While the expedition teams of various powers struggled through different regions of Buzhou Mountain, fighting for opportunities and their lives, the massive and abrupt empty city at the mountain's base and the sprawling temporary camps surrounding it still held tens of thousands of people.
There were some civilians who hadn't fully evacuated, personnel and supply lines left behind by various factions, independent cultivators and martial artists who had come upon hearing the news but hesitated to act, and core figures like Margaret and Dustin who commanded from the rear or watched developments unfold.
No one had anticipated that Buzhou Mountain, this divine peak silent for three thousand years, had never limited its trials to those who actively chose to climb.
At noon, a sudden change occurred.
Without warning, countless intersecting golden patterns—intricate and profound to the extreme—blazed across the massive base of Buzhou Mountain.
These patterns were like living veins, spreading outward from the mountain base along the earth at insane speed.
Faster than any escape technique!
Wherever the patterns passed—scorched earth, ruins, stone, vegetation, even the air itself—everything was tinted with a faint golden glow.
In just a few breaths, a super-massive formation with a terrifying coverage area—encompassing the entire original site of Stonia and vast surrounding regions—had formed!
"What is that?!"
"Heavens! The ground is glowing!"
"Not good! It's a formation! Run!"
At the mountain's base, in the camps, everyone was stunned by this heaven-and-earth phenomenon, then came overwhelming panic.
People tried to flee the area suddenly shrouded in golden light, but no matter which direction they ran, the golden patterns spread like tides beneath their feet, bringing everything within the formation's range.
Margaret and Dustin were on the elevated platform of the temporary command center discussing their next moves when this sudden change shocked them.
Margaret reacted swiftly, shouting: "All personnel, retreat to the formation's edge! Activate emergency defenses!"
But before her orders could be fully transmitted, the formation had completely activated!
"HUMMM—!!"
A deep, ancient hum—as if from primordial chaos—resonated simultaneously from deep within the earth and from inside Buzhou Mountain itself, making everyone's souls tremble and their heads spin.
Immediately after, everyone and everything within the golden patterns—human or beast—was enveloped in a gentle yet irresistible golden light.
Dustin saw golden light blazing before his eyes as a strange spatial force bound his entire body, as if he were instantly falling into an endless vortex.
He couldn't muster any spiritual power to resist, only allowing this force to manipulate him. The last thing he heard was Margaret's urgent cry: "Dustin—!"
The next moment, heaven and earth spun, vision blurred.
As if experiencing a journey through the void that was both eternal and instantaneous, when his feet touched solid ground again and his vision cleared, Dustin found himself in a completely unfamiliar environment.
No longer the camp amid Stonia's ruins, but... on Buzhou Mountain itself!
Around him were craggy, steep gray-brown cliffs. The air was filled with spiritual energy several times denser and heavier than below, mixed with faint scents of blood and char.
Looking up, the peak remained impossibly high, wreathed in clouds and mist.
But beside him were no longer the well-trained Dragon Guard and advisors, but a crowd of all kinds of people—panicked, bewildered, looking around frantically!
There were common folk in coarse cloth, trembling with fear. Martial artists with weapons drawn, scanning their surroundings warily. Independent cultivators in various garments with differing auras. And personnel from various factions who had been stationed at the base camp below—all now jumbled together like grains of sand carelessly poured out.
"Is this... Buzhou Mountain? How did we get up here?!"
"It was that golden light! That formation teleported us up!"
"Good heavens! The mountain is so high, so terrifying—how do we get down?!"
"My child! Where is my child?!"
Crying, screaming, cursing, questioning—the noise was deafening, the scene utterly chaotic.
Dustin quickly calmed himself. Looking around, he found himself at the edge of a relatively broad ridge platform. The platform was sizeable, but now crammed with no fewer than several hundred people.
And in the distance, on mountain paths and cliff faces, golden light continued to flash as people were randomly teleported in.
Clearly, everyone in the entire Stonia area had been randomly scattered across different locations on Buzhou Mountain by that terrifying formation!
"Your Highness! Mr. Dustin!" Several familiar voices called out.
Dustin turned to see several blood-stained Dragon Guards in damaged armor forcing their way through the crowd toward him. Behind them was Margaret, her face pale!
Her fitted attire was also torn, her hair slightly disheveled, but her gaze remained sharp. She gripped an unsheathed precious sword in her hand.
Dustin felt a wave of relief and quickly approached.
The Dragon Guards swiftly positioned themselves to protect Margaret and Dustin in their center.
"Dustin, are you alright?" Margaret looked him over. Seeing he was dusty but uninjured, she relaxed slightly, then her expression grew extremely grave. "The situation is troublesome. We—and everyone else—seem to have been forcibly teleported onto Buzhou Mountain. And... look there."
She pointed toward the edge of the platform. Where there should have been a path down or a cliff face, there now hung a hazy barrier constantly flowing with golden runes.
The barrier was solid and substantial, faintly emanating an unsettling sealing power.
A martial artist who had tried to charge down the mountain had barely touched the barrier before being violently repelled by a powerful force, falling to the ground and coughing up blood continuously.
"The formation not only teleported us up here but has also sealed the paths down." Dustin said gravely.
He carefully observed the runes on the barrier. Though profound and difficult to comprehend, he could vaguely sense a power of rules within. "It seems Buzhou Mountain's trial is now open to everyone. Perhaps only by meeting certain conditions will one be allowed to leave."
As if to confirm Dustin's words, a grand, ancient voice devoid of any emotion resonated directly in everyone's minds. Regardless of cultivation level, regardless of language comprehension, its meaning was clear:
"The Buzhou Trial treats all beings equally. Walk the path to heaven, pass the trials, and gain opportunity—or leave the mountain. Stand still, and remain trapped here. Body dies, Dao extinguishes, soul returns to the mountain."
The voice echoed three times, then faded.
But the information it contained was understood by all.
Either push upward, pass the trials, and earn the right to leave—or be trapped to death on this mountain. As for dying here—that meant losing everything.
– Marinien
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