Mo Tiange could hear the sound of the wind from inside the carriage. She stood motionless and kept her head down in a well-behaved manner.

　　Regarding this etiquette used for meeting seniors, Ye Jingwen had also practiced it to perfection. Hence, he was even better at performing it than Mo Tiange.

　　The two of them were almost like statues, perfectly demonstrating what “good, obedient disciples” looked like.

　　Lord Daoist Jinghe stared at them for a while. Once he saw that these two weren’t showing the initiative to confess, he simply took out a cup of steaming hot tea at an exasperatingly slow speed. On another note, it was really a wonder where he got the tea in this flying cloud carriage.

　　Mo Tiange and Ye Jingwen were completely silent. Lord Daoist Jinghe was even quieter. Inside the cloud carriage, no other noise could be heard aside from Lord Daoist Jinghe drinking that steaming hot tea.

　　When he finally finished his tea, Lord Daoist Jinghe heaved a satisfied sigh and threw the cup out of the carriage.

　　A thought suddenly crossed Mo Tiange’s mind. If there happened to be a cultivator below them, would his skull be shattered when hit by that cup? However, she heard Lord Daoist Jinghe’s voice in the next second, so she immediately snapped out of her daze.

　　“I wonder—” Lord Daoist Jinghe leaned back in his chair, staring at the two of them in neither a warm nor cold way. “Do you really take This Lord as someone you can fool as you please?”

　　Even though he didn’t release his spiritual aura pressure, a drop of cold sweat still fell from Ye Jingwen’s forehead. He dropped and kneeled on the ground. “Grand-disciple is useless. Grand-disciple asks Grandmaster for forgiveness.”

　　Mo Tiange’s mind was still filled with Lord Daoist Jinghe’s “last disciple” remark from earlier. She was still chaotically sorting out some wild thoughts, so she basically hadn’t thought about this matter. But when she saw Ye Jingwen’s response, she promptly regained her train of thought, clenched her teeth and followed his lead by kneeling on the ground.

　　Lord Daoist Jinghe let out a soft “hmph.” Soon afterward, however, he suddenly roared at the two kneeling people: “LITTLE B*STARDS! DO YOU GUYS THINK THIS LORD DOESN’T KNOW ANYTHING?! YOU REALLY HAVE SOME GUTS! FORGET ABOUT KILLING SEVEN FOUNDATION BUILDING CULTIVATORS All AT ONCE; YOU WERE EVEN COUNTING ON THE SCHOOL’S SOVEREIGNS TO HELP YOU WITH THIS PROBLEM AND EVEN SCHEMED TO BENEFIT FROM ME, THIS GRANDMASTER OF YOURS!”

　　As he roared furiously, a bit of the Nascent Soul cultivator’s spiritual aura pressure leaked out. The moment the spiritual aura pressure reached her, Mo Tiange, who still felt a bit reluctant in her heart, instantly felt like she couldn’t move at all, as if her body was firmly anchored to the ground. With her forehead drenched in a cold sweat, she felt the spiritual aura inside her body running amok, completely out of control. The next moment, however, she once again heard Lord Daoist Jinghe saying in a gentler voice: “But in the end, you’re still my disciples. How could you let people beat you around as they please?” The tone he used was actually of contentment and pride.

　　Mo Tiange was dumbfounded.  This… What kind of joke is this?  Although Lord Daoist Jinghe was a proud person, she assumed he would still give them a public berating before giving them some reward. She never expected him to be so straightforward.

　　It was Ye Jingwen who returned to his senses first. He promptly said, “Grandmaster is right! Grand-disciple agrees. Those Gujian Sect cultivators were indeed shameless! How could we possibly let them walk over us? However, because we also couldn’t let those old men from Gujian Sect destroy Grandmaster’s reputation, we had to take initiative and make up a story.”

　　His words made Mo Tiange sweat once again. She only just realized that her Big Brother Ye was quite wordy, but she had no idea he was also capable of spewing these fake, honeyed words. Not only did he brush their mistake under the carpet, but he also made it sound as if they did it for their grandmaster’s sake!

　　Nevertheless, Lord Daoist Jinghe looked like he was enjoying himself, laughing while stroking his short beard. “Not bad! Not bad! Boy, you’re quite clever! Grandmaster knows your words aren’t sincere, but since you look pleasing to the eye, I won’t pursue this matter any further!”

　　Ye Jingwen heaved a sigh of relief, and Mo Tiange suddenly felt her body relaxing. Now, they could be considered to have dealt with this one matter.

　　“But…”

　　The two of them instantly trembled. They watched Lord Daoist Jinghe staring at them with an unfathomable gaze. “Although your actions were very much to my taste, you were too daring! In order to prevent other people from talking, the two of you will stay at Clear Spring Peak and enter ten years of Closed Door Meditation from this day onward. Within those ten years, you are not to leave unless you’re ordered to! Do you understand?!”

　　Forbidden from leaving the mountain for the next ten years… That meant they were being placed under Grandmaster Jinghe’s wings, so nobody would dare to do anything to them—Grandmaster Jinghe was deliberately letting them off! Both Mo Tiange and Ye Jingwen were delighted. They glanced at each other then simultaneously lowered their heads to the ground with sincerity. “Many thanks to Grandmaster.”

　　“En.” Lord Daoist Jinghe closed his eyes, but soon afterward, he opened an eye and glanced at Mo Tiange. “What are you still calling me ‘Grandmaster’ for?”

　　Mo Tiange was dumbfounded. For a while, she was at a loss for words.  What’s wrong with calling him “Grandmaster”?

　　Lord Daoist Jinghe uttered a “hmph.” “Are you taking the words I said as a fart? Since you’re my last disciple, you naturally don’t need to address me like that.”

　　“Huh?” This time, Mo Tiange’s mind really went blank. She assumed Grandmaster Jinghe only said that for the benefit of the spectators. He actually, genuinely viewed her as his last disciple?

　　“What are you huh-ing about?!” Lord Daoist Jinghe stared at her. His tone was very intimidating. “Could it be that you don’t want to be This Lord’s disciple!?”

　　Mo Tiange could only blink her eyes. Before she could recover, Ye Jingwen elbowed her and whispered, “What are you dazed about? Quickly kowtow!”

　　Mo Tiange kowtowed in a panic. “Disciple… Disciple pays respect to Master!” What the hell happened to her? According to reason, she, who had even met Deification cultivators before, shouldn’t be terrified of Grandmaster Jinghe. But alas, it was still hard for her to get accustomed with the way this grandmaster handled things…

　　“En…” Lord Daoist Jinghe nodded in satisfaction. “That’s how things should be! Master is really not in the mood today, so we won’t have a master-worshipping ceremony. Do you have any objections?”

　　“No…” Did she dare to object? For a mere Foundation Building cultivator with no background whatsoever to be accepted by a Nascent Soul cultivator as his last disciple, that was a great honor. Even Core Formation cultivators would scramble and do everything they could to obtain an honor like that—how could she possibly have any objection? She just felt a bit worried. After all, this grandmaster had a weird temperament and wasn’t easy to get along with.

　　Mo Tiange’s mind was still a mess, but before she could understand what just happened, she heard Lord Daoist Jinghe, whose eyes were still closed, uttering a cold “hmph.” Mo Tiange and Ye Jingwen suddenly trembled all over—both felt a tremendous spiritual aura pressure.

　　Mo Tiange was an experienced cultivator. Once this spiritual aura pressure appeared, she knew it was the spiritual aura pressure of a Nascent Soul cultivator.  Another Nascent Soul cultivator actually showed up?

　　At that moment, the corners of Loud Daoist Jinghe’s lips curved up. He sneered and said, “You want to pressure me with just this bit of skill?”

　　With a wave of his fluttering sleeve, a thin enchantment appeared out of nowhere, covering and protecting the cloud carriage tightly. He then placed his palms together, causing an astonishing momentum to emerge.

　　Inside the carriage, Mo Tiange and Ye Jingwen, who were both only Foundation Building cultivators, were very close to Lord Daoist Jinghe. When Lord Daoist Jinghe made that move, the two of them instantly vomited blood and lost their consciousness.

　　Lord Daoist Jinghe frowned. This was the first time he ran into an enemy while he was inside the cloud carriage with others, so he actually overlooked this aspect.

　　He grumbled, in a bad mood, “Really useless.”

　　Immediately after, he stopped the cloud carriage, lifted up the gold-lined curtain, and took a step out of the carriage.

　　—

　　When Mo Tiange regained consciousness, she felt as if her body was trapped among the clouds. There wasn’t the slightest strength left in her body. Her eyes also couldn’t open. Furthermore, her meridians were aching.

　　Just as she was about to attempt to move, she heard a female voice speaking tenderly to her: “Martial Uncle Mo, this place is grandmaster’s Wenyang Pool. On the road back there, we ran into an enemy and grandmaster accidentally injured you. Grandmaster sent you to this place right after we arrived and told us to take good care of you. Martial Uncle, how are you feeling?”

　　Mo Tiange muttered inwardly.  My whole body is unwell. Even talking is hard now.

　　Soon after, Mo Tiange heard another female voice: “Mengzhu, since martial uncle already woke up, you better help her take the medicinal pill grandmaster left behind.”

　　Mo Tiange then felt someone pushing a medicinal pill to her lips. She had to exert a lot of effort before she could open her mouth. Additionally, when the medicinal pill was in her mouth, she realized she didn’t have any strength to swallow it.

　　The first woman spoke, “Martial Uncle, please forgive my audacity.”

　　Then, someone held her lower jaw and pushed it up, forcing the medicinal pill in her mouth down her throat.

　　The moment the medicinal pill entered her body, the power of the medicinal pill spread along her meridians. The ache she previously felt in her meridians immediately dissipated. Nevertheless, its efficacy wasn’t at all comparable with the medicinal plants the Inferno Beast gathered inside the Virtual Sky World.

　　Mo Tiange frowned. She was currently trying hard to absorb the medicinal pill’s power, but at the same time, she was also lamenting over her obvious bad luck.

　　In the war against demonic beasts, the only thing she fought happened to be a fifth rank demonic beast. If it wasn’t because of her Five-Spirit Cultivating Body, and if it wasn’t because of her Virtual Sky World, she would’ve departed from this world long ago.

　　It was only after much effort that her injuries were healed. However, right after she met up with her fellow disciples, she ran into the ambushed Big Brother Ye. Because of many factors that stemmed from this matter, she was accepted by a Nascent Soul grandmaster as his advanced inner disciple. Who would’ve thought that before this advanced inner disciple status could lose its novelty, she would be beaten by her own master to the point of being heavily injured?

　　One might ask, in this world, how many advanced inner disciples were beaten to a state of being severely injured by their own master right after they worshipped that very same master?

　　In all of west Kunwu, she, this freak, was probably the only one going through all that. She really didn’t know what to say about this fate of hers.

　　When she finished lamenting in her mind, Mo Tiange finally sensed some strength returning. She tried hard to open her mouth and managed to ask, “Big Brother Ye… Is he okay?”

　　“To answer Martial Uncle’s question, Senior Martial Brother Ye has been taken back to Clear Spring Peak by Martial Uncle Qingyuan and is currently recuperating. Grandmaster also bestowed some medicinal pills to him—presumably, his situation is no longer too serious.”

　　Bestowed… You were obviously the one who injured us, but you still “bestowed”…

　　Sensing the group of people lingering by her side, Mo Tiange felt really helpless. If she was still a registered disciple, they would’ve definitely left her to fend for herself. In that case, she would’ve been able to go straight into her Virtual Sky World and recuperate. Both the medicinal plants and spiritual aura inside her Virtual Sky World were many times better than the ones provided by this master of hers.

　　With that thought in mind, Mo Tiange suddenly felt a lot better. In all of west Kunwu, she was presumably the only one who dared to resent something bestowed by their own middle stage Nascent Soul master.

　　Nevertheless, Big Brother Ye’s situation was probably direr this time. Aside from damaged meridians, his cultivation level might also end up regressing.

　　She really wondered whether she harmed him or whether he infected her with his bad luck.

　　Mo Tiange suddenly thought of something else. “Why are all of you alright?”

　　According to her memory, the numerous female cultivators outside the cloud carriage were also in the Foundation Building realm like her—she and Ye Jingwen were severely injured, so how did these people still have the strength to take care of her?

　　“To answer Martial Uncle’s question, the spot where the eight of us martial sisters were standing was covered by the protective barrier from the formation on the cloud carriage. For that reason, no matter how earth-shattering grandmaster’s battles are, no damage will be done to us. However, because grandmaster is normally the only one inside the carriage and Martial Uncle and Senior Martial Brother Ye weren’t far from grandmaster, both of you were accidentally injured by him.”

　　Before Mo Tiange could protest, that woman spoke again: “Riding in the same carriage as grandmaster is the kind of honor that would make countless disciples envious if they found out about it. Besides, grandmaster didn’t do it on purpose. I hope Martial Uncle doesn’t take it to heart.”

　　Mo Tiange muttered inwardly.  You girls ride the same carriage as him every day; why haven’t I seen any people feeling envious?

　　Another woman suddenly spoke in a satirizing tone, “Senior Martial Sister Mengzhu, I’m afraid whether martial uncle takes it to heart or not isn’t something you’re in the right position to worry about, is it?”

　　En? Such a blunt tone somewhat surprised Mo Tiange.  What kind of situation is this?

　　At that moment, the female cultivator called Mengzhu changed her gentle tone to a cold sneer. “I’m talking to Martial Uncle Mo; why do you need to butt in?”

　　Upon hearing this reply, the female cultivator satirizing Mengzhu was aggravated. She chuckled coldly. “Grandmaster let us wait upon Martial Uncle Mo together, not just Senior Martial Sister alone. Why can’t I speak?”

　　“Junior Martial Sister Ruolan!” Mengzhu’s tone suddenly became sharp. “Are you the senior martial sister or am I?”

　　“You—” Ruolan paused for a moment then said begrudgingly, “Of course you’re the senior martial sister.”

　　Mengzhu reverted back to her slightly arrogant tone from before. “Since I’m the senior martial sister, you naturally have to follow what I say.”

　　After she spoke, the area regained a temporary quietness. However, shortly after, the woman known as Ruolan once again said angrily, “So what if you’re the senior martial sister now? The person grandmaster likes has never been determined by seniority!”

　　The moment Mo Tiange heard that, she was finally enlightened.  Could this be the so-called rivalry in love mentioned in legends?

　　Mo Tiange thought about that unruly Grandmaster Jinghe—oh, he was her master now—then thought about these lively, young, beautiful female cultivators who seemed to be less than a hundred years old. She suddenly felt a chill running down her back and shuddered. Dao School emphasized having pure hearts and few desires. Although they could do little regarding Dual Cultivation, there were very few who liked to take concubines. This newly worshipped master of hers wouldn’t happen to be an exception, right?

　　Mengzhu ¹ , Ruolan ² , these names really were… vulgar! The arrogant, noble, graceful Grandmaster Jinghe unexpectedly liked these kinds of lyrical names. There wouldn’t be a something- Mei ³  or something- Ju ⁴ after this, right?

　　Right after this thought crossed her mind, she heard Mengzhu shouting: “Shuangju ⁵ ! What does your expression mean?!”

　　Mo Tiange almost vomited blood! Unfortunately, she didn’t have any strength in her body and could only grimace. While she did her best to absorb the medicinal power so she could regain control over her body as soon as possible, she also continued to listen to these female cultivators giving each other snide remarks.

　　“Senior Martial Sister Mengzhu, I didn’t say anything!” This Shuangju sounded cold. It was as if she didn’t want to be involved in their dispute.

　　Mengzhu sneered. “You didn’t say anything, but everything is written on your face!”

　　Instead of answering, Shuangju kept her silence.

　　Mo Tiange then heard Ruolan laughing contemptuously. “Senior Martial Sister Mengzhu, if we’re talking about seniority, you’re also not the most senior among us. Why do you have to bully Shuangju?”

　　“When did I ever bully her?” Mengzhu retorted unhappily, “I was just asking, but she completely ignored me! So what did she mean then?”

　　“She…”

　　“Enough!” This time, just as Ruolan opened her mouth, the female cultivator who hadn’t said anything suddenly spoke in an imposing manner: “Just because I don’t talk, you really think I’m a mere decoration, huh! What’s the point of arguing over these matters? Grandmaster told us to take care of Martial Uncle Mo. Aren’t you afraid Martial Uncle Mo would get angry because of what you’ve been saying!?”

　　Once she spoke, everyone went silent. Shuangju then said, “Senior Martial Sister Momei, don’t be mad. We’ll stop talking.”

　　But right after she finished talking, Ruolan said, “Senior Martial Sister Momei⁶ , you’re taking care of Martial Uncle Mo so attentively. You’re not trying to use Martial Uncle Mo to win grandmaster’s favor, right? I’m just afraid your calculations will be wrong!”

　　When she heard that, Mo Tiange felt even more helpless. These people were quarreling in front of her without any restraint; they might call her “martial uncle,” but they clearly had no respect for her. Didn’t behaving like this mean they were taking advantage of the fact that she was only a Foundation Building cultivator? Lord Daoist Jinghe’s method of managing his subordinates really wasn’t up to scratch!