CH 31.1

Chapter 31.1: Each Their Own Trial

The island for the field practice exam was located north of the void sea. The ranks of the spirit beasts on that island was not high. At most, they were only fourth rank so it was perfect for newly accepted disciples to train and increase their battle experience.

For some unknown reason, no high rank spirit beasts have ever visited this island. Even high rank spirit beasts brought by cultivators to the island would become listless or seem to cower. Thus, people had once wondered if there was an extremely high-ranked spirit beast on the island – perhaps an immortal beast – that caused spirit beasts of higher ranks to fear approaching. So several large sects had sent people to search the entire island. However, they never found any possible explanation for the abnormality.

After many years passed, this place became the training grounds for the newly accepted disciples of seven large sects. Due to the fact that each sects accepted new disciples at different times and they had mutual agreements, the training was well-coordinated and they usually didn’t run into each other.

Wuliang Sect had accepted 108 disciples this time. With the 11 people that had been accepted by Spiritual Master Lingwu last time, there were a total of 119 people going to the practice island to hunt spirit beasts. The person the sect sent out this time to lead the cultivators was the Master of the Law Enforcement Hall. He was in the Nascent Soul Stage so those unorthodox cultivators naturally did not dare to come commit crimes with him overseeing the training.

There were about a hundred newly accepted disciples sitting or standing on the air-traveling boat. The disciples under the same master grouped together in little groups of two or three. The eleven disciples of Spiritual Master Lingwu had high seniority and stood at the front of the boat in a tidy formation. Without particularly trying to, they ended up distancing themselves from the other newly accepted disciples.

Everyone talked about those eleven lucky people in hushed voices that were filled with admiration. However, no one dared to go over and strike up a conversation with them as the person behind that group was the Supreme Elder of Wuliang Sect, the strongest existence in the Sect. Just the title was enough for people to feel respect from the bottom of their hearts.

Li Xinmei stood in a corner of the air-traveling boat. Not far from her was a little group in which three disciples of the Array Sect formed the core. They moved to form a circle and excluded Li Xinmei.

The Elders of the Array Sect had once held high expectations of Li Xinmei and placed high hopes on her. However, her ability failed to fulfill expectations and turned out pretty mediocre. Thus, people felt dissatisfied with how special she was treated. Fang Dingyuan whose cultivation advanced the fastest and who had a lot of innate skill in arrays was particularly dissatisfied and found Li Xinmei displeasing to the eye. Of course, they wouldn’t do anything like bullying. They simply distanced themselves from her silently and excluded her.

“Our Sword Sect will definitely be able to hunt down even more spirit beasts this time now that we’re collaborating with comrades of the Array Sect.” The young girl speaking had willow leaf brows and peach flower eyes. Her figure was graceful and fair and the white disciple garment she was wearing made her tender features even more beautiful. She smiled sweetly as she looked towards Xu Wei who was next to her. “Luckily Senior Brother had good foresight and pulled you three into our group before anyone else could.”

Xu Wei was ranked third of the newly accepted disciples. Due to the fact that his blade techniques already possessed killing intent, after he joined the Sword Sect, he was taken by a Golden Core Stage cultivator as a star disciple. Hence, his status within the newly accepted disciples immediately rose and he naturally became a highly respected figure amongst the new disciples of the Sword Sect.

The Array Sect had only accepted a total of four disciples this time around. They had no chance of seizing victory on their own. So, wasn’t this arrangement of working together, with the Sword Sect getting first place and the Array Sect getting second, a perfect plan that satisfied both sides? In addition, Xu Wei also had a little selfish motive: he wanted to repair the relationship he used to have with Li Xinmei.

Only after one truly loses something would one realize how great that person once was.

Not to mention, the person he lost was not a Li Xinmei that had been eliminated and possessed nothing, but an aloof and remote Li Xinmei who was highly valued in the Array Sect. His idea had been a good one. It had convinced Fang Dingyuan of Array Sect to work with them. However, unexpectedly, Li Xinmei was not included.

Bai Shuzhi saw that Xu Wei had glanced a couple time to the side at the female cultivator from the Array Sect and immediately asked, “Isn’t that the lady that appeared on the stage during the formal disciple acceptance ceremony? I thought she was our senior sister. So she’s also a newly accepted disciple. Why is she…”

All halls within Wuliang Sect were intense rivals. No matter how much the disciples from each sect did not get along, they would, due to their teachers’ requests, work as a team temporary on the practice exam island. Thus, an occurrence in which a person would be left out was rare.

“She’s arrogant and highly valued by the Elders, how could she possibly need to cooperate with us?” The person that spoke was Fang Dingyuan’s junior brother. After he finished speaking, he even humphed. It was clear that he did not like Li Xinmei.

Not far away from this group, two young girls wearing crimson disciple clothing from the Red Dress Hall were leaning against the side of the ship. One of them was holding a peach flower branch and languidly pulling off the petals. When there was a good amount of petals in her hand, she spread out her palm and blew. Numerous peach blossoms fluttered about as they drifted down; it was as if it was raining peach blossoms.

Only a small number of the petals were actually real. Most of them were illusions she created with a spell. However, it looked extremely real and added a bit of warmth to the air-traveling ship that had uninviting decor.

“Look, the Sword Sect has grouped up with the Array Hall.” She tossed away the now bare branch. “This time no one has come from the Weapon Sect. Master said that we must obtain first place but they have so many people. What do we do?”

As for those eleven people from Heaven Firmament Peak, they were all seniors so they probably won’t be grouped with the younger generation?

“It’s not like they can win with just numbers.” The other young girl gave a light humph, then said with a disdaining tone, “The Blade Sect has the most members this time around. It can’t be that they’d end up getting first place?”

There were a total of forty disciples from the Blade Sect on the air-traveling boat and Zhang Zhizi was one of them. Though the Blade Sect disciples were angry upon hearing the way the cultivator from Red Dress Hall ridiculed them, they didn’t dare to explode. Each of them endured it but their expressions were not pretty at all.

Zhang Zhizi didn’t hear what those two girls were talking about at all as he was sneaking peeks at Li Xinmei. If Li Xinmei had said something in his favor back then, he could have entered the Array Sect. However, she didn’t and he ended up entering the Blade Sect which was ranked the lowest. His monthly allowance was a whole bunch less than those the disciples of other halls received. And even though they had the highest numbers, they had to endure humiliation at the hands of other disciples.

He was young and short so after he lowered his head, he was submerged by the crowd.

Li Xinmei did sense that someone seemed to be staring at her. That gaze made her a little uncomfortable but the feeling of being shadowed disappeared when she turned to look. She was planning on laying down an array around herself just in case when she saw Yin Li walk over towards her from the head of the boat with a cheery smile.

“Li Xinmei, I’ve promised Grannie that I’ll look after you so come over here with us.” After she finished speaking, she swept an eye over the disciples around them. The meaning of her look was that Li Xinmei was someone she was protecting so if someone foolishly dared to bully her, that meant picking a fight with the Heaven Firmament Peak.

Zhang Zhizi who was hidden within the crowd turned pale, seeming disturbed. What grannie? Could it be it was the one from the foot of the mountain…

Zhang Zhizi felt intense regret. Not to mention, he definitely wouldn’t be forgiven after the choice he made back then.

Su Tingyun was a grandee of Heaven Firmament Peak. After Spiritual Master Lingwu’s other disciples learned that Li Xinmei was Su Tingyun’s granddaughter, they treated her very amiably as well. When the others saw this, they had no choice but to extinguish any other plans they had involving Li Xinmei.

__________

Credits: Translated by Chiyomira, Proofread by Yours Truly