The Villain has Perished

Shen Lie was now in a great hall that could accommodate several thousands, along with his cohort. This included the cohort from Wang Xiao as well.

Although they numbered almost 600.

Today, they were all going to their experiential training into the demonic holy lands that were beyond the Fenghua Great Continent.

Right now, Elder Hua Zixia was about to address them and with her was Elder Li Hong, 4 other elders and 20 senior protégés as well.

Altogether, 6 elders and 20 of the senior protégés would be accompanying them for this experiential training.

Actually, in Wang Xiao's cohort, he and many others were also the senior protégés of the Holy Saintess Qian Yufeng and moreover, Wang Xiao himself was a powerful core protégé in his own right and he was stronger than some of the elders and most of the senior protégés that would be accompanying their cohort.

Also with them were Nangong Shu and Fairy Yue Shuwen.

However, they would not be joining in the experiential training as they were senior elders of the newly created Holy Carnation Sanctuary.

They were here to brief Elder Hua Zixia and the other elders on the mission objective of this experiential training instead.

After that, it would be Elder Hua Zixia that would be addressing everyone as she is the in-charge elder of the experiential training.

And she would also be the most powerful elder and cultivator in their experiential training as well.

Actually, Nangong Shu and Fairy Yue Shuwen had wanted to join in the experiential training but Saintess Sheng Feiyan had flatly rejected their request as she knows that they were there because of Shen Lie.

It was not to say that Saintess Sheng Feiyan did not know that Hua Zixia had an affair with Shen Lie as she had caught her visiting Shen Lie when she was hiding under the bed in Shen Lie's abode that night.

But she was after all, the elder that was in charge of Shen Lie's cohort and she was also an elder that Saintess Sheng Feiyan had recently promoted to be an inner court elder as she trusted her so she was willing to close one eye. Moreover, she needed Elder Hua Zixia to quickly get Shen Lie away from the Holy Carnation Palace or else he would be discovered by the Virtuous Saintess Qi Keqin.

So while many of the cohort was waiting for their next instructions nervously, many were also exchanging gossips at the same time.

Many were pointing in the direction of Shen Lie who was standing with Jie Ying together as they mocked him.

"I've heard that the most useless cultivator in our cohort has actually fainted yesterday in the hallway…"

"This Shen Lie is probably malingering…"

"He is only pretending to faint so as not to join in the experiential training…"

"What a useless cultivator. It is a disgrace to all of us and it will be our bad luck if we are in the same group as him…"

"Let's hope that we won't be in the same group as Shen Lie…"

"I can't believe that this Shen Lie has only passed his last experiential training due to pure luck of not encountering any profound beasts in the mountain wilderness. If not, he won't be with us in the same cohort now…"

"I wish our Holy Saintess Sheng Feiyan would just banish him away from the cultivation sect…"

"He won't be so lucky this time round…"

"It seems that he has already offended Wang Xiao yesterday…"

"I hope he is killed in this experiential training…"

"I pray that I won't be in the same group as Shen Lie. This experiential training is extremely dangerous and we will be facing the demonic cultivators…"

"I wonder if this is a good idea to send so many low level cultivators at such a high cost of using the teleporting array to invade the demonic holy lands…"

"These demonic cultivators will kill all the male cultivators they see. As for the female cultivators, they will turn them into their depraved slaves as they ravaged them…"

"I should have quit yesterday… I don't want to die…"

As they were gossiping and whispering with one another, Elder Hua Zixia had suddenly cleared her throat as she walked in front of everyone to address them.

"Today, all of you will be embarking on a life and death journey into the demonic holy lands. This may even be a one way journey for many of you. This undertaking will be extremely perilous and I can't promise if you may be able to return alive. I can't promise that I will also return alive as well."

Then she pointed at the 20 senior protégés who were all carrying a tray each, "I want all of you to take a profound pill each from this tray. You don't have to guess what it is. It is a most venomous profound pill that will end your life and even rot your bones so that the demonic cultivators will not be able to abuse your body or turn your body into profound medicines. I repeat. If anyone wants to back off now, please do so now. I don't want to take care of any cowards. So raise your hands if you want to quit."

As she said so, she could feel the slippery yang essence that was still dripping into her wet panties under her skirt.

Immediately, a dozen protégés were all raising their hands and they hung their heads in shame.

9 of them were actually female cultivators and they were all quite pretty; they did not want to be violated by the demonic cultivators or to be killed by them. Even if they were to return to their own cultivation sects, they would still have a bright future as they could still have an opportunity to be married to a young master of a cultivation sect, securing their cultivation fortunes for life.

Hua Zixia nodded when the 12 protégés had raised their hands but she could not resist adding, "Except for Shen Lie, is there anymore that wants to quit?"

3 more protégés began to raise their hands as they hung their heads in shame after struggling with the inner demons of their heart.

Shen Lie was smiling bitterly when he had heard Hua Zixia: I didn't say that I will quit. Why keep emphasising to everyone that I am the only exception. This is so awkward to my face.

Once the quitters had all been identified, Elder Hua Zixia did a final count of the remaining cohort.

There were 520 of the protégés that were remaining.

Elder Hua Zixia then said, "I shall divide everyone into 13 groups of 40 cultivators each. Everyone shall step forward to grab a ball number and this shall be your group number. Once you are in your groups, I shall explain to everyone on your mission objectives."

Then she turned to nod in the direction of Nangong Shu and Fairy Yue Shuwen.

She turned around to say to the cohort, "This ballot is based on pure luck and is not based on your cultivation realm. Luck itself is also a factor whether you will be lucky in your future breakthroughs or whether you can find your lucky occurrences. Once your group is picked, you cannot change it anymore. Now come forward for your ballot, starting with the first column here."

Many of the protégés in the cohort could be heard laughing softly, "As long as we are not in the same group as Shen Lie, it is fine."

Shortie Lai, Lie Dun and Di Shitian were all mocking Shen Lie as they stared coldly in his direction, "Let's hope that we won't have the bad luck to be in the same group as Shen Lie."

However, not everyone was thinking the same way as these protégés.

Jie Ying, Mei Xuan and Yu Lingyue were thinking how nice it would be if they could be in the same group as Shen Lie.

Jie Ying was whispering to Shen Lie, "I hope that we can be in the same group."

Shen Lie smiled gently to her, "Don't worry. We'll be."

And he had already flickered his fingers to direct his profound force into the ballot box.