Chapter 384: Standing their Ground
Early the next morning, a group of people came out of their tents and divided into three teams.
The first team consisted of the original eleven, except for junior sister Wei.
Next to them were Jiang Yue, Yu Nianzhen, and two formation masters who also took the task.
Finally, there was the Rong family.
Including the three core formation realm cultivators, this group had two dozen people.
Looking at their arrogance, it was clear they didn’t take the other two groups seriously.
"My Rong family will take seven points. Do you have a problem with that?" One of the core formation realm elders spoke.
While speaking, he looked at Yu Nianzhen.
Without a doubt, he knew what happened before they arrived.
Unfortunately, neither Jiang Yue nor Yu Nianzhen was easy to bully.
Even if their cultivation was not higher than the three elders, they would never allow themselves to be bullied.
Since their cultivation was higher, they had nothing to worry about and were naturally more resistant to being bullied.
"This is not what we agreed to." Jiang Yue said with a slight smile on his lips.
"You are saying that you have a problem with my Rong family?" The elder asked in a low voice.
As he spoke, his eyes narrowed and a trace of cruelty flashed in the depths.
However, Jiang Yue was not intimidated.
He just continued to smile and looked at the elder.
"Young man, it’s good to have self-awareness." Another elder reminded.
"The senior is right. It’s good for people to have self-awareness. Since you don’t need my skills, my Taoist companion and I don’t need to be here."
After saying that, Jiang Yue turned his head and looked at Yu Nianzhen.
"Azhen, let’s go." He said.
Without question, Yu Nianzhen took Jiang Yue’s hand and began to walk away.
"Stop for me." The first elder roared.
His body erupted a terrifying qi presence and the coercion rushed towards the two young men.
However, the coercion was insignificant before the two.
It just touched them and dissipated like so much smoke.
"What?" The elder asked when his Qi presence failed to affect the two.
A moment later, his eyes narrowed and there was a little excitement in his demeanour.
"Do you have treasures on your bodies?" He questioned.
"A treasure that can block the coercion of a core formation realm cultivator is a good thing." A Rong family disciple said.
This statement was like injecting chicken blood into the gathered cultivators.
Everyone looked at Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue as if wanting to see through them.
However, the two concerned parties didn’t care.
They continued walking towards their bullock cart while using their divine sense to see the world around them.
"Two fellow Daoists, our Rong family is reasonable. There is nothing that cannot be talked about." Rong Yu suddenly took a step back.
Hearing that, Jiang Yue suddenly turned about.
"Your Rong family has more people and already has an advantage when we enter the tomb. If your Rong family is capable, you will naturally have more treasures. Why should the rest of us still offer the treasures we use our lives to acquire?" Jiang Yue complained in a slightly aggrieved voice.
Beside him, Yu Nianzhen looked at the person and almost laughed.
It had been a while since he witnessed Jiang Yue’s acting ability and he couldn’t help but be amused.
"Formation master Jiang has a point." Someone suddenly agreed with Jiang Yue.
The person was a female cultivator who was part of the original team.
She had been holding her breath for so long and she could no longer do it.
In the Cangxing world, the powerful had the last word.
She understood this and also accepted it.
What she couldn’t accept was the Rong family’s hypocritical behaviour.
Since the Rong family planned to drive and rob them, she hoped they would come out and say it.
"These seniors, if you want to rob people, don’t pretend to give us a choice." The girl said bravely.
As soon as the words, everyone looked at her in shock.
No one expected she would suddenly break the pot and speak the ’hidden’ truth.
’It’s true that people cannot be stimulated too much.’ Jiang Yue thought but still looked at the girl in appreciation.
"She is a brave one." He whispered and Yu Nianzhen nodded.
Unfortunately, bravely without strength was stupidity.
No matter what happened, the girl was unlikely to have a good ending.
"For the sake of agreeing with me, let’s help her if we can."
"Good." Yu Nianzhen answered.
As long as it didn’t endanger their lives, he was unwilling to save the girl.
After all, the Cangxing world had lost too many cultivators and every good one was worth keeping.
"Friends from the Rong family, what do you think? Isn’t it better to follow the original agreement?" Jiang Yue deflected everyone’s attention from the girl.
"You..."
"Let’s follow the original plan." The third elder spoke.
At the same time, he looked at Jiang Yue and Yu Nianzhen with an indifferent look in his eyes.
"Third elder..." A Rong family disciple was not reconciled.
"Don’t argue." The third elder stalled the person and everyone fell silent.
"Follow me to break the ice." He said to the two core formation realm elders.
A moment later, the three stood close to the position of the previous breakage.
"Is it here?" One of the elders inquired.
"We were standing there when we fell into the lake." Junior sister Wei confirmed and the others nodded.
Soon after, the three elders released their weapons and began to attack the ice.
[What do you think?] Jiang Yue transmitted.
[That third elder is a little powerful.] Yu Nianzhen praised.
[He seems to be a body cultivator.] Jiang Yue observed and Yu Nianzhen nodded.
It was rare to encounter a pure body refining cultivator.
However, the third elder of the Rong family was not only a body cultivator but was also cultivating a form of the vajra body.
When practised to the extreme, the body’s defence was almost impossible to break by cultivators of the same level.
[With him here, they will break the ice sooner rather than later.]
"Let’s get ready." Yu Nianzhen said and pulled Jiang Yue closer to the frozen lake.
As expected, it didn’t take long to break the ice.
In less than an hour, a fault line appeared on the ice and the lake’s surface shattered like a broken mirror.
"Fellow Daoist Jiang, it will be your turn soon." A gentle voice said.
However, Jiang Yue almost shuddered when he heard the voice.
Although the gentle voice was pleasant, Jiang Yue always felt like a venomous snake was staring at him.
The feeling was extremely unpleasant and he couldn’t help but frown.
"Fellow Daoists, should we do it together or separately?" One of the formation masters’ approached Jiang Yue.
The person was a third-level formation master.
When he took the task, he thought he would be the most skilled.
Unfortunately, he encountered Jiang Yue whose revealed mastery was the fourth level.
"Let’s enter the lake first. We will decide what to do when we see the formation." Jiang Yue said.
Although he didn’t know the two formation masters, he didn’t intend to take everything and leave nothing for them.
After all, he and Yu Nianzhen didn’t need the lower-level resources.
Since they didn’t need them, there was no harm in letting the others have them.
"The ice is broken. Let’s enter the lake." The third elder shouted.
Soon after, the gathered cultivators began diving into the lake.
Seeing this, Jiang Yue removed a blue pearl from his storage ring.
The pearl was a water-ejecting bead, discovered at a miscellaneous goods shop.
It could eject water and create a dry barrier measuring a diameter of three metres.
For this exploration, Jiang Yue and Yu Nianzhen didn’t intend to directly enter the water.
After all, they had heard the retellings.
If the recollections were true, the lake’s water was not simple and the two wanted to avoid it as much as possible.
"I will be in charge of protecting us. You only need to think about the formation." Yu Nianzhen said.
"Good."
With that, the two jumped into the lake and Jiang Yue immediately activated the water pearl.
"Do you feel that?" He suddenly asked.
Before the pearl activated, they both felt a force that was trying to drag them to the bottom of the lake.
Although the barrier reduced the drag, the two could still feel a slight force on their body.
"I feel it." Yu Nianzhen frowned and his eyes narrowed.
However, they were already riding a tiger and couldn’t back out.
As the two sunk towards the bottom, senior Niu stared at the lake with a complicated look in its eyes.
After a long time, it sighed, looked at the sky, and sighed again.
’Out of the hottest fire comes the strongest steel.’ It thought.
