Chapter 79 (1/2)

Three hundred inner disciples and ten core disciples of the Moon Lotus Sect were gathered in a region of a dark forest. It was nighttime; as such, none of the disciples were willing to explore. Azalea was standing at the head of her group of thirty companions. “This pocket realm is known as the Empty Night Secret Grounds,” she said. “During the day, everything is normal, but at night, strange monsters come out. They’re attracted to spiritual energy, so don’t ever show off your abilities during the night. Also, there’s a peculiarity. When night falls, it’s no longer possible to recover one’s spiritual energy.” She glanced at Grandpa Vremya. It was hard to see, but the sun was showing hints of rising. “That also means you can’t cultivate at night.”

Grandpa Vremya blinked. “Why didn’t you tell me about that before signing us up?”

Ruby cut into the conversation before Azalea could respond. “Why are you acting like an inner disciple? You should’ve been briefed before entering the pocket realm!” She glared at Azalea. “Between the two of you, who is the real core disciple?”

“Now, now,” Michelle said. “How each core disciple decides to run their group is up to them. Don’t butt into conversations you’re not a part of.”

Ruby’s gaze traveled up and down Michelle’s body. “And who are you?” Thanks to the lighting and the similarities between the disciples of the Moon Lotus Sect, Ruby really had no idea who she was talking to. It wasn’t as if she had heard everyone in the sect speak before. “I think you should take your own advice.”

A bright light appeared, causing Ruby and Michelle to shield their eyes. In fact, every disciple was shielding their eyes from the sudden light—everyone except for Grandpa Vremya. He was holding a ball of glowing light in his hand.

“What are you doing?” Azalea asked, her eyes widening. Hadn’t she just warned him about using spiritual energy at night!? “You’ll attract the monsters!”

“We’re here to gather things that we can use and sell for spirit stones, no?” Grandpa Vremya asked and raised an eyebrow. “Since these monsters are unique to this pocket realm, if we capture a few, there’ll be someone out there willing to buy them.”

“But the elders warned us about the monsters,” a core disciple said. “They’re not something we can deal with. If they were, they wouldn’t have told us not to use our spiritual energy at night.”

Grandpa Vremya snorted. “Since when do the elders know better than me?”

The core disciple was stunned. What kind of response was that? She had heard the only male disciple in the Moon Lotus Sect was arrogant, but she didn’t expect him to be so arrogant to the point of stupidity. “Fine,” she said and held up her hand. “We’ll see just how strong these monsters are. It’s almost day, so even if they’re too difficult to kill, we’ll only have to survive for half an hour before they leave.” A light shone from her palm, and shortly after, eight more lights appeared.

The inner disciples looked at the core disciples with dismay. It was fine for the core disciples to ignore the rules, but wouldn’t the inner disciples be the ones to suffer when the monsters actually came? Couldn’t their seniors have more consideration for them? The inner disciple that had been pestering Azalea before entering the portal took a step back, trying to position herself in the center of the group. She had heard the middle of a pack was the safest spot to be in a herd of gazelle being chased by lions.

There was a crunching sound, and a figure appeared from behind some trees. It didn’t have a solid shape; it was a black blob with tentacles and teeth. It traveled by rolling forward like a demonic tumbleweed, its tentacles touching and wrapping around everything in reach. Trees were pulled down and shoved into the fleshy blob by its tentacles, and there were crunching sounds as the logs were shredded into bits by the blob’s teeth. The inner disciples recoiled in disgust, and one of them fired a beam of blue light at it. The light shone on the blob’s skin, and a small patch of the blob froze over. A moment later, fleshy teeth wriggled around the patch of ice and crunched it into bits.