Lin Fan didn’t wait for the next morning to go and gather all of the elders.
Since this was something that was time sensitive, he quickly gathered them all and delivered the Raksha Lightning Grass to them.
The elders were naturally surprised to see the Raksha Lightning Grass, but Lin Fan just simply said, “It’s a gift from the kids.”
While the elders were even more surprised by this, they still took it and the other herbs that were in the Storage Ring. They didn’t even ask Lin Fan what the situation was since they knew that time was short.
The best thing that they could do was absorb these herbs and gain a bit more strength while they still had time.
That was except for the Golden Core Realm elders.
They came together and formed a barrier around the courtyard so that no one would be able to feel anything from the outside.
…
Two days passed just like this without a single word from the Martial Might Sect.
It was as if the entire Martial Might Sect had gone dark during this time.
It was almost as if there wasn’t a single person that was in the Martial Might Sect with how they had all disappeared like this.
Of course, there were still people that were out and about delivering food to them, so it wasn’t as if they were completely abandoned. At the same time, they could feel the presence of people watching from afar, so they knew that they were still being observed.
It was just that no one seemed to come and visit the Love Sect group during this time.
It wasn’t just that, even when Lin Fan went out to walk around the Martial Might Sect, he found that the other sects were also remaining in the courtyards that they had been staying in.
It was like everyone was just keeping to their own business during this time.
That was until Elder Qian suddenly came to visit the Love Sect group.
When Lin Fan saw Elder Qian, he couldn’t help revealing a bitter smile.
Whenever Elder Qian came, it was never a good thing.
But this time, he wasn’t here on personal business. This time, Elder Qian was here on official business.
He was here to invite them to watch the second round.
After all this time, the second round had finally been set up and it was time for it to start.
Though Elder Qian didn’t seem to give them any clues as to what the second round was about. He just told them that the second round was starting and that a viewing area had been prepared.
Elder Qian acted completely different from before.
Instead of being polite and courteous with them, not it seemed like he was very curt and brief.
It almost seemed like he wanted to have as little contact with the Love Sect group as possible.
When Lin Fan and the others followed Elder Qian out, they passed by several other groups that were being led by the Martial Might Sect elders. These were the groups from the other sects.
However, it didn’t seem like the group from every single sect was coming with them.
There were some sects that were missing.
It wasn’t that these sects didn’t have any disciples left competing in this tournament, they just simply weren’t being led to the same place.
Were they separating the sects for a reason?
If so, what was the reason why the Love Sect was brought to this place?
The one sect of note that seemed to be missing when they arrived in the viewing area was the Demon Palm Sect.
The Demon Palm Sect had placed second in the first round, so there was no doubt that they had made it to the second round. However, there wasn’t a single trace of the Demon Palm Sect in this place.
They had allowed the Demon Palm Sect to view the first round, but now they weren’t allowing them to view the second round.
Was there something special about the second round?
To everyone’s surprise, the one that was hosting the viewing of the second round was actually the sect master of the Martial Might Sect.
No one thought that the sect master himself would step forward to host this, but there he was standing in front of them all.
It was only Lin Fan who knew that even though Sect Master Duan was the sect master of the Martial Might Sect, he wasn’t the one that was actually in charge here. He was just the front for this tournament since the ones that were in charge couldn’t reveal themselves.
After all, the ones that were in charge were the two old men from the Five Great Sects.
Even before they were hurt, there was a reason why they couldn’t be seen.
The Five Great Sects were at the peak of the continent, but there was a mysteriousness to them that normal people couldn’t touch. It was something important about keeping their reputation, so it wasn’t as if they could just reveal themselves that easily.
But even before that, this was a secret mission that they had been sent on.
If they revealed themselves, the Five Great Sects would never let them go.
So the only thing that they could do was use Sect Master Duan as a scapegoat.
After everyone arrived, Sect Master Duan opened up the screen to reveal the disciples. However, the moment that those from the sects saw the disciples, they all deeply knitted their brows.
That was because the disciples were all just sitting there on the ground with their legs crossed and their eyes closed. It almost seemed as if they were…dead.
At the very least, it was certain that all of them were not conscious.
All of the representatives from the various sects looked at Sect Master Duan with dark looks on their faces.
They had trusted the Martial Might Sect to look after their disciples, but in the end…
One of the sect masters couldn’t take it and said, “What have you done to my son?”
It seemed that the son of this sect master was among the disciples from that sect that were participating in this tournament.
It was understandable why he was so agitated over this.
One’s children was one of the taboos that shouldn’t be touched and if they were touched, it would only make sense that they would go crazy.
Sect Master Duan wasn’t offended that this sect master spoke up and just calmly explained, “They are not dead, just unconscious. Their souls have been brought into the stage of the second round.”
The sect master deeply knitted his brows as he asked, “What do you mean by that?”
Sect Master Duan gave a wave of his hand and the image on the screen moved towards the small iron tower that all of the disciples were sitting around. This small iron tower was a finely crafted piece, so that anyone who saw it knew that it wasn’t a normal item.
This was clearly some kind of artifact.
Sect Master Duan gave a moment of pause for everyone to take a close look at his small iron tower before saying, “This is one of the special artifacts of our Martial Might Sect that we have taken out specially for this tournament.”
With the way that he said this, it was almost as if he was telling everyone to be grateful that they were given this chance.
Sect Master Duan continued by explaining, “This artifact is known as the Soul Tower of Trials.”
As soon as they heard this name, everyone revealed a confused look.
Sect Master Duan didn’t care about this as he waited for a bit to let this name settle in. Only after stoking their curiosity did he continue by saying, “As you can imagine, this is a place where one’s ability is tested. But not only that, it takes in the souls of the ones taking the trial so that their physical forms are not hurt.”
All of the sect representatives deeply knitted their brows when they heard this.
Souls were an important thing for cultivators since development of the soul was something that was necessary to reach a higher realm. That was why the realms were named after the soul like the Nascent Soul Realm and the Soul Formation Realm.
Even before that, without one’s soul, one would be nothing more than an empty shell.
The soul was what made a person a person, so without it, they were nothing more than a puppet with its strings cut.
Naturally they wouldn’t allow the Martial Might Sect to do anything to the souls of their disciples.
Sect Master Duan could see the way that everyone was looking at him, so he snapped his finger and changed the scene on the screen again.
When the image cleared, the disciples of the various sects appeared once more.
There was only one image and it seemed like they were all gathered inside of a hall somewhere.
This was a large space where all of them were gathered and it didn’t seem like there was anything around them.
Sect Master Duan then said, “This is the inside of the Soul Tower of Trials where your disciples currently are. They are waiting for us to begin the trial now.”
Though there were some skeptical looks on the faces of the sect representatives, there wasn’t anyone that said anything in response to this.
After all, the souls and bodies of their disciples were being held captive by the Martial Might Sect right now.
They had no choice but to wait and watch.
Please check out my new novel for WSA, Wasting Money to Become an Immortal!
Time to beg for power stones and reviews!
Come check out my stream: https://twitch.tv/dxhaseoxd
