Chapter 137: Fields Dyed in Blood (1/2)
Almost 10 hours after Xiao Fang entered the cauldron, the inner court exam was coming to an end.
.
.
.
In the 2nd level of the Ancestral Training Grounds, a few guys were still trying to pass the first test of the exam when an elder announced the conclusion of the exam. Upon hearing the announcement, the disciples dejectedly started making their way out of the cave.
The tiered beasts were still active, so the moment the exam ended, several elders entered.
The elders traveled in pairs, trying to find the disciples in case they needed help getting out.
Since each disciple participating in the exam was given a pendant, all of the outer court elders used a special compass to find the location of the pendants, while the inner court elders would keep an eye out in case a disciple had lost theirs during the exam.
One pair of elders were heading east when they discovered something strange.
The outer court elder paused as she stared down at her compass.
”Why did you stop?” The inner court elder asked.
”It looks like there are several disciples in that direction, but there's something strange about what I'm seeing,” the outer court elder said without taking her eyes off her compass.
”Strange in what way?” The inner court elder asked.
”Here, take a look.”
The outer court elder gave her the compass then slowly watched her face change from surprise to concern.
She saw what looked like 20 disciples clustered together only a few kilometers away. The strange thing about it was that they weren't moving, not even a little. If it were just 1 or 2 pendants flashing on the compass then she would've assume that someone must've dropped it, but for there to be so many of them clustered together like this didn't make sense, she assumed it had to be deliberate.
The lofty looking inner court elder stared at the compass for a few more seconds before she began to frown. She had never seen anything like this before, so she didn't know what to expect.
”Could the compass be broken?” The outer court elder asked.
”I don't think so. I suspect someone stole the pendants from the other disciples and just stashed them there. Let's go check it out first before we come up with any useless conclusions.”
The inner court elder began heading towards the stash of pendant and the outer court elder followed close behind her.
On the way to the location, the outer court elder asked,
”Isn't it strange. Why would a disciple steal and stash away so many pendants? It's not like the qi accumulated within the pendants can be transferred to another pendant.”
”I can't say I know either. He might've done it to make the other disciples fail, or maybe he simply wanted to cultivate them.” the inner court elder replied.
”Ah, you think he used it to cultivate?”