Chapter Thirty-Five: Mount Ten Thousand Lords

The towering mountains stood like an immense foundation, encircled by countless peaks. With a sweep of divine sense, exactly ten thousand mountain summits could be discerned, scattered majestically across the land—a truly breathtaking sight.

At the foot of the mountains, Qin Shuang paused before a colossal stone stele, studying the characters carved upon its surface with care.

"Qin Shuang, first, congratulations on earning the spirit beast's recognition and reaching the first trial of Shanhaitian—the Mountain of Ten Thousand Peaks. As the name suggests, there are ten thousand summits here, each guarded by a gatekeeper. Pass through all the summits, and you'll have completed the first trial, moving on to the second stage of Shanhaitian."

"Ten thousand gatekeepers?" Qin Shuang was dumbfounded. "This first trial is truly excessive."

"Of course, once you have endured the hardships of this stage, a surprise awaits you. As for what it is, you will know when you defeat all the gatekeepers. But I can tell you now: it is something you have always dreamed of.

The gatekeepers are not exceptionally strong; even the most powerful is merely at the ninth level of Immortal Emperor. For you, it is challenging yet not impossible. Coming from the God Realm, your understanding of space far surpasses ordinary ninth-level Immortal Emperors. Thus, these ten thousand trials should not be too difficult for you.

However, each summit holds its own labyrinth. Only by passing through the maze can you meet the gatekeeper."

"A labyrinth? That shouldn't be difficult," Qin Shuang murmured to himself. Both he and Qin Si had studied formations, and while Qin Yu considered their skills barely entry-level, these arrays would nonetheless be considered top-tier in the lower realms of the Immortal, Demon, and Beast Realms.

A labyrinth was, after all, less complex than the simplest array.

"But the person who left these words seems to know me very well." This realization unsettled Qin Shuang. Having one's secrets so thoroughly understood was never a comforting thought.

He was not alone in this sentiment. All twelve individuals chosen by the spirit beast were facing the same issue: their circumstances were recorded in detail upon the stele, and the so-called most powerful gatekeeper matched their own realm. Each would have to pass through a maze first.

Ten thousand labyrinths, ten thousand gatekeepers—perhaps nothing to an Immortal Emperor, but for Celestials or cultivators, it was a terrifying number. Simply passing all the labyrinths would take a considerable amount of time.

Zhou Tong, one of the cultivators from Earth, was only at the early Nascent Void stage. On reading the inscription, he was immediately dismayed—ten thousand labyrinths, ten thousand gatekeepers, exhausting beyond measure.

"Damn, what kind of trial is this? It's pure torment! I'd rather stay outside and cultivate. With such abundant spiritual energy here, I could ascend in a few hundred years. To hell with these so-called gods!"

With that, Zhou Tong turned to leave. Yet as he did, a bolt of black lightning crashed down from the sky, striking him instantly. The poor Nascent Void cultivator didn’t even leave a trace behind—his soul scattered to the winds.

Before the trial had truly begun, one of the twelve had already been eliminated. Of course, the others were unaware of Zhou Tong’s fate and proceeded into the first trial of Shanhaitian—the Mountain of Ten Thousand Peaks.

"Hmm? Divine sense can't leave my body?" Qin Si, upon entering the first labyrinth, immediately noticed this problem.

Without external divine sense, he could only rely on his eyes to solve the maze. For a high god, apart from speed, he now seemed no different from a mortal.

"Hmph, this won't stop me. A maze? Can it compare to a first-level array?" Qin Si was brimming with confidence. His talent surpassed Qin Shuang by many times, and even in formation studies he had already stepped into the entry level. These labyrinths posed no real challenge to him.

Suddenly, as Qin Si darted left and right, a thick black bolt of lightning struck down, startling him with its force.

"Damn, why didn’t the stele outside mention lightning in the mazes?" He immediately slowed his pace, having no doubt about the lightning’s power. Even if it didn’t kill him outright, it could certainly harm his soul.

Meanwhile, Qin Shuang did not suffer the same fate as Qin Si. Though his divine sense was similarly restricted, the complexity of his maze was much reduced, and there was no hindrance from lightning. He passed through the first labyrinth smoothly and entered the gatekeeper’s great hall.

The hall was indeed vast, spanning tens of thousands of square meters. At its far end stood the gatekeeper.

To Qin Shuang’s surprise, the gatekeeper appeared not to be a living being, but a statue.

"Is this… an ugly statue actually serves as a gatekeeper?" Qin Shuang muttered. The statue was truly hideous—its proportions were all wrong, its face lopsided and distorted.

"Who… who dares call me ugly?" The words had barely left Qin Shuang's mouth when the statue began to tremble, emitting a whimpering sound like a draft whistling through cracked lips.

"You… you can move?" Qin Shuang was even more astonished. He had seen puppets before, but those were crafted from special materials. This was clearly a clay sculpture, yet it could both speak and move.

"Move? Not only can I move, I can kill. Prepare to die!" The statue was direct—no sooner had it spoken than its mud body lunged at Qin Shuang, maw agape as if to bite.

Yet its movements were comically slow to Qin Shuang’s eyes. With a thud, Qin Shuang punched a hole straight through its chest and smiled, "Judging by your speed, you're at most a third-level Heavenly Immortal. The gap between us is too great."

"Is that so?" The statue actually grinned. "But you must kill me to pass. The question is—can you?"

No sooner had it spoken than the hole in its chest closed seamlessly, leaving no trace.

"Kill you?" Qin Shuang was taken aback, but soon realized he could not find the statue’s nascent soul—nor, indeed, any soul at all.

"You… have no nascent soul? No spirit?" That complicated matters.

"Heh, you guessed right," the statue replied, launching another attack. "I never intended to let you hit me without retaliation."

With a boom, Qin Shuang gathered a portion of his immortal force and blasted it at the statue.

Countless fragments of clay scattered to the ground. The once-arrogant statue was reduced to pieces.

"Phew," Qin Shuang exhaled. "That should do it."

"Heh, not even close." The statue’s voice rang out across the vast hall.

Qin Shuang frowned. "Still not dead? This is truly maddening."

Standing at the center of the hall, Qin Shuang suddenly heard a howling wind. From all sides, shards of clay flew towards him at great speed.

"Haha! An eighth-level Immortal Emperor, yet you can't even deal with a mere clay statue at the Heavenly Immortal stage? How dense can you be?" The shards bounced harmlessly off Qin Shuang’s protective aura, unable to harm him in the slightest. Still, the statue’s incessant noise was deeply irritating.

Suddenly, Qin Shuang noticed a glimmer of light flash across a stone set in the far wall.

"So, it’s a primal spirit stone," Qin Shuang murmured with a hint of a smile. "If you hadn’t attacked so aggressively, I might never have found your weakness."

"What… what did you say?" The statue's voice was filled with disbelief. "You shouldn’t be able to use divine sense here."

"I can’t," Qin Shuang replied coolly. "But you forget—an Immortal Emperor’s eyes are sharp enough to catch even the slightest change."

He stepped up to the primal spirit stone, pressing his hand against its surface. "This is your source of power and life, isn’t it?"

Without waiting for a response, he crushed the stone with a burst of force.

With a gust of wind, the great hall vanished, and the entrance to yet another mountain cavern appeared before him.

"Nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine to go," Qin Shuang whispered, and his figure flickered as he darted into the next cave.

***

"So this is the gatekeeper’s domain," Qin Si murmured, surveying the landscape. The earth around him was vast and empty; with divine sense restricted, his eyes alone could not discern the boundaries of this place.

"Correct," came a sudden chorus of voices. In the next instant, the empty ground was abruptly filled with thousands upon thousands of identical figures. Each bore the same face, and even their speech and expressions were perfectly synchronized.

"Huh… wasn’t there supposed to be only one gatekeeper? Is this some special treatment for a high god?" Qin Si was startled.

"Wrong. There is only one gatekeeper here—me," the multitude replied in unison. "I have but one true form. The rest are merely clones. As long as my true form survives, I can manifest infinite copies."

"Whoever devised this Mountain of Ten Thousand Peaks must be a complete maniac. When I return to the God Realm, I’ll drag them out, flay them alive, and do it again and again!"

Complaints aside, he still had to face the trial before him. Yet with thousands of identical figures before his eyes, what was he to do?