In the outskirt of the outer yard, there was a mansion with the emblem of the red cliff on each side of the door. Inside the mansion, in the innermost room, a scolding was taking place.
Five men were kneeling on the floor. Among them was Lun Jiao. Naturally, the other four were the disciples who had met Cao Yun in the armory earlier today.
"Faction Leader Chan, we ask for your leniency. We really did not know that this boy was Chen Guo."
On a makeshift throne was Chan Weifeng, the leader of this faction. The Wubei Sect's disciples were divided into eight factions. Among them, the Red Cliff Faction was the most popular and powerful one. It mainly focused on martial arts, but also welcomed any other occupations. Alchemists, like everywhere else, were particularly valued as well.
Chan Weifeng was fuming inside. The day before, he had specifically asked all his subordinates not to mess with this 'Chen Guo'. After the entrance examination, all the faction leaders had received the important news, either because they were there in person or many reports came to them. Chan Weifeng was in the second situation. Due to his cultivation, he hadn't been able to make it to the entrance examination but he knew exactly what had happened.
The Red Cliff Faction Leader was around twenty-two. On his chest was the emblem with the red cliff and the number over it was five. This was his last year as an outer disciple. The Red Cliff Faction had been founded by a former disciple but he was able to lead it when he became a fourth-year. These subordinates of him had offended the man every faction wanted to recruit, before he could even introduce the Red Cliff Faction to him.
"Do my orders mean nothing to you?! When I asked everyone not to stir up troubles with Chen Guo, why the hell would you even start anything with anyone?! Hu Guan!"
The guy who had tried to slap Huang Cixi stepped forward. "Yes, Faction Leader Chan."
"You should know that what Chen Guo said is true. Hitting a servant deserves fives lashes."
"But, Faction Leader, I already paid a small spirit stone to atone."
"But did you atone to me as well?" Chan Weifeng was truly pissed tonight. Thus, Hu Guan decided to take his losses and endure.
"No, Faction Leader. Sorry, Faction Leader. I accept my punishment."
"Take him away and give him his five lashes!" Two men walked toward Hu Guan. They brought him outside without any resistance.
As the sound of the lashes and Hu Guan's groans of pain could be heard, Chan Weifeng kept on going.
"Lun Jiao, you did good by smoothing things over. You'll need to apologize again later for your friend as I'm not confident enough for Hu Guan to do so himself. This idiot could start trouble again. But I hope you all learn your lesson! Do not offend anyone if you're not sure of their background! Hell, why would you offend anyone for such a trivial matter?!"
"Thank you, Faction Leader. We understand."
"Fine. Leave."
When they were gone, Chan Weifeng put his head in his hands and stroked his forehead.
"Brother Jiang, how can we handle this? We can't even apologize on behalf of the Red Cliff Faction before the end of the week..."
Indeed, the factions were forbidden from recruiting the disciples before their first week. To ensure this neutrality, no faction or faction leader could even approach the new disciples during this time.
"Senior, I think the best course of action is to wait and then send a token of our sincerity when the time is ripe."
"Yes, you're right. We'll need to find out what gift would be most appreciated by Chen Guo."
As Hu Guan's groans stopped, a young woman walked in the room and gave Chan Weifeng a new report.
"What?! What the...?! Bring him in!"
While Chan Weifeng was fuming, a scholar looking man beside him took the report to read it himself and an injured man walked in. This was Luduo Bu who had many broken bones. Even his face was bruised all over.
"Faction Leader Chan, please redress my grievances. This Chen Guo was too cruel with me!"
"You!" On his forehead, Chan Weifeng's vein was popping. "Do you think I'm a moron like you?! You're the one who was too cruel! First of all, you sullied our name by beating up a little girl, a servant no less. Then, you get taken care of by Chen Guo and you threaten him before a chief elder. Is your brain even working?!"
"But, Faction Leader Chan, he insulted our Red Cliff!"
"Oh?! You really think I'm a moron, don't you?! He probably doesn't even know our Red Cliff exists! YOU insulted our Red Cliff! Last year, we gave you many occasions to amend your ways, but you never seem to understand! As I said, Chen Guo is a very promising young man and it's essential that we can get him in our faction."
"But Faction Leader, this Chen Guo is only a 5th-grade Mortal with no background whatsoever, he's just a small trash before us."
Chan Weifeng lost it. "Are you really that stupid?! Do you think he'll stay a 5th-grade Mortal all his life?! Weren't you a 5th-grade Mortal just a year ago as well?! And with his talent, you think he'll stay without a background?!"
Jiang Yifan whispered something to the faction leader that got him thinking.
Chan Weifeng nodded by hearing it. "Luduo Bu, you are officially banned from our Red Cliff Faction!"
Luduo Bu stood up in shock. "But, Faction Leader, I..."
"Silence! Either you leave freely or we make you leave!"
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Behind Chan Weifeng, the golden image of a lion's head began to form. As a fifth-year, his cultivation was already in the Mortal Warrior realm and he could manifest his Qi in the physical world. Before this sight, Luduo Bu did not dare retort and left with his head low and full of killing intent toward Cao Yun.
"Chen Guo, it's all your fault! I'll cut you into pieces and watch you bleed to death!" Luduo Bu kept these words for himself as he left.
"Why did we even accept this animal in our faction in the first place?"
"Senior, he seemed really promising last year. But his character just kept on degrading no matter what."
"What now?"
"We publicize the expulsion as much as we can. We can even use it to uphold our public image. One of our own bullied a little servant and sullied our name. It can be beneficial for us in the end."
"Why can't any of these clowns just follow a simple order?! Tomorrow, we'll send orders for all the Red Cliff members to avoid any conflict for the time being."
"Yes, Senior."
-
On the summit of the peak, inside a huge residence, a chief elder was being scolded as well. Chief Elder Luoming was reprimanding Chief Elder Baishen.
"We have a lot of work to do and you waste your entire day?!"
"But, Brother Luoming, Chen Guo was there and you know how much I was looking forward to training him."
"And you think I'm going to do all your work for you?!"
"Brother Luoming, I'm sincerely sorry about this. I swear I truly forgot about the paperwork when I was training him."
"Oh, I know how you are with martial art and young prodigies... But don't you think I have better things to do than to do more paperwork myself? And I thought Brother Suxian was unreliable... At least he did his work. Sister Baishen, if you don't want me to tell the Sect Leader, you better finish your work as soon as possible!"
"Thank you, Brother Suxian. The Sect Leader doesn't have to know, I'll get to it immediately."
As she was ready to leave, a small voice resounded in the room.
"What don't I have to know?"
Chief Elder Baishen was done for. For neglecting her duties the first day of the new year, she was ordered to do the work of all the Chief elders. After that, she stayed in seclusion for at least four days, working like a madman on all the paperwork.
With all the disciples advancing to the next year, the fifth-years leaving the sect and the new disciples, there really was a lot of paperwork. Even as a Spirit Warrior, who almost did not need to sleep, it took her four days of tedious work.
Using this opportunity, she also decided to change some rules within her martial art pavilion and reorganized the personnel so that what had happened with this little servant would never occur again.
-
As all these events unfolded, Cao Yun was back in his room with Huang Cixi. The young woman was absorbed in her thoughts. She did not believe that Cao Yun was purely evil as he had probably killed her second brother to save Feng Yingyue's life and her first to defend his own life. However, she soon realized he was nicer than she had thought.
That didn't really change anything. Her second brother was still slain by his hands, no matter how nice he was with little girls. Huang Cixi was trying to convince herself, but it wasn't very effective.
"Mei Yuzhi, I'm not in the mood to eat tonight. Just cook something for you and I'll be cultivating."
She made a small dish for the evening and started cultivating herself. With the small spirit stone she had received, she was eager to advance her cultivation as fast as possible. If she was diligent, she could be a 4th-grade Mortal before the end of this year.
Focusing on the spirit stone, she absorbed a large wisp of Qi and sent it to her Lower Dantian. Using it, she lashed at the walls of her Dantian. She used a cultivation method specific to her family. It was just an enhanced version of the 'Universal Law of Immortality', but it became more specific to her bloodline in the later stages. By lashing her Dantian in a specific way, she could temper it more efficiently. To control the Qi, she used a mantra of her family with very peculiar visualizations. This technique was more efficient but also more painful and she could hurt yourself more easily. However, she wasn't reluctant to use it at all.
The 'Universal Law of Immortality' could bring anyone from nothing to Spirit Warrior and beyond, in theory. In practice, it required a lot of time and dedication. And you could also injure yourself and impede your progress at almost every step of the way. That was the reason why many people did not even practice cultivation at all. By using treasures such as medicinal pills, it was possible to advance more smoothly, but the cost was too high for mere mortals.
When she was done, she looked at her two small spirit stones. The first one had been given by the sect but the other came from Cao Yun.
In the other room, the boy was sitting cross-legged on the floor. This little girl being beaten almost to death had awaken the memories of his sister Cao Huiying. He knew he couldn't cultivate with this image in mind, so he started by circulating 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks'. Once again, he advanced in the Zhi character. In less than two weeks, he would probably reach Perfection. At this stage, he would be able to draw the Zhi character as perfectly as in the manual. This thought calmed him a little as he remembered Feng Yingyue.
Then, he cultivated his Meridians by circulating the 'Cultivation of Wrath'. His Qi followed the usual pathway. When it traversed his Lung and Heart meridians, it was powerful and rich as all blockages had already been removed. The meridians were all working at the same time but the order in which they opened was very specific. If he kept on working like this, every one of them would be opened in less than two weeks each. He could break through in a matter of months.
After that, the next stage consisted in gathering Qi in the Lower Dantian. The more Qi you accumulated in this grade, the higher you could then climb. Some cultivators too eager to advance neglected this grade and destroyed their future cultivation, getting stuck in some further grade. There was a minimum requirement to break through, but the upper limit was just how much Qi your Dantian could bear, which heavily depended on how well you had tempered it during the 3rd-grade Mortal stage. And Cao Yun's Lower Dantian had been tempered using the 'Cultivation of Wrath' which was really advanced. His Lower Dantian was probably one of the best any Mortal cultivator had in the Hongchen Kingdom.
Finally, he focused on the Horn Star and found that his day of training bore fruit. The binary star was brighter and more vibrant. By observing it, he almost saw the two horns of a dragon intertwined and the technique became clearer in his mind. He could probably work on the second star in some days. It would take more time to be forged though. After all, he had forged the first one in a week. It was hard to be faster than that.
-
During his sleep, Cao Yun could not circulate Yi and Zhi. Thus, he fell into a nightmare where he saw the face of Cao Huiying being kicked in and trampled upon. Her small body was broken all over and she coughed blood.
She started to whimper and tried to call for her older brother. But Cao Yun was paralyzed, a deep cut in his torso.
Hearing some noise, Huang Cixi woke up. Her sleep was not that good tonight after all. The noise was coming from the other room. Cao Yun was moving around in his bed. Very faintly, she heard him call out "Little Huiying, little sis!".
All of a sudden, Cao Yun woke up and stood up straight, breathing heavily. He was in a daze, trying to figure out the dream from the reality.
When he saw Huang Cixi, he came to. "I'm sorry, did I wake you up?"
"No, I was still awake." Huang Cixi was clearly lying but she was trying to be nice. "Are you alright?"
"Yes, I'm sorry, just bad memories. I just need to meditate a little."
"I'll leave you be then."
Cao Yun sat cross-legged on his bed and used the rest of the night to circulate 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks'. Every time he thought he was in control, something woke up his trauma. If he was not careful, he could easily form an inner demon. But worse than that, the Drop of Wrath could act up at any moment and devour his sanity.
His main goal should be his mind cultivation. For that, his best bet was the Frozen Heart Pill. Xiao Xuefeng still had the Embalming Lake Lotus Leaves he had stolen from the demonic cultivators. But he lacked an alchemist to make the pill.