"Meow."
As Dai Hee walked towards the edge of the formation to hand over the two pill boxes to Mai Rong, Tai who hadn't left his arms was heard meowing.
Dai Hee looked down and saw Tai staring up at him. As their eyes met, Dai Hee felt like a bolt of electricity had struck his body and he froze.
Suddenly, someone's voice echoed in his mind.
'Master, can you hear me?'
'Who-?!'
'It's me!'
The voice was heard saying with a tone of excitement.
Dai Hee frowned a bit, but soon he look at Tai and his eyes widen a bit.
'You-How are in my head?'
Dai Hee was completely shocked that he was hearing this cat's voice in his head.
'Ah! Could you be some kind of Spirit Beast?'
Dai Hee cried out in realization.
'Master, that isn't important right now. You can't hand over that pill to that woman!'
'I know talking cat, but what should I do in this situation? If we fight we'll be discovered and then be surrounded by everyone. We'll lose the pills in that situation anyway.'
"What? Are you having second thoughts?"
Mai Rong seeing Dai Hee just silently standing there asked in an amused tone.
'Master, Jun, and everyone have a plan. We can get out of this!'
After Mai Rong said that, she soon frowned as a few more breaths went by. But before she could say anything, Dai Hee suddenly began walking forward again.
After stopping in front of the formation facing Mai Rong, Dai Hee raised the two boxes and hand them to her.
Mai Rong smiled and said.
"Good choice."
She then gestured to the formation and a space opened for her hand to retrieve the two pill boxes.
Dai Hee seeing this frowned and yelled.
"Wait!"
The two pill boxes vanished back into his storage ring before he look at Mai Rong and said with a serious expression.
"Release the barrier and only then I'll hand over the pillboxes to you."
Mai Rong frowned at this, but her face soon relaxed and she waved her hand at the disk in the air.
With a tremble it released a few flickering lights as the runes on it lit up. Soon the formation trapping everyone was released.
The disk floated down to land in Mai Rong's hand before she put it away. After, she said coldly.
"Now hand over the pills."
Mai Rong wasn't worried they would try to escape, the disciples from the Water Empire had already surrounded this entire area. If they tried anything they would be bombarded by Spirit Artifacts and Daoist Magic spells from all sides.
Besides, with Dai Hee so close, Mai Rong was confident she could keep him here if he tried to run.
Dai Hee was seen nodding before he flipped over his hand and retrieve the two pill boxes once again. He didn't hesitate to toss them towards Mai Rong before swiftly retreating back to the others.
Mai Rong caught the boxes but she didn't open them up, she instead called out to Dai Hee and the others who were turning to escape.
"Wait!"
"What? Are you going to keep us here despite us giving you pills?"
Mai Rong hearing this smiled.
"Well, what if you had switched the contents with two defective pills? If I let you go now wouldn't I be made to look like a fool?"
Mu Fan was heard snorting before saying.
"Fool! Why don't you just open the box and see for yourself?!"
Despite Mu Fan's vulgar way of speaking, Mai Rong's smile didn't falter as she said.
"I don't need to check, I know the pills are inside from the medicinal aroma coming from the box. You could have switched the pills, but the lack of the pills' unique aura would have given it away."
"So why are we still here?"
Lihua was heard saying in a distasteful tone.
"Well, that's simple. Why don't we team up after entering the Hidden Fragmented Realm?"
Everyone in the group was taken aback by Mai Rong's proposal.
"Why so surprised? If I had you as an ally I would be able to beat that Gu Jin. Of course, the share of resources would be split down the middle. So, are you interested?"
Mai Rong swept her gaze across the group waiting for a response.
That response came from Yang Su, who said coldly.
"First we have to get into the top one hundred in the Chosen Tournament. It has yet to start so we don't know what will happen. As for your offer, we'll deeply consider it."
After throwing that out, Yang Su urged everyone to leave.
Mai Rong looked at their backs as they disappeared in the darkness of the night, the smile still on her face.
Bang.
A long noise echoed out as Gu Jin landed on the ground from the air.
"I knew I sense a formation here."
Gu Jin walked forward as Mai Rong turned to him.
Gu Jin looked down and saw the two pill boxes in her hands. His eyes immediately flashed with a dangerous light as he growled.
"Mai Rong, hand over the Soul Nourishing pill. I don't care about the Nascent Soul formation pill."
Mai Rong chuckled and then asked.
"Despicable Gu Jin, what are you going to give me for the Soul Nourishing pill?"
"...What do you want?"
Gu Jin know Mai Rong's personality, so he was prepared to have the skin on his back taken off in this exchange.
"What I want is nothing much. Just had over your storage ring. I'll allow you to take one item out but that's it."
Hearing this Gu Jin's body shook from anger.
"Bullshit! How can I give you my storage ring?!"
"Despicable Gu Jin, if you're unwilling to hand over your storage ring then this Soul Nourishing pill isn't that important to you."
Mai Rong used the blue fan in her hand to tap the two pillboxes on her palm as she said that.
A still furious Gu Jin glared at Mai Rong as he said.
"Instead of giving you my storage ring, how about I just take it from you?"
"Do really believe you have that ability?"
Mai Rong was not intimidated by Gu Jin's threat. However, when she saw Gu Jin release a smirk she couldn't but feel something was wrong.
But before she could speculate what that Gu Jin was up to, he suddenly form a hand seal, and the fan that was once under Mai Rong's control, shot out of her hand and slapped one of the pillboxes towards Gu Jin.
Cracks immediately covered the pillbox but it hold its structure as if fell in the snow several feet away.
As for what just occurred, a Soul Signature Mai Rong could not sense, was hidden inside the blue fan. Not only that, it was extremely strong to destroy her own Soul Signature and take control over the fan in an instant.
That Soul Signature was not Gu Jin's own but from someone else who was immensely powerful. But Mai Rong didn't bother to think about that and instead dashed towards the box that had been knocked out of her hand.
Gu Jin who was waiting for this opportunity was already pouncing on the box.
However, Mai Rong sneered before flicking her sleeves. A ribbon shot out to wrap around the box.
Just as Gu Jin went to grab the box Mai Rong pulled it from his grasp.
"Fine! If I can't have it then neither can you!!"
Gu Jin roared before he pointed at the pill box. A concentration of Fire Qi in a thin red line shot from his finger towards the box.
Mai Rong's eyes were open wide as the already cracked pill box exploded into wooden fragments. After staring in silence at the pieces of the box falling into the snow, Mai Rong's body suddenly trembled before she lost her cool.
"GU JIN YOU MOTHER FUCKER!!!"
Mai Rong's eyes turned bloodshot as she glared at Gu Jin; her chest heaving up and down continuously.
Completely enrage was not enough to describe just how furious Mai Rong was. Her head was pounding with only thoughts of how to murder Gu Jin.
Gu Jin in response to her reaction was one of elation. He lifted his head to the sky and released a booming laugh.
Gu Jin could count on one hand the amount of time he had made Mai Rong lose her cool like this. But every time she did, it would clear up all the frustrations he had because of her.
It was like a birthday gift, it only come once a year but the gift was too good to complain it wasn't every day!
However, as Gu Jin was laughing, he suddenly paused and sniff the air. His face immediately fell when he didn't smell the scent of the Soul Nourishing pill in the air.
It was just destroyed, and the explosion wasn't big enough to completely eliminate the aroma.
So, what gives?
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