The team sat in silence as they soaked in He Shan's words. Ideally, Zou Yi would have liked ti stalk the fight between the two so they could plan better and gauge Yin Rong's abilities but if they jumped in, they would be blind in there.
For someone who liked planning his steps, going in blind put him out of his comfort zone. There were a lot of variables to consider and doing it He Shan's way carried considerable risk to him.
Deep crease marks appeared on his head as he replayed best-case and worst-case scenarios if they were to go with He Shan's plan. The more he thought about it the more cons he came up with, which made him even more nervous than he already was.
"Zou Yi, forgive me for saying this, but while planning is good, it may end up being a shackle for you at some point in life..." He Shan solemnly said breaking Zou Yi out of his contemplation.
"There are times when you're called to act with no preparation or plans. Whether it's in a cultivation breakthrough, a sudden appearance of treasure, or when your life or those you love are in danger.
If such a situation were to happen in front of you, would you wait and plan, or would you act and try to seize the moment?.." asked He Shan.
"That blonde girl is in the qi refinement realm and is therefore stronger than us on multiple levels. Do you think we can stalk her without her realizing it?" He Shan fired another question.
"If we trail her to observe her fighting she will likely discover us and if she is smart she will react accordingly. She will feign weaknesses here and there to sound us out and also hide some of her moves and insert some trickery.
We don't know her well enough to know what's real and what's not. Falling for her ploy will be very easy and we will also tip our hand since she will already be on guard against us...
But if we do it my way, she will have no idea if we are targeting her or running away from something.
The suddenness may throw her off which may work for both our favor and the lanky kid. This is why whatever you do, make sure you don't hold anything back.
Don't hold anything in reserve like telling yourself you're doing it so you can have a fail-safe to escape in case things go wrong..." He Shan sternly said.
"If that's your plan then we might as well avoid the fight all together since it's all but guaranteed to be a losing battle.
Other than Yu Mei, we are all in the silver body stage, and that girl is one major realm above us. We all felt the difference in power when we moved from the bronze stage to the silver stage.
Then how exaggerated is it to be in the qi refinement realm?" asked He Shan.
This statement brought clarity and shock to Zou Yi's hesitant expression.
The seven days in the special zone were enough for them to not only improve their cultivation arts but also break through to the silver body.
The moment they did, Zou Yi and the rest could feel how qualitative the difference was between the two stages i.e. bronze stage and the silver stage.
Even though it was just one minor realm, the differences were monumental and wholesome. All the body's senses from sight, to touch, to other elements such as body control were improved greatly. They were at least two times better than they were in the bronze stage.
Their blood vigor and vitality had improved immensely. Whatever internal injuries and fractures he still had left over, had already healed completely.
The internal organs, sinews, muscle, bone, marrows, and skin had been refined and cleansed making them sturdier and increasing the explosive force of their attacks.
If everything was constant, Zou Yi felt he could easily defeat three of him in the bronze stage. He now had a punching force of 500kg which was double the force he had in the bronze stage which was between 180-220.
With such an obvious improvement, he shuddered to imagine what it would feel like to break through to the qi refinement realm.
When that picture sunk in, some part of him even wanted to abort the plan.
What were they thinking intervening in a fight between two qi refinement cultivators while they were at the body refining stage themselves?
Wait, did Lai Rou move all the way from the iron body to the Qi refinement?
Zou Yi suddenly remembered he had not confirmed Lai Rou's cultivation base with Yu Mei.
"Yu Mei can you tell their cultivation base?" asked Zou Yi.
"I can't tell from here, I would need to be close to do so. All I can hear are faint sounds, which don't tell much.." answered Yu Mei.
Zou Yi frowned and went silent for a few seconds before he finally said,
"Let's do as He Shan says. I know it's a risk but right now we need to take it.." Zou Yi said as he sought the opinion of Zou Liqin and Yu Mei, more so the latter.
This was a gamble that could result in their elimination. Yu Mei was in the qi refinement. Even if she had no combat abilities for now, with her heart mirror she could potentially go at it alone by avoiding various dangers and running.
If she played it safe, even if she wouldn't make it to the top fifteen, she was guaranteed to reach the peak. She didn't need to tie her fate to theirs.
"We are already a team.." she firmly answered.
That single answer said it all.
With all four of them in agreement, they made a little preparation which was mostly poisoning every piece of equipment they had from the swords down to even the century iron pebble.
They were already the weaker, so whatever means they could use to close up that gap they would do it.
After they were sure everything was in check they ran full force in the direction of the fight.
The closer they were to the area, it wasn't just Yu Mei who could hear the sounds, they all now could and from the sounds, the battle seemed very intense.
They even came across a couple of spirit beasts running for their lives with the most human-like expression of fear on their faces that they didn't even bother attacking them. Some even seemed like they were signaling them with their eyes saying
Don't go in that direction. You will die.
However, that well-meaning advice fell on deaf ears.
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