The illusory elder glanced in the direction of Lin Qian and could only helplessly shake his head in the end, "Injured by that freak, I'll need to stabilize myself before I can go looking for him."
"Really, all bored and looking for some fun, only to end up displeasing oneself." As the elder's voice faded, his ethereal figure also dispersed into specks of light, gradually vanishing from sight.
From start to finish, the illusory elder was never discovered, not even by Zhao Long.
After all, Zhao Long's abilities had undergone a change due to Lin Qian, and the power he could exert was still far from enough.
As the sun rose in the east, the morning in the Small World awoke everyone from their cultivation process.
Lin Qian got up and stretched his muscles and bones, looking at the bright sunlight, his mood was surprisingly good.
"Unless one's soul is overly exhausted and requires sleep, ordinary cultivation can relieve fatigue. It's truly wonderful not to have to deal with jet lag," Lin Qian thought to himself while moving his limbs.
Ye Xin also stretched comfortably and said to Lin Qian, "Last night's cultivation was so quiet, not even the cries of a Soul Beast could be heard."
The others nodded in agreement, speculating that the nearby Soul Beasts were probably nearly wiped out by the Blood Spirit Valley disciples' fighting from the other day.
What they didn't know was that there were still plenty of Soul Beasts around, only they had all been silently wiped out by an unseen presence during the night without alerting any of them.
Having finished their cultivation, they set their sights on the building complex before them; it had already been decided that they would enter this fortress-like structure to see what exactly was inside, as soon as morning came.
In a Small World created for trial purposes, this building must certainly be there for a reason; it wouldn't appear in this place without cause.
Moreover, according to Yang Tianhao and ****, when they first came to this place, they happened to encounter members of the Swift Hidden Clan here.
The doors of the building were originally closed tight, and when they arrived, they just saw those people using an Array Map engraved with arrays to open the doors.
At the same time, the members of the Swift Hidden Clan also discovered Yang Tianhao and ****.
Before the two could explain anything, the Swift Hidden Clan members attacked without a word, with every move lethal, obviously striking with deadly force.
"It looks like there is something inside that the Swift Hidden Clan wants, and they are probably more familiar with these ruins than we are," Lin Qian spoke as he looked at the now-open entrance of the building, "using an Array Map to open the door clearly shows they came prepared. If they weren't familiar with this Small World, why would they have prepared this in advance?"
"Moreover, the entrance to this Small World's ruins was clearly guarded by leaders and powerful figures from various factions. They couldn't possibly have reached this Small World through the same entrance we used."
Saying this, Lin Qian paused, then shared his own speculation, "I'm afraid there is not only one entrance leading into this Small World."
Lin Qian's words caused the others to brighten up, feeling that the possibility he raised was very likely.
"Could that really be true? This Small World for the Ancient Human Clan Sect to test disciples actually has several entrances?" Zhang Zide still found Lin Qian's speculation somewhat unbelievable.
If that were true, then wasn't this Ancient Human Clan Sect wasting time setting up so many entrances for no reason?
"Indeed, if this Small World was really constructed by this Ancient Human Clan Sect solely for testing disciples, it would seem pointless to have multiple entrances." Zhang Zide's perplexing question prompted Lin Qian to nod, before his tone shifted, "But what if this Small World is not exclusive to the Ancient Sect but is shared with other factions and races as a venue for holding trials and competing against each other?"
At Lin Qian's statement, everyone first paused, then quickly came to a realization.
Right, why should they assume that this Small World belonged only to the Ancient Human Clan Sect?
If it was indeed as Lin Qian suggested, then that would make sense.
"If my estimate is not wrong, the other entrance is probably not far from the South Meeting," Lin Qian pondered as he looked at the several people in front of him, "Do you remember me mentioning that the corpses of the Black Blade Fish Clan we saw initially disappeared?"
The moment Lin Qian finished speaking, the others immediately caught on, understanding what he meant.
"Brother Lin, you mean to say the disappearance of those corpses you observed was possibly through that entrance into this Small World?" Hearing this, Li Yunfeng instantly realized what Lin Qian was implying.
At the same time, Lin Qian also solemnly nodded, "If I'm not wrong, in that stretch of sea, there is probably an Illusion Array hiding the entrance."
"Enough members of the Black Blade Fish Clan might have entered through another entrance."
"However, what's unclear now is why the dead single-armed members of the Black Blade Fish Clan and the Ferocious King Whales appeared at the South Meeting, and for some time, floating corpses coexisted simultaneously."
This was the part Lin Qian couldn't figure out.
Nevertheless, these were just Lin Qian's conjectures and couldn't yet confirm that his guesses were correct.
Now, with the mystery unsolved, Lin Qian believed they would eventually discover the truth. For now, they had to see what exactly was inside this building.
Setting aside the unresolved mystery for the time being, Lin Qian and the others walked towards the interior of the building before them.
Upon passing through the building's great doors, the first hall they entered was spacious and empty, with nothing superfluous, simply supporting columns that held up the ceiling.
At the center of this empty hall, there was a mural depicting the lifestyle of a race.
As for the race depicted in the mural, Lin Qian and the others recognized it—it couldn't be anything other than the Swift Hidden Clan.
Seeing this massive mural, Lin Qian chuckled at his companions, "It looks building really is connected to the Swift Hidden Clan. It seems their purpose in coming here was indeed for this building."
A sense of curiosity arose in everyone's hearts; they were very eager to know what was inside this building that made the Swift Hidden Clan, upon seeing Yang Tianhao and ****, immediately attempt to kill them without hesitation.
When they arrived at the subsequent sections of the building, they stared in disbelief.
In their imaginations, this fortress-like building should have contained intricate mechanisms and arrays. They expected to face perilous challenges and, after overcoming them, finally emerge with abundant treasures, leaving this aged fortress with their wounds and spoils.
Only after they had thoroughly explored the fortress did they understand that their initial thoughts were completely mistaken.