The man looked at the female core disciple with a dark frown, but his eyes seemed to be pondering about his options. The fact that he failed to stop the group from returning to the sect spelled trouble not only for him and his companions, but could even potentially turn into a conflict between sects, which would be fine if this was an ordinary sect, but it was the Yin Yang Unity Palace. The sect itself was not that strong, even considered fairly weak, the problem was that they held vast connections with influential people and some fairly powerful sects.
“Now what? The sect would soon send people over, so this ends here.” the female disciple said.
“That’s true, I guess we can only say that this will end here” he said as he could not possibly continue escalating the situation right at the opponent sect’s doorstep when they have been alerted, or it would become harder to sweep the situation under the rug during the negotiations that would soon inevitably happen.
“Zhao Wuji, was it worth it to waste so much effort chasing us here? Did you really think it would make me reconsider rejecting you?” the female disciple said in a cold voice.
“Hmph, Hua Ziyan, you are too prideful for your own good. You should be honored that a man of my standing would even consider making you my woman. ” the man called Zhao Wuji replied with a grim expression.
After these words, a slight chuckle escaped in the tense atmosphere that was created between the two. This surprised both of them as they snapped their heads at Wu Long.
Wu Long first felt displeased at having his nice moment interrupted, but in the end it was just a nice moment, so he decided not to linger on it. He always considered himself to be quite easy going and not really overbearing, within limits of course.
Moreover, he was entertained by the situation playing out before him, so he decided to pardon them for now. He always was a bit lenient to beautiful women anyways and the one now standing beside him was definitely a top beauty.
When he heard Zhao Wuji’s words he couldn’t help himself. He always considered men who could not get attention from a woman they fancied and choose to use violence to vent their frustration as some of the most worthless and ridiculous people.
Even he, a man of women’ dreams who conquered countless hearts and tasted the affection of some of the most exquisite women in the known universe had met a lot of women who were genuinely not interested in him and his courting.
Not to say he did not make a fair amount of them change their minds with effort and dedication, but they were never based on faking or adjusting his existence, or in fact any deceitful behavior. And he definitely did not just push his demands and attention on them forcefully despite their protests.
He was never delusional or conceited enough to think that any woman should give him attention just because he approached her. And he never felt any woman should feel blessed, happy or honored to be approached by him, even with his credentials and qualifications.
There were a lot of women who he did not conquer or not even pursue because they were just not meant to be. And he never considered that there was something wrong with them, or with the fact that there were women who were not attracted to him. He considered it normal. Though they were all also women he did not feel attracted to even if they seemingly did not differ from women he did conquer in their qualities. His favorite phrase to describe such women was that ‘their Yin did not match his Yang’.
Zhao Wuji’s thought process expressed in his words was so absurd and laughable that he was genuinely amused for a moment. It was not exactly uncommon to hear such words, but he found it funny every time.
Zhao Wuji, however, was not amused by his chuckle as he narrowed his eyes at Wu Long.
He didn’t know where this guy came from or if Hua Ziyan knew him, but what he knew was that he was two entire realms below him and did not pose any threat so he ignored him at first.
“Did you find something amusing in this situation?”
He asked menacingly.
“Oh, please don’t mind me, continue”
Wu Long said in a nonchalant voice like he was a passerby who accidentally interrupted a street play.
This nonchalant attitude further unnerved Zhou Wuji as he felt that Wu Long was not treating the situation with appropriate seriousness and did not treat him with appropriate fear and respect.
“Zhao Wuji, this is the Yin Yang Unity Palace’s territory, and I advise you to not make any rash moves that will make your already less than ideal situation any worse.” Hua Ziyan said when she noticed a dangerous glint in Zhao Wuji’s eyes.
“Heh, you think crushing an ant will make my situation worse?” Zhao Wuji sneered, as he might have problems if he further messed with her, but killing this unknown weakling who obviously did not have any status would be fast and not really affect the negotiations later. He also did not want to appear weak by backing down after he was warned so he doubled down by slightly changing the angle his ox-tail sword was at, expressing his intentions.
“You do know that you have to deal with me before harming my fellow disciple, right?” Hua Ziyan said, trying to make him reevaluate taking action by throwing her existence into the equation.
“If I did not hurt you before, it was not because I was not able to. Do you really think you are strong enough to stop me? I am giving you your last chance. You should appreciate this kindness and hurry up to become my woman.” Zhao Wuji sneered, but Hua Ziyan was actually successful in her diversion of attention.
“Based on what qualifications? Do you think you are worthy?” she replied.
“If I am not, who is? You can wait for thousands of years until you become a dried up old hag and you will still not find a better choice than me. Surely, you don’t mean pipsqueaks like him?” he said as he turned his head at Wu Long.
“I am a Prime Disciple of the Yin Yang Unity Palace, and the next Palace Master, you have nothing that interests me. I gave you the same answer for the past two years, what makes you think that my answer will change, especially after today when you went so far this time?” she said coldly, displeased at his courting as usual, but still trying to keep his attention on her.
Her words slightly surprised Wu Long. It was now no wonder that there were similar golden patterns on both of their clothing despite having different designs and coming from different sects. That was a mark of a Prime Disciple, a Core Disciple that was a direct disciple of the current sect master and the candidate for the next generation sect master.
The reason the mark was similar for both of them was because any region of cultivation world that was somewhat recognizable as one whole part, which meant that it was a relatively self-contained small cultivation world where all sects shared a relatively similar level would have more or less at least a general common conventions, such as how to differentiate disciples, elders and such. This golden-threaded pattern on their robes was the convention of marking a Prime Disciple of the sect which was universal to every sect in this region.
“Hmph!”
Zhao Wuji scoffed.
“If you were a Prime Disciple in any other sect I might be inclined to believe that it was a somewhat honorable position you would be reluctant to leave, but there is nothing great about being the queen of this den of sluts and manwhores. Or do you think that rising to the status of the Prime Disciple in such a place will erase your lowly status as an orphan with no background or lineage? Dream on! You should know what’s better for you, stop being so haughty and beg me to let you into my bed. After all, who else would want a woman from such a sect, I only give you recognition because of your appearance and talent, but, don’t think you are worth something more! If it wasn’t a well known fact that you were refusing to choose a cultivation partner because none of them are up to your standards, I wouldn’t even bother with you.”
As Zhao Wuji was viciously spatting his words and Hua Ziyan’s expression was getting progressively ashen, Wu Long’s amusement vanished like a smoke in a blazing blizzard. A cold glint flickered in his eyes under the bamboo hat.
“Fairy Hua, may I borrow your sword? I promise I will return it to you safely and that it won’t take too long.” he suddenly said.
Hua Ziyan suddenly felt the atmosphere around the ordinary disciple beside her change, and his gentle and pleasant voice was having a mysterious effect on her. Before she knew it she already was handing him the sword she held in her hand.
She was not skilled in the sword in the first place, as she only used it temporarily until she could learn and use Spiritual Arts, martial arts in cultivation that did not depend heavily on physical body but using high-level techniques to fight with Spiritual Qi. So the sword always felt out of place in her hand, hence there was not as much resistance as someone would have if they were real sword users as they are sensitive to their sword being held by others.
“…huh? Wait…”
When she realized that Wu Long had taken her sword she came out of shock and raised her voice but he already stepped forward with the sword in the hand stretched out of his cloak.
Zhao Wuji looked at this without moving as he was not the least concerned by this ‘joke of a threat’ movement.
“Am I supposed to be impressed by your bravery?”
He sneered.
“You have escaped death once thanks to Fairy Hua stopping you from attacking me earlier, but thinking of it now you would have been better off attacking me at that time. You would have just died swiftly without experiencing much as we had no enmity. Now, though, although you will not die you would wish you had.”
Wu Long said in a tranquil voice.
Hearing this, both Zhao Wuji and Hua Ziyan were speechless for some time.
“Haha, hahahahaha, hahahahaha…!”
Zhao Wuji started laughing at first with a chuckle and then increasingly losing control over his laughter as he was truly laughing. He was not making a performance to show his supremacy but simply laughing. However, this laughter started to turn darker and more strained towards its end. As his initial surprise and amusement died down they were replaced by intense anger instead.
“If you think that I will spare you for entertaining me you are wrong. You need to know what awe and respect is to survive, and you, boy, let alone those, don’t even have common sense.” he spat as he was increasingly fuming with anger. 𝑜𝘷𝑙.𝘰𝑟𝑔
He would have never imagined such arrogant words coming from someone so insignificant.
“Boy? Hehe, you now have made another mistake, youngster, bringing the count to nine. I don’t really like bullying children, but you really left me no choice. I guess, I will have to tell you your nine mistakes so that you could be reformed. It would be your version of Nine Mortal Transformations since you would not get to have them.” Wu Long said as he was calmly approaching Zhao Wuji.
The Nine Mortal Transformations was another way of saying that someone has gone through the Nine Mortal Realms, as each of the realms was involving a transformation of a cultivator of the way of transcending mortality.
“That’s it, die!”
Zhao Wuji could not contain his anger any longer and leaped forward to strike with his ox-tailed sword. He was a practitioner at the Qi Condensation Realm, which meant that his Spiritual Qi was condensed and gave him that much more power compared to Qi Gathering Realm practitioners. The way they utilized Spiritual Qi to enhance the body was the same, but with vastly different results.
As Hua Ziyan was only starting to also move forward, she stiffened with widened eyes in the next moment.