115 Soul Test
"Thanks, senior." Yuan Ye bowed his hands in return and walked directly into the entrance of Gu Luo Yan's domain. As soon as he reached the door, the originally closed gate automatically opened. The courtyard behind the gate was extremely spacious, or rather, there was almost nothing. The yard that appeared before Yuan Ye was about 20 zhang (a unit of length) in both length and width. The ground was covered with clean white fine sand, empty and bare, with only a wooden house made of rough wood at the very back. The structure was simple and unadorned, with the tree bark still intact on the wood used. Apart from being vast and huge, there were no other distinctive features.
However, what really moved Yuan Ye was that there was not a single person in the courtyard, which means that the one who opened the door for him earlier was actually Kou Yi himself. As someone with the reputation of shaking the world and being famous for thousands of years, it's unlikely that he would make such a boring move as using his super speed to run out and open the door, then run back to pretend to be mysterious. Therefore, the only possibility is that Kou Yi never came out at all, and he simply used his aura to open the door for himself, while Yuan Ye didn't feel any fluctuations in the aura at all.
Shocked, that was the only feeling Yuan Ye had at this moment. After coming to this world, he had seen many powerful experts and existences, with powers far exceeding his own, but Yuan Ye wasn't terrified because he believed that one day he could also grasp such immense power. He thought that Inverse Snow was the strongest skill in the game, and when he was playing, he was one of the most dominant players in the entire server area. He spent a lot of money to gather many friends to form a team and play for half a year before finally completing the hidden SSS quest to master Inverse Snow. Coming to reality, Yuan Ye thought that Inverse Snow was still the strongest skill, unmatched by any other. Relying on Inverse Snow, Yuan Ye had somewhat looked down on the world's experts. However, at this moment, he discovered that the unparalleled expert in front of him, who was still a mystery, had already surpassed his understanding of power and reached an unprecedented height that Yuan Ye couldn't even dream of.
Someone who doesn't understand the power can open the door from a distance, even if they are a Dao Zun-level strongman. However, the fluctuations of Dou Qi will make others feel it, and the stronger the person is, the more intense the feeling will be. But Kou Yi didn't have any fluctuations in his Dou Qi at all, which can only explain that Kou Yi's grasp of power has reached an unprecedented height. This height is the most obvious manifestation of a kind of ability, that is - cross-level challenge! Kou Yi is absolutely a master of cross-level challenges.
Yuan Ye doesn't put the strongmen of this world in his eyes because he thinks that Inverse Heaven Snow is enough to cross-level challenge, and others can't compare to it. But now, Yuan Ye finds out that Kou Yi's cross-level challenge may not be inferior to Inverse Heaven Snow. How can Yuan Ye not be shocked?
"Junior fellow students redeeming their guilt, pay respects to Senior Kou Yi." Yuan Ye said loudly, striding towards the wooden house.
"Wu Jun's cultivation is nothing, his strength has already reached the peak of Wu Emperor. Our state's new generation, with a talented and proud successor, can meet you, it's also an old man's blessing." In the ancient wooden house, a warm and gentle voice rose, like the evening bell of an ancient temple, clear and melodious, moving people's hearts.
However, what came with this sound was an overwhelming, boundless momentum that seemed to crush everything under its weight.
Yuan Ye, who bore the infinite pressure, had no change in his footsteps because this pressure came purely from the spiritual world. If Yuan Ye was an idiot, he wouldn't have felt anything, and if he had already awakened to the Heavenly Way and seen through everything, he could have taken this pressure as a gentle spring breeze. Unfortunately, Yuan Ye now carried countless grievances and debts of blood, tainted by boundless slaughter. With a heart full of atonement, he came forward, his comprehension of the Heavenly Way greatly enhanced, but he couldn't see through it, so he could only face it head-on.
The sixty-meter courtyard, at this moment, is farther away than a thousand miles. Every step seems to span thousands of mountains and rivers, every moment feels like an eternity. Yuan Ye understands that Kou Yi is using his own soul to test his will, only by defeating himself can he walk up to him and earn his respect, having the qualification to have an equal conversation with him. It's likely that every newcomer who comes here will receive the same trial.
I believe Kou Yi will treat all visitors equally, with no difference in the power he unleashes. Yuan Ye's soul has reached the Shura realm through his spiritual journey in the water pool, and it is firm and complete, unmoving like a mountain. However, unlike others, the mental shackles that Yuan Ye bears are much heavier. The sorrow of leaving home as a teenager, the coldness of his current family, the guilt of slaughtering women and children, the helplessness of not daring to see friends, the terror of being an enemy of the world, the confusion of atoning for his sins - all these memories and torments are flooding his mind, making Yuan Ye's soul constantly impacted, wanting to turn around and escape, escaping this endless memory and suffering.
Hong Li followed Yuan Ye, watching as he walked towards Kou Yi's residence with each step leaving a footprint filled with sweat. His eyes shone with surprise, admiration, and concern. As a fellow Flame Warrior, Hong Li was well aware of the soul-testing trials. Generally speaking, Wu Jun-level warriors would be crushed by the overwhelming pressure in the first instance, either turning back to flee or kneeling down in defeat. Such individuals could only return outside to cultivate on their own and were not even looked upon by Kou Yi. Those who fared better, like Wu Di, could stand at the entrance, withstanding the pressure without retreating or advancing. They would be taken in as nominal disciples, allowed to ask Kou Yi questions, but had no opportunity for systematic training. The best among them, those with extremely high soul realms such as peak Wu Di or Dou Hun-level experts, could take a few steps forward. Regardless of how many steps they took, they would be accepted as inner disciples, truly inheriting Kou Yi's martial arts ideology and the essence of his thousand-year-old cultivation. However, under that immense pressure, even those who could advance would eventually collapse from exhaustion. The 63-meter distance was only traversable by ten meters for peak Wu Di experts, thirty meters for Dou Hun-level warriors, and fifty meters for Shura-level experts. There had once been a Zhan Huang-level expert who walked all the way to the wooden door before collapsing from exhaustion - that expert being Duan Mu Yun Jie.
Of course, the Wu Emperor, Shura and War Emperor mentioned here refer to spiritual cultivation rather than actual strength. However, for almost everyone, their spiritual cultivation and actual strength are the same, so they can be considered equal. People like Yuan Ye who are exceptions are extremely rare.
And the young man in front of him, if he was indeed just a martial artist as Kou Yi said, then despite his distorted and disfigured face, despite sweating like rain, despite every step seeming to be on the verge of collapse, he still stepped forward firmly one step at a time. Although it was clear that every step was difficult for him, he gave Hong Li a feeling... He would definitely persevere to the end, he would definitely surpass everyone else.
As if he had gone through millions of years of reincarnation, Yuan Ye finally walked to the front of the wooden house. At this time, he was already exhausted and his mind was consumed, wanting to fall to the ground and never wake up again. However, in Yuan Ye's heart, there was a vague voice that kept reminding him, encouraging him, not to give up.
"Why am I so persistent, why don't I want to give up, what am I insisting on?" In the repeated struggle between falling and persisting, a gradually forgotten scene re-emerges in my heart.
