"What was he saying to you?" Shen Yun asked, their eyes meeting.

'What's it to you?' Jing exclaimed in his mind, but outwardly he just waved his hand dismissively, "He just said not to worry about others pushing me away and that he will talk to them."

"Is that right?"

Jing felt like this was a very good opportunity to make amends with the person before him. Shen Yun was very well connected with the others and he desperately needed that. Although he hated to apologize because he did nothing wrong, he could only summon his most sincere and polite smile and say, "I am sorry about that before. I shouldn't have reacted that harshly, it's my fault."

Shen Yun's expression turned slightly cold before he scoffed, "Do you think I don't know what you're doing?"

"And what is that?" Asked Jing with a hard look.

Their eyes locked in intensity, Shen Yun snorted and said, "I've seen how you've been looking at everyone, and I know what you're thinking about. You just want to use me to get closer to the others."

Saying his final piece, he didn't waste any more time. He kicked the Shardfiend to quicken his pace before he too mingled with the others, leaving Jing behind on his own like an outcast.

Jing's face fell, but when he noticed how almost everyone had been paying attention to what was happening here with their eyes and ears, he softened his expression. He didn't want to let his true emotions be seen by others as that would surely create other issues down the line.

Helplessly sighing to himself, he gazed at the distant white mountain range with a complicated expression.

The sun had already reached its zenith, and with it, all of the rain clouds seemed to evaporate giving the sun rays an unobstructed path to the disciple's exposed heads. However, as hot as it was, there was a southern breeze that seemed to carry the frosty winds in those mountain peaks, balancing the temperature.

Jing dismissed whatever worries plagued his mind, and tried to enjoy the scenery whilst riding on his Shardfiend's back. They continued their journey forward, and in the evening, as they were gently climbing a mountain-like hill, something happened.

A screech so loud echoed throughout the rocky plains that their Shardfiends froze still in their steps, not daring to take a single step forward as they visibly shivered whilst frightfully glancing around. Needless to say, the disciples were even more terrified as a mighty pressure descended upon them out of nowhere, making them feel like a weak flickering candlelight in a raging storm.

There was something about that high-pitched screech that penetrated into the depths of their brain, awakening with it a very primal fear. All of them had blood drained out from their faces as they gazed at the now cloudless sky searching for the origin of the sound with pale complexions.

A distant figure could be seen approaching them with a terrifying speed, and with every passing second it continued to grow from a grain of rice to a giant white fiery form. Finally, all of them could see the form of the bird that was racing toward them. Very long sharp legs, a slender figure, white feathers, wide wings, and a red crown, and was surrounded by spheres of bright orange flames that perfectly followed its every step.

When the Shardfiends were finally able to pinpoint the source of their fright, they became even more frantic. An all-pervasive madness seemed to overtake each and every one of them as they fumbled back in a chaotic escape. Something that the now Body Tempering disciples couldn't contend with as the weakest of the Shardfiends was at the third rank of the Qi Condensation.

The abruptness of it all seemed to catch most disciples who were equally frightened if not more, off guard, and most of them fell from their monsters' back into the grassy ground below. To make matters worse, they were close to the peak of a very steep hill, and so their unbalanced fall caused them to chaotically tumble down its decline.

In one second Jing was shaking from fear as his eyes darted from one side to the next looking for the screech's origin, and in the other he found himself face-first into a rugged hard rock as he continued rolling down the hill. With the world continuously turning around, he could see how close several Shardfiends' claws were from ruthlessly stepping on his fragile face. Something that he was sure would eliminate him from the game far too quickly than any other player ever could.

Fortunately, a sudden commanding stern voice echoed from the top of the hill, "Kalala!" And the wildly running Shardfiends came to a sudden unexpected halt. Their abrupt stop as they tightly gripped the hill's surface sent a flurry of grass, dirt, and rocks flying after the falling disciples.

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A fist-sized rock even hit Jing in the head as he was falling down, and intense pain followed after it. One of the female disciples' back squarely met a big boulder on her way down and a cracking sound followed with a miserable groan of pain.

He quickly reached the end of the hill where his body naturally stopped after it ran out of momentum. With disheveled hair, a dirty white robe, and bare feet he swiftly stood upright and glanced at the incoming terrifying bird.

At the very top of the hill, the giant Shardfiend that the sect master rode was the only one that didn't show any other reaction than a smidge of boredom and amusement as it looked at its smaller comrades' miserable state. The sect master's face throughout this whole ordeal didn't show any subtle reaction, but it maintained its usual cold and impassive look.

When the fiery bird was but a few dozen meters away from her, she finally moved. Her right hand tightened into a claw as she aimed the center of her palm at the incoming monster where suddenly black wisps of energy materialized out of nowhere.

Even from such a distance, Jing could feel his heart flutter with fear when those black wisps made an appearance. The surrounding wind around the sect master's hand seemed to be swallowed into a void and an eerie unsettling silence descended.

Yet, she merely created the same amount one would find in a lit candle wick and threw it in the monster's direction. The fiery black light awkwardly danced through the air in a very gentle and slow manner. Its movements were like those of a small dead leaf on a fast-moving river current.

The blazing bird seemed to sense what the others could not because its eyes and mouth widened in a humane manner before it turned around to escape. But flap its wings as she could, flight wasn't something that seemed to be possible at that moment. Like the shadow of the grim reaper, the black fiery light became the bird's main gravitational pull as it helplessly flew toward it. The sect master below watched all of this with a faint smile, her face finally showing some reaction.

The other disciples were all amazed as they watched everything unfold with mouths parted open. However, as dramatic as everything that happened thus far. The end result of the fiery light meeting the bird was creepily anti-climatic. It seeped deeply into the bird's body, and in a second the bird's eyes became dead and glassy before it weakly fell down at the other side of the hill.

A pin-drop silence ensued.

Jing's heart was beating loudly in his chest, even more shocked than the others. If that exchange resulted in some formidable and ruthless struggle, he might not have been as terrified as he was now. Witnessing the death of a monster that was so unimaginably strong in such a silent, quiet, and smooth manner made him shudder.

The fact that the perpetrator of this godly phenomenon was someone who had threatened him a while ago, and had put a tracker in his body, made the situation even more mortifying for him. An audible gulp echoed from his dry throat, and his mind was only woken up by the slight itchiness he was feeling in his chin as a stream of blood dripped down from his nose.

He reflexively went to adjust his disheveled hair but he grimaced in pain. Moving his palm before his eyes, he noticed how his fingers were all bloody. Taking all of that in, he only sighed in relief because it ended in such a way.

Compared to some other disciples, he had it way easy. The female disciple that collided with the boulder was sprawled on the ground, unable to move an inch, and her face contorted with pain. Some of the others even lacked their full set of teeth. In light of all of that, a broken nose, and a small head injury were considered good fortune.

Yet, the one with the best fortune was none other than Xu Yun. But Jing knew that it was competence, not luck. He was the only one who kept tight control over his Shardfiend even though it was as crazed as theirs. He had already reached the peak of the hill and he looked at the fallen disciples below with a victorious look, clearly satisfied with his performance.

Jing initially thought that he was the leader simply because he was the disciple of the humanoid monster who lived in the same place as the Sect Master. But as it turned out, he had the capabilities to back it out too.

Feeling that this was a good opportunity to get closer to others, he approached the female disciple who wasn't able to move. "Are you alright?" He crouched down beside her and gently asked.

She was wearing a thick red robe, and some soft sweaters underneath. Her face was all scrunched up into a scowl, and she could barely see anything through her tightly squinted eyes.

Fighting off the pain, the woman glared at him with gnashed teeth and snarled, "Do I look alright?"

Jing's eyes glistened with an angry glint, but he quickly masked it away. He decided to overlook such a blatant display of disrespect and antagonism and asked, "What do you need me to do?"

"Climb," She said with difficulty. "Sect master will give you."

Understanding her point, he nodded and began climbing the steep hill.

He had already located where the Shardfiend he had been riding on was, but he noticed that there was a disciple on top of it. Although the monsters were strangely similar in looks, he knew that this was exactly the one that brought him here. The saddle was also covered with a blanket that had a light pink flowery drawing, and it was very distinctive from all of the others.

"Hey," He politely said with a smile. "I was the one riding this Shardfiend."

However, when he saw the disciple's smile and also recognized him as the one who had made all of those mocking comments at his expense in the sect, he knew that things wouldn't go as smoothly as he hoped.

True to his expectations, the disciple shrugged his shoulders and said, "It doesn't matter, they all are the same just pick one and ride."

Jing gritted his teeth in anger as tense eye contact was maintained between the two. He knew for a fact that there was indeed a difference. The Shardfiend he had was a female, and unlike her male counterparts, she was bigger in size, but most importantly had a gentler and more docile demeanor. The journey so far was a long one, and there was nothing he had to do but observe everything his eyes could find. The fact that those male monsters were restless, disobedient, and very difficult to control wasn't something that he missed.

What made the situation even more complicated was the fact that several disciples had already ridden their monsters and were witnessing the exchange between the two.