“Take the carrier rune. Contact me when Fang Yuan goes to Tiannan Chaos Zone.”
Su Li handed out a jade rune that was made of celestial stone. Su Mu took it with a bewildering look.
How was the young lord of the sect suddenly involved?
Besides, what made Su Jiuzhou so sure that he would comply?
“I also want one!”
Su Yang suddenly stretched out his hand and looked at Su Li expectantly.
Looking at well-behaved Su Yang, Su Li smiled thoughtfully and threw a jade rune to him as well.
She didn’t worry that these two people would betray her.
They were just two chess pieces being exiled by a holy sect and not valued at all. They would not tell anything when they reported back with her carrier rune and no one would believe them.
Su Mu was confused when he saw Su Yang hold the carrier rune as if he had gotten something valuable.
Dang! Dang! Dang!
At this time, Yuxu Sect’s great bell rang three times. And a woman’s clear but cold voice passed through the big tactical matrix and spread through all halls for guests.
“I am Fang Ling, the holy girl of Yuxu Sect!”
“Every genius from different sects, please come to the Tea Peak!”
Su Li’s gaze flashed slightly and saw Su Xianyun and others went out. She also followed them.
As soon as she left, Su Yang exhaled deeply at once, with fear in his eyes. He looked up and found Su Mu was staring at him oddly. He said in a bad manner at once,
“Don’t look at me! Blockhead! Didn’t you realize Su Jiuzhou is an old fox? You dared to tell her everything. If she weren’t interested in Fang Yuan, we would have been killed!”
Glancing at Su Yang, Su Mu turned around and headed out.
Su Yang became angry immediately. He followed Su Mu and gritted his teeth, “Don’t you believe me?”
“You have cheated me enough!”
“I…”
“If Su Jiuzhou were an old fox, why would you take her carrier rune?”
“I would be useless if I didn’t take. Who knows whether she would kill me or not?”
“Come on. Don’t bother me.”
Su Mu speeded his steps and left Su Yang alone who was full of bitterness. Su Yang muttered, “I just cheated you once, and it’s true this time…”
Su Xianyun and the other two saw that Su Li was following them. They slowed down slightly. When Su Li was near them, Su Xianyun did a fist salute and said as Su Dieyin had instructed.
“I’m really sorry. The three of us did not mean to exclude you. It’s just because the rules of this year’s tea party are different from those of the previous year. We must discuss that thoroughly.”
Su Li shook her head, “Never mind. As practitioners, we should not care about these minor details. Could you explain the difference of this year’s tea party rules for me, senior fellow apprentice?”
“It will be best if junior sister apprentice doesn’t mind.”
Su Xianyun sighed with relief because he accomplished the master’s task. However, Su Jiuzhou did not seem to need an explanation to calm her down as the master said. She really did not care about it.
It was valuable that she had such a state of mind.
Thinking of this, Su Xianyun showed a smile, “As for the rules of the tea party, I just heard that from Master. I will tell you as we go.”
“Fine.”
Su Li smiled and walked with the three side by side. Su Yang not far behind Su Li got gooseflesh by this scene.
Su Li acted so naturally that he would never find out Su Li’s secret, if the thing just now didn’t happen.
What did this old fox want to do by sneaking into the tea party?
“On the previous tea parties, the winner could enter the core of the tea plant, get some tea leaves with luck and hand them to Yuxu Sect for frying. The fried tea could permanently enhance one’s understanding power. But It’ll be different this year!”
Su Xianyun’s face was full of pity. He said, “The last holy girl of Yuxu Sect went crazy. She ate half part of leaves and fought with the spirit of tea plant. The core of tea plant collapsed, so… It is a question whether we can get any leaves this year or not.”
Su Li blinked her eyes and didn’t say anything.
Did Mei Ruohan really become crazy? There was no reason for her fight with the tea plant, except for ruining the tea party for immortals.
Su Xianyun looked worried. Su Zheng could not help speaking.
“Master said there is no need to worry. Yuxu Sect should have reserved some tea leaves from previous years. We just cannot enter the core of tea plant and obtain the leaves by our luck. And the way to select winners must have been changed. It’s why Holy Girl Fang summoned us.”
“I also think so.”
Su Wenbing, who was quite unsociable, added sullenly.
They didn’t walk long before they saw the Tea Peak. From far away, they saw the aquamarine shadow of the tea plant reflected in the nothingness. The sight distorted as if it was not in the same world.
“The Immortal Tea Plant.”
Su Li narrowed her eyes. She also hosted a tea party for immortals.
This treant was left by the founder ancestor of Yuxu Sect. It might have an agreement with the old ancestor and it had stayed in Yuxu Sect all the time. Every five hundred years, it would change its leaves. The replaced leaves would be fried and presented to disciples of Yuxu Sect to enhance their power of understanding.
Countless years later, as the clout of Yuxu Sect declined, the rest of twenty-five sects became envious of that. They jointly forced Yuxu Sect to share the treasure after they had a discussion. The headmaster of Yuxu Sect had no choice but compromise, so there came the tea party for immortals once every five hundred years.
The law of the jungle was eternally immutable.
As Su Li’s lips curved slightly, she had already passed through the moon-shaped passage between these two peaks. On the Tea Peak, she saw a high platform on a huge square, which could accommodate a hundred thousand people. A tall girl in a white gauzy dress with a cold face was standing there lonely.
“How similar she is to her…”
Disciples of various sects came together in the square. Fan Zisang, one of Leiyuan Sect, looked up at the high platform and faintly heard a sigh coming from the jade token on his chest.
Fan Zisang gazed. Fang Ling look terribly similar to Holy Girl Su? The latter was the holy girl before the last one.
The jade token had been accompanying him for many years. Even if the senior never said, he had vaguely figured out that this object was related to the Bloody Accident of Holy Spirit back then. And even the practice method he practiced secretly was highly possible from Reincarnation Mirror.
“What was Su Li like on earth?”
Fan Zisang had been wondering that. Every time he thought of this name, his junior sister apprentice would appear in his mind.
“How is my junior sister apprentice in Ni Sect? The Grand Elder of Ni Sect should be that mysterious female senior…”
With his mind went far away, Fan Zisang settled down in the square with other people of his sect.
Su Li sat down on the seat nearest to the high platform and kept staring at the woman in white on the high platform.
Fang Ling sensed the gaze. She glanced at Su Li’s childish face, and withdrew her sight without stop. She spoke calmly to those people from twenty-five sects.
“Everyone, I am Fang Ling. On behalf of Yuxu Sect, I will host the tea party today. If there is any rudeness, please forgive me.
Due to the blockade of the tea plant core, the rules of this year’s tea party for immortals have been slightly modified after discussions with all sects. The selection contest and the places to the core are canceled. They will be replaced by a test!
The test has three levels. You can get points at every level. Yuxu Sect will take fifty tea leaves of top quality as a reward. Only the talents who rank fiftieth and before after three levels of the test can get the reward.”
Speaking here, Fang Ling’s gaze became cold, “Now let’s begin the first level.”
Rumble!
Runes of a giant tactical matrix appeared on the high platform, and a light pillar shot up into the sky in the exclamation of the crowd.
“It’s the Teleporting Matrix.”
It’s a bit excessive for such a small tea party, wasn’t it?
Su Li sensed the power on the ground driven by the matrix pattern was accumulating. She could not help thinking.
Su Xianyun and the others were not so calm. Their faces were pale, and they were very nervous. Why didn’t their Master mention the Teleporting Matrix?
Not far away, Su Yang’s face became furious. He cursed, “Damn it! How the hell could Yuxu Sect deploy a giant Teleporting Matrix? Nothing good will happen before that place opened! I knew it!”
Fang Ling’s face slightly froze as she heard the voice. She was about to see Su Yang’s face through the light pillar, but a soft hum interrupted her.
Her face turned pale and she was about to check again, but the Teleporting Matrix had started already. After a violent fluctuation of spiritual energy, everyone disappeared from their original places.
“That voice…” Fang Ling frowned her arched brows slightly.
“Ling.”
A gentle woman’s voice came up. Fang Ling flew down from the high platform immediately and saluted, “Master, the thing has been settled.”
“Good.”
The woman with a benign look smiled, “I saw you were a little distracted. What happened?”
“Nothing. I just felt that it was too cruel to do this.”
Fang Ling changed the topic, and she subconsciously hid the soft hum for no reason.
The woman kept smiling and looked at the mountain peaks surrounded by clouds in the distance. She said quietly, “Everything has a price to pay. The cause made back then and the result produced today, all need to be borne by all twenty-five sects together.”
Fang Ling couldn’t bear to do that. It should be them to atone for the crime, rather than a group of young people to be sent to death. They were less than thousand years old.
“You don’t have to feel stressful. They are just some fugitives. The passage is not stable enough. Those on the opposite side with a bone age more than a thousand years cannot enter the passage. So, it is a fair battlefield. It is time for them to get through some experiences. Those who can come back will be the mainstay of the future. Otherwise, we Qingshui Circle will be… in danger!”
Fang Ling was silent.
Fair? Would it be fair on a battlefield?
“Well, don’t think too much! Go and see your Senior Sister Apprentice. She is going to Luo Sect soon and is not in a good mood these days.”
Fang Ling saluted and turned herself into a streak of light. She flew to a cave that was full of icy pneuma. The two disciples guarding the door bowed to her when they saw her.
“Holy Girl!”
“Holy Girl!”
Fang Ling walked in without any expressions. An icy pneuma sprayed onto her face. It was extremely dark in the cave. The top of the cave was covered with ice cones, which were like blades stabbed on it and reflected an eerie cold light.
Following the ice surface to the deepest part of the cave, Fang Ling easily opened the gate in front of her and entered. The gate was about hundreds of meters thick
The temperature dropped once again.
Even the exhaled air was instantly frozen into broken ice and fell onto the ground. Fang Ling had to bring up her body spirit shield and managed to walk to the place that was full of thick chains.
A white-hair woman with a withered face was locked by the chains. She sat there as if she had been frozen into an ice sculpture.
“Mei Ruohan, I’m here to see you.”
Fang Ling’s voice trembled. It was hard to tell that the trembling voice was caused by the ice or a heartache.
Hearing this name, the ice-sculpture-like woman had a slight reaction. She slightly raised her head. A pair of eyes in the deep sunken sockets was revealed through her gray hair. But she didn’t speak anything.
Fang Ling took a deep breath and squatted down to transmit her voice, “Brother Luo is ready to take you out next month.”
Hearing these words, Mei Ruohan finally reacted and her dry lips moved.
“I won’t go.”