"It's already been twenty hours. Why isn't Brother Lu here yet? Could something have happened?"
With the next trial about to open and Lu Shang still nowhere in sight, Zi Ling was visibly growing worried.
Then Zi Ling noticed that Patriarch Ji Yin, another Nascent Soul Stage cultivator, had yet to arrive either, and unease immediately stirred within her.
If only Lu Shang were absent, she could have explained it away as him needing time to search for spirit fruits and herbs.
But with Patriarch Ji Yin missing too, the explanation was obvious.
Nine times out of ten, the two had begun fighting.
Still, Zi Ling calmed down again.
She realized that, apart from Madam Wen and Patriarch Ji Yin, all the Nascent Soul Cultivators who had come with them had gradually arrived.
Seeing Man Huzi and Wan Tianming there in particular reassured her even more.
I know a little of Brother Lu's strength. Back then, he killed Wu Chou while Ji Yin was possessing him with exceptional ease, and he didn't even seem tired afterward.
Although he's facing Ji Yin's true body this time, Brother Lu should still be fine. Besides, he has that Thunder Escape Technique that lets him move in an instant.
At that thought, Zi Ling regained some composure, though she remained a little uneasy.
After all, Lu Shang still had not arrived.
But after only another fifteen or thirty minutes, a sudden change occurred.
Several hundred feet overhead, a mass of lightning resembling blood-red mist suddenly appeared.
The lightning mass was enormous, roughly a hundred to two hundred feet across.
Demonic qi ran rampant within it and even spilled outward, drawing the gazes of countless cultivators below.
The Core Formation Cultivators buzzed with discussion, while the Nascent Soul Cultivators watched thoughtfully.
"Brother Man, do you