Chapter 506: A Miserable Look, The Fourth Great Path

He knew this heaven-defyingly powerful big brother all too well.

This miserable appearance before him was definitely an act.

Who knows how much money he was counting inside just now.

"It's nothing, just bad luck. I ran into an eye of the storm and almost didn't make it out."

Zhou Chen waved his hand and pulled out a few withered Spiritual Plants from his robe, saying with a pained expression, "After all that work, I only got these scraps. What a huge loss."

The surrounding Prodigies saw this and one after another showed looks of disdain.

"Tch, I thought he was some tough guy, but he's just a weakling."

"With this level of skill, he dares to traverse the Heaven-Reaching Immortal Path? He's just lucky he didn't die inside."

"It seems the rumors about him instantly killing the Gu family's vassals were mostly exaggerations."

Even Xuanyuan Lan only spared a glance before losing interest.

A person of this caliber wasn't worth his energy.

"Silence!"

Just then, a grand voice echoed from the sky.

The guardian spirit of the Third Great Path appeared.

It was a giant formed from gale winds; though it had no facial features, its pressure weighed heavily on everyone's hearts.

"The trial of the Third Great Path has ended."

"Passers: 28,560 people."

"Deceased: 4,289 people."

The cold numbers caused the atmosphere to instantly turn somber.

Only the third layer, and over four thousand people had died.

The cruelty of the Heaven-Reaching Immortal Path far exceeded everyone's imagination.

"Now, opening the teleportation to the Fourth Great Path."

The guardian spirit waved its massive hand.

The massive teleportation array erupted with blinding light.

"Go!"

Xuanyuan Lan was the first to rush in.

Dongfang Yan followed closely behind, his whole body wreathed in flames, his eyes full of Battle Intent.

Zhou Chen stood up slowly and brushed the dust off his rear.

"Let's go, we'll join the fun too."

He and Xing Chen blended into the back of the crowd and stepped into the teleportation array.

After a bout of dizziness.

The feeling of solid ground returned.

But this time, the surrounding environment made everyone gasp.

The sky above was grayish-black, and the earth took on an eerie dark red hue, as if it had been soaked in blood for countless years.

There was no wind, no water, not even Spiritual Qi.

Only endless silence and oppression.

Broken walls and ruins were everywhere, with giant skeletons half-buried in the soil, some even taller than mountain peaks.

Broken weapons were stuck in the ground; though rusted, they still emitted a heart-palpitating aura of slaughter.

This was an ancient battlefield.

And it was the kind of forbidden land where a war between gods and demons had once occurred, shattering even the Laws of the Great Dao!

"Wh… what kind of ghostly place is this?"

Someone asked with a trembling voice.

"The Fourth Great Path… Shura Field."

Dongfang Yan's voice rang out.

He stood on a boulder, his expression more serious than ever before.

His Li Fire True Body was actually suppressed here; his originally active flame Law was now like a flickering candle flame about to go out.

"Careful!"

Suddenly, someone cried out in alarm.

In the distant darkness, countless blood-red eyes lit up.

Those originally deathly still remains actually moved.

They crawled out from underground, rotting meat hanging from their bodies, holding broken weapons, and letting out beast-like low growls from their throats.

Corpse Puppets!

And they were Corpse Puppets that possessed their past combat instincts, felt no pain, and feared neither life nor death!

Their numbers were like a tide, instantly surrounding these tens of thousands of Prodigies in the center.

"Prepare for battle!"

Xuanyuan Lan shouted.

He summoned a folding fan, and the Law of Water circulated, turning into a barrier to protect everyone within.

But under the impact of the corpse tide, that barrier lasted less than three breaths before it was covered in cracks.

"Damn it! The suppression of the rules here is too strong!"

Ximen Shan swung his giant axe, shattering a Corpse Puppet with one blow, but more Corpse Puppets immediately filled the gap.

Every Corpse Puppet had the combat power of a Third Layer Immortal King; though they had no intelligence, they had the advantage of infinite numbers.

This was a war of attrition.

And fighting a war of attrition in a place without Spiritual Qi replenishment was simply seeking death.

Zhou Chen hid in the middle of the crowd, casually slapping away a Corpse Puppet that lunged at him.

His brows furrowed slightly.

Something's not right.

Isn't the difficulty of this Fourth Great Path a bit too excessive?

Reasonably speaking, the Heaven-Reaching Immortal Path is for selecting talent, not for slaughter.

With a corpse tide of this level, even Xuanyuan Lan and the others would find it hard to escape unscathed, let alone those ordinary Prodigies.

Unless…

Someone is playing tricks behind the scenes, intentionally increasing the difficulty.

Zhou Chen looked up, his gaze piercing through the layers of the corpse tide toward the depths of the battlefield.

There, a mass of darkness, blacker and denser than the surroundings, was slowly writhing.

It was like an open maw, waiting to devour all life.

"Interesting."

A cold smile played at the corner of Zhou Chen's mouth.

"It seems the boss of this level isn't these rotten bones."

The slaughter continued.

Blood dyed the dark red earth, making this ancient battlefield appear even more demonic.

The Prodigies of the major powers could no longer afford to hold back, summoning their trump cards one after another.

Xuanyuan Lan's water dragon roared, Dongfang Yan's sea of fire surged, Ximen Shan's giant axe split mountains…

Various brilliant Divine Ability lights flickered in the darkness, like fireworks struggling in despair.

But the corpse tide seemed endless.

With every batch that fell, more and stronger ones surged out from the darkness.

Even Corpse Generals with the combat power of a Tenth Layer Immortal King began to appear!

"Ah—!"

A scream rang out.

A Prodigy from a second-rate Sect, due to exhausted spiritual power, was a beat too slow and was instantly tackled by over a dozen Corpse Puppets.

Terrifying sounds of tearing and biting followed; in just a few breaths, he was turned into a pile of mangled flesh.

This scene completely shattered many people's psychological defenses.

Despair spread through the crowd.

"It's over… we're all going to die here…"

"This isn't a trial at all, it's a massacre! I want out! Let me out!"

Some broke down in tears, while others frantically attacked the air around them.

Even the faces of Xuanyuan Lan and the others became extremely grim.

"Everyone, stop holding back! If we don't break out now, we'll all meet our end here!"

Dongfang Yan roared, his Essence Blood burning as he transformed into a hundred-zhang-tall flame giant, forcibly tearing a gap in the corpse tide.

"Go!"

Seeing hope, everyone surged toward that opening.

However.

At the very moment they were about to burst out of the encirclement.

"Thump."

A dull footstep sounded abruptly in everyone's hearts.

The sound wasn't loud, but it felt like it was stepping on their hearts, causing all movement to pause.

Following that.

The sky-filling battle cries, the roars of the Corpse Puppets, the booms of Divine Abilities…

All sounds vanished in that instant.

In the world, only that one footstep after another remained.

"Thump."

"Thump."

"Thump."

Those footsteps came from the darkness deep within the battlefield; with every step, the surrounding darkness grew a degree denser.