A Hostile Atmosphere In The Air

Mu Sae and Su Minwa were walking slowly through the forest, on the lookout for any suspicious movements.

The junior brother who was accompanying them separated from them after encountering a group of condisciples heading in the other direction.

"What do you think about what those people said, Mu Sae?"

"About there being a mysterious stranger in a fox mask in the forest? I bet he's just another pervert. And I bet he's looking for a defenseless maiden to attack," Mu Sae said with her usual sarcasm.

At first, they didn't believe the story, but then changed their minds when they learned that Feng Tiao had met the stranger. Feng Tiao had no reason to lie.

"But don't worry, Min, I'll protect you, hihi."

"S-stop it, Mu Sae!"

Su Minwa tried to break free from the tight embrace, but it was a futile attempt, she was completely helpless, she always lost her strength when she felt Mu Sae's heavy breathing on her neck.

"I think the only pervert here is you…" Su Minwa puffed out her cheeks after being released, her face tinged with a very strong red hue.

Mu Sae always kept her hair short and had a well-groomed face. She also didn't have an extravagant bust like Su Minwa, so it was very easy to mistake her for a boy, especially because of the vulgar way she spoke.

Su Minwa, on the other hand, was a beautiful princess. She had long, silky black hair, large eyes with dark irises and a slightly rounded face. In terms of size, Mu Sae was much taller and stronger than Su Minwa.

They continued to wander through the forest for a few more hours, by which time the sun was beginning to set and there was still not much change in the scenery.

The biggest problem there was that the forest was on top of a large Formation Array that served to change the layout of the elements, meaning that they could have been walking in circles without knowing it. 

Finally, their eyes lit up when they saw something strange ahead. 

It was a wooden wall.

The wood of the wall seemed to be dark oak, and there were ropes joining the parts so that the wall wouldn't fall down. From where they were, they couldn't see the end of the wall, either horizontally or vertically.

From their experience, Mu Sae and Su Minwa knew that it wasn't a good idea to use the Flying Swords to fly over the wall. Attacking the wood directly wasn't a good idea either.

"What should we do, Mu Sae?"

"We can only get closer, it doesn't look like this thing has a door that we need to find the key to open."

Having to look for a key in a forest that changed its layout for everyone would be very problematic, but that didn't seem to be the case.

The two girls stopped a few centimeters from the wall. They were a little hesitant, after all, there were many dangers on the path to immortality. What if they died when they touched the wall? There was a chance that they would die so quickly that they wouldn't even know what had happened.

Mu Sae was the bravest, she let out a long sigh and suddenly touched her hand on the surface of the wall... and nothing happened. Su Minwa, who had been holding her breath by instinct, relaxed and looked reproachfully at her friend.

"Don't scare me like that! Imagine if you'd died?"

"But I didn't die. Come on, it's your turn, do you want me to hold your hand so you don't feel scared?"

"Stop saying such embarrassing things right now, you might offend the Peach Tree!" Su Minwa, her face flushed, reached out and tried to touch the surface of the wooden wall.

But she couldn't touch it. Su Minwa's hand passed through the wall as if it didn't exist.

On the other side of the wall, Su Minwa saw another part of the forest, the wall also stretched across the horizon on this side, and she could see several cultivators there.

On the other side, Mu Sae started punching the wood.

"It's not possible... what's going on here?!"

After hearing her friend's mutterings, Su Minwa crossed the wall and stood next to her, touching her shoulder to make them relax a little.

"Hey, Min, you don't think I failed... do you? Surely there must be another way through the wall…"

It was obvious that crossing the wall or not was crucial to advancing in the Peach Tree Trial, knowing this made Mu Sae's stomach turn, she couldn't fail there and displease her father.

Of course Su Minwa could get through the wall, after all she was very talented, a prodigy of the Su family, while Mu Sae was just a piece of trash who couldn't make her own father proud. 

Mu Sae bit her lip and looked at the girl next to her. Su Minwa looked at her with concern.

"There must be another way forward, we'll be able to move on together, as we always have," said Su Minwa.

"I don't want you to fall behind or fail because of me."

"Not at all, I'll help you move forward, after all, we'll both get to the Ninth District."

Mu Sae couldn't go against Su Minwa's charismatic smile, she just nodded and stared at the wall before saying:

"I think we can have a different result according to which part of the wall we try to cross, but it will be problematic if I can cross one part of the wall and you can't."

"Oh, don't worry, I can fix that," Su Minwa said, tearing a piece of her robe and tying it to a part of the wall.

"I know you can make more robes, but you shouldn't keep tearing your clothes like that, it's even indecent."

Su Minwa was a perfect seamstress, she was allowed to make new robes and had a huge stash of sewing resources. She made many robes for her late brother, Su Login, whenever he returned from training.

Before leaving for the Peach Tree Trial, Su Minwa made a robe and said that it would be a robe for when she met Su Login... she still hoped that her brother was alive.

Mu Sae changed the subject and started walking, they weren't going to go too far lest the layout of the forest changed and they ended up not knowing which part Su Minwa could cross.

However, the two girls suddenly stopped when they saw two people standing in front of them, staring at each other.

One of the people was junior brother Dong Bai... the other was a stranger in a fox mask. There was a hostile atmosphere in the air.