Three bridges stretched before him, clearly meant for
Though the Road of Samsara offered no explicit instructions,
Choose the wrong bridge, and it meant elimination.
Because the Road of Samsara had no turning back—once a choice was made, there was only moving forward.
In other words, people were walking on every bridge.
"That can't be right—doesn't the Road of Samsara say you walk alone forever? Why are there figures on all three bridges?"
Sure enough, there were people walking on each one, making their way toward the opposite bank. And every bridge had quite a few figures on it.
The bridges appeared slippery, treacherous to traverse. People were constantly slipping off and plunging into the raging river below.
What was even more terrifying was that the moment a figure fell into the river, it was as if they had been dropped into a vat of boiling oil—their bodies were refined in an instant, reduced to nothing but a pile of white bones in the blink of an eye. A horrifying sight.
"How can this be?"
If one of these three bridges was the correct path, why would those walking on it fall off?
"This is a trial of heart power, not a test of anything else. Everything on these bridges must be an illusion."
Standing still for a moment,
"Of course, of course—they said the Road of Samsara means you walk alone forever. How could there be other people? If you're always alone on this road, then everything I'm seeing must be an illusion. Even these three bridges should be phantoms. Those figures are nothing more than a kind of cue."
Those stark white bones were illusions too.
Even the raging river itself might be nothing but an illusion!
Having cultivated the Heart of Rock, once such a thought took hold,
With a sharp cry,
The moment his feet touched down, it felt as though he had landed on something solid. He looked down and realized he was still standing on flat ground.
There was no river before him. No bridges. No figures. No white bones.
"As expected—all illusion. Every last bit of it was a phantom."
On this road, without a strong heart, without sound reasoning and logical thinking—or if one had ignored the examiner's words—stepping onto any of those three bridges would have led down the wrong path. Perhaps it would have meant instant elimination.
It was precisely because
If there were no opponents to meet, then how could there be other people on the Road of Samsara?
Even if there were, the fact that figures on all three bridges kept falling into the river proved that none of the bridges could be trusted.
Since this was a trial of heart power, it certainly wouldn't resort to something as trivial as a multiple-choice question, leaving one to cross the raging river by mere chance.
If it wasn't about gambling on probability, then it stood to reason that all three bridges could be fakes.
Perhaps even the river itself was fake.
This line of reasoning was perfectly sound.
"Perhaps the words on that stone stele were also a hint. Naihe Bridge—what is the Naihe Bridge? It belongs to the path of the Yellow Springs. Naming these three bridges after the Naihe Bridge might be a hint: walking across these bridges may not actually lead you through the Road of Samsara at all."
"If others also encounter this Naihe Bridge, I believe a great many will be eliminated. Two-thirds out in the very first trial—those words may not have been an exaggeration. This small first sub-trial alone, the Naihe Bridge, will likely cause many to lose their footing."
After all, with three bridges laid out before them, most people would default to conventional thinking and simply choose one to cross.
A martial artist with strong mental resolve and sharp reasoning might consider the implications more carefully. But if it were truly a choice among three with no clear hint, then it was nothing more than gambling on odds.
And gambling on odds—that was far too frivolous for a trial. The Road of Samsara was a path of assessment; how could it possibly decide a martial artist's fate through something as childish as rolling the dice?
"I wonder whether my three followers can pass this trial."
But he had no time to dwell on it.
The repeated trials along the Road of Samsara had taught
This Naihe Bridge trial had shown him even more clearly that these assessments were far from simple.
Even with his advantages, letting his guard down would offer no guarantee of making it through.
As he pressed on,
Without warning, a stone stele materialized before him.
The Second Trial of the Road of Samsara — The Soul-Burning Sea of Fire.
Boom. Boom. Boom.