You really do speak without thinking.
Chen Yan found it increasingly amusing:
“May I ask, sir, which sect’s elder are you?”
“Lingxiao Temple!”
The Qi Sea Realm elder in the dark-golden daoist robe lifted his head. When he uttered the name “Lingxiao Temple,” he sounded positively arrogant.
As if his identity truly was that of an elder from Lingxiao Temple.
“Lingxiao Temple?”
Chen Yan deliberately put on a puzzled expression, then continued to ask:
“But I don’t recall any peak of Lingxiao Temple having daoist robes that are dark-golden. I only remember that the robes on the Taixu Terrace tend to have a bit more gold, but not like this.”
How does this brat know so much?
He certainly wouldn’t fake the robes of the Five Great Sects wholesale and wear them here to stop travelers and swindle them.
So he’d put on this dark-golden robe that looked rather imposing, hoping to bluff people.
Clearly, the kid in the plain white robe in front of him was not someone easy to fool.
But what did he have to fear?
After all, he himself was a Qi Sea Realm cultivator, while the other party was merely a Martial Spring Realm ant.
No matter what, the situation was firmly under his control. How could it possibly backfire in the gutter?
Thinking this, the Qi Sea Realm elder in the dark-golden robe regained his confidence at once:
“The ordinary disciple robes on the Taixu Terrace are that slightly gold-heavy style you mentioned, but an elder’s robe is exactly the dark-golden style I’m wearing now!”
He spoke as if it were the absolute truth.
Chen Yan had no intention of continuing to quarrel over that subject.
“This sword scabbard, I’m afraid won’t do.”
Chen Yan took a step forward and said:
“Because that sword scabbard is extremely important to my companion here. But besides that scabbard, I might have some things that are even more valuable.”
When the Qi Sea Realm elder heard Chen Yan say the scabbard wouldn’t do, he first showed a hint of disappointment and annoyance. Then when Chen Yan said he might have something even more valuable, the elder’s eyes lit up.
“What things?”
the Qi Sea Realm elder asked.
Chen Yan didn’t answer. He simply slid his right hand into his robe, and when he drew it back out again—
Xun Wind Step!
In the space of one-thousandth of a breath, Chen Yan had already crossed the ten-odd zhang distance between him and the Qi Sea Realm elder.
He then raised his hand, grabbed the elder’s neck, and slammed him heavily into the ground.
Up until then, Chen Yan still had not activated the spiritual energy in his meridians; he was relying solely on his physical strength.
“Puk!”
The Qi Sea Realm elder, slammed hard onto the ground, had no strength to resist. He expelled the air from his chest in a spray, his eyes filled with terror and stupefaction.
Chen Yan pressed his forefinger and middle finger together and held them before the elder’s face. Pale spiritual energy shimmered faintly:
“How much is your life worth?”
Chen Yan said slowly.
…
Heavenly Summit Mountain, the ferry dock.
The Kongshan Sect ferry slowly descended toward the dock.
A handsome, gentle-faced youth in Kongyuan Mountain robes stood beneath the cloud-crane statue at the prow.
As the most outstanding disciple of this generation from Kongshan Sect and the sect’s Dao Inquirer at this Heavenly Summit Mountain Dao Inquiry, Li Haoran naturally needed to show his face, so elders and disciples from sects across the Chenping Continent could catch a glimpse of him upon arrival.
About a thousand years had passed since True Person Caiyun’s fall.
Although True Person Caiyun ultimately did not leave an immortal artifact to Kongshan Sect, during the four thousand years he served as steward he had accomplished much, and his legacy extended into this era a thousand years later.
Now the Kongshan Sect stood in an age of unprecedented prosperity.
They did not yet have an Ascended immortal, but the sect counted three Dao Union cultivators, eleven Divine Ability cultivators, and over a hundred Unity realm cultivators stationed across the Four Supreme Courts.
If the sect possessed an immortal artifact, Kongshan could easily be considered the foremost of the Five Great Sects even in these times without an Ascended immortal.
Contemporaneously, they had produced Li Haoran.
This Heavenly Summit Mountain Dao Inquiry’s most favored candidate for the top position was Li Haoran.
In fact, prior to this, the favorite to win the Heavenly Summit Mountain top had consistently been Zhou Jinyun.
But the Weaving Dreams Tower chief disciple of Mirage Palace seemed to have no interest in that top spot.
A year ago, at eighteen, she had broken through to the Qi Sea Realm, became a daomen xingzou for Mirage Palace, and forfeited her eligibility to participate in the Heavenly Summit Mountain Dao Inquiry.
Born the same year as Zhou Jinyun, Li Haoran’s current cultivation was at the peak of the Martial Spring Realm.
Rumor said that if Li Haoran wished, he could already break through to the Qi Sea Realm.
Yet it was clear that the chief disciple of Kongyuan Mountain wanted to win the Heavenly Summit Mountain top on behalf of Kongshan Sect.
Kongshan Sect’s flagship slowly pulled up to the ferry dock on Heavenly Summit Mountain.
Members of the Kongshan delegation disembarked one after another and set foot on the soil of Heavenly Summit Mountain.
“Let’s go rest at Slaying Heaven Pavilion.”
A deep voice sounded.
The escorting elder for this trip was Martial Elder Xu Shengrong of Mingxiao Peak.
“Yes.”
The Kongshan disciples responded in unison, then strode off together, moving away from the ferry dock under the envious, respectful gazes of cultivators from other sects present.
The handsome-faced youth, wearing plain white robes with gilded cloud-crane patterns and a brocade on his waist engraved with the four characters “Kongyuan Chief Disciple,” looked up toward the white-jade palace suspended over two thousand zhang above the mountain foot.
It was Li Haoran’s first time at Heavenly Summit Mountain.
And it was also his first time seeing the Heavenly Summit Palace.
It was even more stunning than he had imagined. The Heavenly Summit Mountain of old truly deserved its reputation as the undisputed sacred place of cultivation on the Chenping Continent.
Li Haoran’s gaze lingered on the palace hanging in the sky for a few breaths before he lowered his head and suddenly stopped walking.
In a corner near the ferry dock, he had spotted a very familiar figure.
A young cultivator in plain robes, with a nameless token hanging at his waist.
When Li Haoran noticed the young cultivator, the latter obviously noticed him as well.
“Well, well, if it isn’t that poor sod from Kongshan Sect!”
Mr. You smiled as he teased the gentle-looking youth in Kongyuan Mountain robes.