"Oh! You seem to be resisting my pressure", the lady in the air looked toward Zhan Chen with a surprised look on her face.
"Senior, it is a pleasure to meet with you. May I know why have you stopped me?", Zhan Chen asked with a calm expression on his face.
"Zhan Chen, I have other account to settle with your clan but before that I want to know what happened in the Serpentine forest", the gracious looking lady spoke.
"Senior, if it is not much can you tell me your name? If I can recall, my family has never dealt with a powerful senior like you", Zhan Chen looked towards the lady in the sky.
"Hmph! It is true that your immediate family has nothing to do with me but it does not mean you can escape the responsibility of your ancestors. I will hold the current generation accountable for the misdeeds of the old", the gracious looking lady spoke with a snort. There was visible anger on her face as she looked towards Zhan Chen.
"As for my name, it is Ruoxin and my clan name is Huang", the lady added further.
"Now tell me clearly what happened when you entered the Serpentine forest. I want to know every details of your test because few of my juniors are yet to come out of the forest", Huang Ruoxin spoke.
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"Where are you untill now? You should have atleast informed someone if you found something so suscipicious", Huang Ruoxin glared towards Zhan Chen after hearing his words.
"Forget it. There is no point in talking with irresponsible men", she spoke before flying towards the Serpentine forest.
"Irresponsible?", Zhan Chen stood shocked for a moment before shaking his head in amusement. "It may be important for you because your clansmen are involved. But why should I give this incident priority? I have come out without trouble and none of my women are involved. It is obvious that I will focus on my woman before thinking about public good", Zhan Chen thought to himself.
"Young friend Chen, what should we do now?", he heard a question and turned to his side. The Fang clan cultivators were adjusting their bearings because the aura of Huang Ruoxin was too much for them.
Zhan Chen looked towards the old expert who had asked the question and a pondering look appeared on his face. "Senior, I think we should follow her and go the the Serpentine forest ourselves. The Spirit palace experts must have taken some steps after hearing her information", he replied to the old expert of the Fang clan.
"Young friend, you are telling the truth. There is no point in wasting our time here", the old expert from the Fang clan agreed to the suggestion of Zhan Chen. They followed after Zhan Chen and raced towards the Serpentine forest.
'
There were grim looks on the faces of Spirit palace experts after they heard the words of Huang Ruoxin. She was adamant about entering the forest but the Spirit palace experts denied her entry.
? "Girl from Huang clan, please control yourself. Let me check first and I will inform if there is any problem inside the Serpentine forest", the Spirit palace emperor realm expert spoke.
Huang Ruoxin nodded her head as she couldn't offend Spirit palace just because of her whim. She waited patiently as the Spirit palace expert entered the Serpentine forest.
"I can't beleive this", the emperor realm expert from the Spirit palace murmured as he saw the dire state of the participants. The magical beasts were rampaging as they were inflicting injuries after injuries on the top hundred participants.
"How did the situation turn into this?", the Spirit palace expert murmured with shock as he saw the desperate struggle of the participants. He immediately released his aura and the magical beasts scuurried away in fear.
"Everyone, please don't panic. The top ten cultivators are already choosen. So, there is no point in continuing the competetion any longer. All of you can follow me and leave the forest", the emperor realm expert spoke.
He took out a tailsman and sent a signal to nearby Spirit palace experts. His goal was to check if any other participants left out in the Sepentine forest.
Zhan Chen and Fang clan experts just arrived infront of the Sepentine forest when the remaining participants were coming out. A frown appeared on Zhan Chen's face after saw the pathetic state of the cultivators.
"Yuxing, what happened to you?", a panicked voice came from the air as Huang Ruoxin rushed towards the returning participants. Her eyes were on a female cultivator who was walking with difficulty with the support of her sword.
"Aunt Ruoxin", a relaxed expression appeared on the female cultivator's face after she saw the rushing Huang Ruoxin. Her eyelids became heavy on it's own as she lost her conciousness.
The Fang clan also rushed towards a certain direction as they found a junior of their own. There were chaos everywhere as various experts rushed forward to look after their own geniuses.
"Can someone tell me, how many participants returned?", a cultivator asked in a loud voice.
"There are eighty six total including those who have come out earlier", a Spirit palace expert replied.
Groups of powerful cultivators entered the Serpentine forest and when they returned, there were grim look on everyone's faces. It was because they were carrying some mutilated bodies and there were visible anger on some of the experts' faces.
The cultivators who had died were the best of the younger generation. So, it was natural to feel anger if they lost them like this just because of a test.
"Spirit palace, we want an explanation", various powers started a ruckus as soon as the chaos settled a little. Zhan Chen stood with the Xuantian sect experts as he saw the words of confrontation erupted infront of him.
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"Everyone, calm down", finally a mighty voice came from the distant sky and it drowned all the noises among the crowd. The person in question seemed to be far away yet his words reverberated in the surrounding area.
Zhan Chen felt slight uneasy as he knew what kind of expert was coming. Long before, a wizened man appeared infront of the discontent crowd.
Everyone, what happened is really unfortunate. All we can do is offer condolences. But please rest assure, we will surely find out the reason before tomorrow morning.
All cultivators are requested to come tomorrow because the prize will be awarded tomorrow morning. The reason for today's turmoil will also be announced before awards are given to remaining eighty four participants", the wizened expert spoke.
The powers who had lost their juniors wanted to say something but they hesitated after feeling the invisible aura coming from the expert.
The gathered Spirit palace experts talked with everyone and they persuaded the crowd to wait untill next day morning. The crowd started to dissipate slowly but Zhan Chen felt a gaze on him while he was talking with the Xuantian sect experts. He turned his head and found Huang Ruoxin looking towards him. She snorted a little before looking away.
"This woman has definitely some grudges with my Zhan clan. I need to sort it out unless she make some trouble for us", Zhan Chen thought to himself.
"Zhan Chen, we should also go. None of our sect disciple is harmed. So, we can call us fortunate to escape such a disaster", one of the Xuantian sect elder spoke.
Zhan Chen nodded his head and boarded the flying treasure of one of the elder from the Xuantian sect. They had flown a little when an all encompassing aura covered the flying treasure.
Zhan Chen could see that the peak expert was looking at his body with his soul consciousness. He felt little nervous but he still faced the gaze of the wizened expert with confidence on his face.
He supressed his cultivation to the Core condensation realm and let it fluctuate a little. And according to his expectation, the expert withdrew his soul consciousness after seeing through his false state of cultivation.
"You are indeed a very talented young man. Your cultivation is yet to reach Martial ascension realm yet you obtained the first position in this grand sect competition. Congratulation, from my Spirit palace. You indeed live upto the name of your clan", the wizened expert spoke.
"Thank you senior", Zhan Chen acted courteously and spoke with the mighty expert from the Spirit palace. Their conversation lasted for a brief moment and Spirit palace expert bid his farewell.
"Finally!", Zhan Chen felt a stone from his heart lifted after the mighty expert from the Spirit palace left.
"This Spirit palace is indeed something. It is only a competition among the junior generation. Yet, they have sent a sage realm expert to watch over it", Zhan Chen thought to himself.