Li Nanzhu sat cross-legged on the ground, her hands rubbing her temples vigorously. Her brow was furrowed, and her face was a mask of anxiety and fatigue. Her mind was racing, repeatedly chewing over every detail since they had entered this place.
Every piece of information swirled and collided in her mind, yet she could never quite grasp the thread that could connect everything together.
"Think! Think, Li Nanzhu! Isn't your brain supposed to be the sharpest?" In a fit of irritability, she even tugged at her hair, forcing herself to calm down.
Feng Weilan and Jiang Yifan did not disturb her; they knew that Li Nanzhu was under the most pressure at this moment.
The two of them silently put away the various detection magic tools they had taken out. These external items were indeed useless here. They turned to try other methods: Feng Weilan continued his attempt to force himself to memorize the talisman rune change cycles for a small area, while Jiang Yifan tried to use his sword tip to extremely slowly carve simple counting symbols on the ground to see if it would make a difference. But the result remained the same—the ground refused to bear any mark.
Zhu Yinxi and Duan Xianxing were responsible for standing guard while also observing the environment in their own ways.
Duan Xianxing even tried stomping his feet on different ground patterns, hoping to hear a variation in sound or trigger some kind of mechanism, but it was all in vain.
While the Five Elements Dao Sect was struggling every step of the way in the second trial, the Domain of Silence, the scene on the other two bridges was entirely different.
Inside the illusion on the Hehuan Sect's bridge.
Qinghe led her four junior sisters. The place they were currently in was exactly the same as where the Five Elements Dao Sect was—the absolutely silent bronze hall, the Domain of Silence!
In fact, although the overall content of the trials for the ten Heart-Probing Bridges was the same, the order in which they appeared was not fixed.
The Domain of Silence that the Five Elements Dao Sect encountered in the second trial was the challenge the Hehuan Sect had to face in the first.
But unlike the difficult fumbling of the Five Elements Dao Sect, the progress of the five from the Hehuan Sect was clearly much smoother.
Qinghe and the other four core disciples were all elites raised by the Hehuan Sect from a young age. Having spent over a decade together day and night, their coordination was already etched into their marrow.
Even in absolute silence, they did not show much panic. They didn't even attempt any verbal or divine sense communication.
Qinghe simply scanned the surroundings before meeting the eyes of her four junior sisters.
In just a few moments, without any gestures or signals, the five dispersed with rapid and fluid coordination as if their minds were linked. Each took a segment of the circular wall and began focusing on observing the talisman runes.
Their movements were natural and smooth. They didn't even need to look back to confirm; they could sense the position and status of their fellow sisters.
When one slightly turned her head, another would understand and shift her gaze, focusing together on a specific area where the talisman rune changes were abnormal. When someone traced a simple arc in the air with a fingertip, the others could understand the trend of the talisman rune flow she was pointing out.
Between them, there existed a level of mental connection and body language coordination that was almost instinctive, honed through ten-plus years of constant companionship and long-term practice of jointly practiced techniques.
An extremely subtle change in a gaze or an almost imperceptible adjustment in breathing could serve as an effective transfer of information.
Therefore, although they were also in the Domain of Silence, the Hehuan Sect's rate of progress was significantly faster than that of the Five Elements Dao Sect.
They efficiently divided the areas and shared their observations, seemingly building a cognitive map of the entire talisman rune system with startling efficiency.
On the high platform, Sect Leader Rong Lingmeng’s lips curved into a satisfied arc.
This was exactly the essence of the Hehuan Sect's cultivation techniques and training model—ultimate coordination and the merging of minds.
This trial could be said to be tailor-made for the Hehuan Sect!
Inside the illusion on the Water Moon Sect's bridge.
The five from the Water Moon Sect, led by Lu Tingyun, encountered a brand-new trial—the Thousand-Needle Forest.
They were in an endless forest composed of countless metal spikes gleaming with cold light.
These metal spikes were so dense that only a few narrow gaps were available for passage. The spikes also contained lethal poison or powerful restrictions; one touch meant death.
What was even more terrifying was that the entire needle forest was moving and shifting slowly and irregularly. Paths could close at any time, and new traps could be generated at any moment.
The major figures from each sect watched the drastically different scenes in the three water mirrors with varying expressions.
Bu Qingwei stroked his beard in silence, his gaze lingering longest on the Five Elements Dao Sect's water mirror. He always felt that, given Li Nanzhu's personality, that girl would never give up and must still be pondering something.
Immortal Venerable Ling Xiao, meanwhile, had a faint, cold smirk on his face.
The Five Elements Dao Sect had been hogging all the limelight before. Seeing them blocked now by a trial that required absolute hard strength and profound coordination was exactly what he wanted to see.
In the Domain of Silence.
Just as Li Nanzhu was clutching her hair in a death grip, bitterly searching for what key clue she had missed, Duan Xianxing had already turned his storage bag inside out. He had spread out all sorts of weird and wonderful things across the floor with a series of clatters.
There were broken demonic beast bone fragments, several pieces of ore of different colors with weak spiritual energy, a few empty pill bottles, several low-grade magic tools of varying quality, and even several bundles of unused blank talisman paper and spare talisman brushes. There was also all sorts of miscellaneous junk he couldn't even name, including several bells that had been tied to Suisui's tail back then.
The ground was suddenly a mess of clutter.
Zhu Yinxi was concentrating on sensing the wall. When he took a step back, his heel almost kicked a fragment of an alchemy furnace. His body swayed slightly, and it was only because his lower body was exceptionally stable that he didn't make a fool of himself.
Just as Duan Xianxing received a silent flick on the forehead from Zhu Yinxi and was baring his teeth in a grimace while preparing to pack up the magic tools, ores, and talismans scattered all over the ground, a hand suddenly pressed down on his wrist.
It was Li Nanzhu.
She was crouching on the ground, her eyes fixed on the pile of junk Duan Xianxing had spread out—especially the several bundles of intact talisman paper and talisman brushes. Her pupils constricted slightly, and her breathing quickened.
A simple truth that she had overlooked instantly tore through the fog in her mind!
These things... they didn't disappear after being taken out!
The reason the Soul-Sound Bell worked before was that its resonance was based on a connection that already existed between the five of them, deeply rooted in their bloodline origins. It wasn't "creating" or "transferring" new information; it was "triggering" and "resonating" with an inherent, internal link!
That link might be viewed as a part of the five of them being "one," rather than an external information exchange!
But these magic tools and talismans that were taken out remained intact.
What did that mean?
The rules prohibited "information transfer" and "recording," but they did not prohibit the "existence of objects" itself!
The talisman brush and paper had turned to ash before because she had tried to use them to "write," violating the rule against "information recording."
But simply taking these things out and placing them here did not cause the rules to intervene.
In other words... these objects themselves could exist here!
And objects, especially those carried by cultivators, often carried specific meanings themselves!
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