Zhao Qi and Lu Wil

Many people have convened in a huge hall. It seems to be a banquet. A huge table has been placed on one side of the hall, with many chairs around the table. At least a hundred people could sit around it. This table only covered about one-third of the hall.

Many dishes were placed on it.

There were many people inside the hall, but nobody was sitting around the table. The dishes remained hot even after all this time.

This hall had huge pillars, one pillar being as thick as two meters. It had shining transparent crystal chains tied around it. Huge curtains hung on the walls. These curtains were of maroon¹ colors, with long straight stripes of violet color that stretched from the upper edge to the bottom end. It had peacock feather embroidery on it.

"What's this? Only a fool would put curtains on a wall. It's completely useless and foolish,"

The curtains were as tall as thirty meters, and so were the walls of this hall, as well as the pillars. The roof also had chains of transparent color on it tied from one end to the other end. They were tied in different patterns: peacock patterns, round patterns, waving patterns, and more.

The roof and the pillars were white, with snake-like patterns drawn on them. As for the ground, well,

"What the… it's made of water? Who made this and who is maintaining it? There are also many different fishes swimming in it!"

A young man muttered. He was surprised to see this. He seemed to be in his twenties.

The young man stands tall in an elegant jade green Hanfu, embroidered with silver patterns resembling swirling clouds. The wide sleeves move gently, revealing his fair skin.

His smooth, fair complexion has a subtle rosy tint, and his dark hair flows down his back, tied with a refined jade hairpiece. His bright, expressive eyes reflect curiosity and wisdom, enhancing his presence. Overall, his attire and striking features blend tradition with youthful charm, quite enchanting.

"Zhao Qi, why did you choose the Storm Bandits?" Another young man asked.

The young man is of average height, wearing a light blue Hanfu with pretty flower designs. The fabric flows nicely around him and has long sleeves.

He has a warm, light-brown skin tone, and short blue hair. A simple woven red color sash sits at his waist, giving him a nice shape. His dark eyes are calm and friendly, and he has a gentle smile that makes him approachable. He seems to be an otherworldly being with a friendly personality.

"Lu Wil, isn't that simple? I want to win this competition." Zhao Qi replied.

"You know that many people would oppose this, right?"

"Well, for us, it's not a matter of who is good or who is bad, we will use anyone useful, right? Anyway, they are pretty good from what I have seen. And the leader is even more impressive, I am sure he can handle anyone." Zhao Qi remarked with a smile.

…..

"Yeah, right. Good luck with that!" The leader of the Storm Bandits replied.

"What do you mean?" Someone asked.

"You want to go inside thinking that you are a rank 5 and stronger than them? Many went inside, and none returned. There is definitely something wrong inside. If you go inside, do you think you will return back here?" The leader of the Storm Bandits replied.

Out of the three rank 5 here, one was inside the gate. The second was the leader of the Storm Bandits, and the third one was asking to go inside the gate with ten more rank 4 cultivators.

"There seems to be something wrong here." A cultivator muttered.

"What do you mean?" Someone asked.

"Look, wasn't that gate only one and a half meters wide when it manifested?"

"Now that you have mentioned it, yeah, it was."

The inheritance gate, initially only one and a half meters wide, had grown to three meters already. It grew subtly, so no one here noticed before.

After the cultivator noticed, the gate suddenly expanded, growing an additional two meters wider, up to five meters in total, giving no time for the cultivators outside to react.

Suddenly, hounds started to emerge from the inside and pounced at the cultivators.

Not just that, many hounds began to go around the cultivators to surround them. As this happened suddenly, the cultivators could not react in time. Even though not too much, they were standing near the inheritance gate.

Yang Zhai had specifically instructed these hounds to attack as few shiqs as possible, except for the bandit leader.

It was simple: he wanted them to render him useless right away so that he couldn't escape, even if it meant losing a few hounds to the shiq of the bandit leader.

This is exactly what happened.

He was at the front. As an instinct, he instantly tried to turn his shiq around.

However, as he was at the front, its leg was grabbed by a hound. It tried to drag him but was thrown away by the force of the shiq.

Sensing danger, it began to randomly kick with its legs.

"Not good," the leader of the bandit, sensing that his shiq had lost control, tried to grab his companion's shiq and run away.

But, by the moment he did that, they were already surrounded by the hounds.

"Everyone, stay together and make a way for us to escape! Remember that, the moment anyone gets separated from the group will be the moment they can start waiting for their death!" The bandit leader shouted.

He was truly an expert. He observed the situation and came up with a plan right away. They understood that this was the only way to survive.

However, just after he had said that and killed a hound, a gorilla emerged from the inheritance gate and slapped him hard.

Despite that, he wasn't sent flying as the gorilla had placed most of its force downwards as commanded by Yang Zhai.

He was slammed to the ground. The gorilla didn't give him any time to recover and began punching him.

At first, he had his ire activated, but it was soon damaged by the gorilla's strength.

As for the others, they wanted to help, but the hounds were constantly hindering them. If they shifted even a bit of their focus towards him, they might get overwhelmed by the hounds.

The rank 5 cultivator did try a little but was also facing difficulty freeing himself.

"Darn it! At this rate, he will die!"

"How many more hounds does he have?! No wonder nobody came out after entering…"

"He even has a rank 5 gorilla under his control, he has no rival in the realm of rank 4 or rank 5… we really messed up this time…"

"We are doomed at this rate. More hounds keep on coming out, we need to abandon him and get out of here as soon as possible,"

They had decided to abandon their leader.

Unexpectedly, the gorilla left the bandit leader and jumped at the other rank 5 cultivator.

"As for the rank 4 cultivators, they can't leave this place now no matter what they do. Even the rank 5 can't do that, but I can't have them alive for too long or they will kill a lot of my hounds."

Yang Zhai looked at the outside situation and muttered.

He had ordered the gorilla to take one rank 5 cultivator by surprise and beat them until their defense was weakened and then go for another rank 5 cultivator.

The hounds began to bite the bandit leader and then retrieve back. The bandit leader was having a hard time but managed to get on his feet.

As for the other rank 5, it could barely handle a rank 5 gorilla. He was not a body-path cultivator and couldn't distance himself from the gorilla because of the hounds around him. He was just taking hits from the gorilla and staying alive because of the ire he was using.

He was attacking the gorilla from time to time but was missing as he wasn't able to concentrate. If he did distance himself from the gorilla, he would be attacked by the hounds.

"I am in a terrible situation,"

He was just thinking that when the gorilla left him alone and slapped a rank 4 cultivator, bursting her head into mush. After that, it went for the bandits leader.

"I need to get out of here right now when its focus is on our leader. The next time he comes for me, I will most likely die. The moment my ire breaks, only one of its slaps is enough to kill me." The rank 5 cultivator thought.

Inside the inheritance gate,

"So, you are saying that you were hired by a person named Zhao Qi from the Lear Domain?" Yang Zhai muttered.

In front of him lay a man, severely injured. In fact, Yang Zhai hadn't even begun his process of 'revealing the truth' before the man divulged everything. He understood that he was at Yang Zhai's mercy.

In front of Yang Zhai stood The Last One, guarding him in case the cultivator tried everything.

Lear Domain, one of the most evil and demonic to exist in this continent. I need to be careful and make sure that everyone here today dies: he thought.

If I remember correctly, the leader, in fact, almost everyone in this domain is demonic. They are extremely ruthless. They are extremely cowardly but ruthless when they are in great numbers. If they know what I did, I will for sure be chased by them without a doubt.

!|!*****!*****!|!

Maroon: Originally from the French word "Marron" borrowed by English. It means brownish-red color.