"Elder, what should we do? There are too many beasts for everyone to handle."
"Keep them back as long as the Matriarch can vanquish the leader this trial should end."
"But we won't last for much longer…"
"You must!"
"But we have so many injured we can't… huh what's that glow?"
Before the man could finish the sentence a strange glow appeared in the middle of the battlefield. It looked like a soap bubble that continued to increase in size before taking on the shape of a blue orb. This orb started to pulsate rapidly and the faster it got the more spiritual energy the members from the Unlimited Element Sect could sense.
Some of them recoiled in fear as it looked to be some type of trap. The amount of energy that was gathering was possibly a prelude to an explosion. One of the elders held up a talisman and started chanting as he quickly attempted to place a small defensive formation around this glowing orb. Yet, the explosion never came and instead, a golden pill popped out from within the blue orb.
"Is that… a recovery pill?"
The man that created the small formation that looked like an octagon continued to stare as more and more of those pills were created. Soon the whole bottom portion of the octagon was filled out with round pills that could be used to recover energy as well as health.
"Those pills, can't we use them on the injured?"
"They do look safe… let me just examine them."
It was a critical juncture in their battle as many creatures were pushing from all sides. In the distance, there was a giant beast that their strongest elder was clashing with. It was a devastating one-on-one battle. Everyone else was gathered here to keep the unending waves of smaller monstrosities from reaching their elder and attacking her back.
There was no end to them as they continued to pure in from all sides. The group found themselves in this strange place after activating the teleportation trap. Most of them were reputable elders of core formation and up but in this place, they felt like newbies. Most of the monsters were at least at their level with many being at the nascent soul realm.
Only thanks to a handful of nascent soul elders having been taken away with them were they able to survive for this long. Zhang Liena along with Zhang Zhi were both here but even they were having some trouble with the gigantic monster that looked like an ice dragon. Its element countered Zhang Zhi's water techniques which continued to freeze over and the winds that Zhang Liena produced just made the entire area even colder.
The place they were in was a desolate world of ice and rock. What they were fighting were creatures attuned to ice spiritual energy. Ice stemmed from the water and was more specialized in its usage. It was susceptible to fire that melted it but required a difference in power to work. Perhaps if Huo Qiang was here instead of the two other elders the ice dragon they were battling would stand no chance. As it stood now though, the battle was dragging on and they were getting overrun. The longer it took to defeat the beast the more of these beasts would continue to appear.
Everyone here knew this to be true as it followed the pattern they experienced on other floors. At first, everyone appeared at an empty plain with not much around it. Later they started traveling toward an obvious monument. From nearby a massive behemoth arose that was easily dispatched by the elders and soon stairs appeared.
The process was repeated as they encountered more similar beasts and varied locations. Once they were put into a forest, other times into a swamp or even a fortress made of stone and strange metallic monsters that looked like armor. Each time they had to find the strongest beast before the stairs appeared but this was a trap that they didn't realize until they arrived here.
Their leader, Zhang Liena was clearly in a rush as she continued to push everyone to push on. Rushing was however a big mistake as people noticed that the monsters they defeated were special. After their death, their bodies would vanish and leave behind various items. They seemed to be random in their worth and type. Sometimes it would be a pill while other times a weapon. Other times even strange maps showed hidden areas with apparently more treasures.
These were regretfully mostly ignored by the main two elders that agreed that they needed to get out of this place. They assumed that after defeating enough enemies the strange trials would end. It was similar to some other secret grounds created by immortals which some people from this group had experience in going through. They prioritized getting through the traps and areas over exploration, this was a mistake.
Remembering the previous level which was close to a volcano they now realized. Some of the monsters when killed dropped pills that aided in protection against the ice. Some of them even produced weapons that could easily dispatch the creatures they were facing. If they just stayed there for some time and defeated these beasts that continued to respawn, they would have been able to get through this ice area easily.
Instead, they triggered some type of trap which caused an endless wave of ice creatures to come after them. They were all on a large mountain range with a massive dragon above them that was comparable to Bahamut in size. It was surrounded by many ice wyverns and other monstrosities on the mountain. While Zhang Zhi was trying to contend with the flying mobs, Zhang Liena continued to battle the dragon creature. Its hide was extremely hard, it would take her some time to defeat it, time that the people down below didn't have. Their people were suffering injuries from which they couldn't easily recover, this was until the pills just appeared out of thin air.
"Is it safe to eat those? Could it have been some secret treasure?"
"We don't have the leisure to ignore them…"
The elder that was producing the octagonal barrier removed his technique to look over the pills. After touching one he could not find any faults but only boons. It wasn't a simple recovery pill, it was one that also had a lot of fire energies hidden inside of it. For a moment he hesitated in handing them over to the medical team but with their own pill reserves running short, there was nothing left for them to wait for.
"I'll take it."
"Are you sure? If this has some unforeseen side effects…"
"I'm practically a dead man already, if this won't help him then I'll just die anyway… if you manage to get through this, please tell my son that his father died with honor."
"... I will…"
The most injured person called out to the worrying elders. A large ice spear was sticking through his abdomen and he was bleeding out. There was not much that anyone could do in this situation so he decided to risk his life to see if these pills could save his life. After coming over and placing one of them into his mouth the other sect members started praying.
Almost instantly the injured man could feel the pill dissolving in his mouth. The effect was quite visible as his entire body started glowing red and releasing steam. First, the wound that was pierced by the spear started bubbling as if the man's blood around it was boiling. In a matter of moments, the ice around the wound melted and broke off. Everyone marveled at the display of hyper-healing as the wound was closing up. In under a minute it was over and the man opened up his eyes.
"I… I feel great!"
"Junior, are you really okay?"
"I am… all the pain is gone… and I feel rather warm…"
The elder that presented him with the miraculous pill started looking over the man that was even able to stand up. The ice spear went through his lower abdomen and came out from the other side. Where the wound would be there was nothing more than scarred flesh. The hole that should be there had been closed off and no blood was leaking. It even seemed that the man had regained all of his vitality without needing a secondary blood pill to substitute all the blood that was lost.
"It doesn't seem to have any side effects, I can't feel any poison or demonic energies either. Give it to the injured!"
"Yes, Elder!"
Soon the pills were getting given out to each and every injured person. It was a miracle drug that was even able to heal a nascent soul master and restore most of their used spiritual energy. With this boost in recovery, they were finally able to push the swarm of creatures back. The sect Matriarch was finally given enough time to face her opponent. Thanks to the miracle pill's appearance the tide had shifted.
"Die you overgrown lizard!"
Zhang Liena launched a massive blade of wind at the dragon's elongated neck. Its hide was covered in hundreds of small cuts with the largest concentration of them being close to the neck. Finally, the wind technique connected with the weakened spot and caused the dragon's head to fly up into the air. There it was shredded by the cyclone the large monster was already surrounded by and finally, the creature was dead.
"The monsters, they are fleeing!"
"The Matriarch killed their leader! Long live the Matriarch!"
The people down on the ground started cheering while looking up to their current leader. Liena was floating above without any wounds to her body. The monster was far too slow to produce any type of wound. Its defensive attribute of ice prevailed throughout the whole battle and the mass of minions was the problematic part. After the sect forces managed to get a handle on them, she could finally focus on the battle without worrying.
She landed down on the ground, right where the strange orb of light appeared. There was something about the spiritual energy that this thing gave out that reminded her of someone that she was looking for. Her spirit sense homed in on this energy signature as she continued to check. Within a moment a smile appeared on her face as she made the realization that her husband was nearby.
"Matriarch, a large staircase has appeared, what are we going to leave?"
Before she could make the decision another light appeared to the side. It had the same Qi pattern as the previous orb and without even batting an eye she decided to follow after it.