“Third Sib, you’ll be in charge of spreading the word,” the Captain said. “I’ll handle anyone that responds to the call, and Xu Qing, you be the public face of the operation. You get forty percent, Third Sib and I will get thirty each.”
“Good idea,” Third Elder Brother said with a grin. “I’ll spread the word that Xu Qing is challenging the coalition chosen.”
“Right,” the Captain replied. “But say that he’s not challenging everyone. He’s picking specific people for duels to the death!” The Captain produced an apple from somewhere and took a bite.
After some thought, Xu Qing said, “Except, the name list isn’t set. I’m still trying to decide who to fight.”
The three of them exchanged glances.
The Captain was smiling enigmatically, Third Elder Brother looked innocent, and Xu Qing seemed as calm as ever.
“Then it’s settled,” the Captain said. “These coalition people aren’t idiots. Anyone with a brain will think to send a gift our way.” Clearing his throat, he looked around. “You two carry on. I’m going to check out the rest of the hot spring. There aren’t enough girls in this part.” With that, the Captain got out of the pool and left to find another. Third Elder Brother stretched, said goodbye to Xu Qing, and then headed toward some of the other disciples in the pool, looking as innocent as a lamb.
Xu Qing simply closed his eyes and started doing some breathing exercises. However, only a moment later he opened his eyes to find that a female disciple from the coalition was drifting carefully toward him, her face a bit flushed.
Xu Qing glanced in the direction of Third Elder Brother and found that he was already in the middle of a whole group of girls. From the way they were smiling and laughing, it seemed they were all getting along great.
After considering the situation, Xu Qing realized that the strong spirit energy in the water was washing away his disguise. It wasn’t all gone. Only someone who knew him well would be able to recognize him. Yet revealing even just part of his good looks still left him bewitchingly attractive.
Closing his eyes, he meditated for a short time, then opened his eyes again.
There were now three female disciples nearby him. They were whispering to each other about his physical appearance. One of them, who was a bit more outgoing than the others, noticed that he’d opened his eyes. Laughing softly, she said, “Hello there, Junior Brother. Which sect are you from? I don’t recognize you.”
Xu Qing declined to respond, and simply closed his eyes.
More time passed. About two hours later, the Captain returned, eating an apple and humming a little tune. The pool he’d gone off to had started to get boring, as the female disciples slowly disappeared. Thus, he returned looking for Xu Qing and Third Elder Brother.
However, when he got close, his eyes went wide, and he suddenly stopped humming. Forgetting to take a bite of his apple, he stared at the spot he had left earlier, which had previously been mostly empty.
As of now… there were a lot of cultivators there, and most were female disciples.
Third Elder Brother was on one side, a girl under each arm, and three more in the vicinity, all talking and laughing with each other.
On the other side, there was no sign of Xu Qing, but the entire area was all girls.
The Captain inhaled sharply as he realized why there had been fewer and fewer female disciples on his side of the hot spring. Not quite willing to accept the reality of the situation, he marched over to get back into the now-crowded pool.
However, before he could get in, a female disciple with a round face and a lot of freckles glared up at him. “There’s no room here for a big fellow like you. Can’t you go to one of the other pools?”
Upon seeing the Captain being berated, Third Elder Brother grinned, patted the girls on either side of him on the head, and then got out of the pool. Grabbing the depressed Captain, he pulled him away.
“What’s going on?” the Captain said, looking back at the pool. “Where’s Fourth Sib?”
“He left a while ago. As for what’s going on, well, can’t you guess?”
The Captain sighed. “He got driven off by hot girls?”
Xu Qing was already back in his room, seated cross-legged in meditation. Given how much spirit energy he’d absorbed, he had to admit that the Everlasting Immortal Profundity River really was amazing. From what he could tell, if you practiced cultivation here long-term, then even someone with a lot of mutagen would find their mutagen levels dropping quickly. Although it wouldn’t be possible to completely purge it, the cumulative effects would be very beneficial for cultivation.
No wonder the coalition used their taboo treasure to destroy the Young Arbiter Sect’s dam and restore the flow of the Everlasting Immortal Profundity River. Xu Qing looked up and to the east.
That was where the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society was located, and was also where the Everlasting Immortal Profundity River flowed from. Considering that the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society controlled a third of the prefecture, it made sense that they would be able to benefit most from the river.
Xu Qing closed his eyes and went back to meditation.
The night passed.
The following morning at dawn, the official negotiations began between Seven Blood Eyes and the Seven Sect Coalition. They needed to discuss all the details of where Seven Blood Eyes would end up. As could be imagined, discussions like that would take a long time, as they touched on a host of complicated things, for example, spell formations, business interests, rules and regulations, et cetera.
As one of the delegates, Xu Qing was able to join the negotiations. However, he found everything very boring, and eventually went back to his room to work on cultivation. By now, he had fully integrated the seven-colored wind-chanting lamp into himself, and had full control of it. In doing so, he had discovered something very interesting. And that was… his two life lamps actually complemented each other! It was very exciting, and he spent a lot of effort probing and testing.
There were other highnesses who chose not to join the discussions. Most of them found reasons to slip away, and then went out to issue more dueling challenges. Before long, all of the coalition disciples were very riled up. The Seven Blood Eyes highnesses were being very domineering, and word spread fast. In fact, the second highness from the First Peak went to challenge the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect. The other mountain peaks were the same. While the bigwigs negotiated, the disciples’ desire to do battle heated up. Before long, everyone in the coalition was talking about it.
Three days later, the negotiations were still going on, and Seven Blood Eyes disciples were still issuing challenges left and right. Although there were victories and defeats on both sides, Seven Blood Eyes obviously had the upper hand.
What was more… one particular rumor started spreading that caused a huge stir among the coalition disciples. That rumor had to do with Xu Qing, and claimed that he was trying to decide who he wanted to challenge to a duel. As soon as word started to spread, the chosen from the various parts of the coalition were struck with fear. They knew that Xu Qing was like Master Shengyun used to be. He had six-flame battle prowess that put him on par with a Gold Core cultivator with one heavenly palace. With a terrifying cultivation base like that, nobody wanted to fight him. What was even worse was that, according to the rumors, he wanted to fight to the death. Everyone was shaken.
Of course, refusing a challenge would be a huge loss of face. Therefore, smart people such as Zhou Qifan secretly got in touch with the Captain, and sent over gifts as a show of goodwill. [1]
News about that quickly spread, and before long, chosen from all over the coalition were sending gifts.
Eventually, word of the matter reached the ears of the bigwigs in the coalition. By that point, the negotiations with Seven Blood Eyes were mostly over, and both sides were happy with the result. However, one of the coalition delegates, who was meeting with Master Seventh, didn’t seem very happy about the situation with Xu Qing. 𝚍ｎ𝚘ｖ𝚕．𝚘𝚛𝚐
“If your Seven Blood Eyes disciples want to challenge our coalition disciples, that’s fine. It’s a good thing for them to learn from each other. But that Xu Qing has six-flame battle prowess! For him to go around challenging people is obviously bullying, don’t you think? Before you were part of the coalition, it was a different story. But now we’re all on the same side!”
“Did he actually challenge anyone yet?” Master Seventh asked.
“That’s the most outrageous part! Ol’ Seventh, those apprentices of yours are just running a scam! In fact, your senior apprentice is apparently telling people that whoever gives the least will be put onto the challenge list for Xu Qing! It’s absolutely outrageous, and is simply bad manners. I wonder where they learned this behavior from!”
Master Seventh cleared his throat. “I agree it’s bad manners. But they’re just kids having fun, that’s all. Besides, how could your disciples be so gullible? Say, I have a few questions about our measure of authority with spell formations after we arrive. Come, come. Let’s hash out all the details.”
The coalition delegate wasn’t sure what to say in response. What kind of people are these??he thought, and couldn’t help but worry what things would be like in the new Eight Sect Coalition. As far as he could tell, the Seven Blood Eyes people might as well be gangsters. It was never like this before….
The coalition delegate sighed, then put the matter aside and focused on the negotiations. Meanwhile, Master Seventh smiled and earnestly delved into the topic at hand.
Two more days passed. The negotiations were complete, and an official announcement was made in the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, notifying all of the other groups of the change to the sect’s name. And now, all the other groups would be paying close attention to see what this Eight Sect Coalition was like.
In South Phoenix, the patriarch issued orders in the capital city that everyone was to prepare to move. Within one month, the sect would be transported to the mainland.
Back in the coalition, the other sects would set up a host of teleportation portals to make the move as smooth as possible. The highnesses from the various peaks continued to challenge the coalition disciples. However, not as many people were paying attention to the results. Everyone was more interested in Xu Qing, and were wondering who exactly he would challenge.
A lot of disciples had sent him gifts, and everyone wanted to see what the final result would be. However, Master Seventh picked a day to publicly call his three apprentices to him and severely scold them. He said that as members of the coalition, it wasn’t proper for them to issue challenges for life-or-death duels. What was more, he said that considering Xu Qing’s battle prowess, it wasn’t appropriate for him to bully other people in the coalition.
Xu Qing, the Captain, and Third Elder Brother all looked abashed. Their Master’s fierce berating had apparently brought them to their senses, as they loudly proclaimed that they understood the error of their ways, and would refrain from issuing any challenges….
That put an end to the matter. All of the coalition disciples who had sent gifts, including Huang Yikun and Zhou Qifan, could only smile bitterly. They knew full well that this Master and his three apprentices had just put on a show.
“So crafty!”
“I can’t believe a mighty Spirit Trove expert would do something like this with his apprentices….”
“And there’s nothing we can do about it! Everything he said makes perfect sense.”
As most of the other coalition disciples came to the realization that they’d been scammed, a rumbling sound echoed out from within the House of Grue Hunters. Sima Ru had emerged from her secluded meditation facilities. She had not successfully achieved her breakthrough, and thus, did not yet have a second heavenly palace. But because of what happened to her poor little brother, and because her clone had been wiped out of existence, she decided to come out early. [2]
The first thing she did was send a formal letter of challenge to Seven Blood Eyes.
She was going to fight Xu Qing!
It created an instant uproar. Sima Ru was a Gold Core cultivator with a heavenly palace! For her to challenge someone in a lower cultivation realm seemed like bullying. And yet… no one seemed to think it really was. In fact, everyone was of the opinion that the two of them were evenly matched.
There was no question that Xu Qing had superseded Master Shengyun as the number one chosen in the Eight Sect Coalition, and was someone who could crush heavenly palaces. As the most prominent disciple in Seven Blood Eyes, it wasn’t really an option for Xu Qing to decline the challenge. Therefore, Master Seventh offered him some advice.
“Be as deceptive as you can, but fight well. You’re fighting for the prestige of our sect. By the way, that girl Sima Ru has two hearts. The one on her right side could be of big help to you in the future….”
Xu Qing thought about the situation, and killing intent glittered in his eyes. After considering what he had accomplished lately with the seven-colored wind-chanting lamp, he sent a reply to Sima Ru in the form of a single sentence.
“I agree, but only if it’s a fight to the death.”
1. Zhou Qifan last appeared in 👈
2. Xu Qing’s fight with Sima Ru began in 👈