Chapter 245: The Ancient Demon Trial – Let the Idiots Melt First (Part - 2)

"That’s unfortunately true." Song Tianyu snorted.

Gu Fan leaned backward slightly, rubbing his back against Song Yan’s breast.

"Then why should we risk becoming the first people to trigger every trap inside?" He pointed toward the hundreds of cultivators surrounding the gate, "They will do it for us."

"Traps? They will trigger them."

"Poison? They will inhale it."

"Hidden mechanisms? They will activate them."

"Beasts? They will wake them up."

Bai Bing couldn’t help asking, "And if they find the treasures first?"

"Then we will take them from whoever survives." Gu Fan smiled, and silence followed his words.

Song Tianyu stared at him.

Song Yan stared at him.

Bai Bing stared at him.

"What?" Gu Fan looked at them innocently.

Song Yan shook her head, "Sometimes I wonder whether you were born this shameless."

Gu Fan smiled, "I have worked hard to reach this level."

~~~~~

The black mist around the gate had changed.

Earlier, it had continuously leaked outward through the seams.

Now...

It was moving inward.

Gu Fan stood.

His hand slipped away from Song Yan’s thigh as his expression became completely serious.

The mist surrounding the gate was being pulled toward the cracks between the stone doors.

BOOM!

A deep vibration traveled through the ground.

The surrounding camps fell silent.

Several cultivators looked around nervously.

"What was that?"

"Is the gate opening?"

Another vibration came soon afterwards.

BOOM!

This time it was louder and the characters covering the gate suddenly brightened.

Excited shouts erupted throughout the encampment.

"The gate is opening!"

"Get ready!"

"Everyone prepare!"

"Don’t let them enter first!"

Hundreds of cultivators immediately grabbed their weapons and scrambled into position.

Gu Fan slowly stood up and his gaze swept across the hundreds of cultivators preparing to rush inside.

Then he looked at the Black Moon Palace.

Their entire camp had become motionless.

Nobody there showed any hurry or emotion in their eyes.

The characters on the gate suddenly flashed, and another wave of sweet fragrance swept across the encampment.

Every cultivator surrounding the ruins instinctively inhaled it into their lungs.

BOOM!

The massive stone doors trembled violently.

Dark mist poured outward like a tidal wave as the ancient characters covering the gates blazed with sinister light.

CRAAAAACK!

The two enormous stone doors slowly began to open.

A deep, ancient roar echoed from within the ruins.

The surrounding cultivators erupted into cheers.

"The gates are opening!"

"Go!"

"Move!"

And just like that, the entrance to the Ancient Ruins was finally revealed.

As soon as the giant gates of the Ancient ruin opened a loud, ancient voice echoed from the depths of the underground ruin.

The words physically shook the cobblestones.

"The Ancient Demon Trial has officially opened."

"Only those who are absolutely worthy may enter."

"The unworthy shall become nothing but fresh nourishment."

And with those words... The ruin went silent...

The sheer killing intent in that voice chilled every cultivator to the bone.

Yet the overpowering scent of hidden treasures and supreme inheritances was far too intoxicating for the desperate to ignore.

But despite the greed gushing out of their eyes, none of them moved. They all looked at each other, hoping for them to move.

And in this waiting, about half an incense stick worth of time passed.

Finally a mid-level Spirit Realm cultivator could not restrain himself.

He drew his heavy saber, gritted his teeth, and marched straight into the swirling black mist at the threshold.

For one tense second nothing happened. The crowd started to believe the path was safe.

Then the mist contracted around the man’s body like hungry arms.

SQUELCH!

A loud, wet tearing sound erupted from inside the gate. And the cultivator was flung backward like a rag doll, crashing into the dirt while shrieking at the top of his lungs.

The crowd gasped in horror.

His entire right arm was already blackened and was dissolving into a bubbling puddle of green sludge. Flesh melted off the white bone in thick, steaming strips while he thrashed and screamed.

"He was rejected!" a nearby mercenary yelled, taking a huge step back.

"The mist judged him unworthy! Did you see his arm?! It ate his meridians in a single second!"

But just as panic began to spread, a second cultivator gritted his teeth and sprinted through the gate.

This time the black mist simply parted around him like a polite curtain. He vanished into the darkness without a scratch.

Everyone waited for a few breaths, waiting for the cultivator to be thrown out all bloodied. But when nothing happened, all of them forgot completely about the first cultivator still crying his lungs out in one corner.

And in no time greedy whispers exploded through the crowd once again.

"We can actually enter!"

"It really is a trial of worthiness! You just need a solid foundation!"

"The first one was too weak! That’s all!"

Sitting comfortably on his slightly elevated rock just outside the chaos, Gu Fan casually crossed one muscular leg over the other and enjoyed the bloody spectacle like a man watching street theatre.

"Look at these pathetic idiots," he chuckled, voice dripping with crude amusement. "They are inventing comforting little rules for an ancient trap that is honestly just hungry for fresh meat."

Song Yan bit her lower lip to suppress her loud breathing as Gu Fan’s calloused fingers were teasing her cursed body.

"You are a twisted beast," she whispered, glaring at him with exhausted dignity while trying to keep her breathing steady, "You are enjoying watching them melt to death."

"I am just appreciating the free entertainment, Miss Yan." Gu Fan smirked and pulled her closer until she was practically pinned against his side.

Bai Bing stood close behind his right shoulder, icy blue eyes never leaving Gu Fan’s hands. She ignored the dying screams completely.

Soon cultivators began shoving each other out of the way to test the entrance in frantic small groups. The lethal pattern quickly became clear.

Some lucky cultivators were accepted and vanished into the dark mist with eager laughs.

Others were brutally rejected.

One man was thrown back with his entire chest cavity blackened and collapsing inward, ribs shattered like dry twigs.

Another came flying out with a massive chunk of flesh ripped from his thigh, the wound already bubbling with corrosive green sludge.

A third was yanked entirely into the mist by invisible forces; his terrified scream lasted less than two seconds before it was swallowed whole. He never came back out.

Wild theories filled the tense air as the bodies piled up.

"Only those with an incredibly strong Dao heart can pass!"

"No, it’s bloodline purity! That arrogant youth with the ancient surname went through without a scratch!"

"The mist smells so sweet... it’s calling to my Qi..."

Meanwhile the organised factions and sect disciples remained perfectly still.

They refused to risk their elite disciples until the path was fully understood.

The Golden Mountain Sect disciples argued in low, aggressive voices.

The Azure Sword Sect members looked deeply conflicted between their righteous desire to purge evil and if it was worth thr risk.

The Blood Wolf Mercenaries observed the carnage with cold professional eyes, crossbows ready. They were already selecting their targets.]

The Black Moon Palace group had not moved a single inch. They remained silent, watching like a pack of disciplined shadows.

Gu Fan ignored the other factions completely. He used the waiting time to quietly share what his Origin Realm spiritual sense was picking up from the gate.

He reached up with his free hand, anf gently held Bai Bing’s arm and pulled her down beside him.

"The mist isn’t filtering by willpower or bloodline," he muttered, lips brushing her cheek, "It’s reacting to the cultivation talent and person’s physique."

"It wants strong, dense physiques to feed on."

"Let it try," Bai Bing smirked, blue eyes flashing with lust as she leaned into his grip, "I will personally burn the entire dungeon to ash if it tries to touch me before you do."

"Well none of us has to worry about backlash while entering." Gu Fa smiled hearing Bai Bing and gently patted her cheeks, "But I need you to tell me. Do you... All of you..."

Gu Fan looked around at Song Yan and Song Tianyu as well.

"Do you want to risk going in?"

"If you are going in... So am I," Bai Bing replied without a beat of hesitation, "I am not waiting for you here."

Song Tianyu stood a few steps away, watching another rogue violently vomit his own dissolved intestines onto the dirt.

"Big Brother..." His voice shook. "Should we really still go inside? This place looks like a complete death trap."

"Of course it’s a death trap, little brother," Gu Fan laughed out loud, "But walking away right now would be an absolute waste of a perfectly good opportunity."

"But like I said..."

"If you don’t want to risk it. You can wait for me here."

"But..." Song Tianyu hesitated.

And in the mean time, after several of the cultivators had been filtered out, leaving a disgusting pile of bleeding, half-melted corpses right outside the entrance, it was finally time for the big guns to make a move.

First moved the Golden Mountain sect into the mist. And relying on defensive talismans, they passed through with only minor stinging resistance.

The Blood Wolf Mercenaries followed immediately, silent and efficient.

The Azure Sword Sect juniors loudly declared they would purify whatever demonic taint lay inside and rushed in with glowing swords drawn.

Even the secretive Black Moon Palace members finally moved from their secluded corner, slipping through the gate like untraceable ghosts.

The crowd’s excitement surged again. Many remaining independent cultivators took the major sects’ successful entry as proof that the path was now safe for the strong and aggressively rushed forward to follow.

Only when the majority of the cultivators had disappeared inside did Gu Fan finally decide the timing was perfect.

He stood up from the rock, casually adjusted his dark robes, and smiled.

"Alright. The cheap appetizers have been served to the beast. Time for the main guests to crash the party."

Song Yan rose without a word of complaint. Her cursed body was completely reliant on his aggressive Yang treatments to survive.

Bai Bing instantly fell into step on his left, face cold and expressionless even though her eyes were eager for violence.

"You can wait for our return here little brother," Gu Fan said looking at Song Tianyu with a casual smirk, "But the Song Tianyu I know... He set out on this journey with me to break the shackles that his clan, his father had chained him in."

"He wanted to chalenge the strongest cultivators, kill the deadliest beasts."

"I did not think you would be afraid of such an insignificant dungeon."

Gu Fan then shrugged and sighed.

"But I guess I can’t alwaays be right.."

And with that he turned around to leave, followed by Song Yan and Bai Bing, leaving Song Tianyu behind.

Song Tianyu hesitated for one second, face pale, gripping his silver folding fan. Then he swallowed his fear and followed, looking exactly like a man walking to his own funeral.

"Fine... I am coming... Wait for me."

They walked toward the towering black gate at an unhurried, confident pace, casually stepping over the groaning, heavily injured cultivators who were still coughing up black blood in the mud.

Gu Fan did not spare the dying weaklings a single glance.

The four of them stepped over the threshold.

The dark, toxic black mist violently reacted to their presence.

Instead of attacking or ripping their flesh apart, the mist instantly rose much higher than before. It coiled around their legs, smoothly wrapped around their waists, and thickly enveloped their chests in an incredibly dense, almost affectionate, deeply hungry embrace.

And the last thing the terrified crowd outside saw was the thick, sweet-smelling black mist completely swallowing the four figures whole and dragging them into the shadows.

There was no screaming.

There was no rejection.

There was no resistance.

And in front of everyone’s eyes, Gu Fan and others disappeared into the forbidden depths of the Ancient Ruins.

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