At this time, Li Yan was standing in a field of spiritual grains. He straightened up, holding the hoe with one hand and wiping the sweat from his forehead with the other. Even with the physique of a cultivator, he was exhausted after hoeing two rows of weeds.
This task was just accepted a few days ago. When he found the third senior brother, he just took out a hoe from the hut and threw it to him without saying anything. Li Yan didn't care at the time. Isn't it just farm work
He had been doing this kind of work frequently since he was a child, otherwise he would not have dared to take it easily. He considered himself an expert in it, but when he really got to do it, he was dumbfounded.
Li Yan picked up the hoe and asked about the location. After a few cold replies from his third senior brother, he flew towards the spiritual valley fields on his flying magic weapon.
This is a spiritual valley of about several hundred acres. Every tree is shining with golden green light. Li Yan is like facing a waist-deep valley with shimmering waves.
He felt the vigorous fluctuations of spiritual energy from these spiritual valleys. The breeze caused the valley waves to rise and fall. From afar, he could see dots of golden and green light swaying in unison, giving people a sudden sense of the vastness of the world and its vitality.
The task he accepted was to weed ten acres of land a day, otherwise he would be deducted a low-grade spirit stone. Li Yan certainly thought there was no problem with this.
After admiring the beautiful countryside, he took off his robe, rolled up his sleeves, and walked to the ridges, where he saw a lot of weeds.
He took a deep breath, stood still with his front and back feet, and then he hoeed down. There was a loud "clang" sound, which made Li Yan's hands numb. Only a shallow mark was left on the ground, not to mention the bunch of weeds that did not move at all.
After a moment of silence, Li Yan raised the hoe again and gathered all his strength. There was another "clang" sound, louder than the last one, and crisp and pleasing to the ear. However, only a shallow mark was left on the ground, which was not much deeper than the last one.
Li Yan was suddenly a little bit unbelievable. He was about to bend down and dig the ground with his hands to see what was going on. At this moment, a voice came from behind him.
"Junior brother, you can't do this. Is this your first time taking on this mission?"
Upon hearing this, Li Yan looked back and saw a man standing between ridges in another grain field several dozen feet away. He was also holding a hoe in his hand and was probably weeding.
Li Yan did not release his spiritual sense just now, so he did not notice that there was someone else here. The other person might have heard the loud noise here and noticed Li Yan.
Li Yan quickly turned around and saluted.
"I'm sorry to make you laugh, Senior Brother. This is indeed the first time I've accepted this kind of mission, but I don't know what your name should be, Senior Brother?"
The man was of medium build, about thirty years old, with a short beard and a very lean look.
Li Yan did not release his spiritual sense, and estimated that the other party should be a cultivator in the Foundation Establishment Stage. However, that person did not release his spiritual sense either, otherwise, seeing Li Yan's level of cultivation, he would probably call him "Junior Brother".
"I am Zhang Kui from Sixiang Peak. I wonder who this junior fellow apprentice is...?"
"Oh, I am the disciple of Xiaozhu Peak, Li Yan!" Li Yan replied with a smile.
"Oh? Li Yan... Li Yan? I remember now. He seems to be the junior fellow disciple I joined from Xiaozhu Peak a few years ago. I heard him mention him when I was chatting with Daqiao before."
When the middle-aged monk heard this, he was stunned at first, thought for a while, and then laughed.
Li Yan smiled and nodded, thinking.
"Given Senior Brother Seven's lively personality, it's not surprising to hear this from him."
"What? Junior Brother Li came here without learning the method from Senior Brother Yun?"
Li Yan couldn't tell him directly that his third senior brother just threw the hoe to him, and he didn't even know the place until he asked, so he could only scratch his head.
Zhang Mei seemed to understand something after seeing this.
"Hahaha... I get it. I'll tell you. Actually, this is not difficult. The hoe in our hands is not an ordinary thing like a farmer's. It is also a primary spiritual weapon.
You need to use spiritual power when hoeing the ground. The weeds in the fields are most afraid of gold spiritual power, followed by fire spiritual power. If you use wood spiritual power, water spiritual power, or earth spiritual power, not only will it not be removed, but it will help the roots spread more wildly. That's it."
After saying that, he nodded to Li Yan, then bent down to work.
Li Yan also quickly returned the greeting, knowing that the other person was giving him a lot of advice, which was a great honor for him. Otherwise, the other person would not bother to care about him.
At this time, he also remembered that there was such a reminder when he accepted the task, which required gold and fire spiritual power. He didn't know it at the time, and later when he got the hoe, he temporarily ignored it. So this is the case.
Then the Guishui Meridian in his body began to circulate, and golden spiritual power took shape in an instant. The next moment, it was injected into the spiritual hoe. The hoe glowed with golden light. Li Yan picked up the hoe and dug down. With a light "hiss" sound, the ground was turned up, which was exactly as Zhang Kui said.
In this way, Li Yan started working among the ridges of the fields, but only half an hour later, when he straightened up, he was already sweating profusely and his face was a little pale, because the spiritual energy in his body had been exhausted.
With his cultivation level at the seventh level of the Qi Condensation Stage, plowing ten acres of land was nothing.
However, the land in this spiritual valley was very strange. Not only was the ground extremely hard, but the roots of the weeds were nearly three feet deep. If he didn't inject enough spiritual power, he would not be able to weed them out. If he injected too much spiritual energy, it would be wasted.
Just like that, after three ridges of land, his magic power was almost exhausted. Looking at the remaining large tracts of grain fields, Li Yan couldn't help but sigh in his heart.
"It seems that another spiritual stone has flown away!"
It would take him more than ten hours to recover through meditation, how could he finish it in one day...
The days passed by like this with little profit and much loss. One evening a month later, Li Yan looked at the ten acres of clean, weed-free grain fields and the corners of his mouth curled up.
During this period of time, he lost a lot of spirit stones. Although he also took the task of watering the Mowang Bamboo, plus the spirit stones he received every month, he still owed the Mission Hall 26 spirit stones in the end. However, this situation should happen less frequently in the days to come.
Although he lost a lot of spirit stones, Li Yan also learned a lot, such as the rational use of spiritual power, the rapid conversion of the five elements of spiritual power, and also improved the speed of spiritual power recovery, etc.
All of this is the result of repeatedly consuming mana in the Spiritual Plant Garden, restoring it, and consuming it again... A new understanding has emerged in the cycle.
And during a practice after weeding, he unexpectedly broke through to the late seventh level of Qi Condensation Stage. Everything happened so naturally that he was not prepared at all. Li Yan was of course very happy about this.
Time passed in this fulfilling day by day. Every day, Li Yan was busy between the spiritual garden and cultivation, like a hardworking little bee.
On this day, Li Yan got up early in the morning, washed up simply, then opened the gate formation and headed straight to the Mission Hall. He still owed the Mission Hall 26 spirit stones, so he had to hurry up, otherwise he would owe 27 by next month. The interest rate of the sect was really frighteningly high.
Recently, due to the fact that a large number of foundation-building monks in the sect went out for training, a lot of tasks had accumulated in the task halls of the various peaks, so the tasks that he was familiar with, such as the Mowang Bamboo Task and the Spirit Valley Watering Task, were still available. Zhang Kui said that the main task hall of Laojun Peak had accumulated a large number of tasks, but it seemed that after the foundation-building selection was over, these tasks would soon disappear.
The tasks that Li Yan and Zhang Kui have been doing in recent months are basically the same. Zhang Kui is not good at fighting, otherwise he would have taken on outdoor missions long ago, so that he could earn more spirit stones.
He did not sign up for this foundation-building competition. There were many people in the Wuliang Sect who were like him and only focused on improving their realm and wanted to gain immortality. Their goal was to achieve eternal life.
After Li Yan walked out of the courtyard, he was about to release the flying spiritual weapon when he saw a flash of light in the sky above the bamboo forest, and a huge scroll fell down.
"Little Junior Brother, slow down, I've arrived at an unexpected time!"
A gentle voice came from the front.
Li Yan was stunned when he saw who was coming. He didn't know why the senior brother came to see him so early in the morning, so he bowed quickly.
"Hello, Senior Brother. If you have anything to say, just send a message through the token and I'll come over. Why bother making a trip?"
Li Wuyi had put away his magic weapon and walked over steadily.
"Hehehe... I think it's better to talk about this face to face."
Li Yan couldn't help but feel puzzled when he heard this. Something actually happened that made the senior brother come to find him. It seemed that it was not a trivial matter.
So they opened the gate again, and the two walked into the yard and sat down on the stone bench. Li Yan took out the tea set and poured two cups of tea. This tea was given to him by Zhang Kui in the spiritual plant garden.
Li Wuyi took a sip of tea and felt his mouth watering. He nodded involuntarily and then his face became serious.
"Junior brother, I came here to tell you something important.
Recently, my master and mistress have been in seclusion, and I have been in charge of all matters in the peak. After receiving the order from the sect leader yesterday, I went to Laojun Peak and listened to the instructions of the senior uncles regarding picking in the secret realm next year.
Some time ago, Jindan masters from Taixuan Sect, Pure Land Sect and Shibuyuan Sect came to our sect to discuss this matter. The three sects proposed that in addition to picking in the secret realm next year, another small space of the Wheel of Life and Death in the secret realm should be opened for the grand competition among the sects.
The Wheel of Life and Death is also located in the secret realm. A long time ago, after the Jindan stage cultivators came to the secret realm to pick fruits, the various sects would start trial competitions. However, after the fourth stage, when the foundation-building stage cultivators entered the secret realm to pick fruits, the Wheel of Life and Death was closed.
Only the master and his companions know the reason for its closure, but I still have some information. The Wheel of Life and Death should be a bloody magic weapon refined by an ancient cultivator in the secret realm.
It is shaped like a huge sphere in the secret realm, with twenty entrances entering from different directions and then moving towards the center of the sphere.
Each passage must be led by a cultivator at the foundation-building stage or above, and then the team must consist of thirty-six cultivators whose cultivation level is one level lower than that of the captain.
The twenty roads are independent and unrelated to each other. At first, each road is only ten miles long, but as the monks continue to move towards the center of the sphere, the length of the road will continue to extend towards the center of the sphere.
These roads are constantly twisting and moving inside the sphere, like twenty flying strips. From the overall perspective, it looks more like a huge sphere that is constantly rotating, and people are walking on the flying and moving strips.
But in fact, the people inside will not feel any shaking of the road, so it is called the Wheel of Life and Death.
In this process, there will always be two roads that continue to extend and intersect at the end of the road, but no one can know which two roads intersect.
The moment the roads intersect, the ends of the two roads will stop extending, and the seventy-four monks on the two roads will meet.
At this time, both sides must engage in the most brutal fight until there are only thirty-seven or fewer monks left. Then the two roads will become one road, and continue to extend, allowing the monks to move forward to the center of the sphere again. "
Having said that, Li Wuyi glanced at Li Yan, who lowered his head seemingly in deep thought.
"Junior brother, don't you have any curiosity or questions?"
Li Wuyi took a sip of tea.
"Big Brother, I think there must be some reason that forces both sides to fight, otherwise both sides can just wait there for the end, for example: if they can't reach the center of the ball, the whole team will die, or there will be a huge threat when the two roads intersect?"
After hearing this, Li Wuyi praised it.
"Junior brother is really smart, even though he didn't guess it right, he guessed the key point.
Once the twenty roads are filled with seven hundred and forty monks, they will automatically open, and from that moment on, the sphere will continue to shrink and suppress towards the center of the sphere.
As the sphere shrinks, a dark shadow similar to a dark cloud will appear on the edge of the sphere, and inside the sphere it will look like a huge black curse pressing down from the sky.
As long as the human body touches these black shadows, no matter the magic weapons, magic treasures, or flesh and bones on the body, they will all turn into ashes in an instant, without any escape.
Therefore, when the two roads intersect, both sides must fight desperately as quickly as possible to open the extension of the road before the terrifying black shadow arrives as the sphere continues to shrink, otherwise they will all die under the terrifying black shadow soon.
The wheel of life and death is a test of speed. The center of the ball is divided into four layers, and everyone can eventually enter the first layer.
The teams that arrive will be re-arranged in order, and the first three teams will be teleported to different compartments, where there are generous rewards of different levels. These rewards are far richer than the treasures obtained in the picking trials outside.
However, not all the items obtained can be owned by an individual in the end. Everyone can choose a treasure first, or simply give up the treasure and exchange it with the sect for spirit stones of equivalent value.
The rest must be handed over to the sect. This may sound a bit inhumane. After all, this is what every member of the team fought for with their lives, so why should they hand it over to the sect
But even in this situation, it is still a trial ground that everyone is scrambling to go to. Any treasure there may be something you will never get in your lifetime, or you may even have never heard of it, so it is very precious.
However, the sect has spent so much resources to cultivate your growth, and opening the secret realm requires consuming precious resources, so most of the treasures obtained must be handed over to the sect. "
Li Yan nodded when he heard this. He certainly agreed with this point of view, and he also understood the reason why the eldest senior brother explained it to him. It was to let him know that if he went, he should not have any barriers towards the sect in his heart.
“As long as everyone reaches the first level at the center of the sphere, there will be no death. However, except for the first three teams, they will not receive any rewards. In the end, they will be teleported out together with the monks from the other three teams.
Those who finally stay on the path will die. That kind of death is watching the people around you die one by one, which is an unbearable torture. Many people may go crazy and attack their teammates before they die..."