Chapter 44

The battle had ended.

All the trial participants spontaneously gathered around An Ying, Pan Tao, and Zheng Rui, flattering Pan Tao and praising An Ying for daring to take on the task of restraining the Ice Serpent.

The deaths of Qin Shun and Zu Fang seemed not to have affected their moods, after all, before entering the Qinghuan Realm, they had not been particularly close.

Tong Hao, who had been guarding Nie Tian, seeing that the Ground Lizard and the Ice Serpent had both escaped, naturally no longer paid attention to Nie Tian.

Nie Tian was also happy to be left alone, sitting quietly in his spot, ignoring the commotion over there.

"Consciousness wandering deep underground..."

He squinted, deeply pondering, finding the previous anomaly strange.

In theory, with only the cultivation of the sixth level of Qi Refinement, his consciousness should not have been able to penetrate deep underground, let alone move around underground for a long time.

But just now, when he calmed his mind to sense the Ground Lizard's movements, he actually managed to let his consciousness wander.

As far as he knew, only those much more powerful cultivators could achieve such a feat with their consciousness.

From a young age, he had known that he was different from others.

Because he had always been taller and stronger than children of the same age, if everyone did not use the spiritual energy in their bodies and fought only with their physical strength, he believed no one would be his match.

He knew he was stronger than his peers, but he did not know that even his consciousness... had an advantage.

This battle gave him a deeper understanding of himself.

"One time of consciousness wandering almost drained all my energy; such an anomaly should happen as little as possible."

Thinking this, he gradually felt drowsiness creeping in, as if only a long sleep could restore his spent energy.

With the threat of the spirit beasts gone, his attention no longer tense, he slowly closed his eyes.

On the other side.

Pan Tao was still receiving everyone's flattery. From a distance of several dozen meters, he secretly glanced at Nie Tian again.

When he noticed that Nie Tian seemed to be recovering immediately after the battle, Pan Tao valued Nie Tian even more.

In his heart, Nie Tian was already the most important member of this team, second only to An Ying.

He even thought Nie Tian was more important than Zheng Rui!

"Alright, alright." Seeing Nie Tian resting, he suddenly could no longer tolerate the chatter of those around him, "Everyone, quiet down! No one knows if those fleeing spirit beasts will return."

"Everyone, rest on the spot immediately and recover your strength as soon as possible!"

"We must always maintain sufficient combat power!"

An Ying nodded and instructed, "Don't chatter until your spiritual energy is restored. You guys are all talk, and when it comes to the crucial moment, you're useless."

She also looked at Nie Tian from a distance.

Earlier, when everyone was in fear and at a loss, Nie Tian was the first to stand up.

She did not know what happened afterward, nor did she understand why Nie Tian suddenly became listless, but his calm and rationality at the critical moment left a deep impression on her.

Like Pan Tao, though she did not say it outright, in her heart, she also considered Nie Tian a significant figure.

After An Ying and Pan Tao spoke, the trial participants, still immersed in excitement, finally quieted down, sitting around her and Pan Tao.

These people took out luminous spirit stones from the cloth bags at their waists.

They tightly held the spirit stones, closed their eyes, and absorbed the spiritual energy within to quickly recover their strength.

Before entering, the elders of their families had told them that the spiritual energy in the Qinghuan Realm was much poorer than in their world.

Without special means, the strength consumed in battle in the Qinghuan Realm would recover extremely slowly.

Therefore, the elders of their clans had prepared spirit stones to help them recover quickly before they entered the Qinghuan Realm.

As for Nie Tian, due to the Nie family's poverty, he had brought nothing.

While everyone closed their eyes and quietly absorbed the spiritual energy from the spirit stones, Pan Tao quietly left.

He came alone to where Nie Tian was sitting in meditation. Seeing that Nie Tian seemed to be sleeping with his eyes closed, he hesitated for a moment, did not disturb him, but took out two crystal-clear spirit stones from his pocket, gently placed them in front of Nie Tian, and then sat down not far from Nie Tian.

An Ying, who was meditating with her eyes closed, was also secretly paying attention to the surroundings, on guard against the return of the spirit beasts.

She also noticed Pan Tao's unusual behavior. Opening her eyes slightly, she silently watched Pan Tao and muttered, "What's up with this guy? Why did he suddenly change?"

Though puzzled, she did not think too deeply about it and closed her eyes again to continue recovering.

Time passed quietly.

No one knew how long it had been, but everyone who was recovering their spiritual energy suddenly heard the sound of approaching footsteps.

One by one, they opened their eyes, their expressions becoming tense again, thinking that the fleeing spirit beasts had returned.

"Don't be nervous, it's not a spirit beast." An Ying spoke, looking in the direction they had come from, "The footsteps are not those of a spirit beast, and they are not coming from deep in the ice region. If I'm not mistaken, the ones coming are the trial participants from the other three groups."

"Truly worthy of An Ying!"

A cold voice suddenly sounded, and the next moment, Yuan Feng from the Gray Valley appeared.

As soon as Yuan Feng appeared, the trial participants from Yun Song and the Gray Valley also quickly emerged one by one.

"Gray Valley!" Zheng Rui stood up with a frown.

"Indeed." Yuan Feng stepped forward, his cold gaze sweeping over everyone. He looked at the spirit beast corpses and the dead Qin Shun and Zu Fang, and said, "It seems you just went through a fierce battle not long ago. What? Did you encounter that Ice Serpent?"

At this moment, the sleeping Nie Tian was also woken by Yuan Feng.

He knew he had only taken a short nap and could not have slept for too long.

But even a short nap had clearly restored a lot of his energy.

After opening his eyes, he did not look at Yuan Feng but noticed the two spirit stones in front of him.

Then, he saw Pan Tao, who was closest to him.

He immediately realized that the two spirit stones came from Pan Tao, so he smiled and thanked Pan Tao.

"If you respect me, take those two spirit stones." Pan Tao said seriously.

Nie Tian nodded, picked up the two spirit stones, and put them in his waist bag.

This time, his exhaustion was not due to excessive consumption of spiritual energy but the massive loss of consciousness. He did not need spirit stones to recover.

But since Pan Tao had said so, he naturally would not be polite.

The trial in the Qinghuan Realm was far from over, and no one knew if they would encounter more dangerous situations in the future.

With these two spirit stones, if he ever ran out of spiritual energy, as long as he had time, he could recover faster through the spirit stones, giving him a better chance of success.

"Not only did we encounter the Ice Serpent, but we also ran into the Ground Lizard, damn it!" Zheng Rui cursed, "But we are strong enough. Although we couldn't kill the Ice Serpent and the Ground Lizard, we at least drove them off. If it were you, encountering both the Ground Lizard and the Ice Serpent at the same time, you probably wouldn't survive."

"Shut up!" An Ying called out softly.

"Heh!" Yun Song from the Yun family laughed softly, "Cousin! They just fought the Ice Serpent and the Ground Lizard, and must have consumed a lot of spiritual energy. Look... they are all using spirit stones to recover their strength. This means that their combat power is currently insufficient."

"Moreover, they have lost two people!"

Yun Song's eyes flickered with malice, looking over, his gaze finally landing on Nie Tian.

The moment he looked at Nie Tian, his face turned cold, his eyes full of vicious intent.

Zheng Rui, who had been stopped by An Ying, suddenly realized that his words had exposed the fact that everyone's combat power had dropped significantly.

He cursed himself for being too talkative and dared not say more, instead glaring fiercely at Yun Song.

"Yuan Feng, our main goal in entering the Qinghuan Realm is those four second-level spirit beasts." An Ying remained calm, "The Ice Serpent fought with us for a long time and must have consumed a lot of strength. You can bypass us and take advantage of its weakened state to kill it."

"No rush." Yuan Feng from the Gray Valley said coldly, suddenly pointing at Nie Tian from a distance, "This person is not from your Spirit Treasure Pavilion. I want you to hand him over to me. Once we capture him, we will naturally take him away and go deep into the ice region to hunt that Ice Serpent."

"You want Nie Tian?" An Ying was taken aback.

Pan Tao was also stunned.

...