Liang Mushui's figure once again appeared in the pavilion of Between Wind and Rain. This was his fifth challenge today. The first four times were mainly to familiarize himself with the changes brought about by the level 10 upgrade. He also discovered that after the 15-second mark, Between Wind and Rain would undergo another change: the wind became more violent, and the rain became denser.
In his fourth challenge, he was teleported out because he was soaked by this sudden change. Before this fifth challenge, he spent a full half-hour adjusting his state by the soccer field.
Leaving the pavilion, Liang Mushui quietly gazed at the sky. As the rain continuously fell, Liang Mushui was already able to skillfully avoid it. After ten seconds, gusts of strong wind began to blow in Between Wind and Rain, and at the same time, Liang Mushui activated the 'Phantom' skill to further increase his speed. Even at this point, Liang Mushui was still moving with ease.
Soon, five more seconds passed, and Between Wind and Rain's transformation entered its final stage. Liang Mushui's concentration was unprecedented. What appeared in his eyes now were the trajectories of each falling raindrop. The space he had to dodge was becoming increasingly smaller. He had only been hit by five raindrops, still leaving room for error.
What Liang Mushui didn't expect was that at the 18-second mark, Between Wind and Rain actually changed again. At this point, Liang Mushui had been hit by nine raindrops; one more and he would be teleported out. However, none of that mattered now, because the wind in Between Wind and Rain had completely stopped, but the rain from the sky suddenly turned into a torrential downpour, like water being poured. In Liang Mushui's eyes, there was no space at all to dodge.
This was simply an impossible challenge—this was Liang Mushui's thought at the moment.
In that instant, extreme unwillingness filled Liang Mushui's heart, which then uncontrollably transformed into resentment. At this moment, Liang Mushui felt as if he had been thoroughly played. As the anger in his heart continued to grow, Liang Mushui slowly lost consciousness without realizing it. A faint dark shadow appeared on Liang Mushui's body, then began to take over control of Liang Mushui's body.
It was now 19 seconds, and the rain from the sky finally reached Liang Mushui's eyes. Liang Mushui looked up at the sky and glared fiercely, and an invisible spherical barrier immediately appeared around his body, expanding outwards until it stopped at about 5 meters. All the raindrops were completely blocked outside the barrier.
If Liang Mushui had seen this scene at that moment, he would have been incredibly surprised, because in his many challenges, he had discovered that the rain in Between Wind and Rain had to fall on an object. Nothing could change the trajectory of the rain except for the wind generated within Between Wind and Rain itself. Liang Mushui had tried using skills like Wind Blade and Roar of Fury, but they had absolutely no effect.
This state only lasted for one second before ending. Exactly 20 seconds had passed, the rain had stopped, and Between Wind and Rain became completely silent.
At this moment, Liang Mushui finally woke up. He stood there dumbfounded, looking around with a bewildered expression.
He was certain that his body had just undergone some changes, but he knew nothing about them. So he immediately opened his personal interface to check his physical condition. Soon, he discovered something different: the skill Roar of Fury had changed to 'Intimidate,' and its original white text had turned green.
Liang Mushui just looked at the description and found that 'Intimidate' was an upgraded version of Roar of Fury. Not only could it stun enemies, but it could also push back people within 3 meters of him.
As Liang Mushui looked at the changed skill, he became even more eager to know what had just happened, but soon his attention was drawn to something else.
Floating in the pavilion of Between Wind and Rain was a longbow, about 1.5 meters in length. The upper and lower limbs were directly connected, making it look like a curved branch from a distance. But when Liang Mushui held it in his hand, he realized it was actually a Divine Artifact.
Liang Mushui looked at the longbow in his hand, on which golden glowing text described it:
Divine Artifact — Hunter's Light (Sealed 90%) Soulbound: Liang Mushui (Non-transferable, Non-droppable) Skill 1: Transmogrify: Can freely transform between a longbow and a ring. When transformed into a ring, it comes with a 1 cubic meter storage space. (Storage space cannot be used in longbow state) Skill 2: Arrow of Light: Absorbs light from the surrounding space to condense into an Arrow of Light to attack enemies. (The stronger the light in the surrounding space, the greater the power of the condensed Arrow of Light)
Looking at the longbow's description, Liang Mushui was instantly overjoyed, like a child with a new toy.
As Liang Mushui thought about it, Hunter's Light constantly transformed between its longbow and ring states. In the ring state, with just a thought, he could put items in his hand into the storage space or retrieve items from the storage space into his hand.
In the longbow state, as soon as he thought of Arrow of Light, an arrow formed of light instantly appeared on the bowstring, simultaneously consuming one-tenth of Liang Mushui's mana bar.
Liang Mushui played like this for a while before realizing he was still in Between Wind and Rain. Looking at the ring on his finger, he was now certain that he had passed the trial of Between Wind and Rain.
Just as Liang Mushui was wondering how to leave, the moment the thought of leaving crossed his mind, he was immediately teleported back to the side of the soccer field.
Looking at the soccer field, Liang Mushui was a little worried that Between Wind and Rain would disappear because he had passed the trial. Because many people knew about Liang Mushui's talent, if someone discovered that Between Wind and Rain had disappeared, it would likely lead people to connect it with him passing the trial and receiving a reward. Although the Divine Artifact was soulbound to him, he was also afraid of causing unnecessary trouble because of it.
However, after thinking for a while, Liang Mushui gave up on dwelling on it, because even if there truly was trouble, he believed his current strength was sufficient to resolve it.
Next, Liang Mushui took Hunter's Light to the forest for a series of tests.
After a round of testing, the power of Hunter's Light made Liang Mushui very satisfied. Even the wild boars and Black Bears, with the strongest defenses, were directly taken down by a single Arrow of Light. Moreover, Liang Mushui felt that this was not the limit of Arrow of Light; even if the wild boars and Black Bears had higher defenses, the result would be the same. It was just that there were no other stronger prey for Liang Mushui to test on at the moment.
Liang Mushui was very satisfied with Hunter's Light, even though it was 90% sealed. He was also even more excited for Hunter's Light to be fully unsealed. The only dissatisfying thing was that if a full draw was 100%, Liang Mushui could only draw it about 10% with all his might, as if reminding him that he was still very weak.
In the following days, Liang Mushui also joined the teams helping others level up. Now, everyone in the school had the same goal: to quickly achieve the objective of the light barrier on the Revival Spring.
The next day, Liang Mushui returned to the soccer field and found that Between Wind and Rain was still accessible as usual, but when he cleared it again, there were no rewards.
At the same time, Liang Mushui also received news that when he cleared Between Wind and Rain yesterday, a mountain suddenly appeared about 5 kilometers north of the school.
So the teachers led a group of students to explore this mountain and found a temple called Baolin Temple on it. However, all the buildings in this temple were in a sealed state. No matter how the teachers and students tried, they couldn't enter the buildings. Even attacks couldn't leave a trace on the buildings. After a full day of exploration, the teachers and students could only give up and leave reluctantly.
When Liang Mushui received this news, he felt that the appearance of this mountain was very likely related to him. So he called Mi Feng and the other four to explore Baolin Temple together.
Although Baolin Temple had been explored for a full day without any special discoveries, Mi Feng and the others knew that Liang Mushui's talent was extraordinary and that he might make different discoveries. So they prepared their equipment and set off with Liang Mushui towards Baolin Temple.
After some searching, Liang Mushui and his group of five quickly found this suddenly appearing tall mountain. They followed the steps all the way to the mountaintop. The first thing that caught their eye was an archway, clearly inscribed with the three characters 'Baolin Temple.'
Passing through the archway led to a spacious plaza. In the center of the plaza stood a tall building with a plaque hanging above its entrance, bearing the inscription 'Mahavira Hall.' Surrounding it were a dozen or so buildings resembling meditation rooms, completely encircling the Mahavira Hall.
Next, some of them split up to explore, looking for any clues.
As a result, Mi Feng and the other four found nothing special, just as the teacher had said. Finally, they found Liang Mushui standing in the plaza, staring intently at the Mahavira Hall.
"Did you find anything?" Professor asked Liang Mushui, stepping forward.
"This place feels very wrong. It's as if someone is watching us from inside these buildings. It gives me a very dangerous feeling." Liang Mushui looked around and said, "This Mahavira Hall might be the only safe place here."
Mi Feng and the others were immediately startled. They hadn't expected Liang Mushui to actually make a special discovery. At this moment, they looked around and suddenly felt a chilling, eerie sensation. However, they quickly dismissed it, trusting in their own strength. Finally, they came to a conjecture: something was definitely going to happen at this Baolin Temple, perhaps new monsters would spawn, but the plot simply hadn't reached that point yet.
What they didn't know was that with Liang Mushui now wielding a Divine Artifact and aided by his talent, he still felt danger—a danger far beyond their imagination. However, Liang Mushui didn't offer much explanation.
Finally, they searched again but still found nothing, so they had no choice but to leave for the time being. What they didn't know was that after they left, a sigh came from deep within the Mahavira Hall.
In the following days, Liang Mushui repeated the same routine every day. First, he would go to Between Wind and Rain for training. His goal was to avoid being hit by a single raindrop before the 18-second mark. After finishing the challenge, Liang Mushui would also stay for a while to practice archery using some tools brought in by Hunter's Light.
In fact, Liang Mushui had also sought help from teachers, hoping to find archery experts for guidance, but ultimately couldn't find any, so he could only explore and practice on his own.
Then, he joined others in helping people level up. During this time, he secretly hid some skills and equipment using Hunter's Light in its ring state.
As days passed, the number of people who reached level 10 continued to increase.