"They were the easiest target."
Zhao Luo said through his cold breath, as the giant rats proved to be the least challenging beasts that they had faced.
A few minutes later, Senior Cutie was done collecting all of the corpses of the giant rats in the beast storage space and moved towards Bimba where Zhao Luo and the others had already gathered.
"With this, we have completed all of the missions."
Senior Cutie said with a joyful expression on his face.
But his joy couldn't be compared to the one on the faces of Zhao Luo and Pi Hao.
This was their first journey outside the sect. And unlike Senior Cutie, they were doing the missions for the first time so the bliss they felt couldn't be compared.
Even Xiao Yu's mouth was twitching as he tried his best to hold back his slowly rising smirk.
"Now the only thing left for us is to, return to the sect."
Senior Cutie said while hopping Bimba back.
The others also jumped on Bimba's back.
Bimba was already running towards the direction of the Xin Range since he could understand Senior Cutie's words while Zhao Luo was staring at Xiao Yu.
"Are you that impressed?"
As always, Xiao Yu kept it short while feeling a step above Zhao Luo as he stared back at him.
"No."
'It was impressive but not the extent that I would be staring at you.'
Zhao Luo shook his head at Xiao Yu's question while filtering out some thoughts that could lead to unnecessary arguments.
"Then?"
Xiao Yu was taken back as there was no other reason for Zhao Luo to stare at him.
"You haven't returned my sword."
Zhao Luo mumbled slowly as he felt a sense of being a cheap stake while asking for Blackey.
"Oh."
Xiao Yu replied with a simple 'oh' while raising his hands in front of his chest.
"I lost it."
With all seriousness, Xiao Yu said to Zhao Luo.
It was already cold around them and with the cold expression on Xiao Yu's face as he spoke coldly about losing Blackey, Zhao Luo felt stupified.
'What?'
"BLACKEY!"
Zhao Luk shouted out his sword's name while glaring at Xiao Yu.
"I was using a sword after a long time, so-"
"How could you forget it there?"
Zhao Luo interrupted Xiao Yu while questioning him after which he patted Bimba's back.
With one of his fists clenched tightly, Zhao Luo was more than ready to smack Xiao Yu for losing Blackey.
But before he could tell Bimba to turn around,
'Shwaa.'
"Here it is."
Xiao Yu brought out a shiny black sword that had deep darkness.
The sword was obviously Zhao Luo's blackey.
"It was a joke."
Xiao Yu said while grinning as he looked at the shocked faces of the others.
'Was it not funny?'
Xiao Yu wondered but didn't give it much thought as he slowly closed his eyes.
But except him, nobody else could laugh.
Even Senior Cutie felt a sense of fear as he looked at the grin on Xiao Yu's face and then the fist that Zhao Luo could have thrown any moment.
'I almost punched him.'
Zhao Luo thought as calmed down and stored Blackey in the space of his robe.
After Xiao Yu's extremely unreasonable sense of humor, the rest of the journey was a silent one, under the cold night and the shining moon.
Since they had to take the longer route after exiting the dread forest and Bimba was carrying a lot of weight, it took them three hours to reach the Xin Range.
As the formation worked, Bimba stood at the entry mountain's base while Zhao Luo looked at the stairs that looked endless.
"We are here, but how do we go up?"
Zhao Luo questioned even though the stairs were in front of him.
But his question was related to them carrying the corpses of spies and the bags which were filled with internal energy fruits while climbing these 999,999 stairs.
"There is no need to climb the stairs. Even though just like anyone else, to leave the Xin Range, the Xin Sect disciples have to Teleport to the entry city, and then go down the stairs but it isn't the same case when they are returning."
Senior Cutie told Zhao Luo as he looked around the base of the entry mountain.
"Ah. Is there a teleportation circle here?"
Zhao Luo asked Senior Cutie with a curious look on his face.
"There is indeed a teleportation circle here."
Senior Cutie replied to Zhao Luo as he pointed directly at the stairs.
"Where?"
Even Xiao Yu and Pi Hao were looking hard at the stairs as they tried to find the stairs.
"Behind the mountain."
Zhao Luo guessed the answer and as he had expected,
"Bingo!"
Senior Cutie suddenly announced to them as he withdrew his arm.
Senior Cutie looked at Zhao Luo.
"Little Brother is indeed smart."
*Wink*
As he attempted to wink, Zhao Luo had already closed his eyes beforehand.
"Is it over?"
Zhao Luo questioned about the end of Senior Cutie's signature disturbing move.
"It is."
Xiao Yu replied while making a sick face as he had seen the bald senior trying his best to reward Zhao Luo with an incomparably ugly wink.
"Hah."
Zhao Luo laughed it off as he opened his eyes and looked at the tragic face of Senior Cutie who had failed to surprise Zhao Luo.
"Ah, let's just go."
"Bimba, go around the mountain."
Senior Cutie slouched on Bimba's back while Zhao Luo instructed it to go around the entry mountain.
A few minutes later, they had moved around the mountain, and the next mountain was visible to them.
'The tenth city is on top of this mountain.'
Zhao Luo mumbled as he tilted his head to look at the top of the mountains which he couldn't do since the summit was covered by the clouds.
"There is the circle."
Senior Cutie said to them and the others followed his gaze.
There was indeed a big teleportation circle on the ground a few meters away from the base of the tenth City mountain.
"If it wasn't for our Outer Disciples badges, we couldn't have been able to move past the entry mountains stairs. Thus this is an exclusive teleportation circle just for the disciples."
Senior Cutie told them while they nodded at the information that he was giving them.
Zhao Luo looked around and found no porter who was on standby around the TPC.
"We just need to enter the circle and the teleportation will go off in ten seconds after the last person enters it."
Senior Cutie had already realized who Zhao Luo was looking for and answered adequately after which he took a bag of fruits and placed it inside the circle.
