“Phew” Meng Lin breathed out as she felt her reserve of qi, she had very little left.

She looked around at the aftermath of the battle, seeing the bodies of the defeated spirit beasts scattered around. The ground was stained with blood and the air was heavy with the scent of death.

The scarred-faced man approached Meng Lin, his expression filled with gratitude. "Thank you for saving me earlier," he said, bowing his head slightly. “I am indebted to you”

Meng Lin smiled and shook her head. "I saved you because i was interested in that technique of yours," she said. "It might prove useful in the future, would you exchange that with your dept”

“Ah, that. I… I can't just give it away," the scarred-faced man replied hesitantly. "It's a secret technique that has been passed down in my family for generations. I can't simply give it to someone else."

Meng Lin raised an eyebrow, her interest piqued. "Is it really that valuable?" she asked. "Perhaps we can come to a compromise. I have some rare cultivation resources that might be of interest to you."

The scarred-faced man looked down and just shook his head, clearly torn between his gratitude and his family’s technique.

Meng Lin smiled, expecting such an answer, she asked him “what’s your name”

“Huh, it’s Yao Jian," the scarred-faced man replied, still looking hesitant.

"Nice to meet you, Yao Jian," Meng Lin said warmly. "I understand how important this technique is to you and your family so I won’t ask for it, how about the tortoise shell that you used earlier”

“That? I can give you the tortoise shell," Yao Jian said, a flicker of relief crossing his face. "It's not as valuable as the technique itself, but it holds some defensive properties that might be useful to you."

Meng Lin nodded, satisfied with the compromise. "That sounds fair," she said. "The tortoise shell will definitely come in handy. Thank you, Yao Jian."

Yao Jian nooded, a small smile appearing on his scarred face. "I'm glad we could come to an agreement," he said. "I hope it serves you well."

Meng Lin nooded and took a sit down to access the situation and plan her next moves.

She obtained the black tortoise shell without much difficulty, she was pleased with that after all she had sacrificed 10 of her nails to hold off that lightning bolt.

She looked down at her finger tips and saw that it was growing slightly but she assumed that it will take a few days before it could heal to its original state.

She sighed at the idea, but was ok with it nonetheless, she didn’t want to receive a heavenly lighting bolt, as the risks were great and there was no reward.

But she made a puffed face at the thought of not utilizing her nails for a while, she liked them, she wondered if she could use them with the brute qi, would they get destroyed? They are a part of her body after all.

‘System’

[Meng Lin]

[special physique: Brute Qi physique]

[Foundation Establishment Stage(peak)]

[Experience points: 70%]

System coin: 570

Taoist Gacha wheel: unavailable

Spiritual Roots: [Water>Fire>Gold>Wood>Earth]

Variant Elemental Qi : [Mud] [ Erosion]

Main Cultivation Method: [Black Tortoise Essence Art, 4th Layer]

Side Cultivation Methods: : [Basic Qi Gathering] [Formless Cultivation method]

Techniques: [Celestial Moonlit Sword Art] [Focused Qi control] [Waterfall slash] [Refine Yin Qi] [Surge] [Thunderbolt Flash]

Ancient Spirit Seals: Black Tortoises, Gong Fu - Golden Lizard.

[Market] [Blacksmith] [Alchemy]

Meng Lin looked at her experience points and was slightly disappointed at its slow increase, after such an intense battle, she only improved by 11%.

She didn’t know of the reason but she felt that something was off with these trials, it’s what’s preventing her from fully immersing herself in cultivation.

She has to fully study that black tortoise shell as she felt a connection to it the moment it was brought out, it was the main reason she saved the scarred faced man’s life, otherwise she wouldn’t let someone like him get more powerful.

This was an inheritance where there can only be one person at the top, but this spicific trial was about teamwork, she didn’t want to test out what happens when a teammate dies, would something even happen?.

Meng Lin shook her head, pushing those thoughts aside for now. She needed to focus on the present and make the most of the resources she had obtained.

She looked around to see what the others were doing?. The scarred-faced man, Yao Jian was meditating to further consolidate his Gold Core.

The mischievous man was intricately observing the heavenly lightning channeling through his rod, electrifying nearby things.

Liara and the middle-aged man were meditating, probably digesting the experience they just went through.

The mysterious woman in black was gazing into the distance with a blank face, remaining silent and observant.

The burly man was like Yao Jian, sitting down and meditating to solidify his gold core even more.

Lastly the trio of man and woman were tending to their wounds, with the older man taking out a pill to eat while the woman used a secret art to hasten the effects.

All in all, Meng Lin felt that everyone still hadn’t used their most valuable secrets, everyone other than Yao Jian, and who knows, now that he is stronger he might have a few more tricks up his sleeve.

‘Yao’ Meng Lin can’t think of any powerful clan named Yao but it might just be one of the secret clans in hiding, for them to have a technique that stops heavenly tribulations.

Sigh

Meng Lin focused back to herself and began to circulate her cultivation Method, although she wasn’t going to be immersive. She still did so to regain the large amounts of qi that she had used.

*****

Elsewhere in the trial space, on the same leveled trial as Meng Lin’s group was a brutal massacre taking place, a massacre of spiritual beasts.

Slash!!!!

A man in the dark robes of the scarlet demon sect was surrounded by the stench of blood and filth as the bodies of hundreds of spirit beasts lay dead at his feet.

His chest shone with a gold light and the whole environment seemed to be occupied by 5 massive demonic hands that glowed red, each releasing aura of the Gold Core Realm.

*****

At another trial was a young man within a group of 6 individuals, the young man wore the robes of the Divine Soul Sect, his body was completely transparent and any spirit beast that attacked him, passed right through him.

Yet when he initiated the attack, he would become completely solid, it was as if he was a ghost.

Within the same group was the figure of a tall man in golden armor, around him was a wave of blazing fire that set ablaze the bodies of half step rank 3 sprit beast, any rank 2 beast caught in it was turned to dust.

*****

Across the whole dimensional trial, other cultivators were also progressing, inside an arena, a white-silver haired woman was freezing any cultivator that got close to her.

And inside another arena, the figure of a man moved through the shadows of cultivators, easily coming up and slitting their throats.

At another arena was the figure of a bald monk in a gray robe, his body shone bright with a golden hue and outlined around his body was the aura of an ancient bloodline, he opened his mouth and said.

“Samsāra”!!

His voice although small, boomed across the arena and all the fighting stopped, the arena full of roughly 93 cultivators, with a few being at the Gold Core Realm, all fell to the floor, their eyes blank.

Amid the silence of the arena the monk clasped his hand and said.

“Amitabha”