Jiang Chen pressed onward, glancing around as he went. Still, there wasn't a single other great clan scion in sight.
"So the Peacock Lotus Pool is one massive formation overall, and within it are smaller formations that can isolate everyone from one another."
Jiang Chen had studied formations extensively himself, so he could pick up on the telltale signs without much trouble.
As he advanced, a thunderous rumbling suddenly reached his ears from up ahead.
Straining his gaze, he saw that the water surface ahead had split open down the middle, forming a passage. On either side, the surging waves rose hundreds of feet high like twin walls of water, sealing off the corridor.
And within that passage, countless whirlpools churned ceaselessly. Moreover, beams of prismatic light shot out from both water walls at irregular intervals — clearly an attack of formidable power.
Jiang Chen touched his nose thoughtfully. "Is this barrier meant to be crossed by going through this passage?"
He studied the scene more carefully. The whirlpools were incredibly dense, and if he lost control for even a moment or let one catch him, he could easily be dragged straight in.
The whirlpools were one test. The dense barrage of prismatic light firing from both sides of the water walls was another. If he was struck carelessly, the whirlpools below would sweep him away in an instant.
Though Jiang Chen didn't know the exact rules, he figured that being swept away by the whirlpools would certainly count as failing the trial.
He had no intention of leaving with his tail between his legs.
After watching for a while, he hadn't discerned any particular pattern, but at least he could tell that at this frequency of whirlpools, he should still be able to manage.
It was the prismatic light that was the real problem. It appeared with absolutely no pattern — sometimes fast, sometimes slow, with nothing to predict it by.
His only recourse was instinct.
Yes — the speed of those beams had already surpassed what the eye could judge. Only a martial artist's instincts would suffice.
Fortunately, Jiang Chen's instincts were more than adequate.
Without further hesitation, he urged his lotus leaf forward and plunged directly into the passage. The moment he entered, the surrounding whirlpools bore down on him from all sides, their pressure relentless.
Though Jiang Chen dodged carefully enough to avoid being pulled in, the force of those whirlpools inevitably affected the trajectory of his lotus leaf.
That, in turn, hampered his speed.
Jiang Chen knew this barrier was no joke. But he was bold enough to match his skill. He wove around the whirlpools one after another, his pace slowing somewhat but not too drastically.
He understood perfectly well that if he went too slow, the prismatic beams — fired at terrifying speed — would give him more trouble than he could handle. He had to maintain the right balance of speed and rhythm.
Enough to avoid being hit by the prismatic light, yet not so slow that the whirlpools below dragged him under.
The passage was extraordinarily long. After walking for nearly half a shi-chen, Jiang Chen looked up and still couldn't see the end of it.
A flicker of surprise crossed his mind. "How did the difficulty of the second barrier spike so dramatically?"
...
Over at the Peacock Emperor's side, everyone was seated, but not a single person had the heart to enjoy the fine wine on the table before them. Their minds had all drifted to what was happening inside the Peacock Lotus Pool.
Unfortunately, they couldn't see a thing about the conditions in there.
Only the Peacock Emperor wore that same faint, enigmatic smile — giving the impression of unfathomable depth.
The moment Jiang Chen had cleared the first barrier, he had received a report from Bright Emperor Yunzhong. The very first person to pass the first barrier was none other than Jiang Chen.
The Peacock Emperor was not the least bit surprised. He immediately sent word to Bright Emperor Yunzhong in secret: increase the difficulty of Jiang Chen's second barrier by fifty percent.
Jiang Chen, kept in the dark, had no idea that the barrier he was currently facing was a full one and a half times harder than everyone else's.
In other words, if the difficulty index for the others was one, his was one-point-five.
The prismatic light before him blazed ever more fiercely, its speed climbing higher and higher, its frequency growing more and more relentless. Even Jiang Chen was starting to feel the strain.
This barrier had originally been calibrated to test geniuses at the half-step Emperor realm. Jiang Chen was currently at the fifth level of the Saint realm, and the difficulty had been boosted by another fifty percent on top of that.
This meant his effective difficulty was roughly equivalent to testing an early-stage Emperor realm cultivator. It would have been strange if he *wasn't* struggling.
Then, in a flash of inspiration, Jiang Chen thought of something.
Delight surged through him as he reached out and produced the Flying Feather Mirror. The moment a prismatic beam shot toward him, he fired the mirror at the same time.
The beam's speed instantly halved.
Jiang Chen was elated. He immediately accelerated, the Flying Feather Mirror cutting through everything ahead like an unstoppable force.
With the Flying Feather Mirror's aid, the rest of the second barrier became considerably easier. Jiang Chen broke through again and again, and at last, a flash of white light appeared ahead as both water walls collapsed with a tremendous crash.
BOOM!
Like an earthquake, the water surface roiled violently before finally subsiding, and Jiang Chen's figure emerged from the second barrier into a stretch of calm waters.
Jiang Chen let out a breath of relief and put the Flying Feather Mirror away.
"That barrier was truly no easy feat. Without the Flying Feather Mirror, whether I could have made it through that last stretch is genuinely uncertain. The difficulty at the end was flat-out absurd. Could those great clan scions really pass an exam at this level?"
Jiang Chen harbored serious doubts.
It wasn't that he looked down on the great clan scions — but at this level of difficulty, he suspected that even someone like Young Master Ji, who was at the half-step Emperor realm, would have at best a thirty percent chance of getting through.