Chapter 338: Chapter 338: Special Martial Dao Tournament Rules, the Dire Straits Test

Chu Sheng crawled closer, a little stunned.

"Buzz buzz? Is that it? Are you kidding me?"

He circled the small earthen mound, filled with disbelief.

It was like going through hell and high water, defeating the evil dragon, and navigating the labyrinth, only to finally open the treasure chest and find a lump of mud inside.

The sheer disappointment was enough to make you want to curse up a storm.

However, his gaze soon fell upon the stone slab.

Words seemed to be carved on the slab.

Chu Sheng moved closer for a look.

The characters were scrawled, as if someone had casually carved them with a finger, exuding an indescribable, wild, and untamed spirit.

Tomb of Lin Daosheng.

Lin Daosheng?

’Who’s that?’

Chu Sheng turned and looked at Gu Yuexi.

"You know him?"

However, Gu Yuexi ignored him.

At that moment, something was very wrong with Gu Yuexi.

She stood before the stone slab, completely motionless, as if she had been struck by an Immobilization Technique.

Her eyes were fixed on the few scrawled words, her pupils dilated as if she were witnessing some unbelievable sight!

At this moment.

In Gu Yuexi’s vision, this was no simple stone slab.

It was a colossal monument that pierced the heavens!

Every seemingly casual brushstroke contained the infinite truths of the Great Dao, and each line seemed to expound upon the birth and death of the universe!

That aura...

Vast, ancient, and supreme!

This was divinity!

The true Divine Realm!

Gu Yuexi felt her soul leave her body, drawn into a profound and ineffable Realm.

There, she saw the back of a figure.

It was a solitary, imposing back that seemed to carry the weight of all the heavens and myriad worlds.

The mere sight of this figure’s back filled her with the urge to prostrate herself in worship.

This was the absolute suppression of a higher order of being!

"This is... the path I must walk..."

Gu Yuexi murmured to herself, her eyes glazed over as she fell into a state of "pilgrimage," akin to a sudden epiphany.

At this moment, all the sounds and sights of the outside world ceased to matter to her.

She seemed to have become a gravestone herself, standing before the other, unmoving even if the heavens were to fall and the earth to shatter.

...

Chu Sheng called out to her twice.

"Buzz buzz! Hey! Wake up!"

No response.

Chu Sheng crawled onto her shoulder and prodded her cheek with his forelegs.

Still no response.

Her breathing even grew faint, almost nonexistent, as if she had entered a state of suspended animation.

’Great, another one’s spaced out.’

Chu Sheng shook his head helplessly.

’I’ve read about this state in novels before,’ he thought. ’It’s probably one of those opportunities for enlightenment.’

’Although I have no idea what kind of profound truths this woman can glean from a broken piece of rock, it doesn’t look like she’ll be waking up anytime soon.’

’Since she has her fateful encounter, I, Lord Mosquito, can’t just stand by idly, can I?’

Chu Sheng jumped off Gu Yuexi’s shoulder, his gaze returning to the small earthen mound.

There were only two things here: the small earthen burial mound and the broken stone slab gravestone.

’Gu Yuexi is interested in this broken gravestone?’

’Then I’ll just have to investigate this mound myself!’

’How to investigate?’

’How else? I’ll dig, of course.’

Chu Sheng landed on the grave, rubbed his "hands" together, and hesitated for a moment.

’Digging up someone’s grave? That’s not right, is it?’

Ahem...

Although a flicker of guilt flashed through Chu Sheng’s mind, it was... just a flicker. A tiny one at that.

It was gone in the blink of an eye!

’I, Lord Mosquito, went through all this trouble to get here. There’s no way I’m leaving empty-handed, right?’

’Screw it. Time to dig!’

’But how?’

Chu Sheng looked down at his six razor-sharp legs. ’Natural-born shovels and pickaxes!’

"Let’s get to work!"

Chu Sheng was a decisive mosquito; once he made up his mind, he acted.

He found a good spot and began to dig furiously at the burial mound.

SCRAPE! SCRAPE!

The seemingly ordinary, grayish-white sandy soil was actually as hard as rock.

But under Chu Sheng’s indestructible claws, it was slowly scraped away.

Dust flew into the air.

A mosquito, ten thousand meters deep at the bottom of the sea, inside a mysterious Divine Realm Domain, with its butt in the air, was frantically digging up the grave of an unknown powerhouse.

The scene was as bizarre as it was inexplicably comical.

...

「Meanwhile.」

「At the edge of the Spiritless Sea Region.」

Old Chen, the King Realm Tutor from Jing University, and the female tutor from Huaqing were still floating there.

They stood side by side, their gazes piercing the mist, as if waiting for something.

"Half a day has passed."

The female tutor from Huaqing glanced at the communicator on her wrist, her brow furrowed.

"At a normal pace, if they’ve figured out the pattern, they should be coming out soon, right?"

Old Chen remained expressionless, but his hands, clasped behind his back, tightened slightly.

"What’s the rush?"

"This is the ’Desperate Situation Test,’ not some child’s game."

"If they can’t even handle a crisis of this level, then going to the White Eagle Empire for the international tournament would just be to embarrass themselves, or worse, to get themselves killed."

The Desperate Situation Test.

Those four words carried a heavy weight.

It was a special rule established by the host of the upcoming International Youth Martial Dao Tournament: the White Eagle Empire.

It was a challenge they had laid down.

The first trial of the Martial Dao tournament: the Desperate Situation Test, or perhaps, the Deadly Ground Test.

The ten participating nations were each required to draw one of the world’s "deadly grounds" by lot, and then send their respective teams in to undergo the test.

And they were to do so without any prior knowledge.

And Great Xia had drawn the Spiritless Sea Region.

It was cruel.

Brutal, even.

Because people could actually die in this test—and not just anyone, but the top prodigies of each nation!

Because of this, some countries didn’t even dare to send the prodigies they valued most.

But Great Xia was different.

Great Xia would never back down.

"I just received word,"

Old Chen suddenly said, his voice low.

"The Ying Country team was almost completely wiped out."

"What?!"

The female tutor from Huaqing’s expression changed, and she whipped her head around to look at him.

"Completely... completely wiped out? Not a single one made it out?"

Old Chen shook his head.

"They drew the Poisonous Rainforest. Ten prodigies went in, and in less than three hours, their formation collapsed due to internal conflict and panic."

"In the end, only two managed to escape to the edge alive, but they were too deeply poisoned. Their Origin was destroyed, and now they’re completely crippled."

"As for the other eight... not even their bodies were found."

Hearing this, the female tutor from Huaqing drew in a sharp, cold breath.

Ying Country might not be a top-tier power, but as a populous nation, the prodigies they selected were certainly not weak.

To think they would meet such a fate.

The difficulty of this "Desperate Situation Test" was simply beyond imagination.

"What about the other countries?"

"The European Union got lucky. They drew the Extreme Cold Icefield. The environment is harsh, but survival is possible as long as they stick together. Eight of them have already made it out, so they’ve passed."

"Sakura Country... it’s said they used some sort of sacrificial Evil Technique. They sacrificed two of their weaker members to preserve their main force and managed to get out."

Old Chen paused, a complex look in his eyes.

"Now, it’s all up to our kids from Great Xia."

"The Spiritless Sea Region... ranks in the top three for difficulty among the ten deadliest zones."

"It tests not only strength, but also temperament and wisdom."

"Especially their captain, Shen Yixuan. Every decision he makes will determine the life or death of the entire team."