Proceeding up the narrow mountain path that had appeared after she had finished the second test, Qing Yi soon found herself walking up a set of worn-down stone steps leading up towards an ancient looking platform that had been built into the side of the mountain.
The difference in testing ground compared to the last two test was obvious from the get-go, as Qing Yi had a feeling that the third test would be different from the first two test that had both required her to make a potion of some sort to move on to the next test.
This feeling was soon turned into reality, as Qing Yi made her way up the stone steps and up on the ancient platform.
In front of her, Qing Yi saw no cauldron or spiritual herbs like the last two test. Instead, there was almost nothing on top of the ancient platform.
The only thing that remained the same as the last two test, was the stone slab on the ground that had her information recorded on it. The points she had obtained remained the same as last she checked just before making her way up towards the third test.
Not that she had expected to somehow gain any points from making her way up to the third test…
Outside of this, the only out of the ordinary thing on top of the ancient platform was a small pedestal with a potion bottle on top of it.
Looking over at the potion bottle from a distance with a curious look on her face, Qing Yi could see an almost gaseous liquid that was silver in colour swirling around inside of the potion bottle.
However, this was not what caught Qing Yi's attention. Instead, it was the potion bottle itself!
The potion bottle was in the shape of some sort of coral-like sea creature. Making Qing Yi wonder just how she would even be able to access the liquid inside of the potion given the weird shape of the potion bottle itself…
Was the third test perhaps for her to try and find a way to access the liquid inside the potion?
Thinking about this, Qing Yi could not help but shake her head. No matter how strange the third test would end up being, Qing Yi didn't expect for it to just be her opening a weirdly shaped potion bottle. After all, it was called an alchemy trial… Not a potion opening trial!
Walking up to the weirdly shaped potion bottle before picking it up and inspecting it, Qing Yi soon found an opening located towards the top of the potion bottle in one of the… Tentacles? Of the weird sea creature that the potion bottle had taken the shape of.
Plop!
Without waiting around, Qing Yi directly opened the potion bottle. Not that there was much else she could do given the potion bottle was the only thing present so far on the ancient platform and her way further up the mountain was still blocked off by the mist.
Whoosh~
Following the opening of the potion bottle the gaseous silver coloured liquid inside the bottle suddenly turned completely gaseous and floated out of the potion bottle before Qing Yi had the time to react.
"Wha-"
Watching the now silver coloured gas rush out of the potion bottle before forming into a large sea creature eerily similar to the potion bottle in her hand, Qing Yi prepared herself to fight. After all, the appearance of the sea creature formed from the silver-coloured gas looked nothing short of some kind of nightmarish sea monster that would keep most people far away from the sea…
The only reason why Qing Yi did not attack the sea creature that had formed from the silver-coloured gas, was because she had lost most, if not all of her power under the pressure of the mountain.
Even if she fought with the sea creature, Qing Yi doubted she would be much stronger than someone at the later stages of the Qi Condensation Realm in her current state…
Whoosh~
Before Qing Yi even had the time to react, the nightmarish sea creature extended its long tentacles and directly grabbed onto the sides of the ancient looking platform before slowly floating upwards. Carrying the platform along with it…
"…"
Watching the entire thing unfold as the platform slowly moved further up the mountain, Qing Yi remained rooted on the same spot. Looking up towards the giant sea creature floating just above her as it carried the platform upwards.
Looking a bit closer, Qing Yi realized that the now giant sea creature looked a bit like some kind of weird merger between a coral and a jellyfish.
A coral jellyfish?
Bang!
As she was lost in thought thinking about just what kind of creature the weird coral jellyfish floating above her was, the loud sound of the ancient platform being put down on the ground again directly interrupted her train of thought.
Along with the platform being put down again, Qing Yi suddenly felt the weirdly shaped potion bottle still firmly held in her hand fly out her hand before landing at the pedestal at the centre of the ancient platform.
Whoosh~
Before Qing Yi had any time to react, the coral jellyfish floating above her suddenly turned back into a gaseous liquid again before entering the potion bottle.
Everything happened over only a few seconds and by the time Qing Yi recovered from the shock of what had just happened, the potion bottle had already mysteriously disappeared along with the pedestal at the centre of the ancient platform.𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮
"What in the world just happened…?"
Muttering this quietly to herself as she looked over at the centre of the ancient platform with a bewildered look on her face, Qing Yi felt like she had just witnessed one of the oddest things since she was born…
At the same time, Qing Yi had also realized that the ancient platform was not the place where the third test was going to take place. Instead, it was only a form of transport for her to reach the third test located higher up on the mountain.
Looking out over the edge of the ancient platform, Qing Yi could not help but show an amazed look on her face.
The reason for this was that beyond the mountain she was currently on top of, Qing Yi could see over the mist that surrounded the base of the mountain when she had first made her way up the mountain!
From her point of view, Qing Yi saw an endless sea of mist covering everything as far as the horizon went. Along the way, Qing Yi could see several mountains similar to her own sticking out from the seemingly endless sea of mist that covered everything in sight.
"The other participants should be on one of those mountains…"
Saying this to herself, Qing Yi tried her best to see if she could spot any of the other participants on the other mountains in the endless sea of mist.
However, this only lasted for a short moment, as Qing Yi soon gave up due to how far away the other mountains were and the fact that there were way more than just twenty mountains inside the alchemy trial from what she could see, and she did not feel like spending the next few hours looking over all the mountains just to try and spot one of the other participants…
Turning her attention back towards inspecting the place she had just arrived at; Qing Yi ignored the usual small stone slab with her information on it and began seizing up the cave in front of her.
Different from the last two tests, Qing Yi saw no cauldron or other alchemy related tool inside the cave. Instead, she saw a few words etched into the side of the cave entrance.
"Find your way through the mist and reach the other side… A maze…?"
Muttering this to herself, Qing Yi realized that the cave in front of her was not a cave, but instead an entrance to what she assumed to be some sort of maze.
The only question in her mind at the moment was… How in the world was her finding her way through a maze related to alchemy!?
Only letting out a short sigh as she thought about how weird the third test was, Qing Yi made her way into the maze. Not knowing what awaited her inside.
…
At the same time outside the alchemy trial, Xuan Hao was looking down towards the large cauldron located on the platform with an increasingly curious expression on his face.
Similar to Qing Yi, he had also seen the seemingly endless space inside the alchemy trial and could not help but grow curious about just what kind of artifact the cauldron was.
Even if it was not comparable to an independent space like the secret realm he had been to in the past, Xuan Hao was still amazed at the sheer size of the space inside the cauldron.
He really wanted to figure out just how the cauldron could have such a large space inside of it…