The three guards had been able to take enough distance. Lü Bai was only a 9th-grade Mortal and even by detonating every ounce of Qi in his body, the explosion wasn't too big. However, his entire body had been vaporised and the plate was completely destroyed. Only small shards of it remained, with scorch marks on them. Everyone was shocked. Dying in such a way was extremely cruel. Most people in the Hongchen Kingdom believed in a variety of funeral rites. Some involved burning the body of the deceased but dying that way was something entirely different.

Demonic cultivators were really insane. That was the thought in everyone's mind. Lü Bai had probably preferred dying in such a way so as to avoid Lu Meihan's fate. After this agitation, the three guards kowtowed in front of Cao Yun whose clothes were torn here and there, exposing terrible bruises.

"Brother Chen, this lowly one is sorry." They all apologized in unison.

"Even though you hired us to protect you. We were the ones who attacked you in the end."

Cao Yun saw a great sincerity in their eyes. They didn't do so just to keep their pay or because they were worried about the disciplinary pavilion. In fact, the rules of the Wubei Sect would be with them as they were fooled by a powerful illusory array formation.

"It's fine. The only culprit is... was Lü Bai. I know you didn't mean to attack me. In the end, you even realized that something was wrong. You're not array formation masters. And even then, Brother Sun himself was fooled for a hot moment."

As he talked about him, all eyes went on Sun Liao. He had a deep wound, a stabbing wound all the way to his liver, and was bleeding a lot despite Long Huafang applying pressure.

"What are you waiting for?! Call for help! Do any of you have some pills or bandages, or anything at all?" The girl was even louder than usual. And this time, there was no amusement on her face. This was the first time Cao Yun had seen her so serious. Deep down, she felt responsible. Although this was caused by an illusion, she was the one who had failed to see through this. She wanted to prove to Sun Liao that array formations were useless in front of raw power, but she proved that she was useless.

Thankfully, the three guards were used to fighting in the wild. Even though they were inside the Wubei Sect, they got used to carrying some healing materials. One of them ran into the distance to go call for help while the other two went to help Long Huafang with the wound.

Long Huafang knew nothing about medicine. Her older brother had tried to convince her to learn a bit. His reasoning was simple. If she wanted to join the army, as he did, she had to know how to heal injuries on the battlefield. She always claimed that this was useless because she would never get hurt. When her brother told her that she could also help others, she simply didn't care. They just had to be good enough not to get injured!

Of course, she wasn't serious. She just wanted to annoy her older brother, and mostly, she didn't want to learn medicine. The idea of reading complicated books on this gave her headache.

However, she found herself regretting not to have listened to her older brother. This annoyed her, but not as much as seeing Sun Liao. The wound she had inflicted was really vicious. Not only had she stabbed him, but her 'The Dragon Bears its Fangs to the Wolf' had also sent a shock wave through the wound. Sun Liao's liver was in a terrible state and his other organs had been hit as well. Fortunately, he was extremely good at circulating his Qi. In fact, he even used a small array formation within himself to limit the damage. Sun Liao wouldn't die but he would probably need to rest several weeks, if not months.

"Brother Sun. I'm sorry. You were right about array formations... I'm perfectly useless..."

Sun Liao heard her but he was too focused on his wound to respond. Everyone was around Sun Liao to try and help him. They waited a few minutes for an elder to come. Thankfully, they were close to a small clinic of the physician pavilion so it was rather fast. As soon as he arrived the elder took care of Sun Liao.

-

Cao Yun was facing Chief Elder Baishen.

"You should have told me everything way sooner! Even without proof, I would have had Lü Bai watched. Don't you trust me?"

"I'm sorry, Chief Elder. I never thought he would attack us in such a way. But I do trust you! We came here to talk to you but you were absent. Sun Liao didn't think that his investigation had been uncovered. I'm sorry."

Chief Elder Baishen was satisfied with this answer.

"Next time, even if you don't know anything for sure, tell me immediately! I talked with Chief Elder Luoming. The private chamber of Lü Bai has been searched. And they found many suspicious documents. They are probably encrypted, but it's safe to assume that he was the demonic cultivator behind both Lu Meihan and Luduo Bu. However, I don't think we'll be able to find anything against his master... Chief Elder Qinghe examined the place where he died and found nothing at all. His body has been utterly destroyed. And even the fragments of his array formation plate are in a disastrous condition. I don't think we'll get anything out of them."

There was no more lead. Lü Bai's master had been thorough and it seemed impossible to find him.

"There's something that I wanted to ask you for a long time. Maybe this is the right time. It could prevent any retaliation against you... Chen Guo, do you want to become my disciple?"

Cao Yun was taken by surprise. He thought that he was going to be chewed out some more. But he never expected to be offered what he felt was a reward.

"Don't believe that I will forget your recklessness! But if you officially become my disciple, even a Spirit Warrior will think twice before attacking you. To tell you the truth, I was hesitant because I felt like Guest Elder Xiao was going to ask you. However, it seems she's happy with only Mei Hua and you don't seem to want to become a full-fledged alchemist. But these last few weeks showed me that you were serious about your martial arts. I can swear that with me, your martial arts will soar beyond your imagination. What do you say?"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

In truth, Cao Yun had no need to be further convinced. Even though Chief Elder Baishen could get carried away in her training sessions, they were always perfect for him. She always found the right opponent to make him progress every single time.

Without hesitation, he kowtowed. He had already recognized Cleansed Asura as his master even though he had only met him for a few hours. And most of what he had sent into his mind was unintelligible for Cao Yun. Before his family had died, he also had had a master, his own father. However, in the Hongchen Kingdom, it was not rare for someone to have several masters or teachers in his life, or even at the same time. You could learn from anyone and you should learn from everyone.

The relationship between a disciple and a master was deemed as sacred. Thus, it was never done without careful thinking. Sometimes, it was even necessary to ask the other masters of the disciple. It showed how much this was valued. This ideal came directly from Emperor Nuwa. She thought that teachers were essential for mankind to strive and fight off against the demons.

"This lowly one accepts Chief Elder Baishen as master."

Cao Yun followed the rites and bowed to his new master accordingly.

"Good. Now, get up. Let's talk about your achievements in the 'Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars'. If I'm not mistaken, you should be very close to understanding the fourth star, right?"

Cao Yun stood up and took a chair close to Chief Elder Baishen.

"Indeed, Master. That was one of the reason why I was training with Brother Sun. This Room Star is related to controlling your opponent's moves during a battle. It's very similar to an array formation. I believe that I'm extremely close. I just need a little something and I'll derive the first move of this star."

"Controlling the flow of a battle... I'll teach you a technique that should prove useful for this. If you master it, you should understand your Room Star at once. This is the 'Walking in the Mud Without Staining the Silk'. It's a lesser movement technique, not very useful in itself. However, it exposes very clearly a fundamental principle of battle, how to move according to your enemies. If you master it, it's almost impossible for an enemy to force you to move how they want you to. On the other hand, it should teach you how to do the opposite."

Chief Elder Baishen gave the manual to Cao Yun. It really wasn't very useful from what he could read. But its core principle pertained exactly to what Cao Yun was trying to learn.

"You'll train with it for a week. After that, if you haven't mastered the move, you'll try something else. But I'm confident you will."

-

In another room, Mo Zi was still alive, facing his master.

"Master, thank you. Everything went as planned. They all think that Lü Bai was responsible and all evidence against you or me is gone."

"Mo Zi, learn this lesson well. Lü Bai was useful to us and yet I killed him to save you. If I have to kill you to save myself, don't doubt that I won't hesitate for one instant. Do not do anything until the end of the year. Chief Elder Luoming is reorganizing the disciplinary pavilion. But we're already too deep in the pavilion and I don't think he can deal with us all. If we're smart, we'll be able to spread our influence even further. In two years, we must be ready to act or we'll have to wait even longer..."

"Master, I won't spoil our plan. I swear! However, Chen Guo is a real problem. Even though we lowered the power of the Ten Directions Mind Corrosion array formation, he was almost not affected at all. In two years, he'll be there! We should get rid of him next year."

"Do not worry with him. We already have plans for next year. But you're right. I knew his mind was strong for him to learn alchemy and array formation as quickly as he did, but I didn't suspect it to be this strong. He could even become a new Xiao Xuefeng if we let him prosper. Gaining his support would be great, but I highly doubt it's possible at all. Too bad... He'll have to die before he can thwart our plan. Let him enjoy his last year alive. We'll be busy next year, and even more so after that. Our patience will soon be rewarded."

-

As all this was happening in the north, Xiao Xuefeng was finally in the south of the Hongchen Kingdom.

She had been flying on her sword for more than a month now. During the entire travel, she had not slept at all. She had food and water in her spatial ring so she still sustained herself, even though she had few needs compared to mere mortals. The scenery was becoming more familiar to her. This was the place where she had grown up and spent several decades. Unlike the woods and the mountains surrounding the Wubei Sect, the Golden Flowery Fragrance was in the middle of plains and fields. The geography was really flat here and the climate warmer.

She breathed the air of her homeland and slowed down a bit. She looked at the fields where mortals were cultivating grains and plants of all kinds. This simple life was very resting to watch for an immortal. Xiao Xuefeng was a 7th-grade Spirit Warrior and as such she could live almost 2,000 years, that was immortality for most mortals. Even though she looked like she was in her twenties, she was more than 150 years old. And it wasn't even a tenth of her lifespan.

Although she had slowed down, she was still too fast for anyone to see her clearly. People only saw the vague image of an immortal and they bowed down in her direction. Mere mortals were always envious of cultivators but they also revered them. The peace they could enjoy was all thanks to those heroes fending off the demons. And all of them had access to the 'Universal Law of Immortality' thanks to Emperor Nuwa. Sadly, even though most mortals were trying to cultivate, it wasn't possible for all of them to succeed.

The majority of them were 1st-grade Mortals, or just barely. Since the beginning of the Forsaken Dao Era, cultivation had become too hard. Many people lacked either the time, the resources, the talent, or even the drive. Unless they reached the later stages of Mortal, their lifespan wouldn't increase by much and some people required decades just to cross over to 2nd-grade Mortal. If cultivation kept on regressing, the Spirit Warrior realm would become legendary in a few millenniums.

Finally, Xiao Xuefeng saw it, the Golden Flowery Fragrance Institute. Its perimeter walls were as white as ivory, made in Ageless Marble, one of the most durable stones. Even Mortal Warriors couldn't make a dent in it. The wall was perfectly white with some golden engravings. Atop the wall was a narrow walking path with various small rooms topped by golden roofs.

Around the institute, there were many fields with all kinds of trees, flowers and medicinal plants, the Small Heavenly Gardens, maintained by students of the institute. Outside the walls, many buildings were built respecting a superb geometry. The colors were mostly white and gold. All other the institute, nature was thriving with trees, flowers, birds and small animals everywhere.

In the center of the institute stood a large tower, this was where the elders, chief elders and the Head of the Institute were working and living.

As flying within the institute was highly regulated, Xiao Xuefeng stopped before reaching the wall. She used her spiritual senses to contact the Head of the Institute. To send a telepathic message, she needed to be close enough and to know the location of her target. No one was better than Xiao Xuefeng with spiritual senses so if she could see something, she could send her mind there. The Institute Head was rather old and she stayed in her study most of the time. She had failed to reach 9th-grade Spirit Warrior several times with little hope to progress ever again.