Wang Ziyan originally wanted to continue attacking Sima Ruoxue, but seeing her expression, she let Wu Hao go back first.
"Wu Shixiong, you go back first! I have something to talk to her about."
Wu Hao understood: "Okay then! I'll come find you to play tomorrow."
"Okay!"
Seeing Wu Hao leave, Wang Ziyan walked over and gently asked, "Ruoxue, what's wrong with you?"
"You all must really dislike me."
"What we dislike is not you, but your actions."
Wang Ziyan pulled Sima Ruoxue to a stone bench to sit down, and continued, "You think you're just being willful, but to others, it's hurtful."
"For example, last time, Brother Tang is so even-tempered, but even he started scolding people. If you really wanted to make friends with Brother Tang, he wouldn't have rejected you."
"No matter what we do, we must first learn to respect others, rather than look down on others arrogantly."
"You haven't even cultivated your character well, yet you want to become an immortal? Don't you find that laughable?"
Sima Ruoxue said dejectedly, "You're right! I haven't even cultivated my character well, yet I want to become an immortal."
Wang Ziyan put her arm around her shoulder, "It's alright. As long as you treat people well, everyone still likes you very much. In a few days, I'll introduce Brother Tang to you."
"Won't he dislike me?"
"He has a quick temper, but it comes and goes quickly. He's very timid and cowardly. I'll take you to play with him for a few days later. I've been playing at his place recently and it was so fun."
Sima Ruoxue laughed, "So he's a timid and fearful person! When I see him, I must scare him."
Wang Ziyan stood up, "Let's go, I'll take you to play with Wu Hao and the others, so others will casually know that you and Ye Xuan are not on the same side."
Sima Ruoxue looked hesitant, "Ziyan, isn't it not good to be like this? After all, Brother Ye Xuan has treated me well too, I can't..."
Before she could finish speaking, Wang Ziyan interrupted, "You don't need to feel guilty."
"An hour later: "So that's why he knows some martial arts that I haven't even seen before!""
"Ruoxue, you're still too naive. His scheming mind and his desires are like two different people - one is always cunning and calculating, while the other is so stupid around women that he can't even walk properly. Haven't you ever doubted that?"
Sima Ruoxue thought for a while, "Now that you put it that way, Ye Xuan is really stupid sometimes, and very good at pretending."
Seeing that she had succeeded in swaying her, Wang Ziyan was extremely proud in her heart, "Dealing with a little girl like you, you're still too inexperienced compared to me. What can I say! I'm just helping a good sister get out of the devil's claws - I'm so kind-hearted."
"So you don't need to feel guilty."
"You're right, Ziyan. I have nothing to feel guilty about and I need to completely distance myself from this kind of person."
"That's what I expect from my good sister. From now on, we will fight against these evil forces to the end."
Wang Ziyan stretched out one hand, and Sima Ruoxue put one of her hands on it, "Sisters united in heart."
"Nothing can break our bond."
Wang Ziyan's eyes shifted as she solemnly said, "Ruoxue, on the surface, you still can't tear off all ties with Ye Xuan. I need you to provide intelligence on him. We'll coordinate internal and external efforts."
"Ziyan, you're becoming smarter and smarter. I hadn't even thought of that."
Wang Ziyan was even a little embarrassed, "Maybe it's from spending too much time with Brother Tang that I was influenced by him!"
Tang Xiaoyu says: I'm not taking this blame.
The next day, Qingyun Sword Sect opened up its usual training assessment secret realm. This secret realm was not left behind by some fallen powerhouse, but was built by Qingyun Sword Sect a long time ago.
Such secret realms also exist in the other five sects, each with its own characteristics.
The rules this time were simple - kill demonic beasts for their cores, and see who obtains the most. Of course, there would also be comparison between the sects.
This time, not only individual abilities were tested, but also personal character and sect cohesion.
If someone disregarded sect bonds for the sake of ranking and snatched cores from their fellow sect members, that person would be placed on the blacklist for those who cannot be reused.
What a sect needs most is a sense of belonging and loyalty, not merciless people.
No matter how talented you are, if you have no sense of belonging or loyalty to the sect, you're just someone else's nobody.
This is like how many elites who go abroad never come back. No matter how outstanding they are, they are useless to the country and only bring greater harm.
Li Qingfeng announced the opening of the secret realm. Then, the geniuses of each sect entered the secret realm one by one, and each person would be randomly sent to different places.
This time, each sect sent 100 geniuses. These 600 geniuses would stay in the secret realm for six days. If they died in the secret realm, they would be disqualified from the competition and transmitted out.
Of course, actual death would not occur for those who die in the secret realm. The sects could not withstand such losses, since nurturing a single genius consumes a lot of resources.
After entering the secret realm, the geniuses did not rush to hunt demonic beasts, but looked for people from their own sects.
Of course, our protagonist was different from the others. He had come to level up and easily snatch first place.
The people of each sect had already discussed methods to regroup before entering.
Therefore, the people of each sect quickly gathered into small teams of three to five.
The first person Wang Ziyan encountered was Sima Ruoxue, then a few senior martial brothers like Xiao Chenfeng.
Chu Yanran was also not idle. She had gathered over a dozen sect members in half a day.
The other sects were not far behind either.
In the first two days, everyone was gathering sect members. Not a single demonic beast had been killed.
Ye Xuan, on the other hand, had collected over 200 cores, including two fourth-order demonic beast cores.
Outside the secret realm, the higher-ups of each sect looked at the number of cores obtained by each person and nodded in satisfaction.
Only the higher-ups of Qingyun Sword Sect had ugly expressions.
Because 599 people had 0 cores, while the only one with cores was Ye Xuan of their Qingyun Sword Sect with 256 cores.
What did this mean? It meant that Ye Xuan had started hunting demonic beasts as soon as he entered the secret realm. He didn't have any intention to regroup with sect members or look for his junior martial brothers and sisters.
Li Qingfeng's face was pale with anger. "Elder Zhou, what a good disciple you've taught! In his eyes, sect glory and the life and death of sect members count as nothing!"
Old Zhou's face was also ugly as he cursed Ye Xuan.
On the third day, Wang Ziyan led over 80 sect members and began hunting.
As for the dozen or so others who didn't know where they had run off to, Wang Ziyan decided not to look for them. It would be too late once the vegetables turned cold.
There was strength in numbers. For lower-leveled demonic beasts, they would lure them together and kill them. For higher-leveled beasts, they would swarm and attack them.
Some were responsible for luring, some for locating, some for killing, some for collecting the cores. Everyone had clear divisions of labor and extremely high efficiency.
If they encountered other sect's teams, they would snatch them if the other side had fewer people, and retreat if they had more people.
When they encountered Chu Yanran and her group, Wang Ziyan even went up to exchange some intelligence. They informed each other of where they had been and which areas the Thousand Shadow Sect had cleared, reducing unnecessary detours for both teams.
On the other side, Duan Fei led over a dozen sect members into the domain of level four and five demonic beasts.
After working together to kill several level four beasts, everyone was already exhausted and injured.
Duan Fei panted and said, "Let's retreat quickly. If another level five demonic beast comes, we'll be done for."
"Roar—"
Right after Duan Fei finished speaking, a level five demonic beast appeared right in their escape path.
The others all cursed, "Damn jinx."
"Duan Fei, if you speak again later, we'll kill you first. Tell us, how many times has this happened already?"
Seeing the murderous looks from his sect members, Duan Fei suddenly felt that the level five demonic beast didn't seem so scary in comparison.