"Huff... huff..." Rue Bu's breathing was heavy as he sat on the ground in the middle of the forest, his expression dark and contemplative. "Sigh, even after almost three months of hard work, I still can't break through yet. But I'm close. I will definitely succeed within a week." His primeval essence sea was nearly depleted, and it was dangerous to stay in the forest any longer, so he decided to head back home.
On his way, he encountered someone he recognized. "Ma Rue Bu, hmph. Look at you. Are you so scared after what happened to Chen Yan that your team stopped taking missions? Hahaha." the familiar youth sneered.
"Ma Fen Fu, are you so afraid of me that you need to hide behind your bodyguard? Come here and let me play with you like back then." Rue Bu replied sarcastically, observing the rest of the group. He recognized one of them.
"What did you ju—" Fen Fu began to retort, but his own teammate interrupted him.
"Shut up, Fen Fu. Didn't I tell you I don't like it when you scream?" The youth wore extravagant blue clothes, his shiny yellow eyes glowing with confidence and courage. Fen Fu hesitated for a moment but then stayed quiet.
"You must be Shui Jun. I've heard a lot about you." Rue Bu said plainly.
"Haha, I'm flattered. Please don't take Fen Fu seriously. He doesn't know that one of your team members is Chen Yan's cousin and that's why you're not taking any missions." Shui Jun said, smiling.
"Oh? You know about that? It's not a big deal, really. I can start taking missions alone if necessary, but I need to focus more on my cultivation these days, so it's good to take a break." Rue Bu was genuinely surprised that Shui Jun knew so much about him, and he became alert.
"Ah, yes, of course. We all need to focus on our cultivation and not become overconfident like Chen Yan." another student from the team added. But Rue Bu and Shui Jun didn't listen to him clearly. They smiled at each other and remained silent.
"If that's all, then I will be on my way." Rue Bu said after a while and headed home.
'Hmm, I can't tell if the rumors about this guy are true or not. Is he really as strong as everyone in the Ma tribe says? He looks harmless, but considering what happened with the Kui twins and what I heard about his cousin, it must be true.' Shui Jun thought to himself. "I can't wait to experience you myself, Ma Rue Bu!" he said aloud, startling Fen Fu and the other student.
'I can't believe I have to be on this crazy guy's team. The rest of this year is going to be long. Sigh.' Fen Fu thought to himself.
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At the residence of the Chen family in the Ma tribe, Ma Chen Cheng was sitting with his grandfather, having a conversation. "You do understand the dangers in the surrounding region, right, Little Cheng?" Chen Renshu asked his grandson.
"Yes, Grandfather, please don't worry. I know my limits and won't make a reckless decision like Chen Yan did." Chen Cheng replied.
"Good, good. Now go and continue your cultivation. Tell me if you need anything." Despite the widespread incident concerning Chen Yan, who was one of the stronger and more talented students, and the ensuing reevaluation among every big family and talented student in the alliance, Chen Renshu wasn't too worried about his grandson.
'Chen Cheng isn't stupid. He knows his limits and won't do something reckless. Besides, we don't need brutes who can't think in our Chen family. I wonder how that old man is feeling after losing his precious granddaughter, heh.' he thought to himself as Chen Cheng left the room.
'I even heard he is keeping the other one locked up in the tribe. Well, it's not like that useless D-grade is any threat to Chen Cheng.' Chen Renshu started to recall a memory that made him so angry he crushed the tea cup in his hand.
"Hmph, Chen Ning, that bitch. I swear I'll end his life one day." he muttered in an annoyed voice. Letting out a breath to calm himself, he asked. "Is there any other news about that mindless wasp?"
"No, sir. Either Chen Ning knows something and hasn't told anyone, or he doesn't know anything about how Chen Yan acquired that information or where the mindless wasp went if it wasn't destroyed." someone answered Chen Renshu immediately from behind the room's door.
'Hmm, something is wrong.' Chen Renshu was puzzled. When Chen Ning reported his findings about his granddaughter to the alliance, he had informed them of everything he discovered, suspecting a bigger scheme in the shadows and wanting the alliance's help to find the truth.
But most of them didn't fully believe him. Even though they thought he might be hiding something to either protect himself or keep the mindless wasp if he found it, it nearly drove Chen Ning insane.
"Whatever. We'll see how your D-grade granddaughter fares against my Cheng Chen at the end of the year. I hope you're ready for this, Chen Ning. Hahaha." Chen Renshu laughed aloud.
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"Look, it's them." someone whispered, pointing at two youths emerging from the academy building.
"Oh? Are they the ones who abandoned their teammate? What were their names again? Ah, right, Ma Xiao and Shui Chun. How disgraceful it is to abandon your friend to save yourself like that." another remarked with disgust.
"Hmph, what would you have done in their position, huh? Listened to your crazy "friend" and ended up dead? Be serious!" an older man scoffed.
Ma Xiao and Shui Chun wore grim expressions, not because of the whispers and resentful remarks of the crowd, but because the elders had just given them their "punishment."
"If they really didn't do anything wrong, why did the elders announce they were going to be punished, huh? And look at their faces—their punishment must have been horrible for them to look like that." someone argued, unwilling to believe the old man's words.
"Hahaha, that's a good joke, kiddo... ah, are you serious? Kids these days. Okay, listen, the elders did that for a reason, obviously, and you would be a fool to think it's because the elders believe what they did was "wrong" ." He paused to take a breath before continuing.
"They did it for the sake of the other students. Imagine another student gets into the same situation that Chen Yan did. If these two weren't punished, that student's teammates might not help them either. They'd think, 'Look at Shui Chun and Ma Xiao—they did it and nothing happened to them. Why would anything happen to me?'."
The old man paused and observed the reactions of the others, who were filled with uncertainty and hesitation.
"Hmph, you don't believe me?" he snapped. "Well, consider this: these teams aren't like what we're used to. They aren't from the same tribe or the same bloodline. It's three total strangers from different tribes working together by circumstance. Put yourself in their shoes and tell me if you could trust them with your life." he said angrily, walking away while grumbling about something.
"Who is this old man anyway? Why is he so angry all of a sudden?" No one recognized him, so they quickly forgot about the whole situation and went back to their business.
Meanwhile, Ma Xiao and Shui Chun were still in shock from what the elders had told them. "Do you know how many days it took me to refine those Gu worms? They just took them from me like that. And if we want to continue taking missions to get the primeval essence stones necessary for buying Gu worms and restoring our strength, we have to find someone who can join our team. According to the rules, they even have to be from the Lin tribe." Ma Xiao grumbled.
"We are lucky they didn't kill us. We should be gratef—" Shui Chun began, but Ma Xiao almost wanted to smash her head as he remembered what she had told Chen Ning back then. He restrained himself and instead yelled at her.
"Lucky?! Hahaha, do you hear yourself, Shui Chun? You know that no one will want to join our team, right? Or are you expecting someone from the same tribe as Chen Yan to join the people who, essentially, helped kill her? And they even took some of our Gu. I don't know about you, but I'm basically useless right now. Even if anyone joins us, we wouldn't be able to handle even the lowest-risk missions. In other words, we are screwed, Shui Chun. We will have to sit with the D-grades who didn't participate in the missions, train in the academy, and cultivate with the handful of resources available, if we can..."
He continued his rant until he noticed an old man watching him from afar.
"Ah! Elder Chen Ning! Greetings, esteemed elder!" he said, bowing his head and speaking in a shaky voice.