2112 Exchanging Trust

Having heard Lady Kang's explanation, Lin Mu was in agreement.

"You're right." Lin Mu replied. "If you wish to ask something from me, you can do that too." He reciprocated.

"Very well… I'll do when I wish to." Lady Kang said before focusing her effort on healing their two injured companions.

The drain on her Immortal Qi was high, and as such she needed to focus to make sure she didn't make a mistake. When one was dealing with large volumes of Immortal Qi, it was best to not lose focus, or they could cause injuries to oneself.

This was especially important for healing techniques as they directly dealt with bodies and could very well cause long lasting damage due to their backlash.

There had been no lack of cultivators who had killed others as well as themselves due to making a mistake while using a Healing technique. There were even some healing techniques the backlash from which could directly consume one's longevity.

The stronger they were, the bigger the risks could get thus Lady Kang was fully paying attention to Min Ju and Daoist Chu. She might not know the man, but Min Ju had been dedicated to her and been with her for a long time, having earned her trust and goodwill.

There was no way she would lose such a valuable person close to her like this.

By the time she was done, Lin Mu estimated that Lady Kang had used at least a tenth of her immortal Qi stores.

'Might even be as high as fifteen percent.' Lin Mu guessed as best as he could without probing Lady Kang's Dantian.

Doing that was a big no-no as that would be bound to offend most cultivators.

But from the faint changes in her ambient Immortal Qi fluctuations, Lin Mu managed to estimate this much. Of course this was only possible because Lin Mu had seen her fight earlier and deplete her Immortal Qi. This gave him a frame of reference to analyze it.

~huu~

Lady Kang took a breath after finishing her work, and drew back her Qi.

~SHUA~

The illusory figure of the constellation above her disappeared and no signs of it were left. Lin Mu also watched on as it disappeared, noting the Dao insight links that disconnected without causing the slightest bit of disturbance.

They were something even Lady Kang could not sense right now, she only knew they existed since she was the practitioner of the technique. Only someone with the ability to look at the very space itself, or extremely high sensitivity would be able to see those Dao Insight Links.

"Are you fine?" Lin Mu asked about her first.

"Yeah. Just need to rest for a bit." Lady Kang replied.

"I saw that this technique is rather taxing." Lin Mu stated his observation.

"It is one of the most exhaustive skills of mine." Lady Kang nodded. "But nothing I can't recover from in a bit." She added.

"What about the two?" Lin Mu asked, looking at Daoist Chu and Min Ju who were still unconscious.

"They're fully healed, and should wake up in a bit." Lady Kang answered. "They probably still have mental fatigue. Unlike us I don't think they had much rest in between battles." She added.

"That's true… Considering our theory about different trials having different condition is true, they probably ended up in a frozen area where a blizzard might be raging." Lin Mu guessed. "Fighting in a cold area like that is greatly different than in a hot area like the volcanic zone we were in." He added.

"We also had advantage in the volcanic zone. Both of us have ways to resist the heat and fire. In addition to having help from your tamed beasts." Lady Kang stated as a matter of fact.

"That is true… if we consider that, it makes sense that we finished earlier." Lin Mu responded. "Though it is a bit surprising that it is Daoist Chu and Min Ju who managed to finish second… I would have thought someone like Crown Prince Feng Shun or Ziran might be the one to complete it second. If we consider their strength and experience." He explained.

"We need to consider their luck too. If they weren't able to find the keys or took longer to explore the area, it could very well take longer. Besides, we don't know what kind of difficulties the beasts would bring in different habitats." Lady Kang expressed her thoughts.

"Luck is indeed a big factor." Lin Mu couldn't help but nod. "I suppose we now wait for them to awake, and see how many keys they have." He added.

The keys were the most important thing they needed to pass the trial truly.

'It somehow ended up being a collective trial. Did the inheritance ground set this intentionally or was this random?' Lin Mu wondered, as there could be multiple possibilities.

Depending on how the second trial was chosen, it could be unfair or fair to the participants.

It would only be fair, if the trial grounds knew that the people would have a cooperative relationship. They would also have to be competent enough to finish all trials and have the necessary number of Iron keys to qualify it all.

If even one of them failed, the entire trial would be failed for everyone.

That would be the worst option.

'Though there's also a chance the number of keys one needs changes depending on how many people enter or pass.' Lin Mu thought to himself.

There were more conditions that they were unaware of and there were no source of information for them to analyze right now. All Lin Mu could do was wait and observe how things proceeded.

Lady Kang continued to recover her Immortal Qi while sitting on the meditative mat while time passed.

About six hours later, a groan was heard.

"Ugh!" Daoist Chu stirred.

Lin Mu's ears perked up and he quickly went to check up on the man.