When Jie Fu Lian opened his eyes, he immediately wanted to close them and fall asleep again.
"Brother Fu!"
"Brother Fu!"
It was LingLing and Xian Li, the two female disciples who were already infatuated by Jie Fu Lian.
"You're awake!"
"Where are we?" Jie Fu Lian questioned, his voice low and a bit hoarse.
"We don't know," LingLing confidently replied.
"We all fell down and when we opened our eyes, we were already trapped in this cave," Xian Li was a bit more helpful as she narrated the details.
The two girls looked to be a bit scared and confused by the sudden turn of events but such situations weren't new for Jie Fu Lian and hence, not only was he able to remain calm but he was also able to quickly realize where they were.
He thought the disciples of the HuiXue sect were only using traps as an excuse to scare off the other sects from using the path, but now that the situation had turned out like this, it seemed that they weren't lying.
"This is all because of you!"
"How can you be so unreasonable?! If there is anyone to blame then it should be yourself!"
"If you are really disciples from the HuiXue sect, shouldn't you have sensed a trap? Or is it that you had already sensed it and purposefully led us here?!"
"Why would we need to do all that?! If you can't talk any sense then you better shut your mouth up."
The argument between the HuiXue sect and this small sect continued even more fiercely and Jie Fu Lian felt as if his head was about to be split open by these two chattering men.
"Sister Xian Li, who is that?" Jie Fu Lian frowned a little as he pointed at the two arguing men and asked.
"That's brother Huo Feng and the other is Duan Luoyang from the HuiXue sect. They are both considered to be disciples with a bright future ahead of them. Their cultivation realm is also not far from each other."
"Brother Huo Feng doesn't like disciples from the HuiXue sect," LingLing suddenly interrupted as she spoke up, "When he was a kid, he wanted to join the HuiXue sect but his skills and talent were never enough and every time he tried to take their entrance test, he failed. The humiliation left him with a deep grudge against the HuiXue sect and when he joined our sect, he swore on his life that he would become a great cultivator that even the HuiXue sect would have to look up to."
Jie Fu Lian suddenly remembered the time when he had also taken that entrance test.
He had taken it out of pure curiosity since the test was infamous for being hard to clear, but in the end, he had passed the test with ease on the first try itself and hence, he had lost all interest and never joined the sect.
If this Huo Feng had failed that test so many times then even Jie Fu Lian couldn't help but question just how untalented and useless this man was.
"That Duan Luoyang isn't so great either," LingLing continued with a sneer, "If it weren't for his master, Hua Tianshu, how could somebody from his origins even dream to be a disciple of HuiXue sect?"
"Ling Rong, that's enough," Xian Li suddenly scolded the woman strictly, "Don't say things that you might come to regret."
Ling Rong puffed her cheeks up and pouted but said nothing more, looking as if she had been done wrong.
"Their constant bickering has got me tired, I'll rest for awhile. Wake me when they actually manage to find the way out," Jie Fu Lian sighed as he leaned back on the wall and closed his eyes, really looking as if he was planning on sleeping.
"Eh?" The two girls looked to be a bit taken back by this reaction but in the end, they could say nothing more.
Ten minutes passed and yet, Huo Feng and Duan Luoyang were still shouting at each other.
Jie Fu Lian had wanted to sleep but with the constant bickering of the two men whose voices weren't even soft, how could he manage to sleep...?
Suddenly, somebody did Jie Fu Lian a favor and shut the two men up.
"Stop bickering. What's done is done. Find a way out."
Jie Fu Lian snapped his eyes wide open in shock.
That voice...
He could recognize it even in his sleep!
"Shizun, he started it first!" Duan Luoyang pointed at Huo Feng and whined.
Jie Fu Lian gulped as he looked at Duan Luoyang's so-called 'Shizun'.
"It doesn't matter who started it first. As a disciple of the HuiXue sect, is this how you deal with such a situation?" Hua Tianshu glared down at this Duan Luoyang as he asked, his voice slow and deep, pronouncing each word clearly and patiently.
Jie Fu Lian felt as if he had been struck by lightning.
Just how bad was his luck...?
Of all the people in the world, why did he have to run into this man whom he never wanted to meet again...?!
Hua Tianshu didn't seem to have noticed Jie Fu Lian. In fact, even if he had seen the man, at the moment, he would probably fail to recognize him.
At first, Jie Fu Lian had no interest in helping everyone get out of this cave, but now, his plans seemed to have changed.
If Hua Tianshu was here then he needed to get out as soon as possible.
With the sudden change in circumstances, getting out of this cave was now a life or death situation for Jie Fu Lian and he was not looking to celebrate his second funeral.
"If we walk around, we are bound to find an exit," Huo Feng confidently spoke.
'That's a dumb idea,' Jie Fu Lian thought in his mind as he shook his head with disappointment.
"Then why don't you just walk around and find the exit for yourself?" Duan Luoyang spoke up, not bothering to be polite anymore.
"If you're so great then why don't you find the exit?!"
Duan Luoyang rolled his eyes as he heard this and Jie Fu Lian could see the man slowly losing his patience.
If it weren't for Hua Tianshu standing right there, Jie Fu Lian was afraid that this Duan Luoyang might have already thrown hands at Huo Feng.
"I told you to stop arguing," Hua Tianshu once again interrupted the argument and this time, he coldly glared at Huo Feng who immediately shut up and looked away with fear.
"I'm going!" Huo Feng announced as he confidently headed deeper into one of the passages inside this cave.
With that man gone, it was finally a bit quiet in there, but Jie Fu Lian was no longer in the mood to sleep.
"Brother Fu, should we follow him?" Ling Rong asked as she clutched onto the man's arm.
Jie Fu Lian didn't give an immediate response, instead, he looked down at his arm that was being grabbed by the woman.
He never recalled their relationship advancing to such a level where she could grab onto him this carelessly.
As if noticing his gaze, Ling Rong chuckled awkwardly as she pulled her hand back.
"You can follow him if you want," Jie Fu Lian finally responded to the question that she had asked.
"Eh? Brother Fu isn't coming along?" This time, it was Xian Li who spoke up as she questioned.
"Unfortunately enough, I only follow handsome men," Jie Fu Lian replied with a thin smile.
The two girls looked to be shocked speechless as they heard this.
'That should get them off my back,' Jie Fu Lian thought in his mind.
"Brother Fu... Is quite funny," Ling Rong suddenly chuckled awkwardly as she tried to make it a joke, but Jie Fu Lian didn't say anything further and simply kept on smiling thinly.
"Ling Rong, let's go," Xian Li coughed as she spoke up.
Ling Rong nodded her head and the two girls got ready to follow after Huo Feng, however, they hadn't even managed to take ten steps, when Huo Feng returned from another cave passage.
For some reason, the devastation visible on Huo Feng's face was a bit hard not to notice. In fact, it wasn't just his face, even his clothes looked to be soiled as if he had rolled around in mud and returned.
"What is it? Didn't find the exit?" Duan Luoyang sneered.
Huo Feng glared at the man and his face turned red with anger, but he didn't say anything back to the man, which in itself, was pretty shocking.
Duan Luoyang suddenly got a bit worried and asked, "Did something really happen?"
"I walked," Huo Feng muttered out as he looked down at the ground.
"Huh?"
"I walked for ten days straight."
"..."
Jie Fu Lian wanted to laugh but he kept it in.