“Ai, what can I do? Wherever I go, I end up the center of attention. It’s not like I do it on purpose!” Shaking his head, he found a place to sit cross-legged and relish his victory. At the same time, he was starting to get antsy about the time limit ending. There was only about half a month left.
Things went just as Bai Xiaochun had prayed they would. Time flew by, and before long, it was only two days before the time limit ran out. By this point, just about everyone had given up on the challenges. Only four or five people refused to quit. For them, there was no longer any excitement to be found in their attempts, only dogged persistence.
Gu Tianjun and Sima Yunhua eventually recovered and went back to try to handle the eighteenth level again. But after failing a few times, they sighed and gave up.
Everyone was talking about Celestial Virūpāk?a, Reverend Devourer and Prince Ur-Demon. They were still missing, and no one had any idea where they were stuck. Many people had come to the conclusion that they had come across some other good fortune. Even Gu Tianjun and Sima Yunhua seemed to believe that.
When Bai Xiaochun heard such talk, he merely cleared his throat.
Two days passed. It was at that point that, for the first time since the trial by fire began, everyone could use their divine sense again!
It was a strange and wonderful sensation for everyone.
Gu Tianjun and Sima Yunhua were particularly delighted. They had participated in too many trials by fire to count in their lives, but had never been as frustrated as they had in this damaged fan.
They could accept defeat, but this damaged fan almost seemed to hate them. No matter how hard they tried, the fan just wouldn’t let them succeed.
Not a single person seemed to regret that the the end of the trial had come. In fact, many of them breathed sighs of relief. The past two months had been like a torment for most of them.
“Maybe it’s Celestial Virūpāk?a, Reverend Devourer or Prince Ur-Demon who will get the ultimate good fortune!” That was what many people were thinking.
When the final moment came, the fan’s spirit automaton again awoke. It had been gone for a long time, and therefore, it was a bit startling. However… it was to everyone’s shock that, in that very same moment, the light of teleportation rose up in the main square, and three people crawled out of it….
Yes, they literally crawled….
Their clothing was in tatters, and they had blank looks on their faces. They were also trembling, although they didn’t realize it, and were spattered with blood. These were the very three people that everyone had suspected of acquiring the good fortune of the trial by fire. Celestial Virūpāk?a. Prince Ur-Demon. Reverend Devourer.
Everyone stared over in shocked silence at the three celestials, who looked as if they had been trampled by an army of tens of thousands of men and horses. Moments later, people began to cry out in surprise and alarm.
“This… this….”
“Heavens. Wait, they didn’t actually get any good fortune? What happened to them!? I can’t believe they were tortured to this state!!”
“Look at their expressions. That’s what you look like when you fall into despair over and over again. And look at all the blood….”
Bai Xiaochun’s voice could be heard amongst the others. Sounding dramatically shocked, he pointed and said, “How could this have happened!? I thought I had it bad, but it turns out you three had it way worse!”
No one was really paying attention to him, though. The demigods from the Vile-Emperor Dynasty, including Li Donghao, hurried over to help the celestials to their feet.
Prince Ur-Demon and Reverend Devourer seemed to be in a slightly better state. Although they were gasping for breath, they were already recovering mentally. However, Celestial Virūpāk?a seemed to have been the focus of special attention…. As soon as Li Donghao reached out to him, Celestial Virūpāk?a noticed his towering frame and shrieked, “Don’t touch me! I said don’t touch me…!”
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Chapter
1097: It Was Definitely You, Bai Xiaochun
Celestial Virūpāk?a recovered quickly. A moment later, he rose to his feet, his eyes blazing as he looked around at the crowd.
Prince Ur-Demon and Reverend Devourer did the same. Their eyes were filled with boundless madness and hatred, to the point where it seemed likely that, if they found out who was responsible for their plight, they would unleash insane rage.
The two months of torment they had experienced had frequently left them wishing they could die. At the same time, they had come to the conclusion that there was only one explanation for what had occurred: someone had been targeting them specifically.
They weren’t sure how the deed had been done, but they were sure someone was behind it.
The shocked onlookers could see that something strange was going on, and began to consider what it might be. At the same time, Bai Xiaochun was feeling a bit guilty, and was marveling at how powerful these three must be to have endured what they had.
“I can't let them find out it was me. Otherwise they’ll definitely go crazy.” Having reached this point in his train of thought, he looked around quickly, and began to imitate the expressions on some of the other cultivators’ faces.
But then….
“It was definitely you, Bai Xiaochun!”
Bai Xiaochun whipped his head around to find Celestial Virūpāk?a glaring at him with bright red eyes.
His heart leaped with fear, but he simply frowned.
“What exactly do you mean?!” he said, slowly rising to his feet, and trying to look confused. Celestial Virūpāk?a took a step forward, but Prince Ur-Demon quickly reached out to block his path.
Prince Ur-Demon looked closely at Bai Xiaochun for a moment, then looked around at the crowd.
“Ladies and gentlemen, presumably all of you experienced some strange situations in this trial by fire. For example, in the trial that only had nine stairs, there was a moment when one hundred stairs appeared. And in another, one puppet became ten, or even a hundred!
“I’ll be honest with you all. We three celestials joined forces to get past the eighteenth and nineteenth levels. But in the twentieth level, we faced an unending horde of minotaur monsters. That might have been something we could accept, but then we found that we couldn’t perform teleportations. Fine, maybe we could accept that too. But after four hours passed, we were unable to leave. We were stuck in there all this time, up until a few moments ago!
“Clearly, something very abnormal is going on, something that should never have happened!
“Of course, anomalies are always possible, but there shouldn’t have been more than one such strange occurrence!” Everyone was shaken by what they were hearing, especially Gu Tianjun and Sima Yunhua.
It was definitely true that a lot of strange things had occurred within the past few months. Although everyone had suspected something strange was going on, no one had any proof, nor any way to provide an explanation.
Now that Prince Ur-Demon was speaking things aloud, people began to occasionally glance over at Bai Xiaochun, who simply blinked and tried to maintain a serious, suspicious expression on his face.
As for Prince Ur-Demon, he was virtually staring at Bai Xiaochun the entire time, his eyes flickering with hatred.
“I suspect that someone in our midst somehow became the owner of the damaged fan. In fact, that person has likely already secretly passed the twentieth level!
“That is the only explanation, the only way that someone could target all of us, and keep us three celestials trapped in the twentieth level!”
As everyone looked on in stunned silence, Gu Tianjun shivered and suddenly said, “The person most likely to be responsible is Bai Xiaochun!”