Xue Mingzhao looked down at the demon beast cores scattered all over the ground, then raised her head to look at Su Ye.
The two locked eyes for a brief moment and nodded in tacit agreement.
Holding the Kongming Formation plate, Xue Mingzhao silently crouched low and threaded her way through the battlefield.
Su Ye followed close behind, his movements as light as stepping on cotton, picking up the cores one by one.
The ground was littered with demon beast cores mixed with bloodstains and gravel. With everyone either injured or deep in meditation, not a single person noticed that their spoils of war were being swept clean by two invisible thieves.
Xue Mingzhao circled in front of Yun Yanchen, bent down to pick up the largest and brightest core belonging to the Thunder-Patterned Leopard, and held it in her palm to examine it.
It was roughly the size of a pigeon's egg, completely silvery-white, with tiny arcs of electricity crackling back and forth inside like real lightning.
The quality of this core was more than a few levels higher than those of the iron-skinned wild boars she had blown to pieces earlier. This had to be worth a fortune.
Outside the mystic realm, Li Chengzong's face was livid. Pointing at the Floating Light Array Disk, he said angrily, “They are stealing! This shouldn't count toward their score!”
Huang Siqi, with an equally dark expression, chimed in, “In broad daylight, this is nothing short of robbery. The disciples of our sects fought to the death at the front lines, yet they took advantage of their recovery time to make off with all the spoils.”
The cultivator hosting the trial at the very front smiled slightly and said in a leisurely tone, “Whether they are picked up from the ground or snatched from someone else's hands, they are obtained through one's own capability. The rules of the mystic realm only state that the cores count toward the score; they do not specify how they must be acquired. It is not a violation.”
Behind them, Chen Shouzhuo smiled exceptionally brightly. “Indeed. You two are sect masters of great sects; you can't lead the way in playing foul in front of so many people. In any case, our Yuheng Sect has no objections.”
Li Chengzong turned to look at the sect masters of the other sects. They all looked down, avoiding eye contact, their faces practically writing the words “What does this have to do with me?”
In any case, those cores wouldn't have ended up in their hands anyway. It didn't matter who got them.
Besides, those two didn't seem very strong. Perhaps they would fall into the hands of their own disciples later.
Xie Huairen patted Su Mingyuan on the shoulder and said heartily, “Junior Brother, these two disciples of yours are quite something. It looks like the Grand Primordium Sect will make it onto the leaderboard this time.”
Hearing this, Chen Shouzhuo turned around and sized up Su Mingyuan. “These two are your disciples?”
Su Mingyuan smiled slightly, a hint of irrepressible pride in his voice. “They are indeed the personal disciples of my Grand Primordium Sect.”
Huang Siqi snorted through his nose. “The Grand Primordium Sect? The one in the Eastern Territory? It hasn't collapsed yet?”
Li Chengzong coldly added, “Desolate lands breed ruthless cultivators; poor mountains and bad waters foster vicious souls.”
The moment Chen Shouzhuo heard the words “Grand Primordium Sect,” he lost all interest in continuing the conversation.
The spiritual energy in the Grand Primordium Sect was so sparse that even rogue cultivators didn't want to stay there. These two had probably only gathered so many cores by relying on petty tricks.
In the end, the path of cultivation was a matter of raw strength; one could not rely solely on petty tricks.
Inside the mystic realm, Su Ye noticed that the breathing of the surrounding cultivators who were adjusting their breathing was gradually stabilizing. Lowering his voice, he tugged at Xue Mingzhao's sleeve. “Junior Sister, let's leave quickly once you're done. They are about to finish meditating.”
Hearing this, Xue Mingzhao quickly followed Su Ye and slowly retreated up a nearby tree.
A moment later, the group finished their meditation, and their spiritual energy and injuries were mostly recovered.
Several disciples brought out the demon beast cores they had gathered to count and distribute them equally.
“Twenty first-tier cores, five second-tier cores, and... two third-tier ones.”
As soon as the words fell, the entire clearing fell silent. Everyone remembered clearly that three third-tier Thunder-Patterned Leopards had fallen just now.
The first- and second-tier ones shouldn't have been this few either.
Someone had pocketed the demon beast cores, and more than one!
Yun Yanchen's voice betrayed no emotion, but every word was pronounced with absolute clarity. “I recall there were about fifty first-tier demon beasts, over ten second-tier ones, and... three third-tier ones.”
Xiao Jinghe immediately blew his top. “What do you mean by that? Are you trying to say our Flowing Cloud Sect stole the cores?”
Pei Zongyuan sneered, “Our Heavenly Origin Sect disciples had completely exhausted their spiritual energy and were all meditating to recover. If it wasn't you, then who could it be?”
Lin Xibai frowned. “No one on our Flowing Cloud Sect's side has touched them.”
Shen Chaoyue swept a cold gaze over Jiang Yuran. “Perhaps someone couldn't afford to lose and secretly hid them.”
Jiang Yuran's eyes reddened, looking as if she had suffered a great injustice. “Senior Sister, are you slandering me? I was too busy helping our fellow disciples heal just now; I had no time to do such a thing. On the contrary, Senior Sister—when you rushed to Senior Brother Yun's side earlier, the third-tier core next to him vanished. I saw it clear as day.”
Zhou Qinghe crossed his arms and let out a cold sneer. “So it's a thief crying ‘stop thief.’”
Shen Chaoyue looked at Jiang Yuran expressionlessly. “Is there anything else you know how to do besides slandering, playing the victim, and acting weak? I said I didn't take it, so I didn't.”
Jiang Yuran raised her chin, her voice soft but every word cutting deep. “Then do you dare to let us search your storage ring?”
Yun Yanchen pulled Shen Chaoyue behind him, his gaze as cold as ice. “Let's see who dares.”
Lin Xibai sighed, his tone filled with deep, aching disappointment. “Junior Sister, I am truly disappointed in you. Just take out the demon beast cores and we'll divide them equally. We can pretend this never happened. Why must you make such a scene?”
Su Ye stared at Lin Xibai for a long time, finding the way this man spoke highly unsettling. Lowering his voice, he asked, “Junior Sister, why do I feel like this Lin Xibai is a bit strange? If you say he doesn't care about Shen Chaoyue, he keeps asking her to return so they can reconcile. But he doesn't seem to care about the truth Shen Chaoyue speaks of either.”
Xue Mingzhao gave Su Ye an approving look, then rolled her eyes at Lin Xibai. “He seems to be acting for Shen Chaoyue's own good, but in reality, he has a controlling personality. He values ‘sect rules’ and ‘senior brother authority’ far more than the truth. He just wants her to bow her head, admit she's wrong, and obey him. Right and wrong don't matter to him.”
Su Ye nodded seriously. “Even though I don't quite understand, it feels like you make sense.”
The Chaos Spiritual Root chimed in, “You two are analyzing things so logically here, but why aren't you thinking about the fact that if you hadn't pocketed the cores, they wouldn't be fighting like this?”
Xue Mingzhao remained unfazed. “We took the cores by our own ability, and they are fighting by their own ability. There's no conflict.
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