Inside the grand hall of the Ouyang Tian Clan.
Several thousand new figures had appeared.
They were all young people who looked like junior members.
Among them, one man stood out in particular — he was three meters tall, and while his features couldn't be called handsome, they were rugged and striking.
His name was Ouyang Lingyu.
"Ouyang Kuangfei lost to Chu Feng?"
"And he lost to some girl of unknown origin?"
Ouyang Lingyu addressed the elder with a tone that brooked no doubt.
"Mm." The elder nodded.
"What a disgrace to our Ouyang Tian Clan."
With that, Ouyang Lingyu began striding toward the Ancient Killing Sea. Several thousand junior members of the Ouyang Tian Clan followed closely behind him.
"Lingyu." But the elder suddenly spoke up. "Are you truly going in?"
"I've endured all that hardship, waiting for this very day."
"I will reclaim the honor of the Ouyang Tian Clan."
Once those words left Ouyang Lingyu's lips, the elder no longer tried to dissuade him. Instead, he watched as several thousand junior members of the Ouyang Tian Clan filed one after another into the black vortex.
……
"Chu Feng, stop telling me you're fine. How are you really? Open your eyes and show me."
Eggy's voice echoed in Chu Feng's ears.
Ever since Chu Feng had entered the Black Flame Punishment Cell, his eyes had remained tightly shut.
Eggy was no fool — she knew Chu Feng simply didn't want her to see his wretched state.
And to keep her from worrying, Chu Feng had been making a point of talking to her every so often.
Even though he had tried his best to keep his voice steady, Eggy could still hear him growing weaker by the moment.
Finally, Chu Feng opened his eyes. The torture implements on the walls had all vanished.
"Eggy, I did it." Chu Feng tried to grin, but found that even his lips wouldn't cooperate. The smile looked painfully stiff.
By all outward appearances, he looked unharmed, but his eyes held a vacant stare. Only he knew what kind of agony he had endured.
And staring at those now-empty walls, Eggy couldn't bring herself to smile.
She knew why those implements had disappeared…
Whoosh— But before the moment of sorrow could settle in, the walls of the punishment cell began to crack apart, transforming into black flames that swirled rapidly around Chu Feng.
In that instant, Chu Feng felt as though he were standing at the eye of a tornado.
And when the black flames dissipated, the scenery around him had changed entirely. He was no longer standing on the seventh step.
He found himself in a vast, sprawling world. To the left, he could see a dense forest stretching into the distance. To the right, towering mountains rose all the way into the sky.
Behind him lay a boundless ocean.
And he himself stood in the middle of an open plain.
The only consolation was that the three beads were still there, not far from where he stood.
But Chu Feng couldn't move. He couldn't take a single step. Aside from turning his head to survey his surroundings, there was nothing he could do.
BOOM— Suddenly, a piercing crack of thunder rang out from high above in the sky.
The ground shook, and the once-clear heavens were swallowed by darkness in an instant.
Looking up, he saw black clouds blotting out the sky, with countless bolts of lightning writhing within the churning darkness.
Then the lightning began to fall.
It started from the outer edges of the world, growing denser and more furious by the second. Terrible bolts of lightning rained down like a torrential storm.
The mountains and forests were flattened in the blink of an eye.
Even the boundless ocean was evaporated by the sheer force.
Those terrifying bolts of lightning surged like a million-strong army, all converging toward a single point.
Toward Chu Feng.
"Chu Feng, can you still give up? Can you still back out?"
"If you can back out, just back out, please. I'm begging you."
Eggy's voice was filled with fear.
Eggy had always been fearless, but right now, she was truly terrified.
Chu Feng currently had the body of an ordinary mortal. Even torture implements designed for common people could inflict unimaginable pain on him.