On a narrow mountain path, Wu Sheng frowned as he watched a group of Prison Clan Members before him.
They wore blood-red battle suits and carried themselves with arrogance. Several of them even looked openly contemptuous.
"What's wrong, my dear little sister? I heard your fiancé, Li Hu, was killed by people from Thunder Star Mountain. Blood Sun City spent so much to train you. Is this how you repay Blood Sun City?"
One of them was a beautiful woman who looked much like a catgirl. She strode over to He Na of the Blood River Squad on her long legs with an elegant, feline gait, smiling as she spoke.
But no matter how you looked at it, her tone sounded like she was gloating.
"Then she'll be a widow before she's even married. Could that affect Blood Sun City? If it ruins our alliance with the Nine Spirits Society, we'll be in trouble!"
"Hmph! Just like her dead mother, she's useless and only causes trouble."
Their words grew more and more cutting. Wu Sheng frowned repeatedly as he listened, and He Na, standing at the very front, must have felt even worse.
She was trembling all over, her delicate face cold as ice. The beautiful, colorful fish scale between her brows had begun to turn an eerie black.
The mountain paths on the outskirts of the Core Land were a tangled maze. These trial-takers weren't some freakish race like Leo's, who could barely even walk, let alone fly or scout with their psychic power.
So no one knew what they might encounter if they continued along the paths.
They might run into trial-takers from the same faction, or an enemy faction, or perhaps a pack of vicious beasts that had followed behind them.
This was the second obstacle facing the trial-takers from the four regions... finding the right path among countless mountain trails that led to the open land.
After getting separated from Li Long and the others, He Na, Di Fei, Wu Sheng, and the rest had regrouped. They had passed through over a hundred trails and encountered nearly a thousand dead ends.
Along the way, they had killed dozens of small groups of vicious beasts and several squads of trial-takers. Only after two days had they finally made it here.
They hadn't expected to run into another group of trial-takers, or vicious beasts, but a major faction from Blood Sun City, just like them.
Yet from the looks of it, these people might have been related to He Na, but their actual relationship wasn't very good!
No, it was probably downright terrible!
"You Qian, don't get too smug. In this trial, Li Long and I fought off several joint attacks from Thunder Star Mountain and Cangming Valley."
"What about you? I heard Pesili alone had you and Extreme Flame Realm completely under her thumb. Blood Sun City's main forces must have suffered heavy losses, right? How are you going to explain that to the clan elders?"
He Na ultimately chose not to attack, but she still retorted with a cold laugh.
At He Na's taunt, the red-clad woman who looked like a catgirl froze for a moment.
In the Western Domain, Pesili, the Special Elite leading the major Realm Lord Clans, was a fearsome talent who was nearly Li Long's equal.
Even with Blood Sun City's main forces joining hands with Yan Yu, the Special Elite from Extreme Flame Realm, and fighting desperately, they had still been routed by Pesili, fleeing in disarray and wailing in despair.
In the end, they had no choice but to retreat en masse to the Southern Domain to save some of their trial-takers. If they had let Pesili keep killing, the descendants of their Imperial Clan would have been left with no followers at all.
"What's there to explain? Those old geezers didn't even assign us a single Special Elite because they were trying to win the top prize. It's only natural that we lost."
You Qian, the woman who looked like a catgirl, snorted.
"Is that so? Our side fought one against three and still won a great victory. If the clan elders had given me command of Blood Sun City's main forces back then, we'd have achieved an even more spectacular result."
"So the blame still falls on you. There's nothing you can say to defend yourself." He Na had finally found a way to get at You Qian, and she burst into laughter.
But it was the truth. You Qian and the others had pushed He Na out to the Eastern Domain, leaving her to recruit people with the resources she had brought along. In the end, she had indeed carved out a place for herself.
Meanwhile, You Qian and the others had received a vast amount of Cosmic Crystals, cultivation treasures, and other resources from the clan elders. They also had Blood Sun City's main forces backing them and the trial-takers of an entire Extreme Flame Realm assisting them. Yet they had still been slaughtered by that remarkable woman named Pesili, losing men and suffering defeat.
The contrast was plain to see.
"Hmph, there's still a year left. Why are you in such a hurry? You got lucky and found a peerless genius who could kill Kadi to help you. But he's drawing too much attention. Forget whether he can survive an encounter with Leo; you won't fare any better."
"Once you leave the Trial Ground, you'll be in for it. I can't understand why you'd want to follow him!"
Then You Qian sneered again. "Leo is now the strongest person in the Trial Ground. You'd better spend the next year figuring out how to avoid him! Let's go!"
You Qian then led the trial-takers into a side passage, and the rocks quickly blocked them from view.
"She's pretty. How can she be so vicious? She dares mock me? Fine. Let's see who Leo steps on when you run into him!"
Wu Sheng was seething. If the Realm Lord's World Projection weren't watching them every moment, he would have already hit her with a "Soul Thorn" and sent her to the afterlife.
Elsewhere, on another mountain path.
Li Long's Ice Snow Domain clashed with a hazy domain radiating a golden glow.
Bang!
A lithe, athletic figure was sent flying backward, but she merely twisted in midair and steadied herself.
She moved like an elegant leopard.
Gradually, her true appearance came into view. She was a humanoid woman, only about 1.7 meters tall, wearing gleaming golden armor that gave her a bold, heroic look.
"Li Long, your Ice Snow Domain is about to advance to the Fourth Layer. Impressive!"
As nimble as an elegant leopard, the humanoid woman swiftly dodged several sweeps of Li Long's icy spear. She stood atop a tall boulder and smiled.
"Pesili, is your Realm Lord Clan really going to ally with Thunder Star Mountain? Leo has already mastered the Wind Domain and advanced to the second level of Sky Grade. He's probably the strongest among us now."
Li Long stopped attacking and frowned.
"You mean me? I don't mind. Our Realm Lord Clan isn't interested in that human prize anyway, so I can help whoever I want. It's just that Yan Yu is such a coward. He couldn't take a beating and retreated to the Southern Domain early."
Pesili smiled. "I've been cooped up for years. If you'd spar with me a few more times, I'd even help you deal with Leo. I've been worried I can't take him on by myself."
"Didn't you complain that the Nine Spirits Society wouldn't sell you the Star Beast named Cang?"
Li Long asked again.
"That thing is so huge and clumsy. Who'd want to buy it? Besides, if our Realm Lord Clan bought it, they might make me use Body Possession on it. But it's so ugly, and I'm so beautiful. I really don't want to possess that big fellow."
"So I'm glad you didn't sell it."
As she spoke, Pesili even took a large mirror out of her Space Ring and admired herself in it.
Her vain, sweetly innocent manner left Li Long at a loss for words.