For the first time in a month, Lee Chun Hua had released her enormous aura.
"No, Senior sister Mu. Our survival literally depends on whether this person is alive or not. My conscience would plague me if they were still alive in there, and I just let them die when I could have done something to help."
Mu Yan Zhi flinched at the pressure. For the entire month that they had been together, Chun Hua had not released her aura at all and she had forgotten the gargantuan amount of power that the young woman held within her slender body. Chun Hua released her perception, and a wave of energy spread from her body. As a Qi manipulation realm cultivator, she could sense auras from a two kilometer distance, but noe that she was at the Qi Refinement realm, it had increased to almost five kilometres around her.
The jade beauty concentrated for a second, before she turned to face Mu Yan Zu with a large smile on her face.
"I found Senior sister Xin!"
"Eh?! You found Minxia?"
Mu Yan Zu raised a brow in confusion. Xin Minxia was strong, yes, but she was the last person that she had guessed would survive a full month in the Trial grounds. 'The lecherous pervert is still alive...'
It should have been impossible, but somehow the grand daughter of the Ashen Flame clan head lived through the horrors of the Trial grounds. Mu Yan Zhi and Xin Minxia had not been on good terms ever since the latter dual cultivated with the former's fiancé, but nevertheless, finding anybody who was fairly strong was a good cause to rejoice.
"That's 'good'. Anyways, what about the people in the cave?"
Lee Chun Hua smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of her head.
"Yeah, uh... I cut off the aura the moment I found senior sister Xin. Anyways, let's go meet her I could sense that she was rather not too far away."
Mu Yan Zu blinked twice while staring at Lee Chun Hua. She was the one who had insisted that they helped out whoever was in the cave, and now she was abandoning them the very moment she found her cousin sister.
"But what do we do about the people who were supposed to be in the cave?"
Chun Hua looked conflicted. She was reserving her Qi, and did not really want to spend more Qi energy in using her aura sensing ability, so she did the only thing that came to mind. She turned to the mouth of the cave and began to scream:
"Hey!!! Is anyone in there?!!!"
"Hello?!!"
Then she looked at Mu Yan Zu with a smile on her face.
"See, no one's in there. Come on senior sister Mu, let's go find senior sister Xin."
The other young woman sighed and shook her head.
"Let's go then."
When around, or close to finding anyone from her immediate family, Lee Chun Hua would change to a playful child-like mode.
"Hello? Is anyone out there?!!"
The two ladies stopped in their tracks as a voice replied back from the dark cavern. Slowly, a platinum haired woman and a black haired lady cautiously walked out of the cave. In an instant, swords were drawn and Chun Hua faced Nyakumi with a serious face.
"Who are you."
Not everyone on the trial grounds decided to follow the standard procedure that every other human would take. Instead of instantly forming an alliance with other people, these kind of persons believed in killing the other challengers. They chose not to team up with others, and instead walked down the dark path of taking out the competition. Chun Hua had seen quite a few in the one month she had spent here, and almost always, they fell by her sword.
"I'm Nya. Who the hell are you?"
The silver haired woman did not seem intimidated by the very least. She was wary, but she managed to hide it really well. Nothing was more dangerous than revealing your fears to a potential enemy. However, Chun Hua did not care about the other woman's fears. Instead, her brows are flying high in shock and confusion.
"You don't know who I am?!"
"Am I supposed to?"
Nya replied with a smirk of nonchalance while shrugging. But not once did she lower her sword.
"Unni... That's... That's Lee Chun Hua!"
Park Ju-Hui whispered to the other lady with fear and awe written over her face. Why wouldn't she react so, when one of the top ten strongest cultivators on the continent was standing before her. Chun Hua nodded and slightly lowered her sword.
"Indeed, I am Lee Chun Hua of the Blazing Valor sect, grand daughter of the current clan head of the Ashen Flame clan, and an early stage cultivator of the Qi reinforcement realm. Are you two in an alliance?"
Nyakumi deliberately stalled her answer for a minute or two, solely to annoy Chun Hua, before opening her kouty to speak.
"Alright, you win. Wanna form an alliance?"
'Wanna?'
Chun Hua frowned slightly. Only one person she knew spoke like that. She had no idea if he was currently alive or not, but since he turned out to be a bum, she did not really care.
"Alright, I'll form an alliance with you. But I have a condition."
The platinum haired woman raised a brow.
"I don't think there is any need since we already have to form alliances before the main trials begin, but I guess I'm gonna humor you a bit. What's your condition?"
Lee Chun Hua squinted as she glared at Nyakumi with an unknown expression on her face.
"Do you know anyone called Sethren Serpentis?"
***
Seth crashed on the floor with a groan. Blood was pouring from his shoulder, where a vile tentacled creature had stabbed him, but in his hand was a dagger made out of the scroll's energy. Behind him, Xin Minxia and Baek Daechul were cutting up the carcass into meat slabs. Suddenly, Seth sneezed. There was no dust, no tiny particles, and the system had healed him from all allergies, so why the sudden sneezing?
"Is someone talking about me?"