Shen Yufeng chuckled, "Time up! Those who did not want to go can step aside."
"What? Barely five minutes have passed and it is already timed up?" Many of the cultivators were shocked.
"I thought we have ten minutes to think?"
Lu Qingyun smiled weakly as he looked at Qian Jingjing, "Do you think that Supremacy Yufeng has a bad sense of timing?"
Qian Jingjing nodded as she whispered, "I've noticed that she is terrible with her timing as well…"
But in the end, all three hundred and fifty-five cultivators had stood their ground and none bulged from their positions.
Shen Yufeng smiled, giving her approval of these brave cultivators.
She turned to whisper to the rest of the golden celestials. "It seems that we still have a reasonable number of willing cultivators."
Feng Xiaoxiao nodded, "We will need five hundred cultivators that are below the fourth realm to participate in the Pangu Suppressing Array."
Shen Yufeng smiled, "That may not be necessary. There are quite a few strong cultivators in that group. They can double up for two to three cultivators. Therefore I want to minimize our risks to the lowest. We shall pick one hundred of our protégés to participate in the Pangu Suppressing Array. No more, no less."
Tang Xuefeng said, "We have actually prepared two hundred of our core protégés for this undertaking. So who will stay and who will go?"
Shen Yufeng sighed softly as she stole a glance at Zhao Riyue and Zhao Xingye who were standing faraway, "Except for the Zhao twin sisters, have the rest to draw a lot."
The reason why Zhao Riyue and Zhao Xingye had to participate was because they represented the greatest hope of succeeding in this expedition and they may find a way to save the rest of the expedition group.
Finally after a short while, a hundred protégés of the Heavenly Fragrance Villa had been chosen. Most of them were third and fourth realm core protégés and were all young cultivators.
Shen Yufeng and many of the golden celestials were grieved to see so many of their young protégé juniors having to take this risk. But it was either a slow decline or a chance to maintain their divine realm status for the next few centuries.
Feng Xiaoxiao was quite grieved to see Zhao Xingye and Zhao Riyue go. When Tang Xuefeng saw her expression, she said quietly. "Saint Gao Tianshou is too ambitious. He even has the audacious to come to our divine realm to recruit our cultivators to his banner. If we don't do something, sooner or later our divine realm will be absorbed into his divine realm."
Feng Xiaoxiao nodded quietly, "He isn't a hero but we can't stop the gossips about him. His network is now everywhere."
Lie Xingyuan was quietly looking and listening. She had heard the mention of Saint Gao Tianshou being mentioned on a number of occasions by Lu Qingyun who had idolized him like his personal hero.
Once the one hundred protégés of the Heavenly Fragrance Villa had joined the ranks of the other cultivators, Shen Yufeng announced with a lovely smile. "Prepare to enter into the Pangu Suppressing Arrays!"
Behind her, Feng Xiaoxiao, Tang Xuefeng and many of the golden celestials were secretly sighing softly. They knew that Shen Yufeng was only putting on a brave front. Feng Xiaoxiao who had the Listening Heart Intricacy Skill knew that deep down, Shen Yufeng was deeply grieved.
As a matter of fact, she had argued with the Heavenly Fragrance Princess over a lengthy period of time over this. But as the subordinate of the Heavenly Fragrance Princess, Shen Yufeng was completely loyal her and the divine realm.
In the end, Shen Yufeng had asked the Heavenly Fragrance Princess to allow her to chair the trials of the Heavenly Fragrance Tournaments. In order to ensure greater survivor rates for the participants, she had purposely set a high bar for them. At the same time, she had requested a ridiculous amount of Divine Profound Pills that could bankrupt the treasury of the Heavenly Fragrance Divine Realm.
She had urged, "If we fail to have any success in the ancient celestial ruin then Saint Gao Tianshou will surely find an opportunity to turn the celestial clans against us. Although our sect is a strong sect but we can't deal with the combined strength of all the celestial clans that will be demanding justice later."
Seeing that the Heavenly Fragrance Princess was hesitating, she added. "The Spirit Sword Manor may also seize this opportunity to take over the divine realm or collaborate with Saint Gao Tianshou."
The Spirit Sword Manor was the second most powerful celestial clan in the Heavenly Fragrance Divine Realm and was the former divine ruler. It had no less than twenty golden celestials and many powerful alliances.
"Although the Heavy Moon Sect appears to be at odds with the Spirit Sword Manor but they had many secret dealings on the sly."
The Heavenly Fragrance Princess nodded, "Then do as you have said."
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Back to the present;
Shen Yufeng had raised her fingers and had raised the veiled illusions of the celestial array that was in place.
Immediately, all the cultivators could see that they were now looking at a misty valley that was overlooking them and there were moving reflections above this misty valley.
Some of the cultivators with keener eyes like Lu Qingyun could even pick up the remnants of an ancient ruin in the misty valley.
A celestial portal had also opened in front of them.
Shen Yufeng said solemnly to them as she pointed to Zhao Riyue, "Once you are inside this portal, do not move unless Zhao Riyue says so. She will be the leader of your expedition group."
Then she added, "This ancient celestial ruin is protected by the Pangu Suppressing Arrays. The rest of us from the outside will try to suppress the Pangu Suppressing Array so that it will be safe for you to enter inside. Do not be hasty. As promise, you may keep everything that you have found inside, including any divine swords."
Then with a soft sigh she added. "You have only six hours to make your escape once you are inside. Do not forget about the time. You will all be given a talisman. Burn it and we will use our divine sense to locate you and we will get you out. Don't burn it at the last minute or to lose it. We are humans after all."
Lu Qingyun had heard of the array teleporting talisman before. After burning it inside the celestial array, the cultivator could be found by the divine sense of the high level cultivators that must be a golden celestial. It was because only a golden celestial had the profound strength to penetrate through the protective celestial array.
However that was a flaw with this talisman that not many cultivators know; whether the cultivator could be located depended on the superior divine sense of the golden cultivator and it would take a lot of profound strength for even a golden celestial to pull anyone out.
There were some twenty golden celestials here but there were some five hundred of them inside!
It was impossible for twenty golden celestials to save five hundred cultivators at the same time!
More so, if a group of cultivators were burning their talismans at the same time. The golden celestials had to choose who to save and who not to save if they were in danger. And the feat to pull anyone was not instantaneous.
Just as he was thinking hard and was a little dismay, he had suddenly spotted the golden eyes of Tang Xuefeng who was looking melancholy at him.
He was startled and quickly looked away.
Feng Xiaoxiao was also startled when she saw Tang Xuefeng looking dreamily in the direction of Lu Qingyun. As she had the Listening Heart Skill and she was so near to Tang Xuefeng now, she was startled that the emotions that were displayed in her protégé sister's golden eyes were not a negative emotion but a forlorn expression.
"I've thought that Xuefeng is going to hate Lu Qingyun?" She silently said with a perplexed look.
At the same time she had also noticed that Lie Xingyuan was also looking quietly in Lu Qingyun's direction.
"They…don't tell me that they…"
At this moment, Shen Yufeng said. "Get the talisman and enter the portal. Remember, don't make any hasty move when you're inside or the consequences will be upon yourself."
Soon, everyone had taken a talisman and had entered into the portal.
Lu Qingyun had entered the shimmering portal with Qian Jingjing and he soon found himself surrounded by thick woods and tall mountains all around them.
"We are now in the Pangu Suppressing Arrays? It was not long before everyone was inside and was all looking bewildered just like anyone else.
The protégés of the Heavenly Ridge Villa were calmer. Some of them had been here before but there was a look of dread on their countenances as they had remembered that some of their protégé sisters had perished here previously.
Zhao Riyue shouted to everyone, "Wait here and meditate here first. No one is allowed to go move."
All of a sudden a big size cultivator was laughing, "Why should we listen to you now? Didn't you hear what Supremacy Yufeng had said earlier? We can take all the loot that we can find in here. Right now, it is every man for himself and every loot for ourselves. Therefore I'm going into the ancient celestial ruin now."
"That's right." Another man said. "You are only trying to take the lead because you are afraid that we may have an advantage over you."
Immediately these two men and three other men had quickly rushed into the woods where the ancient celestial ruin was.
They did not stop to wait for Zhao Riyue or the rest nor did they bother to turn their heads back. Their intentions were all too clear; before anyone could react, they could quickly enter into ancient celestial ruin first and find all the profound treasures that they could gather.
But all of a sudden the five men were screaming loudly in front of all the other cultivators as numerous black lightning flew out of the ground and had instantly torn them apart.
All the other cultivators were startled and several dozens of the cultivators were secretly sighing with relief, "Whew. I have almost rushed along with them…"
Zhao Riyue hummed coldly, "Foolish idiots."
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Thank you readers and supporters for the 200th Chapter of this story =)