More than half of the participants left moved to the side, withdrawing from the competition, leaving behind exactly 120 participants.
Wu Cheng smiled and said, "Now I'll tell you about what you all have to do after going to the Land of Ice and Fire."
Then he pointed at Ta Mu and Huang Daniu before saying, "We have hidden away ten flags there, five of them inside the Eastern Zone which is also known as the Land of Ice while other five in the western Zone known as Land of Fire."
Saying this, he waved his hand and two flags, one white and one red appeared out of nowhere in front of everyone. Wu Cheng again said, "White flags are hidden inside the Land of Ice while the red ones are in the Land of fire. Your job is to find one of these ten flags. We have inscribed a formation on the flag. The moment you'll touch the flag, the formation on the flag will be activated, transporting you to the top of the arena you can see in front of you."
Wu Cheng pointed at the large arena. Looking closely, everyone saw a large transportation formation carved on top of the arena. They could not help but exclaim in their heart. This formation was really too big and must have exhausted a large number of resources for the three of them to inscribe it on top of the arena.
So, it turned out that the arena was not for the participants of the competition to fight each other and decide the victor but for the purpose of transporting people from one place to another.
"The last thing I'll tell all of you is, although the Land of Ice and Fire is extremely dangerous for even Immortal King Realm experts, the opportunity you'll get there will be very bountiful. Apart from that, the ten people who'll be able to find the ten flags will be the winner of this competition."
Saying this, Wu Cheng looked at the crowd and asked, "Is there any question anyone wants to ask?"
All 120 participants looked at each other before one of them took two steps forwards and asked, "Senior, you said that a formation is inscribed on each of the ten flags, and the person who will touch the flag will be transported here along with the flag. My question is, there are only ten flags and ten people can transport outside using the flags. What will happen to the participants other than those ten chosen people? How will they be able to come out?"
Wu Cheng nodded his head after hearing this question and replied with a playful smile on his face, causing a chill to run down everyone's spine: "You all don't have to worry. The moment the ten flags will be found, we will open a channel through which, the remaining participants will be automatically teleported out from there."
The participant who asked the question nodded his head and backed down. Mu Cheng again said, "Is there any other question anyone would like to ask?"
Seeing that no one come forward to ask the question, Wu Cheng again said, "Since no one has any question to ask, come forward and climb at the top of the arena. Twenty people at a time, and you'll be transported to the Land of Ice and Fire."
The moment the first group of participants made up of twenty people climbed at the top of the arena, a bright light shone that covered the figure of all twenty people and soon after, they disappeared. Obviously, they were transported to the Land of Ice and Fire.
Group after group of people came forward, and very soon, it was Ye Xiao's turn to go up. He walked forward, arrived at the corner of the arena, and jumped up, safely landing on top of the arena.
When all twenty people gathered on top of the arena, with a bright light, they were immediately disappeared from where they were standing.
.....
_The Land Of Ice And Fire, Ice Forest_
A strange fluctuation appeared in the air and with the slight ripple of air, a figure suddenly appeared with a bright light surrounding its entire body.
It was Ye Xiao. The moment he appeared he looked at his surroundings. As far as he could see, there were only ice and ice. The trees, mountains, and some large boulders, all of them were covered in ice.
Apart from him, there was no one in his surroundings, confirming Ye Xiao of one thing. The teleportation was random.
Ye Xiao immediately released his Divine Sense that covered a large part of the Ice Forest, making him able to see everything within the area that his Divine Sense has covered.
He wanted to search for the flag as soon as possible and go outside. He didn't have any interest in searching for treasures here. The temperature here was really too low. Even with his Ice Elemental Body, Ye Xiao found it difficult to walk properly. What was more, chilling air was also flowing, increasing the effect of already low temperature.
No wonder, this place was called the Land of Ice.
The first thing Ye Xiao saw was a short man with grey pointy ears pondering on top of a branch while gazing at the far.
Rustle Rustle...
Suddenly his pointy ears quivered at the abnormal rustling sound of the leaves behind him.
"Heh, trying to ambush me?" He snickered without turning his head, acting like he didn't notice the ambush.
Whoosh Whoosh!
The moment his pointy ears picked up the sound of approaching objects, he immediately turned around with a cocky smirk on his face, planning to cut them into two with his sharp sword that suddenly appeared in his hands out of thin air.
He was clearly confident in his ability to achieve so.
Too bad, the sight that greeted him was not like he expected, as he saw two rays of white light flashing, closing in on him with horrifying speed.
"Dear God, what the hell is this!"
Terrified, that person could not help but cry in a loud voice while dodging narrowly one ray of light, leaving the other one to hit him right in the thigh!
The moment his thigh came in contact with the white ray of light, it started freezing, and not long after, his entire leg froze, making it impossible for that person to move.
It was also at this time when the ambusher revealed its face. That person heard the footsteps of someone coming on four legs. When he looked in front of him with fearful eyes, he saw a white Panda-like beast making its way toward him.
"Evil-Eyed Panda!"
Ye Xiao muttered in low voice. The Evil-Eyed Panda was a Late-Stage Immortal Lord Realm Immortal Beast, but since it was in the land of ice, its strength could even match to an Early Stage Immortal King Realm martial artist.
Ye Xiao was looking at this scene with his Divine Sense. That person was quite far away from him so he could not do anything to save him. Even if that person was in front of him, Ye Xiao would not have rushed to save him. He didn't know that person nor did he know what kind of nature that person has. What if that person stab in his back after he saved him?
The Evil-Eyed Panda was famous for its ice-type attack called Ice Storm and it is said that it could make a person fall in an illusion because of its two red eyes. In this illusion, that person would encounter his deepest fear. It was also because of this that this panda was called Evil-Eyed Panda.
The person whose one leg was frozen was at the Late Stage of the Immortal Lord Realm. He could not even put up any fight against the Evil-Eyed Panda before his leg was frozen and could not move from his place.
He kept looking at the Evil-Eyed Panda as it was closing to him slowly, step by step. The more closer it went to that person, the more afraid that person with pointy ears became. And when the Evil-Eyed Panda arrived in front of him, because of fear, that person peed his pants before fainting on the spot.
The Evil-Eyed Panda kept staring at that person with its dark red eyes as if it was looking at an ant.
It moved its head forward and opened its large mouth filled with sharp teeth and bit down the neck of that man, killing him on the spot. Blood flowed out like a fountain from that man's neck. Then, the Evil-Eyed Panda started to enjoy the meal in front of it.
"This place really is extremely dangerous!"
Ye Xiao muttered in low voice before shaking his head. It has not been even half an hour when a person at the Late Stage of the Immortal Lord Realm has already died. It could be seen how dangerous this place was.
In other words, the Land of Ice and Fire really was not a place for martial artists below the Immortal King Realm to come.. Of course, Ye Xiao was an exception.
Ye Xiao looked at the other scenes which was not much different from what he saw earlier. Many participants encountered Immortal Beasts and were fighting against them.
He ignored everyone and focused on finding the White Flag, and it didn't take him long before he sensed the direction of the location of the White Flag. But to reach this location, Ye Xiao had to go through a lot of trouble.
What is more, he could not see where the White Flag was even with his Divine Sense, he could roughly sense the location of it. There must be a formation around the White Flag that could block the probing of Divine Sense.
Sensing the direction of the White Flag, Ye Xiao walked ahead. Not long after, he came to a valley. According to what he sensed, the White Flag was somewhere inside the valley.
Ye Xiao leaped up, entering the valley. The entire valley was filled with a sea of thick, white fog so thick that he could barely see his own fingers clearly. Relying on his eyesight, Ye Xiao could only see a hazy twenty meters around him. There was definitely something strange going on if his vision was limited to within twenty meters.
Finding the peculiarity of the surrounding thick white fog, Ye Xiao increased his vigilance. While moving forward with caution, his eyes surveyed the situation around him.
There was dead silence in all four directions, so silent that it felt eerie. From time to time, shrill cries of unknown creatures could be heard coming from the front, sending cold shivers down one's spine.
Ye Xiao moved slowly and cautiously through the thick white fog for an hour. There was nothing in the surrounding area other than the white fog. What was more, the temperature kept decreasing as he moved forward!
Although he had the Ice Elemental Body, it could not help much to Ye Xiao, after all, he only have an ordinary Ice Elemental Body.
It was fortunate that he had the Sun Fire Soul that continued to send warmth to Ye Xiao otherwise, he would have definitely frozen inside this valley a long while ago.
.....
Outside, surrounding the arena, people were watching the scene of participants on the water-screen. There were exactly 120 water screens and people could watch the performance of whoever participants they wanted.
As some of the participants continued to die, along with their deaths, the water screen would also disappear.
On a big water screen, Wu Cheng, Ta Mu, and Huang Daniu were looking at Ye Xiao. They simply ignored other participants and kept looking at his performance. They heard him muttering "Evil-Eyed Panda", they also saw him looking in the direction of the valley before going there.
At first, they were surprised to see that Ye Xiao was directly going in the direction where one of the five White Flags were hidden, but after some time, they realized that Ye Xiao must have evolved his Sea of Consciousness into Divine Sea, otherwise, he would not have been able to sense so far.
But they also knew Ye Xiao must have roughly got to sense the location of the White Flag after all they had built a powerful formation around the White Flag that could block and divert the probing of one's Divine Sense.
Knowing that Ye Xiao had Divine Sea, they became very excited. The more powerful Ye Xiao is, the more decentish it would be.
"This guy's luck is really bad. He actually chose the White Flag which is placed in 'that' place. Acquiring the White Flag from that place is not easy. That is the most dangerous place in the entire Land of Ice. Even we found it difficult to put that flag there." Ta Mu said while taking a deep sigh.
"Yeah! His luck is really bad!" Huang Daniu and Wu Cheng nodded their heads.
Wu Cheng said, "Let's watch his performance first. If his performance will be up to standard, we will immediately save him if he were to fall in great danger!"
Ta Mu and Huang Daniu nodded their heads in agreement. They also didn't want to lose the candidate they had found much difficulty to go to 'that' place with so easily.
Well, they were not the only ones who were watching Ye Xiao's performance. The Sect Leader of the Seven Star Sect was also the one who was watching Ye Xiao. He wanted to see if betting on Ye Xiao was the right thing he had done or not.
.....
It seemed peaceful the entire way as Ye Xiao moved deeper, but the uneasy palpitations in his heart grew increasingly stronger. An innate feeling of impending danger came from the very core of his soul.
This feeling of unease gave Ye Xiao an illusion that he was walking step by step into the deepest part of hell.
Another hour passed.
The only difference from before was that the white fog grew denser the further he went. When Ye Xiao first entered the valley, he could make out at least ten meters around him. Now, he could barely see his own fingers as he stretched his hand out in front of himself.
Ye Xiao continued to walk straight when suddenly, the white fog around him moved like flowing water accompanied by the strange shrieks that started to grow clearer.
When the white fog moved it seemed to trigger the strange cries.
Ye Xiao's nerves stretched thin, a grave expression shown on his face as he readied himself to react to any changes at any moment. The sharp shrieks continued echoing in the valley. Ye Xiao surmised the cries came from some kind of living being that was probably not part of the Immortal Beast races. It sounded closer to an evil fiend from the underworld.
All of a sudden, something powerful lunged at him from the front, piercing through the fog and startling Ye Xiao. Wings of the Divine Dragon immediately grew out from his back before he flapped them as he steered to the side, avoiding the thing attacking him.
A dark black creature with sharp white bones that was growing out from its back in a straight line rushed out from the fog. It was shaped like a human but had four arms and glowing scarlet eyes.
Ye Xiao barely succeeded in dodging the collision with that strange creature. The strange black creature brushed past Ye Xiao, sending a wave of chilling aura from towards him that made him feel felt like he was being frozen into an ice sculpture. A strong prickling pain shot through the surface of his skin from the burst of extremely low temperature.
"Sun Fire Soul!"
Ye Xiao's body was immediately set ablaze with the Sun Fire Soul that covered his entire body, making the chilling aura dissipate. Only then Ye Xiao took a deep breath.
The strange creature did not pursue Ye Xiao again. Instead, it ran straight back into the thick white fog as if it did not see him.
But, moments after Ye Xiao avoided the strange black creature's attack, just within a few breaths of time, another strange black creature lunged at him again from the front.
Alarmed, Ye Xiao once again displayed Wings of Divine Dragon, avoiding the attack from the strange creature. The strange creature once again went into hiding inside the white fog.
And the same thing repeated every few breaths' time.
One after another, these strange black creatures seemed endless. When one disappeared into the fog, another would appear almost immediately. And the thing that made Ye Xiao's face turn ugly was that every time a new one appeared, their attack speed and the icy aura became more terrifying.
After dodging more than a dozen of these strange black creatures, Ye Xiao actually felt trepidation when he spotted yet another creature appearing and coming straight at him.
In the blink of an eye, the creature had reached in front of Ye Xiao. Even displaying "Spirit Devour Escape" as quick as he could, one of his arms still caught the chilly aura. A shocking pain washed over him as if every pore and even internal organ has started to freeze.
Ye Xiao again used the Sun Fire Soul to subside this chilly aura from within his body. But this time, even the Sun Fire Soul took a few more seconds before it was able to dissipate the chilling aura that went inside Ye Xiao's body.
Ye Xiao was really shocked. This was the first time something managed to penetrate his physical defense, injuring him to this extent.
Ye Xiao once again started walking deeper but before he could move even a hundred meters further inside, Another strange black creature appeared and rushed at him,
This time, there was a cold light flashing inside Ye Xiao's eyes. He was really pissed of by these strange creature, so without wasting any time, he immediately used the "Soul Destruction", causing the strange creature to suddenly stop. Its soul was destroyed without any warning.
Only then did Ye Xiao neared the strange creature and started studying it. He found that this creature's strength was equal to a Middle-Stage Immortal King Realm martial artist.. It was no wonder that its speed was so fast.
_Outside_
"What just happened?"
Those who were watching Ye Xiao were shocked. They could not understand what just happened. Ye Xiao was clearly at the disadvantage just now but in an instant, without making any move, he was able to kill the strange creature in an instant.
The strange creature that was rushing at him with incredible speed stopped suddenly before falling down on the ground.
How was this possible?
Wu Cheng, Ta Mu, Huang Daniu, the Sect Leader of the Seven Star Sect, and other people, all of them started running their minds, trying to think of a solution but they could not find the answer.
They clearly knew how terrifying these creatures were. Even a Late-Stage Immortal King Realm martial artist will find it extremely difficult to deal with them but Ye Xiao was able to easily take care of one of them without even moving.
Suddenly, Huang Daniu's eyes flashed with light as he almost shouted out loud: "Soul Ability!"
Yes, this can explain what just happened and how Ye Xiao was able to kill the strange creature. Soul Ability can affect anyone whose soul is weaker than the attacker.
Clearly, the soul of these creatures was weaker than Ye Xiao so he was able to kill it in an instant.
"Divine Sea?" Ta Mu turned his head to look at Wu Cheng and Huang Daniu.
Both Wu Cheng and Huang Daniu nodded their heads, confirming Ta Mu's speculation. Wu Cheng said, "This kid really is not simple!"
.....
Ye Xiao neared the dead body of the strange creature and started studying it. He found that this creature's strength was equal to a Middle-Stage Immortal King Realm martial artist. It was no wonder that its speed was so fast.
What was more, the fog was blocking Ye Xiao's view, he could not even see what was in front of him. He was relying on his Divine Sense to walk forward.
After studying the strange creature for a while, a smile appeared on Ye Xiao's face. He placed his hand on the strange creature and said one word in his heart: "Devour!"
On the surface, there was no change on the body of the strange creature but in reality, a very precious part of this creature was devoured by Ye Xiao. This part was actually a jelly-like thing but Ye Xiao could sense a vast amount of chilly aura inside this part of the strange creature.
Immediately after devouring the jelly-like part of the strange creature, Ye Xiao started refining it on the spot. Since he devoured this part, it now belonged to him so no resistance came from it. In a split second, Ye Xiao successfully refined the Jelly-like part of the strange creature and was surprised to find out that his Ice Elemental Body was strengthened.
He believed if he could devour at most a hundred of these jelly-like things of the strange creature, his Ice Elemental Body will definitely evolve.
After that, Ye Xiao left the strange creature's dead body as it was and kept walking forward. As Ye Xiao walked forward, another one of the strange black creatures ran out from the dense white fog, faster than any of its kind before it.
But Ye Xiao was faster. With the help of his Divine Sense, he had already sensed the coming of this creature. He immediately used the "Spirit Devour Escape" and dodged the attack of this creature before destroying its soul as well.
Ye Xiao once again devoured the jelly-like part of the strange creature before refining it. Then he continued to walk forward.
On the verge of tumbling to the ground, the dense dark-gray fog around him abruptly vanished without any prior warning. Oddly enough, the shrill shrieks from those strange black creatures had also vanished.
Ye Xiao looked around blankly. When the white fog vanished, the entire valley revealed itself before his eyes.
Littered around the valley were black stones. Other than the stones, there were some random black trees of the strangest shape. Every tree only had two branches, like two arms of a person.
Ye Xiao took a deep breath. He lifted his foot and continued onward further into the valley. An hour later, he reached the other end of the valley.
On the mountain wall at the end of the valley was a dark, black hole.
From within that black hole that elongated into a tunnel came a cacophony of heart-breaking whimpers.
Ye Xiao hesitated for a moment but in the end steeled his heart and stepped in. Since he had come this far, he was unwilling to leave at this juncture without knowing what was at the end and without getting his hand on the white flag.
Ye Xiao followed the path of the black tunnel that contained nothing but complete and total darkness, absorbing all light. His eyes could see no more than three hundred meters ahead of him. Though there was no thick fog inside the black tunnel, Ye Xiao dared not relax his vigilance. He was always paying attention to the changes in his surrounding.
But it was as if there was no end to the black tunnel. Ye Xiao followed the path for several hours yet with no end in sight.
In the long black tunnel, there was nothing else but a stretch of endless darkness.
This was, in short, a psychological torment!
Imagine someone trudging forward in a small space that differentiated no day or night for several hours on high vigilance for any unexpected danger that might appear. An average person would have gone insane.
What was more, the cold aura kept increasing as he went deeper and deeper!
It was only because of the Sun Fire Soul that he was able to endure till now otherwise he would have been frozen into an ice sculpture a long time ago.
According to what Wu Cheng and the other two people thought in their hearts, it was simply impossible for any participant to get their hands on the White Flag that they put somewhere inside the valley.
According to their estimation, even if one managed to enter the valley, he or she would not be able to pass the thick wall of white fog and will die inside.
But Ye Xiao became an exception. He not only entered the valley but also easily passed the white fog. It was just that the second hurdle in his path was this dark tunnel. Ye Xiao had already walked inside the tunnel for hours but he was still unable to pass it.
Ye Xiao willed himself to move forward. He calculated and sighed as according to his calculation, he has already spent an entire day walking inside this black tunnel.
Ye Xiao had spent a day walking forward in the darkness yet there were still no signs of an end. Even for someone as strong-willed as Ye Xiao, he started to feel anger rising and irritation in his heart.
In the end, Ye Xiao simply stopped walking and sat cross-legged on the spot, meditating and adjusting his breathing to eliminate the anger and annoyance he felt inside his heart.
Just like this, time passed unknowingly. Only when he had calmed down did Ye Xiao get up and continue onward.
Hours and days went on as Ye Xiao kept moving onward in the darkness and stopping to sit down to meditate. This happened in so many intervals that Ye Xiao had even lost count of the days.
It was fortunate that there was no time limit for this competition, otherwise, he would have already been eliminated.
According to the rules of the competition, only when the ten flags were gathered would the competition will end.
But Ye Xiao started doubting one thing. Even he was feeling that it was impossible for anyone to acquire the white flag placed inside the valley, after all, even he was unable to find it till now, let alone others.
As for what those three people had thought about how to end the competition if no one was able to get the tenth flag that was inside this valley, Ye Xiao didn't know. He also had no intention of knowing or wasting his time thinking over this matter as he was really being tormented badly inside the darkness.
When he was starting to feel numb and thought using the Eye of Destruction to shoot the destructive red beams of light forward to see how far he has to go to cross this dark tunnel, he suddenly caught a glimpse of light up ahead in the endless darkness.
Light, hope!
For the current Ye Xiao, the tiniest spark of light represented boundless hope!
Ye Xiao leaped forward, no, he sprinted to the source of light with all his might.
However, though that tiny light looked close, it was further than Ye Xiao had expected. Even after an hour of rushing forward with full speed while using the Spirit Devour Escape, he had yet to reach where the light was.