——(POV Li Huang)——

Within a minute, I got surrounded by other disciples of our sect. If I didn't have my own tool that assured me that these are from the heavenly sword sect, I would have to use the 'attack first, ask questions later' policy.

'I mean who wouldn't if they got surrounded by 9 strong opponents.'

The moment that they come close to me and looked more like a group of paparazzi instead of a group of assassins they greeted me.

""Senior brother!""

I greeted them back simply with a nod.

Well, not everybody was enthusiastic about greeting me in this group but in all honesty, I couldn't care less about them at this moment.

Looking around to locate Hu Anjing, I heard her voice before I could see her.

"Junior uncle, you have finally shown up!" Her sarcastic tone was the same as always.

Turning to look at her face I talked back.

"What can I say, the sunbath was just that good." I shrugged at her words.

She gave a light punch to my arm and pointed in a direction.

"Let us talk there junior uncle." She gestured me to follow her.

"Sure." I nodded and followed her.

"Junior sister Ye Ling, you too should follow me." Hu Anjing said as she was passing Ye Ling.

She just nodded and followed.

Now that Ye Ling is also added to this 'talk' I think this is going to be a meeting between the leader and the vice leaders.

Feeling an intense gaze locked to my face I turned to see who is the perpetrator, to my bewilderment, it was Ye Ling.

It didn't take me long to figure out what she wanted and before her gaze bore a hole in my skull, I gave her some snacks.

"Take these, junior sister." I know that it is her personality so I didn't take her actions to heart.

"Anjing do you want some too?" before Hu Anjing could use this chance to throw a sly remark I extended the offer to her.

"…sure, why not." She looked as she knows what I did but didn't care much about it.

In a few minutes, we were at the temporary camp that they had made. Most of the things here were unloaded from storage rings so it isn't that hard to set up something like this.

Sitting down on a chair I looked at Hu Anjing to start this meeting.

She didn't disappoint and soon started talking.

"First of all, junior uncle, where have you been these past two weeks?" she asked me.

"I was in the desert next door from the moment that I entered the trial." I told her. It may seem a waste of time from someone else's perspective but to me who could see the location of all the formation it was all profit and I think I have gained more than all of our disciples combined.

I'm not planning to tell anyone about the [Soul splitting scripture] for the simple reason that it would create many problems if it is known so I rather keep it to myself.

As Hu Anjing knows me on a personal level, she knows that my answer also meant that I won't be sharing any more details so she didn't bother asking further and nodded.

She took out her [Bird eye] and put it on the table.

"This is the area that we have covered in these past weeks." With a hand gesture, she made the map appear and she proceeded to tell me how she gathered everyone and how it went.

"That is actually smart to search this way." I told her.

"Now, you can add this map to it too." I projected my own [Bird eye] map beside their map.

The distance that I have traversed was one-twentieth of them but I was satisfied with it.

With the map now containing new areas, I told them what I know about the topology and the beasts of the desert area.

Hu Anjing also asked a few questions about the region after my explanations to clarify some things but nothing complicated for me who knows every nook and cranny of it.

Now it was Hu Anjing's turn to tell me about the points of interest in their map and the types of beasts that they have come in contact with so far.

They have been into 8 different terrains so far and there was a lot of information to share but I know that it could be very useful for me so I didn't slack off and even took a note from the things that I thought were super important.

Luckily, all these talks were done before Ye Ling finished her snacks so I didn't have to refill them for her.

"So what is the next plan of action?" I asked Hu Anjing the main question. If there is nothing specific planned, I'd rather take my chances going solo as I have done for the past two weeks.

"…Actually I located a formation and I want you to go with me for the test, junior uncle." Hu Anjing said.

As I have known her for a long time, I know when she uses 'actually' to start a sentence that might seem sudden, there is no suddenness in it. In fact, she most likely created all the other topics to talk about so that she can talk about this specific topic.

I didn't mind it, I just wanted to know the reason behind it so I tried to pry for more information.

"There is a formation that accepts multiple entries at once?!" I didn't see anything like that in the desert region.

"It is not that it accepts multiple entries, it needs two persons to enter simultaneously to work." Hu Anjing said and I got really interested in this formation.

"Interesting, how many points does it need?" I asked her. What I was short on right now was points so if we have to go to a place like this I need to get some points as I have 48,366 points now.

"Don't worry junior uncle, it is only 75,000 points for each of us." She said to reassure me but all it did was lowering my spirit.

"I…uh. Well, I need a little point as I have used them on the way…" I told her with an apologetic look on my face but contrary to my expectation, she didn't get dejected because of this setback but got more invigorated.

"I have a plan for that too." She had one of her battle-crazed smiles on her face and now I know that she was expecting this too.

"I'm all ears…" I laid back in the chair and waited for her explanation.

"You see junior uncle when I have just entered the trial, I was in a mountain area." She started explaining.

"…so after I had killed about two hundred of these beasts, I felt a strong presence near me and I followed it and found a bigger version of these beasts." The more she explained the more my brows were furrowed.

What she was saying was in essence the plot of many scary movies; 'OMG! A dark and deep hole in the ground where sounds of excruciating screams are coming out. I guess I have to get inside.'

Why do people even do these kinds of things? As I was deep in my thoughts, Hu Anjing's explanation continued.

"That monster was hard to kill but when I killed it, I got 4,000 points from it!" she said and got my full attention back.