Chapter 153 - 81: The Second Stage, Volcanic Purgatory! The Heavenly Ace

Chapter 153: Chapter 81: The Second Stage, Volcanic Purgatory! The Heavenly Ace

SWISH!

Using Repulsive Force to levitate and continuously accelerate, Jiang Xuan and his two companions overtook the main body of students in just a few breaths. Far in the distance, they could see the back of the Daoist who led the way.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

The Daoist maintained his unhurried pace, advancing into the depths of the wilderness, completely unperturbed by the chaos unfolding behind him.

But thanks to the Shrinking Inches technique, each step he took covered over ten meters. Though his gait seemed light and easy, his forward speed was astonishing.

Of course, the difficulty of just keeping up was not enough to make students like Qin Feng struggle. After all, these were the elites, hand-picked by the Three Great Daoist Schools.

What truly left the students of the three schools gasping for breath was what happened wherever the Daoist passed. The wilderness ground continuously cracked and collapsed as countless ferocious Demon Beasts burst forth from the earth, roaring as they swarmed to besiege them.

Gorges and ravines crisscrossed the land, and Demon Beasts poured out in an endless tide. This calamity left almost no safe place to stand in the entire wilderness, making the Cultivators’ situation incredibly precarious.

As for taking to the sky—Flying Techniques were not uncommon in the Cultivation Realm, but most Cultivators only began learning them in the Spirit Core Late Stage. Only those who reached this Realm possessed enough Magical Power to sustain flight for long periods.

Among the thousand-plus students from the three Daoist Schools, those whose Cultivation had reached this Realm were few and far between. They simply couldn’t take to the air to escape the slaughter on the ground.

The only silver lining in this chaotic battlefield, if one could call it that, was that with the trial’s difficulty suddenly skyrocketing, the fight for survival had become everyone’s sole priority.

Because the situation was so perilous, all the duels and conflicts secretly plotted between the students of the three Daoist Schools before the trial were now temporarily on hold.

Everyone had their hands full just staying alive; there was no time to plot against others.

’I never thought the students from the three schools would end up achieving a temporary peace like this,’

Jiang Xuan thought with a mix of amusement and exasperation, a sigh escaping him as he witnessed the absurd yet pragmatic scene.

But while Jiang Xuan was merely shaking his head with a sigh, outside, Chen Chengguang, an instructor from the Yin Daoist School, was watching the events on the Road of Purgatory with an ashen face. His mood had hit rock bottom.

Staring daggers at Song Zhou and Cheng Jin beside him, he demanded in a grim tone, "The current difficulty of this trial is completely different from the standard we agreed on!"

Hearing this, Cheng Jin made no attempt to hide or deflect. She nodded frankly. "It is different. I thought about it all last night and decided that a simple trial of pursuit was too shallow. It wouldn’t test the students’ true strength or their ability to handle pressure. So, I took the liberty of raising the difficulty a bit."

The moment she finished speaking, Song Zhou stepped in to smooth things over. "Senior Brother Chen, it’s no great matter," he said, his tone light and placating. "The new difficulty on the Road of Purgatory applies to all Three Great Daoist Schools equally. There’s no favoritism."

"Junior Sister Cheng didn’t just raise the bar for your Yin Daoist School. Her Rooster Daoist School and my Chen Daoist School are facing the exact same perils."

"And when the difficulty increases for everyone, it’s the same as it not increasing at all."

His words sounded fair, but they concealed a cunning calculation.

The Yin Daoist School had Chen Qianjun as its undisputed leader, and its disciples had long since rallied around him, acting as a single, cohesive unit.

In contrast, the Rooster and Chen Daoist Schools were fragmented, with everyone fending for themselves. They were still just a pile of loose sand.

Under the original circumstances, the Yin Daoist School would have held a massive advantage.

An alliance was out of the question.

If the students within a single school couldn’t even unite, it was even less likely that the Rooster and Chen Daoist Schools could join forces.

It was safe to say that under the original difficulty—where the trial on the Road of Purgatory was primarily a contest between students—the Yin Daoist School would have had a natural thirty-percent-higher chance of winning.

But the sudden spike in difficulty had ruined all of the Yin Daoist School’s plans.

Now, the joint trial was no longer a competition of teamwork. It was a test of who could flee the farthest and survive the longest amidst the ’cataclysm’ and the siege of demons and monsters.

In this scenario, the Yin Daoist School’s well-organized, tight-knit formation was no longer an advantage. It had become a fatal liability.

Their large numbers made the formation bloated and slow to maneuver. Their movements were clumsy, and they presented an enormous, conspicuous target. In a cataclysm like this, their disadvantages were on full display.

In contrast, people like Jiang Xuan, Qin Feng, and Fang Xiao were operating in small, scattered groups. They could advance and retreat with flexibility, making them far better suited for this desperate plight.

What made Chen Chengguang’s expression even uglier was the fact that because they weren’t part of a large team, Cultivators like Qin Feng, Fang Xiao, Qiao Yue, and Xie Hanyan had no psychological burden whatsoever about abandoning others to save themselves.

But Chen Qianjun was different.

He was the absolute core of his team, the central figure of the Yin Daoist School.

He had gathered everyone together through his personal charisma and immense strength.

Under these circumstances, he had truly earned their loyalty.

But a reputation is both a blessing and a curse. If he were to abandon his followers and flee alone in this time of crisis, the prestige and loyalty he had so carefully built would instantly crumble to dust.

His reputation at the Daoist School would plummet, and he would become an utter laughingstock.

As for not fleeing, and instead protecting his followers as they advanced—that was indeed what Chen Qianjun was doing right now.

His turning back to rescue Lin Yiyi just now was no isolated incident.

Cultivating the Hundred Battles Refining Form, he was like a warlord on the battlefield, charging back and forth across the chaotic wilderness in a relentless fight.