"..."
After hearing the conversation between Yan Xie and Chu Feng, Chili and the other two also grew uncomfortable, their faces full of guilt.
Although they didn't possess Yan Xie's powers of observation, after listening to the exchange between the two, they belatedly realized — and indirectly inferred — just how formidable that fivefold oppressive aura weighing down on his head truly was.
They understood that they had dragged Chu Feng into serious trouble, yet Chu Feng hadn't said a word about how dire the situation was. Instead, to spare them any burden, he had chosen to shoulder everything on his own.
Right now, none of them spoke, but in their hearts, they etched away everything Chu Feng had sacrificed for them…
With five layers of oppressive aura pressing down on him, Chu Feng was still managing to hold on, but he didn't dare let his guard slip — he refused to be eliminated, refused to have made this trip for nothing.
So right now, only one thing occupied Chu Feng's mind: grit his teeth and push through this trial with everything he had, as fast as possible.
Yet just as he was about to exit the area, he suddenly noticed a fork in the path ahead.
"Seriously — a trick like this at a time like this?" Chu Feng let out a soft chuckle. The fork was far too obvious; anyone with eyes could tell that the left path was the real one and the right was a decoy.
Even knowing full well that the left path was genuine — that passing through it would carry him past this trial and into the heart of the fortress — Chu Feng still couldn't help glancing down the right path as he walked by.
Along the way, he had come to realize that whoever designed these trials was remarkably clever. Many of the challenges had been set up with great ingenuity, concealing hidden mechanisms at every turn.
And now, at this most critical of trials, to present such a plainly obvious choice — that clearly didn't add up.
Chu Feng figured there had to be more to it, so he wanted to take a look at what the fake right-hand path was hiding.
"Is that?!"
"I'm not seeing things, am I?"
"This can't be real!"
A single glance was all it took. After looking, Chu Feng's eyes lit up and his expression turned to shock. A moment later, a look of wild elation broke across his face as he exclaimed, "It's real — heaven itself is lending me a hand!!!"
Seeing Chu Feng's reaction, Yan Xie and the others curiously turned their gazes in the same direction.
Only then did they discover that at the far end of that path, beneath a great tree, a patch of golden flowers had appeared.
Golden branches, golden leaves, golden blossoms — and the shape of the branches and leaves resembled a tiny human figure, vivid and lifelike.
From a distance, it looked like a small golden statue wrought from pure gold, gleaming and shimmering, breathtakingly radiant and dazzlingly bright.
"What is that?" Chili and the others' pupils contracted. They didn't recognize the flower, but even a single glance told them it had to be some kind of treasure.
"It's a special type of flower called the Golden Leaf World Spirit Flower," Chu Feng said.
"The Golden Leaf World Spirit Flower?" Chili and the others still didn't quite understand.
"In short, it's incredibly useful to me." As he spoke, Chu Feng began walking toward the Golden Leaf World Spirit Flower.
The path was long and deep, and reaching its end consumed a great deal of Chu Feng's time. This was genuinely risky — squandering so much time could very well mean he wouldn't make it into the fortress's central region among the first twenty.
But even so, Chu Feng had to obtain that Golden Leaf World Spirit Flower.
The Nine Spirit Divine Map contained records of it: the Golden Leaf World Spirit Flower was a supreme tonic for World Spirits, containing power of the same essence as that of a martial cultivator. It could cause a World Spirit's cultivation to surge dramatically.
Chu Feng knew with absolute certainty that once he obtained this flower, he could not only awaken the dormant Egg, but might even elevate Egg's cultivation to a whole new level.
Even though every second counted in the race for those twenty spots, when compared to Egg's safety, what did it matter if he missed this competition?
After all, no one understood better than Chu Feng himself just how much Egg had sacrificed for him.