53 Near the City Wall

The carriage continued to drive forward to the east side of Ghost Forest City.

Through the way, An Bing Qing could see how other teams did the same as them; because the competition had already begun, she could see how some family's children drove the carriages, some were skilful at it while other clearly didn't know how to drive, it was funny to see.

Not all the teams did as them, there were clans that preferred to resolve the formations on the Encrypted Jade Card first; whereas it was because they find this approach being the best or because they didn't think about it at all, they were the only ones that knew it.

It took them a bit less than half an hour to reach where the Ghost Forest and the Forbidden Bamboo Forest met.

They didn't go forward and stopped there, in front of the two forests juncture.

After the carriages' wheels halted, An Bing Qing didn't move from her place and neither did An Yu Yong; he remained with his eyes closed without bothering in the slightest when noise arouse outside.

The footsteps and chattering came from the younglings that descended from the last carriage, there were seven in that one and five of them were the inexperienced ones that had just come to watch and who were lucky enough to take part in the competition thanks to the change of rules; the two oldest there, which were the ones driving, didn't seem to care about them, they knew silence will come soon.

Just as they thought, the noise subsided not long after it had begun; there were one or three others teams already here, and they had been quiet all this time, making the noisy youths of An Family felt awkward but also come to understand that even though there was no danger yet, the competition had truly begun as certain tension could be felt among the tranquillity that encompassed the area where they were.

Teams with the same idea as them kept arriving at the beginning of the Forbidden Bamboo Forest while there were some that continued to drive forward; perhaps they had already solved the Encrypted Jade Cards or just thought it was too cramped at that place now.

Time went by slowly and noise arose and subsided from time to time.

At length, after two hours passed, footsteps were heard approaching to the twins' carriage; the steps came to a stop and at that same moment, An Yu Yong said without opening his eyes, "Xiao Ning, Cheng Dong, why stop there? Come in".

An Xiao Ning closed his half-opened mouth and strode forward to enter the carriage without hesitation.

Seeing this, An Cheng Dong, who had his concerns regarding his young master's words, didn't think about it more and followed him.

An Bing Qing turned her head to the entrance as soon as she heard the sound of a step landing on the carriage's floor.

Her deep black eyes gave a quick glance to the handsome but stern young man clad in dark yellow robes who had just stepped in before lowering her gaze and swept it through his hands, but there wasn't anything in them.

She unconsciously raised her brow a little in wonder. Then, her eyes caught sight of an orange figure.

She looked behind An Xiao Ning and saw the not so handsome face of an orange-robed An Cheng Dong; and with him too, she gave to his hands a quick look.

'Yes, they did it!' She exclaimed in her head while looking at the Encrypted Jade Card; she couldn't see the formations on it anymore, only a crystal clear card as thin as a cicada wing remained.

She jumped to her feet and walked towards them with a gleeful smile.

An Yu Yong hadn't opened his eyes yet, as he was waiting for them to halt their steps but noticing his little sister movement, he opened them while turning his head to his right.

He wasn't the only one to change his plan of action, the walking duo made a sudden stop when they saw their young miss coming to them.

Both of them stared stupidly at her, they were captivated by the sparkling pair of obsidian jewels on her snowy face and the merry smile painted on her rosy lips.

An Bing Qing didn't care about it, her sweet smile widened and she said while stopping three feet before them, "Xiao Ning, Cheng Dong, you did a great job; you both have resolved the formations".

Her call made them snap out and with stiff movements, they prepared to give their greetings but An Bing Qing was one step ahead and didn't let them.

She swiftly reached An Cheng Dong left side, staying between them. She bent her body a little to her right and looked down at the card on An Cheng Dong's right hand; she nodded and praised again before asking, "Oh, this really was done in a wonderful manner, there isn't even a slight scratch on it. Then, from where are we supposed to enter the Forbidden Bamboo Forest?"

The Encrypted Jade Card was a low grade one; therefore, if it was a little wrong the form to undo the formations on it will leave small scratches on its surface and wouldn't break in that instant but if the deviation of the correct way of resolving them was bigger, it will shatter instantly, of course.

An Xiao Ning was the first to react at her question while An Cheng Dong had lost himself again at An Bing Qing sudden approach and praise, he had been the one who had practically solved all the formations on the card, after all.

"Right, we need to hurry. Our entrance location is near the city wall", An Xiao Ning said with his serious voice.