Chapter Thirty

Unlike demonic beasts in the outer plane, the demonic beasts here were arrogant and fearless when they saw prey. Towards cultivators who invaded their territory every once every few years to loot their corpses and spiritual treasures. They were especially hostile. There was hardly enough for the lower demonic beasts who had to fight for scrapes the higher-level beasts didn't put in their eyes. Why should they allow the humans to take their share and lessen their hard-won bounty? Taking advantage of human's lesser senses the brave and foolish tried their luck on the small pack of humans. Lan Biyu stilled her playing when she heard elder Shao grunt as if being hit by something but continued not a second later trusting someone who was held in high regard by her master.

 In truth, she didn't have much contact with any of the other elders in the Azure sect only keeping her master in her eyes. But Shao Lin can be counted as somewhat familiar only due to his jumping disciples who loved to fight her on a seemingly daily basis back then. With Chi eagerly swallowing the demonic corpses in his wake Shao Lin didn't have to worry about scaring the little ones in the morning. More than that he could leave the safety of the youngsters to Lan Biyu who was competent enough to be taken in as Minglan's inner disciple by pure talent enough. A child prodigy. When a demon came too close to their little camp they would bounce off the barrier surrounding Lan Biyu seeming to take more damage attacking the barrier than the person holding it up.

 She didn't put them in her eyes at all, after returning to the An Xing realm she didn't even flinch returning an eye for an eye with each note. As if the insistent attack on her barrier were just music notes she forced into her symphony. It was a simple thing. However, the brunt of the attack was still made on Shao Lin who purposely stayed outside of her barrier so she wouldn't take too much burden on her spiritual sea. It was a wonderful thing to be able to envelope such a large area alone. But the price was high and unless you had extreme focus it could backlash and harm you instead. Not only was it a needless ability and hard to perfect. However, if someone took advantage of you when you're distracted weren't you as good as dead letting in the wrong person?

Though for someone like Lan Biyu who didn't trust easily and was of a steady mind, it was a fitting spell to keep away danger. It's unknown how long they kept up this pace but even Shao Lin was starting to become weary. Frowning he murmurs to himself "Although demonic beasts are aggressive, they don't usually throw their lives away so carelessly." The culprit for this remained relaxed and pretended to not hear his murmur her eyes closed hands fluidly moving along the strings without stopping. Stepping into the barrier he pauses when the first wave of safety and warmth enveloped him sending the tranquil Lan Biyu an admiring look. "Elder Shao can rest for now, this disciple doesn't believe they will continue after learning their lesson once they lost too many lives in a single night."

Speaking of this Shao Lin couldn't help commenting on Chi who was still contently eating the corpses he left behind. "Your little spiritual beast, won't she get a stomach ache eating such things?" Lan Biyu never thought of this but when she peeked at her gluttonous snake who stopped mid-swallow with a large chunk of flesh halfway into its tiny belly. Chi, sensing her gaze paused and tilted her cute but frightening appearance towards her master. Her white scales were covered in blood and her fangs deeply embedded in a piece of her meal much larger than herself. Mouth muscles contracting she casually swallowed the flesh cleanly before cutely flicking her tongue at Lan Biyu appearing obedient.

Lan Biyu didn't like looking at messy things and subconsciously flicked her clean fingernail to dismiss the matter unhurriedly explaining with a simple. "She is still young, and the snake clan she is from is a prestigious line of meat-eating beasts." Speaking of this Shao Lin remembered that she also had two extra little spiritual beasts with her but hadn't seen them around lately. He asked curiously looking around in case they were released a bit earlier without him seeing. "Didn't you have three of them? Where are the other two?" Lan Biyu visibly faltered but answered him calmly without changing her tone at all as if it were a trivial matter. "Gone." 

Shao Lin's brows furrowed and he smartly didn't continue this line of questioning falling into a comfortable silence between two people who didn't interact much. After watching her for awhile Shao Lin was comfortable trusting her to be able to hold off the less intelligent demons. He watched as the little snake which didn't seem to grow in size at all no matter how much she devoured slithered her way to his side and gave her a curious look. Chi peers up daintily at the also curious cultivator before she expands her mouth and smoothly.....Threw up piles of spirit stones at his foot. "..." Baffled Shao Lin didn't know how to react at all before the little snake satisfyingly went back to her master who considerately lent her a hand to curl around her neck again appearing happy with herself. 

Having faced this type of situation for the first time Shao Lin didn't know how to react and stared at the snake and her aloof master speechlessly. Lan Biyu seeming to sense his crisis lightly translates for Chi's bizarre actions. "She says they are too hard to digest and you can have them back." Too hard to digest? "Pfft." Shao Lin gave a stunned puff of laughter and didn't appear disgusted as he casually stored the stones in his sleeves his eyes crinkling as he turned to the two. "Then I shall accept her burden for her." Chi flicks her tongue at him and snuggles into her master's pale cheek.

Brow twitching Lan Biyu washed both her blood-smeared cheek and Chi's body with a satin cloth before letting the little snake do as she pleased. Although the spirit stones aren't of low quality as they are from An Xing realm beasts who are more pure than outside beasts. He didn't especially covet them and thought to let Minglan's daughter benefit on the side. Unexpectedly she didn't like other people giving her things for free just like her father and gave him the stones in exchange for her snake's benefit. Insisting she keep them would only be a nuisance. Plus he didn't doubt she could procure her own stash if she so wished with her current skills. 

She wouldn't miss out, especially with her capable senior brother and doting father. He needn't worry too much about such a capable girl with even more capable people looking after her as the pearl of their palms.

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Said capable senior brother and father currently didn't know there was someone who wished them well. As currently, Minglan's expression was full of dissatisfaction refusing to give a good face to his smiling disciple who was serving him tea at the moment trying to pacify his sulking master. Da Chuanli chuckled as he coaxed his master good-naturedly "Seeing the silver dust mixed with the signal I sent out. Perhaps Master was hoping to have arrived at my junior sister's place instead?" "Whose yours?!" Da Chaunli gave an even more unburdened laugh and dodged his master's fan calmly. "Master doesn't need to worry, as they say, isn't no news also good news?"

 In return for his words of wisdom, he got a handsome glower. "You think I don't know that?" He spoke through gritted teeth expressing his discontent openly "That damned gate! Even after all these years, its dirty habit of throwing those of close affinity far from one another still hasn't changed!" Da Chuanli smiled gently his eyes flickering lightly "Master is speaking strangely, how can a stone gate be sentient?" Minglan snorts at him disdaining his clueless student. Da Chuanli doesn't mind as long as his master cures his curiosity. "Say, when you enter a strange place for the first time what would you usually think as you enter?" 

Da Chuanli who was the most abnormal of the batch blinked at his master in a rare state of bafflement before smartly deciding not to answer. Since if he did, his answer may anger his master so much that his master would probably hold a grudge and refuse to explain anymore. So instead he opted to smile naively at his master who gave him an even more scornful look. Minglan's hand twitched, he really wanted to pinch this disciple's face just once to see if it wasn't a demon wearing a human face instead. He gave up and sighed heavily. Forget it. Who told him to have such troublesome disciples? 

"Most of the time someone would have thoughts of entering and exiting being close to their sect members for safety. Cultivators have long practiced gathering spiritual energy into their bodies to refine not only their dantians but core as well to prepare for ascension and developing their dao." This is basic knowledge. Minglan's eyes grow serious highlighting his foxy eyes handsomely "For young cultivators who haven't mastered concealing their feelings even more so it is easy to read. If someone frowns and their brows furrow we can see that they're upset or dislike something. To the An Xing gate, it can read our spiritual energy as such and casually pluck people from their more comfortable companions to ones they're unfamiliar with."

Da Chuanli mulls over this new and surprising information asking with subtle intentions "Then, is this supposed to be common information shared among the cultivation world?" Towards this Minglan fell silent for a few seconds with an obscure glint in his eyes. "Well, let us just assume some sects are luckier and more observant than others." Da Chuanli didn't ask anymore seeming to get what his master was hinting at without needing more context. 

He lowers his voice asking slightly "Master regarding the matter before, did you already guess something was wrong?" Da Chuanli observes with a bit of surprise as his master's face distorts in a rare show of conflict. In the past Minglan had felt it was odd but admits their sect was lacking in talent and members so winning only a few places each year was better than none. Although they were displeased they never questioned it since pulling off such a large scheme is not only extremely difficult but would require the collaboration of more than one individual. 

"...Having been able to enter the An Xing realm only once before it's still not confirmed." The sudden prosperity of the Golden Cloud sect wasn't suspicious. There have been plenty of other examples of sects growing large all of a sudden and expanding their territory and influence. If it was to manipulate the contest to allow Golden Cloud sects to always have the numbers advantage then why have a contest at all? They could just give each sect a strictly controlled number of participants. Why add the concept of chance? 

And why target their sect suppressing their numbers so tightly? This year especially, two seniors to escort their students. What's the difference between this year and last year to make them change the rules? Minglan rubs his temples feeling a headache coming on as this kind of deep thinking is more for his senior brother than himself. He could only do his best to protect his disciples until they returned and he could discuss his suspicions with his senior brother. He wasn't worried, he at least instilled enough survival instincts in them to let them have a better chance at surviving this An Xing realm than others. 

While they may not all be like his daughter and Da Chuanli they can at least run well. And if they couldn't run, Minglan didn't like to think about it and could only stay optimistic. He knew this place would be dangerous, already preparing his heart for the future. He just didn't want to think about what-ifs and would do his best to prevent those what-ifs from happening. Wanting to ease his master's mind Da Chuanli spoke up lightly "Master, Elder Shao contacted you saying he found some of my juniors. Did he say which ones?" 

As he predicted his master's expression really did ease up, his brows loosening while he nodded. Sipping the tea Da Chuanli poured him a minute ago that had cooled down slightly. "Qing Mianyang, Gu Ping, and Gao Chang have been found already. They're safe save a few mishaps here and there which were handled peacefully." The most concerning ones were Qing Mianyang and Chun Hua. Both were delicate little girls who never really suffered much under Minglan's steel wings so meeting up with them before night came was the most urgent. Da Chuanli was also concerned about this but considering Chun Hua was smarter than Qing Mianyang chances are the girl would be ok for a day or two on her own. 

In fact, with that girl's train of thought she would most likely even purposely skip the first day and settle on sending a signal tomorrow morning instead. Since both Minglan and Shao Lin found the people nearest to them already and the gate only spits them out into a certain area range. Most likely Chun Hua was holding onto her signals until it would be less active so it's easier to notice her location. Yu Ya, Shao Lin's little disciple. Da Chuali had no doubts that Shao Lin was losing his mind over this matter too but would be calmer as he hadn't seen a single signal in the sky that wasn't accounted for. Everyone who sent for collection had already been found.

Wang Lan Biyu...Is probably hiding herself on purpose due to unspecified reasons. To be honest, neither Da Chuanli nor Minglan expected to find Lan Biyu on the first day. Knowing her, there's a possibility that the girl would find them instead. Although their master did tell her to stay still. He knew Lan Biyu treated their master's words as law, yet couldn't help this nagging feeling in the back of his mind telling him he had overlooked something. He could only hope it was because he didn't know her as well as their master did as he had stated before.