"Let me see... the mountain pass ten miles ahead is a necessary path they both must take."

"Good. I will go there and wait for them in advance!"

Noctar stepped onto a floating cloud and descended from the sky. In an instant, he crossed the thousand-mile altitude and arrived inside the Azure Dragon Valley.

Aerin and the crowd of elders were constantly monitoring the valley through the Divine Secret Sphere. But even with Noctar brazenly descending from the heavens in broad daylight, they couldn’t see a trace of him.

The reason was simple.

The Sword God Restriction within the Azure Dragon Valley had been set up by Pureon and Noctar alongside the Evergreat Sword Ancestor himself.

The two of them could manipulate the restriction however they pleased.

Concealing their forms, spirits, and auras from the surveillance of others was as easy as lifting a finger.

Noctar landed at the mountain pass and lay down beneath the shade of a tree.

Worried he didn’t look injured enough, he added another bloody wound to his arm, lower abdomen, and cheek. Each one shocking to the eye.

Listening to the sound of footsteps approaching from afar, a wicked smile curled at the corners of his mouth.

"Hehe, two juniors, hurry up and come."

"I truly can’t wait to see your reactions when you encounter a heavily injured, dying Holy Maiden."

...

Alex sat on Pearl’s back in an extremely joyful mood, lazily humming a song.

With Pearl escorting him, the championship of this assessment was already in the bag.

Even more gratifying was the fact that he could leave this godforsaken place peacefully and completely unharmed.

Life was good.

Just as Alex was looking relaxed, Pearl suddenly slammed on the brakes and came to a halt.

"Meow meow."

"Hmm?" Alex frowned, opened his eyes, and focused his gaze.

Under the tree ahead, there sat a woman in a pool of blood.

"What is this situation?"

"Pearl, wait for me here. I’ll go take a look."

Alex leaped down from Pearl’s back and walked toward the tree. As he moved, he observed the woman carefully, a trace of suspicion already rising in his heart.

Her figure was slender and exquisite, her appearance was capable of toppling cities and dynasties, as perfectly standard as a beauty walking straight out of a painting.

The dress on her body was riddled with holes, exposing patches of fair skin that made one’s blood pump just looking at it.

However.

How could a heavily injured beauty appear in this place?

Before the assessment began, Alex had observed every single disciple from the various peak gates. Among them, the number of female disciples was so few they could be counted on one hand.

If there truly had been such a great beauty present, even without paying deliberate attention, he definitely would have taken a few extra glances. He would have had some impression of her.

Something’s wrong.

Something is one hundred percent wrong.

Could this be some trap set by Aerin? Using this beauty as bait to lure the disciples into falling for a scheme?

But having already walked up to this point, it wasn’t good for him to just turn around and leave directly.

He pondered for a moment. Instead of stepping forward, he came to an abrupt halt exactly ten paces away from the other party.

"Ouch~"

"Ouch..."

Seeing Alex standing in place and refusing to come over, Noctar intentionally let out crisp, bone-softening groans that made one feel weak all over just listening to them.

It didn’t work.

Hearing those cries that sounded like a cat in heat, the suspicion in Alex’s heart only grew stronger. He stood perfectly still in his original spot and asked cautiously, "Miss, may I ask if you need help?"

Noctar couldn’t help but secretly praise him.

"Because I am a woman with disheveled clothing, he won’t approach?"

"Tsk tsk, this brat is actually quite a gentleman!"

Noctar pondered briefly, his eyes shimmered with tears as he choked out, "Young Hero, I beg you, please help me."

"I was originally the Holy Maiden of the Cloud-Piercing Sect. Because I was being pursued and killed by wicked thieves, I was forced to use a spatial secret technique to escape and accidentally ended up stranded here."

"Those thieves murdered my Master, beat me until I was heavily injured, and even intended to violate me."

"I beg the Young Hero to help me treat my injuries so I can return to exact my revenge. In the future, I will definitely repay the Young Hero heavily!"

Alex’s expression grew complicated.

Although his cultivation was suppressed by the Sword God Restriction, his eyesight had not been affected.

With a single glance, Alex could tell that this woman, who appeared covered in injuries and looked delicate and pitiful, was actually an extremely formidable powerhouse.

Her cultivation reached the peak of the Supreme Realm, completely on par with his own.

One must understand something.

This Azure Dragon Valley contained the Sword God Restriction. The power of the Sword God Restriction wasn’t martial suppression. It was the power of a concept.

Both could suppress a person’s cultivation.

But martial suppression could be broken as long as one’s own cultivation was high enough.

Conceptual power was different, once it was laid down, absolutely no one could break free from its shackles.

Even if a Saint Realm or a Great Emperor stepped into this restriction, they would be utterly powerless to defy it.

That was the formidable aspect of conceptual power.

For this woman to claim she used a spatial secret technique while fleeing for her life and was teleported into the Azure Dragon Valley was already extremely pure bullshit.

And the fact that within this Sword God Restriction, her cultivation remained entirely unaffected and still reached the peak of the Supreme Realm exposed an even bigger flaw.

This person was absolutely not some weak woman who lacked the strength to truss a chicken.

Nine times out of ten, she was someone sent by the Evergreat Sword Ancestor. That was the only explanation for why she could ignore the suppression of the Sword God Restriction.

Noctar did not know that in the short span of half a minute, every single one of his bottom lines had been completely seen through and guessed by this old fox.

He still thought Alex was hesitating over whether to help him.

He instantly squeezed out a delicate, pitiful look all over his face and pleaded, "Young Hero, I beg you."