"My communication jade fell just now," Ye Fan replied while searching.
It turned out that after his shoulder was painfully squeezed, the hand holding the communication jade had involuntarily loosened.
Logically, the communication jade should have fallen to the ground, but he couldn't find it after searching for a long time.
"It seems that when you sent that bad guy flying earlier, he accidentally hooked your communication jade," Master Xie Yan rolled his left eyeball. "I saw him take it down the cliff."
"Is that so..." Ye Fan muttered and stopped searching.
Forget it, if it's gone, it's gone.
Anyway, his communication jade was too old, and it was a good opportunity to get a new one.
"Ye Fan, I'm hungry," the Second Elder said, patting his stomach.
"Indeed, a little," Master Xie Yan echoed, also touching his stomach.
A few minutes later.
Ye Fan took out his knife and began to process the bodies of Yun Ming, the little white rabbit, and other small animals.
"Ye Fan, this doesn't seem right," the Eldest Senior Sister frowned, appearing to be a little reluctant.
"Yes, they were so cute..." the Second Senior Sister also pouted in dissatisfaction.
Ye Fan smiled and said nothing.
A quarter of an hour later.
Flames blazed, and the roasted meat on the rack emitted a fragrant aroma.
The two Senior Sisters unconsciously swallowed their saliva...
Specks of fluorescence floated out from the bottom of the cliff and slowly merged into Ye Fan's back.
However, the attention of the two Senior Sisters and the two elders was entirely focused on the roasted meat, and no one noticed this.
Around nine o'clock in the evening.
A figure stumbled back to the Zhenxie Sect.
"Why are you back alone?" Wu Poxie frowned. "Where are the Fifth Elder and the others?"
"Great Elder, the Fifth Elder and the others have been killed!" The cultivator at the Nascent Soul stage recounted the events with a look of horror.
He described how the Fifth Elder and the others were killed by that bizarre golden light, and how their corpses turned into strange fluorescence and floated back to the mountaintop...
If he hadn't been lucky enough to have someone block the fatal blow, he probably wouldn't have made it back.
Even so, he was still in a state of near-death from his injuries!
"Great Elder, when I was sent flying earlier, I accidentally took this with me." The cultivator handed Ye Fan's communication jade to Wu Poxie.
"I know. Go down and recuperate," Wu Poxie said, taking the communication jade and dismissing the cultivator.
"I didn't expect you to have such a powerful protective treasure," Wu Poxie murmured as he looked at the communication jade in his hand. "Ye Fan, Ye Fan, it seems I underestimated you."
Although the mission had failed this time, Wu Poxie didn't think it was a big problem.
With the other party's communication jade, he could trace back and find the sect behind him.
If Ye Fan dared to kill his brother, then let his sect be buried with him!
Moreover, from overhearing Ye Fan and the others' conversation on the street in the imperial city earlier, she also knew that Ye Fan's two Senior Sisters were going to participate in the grand competition.
At that time, she would personally capture those two bitches!
Soon, Ye Fan's communication jade was sent to the hands of the Zhenxie Sect's artifact refiners.
This was not the first time they had cracked communication jades, and they were very familiar with the process.
And the entire process went more smoothly than they had imagined: Ye Fan's communication jade wasn't encrypted at all...
After receiving the news, Wu Poxie headed towards the Third Elder's residence.
"It's just a small sect in a remote corner. I'll help you destroy it later," the Third Elder chuckled and lifted Wu Poxie to the bed. "Instead, let's focus on discussing the details of cultivation."
That night.
Ye Fan lay in bed, unable to fall asleep for a long time.
The system's unusual behavior today made him very concerned.
The more he thought about it, the more something felt wrong!
It was possible that the system was brewing a big move, and one that would be difficult for him to guard against!
Before, the system made Ye Fan feel like 'There are always rebels trying to harm me.'
Now, he felt that the rebels had gathered and were preparing to revolt!
[Congratulations to the Host...]
The system's long-lost voice suddenly rang out.
Ye Fan immediately jolted and sat up from the bed.
Was it finally coming!
[Congratulations... the pet Purple Jade Ice Flame Flower... has evolved...]
The system's voice was intermittent, sounding like an old radio with low battery.
The voice was extremely low and had a long trailing echo...
[Evolved into...]
[... ]
The system's voice abruptly stopped, and it fell silent again.
Ye Fan was a bit bewildered.
That was it?
What kind of routine was this?
It sounded as if the system was running out of power?
But could a system run out of power?
After waiting for a long time, the system still showed no reaction.
Ye Fan gritted his teeth!
No matter what, he wouldn't care!
Regardless of what big move it was brewing,
As long as I don't cultivate, I won't fall into your trap!
Sleep!
The next day.
Ye Fan appeared before everyone with two large dark circles under his eyes.
"Junior Brother, you didn't sleep well last night?" Zi Qing asked in confusion.
In her impression, her powerful Junior Brother had never shown such a state before, which was truly surprising to her.
"I was thinking about some things last night and slept a bit late," Ye Fan said casually, brushing it off.
After breakfast, Ye Fan continued to take everyone out for fun.
In the blink of an eye, the day of the grand competition arrived.
Ye Fan and the two elders personally escorted their two Senior Sisters to the 'examination hall.'
Also accompanying them was Liang Rujing, who had just had breakfast.
A few days ago, her mother had fallen ill, and she had been by her bedside.
Now that the Empress had recovered, she had come looking for Ye Fan again.
The venue for the grand competition was not in the imperial city, but in a mountain range north of the imperial city.
By now, young talents from all over the country had gathered, roughly estimated to be hundreds of thousands!
To become a cultivator was already rare, and to be qualified to participate in the imperial city grand competition was even rarer.
The reason for such a large number of 'candidates' was ultimately due to the vast population of the cultivation world.
The Daliang Kingdom alone had a population of nearly a hundred billion.
This was even considering that the cultivation world was generally sparsely populated, with many resource-poor areas almost uninhabited.
Otherwise, the population of the Daliang Kingdom alone could have easily reached hundreds of billions.
Seeing so many people participating in the grand competition, Ye Fan couldn't help but nag his two Senior Sisters again.
It was always the same thing: if you can win, fight; if you can't, surrender. Don't get hurt...
The two Senior Sisters were extremely helpless, even wanting to keep a little distance from Ye Fan...
Liang Rujing blinked in confusion.
Why was Ye Fan acting so strange today?
The more she looked at him babbling, the more he resembled her Imperial Grandfather...
"By the way," Ye Fan seemed to have thought of something. "What are the cultivation levels of these participants?"
"The grand competition is held every hundred years. The changes in cultivation over this century are really hard to say," the Second Senior Sister replied.
Although there wouldn't be any major breakthroughs in a century, it wasn't an absolute certainty.
They actually had a general idea of the situation, but they were afraid that if they said it, Ye Fan would start babbling endlessly...
"I know that," Liang Rujing took out a small notebook and flipped through it. "The lowest is at the first level of the Golden Core, and the highest is at the Nascent Soul stage."
Ye Fan was stunned.
He had originally thought that even with disparities in strength, the grand competition would at least be somewhat close?
But now, that was clearly not the case!
Putting Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators together, what was the point of comparing?
Damn it, you're arranging a group of PhDs to take the college entrance examination with a bunch of high school students, what's the point?
"Two Senior Sisters, we're not participating in this grand competition!" Ye Fan decisively proposed.
The two Senior Sisters shot the two elders a resentful glance...
"Ye Fan, you don't need to worry too much," Liang Rujing quickly explained. "The so-called grand competition is not a simple test of combat power like a fighting arena. It will involve many different scoring events."
"And each participating cultivator will receive a teleportation talisman, which can be used to leave at any time," Liang Rujing continued. "Although they will forfeit their qualification for the grand competition, they will be safe."
"Yes, Junior Brother, so we are very safe. You don't need to worry so much," the two Senior Sisters quickly echoed.
"Is that so," Ye Fan nodded in realization.
Then he pulled the two Senior Sisters and continued to nag them...
An hour later.
The two Senior Sisters received their teleportation talismans and walked towards the opened secret realm entrance.
"Ye Fan, don't worry, it's very safe inside the secret realm," Liang Rujing comforted him. "The two sisters are not inexperienced newcomers, they will take care of themselves."
Seeing that Ye Fan was still a little worried, Liang Rujing took him to a nearby scenic spot to relax.
The Second Elder and Master Xie Yan returned to the Pill Pavilion to continue teaching their clumsy disciples.