Feng Menglong was utterly stupefied.
Hua Sheng’s red lips parted slightly, the astonishment in her eyes impossible to conceal.
Lu Lei, Wen Zixuan, and the others stared in shock at Jing Wenyuan and Cheng Wu as the two stood in Xuantian Plaza, rapidly summoning the disciples of their respective peaks. They were completely dumbfounded. Every one of them had the same thought: What were those two trying to do? Resist by force, or launch a rebellion?
Then they considered the two men’s strength, and a string of question marks rose in their minds.
Were they joking?
Were they trying to amuse themselves?
On a day this important, they had first put the Sect Master over the flames and were now pulling a stunt like this. Did they want to die? Or did they really want to die? No—they definitely wanted to die!
While they were still lost in their astonishment, the disciples of the two peaks, having heard and seen their own Peak Masters summon them, hurried over. Every one of them was baffled.
What was going on?
A disciple asked:
“Peak Master, what happened?”
Jing Wenyuan shouted:
“Lingyun Peak is throwing its weight around and bullying us! Bao Gu has forced the Sect Master and the Punishment Hall to turn on us! Disciples, stand with me! Let us stand together and resist this oppression!”
Yu Mi: “…”
Disciples from the various peaks often clashed with Lingyun Peak. The clashes were never major, but the resentment ran deep, and they knew the higher-ups were at odds. Hearing their Peak Master say this, they found it entirely reasonable and clustered tightly around them. Some even drew their swords and attacked the Lingyun Peak disciples beside them.
Lingyun Peak had the fewest disciples of all the peaks. Yet Yu Mi often dragged them out and tossed them into the Chop Gang as free labor, while Yu Jianming frequently used sect missions as an excuse to kick them out for training before they had reached Nascent Soul—sometimes when they were still only at Foundation Establishment. Hardened by the dangers of the cultivation world, their combat strength and reflexes were naturally formidable. They immediately drew their swords in resistance and instinctively clustered together into a sword formation. However, the sect rules forbade them from killing fellow disciples, so they did not dare charge in and cut their opponents down as they would have outside the sect.
Not all of Zi Tianjun’s disciples were clueless. They had previously stood by while Jing Wenyuan stirred up trouble because they knew he was a once-in-a-generation cultivation genius, greatly favored by the Sect Master. Even if he caused trouble, the Sect Master’s protection meant nothing serious would happen; at worst, he would be punished, and after some time his fellow disciples could plead for leniency and put the matter behind them.
Thus, they were happy to let this junior brother take the lead in provoking Lingyun Peak and curb its arrogance, so that Lingyun Peak’s people would not think Bao Gu’s return meant they now had someone backing them and could throw their weight around. Little did they know that Jing Wenyuan had been spoiled to excess and had never suffered such an “injustice.” In a fit of anger, he and Cheng Wu actually drew their swords, summoned disciples from their peaks, and tried to cause a scene.
Someone immediately shouted:
“Junior Brother, don’t be impulsive! The sect rules will handle everything!”
Jing Wenyuan stomped his foot and cursed:
“To hell with the sect rules! They didn’t even bring us before the Punishment Hall; they convicted us on nothing but a few words! We refuse to accept this! Everyone, tell me if this is fair. One of us merely said something a little unpleasant, and now they want to lock us up for a hundred years. Is that reasonable? Is that a rule? Is that even a punishment permitted by sect law? Under the sect rules, even insulting a senior only earns ten lashes of the Bone-Boiling Whip! Where is there any rule about a hundred-year confinement? This is nothing but Lingyun Peak using the outside power of the Chop Gang to bully us because we are weaker! This is Xuantian Sect, not the Chop Gang!”
His words were filled with righteous fury. The disciples below heard them and shared his outrage, glaring at their opponents with swords drawn.
The disciples of the two peaks led by Jing Wenyuan and Cheng Wu faced off against Lingyun Peak’s disciples, while the disciples of the other peaks buzzed with discussion.
As soon as Jing’s many fellow disciples heard this, they hurriedly knelt before the livid Zi Tianjun and pleaded for mercy. Their words were full of veiled accusations: Lingyun Peak was being overbearing; Bao Gu was trying to establish her authority by forcing Zi Tianjun to make an example of their brothers; the matter was being blown out of proportion, and even the sect rules were being ignored.
As their claims spread, the uninformed disciples from the other peaks also became indignant.
Even Lingyun Peak’s disciples were stunned. They had always been bullied by these peaks under the Sect Master’s protection. When had Lingyun Peak ever bullied them? Hadn’t all the peaks already joined forces to ostracize Lingyun Peak enough? Were they planning to make their move at the annual examination tournament?
Some Lingyun Peak disciples grew furious and wanted to rush forward and argue, but they did not know the truth. Seeing their own Peak Master and Young Sect Master standing above, coldly watching in silence—neither ordering them to fight nor telling them not to—and remembering that the sect rules punished internal fighting extremely severely, they could only hold their swords ready and face off without actually attacking.
Yu Mi and Yu Jianming were in no position to speak. Whatever happened to Jing Wenyuan and Cheng Wu, Grandmaster would deal with his own disciples. If Grandmaster judged them unfairly, then the matter could be reconsidered. But for now, Grandmaster had made no statement and issued no punishment. If they spoke up or intervened, others would seize on it, and the various peaks would have an excuse to attack Lingyun Peak. Xuantian Sect would inevitably fall into turmoil.
Yu Jianming was mindful of the sect’s bonds. No matter how fiercely they fought among themselves, they were still members of the same sect, bound together by bone and sinew. Unless matters reached that point, he naturally did not want to add needless casualties. Jing Wenyuan and Cheng Wu were not good people, but that did not mean every disciple of their peaks was bad. Many were outstanding, and not all blindly followed the crowd; some were simply waiting to see how things unfolded.
Yu Mi, on the other hand, had already decided the fate of the two. She looked at them as if they were already dead.
Feng Yi strode forward and angrily rebuked them:
“Jing Wenyuan! Cheng Wu! Do you know what offense you have committed? You have incited internal strife in the sect and publicly declared that you would expel a respected senior from the sect!”
Jing shouted furiously:
“By seniority, Bao Gu should be calling me Martial Aunt! She’s no damn senior!”
The Lingyun Peak disciples gritted their teeth in anger and cursed Jing Wenyuan outright. One disciple, unable to contain his fury, raised his sword and tried to charge, but the others held him back.
Feng Yi ordered furiously:
“Take Jing Wenyuan and Cheng Wu into custody!”
The Punishment Hall disciples had already arrived at Feng Yi’s command. When they heard the order, they immediately surrounded Jing and Cheng.
Seeing the Punishment Hall disciples move, the Peak Master who had earlier urged Jing Wenyuan and Cheng Wu not to act rashly called out urgently:
“Junior Brother Jing, Junior Brother Cheng, put down your weapons! Don’t resist!”
If he did not resist, that meant a hundred years of confinement!
Jing imagined cultivating for a century in a lightless place. So many of Master’s other disciples were waiting for the seats he and Cheng occupied; after a hundred years in confinement, the influence they had painstakingly cultivated would likely be swallowed up by others. Would they still have any standing when they emerged? Would they have any future?
Faced with such a bleak prospect, how could he willingly lay down his weapon and surrender? He immediately raised his sword and hacked at the Punishment Hall disciples.
Although the Punishment Hall disciples had reached the Deity Transformation stage, they were only in its early phase. Their magical treasures were worlds apart from those of a Peak Master, and their cultivation techniques were even inferior to those of the Sect Master’s direct disciples. Moreover, they were facing fellow disciples—and not just fellow disciples, but direct disciples of the Sect Master and Peak Masters at that.
They had never intended to injure anyone, only to arrest them, so they had deliberately held back. Their plan was to entangle their opponents, form a formation, and capture them.
Yet the other side suddenly brought a sword down. The Punishment Hall disciple at the very front had no time to react before the blade cleaved straight down through the center of his forehead, splitting his entire head in two like a watermelon.
That Punishment Hall disciple never imagined, until the moment he died, that a fellow disciple would cut him down!
Feng Yi flew into a rage.
The disciples of the two peaks under Jing and Cheng had never imagined that their own Peak Masters would actually cut down a Punishment Hall disciple.
A Punishment Hall disciple! Such a person represented the sect’s rules themselves.
Xuantian Sect’s rules for its disciples were extremely strict, and every matter was handled with fairness and impartiality. In all the years since Xuantian Sect was founded, no one had ever confronted a Punishment Hall disciple. Whenever the Hall came to take someone away, that person almost never resisted and simply went along.
Those who had violated the rules accepted the sect’s punishment; those who had not were questioned and naturally released. No one had ever violently resisted the Hall, because anyone who did so would be killed on sight.
If one went along, then even if one had truly violated the rules, a good attitude would still leave a chance to correct one’s mistakes and start over. Even a capital offense still offered such a chance. At worst, they could abandon everything, enter the forbidden grounds as ascetics, and live as something akin to war slaves. They could still fight for a chance to become immortal.
That was why, when blood and brain matter suddenly sprayed through the air and the Punishment Hall disciple’s corpse collapsed, many disciples were scared senseless.
The disciples led by Jing and Cheng were even more terrified. Some were so frightened that they dropped the magical treasures and weapons in their hands.
After Jing cleaved the man to death, he froze too. He had swung in a burst of hotheadedness; he had never expected to kill him!
The Punishment Hall enforced the sect’s laws. Now that Jing had violently resisted and killed one of its disciples, he had to be taken down even as a direct disciple of the Sect Master. Executing him on the spot would be entirely justified!
The sword formation changed. Gone was their earlier attitude of merely trying to trap and capture him; they formed a sword array and closed in.
Jing’s and Cheng’s direct disciples and personal attendants went white at the sight of the Punishment Hall’s formation. Some dropped their swords, some quietly backed away, while others were so terrified that they instinctively huddled beside their own masters. The Punishment Hall disciples immediately pounced.
Both Jing Wenyuan and Cheng Wu understood that killing a Punishment Hall disciple had truly ended them.
Cheng Wu sent Jing a voice transmission:
“Fight our way to the teleportation gate and escape!”
Jing nodded.
They summoned the Void Tearing-grade treasures Zi Tianjun had bestowed on them, unleashed every ounce of their power, blasted a swath of the charging Punishment Hall disciples to death, and raced toward the teleportation gate in the distance.
Two cultivators in the late Deity Transformation stage wielding Void Tearing-grade treasures were far beyond the Punishment Hall disciples’ ability to stop. As they fought their way forward, many disciples who were too slow to retreat were accidentally killed. In an instant, Xuantian Plaza was filled with the dead and wounded.
Yu Mi’s expression changed abruptly. She was just about to rush out when she suddenly sensed Zi Tianjun move.
In almost an instant, Zi Tianjun appeared beside Cheng Wu and Jing Wenyuan, who had already rushed several dozen yards away. His palms blurred as he struck several times, forcibly intercepting the Void Tearing-grade treasures they had brought down on a Golden Core disciple who had been too slow to dodge and was blocking their path.
He immediately followed with a relentless series of palm strikes, one after another, pounding Jing’s chest and driving him backward, blood spraying continuously from his mouth!
After Zi Tianjun knocked Cheng Wu away with one palm, Cheng saw Jing being beaten by their own master without any ability to fight back. The two had grown up together and were as close as brothers. Cheng’s eyes reddened, and he shouted:
“Master!”
Desperate, he swung the Void Tearing-grade sword in his hand down at Zi Tianjun. He knew exactly how strong his master was, so he went straight for a killing move.
Zi Tianjun’s eyes were bloodshot. The disciple he had raised with his own hands was now attacking him with the techniques he himself had taught and the treasure he had personally forged!
Grief and fury surged through him as he roared:
“You ungrateful beast!”
He snatched the blade barehanded in a single move, seized Cheng Wu’s Void Tearing-grade sword, and killed him in a counterstroke. The blade swept across Cheng Wu’s neck, leaving a perfectly clean cut. A Void Tearing-grade sword was incomparably sharp; a single sweep separated head from neck.
Blood sprayed through the air like rain!
After Zi Tianjun finally stopped his barrage, Jing managed to steady himself, only for his entire body to jerk violently. He sprayed a huge mouthful of blood and collapsed to his knees, every one of his internal organs shattered.
Holding the sword Cheng had tried to use to kill him, Zi Tianjun leveled it at Jing and shouted:
“You entered the sect at seven. Xuantian Sect raised you for more than a hundred years and painstakingly nurtured you. Is this how you repay us?”
Blood welled from Jing’s mouth as he looked at Zi Tianjun and shouted:
“Master, you forced us into this! I stood with you, but you sided with Bao Gu! With her here, and Yu Mi here, how can you keep your seat as Sect Master? What she said today was clearly a declaration that she intends to depose the Sect Master! Who does she think she is? Who is she?”
After saying this, he saw a white-clad figure suddenly appear behind Zi Tianjun. He pointed at Bao Gu and demanded:
“Who the hell do you think you are? So what if you once made a few contributions to Xuantian Sect? Do you think Xuantian Sect belongs to you now? Which of us disciples was not taught by Master? And you? Who have you ever taught? The only person you ever taught was Bao Nianhui, a Five-Waste-Root failure who isn’t even qualified to take the monthly exam—and even that disciple was taught by someone else in your place! What right do you have to come back to Xuantian Sect and swagger around? What right?”
Bao Gu, who had returned to the Cloudsea Forest, sensed the energy fluctuations of the Void Tearing-grade treasures that had suddenly erupted in Xuantian Plaza. She extended her divine sense, discovered that something had happened, and hurried over, arriving just in time to see this scene.
She lifted her eyes toward the plaza. In an instant, more than two hundred corpses lay across the ground, most of them low-level Golden Core and Foundation Establishment disciples.
“You are blessed with heaven-defying talent, a cultivation genius, and yet you raise a butcher’s blade against your own fellow disciples and draw your sword on the master who taught you. A traitor who turns his back on his master, abandons righteousness, and repays kindness with treachery still has the nerve to condemn others?
“In all the years since I entered Xuantian Sect, I have seen many people give up their lives to protect their fellow disciples. To protect low-level Golden Core and Foundation Establishment disciples who had no means of defending themselves, they did not hesitate to perish alongside their enemies. Martial Uncle Chen once sacrificed himself to forge an artifact, turning his soul into its spirit. My master, Zhuo Wangchuan, fought to the death…
“Yet today, you have shown me a Peak Master in the late Deity Transformation stage wielding a powerful Void Tearing-grade treasure to massacre these Golden Core and Foundation Establishment disciples. Some of them are even disciples from your own peak! Are you afraid I will seize your master’s authority? Are you afraid my senior sister will take your master’s position? The world outside is vast. What could I possibly lack? What could I not earn with my own hands? And yet you fixate on this tiny patch of home and fight your fellow disciples over scraps? Hah!”
She looked at Jing with mocking eyes, then swept a cold gaze over everyone who shared his suspicions. With a derisive laugh, she said:
“I tore through the domain to leave, and tore through it again to return. I gave up the chance to ascend to the Upper Realm and came back wielding enough power to unify the entire cultivation world. Did I return just to compete with my own Grandmaster for the Sect Master’s seat of Xuantian Sect?”
Bao Gu paused, then said gravely:
“When you have time, go out and see more of the world. The outside world may be dangerous, but only by going out will you realize how small Xuantian Sect is—and how vast the world beyond is.”
