Chapter 82 – The Trial of Courage

It was none other than Jiao Xiuyuan’s corpse.

Three months had now passed, and it was gradually revealing something unusual.

Unlike normal flesh and blood, it instead resembled dead wood, taking on a withered, yellowish color.

Li Fan kicked it with his foot, and the sound was exactly the same as kicking a piece of wood.

Just then, a voice came from behind Li Fan.

“This is merely a puppet, not his true body. It’s one of Jiao Xiuyuan’s usual tricks. Fellow Daoist, there’s no need to be surprised.”

Li Fan turned around and saw that the speaker was also a Qi Refining stage cultivator.

He immediately cupped his hands in greeting. “Many thanks for the guidance, fellow Daoist. Are you also a member of the Myriad Immortals Alliance?”

The man nodded. “Indeed. My name is Chen An, and I’ve been a member of the Myriad Immortals Alliance for over thirty years now.”

“I am Li Fan. From the way you speak, fellow Daoist, it seems you’re quite familiar with this Jiao Xiuyuan?”

Chen An smiled. “I wouldn’t say familiar, exactly. But having lived on this island for so long, there are certain things one comes to know.”

“Take this Jiao Xiuyuan, for instance. He runs a general store on the island called Thousand Miles Hall, selling all manner of goods. Rumor has it he has connections to official Myriad Immortals Alliance channels, so he occasionally manages to sell some genuinely good items.”

“Beyond that, he frequently deals in the intelligence trade. But this fellow never puts himself in danger—he always sends puppets ahead in his place.”

Hearing this, Li Fan slowly nodded. “Greedy yet cowardly, I see. So that’s how it is.”

Chen An burst out laughing. “Fellow Daoist, your summary is perfect! ‘Greedy yet cowardly’—those four words describe Jiao Xiuyuan better than any others!”

After his laughter subsided, Chen An suddenly said, “Earlier, when we were copying cultivation techniques in that scripture pavilion, I noticed that everyone else would copy for a while, then rest when they grew tired. They’d recuperate before resuming their transcription. Only you, fellow Daoist, went three months without stopping. I was deeply impressed!”

“But I can’t help wondering—what was the deeper reasoning behind your approach? In terms of copying speed alone, you must have fallen behind those who rested regularly, given the toll of physical and mental exhaustion.”

“Would fellow Daoist be willing to enlighten me?” Chen An asked with a respectful bow.

Li Fan pondered for a moment before speaking. “I wouldn’t claim any deep reasoning—it was merely intuition.”

“Qin Tang said the first trial was about focus.”

“Focus means single-minded devotion, undistracted by any external influence. Only then can one truly be called focused. Physical and mental exhaustion—are they not also external disturbances? If one stops because of them, does that not mean one is no longer truly ‘focused’?”

“It’s just a humble opinion of mine. Take it as you will, fellow Daoist.”

Li Fan said modestly.

Hearing this, Chen An fell into deep thought.

Li Fan said nothing more and returned to his room to rest.

The next day, Qin Tang indeed did not appear again.

No one dared to wander about, and they all waited patiently inside the building.

On the morning of the third day, Qin Tang appeared before everyone, drinking wine and staggering as he walked.

“Good wine, truly good wine!”

He let out a hearty belch, then squinted as he surveyed the assembled cultivators.

“Today, we begin the second trial!”

“This time, I shall test your courage!”

“The path of immortality is long and fraught with countless hardships and tribulations. Do you have the courage to face them, one by one?”

Qin Tang smiled faintly.

Everyone felt the world blur before their eyes, and in an instant they had left the pavilion and appeared at the seaside.

All of their cultivation and spiritual power had been sealed away, leaving them no different from ordinary mortals.

Qin Tang himself was nowhere to be seen.

Only his voice drifted to them from afar.

“I’ll be waiting for you on the other side of the sea. Use your courage to cross this ocean!”

Hearing this, everyone exchanged bewildered glances.

One bold soul walked to the water’s edge and stepped forward.

The seawater instantly froze into ice beneath his foot, catching him firmly.

Overjoyed, the man kept walking forward and soon vanished from everyone’s sight.

The rest, seeing someone take the lead, rushed impatiently into the sea one after another.

Li Fan caught a glimpse of Baili Chen doing the same, following the others into the water.

Only Si Kongyi remained standing at the shore, lingering without making a move.

Li Fan paid no further attention. He gathered his focus and slowly stepped onto the surface of the sea.

Water froze to ice beneath his feet, but there was no trace of anyone else in sight.

Upon the vast and boundless ocean, in the blink of an eye, he found himself utterly alone.

Li Fan’s expression remained unchanged as he walked forward, one step at a time.

Above him, the sun rose and the moon set, and he lost all sense of how much time had passed.

Yet the scenery before Li Fan’s eyes never changed.

This ocean seemed to have no end.

Even though Li Fan already knew the answer in advance, he still couldn’t help but feel a rising sense of helplessness and doubt.

It was then that he noticed the ice beneath his feet was gradually growing thinner.

Taking a deep breath, Li Fan expelled the fear and doubt from his heart.

He continued walking resolutely forward.

The ice beneath his feet thickened once more.

This second trial tested “courage.”

It tested not only the courage to face external threats, but more importantly, the courage to confront one’s own inner self.

Walking for so long across the boundless sea without catching sight of the opposite shore—

Would you begin to doubt whether you had already lost your way?

Would you grow anxious, wondering whether this ocean had any end at all?

Would you succumb to fear and lose the courage to press on?

Or would you simply give up and stop walking altogether?

Li Fan walked on, step by step, interrogating his own heart all the while.

Even having lived through hundreds of years of reincarnation, he had never experienced anything quite like this.

Temporarily setting aside all worldly concerns, simply thinking as he walked, endlessly.

This crossing of the frozen sea was just like the path of immortality itself.

The road ahead was shrouded in mist, the destination invisible.

Halfway through the journey, looking around in every direction, one couldn’t even be certain whether one had already gone astray.

From beginning to end, one was utterly alone, with nothing to rely on.

Time flowed on, and it seemed as though one would walk like this forever.

Without end. Without rest.

……

Even so—could one hold firm to their convictions and never lose the courage to keep walking forward?

Even knowing that this trial would eventually come to an end,

Li Fan had still wavered in his heart.

Because this ocean crossing had gone on for far, far too long.

One year, two years……

Decades passed.

Li Fan’s hair turned gray and white, his body grew stooped and bent, yet he never once stopped moving forward.

Until his body, too aged and frail, could no longer carry him.

Only then did he collapse, powerless, onto the surface of the sea.

His vision blurred. Just before consciousness faded, Li Fan thought he could see—

On the shore not far ahead, Qin Tang stood in solitary white robes, a lonely figure.

Raising his wine gourd toward Li Fan in a toast, Qin Tang smiled and took a long drink.

……

When he opened his eyes, Li Fan found that he and all the other cultivators were still inside the same building.

But it felt as though an eternity had passed since his last memory, and many wore dazed, bewildered expressions.

It was a long while before they regained their clarity.

“It is easy to wade through the River of Nine Hells, but difficult to cross the ocean within one’s own heart.”

“The second trial, the Trial of Courage, is now concluded.”

“The day after tomorrow, at dawn, we shall conduct the final trial.”

With that, Qin Tang took his ever-present wine gourd and swayed his head as he departed.