What Shouldn't Be Told? You Seem to Have a Secret?

Profound Ice Valley.

A massive valley blanketed in snow and ice year-round, where few plants survived.

Moreover, spirit beasts were quite scarce.

The strongest spirit beast within was the Ice Crystal Beast.

The Ice Crystal Beast was pure white and translucent all over, as though its entire body had been piled together from ice crystals. It stood several yards tall and looked rather cumbersome in movement, yet it possessed immense strength and extraordinarily powerful defenses.

At that moment, Wu Yingying and Song Yuqing looked at the Ice Crystal Beast lying in the valley and discussed:

"We still don't know where Big Brother is, so we can only spread a little news. Maybe he'll come over."

With Wu Yingying and Song Yuqing's spirit body cultivation, they had a chance of killing the Ice Crystal Beast if they joined forces.

The others would also be interested once they learned that the two intended to make a move on the Ice Crystal Beast.

If they managed to seize the Ice Crystal Beast's essence soul, they could basically be guaranteed a place in the top thirty.

Once this news spread, they believed Zhao Chen would definitely learn of it and come here.

"He'll definitely come. I have to say, the spirit beast points in this Life and Death Trial Arena are way fewer than outside."

Song Yuqing grumbled. For missions accepted in the Mission Hall, killing a fifth-grade spirit beast like an Ice Crystal Beast could earn around three thousand points.

Yet within the Life and Death Trial Arena, a fifth-grade spirit beast was worth only thirty points.

Given such an enormous disparity, once people found out, they would probably go mad accepting and completing missions at the Mission Hall in Guardian Land.

Wu Yingying and the others did not know the situation in the other Guardian Lands.

Most likely, the high points awarded by missions would not have much of an impact there.

But in this Guardian Land, the impact was enormous.

Fang Zhong, a Third-Level Spirit Body, had monopolized the Mission Hall for half a month before.

The others had simply had no way to earn mission points.

As a result, everyone's starting line was now the Life and Death Trial Arena.

When the time came, there would undoubtedly be a huge gap in the point totals of the top thirty.

"Actually, the points Big Brother gave us before we entered the Life and Death Trial Arena are already enough."

Wu Yingying checked the points on her Crimson Token and felt much more at ease.

Now, all they needed was to reunite with Zhao Chen and wait for the trial to end.

"This Life and Death Trial... Instructor Jiang Jie's words scared me to death."

Just thinking about it still left Song Yuqing shaken.

After all, Instructor Jiang Jie had been so ruthless before, and he had emphasized that the trial was exceptionally difficult and had an extremely high death rate.

Song Yuqing's head-on combat ability was actually quite weak. What she excelled at was using hidden weapons.

Only after arriving at the Life and Death Trial Arena did they realize that the others could hardly pose much of a threat to them.

They had easily dealt with a few people looking to die earlier.

"It's just..."

Song Yuqing's gaze flickered, as though something weighed on her mind.

Beside her, Wu Yingying seemed to understand.

"Your family is worried about you continuing the trials on the Spiritual Road, so they plan to have you leave and directly enter one of the Five Great Academies afterward?"

Song Yuqing froze at that.

How had she understood right away?

Wait!

Song Yuqing's eyes widened as she asked, "Don't tell me you were also preselected by the Five Great Academies?"

The world was truly small. The Spiritual Road was clearly so vast, yet in such a short time, she had encountered another person preselected by the Five Great Academies.

"More or less."

Wu Yingying nodded. She had been quite relaxed ever since entering the Spiritual Road.

The reason was that she knew she would definitely be able to enter one of the Five Great Academies.

Especially the Martial Spiritual Academy—it would be ridiculously easy for her to get in.

"I see. Then that makes sense."

Upon hearing this, Song Yuqing finally voiced what had been troubling her. She said worriedly:

"My father contacted me. He plans to have me leave the Spiritual Road once the Life and Death Trial ends. Honestly, without Big Brother, I'd probably still only be a Second-Level Spirit Body right now."

"This Guardian Land alone is already so dangerous, let alone fighting against people from the other four Guardian Lands. Something might happen then."

Wu Yingying pondered for a moment upon hearing that, then said, "That's true. Your father is only doing this because he cares about you."

If Zhao Chen were not involved, she would definitely support Song Yuqing.

There was still some gap between Song Yuqing and those top geniuses. It was not a matter of talent, but rather that Song Yuqing was too innocent and not ruthless enough. It would be all too easy for her to lose her life.

"After you leave, will you still be able to meet us in the Great Thousand World? Especially Big Brother..."

After all, Zhao Chen was not like them, having already been preselected by the Five Great Academies.

Wu Yingying would not leave the Spiritual Road. Aside from needing to reach the end of the Spiritual Road fair and square and enter one of the Five Great Academies, she was also worried that Zhao Chen might encounter danger in the later Spiritual Road trials while she knew nothing about it.

The Great Thousand World was simply too vast.

The chances of meeting again amid such a sea of people were practically nonexistent.

Even Wu Yingying was not sure whether she would be able to see him again in the future.

If Song Yuqing left the Spiritual Road once the Life and Death Trial ended, they might truly never meet again.

Sometimes, once you missed someone, you had truly missed them.

And that time apart might last forever!

"...You do have a point."

Song Yuqing lightly bit her lip, feeling deeply conflicted.

That was precisely why she had been so preoccupied.

Staying on the Spiritual Road was too dangerous.

Yet if she did not remain on the Spiritual Road, she feared she would never see Zhao Chen and Wu Yingying again.

Over these past days, she had become accustomed to them.

People were strange like that.

Before becoming accustomed to someone, everything felt awkward, and they were complete strangers.

But once you got used to them, having no familiar faces around you felt even more uncomfortable.

She seriously suspected that after leaving the Spiritual Road, she truly would have no way to meet Wu Yingying and Zhao Chen again.

"Sister Yingying, give your little sister some advice?"

Song Yuqing was extremely conflicted and ultimately decided to hear Wu Yingying's thoughts.

"I definitely can't leave this place."

Wu Yingying's determination to remain on the Spiritual Road was unshakable.

Her own older brother was on the Spiritual Road.

Besides, with her current Fourth-Grade Spirit Body cultivation, she could already strive for the final "King-Class" assessment.

There was no way she would simply give that up.

"As for you..."

The corners of Wu Yingying's lips curled up slightly. A meaningful smile appeared on her lovely face as she reminded her:

"You only need to ask yourself why you came to the Spiritual Road, and because of whom you have the hope of safely passing the Life and Death Trial."

Was it merely to enter one of the Five Great Academies?

For people with backgrounds like theirs, that would be selling themselves short.

Song Yuqing fell into deep thought. Wu Yingying's words made a great deal of sense.

Previously, she had been indecisive and deeply worried about her choice.

But now...

"I've decided!"

Song Yuqing's expression turned resolute as she declared, "From now on, I'll keep going with you and Sister Yingying!"

Since that was the case, she would not mention this matter to Zhao Chen.

"Just... please don't tell anyone about this!"

Just as Song Yuqing looked pleadingly at Wu Yingying, a familiar voice sounded behind them.

"What shouldn't be told? You two seem to have a secret."

Song Yuqing's entire body stiffened. She turned around with a blank expression, and upon seeing that familiar figure, she stammered in shock:

"No, Big Brother, how did you find us?!"