As Meng Lin stepped through the giant gate, a rush of energy engulfed her and she felt her body locked in space.

She raised her eyebrows at the energy surrounding her and her gaze focused as she looked around.

She had been shifted to a grand colosseum of desolate aura, with the lifeless bodies of fallen cultivators strewn about.

Thump!

Meng Lin's heart sank as she surveyed the grim scene, there was thousands of dead bodies scattered across the floor, it was a sight that she hadn’t seen before.

It made her shook with fear. The sheer magnitude of the carnage before her was overwhelming. How could so many cultivators have met such a tragic end?

“Hmm”

Looking at all the dead bodies she found a few that looked similar, a few dozen bodies impaled by black spikes.

She looked around to scrutinize the other bodies and realized that they were probably all the cultivators killed throughout the trials.

‘Almost two thousand cultivators, just how many survived to the end?’ It was only now that Meng Lin realized the sheer scale of these trials, almost all participants in the Nether Cloud Domain were killed in a single day.

As she continued to move through the colosseum, Meng Lin noticed something peculiar.

The bodies seemed to be arranged in a specific pattern, forming intricate symbols and patterns on the ground.

It was as if instead of being thrown here by a spell, they were all individually placed around the colosseum.

“What is going on here” Meng Lin muttered to herself, a shiver running down her spine.

As Meng Lin was lost in her thoughts, her eyes darted as a shadow moved from one of the dead bodies and dashed towards her with incredible speed.

Peng!

A sword appeared before the shadow and blocked the dagger that was aimed at Meng Lin.

Slash!

Meng Lin swang her arm and the sword in her hand released a blinding light as it slashed with fierce precision. The shadow stumbled back, stunned by the power behind the attack.

“It’s you”

Meng Lin said recognizing the person that had attacked her.

It was none other than Zhang Wei of the Scarlet Demon Sect, the one that hides in the shadows.

She didn’t think she would encounter him after he was scared away by Luang Chen and he released aura of the Gold Core Realm, it appeared that just like others, he had found encounters that made him breakthrough.

The man, Zhang Wei held his dagger to his lips and smiled as he complemented Meng Lin.

“You’ve broken through as well, it appears you Soul Shattering Sect members are becoming quite formidable but this next attack…”

“Enough”

A voice interrupted the tense exchange, resonating through the air with a commanding authority.

Meng Lin turned to the voice to see a man that had a dark and ruthless look in his eyes, he was wearing the same robe of the Scarlet Demon Sect as Zhang Wei.

It was Ren Yuan, and he radiated aura of an even higher stage than Zhang Wei as he walked towards them with a ruthless look in his eyes.

Meng Lin looked at him with caution as he approached from behind Zhang Wei, the man looked at her and turned to look towards his left where someone else appeared from a slight distorted space.

It was a man in a golden armor and as he appeared he seemenly didn’t pay attention to the trio as he gazed at the carnage surrounding him.

He seemed to have just gotten there, as if he had teleported or was shifted through space.

The man in the golden armor glanced at Ren Yuan with a slight smirk, clearly not impressed by his presence.

As he opened his mouth to speak, multiple distortions in space appeared and other figures arrived at the colosseum with different expressions.

A woman with long silver white hair and a young man with a sharp aura appeared, they held a startled expressions as they surveyed the place.

Meng Lin shifted her gaze as she looked at the cultivators that appeared from the distortions.

Five figures had appeared from the distortions and Meng Lin’s frown turned upside down as she turned to look at the other three.

“Meng Lin” a man with a small mark on his forehead called out as his figure appeared from one of the distortions.

It was Luang Chen, he seemed to have broken through and his aura appeared to be on the cusp of the next stage, it somewhat startled Meng Lin.

However, Meng Lin quickly composed herself and walked towards Luang Chen with a smile as she looked at two others that appeared form the distortions.

From the distortions was a young man with startling azure eyes and a set of intricate tattoos adorning his arms, as well as a woman with flowing crimson hair and a fiery staff in her hand.

Luang Chen looked around him and his face appeared indistinguishable as he turned to Meng Lin and asked.

“Did you run into any of our other sect members, by any chance?".

Meng Lin shook her head gently, her smile faltering slightly. “What about you, did you see any other”

Luang Chen paused for a moment, his gaze shifting back to the young man and woman who had emerged with him the distortions.

“Yes I…”

Suddenly another distortion in space appeared and everyone turned to look at the emerging figure.

A mysterious figure in all black stepped out of the distortion, shrouded in a cloak that billowed in an unseen breeze.

Meng Lin’s gaze hardened as she gazed at the figure, her aura intensified as everyone on the stage turned to look at him.

“Do you know him” Luang Chen asked his gaze turning dark as he too recognized the figure that appeared.

Not just him, everyone except the man in golden armor seemed to have had bad encounters with the man as they similarly took a stance.

“Oh” a voice sounded form the cloak of darkness as the figure seemed to not be threatened by the collective animosity directed at him.

Rumble!!!

Suddenly, a thunderous noise echoed through the air, shaking the ground beneath everyone’s feet.

A huge amount of aura gathered above the colosseum to form the huge figure of a flaming man, the spiritual imprint of SkyFire Venerable had appeared.

Boom!!

A huge pressure decended onto everyone in the colosseum and swept through their bodies, causing their knees to tremble and their hearts to race with fear.

Some received it relatively better than others as they didn’t seem to budge from the pressure placed upon their bodies.

The SkyFire Venerable looked at the nine remaining participants and held his apathetic gaze as he spoke with authority.

“Nine of you have made it this far, but only one will claim my inheritance, fight and kill. The one remaining shall get my inheritance.”