"Brother Ning, what sect are you from?" a person in the group asked.
"Oh, I am from the Blue Dragon sect of Deepskull island," he answered truthfully. Just in case someone from the group knew his clothing or had seen him before, he didn't want the girl to be tipped off about him not being truthful.
"Are you one of their strongest?" another person asked.
"Uhh… I'm in the top 5 for sure," Ning answered.
"Brother Ning, why do you walk so slowly?" someone else asked.
"Ah, I was injured when fighting a monster two days ago. My ribs were nearly broken and it hurts when I make sudden movements or move too fast," Ning said.
"Oh, what monster was this?" a person asked in surprise..
"A serpent monster. It only attacked me once and I was thrown far away with broken ribs," he said.
They kept conversing as they asked Ning various questions. Ning answered them as truthfully as he could while also asking questions of his own. During this whole time, the girl never participated in any of these. She was even constantly looking for new people to add.
Ning noticed 2 people far away, a man and a woman. However, they were away from the path Ning's group was walking to. However, the girl suddenly changed her direction towards them. It was only sudden to Ning. Everyone else took this as natural and followed her.
The girl kept on walking and even when she saw the 2 people, she didn't speak.
"Oh, there are people there," one of the other girls in the group said. Only then did the girl act as she noticed them.
"Where? Oh, yes there are two. Good job Fren," she complimented the girl.
Ning was really surprised. 'No wonder these people aren't the least bit curious. They think these encounters are random and they are the ones finding the people,' Ning thought.
The two cultivators were vigilant at first, but once the girl spoke to them, they were lulled into accepting her request and joined the group.
'This easily?' Ning was truly surprised. He knew the charming / Hypnosis skill of hers was strong, but this was way too fast.
The two joined their group and now they were eight. They walked under the moonlight for another couple of hours and collected 5 more people.
There were now a total of 11 people lulled into following the girl.
BANG
A firework exploded in the sky. 'Firework inside the secret realm?' Ning was surprised.
"Oh look, something interesting must be going on there. Let's go check it out okay?" the girl finally spoke for the first time in a while. The group accepted without question.
The fireworks had come from a very close location that would take them around half an hour at most to reach. So the group walked there as fast as they could.
Soon they reached the location from where the firework had been set off, yet no one was there. The group tried to find a hint of someone, yet they couldn't.
Ning was stunned too. 'Nobody?' he thought. But after a more careful check and use of his divine sense, he found that there was something right in front of them. He just couldn't tell what.
"Huh, there is nothing here. You guys check what's forward," the girl said.
The 11 people slowly walked forward, and Ning followed behind them. But the girl wasn't moving at all. 'What's going on?' he wondered.
He couldn't tell what was wrong with the situation but he stopped moving.
"What's wrong? Go ahead," the girl said.
"I'm sorry, my chest suddenly started hurting. I can't move," Ning said as he tried to fake his chest hurting.
"Oh, just move forward then. It will be okay," the girl said with added influence on her voice.
"Is that so?" Ning asked.
"Yes," the girl said.
"Very well then. Why don't you come with me then?" Ning suddenly grabbed her by the neck and dragged her forward. As soon as he walked forward, the girl started screaming.
"Don't shoot! Don't shoot! I'm inside. Don't shoot!"
"Who are you screaming to? Your friends who are waiting to kill us?" Ning asked.
The girl was surprised. She couldn't believe he had so much mental freedom right now. "N-No," she tried to lie. She struggled to get his hands off of her, but no matter what she did, she couldn't open his arms at all.
"Stop lying, you dumb B*t*h. Your charm never worked on me. Now tell me, why did you bring us here?" Ning asked. The rest of them were still blissfully unaware of what was happening.
"Oh, Ria. It seems you caught a big fish huh. Tsk, you messed with someone big and now it came to bite you back," A voice appeared from somewhere.
Ning looked up to see a man with a bow and a bunch of arrows.
"Haha, she actually failed and got herself locked inside the formation. This is too funny," Another voice came from the side.
Ning soon realized there was more than just a single person. There were actually 5 people surrounding them. Each one at the precipice of entering the Foundation Establishment Realm.
'Formation?' Ning sent out his divine sense and realized that there were foundation flags stuck on trees around a 10-meter radius.
"Hey, help me. Let me out you dipsh*ts," the girl named Ria shouted.
"We would, but it's a shame. The formation only releases automatically after 6 hours of activation. So just wait there," the first man said.
"Actually, never mind. I will just take your points too," the man said as an evil grin appeared on his face.
"You Bastard. You think yo— " the girl suddenly turned into yellow light and disappeared.
"Yeah, I liked you more when you spoke less."
Ning lifted his sword and propped it on his shoulders before looking at the surprised faces of the 5 people.
"You weren't wrong about her baiting a big fish. Only you failed you realize that I'm big enough for the lot of you as well."