Chapter 40 Experiential Training (1)
Elder Li Hong was now leading her 4 assistant elders and 16 senior protégés to lead the cohort of 200 newbie trainee cultivators into the mountain wilderness.
Shen Lie did not have a chance to talk to Saintess Qian Yufeng; it was because he was being forced to go on the sect's experiential training for the newbies.
He murmured weakly to himself: Feiyan! Feiyan! Why don't you just delegate me to be your gate keeper or your librarian instead? In this way, I don't have to go for any experiential training. It is 7 days! Are you kidding with me? 7 days!
But when he saw that he was with Jie Ying, he was comforted and did not complain anymore.
Along the way many of the trainees were staring at Shen Lie with a hostile look as they were envious that he had the privilege to hold onto Saintess Qian Yufeng and had escaped unscathed. In fact, they had heard that Saintess Qian Yufeng had even wanted to invite him to the Verdant Rain Manor to be her honorable guest!
Chu Feng could not resist holding back anymore as he smirked aloud, "Shen Lie, you lucky bastard. For a moment of glory, you have actually dared to jump down to catch hold of Saintess Qian Yufeng. You are so lucky that you did not trip and died earlier. And you even got Saintess Qian Yufeng's recognition."
Xiong Ba sourly hummed, "Not only did Shen Lie did not die from falling from such a great height but he did not get punished from violating the holy body of the Saintess Qian Yufeng. What a lucky bastard."
There were many mutterings among the trainees and everyone, males and females were envious of Shen Lie.
Shen Lie actually did not mind the mutterings. Instead, he had joined them by sighing aloud. "Saintess Qian Yufeng is such an extreme great beauty. Alas, her body is so soft and her curves are so sensual. I got the prestige of touching her butt with my hands and could even feel her bosoms on me. This is indeed a great feeling. If only I can hold her again..."
When everyone had heard Shen Lie, almost all of them nearly vomited blood.
When Jie Ying had heard Shen Lie, she was flushing hotly.
Although Elder Li Hong was far in front but she had sharp ears and she was also flustered by what Shen Lie had just said.
She turned to say sternly to all the trainee cultivators, "From now onward, I don't want to hear anyone talking behind the back of Saintess Qian Yufeng. Although she isn't our Saintess but she is still one of the 7 holy saintesses of the Fenghua Great Continent. We mustn't be disrespectful to her. Also she is a guest of our Holy Maiden Sanctuary now. Anyone that mutters any forms of disrespect will be given a black card and your black mark will be recorded inside."
When she had said this, all the trainee cultivators began to keep quiet although they were still being resentful of Shen Lie and this included Shen Lie's own group.
After several hours in the mountain wilderness and walking with great haste, Elder Li Hong had gathered her 4 assistant elders and 16 senior protégé together as she turned to address all 200 of the newbie trainee cultivators.
"Do you all think that your cultivation strength alone is enough for you to stay in the Holy Maiden Sanctuary? Think again! Luck and your lucky occurrences will also play a huge part. And in this experiential training, you have to take your chances in the wilderness. I am not joking with you that you may die during the experiential training. There are desolate monsters and even demonic cultivators in these vicinities!"
Xiong Ba was muttering quietly to Chu Feng, "We are still in the vicinity of the Holy Maiden Sanctuary. There won't be a lot of dangers. Elder Li Hong is merely trying to test our guts…"
Chu Feng was nodding too and he was smiling, "With our current cultivation realm, it won't be something that we won't be able to handle."
Elder Li Hong now ordered, "I want all of you to split into your 10 groups of 20 now behind your group leader."
When she had said that, all the trainee cultivators were hastily forming into their groups.
As Shen Lie was the leader of his own group, he took the lead in front of Jie Ying who had followed him by queuing behind him.
Elder Li Hong then assigned numbers for each group; Xiong Ba was group number 1, Di Shitian was group number 6 while Shen Lie was group number 10.
Xiong Ba was naturally with Chu Feng, the little beauty Mei Xuan, the two coyly twin sisters Xu Shaoqing and Xu Shaoxing.
Di Shitian was with Shortie Lai.
Shen Lie was with Jie Ying.
When all the groups had been assembled, Elder Li Hong then said solemnly. "This experiential training will last for 7 days in the wilderness and we will be nearby to lend assistance to your group. However most of the time you will be alone in your groups and your leader is your guide. Therefore if your leader says to go left, you must go left. If your leader says you must fight, then you must all fight. Is that understood? I want to hear you loud and clear."
All 200 trainee cultivators began to echo loudly in acknowledgement.
Elder Li Hong smiled at the loud acknowlegement, "Good!"
Then she started to give a flag to each of the group leader before she returned to her original position to say aloud, "Make your way into the wilderness and as far as you can. By the end of the 7 days, insert your flag into the ground. Then we will know where you are. If you think you are in grave danger, you can also insert your flag prematurely and we will rescue you. However, you will be disqualified. At the end of the 7 days, if your group is still alive, the last 2 group that did not venture deep enough will also be disqualified."
Everyone was startled and they were all muttering among themselves; this would mean that at least 2 groups of 40 trainee cultivators would be disqualified!
And any group that run into trouble would also be disqualified!
This mean that they not only needed to have a strong group but they would also need a strong leader that would not slow everyone down.
All the group leaders were strong except for a weak scholar and that weak scholarly looking cultivator was actually Shen Lie.
Many of the trainee cultivators behind Shen Lie was cursing softly, "I don't want to be disqualified because we have such a weak leader…"
"He will probably order us to run in the opposite direction instead of facing the desolate beasts…"
"That is because he can't aim at all..."
"We are screwed…"
Elder Li Hong smiled, "Let the experiential training begins now!"
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Author Note:
1. There is a mistake in the earlier chapter and it has since been corrected. Chu Feng and Xiong Ba are at the beginning of the bronze core cultivation realm and not silver.