168: Delay, just delay, the trial place that cannot be entered

The surrounding trees became fewer and fewer.

The cold, eerie feeling gradually faded away.

The Death Warhorse carried Qin Tian out of the Forest of the Undead quickly.

Without the obstruction of trees, the view instantly opened up.

Looking ahead, there was a vast expanse of barren land.

Not a single blade of grass grew there; it was all gray-white gravel.

"Is this the Trial Land for this area?"

Qin Tian looked at the scene before him.

It looked extremely similar to the Trial Land he had cleared several times before.

The difference was that, unlike before, there wouldn't be a large number of Sakura Country players guarding the Trial Land, waiting for Qin Tian's arrival and wanting to kill him to obtain the reward for the Demon Subduing Order.

Qin Tian gazed into the distance and could only see five Sakura Country players standing back-to-back; clearly, it was a single squad.

Apart from this squad, there were no other Sakura Country players.

Qin Tian frowned slightly.

Even in high-level areas, the number of people would decrease, but it would never be the case that only such a small squad appeared at the Trial Land.

This was truly too bizarre.

Qin Tian did not go over directly, but instead took out the engineering scope he had previously obtained from the dwarves.

This engineering magic item could increase the range of ranged weapons by 1000 yards.

Because the game had merged with reality and was influenced by it, it could also be used separately, just like now, used directly by Qin Tian as a telescope.

Through the engineering scope, the scenery in the distance instantly became incredibly clear.

Qin Tian could even see the expressions on the faces of these Sakura Country players—nervous, uneasy, looking around at their surroundings, as if they were waiting for something to arrive.

Furthermore, they were standing tightly against the portal that led into the Trial Land, as if that portal were their escape route.

"Could it be to prevent me from entering the Trial Land?"

Qin Tian looked at their expressions and instantly thought of a possibility.

At the very beginning, when he came out of the Newbie Main City and first went to the Trial Land, Qin Tian learned that the portals leading to the Trial Land had a fixed quantity.

After a squad of players entered, the portal would only reappear after they cleared it or all died.

Now, in the Trial Land before him, there was only one portal near this squad, and the other portals had all disappeared; clearly, there were players conducting trials.

It was strange that only one squad appeared in the Trial Land; it was even stranger that in such a high-level area, only one portal to the Trial Land remained.

The higher the level of the players, the more difficult it was to clear the Trial Land, and it was harder to make the determination to fight to the death.

Many spent a long time here looking for teammates, striving to optimize their team composition to the limit before conducting the trial; situations like this, where portals disappeared and only one squad remained, almost never occurred.

Just as Qin Tian was about to put away the engineering scope, he suddenly saw the light of the portal flicker.

Not far from this Sakura Country squad, a silver-white portal—a portal to the Trial Land—slowly emerged.

Five Sakura Country players walked out.

After these five Sakura Country players walked out, the nervous expressions of everyone in the squad Qin Tian had seen earlier instantly vanished and turned into excitement; they all scrambled into the portal beside them.

The squad of Sakura Country players who had just emerged from the portal now had nervous and uneasy expressions on their faces, standing around the portal and starting to look around vigilantly.

"So that was it."

Seeing this, Qin Tian stopped observing and put away the engineering scope; his conjecture had been confirmed.

These Sakura Country players had indeed not given up on dealing with him, but this time they weren't trying to kill him; instead, they had changed their strategy and wanted to stall him.

Normally, entering the Trial Land only resulted in death or completion; it was absolutely impossible for anyone to walk out of the Trial Land's portal like this.

Qin Tian guessed that it was highly likely they were using the Evil God's power.

After all, the Evil God had previously influenced Qin Tian's teleportation many times, demonstrating powerful strength capable of affecting portal teleportation.

As long as they occupied the portal like this, they could prevent Qin Tian from entering.

As for why they left one squad outside instead of occupying all the portals, Qin Tian guessed it wasn't that they didn't want to, but that they couldn't; they must be restricted by something, which was why they left one team outside like this.

Qin Tian didn't care what the reason was; he only cared about the result.

Combining his previous analysis, Qin Tian reached a conclusion: when he approached the squad standing in front of the portal—more accurately, these Sakura Country players standing in front of the portal would immediately enter the portal to go to the Trial Land the moment they discovered Qin Tian, thereby causing the portal to disappear again, preventing Qin Tian from entering.

Thinking of this, Qin Tian made a prompt decision.

He immediately prepared the three movement speed-increasing items: the dwarf rocket boots, the goddess's embrace, and the Straw Idol.

Furthermore, he took out the Nether Chains and entered Stealth mode.

Then, he rushed violently towards that squad of Sakura Country players standing at the Trial Land.

The Death Warhorse was already extremely fast, and now, with the support of these three equipment items, its movement speed broke through the sky; before, one could still see afterimages, but now, even afterimages could not be seen, as if it were blinking, an instantaneous movement.

With a few leaps, the Death Warhorse had already reached the vicinity of the Trial portal.

"Qin Tian is here!"

"Hurry and go in!"

"This guy is truly cunning; his strength is so high, and he even uses Stealth. Fortunately, we have the Evil God's methods."

As Qin Tian approached, this squad of Sakura Country players instantly exclaimed in alarm.

In their hands, they held something blood-red that looked like an eyeball, which was currently flashing with red light.

This was an item provided to the Sakura Country players by the Evil God; previously, to kill Qin Tian and prevent him from using Stealth, it would sound an alarm like this whenever Qin Tian appeared.

Now, because there was no power in this Sakura Country area capable of killing Qin Tian, it was used as an alarm for this operation to prevent Qin Tian from entering the Trial Land while in Stealth.

Clearly, this thing had worked and discovered Qin Tian's presence.

This Sakura Country squad didn't have time to think, and they didn't even dare to look for Qin Tian; instead, like the previous Sakura Country squad, they hurriedly turned around and squeezed into the portal to the Trial Land beside them.

As long as they entered the portal, they could shake off Qin Tian and enter the Trial Land.

In the Trial Land, with the help of the Evil God's item, they could teleport to other places before the trial ended, and the portal to the Trial Land would also be generated elsewhere.

It was just that there was a very low probability of failure, teleporting back here, and every time teleportation was completed, it could not be performed again immediately.

This was also the reason why these Sakura Country players did not enter the portal immediately.

Now that Qin Tian had appeared, the cooldown had just ended; the Sakura Country players breathed a sigh of relief, and their bodies all entered the portal.

With their entry, the portal to the Trial Land also vanished; the entire Trial Land no longer had a single portal.

"Didn't make it in time."

Qin Tian stood at the spot where the portal had disappeared, looking at the empty Trial Land.

Without a portal, it meant he couldn't enter the Trial Land's mission area, and therefore couldn't clear it to leave this area—this was the goal of the Sakura Country players.

However, there was no look of despondency on Qin Tian's face.

In his hand, the green light of the Nether Chains flickered incessantly.