If it wasn't absolutely necessary, Chu Xiu wouldn't want to do such a thing either.

He also wanted to smoothly pass the Warrior Tier trial.

But he had thought through all possible methods in his mind and still couldn't come up with a way to pass.

Even in the best-case scenario, if he risked everything and managed by luck to kill the remaining two elders with his trump cards all laid out, he still wouldn't be able to stop the hunting operation that enveloped the entire village.

Chu Xiu glanced at the ritual progress; in the time it took to kill an elder, it had already risen to over eighty percent.

"Under such circumstances, I can only prioritize self-preservation."

There were currently only two ways to survive: one was to snatch Jiang Xue's escape artifact, and the other was to hide until the trial time limit ended so he could escape autonomously.

There was no punishment in the Abyss like being wiped out for failing a mission, just as in reality, failing to break through rarely results in immediate death, especially at relatively low tiers.

But the problem is, hiding until the trial ends is a very difficult task.

The trial has only just exceeded half an hour, and once the ritual completes and the Evil God descends, no one knows what changes might occur!

Perhaps that Evil God could just move a thought, lock onto Chu Xiu's position, and then simply point, crushing Chu Xiu to dust without resistance.

Just as Jiang Xue said at the outset, if it dragged on until the time limit was near, it would almost certainly result in total annihilation!

Therefore, seizing Jiang Xue's escape artifact was the best strategy!

A tinge of guilt flashed in his eyes, but it quickly turned into determination!

Chu Xiu was not cold-blooded and emotionless, but he could use absolute rationality to suppress emotions when needed and take actions that best fit his interests without hesitation.

Hiding his form, Chu Xiu steadily approached Jiang Xue, searching for the opportunity to seize the artifact.

At this time, Jiang Xue was evidently running out of physical strength; she was using a strange spell, causing the enemies hit by it to collapse immediately, but she seemed not to have mastered large-scale offensive spells, and under wave after wave of armored soldiers' attacks, she finally got pushed into a corner!

"Chen Ce! Are you ready?!" she shouted with a hoarse voice.

Chu Xiu felt a bit guilty but still didn't move, instead focusing all his attention on Jiang Xue's every move.

She narrowly dodged a guard's attack, but when she got up, a two-handed greatsword was already splitting down towards her head!

"Chen Ce, I can't hold on!" she shouted again.

As soon as she spoke, the edge of a sword brushed past her hair, almost leaving a mark on her young face, and panic showed on Jiang Xue's face. At this moment, she seemed to make a certain decision and suddenly raised her hand, with spiritual light gathering in it.

"Here it comes!"

Chu Xiu's legs tightened; the Great Success Mysterious Step was charging with force at his feet, ready to rush out and snatch the artifact as soon as Jiang Xue activated her escape tool!

But suddenly, Chu Xiu was stunned on the spot as if seeing an unimaginable scene.

Jiang Xue's raised hand was not holding any escape artifact; instead, her entire palm visibly became broader and longer and then grabbed the incoming blade!

In the next moment, accompanied by a crisp sound, the guard's two-handed greatsword was snapped directly by those perfect hands!

At the same time, Jiang Xue's body underwent startling changes too; her height shot up rapidly, increasing by over ten centimeters in no time. Her once chubby little face became angular, her shoulder-length hair grew to her waist, and her originally cute almond-shaped eyes turned into majestic phoenix eyes, with the pupils changing to a cold dark gold color.

In just a breath or two, she transformed from a cute little girl under 1.6 meters to a nearly 1.8-meter tall cold-faced sister!

The robe that was originally ample now fit her curves like a tight cheongsam, barely covering her two impressive assets.

"Jiang Xue" looked at the guards surrounding her, with the panic in her eyes completely disappeared, replaced only by disdain as if looking at ants.

She extended her slender fingers towards the sky, and a light saber soared into the air, splitting into dozens of them mid-air, descending like divine punishment from the heavens!

"Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!"

Those light sabers pierced through the guards' plate armor like the sharpest blades in the world, the intense heat melting their armor and bodies together.

The sound of clattering echoed continuously as the guards fell one after another, turning into dozens of cold corpses in the blink of an eye.

This astonishing scene left Chu Xiu wide-eyed in shock!

He had pre-emptively set up multiple scenarios and prepared backup plans, but he had never expected such a development.

What the hell? Big transformation act?

If you were this strong, what were you doing before!?

Chu Xiu felt a strong urge to critique, but on second thought, this made more sense; escape artifacts aren't cheap, typically equipped by juniors at Ye Junlin's level, Jiang Xue couldn't be weak.

"Come out."

Just as Chu Xiu was pondering internally, "Jiang Xue" spoke with a voice cold as a mountain spring.

Her dark golden eyes turned towards Chu Xiu: "If my guess is correct, you were hiding there to seize my sister's escape artifact at the opportune moment, right?"

Chu Xiu was silent.

After a while, he slowly stepped out from the shadows, smiling boldly: "So what if I was?"

Yet his hand concealed under the black robe tightly gripped the Bone Spear, eyes fixated on "Jiang Xue's" every move.

Unexpectedly, she merely smiled nonchalantly: "A rational choice. Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Jiang Yu."

Chu Xiu: "...Hello."

Even though the opponent didn't seem to intend to make a move against him, Chu Xiu did not let down his guard at all.

Jiang Yu turned her head away, no longer looking at him, but gently placed her hand on her forehead: "Wait a moment, let me process the memory."

Several seconds later, she furrowed her beautiful brows.

"I see, indeed it's a bit tricky."

"Not only are the enemies high tier, but there's also a need to be unscathed, it seems?"

"Hmm... to break the deadlock, we must first understand the ritual's [Rules], every time a Trial Taker gets injured, the ritual progress increases, and the wounds also cause mutations. So is the rule [Injury]? Or perhaps [Fire]? [Destruction]? No, it should be..."

"It's [Pain]," Chu Xiu interjected.

"Looking solely at the manifestations, [Injury] and [Destruction] both seem possible, but the villagers gave us a clue — they have self-mutilation marks on them, and whether it's burning or thorn stabbing, it brings extreme [Pain]. They are not merely self-mutilating, but intentionally torturing themselves to achieve extreme sensations of pain."

Burning is the highest on the pain level scale; as for thorn stabbing... imagine a toothpick inserted under a thumbnail, and then kicking it hard against a wall.

"My summoned creatures don't mutate also proved this point, as they can't feel pain," Chu Xiu continued.

"It's a world where as long as there's pain, mutations can occur to gain power."

"However, not everyone probably experiences such obvious effects. The common folks in this village obtain little power and mutations from self-mutilation, while the elders gain astonishing power through it, which might relate to [Spirituality]; the higher the [Spirituality], the easier it is to sense the Evil God and obtain his blessing."

"Trial Takers have high spirituality, so we make the perfect sacrifices, which is why they are frantically hunting us down."

Chu Xiu's words brought a look of surprise to Jiang Yu's beautiful eyes, seemingly not expecting Chu Xiu to figure out the rules before her, even though she had only acquired the memory moments ago.

In truth, Chu Xiu had never stopped contemplating the village's [Rules]. Seeing the elders in the prison torturing themselves on those torture chairs, he had already mostly confirmed his hypothesis.

However, the challenging part of this trial doesn't lie in the [Rules].

Even if they never figured out the rules of the ritual, they would instinctively avoid pain; in practical terms, this merely adds a debuff requiring Trial Takers to pass the challenge unscathed.

Understanding the rules doesn't offer any help.

The opposite Jiang Yu also displayed a look of understanding.

"I understand, which means there are currently two real challenges."

"One, find a way to break the ritual or prevent the progress from advancing further."

"Two, come up with a strategy to counter the Great Elder's skill that causes immediate mutation upon being pointed at."

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