Just when Lyu Liang was worried about the other companions in the Thousand Beast Space, the other four were facing different situations.
In the passage where Zhu Yan was located, only a giant bear monster was left at the moment. However, it was strange that it did not launch an attack. Instead, it lowered its eyes and looked at Zhu Yan like a servant.
"Oh! I didn't expect you to have spiritual intelligence! Congratulations. So how about getting out with me? I can make sure you will be more comfortable than you are here." Zhu Yan stared at the giant bear with a smirk.
Although the giant bear could not speak, its eyes lit up when hearing this. It immediately nodded and put on a "You're my father" look.
"Haha, you're worth my teaching! 30 minutes later, I will take you into my cave residence. As long as you hold your breath, you will be thought to be killed according to the rule. Then I can go out. Understand?" Zhu Yan said while the giant bear nodded like a chicken pecking at rice.
At the same time, Li Wuyi had no such luck. "F*ck! Brothers, I count on you!" With a depressed roar, he crushed the small symbol in his hand. Subsequently, he disappeared into thin air with all kinds of demon beasts, which were pouncing on him.
Everything seemed unremarkable when Xu Mubai fought against the monsters. He had not knitted his eyebrows from the beginning to the end. A firm look was revealed in his eyes as if nothing could stop him from entering the Land of Origin. After a while, the last giant bear was killed and he disappeared on the spot.
The next moment, Xu Mubai appeared by Lyu Liang's side. Almost at the same time, Zhu Yan emerged and waved at the duo. After 30 minutes, Shangguan Ying and Li Wuyi came, but the latter had an ashamed look on his face.
Shangguan Ying looked confused for she was wondering why she was sent out while she was fighting with the giant bear. "Time is up? No, obviously not." Lyu Liang explained to them that three of them had passed the test, so she and Li Wuyi also passed.
Lyu Liang and Xu Mubai immediately went to comfort the dejected Li Wuyi. At last, the amusing quip Zhu Yan said made Li Wuyi regain his ambition and vitality.
When Lyu Liang and his fellows were in high spirits, celebrating the victory, in the main hall of the Thousands Beast Mansion appeared a large-scale cyan scroll, painted with countless cultivators who were fighting in the Thousand Beast Space.
Opposite the center of the scroll, there was a large tiger-headed chair. A burly elder with round eyes, sword-like brows, and white hair sat on it, his eyes radiating light full of battle intent. By his side stood a pretty girl in a blue robe. She was tall and slim with beautiful brows and almond-shaped eyes. Now she was hooking her arms around the burly elder's while shaking. Her charming little dimples revealed as she smiled. She seemed less than 16, young and brilliant. Five burly white-robed men stood in a row behind them. Each of their robes was embroidered with different beasts' heads.
"Grandpa! Look! Look at the young man in a white robe of Sword Character Immortal Palace! He is using the sword. And what is that? Is that a domain? Oh, impossible, he is only at Late-stage of Gold Core Level. What's more, according to the Immortal Palace's rule, why didn't he wear a yellow robe?" the pretty girl tilted her head and curiously asked the tall elder.
The tall elder looked at the girl lovingly. A faint smile was revealed on his grim face. He stroked her head and said softly, "Xiaoyu, this isn't a domain. It's only counted as something similar to the domain. However, he can comprehend the Sword Tao to such extent with his current cultivation. He is really a genius!"
"Ah? That is to say that he is stronger than me?! I am also at the Late-stage of Gold Core Level! No, I have to find a chance to spar with their team. I won't let him go easily!" the girl said with an unconvinced look, which caused the elder to smile wryly and shake his head.
At this time, behind their backs, the man, who stood in the middle of the line and had a lion head embroidered on his rode, spoke. "Dad, their team is too strange. Our advice is to avoid them! Especially the red-haired man let me remember a milord, who should not be here!"
Hearing this, the tall elder nodded and immediately stood up, staring at Lyu Liang's team with a serious look. Then he turned to glance at the five people behind him and said, "Give them my order that if our mansion's teams encounter the red-black haired youth and the handsome white-robed youth, they must admit defeat. As for the others, if the white-robed disciple of the Sword Character Immortal Palace is at the Peak of Gold Core Stage, they can fight with him; if his cultivation is lower than that, they will also have to admit defeat. Then I hope the remaining two, the boy and the girl, will be fine."
"OK!" The five people cupped their hands and bowed with one accord. Then they turned to leave.
The pretty girl kept silent, but she murmured inwardly, "My grandpa means that if I bump into him, I must admit defeat? Why? In what aspect am I inferior to him? Even if he has a superficial understanding of the domain, I have a secret technique of combining humans and beasts. No, I won't admit defeat. I'll lead my team to the area where I can fight with them!"
After one hour, the second test was over. Looking around, Lyu Liang found that the number of teams had really decreased. Now there were only a few hundred!
Soon, a mansion disciple stood up and announced loudly, "There will be 509 teams participating in the Martial Arts Contest. Now, you're allowed to rest for two hours. Then you're informed of the grouping list for the preliminary contest."
Lyu Liang took this opportunity to use his Divine Sense to check the other teams' levels. Soon, he turned to look at the back area of them and fixed his eyes on a team, not moving away.
What he saw was five men in black robes, embroidered with golden patterns and scarlet skulls! They were Lyu Liang's deadly enemies, the Blood Divine Sect!
Among them, a man wore a faceless mask, which seemed to have the effect of isolating the Divine Sense so that Lyu Liang could not see his appearance clearly. However, Lyu Liang had heard of the middle-aged man with whiskers by the man's side more than once, though he had not seen the man before. There was no doubt that he was one of the Seven Disciples of the Blood Divine Sect and also the culprit who had used the magic treasure frisbee to kill Xuanli Yue.
Shangguan Ying first noticed Lyu Liang's abnormal reaction. Following his gaze, she also saw the black-robed men and felt her heart miss a beat. She immediately pulled Lyu Liang's arm, talked to him by using sound transmission technique, and signed to him not to expose his identity. Lyu Liang got it, forced himself to turn back, and started to calm himself.
Just when Lyu Liang was having a rest and chatting with his fellows, someone patted his shoulder. Turning back, Lyu Liang saw a tall, beautiful girl, who was tilting her head and supporting her chin with her hands to stare at him. Her cultivation was the same as Lyu Liang's, the Late-stage of Gold Core Level. Behind her stood six mansion disciples, whose robes were embroidered with various beasts' heads. All of them were Early-stage Nascent Soul cultivators!
"Hey, little fairy, are you looking for me?" Lyu Liang looked at the girl in front of him and asked with a curious look. In his memory, she was definitely not a person who had an encounter with him.
"Yes, it's you! Who is the fairy? I'm Dongfang Xiaoyu! You must call me Big Sister Xiaoyu! Do you understand?!" The girl looked arrogant. She glared at Lyu Liang and got mad for she did not like people calling her any appellations with "Little". Being treated as a child made her feel bad.
Lyu Liang was startled. Dongfang? Her family name was Dongfang and she was guarded by the disciples of Thousands Beast Mansion, who were all at the Early-stage of Nascent Soul Level. It seemed she was from the Dongfang family and had high status.
"Kid, you must go with me now, I want to try my sword techniques with you! Whether you'd like to or not, you have to go!" Dongfang Xiaoyu was eager to fight with Lyu Liang by using her sword techniques. Who let her grandfather praise him?!
Lyu Liang was a little miffed. "I have been in a good mood, waiting to participate in the Martial Arts Contest. How did this overbearing little ancestor pop up?" Hence, he immediately refused and said in an icy voice, "Sorry, Miss Dongfang, I want to participate in the Martial Arts Contest and had no time to fight with you!"
Seeing Lyu Liang's expression, Dongfang Xiaoyu was upset, because no one had ever disobeyed her since she was a child. Little did she expect that this guy was as silly as a stinky piece of wood and had the strength of character.
"You, you! Humph, tell you! I've seen all the test scenes for the teams here! If you don't fight with me, I'll ask Third Uncle to let you fight the strongest team, see if you will gain the qualification for the Land of Origin easily!" Dongfang Xiaoyu had no choice but to say those words. Originally, she wanted to fight Lyu Liang in the Martial Arts Contest. However, the longer she stayed, the more upset she was.
"If they lost their fight in advance or could not get into the 32 teams, would I miss the chance to fight him?" Thinking of this, Dongfang Xiaoyu could not hold back her anxiety and came to challenge him.
Li Wuyi was a bit angry. He had been watching them with amusement, but he did not expect that this little girl actually threatened them. At the moment, he began to roll up his sleeves and was about to teach the naughty little girl a lesson, ignoring the six fierce Early-stage Nascent Soul disciples behind her.
"You mean, you have a way to adjust the grouping of each team's competition?" Lyu Liang reached out to block Li Wuyi, his eyes flashing with strange brilliance.
"Ah? Of course! I'm the only granddaughter of our family. If I don't even have this sort of power, what am I doing here?" Dongfang Xiaoyu's temper was really like a little girl's. She had just been anxious and angry, but now, she was looking very smug when she realized she had something to show off.
Lyu Liang thought for a second and suddenly nodded, saying in a low voice, "Okay! I'll fight with you! Now Let's go! But I want to bet with you! If you lose, you'll have to agree to my request!"
"Haha, you, a silly boy, finally got it! A request? What is it?" Dongfang Xiaoyu was delighted when she hearing this.
Li Wuyi, who had been resisting his urge to talk, answered quickly, "Little girl, rest assured! My brother has a Taoist wife, so he won't ask you to be his wife!"
Hearing this, Shangguan Ying and Dongfang Xiaoyu blushed at the same time. As long as Dongfang Xiaoyu ordered, the six Early-stage Nascent Soul disciples would cut Li Wuyi into pieces without hesitation!
"You, you! Shameless! Who would like to become this fool's Taoist wife?" Dongfang Xiaoyu really wanted to kill Li Wuyi now, yet she only dared to think about it. After all, she provoked them, so her grandfather would not agree to do this.
At the moment, Dongfang Xiaoyu, who puffed out her red cheeks, walked in front, followed by Lyu Liang, who looked relaxed, and the others. They came to a place with "Forbidden Land" carved on its signpost.
"Big Sister Xiaoyu! You're here. This..." said a Early-stage Void Return middle-aged man in a white robe, which was embroidered with a lion head. Seeing Dongfang Xiaoyu and others here, he immediately rushed to greet them for fear of offending this young lady.
Lyu Liang froze. "Shit, the Early-stage Void Return man would be a chief or a grand master for a small sect! Look at his appearance, he is old enough to be the little girl's father, but he actually called her "Big Sister Xiaoyu" so kindly... Looks like Dongfang Xiaoyu is extremely overbearing!"