Xue Zi Hui had arrived not long ago when the main host had announced the trial and its rules. That announcement had ruined his plans of entering the Ghost Forest at this time.
The Ghost Forest was a sealed place that could only be entered every three years.
At first, only the Ancient Clans had access to it but after the many protests of other clans, some of the resourceful places were unsealed while the richest ones had a change in rules with restrictions placed to have access. Of course, there were still some places where only the Ancient Clans had the rights to enter.
He had a way to get in but it will cause a slight movement. If he entered by himself, he was sure he would be spotted by the Ancient Inn's people but if there were more people entering, his action would be negligible.
'I will go with the first plan, then. Well, it will waste less time than the second one but...' as he was thinking that, he drifted his line of sight a little, and as good as his eyesight was, he was able to catch a glimpse of a white-robed maiden who was no stranger to him.
When he saw her, he couldn't help but turn his head around to his left to have a better view.
She was by the side of a young man whose facial features were amazingly alike to her but with a taller body height; behind them, there were fifteen young men following suit. They were walking through the building's side square where carriages were parked.
'Is the little girl participating?' he gave a pause to ponder, 'It is true that she is an Alchemist but her family doesn't seem to know, even the man who is as bold as her seems clueless about it...'
He halted his wondering and rummaged through his memories, 'Though I can't see through her cultivation level, she can't be that strong. Sure, she can match a small early or even a mid-Mundane Core Cultivator in terms of speed but that's due to her agility skill, the amount of energy she has must be that of a puny Mundane Cultivator. Then, why is she...?'
A sudden thought came to his mind, making him tilt his head to one side, 'Does she know formations?' but soon, he unconsciously shook his head, 'It can't be, she is stupid like little bird that only knows how to please its mother...'
He stopped as realization bathed him; then, he smirked with mock, 'Hah, that's it. Why didn't I think about that first? Her best skill is to persuade that twin of... Huh?' He froze at his line of thinking, his smirk vanished and the temperature around descended as his eyes grew cold, 'Why did I think about her things and for such a long space of time?'
He couldn't make sense of it; his thoughts had never been invaded before for another being for that long. He had always thought only about his own matters and had never spared a split second to think about other people, not even his own kind. And now he suddenly thought so much about the matters of someone else.
Before he had thought about her but it had been for a small interval of time that he easily ignored but now, it had been such a long contemplation that he couldn't let it slide down. This made him angrier than with the past incidents.
"Crash, clink, splash", the cup in his right hand broke due to his grasp tightening and the pink-coloured wine left in the cup spilt and dripped from his hand to his long sleeves and onto the floor; he didn't care about it.
"Clink, clink, clink..." he shook his hand and some of the cup's debris left in his hand fell on the floor as he stood up.
His body turned back and he flapped his wide sleeves to walk towards the doorway.
'I need to survey the surroundings of that place first', he had recovered his cool and had completely gotten rid of his earlier thoughts, or that was he wanted to believe.
He left his mind to only think about his first plan. Though it would take him less time to obtain what he wanted than with his second plan, the risk was incredibly higher.
.............
"At-choo", An Bing Qing covered her mouth with a white handkerchief with green bamboos and purple petals.
"Ugh..." she rubbed her polished nose that was slightly red now with a frown and her eyes closed. She had been sneezing not long after they got into the parking area and it hadn't stopped even after they the carriages drove forward; it was annoying her.
"Did you catch a cold?" An Yu Yong who was sitting opposite her asked.
'A cold?' She pondered briefly with her brows still furrowed, she didn't feel sickly.
Shortly after, her frown loosened and her eyes widened as she raised her brows, 'Huh? That's right'.
She frowned again and looked up to him, saying, "It's your entire fault", and she threw at him the handkerchief.
He caught it with his right hand before saying, "Huh?! My fault? Why is it..." he paused and remembered this morning's events, "Oh, that... Ha... Well, isn't that already something of the faraway past", he added with a wide grin.
"Hmph, just because you got lucky", she replied while rolling her eyes and turning her head to her right to look outside the window.
In fact, she didn't think she was sick but because she didn't know why and she didn't feel like talking, she decided to make use of her eldest brother's morning joke, which she was supposed to not use again, to ignore him.
An Yu Yong didn't say anything and let her being grumpy, he could make a joke about the handkerchief she threw to her but he had things to think about and couldn't entertain her this time; thus, it was perfect.