I Was Forced To Marry The Phoenix Empress

Yi Chen’s vision turned dark the moment he placed his hand on the imprint.

.

.

"Where is this?! Where am I?" He muttered while looking around in confusion.

He was with Gao Zhen and the others just a few moments ago, and now he was in a completely different space with only darkness around him.

He tried to stretch his arms here and there in an attempt to get hold of some nearby object or walls, but there was absolutely nothing that he could find.

"...Another one, huh? Well, let’s see whether he survives or not."

A grating voice stating words incomprehensible to him rang in Yi Chen’s ears the next second.

"Who?!" Yi Chen immediately took out his sword and swung it around blindly, unable to understand from where the voice had come.

His hands were trembling uncontrollably while his pounding heart was almost on the verge of bursting out of his lungs.

The reason for this intense fear, which had suddenly struck him, wasn’t the unknown language but the very voice that conveyed it.

Each syllable struck various chords of fear in his heart, making his entire body turn cold as if he were plunged deep into a frozen ocean.

"You can hear me?!" the voice exclaimed with a tone of surprise.

The sudden change in tone caused Yi Chen to tense up even more intensely and made a chill run through his spine, accompanied by his incessant shallow breathing.

Gritting his teeth, he forced his trembling hands not to let go of the sword, waiting for the enemy to reveal itself.

"Show yourself, you bastard!" he roared with trembling jaws in an attempt to lessen the fear that was coursing through his veins.

"Ah! I forgot that I wasn’t using the human tongue." The very next instant, the words that came from the unknown turned understandable.

"Say, brat, can you hear me now?"

Seeing that the voice was now conveying its words in a normal language, Yi Chen gulped down his saliva and answered hesitantly, "Y-Yes."

"...Interesting." The grating voice echoed and came to a halt.

Silence

Yi Chen’s heart kept on pounding as the silence stretched on and on.

’Just what kind of monster is this being...’

Although the voice had struck great fear in him now that he had responded to the being’s question, the silence afterwards felt even more terrifying.

His legs had started to tremble, as his shallow breaths were the only thing that could be heard by him.

All of a sudden, the voice echoed again and broke the terrifying silence.

"Your trial will begin now. I have great expectations from you, so don’t disappoint me, lad."

The very next second, Yi Chen’s figure disappeared.

In that dark space, an eye opened up all of a sudden. It had a yellow pupil, and an expectant glimmer could be seen in it.

"After thousands of years, someone just might be able to enter the inside..."

With that said, the eye faded like it never existed.

THUNDER!

Yi Chen’s ears rattled the very moment his vision returned as he found himself on top of a long, stony mountain range.

A blinding white light tore across the sky and fell several feet below. It was followed closely by another ear-rattling thunder that echoed in the air.

As if a signal, a heavy downpour ensued the next instant.

It was so heavy that within a few seconds, Yi Chen’s visibility was reduced to just a few meters ahead. With the surrounding area already dark because of the clouds, a trace of worry welled in his heart.

Around him were several razor-sharp stones that were protruding out of the mountain, due to the incessant rain that had eroded these stones over the years.

"Moving here is going to be a hassle..." He muttered before tightening his brows in thought, ’Now how should I proceed with this trial...’

As if to answer that question, an intense white light flashed in the air just a few meters ahead of him.

"What’s that..." Yi Chen muttered with narrowed eyes while struggling to look at the object which was shining with brilliance right in front of his eyes.

When the white light dimmed, a square-shaped object, completely white in colour and inscribed in strange patterns, entered his vision.

However, it wasn’t the patterns that attracted his attention but the shape of the object itself.

"Wasn’t the square slot..."

He frowned and was immediately reminded of the square slot present right next to the hand imprint.

"It’s the key!" he exclaimed in realisation and jumped in an attempt to reach for the square object.

However, at that instant, the square object shone with intense white light and darted several kilometres away, stopping on top of a particular cliff.

Yi Chen had to strain his eyes to be able to see the cliff in this torrential rain, which was only made possible because of the light the square was exuding.

"So, once I’ve captured the key, the trial will be over." Yi Chen muttered to himself and concluded.

With this, he was about to rush straight towards the key, but before he could even cover a foot’s length, several ghostly heads materialised out of thin air.

White translucent cloaks were covering their heads and what little was left of their neck.

Underneath the cloak, a pale, sunken face was present. Instead of eyes, empty eye sockets were present, and the place of the nose was taken by a large circular mouth.

The lips were pitch black in colour, and as for the teeth inside, some of them had a complete set of sharp, circular teeth, while others had none, and only their disgusting gums could be seen.

HAWWWWW!

An ear-piercing screech escaped from their mouth the very next instant, forcing Yi Chen to stop in his tracks as the number of ghostly heads multiplied to dozens within seconds.

’This...what is happening..."

As the screeches concentrated towards him, he felt a strange draining sensation in his mind, something he had never felt before.

’Is it because of these screeches?’

Wanting to check up on these monsters, he used his innate ability on them, but to his surprise, no status panel opened up.

’???’

Before he could make sense of this result, dozens of ghostly heads rushed towards him and attacked him from all directions.

CLANG!

CLANG!

At first, he was unable to get a hit at them as his sword passed right through their ghost-like heads.

However, when he started coating his blade with his innate Qi, the attacks started to land.

"UGH!"

He groaned all of a sudden as a ghostly head suddenly latched its teeth onto his forearm and the next instant started sucking on it ravenously.

Yi Chen immediately felt a large portion of his Qi being pulled out of his Qi pool and immediately decapitated the ghostly head with his sword.

Their numbers were too much, and the football-like size made it easier for them to surround him from all directions.

As a result, before he could relax to assess the situation, another few ghostly heads latched onto his arms and legs, occupying his full attention.

Meanwhile, several feet above the ground, from within the dark clouds, an eye was observing everything. It fluctuated with worry upon seeing the situation that was happening below.

’At this rate, he’ll end up dead despite having the potential to clear it...’ the eye thought to itself as a wavering glint appeared in it.

"No...I can’t afford to wait any longer!"

The very next instant, a firm glint appeared in it as it declared, "I can’t afford to let this chance go by!"

Its glint sharpened, and the very next instant, its yellow pupils shone.

Several hundred feet below, a few words suddenly resonated in Yi Chen’s mind.

’Run. If you stay there any longer, the toothless will suck you dry.’

Hearing the grating voice once again in his head, Yi Chen tensed up once again.

However, when he realised that the voice was trying to help him, his expression relaxed.

At first, there was hesitation in his eyes, but clearly remembering the words the voice had stated before starting the trials, he chose to trust it.

’Toothless...suck me dry?’ he repeated the words conveyed to him while continuously dealing with the dozens of ghostly heads.

It was at that moment that his gaze fell on the few ghostly heads that were hovering a few feet away from him.

Unlike the ones that were trying to latch onto him, these just kept hovering a few feet away and were screeching at the top of their non-existent lungs.

HAWWWWWW!

It was also at this moment that he noticed that they didn’t have any teeth in their mouth.

’So the voice meant them?... They are so far away from me, so how will they suck dry my Qi pool?’

Yi Chen thought in confusion while chopping off ten incoming ghostly heads with his sword.

Compared to toothless ones, he found the ones latching onto him more dangerous.

Popping a Qi Nourishing Pill the next second, he continued with his attacks.

Despite not finding the words stated by the voice helpful, he still decided to open his system panel to check his own status panel.

"!!!"

His eyes widened in fright the very next instant.