Pei Shishi sneered. “Aren’t you overestimating him? He’s a mere Golden Core Realm cultivator. What right does he have to travel with us?”

Kong Xun shook his head with a cold laugh. He had no favorable impression of the arrogant Pei Shishi. Were it not for the sect’s repeated instructions to bring the two of them along, he would have left them behind. He looked at her elaborate makeup and clothes, then sighed inwardly. He had given her every warning he could. If she got herself killed doing something stupid, that was on her.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Amid an endless stretch of mountain ranges, six peaks stood out. They seemed to align with the Heavenly Dao, arrayed across the earth like a constellation formation. At the summit of each peak stood an ancient stone gate a hundred zhang tall. The gates emanated powerful fluctuations, clearly extraordinary at first sight.

Li Guanqi stood in place as the wind howled past him. Cultivators came and went all around. Flying demon beasts and cloud boats filled the sky, and multiple groups of cultivators rode on their swords. Yet the disciples of the Six Gates Holy Sect, clad in dark-purple robes, appeared reluctant. Their jaws were clenched, as if they were enduring an unspoken humiliation.

The contrast with the other cultivators’ eagerness was stark. Li Guanqi’s brows furrowed, his thoughts racing. Something wasn’t quite right. He set the question aside and followed the crowd toward the entrance of the Six Gates Holy Sect.

Whoosh! Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

Many cultivators streaked through the air. From what Li Guanqi could sense, the cultivators gathering at the Six Gates Holy Sect usually had high cultivation levels. Aside from those of the Wuding River, nearly every cultivator from the northern region of the Daochan Territory had come upon hearing the news. There were also more than a hundred Divine Transformation Realm cultivators, most of them elderly. Li Guanqi even sensed the auras of three Illusory Refinement Realm cultivators.

The towering gate bore an inscription reading Six Gates Holy Sect in bold, flowing characters. Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes slightly. From this inscription alone, he could sense how prosperous the Six Gates Holy Sect had once been. Those four characters held the artistic conceptions of four great weapons: blade, spear, sword, and halberd.

There was a commotion ahead. Li Guanqi extended his divine consciousness and found two Divine Transformation Realm youths with stony expressions blocking everyone outside the great gate. They were two ancient clan disciples. One of them had delicate features, and the other had drooping eyes.

“Quiet!” the delicate-featured disciple said.

The noise continued. People clamored, raising jade slip tokens and shouting, “Let us in! We have tokens! We bought them!”

The ancient clan disciple with drooping eyes jumped up. His figure flashed, then he appeared before the man who had shouted and drove a vicious punch into his abdomen.

Boom!

The punch sent the man flying dozens of zhang. He crashed into a stone wall and spat out a mouthful of blood, his face pale as paper and sheened with cold sweat. He curled up, hunched like a cooked shrimp. The crowd scattered in every direction, and silence fell over the gate, so complete one could hear a pin drop.

The three cultivators from the Heavenly Calamity Gate paled.

Li Guanqi stood among the crowd, his eyes narrowed on the youth who had attacked. He sensed an extremely familiar aura coming off the attacker. The corners of his mouth curved upward in an enigmatic smile.

The youth had a cold countenance: drooping eyes, slightly high cheekbones, and a somewhat receding chin. At some point, a dagger gleaming with cold light had appeared in his hand. Light flashed beneath his feet as he arrived before the fallen man. He crouched and spoke in an icy voice. “I told all of you to be quiet. What are you still shouting about?”

The man lay on the ground in pain, unable to move. The youth’s attack had been viciously insidious. The force packed into his fist had trapped the man’s nascent soul, and the man could not mobilize even a trace of vital force.

The dagger slowly pierced the man’s arm. The crowd could hear bones shattering.

“Ahh!”

The man’s face contorted in pain, his eyes bloodshot, yet his anguished cry came out strangely muffled, as if he were afraid to anger the youth above him.

Li Guanqi calmly observed the scene, a plan already forming in his mind. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

The droopy-eyed youth rose and kicked the man in the head. The man flew through the air, completely unconscious.

The other youth crossed his arms and watched expressionlessly.

Vital force surged around the droopy-eyed youth. His pressure was so overwhelming that no one dared draw a deep breath. His late Divine Transformation Realm aura was incredibly powerful.

“Listen up! All tokens previously sold by the Six Gates Holy Sect are now void. If you want to use the Dao Comprehension Platform, you must purchase access again. A low-grade platform costs three thousand low-grade spirit stones for two hours. Mid-grade, three thousand mid-grade spirit stones for two hours. High-grade, three thousand high-grade spirit stones for two hours!”

As soon as he was done, the silent crowd of cultivators burst into discussion.

A cultivator of considerable strength spoke up coldly. “I spent real spirit stones to buy a token from the Six Gates Holy Sect, and you’re voiding it just like that? You ancient clans are unreasonable. Not only have you tripled the price out of nowhere, but you’ve also decided our old tokens are worthless?”

Once one person had spoken, others joined in. Voices rose in righteous indignation. “What kind of bullshit is this? We have so many tickets! How can you just void them all?”

“I don’t care! I’m going to use my old token to enter!”

“With so many of us here, you don’t get to make up the rules!”

“That’s right!”

“Exactly! Your clan merged with the Six Gates Holy Sect, so naturally, you should honor the old tokens! Aren’t you afraid of angering us?”

Several cold snorts rose from the crowd. The heavy, deep pressure that accompanied them clearly came from cultivators of the Illusory Refinement Realm.

The two disciples’ expressions turned grim. They hadn’t detected the auras of the Illusory Refinement Realm elders earlier, and their previous remarks had clearly offended the elders.

The youth with delicate features hurried up to the three cultivators and cupped his fists respectfully. “Seniors, you are naturally not included in this. You may enter and exit as you please. Superior cultivation rooms, Spirit-Gathering Arrays, and the like have already been prepared for you atop the peaks. Those earlier words were certainly not directed at any of you. I hope you will not take offense.”

The young man presented himself with great humility, refraining from any arrogance or domineering behavior despite his ancient clan lineage. He understood that in the eyes of truly powerful cultivators, his own status and power were insignificant. The contrast with his earlier behavior was like heaven and earth.