Fault First
"Sigh." The three of them sat on the grass and sighed in unison.
Yu Guanzhi looked worried: "We'd better not try to take advantage of those senior brothers and sisters; we simply can't beat them."
"Don't even mention we can't beat them, we can't even escape if they attack. Sending blessings to poor Bai Zhuo..." Ye Yu clasped his hands together.
"Let's just get through these last ten days or so and try our best to hold onto our score. Sending my blessings to poor Bai Zhuo." Wu Shangyao clasped his hands together in imitation of her, no longer boasting.
“I send my blessings to poor Bai Zhuo,” Yu Guanzhi also said.
What Duan Yu saw was three people with their hands clasped together, chanting incantations. The scene was very strange, as if they were possessed by a cult.
"..." He didn't say anything more, abandoning his earlier thought of scoring points. Those three poor kids must be hallucinating from the poison in the secret realm.
The person who actually experienced hallucinations due to poisoning was someone else.
This person was Cheng Jin, his teammate with whom he had split up again.
Cheng Jin accidentally wandered into a thicket of thorns and was pricked in the arm by the poisonous thorns. When he exhausted himself and walked out of the area, he began to hallucinate.
She felt dizzy and her mind was filled with colorful images of fantastical things swirling around, and a frog inexplicably sat on her forehead.
There was no one else around the thorn forest; even if there were a true disciple, they would only steal her storage bag.
So, relying on her last bit of consciousness, Cheng Jin groped for the jade pendant at her waist and crushed it with force.
"Real-time update. Cheng Jin of the Shui Ling faction is eliminated."
Upon hearing the announcement, Duan Yu paused, turned back, and, carrying his broadsword, shouted, "Hand over the points!"
They opened their eyes and saw the knife on Duan Yu's shoulder. Their bodies involuntarily shrank back, and the three of them hugged each other, trembling all over.
Ye Yu shrank back slightly, then mustered his courage and asked, "Senior Brother, for the sake of us being fellow disciples, could you...?"
"I won't take yours. But I'll take their share." Duan Yu actually agreed.
"Junior Sister Ye, move aside," he said patiently.
Ye Yu was a little scared, but he still stood in front of the other two: "I'm sorry, senior brother, I won't let you."
"What kind of skill is it to hide behind your junior sister? Ye Yu, we don't need your help to plead for us." Wu Shangyao and Yu Guanzhi walked around Ye Yu and stood in front of Duan Yu.
"Haha, you still have some backbone. Well then, you can be eliminated with that backbone." Duan Yu laughed heartily.
Crimson flames burst from the blade, and Duan Yu gestured before raising his sword and slashing.
The sword that blocked the attack was exceptionally powerful, unlike the strength of those two boys. Duan Yu looked on in surprise.
Ye Ting said coldly, "Their share is mine."
"I won't give in!" Duan Yu took two steps back and shouted unwillingly.
The other party did not speak again, but flipped his wrist, and the sword blade turned around. The water light with spiritual power exploded in Ye Ting's left hand, and the sword was pressed against Duan Yu's blade.
Ye Ting swung his sword, sending several gusts of wind through him as he attacked Duan Yu. While the latter was momentarily stunned, his magical weapon pierced Duan Yu's hand.
Duan Yu's palm was cut by a sharp blade, and his shoulder was also deeply stabbed by a sword. He tried to grab the jade pendant, but Ye Ting discovered him and roughly snatched the jade pendant from his hand, then started looking for his storage bag.
The man didn't hide it; he simply placed the storage bag in a conspicuous spot, and Ye Ting found it immediately.
"Real-time updates. Shan Linzong Duan Yu has been eliminated."
When Ye Ting finished packing the storage bag and turned around, the three disciples were nowhere to be seen.
He turned around and continued to look for other contestants, determined to surpass Qi Yuan, who was in first place with a score of 41,500.
When Ye Ting saw the rankings, he was completely stunned. Over 40,000 points, how did they even manage that?! The only method he could think of was plunder.
*
The three disciples who had just been taken from Ye Ting were extremely unlucky, and then they ran into Qi Yi and Sima Chu around the corner.
Qi Xi forced Wu Shangyao to retreat to the back of a tree trunk, while Sima Chu had already begun fighting with Yu Guanzhi.
Ye Yu met Yu Guanzhi's suggestive look and immediately understood what he meant. She turned and ran, not daring to stop for a moment.
The two newly initiated disciples were no match for the experienced senior brothers and sisters. Yu Guanzhi quickly crushed the jade token, and Wu Shangyao's jade token fell into Qi Yi's hands at the very beginning. It was also found in his storage bag in no time.
"Real-time reporting, and the elimination of officials in the Yuejin Zongyu official position."
"Real-time updates: Yue Jinzong Wushangyao has been eliminated."
Two voices echoed throughout the secret realm not long after. Ye Yu, the only one left among the four, had red eyes. She wiped away her tears and continued running forward.
The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.
Sima Chu felt a shadow loom over her. She turned around abruptly and saw Pei Yin with a chilling smile on his face, his lips curling into a smirk.
"Real-time updates: Sima of Nanjianzong has been eliminated."
Qi Yi ran off without looking back. When he turned around and saw that Pei Yin wasn't following him, he was secretly pleased and breathed a sigh of relief.
He turned around and saw Pei Yin standing directly in front of him, looking at him with amusement.
"Real-time notification: Nan Jianzong Qi Xie has been eliminated."
The elimination of four people in a row shocked many of the remaining mentors who were unaware of the situation.
The elimination area outside the secret gates has become lively and noisy.
The outer and inner disciples kept their distance, afraid of being caught in the crossfire. The sect leaders didn't want to deal with their arguing disciples anymore; they didn't seem like they would listen to reason.
Actually, they tried to manage it, but found that the noise drowned out their voices, so they just let the disciples do as they pleased.
Several outer and inner disciples huddled together, trembling as they looked at the dozen or so disciples in front of them.
Bai Zhuo, Yu Guanzhi, and Wu Shangyao hugged each other and cried bitterly: "Bai Zhuo, we missed you so much. How could you leave us at such a young age?"
“I’m worried about Ye Yu. She’s all alone in the secret realm right now. Most importantly, besides her, the only other people on the field are the top five senior brothers and sisters!” Yu Guanzhi said nervously.
"Damn it, why did you even make her run away! What if my junior sister ran into one of those five people..." Wu Shangyao dared not think any further.
Seeing that no one was stopping them, Ye Hanyun and Ye Munian started arguing again. Nangong Xu, who was sitting nearby, covered his ears in anguish: "Why can't things settle down even after we've left the secret realm?!"
Qiu Yanyu watched helplessly as Dongfang Yilin and Cui Que started arguing, her mind buzzing, unsure how to mediate.
Dongfang Yilin glared at the other person, his teeth chattering with anger: "If it weren't for you, how could I have stopped at 5200 points? Qi Yuan, who is in first place now, has more than 40,000 points!"
"Oh? You deserve it! I haven't even taken your storage bag yet. Why don't you look at those people who were eliminated with 0 points? I was still teleported out with 3100 points!" Cui Que's face turned ashen.
"..."
Although Cheng Jin was poisoned, she has improved considerably after treatment and has been sent back to the Shui Ling Sect. She is currently resting and recovering, but she is expected to fully recover before the end of the competition.
Duan Yu, who had been her partner in the secret realm for several years, was also injured, but only slightly. He could move around after a little bandaging.
Qi Yi and Sima Chu stared at each other, and began to argue appropriately: "It's because you said you wanted the scores of those three disciples, otherwise we wouldn't have been targeted by Pei Yin."
"Why are you blaming me? Don't tell me you didn't want their points! We could have secured a ranking by just surviving the remaining ten days and guarding the storage bag, but now all our efforts have been wasted!" Sima Chu retorted angrily. "Why do you think we wouldn't be targeted if we didn't go after those three disciples?"
The two disciples mentioned froze, and Wu Shangyao felt a slight pain in his arm where he had been hit.
“The Southern Sect only sent the two of us as their personal disciples, and we were eliminated before the trial was even over. We might as well think about how to face our master.” Qi Yi rubbed his temples.
"Don't change the subject!" she shouted angrily, her neck flushed red. "I haven't even mentioned how you abandoned me and ran away!"
"..."
Duan Yu ignored the noisy commotion and focused intently on the rankings.
All the delayed scores have now been added, and the six players on the field...
The scores are ranked as follows:
First place: Qi Yuan, 41500 points
Second place: Pei Yin, 38600 points
Third place: Ye Ting, 36900 points
Fourth place: Lu Wenxing, 35,000 points
Fifth place: Song Yu, 31200 points
Sixth place: Ye Yu, 18000 points
*
There are ten days left until the end of the trial.
Qi Yuan had no intention of stealing the storage bag. As long as she wasn't discovered in the last ten days or so, she could still get a high ranking with her 40,000 points.
The prerequisite is that she must hide it well.
She hid near the swamp until nightfall, and only began to move around to find a suitable place to hide for a long time after she heard no sound. She was very careful the whole time.
Unconsciously, Qi Yuan walked to the old maple tree again. She stood there lost in thought. When the moonlight was bright, she lowered her eyes and walked deeper into the maple forest.
She sat on a maple leaf on the ground, listening quietly to the wind, when suddenly she heard a different sound, as if there was a sudden gust of wind nearby.
She got up and carefully observed the maple trees around her. There was a gap in the far left of the wall that allowed air to escape. She reached out and touched all the walls at the ends, and only halfway through did she notice a small indentation on the flat wall, resembling some kind of switch.
Qi Yuan nervously pressed down on the indentation, and her whole body was lifted into the air and moved to the other side of the wall by some force.
There's such a large space inside this wall.
It has a similar landscape to the secret realm, but with a gentler beauty.
She touched the hilt of the sword at her waist with her right hand, maintaining a defensive posture as she slowly walked forward.
How could such a place exist in the Heavenly Bird Secret Realm? Qi Yuan looked around at the place, feeling uneasy.
If there's nothing fishy going on here, it's a good place to hide from other disciples. She had already tested it out and found a recessed area on the wall that leads to the original maple forest.
Qi Yuan walked around the area and found nothing else amiss. The only strange thing was that there was a small house at the end of the road in this environment, with a yard attached to it. It looked like someone lived there, but no matter how you looked at it, that was impossible.
"Disciple Yunqing greets Senior Sister." A figure suddenly emerged from the bamboo forest.
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