Swish, swish, swish...
Light flashed, and figures landed one after another beside Zheng Yuan.
Zheng Yuan beamed as he looked at the surrounding lights. There were roughly a dozen of them, which meant that at least a dozen people had made it out alive.
That was already quite good.
During the previous few trips into the Ancient Wasteland Secret Realm to gather medicinal herbs, the Tianshui Sect had practically been wiped out, with no survivors.
The fact that more than a dozen people had made it out alive this time was already a respectable result.
The light faded, revealing one martial artist after another. Lin Bai and Tang Wei were at the very front, followed by a group of Tianshui Sect martial artists.
But there was still no sign of Li Yuanzong.
"Greetings, Elder." The many disciples clasped their hands in salute.
"Good, good, good. You're back—that's what matters." Zheng Yuan nodded and smiled in satisfaction. But when his gaze swept over the disciples, his expression involuntarily darkened.
He discovered that most of the martial artists who had returned were ordinary disciples.
Not a single one of the geniuses whom the sect had spared no effort to support and nurture had returned—not Qi Liang, Wu Di, Pan Hun, Li Lu, or Zhao En.
Even Mu Huaqing and Li Yuanzong were nowhere to be seen.
This was difficult for Zheng Yuan to accept.
If the ones who had returned were Mu Huaqing, Li Yuanzong, Qi Liang, Wu Di, and the others, then even if every other disciple had died, Zheng Yuan would have been grinning from ear to ear.
But the only ones who had failed to return were these geniuses, while the ones who had come back were all ordinary disciples!
One had to understand that ordinary disciples were as