Lian Shenlong's expression hardened as he gazed up at Elder Ling, his usual serene demeanor replaced by something far more dangerous. The morning air itself seemed to grow heavier under the weight of his displeasure.
"Elder Ling," he began, his voice carrying the patience of a teacher addressing a particularly slow student, "perhaps you should reconsider your—"
"Where does a mere bald donkey get the courage to stand up to the Confucian Sect?" Elder Ling's interruption thundered across the street, his face twisted with indignation. "We are one of the top ten sects in the entire Eternal Phoenix Empire!"
He paused, his chest swelling with pride before adding somewhat defensively, "Granted, we may be ranked tenth, but that is entirely beside the point!"
The assembled cultivators exchanged nervous glances. Everyone knew that being the weakest among the top ten was still infinitely more prestigious than being outside that elite circle entirely.
Elder Ling raised both hands skyward, his voice rising to a commanding roar that shook the very foundations of nearby buildings.
"Behold! My One Hundred Tribulations Dharma Underworld Insight Avatar!"
The sky darkened as if eclipse had suddenly fallen. Golden light erupted from Elder Ling's position, coalescing into a massive manifestation that dwarfed the surrounding buildings. A two-hundred-foot-tall avatar materialized—a perfect replica of Elder Ling himself, sitting in serene lotus position with arms crossed in meditation. The construct's golden surface gleamed like polished bronze, and beneath it, ten lotus leaves spun in perfect synchronization, each one radiating enough power to level city blocks.
The crowd of watching cultivators immediately erupted in panicked shouts.
"That's a ten-leaf Nascent Soul Divinity expert!"
"Why have these poor monks offended such an elite?"
"But that Buddhist Master is also a ten leaf expert!"
"We need to retreat further—this level of battle could kill us just from the residual energy!"
Many began fleeing outright, their survival instincts finally overcoming their curiosity. Those who remained did so either out of morbid fascination or because they possessed enough cultivation to weather the coming storm.
Lian Shenlong observed this display with the mild interest one might show a street performer's tricks. Then, to everyone's astonishment, he began to laugh.
The sound started as a quiet chuckle but grew into full-bodied laughter that seemed to contain centuries of accumulated amusement. When he finally composed himself, his eyes sparkled with something that might have been nostalgia.
"Ah, how refreshing," he said, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "I have been walking this earth for eight thousand years, and it is always the orthodox sects who believe themselves so righteous and virtuous."
Elder Ling's confident expression faltered slightly. Surely he had misheard the bald donkey. Eight thousand years? That would make his cultivation base higher than his own...
"I can act righteous and virtuous because I am strong!" Elder Ling declared, though his voice carried a slight tremor that hadn't been there before. "The strong determine what is right and what is wrong! This is the natural order!"
Lian Shenlong tilted his head with the curious expression of a child asking an innocent question.
"And what if someone even stronger than you came along and told you that you were wrong?"
"That would never happen!" Elder Ling's response was immediate and fierce, though sweat had begun beading on his forehead.
"How tedious." Lian Shenlong's tone carried the weary disappointment of a teacher whose student had failed to grasp a simple lesson.
"I grow tired of this conversation." Elder ling said angrily.
He then began gathering qi with desperate intensity, his avatar's ten lotus leaves spinning faster as golden energy coalesced above his head. The construct grew even larger—one hundred feet in each direction—forming into a massive palm seal that seemed to contain the weight of heaven itself.
The remaining cultivators in the crowd immediately abandoned all pretense of staying to watch. They launched themselves hundreds of meters into the air, their protective barriers crackling as they struggled to achieve what they hoped was a safe distance.
"This will be the end of the measly Heaven's Choice Temple!" Elder Ling's voice had taken on a manic edge as he prepared to unleash his ultimate technique. "They'll need to find a new patriarch once I'm through with you!"
His laughter echoed across the city as he pushed the massive palm seal forward, the golden construct descending like the judgment of heaven itself.
High above in the crowd of fleeing cultivators, a figure dressed in black hooded robes had been preparing to intervene. But as they sensed the massive whirlpool of primal qi suddenly stirring around the elderly monk below, they paused. A smile spread beneath their concealed features before they vanished entirely from their position in the sky, disappearing as if they had never been there at all.
Lian Shenlong gazed up at the descending palm seal with casual interest.
"I'm not dying just yet."
He mobilized his qi to its full power.
The effect was beyond anything the witnesses could have imagined. A five-hundred-foot-tall golden Buddha erupted into existence, so massive that it completely eclipsed Elder Ling's avatar like a mountain overshadowing a pebble. The construct's head disappeared into the clouds above, and on its back was an enormous astrolabe surrounded by thousands of golden hands stacked beside each other in perfect geometric harmony.
The Buddha's presence was so overwhelming that no one could even determine if it truly was just an avatar and not the enlightened one himself—its sheer scale transcended normal comprehension.
Elder Ling's palm seal shattered against the Buddha's form like glass against granite, dissolving into harmless motes of light that scattered on the morning breeze.
The watching cultivators hung in the air with their mouths agape, save for a select few whose elite auras suggested they had witnessed such displays before. Buildings crumbled beneath the Buddha's manifestation, but Master Lian Shenlong paid no attention to the collateral damage. His beloved disciple had been threatened, and such transgressions demanded correction.
One might say that Master Lian Shenlong suffered from a rather pronounced disciple complex.
Elder Ling's response was both immediate and undignified. His face went white as parchment, and a distinct yellow stain spread across the front of his robes as his bladder betrayed him. Without hesitation, he activated Soul Chase, vanishing from his current position in a desperate bid for survival.
But Lian Shenlong was far from finished with this lesson. He too employed Soul Chase, his vastly superior cultivation allowing him to lock onto Elder Ling's fleeing form with trivial ease.
Across the countryside, citizens of the neighboring city of Yan stopped their daily activities to witness an unprecedented sight: a tiny golden avatar being pursued by a colossal Buddha that strode across the landscape like a walking mountain. The spectacle was visible from multiple cities surrounding the capital, creating a scene that would be discussed in taverns and tea houses for generations to come.
At the royal palace in Tianlong City, Emperor Jiang Zhenghai listened with growing irritation as his chief attendant delivered his report.
"Your Majesty," Li Xuanye said carefully, "we have a situation developing in the merchant district. A Thousand Whirling Soul Formation expert is currently chasing a Nascent Soul Divinity cultivator across multiple districts. The altercation apparently began with a dispute between two young disciples."
The emperor's face darkened like a storm cloud. "Why was I not informed the moment this began?"
Li Xuanye shifted uncomfortably. "Your daughter, Princess Minghua, gave imperial orders to the city patrols not to interfere with these cultivator's disputes."
Emperor Jiang Zhenghai sighed deeply, the sound carrying the weight of a thousand responsibilities. Li Xuanye made a mental note to suggest that His Majesty take a vacation—the vicissitudes of ruling seemed to be taking their toll.
"What are your orders, Your Majesty?"
"Send out Mo Qi to handle this."
Li Xuanye's face went pale. "Your Majesty, why are we deploying such a... volatile individual?"
The emperor's eyes grew distant, filled with a bitterness that few had ever seen. "I am tired of these cultivators believing they can do whatever they please in my empire."
What Li Xuanye didn't know—what no one in the empire knew—was the emperor's greatest secret. For the first time in the history of the Great Eternal Phoenix Empire, the throne was occupied by someone with absolutely no cultivation talent whatsoever. Jiang Zhenghai had been born with a damaged dantian that no healer had ever been able to repair, leaving him powerless in a world where strength determined everything.
...
Meanwhile, Master Lian Shenlong's pursuit continued with devastating efficiency. Palm seals the size of city blocks flew through the air like deadly projectiles. Two found their mark, sending Elder Ling tumbling through the sky with internal injuries blooming across his meridians. The other thirty missed their target but left a trail of destruction across the countryside that would require months to repair.
After twenty minutes of desperate flight, Elder Ling's strength finally failed him. His Soul Chase technique faltered, his avatar dispersed like morning mist, and he plummeted from the sky into the manure pile behind a rural farm.
Master Lian Shenlong observed his opponent's undignified landing and decided that justice had been adequately served. The massive Buddha dissolved into golden light as he employed Soul Chase once more, instantly returning to Liu Chen's side in the market district.
Elder Ling lay in the reeking pile of dung, blood trickling from the corners of his mouth as he struggled to heal his internal injuries through meditation. It took him nearly an hour to repair the damage enough to function, his cultivation slowly drawing primal qi from the surrounding area to mend his shattered organs.
Finally able to float free of his humiliating landing site, Elder Ling considered his options. He wanted to retrieve Zhu Sheng, but the thought of facing that terrifying Buddhist monk again made his hands shake. As he prepared to begin his journey back to the Confucian Sect's distant stronghold...
A curved blade pierced his heart from behind.
Elder Ling turned his head with tremendous effort, blood flowing freely from his mouth as his eyes widened in absolute horror. Through the haze of approaching death, he recognized his killer.
"It's... you!" he gasped.
Then Elder Ling of the Midnight Dipper Academy fell back into the manure pile, dead before his body settled into the filth. His killer had already vanished without a trace.
Back at the street markets, Liu Chen was delivering a thorough scolding to his master, his six arms gesticulating emphatically as he expressed his displeasure.
"Master! You let yourself get carried away! Chasing that elder halfway across the empire was completely unnecessary!"
Master Lian Shenlong's cheeks flushed bright red as he attempted his usual deflection. "Amitabha, this humble monk merely—"
"Don't you 'Amitabha' your way out of this!" Liu Chen interrupted, placing two hands on his master's shoulders and squatting down to meet his eyes directly. "I understand why you did it, but I'm not worth all that trouble."
The response to that statement was a sharp smack across Liu Chen's head that made nearby onlookers turn to stare.
"My disciple is worth every ounce of trouble and infinitely more," Lian Shenlong declared fiercely before pulling his student into a fierce embrace.
Behind them, Zhu Sheng continued to lie charred on the cobblestones, weakly muttering "help" at regular intervals.
Lian Shenlong sighed and pulled away from the hug, walking over to stroke his beard while examining the injured youth.
"Master, what are you planning to do?" Liu Chen asked curiously.
"A monk's duty," came the simple reply.
He then extended his hands over Zhu Sheng's prone form, and immediately a powerful vitality began to gather in the air around them. Plants sprouted through cracks in the stone roadway, growing with supernatural speed as life energy flowed like water. Zhu Sheng's charred flesh began regenerating, his burned skin returning to its original healthy state as if the lightning strike had never occurred.
A radiant golden ark manifested behind the healing youth, its divine light washing away every trace of injury both internal and external. Within moments, Zhu Sheng appeared completely restored.
Liu Chen's mouth hung open in amazement. "Master, I never knew such techniques existed in the cultivation world!"
"Many sects possess healing arts," He explained casually, "but the most powerful is the Buddhist Merciful Ark of Salvation, which I just demonstrated."
Liu Chen cupped his fists and bowed deeply. "This disciple thanks his Master for broadening his horizons!"
"Think nothing of it," his master replied with a wave. "Now, we still have errands to complete."
Before they could depart, Zhu Sheng struggled to his feet and bowed deeply, though his expression showed considerable reluctance.
"This... this junior thanks you for your mercy," he managed, before turning to Liu Chen with renewed determination. "Are you competing in the Sect Tournament next week?"
Liu Chen nodded.
Zhu Sheng's cheeks took on a slight flush as he declared, "I may have been defeated today, but I will definitely triumph next time! What is your name, worthy opponent?"
"Asura."
Zhu Sheng contemplated the name for a moment before bowing with cupped fists. "A fine name, worthy of my rival! But next time, you will not be so fortunate!"
Liu Chen rubbed the back of his neck while pulling his outer robes back on to conceal his additional arms. 'How did I already gain a rival on my first day down the mountain?' he wondered.
Aloud, he simply said, "I look forward to our rematch."
Master and disciple walked off into the distance, leaving Zhu Sheng standing in the street with a determined smile on his face.
It was only after they had disappeared from view that he suddenly realized two important facts: the old monk had forgotten to heal his two unconscious lackeys, and Elder Ling was nowhere to be found.
"Elder Ling?" he called out uncertainly, his voice echoing off the empty buildings. "Where did everyone go?"