Chapter 129- Desert 

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A vast expanse of sand was stretched as far as eyes could see with many big chunks of rocks littered around the place. It was quiet, still even.

Without the strong wind that rustled occasionally, it wasn't wrong to say that it was completely silent as the deep sand muffled and absorbed every noise that touched the ground on the rare occasion that some creature walked on it.

Above the vast sandy expanse, the sky incomparably bright, giving off its scorching ray of lights to everything below, making the dry and still desert even more unbearable.

Under the raging sun and the harsh wind, a group of people traveled on the unhospitable land on their feet, creating a footprint of their boots on the sand that would be quickly erased by the wind.

There were three of them as they donned a casual wide robe with dull color to cover their body from the sun and the dust that permeated in the air.

Walking side by side, they calmly trekked through the desert at a brisk pace.

As the wind blew strongly, it swept one of the robed figures and uncovered their hood, revealing a pair of dark eyes with a hint of sharpness in them as the figure looked forward coldly.

"It's been more than two months but we haven't managed to find it at all." A youthful voice sounded with a hint of tiredness from another one of the robed figures.

"Don't worry, they already explained that it's hard to find even one of them so it's alright." Liu Guanyi spoke out.

"Yeah, Xin. Stop complaining and please be useful, you are the scout so it's your job to locate and find them." The last robed figure opened her mouth, speaking in a beautiful and soothing voice.

"Well, sorry about that, princess. However, it's not my fault since you were the one that agreed with the test administrator to such a hard test!" Argued Xin.

"Are you stupid? Not accepting the test would have made the situation much harder. Do you think there's nothing behind the scenes that made the test administrator prevent us from taking the regular test and propose a special test instead?"

"It seems that you haven't learned a thing from Liu." Adori said in a condescending voice.

"Hmmph! Do you think I didn't know? Of course, I do! I knew that the test administrator lied when he said that he didn't make things difficult for us, but isn't there another solution? Like talking to another test administrator."

Adori only smiled hearing it. "It seems that you aren't that slow but you are still stupid. Do you think the other test administrators didn't know when we arrive there? Of course they know, if that Ranker could assign some people to monitor us, the others certainly could do the same."

"I know that you want to say 'then why they didn't say anything or contact us at all about it?'. Don't worry I will explain it very simply so you can understand it without any problem, Xin." Adori smiled.

"Well, it's simply because they weren't going to do that in the first place. Remember, the other Rankers there definitely knew that we were there, however, not only did they didn't do anything to that test administrator, they didn't even appear after we accepted his proposition and even after we looked around the place afterward."

"Now, do you understand? It was all planned." Adori explained slowly.

"Still, didn't you can just reject whatever he wanted to do to us and force your way to take the regular test? You are a princess of Zahard you know." Xin said as he shrugged off his shoulders.

"Well, it seems that I have to explain everything to you little by little before you can truly understand it. Sigh… you are hopeless, Xin." Adori let out a long sigh as she shook her head in exasperation.

"Liu, can you just explain it to him, speaking to a child with little to no intelligence really makes my head ache."

Liu Guanyi had a little laugh as he watched their argument before he heaved a sigh. "Alright, I'll explain it to him."

"Well, Xin, although what happened looked simple, it wasn't actually that simple." Liu Guanyi said as he looked toward Xin. "To evaluate what happened properly, we need to consider our situation and our position first."

"Our situation and position?"

Liu Gunayi nodded his head. "Yes, our position. We are only C-ranked regulars at the moment while the test administrators are Rankers.

"With the way the tower is operated, we can't do anything to them and have no choice to accept their terms. However, since Adori isn't just a random C-ranked regular, they too, can't be overboard in dealing with her."

"This is why they have to offer something back in return, which is if we pass the test, they will have to let us climb three floors at once."

"Why did Adori accept it that time? It was clear from what they had offered, passing three floors at once wasn't something a mere Ranker can give, only those High Rankers could order that, or to be precise…"

Liu Guanyi smiled. "The floor rulers."

Hearing that, Xin was surprised. He didn't expect that even the powerful floor rulers would also be behind the scheme against them.

"Now, you understand, right? The blond-haired Ranker basically said to Adori that she didn't have any choice but to take the test as even the ruler of the 75th floor had agreed and allowed the plan, and also went along with the plan."

"Not taking the test would do us no good. Even complaining most likely would only worsen the situation." Liu Guanyi explained.

"I didn't expect that the situation is this bad, I'm sorry for being too slow, Mr. Liu." Xin managed to squeeze those words as he struggled to speak without being embarrassed for his lacking ability to analyze the problem.