Chapter 368: A Dead End
Gazing at the Sea of Raging Fire, Zen got lost in thought again. His heart sank, as he realized that the difficulty level of the Cloud Road test was higher than he had expected.
Now he understood why the previous hidden test had been so difficult.
The Death Road was a concealing test, too. Compared to Life Road, it was tougher. Since the difficulty level of the test was much higher, the Death Road seemed to have become a dead end.
Few passed the test. This led to this test bearing the name Death Road test.
Since the test was so difficult, besides competence and power, luck was also a vital virtue. Zen figured out that the secret of the Cloud Road might lie in the Death Road, “Let's take the Death Road too,” he said to Rocher.
The platform was not huge and most of the practitioners were on it, waiting to try their luck. When they heard Zen was about to pick the Death Road, a distrustful expression appeared on their faces.
'Are you joking?
Frank and Lois are powerful, so they have a slim chance of passing the Death Road. However, as a practitioner at the third grade of the nature level, how dare you take the same road?' Everyone was of the same opinion, but none of them reminded or warned Zen and they just let him have his way.
Zen had nothing to do with them, so they didn't care about whether he would be alive or dead at all.
Although more than a hundred stones had broken on the Life Road, the practitioners could find a way by pooling the wisdom and efforts of everyone together.
For example, earlier, the female disciple of Iridescence Sect formed a provisional road for the practitioners by condensing the lava with her own cultivation method. This induced a cooling effect and that would bring help. If the practitioners who possessed such skills could cooperate well, they would be able to jump onto the Life Road. The practitioners were discussing how to cooperate by using resources they had and how to control the timing, so that they could reach the destination earlier and with no strain.
Rocher pondered for a short moment. However, before he could answer, Lewis who had been consulting in the crowd and getting ideas moved closer to Zen. He shouted, “Excellent idea! I'll pick the Death Road too!”
Zen rolled his eyes in disbelief. He knew it was difficult to get rid of Lewis. Since he offered to join him, Zen had no option but to agree.
“Then, count me in!” Rocher said. He had been hesitant when Patrick asked him to go with him. Maybe in his eyes, he had a better chance to pass the test by cooperating with Zen.
When the tide of the Sea of Raging Fire fell, the other practitioners were still planning on passing the Life Road. On the other hand, Zen, Rocher and Lewis had jumped off the platform.
A practitioner snorted, “Why there are so many daredevils! Three more people are asking for death!”
“What do you mean by 'more'? Are you saying that Frank is asking for death by taking the Death Road?” The disciples of the Cloud Hall were fuming with anger. In the back of their minds, nobody could be on par with Frank, and Frank could go everywhere he pleased.
All the disciples of Cloud Hall had cheered up when Frank took the Death Road after the tide had ebbed last time.
In their mind, the Death Road was not that horrible and those who had perished on the Death Road were practitioners without enough proficiency. However, Frank differed from those practitioners. They believed that he had no problem passing the Death Road.
It made them so mad and fume with anger when they heard someone hinting that he might be dead by taking the Death Road.
Seeing how angry they were, the rest of the practitioners went mute. However, they were not of the same opinion as these disciples of Cloud Hall. Since the other practitioners had dared to try the Death Road, they shouldn't be much inferior to Frank. Life was so precious for everyone, so without confidence, this would be the last road they would have taken.
As the disciples of Cloud Hall were aggressive, none of the other practitioners dared offend them, and no one uttered a sound to them. All they did was to speak silently.
Taking the opportunity that the tide was ebbing, Zen, Rocher, and Lewis rushed forward along the stones. Soon, they came to an intersection.
The intersection extended to two roads. However, both of them seemed to be broken off by some powerful wild beast. There were more than a hundred broken stones on the road on the right. This could mean only one thing that it was the Life Road. Normally, the practitioners would choose the Life Road to pass the lava sea. Different from the road on the right, only several stones were broken on the road on the left. It was the Death Road.
“Let's jump over!”
Since he had picked the Death Road, Zen rushed downwards and then jumped over without hesitation. In a blink of an eye, he reached the opposite side.
Rocher was a determined and ambitious person too. He had thought it over before joining Zen, so he wouldn't change his mind. Then he took a sigh of breath and jumped over as Zen had done.
Now it was Lewis' turn.
“Yippee!”
Lewis jumped in the air like a hawk and even shook his cloak into the shape of two wings. Then he stepped on the air to rebound himself higher, screaming.
Rocher looked at him and couldn't help showering him with praises. “Excellent job!”
Zen rolled his eyes and snorted, “Another idiot!”
Lewis' style was like Evan's, but he was a little more normal than Evan who was always so hyper. Otherwise, Zen would have tried all his efforts to get rid of him.
“Now we're heading for the Death Road. Let's go!”
The three moved forward on the stones in a row.
After they had run for a while, the lava of the Sea of Raging Fire began to wave again.
“The tide is rising. Why haven't we reached the end of the road yet?” Zen said, in disbelief.
Lewis looked very disappointed. “Now I know why it's named Death Road. That means it is a road without end. If that's the case, we will immerse in lava!”
“Cheer up! Come on!” Zen said with encouragement. The Cloud Road had been originally set for testing the disciples of a grade six sect. Zen didn't believe that the Death Road was a death end. He was sure that Blood Fiend Emperor wouldn't have created such a road to cheat the disciples, as it was meaningless.
“Zen, look over there!” Rocher who had been dumb all this while pointed ahead.
The stones extended to afar and then disappeared somewhere. It was a dead end!
Lewis shook his head with a sad look and said, “I'm right...”
“You are such a jinx!” Zen hurled insults at him. His heart sank when he saw it was a dead end. However, he kept going, and his fight spirit grew. This was all he needed right now.
Now the tide of the Sea of Raging Fire began to rise, so it was too late to retreat. What Zen could do was to try his luck. He still didn't believe that the designer of the Cloud Road had made a road to trap the practitioners.
“What shall we do? I don't want to die!” Lewis cried out while he was running.
"Oh, no! I have a promising future and I don't want to drown in the Sea of Raging Fire!
Mom, please forgive me! My wish of always taking care of you has been cut short. I can't take good care of you any longer..."
When Lewis was screaming his lungs out, Rocher had already jumped onto another stone. He turned around, grabbed Lewis by the collar and then pulled out a sword from his back before placing it against Lewis' neck.
“Stop screaming! Or this will be the end of you!”
Rocher wasn't a blabbermouth like Lewis, and he wasn't that patient like Zen. So, when he faced the Death Road and the rising lava, he felt a great deal of pressure.
Besides being very verbose, Lewis had also been used to calming his nerves by screaming when he was under ordeals.
Just like someone would pull his hair or keep on eating when they felt nervous.
While releasing his own stress, Lewis conveyed his pressure to Rocher and Zen.
“No, don't kill me! I promise to keep my mouth shut. Is that okay with you?” Lewis pleaded.
In fact, if not because he hadn't been defenseless, with Lewis' current competence, Rocher wouldn't have caught him so easily.
Rocher wouldn't end his life. He grunted and threw him onto the stone before proceeding.
Zen looked at Lewis with a slight smirk on his face and shook his head. He then followed Rocher forward. Lewis still drew a long face but kept his silence. He had to be still.
As they were approaching the end of the Death Road, the lava tide was closer to them. It distressed them and their hearts pounded. If the lava tide rose to a certain level, that would be their end. They held their breath as they waited for the turn of events.