An Bing Qing pressed her lips together, 'But this is good, isn't it? As long as I convince eldest brother to let me participate though', she put away her worrywart thoughts, she wouldn't reach an answer just by contemplating about it and she thought about the bright picture instead.
As she was thinking about how to persuade her eldest brother, the low discussions of the people in the each of the buildings subsided when the main host, Men Kun, spoke again, "The Ancient Inn's people will now deliver to each participant clan an Encrypted Jade Card where is written the part of the bamboo forest from where your clan is going to enter".
When he finished his words, a man clad in dark robes with the –Ancient character embroidered on the left part of their chests appeared out of nowhere in each family's private room. They passed a silver jade card with complicated patterns engraved on it to one of the Elders of each family and then retired.
The Great Elder was the one who received the card in An Family and he gave it An Yu Yong. He was sure that with this change of rules his young master was going to participate and the team leader will be him; there wouldn't be a problem as An Yu Yong has established his place already. The Elders of the other families did the same; they passed the card to the leaders of their families' teams.
All the young contenders from all the present clans were looking at the Encrypted Jade Cards while frowning; the complicated patterns on it were no other thing than formations. The meaning was obvious; they first needed to break its formations to know the place where they were going to enter. This type of jade cards was fragile and the only way to see its contents was by understanding the formations and break them with its correct method; if you were to forcefully break them, they will shatter. Of course, that also depended on the ability of the cultivators and the grade of the cards; higher grade cards can support more complex formations but they were also more fragile.
Men Kun took out the young men from their ponder as his voice rose to the air, "I'm sure that you all have already guessed the gist of it so I will only say that you have three hours to solve it and reach your entrance. There will be one person who will receive the card at your parting points and they will give you in exchange Instant Teleportation Talismans. You can only stay at The Forbidden Bamboo Forest for a week; once the week ends, the Instant Teleportation Talismans will take you out, though you can also shatter them in a distressing time".
He paused to catch his breath and then said, "Now, let's formally begin the first test, The Path of Knowledge", thunderous drumming gave rise and he finally turned around to go back to the pavilion.
In a room of the building where the Ancient Clans' rested, An Bing Qing pulled her eldest brother wide sleeves before everyone drifted their gazes back to the Encrypted Jade Card, "Eldest brother, Can Bing Qing participate? Let Bing Qing participate", she said in a low voice with a pair of lovely shiny eyes.
An Yu Yong turned around when he heard her girlish voice and saw her pleading eyes, 'She really wants to go, hmm…' he thought before smirking, "Heh, aren't you angry with this handsome young master?" he charmingly said.
An Bing Qing mouth almost twitched but as she was sure he will bring that out, she was able to maintain her cute and spoiled expression.
She got closer to him and said with sparks in her pitch black eyes, "Eh?! Angry? Who is angry? Bing Qing doesn't know what eldest brother is talking about". She tilted her head a little and then added, "Bing Qing can go, right? It won't be that dangerous this time as we won't need to worry about mysterious beasts lurking around. Moreover, we won't be encountering other family teams at the beginning. Nothing will go wrong, let Bing Qing go. Bing Qing will behave". When she said her last sentence, she almost bit her lips, 'Sigh, there's no way I will behave, I am going to slip away yet again', she thought with a bit of guiltiness; she lowered her eyes to hide it before An Yu Yong caught eye of her thoughts.
She was really quick as An Yu Yong only saw her like a little girl who had almost wasted all her cards. Still, he deeply regarded her.
An Bing Qing didn't hear a reply; hence, she raised her eyes, pressed her lips and added, "I won't hinder you all".
An Yu Yong saw her pitiful looks and hesitated for a moment; it wasn't going to be that dangerous indeed unless they encountered a powerful team that wanted their token cards.
'It's not like we are going to find the cards though. And if we come to face a powerful team we could just give away the token cards. We weren't expecting to get more than five additional places and she can also use the Instant Teleportation Talisman, after all', he weighed the situation before saying, "Are you going to behave?"
"En", An Bing Qing nodded in reply.
"Are you going to suddenly slip away?" An Yu Yong asked while smirking.
"En" She nodded again before stopping, "Eh? Nay, nay…" and she heavily shook her head.
An Yu Yong raised an eyebrow as he watched her from above; An Bing Qing didn't fluster because of his trick and put on a reproaching expression that made him laugh.
"All right, all right, you can participate but remember what you have said".
An Bing Qing didn't reply as though she hadn't heard what he said. She dodged the question jumping to her feet in mirth and said with a gaily and sweet smile, "Yay, let's go, then".