Chapter 82: Unreliable Foursome
"Three fellow Taoists." One of the two called before the three could approach them.
His voice was urgent, and the look on his face was very determined.
"Please wait." He said and brought his partner to walk toward the three.
"Is there something?" Jiang Yue asked.
He had a guess why the two wanted to talk to them.
However, his voice was calm, and his thoughts did not show on his face.
"Three fellow Taoists." The man called again when he arrived in front of the three.
He cupped his hands in greeting and then proceeded without wasting any time.
"The three must have noticed the water boundary formation that surrounds the underwater garden."
"What about it?"
"We have examined it, and the formation has nine nodes. We need nine people to break the formation. If the three could join us..."
The man didn’t finish his words.
Instead, he let them trail and allowed the three to make their own inferences.
"We have also examined the formation and have come to the same conclusion."
After that, the group of three turned into a group of five.
Once again, Yu Nianzhen spoke about the rules of collecting herbs before the group walked away to search for four others.
However, luck was not on their side.
On the way to search for companions, the formation struck again.
This time, the attack was more ferocious than all the previous times.
Even Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue who used dozens of turtle shell talismans couldn’t escape from being injured.
Unfortunately, one of the new group members could not resist, and she was turned into a blood mist.
"I hope we can find some people soon." Jiang Yue said.
Each of the four had a solemn look on their face.
Not even the sight of good herbs could lift the mood because they all knew they were walking on a tight rope.
In the next attack, no one died, but they were all severely injured.
However, they couldn’t take time to recover.
Instead, they all took pills and slowly refined them as they walked.
"We have walked for quite some time." The female devil spoke, and they all knew what she was implying.
Unlike before, they hadn’t even encountered corpses.
This didn’t mean that no one was dying.
It only meant that the formation attack was so violent that cultivators were being turned into blood mist.
"There are some vibrations in that direction."
Yu Nianzhen pointed toward the south.
The other three followed his finger, but they could see nothing in that direction.
"Vibrations? Are there fellow cultivators in that direction?"
Although they couldn’t see anything, the others weren’t perturbed.
They knew that everyone who entered the secret realm was incredibly talented.
It was likely that the young man could hear vibrations because of a cultivation technique or unique feature.
"I can’t be sure."
Yu Nianzhen hoped that the vibrations were caused by people, but he didn’t want to speculate.
"Let’s head there."
The four were very decisive and didn’t waste time.
After walking for a cup of tea and surviving one formation attack, they arrived thirty metres away.
"What is he doing?" Jiang Yue gritted his teeth when he saw what was happening.
In front of them were four cultivators.
Three of them were beautiful female cultivators, and the remaining was a male cultivator.
The male cultivator wore a golden robe, and his hair was held up with a golden guan.
From where he stood, Jiang Yue could tell that the young man was decked out in treasures.
His golden robe was at least a mid-grade spirit rank treasure. The guan was also a defensive treasure, and his shoes were speed boots.
The sword in his hand was a low-grade spirit rank weapon, and every once in a while, he would throw out an attack talisman.
"Second young master Sun is so handsome." One of the girls cried.
"The second young master has been attacking for so long, and he hasn’t run out of talismans."
"Second young master is unparalleled when he is attacking."
The more Jiang Yue listened, the angrier he became.
For a long time, he couldn’t figure out why the formation was so ferocious.
After all, even the kill formations in the thousand herbs garden left a way for people to survive.
Now that he saw the young man and his harem, he suddenly understood.
"There should be a limit to stupidity." He grumbled.
A whip appeared in his right hand, and he very much wanted to whip the four to death.
At this moment, he blamed their reckless attacks for the formation’s fierce attacks.
"Can they be used?" The female devil asked, and the others remained silent.
Yu Nianzhen didn’t mind working with evil cultivators, but he drew the line at stupid people.
He worried that the golden-robed young man wouldn’t follow the script when the time came.
If he chose to do his own thing when the time came, their plan would fail, and they would all suffer.
"Shall we look around for others?" The newest group member asked.
Once again, the group was silent.
However, in the back of their minds, they knew they couldn’t be too choosy.
Although the four in front of them were a little stupid, their survivability was very high.
With the golden-robed cultivator’s treasures, they could survive a few more attacks while looking for allies.
"We can kill them and grab his things." The female devil suggested.
Normally, she would immediately try to fascinate the target and let him work according to her will.
However, the target was too well protected.
Even killing him would depend on a sneak attack.
If they allowed the other to activate his defence artefacts, they could attack for a year and not be able to harm him.
"There is no need to court trouble." Jiang Yue was familiar with young masters.
In prominent clans, some elders would leave a blood mark in the bodies of their talented descendants.
This blood mark could be detected by cultivators at a certain realm, and they would often give face by not killing the young talents.
If the talents were killed, the blood mark would fly out of their bodies, and enter that of their killers.
Unless one was stronger than the caster of the blood mark, there was no way to remove the blood mark.
With a blood mark, a person could be tracked to the ends of the earth for revenge.
It was because of this that Jiang Yue didn’t want to kill the other side.
Although he and Yu Nianzhen were inner sect disciples of the Sea Cloud sect, the other was probably an important disciple of his sect or family.
If they killed him, the Sea Cloud sect would likely not protect them.
Without the sect, they only had master Yang, but master Yang was injured.
After considering everything, Jiang Yue felt that the best way was to approach the golden-robed cultivator to gauge his attitude.
"I will talk to them first."
Without waiting for an answer, he walked forth, and the four noticed him when he was five metres from their position.
"Who are you?" The golden-robed young master asked.
Since they arrived, the young master was attacking the formation.
Because of that, Jiang Yue and his companions hadn’t seen the person’s face.
Now that he did, he could see the young man was handsome.
His face was handsome, and his aura was full of arrogance.
From one look, it was easy to confirm Jiang Yue’s thoughts that the other was a young master of a prominent clan.
"The formation requires nine people to break. We already have four."
Jiang Yue didn’t talk nonsense with the other side.
"You want this young master to assist you?"
This was what Jiang Yue meant, but he was loathe to agree with the golden-robed youth.
This was because the young man’s tone implied that he would be doing them a great favour by agreeing to help them.
’Have you forgotten you are also in the formation?’ Jiang Yue grumbled, but he didn’t say anything.
He knew young masters.
If he tried to reason with the other party, the golden-robed young man would likely become stubborn.
He would insist he could break the formation on his own, which would continue to cause troubles in the underwater garden.
Although it was against himself, Jiang Yue had to be smarter than his opponent.
He was just about to say something when one of the girls walked to the young man and whispered something.
At first, the golden-robed young man looked displeased, but his complexion turned better as he listened.
"This young master doesn’t need to work with others to break the formation."
Jiang Yue sighed when he heard that.
He turned to the female who had whispered in the young man’s ear and glared at her.
"Our second young master is noble. If you want his assistance, you must pay a price." The young woman said as she turned a defiant look at Jiang Yue.
