Chapter 218| Chapter 219| Chapter 220
Chapter 218: Drizzle
“Since the people in Beizhen are so difficult to get along with, why not move somewhere with better neighbors?” Cui Shishi couldn’t help but suggest.
The moment the words left her mouth, the eyes of her worried family members instantly lit up.
“What about Lengshui Town?” Cui Shishi clapped her hands, a bright smile breaking across her face. “We aren’t legally allowed to leave Wuzhou anyway, and the mayor of Lengshui Town is incredibly kind!”
Lu Yunxi nodded in agreement. “The mayor there is indeed a good man, but that town has its own dangers. I’ve heard that foreign barbarians frequently raid the area, which is why it’s practically abandoned. On the bright side, you’ll have plenty of empty houses to choose from, but you’ll have to weigh the risks. Talk it over among yourselves.”
The Cui family had initially been hesitant to trust Cui Shishi’s naive judgment, but once Lu Yunxi threw her support behind the idea, they were fully convinced.
After a long discussion and some discreet inquiries, the family officially decided to relocate to Lengshui Town. The imperial envoy lent his considerable influence to smooth over the logistics, ensuring that no local factions would dare give the exiles trouble during their move.
Once they settled into their new home, their quality of life improved drastically.
Cui Da and Cui Er proved to be quick learners. They studied engineering from local texts and quickly fortified the town with a network of clever defensive traps. After their scouting parties were soundly defeated several times, the barbarians no longer dared to cause trouble. With the influx of these vibrant young people, the desolate Lengshui Town gradually began to regain its long-lost vitality.
With the family safe and thriving, Lu Yunxi and her disciple bid their formal farewells to the Cui clan and set off on their treasure hunt once more.
The two traveled straight back to Wuzhou City, paid the necessary transit fees in silver, and stepped onto the grand teleportation array to journey to another continent.
Up until now, not a single person in Wuzhou had ever used the array. When the imperial capital had originally dispatched engineers to construct the device, the illiterate imposter prefect couldn’t understand a single word of the blueprints or official documents. He had simply let the builders complete their work blindly. Once the imperial laborers departed, the fake official never visited the site again, remaining completely oblivious to the array’s true purpose.
With a blinding flash of geometric light, Lu Yunxi and Shen San vanished, materializing a moment later on the frozen shores of the Ice Continent.
The exact second their boots touched the ground, Lu Yunxi managed to steady herself, but Shen San immediately let out a violent gasp.
“Hiss! It’s freezing!” He wrapped his arms tightly around his torso, shivering uncontrollably as his trembling hands fumbled through his inventory space to pull out a stack of heavy fur coats.
Unfortunately, before he could even slip his arms into the sleeves, a ferocious gale roared across the plateau, instantly ripping the roof clean off the teleportation pavilion. The localized blizzard rushed inside, freezing their joints and locking their limbs in place. Even Lu Yunxi felt her reflexes stiffen under the sudden drop in temperature.
Shuddering, she wrapped her cloak tightly around herself and turned around, only to find that Shen San had been completely encased in a block of solid ice, looking exactly like a frozen cartoon character.
Alarmed, Lu Yunxi immediately cast a detection spell over him. The system panel confirmed that the extreme temperature had inflicted a severe ‘Freezing’ debuff; he would remain paralyzed, continuously losing health until his life bar hit zero.
She frantically spammed several high-level healing spells over him before using her skills to ignite a localized magical fire. It took a considerable amount of time and effort before his health stabilized.
After a tense wait, the ice finally shattered, and Shen San stumbled out, gasping for air. The two quickly brewed and downed a hot pot of ginger soup, waiting for the warmth to return to their veins before venturing out into the open wastes.
The ambient temperature was drastically lower than it had been during Shen San’s previous solo visit, making every step an exhausting struggle. Though it wasn’t actively snowing, the howling wind blew with such savage force that it was nearly impossible to keep their eyes open. Wrapped up like a pair of oversized bears, they plowed forward through the drifts with immense difficulty.
After trudging through the whiteout for two grueling hours, they had yet to encounter a single landmark or living soul.
“You swore the treasure map coordinates were in this sector,” Lu Yunxi grumbled through her thick scarf. “Where exactly are we supposed to be going?”
Shen San felt utterly powerless. He squinted hard against the glare, trying to map his surroundings, but the Ice Continent was an endless labyrinth of identical icebergs. Finding a specific path here was harder than climbing to the heavens. Earlier, he had tried to summon his pet dragon to scout from above, but the poor creature couldn’t withstand the volatile elements and was instantly frozen solid.
An ice-element dragon getting taken out by basic weather—the scaling in this zone was entirely broken!
In short, they were completely lost.
“Master, if I can’t get an aerial view of the terrain, I have no way of recognizing the landmarks,” he admitted with a bitter, helpless smile. “Unless we can somehow acquire a flying pet that can naturally withstand a level-ten blizzard, we’re going to be stranded here for a very long time.”
“How are we supposed to hunt a flying pet in the middle of a—” Lu Yunxi cut herself off mid-sentence.
Through a sudden break in the heavy clouds, both of them spotted a massive mountain eagle soaring effortlessly through the sky.
“Does that bird look incredibly familiar to you?” Shen San muttered, narrowing his eyes as he tracked its flight path.
Lu Yunxi observed the creature for a moment before her eyes sharpened in recognition. “Isn’t that the exact same oversized chicken that ambushed us and threw us off the cliff back in the starter zone?!”
As the old saying went, when enemies cross paths, their eyes burn with shared malice. The eagle caught sight of the two travelers at the exact same moment, recognizing its previous victims.
In an instant, the frozen plateau erupted into a flurry of flashing blades and flying ice shards. Because Shen San was weighed down by multiple layers of heavy clothing and relied entirely on close-quarters combat, it was nearly impossible for him to bridge the gap against a flying target. He was forced to retreat, leaving the vanguard duties entirely to Lu Yunxi.
As Lu Yunxi clashed with the beast, she quickly realized the eagle had leveled up significantly since their last encounter. Worse still, the apex predator was perfectly adapted to the sub-zero environment, whereas she was constantly forced to chug hot ginger soup mid-battle just to keep her attributes from tanking.
A sinister, strangely human gleam flickered in the eagle’s eyes. Letting out a piercing, triumphant screech that echoed across the canyons, it suddenly beat its massive wings and rocketed straight into the upper atmosphere.
Lu Yunxi drew her longbow, her brow furrowing as she tracked its trajectory. The heavy storm clouds quickly swallowed the beast, obscuring her vision entirely.
Is it planning to use the cloud cover to launch a blind dive-bomb ambush?
Remaining hyper-vigilant, she scanned the sky. Suddenly, a sharp rustling sound echoed from directly above.
Snapping her head up, she saw a massive barrage of ice boulders cascading down toward her head, each shard the size of a football. Getting hit by a localized avalanche of that mass would severely deplete her health bar.
Lu Yunxi’s gaze turned ice-cold. Activating her master-level lightness skills, she vaulted off a jagged snowdrift, launching herself directly into the sky. Before the eagle could react, she sliced through the cloud cover and clamped her hands around the root of its right wing with a vice-like grip.
With half of its wingspan pinned, the eagle flapped frantically, trying to maintain altitude. But against her raw, master-level physical attributes, its strength was entirely useless. It stalled out mid-air, and the two came hurtling straight down to the frozen earth.
Shen San had been waiting patiently below. The moment they hit the snowdrift, he lunged forward, using his massive bulk to pin the thrashing raptor to the ground. Lu Yunxi pulled a length of enchanted hemp rope from her inventory, seamlessly binding the creature’s wings and talons within seconds.
The intense physical exertion left both travelers breathing heavily, though the adrenaline had finally warmed their frozen limbs.
“Master, what should we do with this overgrown pest?”
Lu Yunxi let out a cold, mocking smirk, vividly remembering the humiliation of their previous encounter. “Thirty years the tide flows east, thirty years it flows west. Did you truly think you’d never land in my hands again, birdbrain?”
She patted the bound eagle’s head aggressively. “As for its punishment… let’s show it some proper symmetry. We’ll give it the exact same treatment it gave us!”
Shen San grinned, nodding in absolute approval.
The entire continent was buried in deep snow, making it impossible to locate the exact cliff where they had previously crossed paths. Fortunately, specific coordinates didn’t matter. The terrain was overflowing with towering icebergs; any random peak would do.
Hoisting the bound eagle over his shoulder, Shen San marched up the nearest icy ridge. Lu Yunxi walked directly beside him, pinning the captive with a murderous stare. “We haven’t forgotten the feeling of getting tossed into an abyss.”
A flicker of arrogant disdain flashed in the eagle’s golden eyes.
Lu Yunxi tightened the knots. “Oh? You think you’re safe just because you have wings? You’re bound by my enchanted rope now. Don’t think this is the kind of flimsy string you can snap with raw muscle. No matter how high your level is, you can’t break free. I want to see if you can still fly when you’re plummeting face-first into a glacier!”
Shen San’s eye twitched slightly, silently noting that his master looked exactly like the primary antagonist of a cheap cultivation drama. Shaking off the thought, he gave her a sharp nod and raised the eagle aloft, preparing to hurl it over the edge.
Realizing they were entirely serious, the eagle finally panicked. It writhed violently, desperately attempting to slide out of the binding ropes. Falling from this altitude wouldn’t kill a high-level beast, but crashing into solid ice without its wings to break the impact was going to be excruciatingly painful.
It threw its head back, letting out a desperate, shrill cry toward the heavens.
Lu Yunxi and Shen San completely ignored the plea. But just as Shen San swung his arms to launch the projectile, a sudden, violent squall sliced through the canyon.
A second mountain eagle, its eyes blazing with unadulterated fury, cut through the blizzard like a black arrow, diving straight toward their position. Hearing the reinforcement arrive, the captured eagle’s cries instantly shifted from terrified shrieks to pitiful, cooing chirps, as if it were playing the victim and begging for comfort.
The master and disciple froze, momentarily caught off guard.
The incoming raptor was terrifyingly fast—its velocity far outstripping the attributes of the one they had captured. Its wings sliced through the air with enough force to shatter the surrounding crags, sending a massive wall of loose ice and snow raining down upon their heads.
Staring at the impending avalanche, Shen San blinked in stupor. “Master… do you think that’s its wife coming to save it?”
Compared to the cowering bird in their hands, the charging eagle was smaller, sleeker, and infinitely more elegant. However, the sheer lethality radiating from its form and the destructive shockwaves kicked up by its wings proved its attributes were exponentially higher than their current tier.
Lu Yunxi analyzed the incoming beast for a moment before shaking her head. “Not necessarily. In the avian kingdom, the males are usually the ones blessed with superior aesthetics.”
While the master and disciple casually debated the biological gender of their attacker, they stepped closer together, hoisting the bound eagle high above their heads to use its broad wings as an improvised umbrella to shield themselves from the falling debris.
The captured eagle, realizing it was currently being utilized as a literal parasol while its savior launched a lethal assault, let out a sharp, mocking cackle.
“You’re actually cowering from a minor drizzle like this?” a sharp, high-pitched voice echoed directly in their minds, dripping with pure sarcasm. “Humans truly are the most fragile, pathetic creatures in existence!”
Chapter 219: Can You Hear Me?
Lu Yunxi’s expression remained ice-cold. “Most of you beasts have thick skin and heavy flesh, so of course you can easily shrug off an impact like this.” A beast’s defense was naturally superior to a human’s—that was their innate advantage—but humans had their own ways of leveling the playing field.
The master and disciple were completely unmoved by its ridicule.
“Hmph! If you actually have the guts, let me go and face the ice by yourselves! Shielding yourselves behind me doesn’t make you heroes!” The bound eagle’s eyes darted around before it suddenly threw its head back and snapped.
“You think we don’t dare?!” Lu Yunxi snorted coldly, her temper flaring.
A smug gleam of triumph flashed through the eagle’s eyes.
Acting as though she hadn’t noticed its smugness, she gripped the raptor tighter, preparing to hurl it aside. But just as the eagle was about to screech in excitement, she abruptly checked her momentum, keeping the bird hoisted right above them.
“You… what is the meaning of this?!” the eagle squawked, its face a picture of utter bewilderment.
“Ha! Did you really think your clumsy reverse psychology would work on me?” She couldn’t help but laugh. “The more you try to squirm out of being our umbrella, the more I’m going to force you to do it.”
The eagle ground its beak in secret fury, glaring at her with pure resentment.
Lu Yunxi completely ignored its venomous stare, even going so far as to casually hum a light tune. After humming for a moment, a thought struck her, and she shouted up toward the sky, “Hey! You up there in the clouds! Why don’t you come down? Weren’t you just about to launch a dive-bomb? Why did you suddenly chicken out halfway through your flight?! Hiding up there in the fog like a total coward!”
The tied eagle was instantly provoked by her taunts and shrieked up toward the sky, “Don’t listen to her! Don’t come down! She’s deliberately trying to bait you!”
But the attacker completely ignored the warning. With bloodshot eyes, it came hurtling down through the mist, roaring, “I am no coward—!”
The voice was incredibly rough, wild, and booming—forming a hilarious contrast with its petite, elegant frame.
Shen San let out a slow sigh. “Master, you were right. That one up there really is a male.”
Lu Yunxi ignored her disciple’s sudden existential commentary. Tossing the now-useless umbrella eagle aside, she leaped backward.
Up above, the falling ice blocks were rapidly expanding, growing nearly as large as a full-grown person. Using a single captive eagle to block them was no longer going to cut it.
Perhaps driven by pure rage, the soaring eagle expanded its area of effect drastically. Looking up, it seemed as if the entire sky was raining an endless torrent of massive hail. The wind howled furiously as the ice crashed down in a relentless frenzy.
Fortunately, the master and disciple were safely encased within their protective shields, remaining entirely unhurt.
The faint, relaxed smiles on their faces only further enraged the wild predator. It whipped itself into a complete frenzy, its momentum reaching an unprecedented peak. The ice blocks high above began to rapidly fuse together, condensing into a colossal iceberg. The frozen mass was so gargantuan it looked like a towering fortress, completely blotting out the sky as it slowly ground downward.
Staring up at the darkening sky, which now resembled a literal doomsday scenario, both Lu Yunxi and Shen San looked thoroughly unamused.
Sure, their shields would keep them from being crushed to death. But if they were buried under an iceberg of that magnitude… how many days was it going to take them to manually dig their way out?!
The two sprinted backward at full speed, but they couldn’t outrun the crazed eagle’s ultimate attack.
A deafening, earth-shattering roar erupted, sounding as if the world itself was tearing open, or as if some prehistoric behemoth was awakening from its slumber.
Lu Yunxi frowned tightly, instinctively clamping her hands over her ears and crouching flat against the ground with her head tucked against her knees. Shen San immediately mirrored her stance.
Following a prolonged, violent tremor that shook her teeth, Lu Yunxi suddenly felt the sensation of freefall. She waited a while, but the plunge showed no signs of stopping. Left with nothing else to do, she simply closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
“Master, are you alright?”
Out of the dim, amber gloom, Shen San’s voice drifted over, his tone sounding distinctly strange.
Lu Yunxi blinked open her eyes, momentarily confused. She had been cocooned inside her grandmaster-level protective shield; how could she possibly be injured?
“I’m fine,” she muttered, pushing herself up into a seated position.
But the exact second she looked forward, a heavily map-furred face materialized inches from her nose. Startled, she instinctively snatched up a jagged chunk of loose ice beside her and hurled it straight at the creature.
The entity shifted with terrifying speed, cleanly dodging the projectile and retreating several yards in the blink of an eye.
Only then did Lu Yunxi get a clear look at her visitor—it was a sleek wild fox.
She turned her head to survey her new surroundings, stunned to find herself staring at a lush expanse of vibrant green grass, dense bushes in the distance, and a scattering of massive ancient trees. The fox pinned them with a sharp, calculating stare before turning on its heel and vanishing into the underbrush without looking back.
“Where on earth are we? Aren’t we supposed to be on the Ice Continent?” she asked, thoroughly bewildered. Had they accidentally triggered a hidden teleportation array during the avalanche?
“Our luck is actually insane, Master,” Shen San noted, checking his interface. “We dropped right into our exact destination.” They had bypassed the glacier and fallen straight into the hidden valley indicated on the treasure map.
Before she could respond, a deep, resonant voice suddenly echoed through the clearing, vibrating through the very air around them.
[So, you have arrived. Step forward and face my trials.]
A dense, shimmering cloud of mist materialized out of nowhere, swirling directly in front of them. While Lu Yunxi and Shen San couldn’t discern a physical shape within the fog, they could clearly feel a suffocating, primordial majesty radiating from its depths.
“Trials?” Lu Yunxi murmured after a brief silence, her brow furrowing.
[Indeed. Did you not navigate the wastes specifically to seek my challenge? So long as you successfully conquer my trials, the ancient treasures I left behind shall be yours to claim…] the voice echoed meaningfully.
The master and disciple simply lowered their heads, listening to the grand declaration in absolute, dead silence.
The entity within the fog seemed completely blindsided by their utterly tepid reaction. The mist began to churn excitedly, trembling in mid-air as if offended by their lack of awe.
[My children! Does your blood not boil with desire?! Do you truly comprehend the gravity of who stands before you?! I have reigned over this realm since the dawn of time—]
Catching sight of Lu Yunxi and Shen San’s thoroughly distracted, bored expressions, the entity abruptly choked on its grand monologue.
[Ahem! Well then… since neither of you cares for historical context, let us simply begin!]
The voice within the fog rapidly faded, its presence dissolving into a faint, distant hum.
Suddenly, a brilliant flash of white light illuminated the meadow, and the fox that had previously fled materialized once more.
It opened its jaws, speaking in perfect human language. “The first trial shall now commence: The Tightrope Walk.”
The instant the words left its mouth, the lush grassland, bushes, and ancient trees vanished entirely, replaced by a void. Suspended across the chasm was a single, terrifyingly thin rope. There was absolutely nothing to hold onto, and a raging ocean of roaring fire churned directly beneath the line—a sight configuration designed to induce immediate vertigo in anyone who dared look down.
“Reach the far side, and you shall pass,” the fox instructed, flicking its tail before vanishing in the blink of an eye.
Lu Yunxi and Shen San were left standing at the ledge, staring at each other in utter bemusement.
“Master, shall we go?”
“Let’s move. Since clearing this gauntlet is the only way to claim the treasure, we might as well get it over with.”
Shen San cracked his knuckles, a confident grin spreading across his face. “Master, I’ve practiced structural balance mechanics like this during my training. Let me take the lead.”
Lu Yunxi nodded, watching as he stepped firmly onto the rope. His initial plan was obvious: he intended to trigger his lightness skills and sprint across the line in a matter of seconds.
Unfortunately, the exact moment his heels cleared the ledge, a suffocating, invisible pressure slammed down from above. His Qinggong was entirely suppressed, forcing him to plant his feet and slowly balance his way forward step by arduous step.
“Qinggong is completely disabled here, Master! Watch your step!” he bellowed back, refusing to risk looking away from the line.
“Got it!” Lu Yunxi called back. She waited patiently until he safely navigated his way to the far ledge before finally placing her foot onto the rope.
But unlike Shen San’s relatively uneventful crossing, the moment her boots reached the exact midpoint of the chasm, the ocean of fire below suddenly erupted. Violent geysers of flame shot skyward, licking hungrily at the fibers of the rope.
“Master!” Shen San shrieked from the far side, his face draining of all color.
Lu Yunxi’s heart skipped a beat. Forcing herself to remain calm, she drew a deep breath and froze in place, carefully analyzing the behavior of the flames. Once she observed that the magical rope possessed an immunity to the fire and wouldn’t snap, she calmly resumed her forward march.
Refusing to glance down into the abyss again, she kept her gaze locked dead ahead, stepping across the thin line with absolute, unshakable precision.
“Master…” Shen San frantically grabbed her hands the second she stepped onto solid ground. It took a long moment before the terrified paleness of his face finally flushed back to its natural color.
Without warning, the talking fox materialized from the brush.
“Wow!” it exclaimed, its expression so cartoonishly exaggerated it felt entirely manufactured. “I have never witnessed challengers possess such terrifying intellect! To conquer the first trial with such speed is truly marvelous!”
Lu Yunxi and Shen San traded a completely deadpan look.
Are you serious right now? The creature sounded exactly like a patronizing kindergarten teacher. For any seasoned martial artist with high-tier attributes, a basic balance test wasn’t difficult at all!
“Let us immediately advance to the second trial,” the fox chirped, casually licking its paw.
In a flash, the roaring sea of fire vanished, and a heavy stone archway materialized before them. “The second trial is the Labyrinth. So long as you navigate your way out of its depths, victory shall be yours! Best of luck!” With its rehearsed cheer delivered, the fox vanished once more.
Shen San took the vanguard position, scanning his surroundings cautiously as he slowly crossed the threshold, with Lu Yunxi trailing closely behind.
The moment they stepped through the door, Lu Yunxi found herself flanked by towering, unmovable walls of dense green foliage, mapping out the paths of the maze. But before they could even pick a direction, a massive section of the green hedge partition suddenly detached from above, plummeting straight down from the sky like a falling guillotine.
Her pupils contracted to pinpricks, and she screamed, “Look out!”
Instinctively, she attempted to snap her grandmaster-level protective shield into place.
However, her interface flashed red—her barrier skill was completely disabled!
Reacting purely on survival instinct, she threw herself backward in a desperate leap, while Shen San executed a rapid, fluid dive roll forward.
Both travelers successfully evaded the crushing weight of the massive hedge block, but the fallen partition slammed into the dirt between them with a thunderous thud, completely cutting off their line of sight.
Lu Yunxi stepped up to the barrier, slamming her palms against the dense leaves as she yelled into the foliage, “Shen San! Can you hear me?!”
Chapter 220: Clearance Conditions
Lu Yunxi shouted into the dense foliage for a long time, but there was no response from the other side.
She frowned. She hadn’t expected the soundproofing of these foliage walls to be so absolute.
After pondering for a moment, she gripped a handful of the leaves and pulled with all her might, trying to wrench the partition aside to see what was happening on the other side. But no matter how hard she strained, the green wall remained tightly woven, without a single gap.
Frowning deeper, she drew her longbow and activated a high-tier skill, unleashing a volley of thousands of arrows all at once.
Yet, after the initial motion, absolutely nothing happened. Forget a barrage of arrows—not even a spectral shadow materialized from her bow.
It seemed all of her skills were completely disabled. She wasn’t sure if this restriction was unique to the labyrinth or if it applied to the entity’s entire trial.
Lost in thought, she unequipped the high-grade bow and pulled out a basic, non-enchanted weapon she had stored away. She began firing physical arrows one after another, testing whether she could use raw, ordinary attacks to pierce a hole through the barrier and force her way out.
Unfortunately, though she rotated through several different weapons, the foliage wall remained pristine and undamaged.
To perfectly withstand Grandmaster-level physical force without a single scratch was truly an impressive feat.
Lu Yunxi struggled against the wall for a long time before finally conceding defeat. It looked like she would have to navigate the maze the honest way.
The moment she accepted that reality, a shimmering ball of light materialized directly in front of her.
The Light Ball hummed, “What creature walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?”
“A human!” Lu Yunxi answered without a shred of hesitation.
She had expected a truly agonizing riddle, but if the trial was going to throw basic brain teasers of this caliber at her, it wouldn’t be difficult at all.
“The answer is correct!” The pitch of the Light Ball’s voice spiked with mechanical cheer.
As the declaration faded, the massive wall of green leaves directly ahead dissolved into thin air. However, the path beyond was completely empty; Shen San was nowhere to be seen.
Lu Yunxi continued forward into the corridors without a moment’s delay.
In the beginning, the riddles remained relatively simple, but the further she advanced, the more convoluted and agonizing the questions became.
Eventually, she hit a wall she couldn’t break through.
“Ten, nine, eight…” the Light Ball silently began its countdown.
Cold sweat beaded on her forehead and slowly dripped down her temple. In the end, she remained dead silent.
She truly couldn’t figure out the answer.
The Light Ball vanished instantly, and miraculously, the next verdant door swung open anyway. However, what followed wasn’t an empty path, but a razor-sharp wave of pure sword energy, slicing straight toward her chest.
Lu Yunxi’s eyes darkened. She snapped her body sideways in a fluid blur, narrowly evading the projectile.
The freezing displacement wind brushed past her cheek, but the lethal energy ultimate failed to graze her.
She slowed her pace, moving forward with extreme caution. From that point onward, she could barely answer any of the prompts correctly.
Whenever she gave an incorrect answer or failed to respond within the designated time limit, a unique localized hazard would trigger. The sword intent was a mere drizzle at the start, but it quickly escalated into a violent tempest of wind and razor-sharp rain, and eventually, a literal downpour of flying blades.
Worse still, the questions became increasingly dense. She encountered a fresh crisis practically every two steps she took.
Even with her formidable master-level physical attributes, the sheer mental and physical exhaustion of the gauntlet nearly tortured her to death.
What Lu Yunxi didn’t realize was that she was actually the lucky one.
Shen San’s experience was exponentially worse. Having never interacted with riddles, logic puzzles, or classical wordplay in his life, he found the later, highly literary questions entirely incomprehensible. Half the time, he couldn’t even understand what the prompt was asking.
It took Lu Yunxi a full twenty-four hours of constant maneuvering before she finally breached the exit of the wretched labyrinth.
Her hair looked like a disheveled bird’s nest. She stood at the exit, casually grabbing the hem of her thoroughly soaked skirt to wring out the water, her expression freezing over. “Where is Shen San?”
The talking fox suddenly leaped out from the nearby brush. “Are you asking about your companion? He hasn’t emerged yet! You’ll have to wait a while!”
Sighing, she quickly pitched a tent, washed up, and rested for the remainder of the night.
Yet even after she had slept off her exhaustion, she had to wait a considerable amount of time before Shen San finally staggered out of the archway.
He looked far more embarrassed and wretched than she had.
The two took a long time to rest and recover their attributes before stepping forward to face the next stage.
“The third trial is—Temptation,” the fox’s voice suddenly deepened, taking on the smooth, predatory cadence of a wicked witch enticing a naive, sheltered young girl. “Step forward!”
The moment the command echoed, the entire world shattered and reconstituted itself.
Bright sunlight pierced through a polished windowpane, casting long beams across the floorboards to illuminate the worn, embroidered shoes on her feet.
A dignified noble lady stood before them, her face adorned with exquisite, flawless cosmetics. She looked down at the servants gathered at her feet with a sharp, evaluating gaze.
“The eldest young lady will be entering the imperial palace shortly,” the lady announced smoothly. “Mei’er, Lan’er, Zhu’er, and Ju’er—the four of you have served at her side since childhood. Do you wish to accompany her into the palace? Or would you prefer to remain here at the estate? Return to your quarters and weigh your choices carefully. Inform me of your decision once your minds are made up.”
Lu Yunxi froze. Keeping her head low, she silently mirrored the deferential posture of the three young maids kneeling beside her.
In an instant, a massive flood of foreign memories rushed into her mind, weaving themselves into her consciousness.
The owner of this physical body was named Lan’er. She was a young maidservant inside an Earl’s manor, having been assigned to tend to the family’s eldest daughter from a very young age.
The lineage of this particular Earl’s Mansion was currently on a downward trajectory. Back when the old patriarch, Master Ji, was alive, the estate held the grand title of a Marquisate. Upon his passing, the rank was downgraded to an Earldom. The man who inherited the current title was the eldest son of the Ji clan—who also happened to be the biological father of the eldest young lady.
The Earl’s Mansion was managed by two brothers. The eldest brother held the noble title, though he possessed absolutely no personal talent or political acumen; he had secured his status purely by virtue of being the firstborn son. The second brother did possess a legitimate court position, but it was merely a fifth-rank sinecure—a comfortable, empty office that carried very little weight in the imperial capital.
But whatever the brothers lacked in political capability, they more than made up for in fertility. Both masters possessed more than ten wives and concubines each, resulting in over a dozen children running through the corridors. The ratio of sons to daughters was practically one-to-one, an impeccably balanced household.
By the time the memory fusion concluded, the noble lady who had delivered the prompt had already departed the chamber.
Since the eldest young lady was her biological daughter, it was only natural for the Countess to vet the bridal attendants personally.
However, Lu Yunxi was entirely at a loss as to what the specific parameters of this clearance condition were. Was she supposed to figure out a way to escape this suffocating Earl’s Mansion, choose to stay behind as a permanent servant, or actively volunteer to enter the imperial palace?
Without a single solid clue, she felt a mounting wave of distress.
“Lan’er, whatever is the matter with you?” Mei’er’s voice suddenly echoed beside her ear.
The fellow maid was staring at her, her eyes laced with genuine concern.
“Oh… it’s nothing,” Lu Yunxi replied casually, shaking off her daze. “I was merely reflecting on the choice Madam just laid before us.”
“Have you reached a decision?” Mei’er asked, nodding understandingly.
“Not yet. A choice of this magnitude requires careful deliberation,” Lu Yunxi said, shaking her head.
“It truly does,” Mei’er agreed thoughtfully. She offered a gentle smile before turning down an intersecting corridor. “I still have chores to complete in the west wing. You should head back to our quarters first.”
Lu Yunxi nodded, walking silently toward the servant housing.
As she walked, a bizarre sensation crept over her skin.
What exactly had she been contemplating just a moment ago? She harbored a vague, ephemeral feeling that she had been missing something monumentally important… something about a trial, or a test, or a temptation…
She cast her mind back, trying to recall her name. She felt like her surname was Lu… No, how absurd! Her surname wasn’t Lu. She was explicitly Lan’er, a personal maidservant indentured to the eldest daughter of the Earl’s Mansion!
She knit her brows, thoroughly perplexed by her own thoughts.
“Lan’er! The young lady left some of her leftover rouge goose breast for us today! Hurry inside and have a bite!”
“Oh! I’m coming!” She shook her head to clear the strange thoughts, quickening her pace as she slipped into the servants’ quarters.
Three days later.
The Countess summoned the four personal maids—Mei, Lan, Zhu, and Ju—back to her private parlor, demanding their final answers regarding the imperial palace.
Among the four, only Zhu’er and Ju’er expressed a desire to accompany their mistress, while Mei’er and Lan’er both respectfully declined.
The current emperor maintained an incredibly indulgent policy toward his consort suites. In previous reigns, a concubine entering the palace could only bring personal servants if they held the rank of a Noble Consort or above. Under the new administration, even the lowest-ranking ladies were permitted to retain one personal maid from home. If a bride was fortunate enough to be invested as a Noble Consort right out of the gate, she was granted a retinue of four personal servants.
The reigning monarch had ascended the throne only recently, leaving the inner palace exceptionally empty. Aside from the Empress and three low-ranking concubines, the grand harems were entirely vacant.
The emperor was young, brilliant, and full of promise, and with so many positions left open within the inner palace, countless noble families were desperate to secure a foothold. In truth, if the Ji family hadn’t quietly drained their family coffers to bribe the eunuchs and pave the way, the eldest young lady wouldn’t have even made the selection manifest.
Unfortunately, despite their massive expenditure, her starting title was merely invested as a First-Class Female Attendant, meaning she was legally permitted to bring only two maids through the gates.
After listening to the choices of the four maids, the Countess nodded slowly, sinking into deep thought.
“You may all be dismissed.”
Lu Yunxi stepped out of the parlor, her mind entirely tranquil. In reality, the four maids were all exceptionally beautiful young women. Though they were technically indentured servants, serving the legitimate daughter of a noble house granted them a highly comfortable lifestyle, ensuring their skin remained flawless, soft, and pale.
Among the four, Lan’er was undeniably the most breathtaking.
Ju’er’s eyes glinted with a sharp intensity as she deliberately caught up to her side. “Lan’er, possesses such incredible beauty, do you truly have no desire to enter the imperial palace?”
“I have none,” Lu Yunxi replied firmly. Then, a faint confusion rippled through her mind. “Besides, what does my physical appearance have to do with whether I enter the palace walls?”
Though she couldn’t articulate the logic behind her choice, her absolute intuition screamed that survival inside the imperial palace would be an agonizing nightmare. The web of protocols and cutthroat politics there would be infinitely more ruthless than the petty squabbles of the Earl’s Mansion. If so, why throw her life away?
