Chapter 4871 — Thunder Burial

As for whether the Alliance Leader's words were true or false, one need only look at those present who had come here once before. Their first failure had long since left its shadow upon them; with faces so deathly dull, what chance did they have of succeeding at the Xuan Ascension this time? One in a thousand? One in ten thousand?

Watching the tension and terror written across the crowd, the young Alliance Leader on the platform smiled without a sound. Had anyone dared stare at him the way Wei Zhao did, they would have seen the contempt and scorn etched into his very bones—the gaze one turned upon so many ants.

With his strength, these cultivators at the peak of the Nascent Soul indeed were, in his eyes, insignificant ants. And these ants did not even possess the resolve to burn their boats behind them. Beyond contempt and scorn, there was hardly a second expression he could summon.

Contempt though he held, he was still the Alliance Leader, and at the very least he had to tolerate the drudgery of explaining the rules to the end.

"Once you enter the Giants' Road, the only thing you need do is seek a suitable place to enter seclusion. So long as you circulate your cultivation method at full force, it will naturally draw down a lightning tribulation. As for the tribulation points within, they have all been marked out long ago," the Alliance Leader said indifferently.

Tribulation points? Wei Zhao was momentarily taken aback, then understood. Even on the Giants' Road, not just any place could summon a lightning tribulation.

These so-called tribulation points were presumably the places where lightning tribulation was relatively easy to draw down. To put it plainly from a mortal standpoint, they were spots more likely to be struck by lightning...

"Naturally, not every tribulation point remains effective; they were marked tens of thousands of years ago, and some have long since failed. Still, every tribulation point is arrayed with a protective formation. So long as you remain within the formation, you may draw down your tribulation in peace, with no fear of anyone outside taking advantage and striking at you when you are vulnerable," the Alliance Leader continued.

Everyone, Wei Zhao included, came to understand, and their earlier worries were swept clean away. After all, who did not have a few enemies and rivals? Facing the lightning tribulation while striving for the Xuan Ascension was already difficult enough; if one also had to guard constantly against ambushes, then truly few would survive. Fortunately, the Academy Alliance had thought this through.

Many already knew of such things—those who had attended the Giants' Road before needed no telling, and others had acquaintances among the academy disciples of earlier cohorts, from whom they had naturally sought out these crucial details.

"Striving for the Xuan Ascension is your foremost task, but it is rare to visit the Giants' Road at all. If you have the leisure, you might as well look around inside. The rare treasures here are renowned throughout the Eastern Continent—only the place is riddled with perils, and you must also guard against attacks from the newly ascended Xuan Ascension disciples. So I advise you all to know when to stop, and to make your exit once you have had enough. Greed will only see you dead faster," the Alliance Leader added casually.

As for those who failed to attain the Xuan Ascension, there was no need to speak of it—everyone knew there was no accounting for them. For anyone who failed, even if they managed to cling to life, they would be half-crippled at best. Such people lacked even the most basic means to protect themselves, let alone contend with others.

At the words "rare treasures," the academy disciples instinctively roused themselves. Wealth, companions, means, and ground—for cultivators like them, wealth came first among all good things. And that meant not merely spirit jade, but those rare treasures that no amount of money could buy.

Yet anyone with even a scrap of sense knew that to search for rare treasures in this place, there was one basic precondition: one must first succeed at the Xuan Ascension.

Otherwise, even at the peak of their powers they might not survive the manifold perils within, and above all could not contend with the accomplished Xuan Ascension cultivators traveling alongside them. The innocent man bears the guilt of the jade he carries—a mere Nascent Soul cultivator at the peak, even if by luck he seized some fine prize, would gain nothing from it. As the Alliance Leader had said, it would only hasten his death.

"One more thing. This trial is time-limited; the longest you may remain is three months. Whether you succeed or fail, within three months the matter will be settled—delay any longer and you only waste time. Of course, you may come out after three months, but the warships and treasure ships of the various academies will not stay behind to wait for you. By then the entire dock will be under lockdown. You will either have to find your own way flying back, or stay here and wait to die," the Alliance Leader said, sweeping his gaze over the crowd.

The crowd glanced at one another, unconcerned. Harsh as it sounded, being left behind was no great matter—at worst one could cultivate while waiting for the next trial, and perhaps even take the chance to gather a few more rare treasures.

Such petty calculations could hardly escape the eyes of the man on the platform. The Alliance Leader smiled at the sight, the corner of his mouth curving into a mocking arc: "If you have ideas, by all means stay. But do not say this Leader failed to warn you—Thunderfall Plain Island holds its customary thunder burial every year. If you fancy your life too long, you are welcome to sample it."

"Thunder burial?" The crowd exchanged bewildered looks.

"As the name implies—annihilation thunder burying the entire island. Unless you can find some way, like the native creatures, to survive the thunder burial, you will not live to see the next trial begin," the Alliance Leader said indifferently.

Only now did the crowd recoil in alarm, the faint hope they had just conceived cast from their minds. This place was indeed thick with danger, no ground for playing clever tricks.

"Enough. Each academy, line up in the order of your lots and begin the teleportation." With those words, the Alliance Leader vanished outright from the high platform, leaving no trace behind.

Since the first order of business in the trial was to seek out a tribulation point and strive for the Xuan Ascension, one consequence followed naturally: everyone would scramble desperately for the tribulation points the moment they entered. No one knew just how many tribulation points the Giants' Road held, but a glance at the number of people present made it plain that one apiece, or even a surplus, was hardly likely.

That being so, who went first and who went after became a grave question. The academies that entered first would surely gain the advantage, and if the matter were not properly resolved, the academy disciples would likely come to blows right there on the dock before ever setting foot on the Giants' Road.

So the Academy Alliance proposed a method that seemed fair and reasonable enough: drawing lots.