From Beast Abilities to Sect Grand Master

"With that menial disciple, how can Sima Liang have the upper hand?"

"Yeah, remember that Sima Yun’s helper, Jian Nu, is an outstanding disciple of the Sword Saint."

"I don’t think so. For Sima Liang to be able to stay on for so long, they must have something up their sleeves."

The crowd argued over who could have been doing better.

Sima Quan shrugged his shoulders and said, "All of you got it wrong."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Wrong? How?"

"There’s someone else inside? But it’s not possible."

They couldn’t figure out what Sima Quan meant and started asking.

"You’ve got it wrong because...," Sima Quan shook his head and continued, "It’s already over."

"Ha. I knew it. Sima Yun must have finished them in a split moment."

"Congratulations, Sima Family Head. Your elder son deserves it."

"Yes, it was an ending we had anticipated."

The supporters of Sima Yun started celebrating and went up to congratulate Sima Lou.

The elder that helped Sima Yun began to ask for wine.

Governor Lu, however, glanced at Sima Quan as he felt things were not what they seemed to be.

"Wait, you’ve all misunderstood!"

Sima Quan shouted, trying to get everyone’s attention.

But they were all now engrossed in the celebrations.

After a few moments of heady celebrations, someone finally felt something amiss and asked, "When will Sima Yun get out? It had been quite a while."

"Eh… Maybe he is recuperating?"

…

Meanwhile, Lin Fan and Sima Liang were busy inside the Secret Realm.

Lin Fan was busy reusing and recycling.

First, he rummaged through Ning Na’s body.

He’d found two bracelets on her wrist.

These bracelets had some mysterious scriptures carved on them.

Lin Fan inspected them for a while but couldn’t figure it out.

Finally, he tried injecting his Qi into the bracelets.

They were storage artifacts and inside them were nothing but snakes and poisonous insects.

Great! Lin Fan thought.

He can now use all these poisonous creatures to learn the Devouring Qi to Poison Transformation Technique.

After Lin Fan kept the bracelets, he went over to Jian Nu’s body.

Unfortunately, Jian Nu didn’t have much on him except some bits of silver.

When he was done, he called out to Sima Liang, "You ready to get out of here?"

Sima Liang was sitting down on the ground, looking up at the skies.

He was taking it all in.

After so many years living under Sima Yun and having to endure all the pain and suffering, it was finally over.

Thank God he’d made a right bet on Lin Fan. Stay connected via freewebnovel

And Lin Fan delivered on his promise.

Sima Liang looked at Lin Fan with a smile, thinking that he shall have to repay him back handsomely.

"Yes. Let’s get back and face my new destiny."

…

"Look. There’s someone coming out!"

"Finally, Sima Yun must come drink three rounds of wine for making us wait."

"Ha Ha. Three rounds? Got to be at least five rounds of wine!"

The crowd cheered and roared when they saw two people slowly appearing in the Formation Array.

Their smiles on their faces slowly disappeared as the two people became concrete.

Plonk.

The elder was too shocked and he dropped his wine cup made of bronze.

How can it be!

Sima Liang and that menial disciple?

What happened to Sima Yun.

Sima Lou and the elder’s heartbeat raced as they thought about what might have happened to Sima Yun.

"Where is Sima Yun!"

Sima Lou stood up and shouted at Sima Liang.

Governor Lu smirked as he sipped the tea from his teacup.

Getting ready to enjoy what is to come.

Sima Liang ignored them and raised his hand with the yellow orb in it.

"The crown treasure!"

"Sima Liang really got the crown treasure!"

"But how? How is it possible?"

The crowd murmured but the chatter slowly died down.

They weren’t so dumb to not know what it meant for Sima Yun.

Most likely he was dead by now.

And no one could do much about it as it’s within the rules.

They knew what they were getting into when they agreed to get into the Secret Realm.

There was dead silence for a few moments.

Finally, one of the elders stood up and said, "Sima Lou, Sima Liang had won. What are you waiting for?"

"I…"

Sima Lou looked down and clenched his fist until his knuckles turned white.

The leaves on the ground stirred as his Qi went unstable for that moment.

Soon after he looked up again and said, "I declare the winner as Sima Liang and his assistant. Formation Cultivators, start to get the wounded and dead out of the Secret Realm."

Governor Lu went over and congratulated Sima Liang.

"Well done, young man. I figured you could have won."

"Thanks, Governor. I couldn’t have done it without the help from Lin Fan."

Sima Liang bowed and replied.

Lin Fan nodded as a courtesy.

The Governor smiled and got close to Lin Fan.

He then whispered softly, "Jian Nu’s the Sword Saint’s favorite disciple. You had better watch out for him. He is known to be very extremely petty."

"Thank you. I will stay alert," Lin Fan clasped his hand and replied.

"Good. I might have some mission for you if you have the time. Find me at the Governor’s residence if you want to."

The Governor patted Lin Fan’s shoulder and said.

Lin Fan nodded.

He was more than willing if the mission had lucrative rewards.

Suddenly, a loud commotion happened as the Formation Array Cultivators got the bodies out of the Secret Realm.

It wasn’t a pretty sight as the relatives of the fallen wailed.

Lin Fan stole a glance, but Sima Lou was staring blankly at Sima Yun’s body.

So many years of nurturing had gone down the drain for Sima Lou.

And he had absolutely made the wrong bet on Sima Yun.

Sima Liang wasn’t close to him, which meant that the Sima Family might slowly be out of his control.

"Pack everything up and get back to the Mansion," Sima Lou shouted and walked away.

He stared at Sima Liang and Lin Fan as he left.

…

Sima Family Mansion.

When they got back, the first thing they did was to figure out the items they found from the Secret Realm.

So, they went to see the Sima Family Top Artifact Cultivator for help.

"Come in. I don’t have much time."

An old man wearing glasses was hammering on a red-hot piece of material as he sensed Lin Fan and Sima Liang approaching.

"You have any idea what these are?"

Sima Liang showed the old man the needles, rattle drum, Oblivion Steel and yellow orb.

The old man stopped what he was doing and his eyes opened wide when he saw the items.