Old maple tree
A month has passed since the trial began.
Qi Yuan's score skyrocketed to an astonishing 7800 points, sandwiched between Ye Ting, who ranked first with 8000 points, and Pei Yin, who ranked third with 7600 points. The three of them were truly terrifying.
Bai Zhuo, who scored 3700 points, shuddered and asked the other three people tremblingly, "How did you manage to get into the top three...? Your scores are twice mine!"
Yu Guanzhi patted Bai Zhuo on the shoulder calmly: "Let's not get involved in the battle between monsters. At this rate, they need to kill nearly twenty spirit beasts a day on average, and they also need to collect spirit plants to reach this score."
Ye Yu wasn't too upset; he simply shook his head slightly.
Even Wu Shangyao, who had the highest score among the four, only scored 4600 points. He looked distressed and cried out, "Am I not a genius? Why do I only have a little over four thousand points?"
The disciples outside the secret realm seemed insulted, roaring at the screen: "Are you even human? What do you mean you only have a little over four thousand points?"
"I feel like I was eliminated before I even got a thousand points."
The two men sat in the seats reserved for the abstaining students, their bodies radiating hostility.
Cui Que and Dongfang Yilin glared at each other before looking back at the temporarily playing screen.
— Half a day ago
Qiu Yanyu asked hesitantly, "Senior Sister, do we really want to cooperate with those two? They don't seem very easy to get along with."
"Who said we were cooperating? That was just talk. A month has passed since the trial started, and their scores are high, especially Cheng Jin's. Of course, we should pretend to cooperate and then take the opportunity to steal their storage bags!" Dongfang Yilin said seriously.
The two people not far away—
Cui Que almost burst out laughing, saying smugly, "See? That's the plan. We pretend to cooperate with those two, then find a way to secretly steal their storage bags, and we get to keep the rest."
“I refuse,” Cheng Jin said expressionlessly.
“You don’t care about your score, but I only have 3100 points right now, and I’m ranked last. How can I compete if I don’t try to get some points?” Cui Que said anxiously.
Cheng Jin spread his hands and said seriously, "I don't mind fighting them directly. If I win, I can get the storage bag."
"Are you stupid? Isn't this a waste of effort? We can just snatch them when they're off guard." Cui Que stamped her foot, speaking with great enthusiasm.
"I don't think there's any need for us to cooperate anymore. This month, I've been the one accommodating and assisting you, while you've been completely holding me back. Otherwise, I would definitely have scored much more points on my own," Cheng Jin scoffed, speaking with disdain.
"You're so arrogant! I've been wanting to steal your storage bag for a long time! Who are you trying to fool with that sour face?" Cui Que broke down and pounced on Cheng Jin.
Dongfang Yilin, who was not far away, noticed the commotion and rushed over to mediate. With Cheng Jin's skills, she was not touched by Cui Que.
Realizing that the two had broken up, Dongfang Yilin stopped pretending and started grabbing the storage bag. Knowing that she couldn't beat Cheng Jin, she focused her attention on Cui Que.
Qiu Yanyu and Cheng Jin stood aside watching the two fight. Cheng Jin didn't forget to add insult to injury: "Cui Que, your Liu Gong Sect was carried by Lu Wenxing. I advise you to have some self-awareness. With your strength, you are not qualified to participate in this trial. So you know that you only have 3100 points. Without me, you might only be able to barely make 2000 points."
Cui Que gritted her teeth, but couldn't stop what she was doing, and soon collapsed to the ground, completely defeated.
Qiu Yanyu spoke with some concern, "Senior Sister..."
"Dream on! I've already hidden the storage bag; you won't find it!" She looked at Dongfang Yilin provocatively.
Dongfang Yilin frowned and began searching her body.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Cui Que snatched the jade pendant hanging from Dongfang Yilin's waist, and the other party immediately reacted and grabbed her jade pendant as well.
“Start from me, count to three, and return the other person’s jade pendant at the same time, how about that?” Cui Que gritted her teeth and stared at her.
"Sure," Dongfang Yilin readily agreed.
Cheng Jin, looking on with amusement, actually started counting: "Three, two, one!"
The moment they counted to one, the two of them simultaneously crushed each other's jade tokens. A second before being teleported, they saw the astonishment on each other's faces, as if to say, "How come she thought of this too?"
Cheng Jin chuckled and walked away feeling relieved, leaving Qiu Yanyu standing there bewildered.
Thus, after a month of trials, two disciples were eliminated: Dongfang Yilin of the Tuqin Sect and Cui Que of the Liugong Sect.
*
Qi Yuan has maintained a high-intensity battle every day, basically scoring around 250 points a day, but she still maintains a slight gap with the first place.
If she continues at this pace, she will never be able to surpass Ye Ting, who is only a few hundred points ahead.
Unless another opportunity is found to score 1000 points in one go, directly surpassing Ye Ting by 800 points!
Besides her, Pei Yin also completed a hidden task this month and got 1000 points.
She found the hidden quest on a mountaintop, while Pei Yin returned to the original swamp and discovered the spirit beasts that crawled out of the swamp at night.
These spirit beasts roost during the day and are active at night. Qi Yuan chose to search for the hidden quest after dark.
There is actually another hidden danger in doing this: the announcements played in the secret realm will wake up the sleeping disciples and generate another wave of hatred.
As night fell, a gentle breeze rustled through the leaves.
Qi Yuan confirmed that everyone's scores on the rankings had stopped, then tiptoed into the woods.
The autumn forest appears even more mysterious under the moonlight, with only the occasional rustling of animals coming from the weeds.
She stepped on a pile of red maple leaves. Qi Yuan's gaze followed the fallen maple leaves upwards to a grove of maple trees, several of which had lost all their leaves.
A feeling guided her toward the maple grove.
There is an exceptionally thick old maple tree standing in the very center of all the maple trees, its imposing presence undiminished even with its bare roots.
Qi Yuan stopped in front of the old maple tree and reached out to stroke its rough trunk.
The fallen maple leaves lay flat on the once open ground, while the maple leaves in front of the old maple tree were piled up high, as if something was buried there.
She touched it with her palm and found it was solid. Instinct told her to push aside the maple leaves, and Qi Yuan saw a raised mound of earth at the bottom, as if there really was something there.
She dug through the hard clod of earth with her bare hands, and a wooden bottle rolled out, seemingly containing a rolled-up piece of paper.
Qi Yuan hesitated for a moment, then removed the stopper and unfolded the yellowed, rolled-up paper, which seemed to have been buried here for many years.
She used the moonlight to see the words on the paper.
The red maple tree bears witness: Dad, Mom, and I, the three of us, will live happily ever after! We've made a pinky promise, and neither of us can go back on it! —Mu Qinghuai
Okay, okay, whatever Ah Huai says is right. —Murong
How could we possibly live a life of mere happiness and joy? Your ambitions are too low! We will start from scratch, and in the future, there will be a cultivation family in the cultivation world called the Mu family! —Mu Aogu
Three paragraphs were written on the yellowed paper, each separated by two or three lines, with three red handprints next to them. The handwriting was already somewhat blurred, and it might be illegible in a few years.
Qi Yuan stood there, stunned, unable to recover for a long time.
Mu, Qing, Huai.
That Demon Lord.
This note must have been buried by young Mu Qinghuai and his parents in front of the old maple tree.
Many important messages can be gleaned from these lines of text overflowing with happiness.
Why did things not go as planned? Why did fate make him the Demon Lord?
Qi Yuan pursed her lips, her heart filled with turmoil.
A sense of helplessness and heartache welled up in her amber-green eyes, directed at Mu Qinghuai, and also at her younger self.
Her fingers tightened and then loosened suddenly, and she stood frozen in place.
After a long while, Qi Yuan silently rolled up the note, stuffed it into the bottle, put the stopper on, buried it back in its original place, and finally covered the mound in front of the tree with maple leaves.
She stood up and bowed deeply to the old maple tree.
Qi Yuan turned and left, and suddenly a beam of fire shot into the sky from the dark forest.
Fireworks were dazzling in the night sky.
Ouyang Lanyue's cheerful voice suddenly resounded throughout the Heavenly Bird Secret Realm: "Live broadcast. Qi Yuan of the Silver Bamboo Sect has completed the hidden mission and earned 1000 points. This is hereby announced."
Many of his followers were woken up by this sentence and rushed to check the rankings. Qi Yuan already had 8800 points, and her ranking jumped to first place.
The disciples who were dozing off in the audience were shaken awake and looked at the black screen with a blank expression: "Crazy, they were sleeping!"
"Wake up! Senior Sister Qi seems to have completed the hidden mission given by Young Master Ouyang and got another 1000 points. She's now in first place!"
"Holy crap, it's true! But I can't see anything. I really want to know what mission my senior sister completed."
"Since they were all issued by Young Master Ouyang, they must be high-level tasks!"
Ouyang Lanyue sat in her seat, her smile not reaching her eyes.
Qi Yuan was shocked; she hadn't done anything. Could it be the letter from earlier? That's...outrageous.
If the letter she just received really was a hidden mission, she felt a little angry. Why should she have to rely on reading about someone else's happy past to get points?
It was only through Pei Yin's explanation a few days ago that she learned that the person who broadcast the announcement was the one who issued this hidden mission.
The amethyst stone from before was inextricably linked to Ruan Yiyun.
And this inexplicable announcement was read by Ouyang Lanyue, which suddenly makes some sense when you think about it this way.
The person Qi Yuan couldn't understand the most was Ouyang Lanyue.
Instead of being happy about the 1000 points and being in first place, she began to think.
Ye Ting and Lu Wenxing were resting separately in the same cave. Upon hearing the announcement, they both stood up and walked towards the cave entrance, bumping into each other.
"What a coincidence. Are you also going to kill spirit beasts?" Lu Wenxing smiled somewhat awkwardly.
“Yes, I need to make up for those 800 points.” Ye Ting looked up at the moon. “She’s still doing tasks so late, I can’t fall behind.”
After exchanging high fives, the two ran off in two different directions.
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