A middle Heaven stage female cultivator seemed to have seen through their leader’s intention. She hastily jumped in and said loudly, “No! Adding him to our team won’t do much to improve our battle prowess. He’s too weak! His cultivation base is lower than any of ours. What will change if we let him join us?
“If we really run into two fourth grade spirit beasts at the same time, we’d still get killed. What can he do?”
The woman protested strongly, as she was the one who had firmly objected to the idea of marching deeper into the forest in the first place.
Nie Tian frowned as he looked at her with a measuring gaze.
After secretly observing the six of them for days, he had already obtained a rather thorough understanding of their names, strength, and relations.h.i.+ps with each other.
The woman’s name was Lu Yan, and she was cautious by nature. During her previous exploration trip to this dense forest, she and her team had encountered danger, and many of her companions had been killed.
That time, she and her team had marched into deeper parts of the forest and unexpectedly run into two fourth grade spirit beasts at the same time.
There had been a dozen people on her team, and five of them had been at the late Heaven stage.
However, only four of them had survived their encounter with the two fierce fourth grade spirit beasts.
That battle had scarred Lu Yan for life. Therefore, she insisted on hunting low grade spirit beasts at the outer edge of the forest, and was strongly opposed the idea of entering deeper into the forest.
“The yield of hunting only second and third grade spirit beasts is indeed too low,” Shen Wei, the leader of the team, said with a frown. “I’ve recently set my mind on a spiritual tool, so I’m in need of spirit stones. If we continue to only hunt second and third grade spirit beasts, I’m afraid that I won’t be able to gather enough wealth even if we keep hunting for six more months.”
Looking Lu Yan in the eye, Shen Wei continued, “Now that we’ve decided to come to the Void Illusion Mountain Range, we should know that we may encounter danger at any moment. Even if we don’t march deeper into the forest, we may face other crises. Not to mention that our way back to Shatter City will be much more dangerous than our way here. It’s even hard to say if we can survive those lurking bandits and make it back to Shatter City alive.
“I say we risk it!”
“If you all are bent on going, you’ll have to go without me!” Lu Yan said with great determination in her voice.
Seeing that the two of them held completely opposite opinions, the other four said a few things to calm the tension.
As an outsider, Nie Tian could only stand there with his arms folded and wait for them to cool down.
At that moment, another female cultivator named Song Li shot a glance at Nie Tian and asked, “Li Tian, is it?”
She was also at the late Heaven stage, the same as Shen Wei.
However, unlike Shen Wei, she was mellow by nature, and thus she didn’t like being the leader. She had a fairly beautiful face, as well as the makings of delicate and modest lady.
It seemed that she wasn’t fond of fighting over things, and she had always been the peacemaker of the team.
Nie Tian nodded. “Yeah.”
Thanks to Li Langfeng, his ident.i.ty as Hua Tian had become rather well-known.
During the past few days, many Qi warriors who roamed the Void Illusion Mountain Range, including members of the Dark Moon and the Wild Fire, had learned the name ‘Hua Tian’. It wouldn’t be safe if he continued to use that name.
Therefore, he borrowed Li Ye’s first name and called himself Li Tian.
“As you can see, we have six people on our team, and I bet you know how it is in the Void Illusion Mountain Range.” Song Li looked Nie Tian up and down with a measuring gaze, and then asked Nie Tian, with her pretty, water-like eyes looking deeply into his, “What gave you the courage to come to us?”
By saying that, she meant that brutal fights occurred in the Void Illusion Mountain Range all the time. Normally speaking, whenever two sides of unequal strength met, conflict would definitely break out.
The stronger side would never allow the weaker side to leave without paying a price.
Not only was Nie Tian traveling by himself, but he was also only at the early Heaven stage. The fact that he dared to voluntarily approach them confused Song Li.
It didn’t matter to them if Nie Tian’s ident.i.ty as the Blood Skull’s guest elder was authentic or not. Even if it was authentic, that didn’t make him an official member of the Blood Skull, so killing him wouldn’t be a big deal.
The Blood Skull wouldn’t make a fuss about the death of a guest elder.
Song Li’s take on the matter resonated with Shen Wei, Lu Yan and the other three.
All of them wondered why Nie Tian, an early Heaven stage cultivator, dared to come before them.
Nie Tian smiled and said, “You might not believe me, but the reason I dared to come to you is because I know that the six of you won’t be able to take me in a fight. If I want to leave, you won’t be able to stop me.”
Nie Tian thought that by a.s.suming an stronger manner, he might increase Lu Yan’s confidence.
The only reason why Lu Yan refused to march deeper into the forest was that she feared that they would encounter the same devastating situation as she had before.
“You’re quite a big talker!” Lu Yan said loudly.
With a meaningful roll of her eyes, Song Li asked Nie Tian, “Do you really think you can deal with the six of us single-handedly? Do you mind proving your strength to us?”
Having observed them for days, Nie Tian had long since learned that Song Li had already secretly communicated with Shen Wei.
As a matter of fact, it was Song Li who had put the idea of marching deeper into the forest into Shen Wei’s mind.
It was only because Shen Wei was their leader that it was more persuasive if he made the proposal to all the team members.
Song Li was the one who desired to go deeper into the forest and hunt fourth grade spirit beasts the most.
“Hahaha, what’s there to prove?” Nie Tian once again shook the ident.i.ty medallion in his hand, saying, “This ident.i.ty medallion speaks for itself.”
“Can I have a look at it?” Song Li asked.
“No problem.” Nie Tian threw his ident.i.ty medallion towards her without any scruples.
He knew that every guest elder’s ident.i.ty medallion was infused with a unique psychic awareness when presented to them.
Complicated spell formations had been implanted into those ident.i.ty medallions when the Blood Skull had made them.
One spell formation could only be infused with psychic awareness once. Once its owner died, the psychic awareness within the medallion would dissipate, and the spell formation would self-destruct. Thus, the medallion would lose its meaning.
In light of this, Nie Tian wasn’t worried that Song Li would take the ident.i.ty medallion for herself.
Song Li grabbed the ident.i.ty medallion and examined it carefully before handing it back to Nie Tian.
With a somewhat strange look in her eyes, she turned to Shen Wei, who was standing next to her, and said, “It’s real.”
Shen Wei was greatly surprised at heart.
Although both he and Song Li were at the late Heaven stage, he had lived in Shatter City for a much longer time.
It was very clear to him that the Blood Skull would never offer their guest elder’s command medallions to people without a reason.
However, Nie Tian was only at the early Heaven stage.
It meant that Nie Tian must not be an ordinary person; there must be something special about him.
Moments ago, the idea of playing by the norms of the Void Illusion Mountain Range and murdering Nie Tian had appeared in his mind.
However, after Song Li had confirmed that Nie Tian’s ident.i.ty medallion was authentic, he immediately called off that idea.
Lu Yan let out a cold harrumph and said, “Even if his ident.i.ty medallion is real, his cultivation base is still too low! It takes the six of us working together to handle one fourth grade spirit beast. No matter how resourceful he is, I don’t believe he can kill a fourth grade spirit beast single-handedly. If he can’t do that, then once we encounter two fourth grade spirit beasts at the same time, we’ll still die beyond the shadow of a doubt!”
“You’re right. I can’t kill a fourth grade spirit beast by myself,” Nie Tian answered, without hiding.
He also wanted to say that, with his Heaven Eyes, he would be able to prevent them from encountering two fourth grade spirit beasts at the same time.
It was just that the ethereal Heaven Eyes would exceed their level of understanding. If he went ahead and said it, they might consider him to be a liar.
Therefore, he dropped the idea of telling them about them.
Seeing that Lu Yan was not backing down a bit, Song Li proposed, ““How about this: let all vote on this. Those who are willing to take on the risks and go deeper into the forest, let’s have a show of hands.”
Everyone except Lu Yan raised their hands one after another.
Nie Tian had long since learned that not only had Song Li persuaded Shen Wei, but she had also talked the other three into going.
Lu Yan was the only one who was unequivocal in her opposition to her proposal.
After noticing that everyone else had raised their hands, Lu Yan said, anger and embarra.s.sment filling her face, “If you all have a death wish, then be my guest! I’m not going with you!”
Shen Wei also grew angry as he blurted, “Alright then. You can just stay here. We’ll go and hunt fourth grade spirit beasts by ourselves. It’s not like you’re so powerful that we can’t do it without you.”
“Good! I look forward to your triumphant return!” With these words, Lu Yan left, heart burning with anger.
“You’re welcome to join us,” Song Li said to Nie Tian, smiling.
It seemed that Lu Yan’s leaving didn’t have any impact on her, and she didn’t seemed to value Lu Yan’s strength at all.
“You can join our team,” Shen Wei said. “But one thing to be clear: I’ll determine how we distribute the spoils after we’ve killed the spirit beasts. I’ll do it according to each person’s contribution, and you can’t oppose me.”
“I’ve said it, I’ll only take the blood and meat,” Nie Tian stated.
Shen Wei seemed surprised as he asked, “Are you serious?”
He had taken Nie Tian to be joking, because spirit beasts’ meat and blood were of no value at all. Normally, people would just discard them.
“I’ll say it one more time.” Nie Tian said with emphasis. “I only want the spirit beasts’ meat and blood, and I won’t take anything other than those.”
Shen Wei turned to look at his four team members, asking, “You heard him, didn’t you?”
They all nodded.
“Good. You’re part of the team now, Li Tian.” Shen Wei said to Nie Tian.