Invincible Soul Emperor

Chapter 422 422: First Round, Ten Thousand People Eliminated

Relying on his Dual Pupil Martial Soul and his knowledge of formations, Ye Qingchen quickly detected the anomaly.

After the mist dissipated, a winding path appeared ahead, surrounded by pitch-black, primitive shrubbery. Any normal person would choose to follow the path. Despite its twists and turns, one could still clearly discern the scenery within a kilometer with the Divine Sense of the Martial King Realm. The shrubs, however, could block Divine Sense, deterring people from approaching carelessly.

Using his Dual Pupil Martial Soul, Ye Qingchen detected nothing unusual in the shrubs. Although the path appeared calm, it concealed a Killing Formation.

Ye Qingchen hesitated for a moment but decided to brave it. After all, while the danger of the shrubs was unknown, venturing into them could cause him to lose his way. With bad luck, he could even end up moving in the opposite direction of his goal. Moreover, he understood that Central Celestial Academy's objective was to recruit students, not to eliminate all the participants.

The previous test of character had concluded; what followed was a test of on-the-spot reactions and how one handled danger. Those shrubs were likely a deception, deliberately set up to mislead those Martial Artists who considered themselves clever, causing them to enter the shrubbery and lose their qualification to compete.

Of course, this was all just his speculation; he couldn't be certain of the actual situation.

He chose to tackle this Killing Formation because he had identified it as merely a second-grade formation. While it could be fatal to Martial Artists ignorant of formations if they were caught by surprise, for Ye Qingchen, a second-grade Killing Formation was something he could break with ease. Rather than risk blundering through the shrubbery, it seemed more prudent to face a known danger.

With this in mind, Ye Qingchen resolutely stepped into the Killing Formation. As soon as his foot landed, the scenery before him began to change drastically.

On the previously empty path, five Redflame Beasts suddenly sprang forth, each with strength comparable to the first tier of the Martial King Realm. Ye Qingchen also noticed that although these Redflame Beasts looked incredibly realistic, they were not living creatures but were composed entirely of Spiritual Energy. Clearly, these beasts were a product of the formation. As long as the formation remained unbroken, Spiritual Energy would continuously gather, causing more and more Redflame Beasts to appear.

There were two methods to break a formation. One was to use incomparable strength to shatter it directly, which of course required power far exceeding the array energy left by the formation's creator. Ye Qingchen judged that without the power of a high-level Martial King Realm, it would be difficult to shatter this one.

The other method was to find the formation's core and destroy it with force. If the flow of Spiritual Energy was disrupted, the formation would naturally collapse on its own. This method didn't require extreme strength but necessitated extensive knowledge of formations to locate the core.

Traditionally, these were the only two ways to break a formation.

Yet, Ye Qingchen opted for a third choice: find a loophole in the formation and bypass it. Just as he had previously avoided Feng Yuan's trapping formation, Ye Qingchen didn't need to destroy the formation to pass through it.

This might sound fantastical, but it was a real phenomenon. After all, a so-called formation is nothing more than an energy field created by storing Spiritual Energy in a formation core and channeling it through specific pathways. Although these energy fields are tightly integrated with their surroundings, loopholes are inevitable. This, of course, only applies to low-level formations. True high-level formations achieve a state of unity with heaven and earth and have almost no loopholes.

Although Ye Qingchen was only a first-grade Array Master, thanks to the Immortal Array Canon, these low-level formations were full of flaws in his eyes. The moment he stepped into the formation, he spotted them at a glance.

So, he ignored the Redflame Beasts that lunged at him, baring fangs and brandishing claws. His body twisted and turned at bizarre angles, weaving between them. Their terrifying attacks seemed to intentionally avoid him, always just brushing past. Fortunately, these beasts were formed from Spiritual Energy. Had they possessed sentience, they would have undoubtedly been frustrated to death.

After a dozen or so breaths, Ye Qingchen stopped, and the Redflame Beasts before him vanished.

"This trial seems much simpler than I imagined."

Ye Qingchen glanced back at the Killing Formation with a faint smile, paying it no more mind as he continued forward.

If outsiders knew what he was thinking at this moment, they would probably curse loudly. After all, this very trial had eliminated nearly half of the contestants.

Outside the Secret Realm, white lights flickered constantly as one Martial Artist after another was teleported out. This made Feng Xiao's expression grow even uglier.

He knew Central Celestial Academy's screening was rigorous, but it had just begun and over 10,000 people were already eliminated. Wasn't this elimination rate just perverse? Could it be that Central Celestial Academy had no intention of recruiting from Northern Barrier City? Did they deliberately increase the difficulty just to go through the motions? Otherwise, how could this be happening?

Seeing Feng Xiao's frighteningly dark expression, Liu Changrun smiled faintly and said to him and Xia Chengkai, "City Lords, there's no need for suspicion. Central Celestial Academy's assessments have always been like this. The elimination rate only seems so high because there are an exceptional number of participants this time."

Liu Changrun could tell that although Feng Xiao and Xia Chengkai didn't respond, they were not satisfied with his explanation. While he didn't care about their attitude, he couldn't resist showing off his meticulously designed assessment, revealing some of its details to them.

"What? The test began while they were lining up?" Even someone as composed as Feng Xiao couldn't help but exclaim.

Xia Chengkai frowned even more and said worriedly, "First, they withstood an hour of agonizing indecision and mental exhaustion. Then, just when they thought they'd found relief, they were plunged into a formation? This isn't a test; it's just hazing! And a second-grade Killing Formation is hardly easy to break. Array Masters are so scarce, yet you have Martial Artists breaking formations in the very first trial. Is Central Celestial Academy trying to recruit formation geniuses this time?"

Seeing their shocked expressions, Liu Changrun laughed heartily, then waved his hand and said, "We're not trying to recruit any formation geniuses. That Killing Formation will break on its own if one simply endures inside it for the time it takes an incense stick to burn. This is the fairest method!"