Chapter 180 - Warmth and guilt
[At the council hall]
Even though Ye Xiaotian was sweating profusely, the two paths connecting the worlds were as steady as a rock.
After the worlds connected, one of the paths shone brighter, and a silhouette emerged.
“Someone is coming out!” shouted Zhao Xidong. He looked pleasantly surprised.
Shortly after, a second silhouette and then followed by a third one subsequently emerged from the same path.
The feeling of dizziness brought about by traveling through the connecting path was extremely intense. It took the three of them some time to recover.
However, when they opened their eyes and realizing that there were at least a few hundred men dressed in black clothes, they almost collapsed in shock.
“This is…”
What kind of formation was that? Were the black-clothed men there to apprehend them?
They could not bear to find themselves in such a situation.
They tried very hard to recall their deeds inside the Tianxuan Gate and felt sure that they had done nothing wrong. So why were there so many men in black waiting there?
As they turned to look around, they saw both the Dean and Elder Qiao looking at them with concerned eyes.
“Hello, Mr. Dean!”
“Hello, Elder Qiao!”
“Ugh, Hello Executive Zhao!”
They immediately greeted their Elders and looked rather anxious.
They even greeted Zhao Xidong, who was on the staircase. If they knew the identity of the middle-aged man and the lady behind the veil, they would probably greet them as well.
“Haha!” Looking at the anxious faces of these three, who unwittingly broke the rules all the time, Zhao Xidong’s response was only a mirthless laugh.
However, the three wrongly perceived the laugh and misinterpreted it.
Quite upset, Qiao Qianzhi asked, “Why are you guys here?”
In his eyes, even if the world was on the brink of destruction, they should at least let the younger people escape first.
To him, it was not just a problem of order, but a problem of attitude!
The three of them panicked when they heard the question. The leader of the three looked at Zhao Xidong with teary eyes and frantically explained, “It was not us! We honestly did not blow up Tianxuan Gate!”
Zhao Xidong almost burst out in laughter. Those cowards had assumed that the blame for blowing up the Tianxuan Gate was upon them?
Those guys were not even qualified to make it on the suspect list!
Qiao Qianzhi was speechless and snorted, indicating that he did not wish to talk to these three anymore.
The path of the world shone brightly again, and Momo emerged from it. Like the others before her, she also felt dizzy and took some time to regain her sense of balance.
The others did not react when they saw Momo, but Zhao Xidong started frowning.
“The weird feeling. Has it disappeared?”
Maybe because he had many girlfriends in the past, his sixth sense was very accurate in most circumstances. So he seldom predicted wrongly.
When he was with Elder Sang at the little hut the last time, he had answered Elder Sang’s question of who he thought was the spy. Based on his sharp instinct, he had said it was Momo.
And presently?
“Have I made a mistake?” he muttered to himself.
“No. According to Elder Sang, there are two spies. Luo Leilei is one of them for sure. But the other one? If it is not Xu Xiaoshou, then it could only be her!”
He locked his eyes on Momo. After she had recovered slightly, Zhao Xidong squinted his eyes into narrow slits, and he slowly shifted his gaze away discreetly.
However, he was feeling turmoil in his mind.
Momo had glanced at him first when she recovered!
Why?
He remembered having met her only once in the past. There were so many other prominent people there, such as the Dean and Elder Qiao. She could even have looked at the few hundred men in black clothes. Why did she choose to look at him? He was the least conspicuous person there.
If it had happened in the past and he had received such special attention, Zhao Xidong would feel nothing but wild with joy. However, in the present circumstances, he could no longer enjoy the attention.
“F*ck! A man is indeed happier if he does not care too much about everything…”
Zhao Xidong carefully kept his belongings and stopped thinking pessimistically. Should anything happen, he had the backing of the Vice Dean. So, there was no point worrying about problems that had not occurred yet.
A flash of light sparked from afar again.
After both Mu Zixi and Zhao Qingteng emerged, the path of the world quietened. And then, a girl in a purple veil walked out of it.
It was Luo Leilei!
She was the only one who was unaffected by the dizziness brought about by traveling between the worlds, so she was unquestionably well-prepared.
Once she landed, her eyes immediately fell on the few hundred men in black clothes, and her heart sank.
Nobody uttered a single word nor made any move, but everyone realized the situation had changed.
The atmosphere was heavy with tension, very much like how dark clouds would gather when a thunderstorm was brewing, before destroying anything in its path.
“Is it her?”
Yu Zhiwen suddenly declared, “This woman is exceedingly powerful!”
Jiang Bianyan shook his head and said, “She is not Elder Sang’s disciple. If I’m not wrong, she should be…”
His eyes turned to look at the girl in green with her hair tied up in two ponytails. She was still curiously looking around.
Was it really her? Jiang Bianyan was a little suspicious.
She was one of only two people who had not suffered from the dizziness.
The other one was Zhao Qingteng.
Yu Zhiwen’s face underneath the veil changed as she realized she had become competitive a tad too early.
A peak Origin Court Level?
Was that the person Elder Sang had taken as a disciple?
Ugh, maybe she got something interesting hidden up her sleeves!
Ye Xiaotian was still maintaining the paths between the two worlds, and Qiao Qianzhi’s eyes locked on Luo Leilei. After destroying her mental line of defense, he then smiled and questioned her.
“Leilei girl, where are the rest of you?”
Luo Leilei had mentally prepared to fight to the death but did not expect that question.
She stared into Qiao Qianzhi’s eyes, surprised not to find a single strand of coldness. What she saw was the usual intention of warm encouragement.
Does he know?
But she also wondered why he would still look at her that way.
Luo Leilei clenched her fist as she tried to quell her overwhelming guilt, dismissing all the fond memories of playing around in the outer yard.
She opened her mouth but could find nothing to say.
Damn it! He was just a terrible Elder who would scold her for half a day for taking some cultivation subsidy.
Her nails were pressing into her palms. With much difficulty, Luo Leilei answered, “Xu Xiaoshou went to the other side and has not returned yet. The other two have gone missing.”
“The other two?” Qiao Qianzhi let out a long sigh and asked, “Yuan Tou and Zhou Tianshen?”
He did not know about the former, but he roughly knew what was up with Zhou Tianshen.
According to the images from Heaven’s Vision, the guy had probably stayed too long in the Slaughter Cape. Basically, after spending three days in Tianxuan Gate, he should be able to wake up naturally. So what happened?
Hm?
The Slaughter Cape?
Somehow, Qiao Qianzhi sensed there was something amiss, but he could not pinpoint the problem.
He tried to analyze, running through the thoughts in his mind.
Xu Xiaoshou seemed on friendly terms with Zhou Tianshen. To finish his mission, he would probably head toward the Slaughter Cape.
If Xu Xiaoshou had discovered the Sky Tree’s seed, then he would have inevitably got his hands on the Seal of the Secret Treasure.
“That is right. The Secret Treasure!”
Qiao Qianzhi’s pupils were dilating, and he felt increasingly anxious.
He suddenly turned to Ye Xiaotian.
“If Xu Xiaoshou had indeed gone to the Slaughter Cape… Jie?”
Confused by his inconsistent words, Ye Xiaotian got distracted. The two paths of the world started shaking as if they would explode at any time.
Everyone was shocked!
“F*ck! Do not get all worked up. Stay calm!”
Qiao Qianzhi snapped at Ye Xiaotian. Then the paths of the world slowly stabilized. But Qiao Qianzhi felt a sense of trepidation.
There should be no one walking on the paths at present.
Everyone present looked at Ye Xiaotian—they were all shocked.
Their Dean would not even flinch when he had sweat dripping into his eyes. He would not even break a sweat if he saw an entire mountain collapsing. But he had almost let go of the paths of the world. All because of a word uttered by Qiao Qianzhi.
“Jie… What is that?”
Many people had taken note of the odd word.
Jiang Bianyan tried to recall everything he knew about the word. After some time, he realized that there was no such word in his memory, so he gave up trying.
After Ye Xiaotian had once again stabilized the paths, he took a deep breath and murmured to himself, “Xu Xiaoshou… It cannot be. Things should not turn out so badly!”
Qiao Qianzhi looked bitter as he was still relatively confident in the hardworking kid. But at present?
He looked up at the sky. In his eyes, there were looks of uncertainty.
“Hopefully so!”
