396: Chapter 396 Using Spiritual Plants as a Bridge

Tian Xin's floating talisman played a crucial role at this moment.

After their bodies became lighter, it was easier to maintain balance amidst the swaying.

The group was like reeds in the wind, nearly falling into the river several times, but they managed to steady themselves at the very last moment.

When Chu Lan planted her eleventh iron vine, blood began to seep from her seven orifices.

She didn't say anything, but Luo Li saw a bead of dark red blood slide down from her earlobe.

Luo Li wanted to remind her to rest, but she couldn't bring herself to say it—because she knew that if they stopped now, all their previous efforts would be wasted.

"The last one hundred zhang!" Lin Jingyu's voice came from ahead.

Chu Lan closed her eyes and pressed the last iron vine seed into the vines.

The seed sprouted as soon as it touched the soil, and the silver-gray vines extended forward at an astonishing speed.

The vine bridge finally touched the soil on the opposite bank.

Chu Lan's body suddenly went limp, her spiritual power instantly exhausted, and she collapsed forward—Yao Guang caught her and held her steadily.

Chu Lan's face was as pale as paper, and the blood from her seven orifices had not yet dried.

"Cross the river." Gao Feng's voice came from ahead.

The group stepped onto the land on the opposite bank one by one.

The moment their feet touched solid ground, everyone's body trembled slightly—it was a natural reaction after overdrawing their spiritual power and exhausting their physical strength.

Yao Guang didn't rest and immediately began to treat Chu Lan, green light lingering around Chu Lan's temples and chest, repairing her damaged Meridians.

Lin Jingyu, Situ Lan, Su Ning, and Tian Xin also sat cross-legged to regulate their breathing and restore their consumed spiritual power.

Lin Yue walked to the riverside, crouched down, and looked at the river surface.

Luo Li sat on a stone by the river, placed the flowing sound zither across her knees, and gently stroked the strings stained red with blood.

Gao Feng stood at the highest point of the riverbank and looked down at his lower legs.

His trouser legs had been torn into shreds by the Sword Qi, and his exposed legs were covered with crisscrossing bloodstains, dense and shocking.

After Yao Guang finished treating Chu Lan, she walked over and crouched down, green light shrouding those wounds.

The bloodstains healed at a speed visible to the naked eye, but the hidden injuries left by the Sword Qi still needed time to heal.

"There are still a few wounds on your legs that are too deep; the Sword Qi has seeped inside." Yao Guang frowned.

"We need to force the Sword Qi out, otherwise, it will flare up repeatedly."

"Not yet." Gao Feng shook his head.

"The injuries aren't serious; we'll talk about it when we go back."

Yao Guang wanted to say something more, but Gao Feng had already turned to observe the surrounding terrain.

She sighed and continued to treat Lin Yue.

Two hours later, the group had recovered more than half of their spiritual power.

Gao Feng stood up, drew the vajra sword from his waist, and inspected the blade.

There was a new sword mark on the blade—not left during a battle, but scratched by the Sword Qi at the bottom of the river while in the Sword River.

That sword mark was not long, only an inch or so, but it was extremely clear.

Gao Feng held the sword up to his eyes and carefully examined the mark, discovering that it didn't look like a mere scar, but rather an imprint of a sword technique—the ancient Sword Intent in the river had seeped into the blade, leaving a mark on the surface of the vajra sword.

He closed his eyes and probed into the blade with his Divine Sense.

The next moment, he felt a ferociously sharp Sword Intent contained within that sword mark.

That Sword Intent was like a sleeping Dragon, lying dormant deep within the body of the vajra sword, waiting for him to awaken it.

"This sword... obtained an Opportunity in the Sword River." Situ Lan walked to his side and glanced at the vajra sword.

"The Sword Intent contained in the Sword River is the accumulation of the Heavenly Sword Sect over ten thousand years.

Ordinary Magical Artifacts would only shatter if damaged by the Sword Qi, but your sword's material is special, so it instead absorbed a portion of the Sword Intent."

Gao Feng opened his eyes and said nothing.

He returned the vajra sword to its scabbard, and a clear, resonant sword hum faintly emanated from within, more refined than before.

Lin Yue walked back from the riverside and looked at Gao Feng's sword.

"How is it? Any gains?"

"A little." Gao Feng answered briefly, his gaze passing over the exit of the canyon; the sky was already nearing dusk.

Elder Li stood at the entrance of the canyon, bowing his head to write in a register again.

After writing the final stroke, he closed the register, raised his head to look at the depths of the canyon in the distance, and sighed slightly—the fifth trial, they had passed again.

The entrance to the sixth trial was in a stone hall on the mountainside of the Heavenly Sword Sect's main peak.

The stone hall had no doors or windows, only a light gate condensed from Sword Intent.

Elder Li stood in front of the light gate, and on a new page of the register in his hand were four words—Sword Heart Questioning.

He didn't explain the rules like in the previous trials, but simply stepped aside to make room.

"Everyone who enters will enter an independent illusion." Elder Li's voice echoed in the empty stone hall.

"The illusions are birthed by your own Heart Demons; what you see, hear, and feel are all the deepest obsessions in your hearts.

You don't need to defeat anyone; you only need to defeat yourself."

He closed the register and swept his gaze across their faces.

"Those who pass will see the illusion dissipate on its own.

Those who fail will be ejected, and their Divine Sense will be damaged, but there will be no danger to their lives.

Since the founding of the Heavenly Sword Sect, no one has failed this trial.

However, the time taken varies; the shortest record is three hours."

Gao Feng walked to the light gate and reached out to probe the light screen condensed from Sword Intent.

His fingertips touched a gentle coolness, as if he had reached into calm lake water.

He didn't hesitate and stepped in.

The light gate closed behind him.

When Gao Feng opened his eyes, he found himself standing on the city wall of Meteor City.

There were no garrison troops on the city wall, only blood covering the ground and scattered swords and blades.

Below the city wall, the Myriad Races army surged like a tide, and the purple-black flames of the Demonic Flame Clan had already ignited the city wall.

He heard screams, the sound of blades clashing, and he heard someone calling his name.

"Gao Feng! Gao Feng!"

He turned around and saw Luo Li lying in a pool of blood at a corner of the city wall, the flowing sound zither broken into two pieces, its strings scattered everywhere.

Her eyes were still open, gazing in his direction, but there was no light in her pupils.

"Luo Li!" He rushed over, but only ran halfway before stepping on something.

It was Chu Lan.

She was curled up on the ground, the spirit plants carefully cultivated in the Spirit Plant Garden scattered all around, all withered.

She was still clutching an unplanted seed in her hand.

Su Ning had been swallowed by a spatial rift; her body was torn apart in the Void Realm, leaving only one hand, the five fingers still maintaining the posture of forming a seal.

Tian Xin was covered in blood, Dark Talismans plastered all over her body, but every single one had been torn; her eyes were closed, and there was no pain on her face, only peace.

Yao Guang lay among the crowd, her hands still maintaining the posture of casting a healing spell, but there was no light left in her palms.

Lin Yue's Rock Demon Phantom had shattered into countless stones; he leaned against the ruins, blood at the corner of his mouth, his eyes gazing at the sky.

Lin Jingyu's sword was broken into three pieces, and Situ Lan's Green Phoenix Sword was stuck in the ground; the two of them lay side by side at the base of the city wall.

Everyone was dead.

Gao Feng knelt on the ground.

He heard his heart beating violently in his chest; every beat felt like someone was striking his chest with an iron hammer.

It wasn't sadness, it wasn't anger, but a kind of emotion he had never felt before—powerlessness.

"Do you think you are strong?" A voice came from the darkness, carrying mockery and ridicule.

"So what if you are at the third layer of the Golden Core? So what if you have the War God Legacy? You can't even protect your own people."

Gao Feng didn't look up.

He knew it was a Heart Demon, an illusion, but he couldn't refute it.

"Your teammates trust you and put their lives in your hands. What have you given them?" The voice continued.

"Meteor City? Battlefield of Ten Thousand Races? Star Sea? You take them on adventures time and time again; you think you are getting stronger, but in reality, you are just pushing them into the abyss."

"Enough." Gao Feng's voice was hoarse.

"Enough? Do you think it's enough just because you say so?" The voice became sharper.

"Look at them. Every one of them died for you, and every one of their blood splattered on you. Can you repay it?"

Gao Feng closed his eyes.

Countless images flashed through his mind—the first time he met Luo Li, she was sitting on the city wall of Meteor City playing the zither, the setting sun stretching her shadow long; when Chu Lan first cultivated the meteor star fruit, she excitedly pulled everyone over to see it; when Su Ning obtained the Legacy in the Star Sea, she looked back at him, her eyes shining; after Tian Xin avenged her parents in the Shadow Realm, she knelt on the ground weeping, but those were tears of relief; when Yao Guang rebuilt the Yao Family in the Green Wood Realm, she erected a monument under the Green Wood Sacred Tree, carving the names of her ancestors stroke by stroke; when Lin Yue blocked an attack from the King of Ten Thousand Races for him during a great battle, coughing up blood and saying, "Brother, hold on"; when Lin Jingyu comprehended the Ten Thousand Swords Return to Origin in the Sword Tablet Forest, he pointed to the sky, the sword light falling like a galaxy; when Situ Lan knelt before Jian Chen and said, "I have no regrets."

And these past few days at the Heavenly Sword Sect, they had traversed the sword heart stone, Sword Puppet Array, Sea of Sword Intent, Sword Tablet Forest, and Sword River together; everyone was supporting the others in their own way, and not a single person had fallen behind.

"You have done enough." The voice was still speaking, but Gao Feng was no longer listening.

"Not enough." Gao Feng opened his eyes and stood up.

"What I've done is never enough. But I will keep doing it. Not because I am strong, but because they are my teammates. I don't need to protect them; what I need is to fight alongside them."

After he finished speaking, he drew the vajra sword and slashed toward the direction of that voice!

"War God Slash!"

The golden sword light swept out, tearing that darkness and the mocking voice to shreds together.

The illusion collapsed with a roar.

Gao Feng opened his eyes and found himself standing in the stone hall.

The light gate was still there; Luo Li had not come out yet, nor had Su Ning; everyone was still in their own illusions.

He didn't know how long he had stayed in the illusion, but his body was already soaked with sweat.

In the corner in the distance, an incense stick had burned less than a third of the way.

Elder Li stood by the light gate, and seeing Gao Feng come out first, a flash of surprise crossed his eyes, but he said nothing.

Tian Xin's illusion was that night when her parents were brutally murdered.

She stood at the doorway of her home, hearing the sounds of fighting inside, hearing her mother's exclamation and her father's roar.

She wanted to rush in, but her body couldn't move—just like back then, when she, as a young child, had been hidden by her mother in a tree hollow, her whole body stiff and unable to move.

The door opened.

Shadow Venerable walked out holding her father's head, behind him was her mother's corpse.

His gaze swept over her, yet he acted as if he hadn't seen her, and left with his subordinates.

She wanted to chase after them, but her legs felt as if they were filled with lead.

She wanted to scream, but her throat felt as if it were being choked.