Right now, Chu Feng found himself inside an enormous cave.
Within the cave stood numerous tightly shut red doors.
Each door was positioned atop its own separate pool.
The water in the pools was pitch black, bubbling away and giving off a foul stench.
It looked like a cesspool, plain and simple.
Yet the black water possessed a power that blocked his line of sight — even Chu Feng couldn't see what lay inside the pools.
There were many doors and pools, and naturally, they varied in size.
The ones closest to Chu Feng were all small doors standing over small pools.
The farther the doors were from Chu Feng, the larger they became, and the pools they stood upon grew proportionally bigger.
The smallest door was only about a meter tall — Chu Feng would have to duck his head just to squeeze through.
But the door at the very deepest point of the cave towered ten thousand meters high, and the pool beneath it was so vast it could only be described as a lake.
Besides the doors standing in their pools, there were also a hundred statues lining both sides of the cave, each standing a thousand meters tall.
They wore armor and wielded enormous swords, standing in perfectly orderly rows.
And at the very deepest point of the cave stood another statue — one that was quite different from the ones on either side.
This statue was several times larger than those flanking the cave.
It wore no armor, and its silhouette was far from complete. Yet even that incomplete outline was enough to suggest that it was some ugly creature.
Apart from the doors, pools, and statues, the entire floor of the cave was littered with bones.
They were all human bones, and none of them retained any of their origin power.
"Bones from the Ancient Era," Chu Feng picked one up, examined it, and remarked.
"The Ancient Era?"
"So even back in the Ancient Era, there were numerous powerhouses who came to this place — and perished here?" the Queen asked.
"Very likely." Chu Feng surveyed the cave once more. Although the traces weren't obvious, a careful inspection revealed a great deal of lingering ancient aura.
This proved that the location had existed for ages, and was not merely some formation conjured from nothing.
But the rumors held that the Primordial Star Sea was a trial ground originating from the Primordial Era.
So why… were there things from the Ancient Era here?
Rumble—
Just as Chu Feng was pondering this, the terrifying statue at the very deepest point of the cave slowly opened its mouth. A stiff, rasping voice then boomed forth.
"Enter the pool first, then pass through the door. Those who qualify may enter; those who do not shall withdraw."
The voice offered Chu Feng his instructions.
But he hadn't really needed them — he already understood that to enter one of those doors, one first had to step into the corresponding pool.
The pool was the trial. Pass the trial, and the door would open.
Although he could no longer see Long Chengyu or any of the others here, he could still sense the lingering traces of their auras.
They had chosen different doors, and some doors even bore the aura of the same person, meaning certain individuals had made multiple attempts.
This place was like a waypoint — or perhaps one could obtain something here before moving on. The real destination lay behind the doors.
Under those circumstances, the choice of door was critically important. In theory, the larger the door, the greater the rewards one could obtain.
And indeed, Long Chengyu, Long Muxi, Feng Jiuyue, Feng Tiansheng, the Blood-Eyed Kirin Clan's fifth-grade half-god, and that Qi Wei Dao…
Their auras had ultimately come to rest in front of the larger doors in this place.
But… not the largest one. Only relatively large.
That meant the selection came with its own difficulty — there was almost certainly a trial involved.
The highest difficulty of these trials had even managed to stop Long Chengyu and the others in their tracks.
Armed with this information, Chu Feng decided to test the waters. He chose the same door where Long Chengyu had ultimately come to a halt.
"Hm?"
But the moment one of Chu Feng's feet touched the surface of that pool, his expression changed drastically. The black water erupted into the air, and Chu Feng immediately launched himself skyward, vaulting out of the pool.
And in that single instant, he was already panting heavily — he… had been terrified.
"Chu Feng, what happened?" The Queen asked anxiously upon seeing Chu Feng flee the pool in such a panic.