"The Su Martial family turned down our offer."
"The same with the Biao Martial family, even though we agreed to the distribution of the ever blaze stones, they are suddenly not inclined to make such a decision with us. They found a better resource and would like to acquire it immediately, they said."
Bang!
The figure who just heard the report banged his hand on the tree he was leaning on earlier.
"What about the fifth squad, how long until they reach here."
"Captain, we were already hasty when considering that their involvement would be a good idea. It'd be a miracle if they make it."
"So there is no conclusive answer?"
'Is this really happening? The whole squad falling into the trap of some wretched dregs!?'
When the man was busy thinking of his helplessness, A figure suddenly arrived before him, her chest heaved up and down with beads of sweat on her forehead.
She had clearly exhausted herself by running all the way here.
"He Yun, Let me follow you this time."
"Your squad is already pushed into a corner, other squads are still fending off the Lakus beast waves. Only my squad is available to assist yours. If you think the fifth squad will leave their conquest in the yore fields to assist you then you're surely mistaken."
"Young m–mistress!"
"Soli…"
"Let my squad assist yours, you know I'm capable enough."
The man thought for a while as he contemplated all the possible scenarios but eventually shook off his head.
"I can't allow such intervention, Young mistress."
"He Yun!"
"Forgive me, Soli. If something were to happen to you, even offering my head to the sect master would not be enough."
"He Yun! This is an irrational decision on your side. Father is in seclusion and I've been given full authority to mobilize the disciples and elders."
"..."
"You have no–"
"SOLI!"
The woman's voice seized at once; it was very rare for the first squad captain, who she had followed from when she was young, to raise his voice against her.
"You know you've no jurisdiction over me. I am answerable to the sect master only. Now, return at once and don't force my hand."
"Y–you!"
The woman only gritted her teeth before she retracted the path she came from with slouched shoulders and trembling lips.
After her back was no longer visible, The captain, with the same tenacity in his voice, ordered his subordinate.
"Tell some of our people to keep an eye on her and make sure to let me know if she makes any move."
"...Yes, captain."
Both men then looked behind one last time before they went further into the forest.
***
"Wake up, fatty. It's time."
The moon was in transit, and the faint moon glow was becoming brighter and brighter.
"Ugh…"
The fatty looked a snobbish kind, he was anything but.
He woke up at once and cleared the rheum around his eyes.
In a sluggish voice, he said.
"Finally. The last run that will decide my fate. Oh heavens, be on my side today!"
Silver took all of this in as he took the clean clothes the inn had provided them free of cost along with this room and put them on while removing the old ones.
The first thing he had done after getting to the Inn a few days ago was to get a good bath. This was one habit he wouldn't be able to leave.
Putting aside the old clothes, he started his daily routine of exercises. This regime was something he followed both on earth and here.
The fatty didn't think much of it as he went towards the restroom to get ready himself.
One hour later when he got out, Silver was still at it.
"Aren't you a dedicated one?"
For the past few days, he had seen Silver do the same thing every morning and he never missed it. You can at least admire one's dedication to follow boring things thoroughly.
For Silver, adapting to Yifan's body was nothing short of a challenge.
There were barely any muscles and flexibility in his joints, the lack of explosiveness was eating at his athletic side of the brain–soul.
He had to restart from zero again, but that was not so bad. A two-hour workout was enough along with the right nutrition. And the latter was by no means lacking when fatty was by his side.
After another hour passed by, both of them got ready to leave the inn and move towards the inner azure estate.
They left the Inn and joined the street which was unsurprisingly bustling even at this hour when the sun was still not fully up.
It was unsurprising because today was the day people awaited every year.
During the annual trial, the immortals would descend down the mountains and take those who are worthy enough and nurture them to immortality.
The worthy shall ascend while the unworthy shall await death.
The ones in between, comically called partially worthy like fatty Ling were lucky enough to keep their own lives.
The flow of the bustling street was preset. The young and the old, the able and the feeble, the married and the virgin, all made their way to the inner azure estate.
The Azure estate was divided into two areas, the inner circle, and the outer circle.
The outer circle was mainly for the mortals and the common people while the inner circle was for the families of the immortals living on the Azure mountain itself. All those closely and directly related to the sect officials and the inner disciples were allowed entry into the inner estate.
The higher your hierarchy in the sect, the closer your family and the likes were to the mountain in the inner estate.
Currently, there was a jam-packed huddle of people surrounding the gigantic inner estate gate.
The gate was grayish blue and looked like it was made to be used by giants and not humans.
After surfing through this hustle and bustle of the crowd, both Silver and Fatty Ling reached near the crowd surrounding the periphery of the gateway.
As Silver stopped to settle, Fatty Ling asked him curiously.
"Why are you stopping here?"
"Aren't we supposed to wait here?"
"That is for the spectators, we are clearly the challengers of the trial."
Gasp!
The people who accidentally heard Fatty Ling all turned around to look at him and Silver.
"You are a pursuer?"
"That one looks young, sure enough."
Silver hadn't expected people to display such incredulous expressions.
'I guess it's not a commonplace for them even though they live so close to the immortals.'
Or else, they wouldn't have seen such faces when they heard we were challengers.
The people made way for Silver and Fatty Ling to pass.
When Silver finally reached the end, clearly able to see the gate, he spotted around thirty people standing closer to the gate, away from the spectating crowd.
The crowd of spectating people didn't dare to cross a certain boundary which Silver couldn't see, Creating this semi-circular area of free space between them and the inner estate entrance.
In this semicircular space were standing people who all looked fairly young and only some looked around middle aged.
Silver spotted some familiar faces as he moved towards the gate along with Fatty Yang.
Sensing activity, some people who were facing away turned around to look at the new arrivals.
Some had their expressions change, mostly when they saw Fatty Ling. It looked like he was already well known in the challenger circles.
Some faces also had their faces change slightly, more specifically, three people had a slight change, one had a peculiar change while the last one only exhibited a glint in his eyes.
Silver didn't pay much attention to this group after a cursory glance. Only sparing the girl with a peculiar gaze a glance as she showed an expression he was not familiar with. Or should he say Yifan had never seen.
'Conflict…?'
Not being able to understand much, Silver decided to examine other people there.
Other than the kids of dove city, including him, there were more kids, although not standing in groups.
They looked around the same age as Yifan and the other kids.
While observing this group, Silver's gaze was stolen for a moment by a lone girl standing at the very end of the west side, opposite where Silver was standing.
She wore very simple clothes, she looked dirty, she looked exhausted, barely having the strength.
Her figure would garner anyone's instinctual desires to protect her.
But that was not why Silver kept his gaze on her.
'It looks the same…the same as mine.'
Before he could continue it, the thought was broken when a sudden burst of commotion sprouted behind him, he didn't even have to turn his head back to know the reason.
That is because the inner estate gates were slowly opening, from the barely open crevice, you could see the beautiful infrastructure inside.
You could see expansive Chinese-style houses, wide roads, and greenery all around.
Silver, though, along with all the other challengers had their sight fixed on the seven people standing in front of the opening gate.
The people behind him and some challengers too, fatty included, fell on their knees at just the sight of these people.
They had white martial garbs donned with various weapons. The green stripes on their garbs were vivid.
There was a difference between the clothes he had seen a few days ago on those four immortals and these seven people.
These people, unlike the inner disciples, had two extra stripes of green on their garbs along with long collars that were simply missing on the inner disciples' garbs.
Remembering what he had heard from Fatty Ling yesterday, these immortals will be the ones to oversee the trials of will and spirit. They will also be the ones directly responsible for the outer disciples.
These seven immortals were without a doubt— the outer elders.