The battle was over.
The trial takers gathered around An Ying and her sect brothers, flattering Pan Tao and praising An Ying for undertaking the heavy responsibility of holding off the Frost Python.
It seemed the deaths of Qin Shun and Zu Fang hadn’t affected their mood. After all, no one had been very close to them before entering the Green Illusion dimension together.
Seeing that the Lurker Lizard and the Frost Python had fled, Tong Hao, who had been guarding Nie Tian, left to join the crowd.
Nie Tian actually enjoyed being able to have some time to himself. He sat on the ground by himself, ignoring the clamoring crowd.
Instead, he narrowed his eyes, looking around as he pondered the unusual and strange occurrences that had occurred earlier.
“Psychic awareness traveling under the ground…”
Normally speaking, being in the sixth level of Qi Refining, his psychic awareness shouldn’t be powerful enough to penetrate deep into the earth, not to mention search underground for a long time.
However, when he calmed himself earlier, and tried to sense the movements of the Lurker Lizard, his psychic awareness unexpectedly managed to leave his body.
As far as he knew, only Qi warriors who were much stronger than him would be able to do that.
Ever since he was young, he had been aware that he was special.
Because he had always been taller and stronger than his peers, none of them could defeat him by relying on physical strength alone.
But he had only been aware that he was physically stronger than his peers, not that his psychic power… was also superior.
With this battle, he had gained a better understanding of himself.
“It almost completely drained my energy for my psychic awareness to leave my body a single time. I should avoid using this skill as much as possible.”
As he was thinking to himself, an intense sleepiness struck him. He felt as if he needed to sleep for a very long time to fully restore the energy he had consumed.
Since there was no more threat from the spirit beasts, he let his guard down, became relaxed, and gradually closed his eyes.
Not too far away….
Pan Tao was still being complimented by everyone, and from several dozens of meters away, he snuck a glance at Nie Tian.
When he noticed that Nie Tian had already started recuperating immediately after the battle, he came to have a higher opinion of him.
In his eyes, Nie Tian had already become one of the most important members of their team, his importance only second to An Ying’s.
He even attached more importance to Nie Tian than Zheng Rui.
“Alright, alright.” Seeing that Nie Tian was already resting, he could no longer stand the noise of the people around him. “Let’s all stop here and rest! Nobody knows whether the spirit beasts we’ve just scared off will return or not.”
“Everyone, rest and reorganize where you are. Get your strength back as quickly as possible!
“We have to make sure our battle prowess is always at a high level!”
An Ying nodded and instructed, “No talking until your spiritual power is recovered. You all talk a lot, but are unable to help when the situation is critical.”
She also took a glance at Nie Tian from afar.
Early on, when everyone was taken over by fear and didn’t know what to do, it was Nie Tian who had stepped up.
She had no idea of what happened to him after that, and why he looked so exhausted now, but Nie Tian’s calmness and wits at that crucial moment had left a deep impression on her.
Like Pan Tao, she also secretly deemed Nie Tian as an important team member, even though she said nothing.
Hearing Pan Tao’s and An Ying’s orders, the trial takers, who were still immersed in excitement, finally quietened down, and sat down in a circle with An Ying and Pan Tao in the center.
Each and every one of them reached into the cloth pouches that hung by their waists, and one after another, took out glittering, translucent spirit stones.
Eyes closed, they clenched their hands tightly onto the spirit stones and absorbed the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth from within them, thus quickly restoring the strength they had consumed.
Before entering the Green Illusion dimension, their clan’s seniors had told them that the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth in the Green Illusion dimension was much poorer than that of the world they lived in.
Without help, restoring their strength would be an extremely slow process.
Therefore, every one of them was given spirit stones by their clan seniors before they entered the Green Illusion dimension so that they would be able to restore strength at a higher speed.
However, Nie Tian didn’t take anything with him, due to the fact that the Nie clan was already in decline.
When everyone closed their eyes and started absorbing spiritual power from their respective spirit stones, Pan Tao left the crowd quietly.
He went to Nie Tian’s side. Seeing Nie Tian sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed, he thought Nie Tian was sleeping, so after a moment of hesitation, he chose not to disturb him, but rather took out two pieces of jade-like spirit stones and placed them on the ground in front of him, before sitting himself not far from Nie Tian.
Even though An Ying’s eyes were closed, she had been secretly paying attention to the sounds and movements around them, in case the spirit beasts returned.
She noticed Pan Tao’s abnormal behavior and slightly opened her eyes, observing Pan Tao’s every move, then whispering to herself, “How come this guy has changed so drastically?”
Even though she was confused, she didn’t pursue the questions in her mind. Instead, she closed her eyes again and went back to recuperation.
Time passed quickly and soundlessly.
After an unknown period of time, while everyone was still recovering their spiritual power, they suddenly heard the sound of footsteps approaching.
One after another, they all opened their eyes nervously, thinking it must be the spirit beasts, returning to kill them.
“Don’t worry, it’s not the spirit beasts.” Looking in the direction where the sounds had come from, An Ying said, “The sound of the footsteps doesn’t belong to the spirit beasts, and it’s not coming from the depths of the glacier area. If my speculations are correct, it should be a group of trial takers from the other sects.”
An ice-cold voice suddenly rang out. “Good job, An Ying!”
In the next moment, Yuan Feng from the Grayvale sect showed up.
Soon after he appeared, Yun Song and the other trial takers from the Grayvale sect also revealed themselves.
“The Grayvale sect!” Zheng Rui furrowed his brows and stood up.
“That’s correct.” Yuan Feng arrived in front of them. His cold eyes glanced up and down every one of them, before he stepped closer and took a look of the corpses of the spirit beasts as well as Qin Shun and Zu Fang who had died in battle. He then said, “From the look of it, you’ve just gone through a bloody battle. What is it? Did you run into the Frost Python?”
At this moment, Nie Tian was awakened from his deep sleep by Yuan Feng.
He knew that he couldn’t have slept for long.
However, even though it wasn’t a long sleep, he could clearly feel that he had recovered most of his strength.
Before he had time to look at Yuan Feng, he noticed the two spirit stones in front of him.
In the next moment, he saw Pan Tao, who was sitting the closest to him.
He immediately realized that the spirit stones were from Pan Tao, hence he thanked him, smiling.
“If you consider me as a worthy teammate, then keep those two spirit stones.” Pan Tao said with a sincere face.
Nie Tian nodded his head, picked up the spirit stones, and put them into his waist pouch.
The reason he felt exhausted wasn’t that he had overly spent his spiritual power, but rather that he had drained his psychic power. Hence, he didn’t need spirit stones to recover.
However, since Pan Tao had given them to him, he certainly wouldn’t refuse.
The trial of the Green Illusion dimension was far from over. It was still hard to know whether or not they would encounter more dangerous situations.
Whenever he drained his spiritual power in the future, with the help of those two spirit stones, he would be able to recover in a much shorter time. That would also serve to increase his chances of winning.
Zheng Rui said, “Not only did we run into the Frost Python, but we also came across the Lurker Lizard! Dammit!… But fortunately, we’re strong enough. Although we weren’t able to kill the Frost Python and the Lurker Lizard, at least we forced them to retreat. If it were you guys, having to deal with the Frost Python and the Lurker Lizard at the same time, I’m afraid none of you would be able to survive.”
“Shut up!” An Ying called out to him.
“Hey!” Yun Song from the Yun clan chuckled as he said, “Cousin! They must have used up their spiritual power fighting off the Frost Python and the Lurker Lizard. Look, they’re all using spirit stones to recover their strength. This means they currently lack battle power.
“What’s more, two of them are dead!”
Yun Song’s eyes flashed with a strange light, before he finally cast his ill-intentioned gaze towards Nie Tian.
The moment he saw Nie Tian, his face turned cold, and his eyes filled with vicious intent.
It was only until now did Zheng Rui suddenly realize that his words had revealed the fact that their battle power was compromised.
He secretly hated himself for talking too much. Not daring to say another word, he cast a fierce glare at Yun Song.
“Yuan Feng, the purpose of our journey to the Green Illusion dimension is to kill the four second grade spirit beasts.” An Ying remained a sound mind. “The Frost Python must have consumed a lot of its energy fighting us. You can leave us, catch up to it, and kill it before it restores its full strength.”
“That can wait.” Yuan Feng’s tone was cold and indifferent as he lifted his hand, pointed at Nie Tian, and said, “This young man isn’t a member of the Spiritual Treasure sect. I need you to give him to me. If you do, I’ll leave, and hunt the Frost Python down in the deepest parts of the glacier area.”
“You want Nie Tian?” An Ying asked, stunned.
Pan Tao was also taken aback.