385: Records of the Predecessors

"What is all this?"

Wan Lin raised an eyebrow, feeling a bit bewildered.

He figured it out: the inscriptions on the stone tablet must have been left by the trial participants.

Most likely, they were all left by the Yao Race.

Was it because the Yao Race's thought processes were different from normal people that they left such nonsensical records here?

Why wasn't there even a single piece of useful information?

"Forget it, I'll carve something too."

Wan Lin couldn't figure it out. He glanced at the ten records, then formed his fingers into a blade, preparing to carve.

But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't pierce the surface of the stone tablet; he couldn't carve at all.

"Hmm?"

Wan Lin frowned, his entire body's blood boiling. He punched the stone tablet fiercely, trying to leave a mark by brute force.

Similarly, no matter how hard he tried, there was still no trace.

Someone in the live stream recognized what was happening:

[It must be extremely hard, maybe even specially treated. Only someone very powerful can carve on it.]

[The trials on Sacred Emperor Mountain have lasted for tens of thousands of years, right? There are only ten who could carve, so it seems very difficult to leave a mark here.]

[Indeed, even considering the small population of the Yao Race and the consistently low number of trial participants, only ten being able to carve still illustrates the difficulty of carving and the power of the carvers.]

[Then this is strange. These powerful carvers all seemed to show hesitation. Is the Legacy of the Dead Flesh Layer very difficult to obtain?]

Wan Lin tried for a long time but still couldn't carve anything.

He had no choice but to give up.

"Forget it. Since several of these carvers gave up on the Dead Flesh Layer and went straight to the living flesh layer, then I, who can't even carve, should probably just give up too."

Wan Lin sighed and continued forward.

The surrounding chunks of flesh twisted, layer upon layer, forming a nauseating sight.

He wasn't sure if it was an illusion, but Wan Lin always felt that many chunks of flesh seemed to have hollow parts, constantly opening fleshy petals on both sides, revealing a crimson interior.

It looked so disgusting it made him want to vomit.

He hurried through, and unexpectedly, he wasn't obstructed here.

There was no pressure on him, and he didn't encounter any enemies.

Wan Lin directly saw a towering cliff, about a mile high, leading to the second layer, which was the "living flesh layer."

He found it a bit strange; was this layer really without any difficulty?

The live stream audience also found it odd. Were the Trial Grounds not playing by the rules?

[I get it! Only the very first, zeroth layer is the trial for Physique. The Dead Flesh Layer is actually a reward layer. I think every subsequent layer might also be a reward layer.]

[But the reward is hidden and requires finding the right method to obtain it? This is actually the real difficulty of the assessment, right?]

[Too bad, Wan Lin can't find the method, and neither can we.]

[Sigh, what method is it exactly? Analysis is useless too.]

[I've figured it out. This analysis function is similar to the knowledge base before the update. It just allows us players, who don't understand the Xuanhuan World, to be as knowledgeable as natives about Xuanhuan common sense. So, apart from default common sense, everything else still relies on accumulated knowledge. It's not truly an all-purpose analysis.]

[Wan Lin has too little knowledge, so he can't analyze anything.]

Wan Lin's mouth twitched.

He was just a novice player, and his cultivation was only that of a Mortal, at most Spirit Nurturing. What Xuanhuan knowledge could he possibly have?

Once a puzzle needed solving, he was stumped; he knew nothing.

He had originally thought that the audience in the live stream would have some brilliant insights, but unexpectedly, everyone watching from afar was equally clueless.

After all, most Cultivators don't rely on visual information from their eyes or auditory information from their ears; the information provided by the live stream was still too scarce.

"In any case, I can't find the Legacy in the Dead Flesh Layer. You'll just have to wait until you come yourselves."

Wan Lin looked up at the cliff.

He used his old trick, continuously moving upward.

After he started climbing, the pressure returned, and it was even greater than on the previous cliff, pressing down on him and making his movements extremely slow.

He climbed for a full day, yet only advanced a hundred meters upward.

"Phew... I feel... I can't go on."

Wan Lin gasped for air, truly feeling that he couldn't continue.

If it weren't for his special Boiling Blood Hegemon Body Physique, he wouldn't have been able to endure even a hundred meters of height.

But this was Wan Lin's limit; going any higher was almost impossible.

"I think this trial probably wasn't designed for Mortals."

Wan Lin wiped away his sweat and said, "I should cultivate for a while first, at least reach the Ninth Rank Realm, and then come back to challenge it."

He thought for a moment, deep in thought:

"The Dead Flesh Layer should contain a Legacy, though incomplete, it should be enough to begin cultivation.

"Then, after cultivating this partial chapter, one can continue to climb higher and obtain the subsequent Legacy..." "Is that how it's designed?"

[That's hard to say, isn't it? I heard some Secret Realms are designed so that a person can only enter once in their lifetime, and they even have Realm restrictions, just to filter out Geniuses suitable for the Legacy.]

[But Sacred Emperor Mountain is the only Legacy of the Yao Race's Body Tempering Method, right? The Yao Race never said you could only enter once before, so you should be able to enter multiple times, right?]

[What are you panicking about? Even if you can only enter once, Wan Lin, you die once and then restart directly, which is equivalent to a different person. I don't believe the Secret Realm can still recognize that.]

Wan Lin nodded, agreeing with that statement. He felt that player privileges should help with repeated exploration of Secret Realms.

At this moment, he had already decided to give up. He wanted to fall back to the Dead Flesh Layer, search for the Legacy again, and if he really couldn't find it, he would simply go out and ask the Sheep Demon for guidance.

However, Wan Lin wasn't stupid. He knew that the Sheep Demon not informing him of the information within Sacred Emperor Mountain beforehand likely stemmed from a desire to test him.

If he asked directly, the player community's rating with the Yao Race outside the wall might drop.

'So, I still have to find a way to get the Legacy myself...'

As Wan Lin was thinking this, he suddenly saw a seemingly protruding, square stone slab nearby, about one meter high and one meter wide, embedded in the rock face, with inscriptions carved on it.

He looked up and then noticed that there was a stone slab every hundred meters.

They must have been specifically left for trial participants to carve messages and commemorate their visit.

[Speaking of which, why are there so many stone slabs here? Does this Great Demon, Sage Emperor, really like setting up message boards for people?]

[Is this design specifically for multiple people to relay and exchange information?]

[That's not right. From the previous carvings, information could be taken out and given to latercomers, so there's no need to rely on stone slabs for carving, is there?]

[I think this is the Sage Emperor's twisted sense of humor. He must have left them for those who are powerless and can't obtain the Legacy, specifically for them to leave their final words, so that latercomers can see their complaints or despair.]

[Wan Lin, hurry over and see what's written on it.]

Although it was said to be nearby, this was only because the Boiling Blood Hegemon Body's vision was better than that of ordinary Mortals, making the distance appear closer.

In reality, Wan Lin needed to move horizontally about fifty meters to approach it.

Horizontal movement was easier, but his stamina was nearly exhausted, and it ultimately took him about half a day to finally reach the stone slab.

On it was the grumbling complaint of a Senior, filled with resentment towards the Sage Emperor:

[He calls himself the Sage Emperor, yet he's merely a coward scared witless by a dead man's relics, spending his entire life searching for some Sacred Physique, some Dao Embryo. What does this have to do with us Yao Race? Are we Yao Race nannies for dolls?

[I think the Legacy of Sacred Emperor Mountain is nothing but an overblown myth. A timid, weakling is praised like this; it's utterly ridiculous!

[I, Helian Meng, disdain this Legacy!]