The Trap of the Ancient Corridor

Ji Ning held a Northsea Sword in each hand, walking directly down the center of the ancient corridor.

Suddenly, at both ends of the corridor, hundreds of feet away, a series of dark cyan seeds appeared simultaneously. Four seeds appeared ahead, and five behind. Together with the nine seeds, nine suits of armor and nine weapons materialized. The armor was a uniform black, and the weapons were identical—thick stone clubs that looked as if they were carved from bedrock.

Nine seeds. Nine suits of armor. Nine weapons.

“Whoosh...” The dark cyan seeds instantly liquified, flowing into the suits of armor and transforming into nine enormous, dark-skinned giants. Each giant was over three meters tall, with a pair of sharp horns on its forehead and a hideous, bestial face complete with protruding fangs. They wore the armor and picked up the stone clubs, which were also over three meters long.

The nine ugly giants glanced at each other. Their eyes burned with savagery and excitement.

“It’s been so long. Finally, we’re out again!”

“So this human brat is the one we have to deal with. Such tender, fair-skinned meat. I could crush him with one hand. And with all nine of us, plus divine armor and weapons… haha, this is far too easy.”

“Set up the formation first.”

The nine ugly giants began chattering to each other in a strange, alien tongue. Ji Ning couldn’t understand a single word, but his expression changed. He realized that these giants, born from seeds, possessed intelligence! They could even communicate with each other!

Thick mist began to rise from both ends of the corridor.

“Human, prepare to die.” The nine ugly giants let out a furious roar. The ancient armor they wore instantly blazed with blinding black light. The black light, carrying a foul, bloody stench, quickly intertwined in the air above them, coalescing into a massive centipede phantom.

Ji Ning was shocked. “Dao-soldier armor?”

Dao-soldiers were a commonly used military unit in the Grand Xia Dynasty. The Ji Clan’s elite force, the Crimson Armored Guards, were the lowest grade of dao-soldiers. Each suit of their armor was covered in countless runes, allowing the soldiers to fuse their strength into a single whole, enabling joint attacks and a unified defense.

With the Ji Clan’s Crimson Armored Guard’s dao-soldier armor, up to nine guards could fight as one. When united, nine Crimson Armored Guards could even match a Xiantian lifeform at the early stage.

And the Ji Clan had a full fifty thousand Crimson Armored Guards!

That was the Ji Clan’s true foundation.

Normally, the Black Armored Guards were deployed for routine operations. The Crimson Armored Guards were only mobilized when all five prefectures of the Ji Clan reached a unified decision, and only for matters of supreme importance to the entire clan.

“Dao-soldier armor… isn’t it all meant for Houtian lifeforms?” Ji Ning stared intently. “And it’s always covered in dense runes, easy to spot at a glance. But these nine alien giants… their dao-soldier armor has no runes on the surface. And each one of them is no weaker than a Xiantian lifeform individually.”

“This is bad.” Ji Ning held his breath.

Dao-soldier armor designed for Xiantian lifeforms… the six hegemons of the Yan Mountains couldn’t even dream of obtaining it. Ji Ning had never even heard of such a thing. It was probably exclusive to the armies of the Grand Xia Dynasty!

“Kill!” All nine ugly giants gripped their thick stone clubs with both hands and charged at Ji Ning from both sides, bellowing in fury. The massive centipede phantom hung above them.

Ji Ning immediately transformed into a blur of smoke, darting swiftly toward one side. On this side, there were only four alien ugly giants. They kept a distance of several meters from each other, their massive stone clubs held high as they charged forward with heavy, pounding steps.

“Die!” One of the ugly giants swung its huge stone club high overhead.

“Come on.” Ji Ning fully exploded with power, channeling the full force of his Fiendgod body into the Northsea Sword in his hand. He met the attack head-on with a direct, brutal clash. He needed to gauge the true strength of these ugly creatures.

Boom!

The stone club, thick as a man’s thigh and over three meters long, cut through the air and slammed into Ji Ning’s Northsea Sword. In the next instant, Ji Ning was sent flying backward like a rocket. The alien giant, however, only staggered back a single step, letting out a strange, guttural cry in its native tongue: “This human has surprising strength! Still not enough to match me, let alone all nine of us working together.”

Even though Ji Ning had only clashed directly with one giant, the dao-soldier armor meant that the power behind that single strike was the combined force of all nine alien giants.

Flying backward through the air, Ji Ning felt his entire body go numb. The tiger’s mouth of his right hand was split open, and the Northsea Sword nearly flew out of his grip.

“I can’t go head-to-head with them!” While still airborne, Ji Ning twisted his body. His Fiendgod constitution allowed him to recover rapidly. Mid-flight, he kicked off the wall of the corridor, darting forward like a massive Roc, and swiftly shot past the four charging alien ugly giants.

“Don’t run!”

“Running is no skill!”

“Humans only know how to run!”

The nine alien giants roared with their fanged mouths wide open. They had already realized that this human was faster than them.

Ji Ning, keeping his distance, pointed a finger from afar. “Water-Fire Lotus!”

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~~~

Pairs of lotus leaves materialized out of thin air—one leaf of water, one leaf of fire. Six pairs in total, instantly enveloping the nine ugly giants. Each pair of leaves rotated slowly in opposite directions, generating a terrifying crushing and grinding force.

“This human is quite formidable,” the nine ugly giants stopped and glanced at each other. “Without this divine armor, we might have been hurt.”

Ji Ning saw the nine ugly giants halt and chatter among themselves.

But his unstoppable Water-Fire Lotus hadn’t managed to harm them in the slightest.

“It really is useless.” Ji Ning’s heart sank. Earlier, when he had fought Tie Muzhan, Tie Muzhan had been able to hold out for a long time using a formation and a金刚符. Ji Ning had already understood that his Water-Fire Lotus was not an invincible technique. “When I first comprehended this Water-Fire Lotus, it was meant for defense. In terms of offense… it’s still lacking.”

……

The nine alien giants, gripping their stone clubs, charged forward again like a grinding tide.

“Lotus, defend.” Ji Ning summoned three water lotus leaves and three fire lotus leaves to revolve around his body. When the nine ugly giants charged into his defensive perimeter, the rotating Water-Fire Lotus disrupted their movements, preventing them from attacking him all at once.

Ji Ning gripped his Northsea Swords, locking onto one of them. “Time to die.”

The sword-light blazed like fire, terrifyingly fast. He was using the killing move from the Thunderfire Sword Fragments, ‘Lightning Flash’.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Streaks of sword-light rained down upon the giant in front of him. The ugly giant howled in fury, swinging its stone club violently. The club was incredibly heavy. Ji Ning had learned his lesson from the earlier exchange—he had been sent flying, his entire body numb. He didn’t dare risk another direct clash. Instead, he relied on his far superior sword technique to harass the giant.

The armor covered most of the giant’s body, but its head and other areas were exposed.

Ji Ning’s sword strikes all aimed for the giant’s head!

But every time his sword pierced forward, it was obstructed by the dense black light. Even after barely breaking through, the blade could only leave a shallow cut on the giant’s face, which would instantly heal, leaving it completely unharmed.

“Kill, kill, kill.” Ji Ning fought on with desperate ferocity.

“I want to live! So I have to kill all of you!” Ji Ning poured every ounce of his strength, even channeling his Xiantian true ki into the Northsea Swords. Yet, he could only inflict minor flesh wounds on these alien giants. Minor flesh wounds that had absolutely no impact on their combat effectiveness.

The battle raged on for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

Because he was constantly controlling the Water-Fire Lotus while fighting with all his might, his divine power was draining at an alarming rate.

“Their strength hasn’t dropped at all. I can’t even seriously wound a single one of them.” Ji Ning sensed that his divine power was already less than half. He didn’t dare press the attack any longer. He swiftly dodged and broke out of their encirclement.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Ji Ning executed the Windwing Evasion, darting back and forth, weaving and dodging as he evaded the pursuit of the alien giants.

“Human, stop running.”

“You can’t escape.”

“Humans only know how to run.” The nine ugly giants howled in fury as they ran, chasing him relentlessly. Ji Ning refused to engage them directly, relying on his Windwing Evasion to shake them off time and time again.

Ji Ning couldn’t help but sigh to himself.

He had trained in the sword arts for so long, but in the end, his life depended on the Windwing Evasion.

……

A long time passed.

“What do I do?” While fleeing, Ji Ning was frantically racking his brains. He glanced at the nine ugly giants, who were still roaring in fury and showing no signs of fatigue. “They’ve been chasing me for half a day, and they still don’t seem tired at all. But I’ve got less than twenty percent of my divine power left.”

The Windwing Evasion also consumed Crimsonbright divine power! Although it drained much slower than intense combat, running for half a day had taken its toll.

“My full-power sword strikes only leave a scratch on them.” Ji Ning thought to himself, “But these nine aliens were actually born from those nine seeds. It’s just like when I killed those eighty-one golden-armored soldiers earlier. Even after I completely shattered them, they could just reform.”

Ji Ning understood…

Even if he pierced their skulls, it probably wouldn’t kill them.

And more importantly, his full-power sword strike could only leave a minor flesh wound on them.

“What do I do?”

“What the hell do I do?” Ji Ning’s mind raced.

There was no solution.

Despair.

“In the distant past, those Xiantian Fiendgod Body Refining cultivators who were teleported here… they must have felt the same despair as their divine power drained away, before being killed.” Ji Ning understood his own weakness now. His weakness was that his Crimsonbright Diagram had only reached the fourth layer.

This corridor was meant for Xiantian Fiendgod Body Refining cultivators to charge through.

Back when Celestial Immortal Juhua was recruiting disciples, the Xiantian Fiendgod Body Refining cultivators who attempted this trial were probably all at the peak of the Xiantian stage! But Ji Ning? The Crimsonbright Diagram required the sixth layer to be considered Xiantian perfection. He was only at the fourth layer. In terms of the purity and depth of his divine power, he was still incomparably far from his own Xiantian limits.

It was only right that he couldn’t clear all three trials.

“Compared to the Xiantian Fiendgod Body Refining cultivators who attempted this trial back then, my divine power is far too weak.” Ji Ning understood. “It’s only because I comprehended the True Meaning of the Dao and created the ‘Water-Fire Lotus’ that I managed to scrape through the first trial. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have even made it past the first.”

“But there are three trials.”

“Forget the third trial… even this second one…” Ji Ning sensed that his divine power had dropped to less than ten percent. Deep within his heart, anxiety and despair welled up violently.

The author was delayed by some matters and this update is late. Tomato is ashamed.