In order not to worry Eggy, Chu Feng decided to break through his cultivation. He then found a safe location and began refining the crystal.
Before the crystal was fully refined, Chu Feng had already sensed an opportunity to break through. However, he did not rush it. Instead, he fully refined the crystal first, and only then attempted to break through.
Rumble—
Yet Chu Feng could hear the thunder roaring outside, but he could not see the Nine-colored Divine Thunder.
"Why can I hear the thunder but not see it?"
"Chu Feng, did your breakthrough fail?"
Eggy followed Chu Feng's gaze toward the sky. The rumbling of thunder was clearly echoing through the void above, but when they looked up, all they saw was a clear, cloudless sky.
"What a powerful formation." Chu Feng was also scanning the sky, but he had reached a different conclusion.
"A formation?" Eggy asked, puzzled.
"Yes. There's a formation covering the top of this forest. The sky we're seeing isn't the real sky, which is why we can't see the Divine Thunder."
"This disguise is incredibly strong. If not for the thunder booming so loudly, I wouldn't have been able to tell it was fake," Chu Feng said.
"So you succeeded in breaking through?" Eggy didn't care about the formation here — she only cared whether Chu Feng had managed to break through.
"When the Divine Thunder falls, the breakthrough naturally follows. I'm confident I can withstand this Divine Punishment."
After saying this, Chu Feng lowered his head and formed hand seals. He knew the Divine Punishment would arrive at any moment and had already prepared himself to receive it.
Though Chu Feng could not see the Divine Thunder, the people outside the forest could see it perfectly.
That heaven-obscuring Nine-colored Divine Thunder raged and roared across the ninth heaven, as though the moment it descended, all living things between heaven and earth would be destroyed.
Because of its overwhelming might, every cultivator present was completely transfixed. Even those from the Totem Heavenly River were witnessing such a heavenly thunder phenomenon for the first time.
"What an incredible phenomenon! Who's responsible for this?"
"As expected of the Strongest Trial — it actually drew out someone like this?"
The crowd buzzed with discussion.
"Such a powerful heavenly thunder phenomenon. This Chu Feng really is something."
Unlike the others, however, Ling'er and the mysterious woman already knew that Chu Feng was the one who had caused it.
Before long, the Divine Thunder came crashing down. But perhaps due to the influence of the formation, it disappeared halfway through the sky. Inside the forest, however, Chu Feng finally saw the Divine Thunder. It swept toward him, and a look of pain crossed his face.
After all, this was the Divine Punishment!!!
But it didn't last long. The Divine Thunder dissipated, and Chu Feng successfully passed the trial.
"That easy?" Ling'er was shocked once more.
Through the mysterious woman's mirror, she could clearly observe Chu Feng's every movement. What astonished her was that despite how terrifying the Divine Thunder was, Chu Feng had withstood it so effortlessly.
"Miss, we absolutely must recruit him," Ling'er said to the mysterious woman.
But the mysterious woman's expression had turned somewhat grim.
"Miss, what's wrong?" Ling'er noticed the change and couldn't help but ask.
"Someone else in this land has also activated the Heaven-Revealing Truth Net," the mysterious woman said.
Hearing this, Ling'er's face changed immediately. The Heaven-Revealing Truth Net was an ancient treasure — no one in the present era should have possessed one.
"Could it be the Totem Dragon Clan?" Ling'er asked.
"The Totem Dragon Clan might indeed have a Heaven-Revealing Truth Net, but I can't be sure it's them."
"However, because someone activated a Heaven-Revealing Truth Net beforehand, it's become very difficult for mine to peer into the truth," the mysterious woman said.
"Then our Heaven-Revealing Truth Net was used for nothing? Who is it? How infuriating!" Ling'er was fuming. Such a precious treasure, and after all the difficulty of using it once — if it produced no results, that would be truly agonizing.
"There's nothing to be done." As she spoke, the mysterious woman produced a red pill. On its surface was carved the image of an eye.
Within that eye was contained an extraordinarily powerful barrier formation.
"Miss, are you sure you want to use Heavenly Gaze here?!"
Upon seeing the pill, Ling'er was utterly shocked.
If the Heaven-Revealing Truth Net was already an exceedingly precious treasure, then this pill known as Heavenly Gaze was ten times more valuable — and it had long since become extinct.
This was personally crafted by Qin Jiu, produced in limited quantities. It was said that once used, it granted power comparable to a fully realized Heavenly Eye.
"I have a feeling this situation is far from simple. I can't just watch from the sidelines without understanding what's going on. I need to figure out what's happening."
The mysterious woman crushed the Heavenly Gaze, and it dissolved into a cloud of red powder.
She took a sharp breath and inhaled all of it.
After inhaling the powder, she closed both eyes tightly. Then, keeping her left eye shut, she opened only her right.
In that moment, her right eye had transformed — it now bore the exact same pattern as the formation carved on the Heavenly Gaze.
That single eye seemed capable of piercing through all things between heaven and earth.
Beneath its gaze, every formation that concealed anything simply dissipated. Everything across all four trial grounds was laid bare before the mysterious woman's eyes.
Before long, she even saw deep underground — the ancient palace where numerous experts of the Totem Dragon Clan had gathered.
"So it truly is the Sacred Dragon Ruins." The mysterious woman recognized the sphere on the table at a glance as the treasure from the first trial of the Sacred Dragon Ruins.
It was said that once this sphere was fully opened, the riddle of the second trial would be revealed.
However, even in ancient times, no one had ever managed to open it, because the requirements were far too demanding.
Four trial grounds, four different levels of cultivators — all had to pass their respective trials simultaneously. That was an extraordinarily difficult feat.
"Miss, what did you see?" Ling'er couldn't help but ask with curiosity.
"I saw the Totem Dragon Clan's people. They sent a great number of experts — five of the Nine-Flag Dragon Warriors came," the mysterious woman said.
"Five of them? That's quite the assembly," Ling'er said excitedly. She knew exactly what the Totem Dragon Clan's Nine-Flag Dragon Warriors represented.
"Long Junlin is also here," the mysterious woman said.
"Long Junlin? One of the three strongest among the current Nine-Flag Dragon Warriors?"
Ling'er was even more surprised. Though there were nine Dragon Warriors in total, they were not all equal in strength, and they came from different generations.
The title of Nine-Flag Dragon Warrior — the strongest nine — was something many within the Totem Dragon Clan competed for, so new members often replaced old ones.
But among the Nine-Flag Dragon Warriors, there were three whom no one had ever dared challenge. Those three had held their positions for tens of thousands of years.
They were known as the three strongest among the Nine-Flag Dragon Warriors, and Long Junlin was one of them.
He was not only immensely powerful but also held an extremely high status. He remained within the Totem Dragon Clan year-round and would not appear unless something truly momentous occurred.
Then again, this was the Sacred Dragon Ruins, so it wasn't surprising that Long Junlin had shown up.
But someone of his stature so rarely appeared, so Ling'er was still filled with astonishment.