Chapter 11693 — Di Liankong Sneers in Contempt

Jin Le nodded. "You'll have your chance to remember it."

With that, he bowed to Monarch Song and stepped of his own accord into the teleportation passage.

Just like that, only eight candidates remained on the field.

One elimination per trial round might not seem a high culling rate at first glance, but the cruelty of it was in no way inferior to any trial they had faced before.

It was simple: what determined the intensity of the competition was not the trial itself, but the quality of the competitors.

Without question, this batch before them was the strongest competition they had ever encountered.

And this was merely the beginning.

As one, everyone turned to Monarch Song, waiting for him to announce the content of the next round.

Monarch Song declared, "You have one day to rest and regroup. Then the third round begins."

As for what the third round of trials would specifically entail, he said not a single word.

The crowd exchanged glances.

Still, since he had gone out of his way to grant them rest time, no one was about to waste it. They seized every second and buried themselves once more in refining the paradigm fruits they each held.

Whatever the trials might bring next, one more measure of strength meant one more measure of a chance to pass—of that there could be no doubt.

One day later.

The eight candidates gathered once more.

Compared with a day ago, their condition was plainly much improved; several among them had visibly heightened the intensity of their auras.

Wei Zhao nodded to himself. There was no denying it—this really was a concentration camp of monsters.

Every last one of them, given the chance, was truly capable of being reborn anew.

A genius of somewhat lesser caliber entering this place—forget surviving the trials and the culling. The sheer pressure of watching everyone around them improve by leaps and bounds at every moment would be enough to drive a person mad.

Monarch Song surveyed them all. "It seems you are all well rested. I will now announce the content of the third round of trials."

"The requirement is simple. By whatever means you choose, remain inside the Black Prison for one full day."

"And remember—do not lose control."

Having said that, without waiting for questions, he pulled with one hand, and a pitch-black cavity appeared before him.

In that instant, the incomparably evil and chaotic aura seeping from within made every scalp in the place crawl.

Wei Zhao's eyes flickered. "Outer demons?"

The aura differed from the Crimson Ape they had encountered before, yet on the whole it belonged to the same category.

Drawing on the information Shi Wushuang had let slip earlier, one of the Heavenly Dao Academy's core duties was to purge the outer demons that cropped up in various places.

Wei Zhao could be certain: within this Black Prison before him, some manner of demon was surely confined.

The other candidates likewise wore grave expressions.

Some of them knew the inside story, some did not, but either way, all understood that the coming trial would be no easy thing.

Spend a day inside the Black Prison.

Any perceptive person knew: the simpler the requirement, the higher the difficulty was bound to be.

For the first time ever, Monarch Song offered a remark: "Good luck to you all."

The group exchanged a look, then in silence entered one after another.

Once all eight had gone in, the Black Prison shut fast.

Black Prison by name, and true to it—not a sliver of light inside, much like a black hole.

Fortunately, they could still project their divine sense to probe, though the formless suppression of the surrounding environment kept its range extremely limited—at most, they could make out the scene within three meters of themselves.

The good news was that the Black Prison was not large, only about half a football field in size.

What was more, the space was utterly empty, without a single obstacle.

Even if they could probe only three meters at a time, sweeping the whole of the Black Prison would not take long.

It was only that the ever-thickening evil aura within truly made the heart quail.

The more silent the surroundings, the more unnerving the whole atmosphere became.

While the others were still cautiously exploring, Wei Zhao suddenly stopped moving.

At that moment, Di Liankong cleared his throat and spoke. "Everyone, in this round we are not in competition with one another. I propose we set aside past grievances and pull through this together—that would be good for all of us."

No one answered in the darkness, though neither did anyone voice objection.

Di Liankong's foul conduct in the previous round had indeed put them on guard, but as for the trial before them now, no one had said how many must be eliminated, nor was any quota for passing set. There truly was no direct competition among them.

Di Liankong's proposal, at least for the moment, was not without sense.

Suddenly Wei Zhao spoke. "There's something on your back."

The words set every scalp crawling, and on instinct they all drew away from Di Liankong.

Di Liankong was startled too, but after checking himself over all around, he found nothing at all.

Di Liankong gave a cold snort. "Brother Lin, this really is childish of you. I admit there is bad blood between us, but the bigger picture comes first. Is there any need to deliberately make a fool of me at a time like this?"

"You think I'm making a fool of you?"

Wei Zhao looked at him strangely—more precisely, at the small figure behind Di Liankong.

The others' divine sense was limited, but his World Will was unaffected by the Black Prison. At this moment he could see every blade of grass and every leaf within it with perfect clarity.

Nowhere else was anything amiss.

Only behind Di Liankong there was now a three-year-old child.

What set it apart from an ordinary child was that its entire body was covered in fur, and above all its eyes—not human eyes at all, but unmistakably vertical slits.

Normally, even if the naked eye could not see it, the other five senses were not sealed off.

In particular, one could still look around with divine sense. With a thing like that draped over his back, however light its weight, Di Liankong should not have been utterly unable to sense it.

Yet judging by how he behaved now, it was no act.

He truly seemed unaware that a ghost doll was hanging on him.

The rest of them were all three meters away from him, so naturally they could see even less.

Di Liankong's heart crawled. "Is this amusing to you?"

Wei Zhao's eyelid twitched.

That ghost doll had actually made a hushing gesture at him!

Wei Zhao said nothing more at once, only remarking offhandedly, "Then perhaps I saw wrong."

Di Liankong was speechless.

The more Wei Zhao behaved like that, the more his heart crawled.

The others, too, were all secretly uneasy.

Something here was certainly not right—of that there could be no doubt.

Unless they dragged the source of the evil aura into the light, none of them could rest easy.

But the problem was this: the thing was literally hanging on his back, and Di Liankong could not even sense it. With what, then, were they to drag it into the light?

As the others trembled with fear, Wei Zhao quietly watched the ghost doll's behavior in the darkness.

He could be certain: this was an outer demon.

Since the Heavenly Dao Academy had confined it within this Black Prison and set it as the content of the third round of trials, there must be some deep intent behind it.

It was worth noting that the requirement for this round was merely to remain inside the Black Prison for a full day—nothing else whatsoever.

In other words, they were not required to deal with this ghost doll.