On a barren mountain on the border between Yueguo and Yuanwu Kingdom in the north of Jianzhou, dozens of men in yellow shirts stood, their clothes fluttering in the wind. They varied in age, with some elderly with white hair and wrinkles, while others were younger with smooth skin and a youthful demeanor. Despite their differences, they all stood silently in an orderly manner.
At the forefront was a dignified old man, his hands behind his back as he gazed calmly at the sky, lost in thought. Behind him stood four men and a woman, some with solemn expressions, and among them was the senior who had introduced Han Li to the sect, wearing a serious expression.
Behind the five figures were two rows of neatly lined-up disciples in yellow shirts, their expressions varying from nervousness to indifference or even a smile, concealing their true feelings.
In the corner of the last row stood a young man with a dark complexion, his face lowered as he stared at his feet, seemingly timid.
However, unknown to anyone, this seemingly inexperienced young man harbored a belly full of grievances.
This youth was none other than Han Li, and the group of people in yellow shirts were the disciples of the Huangfeng Valley participating in the "Blood Red Trial".
Han Li eventually joined this doomed journey, even after obtaining two Foundation Establishment Pills, which he found both laughable and helpless.
Over a month ago, when Han Li learned the method of taking Foundation Establishment Pills from Wu Feng, he was greatly discouraged.
It turned out that after taking the Foundation Establishment Pill, cultivators had to seclude themselves for three months to fully absorb its medicinal power, or else the efficacy would greatly diminish. So whether the Foundation Establishment could succeed or not could only be known after several months.
But waiting for such a long time was not good for Han Li.
Originally, his plan after obtaining these two Foundation Establishment Pills was to take them first to see if he could successfully establish his foundation, and then decide whether to participate in the trial. If he succeeded in establishing the foundation, he definitely wouldn't go to such a dangerous place as the forbidden area, considering the terrifying one-fourth survival rate.
If taking the pills didn't work, then he would refine three or four more pills, or even more. He believed that no matter how poor his aptitude was, after taking a sufficient number of Foundation Establishment Pills, he could still enter the Foundation Establishment stage.
But the restriction of secluding oneself for three months after taking the medicine disrupted Han Li's plan, leaving him in a dilemma where he had to choose between taking the Foundation Establishment Pills now and giving up the trip to the forbidden area, or temporarily putting away the pills and taking them after the Blood Red Trial. There would be no more ideal situation where both could be achieved.
After nearly half a month of contemplation, Han Li felt that with his poor aptitude, even if he took two Foundation Establishment Pills in a row, the hope of establishing a foundation was still slim, and he could not give up the Blood Red Trial.
In fact, Han Li had also thought about waiting for the next five years to participate in the Blood Red Trial. By then, even if he failed to establish his foundation, his cultivation in the Longevity Art would definitely have reached a high level, and his ability to protect himself would have greatly improved.
However, shortly after he had this idea, the upper echelons of Huangfeng Valley announced a shocking event that shook the entire Yueguo cultivation world, dispelling his thoughts.
The content was: the forbidden area of the Blood Red Trial would be temporarily closed for sixty years, and during this period, it would be jointly supervised by the seven major sects, and no one would be allowed to enter for herb collection.
Such temporary closures of the forbidden area were not uncommon; almost every three or four hundred years, the seven major sects would do it.
Because frequent openings of the forbidden area would cause a large amount of spiritual energy to be lost, and the speed of herb production and growth would slow down. This temporary closure would reset the density of spiritual energy, allowing it to return to normal levels.
But even with this measure, the herbs in the forbidden area would become increasingly scarce year by year, especially the finished herbs that met the requirements for alchemy.
According to the speculation of some knowledgeable people in the seven major sects, to truly restore the normal quantity of herbs in the forbidden area, the closure time would have to be extended to a thousand years. Otherwise, this temporary closure would only delay the exhaustion of herbs in the forbidden area, as the production and growth of herbs was not something that could be achieved overnight.
Although this reasoning combined with the actual situation in the forbidden area made it undeniable, the leaders of the seven major sects still couldn't make this decision.
The number of Foundation Establishment Pills was closely related to the rise and fall of the seven major sects.
If there were shortages of these pills for fifty or sixty years, the seven major sects would only suffer minor losses, but it wouldn't affect their fundamentals. However, if there were no Foundation Establishment Pills for several hundred or even thousands of years, then not only the seven major sects, but the entire cultivation world of Yueguo would face life and death.
After all, a place where cultivators could no longer establish their foundation couldn't be called a cultivation world anymore. By then, all cultivation families and wandering cultivators would leave Yueguo and seek survival elsewhere. The seven major sects would be no exception.
Therefore, although the leaders of the seven major sects knew that frequent openings of the forbidden area were a foolish act of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, they still had to do it with a stiff upper lip.
They only hoped that before the herbs in the forbidden area were truly extinct, they could find alternative places to produce herbs.
This also prompted some Foundation Establishment and even Core Formation cultivators of the major sects to go out frequently in the past few hundred years to search for other places where herbs could be produced, or to find other ways out for their sects, ensuring that their sects wouldn't decline.
Han Li couldn't know all this, but when this news came out, he definitely dared not consider participating in the Blood Red Trial five years later.
Even if he was slow-witted, he would understand that the forbidden area opening five years later would definitely be extremely dangerous, with all the elite disciples of the major sects participating to make the last big profit before the area closed.
The chances of surviving would be even slimmer than it was now.
In that case, he had to give up the idea of establishing his foundation in the Forbidden Area after five years. The only opportunity to take Foundation Establishment Pills was the Blood Red Trial this time.
So he finally made a decision, using the two Foundation Establishment Pills obtained from Wu Feng to increase his odds of survival in the Blood Red Trial.
