Ji Yuan immediately turned to his new team to say, more specially to the other 4 celestial champions. "Erm, our new leader has just died. So we need a new leader now. So, which one of you will be our new leader, most preferably able to get us to the end of the trial in less than 1 day?"
All of a sudden, the 4 celestial champions Ma Huarong, Hu Tao, Zhao Mingyao and Yi Ling were all looking blankly at Ji Yuan.
Ma Huarong bitterly said, "I think that Brother Ji Yuan should be the new leader instead."
Ji Yuan frowned, "This won't do at all because I have no interest to being the leader in the first place. And moreover, I am also not a capable leader that can lead everyone out of this desert in less than 1 day. Haha…"
Hu Tao said bitterly, "We need not finish this trial in less than 1 day since we have 3 days for the trial completion."
Ji Yuan grinned, "I happen to have no sense of direction as well."
Everyone: …
Zhao Mingyao smiled weakly, "We don't need a good sense of direction from you. All we need to do is to move away from the desert fire that is like a giant pillar of fire here. This isn't hard at all."
Ji Yuan said frankly to his face, "All you guys is just someone that will take the risk by walking in front, am I right? It isn't because you need a real leader. What if I refuse all of you?"
Yi Ling the only celestial maiden beside Chu Lixue pretended to smile coyly, "Great Hero Ji Yuan, I hope that you can please lead us. We need at least a capable leader or a worthy leader to lead us. I hope that you do not decline us anymore. The reason why we have all selected Huo Yuantian as the leader was because we all thought that he has a plan to lead us to the next trial. But we didn't think that he will die so fast."
Ji Yuan immediately smiled, "Alright then. I shall be the leader of our team then. Haha…"
Xiao Muhan, Chu Lixue: …
All the others: …
Ji Yuan immediately picked another route from where Huo Yuantian had taken and he started walk cautiously.
Every now and then he would flicker his fingers to blast off his sword energy at the ground.
Needless to say, their progress was really slow.
And soon enough, Zhao Mingyao, Hu Tao and Ma Huarong were muttering unhappily among themselves that this was really too slow.
But Ji Yuan did not seem to care for their opinions.
Even Xiao Muhan and Chu Lixue were also feeling that they were moving too cautiously.
Elsewhere outside the Spiritas Tower, Little Princess and Feng Minyue who were together watching the battle imageries in the colosseum had spotted Ji Yuan and his team.
Little Princess was shaking her head slowly, "It is a terrible mistake to make Ji Yuan a leader. In terms of slowness, he is number 1."
Feng Minyue was forced to nod as well, displaying a bitter look as she recalled how Ji Yuan had tortured many of the maidens while he was at the lower levels of the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth by inspecting slowly every small detail and ended up wasting everyone's time.
Moreover, he was totally shameless and was deaf to complaints by the maidens that he had been too slow.
All the maidens had already resolved to themselves never to be led by Ji Yuan if they were trapped in a maze with him.
Little Princess and Feng Minyue could only shake their heads lightly when they saw that the Smiling Divine Maiden Chu Lixue and Xiao Muhan were both with him; the two of you will soon know our torture.
In fact, from the battle imageries, it did seem that Ji Yuan's team was the slowest as well as the fastest.
Slowest because he was moving in a snail pace.
Fastest because all the rest of the teams had suddenly realized that they were all moving toward the desert fire!
Even Ji Yuan's team was feeling that something seemed to be wrong as they moved along.
Ma Huarong said, "Weird. We seem to be moving to the desert fire now instead of moving further away from it."
Chu Lixue was also saying to Ji Yuan, "This doesn't look right. We are moving away from the desert fire but why is the desert fire seemed bigger than ever before?"
Ji Yuan was also feeling a little startled as he peeped at the desert fire by climbing up to a sand dune, "It seems that we are now 450 miles closer to it now."
Everyone: …
All of a sudden, a dozen golden skeletons with swords had jumped out of the desert sands and they had surrounded Ji Yuan and his group.
Ji Yuan was alarmed, "Fight! We have intruders!"
The spiritas male Tianya Jiuyou had taken out a physical talisman and threw it onto a golden skeleton.
However, his talisman exploded harmlessly onto the golden skeleton and a sword swung quickly cut him into half!
These golden skeletons all had the profound strength of the 7th cultivation realm so Tianya Jiuyou who were only at the 5th Spirit Realm was not able to resist the attack and got himself killed.
In just a few short blinks of an eye, the golden skeletons had rampaged through the team, injuring Xiao Muhan, Yi Ling and Spirit Consort Miao Humei!
Chu Lixue and Ma Huarong had both destroyed a golden skeleton each with their profound arts and it was apparent that they were the stronger cultivators.
Ji Yuan raised Xiang Li as he exploded a golden skeleton with his sword stroke before he summoned his 9 divine swords and sent them as flying swords to slice into the remaining golden skeletons, destroying them in the next instant.
Ji Yuan had single handedly wiped out 10 golden skeletons all in all and his feat stunned Ma Huarong, Hu Tao, Zhao Mingyao and Yi Ling for his flying swords were simply too fast; they had sensed Ji Yuan's sword intentions all of a sudden and in the next instant, 9 flying divine swords were flying all around and were slicing apart all the golden skeletons!
And they saw that there were even a half-step emperor and a saint-step divine sword among the 9 flying swords!
What was more, this Ji Yuan even had an emperor-step divine sword on him!
All of a sudden, these celestial champions felt a little inferior when they were standing next to him…
Even Spirit Consort Miao Humei was in awe of Ji Yuan since she was now officially the lowest cultivation realm at the 6th Spirit Realm and she appeared to be shaken by the short encounter.
It was only with the intervention of Ji Yuan that this encounter appeared to be short for these 12 golden skeletons all had the profound strength of 12 great saints and they were not easily beaten.
Even Ma Huarong who had destroyed one of the golden skeletons, had used all his profound strength and trump cards just to kill one golden skeleton.
Ji Yuan withdrew his 9 flying divine swords and sighed softly, "We have 1 more dead now and have some injuries."
Xiao Muhan, Yi Ling and Spirit Consort Miao Humei were all injured and they were looking a little weak now under the blistering sun.
Chu Lixue said to Ji Yuan, "What's now? At this rate, we may not be able to get out of this desert in time to finish this trial. Worse, we may all even die in this place once we have encountered a primeval monster."
Xiao Muhan said weakly as he held onto the wound on his abdominal, "We are also lost in this burning desert too."
Luckily for him, he was a saint and his wounds had quickly closed but it was still a severe injury as it was dealt by the profound power of the golden skeleton that was on par with a great saint.
The others were also nodding when Xiao Muhan had said that they were lost.
Ji Yuan had climbed to the top of sand dune and he was looking at the blazing sun and the desert fire for some time without saying a word.
All of a sudden, he said. "Follow me!"
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Author Note:
1. I'd really appreciate it if the readers can contribute power stones to this story as a show of support even if you are reading from other websites. Your spirit stones are crucial for motivations and releases. Also, it means alot me/ story, Many love and thanks! ?(⌒▽⌒?)
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