Chapter 6: The Temple of the Sun God

  Qianzhou, Tiandu Mountain, Temple of the Sun God!

  Magnificent buildings stand on the top of Tiandu Mountain, with red copper as bricks and tiles, and red jade as railings. The palace is majestic and solemn, overlooking the mountains.

  Inside the palace, an old voice sounded:

  "The time is almost up."

  On the top of the palace, under a statue that was several meters high, an old man in white robes spoke softly.

  As they spoke, the old man's gaze was fixed on something in front of him, where a crystal clear and transparent crystal stone as big as a watermelon floated, continuously emitting a bright milky white light.

  The brilliance of the crystal stone dimmed slightly, as if it were a candle flame in the wind, which could be extinguished at any moment.

  "Ah, brother said it's right. It's almost just one or two breaths of work left, the Sun God Stone will disperse its radiance, and we should stop here."

  Next to the old man in white robes, a yawning girl who looked only eight or nine years old responded.

  Apart from the two of them, there were seven or eight people standing at the foot of the statue, gazing up at the Sun God Stone.

  They are either in their prime or old and grey, standing casually with a stern air, showing extraordinary bearing.

  Apart from the old man in white and the little girl, no one else intervened, but instead looked towards the center of the palace.

  There were dozens of young men and women sitting cross-legged, some with their bodies trembling, others with furrowed brows, and still others smiling foolishly... They were all strange and indescribable, the only thing they had in common was that everyone's eyes were tightly closed.

  Besides these dozens of young men and women, there were more than twenty other youngsters standing aside, all with a lingering fear and an uncontrollable joy.

  They certainly deserve joy.

  Since they awakened from their soul realm, they became the inner disciples of the Taixing Temple, one of the seven major sects in the world and the number one sect in Qianzhou. How glorious!

  This scene before him was the most important pass for the Sun God Sect to choose its disciples.

  Rebirth from the ashes!

  What is called a soul-cleansing calamity is when all participating disciples go through a secret ritual ceremony presided over by the sect's seniors, casting their souls into the Soul Realm.

  Anyone who can go through the soul-refining tribulation and wake up within the specified time is considered to have passed the Divine Cleansing Tribulation.

  A crowd of young people sat in front of a gate-sized vortex formed by swirling and gathering strange lights, which was the Soul Realm.

  "Master, look!"

  "Another one!"

  A middle-aged man in a yellow robe suddenly spoke up and pointed at a young boy sitting on the ground.

  "Huh?!"

  In an instant, whether it was the few people at the forefront or the young men and women standing aside, they all focused their attention on him.

  The young man who concentrated everyone's attention looked like he was only sixteen or seventeen years old, and the whole person gave people a feeling of cleanliness, a clarity that was transparent.

  He sat cross-legged on the ground, his hands naturally hanging down to his knees, with a white light in his eyebrows and eyes, as if he were breathing.

  "Brush!"

  Suddenly, a white light burst out of the strange vortex and shot straight into the boy's brow.

  In an instant, the young man's body trembled all over, and then his face returned to calm, with a sense of relief as if he had passed through a great ordeal.

  "Success!"

  The middle-aged man in the yellow robe clapped his hands and laughed, pointing at the young man from afar and saying: "This child is indeed lucky, with a clear mind and soul at the last moment, he washed his spirit and came out, and was able to enter the sect."

  "This is fate."

  The old man in white robes stroked his beard and nodded, recalling for a moment before saying: "This young one's name is Ning Feng, isn't it? He should be the last God Palace disciple of this generation."

  As soon as he finished speaking, Ning Feng slowly opened his eyes.

  There was a moment of confusion in his eyes, which immediately turned into clarity.

  "So it was..."

  "That's right!"

  Ning Feng gazed at the swirling vortex of strange light, as if he could see through it to countless scenes unfolding before his eyes, a decade's worth of memories flowing by.

  Scholars carry their bags, tread through thousands of mountains and rivers, meet all kinds of gods and demons, seek one transmission but cannot get it... none of this is real...

  "Isn't this just a wild goose chase?!"

  Ning Feng had previously been in a daze, but hadn't missed the conversation of several people at the beginning. At this moment, his mind was clear and many messages flooded in, and he understood everything.

  He is Ning Feng, he is also not Ning Feng.

  Sixteen years ago, on a certain day, he was still in a technologically advanced place called Earth before going to sleep, and after waking up, he became a baby born with knowledge in the state of Gan.

  At first, Ning Feng thought this was a world similar to ancient Earth and had considered studying poetry and books, as well as living a life of luxury like a young master.

  Never thought, this is a wonderful world with gods and demons, able to live forever and see far, can enter and exit the blue sky.

  Oddly enough, Shu Sheng Ning Feng in the Soul Realm had none of these memories.

  "In a world full of supernatural beings, what's the use of studying the Four Books and Five Classics? They're only good for wiping your butt!"

  "It turns out that the sentence I said in the spiritual realm was indeed spoken from the heart."

  Ning Feng couldn't help but smile as he reminisced about his experiences over the past decade.

  Learning of immortals and demons, how can one be content with a mundane life?

  Ning Feng was determined to become an immortal, and his father, who seemed useless in the eyes of the world, was able to spend all his family's wealth without reason, believing in and supporting his son. Finally, at the age of 13, he entered the Temple of the Sun God by chance.

  Three years outside the door, carrying water and chopping firewood, solidifying the foundation, finally arrived at the most critical juncture an hour ago: Washing the Spirit Pass, Soul Realm Grinding.

  "Three years ago, there were 3,600 people outside the gate. Yet, only a hundred of them could make it to this point."

  "Now..."

  Ning Feng looked up and saw that there were only twenty-nine people standing beside him, including himself, a total of thirty.

  "Out of three thousand, take thirty; out of a hundred, not one remains. The difficulty of the immortal path is already apparent from the first step."

  His gaze swept over those young people who were ahead of him and finally fixed on a girl standing in front of the crowd.

  The girl in white clothes, with a round face, had a worried look on her face just a moment ago. In the instant their eyes met, her small face stiffened and she became expressionless.

  "Chen Xiwei!"

  "I said, how come Su Listen Rain, Pipa Fish, Lake Girl... each and every one of them has a lovely round face, turns out it's because they have something on their mind, and their soul is tied to something."

  Ning Feng's smile grew brighter and more radiant.

  After three years of being together, she is still his favorite girl.

  "She's always so great, always surpassing everyone else, fortunately this time I kept up with her pace."

  "She didn't dump me after all."

  Ning Feng looked up at the Sun God Stone, less than a breath away from waking up. The stone was dull, and the three years of accumulated sunlight had been scattered cleanly.

  "...it's not bad either, getting thirty people is not much worse than previous years."

  The old man in white robes nodded towards Ning Feng and said warmly: "Ning Feng, get up and stand aside."

  Ning Feng hastily got up, bowed and walked towards Chen Dan-yi's side.

  As they drew closer, the voices of those excited young men who could not suppress their excitement faintly reached their ears.

  "This time it was really lucky, in the Soul Realm I almost couldn't hold on, fortunately didn't fall behind White Raven Soldier."

  "I was too, but I later joined the Black Crow Troops, it was really tough, several times I almost couldn't hold on."

  "Yes, I've heard the seniors of our sect mention it before. The phrase goes like this: Only the wise and the foolish can persevere unyieldingly. Our soul realm assessment is a test of willpower, only those with unwavering determination can emerge within the allotted time."

  “……”

  The sound of the wind's footsteps was unavoidable, especially when seeing those twenty or so young people all being led to discuss their experiences in the spiritual realm, exchanging whispers.

  "How...different..."

  Ning Feng swallowed his saliva.

  He looked at them with a serious expression, those young people even if they didn't insert **flow, talking about their soul journey experiences, all had a deep and thoughtful face, not finding it strange at all.

  It is clear that they have all gone through the same thing.

  "What I've experienced is completely different from theirs!"

  It was clear to Ning Feng that in the Soul Calamity he had experienced, there were Da Nu Zen Master, Jian Xian, Hu Niang, and even a group of old mice who came to ask for lessons at midnight, but surprisingly, there was no Bai Ya Bing or Hei Ya Bing.

  "My experience in the spiritual realm is not about perseverance, but about restraint, restraining me from leaving!"

  "Why? Why is it different?"

  Ning Feng strongly restrained his mind, having experienced over twenty years in his past life and sixteen years in Qianzhou, plus the dozen or so years he spent in the Soul Realm. He was not some inexperienced young man who had never seen the world, deeply understanding that when something unusual happens, there must be a reason for it. How could he dare to reveal himself lightly?

  To outsiders, Ning Feng's footsteps only paused for a moment, and even this was not noticed by anyone, except Chen Dan who seemed to sense something and glanced at him.

  At the top of the first peak, the mountain masters of the Temple of the Sun God were still chatting.

  "It's time."

  "Wake up these children."

  The old man in white robes swung his sleeves, and the dazzling sunlight burst out from his sleeves, wrapping up the Sun God Stone and putting it into his sleeves.

  A simple sentence decided the fate of the remaining seventy boys.

  Their past three years of experience outside the sect were not in vain, but they are destined to have nothing to do with the top sect, Sun God Palace.

  The white-robed old man's words had just fallen when the remaining mountain masters hadn't reacted yet, a sudden change occurred.

  Rumble...

  The palace shook violently, and everyone lost their footing. The young men inside, including Ning Feng, were caught off guard and fell to the ground.

  "Rumble... Rumble..."

  The entire palace was shaking non-stop, as if a giant outside grasped the palace with both hands and was about to lift it up and throw it.

  The shock does not come from outside, but occurs within itself.

  At the moment of mutation, everyone present knew where the source was.

  It's really too obvious.

  The soul's abode, that strange light vortex twisted into indescribable shapes, the strange light spinning fast and slow at times, when one's gaze falls upon it, in an instant it makes people dizzy and disoriented, with a feeling of nausea.

  。

  "What's going on?"

  Ning Feng was shocked and his heart skipped a beat as he felt an inexplicable palpitation.

  For no reason at all, he felt this change was somehow related to him.

  The mountain masters of the Sun God Temple changed their faces one by one, and the soul realm existed in the Sun God Temple for no less than 10,000 years. Every generation of disciples of the temple had to go through it once, but what happened this time?

  Even a transcendent being would be momentarily stunned by it.

  Under the gaze of all, the soul's realm collapses in on itself, sinking towards the center, where countless dazzling yet meaningless scenes flash by in an instant.

  Suddenly——

  In the midst of the soul realm's most central location, where the distortion was the most severe, Ning Feng saw something extremely familiar.

  "Jiǔ Qiào Shí!" -> "Nine Orifices Stone!"

  "The core of the Soul Realm is the Jiugong Stone!"

  The moment this thought sprouted in his mind, the next instant, the soul crystal that had existed since ancient times and was thought to exist forever, vanished into thin air like a fleeting dream.

  "Soul Realm!"

  "What's going on?!"

  The old man in white robes was shocked beyond measure, his originally slightly hunched body suddenly stopped, his breath bursting forth uncontrollably, like a solar storm raging through the palace.

  Ning Feng and the other young men were overwhelmed by the powerful aura, and one by one they involuntarily flew backward, crashing into the corner of the palace.

  "This is..."

  Ning Feng finally couldn't keep his calm and his expression changed greatly.

  It's not for the sake of showing off his power as a white-robed elder, but rather, there is something extra in his mind...