They arrived at a private room on the second floor of Fengyu Tower. Pushing the door open, Xin Ci saw only an ordinary room.
However, Xue He said, "As long as you can stay in this room for one day, you will be qualified for the assessment."
"Just stay for a day?"
"That's right, and if you step out of the room during this period, you will lose your qualification for the assessment."
After speaking, Xue He walked out.
Xin Ci surveyed the surroundings within the room. Through the walls with his Broken Sight Golden Eyes, he discovered that the room was set up with a Saint-tier spiritual formation.
Mu Qingqing transmitted to him, "Xin Ci, this Saint-tier formation is a special killing formation, and its range is limited to this room."
Killing formation!
As expected, Xue He's instruction for him to stay here for twelve hours meant this.
At this moment, the calligraphy and paintings in the room suddenly moved, and dozens of flying knives and sharp blades shot out from them, stabbing towards him from four directions.
Seeing this, Xin Ci immediately executed the Void-Treading Steps to dodge in the not-so-spacious room.
But strangely, these flying knives automatically locked onto his movements, directly making a turn and then attacking Xin Ci.
Since he couldn't dodge, he would directly destroy all the flying knives.
Sixteen Star Moons!
Sixteen chains of brilliant silver light, under Xin Ci's control, shattered all these flying knives.
However, these flying knives were condensed from spiritual energy. Even if scattered, they could re-condense.
Although these flying knives were endless, Xin Ci had already figured out a way to deal with them.
A cluster of Undying Phoenix Flame ignited at his fingertips and shot out, forming a deep red wall of fire in front of him.
Undying Phoenix Flame had the characteristic of burning spiritual energy. These flying knives were finally burned to ashes.
But before Xin Ci could relax his guard, a rain of silver needles exuding a cold gleam suddenly poured down from the ceiling!
Xin Ci could clearly sense that each of these silver needles was comparable to a mid-grade true artifact.
Considering the number of nearly three hundred silver needles, their penetrating power was no joke.
For a time, the entire room was filled with dense silver needles.
These silver needles were too small, and even if Xin Ci used the Sixteen Star Moons chains, the needles would slip through the gaps.
Golden Scale Art, Protective Golden Scales.
Countless golden scales appeared on Xin Ci's body. These silver needles hit the scales, making a ding-ding-dang sound.
Fortunately, the defense of the Protective Golden Scales was sufficient to block the damage from high-grade true artifacts. These silver needles were no match for him.
However, frequent use of True Intent caused his True Essence to be rapidly consumed.
In less than an hour, this room had already attacked him with no less than thirty types of hidden weapons.
It seemed that lasting for twelve hours would be somewhat difficult.
However, Xin Ci had gradually adapted to these hidden weapon attacks, reducing his True Essence consumption and skillfully dodging the attacks.
"The assessment of the Killing Heart Sacred Court is like this. However, the woman at the counter just said that this is merely a test for qualification. The real assessment should be yet to come..."
Han Lao observed the layout of the killing formation in the room and mused.
Then, he reminded Xin Ci, "Xin Ci, be careful. The power of this killing formation is probably more than this."
"Yes, there should be other attacks next."
"I say... Xin Ci, why don't you just use your Star Wheel Eyes to break the killing formation? That way, you won't have to dodge around the room."
Just as Xin Ci and Han Lao were cautiously facing the killing formation in the room, Mu Qingqing couldn't help but interject.
"Uh... what she said makes sense."
The two of them fell silent.
Especially Xin Ci, who felt he had wasted some effort dodging earlier.
Now, his current female body could perfectly utilize Mu Qingqing's Star Wheel Eyes divine ability.
With the help of the Star Wheel Eyes divine ability, this killing formation was quickly broken.
Various flying objects in the room fell to the ground. The bed, which had previously flipped over to reveal sharp spears, now returned to its original state.
Xin Ci finally breathed a sigh of relief and couldn't help but jest, "It seems I can have a good night's sleep tonight."
The twelve hours passed quickly.
The next day, Xue He returned to the room. Pushing the door open, she found Xin Ci sitting cross-legged on the bed, cultivating with his eyes closed.
Everything in the room was intact, unlike the other test-takers who had left it in a mess.
"Strange, what's going on? This shouldn't be the case?" Xue He frowned and muttered to herself.
Xin Ci also opened his eyes at this moment and said to Xue He, "Can you take me for the assessment now?"
Xue He was stunned for a moment, then immediately regained her composure and said, "Yes, before that, I have something to give you."
As she spoke, Xue He conjured five strangely shaped masks in her hand and presented them to Xin Ci.
Xin Ci asked in confusion, "What is this?"
"These are special masks made by the blacksmiths of the Killing Heart Sacred Court. Once you use True Essence or soul power, these masks will shatter."
"When you enter the Shadow Realm later, all test-takers will wear these masks. If the mask shatters due to the use of True Essence or soul power during the assessment, your qualification will be directly revoked."
"Alright, I've explained clearly. Choose a mask from these."
Most of these masks were in the appearance of ferocious ghosts, hideous and terrifying.
Xin Ci chose a mask with a green face and fangs and put it on.
"Very well, now I will take you to the Shadow Realm."
Xue He put away the remaining masks into her spatial ring, turned, and walked out of the room. Xin Ci followed closely.
They arrived in front of a wall on the third floor of Fengyu Tower. Xue He placed her palm on it, injected True Essence, and recited a few secret words.
Suddenly, a crack appeared in the middle of the wall, and then a ten-meter-tall bronze door was revealed.
Xue He turned to Xin Ci and said, "Behind this bronze door is the Shadow Realm. After entering, you will appear in the Shadow Hall. The person in charge there will explain the situation to all test-takers. You are fortunate, today happens to be the day the assessment begins. I believe Elder Chi Mu is preparing to announce the assessment content."
Rumble!
The bronze door slowly opened, revealing a pitch-black interior, so dark that nothing could be seen.
But Xin Ci entered without hesitation, his expression unchanged.
After the bronze door closed, Xue He thought, "This little fellow is quite different from other test-takers. You must know that the Killing Heart Sacred Court has the most difficult entry assessment among the Five Great Sacred Lands. At most five people pass at each outpost, and Youdu is precisely the outpost with the largest number of applicants. I hope this little guy passes the assessment."
Saying this, Xue He couldn't help but recall the shadow room Xin Ci had been in. Unable to settle her mind, she returned to that room to check.
After examining it carefully, she found no problems.
Xue He was immediately puzzled, "Strange, could the killing formation be broken?"
So, she took out a small formation disk to check the situation of the killing formation in the room.
As the formation disk emitted a bright light, Xue He was so angry she almost spat blood, "That detestable little fellow actually erased the killing formation without anyone noticing."