"Maaan… it sure is a long ass hallway" Wang Sheng complains as their group tread one of the hallways beyond the six doors. After they finished their introductions previously, they decided to talk and familiarize themselves with each other while resting a bit before going in. Currently, they had already walked for around fifteen minutes and the path still continues on, with the only light source being the room they came from.
"The hallway contains multiple formations including an illusion type one, otherwise it would be impossible for the inside of this place to be so much bigger than the outside" Wu Xiaotian explained as he felt traces of space interacting artificially, meaning that there was once someone who was capable of compressing space to such degree that used his ability here.
'Luckily, this thing couldn't deceive my senses' he thought to himself as he observes the combinations of formation causing the 'endless hallway' effect, one of them an illusion that tricks them into believing that they are travelling in a normal phase, and another formation that seems to greatly slow them down.
While he's completely unaffected by the illusion formation, the other formation is a higher leveled one and have most of its parts are runes that he had yet to encounter or study, so he had no choice but to walk slowly along with the four.
"Yeah, forget about that, aren't those people too shameless following behind us, Bing Xue, you told me they've been trailing the two of you since you entered the palace, right?" Huo Chen said with a low voice as he points towards a group of seven people trailing behind them on a distance, the group composed of three women a few years older than them, and the rest are men the same age as the women.
"Forget it, it's not like we can do anything to get rid of them currently" Bing Xue replied as they continue moving forward, also annoyed at just how shameless one could be.
"It's still pretty annoying to be honest, they have been trailing behind us and picking up things we leave behind" Leng Yue added as she pouts her lips while walking alongside Wang Sheng before she continues, "Well, it's true that it's our fault for not taking away those things, after all, Bing Xue and I couldn't find a value in those things but it's just unpleasant having other's freely profit from your hard work and they couldn't even spare a word of thank or a bit of help, they're just there, trailing behind as if…"
"As if some damned parasites" Wang Sheng finished as he looks back and saw the people trailing behind. Seeing their smug look as if taunting that they can't do anything about them, he couldn't help but get annoyed, but still held himself off as he scrutinized the group behind, groaning in frustration as he saw the uniform they're wearing, as well as the jade tokens hanging on their waists.
"They're from the Purple Lightning Temple" he pointed out causing the others to get annoyed as well, thinking that it would be problematic to get involved with them.
"Something wrong with hitting them? They're pretty much on the same level as your forces, right?" Wu Xiaotian asked in confusion as he clearly remembered that this Purple Lightning Temple sits at the same level as the forces backing his friends, and this temple is even slightly weaker.
"There's no problem outside..." Wang Sheng shook his head before he continues explaining "Remember the restrictions in order to enter the secret realm?"
"Yeah, the token, less than thirty years of age and no higher than Nascent Source Realm cultivation, right?" Wu Xiaotian asked back as he starts getting more curious about the reason.
"The thing is, their temple leader is shameless enough to send in his disciple who's already preparing to break through the Soul Formation Realm, saying that he's technically still in the Nascent Source Realm" Wang Sheng answered, his voice in sheer disgust as if he couldn't believe someone of such high stature would have a face thick enough to say something like that.
"If that was the only issue, there should not be too much animosity as even our forces would do that if we have someone like that, but what made the event so unfair is that his disciple is already thirty years old, that old bastard only lied through his teeth and said that his disciple is just one day short of his thirtieth birthday, so he's still 'technically' someone less than thirty" Huo Chen added in complain as he recalls the face of that Purple Lightning Temple's disciple, also telling Wu Xiaotian how the bastard is looking across the crowd with an aloof expression as if no one is worth his attention while his eyes roams around young women with a crooked smile.
"Just from your explanations of him, I can definitely tell that he's also one hell of a bastard just like his master, probably even worse" Wu Xiaotian said unhesitatingly, his voice being heard by the group behind gradually speeding up as they saw the door at the end of the tunnel getting closer.
One of the people in the group, an average looking young man with an arrogant look on his face shouted and immediately started berating Wu Xiaotian, as if he doesn't even care about how easily he dealt with the previous beast tide that nearly killed them.
"How dare you say that!! You think you can just berate Senior Brother Zi without consequences?! You better kneel and apologize in front of him when you saw him!! Well, given your talent, I guess I can also put good words for you so he can take you in as a lackey, so you don't need to worry about offending him with your previous words, however, you need to leave this group of young masters and protect us, how about that?" the young man spoke without stop as if it's an honor to be his guard or their Senior Brother Zi's lackey, thinking that it would be good to subdue an expert of Wu Xiaotian's caliber and make him a subordinate of their sect's eldest disciple.
"Some people are just completely delusional huh…" Wu Xiaotian muttered as he was astonished at this bastard's high and mighty act as if no one is better than him just because of his senior brother.
"You!!! You better control yourself while I'm still being nice, or else I'll─" hearing Wu Xiaotian's words, the young man's entire face turns red in anger as he started threatening them but was cut short by Wu Xiaotian's cold and impatient voice.
"Or else you will what?" he said as qi in the surrounding starts taking the form of a sword, four of them penetrating the young man's limbs directly, continuing its flight until he's pinned in the wall.
With the pain spreading across his entire body, the young man screamed loudly as tears formed in his eyes and liquids starts spilling on his pants. The young man, with face now filled with terror couldn't speak as Wu Xiaotian approaches him, even his companions are frozen in place seeing that one of their own, the strongest among the seven of them was pinned so easily on the wall, helplessly hanging in there as if waiting for his doom.
"What I hate the most is people threatening me, especially those that I don't even know" Wu Xiaotian said as he pulled one of the invisible swords out, causing another painful scream from the young man.
"Y-y-you c-c-can't k-kill me…. T-that's against t-the rules of t-the s-secret r-realm" the young man's trembling voice explained and just prayed that he will be spared by this demon he just offended, completely terrified at how easily he did this to him.
"Don't worry, I'm not dumb enough to not know it would bring me too much trouble if I kill you" Wu Xiaotian said as he turned his back away, recalling Ling Feng telling him that the strong powers usually give their disciples some sort of artifact that would mark the people that killed them. He doesn't want to attract too much trouble for himself especially when he's already being hunted by the Extreme Martial Sect, so he decided he's better off sparing the young man, however, not in the way the young man expected.
"I will destroy you though" he said as he used his overwhelming soul power to shatter the young man's will, turning him into a complete idiot that doesn't know or remember anything, after doing so, directing his power to the six other people, completely destroying their intelligence as well, bubbles forming on their mouths.
Seeing how he dealt with the people trailing them, the two ladies and his sworn brothers give him a thumbs up, with Wang Sheng even praising him in a weird way.
"Powerful and ruthless, nice way of dealing with them" he said as he approached Wu Xiaotian, nodding as he observes the seven people who are now sucking on their thumbs, their eyes void of any sense of sentience.
"Thanks for the compliment" Wu Xiaotian replied, smiling at their nonchalant attitude to what he had just done.