Chapter 296

Chapter 296: No One Can Leave
After the six people from Tai Bai Academy agreed on a plan, they carefully continued toward Star Reaching Mountain.

Yu Zhao sighed softly in her heart and flicked her fingers.

The hidden, shapeless restriction ward suddenly lit up and gave off a strange glow.

“Stop!” Wei Ying called out at once. Her bold, heroic face turned serious.

“It is a restriction ward,” the young man called Junior Brother Sha said quietly.

Right after that, everyone’s gaze fell on another young woman with a scholarly air.

Wei Ying nodded to her and said, “Junior Sister Ning, it is up to you.”

“Okay.” Junior Sister Ning answered. She took a pair of gloves from her storage pouch. They were as thin as cicada wings and shone with flowing light. She slowly pulled them over her fingers.

She had very pretty hands. Her fingers were slender and even, her skin so fair and clear it almost looked like jade.

The gloves were also unusual. Yu Zhao could not tell what they were made of, but she could feel a heavy, powerful aura coming from them.

After Junior Sister Ning put them on, the gloves fit her skin perfectly. It was almost impossible to tell she was even wearing them.

She walked a few steps forward and stopped in front of the restriction ward around Star Reaching Mountain. Her hands tapped in the air again and again in a strange rhythm.

Before long, a ripple of spirit power quietly appeared.

Junior Sister Ning’s eyes shone. She opened her mouth and spat out a streak of spiritual light.

The ripple of spirit power spread outward at once. Wherever it passed, the restriction wards moved aside.

“Senior Sister Wei, hurry, I cannot hold on for long.”

“Go.”

Wei Ying took the lead and quickly moved to stand behind Junior Sister Ning. The other disciples followed one after another.

Yu Zhao and Hua Tu walked at the back, clearing away the traces the group left behind.

Hua Tu walked for a while and suddenly felt uneasy for no clear reason. He could not help glancing left and right.

Only when he heard Junior Brother Sha in front mutter under his breath, “It is so quiet,” did he realize the problem was that Star Reaching Mountain was far too silent.

There were no cries of birds or insects. There was not even the sound of wind blowing through the leaves.

The vast mountain forest felt like a land of death.

The careless look in Hua Tu’s eyes faded, and he became even more alert.

After almost half an incense stick of time, Junior Sister Ning ran out of spirit power and asked Wei Ying for help.

Wei Ying poured spirit power into her body while cheering everyone on: “We are almost at the summit. Just hold on a bit longer.”

The disciples of Tai Bai Academy raised their heads to look at the peak that reached into the clouds and could not help feeling uneasy.

They had not even finished half the climb yet. They did not know if all of their spirit power added together would be enough to last until they reached the top.

Not to mention that they still had to rescue people once they got there. Would they have any strength left by then?

At this moment, Wei Ying also realized that what she had done tonight was really rash, and she could not help feeling some regret.

But now that they were halfway up the mountain, they were relying only on sheer courage to keep going.

If they gave up halfway, that courage might fall apart before they even got back down, and things would only become more dangerous.

Now they could only hope that, with everyone’s support, Junior Sister Ning could push through in one go and lead them all up Star Reaching Mountain.

“Junior Sister Ning, do not be afraid. I am right behind you.”

Feeling the warmth from the hand on her back, Junior Sister Ning’s eyes flashed.

She did not know if it was just her imagination, but after Senior Sister Wei said that, endless energy suddenly surged up inside her, and the tiredness in her body lessened a lot.

She took it as Senior Sister Wei’s encouragement. Her steps, which had been slowing down, suddenly sped up.

Wei Ying quickly followed.

And the disciples of Tai Bai Academy always followed Wei Ying’s lead, matching her pace.

None of them realized that instead of slowing down, their climb was actually getting faster.

After another full incense stick of time, the six of them reached the summit.

Wei Ying and Junior Sister Ning looked at each other and saw the same shock in each other’s eyes.

The two of them had actually made it all the way up the mountain without needing the others’ help?

It was simply a miracle.

But they did not have time to think about it now. Saving people came first.

The six of them searched around the summit but did not see a single person. They only saw a giant altar built in the center of the mountaintop. Ninety-eight jade pillars stood around the edge of the altar.

In the very center of the altar was one huge jade pillar, ten times thicker than the ones around the rim. Uneven lines were carved into its base, linking together into what looked like a totem pattern.

Wei Ying only glanced at it once before images of mountains of corpses and seas of blood flashed before her eyes, making her shiver.

“Senior Sister Wei, I did not find any sign of other people.”

“Same here.”

“Did we come too late? Did the sacrifice already end?”

The disciples of Tai Bai Academy gathered again and whispered to each other.

“No, that man said the sacrifice would be tomorrow. The time has already been set. They will not change it so easily.”

Because Tai Bai Academy had performed poorly in the recent Cultivation World Grand Tournament, the disciples had lived in misery as soon as they returned.

Not only did their daily cultivation time double, they also had to complete extra trial missions set by the sect every month.

Wei Ying, Junior Sister Ning, Junior Brother Sha, and the other three had formed a team to go out and take part in such a trial.

That afternoon, while they were resting by the roadside, they ran into a man at the late Golden Core stage trying to force himself on a female cultivator.

The six of them stepped in to rescue the female cultivator. By using some less than proper methods, they forced the man to talk and dug out information about an organization called the Heaven’s Condemnation Organization and its plan to hold a sacrifice to Heaven. They changed course at once and headed for Star Reaching Mountain.

At that time they had only wanted to save people. They had not thought at all about how dangerous this trip would be.

Only after they saw the restriction wards around Star Reaching Mountain and the altar on the summit did fear finally hit them.

But they pressed that fear deep down and did not show it on their faces.

Wei Ying gritted her teeth and said, “If we cannot find anyone, then we will lie in ambush on the summit and wait for them to show up.”

Everyone was startled and looked at each other, speechless.

If they kept searching, they might startle the enemy.

They had no better plan.

“Junior Sister Ning, can you still keep going?”

“I can.”

With help from Wei Ying and the others, Junior Sister Ning used a bulging rock wall as support and set up a concealment barrier.

They all hid inside the restriction ward together and quietly lay in wait.

Junior Sister Ning’s gloves were a supreme treasure passed down from her ancestor, made especially to break restriction wards. Because of them, Junior Sister Ning could lead everyone forward without slowing down.

But without this treasure, her sealing arts were only good enough to fool cultivators at the same level as her. In front of a cultivator one realm higher, they were almost useless.

For example, Hua Tu did not even need to open the Third Eye at his brow. With just a casual glance, he could see several flaws.

In the end, Yu Zhao had to cast two more illusion arts on the restriction ward they were hiding in before she could barely fool Hua Tu’s eyes.

Seeing this, Hua Tu asked curiously, “Did they offend you?”

Yu Zhao shot him a sideways look.

“With your ability, you could completely hide their presence,” he said.

The place where Wei Ying and the others were hiding looked fine at first glance, but if someone paid a little attention, they could still notice something.

That did not match Yu Zhao’s usual level.

Yu Zhao smiled slightly and said, “They want to save people. Sooner or later, they will have to blow their cover. If I hide them too well, it will only make Tian Pu Zi notice them. This way is just right.”

From the way Tian Pu Zi handled things, he should be a very cautious man.

A crafty rabbit always has three burrows.

People like that usually did not keep only one base.

To keep him from running away, Yu Zhao could only let Wei Ying and the others draw attention first. She would wait for her chance to act and try to keep all of them here.

No one was going to get away!

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