Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The three people’s laughter made Bai Yanfei completely lose his composure in shame. He said furiously, “Jiang Min! You’re a woman! Do you have no sense of shame?!”
Junior Martial Sister Jiang continued to sneer. “When have you ever saved me from being shamed? Bai Yanfei, I’ve lived this long, but I’ve never been humiliated by others like this! You made me lose my reputation, but you still blame me for being shameless?!”
Very few people would talk this bluntly to Bai Yanfei. As it happened, the only few who criticized him coldly, straight to his face, were both women. In particular, the last person to use this kind of tone to talk to him was also presently there.
He awkwardly glanced at the three people watching from the side then glared fiercely at Jiang Min. “Whatever you say. In any case, this is how it is.” Once he finished speaking, he turned around without acknowledging the others and walked away in spitting anger.
Junior Martial Sister Jiang, who still seemed angry despite smiling, followed after him. “Bai Yanfei, are you admitting you’ve lost?”
Bai Yanfei responded crossly, “What do you mean I lost?”
Junior Martial Sister Jiang shot him a sideways glance. “You like to put on airs too much. No matter what you’re actually thinking, you have to assume an aloof, high-above look on your face. Hmph! Does doing that benefit you in any way?”
“Jiang Min!” Bai Yanfei once again bellowed. This Jiang Min spoke too bluntly; she simply had no qualms about destroying his dignity at all.
“What? Do you feel uncomfortable?” Junior Martial Sister Jiang didn’t spare him; she persistently continued on: “Admit you’ve lost and take back what you said before, and I won’t pester you anymore.”
“Why should I?!” Bai Yanfei said furiously, “You’re unruly and hateful—you said I like to look down on others, but you yourself always have your nose up in the air!”
“Even if I have my nose in the air, I’ll only let out a few ‘hmphs’. Unlike you, who puts your nose so high in the air that if a bird flies overhead, some unspeakable substances might fall into your nose!”
“You, you, you… You’re a woman—do you not think it’s crude to say such things?”
“You’re the one who said I’m unruly. So what if I’m crude?!”
The two people continued with their war of words as they walked away. Mo Tiange and the rest stood in a daze for quite a while before they finally regained their trains of thought.
Luo Fengxue sighed and shook her head. “In the future, Morning Sun Peak will definitely be lively.”
Mo Tiange smirked. “You’ll be very happy, won’t you?”
Luo Fengxue, whose thoughts were exposed by Mo Tiange, laughed. “When we’re free, we can watch them like we’re watching a play.”
However, Ye Jingwen unexpectedly shook his head. “You two shouldn’t feel happy so early. In my opinion, they won’t necessarily end up together.”
Luo Fengxue turned her head towards him. “Why?”
Ye Jingwen said, “This Martial Uncle Bai… Although he’s indeed not up to much in other aspects, he has a very persistent character. Have you ever seen him go back on his word?”
Both Mo Tiange and Luo Fengxue pondered but shook their heads in the end.
Ye Jingwen smiled. “This Martial Uncle Bai really attaches importance to his reputation. Right now, his rejection to Martial Uncle Jiang is already set in stone, and our entire school knows about it. If he later goes back on his word, wouldn’t he be slapping his own face? Besides, Martial Uncle Jiang’s now pestering him so badly that he can’t stand her; if he concedes, he’d certainly lose face. Because of that, I think it’s still not certain who’ll have the last laugh in this matter.” He took a breather before he continued on: “In fact, between us male disciples, we’re hoping Martial Uncle Jiang won’t marry Martial Uncle Bai.”
Luo Fengxue asked curiously, “What did you guys male disciples say about Junior Martial Sister Jiang? What about Junior Martial Brother Bai?” Although she was always in charge of disciples’ affairs, males and females were different in the end, so some gossip inevitably couldn’t reach female disciples’ ears—this was the perfect opportunity to ask around.
Ye Jingwen said, “Mmm… We all said Martial Uncle Bai, relying on the fact that he’s Grandmaster Zhenyang’s disciple, always viewed others as being beneath his attention, so he indeed made people hesitant to get close to him. As for Martial Uncle Jiang, some of us thought she was unruly and obstinate so we better keep our distance from her. However, some also thought she was pretty and outspoken; although she’s unruly, they thought she was also cute.”
“…” Luo Fengxue said with a sigh, “Sure enough, males and females are different.” Among female disciples, some said Bai Yanfei was elegant and unrestrained, and that although he was arrogant, his arrogance was what made him more charming. On the other hand, comments about Jiang Min were a bit worse; they said she had Grandmaster Lingxu as her backing so she always looked down on others. Whether it was men or women, both were always a bit more tolerant towards those of the opposite sex.
Ye Jingwen chuckled; he already knew what Luo Fengxue meant without asking. He turned his head to look around, asking, “Junior Martial Sister Luo, you haven’t picked any spiritual plants, right?”
“Ah!” Luo Fengxue hastily turned around to look at the area she came from. Fortunately, nobody broke out of the formation in the vicinity during this short period, so her spiritual plants were still there. “I almost forgot about that.”
Ye Jingwen also hadn’t finished picking his spiritual plants. Mo Tiange looked around then said, “Fengxue, I’ll help you.” She arrived after she finished picking the spiritual plants in her area, so she had completed her current task.
Luo Fengxue didn’t reject her help. With the friendship they had, she didn’t need to worry Mo Tiange would steal her things or anything, so she directly beckoned. “Sure—come here quickly.”
When Ye Jingwen had picked half the spiritual plants in his area, Luo Fengxue hadn’t even begun, but because she and Mo Tiange worked together, their speed was actually a bit faster than Ye Jingwen’s. Before long, they already finished picking all the spiritual plants in her area.
Once all of them completed their business, they started chatting about the things they encountered inside the formation. Sure enough, what Ye Jingwen and Luo Fengxue encountered were very simple, separated, Five-Spirits Formations. Mo Tiange was the only one to come across a mutated formation.
Both Ye Jingwen and Luo Fengxue were completely amazed to learn that Mo Tiange had come across a four element mutated formation, and regarding her success in getting away, they were just completely speechless. A long while later, Luo Fengxue patted her shoulder, saying, “Tiange, you should form your Gold Core sooner.”
Mo Tiange was puzzled. “Why?”
Luo Fengxue said with an extremely earnest tone, “If you still don’t form your Gold Core, us Foundation Building cultivators won’t be able to live.”
Although what she said was an exaggeration, she was actually praising Mo Tiange. Mo Tiange couldn’t help but laugh. “I only rely on the treasures I have.” Without Xiaohuo and the two stone sculpture puppets, breaking the formation really wouldn’t have been that easy for her.
“We’ve broken through the first test; what should we do about the second one?”
Luo Fengxue already had a plan about this. “We can just walk around as we wish. When the time comes, the test will naturally start.”
Ye Jingwen asked, “If the three of us are in the same place, will we enter the formation together, or will we get separated?”
“Maybe we’ll enter together; maybe we’ll get separated,” Luo Fengxue said while shaking her head. “It’d actually be better if we got separated. In the second test, for the Five Hindrances Overturning Senses, we’ll have illusions. It’d be even more troublesome if we were together and influenced each other.”
Cultivators’ divine comprehensions could also influence each other. Especially when a group of people was together, if one of them was unstable, the rest would definitely be affected.
“Ah?” Ye Jingwen was surprised. “Why didn’t the school head say anything about this before?”
Luo Fengxue said, “In fact, the influence wouldn’t be big and generally speaking, there won’t be any life-threatening dangers.” She then proceeded to give them another round of careful reminders: “However, you guys still have to be careful. The end of this Five Hindrances Overturning Senses test is closely linked with the third test, the Five Confusions Plaguing Spirit—at that time, there will be illusions which can be seen with the naked eye. The earlier one directly attacks our divine comprehensions. In general, as long as we meditate and stick to our true hearts, we can pass it. The latter one, however, will create real illusions, and it’ll indeed be hard to distinguish reality from the illusion. In case we’re out of luck, if we haven’t passed the earlier one before the second one comes up, we might end up having a demonic barrier.”
Upon hearing what Luo Fengxue said, Mo Tiange suddenly recalled the demonic beast riot years ago. At that time, she and Wei Jiasi walked into an Illusory Formation created by a Bewitching Moonstone—everything before them was just like something they personally saw. Presumably, the last test, the Five Confusions Plaguing Spirit would also be like that. As for the Five Hindrances Overturning Senses, it should be more similar to the Inner Demon they faced during a realm-breakthrough. There would be countless thoughts rushing directly to one’s divine comprehension. If the person had weak willpower, they would be befuddled by these thoughts, causing them to hallucinate or even get lost inside those thoughts.
Of course, since this was only a formation to test and train disciples, there should be no life-threatening dangers inside. Nevertheless, if they entered a trap, getting injured was certainly inevitable. If the case was bad, they might be left with some hard to treat mental injuries.
Lord Daoist Jinghe mentioned these matters to her before the start of this task, and School Head Shen also warned the disciples to remember the “Ten Thousand Laws of Nature.” However, although it was easy to say, certainly not everyone would be able to accomplish it during the test.
Ye Jingwen said pensively, “That being the case, wouldn’t we be prematurely experiencing the Inner Demon, which we ought to face during our core-formation?”
“Technically, yes,” Luo Fengxue said, “Of course, this Five Hindrances Overturning Senses Formation should be slightly weaker than the Inner Demon we’ll face during core-formation. From the Middle Ages until now, cultivators’ abilities have greatly decreased, but the power of Inner Demons has always been the same. That’s why Inner Demons are particularly terrifying for us cultivators.”
A deep crease formed on Ye Jingwen’s brows. “Why did the school elders not tell us about this in detail before we entered the formation?”
Luo Fengxue said with a smile, “Senior Martial Brother Ye, no need to worry. For us people who normally never slack off in cultivating, passing this test shouldn’t be hard.”
“Oh…” Ye Jingwen muttered. “Then what about the last test?”
Now that they talked about this matter, Luo Fengxue’s expression finally turned grave. “The last test… I reckon less than a few people can pass it. The illusions in that test are too realistic. Among the people in our school, the Nascent Soul martial uncles already found it very hard to pass the first test, but several of our Core Formation senior martial brothers and sisters indeed managed to persist until the third test. Nevertheless, in the end, no one managed to completely pass through it.”
“Is it that hard?” Not only Ye Jingwen, but even Mo Tiange also looked at her now. “Then is this last test safe for us?”
Luo Fengxue chuckled. “Tiange, did you forget that the purpose of this formation is to test and train disciples? There won’t be any life-threatening dangers unless we’re massacring each other—this formation won’t injure our lives.”
With the school rules as the limit, there might presumably be small frictions among the disciples, but they shouldn’t go as far as massacring each other.
Luo Fengxue continued on: “Our Martial Uncle Suxin already entered this formation before. According to her, if we guard our minds and don’t use our divine senses, we can still distinguish what’s real and fake in the second test. However, the illusions in the last test will be completely similar to reality, and your rationality will also gradually leave you; it’ll be just like a dream—you might even consider some preposterous things that you see to be real.”
Wouldn’t it mean this was more terrible than the Bewitching Moonstone? Mo Tiange couldn’t help but wonder if her Spirit-Concealing Pendant would be affected while facing this formation.
Ye Jingwen was the first to ask: “Then would Heart-Clearing Talismans and the like be useful?”
“Yes,” Luo Fengxue said affirmatively, “But how effective they’ll be in the end is hard to say.”
Mo Tiange nodded, indicating she understood. “In other words, we better not stay too close to each other, but we also shouldn’t be too far from each other later on.” It wouldn’t be good if they stayed too close to each other because their divine comprehensions might influence each other, but if they were too far from each other, they also wouldn’t be able to help each other.
“En,” Luo Fengxue said in agreement. “Since the three of us met so coincidentally, it would be inexcusable if we didn’t take care of each other. For safety reasons, we should go separately later. We should maintain a certain distance between each of us; we mustn’t lose track of each other, but we also mustn’t get too close to each other.”
Neither Mo Tiange nor Ye Jingwen objected. Although their cultivation level and skills in fights of magical power were both higher than Luo Fengxue’s, their abilities in handling affairs indeed weren’t as good as Luo Fengxue’s. Moreover, she knew a lot of inside stories and information, so she ought to be clearer than the two of them about what they should do next.
“Alright, we might accidentally walk into the second test at any time, so we might as well separate now.”
