Chapter 346: Foggy woods

　　Bamboo trees swayed lightly in the wind. Inside the fog, they became black silhouettes against a blanket of white, as if it was heaven in the human world.

　　Lu Mingshu had a good rest. She opened her eyes to see Yan Wugui standing not far away, sitting on a stone polishing his knives.

　　This made him seem both slender and buff.

　　Lu Mingshu stared at him silently for a while. ~If I did not see it myself, who would have thought that both he and Xie Lianzhen would be the same?~

　　Yan Wugui turned around to see her staring at him and snickered. “Dumbfounded by how handsome I am?”

　　“…..Are you okay now?” Lu Mingshu asked.

　　“Better than okay.” He flung the knife away, and “swoosh,” it landed back into its sheath.

　　“Why did you choose to master knives?” Lu Mingshu suddenly asked. “The seventh truth platform’s technique is stronger, isn’t it?”

　　“Because it focuses more on strength.” Yan Wugui shrugged. “My arms aren’t strong, so a sword is harder for me to control as it requires more strength to be accurate. But knives are lighter, you know?”

　　This reminded Lu Mingshu of how Wei Chunqiu described Xie Lianzhen. Because he was wheelchair-bound, he couldn’t practice normal cultivation, and he could only train his arms. ~That’s why his arms are so strong?~

　　“Who are you guys, actually?” Jiang Yuan came over after resting, and it was evident that she was in a better state. Her seal was colored now too. “You guys aren’t the rebels, are you?”

　　“That’s better for you, isn’t it?” Yan Wugui shrugged. “If we were rebels, you would be in huge trouble if we were exposed.”

　　“True.” Jiang Yuan nodded. “But an unknown origin has even more danger.”

　　“Prince Jiang is still worried about this even now?” Lu Mingshu stood up and brushed off her clothes. “You can be at ease. Because we will leave and most likely never appear again after this.”

　　“Uh, actually.” Jiang Yuan shook her head. “I intended to ask if you two were willing to stay behind.”

　　Lu Mingshu looked at her in shock, but before she could say anything, Yan Wugui was already waving his hands. “Ooh, trying to hire us? We’re honored, but it’s impossible for us to stay.”

　　“Is that so?” Jiang Yuan turned to Lu Mingshu.

　　“Yeah.” She nodded.

　　“Such a pity.” Jiang Yuan sighed. “If you were willing to, I would have treated you extremely well, and as long as I had control of the Jiang family, you could have the world.”

　　Yan Wugui laughed and shrugged.

　　This world was not more advanced than ancient China, and whatever the Jiangs could get, the Alioth Star-Lord would be able to get more and better resources. Jiang Yuan’s condition was extremely unattractive to him.

　　As for Lu Mingshu, why would she care about such a small amount of resources when she had the heavenly wheel?

　　Seeing that both of them remained unmoved, Jiang Yuan sighed and said nothing else.

　　Since all of them were clear of each other’s intention, they stopped the conversation and returned to talking about the debate.

　　“Prince Jiang, are there any traps here.”

　　“This is the foggy wood, the last round in the sea of cloud’s debate. This fog has the effect of drugs; it can mess with your mind and be lethal. So this round is the most dangerous one as we do not know when will we be attacked.”

　　“By the other participants?”

　　“Yeah.” Jiang Yuan nodded. “There isn’t anything else here, except for the top ten.”

　　“How do we determine if we win or lose?”

　　“There’s a special item here in the wood, called the Yuan crystal. Whoever gets the most crystals wins.” Jiang Yuan replied.

　　“Yuan crystal? What use does it have? Can I take it away?” Yan Wugui asked immediately.

　　“Anything you want. You can eat it, make weapons, or use it as medicine. But you cannot take it away, you have to hand it up at the end.”

　　Yan Wugui looked bored immediately. “If I cannot take it away then it’s worthless!”

　　Just as Jiang Yuan was about to say something, she suddenly waved her sleeve and formed an ice shield.

　　There was no response.

　　After some time, she dissolved her ice shield and looked around. “That’s weird…”

　　“What’s up?” Lu Mingshu asked.

　　“I felt someone watching us.”

　　Noticing Lu Mingshu’s glance, Yan Wugui shook his head. “I didn’t notice anything.”

　　“Maybe I’m just too nervous?” Jiang Yuan laughed nervously and shook her head. “We don’t have much time left, let’s get going.”

　　The other two nodded, and the three of them packed up and prepared to leave.

　　…

　　“Brother Yun.” Chu Zhengyan asked. “What do you think about this round?”

　　The floating cloud gentleman looks at him emotionlessly. “What about it?”

　　“Obviously who we should be wary against!” Chu Zhengyan continued to walk and picked up some bamboo along the way. He then waved at his junior brother, signalingfor him to come over. “Qin Jun should be the most dangerous one, but Jiang Yuan is a dark horse this time…”

　　“Her two helpers aren’t normal.” The floating cloud gentleman said. “Their skills aren’t just weird, but powerful too.”

　　“That’s what I thought as well.” The both of them stood next to each other, keeping an eye out, in case somebody ambushed them. “Does brother Yun feel that they are similar to…”

　　Chu Zhenguan suddenly stopped.

　　“What?” The floating cloud gentleman asked.

　　Seeing that he didn’t get what he meant, Chu Zhengyan could only voice it out. “Rebels.”

　　The floating cloud gentleman furrowed his eyebrows. “Feels like it, but…”

　　“But?”

　　“If I were a rebel, I wouldn’t do something like this. The top ten in the debate are always well investigated. If they are suspicious, they would be identified easily.”

　　“Make sense.” Chu Zhengyan nodded.

　　“Their existence is not totally useless, either.” The floating cloud gentleman pointed out monotonously. “Maybe because their identity is suspicious, Qin Jun is afraid to work with Jiang Yuan. If they ally together, we’d likely lose.”

　　The general opinion is that the four princes’ strength were similar, there was nobody who could crush another. With the two princes having two more helpers, it was dangerous for Chu Zhengyan’s team.

　　“This is what I’m worried about.” Chu Zhengyan patted the floating cloud gentleman’s shoulder.

　　“Qin Jun is good at strategies, he might not fully work with them but if anything goes wrong, he would surely be on Jiang Yuan’s side.”

　　“Uh huh.”

　　“Do you think we can get them on our side?” Chu Zhengyan whispered.

　　The floating cloud gentleman knew that he was referring to the last two participants who entered.

　　“But who are they though….” The floating cloud gentleman did not agree or disagree. It was just that he had never seen them before, and they were surely not elites from Yu Jing.

　　“Ah, I recognize them.” Chu Zhengyan laughed. “Elites from elsewhere. I had heard about them previously but had never expected that they would make it into the top ten. It shows that they are quite strong.”

　　“If brother Chu thinks it’s fine, then I’m okay.” The floating cloud gentleman nodded.

　　“Great.” Chu Zhengyan smiled. “I’ll try to talk to them, and if we succeed, we will be balanced out.”

　　“Found one!” Chu Zhengyan’s junior brother suddenly yelled, and took a crystal out of a bamboo shoot.