“How devious, Lu Yun!” Another Lu cultivator stepped forward as soon as Lu Yun finished, contempt outlining his expression. “You’ll admit defeat if we can take a single hit from you? Aren’t you the top youth sovereign? It seems you’ve won the title not with real strength, but with tricks and schemes.”
“Oh?” Lu Yun looked at the cultivator.
“Why don’t you take a hit from us?” The cultivator smirked, believing himself to have seen through Lu Yun’s plan. “If you can take that, we’ll admit defeat. What say you?”
Many in the crowd perked up at this suggestion. Lu Yun’s attack earlier had been too unnatural; Lu Qingshuang had lost before she could even react. That told them that Lu Yun was powerful in offense, but not necessarily defense. Very few cultivators could master both.
One door opened was one window closed, after all.
“Why should we be the ones on defense and not the other way around?”
“That’s right. If you can take a hit from me, I’ll admit defeat!” A crescendo of hooting and hollering broke out, the development of which unnerved the Lu immortals.
Lu Yun mustn’t accept the challenge, if he knows what’s good for him! If our youths realize that their full strength isn’t enough to even touch him, it’ll be a fatal blow to their confidence!
Unfortunately, they couldn’t find any reason or excuse to stop him.
Lu Yun’s real level of strength might be a mystery to the youngsters, but that was hardly the case for the immortals. The top youth sovereign approved by the nine celestial emperors must far exceed any normal expectations.
“Alright.” Lu Yun nodded. “There are 1,382 of you present. You may all attack together.”
His reply draped a curtain of stunned silence over the crowd. A thousand plus cultivators may not be a lot of people, but they were all elites of the younger generation and future pillars of the clan. Lu Yun was going to take their concerted attack head-on?
Did he have a death wish?
“I don’t want you to come at me one by one and fail to touch me even after exhausting yourselves.” Lu Yun sighed. “You’ll lose the confidence to cultivate, and your dao immortals will chase me down.”
“Quit bragging!!” one of them growled in rage. “Take this!!”
Swoosh!
A kaleidoscopic ray of sword energy rose from the crowd to slash at Lu Yun. It was more than three hundred meters long and nine meters wide, ringed with a terrifying sword aura that threatened to bisect the air.
However, the sword energy halted a few meters away from Lu Yun and shattered.
“Impossible!!” Eyes wide in disbelief, the attacker’s slash hadn’t even gotten close to Lu Yun, let alone cut through his clothes!
“I told you that you should all—” An enormous explosion at the mouth of the Mauve Peace Paradise Joy cut Lu Yun short.
Kaboooom!
A clear voice rang through the area.
“You hear the words of Qing Shan, an august immortal of the Qing Clan. Today, by the orders of our forefather, I hereby blockade your entrance for ten days. Anyone unwilling to accept this may challenge me!”
Ten days was the acceptable limit, since that was the coronation day of the new celestial emperor.
The declaration sent all of Mauve Peace Paradise into a frenzy. Lu Yun’s feud with the youths had few repercussions. Having a Qing august immortal block their entrance, however, was a humiliation even worse than what they’d suffered at Lu Yun’s hands in Dusk Province. If no one in the clan could manage to defeat Qing Shan, they would have no future in all of Nephrite Major.
“This is all because of Lu Yun!” Vicious scowls of irritation shot at Lun Yun from all sides.
Their ancestor had saved Lu Yun from a Qing dao immortal. Moreover, Lu Yun possessed the Arcane Golden Bell, one of the Qing dao-grade treasures.
That was what the Qing Clan was really after.
“Over the next ten days, no golden immortal or beyond shall intervene,” Lu Daoling’s voice reverberated throughout the small world. “Anyone under golden immortal realm may challenge Qing Shan.”
The Lu immortals brooded. Qing Shan wasn’t his clan’s top august immortal, but he was among the best in Xiankan. August immortals like him had been garden-variety in the Lu Clan of the past, but the disaster that struck a hundred years ago had consumed countless talented immortals.
They’d lost roughly half of their genius cultivators then, and recovery was slow and arduous. Someone like Lu Yuanhou, who could rival geniuses of the top Nephrite factions, had finally appeared to general relief and celebration.
...then summarily met his death at Lu Yun’s hands.
A new crop of talent had not yet grown. Powerful immortals sitting in the high council had fallen in battle, and no geniuses were present among the low-level cultivators. The clan would’ve been driven out of the sixth major paradise, if it weren’t for Lu Daoling.
Frightfully oppressive, the silence was finally broken by Lu Yun’s sigh.
“They’re after me. I should be the one to deal with them.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself just because you’ve defeated a few peerless immortals with sealed cultivation,” rebuked a Lu peerless immortal, his strongly-built frame radiating a commanding presence. This was Lu Qianjun, the current patriarch of the clan.
He was also the weakest patriarch in the history of the Lu Clan, appointed in a hurry after the last patriarch died in that disaster. Although he was a peak peerless immortal, he fell short when compared to the patriarchs of the other top Nephrite clans.
“I know I’m not his match.” Lu Yun nodded. “I’m not foolish enough to challenge a genius august immortal. You go, Aoxue.” He manifested the Arcane Golden Bell with a twist of the hand. “Kill Qing Shan and use this bell to block the Qing Clan’s entrance for a month. Kill anyone who approaches, and spare no one.”
“Understood.” A crimson figure flew past Lu Yun and rushed out of the paradise.
The Lu clansmen stared dumbly at Lu Yun, but didn’t know how to decline his solution. They didn’t have any reason to turn down his help. Like he said, trouble had arrived on their doorstep because of him, so of course he should be the one to deal with it.
“Qing Shan is a highly-regarded august immortal in the capital,” someone muttered. “He can rival even some golden immortals. All of Lu Yun’s followers must be from Dusk Province. Isn’t it suicide for Dusk immortals to challenge him?”
……
“Who are you?” Qing Shan frowned slightly at the girl in red rushing out of the entrance. He didn’t remember someone like her in the Lu Clan.
“The one to end your life.” Aoxue manifested a halberd and smashed it at Qing Shan.
This strength… since when was there someone like her in the Lu Clan?! Panicking, Qing Shan didn’t even have the time to react before the halberd smacked heavily into him, rendering him into powder in body and spirit.