One by one, their minds brimming with questions, they stared blankly at the empty expanse ahead.
The Yuan Magnetic Gold Mountain had vanished right before their very eyes. This scene had plainly shattered every shred of understanding they had painstakingly built over half their lifetimes.
The four great ancestors had also rushed over upon hearing the news. Four figures stood at the front, gazing at the flat, barren ground where the Yuan Magnetic Gold Mountain had once stood, and in each of their eyes, shock was written plain as day.
They exchanged glances and saw a trace of wariness in one another's gaze.
Within these ancient ruins, once something went wrong, even the four great ancestors could not guarantee that everything would be fine.
Now, this bizarre scene had emerged, proving that point all too well.
Meanwhile,
As for the Yuan Magnetic Gold Mountain, it had long since been tucked away into his possession.
Something of this magnitude—Jiang Chen would naturally not let even the slightest flaw slip.
Though his talent was formidable, if the secret of refining the Yuan Magnetic Gold Mountain leaked out, the trouble that followed would be endless.
Until he was confident he could handle every possible scenario, Jiang Chen would absolutely not allow himself to be dragged into trouble.
The four great ancestors searched for a long time but could not determine a thing.
The examiners responsible for the third trial came before the four great ancestors one after another, submitting to their questioning.
After all, they had been in charge of the trial—they had been at the scene. Since the four great ancestors had not been watching personally, they too had no idea what had actually happened on the ground.
Yet no matter how the four great ancestors pressed, they could not extract a single useful answer.
"Logically speaking, this is the seventh day of the potential trial. Even if the Yuan Magnetic Gold Mountain were to disappear, it should not be until after the tenth day. Instead, it vanished in an instant. Have you interrogated those mortal disciples who participated in the trial?" Ancestor Zhuiyang asked.
The examiners were at a loss for words. Interrogate? How were they supposed to do that? As if mortal disciples could carry off the Yuan Magnetic Gold Mountain!
"Zhuiyang, stop joking around," Ancestor Jiushi said with a laugh. "The disappearance of the Yuan Magnetic Gold Mountain certainly has a cause, but it absolutely cannot have anything to do with mortal disciples. Forget them—even if the four of us joined forces and amplified our power tenfold on top of that, I doubt we could budge the Yuan Magnetic Gold Mountain!"
Ancestor Zhuiyang gave a cold snort, his expression dark, his chilling gaze sweeping one by one over the mortal disciples who had completed the trial.
After the third trial, fewer than twenty thousand remained.
But under the piercing glare of Ancestor Zhuiyang, those twenty thousand felt as though a mountain had come crashing down upon them. Their breathing grew labored, their meridians swelled, and their blood began to boil—as if another whisper of pressure from Ancestor Zhuiyang might cause their bodies to explode on the spot.
"All who passed the seventh layer of the Yuan Magnetic Gold Mountain—step forward!" Ancestor Zhuiyang barked.
A stir rippled through the crowd. Those mortal disciples who had passed the seventh layer of the Yuan Magnetic Gold Mountain shuffled to the front, trembling.
Each person had registered their result upon exiting by presenting their competition medallion.
"Show me your competition medallions," Ancestor Zhuiyang said flatly.
Jiang Chen's heart lurched. He knew that pulling one over this time would be… difficult.
The warriors who had passed the seventh layer had all been ejected from the Yuan Magnetic Gold Mountain early. Once ejected, they had presented their medallions to have their scores recorded.
Jiang Chen's medallion, however, had never been recorded—which meant that when the Yuan Magnetic Gold Mountain vanished, he had still been on it.
Sure enough, as medallion after medallion was checked, Jiang Chen's—the only one that had been skipped—was soon identified.
"That's him!" The examiners recognized the medallion at once. This was the Rock freak they had been discussing endlessly.
"So the Rock freak didn't perish inside the Yuan Magnetic Gold Mountain after all."
"But the mountain itself is gone. If he was still on it at the time, how could he possibly be unharmed?"
"Don't tell me the mountain's disappearance has something to do with him?"
"Tsk, tsk. Now that Ancestor Zhuiyang has him in his sights, he's in for a world of hurt."
The examiners murmured among themselves. Some looked at Jiang Chen with sympathy, others with schadenfreude.
Ancestor Zhuiyang stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his expression indifferent. His gaze, though no longer as severe as before, was locked firmly on Jiang Chen—so that not so much as a single hair on his body could escape the old ancestor's surveillance.
"Explain yourself. Why has your medallion not been recorded?"
His tone was casual, yet it carried a formidable pressure—faint but ever-present, like a blade of judgment suspended over Jiang Chen's head.
A Yuan Realm expert, even exerting merely thirty percent of his pressure, could make a third-level Spirit Realm cultivator convulse from head to toe.
And right now, Ancestor Zhuiyang was indeed deploying thirty percent of his pressure.