The Long Journey to Immortality

Within just five minutes, the illusion array was already "overcrowded," forcing guests in line to wait outside.

They wait for a guest who is "not good enough" to be eliminated after passing a few rounds, thus making room for another guest.

For a phoenix like Han Lu, who grew up in the Central Plains, received education there, and compiled miscellaneous books like "Common Sense," the challenges in the illusion were not too difficult.

However, for the vast majority of bird guests who have always lived in the wilderness and only occasionally visit the Great Yu Dynasty for "collecting folk songs", even the medium-difficulty level is quite challenging.

No more than twenty breaths after entry was stopped, the first group of guests who had entered had already failed a second time in the illusion and were sent away.

It is a roc.

Among the group was this roc's mischievous friend, who was making a fuss.

Some friends who had become acquainted with the roc in recent days offered comfort or inquired about the situation in the illusion.

The eliminated roc, after discussing the situation in the illusion with a friend, asked a phoenix nearby for directions to the Three Phoenix Forest Library and went there to catch up on his studies.

Getting two arithmetic problems wrong in a row made the Peng bird, who already possessed the cultivation level of the late stage of human transformation, lose face.

He was determined to study hard, enrich his mind, and then challenge the illusion again to try and win more feathers in exchange for rewards.

Many guests in line were stunned by the two arithmetic problems revealed by the roc.

After much hesitation, many people followed in Pengniao's footsteps and went to the library for tutoring.

The remaining guests in line reminded themselves to be extra careful and proceed cautiously and slowly within the illusion.

In the blink of an eye, a mere hour had passed, and nearly one-fifth of the guests who had come to Sanfeng Forest had already walked through the illusion.

Each guest had a different opinion about the illusion, but most of them gave it positive reviews.

Only a few magical beasts who were completely devoted to cultivation and did not study other subjects gave negative reviews.

They were sent out of the illusion after failing only two levels, so it's no wonder they couldn't get a good review.

The positive response pleased Han Lu, who was hiding among the guests to gather information.

Over the past half day, several more guests who achieved good results in the illusion began to boast and share their experiences with their friends.

In addition, several guests have successfully exchanged the feathers they obtained by navigating the illusion for some of the materials they needed.

This further fueled the guests' enthusiasm for the new event.

Suddenly, the once deserted Sanfenglin Library had nearly a hundred more "readers," and the bookshelves that once held miscellaneous books were temporarily empty.

After witnessing the difficulty of the "Illusion Garden Tour" activity, the queue for this new activity became much shorter, and Han Lu was able to temporarily join the queue to see how her idea would turn out with the efforts of her father and several other elders.

After waiting for more than fifteen minutes, Han Lu arrived at the front of the line.

Upon seeing that it was Han Lu, the two phoenixes serving at the entrance of the illusion array became much more proactive.

Unaware that the activity was Han Lu's idea, they enthusiastically introduced the rules of the new activity to Han Lu, and were even more enthusiastic when passing on the identity jade token than when serving others.

Taking this opportunity, Han Lu also inquired about the situation within the illusionary realm.

She became curious when she learned that even the most skilled guest had only passed seventeen levels.

"Just how difficult were the challenges that Father set up?" Recalling the questions she had searched for that day, Han Lu was full of confidence. "I should be able to pass thirty or forty levels without any problem."

Chapter 973 Han Lu's Challenge

Releasing her guard in her sea of ​​consciousness and simultaneously concealing all her magical power, Han Lu entered the illusion through the designated entrance.

The moment she entered the illusion, the jade pendant at her waist sensed something and changed the information it contained, recording that Han Lu had already entered the illusion once and had four more chances remaining.

Upon entering the illusion, with her mind completely emptied and all defenses abandoned, the illusion array set up by several Nascent Soul Realm Illusion Phoenixes immediately bewildered Han Lu, leading her into a meticulously woven illusion.

The world before Han Lu's eyes changed; she found herself in a jungle, with three paths leading to her.

There is a sign in front of each road, which specifies the test content and difficulty at the end of the road.

"Geography, simple."

"Memory, average."

"Divination is difficult."

Looking at the three challenges, Han Lu pondered for a moment and then chose the one of medium difficulty.

Simple questions offer too few rewards, and divination isn't Han Lu's forte, so doing memory-testing questions is the best option.

Having made her decision, Han Lu walked down the middle road.

As soon as she crossed the sign and stepped onto the path she had chosen, the trees around Han Lu seemed to come alive, surrounding her and isolating her in a small world of her own.

Han Lu thought to herself, "Interesting."

Immediately afterwards, the question stem appeared in the sky.

Because it was an illusion, Han Lu could understand the meaning of the question with the help of the illusion even before she read it.

"A Go board will appear in front of me."

“There is a picture in each square of the chessboard.”

“The picture will turn over and show me three breaths.”

"After three breaths, the picture was turned over to show the other side."

"And I need to select matching pictures one by one."

"I only need to match 100 pairs of pictures to pass the test."

"If all matches are successful, you will receive an additional reward."

Seeing that the test requirements weren't very high, Han Lu felt that passing was a sure thing.

With her current cultivation level and mental capacity, memorizing the positions of 324 pictures within three breaths would be slightly difficult, but remembering more than two hundred pictures and matching them up would not be a big problem.

After reading the question, three breaths later, leaves from the surrounding trees fluttered down, forming a 324-square chessboard in the air.

Then, various pictures appeared in the grid.

There are ancient cultivators, phoenixes, battle scenes from the era of true spirits, and pictures of the leisurely life of mortals.

The differences between each set of pictures are quite significant, making them difficult to remember or confuse.

Three breaths passed quickly, and the picture flipped over, facing Han Lu in black and white.

Time was limited, but Han Lu had already memorized the exact locations of nearly 90% of the drawings.

Compared to the memorization time of just three breaths, this test gives challengers a full hundred breaths to match and connect.

Because she was in an illusion, Han Lu only needed to use her brain to answer the question.

Following Han Lu's thoughts and intentions, the drawings were turned over one by one.

As Han Lu searches for and matches matching pairs of identical pictures, the number of black and white pictures flipped over on the chessboard gradually decreases.

In just ten breaths, Han Lu completed a total of thirty pairings.

However, as the number of matching picture sets approached one hundred, Han Lu's speed in flipping the pictures also slowed down.

Ultimately, however, her cultivation level and strength were undeniable, and her superhuman memory prevented Han Lu from failing in this challenge.

Within a hundred breaths, Han Lu produced a total of 157 sets of pictures, successfully completing the test.

After a beautiful piece of music, the trees surrounding Han Lu parted to make way for her, and a storage bag appeared in front of her.

Picking up the storage bag from the ground and opening it, Han Lu found two items.

The three snow-white feathers are the reward you receive each time you pass a level.

Because it's an intermediate difficulty level, Han Lu can get three items after clearing the level.

The second item was a jade plaque.

The moment she acquired it, before Han Lu could even examine it, the jade pendant was absorbed into the jade pendant at her waist.

As the jade pendant disappeared, a message entered Han Lu's mind, telling her the function of the jade pendant.

"Change the question card? It allows you to randomly replace the encountered question with another question of the same type, but it can only be used once?"

"We can still use the small magical artifacts provided in this illusion?" Han Lu was very impressed with her father and the elders for their subtle innovations in this regard.

With a thought, he put the three feathers into his storage bag.

After completing the only operation that allowed her to use her spiritual power in this illusion, Han Lu looked again at the three new paths that had appeared before her.

"Spells and techniques are simple."

"History, average."

"Arithmetic is difficult."

Han Lu didn't have a strong desire to collect feathers to exchange for resources, so she didn't hesitate to choose the most difficult path.

Han Lu thought to herself, "I want to see what kind of arithmetic problems are difficult in the eyes of my father and the other elders."

Soon after seeing the arithmetic problem, Han Lu exclaimed, "I'm afraid the other elders' arithmetic skills are just as good as my father's."

The questions were somewhat complex and convoluted, but even the most naive phoenixes, still learning to speak, could fully understand them within the illusion.

“In the market of the Great Yu Dynasty, a cultivator spent ten spirit stones to buy a pill, and then he sold the pill for eleven spirit stones.”

"After completing these two transactions, he spent twelve spirit stones to buy back the same pill."

Finally, he sold the pill for thirteen spirit stones.

Ask him how much he made in the end.

She was given five breaths to answer, but Han Lu calculated the answer in just one breath.

"Let's assume he originally had one hundred spirit stones."

"After completing the first transaction, he had ninety yuan left."

"After completing the second transaction, the number of spirit stones in this cultivator's storage bag became one hundred and one."

"After the third transaction, he was left with only eighty-nine spirit stones."

"After the final transaction, he had 102 spirit stones in his storage bag, so he made a total of 2 spirit stones."

With ease, Han Lu passed the second hurdle, obtaining five colorful feathers and a "delay card".

"An extra ten seconds for answering questions? That's not bad."