As night fell, Yun Fan drifted off to sleep in a daze. With his power, he could go for decades without sleep without any issues.
At the Immortal Emperor level, sleep was something that could be entirely disregarded. However, he still retained the habits from his days on Earth.
Thus, at this moment, he was merely following nature. But while he slept, Bi Lian Xian Zi did not.
Bi Lian Xian Zi remained awake, curiously studying the small worm.
She eventually discovered that the little worm was very strange, as if it possessed sentience, exhibiting various changes and functions.
When Yun Fan awoke, he was startled.
"What are you doing?"
Yun Fan asked speechlessly.
He finally understood now that Bi Lian Xian Zi was the real hooligan.
The pure-hearted Bi Lian Xian Zi could only reply, "Nothing, I was just very curious!"
"Next time, no more of this curiosity!"
Yun Fan tidied himself up, preparing to depart. This fourth trial could not be prolonged, as he knew the subsequent trials would be even more difficult.
At this moment, Bi Lian Xian Zi followed him, asking, "Is that little worm sentient?"
"Please mind your wording, it's a great worm!"
Yun Fan said speechlessly.
After that, Bi Lian Xian Zi asked no further questions. Instead, she accompanied him to find the Ferocious Beast King. Along the way, they saw many corpses.
At this point, Bi Lian Xian Zi said solemnly, "Judging from what we see now, apart from the Ten Great Prodigies, it's likely that most other prodigies have perished in this trial!"
"Is that so?"
Yun Fan asked, "Have any of the Ten Great Prodigies like yourself perished among them?"
"Probably not!"
Bi Lian replied, "If I had escaped alone at the beginning, there would still have been hope, as the Taotie King is simply too powerful!"
Yun Fan was dismissive.
At this very moment, after searching multiple times, they finally found the Taotie King's location.
"Are you sure you want to slay the Taotie King?"
Bi Lian Xian Zi asked in shock, knowing that for her, this was no less than a hellish difficulty.
Yun Fan was seen saying, "I am sure!"
"Alright!"
Following that, the two of them leaped into the void rift.
As soon as they entered the void rift, what they saw shocked both of them. Those pairs of green eyes all belonged to Taoties.
A preliminary estimate suggested there were at least several hundred Taoties here.
In Bi Lian Xian Zi's eyes, the difficulty coefficient was too high.
As expected, in that instant, these Taoties began to attack Yun Fan and the two of them.
"Devouring Flame!"
After Yun Fan unleashed the Devouring Flame, these Taoties died or fled, completely exceeding Bi Lian's expectations.
No wonder Yun Fan didn't cooperate with her; it turned out Yun Fan truly had the capital to go it alone.
"Now is the time!"
In a flash, Yun Fan attacked swiftly, charging towards the Taotie King. The Taotie King, whose shadow blotted out the sun, immediately changed its expression upon seeing Yun Fan.
Before it could even escape, the two of them acted swiftly.
However, the Taotie King's strength was too great. Even with Yun Fan and Bi Lian working together, they were defeated by the Taotie King.
As expected of an eighth-realm ferocious beast, it was practically dominating them.
The Taotie King roared and attacked Yun Fan. This was its base of operations, so it had no choice but to fight Yun Fan.
If it were elsewhere, it might have fled long ago.
Yun Fan was its greatest threat.
Yun Fan wanted to unleash the Devouring Flame, but the prerequisite was that he had to inflict a wound on the Taotie King.
The wound had to connect to its soul; otherwise, defeating the Taotie King would be impossible.
"Boom!"
Another powerful force from the Taotie King struck, sending Yun Fan flying backward directly.
It wasn't that he was useless, but that he lacked the opportunity.
Furthermore, his full-force palm strike couldn't cause any damage to the Taotie King, which was completely beyond his expectations.
"I'll help you!"
The next moment, Bi Lian transformed into a lotus flower and cast its light upon the Taotie King, momentarily freezing it.
"Hurry, I can't hold on for much longer!"
Bi Lian warned Yun Fan.
"Understood!"
Yun Fan attacked swiftly, tearing open a wound on the Taotie King with his powerful Heavenly Battle energy. In the next instant, the Taotie King's wound began to burn.
"Roar!"
The Taotie King roared and broke free from Bi Lian's restraint.
"Pfft!"
Bi Lian spat out a mouthful of blood, becoming severely injured. There was no other way; the Taotie King's combat power was simply too heaven-defying.
It had nearly injured her soul.
However, at this moment, the Taotie King roared and attacked Yun Fan. It knew it was doomed and only wanted to take Yun Fan with it before dying.
The reason it was so certain it would die was because ten thousand years ago, it had witnessed such a terrifying scene.
A Flying Dragon was directly devoured by that entity.
And ten thousand years later, Yun Fan had cultivated the Devouring Flame, making him even more terrifying than the masked expert from ten thousand years ago.
"Bang!"
An invincible force from the Taotie King struck down, and Yun Fan immediately coughed up a mouthful of blood, his body almost shattering.
At this moment, he could only fight and retreat, waiting for the flame to finish burning.
After an unknown amount of time, Yun Fan and the Devouring Flame finally managed to completely burn away the Taotie King's body.
Only then did Yun Fan breathe a sigh of relief.
He then saw the inner core left within the Taotie King's body. The inner core was incredibly powerful, possessing terrifying strength.
If he could refine it, he was confident he could break through one to two more realms, making him the ultimate winner.
At this point, Bi Lian also breathed a sigh of relief. "I can't believe you managed to kill the Taotie King!"
Yun Fan then asked, "Does this count as passing the trial?"
"It does!"
Bi Lian replied, "As long as we take the Taotie King's inner core to the junction between the fourth and fifth trials, we can open the entrance to the fifth trial!"
"Mm!"
Yun Fan nodded. At this moment, Bi Lian reminded him again, "If you have good friends, you can summon them to join you. After all, as long as it's a Ferocious Beast King's inner core, there's no limit on the number of people. You could even summon everyone, and you'd still pass the trial!"
However, Yun Fan had no intention of bringing others. "No thanks, I'm not interested!"
"Oh!"
Bi Lian Xian Zi didn't say much more. She had thought Yun Fan had friends, but she didn't expect Yun Fan to be alone.
Of course, at this moment, Yun Fan was contemplating whether to kick Bi Lian out and pass the trial alone.
However, this was merely a thought; after all, she was an ally, and he couldn't bring himself to do it.
Therefore, he said to Bi Lian, "Then let's not waste any more time. Let's go!"
"Mm!"
Bi Lian nodded and set off with Yun Fan. However, just as they left, someone came chasing after them from behind.
The newcomers were two individuals, both possessing terrifying strength. Their cultivation level was the same as Bi Lian's, both at the seventh stage of the Immortal Emperor realm.
At this point, they said with unfriendly eyes, "I am Long Jian, and this is Nan Po!"
"Greetings, fellow Daoists, I trust you are well!"
The two approached Yun Fan and Bi Lian.
Bi Lian's expression changed, and she said to Yun Fan, "These two are among the Ten Great Prodigies!"
Upon hearing this, Yun Fan nodded and then asked, "Two gentlemen, what is it that you want?"
The two had expected Yun Fan to be frightened after they announced their names, but to their surprise, Yun Fan remained unfazed.
Nan Po was seen saying, "It's simple. Fellow Daoist, please hand over the Taotie King's inner core in your possession to us!"
"That's right! We're here for the inner core!"
The two great prodigies sneered. They had been here for over a year. Initially, they had challenged a few ferocious beast kings, but they were no match for them.
If it meant incurring significant costs, they were unwilling to do so, so they resorted to a strategy of waiting by the tree.
They planned to ambush others, but unfortunately, after waiting for over a year, no one had succeeded in their challenge. As for the three who had succeeded, they dared not rob them.
Thinking there was no hope, they were prepared to pay a price to challenge other ferocious beast kings. Unexpectedly, they had an accidental gain here.
They were so certain because Yun Fan's strength was too weak, only at the fifth stage. The only threat to them was Bi Lian Xian Zi.
However, they were all at the same cultivation level as Bi Lian Xian Zi, so they were certain to win this battle.
"You wish!"
Bi Lian Xian Zi said coldly, "We paid a great price to kill the Taotie King. You can't just take it away!"
"And you?"
The two ignored Bi Lian Xian Zi and looked at Yun Fan instead.
Yun Fan was seen smiling calmly, "The inner core is in my hand. If you two have the ability, I don't mind letting you take it!"
"I fear you lack the ability!"
"Very well!"
The two smiled playfully. "You refuse a toast and insist on a fine. Die!"