[Translator/Editor: otwentyfirst]

[Host: justreads.net]

[August 5, 2018]

The group consisted of ten people, five boys and five girls. As groups went it wasn’t bad. The team leader saw Feng Wu standing by herself. How could he leave out such a pretty girl? He immediately ran over to her and asked if she was part of a team yet.

“h.e.l.lo, would you like to join my team? We have ten people right now, including you would make eleven. How about it?” Pei smiled as he spoke.

Feng Wu heard his voice and turned her head in his direction. A little mistrustful she asked, “A small team?”

“Yeah. Don’t you want to go to the neutral city. It’ll be better if we look for it together as a team. Even if we are competing against each other we can still go there together. We can figure out what to do afterwards. As for finding the treasure map, well we can only rely on our own individual abilities.”

Feng Wu quietly watched him as he spoke. He didn’t seem to have bad intentions so she nodded in agreement.

“Great! Come on I’ll introduce you to the rest of the team.” After that Pei led Feng Wu over. The group wasn’t too far away so it only took them a couple of minutes to walk over.

Zi Cheng and a few of the girls were talking to each other. Among them was Yifu, the girl Zi Cheng saved previously. Ai Lin was also there chatting with the girls and from time to time she would glance up at Zi Cheng. Zi Cheng was completely unaware that the girl in front of her was planning a counterattack.

“Hey everyone. This girl here just joined our group her name is…” Pei’s voice trailed off in embarra.s.sment as he could not recall her name. He turned to look at Feng Wu.

“My name is Feng Wu.” She didn’t understand the other party’s intentions but she knew that this was usually were she was supposed to say her name.

“Hi. Welcome to the group. You’re a swordsman yeah? I’m one too. My name’s Xi.” The girl that spoke had a friendly smile.

“I’m Zi Cheng, magician.”

“I’m Ai Lin, also magician.”

“My name’s Gino, magician too.”

“My name’s Kyle, swordsman.”

“My name’s Yifu, I’m a magician.”

“My name’s Melis. Welcome I’m a swordsman like you.”

“Name’s Hans, swordsman.”

“I’m Oman, a magician. I’m in your care.”

“I’m the team leader for now. My name’s Pei, swordsman.”

All told it was a team of six swordsmans and five magicians. After introductions the team discussed which way to go. They had seen some of the other teams leaving towards the forest while a few looked around the beach. There were some individuals who set off on their own without a team. Feng Wu just quietly listened to her teammates discuss without interrupting or saying anything.

“Why don’t we go through the forest?” Although Ai Lin didn’t know their exact position, she had read the novel and already knew where the neutral city was located.

In order to get to the neutral city they would have to pa.s.s through the forest. The indigenous people lived in small villages on the outskirts of the forest so this would help the group avoid them. The indigenous people were in fact quite dangerous so bypa.s.sing them was for the best. No one voiced disagreement over the idea.

“Since everyone agrees with Ai Lin let’s all head through the forest. After we get out of it we’ll talk again about which way to go,” declared Pei.

Pei and his group weren’t the only ones who came to that decision. Many others also thought the same, feeling that it made sense for this so called neutral city to be beyond the forest. If they wanted to find the location of the city walls then they had to leave the beach and rely on their abilities to go through the forest. This was because the forest was filled with wild magical beasts. It was inevitable they would have to encounter a few and engage in battle. This was very dangerous so Feng Wu’s group of eleven took it slow and easy, not daring to go too fast. The forest wasn’t big, so as long as they moved carefully it wouldn’t be too difficult, however they soon came upon a difficult problem as the path diverged. Which one should they take?

Although Ai Lin knew the city was beyond the forest, she didn’t know the path to take as the book didn’t describe that part in detail.

“Ah! What do we do? Which way should we go?” Yifu looked on in confusion while holding onto Zi Cheng’s arm.

Ai Lin looked at Yifu’s clinginess. This girl would serve as an important canon fodder in the early days. Yifu would introduce her older brother who was also a student at Xingguang Holy Academy to Zi Cheng. It would be love at first sight and eventually he would die in order to save the Zi Cheng from Ai Lin.

Yifu didn’t hate Zi Cheng over her brother’s death, in fact the two became even closer. Later Yifu would follow in her brother’s footsteps and block a fatal blow for Zi Cheng. Even as she lay dying, Yifu thanked Zi Cheng for letting her know what true friendship was saying, “I hope we can be friends in the next life as well.”

Ai Lin watched the scene completely flabbergasted. Both brother and sister willingly gave up their live for this so called friend. Even at death’s door Yifu was still thanking Zi Cheng, letting her know how much she appreciated her friendship. Normal people didn’t do that! Ai Lin didn’t understand people like Yifu and so wanted nothing to do with her.

Back to the path…

Pei also hesitated unsure of which way to go. The paths all looked the same. Which one was the way out?

Feng Wu stood behind the group listening carefully to the sounds around her. She used her internal force to communicate with the woodland creatures. Do you know the way out?

Feng Wu quickly discovered that the tiny flowers and gra.s.s were more than happy to give her directions and eventually a dandelion by a tree trunk told her the correct path to take. It had been blown into the forest by the wind so it remembered the way clearly.

Feng Wu headed to the front of the group after thanking the dandelion for the directions. She stood next to Pei and said, “This way out.”

When the others saw her walk to the front they thought she would do something, but they hadn’t expected her to directly say which path to take.

“That road is really the way out? How do you know?” asked Xi curiously.

Everyone in the group had felt that she was an introverted girl - if you didn’t talk to her she wouldn’t say a word. If you talked to her she would answer, but she wouldn’t voluntarily say anything otherwise. The others girls had found it boring to converse with her and so had gradually just ignored her.