Inside the secret realm, night.
Cheng Sheng smiled as he looked at the large batches of the magic herbs in front of him. "Big haul! Big haul!" he said and laughed as he played with the magic herbs he and Fei Yin, and Wu Xi searched and gathered today. "I'll make an array to lessen the scent of the magic pills that'll escape as I refine the magic pills, so you deal with the walking corpses and other monsters that'll approach us and might interrupt with what I'm doing." He said as he waved his sleeves before he raised his hand and an array appeared beneath their feet. He needed to fully concentrate his mind to refine a large batch of magic pills.
Tomorrow will be the fourth day of the third stage, and they can't be sure what will happen next. Especially that thing…
His eyes narrowed as he made another array behind the first array. "Da shixiong. If that thing will be attracted and will come…" he said as he looked at Fei Yin.
"I know." Fei Yin said. Not only the humans will be attracted by the scent of magic pills, but the walking corpses, too. After all, magic pills contain a certain amount of qi of a pill refiner. It'll be delicious for those monsters, and would be extremely delicious to the dead.
"Wu Xi. While da shixiong deals with that thing, you deal with the rest of the monsters." Cheng Sheng said as he turned to Wu Xi.
Wu Xi nodded.
Cheng Sheng has confidence Wu Xi could deal with a thousand monsters. If not, he wouldn't have bothered himself to make a deal with him. He could just ignore him even if Shu Mu recommended him to him. Wu Xi is just any other customers Cheng Sheng made business with. "Then, let's roll!" he said as he sat down on the ground at the heart of the array while he took out his cauldron.
Wu Xi immediately went out and scouted the area while Fei Yin silently stayed with Cheng Sheng and watched him start concocting the herbs. When he heard Wu Xi's knock on the wall of the cave, he looked at Cheng Sheng one more time before he left the cave and the array.
Tonight will be a long night for them.
Outside the secret realm.
"Ugh… I am worried for Cheng-shixiong and da shixiong…" Lei Ling said as he bit his nails.
They could only see Chen Han's group, the Zunjingde Sect, the Shanliangde Sect, the Huakai Sect and Kang Ce who was running around all day killing corpses, whose score isn't any lower than Jing Hei's and Feng Mo's. Since there was no disciple assigned to Cheng Sheng and Fei Yin, as well as Wu Xi, they couldn't see the three people. The Alliance's disciple who was assigned to Chen Han's group hasn't went to Cheng Sheng and Fei Yin to check on them.
Just as they were thinking this, they heard Chen Han called the Alliance's disciple. "Hey." His voice can be heard from the Cleansing Stone. "What about Ah Sheng and Fei-shidi? Are they alright?" he asked him.
As an answer, the Alliance's disciple showed to them the Cleansing Stone and what seemed to be like a map was projected from the small Cleansing Stone. They saw a gold, a pair of green, a pair of red, a pair of brown, three gray, three blue and groups of yellow and orange lights. One red, one gray, one brown and the pair of green lights are huddled together. It was their group.
The pair of green lights is the Xinfaxian Sect – Feng Mo and Li Tian. The red light is the Youxiwang Sect – Chen Han. The gray light is a rogue cultivator – Yu Sheng. And the brown light is the Huli Sect – Xiao Le. The three blue lights are the Shanliangde Sect – Xi Ming, Xi Xing and Gong Xian. They are with one red light – Sun Yi of Youxiwang Sect, and two gray lights – the rogue cultivators Fu An – the mage, and Xiong Si – a sword cultivator. The group of yellow lights is the Huakai Sect – Tang Zhe, Tang Yun, Shan Lu, Guo Cheng and their fellow disciples. And the remaining brown light is Kang Ce of Huli Sect. The last is the group of orange lights with one gold light is the Zunjingde Sect – Jing Cheng, Jing Bai, Jing Hei and Jing Kang, with Qian Lin – the Qianxu Sect as the gold light.
"Huh?" Li Tian said. "There are only twenty-seven lights." He said after he counted them. "Excluding the Alliance's disciples, there should be thirty of us still left." He said.
"Three are missing… but there are no names listed as missing." Feng Mo said.
"The two are Ah Sheng and Fei-shidi." Chen Han said, his face serious.
"Then, the remaining one… is Wu Xi?" Xiao Le was startled.
"They can't be seen in the map." Yu Sheng said and frowned before he looked at the Alliance's disciple. "So that's why you can't go to them." he said. The Alliance's disciple nodded.
"What to do… they wouldn't wander to the forbidden area, will they?" Li Tian asked. His expression is filled with worry.
"No." Chen Han said. "Their names will become white if they'll be gone missing. That's what happened to Wu Xi." He said.
"Where could they be now…?" Feng Mo asked. "Wu Xi wouldn't have gone to kill Cheng-shidi, right?" he asked.
"He won't… I think." Yu Sheng said as he lowered his gaze.
"No way…" Xiao Le said and his face paled in fright. "C-can we go to Cheng-shixiong? We should help him, right?" he said.
"Xiao Le…" Li Tian called and lowered his head.
Xiao Le's eyes widened. "We can't?!" he said as he rose from his seat. "We can't ignore Cheng-shixiong. After all, he still did it for us all, right?" he asked. "Cheng-shixiong is also the target of the demonic cultivators. What if one of them slipped inside the competition?" he said.
Chen Han frowned. "That's…" he said.
"We can't be sure." Xiao Le said. "Thus, we have to go to Cheng-shixiong. We have to help him!" he said before his voice lowered. "This way, we might reconcile with him. He might forgive us…" he said before his tears fell.
"Xiao Le…" they said and smiled. They walked towards him and hugged him.
"Atta boy!" Chen Han said and patted Xiao Le's head. "You can actually be this witty!" he told him.
Li Tian chuckled. "That's right. We should save Cheng-shidi from Wu Xi. That way, he will be forced to accept our apology!" he said.
"That's really a witty idea!" Feng Mo laughed.
Yu Sheng just smiled on the side. "You can go to sleep. It's my turn to guard tonight." He told them and went outside.
The Alliance disciple looked like he was hesitating before he chose a spot and sat to sleep. Yu Sheng saw the Alliance's disciple remained inside. Outside the monitoring of the Cleansing Stone in the Alliance's disciple's hand, Yu Sheng closed his eyes as he concentrated his qi. Then, when he opened his eyes, he saw he's inside a cave. His nose was assailed by a fragrant medicinal scent he can feel his body is relaxing.
Cheng Sheng was sitting in the center of the cave and the array. He can hear the cries and growls of the monsters and walking corpses outside. Fei Yin and Wu Xi are fighting against them. Then, his eyes narrowed when he felt a heavy aura fast approaching their direction.
It was 'that' thing. He looked at Cheng Sheng before he went outside and saw Fei Yin and Wu Xi were pushing back the monsters and walking corpses from the cave. He drew his sword and a bright flash of light came from his sword and cut down the large number of the enemies.
Fei Yin and Wu Xi didn't need to turn to know it was Yu Sheng.
"That thing is coming this way." Yu Sheng said as he landed between Fei Yin and Wu Xi. "Get ready." He said and saw something jumped out of the forest.
A pair of bright red lights mid-air is glaring hungrily at the cave before it landed on the ground, and a large crack appeared on the spot. Some of the walking corpses and the monsters were blown away because of the impact.
"Hissss…" a sound came from its mouth. Its hair is disheveled and large chunks of flesh were bitten off its skin. Its flesh inside that is visible is rotting. Its clothes are ragged indicating it was violently torn. Its chest had a large gaping hole, barely holding its shoulder and its head. Its arms are bent into a strange shape, and its mouth was split open wide, it can be seen its tongue and teeth are missing, including its nose. Its eye sockets are also empty, as well as its throat.
The red light made from demonic qi replaced its eyes.