A young cultivator appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the red sun with his bare hands. The flames instantly extinguished, and a tiny sword was pulled out of it.

The man examined the flaming sword closely before sighing in admiration. “The Sun, a top-three immortal foundation even if you compare it to all the other immortal swords out there! To think that it is possible for someone to obtain it during a last-minute breakthrough! Still, the lass from the Bao Clan is fine. There is no need to go this far.”

“Unhand my sword!” Xiao Yu channeled his Dao power repeatedly but could not break his sword free.

Meanwhile, Cui Yu finally recovered from his shock and realized that the situation was off. He yelled, “Who are you? How dare you step into a fight meant for children as an adult! Have you no shame?”

The young cultivator smiled. “I just want to take a closer look at the legendary immortal sword, that’s all! To tell you the truth, it is a bad idea to make a last-minute breakthrough. You can very well drag down your Dao Foundation by a whole tier. Luckily for this boy, he managed to forge an immortal foundation despite it. That said, you are far too impatient for your age, you know that?”

He then released his grip on the immortal sword. It flew back to Xiao Yu and entered his forehead.

The boy grunted before saying coldly, “The likes of you don’t understand how gifted I am!”

Cui Yu couldn’t be bothered to verbally assault the young cultivator. He hurried to Bao Yun’s side and inspected her injury. A short while later, they finally realized that the dagger had only penetrated her lightly. So lightly, in fact, that it wasn’t even an inch into her flesh. The reason it looked so scary was because her dress had covered up most of the blade. At her current level—she was tempering her spirit—she wouldn’t even need to put an ointment on the wound. It would heal as good as new in two hours.

As for why the Dao Foundation mystic artifact had only cut a small hole in the girl’s clothes when it had penetrated Wei Yuan’s impossibly tough body with ease, it was because her dress wasn’t ordinary, of course. Even more exceptional was the fact that it appeared perfectly mundane even to a cultivator’s eye.

That said, the full force of a Dao Foundation mystic artifact wasn’t something she could withstand right now. That was why she was knocked out despite suffering only a minor flesh wound.

Cui Yu and the others carefully lifted her upper body before stimulating her consciousness with a wisp of Dao energy. When she awakened and noticed that her arms and chest were covered in blood, she immediately let out a cry of shock and turned as pale as a sheet.

Cui Yu hurriedly consoled her, “Relax, it’s all Wei Yuan’s bl… Wei Yuan!”

It was only now they recalled the poor boy and hurriedly checked on him. When they saw that blood was still steadily oozing from the wound, everyone scrambled to tend to him. They were doing a poor job, though. Although they had all learned a little about the art of healing, they were at the stage where their focus was primarily on advancing their cultivation. Save for a few exceptionally gifted individuals, none had devoted much effort to such techniques. Besides that, no one had brought any healing items with them because why would they? This was a task for servants, not scions.

Still, the crowd didn’t panic. First, they stopped the bleeding and sealed the wounds. Then, they sent someone to carry him to the Xuanming Hall promptly.

Wei Yuan’s injuries were so severe that his classmates were livid. They were all jabbing fingers at the Traditional Party students and yelling at the top of their lungs.

Cui Yu channeled his Dao energy and shouted with a voice that could be heard from a hundred zhang away, “Who is this exceptionally gifted senior brother who secretly reached the Dao Foundation stage but told no one about it? What’s the matter, are you afraid that you would embarrass yourself?”

Many Traditional Party disciples wordlessly stepped out of the way until one boy was revealed. Even they thought that this was an ugly look and did not wish to side with him. The boy who started it all looked both humiliated and furious. However, he was aware that he was in deep shit not because he injured Wei Yuan, but because he injured Bao Yun. Thus, he kept quiet.

His silence didn’t equate to Cui Yu’s silence, though. His eyes suddenly turned purple, and he quickly took a look at the boy and the cultivator in the sky. Then, he sneered internally, I see! They’re just a bunch of pretentious bastards!

Cui Yu dragged out his voice and said sarcastically, “I see! Your Dao Foundation is on the bottom rung of the Earth-tier! No wonder you acted with such haste; a couple more months past today, and you wouldn’t even get the chance to show off anymore! I am most impressed by the shoddiness of your bloodline; from which collateral branch and concubine did you spawn from, pray tell?”

It was a vile insult to put it lightly. The face of the young cultivator darkened as he rebuked, “He is a direct descendent of the Xu Clan! The Xu Clan may be inferior to the Cui Clan, but that doesn’t mean we’ll tolerate an attack on our honor!”

In response, Cui Yu said, “Last I heard, the Xu Clan doesn’t produce Earth-tier trash!”

He wasn’t just insulting the attacker, but also the cultivator himself. Although the cultivator’s aura was much greater than Xu Du as a matter of course, his Dao Foundation was Earth-tier. It was on the top rung of the tier, but still, it was only Earth-tier.

The young cultivator turned ashen with anger. “You’re so young, yet you speak with not one whit of caution. Didn’t your elders teach you manners?”

Before he even finished, Cui Yu pointed a finger at his nose and said, “I am a direct descendant of the eldest son of the Cui Clan! My mother hails from a prestigious family as well! You, a mere servant, dare to speak of the elders of the Cui Clan with your mouth? I gave you an inch, and you forget yourself completely!”

The young cultivator was so furious that his hands were shaking. “Says the hedonistic son who only knows how to abuse his clan’s authority!”

Cui Yu clasped his hands behind his back, sneering. “Excuse you? When the day comes where I finish my Dao Foundation, you’re the one who will be addressing me as ‘Senior Brother’ despite being over a decade older! Didn’t your elders teach you any manners at all?”

The young cultivator was so furious that he laughed. “And you’re so sure that you’ll form a Heaven-tier Dao Foundation?”

Cui Yu replied calmly, “I may not be as talented as Brother Xiao Yu, but my surname is Cui. Even if my Dao Foundation turned out to be an Earth-tier trash, my clan will make it Heaven-tier one way or another.”

“The Xu Clan is one of the Seven Surnames as well!”

Cui Yu sneered. “Does the Xu Clan possess the wealth to waste on the likes of you? Xu Clan, Xu Clan. You’re a servant. They probably didn’t even spend a fraction of their cultivation resources on you, and here you are playing the loyal hound. How shameful.”

The students of the Reform Party just listened without attempting to do anything. When it came to verbal wars, Cui Yu was their undisputed king. In fact, the first time they fought against the Traditional Party was because he accidentally spoke a little too much.

In terms of Dao Foundation talent, it was clear that the young cultivator was superior to Xu Du. However, he was the one taking care of the boy instead of the other way around. This could only mean that his status was far below Xu Du’s. As a member of an aristocratic family, Cui Yu was very familiar with such politics. That was why he kept attacking the young cultivator’s status.

The young cultivator was beyond furious, but he couldn’t actually attack Cui Yu. In the end, he could only pick Xu Du up, tell Bao Yun that he would give the Bao Clan an answer at a later date, and took his leave. He didn’t bother arguing with Cui Yu any longer.

For obvious reasons, no one was in the mood of sparring any longer. Shortly after this, the elders of the Bao Clan, the Cui Clan, and the Xiao Clan rushed over and fed Bao Yun all sorts of elixirs and immortal pills. She was fully healed before she even made it to the Xuanming Hall.

Wei Yuan had to lie down in the Xuanming Hall for quite some time, though. Thankfully, the dagger was simplistic in its design with no treacherous effects or vile curses attached to it. A penetrating wound was also a minor wound for a cultivator. The Daoist threw some medicinal powder on his back, and the wound immediately started healing at a visible rate.

The main reason Wei Yuan was severely injured was because he hadn’t begun refining his blood yet. Although his physical body was strong, his recovery speed was just slightly better than an ordinary human’s. If anything, the imbalance between his immortal flesh and his mortal blood was the reason why he was healing much slower than he should’ve been.

An hour passed, and Zhang Sheng finally showed up. Wei Yuan’s wound had already closed at this point. If he came an hour later, then there wouldn’t even be a wound to speak of.

The scholar looked at his wound expressionlessly and asked, “Who did it?”

The Daoist of the Xuanming Hall was concocting a poison to wash Wei Yuan’s wound and melt off the extra flesh. Despite wearing a full face of beard and mature appearance, he was actually a half-baked healer who hadn’t yet graduated from his studies. He had accidentally put too much Flesh Growing Powder on Wei Yuan’s back just now, and he was currently trying to fix his mistake.

When he heard Zhang Sheng’s question, the Daoist interrupted, “It’s just a minor issue. The kids were fooling around when a child from the Xu Clan accidentally went too far. They had already sent someone to apologize just now.”

They did? Zhang Sheng looked around. The Xuanming Hall’s sick ward was small and cramped. If a couple more people were standing in the room, they would not be able to turn around without experiencing difficulties. On top of that, there was no unnecessary furniture in the room whatsoever, nor any decor to speak of.

Right now, the sick ward was spotlessly clean. There was neither get-well-soon fruits, gifts, or even a letter. Where was the apology he spoke of, pray tell?

The Daoist suddenly hit himself in the head and said, “I forgot to mention that the Xu boy injured two people in total. The other person is Bao Yun. The Xu clan members did show up with a lot of gifts, but it all went to the Bao Clan.”

“And did anyone pay my disciple a visit?”

The Daoist gave it some thought. “Someone took a look, but that’s it. They didn’t say a word.”

Zhang Sheng immediately turned to leave.

“Shifu!” Wei Yuan hurriedly called out to his master. He knew his master well enough to know that the situation would probably escalate out of control if he allowed him to leave. “It’s just an unfortunate mistake during a private spar. It’s no big deal.” 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Zhang Sheng replied coldly, “There are two Dao mystic artifact Dao imprints in your body. I can pretend that the first imprint isn’t intentional, but there is no explaining away the second one! As if that’s not enough, they didn’t even offer you a single word of apology! No, this cannot be overlooked! You are my disciple. How can you be so timid and trouble-averse that you seek to smooth over even such an assault on your person?”

Wei Yuan kept persuading, “My lack of skill is ultimately the reason this accident happened. I’m the one who was wronged, so I should be the one to take revenge. Besides, it just isn’t right to bring an elder into a student’s fight. With how mediocre that guy is, I can handle him with one hand once I’ve tempered my bones.”

Zhang Sheng disagreed. “Revenge is not a dish served cold.”

It was at this moment a voice came from outside. “Are you in there, Wei Yuan? Junior Nephew Wei?”