Chapter 1531: The Emperor Will Appear

Hummmm—

In an instant, everything around Chu Feng vanished—obliterated by the Nine-Colored Divine Thunder. And in that same moment, the savage lightning disappeared as well. High above in the heavens, the nine colossal thunder beasts of godlike might were gone, every last one of them.

All around Chu Feng lay boundless darkness, as though he had plunged into an endless abyss. Terror. Unease. No path forward could be seen.

"Could it be… that I'm already dead?"

"Is this what death feels like?" Chu Feng murmured, gazing at the void surrounding him. It felt like a dream, yet it was so unbearably real.

But just then, a sliver of blinding light appeared ahead of him. It expanded rapidly, swelling like the midday sun until it engulfed him entirely.

At last, the darkness surrounding Chu Feng was replaced by radiance.

And Chu Feng realized that he was still standing inside the barrier space, his hand resting upon that same oval stone.

"So everything just now was an illusion. What an incredibly convincing illusion."

Understanding dawned on him—everything he had just experienced was fake. But it had been far too realistic. Even he hadn't noticed a single thing out of place. He touched his face and found it drenched in cold sweat.

CRACK—

But at that very moment, a sharp cracking sound erupted from beneath his palm. Chu Feng looked down and froze. The oval stone he had been pressing against had shattered—and shattered completely, with absolutely no possibility of being repaired.

"What do I do now?" Chu Feng was stunned. The moment he had entered this place, he had known at first glance that this stone was extraordinary. It carried an aura of the primordial era—clearly a rare treasure of immense value, priceless, perhaps even one of a kind in all the world.

Otherwise, the Flame Clan would never have used a barrier formation crafted by a Dragon-level Royal Robe Spirit World Master to frame and showcase this stone.

But now, Chu Feng had actually shattered it. What was he supposed to do? He had been counting on the Flame Clan's Ancestor to help him—the man not exploding in fury would already be a blessing.

Yet a treasure this precious was far beyond anything Chu Feng could repay!

With no other choice, he examined the stone more carefully. Though he knew the chances were slim, he still wanted to try—see if he could use his superb barrier techniques to restore it.

Even if he couldn't fix it completely, repairing part of it would be something. At the very least, he had to make an honest effort to make amends.

……

At that same time, outside the barrier space, the Flame Clan's Ancestor and Dugu Xingfeng remained where they were.

"Senior, what exactly did you have Chu Feng go in there to do?" Dugu Xingfeng asked out of curiosity.

"There's nothing to worry about. No danger at all—it's merely a small test," said the Flame Clan's Ancestor.

"A test? What kind of test?" Dugu Xingfeng pressed.

"A potential assessment," the Flame Clan's Ancestor replied.

"A potential assessment? Senior, those kinds of tests usually aren't very accurate—especially for someone at Chu Feng's level. The results tend to be highly unreliable."

Dugu Xingfeng understood what the Flame Clan's Ancestor meant. He intended to use this test to decide whether or not to help Chu Feng.

It was simple: if Chu Feng's results were good, he would help. If not, he wouldn't.

But Dugu Xingfeng, as the Sect Master of Green Wood Mountain, knew of many similar testing methods and was in fact quite familiar with this particular one.

Such tests generally worked by using a special artifact to make contact with the subject. The artifact's internal energy and sensory abilities would then gauge the subject's martial cultivation potential.

And did these tests actually work? They did—but it depended on the circumstance, and more importantly, on the person being tested.

For someone who had only just begun cultivating, this kind of test was quite effective, because their body had not yet accumulated any martial force. After all, a beginner still had to go through the tempering of Spiritual Energy, Yuan Force, and Mystic Force before developing true martial power in their body. Without martial force muddying the waters, the test's accuracy was considerably higher.