"It should be here."
Tian Hong nodded, then continued, "I waited there for about a quarter of an hour before being pulled into the trial."
Everyone fixed their eyes on Tian Hong, listening closely.
"When I appeared again, I was outside the boundary of the Lingyun Continent. All my fellow disciples were there, including Jian Li, and Jian Li's cultivation wasn't even as high as it is now.
What we faced was a sky-blotting tide of insect beasts. Almost all Mahayana Zhēnzūn across Lingyun held separate regions, coordinating to hunt them down.
All Heavenly Sword Sect cultivators at Void Refinement and above joined the battle. The sect left almost no high-level fighting force behind.
The four Zhēnzūn in closed-door seclusion on the back mountain all emerged."
A trace of pain flickered in Tian Hong's eyes.
The four Zhēnzūn understood. The mood turned heavy.
"The trial was too real. In every clash we fought with everything we had, but the insect race could not be killed to the last. They felt no fatigue and feared no death. They slammed ceaselessly against the defenders at every spatial node on Lingyun, trying to break through the nodes and force their way in.
From the first moment the battle began, everyone knew there was no retreat, so we went all out. To protect me, Jian Li even fell before I did." He looked toward Jian Li.
"Master, if it really came to an undying, unending war like that, a Mahayana Zhēnzūn like you would be far more valuable alive than me," Jian Li said bluntly.
"I knew you would say that." Tian Hong Zhēnzūn waved a hand and sighed, then went on. "As the battle dragged on, the insects struck harder and with higher ranks. We began to suffer casualties among our Mahayana as well. Worse, supplies for every kind of battle resource started breaking down.
Before we could investigate, the sect suddenly cut contact with us, leaving us fighting alone. In the end we all fell. When I died, the only ones still holding on were two great beasts, the Nine-Tailed Fox and the Black Tortoise, and the line of Mo Yan Zhēnzūn from the Demonic Path.
And in my trial, Tian Yun Senior Brother did not exist. From the very beginning, he was missing." He said this to Tian Yun Zhēnzūn.
After speaking, Tian Hong let out a long breath. The stifling frustration of it remained vivid even now. No wonder that, upon being ejected after his fall within the trial, he had reacted as he did.
Everyone sank into thought. In Jian Dan's heart, even "raging waves" was not enough to describe what she felt.
This was not a mere dreamscape test. It had walked Tian Hong Zhēnzūn step by step through the road of his past life, a complete replay of how he fell.
Then the purpose of the Heavenly Dao personally altering the Rubik's Cube Realm became clear. It was a warning, perhaps even an early revelation of how grueling the war with the insect race would be.
The Heavenly Dao was trying to save itself, and it had chosen to intervene through her.
Back when she recognized the magnolia space as her master, the Jian Clan's Ancestor had said there were traces of a time-reversal art on her. Anyone who could wield such a spell must grasp the Laws of Space and Time, and for the Heavenly Dao that was child's play.
Choosing her was easy to understand. She'd come from a low-tier world of the end of dharma eras, an anomaly outside the Heavenly Dao's evolution of Lingyun. She was like a bug in the system, the most suitable vector.
There was also Du Yanran. The Heavenly Dao's first choice had likely been Du Yanran, not her, and the result was obvious.
As the daughter of fortune, Du Yanran had entered Lingyun only to bully her friends, seize resources, stir up chaos, use men as stepping stones, insert her people into great clans, vie for power, and accelerate disorder across the continent, laying the groundwork for the insect invasion.
If the Heavenly Dao chose her again, it would be courting its own destruction. So Jian Dan became the only choice.
Both Du Yanran and she were reborn, but Du Yanran had only her past memories, while Jian Dan knew the course of everything to come.
Following the clues, she discovered the black-armored insects, then laid out proof of the insect invasion step by step before all the cultivators of Lingyun.
The internal scourge of the evil cultivators had also been flushed out. Hounded by her, they were forced off the board early. Overall, things were moving in a better direction. Of course, while she acted, she also squeezed the insects and evil cultivators together, which birthed the blood insect. Cause and effect.
The most direct feedback from the Heavenly Dao for what she had done was cultivation and fortune.
Jian Dan's advancement speed could no longer be called fast. She was certain that as long as she pressed forward, she would break into Mahayana before the insects shattered the boundary. Having sorted it all out, she finally exhaled. At least in this coming war, Lingyun would fight prepared. It even seemed the Heavenly Dao was using her hand to sweep obstacles from the path.
Her confidence in victory grew again.
"Honored Zhēnzūn," Jian Dan said softly, her clear voice breaking the silence, "in Jian Lu's humble view, this is a warning to us, and also a way to let us familiarize ourselves with the battlefield.
The Rubik's Cube trial is an advance drill, so we can prepare ahead of time.
This is only Jian Lu's guess. If you want proof, it is simple. If the Zhēnzūn can spare the spirit veins, each of you can enter once. If you all experience the same dreamscape trial, then we can grasp the shape of the war in advance." She smiled as she spoke.
"Agreed," Tian Shou Zhēnzūn said first, stroking his small beard. "Nothing is as real as what you experience yourself."
"Honored Zhēnzūn," Jian Dan reminded with a light smile, "because Tian Hong Zhēnzūn just entered, the realm cannot bear frequent activation of the Mahayana trial in a short span. You all saw it. When the realm felt the pressure, it directly shut down all trials below Mahayana."
"That is an issue," Tian Shou Zhēnzūn conceded. "We cannot close the lower trials every time we enter."
"Jian Lu, you refined it and sustained the Mahayana space just now. Do you have a reliable method?" he asked.
That question truly put Jian Dan on the spot. She frowned, thought for a while, then stood and cupped her hands.
"The Rubik's Cube Realm has not been in use for long. Its artifact spirit has not fully awakened. That is why it shut the lower trials to maintain the Mahayana space.
I will make time to nourish the realm daily and awaken the artifact spirit as soon as possible. The Zhēnzūn can delay your entries for a bit.
Each trial stage ends with rewards. When it is time to redistribute those clear-reward items, the Rubik's Cube will temporarily close to the public. That would be the best time for the Zhēnzūn to enter. How about that?"
All four nodded. They would enter sooner or later. There was no need to rush.
"Good. We will follow Jian Lu's plan," Tian Yun Zhēnzūn decided.
At this point Jian Li finally raised a very practical question. "Will each Zhēnzūn's entry require a supreme-grade spirit vein?"