After the formation was broken and the three of them went out, they found that the maze was in fact only a very shallow cave. Had they tested their luck and really stayed inside, they would've most likely been found really soon and at that time, they certainly wouldn't have been able to escape.
Miwu Valley, the valley of dense fog, indeed lived up to its name. Even though they had the eyesight of cultivators, they could only see things within a radius of less than a hundred feet once they exited the cave. Boundless white fog obscured everything before their eyes. From time to time, they heard shouts and the sound of fighting from within the white fog.
Seeing this situation, Mo Tiange took out Green-Wood Sword so she would be ready to fight at any time.
Liu Yidao frowned. "This… Do we really have no other choice but to try our luck?"
Mo Tiange answered, "Such dense fog isn't necessarily disadvantageous for us. We only have three people in our group, so if the fog dissipates, we would certainly be defeated and teleported out before long. With our present situation, if we run into a few people, we can fight back, but if we run into many people, we can just hide and wait for an opportunity to ambush them.
"You're right." Qin Xi nodded. "Small groups inside this kind of dense fog are easy to handle."
Having established their plan, the three of them started to wander around. As they expected, from time to time, they did run into people fighting. They helped out if the people they ran into were disciples of the Yunwu Sect. However, whenever they ran into disciples of Jindao School or Zixia Sect, they fought only if the group was small and hid in the fog if the group was large. After they took cover in the fog, they would split up then use Summoning Talismans to meet up with each other again. In case they ran into disciples of the other two cultivation groups fighting each other, they would watch the fights from a distance and move to kill at critical junctures, fishing in troubled water so to speak.
Within the boundless white fog, about eight disciples from the Jindao School ran into what seemed to be ten disciples from the Zixia Sect. They started to fight right after they saw each other. Although in this fight, Jindao School had fewer disciples than Zixia Sect, their cultivation levels were comparatively higher. The two sides kept exchanging blows and were quite well-matched in strength.
Right when both sides were severely wounded and were about to determine the winner, countless Fire Thorns suddenly grew around them and trapped them in the center. Right after that, huge Bewitching Flowers, as well as various kinds of spells and talismans, flew towards them.
These disciples were already wounded and in addition to that, their spiritual aura was exhausted. Very quickly, every one of them was eliminated by those spells, leaving their identity tablets falling to the ground.
Once those Fire Thorns were removed, three cultivators from the Yunwu Sect appeared. Led by a tall, robust man, they picked all the identity tablets up.
They left the place without stopping for even a second and disappeared in the fog.
When the first day ended and nightfall arrived, the three of them went back to the location of the Eight Gates Life and Death Formation. Mo Tiange had laid another Maze Formation, so the three of them hid inside to rest and divide up their harvest while they were at it.
From this single day, they didn't obtain that much from direct wins. On the contrary, what they got from fishing in troubled waters was pretty good. They counted their harvest and found that unexpectedly, there were more than a hundred identity tablets.
Liu Yidao was both surprised and happy. He said, "This time, we really made a profit! There are more than a hundred identity tablets here. After dividing them, each of us will get about forty tablets. Since one identity tablet is worth ten spirit stones, each of us will get several hundred spirit stones in rewards!"
Mo Tiange was silently calculating in her mind. Yunwu Sect had about 300 to 400 disciples whose cultivation level was in the seventh layer of the Aura Refining realm or higher while Jindao School had slightly fewer. As for Zixia Sect, they definitely had more than 500. In other words, excluding the disciples of their Yunwu Sect, there were roughly 800 disciples whose identity tablet they could seize.
In reality, however, Zixia Sect was quite strong. Taking Jindao School into consideration, the numbers of victory and defeat between Yunwu Sect and two other groups would presumably be equal. In that case, the identity tablets they could seize would only be about 400. Moreover, half of Jindao School's identity tablets would probably be snatched by Zixia Sect's disciples, leaving only about 300 identity tablets to be seized.
Right now, they already had more than a hundred identity tablets. Even though this would be divided into three parts, becoming one of the ten top disciples shouldn't be a problem for them.
When Qin Xi, who was sitting on the ground adjusting his breath, heard what Liu Yidao said, he spoke in an indifferent manner without even opening his eyes: "Today's when most battles happen; the weak ones were probably all eliminated. I'm afraid tomorrow won't be as easy as today. We better not take any chances."
Once this cold water was poured over them, Mo Tiange and Liu Yidao became slightly more clear-headed. With an ashamed expression on his face, Liu Yidao promptly asked, "Junior Martial Brothers, how should we divide these identity tablets?"
Qin Xi opened his eyes and thought about it for a moment before answering, "It is thanks to Junior Martial Brother Ye's particular magic that we easily took advantage of our enemies without much effort. Give him a bit more."
Mo Tiange was startled. "This… How can I be that shameless?" Although what Qin Xi said was quite true, it was Liu Yidao who took risks to verify the situations with their opponents. Furthermore, it was Qin Xi's exquisite spells that made their opponents think Mo Tiange had many people in her group and therefore lose all desire to resist.
Liu Yidao was also an open-minded person. He admitted that although his technique was solid, he didn't have any special skills. He also wasn't like the two of them who could come up with a lot of plans. Therefore, he wasn't really bothered with this arrangement and said with a smile, "In that case, how about fifty tablets for Junior Martial Brother Ye and forty tablets each for both Junior Martial Brother Qin and me?"
Qin Xi had no objections and nodded his head.
Since they agreed on this matter, Mo Tiange no longer refused. She couldn't help but sigh in her heart. Although the path to immortality was challenging and people shouldn't think too highly of cultivators, not every cultivator was shameless and only focused on reaping the benefits.
Take these people Mo Tiange met for example. Liu Yidao was straightforward, Xu Jingzhi was caring, and Qin Xi, although indifferent, was attentive. Even though she received lessons in her childhood to be vigilant against others, nowadays, with this identity as Ye Xiaotian, she believed they were trustworthy.
Having stored the fifty-three tablets she got into her Qiankun Bag, she also adjusted her breath. Since Qin Xi had finished adjusting his breath, he was the one on guard duty.
In fact, nothing would happen even if no one was keeping watch—Mo Tiange was confident in her formation skills. This Maze Formation was the result of her and Second Uncle's painstaking efforts. This formation could easily trap Aura Refining disciples for several hours if they happened to walk into it. However, this was, after all, Miwu Valley; they could never be too careful here.
Voices suddenly emerged from inside the formation. Apparently, some people had just walked into it.
Mo Tiange opened her eyes. The three of them glanced at each other then took out their spirit tools and talismans.
The footsteps sounded like someone was staggering. Furthermore, the footsteps also sounded very urgent and chaotic. It seemed that there was more than one person.
"Senior Martial Sister Shen, how are you feeling?" It was a woman's voice. It was clear and hoarse at the same time and sounded completely anxious.
Mo Tiange frowned. This voice… sounds familiar…
After a long time, they heard another voice, "It's okay, I can still do this. Junior Martial Sister Wang, how's your injury?"
"I'm good, but my spiritual aura is almost depleted."
The two people were silent for a while then that Junior Martial Sister Wang spoke again. "I wonder what kind of place this is… there's actually no fog here. I really don't know if it's safe here."
Senior Martial Sister Shen said, "This is probably an Immortal's Cave left behind by our predecessors. Unfortunately, we don't know whether it's been found or not. We better try to look around."
Mo Tiange took out her sword and held it in her hand. Having determined their position, she walked slowly into the formation. Once she reached that position, she cautiously moved towards a certain corner.
All of a sudden, she was met with a spell, and several wood logs were hurled towards her. She had to move her body to dodge and was about to wave her Green-Wood Sword when she suddenly heard someone's excited voice.
"Junior Martial Brother Ye? Junior Martial Brother Ye, is that you?"
Mo Tiange was stunned. She then took a careful look at the two messy looking women in front of her. They indeed seemed familiar.
"Junior Martial Brother Ye, it's… it's me, Wang Qianyi!"
Mo Tiange was completely dumbfounded. "Senior Martial Sister Wang?" Wasn't this Senior Martial Sister Wang whom she met every day when she was gathering heavenly dew? Mo Tiange took a look at the other woman. She looked extremely familiar; her disheveled hair couldn't cover up her beauty. She hesitated for a moment before softly calling out, "This is… Senior Martial Sister Shen Bing?"