Chapter 1497 — The Beginning of the Trial
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"All right, the starting point of the trial is here!" Xiao Qing halted and turned to address the trial participants. "For the sake of fairness, in a moment Ice Palace disciples will send each of you to different locations on the Snow-Ice Spirit Mountain. Those locations are chosen at random! Now, form your own teams — but no team may exceed three people. If there are more than three, you must split into two groups, and afterward find each other on the mountain yourselves."
Naturally, no one had any objection to the Ice Palace's arrangement. If everyone stayed together, the trial might well descend into a chaotic free-for-all the moment it began, and that would rob the trial of its meaning.
It was only the three-person limit that left some people deeply disappointed. They had already made contact with quite a few people beforehand, precisely so that numbers would lend them strength and they would not be bullied while together. But now that teams were capped at three, all those people they had recruited beforehand meant nothing.
It was true that once on the mountain they could seek one another out and regroup, but apart from the question of whether that would be so easy to do, even if they found one another, the other group might not be willing to merge with theirs. They might well have already thrown in their lot with some other team.
Zhang Naipao naturally formed a team with the brothers Zhuang Niaopao and Zhuang Niaoqiang. Those two had been the first to know Zhang Naipao and were the most familiar to him; no one else could compare.
Feng Nitian, meanwhile, teamed up with Yu Shan. As for Zhao Qilei, he could only form a team with Zhao Qiwu alone. There was no help for it — with the three-person limit, he could hardly leave Zhao Qiwu to form a team by himself.
Wei Zhao naturally teamed up with Yu Bing — though he still had Feng Xiaoxiao on his back. Even so, he did not exceed the limit of three.
Soon, once the teams were settled, Xiao Qing gave a single command, and all the Ice Palace disciples sprang into motion. They walked over, each taking hold of one trial participant, and leapt into the air, racing off toward different directions of the Snow-Ice Spirit Mountain.
Naturally, those in the same team headed in the same direction.
The snow mountain was a vast expanse of white. These disciples were, of course, thoroughly familiar with the routes upon it, but the trial participants were not. Dropped off at different locations, they lost even their sense of direction.
"What do we do now?" Yu Bing and Wei Zhao had been left in a place with no other trial participants in sight, fore or aft. Gazing at the boundless white snow before him, Yu Bing could not help asking.
"We search for the Fire Spirit Sacred Fruit, and for rare treasures of heaven and earth at the same time. That way you'll be able to pass the trial smoothly as well," Wei Zhao said.
"All right, we'll do as you say." With Yu Bing alongside Wei Zhao, everything was decided by Wei Zhao. He felt that set beside himself, Wei Zhao was far, far stronger.
Originally, Yu Bing had counted as one of the geniuses of his generation within the Yu family, but compared with Wei Zhao he truly amounted to nothing — in wit or in strength, he amounted to nothing.
"Thunder Pig, where is the Fire Spirit Sacred Fruit? Can you sense it?" Wei Zhao turned and asked the Thunder Pig.
"Chi chi..." The Thunder Pig shook its head.
"What's that supposed to mean, you stupid pig? We're already here and you still can't sense it?" Wei Zhao said in anger, lifting his foot to kick the little creature. (To be continued)