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Ye Hanyun rushed from behind to Qi Yuan and hid behind her, almost crying out, "Senior Sister, save me! I don't know why I keep running into Ye Munian!"
Ye Munian stopped in front of Qi Yuan, pointed at Ye Hanyun behind her, and shouted, "If you have the guts, fight me again! What kind of skill is it to hide behind Senior Sister?"
Qi Yuan suddenly realized something and swiftly threw Ye Hanyun over her shoulder: "Don't even think about stealing my storage bag!"
"I...I...I was wrong!" Ye Hanyun winced in pain, but still clasped her hands in a fist and swore an oath.
"You're so bold, actually setting your sights on your senior sister!" Ye Munian pounced on him.
Before leaving, Qi Yuan kicked him and said coldly, "You'd better avoid me for the next month or so. If I see you again, you can expect to be eliminated with a score of 0!"
"Okay, okay, okay!" Ye Hanyun exclaimed loudly as Ye Munian grabbed her ear.
Song Yu and Nangong Xu were already used to this and chatted calmly on the sidelines. In reality, it was mostly Nangong Xu talking, with Song Yu occasionally adding a few words of agreement.
She bypassed the two men and walked towards the mud pit in the distance. The closer she got to the mud pit, the more mud and dirt appeared on the ground.
Qi Yuan's pupils contracted as she saw two terrifying figures.
Squatting by the mud pit were two disciples, covered in mud: Duan Yu of the Mountain Sect and Cheng Jin of the Water Sect.
She took off running. The experience of last year's trial was still fresh in her mind, and the sight of these two people gave her a headache.
Duan Yu sensed someone behind him and turned around to see Qi Yuan running in the opposite direction. The spirit beast in his hand slipped into the mud. He didn't care about anything else, stood up, grabbed his sword, and rushed over.
He turned around and shouted, "Forget about the spirit beasts! Qi Yuan is ahead!"
Cheng Jin ran over excitedly, wondering why she hadn't seen Qi Yuan for over a month.
Qi Yuan ran frantically, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw them chasing after her. She was on the verge of tears. She had tried every possible way to avoid these two people and Ye Ting for more than a month, but she still ran into them.
She knew how difficult Cheng Jin and Duan Yu were to deal with, having personally experienced it in the previous sect competitions. Ye Ting, however, was different; he might challenge her to a duel, with the loser handing over their storage pouch—the risk was too great.
"Hand over your points!" Duan Yu shouted from behind.
"Get lost!" Qi Yuan gritted her teeth and ran. She turned around and unleashed her spiritual power at the two of them. Duan Yu took the hit with his physical body, while Cheng Jin dodged it.
A series of water splashes rushed towards her at high speed. It was obvious that this was Cheng Jin's doing. Since the other party was using water-based magic, Qi Yuan chanted an incantation. The pale blue light in her hand gathered more and more, and the ground beneath her feet was separated from the ground behind her. The ground beneath the two people's feet was frozen into a layer of ice.
Duan Yu fell heavily to the ground, and Cheng Jin steadied himself, slowed down, and continued his attack.
Qi Yuan kept an eye on what was behind her. As Cheng Jin stepped off the ice, she suddenly turned around and rushed over to strike with her sword. The opponent reacted and drew her sword to block, but her other foot stepped on the ice on the ground, causing her to lose her balance and slip on the ice.
Several ice spikes broke through the layers and surrounded Duan Yu and Cheng Jin, preventing them from getting out for a while.
Qi Yuan fixed her gaze on the birch trees on the right. The birch trees were very dense and close together. She ran into the woods, chose the densest tree, climbed up, and hid in the branches.
The leaves were enough to hide her; those two people shouldn't be able to find this place.
"What a coincidence, Junior Sister Qi, are you also hiding from someone?" A male voice entered her ears.
Qi Yuan paused, then slowly turned her gaze to the birch branch behind her.
Lu Wenxing scratched his head and explained, "It's like this, Junior Brother Pei insisted on fighting me. The loser would have to hand over his storage bag. I felt the risk was too high, so I ran away and hid here."
Those words sound so familiar.
“Senior Brother Lu, I think if it were Junior Brother Pei, he would understand you. He has a gentle personality, so you didn’t need to come all this way.” Qi Yuan thought about Pei Yin’s usual demeanor and said earnestly.
"No!" Lu Wenxing swallowed hard, looked around nervously, and a hint of fear appeared on his usually gentle face.
"Junior sister, do you have some misunderstanding about him? I feel like he doesn't want to fight me, but to kill me. And he's been chasing me very closely, which is why I had no choice but to hide here," he said nervously.
A hint of confusion flashed in Qi Yuan's eyes, but she changed the subject and said, "I came here to hide from Cheng Jin and Duan Yu. I always feel like they have some kind of obsession with me. Ever since the sect competition two years ago, these two have been stealing my points whenever they see me. They chase me wherever I run."
The two looked at each other with a sense of shared misfortune, seeing helplessness and bitterness in each other's eyes.
"Shh, someone's coming," she whispered.
Footsteps sounded from below, followed by several voices: "Junior Brother Wu, you must be mistaken. Where would a spirit beast come from in a place like this?" Yu Guanzhi looked around.
"You must trust your genius intuition. Follow me and I'll take you to new heights!" Wu Shangyao's voice was as confident as ever.
Ye Yu sighed and said speechlessly, "I'd believe you if you were in the top three, but you're ranked thirteenth right now!"
"That's why I came to find spirit beasts! Maybe I can trigger a hidden quest and turn the tide! How would I know how the twelve people ahead of me fought?" Wu Shangyao said confidently.
Bai Zhuo acted as a peacemaker, waving his hand with a smile: "Alright, alright, let's hurry up and look. If we don't find it, we'll move on to the next place."
Qi Yuan watched as the people below rummaged around for a while without finding anything, and then walked away while complaining about Wu Shangyao.
She waited a while longer, and when there was still no movement, she said, "Goodbye, Senior Brother Lu, I'm leaving now."
"Goodbye." Lu Wenxing still had no intention of leaving.
"Senior Sister!!"
She was startled as soon as she climbed down the birch tree; Pei Yin suddenly appeared out of nowhere and pounced straight at her.
Qi Yuan quickly dodged, then suddenly remembered there was someone above her and asked, "What are you doing here?"
Pei Yin said without changing his expression, "I just came to find a spirit beast, I didn't expect to be so lucky to run into my senior sister."
"There are no spirit beasts here, you can leave now," Qi Yuan said irritably, pulling her hand away from his embrace.
"Senior sister, look how amazing I am! I'm already in second place! I want to catch up with you quickly and then tie for first place with you." He said pitifully, shaking Qi Yuan's arm.
"Impressive, impressive. Then you shouldn't waste your time here, Pei Yin! Go and catch a spirit beast." She said sternly.
Pei Yin looked up at her with misty eyes: "Being with your senior sister is not a waste of time."
"Alright, I see your arm is injured. Remember to apply medicine. You have initial supplies. I'm leaving now." Qi Yuan turned her head away.
“Okay…” He lowered his eyes and gave the tree branch a meaningful look before leaving.
Lu Wenxing felt his gaze and shivered.
How terrifying, Pei Yin is such a good actor in front of Junior Sister Qi.
*
Cheng Jin and Duan Yu searched for Qi Yuan separately, and encountered Sima Chu and Qi Yi on the hill.
She is currently ranked sixth, making her a hot commodity compared to Qi Yi, who is ranked eleventh, and Sima Chu, who is ranked twelfth.
The two men's eyes lit up as soon as they saw Cheng Jin, and without saying a word, they launched a fierce attack, determined to score points.
Cheng Jin could probably beat Qi Yi or Sima Chu if they fought one-on-one, but she had no chance against both of them together.
If she couldn't win, she ran away. She saw Qiu Yanyu walking up the hill and ran in her direction.
She ran fast and brushed past Qiu Yanyu. Sima Chu and Qi Yi naturally saw Qiu Yanyu and had a sudden thought.
Sure enough, as Cheng Jin ran back, the two men reached out to Qiu Yanyu.
Although Qiu Yanyu's score was the lowest among the non-eliminated disciples, her strength was far inferior to Cheng Jin's. Compared to Cheng Jin, who was very likely to escape, Qiu Yanyu's score was a sure thing.
A moment later, the voice of the Tu Ling Sect Master echoed through the secret realm: "Real-time report. Qiu Yanyu of the Tu Ling Sect has been eliminated."
Qiu Yanyu's 3600 points were split between Qi Yi and Sima Chu, with each of them gaining 1800 points next to their names, skipping over Duan Yu and Ye Munian's names to jump to ninth and tenth place respectively.
There's a significant gap from eighth place onwards for Ye Hanyun. The top eight are very close in points, all above 7000, leaving Qi Yi, who is in ninth place, with a difference of over 1500 points.
It would be almost impossible for the two of them to surpass Ye Hanyun. Even if they completed the hidden mission, there would still be a 500-point gap. Unless they steal other people's storage bags, their ranking would stop there.
Cheng Jin breathed a sigh of relief and turned to find Duan Yu to join him.
The sect leader of the Tuqin Sect outside the secret realm had a gloomy face. All her other disciples were in seclusion, so she sent these two disciples to participate in the sect competition. The trial time was only halfway through, and they were all eliminated. How could she save face?
To her, it was equivalent to eliminating all the direct disciples of the Tuqin Sect from the eight sects. Apart from Lu Wenxing, the entire Liugong Sect was useless, so she hadn't given Cui Que a second glance.
Both inner and outer disciples were chattering amongst themselves: "Why is the Tuqin Sect so easily defeated?"
"Both sects are branches of the Silver Bamboo Sect, yet the Water Spirit Sect only sent two disciples. How come Ye Ting and Cheng Jin ranked third and sixth respectively?"
"What's wrong with the Tuqin School? I am a member of the Tuqin School; the other disciples are just in seclusion!"
"..."
The leader of the Tuqin Sect crushed his teacup, stood with his hands behind his back in front of the elimination area, and asked in a deep voice, "What exactly are you doing?"
Cui Que was startled and shrank his neck.
The sect leader gave her a cold look: "I didn't ask you."
She pointed at the two of them: "Dongfang Yilin, you have truly disappointed your teacher. You already had more than 5,000 points. You could have played it safe, but instead you tried to be clever and steal points, which led to your elimination after only one month of the trial!"
"Most importantly, it's you, Qiu Yanyu. Your senior sister was eliminated, but at least she still has points in the rankings. You're eliminated with zero points! Didn't you run away when someone attacked you?!"
Qiu Yanyu remained silent, meek and submissive. Dongfang Yilin lowered his head in self-reproach, clenching his fists: "Master, I'm sorry. Your disciple has disappointed you."
Crushing the jade pendant and having your storage bag stolen are two different ways to be eliminated.
The main purpose of the jade token is to allow participants to be teleported out in time when they encounter danger, and it will also retain their original score after elimination.
Having your storage bag stolen results in passive elimination; not only will you lose points, but you will also be immediately teleported to the elimination zone.
In fact, Dongfang Yilin could have obtained Cui Que's points, but Cui Que hid her storage bag. It was even thanks to her cunning that she crushed Cui Que's jade token; otherwise, Dongfang Yilin would have been the only one eliminated.
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