Bamboo Mound

The other elders were also taken aback by his words.

"Leaves are flying? What's that?"

They then turned to look in that direction and were all momentarily stunned.

"what?"

"Leaves...tornado?"

They then all looked at the elder who had spoken up earlier.

"Uh, don't look at me, I just saw it too."

Another elder stroked his beard.

"This distance seems to be next to the inner disciples' residence."

"Who's doing that there?"

"Why don't we go take a look? We're fine anyway, let's hope it's something threatening."

"while walking."

After a few words of discussion, the elders all stood up and flew towards the direction of the leaf tornado.

Ning Chang plucked another handful of leaves, intending to let them join the whirlwind of leaves in the sky, completely unaware that several old men were watching him from his blind spot.

"It was man-made."

"What did he mean by doing this? He's cut several trees down to half their original size. But at least he has some manners; he left half of the trees."

"A third-stage Spirit Fusion cultivator with such limited spiritual energy reserves and control, and so skinny with no physical cultivation—is he really a disciple of our sect?"

"I don't remember. Today is the Three Sects Competition. Maybe it's the Huayu Sect or the Qingyun Sect. We can go down and ask him. If he has ulterior motives, we can capture him first. Anyway, we have nothing else to do."

"That's a good idea, but who's going down?"

The elders looked at each other, and finally the elder who had discovered it first cursed the others under his breath and waved his hand.

"Alright, I'll go ask. Wait for my news."

Ning Chang sent the leaves high into the air, and when she looked down again, a figure suddenly appeared in her line of sight.

Seeing that the visitor was an older man, he knew that the man was an elder of his sect, so he first bowed to him.

"I met the elder."

"Who are you? Why are you causing trouble within the Xuanshan Sect?"

He then put on an angry expression.

Ning Chang easily saw through the elder's feigned anger, and his initial nervousness vanished instantly.

"Elder, I am a disciple of the Qingyun Sect. I lost my way in this forest and had no choice but to resort to this desperate measure."

"Oh? As far as I can see, the three sects should be in the awards ceremony right now. Why are you here?"

He paused for a moment, and before Ning Chang could answer, he asked again, "Also, how can you prove that you are a disciple of the Qingyun Sect?"

“Yesterday, Master said that I didn’t have to go to watch the competition today, so I rested in the forest. Just now, Master sent me a telepathic message to go back, but I forgot the way.”

"As for my identity, I have my identity jade token here. Please examine it, Elder."

Ning Chang then took out his jade token and handed it over.

But the elder did not accept it; he simply waved his hand, signaling Ning Chang to take it back.

When Ning Chang took it out, he had already confirmed the authenticity of the jade tablet.

"Alright, gather your leaves back now, I'll take you home."

Seeing that the elder was willing to take him along, Ning Chang immediately pulled the leaf tornado into the forest and withdrew his spiritual power.

Suddenly, the leaves in the sky went out of control and fell like snow onto the grass in the forest.

"End?"

"Mm." Ning Chang nodded.

The elder said no more and put his hand on Ning Chang's shoulder.

His vision blurred for a moment, and when it cleared again, he was already standing in front of the inner sect's residence. One step ahead was the square, and the awards ceremony was coming to an end. The disciples of the two sects had gathered together, waiting for the elders to lead them back.

Looking around, the elder who had brought him back was nowhere to be seen.

Looking around, he saw that there were still people on the Qingyun Sect's stands, and knowing that it was his master and the others, he walked towards them.

As I walked a few steps to the stands, I immediately heard my master's question.

"Why did it come so slowly?"

"I got lost in the woods just now, and an elder from the Xuanshan Sect brought me here."

At this moment, only the four elders were on the stands; Wang Yan and the others were not present.

The master nodded, flipped his hand and took out a spatial bag, handing it to Ning Chang.

"Take it, it's the reward for being the number one disciple."

"Thank you, Master." Upon seeing the entire spatial bag being handed over, Ning Chang's first thought was that his space was about to expand again.

"This is what you deserve; I'm just bringing it back for you."

Upon opening the spatial bag, Ning Chang immediately sensed something was wrong. Looking inside, he discovered that this spatial bag was several times larger than his original one, with a space of about five or six cubic meters!

There was a pile of spirit stones, several white bottles that seemed to contain some kind of elixir, and a booklet that read "Azure Water Heart Sutra".

"Not bad." After a quick glance, Ning Chang put the bag away, planning to examine it more carefully when he had time later.

By this time, the award ceremony was basically over, and only three groups of people remained in the square.

The groups that made it into the top 50 of the competition were Huayu Sect and Qingyun Sect, and the group that made it into the top 50 of the three sects. As for the disciples of Xuanshan Sect, they had all left the venue.

Seeing that there was no movement on the field, a sword flew out from the Huayu Sect's stands. It grew longer as it was lifted by the wind. A group of Huayu Sect disciples stood on the giant sword, and then two elders went up to urge the giant sword to fly into the distance.

Just then, the two elders beside him also stood up, drew their swords, and carried the disciples who had failed to win any prizes, flying towards the sect.

Afterwards, Ning Chang looked around and realized that the people leaving with him were Fang Nanyi and Yue Mingyu's master.

The two masters who remained waved to Ning Chang, "Go back and come to the meeting again tomorrow morning. Don't be late."

He then glanced at Ning Chang again, turned around, and disappeared.

The victorious disciples dispersed from the square and headed back to their residences.

"? That's it?" Ning Chang asked, puzzled.

"They called me over, gave me the reward, and then left?"

Ning Chang frowned and looked around again, inwardly complaining:

"Since we have a meeting tomorrow, why don't you just solve it together then? Why do you have to call me over again? Really..."

"Brother Ning Chang!"

As he remained silent, he heard a voice calling his name from below the stage.

Turning around, I saw Niu Hanshan walking towards me from not far below the stands.

He then jumped down from the stands and came to Niu Hanshan's side.

"Brother Niu, is there something you need?"

"Just came to ask, what's up with you today? I haven't seen you all day."

Looking back on the day I spent in the forest, I realized I had completely forgotten about the battle with Niu Hanshan.

However, it doesn't matter if he forgets; it's not an important thing to him.

"Yes, that's true. I only came over when my master called me."

"By the way, how did your fight go today? Did you have a good time fighting those two from Huayu Sect?"

He knew that the two direct disciples of Huayu Sect were both skilled in using hidden weapons, and with the aid of acceleration talismans, Niu Hanshan, who was likely a strength-type person, would not be able to gain any advantage and would be bothered by the hidden weapons.