"What?" Senior Shui's body jolted, and her eyes widened in shock.
In this moment, she felt as if blood was flowing to and fro her throat, threatening to spill out at any moment, "You are going to challenge the Gui Corridor?"
The Gui Corridor was the easiest trial of all, and only the weakest students of the Sanctum of Sages would head there... Given how you were able to easily defeat two puppets of the Bing Corridor so easily, why in the world do you want to challenge the Gui Corridor?
While others were slowly advancing forward, that fellow was actually regressing with time...
Are you here just to brush up your existence?
"That's right. The manuals in the Bing Corridor isn't too good, so I'm intending to head to the Gui Corridor for a look." Zhang Xuan replied earnestly.
The more profound and powerful a cultivation technique was, the fewer of them there would be. What Zhang Xuan needed was to collect as many cultivation technique manuals as possible... As such, he was extremely disappointed when he saw the pitiful collection of books that was at the end of the Bing Corridor. He felt that he had made the wrong choice and should have gone to the Gui Corridor instead.
There were bound to be many more books there, and that would be more useful to him than challenging the Bing Corridor.
"..." Senior Shui clutched her hair.
Are you a lunatic?
Every single cultivation technique in the Bing Corridor is extremely profound and powerful. Admittedly, they can't compare with the cultivation technique I have inherited from my ancestors, but they still wield formidable prowess!
Are you honestly comparing such treasures to the trash in the Gui Corridor?
Just what in the world is going through your mind?
"Alright, you should continue copying your notes. I have to get going now!" Zhang Xuan turned around and began making his way out of the Bing Corridor.
As he walked, sighs of lamentation would escape from his lips.
This trip had truly been a huge waste.
By the time he walked out of the Bing Corridor and arrived before the reception once more, he found that other than the female receptionist named Qing Yu, there was another male receptionist sitting beside her.
Seeing how the young man had come out so quickly without any injuries on him, Qing Yu was stunned. She couldn't help but ask in bewilderment, "Are you... fine?"
She was certain that the fellow would be pummeled to the point that no one would be able to recognize him anymore, an incomparable sight of misery, so how could he still be completely fine?
One must know that the Bing Corridor was a trial which even the talented Senior Shui had yet to clear after a month of hard work!
"Fine? Why would I not be fine?" Taken aback by the abrupt question, Zhang Xuan was startled for a moment. Then, seeing that there was no response from Qing Yu, he took out a hundred concentrated high-tier spirit stones and passed it over, "I wish to challenge the Corridor of Puppets once more. Here are the spirit stones."
"You want to challenge it once more?" Qing Yu frowned in bewilderment. "Each person can only challenge a Corridor of Puppets once a day. I'm afraid that you will have to return tomorrow."
If each challenger could keep challenging the same Corridor of Puppets again and again, putting aside that he would be depriving other challengers of the opportunity to challenge, the Corridor of Puppets would not have sufficient time to recover as well.
As such, each challenger was limited to challenging a Corridor of Puppets once per day.
And under normal circumstances, those who had managed to clear the Corridor of Puppets wouldn't challenge the same corridor once more, and those who failed would be left in a tragic state, possibly being unable to move even after an entire day of rest. Only someone as tenacious as Senior Shui would be able to persistently challenge the same Bing Corridor every single day for a month straight.
"I'm not going to challenge the Bing Corridor." Zhang Xuan explained.
"So, you have finally thought things through…" Qing Yu heaved a sigh of relief. "Which Corridor of Puppets will you be challenging then? TheDing Corridor1?"
"No, I'm intending on challenging theGui Corridor2." Zhang Xuan replied.
"The Gui Corridor…" Qing Yu was rendered speechless.
She was still wondering how formidable that fellow was when he challenged the Bing Corridor as soon as he came, but from the looks of it now, it seemed like the results had been rather disastrous for him... In the end, he still had to start from the very bottom.
Well, to be fair, for a Leaving Aperture realm primary stage cultivator, even the Gui Corridor would pose a great difficulty.
In a sense, it was good that the young man was able to think things through and pursue something that was more feasible to him than to cling on to his meaningless pride.
"I told you earlier that you should have just challenged the Gui Corridor, it's really a huge pity for you to have wasted a hundred concentrated high-tier spirit stones just like that. But nevertheless, it's still good to see that you have come to your senses…" Qing Yu smiled as she took out another challenge token and passed it over. "Right, where's the challenge token you have used in the Bing Corridor? Regardless of whether you have used it or not, you'll have to return it to us."
"Here it is." Zhang Xuan took the challenge token which Qing Yu was offering him before passing back the Bing Corridor's challenge token he had received earlier. After which, he turned around and headed off to the Gui Corridor.
Shortly after he left, the male receptionist turned to Qing Yu and asked, "Is that the lustful fellow that you have spoken about earlier?"
"That's right." Qing Yu nodded.
"I have to say that he's rather handsome, but to challenge the Bing Corridor with his Leaving Aperture realm primary stage cultivation... He's indeed a little over his head." the male receptionist remarked.
"It's apparent that he's not a person who lacked money, he probably did that in order to strike up a connection with Senior Shui. But from the looks of it, his efforts seem to have ended in futility. Realizing the limitations of his strength, he had no choice but to challenge the Gui Corridor instead…" Qing Yu shook her head as she prepared to toss the challenge token which she had received from the young man earlier back into the drawer, but all of a sudden, she froze on the spot.
"This challenge token…"
"What's wrong?" The male receptionist turned his gaze over as well, and in the next moment, his body stiffened as well. "There are actually golden marks on it... Isn't that a sign that he has cleared the trial?"
Speaking up to this point, the male receptionist traded gazes with Qing Yu, and the both of them gulped down a mouthful of saliva in shock.
"It can't be that... he managed to clear the Bing Corridor?"
As receptionists of the Corridor of Puppets, they were well aware of the difficulties surrounding the Bing Corridor. Many geniuses of the Sanctum of Sages had marched in confidently, only to return with dispirited looks on their faces. There were years where not even a single challenger would manage to clear it successfully... and that Leaving Aperture realm primary stage fellow actually managed to clear it?
How in the world was that possible?
And if he had already cleared the trial, what about Senior Shui?
Considering how she had entered the trial before him, why was she nowhere to be seen?
"I'll head over to take a quick look…" The bewildering situation left Qing Yu feeling completely crazed. Unable to hold herself back anymore, she stood up from her seat and prepared to make her way over to Bing Corridor to check the situation out.
"Wait a moment…" But before Qing Yu could leave the area, the male receptionist beside her abruptly grabbed her hand. Perplexed, she turned around to look at the male receptionist, only to see the latter pointing at the area in front of him with eyes widened in disbelief.
She traced the male receptionist's finger and looked over as well, and the sight she saw left her entire body freezing on the spot. The young man who had just left for the Gui Corridor a moment ago had returned. With a brilliant smile on his face, he took out another hundred concentrated high-tier spirit stones along with a challenge token and passed those over to them. "I wish to challenge theRen Corridor3now."
Despite her dazed state, Qing Yu still managed to instinctively take out a challenge token from the drawer and passed it over to the young man before her.
"Thank you." the young man replied before turning around elegantly to take his leave.
"He managed to... clear the Gui Corridor too?" Taking a glance at the challenge token which had just been returned, Qing Yu's lips twitched once more.
Even if the Gui Corridor was easy, surely it should be impossible to clear it that quickly?
How long had he been gone for?
One minute?
Two minutes?
In any case, it was not any more than three minutes... Within such a short period of time, even getting there and back would take two and a half minutes, which meant to say that he only spent a couple of seconds to clear the Gui Corridor?
Trading gazes with the male receptionist, the both of them could see the horror in each other's eyes.
Just as they were stunned with fright, the young man's voice sounded once more, "Sorry to interrupt, but I would like the challenge token forXin Corridor4. Thank you."
While shuddering in fear, Qing Yu passed a challenge token over before taking the other party's spirit stones and challenge token. Then, taking a glance at the challenge token once more, her body jolted.
It was another pass...
To clear both of them equally quickly, did this mean to say that the difficulty levels of both the Gui Corridor and the Ren Corridor were no different to him?
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She widened her mouth so wide that it almost seemed as if she was a fish that had fallen on shore. Just as she was about to check with the male receptionist to see if she was dreaming, the young man walked over once more.
"Give me the challenge token for the Geng Corridor."
"..." Qing Yu.
"..." The male receptionist.
...
"Hu! I'm finally done copying down all of it. By coupling this "Rippling Water Profound Art" with my current cultivation technique, I would surely be able to bring my fighting prowess up to a new level!" Senior Shui remarked with a satisfied smile.
As soon as the young man left, she immediately started copying, and all in all, it took her twenty minutes in order to finish copying down the thick manual entirely.
Of course, she would be able to memorize the entire book within a shorter period of time if she wanted to, but while cultivators of her caliber possessed a photographic memory, that didn't mean that their memories were infallible. Ultimately, it would still be safer to keep a physical copy of the manual.
Even a word of difference for a cultivation technique as profound as this would result in a vast difference in its conception. She didn't want to take on this needless risk.
She had spent an entire month challenging the Bing Corridor, only to fail each time. If not for that young man she had encountered earlier, it was doubtful whether she would have been able to obtain the Rippling Water Profound Art or not.
It wasn't easy for her to come by this opportunity, so it was best not to waste it.
"I wonder if he has finished clearing the Gui Corridor yet. Given his strength, it should be a walk in the park for him!" Placing the cultivation technique manual carefully back onto the shelf, Senior Shui slowly made her way out of the room, returning back to the front reception.
"What's wrong?"
As soon as she arrived at the front reception, she immediately noticed that something was amiss. The boisterous and cheerful Qing Yu from before was, at this moment, sitting on a chair with a completely dazed look, reminiscent of a lifeless zombie. Her eyes were staring blankly at the ground, as if someone had stolen her soul.
The male receptionist beside her wasn't doing any better either. His mouth was wide open, as if his lower jaw had been dislocated.
"Qing Yu... What's wrong with the two of you?" Senior Shui asked out of worry.
"Senior Shui, you are finally back…" Some spirit finally returned back to Qing Yu as she raised her head up slowly. Then, she anxiously stood up and asked, "There was a young man named Zhang Xuan who entered the Bing Corridor right after you, right? Did he really clear the trial?"
"He did. His strength is truly extraordinary!" Senior Shui replied.
After a twenty minutes rest or so, she had mostly recovered from her exertion. While her complexion still looked unnaturally pale, she was in a much better state than before.
"It seems like all of that really isn't a dream then…" With a pale face, Qing Yu staggered back onto her chair. Her hand opened up, and 'huala!', a bunch of small tokens fell all over the ground.
"These are…" Perplexed, Senior Shui bent down to pick up one of those small tokens, and her eyes widened in shock. "These are all challenge tokens? Furthermore... cleared?"
After an entire month of challenging the Corridor of Puppets, she had come to know what the golden marks on the challenge token represented.
But why would there suddenly be so many cleared challenge tokens here?
"That's right... These are the doing of Zhang shi…" Qing Yu nodded in a daze.
"You mean to say that he cleared all of these trials?" Senior Shui could hardly believe what she was saying. She quickly picked up all of the challenge tokens with a sweep of her zhenqi and examined all of them closely.
"Gui Corridor, Ren Corridor, Xin Corridor, Geng Corridor, Ji Corridor, Wu Corridor, Yi Corridor5... he cleared so many of them?" Senior Shui's body began trembling uncontrollably.
In the short twenty minutes that she spent copying down her Rippling Water Profound Art, the other party actually cleared seven corridors?
How could he possibly do it so quickly?
Fighting so many puppets in succession, wouldn't he run out of zhenqi? Wouldn't he feel exhausted?
"That's right. He cleared all of those without taking a breather at all…" Qing Yu nodded.
"Then... where is he at the moment?" Senior Shui asked.
"He's currently challenging theJia Corridor6!" Qing Yu replied.
"The Jia Corridor?"
Senior Shui hurriedly lowered her head to take a look, and indeed, there was no Jia Corridor amongst challenge tokens. In other words, the young man hadn't cleared the hardest corridor yet.
"Wait, that's not right...Since he has already cleared the Bing and Yi Corridors, why didn't he challenge the Ding Corridor7?" Flipping through the challenge tokens once more, Senior Shui frowned in bewilderment.
That fellow had started from the Gui Corridor, and he had challenged every single corridor from the bottom up... So why would he skip the Ding Corridor?
"Ah…" Qing Yu's face flushed red, and after a long moment of silence, she swallowed a mouthful of saliva and finally spoke up, "He said that...the name of the corridor didn't sound nice8, and as an upright man, there was no point challenging it!"
"..." Senior Shui.
1. Ding Corridor - Bing Corridor is the third most difficult corridor whereas the Ding Corridor is the fourth most difficult corridor.
2. Gui Corridor - Gui Corridor is the tenth corridor, as well as the easiest one.
3. Ren Corridor - Ren Corridor is the ninth corridor, as well as the second weakest one.
4. Xin Corridor - Xin Corridor is the eighth most difficult corridor.
5. Gui Corridor, Ren Corridor, Xin Corridor, Geng Corridor, Ji Corridor, Wu Corridor, Yi Corridor - Basically, the 10th to the 5th, and 2nd most difficult corridors.
6. Jia Corridor - The first and most difficult corridor.
7. Since he has already cleared the Bing and Yi Corridors, why didn't he challenge the Ding Corridor - Zhang Xuan has already cleared the 2nd and 3rd hardest corridor, but he skipped the 4th hardest one.
8. the name of the corridor didn't sound nice - The character for Ding used here, in modern day slang, has the meaning of a male reproductive organ.
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Don't worry if you are confused by all of those notes, I am confused as well ._.
Anyway for clarifications for those who are lazy for read those notes
Jia -> 1
Yi -> 2
Bing -> 3
Ding -> 4
Wu -> 5
Ji -> 6
Geng -> 7
Xin -> 8
Ren -> 9
Gui -> 10
He challenged the Bing (3rd) first together with Senior Shui before challenging the Gui (10th). After which, he slowly made his way up, challenging the Ren (9th), Xin (8th), all the way up to Jia (1st, still pending). However, he missed out Ding (4th).