The young lady paused as if suddenly recollecting something

"Maybe we can get that human cultivator who once came here to show us around. He owes us for saving his life otherwise if he had budged in here while the raven was on duty or any other of the rest then despite what tricks he had on him as an early soul formation expert, his life would be forfeited," said the young lady as she chuckled remembering how rooted in fear the cultivator had been just from the release of their auras.

"Jinhai isn't that bad. He is just serious and dutiful in his work," said the young man trying to defend his friend.

"Among us thirteen fog supremes only you get along with him well," said the young lady.

But just as the young man was about to reply both he and the young lady hurriedly stood up as a faint green light flashed beyond the garden. There was an otherworldly celestial light being produced from the green light.

The purple lotus produced a huge purple mist as the blue flower dispersed its starlight dome making the whole scene seem like an explosion of stars in a purple sky.

The young man and the lady hurriedly knelt as they bowed their heads with extreme reverence pouring from them.

A few seconds later the celestial light and the green flashing disappeared and the purple lotus and blue flower went back to their earlier looks.

"It seems the queen's seclusion is almost over," said the young man who still didn't get up despite the light disappearing.

The young woman nodded back as she too retained her kneeling posture with a solemn look.

At this moment in different parts around the deepest part of the green fog region, 11 creatures were all reverentially genuflecting in the direction the celestial light had come from.

...….

A few meters from the green fog swamp sect.

A team of around 30 cultivators and a cow could be seen shuttling around the swamp in a coordinated fashion with the young cultivators being sheltered in the middle as they were flanked to the front, side, and back by older cultivators.

They all seemed worn out, ragged, and on edge as if they had been in a fight for their lives.All the cultivators had a symbol of the tupelo tree embroidered on their robes.

"Peng," a middle-aged man with a wizened look addressed the cultivator next to him who had the steadiness of an immovable mountain.

The two cultivators were Cheng Yuan and Peng Zhen respectively and the green-leafed cow holding the rear of the formation was Wen Chang.

Once their case was done they decided to make a rush back to their sect so they could settle a couple of affairs and also replant the Tupelo tree before it shut off into hibernation.

The Order had graciously transported them using one of their airships halfway which was what helped them complete their journey back to the sect in a single day when it would have taken them three days if they used their own means.

They had thought the trip back would be the same as usual. With Cheng Yuan's core formation realm cultivation, they would deter most of the beasts in zone ten and nine then they would have to be only weary of the beasts in zone eight since they were mostly in the core formation realm.

However, all hell broke loose the moment they stepped into the green fog region. Zone ten which usually only had spirit beasts that were in the qi refining realm was now filled with spirit beasts in the foundation stage.

Normally when spirit beasts in the qi refining stage and the foundation establishment stage detected someone at the core formation realm they would avoid them but this time as if in a maddened frenzy, Cheng Yuan's team got attacked despite him releasing his cultivation pressure to warn them off.

When they got into zone nine the situation only seemed to get worse as the area was filled with peak foundation spirit beasts and even a few early-stage core formation spirit beasts. The moment Cheng Yuan's group made an appearance they got charged just like in zone ten. The spirit beasts involved in the attack were mostly the peak foundation spirit beasts with only a few of the early-stage core formation spirit beasts joining in. The former attacked from wild frenzy while the latter was trying to fish in troubled waters.

The early stage core formation spirit beasts had made their moves when the fight between Cheng Yuan's team and the peak foundation spirit beasts got intense hoping to catch their team off-guard and grab a few of the young disciples.

However unlucky for them both Cheng Yuan and Wen Chang had made great strides in their cultivation due to Yang Qing's intervention. In addition, they had enormous energy in them, especially Cheng Yuan who had the energy-rich foods from the Thousand flavor restaurant in his system in addition to the energy from the oolong tea made by a quasi-palace stage expert.

He had a surplus of energy to burn which helped him in confronting the core formation spirit beasts that were trying their hands as Wen Chang, Peng Zhen, Gui Bingwen, and a few other elders in the team held off the other spirit beasts.

With the experience from the two zones, they stepped into zone eight with extreme caution preparing for a bitter fight to get back to the sect. However, the attacks by stronger spirit beasts they expected to get didn't happen.

It was eerily quiet that they could hear each other's breathing as they ran. Only when they moved a little deeper into zone eight did they realize why the area seemed like a graveyard. There were exploded ground, broken trees, and gruesomely torn corpses of spirit beasts widely spread about most likely from unlucky spirit beasts caught up in the attack.

The deeper in they went, the more pronounced the scale of destruction. At first, Cheng Yuan and the rest had no idea what had happened but the more areas of destruction they passed through the grimmer their looks became especially on Peng Zhen's and Cheng Yuan's faces.

They detected one of the auras left behind in the destroyed areas. A corroding and devouring aura. It was a bit too familiar to them, one they have not forgotten in over 50 years.

It was only when their sect was almost in sight did Cheng Yuan dared to address Peng Zhen.

"I know. It must be him and by the looks of it he has gotten stronger than when he faced off against master," Peng Zhen said as he clenched his fists together with hatred flashing in his eyes.

"Based on the scale of destruction he must have clashed against a powerful spirit beast maybe even one of the false kings. Some part of me hopes he is dead while another hopes he is alive so I can skin him myself," Cheng Yuan said as he gritted his teeth and tightly gripped the smooth green longsword in his hand.

"I doubt he is dead. We both saw how cunning and sturdy he is. He more than likely came out of this alive though he may have gotten a few serious injuries that will put him out of commission for a few years atleast. Cheng, we need to ensure we use that time to get stronger not only us but the sect too.

That vindictive beast will definitely target the sect once it's healed or it may even decide to do it earlier. We need to prepare as fast as we can. The future of the sect depends on it," Peng Zhen grimly said.

"I know. I intend to go into seclusion immediately and make the most out of the opportunity judge Yang Qing gave me. Luckily Wen Chang made a harvest too, with her present strength and the emerald milk, we will be able to push the sect forward faster than I had calculated.

We really owe judge Yang Qing too much that I don't know how we can even begin to repay it. The only worrying situation is your life-and-death duels, Peng.

You will be fighting against the elites of the Order. I managed to catch a glimpse of this sleeping dragon and it was a terrifying sight Peng," Cheng Yuan couldn't help but say with worry in his tone.

"The die has already been cast, there's not much we can do now. I think we even got off easy. I get to fight against monsters and practice a blue-grade art and all I have to trade is potentially my life. Isn't that what we cultivators do? Risk our lives for opportunities to grow our strength. In my eyes this isn't any different infact it's even a better opportunity than roaming through ruins.

Peng if I die then it only means my talent amounted only to that much. It's not that much of a loss to the sect. You have Wen Chang now to hold the forte and there is also Shi Rong who if times permits will definitely exceed us both," Peng Zhen said as both he and Cheng Yuan secretly glanced at a medium-height youth with platinum silvery white hair and yellow eyes. Other than his hair he didn't have any features that stood out. He was ordinary looking, with a build that seemed more for a scholar than a cultivator. He would be easily assumed in a crowd.

However, it was this ordinary-looking youth who looked to be about 16 or 17 the youngest of the bunch wasn't breathing heavily and his expression wasn't fatigued like his fellow disciples. His breathing was even and despite being close to the sect entrance he was still very alert of his surroundings as his eyes kept darting around. But the most striking feature of all was his cultivation base.

His fluctuations showed he was already at the sixth stage of foundation establishment very close to breaking into the seventh stage.

In the eyes of the elders present including Peng Zhen and Cheng Yuan his worth was the same as the Tupelo tree, the foundation of their sect. He was also a joint disciple to both Peng Zhen and Cheng Yuan and if everything went well, the one to inherit the sect master's position from Cheng Yuan.

"Okay then," Cheng Yuan said as he refocused his gaze.

"You know Cheng, You keep thinking what will happen if I die but what if I survive those 30 years? Do you know how much gains I will have made if I even manage to survive a single year? Like I said before, I have no intention of losing...I will try to survive to the very end," Peng Zhen said as his eyes flashed with battle intent.

Cheng Yuan didn't say anything and only nodded. But his expression seemed to have eased a bit.

The group soon made their way past the illusory and protection array that hid their sect as they made their way to Peng Zhen's peak to check on the rest of the sect members that were left behind.

"This...what happened here?" Peng Zhen said in shock as things were much different than he left them.

"When we left this wasn't here?" said Gui Bingwen equally in shock as he arrived by Peng Zhen and Cheng Yuan's side.