no use in being in the limelight. It is important to save your life."
Chen Mo was speechless after hearing this. Twenty-one grass, how powerful is Ye Lantian's cultivation? He assumed that even if he acted alone, he would only be able to use twelve or three of his means.
Lin Yuqin said: "Senior Brother Ye, if you gave us the grass, wouldn't your own evaluation drop?"
"Look around, everyone here is doing this. The senior only said that robbing is not allowed, but he didn't say that giving away is not allowed."
Following Ye Lantian's words, Lin Yuqin glanced left and right. It was indeed as he said. Just not far from them, there were people exchanging weeds. If the number of solid eyes pulled out was the same, they would definitely be punished. .
"By doing this, we can also recruit a large number of helpers for these powerful monks. Why not..."
Chen Mo understood in an instant why some monks were willing to donate generously, but he couldn't say this. Wouldn't it be a hint to Ye Lantian?
In contrast, monks who have neither the company of their fellow disciples nor the ability to make friends are miserable.
Their own strength is limited, and if they are targeted in this way, the number of weeds they can pull without being punished will also be ranked at the bottom.
Amidst the whispers of everyone, Lu Manshi fell from the sky, Geng Liang withdrew his magical power, and the fire scene suddenly became quiet.
Without the help of external noise to cover it up, the voices of everyone talking were very noisy, so without Lu Manshi saying anything, a group of monks consciously closed their mouths and held the number of weeds in their hands.
Chen Mo and others were no exception. More than two hundred people stood in a square formation, and they were in the last few rows.
Lu Manshi glanced at the numbers in everyone's hands and immediately began the first trial:
"Five people have withdrawn from the weed-pulling test. Those with results below eight-gencao, including eight-gencao, all have to stand up."
As soon as Lu Manshi finished speaking, the twelve targeted cultivators, both male and female, all walked out in a panic: "Extra ten more trips, let's start!" Lu Manshi didn't intend to give them anything. There was a moment of grace, and on the other side, the fireball that stopped falling appeared again.
"Didn't I say that only ten people were punished..."
Lin Yuqin stood in the team and whispered to Chen Mo.
"He said just a few, don't worry about it."
In fact, even the twelve people who were punished did not have the courage to ask. As soon as Lu Manshi finished speaking, nine people shouted to give up.
The main reason is that they simply don't have the energy to complete it. On the other hand, the eliminated people don't want to continue to be tortured in such an unfair place.
It would be a good thing to give up early.
The remaining three people turned around and rushed into the fire scene without saying a word. As for whether they could complete the ten missions, Chen Mo and others did not know.
"Everyone else, follow me."
With a tense face, Lu Manshi returned towards the path he came from in the morning, neither saying where he was going nor announcing the rankings of the other monks.
As a result, everyone was frightened, wondering what tricks he was going to do.
Lin Yuqin glanced at the night in the sky. The cold fog was filling the air, and the woods under the moon were dark and extremely strange.
"Brother, it's already dark today, why doesn't he let us rest?"
"not that simple......"
Chen Mo always remembered Lu Manshi's words, "They won't be comfortable for a second in this month." Maybe this was just the beginning.
Chen Mo secretly glanced at the expressions of other people while walking, most of them looked uneasy.
With doubts, more than 200 people returned to the place where the flags were planted in the morning. Chen Mo was surprised to find that the five people injured in the fire had been waiting for them here.
Lu Manshi called out the nine people who said they wanted to give up, and stood in a row with the five injured people. Each of the fourteen people was given an axe.
"No one is forcing you to choose the path you have chosen. Now, cut off the flag of your sect and say in front of everyone that you are no longer good and must give up! Then hand over your token and get out!!"
After hearing this, the fourteen monks lined up in a row had different expressions, either humiliated, relieved, or angry.
Except for Lu Manshi's deep and rough voice, the woods were silent. Under the gaze of more than two hundred pairs of eyes, the eliminated monks finally had the first one to run towards their own flagpole.
This was a young man who seemed to be in his twenties. He left the Demonic Island because of an injury. He raised his ax and cut down the flag of the Tianyi Sect. He then faced the crowd and shouted with an extremely ugly face:
"I can't! I give up voluntarily!"
The token number 37 was taken back by Lu Manshi, and soon a second person went to cut down the flagpole. With the same sound of giving up, the token was taken back by Lu Manshi.
Then, the third, the fourth...
Including Chen Mo, no one could laugh when they saw the fourteen eliminated people saying derogatory words about themselves.
There is no fool among them, and no one knows whether it will be their turn to stand in front of them in the next trial and do the same thing as them.
There were both male and female monks who were eliminated, and not everyone was sad. Chen Mo also saw the playful smiling faces of two people, who seemed to be happy to leave this hellish place.
"I need to repeat it again. In the past three days, no one has forced you to be on the island. Whoever can't stand this training method should stand up now, cut off the flag, and leave immediately!"
Lu Manshi's gaze like a cheetah swept over everyone in the front row, and the monks who looked at him all lowered their heads timidly.
"So...you all agree?"
Silence is the best answer. Seeing this, Lu Manshi stopped talking nonsense and asked the eliminated monks to wait where they were, driving everyone forward in the evening.
After a while, Chen Mo and others returned to the beach where they came during the day.
