Chapter 504: Difficult Decision

Due to Su Che and Tian Yin needing to ambush others along the way, their progress couldn’t be fast, and they had long been overtaken. By now, over a hundred people had already rushed into the forest ahead of them.
Everyone’s prediction proved correct—once they crossed the distinct boundary between the grassland and the forest, the savage beasts stopped chasing them, only howling or turning back to attack those who were still arriving behind.
Su Che and his group had it relatively easy. Under the “escort” of a dozen sword-armed ape monsters, no other savage beasts bothered them, until Su Che helped Tian Yin cross the green grassland, at which point the ape monsters’ role as escorts ended.
Su Che retracted his vital energy, allowing Tian Yin to walk on her own again. She closed her eyes slightly and leaned her forehead against Su Che’s shoulder. Clearly, though the sonic ambush earlier had been fruitful, it had also left her mentally exhausted, in urgent need of rest.
“Aw… aw…”
The dozen ape monsters roared and waved their giant sword-like arms just a few yards behind them, clearly unwilling to give up on capturing their prey.
There was no obstacle in front of them, yet they dared not step out of the grassland, as if an invisible chain was pulling them back, preventing them from advancing further.
Seeing Tian Yin’s tired expression, Su Che felt heartache, but given their current situation, they couldn’t stop to rest. He said to her, “How about I walk for you? Just close your eyes and rest for a while.”
“No need. I’m fine. I just felt a bit dizzy earlier, but it’s gone now,” Tian Yin said softly. “There must be other dangers in the forest. We might not be as lucky as before—we can’t afford any carelessness.”
Su Che nodded slightly. Indeed, during their journey across the grassland, aside from Tian Yin’s familiarity with savage beasts, luck also played a role—they encountered a group of sword-armed ape monsters that relied on slashing attacks. Though their attacks were fierce, they didn’t cause too much trouble.
As they spoke, the two continued walking, though at a slower pace. Having just entered this unknown forest, none of them dared to act rashly.
Inside the forest, there were towering trees whose trunks were as thick as several people could hold together, with dense canopies that blocked almost all light. However, this mysterious space didn’t have bright, glaring sunlight either—only diffused light, like on an overcast day.
This was also a characteristic of artificial spaces—few space artifacts could contain a real sun.

Below their feet was a layer of decaying leaves several feet thick; no one could say what might emerge from beneath. Of course, even among the dense tree canopies, danger could lurk unseen. If their spiritual senses were effective, this wouldn’t be a problem at all, but since they could only rely on their eyesight, the cultivators found it extremely uncomfortable—in some aspects, they might even be inferior to ordinary hunters who made a living by hunting. Heng Yi and the other two subordinates under Lianxu protected Su Che and Tian Yin in the middle. If anything went wrong, they would naturally be the first to face the danger—this was the duty of personal guards. After walking for a while in a straight southward direction, Su Che and his group suddenly heard rustling footsteps coming from all directions, as if some unknown creatures were using the thick tree trunks as cover to slowly approach. There were quite a number of them! “It’s humans!” Lao He’s detection ability remained at a normal level. At this moment, extending it just a few dozen feet allowed him to clearly see who the newcomers were. “It’s still that bunch of bastards; they seem to want to cause you trouble,” Lao He reported. “There are twelve of them in total, surrounding us from several directions.” Su Che naturally knew he was referring to those from the Spirit Realm. With a cold snort, he thought, “They finally can’t hold back and want to attack me?” Rustling… A few breaths later, indeed, more than a dozen people appeared from between the trees. They were all strangers, not those at the Great Ascension stage who had surrounded him outside the Chilian Palace. With this, Su Che and his group realized their intention was purely to test them—these people were just pawns to be sacrificed. If such blatant provocation violated the rules of the game, they might face punishment from the mysterious old man. Since those powerful beings at the Great Ascension stage didn’t dare take risks, they used these people as test subjects and sacrifices. “I really feel sorry for you.” Su Che looked at someone right in front of him and said in a deep voice, “It must not be pleasant to be used as a sacrifice, right?” The person in front of him was a distinguished and imposing Heavenly Monarch at the Tribulation Crossing stage, likely the leader of this group. He ignored Su Che’s mockery and said in a grave voice, “Tian Yu, because of you, all of us are in danger, and over four hundred of our companions have already perished. If we can’t capture you today, aren’t we just good for nothing? Even if we manage to leave this place alive, we’ll have no face to show anyone.” “But you have too few people—only twelve have come.”

Su Che glanced around at them all and said in a low voice, “Right now, everyone can only exert the combat power of the late Yuan Ying stage. Our levels are fairly similar. With such a small number of people, it’s definitely not enough to capture all five of us alive. That’s why you’re just pitiful wretches sent here to test us.”

Su Che was so confident because sealing one’s cultivation power and self-suppressing it were two completely different concepts. To deceive the heavens, self-suppression involved many techniques and loopholes, allowing one to unleash ten times the strength of the late Yuan Ying stage without issue. But when cultivation was truly sealed, one remained at the late Yuan Ying stage, and even for someone like Su Che, who possessed multiple supreme arts, the power they could unleash was extremely limited. As for the opponents, their divine spells came from the Spirit Realm, making their power even weaker. Relatively speaking, both sides were at roughly the same level, with little difference.

Of course, the opponents were still powerful cultivators at the Tribulation or Refinement stages from the Spirit Realm—none of them could be underestimated, and they surely had their own powerful trump cards. So, though Su Che spoke harshly, he wouldn’t underestimate any opponent in reality.

“Talking is pointless. Let’s fight!”

With a cold remark, Su Che intended to force the opponents to attack first. Even if it violated the game rules, it would be their fault. Similarly, the dozen or so opponents appeared calm on the surface but were actually even more panicked, unsure whether attacking would result in cruel punishment under the game rules. Such punishment meant certain death with no chance of burial—a price far too high.

Though these people were trusted subordinates at the Mahayana stage like Li Jiu, they weren’t utterly loyal warriors. After thousands of years of hard cultivation, why should they become sacrifices for others? When they first received the order, they simply took it on out of years of ingrained obedience. But now, faced with real danger, things were different.

Should they really fight? A few of them instinctively looked up at the sky, as if hoping to see the giant head of that mysterious old man appear in the heavens.

“There’s no time to waste here with you!”

Frowning, Su Che kept moving forward, heading straight south.

One of the game rules: Do not stay in one place for too long!

The Heavenly Lord facing him directly was also retreating continuously, having to avoid the large trees behind him as well. This stalemate lasted for about fifteen minutes, during which he still didn’t dare give the order to attack. It was a gamble with one’s life, and the odds of losing were extremely high—who would dare make such a decision lightly?

Swish swish swish…

A total of seventeen people were moving in and out, constantly advancing deeper into the forest. Yet the stalemate remained unchanged.

“Should we attack?”

As the leader of this operation, the Heavenly Lord naturally bore the greatest psychological pressure. At this moment, he truly found it difficult to make a decision and could only continue this stalemate, which could barely be considered the most basic form of probing.

It was almost fifteen minutes already, and this tense, crisis-ridden stalemate continued until a sudden change occurred, finally breaking the deadlock…

Whoosh…

The Heavenly Lord, who had been retreating, suddenly heard a strange noise behind him. Judging by the sound, it seemed like some huge monster was crawling beneath the surface layers.

Not only him but also Su Che and the others instinctively stopped in their tracks.

But in the next instant, whoosh—several feet thick layers of decaying leaves and mud beneath their feet surged like waves, as if something was about to emerge!

Faced with this unknown situation, the best course of action was obviously to take to the air and hide high up. But no one dared do so; they could only try to move as fast as possible toward due south, hoping to escape this dangerous area.

Under the constraints of these extremely cruel rules, this was the only option—there was nothing else to do.

Whoosh!

Decaying leaves and black mud shot into the air, as if an underground volcano had suddenly erupted beneath their feet.

The massive force knocked Su Che and the others off balance, but they could only use spells like “Ten-Thousand-Pound Weight” to firmly anchor themselves to the ground. Under no circumstances could they let their feet leave the ground!

Huh! Huh! Huh! Huh…

Amidst the swirling leaves and mud, hundreds of black tentacles as thick as buckets mixed in, rushing toward them with a whooshing sound.

Bang! Bang! Bang…

Su Che and the others were protected by defensive talismans, but each of them still had to face the sudden attack of dozens of tentacles.

Swish!

On top of each tentacle, dense spikes suddenly appeared, resembling giant mace-like weapons—extremely ferocious and terrifying.

Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap…

Dozens of giant clubs struck the wealthy man’s defense barrier. Just in the first round of attacks, Su Che realized that the barrier was on the verge of breaking.
It wasn’t just a description—it was truly about to collapse.
“Damn!”
Su Che was shocked: “The power of these attacks is equivalent to a cultivator at the Huashen stage using their finest divine weapons with full force. The wealthy man’s defenses can’t withstand it at all!”
Bang!
A bell rang, and celestial music played.
“Counterattack!”
The celestial voice immediately made a decision and shouted to everyone on both sides, “We can’t hold out; we must counterattack! Otherwise, we’ll all die here!”