Chapter 35: The Truth (2)

"If you did indeed lose connection with that area, then the side walls were already destroyed before Kang Bai even arrived at the scene. And the fact that his face was mutilated and the beast even committed suicide sounds quite far fetched. It seems someone staged this whole thing to confuse us and get away from trouble."

"Yes, looking at his face, it seems a huge rock came at him and he was crushed underneath it. But why would a rock suddenly come at him? And even if it does, it must have been thrown by the beast, and since this hit killed Kang Bai, I don't see any reason for the beast to self-destruct itself." Yuan Shuchun also put forward her thoughts and made their earlier assumption of 'heroic' Kang Bai invalid.

Elder Wu nodded and said, "Indeed, then this means, there was someone else present at the scene, someone who was able to contend against a high tier Qi Stealing Beast and quite possibly even killed it. And when he saw Kang Bai, he immediately killed him and staged the whole scene."

"A third party? I didn't see anyone coming out, except for you people." Elder Mu denied the existence of someone else being at the scene.

"Most probably that someone escaped from the scene while you were trying to recover the Qi Array." Elder Lai Chang who had yet to say anything spoke up.

"Could be. But I would still doubt he was able to escape." Elder Mu appeared as if he wasn't sure and there was something that was still missing in this new theory.

"We need to investigate this incident as soon as possible, however, what should we inform the crowd outside?" Elder Lai Chang asked as he rubbed his forehead with a deep frown.

Elder Wu came forward and said, "Do we even have a choice? Even if a third party was involved, we can't let this information be public. Imagine the chaos it would bring if we let this thing be known to the public. What would others think if it was known that someone entered one of the forbidden regions of Gracious Sword Sect, killed a high tier spirit beast, and even murdered an Outer Court Disciple. That too on the day of Inner Court Entrance Hunt. This matter will be blown away in huge proportions, so we can't let others know of the truth."

"We could say it was a disciple, not an outsider." Yuan Shuchun shrugged as if this wasn't something to be worried about.

"A disciple? Don't be ridiculous, Miss Yuan. You should know which rank of disciples are here right now, and their cultivation too. With average cultivation of 6th Level of Qi Refining Realm, they even have trouble with low tier Qi Stealing Moles. And against high tier Qi Stealing Mole, they won't even be enough to fill the gap between its teeth." Elder Wu replied back, this time in a tone with some frustration.

Elder Lai Chang nodded and said, "I agree with Elder Wu. We only have one choice, and that would be to tell everyone our first theory, on the heroism of Kang Bai. And we need to do our best in glorifying his reputation as much as we can."

Then he faced towards Elder Mu pleaded, "And Brother Mu, if anyone from higher management questions you, please only tell them that Kang Bai faced off with the high tier Qi Stealing Mole spirit beast all alone, and by the time the Elders arrived to calm down the situation, the beast had already committed suicide by self-destructing, which also led to Kang Bai's unfortunate death due to the after-effects of the self-destruction."

Elder Mu thought for some time and replied, "I can't think of any other way to get out of this situation. I will do as you have advised."

"Alright then, I think it's time for the second stage to come to an end. Let's get out and tell everyone about the heroic tale of our dear disciple, Kang Bai."

…

Stage two was the most important part of the Inner Court Entrance Hunt and in this stage the main objective of the disciples who passed Stage one was to collect as many beast cores of Qi Stealing Mole as possible.

This six-hour long stage tested the disciple's endurance, intelligence and determination. The elders wanted them to endure harsh underground conditions, showcase their intelligence in killing more and more Qi Stealing Moles and prove their determination to win.

Although only about four hundred disciples passed the Stage One and were qualified to stay, the rest of the failed disciples didn't go back to their cultivation abodes but instead many waited to see the result of Stage two. As the stage came to its end, they started to discuss and clamour about the participating disciples.

A disciple who had failed at Stage one said, "I don't know what others think, but I know for sure that this hunt Hou Xing's turn to shine even brighter."

Another disciple, standing beside him, disdained as he said, "Che, What is a mere Hou Xing in front of Ling Yun? If not for the Rank 4 skill book, do you think Ling Yun would have waited for this long?"

Their simple chat soon turned into a discussion as others beside them also joined in.

"I agree with this brother, the current fame that Hou Xing has on our Seventh Peak, Ling Yun already achieved it two years ago. And if not for his wrong time of joining, he wouldn't have been so low profile. I am pretty sure he is soon going to surprise everyone."

"Whatever. Ling Yun or Hou Xing, both of them are just newbies, they don't stand a chance against true geniuses. In my opinion, the most talented genius in this time's Hunt is Kang Bai. Everyone has seen his capabilities when he defeated an Inner Court Disciple with ease."

"What I think is, there are many crouching tigers and hidden dragons like Kang Bai on our Seventh Peak. And they were all waiting for this Hunt, and now, they are going to explode and show the world their talent and battle prowess."

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A/n: Ling Yun is the guy who was beside Ye Tian Yun in stage one and was commenting on the poor performance of others.

Earlier there was a typo and I put Jiang Yun instead of Ling Yun.

Jian Yun is some other character, he is top core disciple of Gracious Sword Sect. Elders mentioned him and his good performance when they were discussing the Grand Spirit Hunt at the start of the inner court entrance hunt. His role will come later.

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