Chapter Forty: The Illusory Trial

"Phantom Pearl? Why did you give me this?" Xu Chen asked, puzzled.

Niu Dali activated the Phantom Pearl as he spoke. A projection appeared before Xu Chen, showing a shoreline, accompanied by the sound of waves crashing. "This was a trophy I won in the Trial Realm. Inside, you’ll find the vast ocean waves and the swirling currents deep beneath the sea." Niu Dali grinned foolishly, shutting off the pearl and handing it to Xu Chen. "It feels especially suitable for you."

"Senior Brother Niu, I'll accept this gift," Xu Chen replied. Not one to take advantage, he immediately began considering how to return the favor.

"As long as you like it, Junior Brother Xu," Niu Dali said cheerfully. "Come, let’s train and spar for a bit." He hoisted a massive stone and began performing various exercises.

"Alright," Xu Chen responded.

That afternoon, in the trial grounds amidst the dense forest, Xu Chen and Niu Dali sparred with each other.

"Senior Brother Niu, after months apart, your moves have become much more agile." Xu Chen sidestepped Niu Dali’s full-force punch, then struck the joint of his arm with a palm. "But you still can’t touch me."

After hundreds of exchanges, Niu Dali stopped. "Junior Brother Xu, surviving the Trial Realm this time was all thanks to our sparring. If I hadn’t gained speed back then, I might not have had the chance to crush my Realm Talisman," Niu Dali confessed, shivering at the memory. "Seems we need to spar much more in the future."

They rested for a while, then Xu Chen headed home. Standing in the weapon forging chamber, he eyed the stack of steel ingots in the corner and suddenly knew what gift he would give Niu Dali.

"I happen to need to buy a few things from the marketplace," Xu Chen thought. First, he went to the Fire Spirit Mountains and purchased one hundred thousand catties of heavy steel. Its hardness was similar to ordinary steel, but its weight was four times greater. Then he traveled to the Herb Mountain to buy some medicine formulas and spiritual herbs.

That night, within the Holy White Space, Xu Chen first forged weapons, then concocted medicines.

"The Hundred-Forge Blade's quality increased by two points; I've managed to make three batches of Seven Wounds Balm up to standard." Xu Chen felt he was improving. His soul tingling, he fell into a deep sleep upon his bed.

At dawn, Xu Chen entered the weapon forging chamber.

He melted the one hundred thousand catties of heavy steel, crafting two oversized dumbbells. The ground began to tremble as he finished. Xu Chen stowed the dumbbells in his storage pouch and walked outside.

When Niu Dali arrived, carrying a massive stone, Xu Chen set the two dumbbells before him.

"Senior Brother Niu, this is my gift for you. It should suit you well."

Niu Dali immediately understood their purpose as he gazed at the dumbbells. With a thud, he tossed aside the hundred-thousand-catty stone and gripped the dumbbells, slowly lifting them.

"Excellent!" Niu Dali naturally began doing curls, then switched to other exercises.

"Looks like Senior Brother Niu doesn’t need instructions," Xu Chen laughed.

"Junior Brother Xu, I like this gift!"

For the rest of the day, Niu Dali experimented with new ways to use the dumbbells, neglecting even their usual sparring.

After a day of training, Xu Chen returned home, ate, and entered the Holy White Space again.

"Please produce ten batches of Seven Wounds Balm with a quality score above eighty," the mechanical voice intoned coldly.

"I estimate I’ll master the Seven Wounds Balm within a month. Next, I’ll try making poison." Xu Chen deftly selected and processed medicinal ingredients.

Out of twenty batches, five reached a quality above eighty.

Boom!

Three bolts of lightning struck, and Xu Chen’s consciousness condensed.

"Continue~"

A month later, Xu Chen finished his last batch of Seven Wounds Balm with excitement. Instantly, his soul was pulled into the abyss; heaven and earth upended, and he became a child again.

"My dear grandson, Seven Wounds Balm isn’t made the way you’re doing it," said an elder with a youthful face and crane-white hair, carrying an aura of the Dao. "Let me show you."

The elder began making Seven Wounds Balm. The finished product, once coal-black, became bright red in his hands.

"The greatest difficulty lies in the balance of ingredients and potency. The three main herbs must be carefully matched and their properties understood. If you master this, you can produce perfect Seven Wounds Balm," the elder said kindly, gazing at Xu Chen—or rather, at the child he had possessed.

"I understand, Grandpa. I’ll try again now."

The child made four batches in succession and finally produced a perfect Seven Wounds Balm.

Suddenly, Xu Chen’s soul returned, and a flood of insights and pharmacology about Seven Wounds Balm burst into his mind.

Within the Holy White Space, Xu Chen sat cross-legged for an hour.

"I never expected the art of medicine-making to be so vast," he mused. Having absorbed the knowledge for Blood-Stopping Powder, then Seven Wounds Balm, he glimpsed a sea of medicinal arts, of which he had only gleaned a drop.

After digesting the insights, Xu Chen entered the wooden door of medicine-making once more. Using the herbs inside, he produced twenty batches of Seven Wounds Balm, the best reaching a quality score of ninety-nine.

"The next formula is Blood-Rot Poison, a toxin for coating weapons."

"As for weapons, their quality now reaches eighty. Before long, I’ll get to ninety and complete the mastery. Then I'll forge the Thousand-Forge Blade."

"Once everything is ready, Grandpa will visit me again."

Xu Chen glanced at the wooden door bearing the Six Holy Ape Forms.

To him now, the Six Holy Ape Forms clone was his greatest nemesis. If every death left a corpse, the clone would stand atop a mountain of his bodies.

At dawn, Xu Chen trained outside on the grass, while Niu Dali flaunted his dumbbell exercises nearby.

"Junior Brother Xu, did you hear about the new sect rule?"

"What rule?" Xu Chen asked, finishing a set.

"To advance from the Qi-Blood Realm to the Treasure Body Realm, you must slay three Qi-Blood Realm outsiders in the Trial Realm first. If you fail to complete this task and ascend, you’ll be expelled from the sect," Niu Dali explained while swinging the giant dumbbells. "Furthermore, anyone who hasn't reached Treasure Body Realm by age twenty-five will also be expelled."

"Why such strict measures all of a sudden?" Xu Chen was taken aback.

"Apparently, our Grand Elder is dissatisfied with being last among the Five Great Sects. With the addition of the Young Grandmaster, he wants to improve disciples' quality so we can win a good reputation at the upcoming Five Sects Tournament."

"Alright," Xu Chen replied, continuing his training, as if none of it concerned him.

Just as the two trained together, their disciple tokens rang simultaneously.

"Sect Illusion Assessment?" Xu Chen’s face was full of confusion.

At Phantom Heart Valley, Xu Chen and Niu Dali held their disciple tokens and gazed at the entrance.

"This place is normally only for Treasure Body Realm disciples and above. Is the assessment here?"

Already, thousands of Qi-Blood Realm disciples were gathering at the valley gate, and more kept arriving. Soon, over thirty thousand disciples were assembled outside the valley.