Hand It Over

"My axe!" Meng Jingzhou shouted at the top of his lungs in the illusion, desperate to dive in and fish it out. The river spirit held up three axes as he emerged on the water's surface. "Young child, did you—" *Splash—* Before the river spirit could finish, Meng Jingzhou took a header and plunged into the river with a great splash, burbling up air bubbles larger than he was. *What in the world?* The river spirit was dumbfounded. This was the first time he had ever encountered such a thing. The stream of bubbles gradually thinned until it vanished entirely. The river's surface fell eerily calm, save for the ripples spreading beneath the river spirit's feet from the aura he exuded. "Why isn't there any movement? He couldn't have drowned, could he?" the river spirit muttered. He wasn't truly worried about Meng Jingzhou drowning—this was an illusion, after all, where no one could actually die. Before the river spirit could figure out what Meng Jingzhou was trying to accomplish, another bizarre turn of events unfolded! The ripples on the river grew more and more frequent. The river spirit frowned slightly. He maintained precise control over his power; this could not have been caused by his own aura. Then it dawned on him: "It's that kid who jumped in!" Strands of golden radiance wove through the current, and the mist rising off the water's surface gave off faint traces of immortal divinity, as if some unspeakable terror were brewing at the riverbed! The unknown dread sent chills through his heart! Three geysers erupted from the river, surging higher and higher. They sprayed a pale golden mist that veiled the entire surface, blinding the river spirit to what was happening. A breeze swept in from out of nowhere, scattering the pale golden mist. Three figures emerged, all bearing Meng Jingzhou's face, yet their presence was nothing short of earth-shattering compared to before. The river spirit trembled—an instinctual terror welling up from the depths of his soul! Mortal Meng Jingzhou, Cultivation Titan Meng Jingzhou, and... Immortal Meng Jingzhou! This was the fundamental rule of the illusion: whenever an ordinary item fell into the river, it would manifest in three grades—mortal, spirit, and immortal. "Hand it over," the three Meng Jingzhous said in unison, reclaiming their respective axes. With Immortal Meng Jingzhou standing there, the river spirit was utterly powerless, completely at their mercy. Immortal Meng Jingzhou took the immortal artifact, the Heaven Splitting Axe; Cultivation Titan Meng Jingzhou took the spirit artifact, the Mountain Cleaving Axe; and mortal Meng Jingzhou, borrowing their reflected glory while the river spirit was still stunned, snatched the battered old axe. With all three axes in hand, the illusion shattered, and Meng Jingzhou cleared the trial. Those who passed the second trial would temporarily fall unconscious—a self-defense mechanism of the human body. *** The Dao Seeking Sect members stared at Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou, who had both passed the second trial, struck speechless for a long time. Where were the honest, straightforward applicants they were promised? Yun Zhi said nothing. She had a premonition: if these two were admitted into the Dao Seeking Sect, there would never be another peaceful day. She hoped her premonition was wrong. The real river spirit appeared, brandishing a gold axe and a silver axe as he charged furiously toward Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou. As a guardian spirit of the Dao Seeking Sect, he had never suffered such humiliating disgrace! "Nobody stop me! I'm going to teach these two little brats a lesson today—chop off their hands and feet, then graft them back on!" Seeing this, the Dao Seeking Sect disciples hurried forward to restrain the enraged river spirit. "Senior River Spirit, you can't chop them!" "Calm your anger, Senior River Spirit!" "If something happens to candidates during the trials, word will get out and our Dao Seeking Sect's reputation will be ruined!" In the end, it was Dai Bufan who stepped in to hold back the rampaging river spirit. "Rest assured, Senior River Spirit. The third trial was personally designed by me, Dai Bufan. It will definitely teach these two a lesson." Seeing Dai Bufan give his solemn word, the river spirit finally let the matter drop. For the grand finale of the third trial, two proposals had been prepared: one by Yun Zhi, which was relatively gentle, and one by Dai Bufan, which was somewhat brutal. Both tested the dao heart. After a vote, everyone had unanimously chosen Yun Zhi's proposal. However, Yun Zhi's proposal was too gentle; even failing it carried no punishment. To appease the river spirit's wrath, they had no choice but to adopt Dai Bufan's proposal. Yun Zhi had no objections to this either. It wouldn't hurt to let these two little fellows taste some hardship. The second trial had weeded out a huge number of people. Faced with the temptation of the three axes, many had succumbed to their inner desires and lied to the river spirit, claiming that the Heaven Splitting Axe or the Mountain Cleaving Axe was the one they had dropped. Those eliminated and cast out of the illusion complained endlessly that the Dao Seeking Sect's second trial was impossibly difficult. Of course, not everyone complained about its difficulty—the ones who passed, for instance, had no complaints at all. *** "The second trial was actually pretty simple," Man Gu said. "All you had to do was tell the truth." The candidates who had passed the second trial nodded in agreement; they had all done the same as Man Gu. "What? We weren't supposed to jump into the river and snatch the axes back from the river spirit?" Meng Jingzhou cried out. Why had everyone else done something completely different from him? Lu Yang rolled his eyes at Meng Jingzhou, thinking him utterly foolish. "If the river spirit wasn't an illusion, but a real entity, wouldn't you have provoked him?" "You should have done what I did: ask for the river spirit's axes, throw them all into the river, and then claim all three were the ones we dropped." Meng Jingzhou had a sudden revelation. "You really are cleverer." The crowd stared in silence at Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou exchanging their takeaways, beginning to doubt whether their own methods of passing had been wrong. Man Gu nodded gently. He remembered his father saying that the ancient barbarian race had nearly gone extinct precisely because of arrogance, conceit, and ignorance. As their descendant, he had to overcome this flaw and humbly learn from others. Man Gu felt he had found worthy role models. Just as everyone was debating what the proper method of clearing the trial had been, Yun Zhi, Dai Bufan, and the other Dao Seeking Sect disciples appeared. A faint smile played on Dai Bufan's lips. With a flip of his palm, a mountain the size of a hand appeared. Expanding upon meeting the wind, within just a few breaths, it grew to a height of a hundred zhang. A murmur of astonishment rippled through the crowd; such a display was rare even among cultivators. Lush trees covered the peak in vibrant green, making it indistinguishable from a real mountain. On one side, a long flight of stone stairs stretched all the way to the summit. "This object is called Heart-Questioning Mountain, a wondrous treasure I asked an elder to refine. Upon Heart-Questioning Mountain, immortal and mortal stand as equals. All you need to do is climb it. The higher you climb, the firmer your resolve proves to be. "Reaching the fiftieth step qualifies you to pass." Someone raised a doubt: "Won't Man Gu have an unfair advantage then?" At fifteen, Man Gu possessed the physique of a twenty-five or twenty-six-year-old and stood a full head taller than the rest. In climbing a mountain, he certainly had an edge—with his long stride, one step of his equaled two of anyone else's. Dai Bufan smiled. "No need to worry about that. Heart-Questioning Mountain levels everyone's physical constitution to the exact same baseline. Whether mortal or cultivator, inside my Heart-Questioning Mountain, all become ordinary mortals." "Is there a time limit?" someone else asked. "None." The crowd brightened with delight. No time limit—didn't that mean they could keep trying indefinitely? Why worry about failing the third trial? Could this third trial be merely a formality? "Can we use dharma treasures?" Some candidates possessed specially crafted dharma treasures bestowed by their clans that could be activated without spiritual energy, serving as formidable assets. Dai Bufan smiled with a touch of schadenfreude. "You may." Assuming your treasures still work, that is.