Picturesque eyebrows and skin white as snow. Her colorful robes drifted gracefully with the wind. But her face seemed as if it had been made from cold jade without a trace of warmth.
The person who arrived was the ice beauty Yi Zhiqiu. She gracefully walked over to the riverside, obviously also wanting to cross.
Everyone descended into absolute silence as they watched her. They wanted to see just how Ye Zhiqiu, a monster-class expert, would cross this river. Perhaps they could even follow her. Everyone was filled with anticipation.
Their intuition told this terrifying river was definitely unable to stop Ye Zhiqiu.
Ye Zhiqiu merely indifferently looked at the river water. Slowly turning her head, she glanced at the crowd. When she saw Long Chen, a slight fluctuation came from that jade face of hers that seemed like it wouldn't change even in ten thousand years.
"Do you want to go together?" she asked, looking at Long Chen.
"No, thank you though. I have my own method to cross." Long Chen smiled slightly, but he politely declined her kindness.
He knew Ye Zhiqiu definitely had her own way to cross. While it would have been convenient to go with her, he felt uncomfortable with this icy beauty.
He would rather face the fickle Tang Wan-er than Ye Zhiqiu. At least he could tease Tang Wan-er a bit. But he had no desire to do the same with Ye Zhiqiu.
Countless people's hearts dripped blood when they saw Ye Zhiqiu invite Long Chen. They were filled with jealousy. How was this brat so lucky for him to obtain even the ice beauty's appreciation?
But when they heard him decline, they looked at him as if he was an idiot. But there were also several people who admired Long Chen's pride. He was absolutely wild and didn't care about any of them, even her.
Ye Zhiqiu didn't have any reaction when Long Chen declined. She merely nodded and turned back to the river.
"Sister Ye, you can't! Within the water there's…"
Someone let out a startled shout, thinking Ye Zhiqiu was attempting to swim over. But halfway through he shut his mouth.
Everyone was shocked to see that when her foot touched the water, it didn't sink. She stood atop the water.
People hastily looked below her feet to see that a layer of ice had formed over the water.
When people finally understood what she was doing, she was already continued walking gracefully like a an ice fairy.
With each step, more ice formed on the river. Her long hair and robes fluttered in the wind, causing people's hearts to sway along with them. It was as if they were looking into a portrait.
When Ye Zhiqiu had walked dozens of meters in, the water below her began to surge as countless Tigermouth Fish began to swim over. They naturally didn't care about her beauty. In their eyes, she was just prey.
People let out alarmed warnings, but Ye Zhiqiu ignored them all, just continuing to walk forward slowly. Suddenly those Tigermouth Fish that were charging over all became still.
Only then did they realized that Ye Zhiqiu's ice had spread several meters into the water now. Those Tigermouth Fish were all frozen solid.
Everyone was filled with shock as they looked reverently at that figure. This was a monster-class expert. It really was too frightful.
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To them, this long river was like a heavenly chasm they were unable to cross. But to Ye Zhiqiu, it was a flat and open road.
Long Chen was also incredibly stunned. That was because he saw that Ye Zhiqiu's control over ice energy had already reached the level where she could control it at will. That would be even more terrifying when fighting.
Ye Zhiqiu quickly crossed the river and stepped onto the other shore, disappearing from everyone's view. Only then did they recover from their stupor.
One of them suddenly also stepped onto the ice path she had left behind, wanting to borrow Ye Zhiqiu's leftover path to also cross.
But that person had only run a couple meters across when the ice below him cracked. He let out a startled cry as he fell into the river.
Having fallen into the river, his expression changed greatly and he quickly began to swim back to shore. But he had only swam a couple strokes when he let out a blood-curdling shriek.
Long Chen took out a long rod and tossed it to that person, yelling, "Grab on!"
That person hastily grabbed it without even thinking about it. Long Chen flung him out of the water, bringing him flying to the shore.
Only at this time did others come to help. They saw that blood covered his entire body and there were bite marks all over him.
"It wasn't as bad as it could have been. Luckily you can still have children[1]," rejoiced one of them.
There were immediately people who choked on their own spit. There were still women right there, so saying such a thing wasn't exactly appropriate.
"Thank you for saving me." After consuming a medicinal pill, that person gratefully thanked Long Chen.
If it weren't for Long Chen, he definitely wouldn't have been able to reach the shore before being eaten by those Tigermouth Fish.
From the moment he had fallen in to when Long Chen had gone to rescue him, less than a breath's time passed, but he was already so wounded, horrifying everyone.
"No problem; it was nothing," laughed Long Chen. Although this person was neither a relative or a friend, he couldn't exactly just watch as he was eaten by the fishes.
"Senior apprentice-brother Long, how can we cross this river? Please show us the way." One of them bowed to Long Chen, clasping his hands before him respectfully and sincerely.
Long Chen shook his head. "This river is one of the tests the monastery has left for us. You have to rely on your own methods."
Everyone despaired when they heard that. Such a test was too cruel! One person thought for a moment and threw in a large piece of floating wood and jumped onto it.
But they only floated over a couple meters before the Tigermouth Fishes attacked them. They were extemely sly. Since they were unable to reach the people on top the wood, they wildly bit at the floating wood, completely tearing it apart in just a couple breathes' time.
Luckily that person had long since been prepared for that result. The moment they had begun to bite at the wood, he had jumped back to shore. Everyone sighed sorrowfully when they saw that this method had also failed.
A boat couldn't cross it, and it wasn't as if they had wings that could fly. Could it be that this would be as far as they could go?
They had only managed to gather a complete set of tiles with great difficulty, just to end up stuck here. They were truly unwilling.
Everyone looked at Long Chen, wanting to see how he would cross. Long Chen shook his head inside. This group of spoiled kids really had never learned anything useful.
Long Chen looked around for a moment and saw a large tree. It was over three hundred meters tall and perfectly straight.
He walked in front of it and began to climb. Reaching the upper half, he took out a piece of rope and securely tied it to the top of the tree.
He then jumped down and walked to the mountains. He found a huge rock and dragged it over. He then pulled on the rope. In front of everyone's shocked eyes, that huge tree that required several people to wrap around creaked and groaned as it bent over.
The entire tree was constantly quivering, letting out an unpleasant sound. Once it was bent enough, Long Chen tied it securely to the boulder.
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He then placed himself atop the tree. Looking at those shocked faces, he thought for a moment and used a sword to cut off a branch and threw it to them.
That stick inserted itself straight into the ground. As for Long Chen, he waved his sword in goodbye and then cut the rope.
The bent tree immediately was relieved of its pressure and sent Long Chen flying.
Long Chen let out a cry as he flew out like a cannonball. In front of everyone's stunned gazes, he flew all the way to the other shore.
"Ah, crap."
BOOM!
Long Chen smashed into a huge mountain. Countless stones began to roll down because of him, shocking the surrounding birds into flight.
As for the people watching on the other side, their jaws dropped, unable to say anything for a moment.
"He couldn't have smashed himself to death, right?" someone finally muttered. A normal person would definitely have been smashed into meat paste from that kind of force.
Long Chen crawled out from the stone mountain. He spit several times, feeling as if his mouth was filled with stone ash.
Ah, being in the limelight really wasn't a good thing. I should have used a rock first as a test, he thought to himself. Long Chen brushed off the dust on his body and then disappeared from the crowd's view.
Seeing Long Chen leave, those people all sighed a breath of relief. He was definitely a freak. How could they possibly imitate him?
"Wait, senior apprentice-brother Long Chen left us a clue!" suddenly cried out someone.
"Tch, what clue? If we used that method, all of us would be turned into meat paste." Someone else rolled his eyes. How could they possibly copy that?
"No, look at this stick!" That person hastily pointed to the stick excitedly.
People paused for a moment, looking at that stick. That was something Long Chen had purposely thrown down to them before leaving. They had no idea what it meant.
"Ugh, what's that smell?" One of them had approached to take a closer look at this clue and immediately smelled an incomparably repulsive smell, making him noxious.
Pinching his nose, that person pulled the branch out of the ground and saw the spot it had been cut off from was leaking a yellow liquid that was releasing the smell.
"Ah, I understand what senior brother Long Chen was telling us!" that person excitedly shouted.
Seeing that everyone still didn't understand, he cut off a part of the branch, tied a piece of ham to it, and threw it into the river.
Those Tigermouth Fishes which would normally wildly react to any sound actually didn't go over at all. That piece of ham just continued to float in the water.
Everyone looked at each other and cheered. So those Tigermouth Fishes were repulsed by that kind of smell!
In other words, they could use those kinds of trees to form rafts and they wouldn't be attacked by the Tigermouth Fishes!
Everyone was indescribably grateful to Long Chen. This was no different than saving their futures. Everyone got to work searching for that kind of tree and making rafts.
In reality, this test was extremely simple. The Snail Stink Camphor's famous name was known to most cultivators. Unfortunately, these spoiled disciples that had lived like princes and princesses hadn't known of it. That was why Long Chen had labelled them as people without any useful skills.
Because of such a small thing, so many of these geniuses would have failed, forfeiting their future prospects. That would really be regretful, and so Long Chen had given them a clue.
If they were unable to even understand that clue, then there was no need for them to cultivate. They might as well be used as fish food.
After passing the river, Long Chen once more began to search through the wilderness for natural treasures. But it seemed he had used up all his luck, as he didn't find anything of great value.
Half a month passed. Long Chen had no choice but to start following the map to the final location of the trial.
But at this time, he suddenly felt intense shaking coming from the earth. At the same time, terrifying auras began to soar.