51

This rule regarding the far west had been set up for several hundred years. Within these several hundred years, there were people who had attempted to just pay lip service and oppose in secret. Unfortunately for them, anyone who went against the rule was slaughtered by the experts from both the righteous cultivators and the demonic arts cultivators. Only the geniuses who had attained a certain level understood that it was only because of this rule’s existence that all the human cultivators within the Xuan Yu region had united together and created a resistance against the bestial cultivators.

The movie-like moving pictures disappeared the moment Xu ZiYan touched the stone statue.

A deity consciousness, majestic yet filled with killing intent, erupted from the stone statue. Xu ZiYan only felt his heart cool before a terribly frightening and heavy sense (one unable to describe with the human language) pressed down on his mind. It felt as if the very next second, he would be struck down by the stone statue, soul scattered, and ashes annihilated.

That deity consciousness with killing intent circled a few times within Xu ZiYan’s body before disappearing.

Xu ZiYan lightly stroked his stomach. The oppressive feeling from before was impossible to get rid of. Frightened, Xu ZiYan gasped with wide eyes. That kind of ‘dancing at the edge of death’ sensation had felt too real, so much that he actually thought he saw Buddha....

Although that deity consciousness had appeared quickly, it disappeared even quicker. It was like it had come out to take a quick stroll just to scan Xu ZiYan’s body before disappearing.

Wait.... a scan?

Xu ZiYan’s eyelid twitched. Combined with those pictures of the cultivator with the hatchet slaughtering bestial cultivators, Xu ZiYan was pretty sure he knew the purpose behind that divine consciousness.

“Meditate. Concentrate.” Somewhere from above his head, a dignified voice suddenly spoke up.

Xu ZiYan immediately sat down and crossed his legs in a lotus position. He converged all of his energy, spiritual energy and soul, in preparation to help him resist the heavy pressure that would soon descend upon his body.

After the past two tests, his physical strength and spiritual energy had been completely exhausted. The only thing Xu ZiYan could still use now was the power of his own divine consciousness.

However, he still had not built his Foundation yet, so he was unable to release his divine consciousness outside his body. With no other alternatives, he could only move the battlefield into his own body.

That pressure felt heavy and was continuous. The force of its attack wasn’t too strong, but it felt extremely hard to resist. Xu ZiYan’s divine consciousness was practically being forced to retreat step by step. At most, he barely had enough strength to slow down the pressure’s advancing speed. Repelling it would be completely impossible.

After that force entered his body, it began destroying his meridians. However, after they destroyed them, there was a gentle force that would immediately begin repairing them. The destroying and repairing alternated, so it didn’t take long for the meridians in Xu ZiYan’s body to be hammered and refined by the force until they were exceptionally sturdy and tough.

There was no need to talk about the benefits of having sturdy and tough meridians. One had to know, what needed to happen in the Meridian Condensation Stage that was after the Foundation Establishment stage was that the meridians had to be refined so they could accommodate more spiritual energy.

But——

F*ck it hurt so much ah!!!

Xu ZiYan was in so much pain, he was practically going to cry.

Don’t mention the saying about how real men do not cry. The pain of whoever said that probably hadn’t been sufficient enough to make them cry in the first place....

Normally, with Xu ZiRong always beside him, Xu ZiYan had to consider his ‘big brother’s honour’. So, even if he was in pain, he would hold out with all his will. But right now, there weren’t others with him. That meant that even if he was pained until he was rolling on the floor, nobody would see him.

“The hell! It really f*cking hurts ah!” Xu ZiYan restrained himself until his face was bright red. Both his eyes were moist, and the corners of his eyes had some somewhat suspicious looking liquid. He rigidly held onto the ground with both hands, and his nails had all cracked.

While hurting as if he was hovering between life and death, Xu ZiYan still didn’t forget to transfer his pitifully little divine consciousness to continue meeting the enemy head on. Although it did not have much of an impact, he wasn’t reconciled with allowing that force to tear apart and restore his meridians without doing anything.

Practically biting his lower lip until it was mushy, Xu ZiYan’s eyes were bloodshot. If he had not persisted with the thought of how he didn’t want to let the force do whatever it wanted, he might have fainted a long time ago.

That force circled around once within Xu ZiYan’s body. Of course, this meant that it had already destroyed all of the meridians within his body.

The benefits Xu ZiYan had received from that was immense. However, by now, he had long lost all consciousness.

But his behaviour had already attracted the attention of a Nascent Soul cultivator. And this cultivator was precisely the one currently behind the whole palace hall. He was Luo Yun DaoJun, the one controlling the entire array.

“He he, interesting.” Somewhere within the palace hall, a middle-aged man let out a light chuckle....

Xu ZiYan opened his eyes and saw—— a ceiling filled with leaks and holes.

By chance, the sunshine that peaked through the holes shone on his face. This was what had awakened him with a start.historical

Using a great deal of effort, he wanted to raise his arm. However, Xu ZiYan realized in alarm that he practically could not feel the existence of his arm anymore. Immediately, he started cold sweating.

“Big brother, you woke up?” With a creaking noise, the door opened. Holding a basin of clear water, Xu ZiRong walked into the room. When he saw Xu ZiYan open his eyes, he immediately called out in pleasant surprise.

After expending a lot of effort, Xu ZiYan managed to turn his head to look at him. He also attempted to squeeze out a smile, but unfortunately he failed.

Taking a chance, Xu ZiYan began surveying his surroundings. However, the moment he did so, he immediately felt his heart chill. They were currently living in a very shabby little thatched cottage. Within the whole hut, there was only a single wooden bed, a wooden table, and a wooden chair——nothing else.

It couldn’t be that they were sent to a place like this because he had failed the last part of the test, right?

He opened his mouth, but his mouth was incomparable dry. Fortunately, he had an extremely considerate little brother. Upon seeing his movement, Xu ZiRong immediately picked up a bowl of warm water he had long prepared and set to the side, before he carefully fed it to his big brother.

“Big brother, you don’t have to worry. The Sect Leader already said that you achieved the best results. In addition, because the inheritance you received was the most complete, your body couldn’t quite bear it. Thus, you must take baths with medicinal herbs to help your recovery. That’s why you can’t feel your limbs right now, but you’ll be better in a few days.” Seemingly aware of his worries, Xu ZiRong promptly began explaining everything to him.

Xu ZiYan nodded his head, before taking another look at his surroundings. “Then, this is....”

Xu ZiRong’s expression turned a bit subtle, as if he wasn’t that happy. “After the exam, the Sect Leader originally wanted to personally accept you as a disciple. However, a deranged cultivator stopped him.”

When he started talking about that cultivator, Xu ZiRong looked as if he was gnashing his teeth in anger. It seemed like he was just itching to take two bites out of that cultivator.

“Oh, it’s fine if they stopped it. In any case, I didn’t want to worship him as Master in the first place.” Xu ZiYan didn’t really feel much about this news. After all, he had been preparing to worship an obscure and nameless cultivator as his Master. He hadn’t known that cultivator’s name, but he knew the place where the cultivator liked to laze off and sleep.

“But....” Xu ZiRong looked very angry. “I can let it go if he was just stopping you from becoming the Sect Leader’s disciple, but that guy thickened his skin and was resolute in taking you as his disciple. He didn’t even wait for to wake up before finishing all the procedures. Right now, you’re already his disciple.”

Xu ZiYan fell silent. Inexplicably getting saddled with a new Master, this feeling—— was really too unfathomable.

“I’m sorry, big brother. I can’t win against him, so I wasn’t able to stop him.” Xu ZiRong gloomily said. After losing his original strength, the current him was truly too puny and weak. He couldn’t even defeat a cultivator with cultivation at the Meridan Condensation stage.

Originally, Xu ZiYan was feeling a bit depressed. However, when he heard Xu ZiRong’s words, he couldn’t help but find it funny. After expending some effort, he managed to rub Xu ZiRong’s head. “You’re still young. In the future, when you’re all grown up, big brother will rely on you for protection!”

Xu ZiRong frowned before nodding his head. But in his heart, he was still brooding over that deranged cultivator. The attitude the Sect Leader displayed toward him was really too strange. And a mere Meridan Condensation stage cultivator actually dared to oppose the Sect Leader. This couldn’t be explained even if that WuChen DaoJun¹had a kind personality.

Could it be possible....

Xu ZiRong curbed his contempt for that cultivator. It could be assumed that a person who would make the Sect Leader’s attitude like this wouldn’t be an ordinary person. Right now, he merely didn’t know if the person that made the others a bit nervous was the deranged cultivator himself, or the person behind him.

“Ah, my arm can move now,” Xu ZiYan yelled in surprise.

He hadn’t noticed before, and only discovered when he had reached out to rub Xu ZiRong’s head. Currently, he was surprisingly already able to move his hand.

Although he did feel rather stiff, it was true he was recovering.

Xu ZiRong couldn’t help but smile. Sure enough, the medicinal bath from Liu Guang Sect was quite useful.

However, the excuse the deranged cultivator used to forcibly kidnap Xu ZiYan was that he wouldn’t give them the prescription for the medicinal bath if Xu ZiYan didn’t become his disciple. When he remembered that, Xu ZiRong couldn’t feel happy no matter what.

After moving his arms around, Xu ZiYan attempted to move both of his legs. Unfortunately, like before, he couldn’t feel his legs at all. It looked as if he still had to wait a couple of days before they would get better.

Xu ZiRong moved a stool over and placed it by his bedside. Then, the two brothers began swapping the information they each gathered these days.

Of course, as a person who had been in a coma, all Xu ZiYan had to do was listen. And what Xu ZiRong was responsible for was to tell him what had happened that day.

In all honesty, it was quite coincidental. The results of Liu Guang Sect’s exam this year were probably the best in the last few decades.

There had been three people who had received a complete inheritance. These were Wei Qing, Xiahou Lian, and Xu ZiYan.

Hu YuTian’s performance was also pretty good. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to persevere and fainted a few moments before he would have received a complete inheritance.

Apart from them, there were a couple of other disciples that did pretty good as well. Although, there was nobody who had managed to remain conscious to the very end.

The two brothers chatted happily, and time unwittingly passed this way, until——

With a loud clang, the door to the hut was kicked open by a foot wearing a cloth shoe that revealed the owner’s toes. That wooden door creaked twice before falling onto the ground with a loud bang, finally dying at its ripe, old age.

“Aiya, sorry! I was too lazy to use my hands to open the door, and didn’t expect that I would use too much strength!” A cultivator wearing worn and tattered clothes walked inside with an apple in his mouth.

Shocked, Xu ZiYan watched this guy walk to his bedside in an arrogant manner. Because there weren’t any more chairs, the cultivator decided to push Xu ZiYan over until Xu ZiYan was sitting squished on the inside of the bed. Then, the guy sat down on the edge of the bed.

“Do you want to eat?” From who knows where, the guy took out another bright red apple before waving it in front of Xu ZiYan’s face.

Xu ZiYan swallowed some saliva as his heart thumped. He knew the identity of this person, but he hadn’t expected the other to appear here wearing a costume like this.

Wasn’t this guy supposed to be sleeping while hiding in some nook or cranny? Why did he walk over here in such a bold manner?

“Master?” Xu ZiRong glanced at that cultivator’s dirty outfit and couldn’t help but frown.

“Wait a second. ZiRong, what did you call him?” Xu ZiYan was stupefied. Didn’t this guy accept disciples only if it was destined? Before, he had been planning to use his right as the top candidate of the inner sect disciple’s exam to get the guy to take him in as a disciple. How did ZiRong suddenly turn into his disciple?

“Of course it was ‘master’, what else could it be? In addition, brat, don’t you know to call me when you see me?” The sloppy cultivator used his foot to give Xu ZiYan a kick.

Xu ZiYan felt a bit sluggish. What was he supposed to call him by?

“What else can you call me by? Call me ‘Master’! Did the other brat still not tell you that you’re my disciple now?” The sloppy cultivator said in a deliberately high pitched voice.