Chapter 81: Temporary Departure
“The Ghost sect and the Blood sect invaded the Green Illusion dimension…” Jiang Lingzhu said with a sigh. “We’re the only survivors.”
Upon hearing her words, the faces of An Shiyi, Li Fan, Sang Bing, and Dowager Weng all fell.
“The Ghost sect!!! The Blood sect!!!” Sang Bing let out a raging roar that could shake Heaven and Earth.
Yuan Feng had been treated as a core disciple of the Grayvale sect. They had poured a huge amount of medicinal pills and spiritual tools on him, and raised him to be the future leader of the Grayvale sect.
In their eyes, Yuan Feng was far more important than Yun Song and the other eight participants!
Yuan Feng’s death was absolutely unacceptable to them!
Standing among the crowd, Nie Tian felt guilty as he looked over at the howling Sang Bing.
Then, he quietly glanced at Jiang Lingzhu, his heart full of gratefulness.
He knew that if Jiang Lingzhu hadn’t taken that banner, Sang Bing from the Grayvale sect would have sensed its existence the moment he stepped out of the Green Illusion dimension.
The more furious and violent Sang Bing became, the clearer he understood, if the secret of him killing Yuan Feng was exposed, what kind of wrath he would have to bear from the Grayvale sect.
That wasn’t even mentioning that he wasn’t an official disciple of the Cloudsoaring sect yet. However even if he was, he still couldn’t possibly escape his doom.
“An Ying, where are the people from the Ghost sect and Blood sect now?” An Shiyi asked hurriedly.
“I don’t know.” An Ying said with a wry smile. “We chased and killed some of them right before the gate opened, but the rest… somehow disappeared. And we couldn’t find any trace of them.”
“I’ll make them pay!” Roaring, Sang Bing bolted into the whirlpool, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
After hearing about the appearance of the Ghost sect and Blood sect in the Green Illusion dimension, Dowager Weng from the Mystic Mist sect also lost her composure. “Young Miss An,” she said to An Shiyi, “you stay here and take care of them. I’ll go with Sang Bing to search the Green Illusion dimension. Hopefully we can still capture the stragglers!”
“I’ll go, too!” said Li Fan from the Cloudsoaring sect.
Faces clouded by haze, the two of them followed Sang Bing into the whirlpool.
Before long, An Shiyi from the Spiritual Treasure sect had become the only senior leader that remained beside the lake, despite the fact that Dowager Weng apparently didn’t even remember her name.
Ignoring that, she turned to the others and grimly said, “Tell me everything!”
Jiang Lingzhu, An Ying, Pan Tao, and Zheng Bin went on to explain in great detail everything that had happened in the Green Illusion dimension.
Meanwhile, Nie Tian stood beside them wordlessly, waiting for them to finish.
At that time, he noticed that An He, the old servant from the An clan, was also waiting beside An Shiyi.
It was An He who had escorted him to this place from Black Cloud City. Now, he had showed up here after the trial ended. He was probably here to pick him up and take him home.
When he looked at An He, An He happened to be looking at him. He put on a wry smile and hurriedly bowed towards An He out of respect.
An He nodded briefly back at him, then turned to An Shiyi. “Miss, why don’t I take Nie Tian back to Black Cloud City first?”
“Sure, go ahead,” An Shiyi said, waving her hand. “Take him and leave.”
Originally, An Shiyi planned on interrogating An Ying to get a full understanding of Nie Tian’s performance in the Green Illusion dimension, and whether there was anything special about him.
However, the Ghost sect and the Blood sect had showed up, and too many trial takers had died because of it. She was no longer in the mood to ask about Nie Tian.
A heaven-shaking mishap had happened in the Green Illusion dimension, and the Spiritual Treasure sect was the host. As the person in charge of the event, she was currently under too much pressure, thus she had no time to bother with Nie Tian’s trivial issue.
An He waved his hand. “Follow me.”
“Okay,” Nie Tian replied, walking toward him as calmly as ever.
It was at this moment that Pan Tao walked up to him and gave him a bear hug. “I’ll go find you in Black Cloud City in a couple of days, bro,” he said quietly. “I hope we can fight together again.”
Nie Tian was taken aback by his words.
Grasping Nie Tian by the shoulders, Pan Tao winked and mysteriously said, “I’ll bring someone with me.”
Nie Tian was quite confused, not sure what Pan Tao meant.
“You’ll find out soon enough.” Pan Tao laughed and pushed him away, saying, “Go, return to Black Cloud City. We’ll meet again.”
“Alright.” Nie Tian didn’t read too much into it.
“Pan Tao…”
After witnessing the exchange between Nie Tian and Pan Tao, An He had a strange look in his eyes. He was unclear about what had happened between Pan Tao and Nie Tian.
However, he could tell that Pan Tao had already considered Nie Tian as a brother that he shared life and death with. The sincerity in Pan Tao’s eyes couldn’t lie.
Pan Tao was the grandson of the grand elder of the Spiritual Treasure sect, Pan Hongzhen, whose status in the Spiritual Treasure sect was only second to the sectmaster.
Even though the An clan of Black Cloud City was highly regarded by the Spiritual Treasure sect because of An Shiyi, it was still only a subordinate clan of the Spiritual Treasure sect.
Pan Hongzhen’s status in the Spiritual Treasure sect wasn’t something that An Shiyi or the An clan could compare to.
Seeing the way Pan Tao had treated Nie Tian, An He was shocked inwardly. Originally, he had thought Nie Tian to be a weaselly young man who had used some underhanded method to curry favor with Pan Tao.
Jiang Lingzhu gave Pan Tao a hard look and then called out, “Nie Tian! I’ll also go find you in Black Cloud City in a couple of days!”
Pan Tao rubbed his nose and laughed, but declined to comment.
“Jiang Zhisu’s precious daughter…”
An He was flabbergasted. Eyes full of suspicion, he looked Nie Tian up and down before glancing over towards Pan Tao and Jiang Lingzhu, even more curious than before.
“This Nie clan kid seems good at cultivating relationships. I can’t believe that Pan Tao and Jiang Lingzhu both have grown fond of him.”
Previously, when they traveled to the lakeside, An He didn’t have much interest in starting a conversation with Nie Tian, as he didn’t take Nie Tian seriously. All they did was march on at a fast pace.
Actually, An He had some unpleasant feelings towards Nie Tian back then.
The spot An Shiyi had given Nie Tian for the Green Illusion dimension trial was originally meant for a child of the An clan. As a member of the An clan, An He secretly frowned upon the arrangement.
Because of this, he didn’t talk to Nie Tian the entire way to the lakeside, and only considered him as a kid who had somehow struck it lucky.
But now, the appearance of the disciples of the Ghost sect and the Blood sect in the Green Illusion dimension trial resulted in many people getting killed. The Grayvale sect even had all of their trial takers slaughtered.
He was secretly glad that the kid from the An clan didn’t get to enter the Green Illusion dimension, and had thus escaped from the calamity.
Now, without that issue weighing on his mind, and adding in that Pan Tao and Jiang Lingzhu had suddenly grown so close with Nie Tian, An He couldn’t help but change his attitude towards him and regard him more favorably.
With an amiable expression, he said to Nie Tian, “Let’s go. Your grandfather and the others have been waiting for you. Since the Nie clan is going through a rough patch, it’s better that you return soon.”
“What do you mean rough patch?” Nie Tian frowned.
“I’ll tell you on the way,” An He said gently.
“Okay,” said Nie Tian.
Nie Tian also felt the sudden and drastic change in An He’s attitude towards him.
Before long, Nie Tian followed An He to the same carriage that they had come in, and they slowly drove out of the marshland.
Meanwhile, An Shiyi and the others were still gathered by the lake, waiting for Sang Bing, Li Fan, and Dowager Weng to return.
A day passed, and Li Fan finally walked out of the whirlpool, holding the pale, skinny, and close to death Ye Gumo with one hand.
“Brother Ye is still alive?!” Jiang Lingzhu exclaimed with joy.
Li Fan dropped the almost unconscious Ye Gumo at her side, and said, “This kid is lucky. He hid by himself in the volcano area, and I when found him, he was on the verge of dying from starvation.”
Ye Gumo’s head was still drooped, as he looked up at Jiang Lingzhu. He forced a smile and said weakly, “It’s good that you guys are fine.”
“Mr. Li, where are Sang Bing and Dowager Weng?” An Shiyi asked hurriedly.
With a sigh, Li Fan said, “They should be out soon. We turned the whole Green Illusion dimension inside out, and still couldn’t find the disciples from the Ghost sect and the Blood sect. They probably left long ago.”
This was, of course, to be expected.
Shortly after, the grim-faced Sang Bing and Dowager Weng walked out of the lake together.
Sang Bing didn’t say a word before striding away.
Dowager Weng shook her head towards An Shiyi and said, “We found nothing. The Green Illusion dimension trial is truly over now. Let’s go back, and discuss the upcoming issues another day.”
“Yeah, I’m afraid that’s all there is to do,” An Shiyi said bitterly.
Thereupon, the leaders of each sect led their respective juniors away.