NOVPUB'Something is up with him.' The abbot suddenly received a serious mental transmission from Elder Meng Shui. 'I sensed his spirit fluctuating when he stopped just now. Something is wrong with his soul.'
The abbot also nodded inwardly, 'Indeed, I sensed it as well, but now is not the time for this. The time of the domain is slipping. Prepare your disciples to depart.'
Still hesitant, the veiled woman nodded and turned to look at her disciples and gave them a nod as well. Elder Lei Ji seemed to have had a similar conversation with the abbot, as he did the same thing with the disciples from his own sect.
"Disciples, move out!" Standing at the edge of the jade platform, Arhat Jingwu spoke calmly, but his voice, enchanted with qi, drummed in everyone's mind.
Under his direction, all 18 disciples—7 from the Temple, 6 from the Wind Lightning Sect, and 5 from the illusionary Lotus Sect.
Once they reached the edge of the stone platform, an uplifted stone slit that seemed to be specifically attached for this moment moved and connected to the cloud bridge firmly.
The first ones to step on the stone were the girls from the Illusionary Lotus sect. A young woman named Xian Mei, who appeared to be in her late teens but was actually in her early thirties, was standing in the front.
But don't let her hear you talk about her real age, or she will look at you as if she could kill you with a stare alone.
She led the group with a calm and steady gaze that seemed to draw awestruck and admiring gazes from her fellow disciples, but the slight tremble of her limbs as she got closer to the cloud pathway said otherwise.
Xian Mei was not only the strongest among these girls, but she was also the leader of the group. So under the expectant eyes of the young women behind her, she stepped on the clouds, forcing her legs with every fiber of her will not to tremble.
Huff!
Once her feet touched the clouds, a puff of white smoke dispersed, making her feel like she had been thrown in the coldest dungeon.
Ba-dump!
'This is crazy!!! I cannot do this!' She could hear her heart racing in her ears. Even though she was complaining and crying in her mind, her body took another step forward, and she squealed like she had fallen into the valley itself.
But once she realized that she was standing on the clouds, stable, without any trouble, she started to calm down. The voice from the surroundings started to enter her ears once more.
"As expected of Sister Xian Mei, so cool!"
"She walks so confidently."
"I bet she can even face the blood demon Chi Zu with the same confidence."
'Oye, oye, oye, what are you bitches stammering about? You want me to face the blood demon? Are you mad?'! Xian Mei screamed in her heart and chose to take the dangerous road made of clouds instead of waiting and hearing them come up with some other absurd ideas.
"Woah, sister Mei, wait for us!" The girls realized that the woman they were talking about was already halfway through the cloud path and ran after her hurriedly.
Then came the turn of the disciples of the Wind Lightning Sect.
Lei Yiran, a disciple with lightning spirit roots. His talent allowed him to reach the 6th realm of the core formation stage at the age of 28.
He was the most talented, not only in this group but also among the inner sect disciples of his sect.
"Hmph! What a farce." With a haughty tone and nose in the sky, the young man walked towards the cloud step with confidence in his eyes. Yet unlike Xian Mei, who could hide her panic behind the indifference, he could not hide the trembling of his feet as he stepped on the cloud like a cat touching water.
As soon as his feet touched the cloud, he instantly retracted. "Hmph! A mere cloud cannot scare me."
"Then take a step forward." Suddenly a mocking sound from behind made Lei Yiran pause. He looked over his shoulder only to see his childhood sweetheart looking at him with a mock grin.
"What do you know? I was letting those girls cross the path first." With a snort, he looked back towards the front, where the girls had already reached the end of the passage; the light blush on his face intensified as he could practically feel the mocking gaze of his friend from behind.
To hide the embarrassment from his childhood friend and crush, he rushed forward with the same speed Xian Mei ran.
"Woah, look at him go." The woman chuckled at his running back and followed after him without hesitation. The others exchanged amused glances and followed after them.
Lastly, it was the turn of the monk who had been patiently waiting in line. Once it was their turn, they stepped on the path without any signs of fear or hesitation.
The elders and the abbot, who were watching their actions from the start, showed different reactions.
Elder Meng and Elder Lei were both blushing, seeing how their disciples were acting while inwardly cursing them.
"Cough! Those cheeky bastards act so unruly in the sect, and now they act like this."
"Indeed, I did not expect to see this side of Xian Mei as well."
Elder Lei narrowed his eyes and turned to look at the woman beside him. "She is your disciple, right?"
The smile on Elder Meng's face turned genuine as she nodded, "Passing hundreds of years in cultivation, that too in solitude, is torture. So I took Mei'er as my disciple to give me company in old age."
"What old age? You are only a hundred and—" Feeling the dreadful chill slowly creeping up to the back of his neck, the middle-aged man shivered and decided to shut up.
Abbot Liang Chen chuckled, seeing their interaction; his eyes slowly turned towards the gate, beyond which they could see nothing but swirling darkness mixed with a hint of purple-gold glow.
