High above the ground, Elder Fuyun was in the middle of exchanging blows with Xu Wanzhong when his eyes suddenly widened.
“Pfft—”
A small opening appeared somewhere on his body.
It was a fart.
Fortunately, it was only a fart.
But the momentary distraction caused him to take a palm strike from Xu Wanzhong, making his body sway.
The next moment, another uncontrollable urge seized him, and Elder Fuyun bent over despite himself.
“Urk—”
“What are you doing?!” Xu Wanzhong frowned and retreated after withdrawing his hand. “What kind of trick is this?!”
It looked oddly familiar.
Not long ago, that bastard Xuanqing had pulled the same stunt while fighting him.
“I should be asking you that! What did you do?!” Elder Fuyun roared.
How had he suddenly developed vomiting and diarrhea for no reason? It had to be Xu Wanzhong, shameless scoundrel that he was, using some underhanded trick!
A dignified Nascent Soul cultivator resorting to such despicable methods—he was a disgrace to the sect!
“Don’t pin this on me.” Xu Wanzhong frowned. What did it have to do with him?
For all he knew, Fuyun and Xuanqing had done something unspeakable together and were now suffering the aftereffects.
While the two of them argued in the sky, Luo Qingyuan was speaking with her little disciple, Little Yu, below.
“You’re really letting them off just like that?” she reminded her. “That wouldn’t be fair to the people who owe you.”
Nangong Yu glanced into the distance and spoke quietly. “How could I? I’m just on my own and have no way to deal with them.”
Then she changed the subject. “I’ll go to Wanshi Peak later and post a mission. I’ll hire someone to collect the debt for me.”
Her voice was soft, but it was loud enough for those nearby to hear. They could not help freezing.
Then their expressions changed drastically!
If she went to Wanshi Peak to post a mission, everyone would see it. Everyone would know what they had done!
Being chased for repayment was a small matter. Losing face in front of their master was what truly mattered!
What if their master found them too embarrassing and refused to keep them as disciples?!
Almost in the same instant, seven or eight figures rushed over, scrambling to squeeze in beside Nangong Yu.
“Junior Sister, I was forced into it!”
“What are you calling her, Junior Sister? She’s your Senior Sister! Senior Sister, I wasn’t willing to do it! I’d wanted to pay you back from the beginning, but they dragged me back and wouldn’t let me!”
“Senior Sister, please be magnanimous and forgive us!”
Luo Qingyuan’s eyes widened.
She looked at the disciples, who were tripping over themselves to repay their debts, then at her little disciple, who was pouting as she reluctantly accepted the money.
Her admiration rose spontaneously from the depths of her heart.
Not far away, the remaining disciples stood behind Yu Shuo, their expressions complicated.
“Senior Brother Yu, she’s being far too arrogant.”
Arrogant?
She was indeed arrogant.
From the day Yu Shuo had entered the sect until now, he had seen one batch of new disciples after another. Never had he seen anyone as brazen as Nangong Yu—someone capable of offending every disciple who had entered at the same time as her.
He had no idea what to do.
Teach her a lesson? He had already tried that, and it had been useless.
Use force to make her yield? Luo Qingyuan was standing right beside her.
“You should go too,” he said flatly.
There was no telling whether he was angry or calm. The dozen or so remaining disciples could not determine whether he was telling them to do as the others had done or testing their loyalty.
Some hesitated before slowly walking forward.
One of them gritted his teeth and gambled on taking a stand. “I’m not going! Senior Brother Yu will stand up for me!”
“Heh.” Yu Shuo let out a cold laugh, clasped his hands behind his back, and merely looked up at the sky.
After collecting a round of debts, Nangong Yu had some free time again and began equipping titles.
Clearly, Elder Fuyun’s luck was worse than Elder Xuanqing’s.
That day, she had taken the title on and off over and over, yet Elder Xuanqing had only farted and suffered stomach pains. Nothing major had been triggered.
But Elder Fuyun was different. After swaying a few times, he suddenly lost consciousness and plunged headfirst from the sky!
“It worked!” Nangong Yu cried out in delight, bouncing twice on the spot.
Hypoglycemia! She had unlocked hypoglycemia!
It was an extremely rare condition with a very low activation rate, and Elder Fuyun had actually triggered it!
“Fuyun?!” Xu Wanzhong was stunned as he watched him fall headfirst, straight down like a bird with a broken wing.
This scene looked familiar too.
When he had fought Xuanqing that day, Xuanqing had pulled the same stunt.
Xu Wanzhong could not help rubbing the back of his head. Had he awakened some incredible talent without even realizing it?
“Elder Fuyun?!”
“Look out!”
The disciples below had all seen what was happening. Some cried out in alarm, while others hurriedly scattered.
The body of a Nascent Soul cultivator could withstand swords without a scratch and fire without melting. It was comparable to divine metal or meteoric iron. If someone like that crashed down, it would be everyone else who got hurt.
Luo Qingyuan immediately wrapped an arm around the little disciple’s waist and flew them away from the area.
As the only elder present, she also casually pulled a few of the other disciples out of harm’s way.
Yu Shuo did not bother with anyone around him. He stared in shock as his master fell, seemingly devoid of consciousness, and immediately rushed forward to catch him.
With Yu Shuo cushioning the fall with his spiritual power, Elder Fuyun did not crash headfirst into the ground. Instead, Yu Shuo caught and supported him as he landed.
“Master? Master?” Yu Shuo looked warily at Xu Wanzhong. “Daoist Xu, what did you do to my master?!”
Xu Wanzhong frowned and sent a thread of spiritual power into him, but it was blocked.
It was Elder Fuyun. Though he had lost consciousness, his instincts remained.
“Hmph.” Xu Wanzhong withdrew his spiritual power. “It has nothing to do with me.”
Yu Shuo had no idea what was wrong with his master. All he could do was try feeding him various pills—Spirit-Replenishing Pills, Rejuvenation Pills, Antidotes, and the like.
There was no response.
“Could I trouble Elder Luo to go to Danhua Peak and ask Master of Danhua Peak to come here?” Yu Shuo said to Luo Qingyuan.
Luo Qingyuan nodded, released Nangong Yu, and flew away.
On Disciples’ Peak, the only sound was the mournful whistling of the mountain wind.
The disciples from Class A, along with the Class B disciples who had come to sit in on the lesson, were all in a complicated mood. No one knew what to say.
How had things ended up like this?
Someone could not help sneaking a glance at Nangong Yu. Somehow, everything seemed impossible to separate from her.
If she had not used talismans yesterday.
If she had not demanded other people’s talismans.
If she had behaved herself today and not talked back to Yu Shuo.
There were so many possible ways things could have gone smoothly. Yet she had taken a wrong step at every turn, driving matters to this point.
“Grand Martial Uncle!”
A streak of light flew over and quickly landed beside Xu Wanzhong.
It was Chen Zhi.
He had not escorted Nangong Yu to class today, nor had he stayed around Disciples’ Peak. Xuanqing had already been tied up, so Nangong Yu should have been safe.
Who could have expected that something would happen the moment he left?
“Little Yu, come here.” Xu Wanzhong did not answer him. Instead, he beckoned to Nangong Yu in the distance.
Nangong Yu ran over. “Senior Brother.” Then she nodded at Chen Zhi. “Great-grandson.”
At the sound of that form of address, the corner of Xu Wanzhong’s mouth twitched. “What did you call him?”
“Calling him ‘Grand Martial Nephew’s Grandson’ is too much of a mouthful,” Nangong Yu replied.
Then why not just call him by his name? Xu Wanzhong wondered. She actually had the nerve to call someone Great-grandson! How old was she, anyway?
But the child was lively, so Xu Wanzhong let it go. After looking her over and confirming that she was unharmed, he said, “I don’t know either. Let Little Yu tell you.”
Luo Qingyuan had summoned him over, and he still did not know what had happened from beginning to end.
Nangong Yu therefore explained the whole matter. Yesterday, she had gotten into a fight with some people. Today, she had gone to collect her debts, but they had refused to pay and had called Yu Shuo over.
Then everyone had put on an act, pretending their eyes hurt and cursing her as a demon cultivator. Elder Baihe had left, and Elder Fuyun had returned.
The whole story was rather chaotic, but Xu Wanzhong heard only one sentence:
“They called you a demon cultivator?!”
“Mm.” Nangong Yu nodded. “Senior Brother, you know I’m a proper spiritual cultivator.”
Xu Wanzhong immediately let out a cold laugh and glanced at everyone. Seeing them all bowing their heads and shrinking their shoulders like quails, he said flatly, “There’s nothing interesting about Disciple Peak. You don’t need to come here anymore. I’ll teach you myself.”
Nangong Yu was taken aback. “Is that really all right?”
“What’s wrong with it?” Xu Wanzhong frowned, thinking she was being timid.
“Senior Brother, I want to spend time with people my own age.” She clasped her hands together, looking a little embarrassed. “I’m not saying you’re old or anything…”
Xu Wanzhong’s face darkened. He pointed at her. “Ungrateful!”
As they spoke, Master of Danhua Peak arrived.
On the way there, Luo Qingyuan had already told her what had happened.
Naturally, in her version of events, her Little Yu was adorable, innocent, and blameless, while everyone else was unreasonable, bullying the weak, throwing their weight around, and pretending to be sick when they couldn’t win a fight.
“Let me have a look.” After landing, Master of Danhua Peak flicked her sleeve and brushed Yu Shuo aside.
Dozens of strands of green spiritual energy shot from her palm toward Elder Fuyun, entering his body through the acupoints all over him.
“Hmm?” She was somewhat surprised. “How peculiar.”
This wasn’t the first time she had seen these symptoms.
Xuanqing’s condition last time had been strange, but Elder Fuyun’s today was even more obvious. It looked as though he had contracted a mortal illness.
Cultivators could not possibly suffer from mortal illnesses. Their bodies were fundamentally different from those of ordinary people. Take farting, for example. A cultivator’s meridians were like rivers, and the space within their bodies was like a valley. When a mortal farted, it was merely a puff of gas—but when a cultivator farted…
If cultivators could actually fart, it would certainly be a raging gale.
Yet both Xuanqing and Fuyun had displayed symptoms that looked exactly like those of mortals. After that day, Master of Danhua Peak had gone out of her way to study mortal ailments, and today she could see the situation even more clearly.
“Peak Master, what’s wrong with my master?” Yu Shuo asked anxiously.
Master of Danhua Peak withdrew her spiritual energy. After thinking for a moment, she took out a bottle of honey and tossed it over. “Give it to your master.”
When mortals fainted, it could be because they were hungry or exhausted. It was worth trying to give him something to eat.
Yu Shuo caught the honey and carefully fed it to his master.
It had to be said that Master of Danhua Peak knew what she was doing. Her treatment was exactly right for the condition.
Before long, Elder Fuyun woke up.
With the symptoms of low blood sugar gone, he immediately perked up. Remembering what had happened before he fainted, he pointed angrily at Xu Wanzhong. “You ambushed me!”
Xu Wanzhong replied coldly, “You were faking it.”
What kind of injury could be cured by a bottle of honey?
The two of them refused to admit fault to each other. Master of Danhua Peak merely watched the spectacle, while Luo Qingyuan glanced from one to the other. She had no intention of getting involved, but in the end, she let out a sigh.
“I’ll call someone.”
Xu Wanzhong was himself a disciple of the head of the Discipline Hall, so other elders needed to be present to deal with this matter.
“No need!” Elder Fuyun tried to stop her.
Luo Qingyuan ignored him and summoned the Peak Master of Myriad Affairs Peak, as well as the Sect Master.
Ordinarily, one of them would have been enough. But the moment the Sect Master heard that Nangong Yu was there, he immediately set out.
“That’s what happened.” Luo Qingyuan recounted the entire matter from beginning to end.
Elder Baihe had also been called back. He nodded and said, “I left afterward, but before that, things were indeed as Elder Luo described.”
“All this over such a trivial matter?” the Sect Master asked blandly.
His pressure swept across every elder present, not even sparing Yu Shuo.
He was a Nascent Soul cultivator, a full major realm above Fuyun and Luo Qingyuan. The two of them immediately found themselves unable to withstand it, their bodies becoming awkward and unsteady.
Yu Shuo was even less able to endure it. His knees trembled as though he were bearing the weight of a thousand jun, and sweat poured down his face.
“The atmosphere at Disciple Peak needs to be rectified. That’s one matter.” By this point, Elder Fuyun could only force himself to speak. “The behavior of Hengxu Peak is also suspicious. That’s another.”
There was Nangong Yu, and there was Xu Wanzhong. It was only when he encountered the two of them that he ended up in such a sorry state.
Apart from him, Elder Xuanqing had also suffered at their hands. That day, he had even smashed through the sect’s public square, and every disciple in the sect knew about it.
To say that something was wrong with Hengxu Peak was already taking the bigger picture and the reputation of the Ziyang Sect into account!
If he were to speak his mind, the entire Hengxu Peak had been infiltrated by demonic cultivators!
