Yu Tingzhang slowly opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was the flat, white snowflake-patterned paper.
The dense handwriting on it looked so familiar, and the first question above restored all his memories.
'Question: There are eighteen spiders, dragonflies, and cicadas with a total of one hundred and eighteen legs and twenty pairs of wings. Please tell me how many of each of the three insects there are?'
Yu Tingzhang shuddered and suddenly raised his head and looked in all directions.
Shockingly, he found himself sitting in the hall of the second trial of the ‘Xiantian Yiqi Southern Sect’.
Thousands of trialists were sitting neatly around them, but some seats were already empty.
The other testers who were still sitting in front of the table stood upright, slightly closed their eyes, and remained motionless. Only their facial expressions were constantly changing, as if they were in a dream.
'Eh? Dream?'
Yu Tingzhang's heart moved, and he finally came to his senses.
‘Is it possible that I have been in a dream state before? That’s why I didn’t die after self-destruction.’
'If this is the case, then could the experience in the dream be a real trial?'
Thinking of this time, Yu Tingzhang's eyes flickered to the seat next to him.
But Luo Jiujiang kept the same movements, but her expression showed fear.
Yu Tingzhang's heart tightened, wondering what the scene would be like in her dream.
While he was thinking about it, a Nan Sect disciple walked quietly in front of him.
Mai Guanzhong!
'Hey, how come someone you know appears here? Isn't it a dream trial that I experienced?'
Mai Guanzhong stretched out his index finger to make a "silence" motion near his mouth, and then waved to him.
Yu Tingzhang stood up with doubts in his mind and followed Mai Guanzhong outside.
When he stood up, he noticed something strange.
The hundreds of 'Dharma Eye Compasses' installed in the hall were all flashing with a very light, very light halo.
The radiation range of these halos is only about three feet, covering about a dozen people.
But the halos emitted by all the 'Dharma Eye Compass' intertwined and enveloped the entire hall.
'Is this why I fell into a dream?'
While thinking about it, he followed Mai Guanzhong quietly out of the hall, and suddenly he felt as if someone was watching him from behind.
Looking back, I saw a real Jindan sitting cross-legged on a 'one-foot plate' hanging in the air, looking at him with a smile.
Yu Tingzhang recognized this person at a glance as one of the hundreds of people who were wiped out by a puff of purple light before the mutation.
At the same time, this person is also the examiner of this trial.
At this moment, Yu Tingzhang was finally convinced that all his previous experiences in dreams were really a trial.
Outside the hall is an extremely wide rooftop, where nearly two thousand people are gathering at this time, mostly casual cultivators participating in the trial.
Except for a few of these trialists who were silent, the others gathered together excitedly and discussed something loudly.
Because there were too many people talking, the noise formed a cacophony and it was impossible to hear anything clearly.
After speaking, he sighed and said:
"I have asked the elders of the sect. This trial is a special magic circle built by the sect's leader, Zhenjun Ruyi, using illusions and dreams, called the 'Dream Realm'.
A total of 360 'Dharma Eye Compasses' have been deployed in the trial hall this time. Wherever the formation is covered, everyone will be involved.
According to the elders of the sect, everyone's mind will manifest a body exactly like their own in this 'dream realm'.
Because it is formed from the condensation of one's own mind, it can be regarded as one's own self.
And everything experienced in it, including actions and thoughts, will exist and be remembered.”
Yu Tingzhang was silent for a moment and suddenly asked:
"Then what is the final result of this 'dreamland'?"
Mai Guanzhong said with a faint smile:
"I've also asked about this. Everyone in the 'dream' will eventually die. Otherwise, how can we see a person's character?"
Yu Tingzhang finally understood.
'Oh, it turns out this is the real trial.'
'In that kind of life-and-death situation, anyone will completely expose their character. Hehe, the 'Xiantian Yiqi Nanzong' is really a good method.'
There were many thoughts in his heart, and Yu Tingzhang couldn't help but show a sarcastic look on his face.
No one wants to have their heart opened like this. The move of ‘Xiantian Yiqi Southern Sect’ touched everyone’s bottom line.
Yu Tingzhang’s intention to join the ‘Xiantian Yiqi Southern Sect’ became much less serious.
He raised his head and looked at the excited trialists not far away, presumably they had the same idea as him.
Mai Guanzhong always observed Yu Tingzhang's expression and guessed his thoughts through some changes in his expression.
"Junior Brother Yu, do you feel that this trial has offended your dignity?"
Yu Tingzhang said calmly:
"Fellow Daoist Mai, you and I are not from the same sect, so there is no need to call us that."
"hey-hey!"
Mai Guanzhong sneered twice and said in a sharp tone:
"Nearly 100,000 practitioners participated in the trial this time. If we don't screen them out, I don't know how many people with ulterior motives will be mixed in.
In the 'Dream Realm', our sect only creates a desperate situation and will not interfere with it in any way.
Our disciples and all the testers knew nothing about the 'Dream Realm' before they came out of it, which means that everything we have experienced is fair.
The reason why you feel that your dignity has been damaged is because you feel that you have been teased and you have lost face.
But the purpose of this sect is not only to select those practitioners who really want to join the sect, but also to allow everyone in the trial to analyze themselves and find their own shortcomings.
Even if they are unwilling to join the sect in the end, this trial will improve the mentality of many people.
The trial for you is just incidental, what our sect is more concerned about is the performance of our disciples in this trial."
As Mai Guanzhong spoke, he raised his eyes slightly to look at Yu Tingzhang, who had an ugly face, and said leisurely:
"Haha, don't think too highly of yourself. I don't know how many people will be blocked by the three trial questions. Not everyone will have the opportunity to join our sect."
At this time, Yu Tingzhang gradually came back to his senses.
Thinking about the performance of the Southern Sect disciples and the behavior of many casual cultivators in the 'Dream Realm', my heart tightened slightly.
The trials in the 'Dream Realm' should be the most important. Even if outsiders can't see it, they can get an idea of the character of the trialists by asking the Nan Sect disciples among them.
Among the three trial questions, the strength test and the 'Dream Realm' test, I should still meet the requirements of the 'Innate One Qi Southern Sect'. This can be seen from Mai Guanzhong's attitude towards himself.
It’s just that I probably answered very poorly on the written test in the hall.
‘Can I join the ‘Xiantian Yiqi Southern Sect’?’
Yu Tingzhang felt slightly uneasy. At this time, he had already figured it out.
The ‘Xiantian Yiqi Southern Sect’ is the one who chooses, and I am just the chosen one. It is not my turn to decide whether I can join the Southern Sect or not.
The reason why I felt embarrassed and rejected the 'Xiantian Yiqi Southern Sect' before was just because I felt like my privacy was being seen through in public, which made casual cultivators who were used to hiding themselves very uncomfortable.
In fact, if you think about it from the perspective of Nanzong, you can completely understand this move.
After a moment of silence, Yu Tingzhang sighed softly:
"This 'dreamland' is really something amazing."
Mai Guanzhong said slightly proudly:
"Of course, I heard that someone in the community has proposed to permanently construct this 'dreamland' and build a large-scale place with it as its core.
These include the 'Martial Arts Field' to enhance combat experience, the 'Martial Arts Field' to deduce martial arts and supernatural powers, and the 'School Military Field' to deduce troop formations and large-scale operations, etc.
How about it? It's awesome, right?
Do you want to join our sect?"
Yu Tingzhang's heart was pounding. From just a few words from Mai Guanzhong, he could already imagine the powerful effect of this 'dreamland'.
After all, there is no real death here, and everyone can try out their thoughts one by one.
Let’s use the simplest analogy.
If you get a powerful magical power, but if you practice this magical power incorrectly, it will cause serious harm or even death to yourself.
Generally speaking, no one dares to try to practice easily, but now with this 'Dream Realm', one can easily find every mistake and practice successfully.
In addition, if a 'martial arts field' is really established, the fighting abilities of Nanzong disciples will probably be extremely terrifying.
Death again and again is enough for everyone to find their own weaknesses and strengthen their abilities.
Now it is no longer whether he is willing to join Nanzong, but whether Nanzong is willing to recruit him.
Yu Tingzhang asked with some anxiety:
"Mai...Senior Brother Mai, you see that I called you senior brother during the trial, and you even wore my sect's clothes. You should...should be considered a disciple of our sect, right?"
Mai Guanzhong was stunned when he heard this and couldn't help laughing:
"Looking at your thick eyebrows and big eyes, you look honest and honest, but I didn't expect that you are also very thick-skinned!"
While smiling, he raised his hands and saluted Yu Tingzhang.