Chapter Ninety-Two: The Storm at the Center

Amazing!

Ling Xiao and the others trembled inwardly, all feeling that Shen Qingyun’s dark red halberd was overwhelmingly formidable.

Standing upon the Heaven-Suppressing Halberd, Shen Qingyun seemed to borrow its might. The blood-colored radiance spilling from the halberd tip shone with a brilliance so fierce it was almost arrogant.

One man, one halberd. A monster beyond the reach of even a spirit avatar was slain without a second blow.

A heat surged through Feng Chuxun’s veins. How could this weapon be so terrifyingly powerful?

As expected, Shen Qingyun never made a move lightly; when he did, it was nothing short of dazzling.

The Heaven-Suppressing Halberd carried Shen Qingyun down. Once he landed, it turned into a streak of dark crimson rainbow light that shot skyward and vanished from sight.

“What grade is that halberd of yours?” Feng Chuxun asked, his emotions in turmoil. He naturally refused to believe Shen Qingyun possessed such combat power himself; the only explanation was that great halberd.

“What grade it is doesn’t matter.” Shen Qingyun smiled. “The key is whether you know how to use it. Otherwise, even a divine weapon is wasted in your hands.”

“Then what weapon are you truly skilled with?”

Feng Chuxun could not help asking. Shen Qingyun had used a sword before, and even his insights into the way of the sword were so profound that Feng Chuxun could only look up in admiration. Now he had even brought out a halberd, a weapon of such fierce bearing and such extreme demand for strength that clearly not just anyone could wield it.

Shen Qingyun walked past Feng Chuxun toward Ling Xiao and the others. As he brushed by, he said, “I am proficient in all weapons. There is nothing in this world I cannot use.”

Hearing this, Feng Chuxun was shaken, and in the next instant he realized something was wrong. There were countless weapons in the world; how could one person possibly master them all?

He turned around, only to find that Shen Qingyun had already gone several zhang ahead. He hurriedly followed.

When Shen Qingyun came over, Su Ye and the two sisters gathered around him, all looking at him. Especially the sisters, whose eyes seemed to glitter with tiny stars called admiration.

They asked him the same question Feng Chuxun had, but Shen Qingyun merely shook his head and did not answer.

When Feng Chuxun returned, Shen Qingyun looked ahead. The small hillock had disappeared, and the road before them was now wide open. He could not help but sigh inwardly. Who could have imagined that that unremarkable little mound had actually been a monster with half its body buried underground?

Now that the creature had been slain, the path had also appeared before them.

“We should go.”

Shen Qingyun spoke softly. He had a premonition that the true trial would begin only after taking this step. According to the map, if there was not much deviation, this place was likely the edge of the center of Ghost Valley.

They had not traveled far before Shen Qingyun and the others noticed that the sky over Ghost Valley seemed even darker.

The sky of Ghost Valley had originally already been choked with black smoke. Now, however, there was an additional force that agitated the mind and made one restless, as though someone had brushed a stroke of heavy ink across the heavens, plunging everything into absolute blackness.

One need only look up to feel a suppressed anger surging from the bottom of one’s heart.

Fortunately, everyone present was no ordinary person and could keep such emotional fluctuations under control.

As they pressed deeper in, a whistling gale suddenly rose between heaven and earth. The wind on their faces felt like a knife.

“What is that!”

Su Ye suddenly cried out in alarm, drawing everyone’s gaze to him. Yet he was staring in another direction, his eyes filled with fear.

Shen Qingyun turned and followed the direction of Su Ye’s gaze. There, the gale drove a vast sea of black smoke. Before long, the wind intensified. A black storm rose with a furious roar, wild and grotesquely exaggerated.

At this moment, Shen Qingyun and the others happened to stand atop a mountain peak, perfectly positioned to witness this rare sight.

The black storm surged forward with unstoppable force, sweeping up rubble and giant trees in its path, grinding everything to dust within the vortex.

Fortunately, the black storm did not come toward them. Instead, it howled away into the distance.

Su Ye and the others, however, were thrown into panic. Such a terrifying storm—if they encountered it head-on, the outcome would be too horrific to imagine. Feng Chuxun and Shen Qingyun might still have some means of self-preservation, but what about them?

They lacked Feng Chuxun’s profound cultivation and Shen Qingyun’s unfathomable abilities.

Facing such a storm head-on would mean only one thing: certain death.

“Didn’t they say there were only those monsters inside Ghost Valley? Why would there be such a terrifying storm as well?”

During the Ghost Valley trial, they had all listened carefully to what the elders told them. At times, the elders’ words could save a life without warning, so they had paid attention with utmost seriousness.

Yet they had never heard that Ghost Valley could also contain such dreadful storms!

“There are books in the Scripture Pavilion that specifically record Ghost Valley. If you had read them, you wouldn’t find this strange.”

Just as they were panicking, they heard Shen Qingyun’s calm voice. Turning to look at him, they saw that he remained entirely composed, showing no sign of alarm at all from the black storm just now.

Then Shen Qingyun spoke slowly. “A Ghost Valley storm. If you see it, it means we have entered the center of Ghost Valley.”

Having said that, he even smiled at them and continued, “By now, you should feel fortunate. You have already walked halfway through alive. Next, you only need to make it through the other half—indeed, as long as you can get out of the center, this trial of yours will be over.”

“But you must also understand this: now that you have entered the center, you can only move forward and not retreat. Otherwise, you can only stay here and wait for death.”

After hearing Shen Qingyun’s words, the air seemed to freeze. No one spoke. No one even knew what to say. Wasn’t this Ghost Valley trial simply a place for those without enough strength to come die?

Yet Feng Chuxun looked unconcerned and said, “My master told me all this as well. He also told me not to come when it was time for the trial. He said this place is a stage for geniuses and a graveyard for mediocrity.”

“But I still came. Not because I think I am a genius. Only because I refuse to admit that I am inferior to those geniuses. That is all!”

It was the first time everyone had heard Feng Chuxun speak so much at once, and they all stared at him in a daze. Especially Wu Xier—she had spent the most time on the Lone Bamboo Peak and had heard the most.

Feng Chuxun was a madman, an utterly sword-obsessed madman.

All the disciples of Lone Bamboo Peak said he was insane, but only now did Wu Xier understand that this had been their prejudice against him. Everyone had misjudged him. She had too.

Feng Chuxun was not a madman. He was a brave man—a brave man who dared to challenge the path of his own cultivation.

At that moment, Shen Qingyun also said, “The road of cultivation was never meant to be smooth. You should have understood that from the moment you began. Since this place is called both a stage and a grave, then tell me—will it be your stage, or your grave?”

Listening to Shen Qingyun, Ling Xiao, Wu Xier, Su Ye, and the sisters, Qiao Xinran and Qiao Xinyu, all felt something within their hearts quietly shift. Especially the sisters, who came to a far deeper understanding of the path of cultivation.