20: Fear level? Bonus level!

Outside the arena, everyone gasped at the sight.

"Is... is that person named Zhou Yan?"

"What is that? Is... is that even human?"

An Elder asked the question weighing on everyone's minds.

The creator of the Secret Realm was the Third Elder, whose strength had reached Void Refining. Even if this Secret Realm was created casually, it shouldn't have been so easily seen through and broken, right?

At this moment, in everyone's eyes, Zhou Yan's previous hesitation and changing expressions had taken on a different meaning.

It was that Zhou Yan was exceptionally brilliant and had easily perceived the essence of the illusion, which caused those changes! And his eyes displaying power with overflowing Immortal Qi was a sign of him getting serious.

"No wonder I saw him heading straight for the high tower before, ignoring the other Disciple trials and not doing any point-scoring missions. It turns out he didn't bother competing with them!" A Deacon quickly offered his insight, and once everyone calmed down to analyze it, it actually made sense!

For a moment, the viewing platform became lively as they constantly analyzed Zhou Yan's previous behavior.

Some felt that Zhou Yan's previous actions were because he found the illusion interesting, so he revealed his strength to prove himself.

Others said that Zhou Yan had long since achieved sainthood with his Physical Body, his eyes could see through all things in the world, and the Third Elder's illusion was just a warm-up for him; he hadn't even used his full strength yet.

In any case, there were all sorts of theories, each more Heaven-Defying than the last, which simultaneously pushed Zhou Yan's reputation directly above the previously highly anticipated Long Tianxing and Wang Yao.

Although Long Tianxing and Wang Yao had both killed the illusion monsters in one hit, Zhou Yan's strike had actually let them run away.

But the nature of it was different! That person had directly severely damaged the Origin, causing damage to the existence of the Secret Realm itself. This was an unimaginable feat even in the eyes of Soul Transformation powerhouses. And all this credit was attributed to Zhou Yan's special Physique.

What was the Origin of those eyes? What kind of terrifying power did they have? This was what everyone was thinking right now.

The four people on the high platform had finished their battle, ending with the Fourth Elder's stubborn refusal to change his stance, resulting in his victory.

As leaders of a top Sect and top-tier powerhouses in the cultivation world, the things they focused on were naturally different from the Cultivators below the high platform.

The effect displayed by those eyes was indeed astonishing; this was definitely a new, top-tier Physique that had never existed before, but its Origin and the surrounding Immortal Qi caught their attention even more.

It wasn't that new Physiques hadn't been born before; the cultivation world was vast, and it was normal for a Physique to appear out of thin air that had no relation to any Physique that had appeared in the past.

But the coexistence of this Immortal Qi and the new Physique had profound significance!

This proved that Zhou Yan was definitely an Immortal from the Immortal Realm reborn, and those eyes were the Immortal Eyes of the Immortal Realm!

If they let the Fourth Elder, that bastard, take him in so easily, they wouldn't be able to sleep for hundreds of years.

"Absolutely, we must absolutely secure Zhou Yan." The three Elders had the same thought, and a plan against the Fourth Elder was born.

The Fourth Elder was like a victorious rooster, a bit disheveled but still high-spirited. He believed that as long as he stubbornly refused to change his mind, he could happily gain an excellent Disciple when Zhou Yan came out. By then, the rice would be cooked, and even if they had other ideas, it would be useless.

Inside the Secret Realm.

Zhou Yan quickly caught up to the illusion monster running up the mountain by accelerating, and finished it off in no time.

"Ding, EXP +1."

"Hmm? Can I level up in the newbie dungeon?" The EXP was little, only one point, but the monsters in the newbie dungeon were very weak.

As an open-world game, 'Seeking Dao' had a very slow level progression. Grinding monsters in the wild usually yielded no EXP unless they were elite monsters or destroyed strongholds.

If the newbie dungeon could grant EXP, the early-game progression would be much faster. It just wasn't clear if this was another new BUG.

Never mind, there were only a few monsters anyway; whether it was a BUG or not, he couldn't grind levels.

It was also a pity that he couldn't trigger the true damage again, otherwise the monster-killing efficiency would be higher.

Fatal Strike, as an old skill, had the characteristic that when facing multiple monsters, every attack hit a different target, allowing it to trigger Fatal Strike multiple times. Against a single target, it was guaranteed to trigger after the first attack, but after that, it was just up to Luck.

This was a characteristic added for data balance in the early stages, but... why did my new account have such an old skill?

"Hiss! My head is dizzy again. Looks like I need to finish this quickly and go to sleep, otherwise, if I stay up any longer, I'll die on the spot, and if I stink up the room, I'll feel bad for my neighbors."

Zhou Yan locked onto the target again; the red dot on the mini-map that was already running down the mountain was very prominent.

"That Zhou Yan seems to be heading straight for the Fear trial!" A Disciple watching the sky screen said with some surprise.

"Sure enough, he really wants to show himself in the middle circle and display his true strength. We really wronged him before!"

A Deacon on the side said disapprovingly: "The Fear trial is not easy. Even Long Tianxing, under the influence of Luck, subconsciously avoided it. You can imagine that this Fear trial has definitely been strengthened again!"

Zhou Yan just wanted a speedrun now. He followed the guidance of the mini-map and quickly arrived at the location of the red dot.

He heard wailing and mournful sounds from afar.

"Return my life!" A creature that looked a bit like a zombie attacked Zhou Yan with a foul stench.

Zhou Yan felt it looked vaguely familiar, like he had seen it somewhere before, something like... Zhou Pi? Was this an Easter egg character created by some developer who loved playing Zhou?

【Illusion Monster - Fear - 1】

Rank: Qi Refining Level 1

HP: 10

"Boom, EXP +1."

Zhou Yan didn't even use a skill; he just punched it in the head and killed it instantly.

"Eh? This thing also gives EXP?"

With little EXP and low HP, Zhou Yan solved it as easily as casually killing a small animal and picking up its meat while exploring the open world.

Zhou Yan stopped bothering with the small interlude and locked onto the target again, preparing to pursue. Who would have thought that the NPC, who should have been fleeing, appeared in front of him again.

Her appearance had transformed back into a beautiful woman, but the place where Zhou Yan had hit her was left with spiderweb-like cracks.

"Roar~, not running away, but actively approaching me?"

Beautiful woman: "If I don't get closer, how can I beat you down!"

"Roar roar~, in that case, why not come a little closer."

"ORA!"

Just as she got close, Zhou Yan threw a punch, but it didn't hit; instead, it was blocked by a zombie.

The zombie was a young girl. Although her skin was pale and damaged in some places, it was still hard to hide that she was a beauty.

This guy seems to be named Dong... How do I know her name?

"Rip." Taking advantage of Zhou Yan's attack being blocked, the beautiful woman turned her hand into a claw and scratched Zhou Yan's arm.

【Zhou Yan HP: 1370 / 1500】

The beautiful woman was stunned when she saw this. What was going on? Just now, the sensation was clearly entering flesh, so how was this guy completely unharmed!

Zhou Yan didn't care about the beautiful woman but looked at the zombie girl.

【Illusion Monster - Fear - 2】

HP: 10

Same HP, is it a mass-produced item? Then this should be the boss fight of the newbie dungeon, right?

Having failed the first strike, Zhou Yan attacked again, heading straight for the small monster. The girl wanted to use the same trick again, but Zhou Yan changed his move in mid-air, switching from a punch to a flying kick.

The girl couldn't block it this time and dissipated on the spot, turning into Zhou Yan's EXP. At the same time, the Path of Slaughter title activated, allowing him to absorb some HP and restore some stamina.

"You're next!" Zhou Yan smiled evilly and pointed his finger at the beautiful woman.

The beautiful woman had recovered from her surprise, but there was no fear in her eyes, only anger.

"Come out, all of you, take him down!"

In the original wasteland, monsters kept crawling out of the ground, and monsters were also condensing in the air.

There were members of the Dong and Zhou families, as well as murderers and monsters from horror movies that Zhou Yan had watched before.

The beautiful woman thought this would scare Zhou Yan, but unfortunately, Zhou Yan was only pleasantly surprised now.

If he had met these guys in reality, Zhou Yan would have run away long ago, but at this moment, all he could think was:

"Holy crap! So many IP crossovers, this studio is truly invincible!"

This was originally a Fear stage; the more fear in one's heart, the stronger the monsters, but when horror characters appear in a "Dynasty Warriors" style mowing-down game, how could anyone be afraid?

This meant that although there were a huge number of them, their HP was too low to withstand a single punch.

Fourth Elder: "Trouble!"

"Old Third, what's going on? How can these monsters combine?"

"Originally, Zhou Yan wasn't afraid of these monsters, so passing this Fear stage shouldn't be difficult, but now there's an extra guy whose strength isn't affected. Who can pass this difficulty?"

The Third Elder said calmly after hearing this: "It is time and destiny. Developing to this point is also his fate. It was his own choice to confront two trials at the same time. Although his courage is commendable, he must also bear the consequences."

The Fourth Elder could only swallow his anger after hearing this, because this was indeed Zhou Yan's choice, and he couldn't do anything about it.

He didn't notice that the calm Third Elder had a trace of embarrassed blush on her pretty face.

"Crap, I didn't think that much at the time. I limited everything to Qi Refining Level 1 to be lazy, and it still went wrong. How unlucky."

Now, neither those on the high platform nor those below the high platform were optimistic about Zhou Yan.

Facing the Fear trial, even if one wasn't afraid, the terrifying number of enemies could make the Prodigies gasp for breath. Now with an extra variable, Zhou Yan was going to be miserable.

Everyone was pessimistic about Zhou Yan, but Zhou Yan was having a blast.

"That's right! Seeking Dao Studio, you *can* make a fun game!"

Having monsters increase the combat difficulty, keeping players stimulated at all times, plus lifesteal, stamina recovery, and massive EXP as real-time positive feedback—this "mowing-down" approach was simply perfect. I declare this the best update of the year; Seeking Dao really is getting better!