Chapter 1069: Chapter 1069: The Peeling-off Words

“The second group!”

The old man dressed in cotton clothes stretched out his hand and once again casually made a mark on the name list, in the end selecting two hundred warriors' names.

As those names floated out, the warriors, who saw their names, entered the ancient palace.

As for the challenges in the Illusion Space, the vast majority of the warriors were able to hold on for the first six rounds.

After six rounds, the difficulty level increased dramatically. There were more and more warriors expiring then, and once they were vanquished, they would be eliminated from the Illusion Space.

Seven rounds, eight rounds, nine rounds, ten rounds…

As the difficulty increased, the number of eliminated warriors also increased.

However, there were a few who were more powerful, and displayed eye-catching talents in the second group.

For example, the warrior who was surnamed Li lasted for an amazing 19 rounds before he was finally eliminated!

This time, the old man in cotton clothes was somewhat satisfied. He said in his customarily dry voice, “Among this group of warriors, Rafael Li has held on for nineteen rounds. Not bad!”

A faint trace of a smile appeared on Rafael Li's impassive face. He then glanced at Zen and Layla, hoping for a reaction on their part. A talent who could enter the thirteen palaces was, after all, quite conceited.

Before participating in the Passing the Torch, Rafael Li had been very confident of his own strength. However, in the Enchanted Barrier Tower, he hadn't performed as well as Zen and Layla had!

Even though he had thought that it would be very difficult for him to get a first place, he had never expected that the gap between him and these two warriors would have become so large...

The trial in the Illusion Space was not a competition of endurance, but a display of the strongest combat power one could wield with skill. However, Rafael didn't know how strong Zen's and Layla's combat powers were. He was secretly concerned that they would be able to beat him in this leg of the contest too.

But Rafael Li tried to sooth his worries by reasoning that Zen was only at the fifth level of the Life and Death Realm, and Layla was just a woman after all… Rafael Li's mind was filled with distracting thoughts which came with an over inflated ego and distorted sense of self. Naturally, he did not want them to surpass him.

“The third group!”

Zen looked at the names floating in the air, but he still couldn't find his own name.

Layla was disappointed as she also didn't see her name. She took off one of her heart-shaped earrings and gently kneaded it in her palm. This time, she used too much strength and crushed it within her hand. Though, she hardly noticed, as the heart crumbled under her grip.

However, the third group of warriors included Javier from the thirteen palaces.

Javier had been severely injured in the Enchanted Barrier Tower. After the treatment he had received just now, he had managed to recover quite a lot.

After the two hundred warriors entered the ancient palace, they quickly assumed their positions, projecting their figures into the Illusion Space...

As they kept on battling, more and more warriors were eliminated, their projected selves disappearing after being vanquished...

Among this group of warriors, Javier was the one with the best performance. If they were ranked according to the results of the Enchanted Barrier Tower, Javier would be ranked as one of the top three. 𝘳Ά𐌽ÔBÈＳ

Although he wasn't as excellent or talented as Zen and Layla, who stole the show, quite a few warriors still thought highly of him. He had impressed the other warriors with his skills and determination.

But his result was shocking and disappointing this time. In the end, he was only able to hold out for a mere seventeen rounds! Not good enough to beat Rafael's score.

Javier was the number one warrior in the Mist Palace, yet he had only lasted seventeen rounds, and his result was rather disappointing.

When he left the ancient palace, Javier seemed a bit disheartened. Upon seeing his morose expression, Zen could not help but shake his head in sympathy. Although Javier was persistent, he had bound his success to others and relied on everyone else's support to strengthen his conviction. In the end, he would fail to complete as many things as he could as his foundation was not solid.

As for Yolande, she remained indifferent and showed no reaction to Javier's defeat.

The fourth group...

The fifth group...

The sixth group...

They waited for a long time, but Zen's and Layla's names were still not selected or announced.

As time passed, Zen was becoming a bit confused. It seemed like the old man dressed in cotton clothes had done it on purpose, and wanted him to be in the last group. Layla would probably be arranged in the same group as him. The lengthy wait was starting to affect their nerves as Zen and Layla waited for their chance to enter the ancient palace.

Even though two hundred warriors entered the ancient palace each time, the warriors might still need to be divided into over twenty groups, as there were more than four thousand warriors. So Zen had to wait for a long time before he took his turn in entering the ancient palace.

Layla could also roughly guess what was going on, so she did not raise her head to look for her name.

As more and more warriors entered the Illusion Space, some of them achieved amazing results.

Some warriors might have only walked about eight thousand miles or even five thousand miles within the Enchanted Barrier Tower during the previous challenge. But, they had still managed to obtain good results this time. Testing different skills led to great accomplishments.

After all, while the warriors had stayed in the Enchanted Barrier Tower, they had just faced the test of endurance and the comprehension of laws. Being a warrior was determined by more than just two skills.

It was true that their fighting strength was linked to these things, but there were some warriors who simply weren't able to display their full strength in the Law Storm. In a different environment, these warriors were able to rise to the occasion and achieve greatness.

Because of this, the rankings had undergone a dynamic shift. The warriors from some palaces, such as the Coldness Palace and the Gold Palace, obtained good results, and some of them had even held on for twenty rounds. This was an impressive display of martial arts and cultivation.

The palace leaders naturally felt proud and elated. The achievements of their subordinates added to their own esteem, after all.

However, when their gazes inadvertently landed on Zen and Layla, they started to feel slightly displeased. The final results of the match were hard to determine for now, since Zen and Layla hadn't even taken part in the battle yet. It was still anyone's game.

Several hours later, it was finally the last group of warriors' turn to challenge!

The last group included one hundred and sixty-three warriors, less than the two hundred warriors who had numbered the previous groups.

The old man didn't even need to call out the remaining warriors, because they already knew that it was their turn now. This was their chance to impress now, and tensions ran high after a whole day of waiting to be called.

However, when the old man marked and selected the names for the last group, Zen and Layla were still unable to find their own names…

What was going on? Zen was astonished and confused.

Layla tilted her head also with a deeply puzzled look on her face.

The old man dressed in the cotton clothes hovered in the air, and seemed to have noticed their expressions, so he said, “The two of you are in the next group!”

“Is that really necessary...” Zen looked morose at that moment. As for the old man, he had a calm expression, as if it was all a matter of course. He was extremely willful and insisted on arranging Zen and Layla in the last group.

Finally, the one hundred and sixty-one warriors all entered the ancient palace to undergo the test.

At this moment, the huge stone on the other side of Willow Island underwent some dramatic changes.

After Zen had left, a crack appeared through the words of the huge stone.

The cracking progressed with a slow speed, as it ran along the rock face.

Two cracks had also appeared on the other two big words four hours after Zen had left.

However, the cracking speed kept increasing. In these past two days, countless cracks had appeared on the big words written by Supreme Lord Sword!

During the last two days and two nights, the two Spirit Supreme Realm warriors, Landry and Damian, had also kept their eyes on everything that was happening in front of them.

After they had already spent tens of thousands of years there, two days and two nights were not a long time in their eyes.

However, now they felt that these two days and two nights seemed to be as long as one thousand years. Time was always a relative concept!

They didn't know what Zen had done, but at the very least, he had somehow managed to trigger the huge words left behind by Supreme Lord Sword. This meant that the secret left behind by Supreme Lord Sword would very likely be unraveled after so many years' mystery!

It was very likely that the greatly anticipated mystery did not even exist. The result might indeed bring the fatal blow to Damian and Landry, and they might even pass away on the spot!

However, if the mystery existed and was unraveled, they could gather endless benefit from it, as long as they managed to comprehend ten to twenty percent of it.

Their rank wasn't considered too high. Even if they worked hard, it was likely that they would only be able to obtain the position of the vice city lord of a tenth-grade sacred place in a supreme world. This was a mere pittance to some, but heavenly treasure to them.

Warriors who were willing to contemplate at the stone were usually divided into two types of warriors. One type were those with extraordinary talent, who believed that they could comprehend the secret of Supreme Lord Sword; and the other type were those with mediocre talent, like Landry and Damian, who didn't want to lead a mediocre life. This was their only chance at greatness.

Therefore, to them, these two days were the most important two days of their lives.

More and more cracks appeared, and the words began to slowly peel off and slip down along the stone wall, shattering into pieces as they finally connected with the earth.

Every time a fragment fell from the stone, Landry would be the first one to rush up and grab it. He collected those stone fragments, treating them as precious treasures. As he continued doing that, the stone fragments he collected formed a small mountain of their own.

He had examined these fragments which were just ordinary stones and nothing special. Since he had been staring at the stone for tens of thousands of years, now he treated these fragments as treasures... They were as relatives to him, and had become his family after he had spent so many thousands of years observing them.

As the last piece of stone fragment fell down, all the words on the giant stone wall peeled off, leaving only a few lines of uneven writing at the edges. Both Landry and Damian stared in awe at the barren rock face now. They waited expectantly for a moment, and then they both stepped back from the rock face.

There was no reaction, nor was there any mystery...

A bitter smile appeared on Damian's pale face and heaving a deep sigh, he said, “From now on, we can be free.”

“Free? Ha-ha... Sixty thousand years! Sixty thousand years! I've been sitting here for sixty thousand years!” Landry's laughter was somewhat hysterical as it echoed back off the blank rock. He had stayed there for three times longer than Damian. Back then, when the Willow Island was turned into a place for the Passing the Torch, all the warriors who were in front of the huge stone had to leave there. Landry had tried his best to strive for the chance to stay there, and he finally made it!