Feeling the 13 gold coins left in his backpack, Ye Tianxie spent 10 gold on 100 Advanced Recovery Potions (instantly restores 400 HP, 5-second cooldown, sale price 1 silver, usage restriction: Level 10 or above… clearly, most players right now couldn’t afford them, whether in money or in level), then spent the remaining 3 gold on 6 Steamed Buns. After glancing at the conspicuous “0” behind his Money attribute, Ye Tianxie left Yuan Que’s pharmacy with a deep pang of reluctance… This time, having spent himself into utter destitution, he had truly burned his boats. And that meant he had only this one chance to break through the Abyss-tier trial. If preparation to this degree still couldn’t get him through it, then there would be even less possibility afterward.
He returned to the village chief. The chief nodded and said gently, “Your expression tells me you must have gained a few things. So then, brave young man, are you ready? I’ll send you to a terrible trial ground — a place even I dare not set foot in. This is a cruel trial. Once you’re sent there, you cannot leave unless you die or complete it. If you try to leave by forcibly severing yourself from this world — logging out — you’ll suffer a penalty equivalent to death all the same… Are you ready?”
Ye Tianxie thought for a moment, then suddenly said, “Hold on a moment… village chief, give me one minute first.”
The chief nodded and said with a chuckle, “It’s fine. Making thorough preparations is the right thing to do. Go on — I’ll wait for you here.”
Ye Tianxie logged out on the spot and returned to the real world. He got up from the sofa, rushed into his bedroom, went up to the Slaying Gods gaming pod he’d once used, and carefully detached the life-support device from it.
With the rapid development of virtual gaming, the life-support device had emerged as a matter of course, so that players could truly stay logged in 24 hours a day, and through further development it had grown ever more convenient and compact, its functions ever more powerful. The current life-support device was a square box about the size of a shoebox, connected to two long straps. Ye Tianxie fastened the two straps to his wrists and re-entered the World of Fate. When the human body produced a sensation of hunger, the life-support device would automatically deliver nutrient fluid into it. Though it was only the size of a shoebox, a single fill was enough to sustain a person logged in for a month.
Though the life-support device was fully able to maintain a person’s physiological functions with no side effects to speak of, countless world-class experts had repeatedly cautioned that a life-support device ultimately could not replace real food and drink; prolonged use would likewise lead to a decline in physiological function, and the body going without exercise for long stretches would also cause the atrophy of a person’s nerves and muscles. They therefore strongly recommended that people allocate their gaming time sensibly and eat properly and normally.
“Village chief, I’m back. Send me over now.” Appearing before the novice village chief, Ye Tianxie said politely.
“Once you’re sent there, you cannot leave unless you die or complete the trial. If you try to leave by forcibly severing yourself from this world, you’ll suffer a penalty equivalent to death all the same… Are you truly ready?” the chief reminded him earnestly.
“Mm, I’m ready.”
“Heh heh, good. I hope you can let me witness an inconceivable miracle… off you go!”
An odd talisman paper appeared in the chief’s hand. He murmured a few words, and the talisman flickered with an instant of pure white light. The world before Ye Tianxie’s eyes turned hazy all at once.
When his vision finally cleared, his surroundings were already another world entirely.
This was a valley with a gentle breeze drifting through, brimming with birdsong and the fragrance of flowers. The fresh air made Ye Tianxie greedily lose himself in it for a little while, and then his gaze gathered and he looked around.
Behind him, no more than a dozen-odd meters off, was a cliff wall so high its top couldn’t be seen, sealing off his retreat completely. Not far ahead was likewise a cliff wall, this one only a dozen-odd meters high, and on its face was clearly imprinted the shape of a door, above which four large, crookedly-scrawled characters were carved — the Gate of Trial!
Ye Tianxie concentrated and stood in place, silently sensing his surroundings, and only once he’d detected not the slightest anomaly did he walk toward the Gate of Trial ahead. He was a man long accustomed to caution — you could even say caution had long since become a part of his very nature. Though there seemed to be no danger here, and the trial should in theory only begin beyond the Gate of Trial, he didn’t relax his vigilance all the same. Because what one takes for granted isn’t necessarily right, and the unexpected is often fatal.
Standing before the stone gate, he reached a hand forward. The instant his palm touched the Gate of Trial, a rumbling roar came from ahead, and the stone slowly opened, revealing another world. Ye Tianxie stood still before the gate for a short while, then stepped inside.
Rrrumble… The very instant he stepped in, that stone gate swung shut again of its own accord. An Abyss-difficulty trial, and with only him alone… To set foot on this land was tantamount to setting foot in a despairing abyss where no light or hope could be seen.
The ground was still the deep, verdant color of nature, but the air had grown cold and sinister for no apparent reason. Ye Tianxie summoned the Hour of Eternal Fate and walked forward… Not far ahead, there was another identical stone gate, and before the stone gate were twelve constantly swaying plants…
Frenzied Man-Eating Flowers!
Frenzied Man-Eating Flower — Level 10 one-star elite. HP: 1,000. A terrible man-eating flower mutated under the influence of frenzied demonic energy; though it cannot move, any living being that draws near its body is sure to meet its frenzied devouring.
Skill — Deadly Devour: Opens its formed teeth to bite and tear a single target, dealing 70 base damage, with a 3% chance to devour completely.
One-star elites — the trial’s very first gate was, of all things, a one-star-level mini-BOSS, and a full twelve of them at that. What’s more, these twelve man-eating flowers were absolutely the cream of same-level mini-BOSSes. With their 70 base attack, Ye Tianxie’s mere 18 defense and 470 HP — only reached with the Ring of Life’s help — simply couldn’t withstand more than a few of their bites. Worse still… these man-eating flowers’ 3% chance of complete devouring meant that once it triggered, he’d be swallowed whole into the flower’s belly… an effect entirely equivalent to instant death!
And these man-eating flowers were laid out in an extremely sickening arrangement — not scattered, nor in a vertical row or a horizontal row or multiple rows, but arranged in an arc, forming a perfect semicircle. This layout meant that no matter which one of them Ye Tianxie approached, he’d come under the combined attack of the others at the same time. And the man-eating flowers’ weakness of being unable to move had become, at this moment, a maddening attribute instead… because even luring them over one at a time to pick off individually had become impossible.
The difficulty of the Abyss trial truly was no ordinary kind of terrifying.
(End of Chapter 37)