“How about me playing longer with these little fellows…”

The woman said with a bright smile. The branch under her was quite soft, and the buds on it were getting ready to burst. Obviously, it was easily broken. However, when she sat on it, the branch only swayed up and down slightly, neither breaking nor bending.

“Well… Third Grandmaster, the First Grandmaster is still in a hurry to meet them. Would you stop playing with them? If you continue to play your game, they will be ruined…”

Just after the woman in white finished her words, a timid voice of a young man sounded behind her. As the woman turned back, her hair behind her shoulder blowing in the breeze happened to cover her face.

The woman smiled. Her eyebrows were like the outlines of the distant mountains, and her limpid eyes looked like the flowing autumn water. While smiling, she said, “Well, or… How about making a bet with me first?”

“Atishoo!” Xiao Chen, who was going up the mountain with the others, suddenly sneezed for no reason. A girl next to him blinked at him and asked in a soft voice, “Brother Xiao Chen, did you catch a cold last night?”

“Cold? Catch a cold?” Xiao Chen was stunned. Since he was a cultivator, how could he fall ill so easily like an ordinary person? But could it be that someone was talking about him?

“The weather in late autumn is cold. Brother Xiao, remember to put on more clothes.” Not far away, Yumu Shisan said with a smile. Then he looked at Chu Qi and said, “Miss Chu Qi, aren’t you cold with so few clothes on?”

However, from beginning to the end, Chu Qi had never talked to anyone and only cared about going her own path. Xiao Chen thought to himself, “Is this guy named Yumu Shisan also a natural socializer? He said that it became cool. It seemed that the weather is truly getting much colder.” When a gust of wind blew over, seemingly with ice chips, many people shivered.

“What happened? Why does it become so cold?”

As everyone discussed the change of the weather, another gust of cold wind came. This time, it really came with ice chips. All of a sudden, the weather around dropped a lot. Many girls in thin clothes trembled with cold, holding their arms. This place with a lot of restrictions was nothing like the outside, so it was useless even if they had the Core Forming Realm cultivation.

After walking for a long time, it was getting colder and colder as if they had entered the frozen world in the far north. Arms folded, many young girls kept shivering, and their little faces also turned ghastly pale because of the cold. A boy said, “Are you cold, Junior Sister? Give me your hand and go with me.”

Slightly annoyed, the girl looked at him and pouted, saying, “I don’t want you to hold my hand.” After that, she moved closer to Xiao Chen and giggled.

Xiao Chen, on the other hand, remained silent. After a while, he said, “Wait. Stop.”

As soon as he said that, the dozens of young boys and girls behind him immediately stopped and looked up at him. At this point, many places before them were covered with ice and snow. The cold wind was whistling, and flakes of ice kept spinning. It seemed that late autumn suddenly turned into cold midwinter.

The others also realized that something was wrong. The White Fog City was located in the southwest of the Death (Wastelands provinces), so it should not be so cold here in autumn. Even if the Mist Mountain was on higher ground, it should not have been covered with ice and snow.

With a stern look, Xiao Chen said, “We have walked in an illusory land.”

“An illusory land?” At this moment, everyone stopped and turned to look at him. But unlike the dozens of young boys and girls behind Xiao Chen, the majority of these people seemed to disagree with him.

Xiao Chen said that they were already in an illusory land, a trap set up by someone. However, everything around them looked so real that no one had noticed they had stepped into an illusory land.

“Let’s go back and start over. Otherwise, when we go deeper into this trap, I’m afraid we’ll meet some very powerful Illusory Beasts,” Xiao Chen said honestly. He looked serious enough to show that he was not kidding. In fact, Xiao Chen could feel that something dangerous was approaching.

“Go back? Are you crazy? We finally managed to come up. If we go back now, we can never arrive at Mountainside Square before sunset.” Someone in the crowd immediately expressed his discontent.

Now, opinion was divided on this matter. Some of them agreed to go back and start over. According to their previous experience, once they were trapped in an illusory land, they should quit immediately and walk the way again. Then, everything would be fine. Otherwise, they would meet the ferocious Illusory Beasts.

“If you want to go back, then you can go. I will never go back,” a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator said coldly.

“It’s too late,” Xiao Chen said attentively. When he spoke, his eyes were fixed on an ice mountain in front of him.

“What?” The Nascent Soul Realm cultivator frowned and asked.

“I said it was too late. Let’s prepare for the battle.” With that, Xiao Chen immediately unsheathed the Unsullied Immortal Sword. In next to no time, a deep roar rose. Both heaven and earth shook. The ice and snow were all over the sky, sweeping over the crowd.

“Watch out!” Everyone immediately worked together to hold up the Barrier so as to resist the significant amount of ice and snow that came at them. When the ice and snow dispersed, they saw a huge monster suddenly appear in front of them.

They were startled. All of a sudden, the monster gave them the creeps. The thing was as big as a small hill. With ice thorns all over its body, it looked extremely horrifying. Let’s call it the Snow Beast for now.

“Howl…!” The Snow Beast let out a deep roar and pressed its arms down on the crowd. Immediately, the snow and ice shot in all directions. There was nothing but darkness between heaven and earth. Greatly shocked, all of them exerted their strength to the limit and avoided this fatal blow.

“Boom!” A loud noise was heard. It seemed as if the whole mountain was shaking. The force of the shock pushed some newcomers who had reached the Core Forming Realm into the air.

Everyone trembled with fear. Perhaps, such a horrible attack could even crush Nascent Soul Realm cultivators. Xiao Chen was secretly shocked. “Damned! Which bastard made this monster?” This beast at least had the power at the late stage of Nirvana Realm. Even he found it hard to deal with it.

“Bastard! Bastard! Bastard!” In his heart, Xiao Chen cursed the “bastard” who did this for more than a hundred times. However, he still had to take immediate action to kill this monster first.

Under the fierce attacks of the Snow Beast, the group of people was utterly routed. At present, among the more than five hundred people, only a hundred of them had reached the Nascent Soul Realm, most of which were at the early-stage. Only Jiang Qianqian, who had a higher combat capability, leaped into the air and barely managed to hold the Snow Beast back. Under them, the rest of the people kept launching their attacks, using various magic spells.

Although Jiang Qianqian’s strength had reached the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm, the power of one person was too weak after all. At this time, Yumu Shisan also jumped up into the air. He could also release the strength of the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm, which was beyond everyone’s expectation.

There were two cultivators at the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm, but after all, this Snow Beast had the power at the late stage of the Nirvana Realm. It was true that it was far less powerful than those human cultivators at the late stage of the Nirvana Realm, but Yumu Shisan and Jiang Qianqian still couldn’t hold it off. Xiao Chen had to spring into the sky, wielding two strokes of his Dragon Roar Palm to attack the Snow Beast.

This time, his moves completely surprised everyone. Since Xiao Chen acted like a clown in the Spiritual Meridian Test, they didn’t expect him to be a cultivator at the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm. No wonder he dared to bring so many Core Forming Realm newcomers with him. It seemed that all of them had underestimated Xiao Chen.

The dozens of teenagers below them had never expected him to react that way, for they thought he was only at the middle stage of the Nascent Soul Realm. It turned out that Xiao Chen also had reached the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm.

“Roar…” After being pinned down by the three of them, the Snow Beast became even more violent. The icicles on its body flew out in disorder. Each of the icicles was as powerful as the flying swords sent by the Nascent Soul Realm cultivators. How could the several hundred beginners dare to block these icicles? They hurriedly went around to find places to hide.

“Howl…” The Snow Beast roared once again, shaking the rocks off the cliff. Suddenly, it broke free from the three of them and slammed towards the group of newcomers below it.

No Core Forming Realm cultivator could withstand such a violent beat. Those people that Snow Beast attacked this time were exactly the dozens of young girls and boys that Xiao Chen had led earlier.

Everyone’s faces suddenly changed, and Xiao Chen’s face also changed dramatically. Instantly, he used the Star-shifting Substitution and transferred the dozens of young boys and girls to the place below him.

“Rumble!” The Snow Beast’s slap shocked the entire mountain. As for the dozens of teenagers, they had long been scared silly. For them, the one second before that was a matter of life and death.

The crowd in the distance also looked at Xiao Chen, their mouths agape in surprise. From hundreds of feet away, Xiao Chen moved so many people to his side in an instant. They had never seen such a strange cultivation method before. Could it be the long-lost Sky-Land Change?

However, there was no time for them to think about these questions at this moment. When the Snow Beast saw that all his targets suddenly disappeared, it went into furious and turned around, pouncing on Xiao Chen. Such a huge monster made everyone tremble with fear. Everyone quickly retreated as farther away as they could.

What was worse, Jiang Qianqian and Yumu Shisan seemed to have no intention of helping. Needless to say, Jiang Qianqian was too anxious to see this Snow Beast tear Xiao Chen apart. Meanwhile, a profound intent flashed in Yumu Shisan’s eyes. It seemed that he wanted to see Xiao Chen’s real strength. After all, right in front of the elders who were in charge of the test, Xiao Chen secretly did something to the Spiritual Meridian Test Stone and tricked all of them without anybody noticing.

Xiao Chen had certainly predicted that they would not come to help him. At once, he exerted all his True Energy and pushed out his palms. Along with the sudden deafening dragon roars, two 30-meter-long golden dragon shadows whizzed out, followed by a loud bang. Feeling the shock, the Snow Beast actually paused. By taking advantage of this attack’s counterforce, Xiao Chen instantly escaped.

These people in the distance were shocked again because this kind of power had vaguely surpassed the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm.

As soon as Xiao Chen landed on the ground, he immediately adjusted his breath. Since this place was under tough restrictions, it was difficult for him to restore his True Energy. Therefore, Xiao Chen couldn’t do his best. He had to keep his strength to deal with the following difficulties.

“Howl…” The Snow Beast roared madly, and more than a hundred Nascent Soul Realm cultivators immediately joined forces to attack it. Xiao Chen, Jiang Qianqian, and Yumu Shisan were the anchors to suppress it. On the ground, those Core Forming Realm newcomers assisted them in the attack.

Finally, it took more than 500 people half an hour to defeat the Illusory Beast together. Now everyone was sitting on the ground, gasping. If another monstrous creature like this came, no matter what, they could not handle it. If that were the case, they would rather fail the test than lose their lives.

They rested for a while and continued their way. This time, the majority of them no longer looked down on Xiao Chen. They seemed to have totally forgotten the funny thing about Xiao Chen that happened in the Spiritual Meridian Test. After they walked for a while, a dense, endless fog suddenly enveloped them. Once again, they were all on the alert. However, when the fog dispersed, it seemed that they were in the midst of a different world.

In the distance sky were many suspended pavilions, terraces, and open halls. Besides, there were countless floating islands. On those islands, waterfalls cascaded down, and the water smoke spread all over the place, forming many brilliant rainbows in the air. Among those colorful rainbows, many cranes moved back and forth. This place was simply like a fairyland!

“Congratulations to all of you for passing the test.”

The fog dispersed, and a clear laugh followed. Everyone looked in the direction of the voice. Only then did they see quite many Senior Brothers standing not far away. Also, there was an elder with a majestic expression. It turned out that they had already arrived at the Mountainside Square, and the Snow Beast just now was the final test for them.

Immediately, the more than 500 new disciples cheered, beaming with pleasure. One Senior Brother smiled and said, “All right, all right. Everyone, please stand still.”

Hearing this, all the new disciples instantly stood in neat rows according to the teams they formed in the test. Xiao Chen frowned. “Is that all? Why do I feel that the test could not be that simple? Is it possible that this place is also an illusory land?”

When he was wondering, he glanced sideways and saw a figure flash across on a suspended island in the distance. The person was dressed in white, and her back looked very familiar to Xiao Chen.

Xiao Chen was startled, thinking, “Is that her? No way. I’m in the Wastelands. How can she be here?”