The path of cultivation is one of contention. From the moment the Taixuan Sect established its lineage in the Profound Yellow Realm, it was never destined to be a sect that practiced in seclusion. Thus, it naturally had a Dueling Platform.

At this moment, the Dueling Platform was exceptionally lively. Two figures were locked in a fierce duel on the stage, and a large crowd of sect disciples and Loose Cultivators had already gathered below—a first since the Meteor Dojo’s opening.

On the stage, a disciple from the Upper Profound Sect, clad in their standard black Daoist Robe, was dueling against a disciple from the Taixuan Sect, who wore a plain white one.

It appeared the Upper Profound Sect disciple was pressing the attack, completely overwhelming his opponent from the Taixuan Sect. He held a Magical Artifact shaped like an Eight Trigrams Mirror in one palm. It was concave in the center, its edges engraved with complex and profound runes. The mirror’s surface continuously condensed one thunder orb after another. With his other hand, he formed a Dharma Seal, directing a ceaseless stream of thunder orbs toward the Taixuan Sect disciple. His opponent struggled to maintain a small shield, constantly throwing out Spirit Talismans to extinguish the orbs, leaving him no opportunity to counterattack.

Sensing victory was at hand, the Upper Profound Sect disciple raised his head and shouted, "A petty sect is a petty sect! Hurry up and surrender!"

The Upper Profound Sect disciples in the crowd immediately began to jeer. Having already won one match, they saw another victory was imminent and couldn’t help but hurl all sorts of taunts. On the other side of the stage, the Taixuan Sect disciples were filled with righteous indignation, each wishing they could rush up and battle the Upper Profound Sect themselves.

The Taixuan Sect disciple on stage tensed, his eyes blazing with fury. He suddenly stopped the motion of casting Spirit Talismans. An even denser barrage of thunder orbs slammed relentlessly against his small shield, causing its light to flicker and sway. It looked as if it was about to give way.

The Upper Profound Sect disciple sneered, "What? Giving up? Just cry out your surrender, and I’ll let you off. How about it?"

But the Taixuan Sect disciple was completely unmoved. While maintaining his shield, he retrieved a jade ruler from his sleeve, muttered an incantation, and tossed it into the air.

The jade ruler transformed into a streak of white light. As it flew up, it struck the foremost thunder orb, scattering it. Without losing momentum, it smashed several more thunder orbs in quick succession, reducing them to fizzling currents. It then streaked through the air in a straight line, heading right for the Upper Profound Sect disciple’s head.

The jade ruler was incomparably swift; in a flash, it was right before his eyes.

Seeing he couldn’t dodge, the Upper Profound Sect disciple hastily spat out a breath of shimmering, clear qi. Mid-air, the qi transformed into a lightning bolt dozens of times more powerful than his previous thunder orbs and shot up to meet the attack. But unexpectedly, it only managed to momentarily impede the ruler before the lightning shattered on impact. It didn’t even last a single round.

Fortunately, it had at least slowed the attack, giving him a moment’s reprieve. The Upper Profound Sect disciple shot backward to create some distance, simultaneously tossing his Magical Artifact to hover in the air. He summoned the majority of his Spiritual Power, and with a rapid flurry of movements from both hands, he condensed dozens, even hundreds, of thunder orbs at once. They struck the jade ruler with a thunderous CRACKLE, finally causing it to shudder. Its white light dissipated, and it was knocked flying back.

As he breathed a sigh of relief, he couldn’t help but feel a sting of resentment. The clear qi he had just expelled was the most fundamental essence a cultivator of the Dao Foundation Realm used to refine Magical Power.

For a Dao Foundation Cultivator, this qi was both extremely effective and incredibly precious. Once used, it was gone and would not regenerate naturally without arduous re-cultivation. While it made Spells extremely powerful, using it was an outrageous waste. Worst of all, it would drag down the cultivator’s training progress.

The crowd below had watched the swift, intense exchange with bated breath. Suddenly, a derisive laugh cut through the silence. Someone in the back of the crowd remarked, "So that’s the Upper Profound Sect’s thunder arts? Nothing to write home about. It couldn’t even stop a Magical Artifact from some petty sect."

Well, that did it. The remark thoroughly offended both sides. Even the two on stage stopped fighting. Members of the Taixuan and Upper Profound Sects alike glared hatefully in the direction of the voice, spotting a group of young cultivators standing together, dressed in cyan and moon-white Daoist Robes.

"Ah, so it’s our Fellow Daoists from the Tai Su Sect and Yuxiao Sect. I wonder which of you so disdains the Spells of my Upper Profound Sect? This humble one is untalented, but I also practice thunder arts. I would be most willing to receive a lesson on your own techniques." For a thousand years, the Upper Profound Sect had proclaimed itself the head of the Three Sects and Six Schools. Its disciples, who took immense pride in this fact, were known for their arrogance. They would never tolerate such a humiliation, and one of them immediately stepped forward to issue a challenge.

"Hmph. On the Divine Continent, the Yuxiao Sect’s thunder arts are the most famous. Seeing our crude Spells, it’s only natural that they’d want to ’instruct’ us," another Upper Profound disciple said sarcastically, his barb aimed squarely at the Yuxiao Sect.

The group from the Tai Su and Yuxiao Sects couldn’t help but feel exasperated. The remark had indeed come from a Yuxiao Sect disciple. The problem was that this disciple was the youngest in their group, a junior brother who was barely a teenager and whose cultivation had only just reached the Qi Cultivation stage. No one had expected the boy to have such a loose tongue and blurt out something like that.

But now that the words were out, the Yuxiao Sect members felt no need to lower their heads and admit they were wrong. The Tai Su Sect had always been close allies with the Yuxiao Sect, so they all remained silent. A few of the more combative members, however, were already itching for a fight.

And so, what had begun as a confrontation between the Upper Profound and Taixuan Sects instantly escalated into a tense standoff among four different factions.

This was the scene that greeted Xuzhuang, Lin Ling, and Lin Shanshang when they arrived.

After a disciple from his sect recounted the sequence of events, Xuzhuang couldn’t help but smile. He glanced over at Lin Ling and Lin Shanshang and saw a hint of apology on Lin Shanshang’s face. She had likely already heard the story from her fellow Yuxiao Sect disciples.

He glanced back at the disciples from the Upper Profound and Taixuan Sects. Though their faces were still etched with indignation, they no longer dared to raise a clamor.

The Divine Continent’s Cultivation Realm had been at peace for a long time. Against this backdrop, certain unspoken agreements existed among the Three Sects and Six Schools. High-ranking cultivators generally didn’t bully their juniors. But no matter the circumstances, one had to show respect when facing a Golden Core Mage.

Of course, Xuzhuang had no intention of lording his status over a group of juniors. Besides, when it came down to it, his own side wasn’t exactly in the right.

With a flick of his wide sleeve, Xuzhuang clasped his hands in a salute toward the Upper Profound Sect disciples. "Xuzhuang of the Tai Su Sect. Might I ask which esteemed Brother from the Upper Profound Sect is present? Would you show yourself?"

As it turned out, a True Disciple of the Upper Profound Sect had been concealed there all along. The junior disciples were unaware, but of course, someone of Xuzhuang’s level would not have failed to notice.

A figure suddenly appeared before the ranks of the Upper Profound Sect disciples. He was exceptionally tall, close to six feet, with a pale complexion and a cold, detached expression. He answered flatly, "Yu Jing of the Upper Profound Sect."

"Oh? So you are Brother Yu, the one who suppressed the Raging River Flood Dragon with a turn of his hand. I have long heard of your renown." This wasn’t mere pleasantry from Xuzhuang; he had truly heard of the man’s reputation. Flattery gets you everywhere, after all, so Xuzhuang saw no reason to withhold praise. "My apologies for my group’s poor discipline. We have made a spectacle of ourselves in front of Brother Yu."

His words were spoken on behalf of the Yuxiao Sect members as well. Lin Shanshang, their True Disciple, voiced no objection, and the other Yuxiao disciples certainly had no grounds to complain. The young boy who had made the comment, however, looked rather defiant. He was held back by his companions, and in any case, knew it was not his place to speak.

"...It’s just juniors fooling around. Pay it no mind." Yu Jing’s lips twitched in what might have been a smile, but his tone remained as cold as ever. "They are young in their cultivation and have rarely stepped outside the sect’s domain. A certain amount of arrogance is inevitable. Gaining more experience in duels and suffering a few setbacks now will prevent them from suffering real losses in the outside world later. With me here to watch, nothing will truly go wrong."

As for which sect’s disciples he was referring to—his own or others—no one could say.

Xuzhuang remained noncommittal, only saying, "We are all guests in the Meteor Dojo at present. It would be unseemly to act so recklessly on another’s territory. I will properly restrain the disciples of the Tai Su Sect."

"Fellow Daoist Xu, you worry too much. The Taixuan Sect is not so lacking in grace."

Suddenly, a clear voice drifted in from outside the crowd, and a figure descended gracefully from the sky. He was a man of ordinary appearance, dressed in a Plain White Robe, with his hair tied in a Taiji topknot.

The newcomer made no effort to conceal his aura. The moment he appeared, his presence felt like a great boulder suddenly dropped in the middle of a flowing river. If one were to observe him with Spiritual Sense, they would perceive only a single point of spiritual light, perfectly round and brilliantly incandescent, unscrupulously radiating ’energy.’

’A Top-grade Golden Core,’ Xuzhuang and Yu Jing thought simultaneously, their hearts stirring.

The Taixuan Sect had been founded a mere ten years ago. Apart from the Taixuan Profound True Monarch, the world knew very little about them.

’The Golden Core Grand Ceremony is imminent, so the one being honored shouldn’t be showing their face right now. That means this person must be another Top-Grade Golden Core Mage from the Taixuan Sect. But just how many True Disciples does the Taixuan Sect have? And how many of them have Top-grade Golden Cores?’

(Not every one of the Three Sects and Six Schools required a Top-grade Golden Core for one to become a True Disciple.)

Thinking further, they realized that a Top-Grade Golden Core Cultivator couldn’t just appear out of nowhere. It was safe to say that every known Top-Grade Golden Core Cultivator on the Divine Continent was a figure of renown.

The Taixuan Sect was only ten years old, yet it had a considerable number of disciples. They must have been following the Taixuan Profound True Monarch long before the sect’s official founding. The True Monarch himself had vanished without a trace for several thousand years, only to reappear having already attained the Pure Yang realm. Rumor had it that he had left the Profound Yellow Great World to cultivate somewhere in the vast cosmos, a rumor that now seemed increasingly likely to be true.

"Fellow Daoist Yu, Fellow Daoist Xu, and Fellow Daoist Lin, I have long admired your reputations. This humble one is Jiang Han, currently serving as the First Seat of the Taixuan Sect." The man offered a warm smile. "I heard the commotion from afar, and it gave me an idea. Two days from now, during the Golden Core Grand Ceremony, how about we have the disciples from each of our sects hold a small martial gathering to exchange some pointers?"

"Now that sounds interesting! Senior Brother Xu, hurry and agree to it." Lin Ling, who loved a good spectacle, quickly sent a telepathic message to Xuzhuang, urging him to accept the invitation for the gathering.

As for Lin Ling herself, although she and Xuzhuang had known each other since they were young and Lin Shanshang was her clan-sister, allowing the three to interact as peers, she had not yet formed a Golden Core. It would be inappropriate for her to interject in a discussion among the True Disciples of the Upper Profound and Taixuan Sects.

Yu Jing stated coolly, "The Upper Profound Sect has no objection."

Seeing Yu Jing agree, Xuzhuang glanced at Lin Shanshang. When she gave a slight nod, he knew Lin Ling must have goaded her into it. After a moment’s thought, he replied, "An excellent idea, Fellow Daoist Jiang. It will be a good chance for our disciples to gain some experience and avoid becoming like frogs in a well."

"Excellent," Jiang Han said with a smile. "Now that the three of you have agreed, I am much more confident I can persuade the other Fellow Daoists."

He then turned to the Taixuan Sect disciples. "You all heard him. Now get back and apply yourselves. Don’t go embarrassing the sect two days from now."

Without waiting for a response, he waved his great sleeve as if packing something away. Incredibly, all dozen or so living, breathing Taixuan Sect disciples were swept up and into it. He clasped his hands in a final gesture of farewell, then rode the wind and flew away.

’Universe in a Sleeve!’ The name of the technique popped into Xuzhuang’s mind, and he let out a laugh.