Daoist Yi Dao naturally knew this, so he began to get restless. Not only did he secretly send people to contact some of Breaking Sword Peak’s elite disciples by using the excuse “giving them a brighter future” to sway these people’s hearts, but he had also deliberately brought up the closed-door cultivation whenever he saw Esteemed Qing Yun in order to disturb his mental state. Such tactics couldn’t be considered not insidious.

　　The Sect Master of Profound Sky Sect, however, smiled and took it lightly. “You two have been bickering ever since you entered the sect, and you’re still going about it even now. On the contrary, Lan Yue, who joined the sect later, has a much calmer temperament than all of you.”

　　Esteemed Qing Yun’s dark expression retreated somewhat. “I am calm, it’s just that Daoist Yi Dao has too much nonsense to say.”

　　Daoist Yi Dao was in a bad mood. “I’m just telling the truth as is; how can that be considered nonsense?”

　　Daoist Yi Dao and Esteemed Qing Yun glared at each other and saw the enmity in each other’s eyes.

　　Several elders couldn’t help but speak one after another. This one tried to persuade, and that one tried to placate the two.

　　The Sect Master, however, glanced at Esteemed Qing Yun, “Esteemed Qing Yun, how are your preparations for the matter regarding your recent closed-door cultivation?”

　　Esteemed Qing Yun hesitated. Although he didn’t want to bother with Daoist Yi Dao, since the Sect Master opened his mouth, he couldn’t treat him like how he treated Daoist Yi Dao.

　　Therefore, Esteemed Qing Yun answered, “I’ve already chosen the time and location for the closed-door cultivation. I just have to wait a while, until the sect entrance exams have finished and everything is on the right track. After that, I will enter secluded cultivation.”

　　The Sect Master nodded, “Come to me before you enter secluded cultivation. I will give you some helpful magic treasures and medicinal pills.”

　　Esteemed Qing Yun was delighted. The iItems that were given by the Sect Master definitely wouldn’t be too bad and certainly would help him greatly. Therefore, Esteemed Qing Yun spoke gratefully, “Thank you, Sect Master.”

　　“You’re one of us; there’s no need to be polite.”

　　Daoist Yi Dao curled his lips into a smile, “I hope you can successfully breakthrough.”

　　Esteemed Qing Yun shot back, “I don’t need your concern.”

　　The Sect Master asked, “Has Tianwen already returned?”

　　Esteemed Qing Yun shook his head. “This boy, as soon as he got a wife, he forgot about his master. He’s probably still in Profound City even now.”

　　The Sect Master laughed, “Young people will always be awfully concerned about relationships at a certain stage in their lives. After this period passes, everything will be fine. However, what are you going to do about Han Jin, who is, for now, a member of the Yuan family on the surface?”

　　Qing Yun responded, “Tianwen, this lad, has already sent a letter to me. Han Jin came to take part in the examination on his own initiative. I have also reached an agreement with him regarding his destination. If Han Jin passes the exam, I’ll have him directly accept Tianwen as his Master. If he fails the examination, Tianwen decided to bring him by his side in the name of a bodyguard until next year and then make plans after that.”

　　The Sect Master nodded, “This is also good.”

　　Sects had their own rules. They couldn’t casually interfere in family disputes at will unless those disputes had already affected the stability of the sect’s region.

　　Profound Sky Sect’s inner-door area forbade entrance to people who had no business there, and the category of people allowed inside included Dao companions, those with parent-child relations, as well as bodyguards and servants.

　　Even Yuan Tianwen wouldn’t easily violate sect rules. After all, ever since he was small, his identity as the heir to the Yuan family required him to always serve as a role model in all matters, being strict with oneself and also strict with other people. This had already become a habit.

　　An elder looked around, “From beginning to end, why didn’t Sinking Sword Peak’s Peak Master show up?”

　　Another elder looked somewhat displeased, “Yes, Lan Yue actually didn’t place any importance on this crucial event of instilling fresh blood into the sect; he’s too haughty.”

　　Hearing this, one of the elders stationed at Sinking Sword Peak explained, “Esteemed Lan Yue has been busy divining heaven’s secrets lately. He has to observe the changes in the star chart himself and can’t get away at all. He didn’t deliberately avoid the sect’s important affairs.”

　　“Since he’s divining the heavens, it is understandable that he did not appear,” Daoist Yi Dao smiled but then spoke pointedly, “but how come I’ve never seen Esteemed Lan Yue appear in this kind of sect examination?”

　　“That’s because this Venerable’s disciples have never been selected from the examination.” Nobody knew when Esteemed Lan Yue appeared in the spectating stands. One could see his sword eyebrows and starry eyes, his wide sleeves swaying in the wind. He had the disposition of an immortal.

　　A few elders who spoke ill of Esteemed Lan Yue behind his back couldn’t help but look a little embarrassed. They never imagined that Esteemed Lan Yue, who normally never took a single step off his mountain, would appear here at this time of the day.

　　Esteemed Lan Yue gave them a casual glance and commented nonchalantly, “It seems that all of you are very attentive to my matters.”

　　Daoist Yi Dao reacted very quickly, “As we should; you and I are both Peak Masters of the three main peaks. We have many interactions in ordinary times, so naturally, we should care about each other.”

　　Esteemed Lan Yue’s expression looked as apathetic as always, almost inhumanly so, but the words he spoke seemed to be joking. “Now that you mentioned it, I seem to recall that my current closed-door disciple was from your Broken Sword Peak. I indeed have some relations with you.”

　　Daoist Yi Dao’s face suddenly didn’t look very good.

　　All the elders present also had unpredictable expressions. Some elders showed slight schadenfreude in their expressions, while the gears turned in other elders’ heads, and nobody knew what they were thinking. However, most of them were mindful of their identities and didn’t show very obvious emotions on their faces. Only, the thoughts in their hearts must have been very active.

　　Everyone knew that Lin Xuanzhi’s Dantian Qi Sea was destroyed by demonic beasts in Yunqi Grotto Heaven and he was judged to be a useless and hopeless waste. He was mercilessly thrown out of the sect.

　　As a result, although no one actually said anything unbecoming to Daoist Yi Dao’s face, many of the sect disciples’ hearts felt a sense of “the fox grieving when the rabbit dies” — even a powerful figure like Lin Xuanzhi couldn’t escape the fate of being discarded when something happened to him. What about those people who did not even have any fame in Profound Sky Sect?

　　As for the elders of Profound Sky Sect, although they didn’t say anything on the surface, in reality, they looked down on Daoist Yi Dao’s actions from the bottom of their hearts. There were even people who specifically mentioned to the Sect Master how this matter was handled improperly.

　　However, on his side, the Sect Master’s attitude was extremely vague. In the end, the matter had no choice but to die down like this.

　　There were people who felt sorry for Lin Xuanzhi and people who sympathized with him, because they all believed that such a brilliant genius would fall here.

　　However, no one could have imagined that Lin Xuanzhi’s good luck would have reached such a point. Now, Lin Xuanzhi had already returned to Profound Sky Sect and had even returned with a stronger attitude than before.

　　He entered under Esteemed Lan Yue’s door, this person who was silent all the time, ignored all sect matters, no matter how vital or trivial, and only knew to divine, divine, and divine some more all day long.

　　He had arrived for nearly a month, but it was said that Lin Xuanzhi had never stepped foot onto Broken Sword Peak’s summit even once.

　　If word of this got out, Broken Sword Peak’s Peak Master wouldn’t have much face at all!

　　The former master and disciple were now unable to maintain even the pretense of their relationship, which was too sad.

　　Lin Xuanzhi had become an elemental and crafting dual cultivator. He had received great respect and support on Sinking Sword Peak, just like he did on Broken Sword Peak back then. Nowadays, whenever Sinking Sword Peak’s disciples went out, they would always — either deliberately or pretending to speak indifferently — mention, “Us Sinking Sword Peak actually has three of the Four Swords of Profound Sky now.”

　　“What? You say that the Five Swords of Profound Sky are short of one Du Qiying?”

　　Sorry, they only recognized Lin Xuanzhi, not Du Qiying.

　　Provocation.

　　This must be a provocation.

　　Daoist Yi Dao immediately judged Esteemed Lan Yue’s purpose for bringing up Lin Xuanzhi.

　　As a result, Daoist Yi Dao’s mood was no longer as bright.

　　In fact, as soon as he saw Esteemed Lan Yue, he would think of Lin Xuanzhi, who was thrown down the mountain by him and picked up by Lan Yue. However, he thought that if he did not mention this matter, then others would not either.

　　But he was wrong.

　　Daoist Yi Dao forcibly suppressed all kinds of discomfort in his heart and pretended to care, “Xuanzhi, this child, insisted on descending the mountain back then, and I couldn’t even stop him. I didn’t expect him to suddenly switch to Sinking Sword Peak in no time. Those not in the know might even think that I, Yi Dao, or the martial brothers on Broken Sword Peak, had wronged him somehow. However, when all’s said and done, he still cultivated on Broken Sword Peak for so long, and he should still pay a visit to his martial brothers based on etiquette…. In the end, he’s still too young.”

　　His words were truly shameless.

　　Daoist Yi Dao completely imposed his own fault on Lin Xuanzhi and instead declared that Lin Xuanzhi did not take into consideration the camaraderie with his former martial brothers under the same master.

　　Esteemed Lan Yue was unmoved as he nonchalantly replied, “Perhaps the atmosphere on my Sinking Sword Peak was too good and attracted my little disciple. However, I received information that Xuanzhi’s Zhige sword was pulled into Yunqi Grotto Heaven and couldn’t be found, is that right?”

　　His last three words were light as a feather, but they sounded somewhat contemptuous and threatening.

　　Daoist Yi Dao nodded and answered rather regretfully, “Yes, Zhige is also considered a sword famous enough to get on the rankings. It’s really a waste to fall into Yunqi Grotto Heaven. I don’t know if it will be found when Yunqi Grotto Heaven opens again.”

　　Esteemed Lan Yue chuckled lightly and spoke meaningfully, “Recently, I’ve also heard that your peak’s eldest disciple, Du Qiying, seems to have obtained a new sword.”

　　Daoist Yi Dao’s expression remained impassive. “His luck is not bad.”

　　Esteemed Lan Yue’s gaze deepened slightly. He looked at Daoist Yi Dao with profound meaning and curled his lips up. “In fact, we masters will more or less have some differences regarding our treatment towards disciples. Like me, for example, I will always have more trust in my eldest disciple and more love for my little disciple. This is also human nature, don’t you think?”

　　Daoist Yi Dao didn’t know where he was going with this, but Lan Yue simply insisted on saying all this nonsense. So he nodded, “Disciples have different personalities. Naturally, us masters will treat them differently.”

　　“So I’ve always been quite curious.” Esteemed Lan Yue narrowed his eyes, “Why do you treat Lin Xuanzhi and Du Qiying so differently, like that of heaven and earth? Don’t tell me…that Du Qiying is your illegitimate child?”

　　“Ahem…” Daoist Yi Dao suddenly choked and started coughing, his entire face red.

　　The Esteemed Qing Yun next to him chuckled, full of schadenfreude, “As you get older, you have to take it easy; don’t choke yourself to death!”

　　Daoist Yi Dao was extremely angry. Were these two people determined to team up and make him lose face?

　　Daoist Yi Dao spoke with a cold expression, “Lan Yue, be careful what you say. You really are bossy, wanting to control so many matters. As for how I treat my disciples, everyone on the peak has eyes and can all see that Lin Xuanzhi has never suffered any loss during the past few years under my door. I, myself don’t believe that I’ve wronged him.”

　　Esteemed Lan Yue swept him with an incomparably calm glance. “I didn’t say you wronged him. What are you so excited about?”

　　Daoist Yi Dao, “…”

　　He had nothing to say to Esteemed Lan Yue!

　　At this moment, the Sect Master, who had been listening to the bustle nearby, opened his mouth. He looked at Esteemed Lan Yue with a smiling expression, “I know you care about your disciple, but the previous matter regarding Xuanzhi descending the mountain was not a deliberately targeted attack on him. It was because, if Xuanzhi continued to stay in the sect, I’m afraid his situation would be even worse, so don’t mention it again.”

　　Esteemed Lan Yue nodded calmly, but his eyes glanced at Daoist Yi Dao with special contempt. His glance pissed Daoist Yi Dao off so much that he almost jumped up in anger again.

　　Esteemed Lan Yue replied, “Rest assured, Sect Master, I won’t bother to argue with people whose cultivation levels are inferior to mine.”

　　Daoist Yi Dao, “….”

　　Damn it, he was asking for a beating!

　　Seeing Daoist Yi Dao’s face, which looked like he had eaten shit, Esteemed Lan Yue’s mood immediately lifted up to the clouds, free like the pleasant winds. The birds sang, and the flowers were fragrant.

　　He’d long found Daoist Yi Dao’s secret tampering in the dark especially annoying and unpleasant, but he had no time to deal with him before. Today, he finally seized an opportunity.

　　Infuriate you to death.