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“Disciples have always had to put their lives on the line during these trials, so even if some of them end up dead, no one would dare to blame the two of you. You two act as both their guardian and their examination overseers, so you have to ensure fairness above all else, understood?"

"Yes," Su Tongxiao and Han Li hurriedly replied.

Dao Lord Ouyang gave Han Li\'s duo a nod, then turned his gaze to Dao Lord Yun, who looked directly back at him.

Dao Lord Ouyang didn\'t say anything further before turning around and flying away as a streak of light, while Dao Lord Yun swept her gaze over Han Li and Su Tongxiao.

In the end, her gaze lingered on Han Li for a moment, but in the next instant, she also flew away into the distance.

In the instant that Dao Lord Yun turned around, a peculiar look appeared in Han Li\'s eyes, only to instantly fade a moment later.

Only after the two dao lords had vanished into the distance did Han Li and Su Tongxiao raise their heads before exchanging a glance.

"Brother Su, was that the ninth-ranked dao lord, Ouyang Kuishan just now?" Han Li asked.

"Precisely. The 13 Golden Immortal Stage dao lords are on a rotating roster, with each dao lord serving as the sect master for 100,000 years before the next dao lord takes over, and Dao Lord Ouyang is the incumbent sect master at the moment. I just didn\'t think that Dao Lord Yun would accompany him and depart without saying anything. It seems like she\'s quite concerned for that precious disciple of hers," Su Tongxiao replied with a nod.

Han Li cast his gaze toward the main hall as he said, "Looks like they\'re about to set off. We should prepare for departure as well."

Sure enough, the inner court disciples there were already departing from the palace, led by Fang Yu.

"There\'s no need to hurry, Brother Li. Let them go on their own for now, and we\'ll catch up a bit later," Su Tongxiao replied with a wave of his hand.

As soon as his voice trailed off, a gray-haired elderly man suddenly appeared in the side hall without any warning, and judging from his attire, he was also an inner sect elder.

The elderly man took a glance at Han Li and Su Tongxiao, then quickly settled his gaze on the latter before approaching him with a warm smile.

"Long time no see, Elder Su."

"It\'s always a pleasure, Elder Wang," Su Tongxiao replied with a warm smile of his own.

A thought occurred to Han Li upon seeing this, and he immediately closed his eyes, pretending to meditate.

The gray-haired elderly man didn\'t stay for very long, only making some brief small talk before departing, and Su Tongxiao accompanied him to the entrance of the side hall.

Right as he was about to depart, the gray-haired elderly man stuffed a storage pouch into Su Tongxiao\'s hands in a subtle manner, and Su Tongxiao stowed the storage pouch away without even looking at him.

As soon as the elderly man departed, a middle-aged man who also appeared to have been an inner sect elder made his way into the side hall.

The middle-aged man swept his spiritual sense over the pair of elders in the room, then automatically ignored Han Li as he cupped his fist toward Su Tongxiao with a wide smile. "I knew you\'d be the one taking on this mission, Elder Su!"

"Welcome, Elder Fan," Su Tongxiao replied with a smile.

The middle-aged man didn\'t waste time with small talk at all before handing a storage pouch straight to Su Tongxiao.

As it turned out, this was far from the end of the visitors. It didn\'t take long before seven or eight groups of people had visited the side hall, and all of them had come to bribe Su Tongxiao before quickly departing.

It was clear to Han Li that these were all seniors of the disciples undertaking the trials, and these gifts had been bestowed upon Su Tongxiao so that he would look at the disciples that were connected to them.

However, Han Li was a completely unfamiliar figure to them, and he was only at the early-True Immortal Stage, so these gifts were naturally all presented to Su Tongxiao, who accepted them without any discretion.

Meanwhile, Han Li sat off to the side in silence this entire time, but internally, he was pondering what Dao Lord Yun had said to him through voice transmission right before her departure.

Dao Lord Yun had asked him to protect Bai Suyuan at all costs, and it seemed that she hadn\'t made the same request to Su Tongxiao, despite the fact that his cultivation base was superior, and that was rather peculiar in Han Li\'s eyes.

After waiting for a while without any more visitors, Su Tongxiao called out to Han Li, "It\'s about time, Brother Li. Let\'s set off."

Han Li opened his eyes and nodded in response. "Sure."

……

Atop a massive mountain in the northern region of the Bell Toll Mountain Range was a huge bluestone hall.

This was the northernmost teleportation hall of the Blaze Dragon Dao.

Frosty winds that were carrying countless snowflakes were howling through the air outside the hall, and the temperature was much lower than it was elsewhere.

After emerging from the hall, Han Li and Su Tongxiao immediately flew toward the north without any delay.

After flying for close to an hour, the two of them began to slow down.

Tens of thousands of kilometers away, a giant flying boat was racing through the clouds.

"From here, all we have to do is follow along at a leisurely pace. By the way, if you and Bai Suyuan joined the sect at the same time, then it\'s only been less than a century since you came to our sect, right? What do you think of it?" Su Tongxiao asked as he turned to Han Li with a smile.

"The sect certainly has a vast wealth of cultivation arts and resources, but they\'re not exactly the most accessible to people like us," Han Li replied with a wry smile.

"Indeed, Brother Li. For itinerant elders like us with no powerful connections or backers in the sect, it\'s difficult to advance in our cultivation. The funds that we receive upon joining the sect are extremely meager, and we have to rely on ourselves for everything else.

“At this level, even mountains of gold and silver can be easily exhausted to make any progress. Otherwise, I wouldn\'t have only made this breakthrough after more than 100,000 years in the sect," Su Tongxiao said with a self-deprecating smile.

Han Li was rather taken aback to hear this. "We\'re supposed to have received funds upon joining the sect?"

"Yes, you were supposed to have received 500 top-grade spirit stones and three Immortal Origin Stones. May I ask who your guide was when you first joined the sect?" Su Tongxiao asked.

"It was Qi Liang," Han Li replied.

Su Tongxiao gave Han Li a meaningful look upon hearing this, but didn\'t say anything.

However, it was already very apparent what he was implying. Essentially, he was telling Han Li that this initial care package had been taken by Qi Liang.

Han Li feigned an enraged expression upon hearing this, but internally, he wasn\'t actually all that bothered by this.

This was most likely standard practice in the Blaze Dragon Dao, and he had always been a little wary about why Qi Liang had been so friendly to him, so he was actually rather relieved to have finally found an explanation.

Thinking back to all the bribes that Su Tongxiao had just accepted, Han Li was left feeling a little speechless.

It seemed that the rules were largely the same regardless of whether it was in the Mortal Realm, the Spirit Realm, or the Immortal Realm, and in many ways, these True Immortals were just like mortals.

All of a sudden, a thought seemed to have occurred to Su Tongxiao, and he asked, "By the way, do you still recall Deputy Dao Lord Xiong\'s failed sword refinement from some years ago?"

"Didn\'t Deputy Dao Lord Xiong warn us not to speak of this to anyone? I think it\'s best that we don\'t discuss this," Han Li said as his brows furrowed slightly.

"It\'s fine! The two of us are the only ones here anyway. Besides, even if we don\'t speak of this to anyone else, which elder in the inner sect doesn\'t know about what happened? It\'s already as open as an open secret can be," Su Tongxiao replied with a nonchalant smile.

Han Li merely smiled in response and didn\'t say anything.

"Apparently, in order to set up the sword array, Deputy Dao Lord Xiong borrowed a large sum of Immortal Origin Stones from Elder Mo Xie of the Immortal Origin Palace. He still hasn\'t repaid Elder Mo Xie, and a few days ago, Elder Mo Xie visited Deputy Dao Lord Xiong, demanding that he repaid his debt. The two of them almost got into a physical altercation over this, and it turned into quite an embarrassing spectacle..."

Su Tongxiao seemed to have been quite interested in the latest gossip in the sect, and he told Han Li about a bunch of different things.

Han Li didn\'t have much interest in engaging in the gossip, but there was nothing better to do anyway, so he intentionally guided the conversation to subjects that he was interested in hearing about. He had only joined the sect not long ago, and he had no intention of being swept up in any conflicts.

As a result, the two were chatting non-stop like a pair of good friends that hadn\'t met in many years.

As the giant flying boat continued to progress northward, the temperature was dropping further and further. Along the way, they even encountered several snowstorms. Han Li had been busy cultivating in seclusion all this time, so this was the first time that he had had an opportunity to appreciate the scenery of the snow-covered forest.

Close to a month passed by in the blink of an eye, and the flying boat that was carrying Bai Suyuan and the other inner court disciples finally drew to a halt in front of a mountain range that was situated northward of the Bell Toll Mountain Range.

This was the trial venue, the Profound Ice Mountain Range.

This was the third-largest branch of the Bell Toll Mountain Range, and it extended over a vast distance from south to north.

The trees here were extremely tall with dense canopies, and their leaves were all in needle form. These trees were extremely resistant to the cold and were one of the few types of plants that could grow in this mountain range, resembling a series of pointy white spires under the blankets of white snow.

At this point, Bai Suyuan and the other inner sect disciples had already gotten down from their flying boat on a spacious plot of land in the southern part of the mountain range.

Fang Yu stowed the flying boat away, then declared, "Alright, this is as far as I\'ll be taking you. All of you have a map of this place, and there are three paths that you can take into the mountain range. That will be up to your own discretion, all you have to do is complete your mission. I\'ll be waiting here in a month for your return."

After that, he flew onto the peak of a small mountain, then sat down with his legs crossed and his eyes closed, leaving the inner sect disciples to their own devices.

Before long, the two dozen or so disciples had gathered together in small groups.

There were several people gathered around each of Qi Huanyu and Tang Chuan, and it seemed that they had already made plans to travel together.

Meanwhile, Bai Suyuan and the other female cultivators had already split up to join their groups, and it was clear that they had also decided on this in advance.

That left Sun Ke and the other itinerant cultivators to gather together to form a third group.

Qi Huanyu took a glance at Bai Suyuan, who was inspecting the map on her own, and he immediately detached himself from the group to approach her.

"We\'ve already selected the Snow Camel Mountain Route, Junior Martial Sister Bai. It\'s a relatively dangerous route, but it\'s closest to the center of the mountain range, where Dark Snow Bears are most active.

“On top of that, we should be reaping some additional rewards along the way. Why don\'t you come with us so we can all look after one another during the trial?" Qi Huanyu offered with a hopeful look in his eyes.