An Ying was quite confused. “What did Nie Tian do to anger you? I don’t recall the two of you having a conflict. What do you need him for?”
“I don’t need to explain to you why,” Yuan Feng said, leaning forward aggressively. “Just give him to me, and we’re gone. We’ll go hunt down the Frost Python and kill it.”
After a pause, he snorted threateningly and said, “Otherwise, don’t blame me for taking advantage of your condition and attacking you guys before you have recovered!”
An Ying’s face turned grim. “What? You want to start a fight now?”
“That’s right,” Yuan Feng replied coldly.
An Ying furrowed her brows.
After the deaths of Qin Shun and Zu Fang, there were only 13 of them left, and they had just narrowly escaped a bloody battle.
An Ying herself had only recovered seventy percent of her spiritual power after recuperating for a while, and in her current condition, she wasn’t confident that she could defeat Yuan Feng.
The rest were in even poorer condition than she was. If it really came down to a fight, there was an eighty to ninety percent chance that they would lose.
Weighing the advantages against the disadvantages in her mind, she hesitated, looking over at the distant Nie Tian, and wondering whether he was worth her putting everyone in danger.
Zheng Rui, who had only remained silent for a moment, came to An Ying’s side and said in a low voice, “An Ying, Nie Tian… isn’t from the Spiritual Treasure sect. Is it really necessary that we go all out to save him? No killing is allowed in the Green Illusion dimension, so even if Yuan Feng were to capture Nie Tian, he would never dare to kill him. So why don’t we…?”
Eyes glittering, not a single one of the other trial takers with the Spiritual Treasure sect said anything.
However, when Zheng Rui made the above statement, expressions of agreement appeared on their faces.
Apparently, they didn’t think it was worth fighting the Grayvale sect for an outsider, especially when they had just experienced a bloody battle and had yet to recover.
If they were to fight the Grayvale sect now, they would definitely be on the losing side.
Among all of them, only Jiang Miao, who had been previously saved by Nie Tian, appeared anxious and looked sympathetically at An Ying while shaking her head non-stop.
The other exception would be Pan Tao, whose face turned grim, as he was clearly trying to suppress his anger.
“Do you have a feud with Yuan Feng?” he whispered next to Nie Tian.
Nie Tian said calmly, “I have a feud with a woman from the Yun clan named Yuan Qiuying in Black Cloud City, and she is Yuan Feng’s aunt.”
Pan Tao nodded his head and suddenly stood up with the intention to back Nie Tian up. “So that’s how it is.”
At this very moment, Nie Tian also sprung to his feet, glaring violently at Yuan Feng. “What do you want?”
“Nothing much,” Yuan Feng said coldly. “Just to cripple you.”
Nie Tian took a deep breath, his eyes suddenly filled with ferociousness. “Bring it on then!”
He decided that if Yuan Feng dared to come over, he would immediately strike him with the style of furious punching that he had learned in the mysterious world.
Besides, after the short rest, he had regained most of his energy, and was confident that he could deliver the punch.
Although he knew that after that punch he wouldn’t have any strength left to attack again, he still believed that with that one punch he would be able to kill Yuan Feng!
He had never shied away from fights, especially when others attempted to force him into a corner. He had never backed down one bit from a conflict.
Yuan Feng looked at him out of the corner of his eyes and arrogantly said, “Who the hell do you think you are? Do you have what it takes to fight me one-on-one? Only when you reach the ninth level of Qi Refining will I consider you as an opponent worth killing.”
“So you don’t dare?” Nie Tian said, intentionally provoking him.
Yuan Feng didn’t even respond to Nie Tian. Instead, he looked at An Ying and impatiently said, “You’re their leader. You aren’t going to risk everyone’s safety just for this reckless outsider, are you?”
Pan Tao suddenly said, “Yuan Feng! If you want to touch Nie Tian, you will have to go through me!”
Yuan Feng was stunned for a moment. “You?”
Nie Tian turned his head and looked deeply at Pan Tao, who was standing beside him, but didn’t say a word.
However, Pan Tao’s attitude obviously had an impact on An Ying.
Moments ago, An Ying was torn with indecision, but upon hearing his words, she immediately clenched her jaw, and strode over stand next to him.
Standing next to Nie Tian and Pan Tao, she pointed her long saber at Yuan Feng, and firmly declared, “You want to fight? Then let’s fight! We aren’t scared of you! If it’s a war you want, we’ll be happy to oblige!”
“What’s happening?” Zheng Rui thought, deeply confused. However, since An Ying and Pan Tao had already stated their intentions, he could only support them, so slowly and reluctantly, he went over to their side.
Although none of the other trial takers wanted to get in another fight, after seeing that An Ying and Pan Tao had made up their minds, they all knew that they should support their leaders, so they also hurried over.
“An Ying, are you sure you’ve thought this through?” Yuan Feng said with a grim face.
“Yes, I have,” An Ying replied loudly.
Yuan Feng questioned again, “You really think it’s worth it to let everyone bear the consequences for one outsider?”
“I don’t care which side he’s on outside of the Green Illusion dimension. Now that he’s here with us, it means he is one of us now!” An Ying brandished her long saber, and glanced at all of her teammates behind her. “If any of you gets bullied, I’ll do the same for you!”
Appealing loudly to the crowd, she cried out, “Fight to the last drop of our blood!”
Spurred by her statement, all the trial takers responded with even louder and fiercer shouts.
“Fight them!”
“Fight to the last drop of our blood!”
“Fight them to the end!”
Yuan Feng’s expression slightly flickered. When he carefully examined An Ying, Pan Tao, and the rest of the trial takers with the Spiritual Treasure sect, there was no longer even the slightest hesitation and fear in their eyes.
He didn’t realize that these people had just gone through a bloody battle, and were still immersed in the fierceness of it.
The reason why they dared to accept the challenge wasn’t Nie Tian, but rather the way Yuan Feng had talked to An Ying. Therefore, they wanted to fight for An Ying.
“Cousin…” Yun Song murmured in a low voice. He had caught sight of the thirst of blood in the eyes of An Ying and the others, and their willingness to fight to the death. All of that made him anxious, so he was the first to lose his nerve.
Yuan Feng’s expression flickered as he weighed the pros against the cons in his head. Soon after, he nodded. Staring at Nie Tian, he said “You have a good leader. Lucky for you, I’m going to let it go this time, punk.”
With these words, he waved his hand, pointed at the deepest part of the glacier area, and said, “Let’s go!”
With that, he took the lead and left.
The trial takers with the Grayvale sect secretly let out sighs of relief, and quickly caught up with him.
Soon, the ten trial takers with the Grayvale sect passed by An Ying’s group, and disappeared into the glacier area.
Only by this point did An Ying and everyone loosen up their tightened nerves, and finally relax.
As soon as Yuan Feng was out of sight, they began making arrogant and rampant comments in loud voices, denouncing him for bluffing, and for lacking the courage to actually start a fight.
“That’s all they’ve got?! They’re pretty good at talking, but don’t have the courage to fight!”
“Yuan Feng is really full of hot air. Does he really think we’re scared of him?”
“That asshole! If we hadn’t just fought the Frost Python and the Lurker Lizard, I would be in the middle of killing them right now!”
“If I ever see him again, I’ll definitely teach him a lesson. That son of a bitch thinks a lot of himself.”
On the other hand, An Ying let out a deep breath. Sounding exhausted, she said, “Actually, that was close. That Yuan Feng… you don’t know him. He’s a maniac, and he’s capable of doing anything. Even I myself felt quite nervous. I was truly afraid that he might fight us at all costs.”
Pan Tao and Zheng Rui had a similar feeling.
Unlike the other trial takers, the three of them had long since heard about Yuan Feng’s deeds after he entered the Grayvale sect.
They all knew that Yuan Feng was a cruel and merciless figure. The reason he didn’t actually fight them this time was most likely because he didn’t wish to consume his group’s power so early on. He also feared that the Cloudsoaring sect and the Mystic Mist sect might swoop in while they were fighting.
As the focus of this incident, Nie Tian expressed his gratitude to Pan Tao and An Ying, before he sat back down.
“Thank you,” he said.
After he sat down, he immediately closed his eyes, forcing himself to sleep.
He knew that as long as they were in the Green Illusion dimension, no one would be able to tell what they would face in the next moment.
The only thing he could do was to fully recover his strength as fast as possible, so that he could face the conflicts that could break out at any time.
“We’ve just saved you, and this is it?” Tong Hao said in a discontent tone.
Nie Tian didn’t even twitch his eyelids.
“Aren’t you supposed to thank everybody before you go and recover?” Tong Hao continued indignantly. “We almost risked our lives fighting the Grayvale sect for you just now!”
Looking at Nie Tian, who had already closed his eyes and was falling asleep, the rest of the teenagers also had their faces filled with discontent.
Zheng Rui’s expression was especially cold and grim.
Pan Tao said angrily, “Tong Hao, shut your pie hole will you?!”
He was the only one who knew that Nie Tian was the real reason why Tong Hao was still breathing.
However, Tong Hao, completely unaware of what had truly happened, had taunted Nie Tian over and over again, which made Pao Tao so mad that he itched to punch Tong Hao in the face and smash his teeth into pieces.
“Oh, okay, I’ll just listen to you, Brother Tao.” Grievances spread across Tong Hao’s face
“All of you, stop wasting your time and start recovering,” An Ying said in a berating tone.
Only then did the crowd quiet down once again.