Wei Fang had accompanied Mu Qingge to XiShan for her treasures before, so he naturally recognized the Gengjin White Tiger.
When he reminded everyone that this cat-like creature was Mu Qingge's former mount, the Wen sisters cautiously took a few steps back.
The ferocity of the Gengjin White Tiger was well known to everyone. Although it looked like a furball now, if it were to erupt in the next moment, it wouldn't be pleasant if someone got injured by it.
After scratching them, the white tiger swished its tail and left.
So the Wen sisters could only vent their anger at Mu Qingge, "Look at the beast you raised!"
Mu Ranwu sat by the side resting. At their words, she raised her eyebrows casually, "I have already severed the contract with the white tiger. What it does has nothing to do with me…"
Although Elder Mu had the temperament of a fairy, her stomach started rumbling as well after speaking, apparently also tempted by the delicious scent of XiShan's dinner.
At this moment, Gui Baqian walked over, took out the dried sweet potato pieces that Ranran had given him earlier, and passed them to Mu Qingge.
Seeing this, the Wen sisters were furious again, accusing Gui Baqian of being too forward and embarrassing the KongShan Sect.
Mu Qingge smiled and accepted the sweet potato snack, but she didn't eat them. She politely thanked Baqian for them.
Gui Baqian decided he wasn't leaving. He simply sat down beside Mu Qingge and continued to openly stare at her, which was rather improper. But Mu Qingge tilted her head and smiled at him, engaging in a casual conversation. Her every move and expression exuded charm.
Qiu Xier whispered softly, "Our former Grandmaster looks so charming; she has admirers everywhere! But that boy is too impolite to take what you've given him to offer it to her like that!"
Ranran smiled, not minding these trivial matters at all. Tianmai Mountain was formed when Dun Tian passed away during meditation, with subtle energies flowing everywhere. Ranran was curious about what the next challenge would be.
However, Elder Mu should be the most confident, having been here before and won. It seemed like this opportunity would be hers as well.
With a mindset of seeing the world and gaining experience, Ranran felt completely relaxed, finishing the bread and meat in her hand happily.
After their fire was put out, Gao Cang and Qiu Xier also finished their food. They found a place far from other sects to meditate and wait for dawn.
As for what the second challenge would be, Shifu Su Yishui didn't specify. He simply mentioned that besides the first challenge, the rest were illusions created by the ancient powers of Tianmai Mountain. They would adjust according to the strength of the participants each time, so they just needed to remain calm and focused to handle it.
Ranran wasn't very interested in the Marrow Cleansing Pool. In fact, she had hoped that second senior brother could get the opportunity to restore his spiritual energy. Unfortunately, second senior brother has been with Uncle Master Zeng and seemed to have changed his mindset a lot, and was unwilling to come along.
There were over a dozen people who made it to this round, and their trio from XiShan were at the bottom. So, with the mindset of just gaining experience, the three of them were the most relaxed among everyone else.
When dawn arrived, everyone else began to move forward quickly, while Ranran and her group stopped from time to time on the mountain to pick wild fruits to eat.
Ranran noticed that brother Baqian was also not walking very fast, seeming to intentionally wait for them.
So when she met Baqian again on the small path, she couldn't help but ask directly, "Brother Baqian, why are you walking so slowly? Your two fellow sect members have gone far ahead."
Baqian smiled and raised his eyebrows, his dark skin making his teeth look very white. He slowly said, "It seems like you're not in a hurry to move forward. Did Elder Su instruct you on something?"
Ranran understood now. This guy was suspicious that they had some cheating trick, and was deliberately probing with his words.
She smiled and shook her head, "Shifu's participation in the Marrow Cleansing Pool was over twenty years ago. Didn't they say that the questions in the Marrow Cleansing Pool are almost never the same each time? Besides, your Abbess from Kongshan Sect had also passed the trial before, right? If there were any tricks, she would have passed them down to her disciples and grand-disciples long ago. But I can tell you a secret, if we climb this mountain too quickly, will be very tiring!"
Upon hearing this, Baqian's smile seemed deeper, but his tone was cold, "Are you deliberately toying with me?"
Qiu Xier, who disliked people from the Kongshan Sect, couldn't hold back and said bluntly, "Ranran, don't talk too much with the mad dogs from the Kongshan Sect. If they feel unhappy, they might come and kick the fire."
Just then, screams came from ahead.
They didn't have time to argue and hurried along. It turned out that ahead was a tall mountain valley, with two sides connected by a rope bridge made of vines and rudimentary wooden planks. To cross, they had to climb the ropes and step on the creaking wooden planks.
For cultivators who had reached a certain level, this wasn't much of a challenge. Even without the planks, they could easily cross the valley by climbing the ropes.
But the problem lies in the fact that the rope ladder is covered with vines and plants. However, these dark green plants seem somewhat strange; upon closer inspection, one would notice that they are wriggling.
Ranran took a closer look and gasped in shock.
What vines? They are clearly a mass of dark green venomous snakes entangled and coiled on the bridge. Moreover, each snake was not small in size, with open fangs and venomous tongues, their bellies bulging like wings, looking extremely terrifying.
The screams earlier had come from the Wen twins. Both of them seemed to be very afraid of snakes. They had stepped on the soft snake bodies while walking ahead, hence their hysterical screams.
Even those who weren't afraid of snakes would feel their scalp tingle at the sight of this gathering of cold and poisonous creatures.
The dozen or so people glanced at each other, vaguely understanding that this might be the second challenge of the trial.
Qiu Xier tightly held Ranran's hand and whispered, "The further we go, the harder it gets. Why don't we stop here and go back home? They are all too strong, and we can't compare to them."
Ranran didn't say anything because at this moment, the disciples of Feiyun Mountain from the three major sects were already preparing to go first.
Feiyun Sect specialized in *gold of the Five Elements, and are skilled in using various golden needle hidden weapons. When they saw the bridge filled with venomous snakes, they immediately took out the hidden golden needle cylinders from their sleeves and aimed at the snakes. Hundreds and thousands of golden needles shot out with a cold light, piercing the snakes' bodies.
* literally gold but actually metal 金木水火土 ( the five elements )
These hidden cylinders were equipped with special springs, empowered by the spiritual power of the wielder. Every needle pierced deep into the snakes' flesh and bones, causing them to twist and fall into the gorge.
Just as everyone breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to cross the bridge, a loud horn-like wailing sound from a wooden statue suddenly came from the other end of the bridge.
Accompanied by that sound, countless dark green venomous snakes surged from the other end of the bridge, once again occupying the entire rope bridge.
However, the Feiyun Mountain disciples had already used up most of their needle cylinders and couldn't continue.
At this moment, someone grew impatient and, relying on their excellent lightness technique, attempted to leap and step on the snake bodies to cross. Only those with considerable skills would dare to attempt this. The distance in the valley was quite long, so even with a superb lightness technique, they would still need to land a couple of times, then use the force to continue forward.
At first, that person looked quite promising, accurately landing on snake bodies and immediately leaping. Their agile body boosted the confidence of the remaining people.
However, when it came to the final jump to cross the bridge, dozens of large snakes suddenly sprang up, entangling the person and pulling him down.
The person quickly swung their sword, but alas, the snakes managed to bite them a few times. The snake venom spread rapidly, and soon, the person's face turned green, their body stiffening as they fell straight down the gorge.
The valley seemed quite deep, and after the person's screams echoed for a while, they heard a thud from the mist-covered bottom of the valley.
Now, the remaining people looked at each other, none daring to act rashly.
Ordinary snake venom couldn't affect cultivators, as their breathing practices of controlling the urgency of blood flow was part of cultivating inner energy.
Since the person had passed the first challenge alone, that showed he had a decent cultivation foundation. However, he couldn't even adjust his circulation in time after being bitten by the snakes, becoming paralyzed immediately, which indicated how potent the snake venom was.
Just then, Gui Baqian suddenly walked to the edge of the bridge, picked up a wooden stick, infused it with true qi, and flames burst out instantly. He then threw the ignited stick onto the bridge, and in an instant, the flames soared high. The green snakes twisted in the fire, about to turn into ashes.
However, Ranran exclaimed softly, "Not good, the bridge is going to burn down too!"
The fire turned out too strong, burning through the ropes of the bridge in an instant. Seeing that the bridge had been burned through in several places and a few wooden planks had fallen, the water-based Jiuhua Sect disciples, immediately tried to put out the fire with water, but it was unstoppable.
It was Gui Baqian who realized that the bridge couldn't withstand the fire, so he withdrew it back.
Everyone was stunned by his exceptional fire-controlling ability. Even the twin sisters from his sect looked at him with astonishment, clearly not aware of this new junior disciple's skills.
At this moment, the Jiuhua Sect disciples had a clever idea of freezing the snakes with water to create a stable path. However, just as the ice formed, the bridge couldn't bear the sudden increase in weight and broke two more ropes, causing several wooden planks to fall.
The bridge was now shaky, with only one rope left.
Wei Fang was frustrated and said, "Look at what you've done! Without the bridge, we can't jump to the other side!"
Gui Baqian just smiled indifferently, his teeth dazzlingly white, looking unconcerned.
Now that several attempts had failed, the only remaining route seemed to be cut off as well. Wei Fang sighed, "This is great, now we can't go over at all. It looks like we'll miss out on the Marrow Cleansing Pool again this year."
After all, there had been years when there were no outstanding disciples showing up, resulting in no winners for that year.
Just then, Gui Baqian suddenly made a move, chopping the bridge with a single stroke. Then, amidst everyone's exclamations, he leaped over the broken bridge in one go, riding on the wind and landed on the other side.
Such skill in manipulating the wind was a move only mastered by the Heads of the major sects. No one had expected this new disciple from the Kongshan Sect to possess such ability, and he was quite unscrupulous too.
Clearly, he could have made the jump earlier, but he waited until everyone was out of options before cutting the bridge and crossing the valley, to block the advancement of others.
Looking back now, it seemed like he intentionally burned the bridge, as he didn't care about crossing on the bridge himself; he just wanted to destroy it.
After crossing the bridge, Gui Baqian ignored the curses and complaints from the other end of the valley. He laughed coldly and continued on his way.
With no one else in competition with him and his unfathomable abilities, it seemed like he was the sure winner of this Marrow Cleansing Pool trial.
After Gui Baqian left, the Wen sisters became besieged by the rest.
Wei Fang was red-eyed with anger, his veins bulging as he shouted, "What kind of demonic recruit did your Kongshan Sect bring in? Why are your actions so unethical?"
The twins were also tricked by this conniving new junior brother. They couldn't pass the valley and now had to take the blame for that boy's actions, which made them well up with angry tears.
Some people are demoralized by now and started to team up and prepare to go down the mountain. Out of over a dozen of them, four of them left.
Qiu Xier said to Ranran and their senior brother, "Let's leave too. It's getting dark soon, and it's not going to be easy to travel at night. If poisonous snakes come out again, we could really die."
However, Ranran stood still, not moving at all. Suddenly, she clapped her hands and stopped Weifang and others who had finished their cursing and were getting ready to leave. "I have an idea. I don't know if you're willing to cooperate with us?"
Weifang looked at the shrimp soldiers and crab generals from Xishan with surprise and doubt. "What's your idea?"
Ranran said, "Jiuhua sect is proficient in the water element, while we in Xishan specialize in the wood element, and the Kongshan sect specializes in the earth element. If the three of us join forces, we might accomplish something."
The twin sisters also came over and asked, "How can we accomplish something?"
Ranran asked the senior brother to take out the small spade he always carried with him – as disciples of the divine physician Su Yishui, they are always on the look out for good herbs when they enter the mountains, so he often carried the spade with him.
After Gao Cang took the spade, Ranran walked a few rounds in the dense forest and finally dug out a young shoot of a vine plant.
Everyone looked closely and saw that it was the commonly seen Flying Dragon Blood Vine. This kind of vine usually grew on large trees, but once it matured, it would become very sturdy.
But what was she doing with a sprout of a vine? Did she expect it to grow into a vine bridge in a short time?
Weifang was too lazy to roll his eyes; he just said coldly, "Are you kidding us?"
But Ranran was not joking at all. She planted the vine shoot on the edge of the canyon and then inserted a wooden stick into the ground facing the opposite side of the canyon. She then closed her eyes devoutly and muttered something in her mouth.
If one got close enough, they could hear her murmuring words like "Little baby, grow up quickly."
Weifang felt that he had spent enough time hanging out with fools. Since Mu Qingge's generation, it seemed like that there were always some eccentric people in Xishan sect.
At that moment, Ranran took out the "ten years in a day" talisman gifted to her by Elder Jiu and stuck it on the vine.
In a flash, the originally finger-sized vine began to rapidly grow and entwine, soon extending forward along the wooden stick.
However, as the plant was growing too fast, and the nutrients and water in the soil were not enough. Its leaves started to turn slightly yellow.
The twin sisters finally lived up to their names; they quickly understood Ranran's idea and silently used a soil-moving technique to continuously transport fertile soil from all directions.
Ranran motioned towards Weifang, "Will the friend in Tao please water it a bit. This will help it grow faster."
Weifang also understood now and immediately silently used a water technique to rapidly irrigate the vine.
Meanwhile, Ranran took a dozen wooden sticks and her own fishing line, used light body technique to quickly ascend the vine bridge, and continued to connect the vine, guiding it forward along the wooden sticks.
Everyone watched in amazement as Ranran's agile figure moved like a colorful butterfly. Such Light body technique seemed impossible without decades of cultivation…
Mu Ranwu had been watching from the side. Even though she had a smile of admiration on her face, but her hand by her side began to clench, and her arm even trembled slightly. The shadow cast over her by her outstanding sister in her previous life has resurfaced again…
Soon, the vine extended across to the opposite side of the canyon, and the vine itself began to grow thicker.
Ranran was the second to arrive at the opposite side of the canyon after Gui Baqian.
Mu Qingge was the third one to effortlessly jump over.
Seeing this, everyone was afraid that the girl from XiShan would follow in the footsteps of Gui Baqian and cut off the vine bridge. They all rushed to cross the vine bridge one by one, running and leaping across the vine bridge.
Ranran had to call out, "Take it slow, too many people will cause it to fall! Hey, you! Can you not push other people!"
However, there were also people whose light body technique was not up to par, such as Qiu Xier. After taking a few steps, she felt the vine sagging downward. She was frightened and immediately retreated. And because the vine had grown too fast, it also fell down at last.
Qiu Xier shouted over to Ranran and the senior brother with a mournful face, "You guys continue ahead; I can't make it. I'll wait for you at the foot of the mountain!"
Ranran knew that Qiu Xier was timid and didn't force her, so she continued with their senior brother.
However, only seven people passed through this snake bridge checkpoint in the end.
Gui Baqian, who was the first to cross the bridge, had long disappeared from view. The ones left were the twin sisters Bing Qing and Yu Jie, Ranran and senior brother Gao Cang, Wei Fang from JiuHua, and Mu Qingge.
Wei Fang was still annoyed by Gui Baqian's trickery and kept complaining to the sisters from Kongshan sect.
The elder twin sister, Wen Bingqing, couldn't take it anymore and said glaring, "He is Master Uncle Wen Hongshan's cousin, just someone who found a connection in. Who knows what his background is? If you have the ability, when you see him later, go argue with him. What's the point of complaining to us?"
Wei Fang, feeling embarrassed, shot her another look and then quickly walked ahead.
As the terrain of Tianmai Mountain was extremely high, the higher they went, the colder it became. Ranran opened the small package given to her by her second senior brother and found that besides the soft silver armor made by Uncle Master Zeng, inside there was also a warm coat to keep out the cold, as well as a pair of finger hooks that could be worn on the hands.
Unlike the common finger hooks, these hooks could be hidden when not in use, appearing as a beautiful chain accessory for a young girl. But when pressed, spikes could pop out.
Ranran hid behind the bushes, put on the coat and soft silver armor, and also the finger hooks. She took a deep breath and came out to say to Gao Cang, "Senior Brother, let's move slowly. Remember to keep a distance from Gui Baqian when you see him later."
Gao Cang nodded straightforwardly and asked, "Junior Sister, what do you think Gui Baqian is up to?"
Ranran lightly furrowed her brows and said in a small voice, "I always feel like he… is like…"
Before she could finish, the sound of birds chirping suddenly came from afar.
The other four people walking in front also stopped one after another. They saw a bright red firebird leading a group of birds from the mountains, soaring into the sky and circling while chirping.
Wei Fang saw this and couldn't help but exclaim excitedly, "This… is the Lingguang Divine Lord!"
The so-called Lingguang Divine Lord was commonly known as the Vermilion Bird in folklore, just like the Gengjin White Tiger, both being divine beasts with supreme spiritual power.
However, the Vermilion Bird was inherently aloof and usually resided in the northern sea, rarely leaving any traces, making it extremely rare for anyone to see it with their own eyes.
For a cultivator, if they could tame the Vermilion Bird as their mount, would be extremely enticing. It's akin to the luxurious chariots and prized horses of the secular world, a symbol of supreme honor.
Even if one couldn't tame it, just injuring it to obtain some Vermilion Bird's blood would not be bad either. It was said that this blood was an essential ingredient for refining the Nine Turns Resurrection Pill, a priceless item.
Encountering the Vermilion Bird and not obtaining some spiritual blood would be a waste of such a rare opportunity.
Moreover, the small size of the Vermilion Bird indicated that it was still a young bird, which is the best time for taming. In this moment, several younger disciples were all eager to try to subdue the Vermilion Bird.
Mu Qingge's eyes also brightened. Choosing a mount was a matter of great importance for cultivators. If she could obtain a spiritual beast that benefited her, it would enhance her cultivation when she formed a Soul Contract with it.
Her elder sister had the Gengjin White Tiger back then, which looked majestic and made others envious. If she could also have a mount as excellent as the White Tiger, it would be worth being reborn…
Thinking of this, she dashed forward too.
Ranran, however, did not want that. Taking care of the little white tiger already took up a lot of her time; if she had another bird, it would be difficult to split her time fairly between them. As for obtaining the bird's blood and such, Ranran was even less interested.
Shifu had once said that entering Tianmai Mountain not only tested one's foundational spiritual power but also their character. Her Shifu had instructed her to come here just for a bath; she didn't want to get involved in unnecessary trouble.
Every plant and tree here had been nurtured by the spiritual power of the ancient powerful being . She didn't have much ability herself, so it was better not to be too greedy and desire what was beyond her reach.
So while Wei Fang and the others were climbing up the branches to look for the Vermilion Bird's location, Ranran and the eldest senior brother actually walked to the front.
After passing through a mountain hollow, the entire forest suddenly became quiet, and the sounds of birds chirping ceased.
Gao Cang was bewildered and muttered to himself, "Why did the sounds stop so suddenly? Could it be that Wei Fang and the others have already caught the Vermilion Bird?"
However, Ranran looked around vigilantly and whispered, "No, it seems like we've entered some kind of spiritual shield that isolates us from the outside world."
But as soon as she turned her head, the eldest senior brother was also gone, leaving her by herself. Ranran called out for him a few times, took a deep breath and decided to continue forward.
The environment here was completely different from the dense and majestic atmosphere of Tianmai Mountain. The ground was paved with stone slabs, and there were fences with chrysanthemums, apricot trees, and thatched cottages ahead, giving off a pastoral vibe of "picking chrysanthemums under the eastern fence, leisurely watching the southern mountains."
Who could be living in this dangerous place surrounded by fierce beasts, in the vast and lonely mountains.