"Hm? We've been discovered?"
The Black-Clad Cultivator froze briefly at the middle-aged man's words, but soon sensed something himself and turned toward the woods on the left.
There, Qin Zhi, the sect elder stationed at Cang Mountain Academy, was racing toward them astride his primary spirit creature, an earth-rank demon spirit named the Golden-Horned Bat King.
Qin Zhi seemed not to have expected that the disturbance he had sensed would turn out to be two people who clearly looked like trouble. Their cultivation seemed unfathomable, and they outnumbered him two to one, so he could not act rashly. He quickly had his spirit creature slow down while secretly activating an art to send out a covert signal.
The middle-aged man seemed not to notice and merely said to the Black-Clad Cultivator, "Let's go."
"Wait!" As the sect elder stationed here, Qin Zhi certainly could not let these two come and go as they pleased. Who knew how long they had been sneaking around here, whether they had pried into the academy's secrets, or whether they had done anything harmful?
Neither the sealed Demon Cave buried beneath this place nor the disciples who had come to take part in the selection trials could be allowed to suffer any mishap.
"Who might you two fellow cultivators be, and why have you secretly entered the grounds of our Azure Cloud Sect's Cang Mountain Academy? You should know that the academies of major sects enjoy special privileges. Neither the righteous and demonic paths nor those on either side of the law may stir up trouble here. Anyone who violates this rule will be cast out by all under heaven!"
He immediately slapped a weighty accusation on them, but knowing himself to be at a disadvantage, he certainly did not intend to force them into