Chapter 183: Invitation

“I’ll need to see what this beast looks like in full before I can be certain,” Zhuo Yifeng replied. “Based on its tentacles, it has to be rather gargantuan in stature, but even the largest beast has weak points. If we can find these weak points, it’s not impossible to kill such beasts in one shot.”

Back in the imperial territory, Yun Ruoyan had only managed to kill the saber-toothed tiger because she had targeted its weak point.

“Really, Brother Zhuo? Can you really kill it in one shot?” Lin Qingxue’s eyes gleamed as she looked fervently at Zhuo Yifeng, her fear of the beast having greatly diminished from before.

Actually, Yun Ruoyan didn’t think this supposed eight-legged evil spirit was very frightening, because she could sense that its cultivation wasn’t particularly advanced. The only reason it had managed to kill so many people in one go was because of its sneak attack and because everyone had been momentarily stunned by its frightening appearance.

After being caught by the feelers, the victims had screamed and run away, without trying to counter the beast at all. The reason these scions from the four kingdoms had passed the earlier trial was largely because of their families’ powerful spiritual weapons, not because of their own talent.

This was why Kongming Academy was so restrictive in terms of enrollment, as well as why their spiritual weapons had been confiscated before entering the secret realm.

“Since this oasis has a magical beast, the other oases surely will have some too,” Yun Ruoyan began. “We only have three days, so it’s not going to be effective to run around all these oases. I think that, if we cooperate, we can probably kill this eight-legged evil spirit.”

Lin Qingchen, Lin Qingxue, and Zhuo Yifeng all agreed with her words. However, because it had already turned dark and their visibility was dramatically reduced, they decided to take action tomorrow instead.

With some newfound free time, the party sat down and checked the contents of the storage pouch that they’d picked up before entering the realm. The contents of each pouch was more or less identical: each had two bottles of medicinal pills, one each for external and internal injuries. They were regular spiritual pills, with nothing particularly special about them.

In each pouch was a map, depicting the various oases and the type and rank of the magical beasts lurking within them. The oasis that Yun Ruoyan’s group was in was clearly marked as the lair of an eight-legged evil spirit, a mid-rank beast.

Yun Ruoyan began to reflect on her own actions while looking at the map. She should have investigated the contents of the pouch immediately after obtaining it; if not for Qiuqiu’s warning, would they also have rushed into the lake?

They likely wouldn’t have died, but her carelessness had put her entire party into danger. Even those students who had fallen into the beast’s grasp would have survived had they only checked their map beforehand.

In a place like this, carelessness could easily kill.

The pouch contained, in addition to the map and spiritual pills, an illumination device consisting of a tablet inlaid with some luminescent material. The party huddled together in a circle, illuminating their maps with their tablets as they discussed their plan.

The map indicated eight oases in all, as well as the highest-ranking beast in each one. The oases were each about a kilometer apart, and the one that they were currently at was the smallest and had the weakest beasts.

One of the larger oases apparently contained ‘snowfield apes’, which rather confused Yun Ruoyan’s party.

“Don’t snowfield apes live in the icy tundra? Why would they appear in this desert habitat?” Lin Qingxue asked curiously.

None of the others could come up with a reasonable explanation, and they decided to stay away from that oasis. After all, they would only be here for three days. Even if they killed one such powerful beast daily, they would only have three kills in three days—it wasn’t expedient to focus on beasts that were too powerful or for which they had too little information.

Their plan was to lure out the eight-legged evil spirit with Yun Ruoyan, Lin Qingchen, and Lin Qingxue as bait. Zhuo Yifeng would be responsible for killing the spirit from afar.

After their discussion, they decided to rest. Zhuo Yifeng took the first night shift, and Yun Ruoyan would take the second.

At the same time, in the large oasis neighboring Yun Ruoyan’s little one, Yi Qianying and Wang Meng were being attacked by a group of magical beasts: about two dozen red, hairy spiders, each about half a man tall. However, despite their scary appearance, they were only low rank.

Anyone who was a fourth- or higher-rank blademaster would be able to take them on with ease. Because Yi Qianying and Wang Meng’s group was rather large in number, they managed to dispatch the group of spiders without much effort, though they weren’t worth very much.

As the sun set, the crowd separated into two groups by a lake to rest. Yi Qianying and her team had also discovered the map in their pouches, and also gathered to discuss it. The map showed that their oasis was particularly large in size and contained low-, mid-, and high-rank magical beasts. Given their combined cultivation and the helpers they had with them, it wasn’t a problem for them to deal with mid-rank magical beasts, but they weren’t confident in handling high-rank ones.

“How about we kill some mid-rank beasts and collect their cores first?” a young master proposed.

“We only have three days, and I doubt we’ll be high up in the ranking if we only kill mid-rank beasts,” Yun Ruoyao replied. “Given how many people we have, we should be able to challenge some high-rank ones.”

“That’s too dangerous,” the young master replied. From his looks and tone, it was clear that he had relatively little experience fighting. In fact, most of the youths in their team were similarly disadvantaged: most were fifth-rank blademasters whose cultivation was a result of insipid training regimes in the comfort of their own homes, fortified by a healthy dose of spiritual pills. Few had actual combat experience.

“That’s right—we just got here, and we’re unfamiliar with the surroundings. Why don’t we start small?” The other young masters and misses were clearly in agreement with the safer suggestion.

On the other hand, Yun Ruoyao’s goal was victory. She frowned as she looked toward Yi Qianying and Rong Yueshan, only to find that Yi Qianying was looking somewhat absent-mindedly at the group opposite theirs instead. Following her gaze, Yun Ruoyao saw none other than Pei Ziao.

Really, cousin, it’s unbecoming to pine after a man who’s clearly uninterested in you!

“Miss Rong, what do you think?” Yun Ruoyao then turned to Rong Yueshan. After all, she had only entered the group halfway; the heart of the team was actually Rong Yueshan.

Rong Yueshan was inwardly in agreement with Yun Ruoyao, but when she glanced at the young masters and misses all around her, she thought for a moment and replied, “It’s getting late, so why don’t we rest? We can discuss this more tomorrow.”

Yun Ruoyao wanted to continue voicing an opinion, but she stopped short when she saw Rong Yueshan’s impatient expression. She was starting to have second thoughts about joining Rong Yueshan’s group.

“Brother Pei, have you noticed that crown prince’s concubine staring at you?” In the other group by the lake, Wang Meng nudged Pei Ziao.

Pei Ziao glanced at Rong Yueshan’s group and coincidentally made eye contact with Yi Qianying. As he did so, he looked back in disdain—how disgraceful it was for a married woman to look at him with that sort of gaze!

Faced with Pei Ziao’s gaze, another layer of ice formed over Yi Qianying’s already frozen heart. She didn’t know what she was doing, either; the entire way here, she had repeatedly emphasized to herself to treat him just as she would any other man, but she had still subconsciously turned toward him just now.

Yi Qianying’s stay at the crown prince’s manor was decidedly unpleasant. Although the crown prince hadn’t married anyone else before her, his manor was filled with all sorts of beautiful women with whom he whiled away the time. She had only seen the crown prince the night of her wedding, when he had been so drunk that he thought she was Yun Ruoyan. After that, she hadn’t seen him once—he hadn’t even bothered to talk to her about entering Kongming Academy!

In the crown prince’s manor, she felt as though she were a transparent figure, despite only having married him less than a week ago. If the crown prince were to continue ignoring her, then her life would only get worse and worse.

As a result, whatever the cost, Yi Qianying had to make it into Kongming Academy.

“Sister Ruoyao,” Yi Qianying pulled Yun Ruoyao aside. “The members of this group are all too weak, and there are so many of them that we won’t be able to get too many beast cores. Why don’t we leave the group and work alone?”

Yun Ruoyao had arrived at the same conclusion.

“Miss Yun, Concubine Yi,” Wang Meng’s voice came from afar, interrupting Yi Qianying and Yun Ruoyao’s conversation.

“Young Master Wang, is something the matter?” Although Yun Ruoyao recognized Wang Meng, she wasn’t familiar with him.

“I have a proposal for the two of you.”

“Please speak, Young Master Wang.”

“My current group isn’t as prepared as I would have liked. After discussing matters with Young Master Pei, I’d like to form a group with the two of you to hunt some high-rank beasts. Is this something you might be interested in?”

Yun Ruoyao was naturally all too happy to accept, but she still made a reserved expression as she countered, “Young Master Wang, please allow me and my sister some time to think matters through. We’ll give you a response by tomorrow.”

Wang Meng nodded, then returned to his own group’s campsite.

The reason that Wang Meng was participating in the trial was to get revenge for his dead brother, Wang Kuang, not to enter Kongming Academy. After deciding that Yun Ruoyan wasn’t very suspicious, his next point of action was to test Yun Ruoyao and Yi Qianying.

When Jin Fei’er died, she had only mentioned the three Yun siblings. However, Yi Qianying was a fourth Yun sister in all but name, and she might have played a role as well. He wouldn’t spare anyone who had conspired against his brother.