NOVEL NEXT Chapter 29: Intercepted by Xiantian Sect!
"This idiot—passed out in the dirt like a mangy dog!"
Su Xiaobai's eye twitched. Just when he'd finally calmed his storming spirit sea, the quiet shattered under the voices of these rowdy brats.
'Six of them,' he noted, sensing their presences with the ease of a hawk eyeing chicks from above. 'Not much of a threat… but I'm in no rush to hop up, either.'
He'd already sent Xiao Lu safely to his ring world. With her tucked away, he could relax, even if the aura around these newcomers suggested a few cultivation stages above him.
The intruders were a mixed group of five men and a woman, divided by color: three in plain gray robes and three in dark blue, each of them had this distinct mark on their chest, just above the heart—a dragon coiling around an orb.
Sect disciples, then. Treasure-chasing troublemakers by the look of them.
"Elder Bai, come over here!" one of the blue-robed disciples sneered, elbowing his friend. "Some fool's lying here like he just lost a bet with fate."
Su Xiaobai gritted his teeth, fighting the urge to spring up and scatter them like dry leaves. 'Patience,' he reminded himself. 'Let them dig their own graves first.'
One of the disciples—Wang Fei—a tall, smug one with a boot begging to be stomped on—stepped forward and prodded Su Xiaobai in the ribs. "Get up, coward!"
Su Xiaobai remained still, playing the role of 'unconscious fool', though inwardly, he was considering which one to smack first when he did get up.
Then, a new voice echoed through the air. It was soft and sweet, like silk brushing against skin, but sharp enough to cut deep.
"Cheng Yong. Wang Fei. Fifteen lashes each."
"!!"
The two disciples froze, their faces draining of color.
SWOOSH!
A delicate feminine figure descended from above, landing with a grace movement. She spun a jade-handled parasol in her hand, the delicate accessory twirling lazily, mocking the very idea of a weapon.
Her green robes, decorated in silver that glinted like hidden blades, hugged her body elegantly. Crimson eyes as cold as starlight fixed on the group with a glare that would make even hardened cultivators flinch.
Bai Yujian, elder of the Xiantian Sect, didn't raise her voice or break her posture... She didn't need to.
"Have you forgotten the ways of the Xiantian Sect?" she asked, her tone as soft as it was deadly. "Mocking strangers to feel powerful? Flaunting your ranks to humiliate others? Tell me—does that make you stronger?"
"..."
"..."
Cheng Yong and Wang Fei's sneers vanished, replaced by uncomfortable silence.
"Elder Bai, we didn't mean—" Cheng Yong stammered, barely managing to get the words out.
"Didn't mean what?" Her gaze tore through his weak protest like a sharpened blade. "Didn't mean to make fools of yourselves?"
Pftt..
Su Xiaobai, lying in the dirt, felt his muscles tense involuntarily.
Her presence wasn't just strong—it was unfathomable. 'Who is this elder?' he wondered, both amused and tense at the same time.
If he couldn't sense her cultivation level, that could only mean one thing: she'd surpassed the mortal stages, likely reaching Deity Transformation.
Su Xiaobai's mind went back through what he knew of cultivation, a ladder stretching endlessly into the heavens.
Most people started at the first steps: Qi Awakening, where they gathered spiritual energy; then Qi Refinement, refining it; and Consolidation, where they locked it within a seed. From there, a true cultivator would step into 'Foundation Establishment'—a stage that was all about hardening the body and mind, preparing to step beyond mortal limits.
Then came 'Core Formation': the moment a cultivator condensed all that energy into a core, like the heartbeat of their power. The core was only the beginning of true strength, though.
After that, the cultivation path split into even greater realms—'Earthly Rebirth' to create a 'Nascent Soul', then 'Soul Fusion' to strengthen the spirit, and 'Spirit Severing' to break the last ties to mortality.
Then, if one was tenacious (or crazy) enough to survive all that, the final step was to 'integrate' it all into a divine embryo, which grew into a 'Deity,' where the body was reborn as an immortal vessel.
And Bai Yujian… well, she had clearly walked that entire path and then some.
Su Xiaobai was left praying to every ancestor he'd ever heard of that she wasn't a reincarnation of his personal nightmare, 'Long Lifen', who'd tortured him back home on White Cloud Star as if it were a pastime.
Just as he was cursing his rotten luck, the lone female disciple, Lan Meiyu, stepped forward. She had the kind of beauty that could convince any man to lower his guard—and then promptly knock him out with a single strike.
Almond-shaped eyes appraised him with curiosity, though her smile was barely a sliver.
"But Elder Bai, doesn't he seem a bit… suspicious? I mean, who lies around here of all places?~"
She stepped closer, her robe highlighting her slender waist, her fragrance drifting on the breeze.
"Suspicious or not, that doesn't excuse your behavior," Bai Yujian replied, casting a sidelong glance at Su Xiaobai, her crimson gaze sharp as ever.
She arched an eyebrow. 'He's awake,' she noted, sensing the faint ripples in his qi.
A gray-robed disciple with a round face and nervous manner—Fatty Zhou, as he was aptly named—cleared his throat. "Elder Bai, should we… uh, should we try to wake him? If he's just some passerby, we're wasting our time, aren't we?"
"Not just any passerby," said Xiao Yu, a fellow gray-robed disciple with sharp eyes and tied-back blue hair. "His breathing reveals traces of spiritual energy… he's a cultivator, like us."
A faint glimmer crossed Bai Yujian's eyes. "Leave him be for now," she commanded, cold and composed.
She turned to Liu Zhenhai, her personal disciple, the only one in this group who actually seemed competent.
He stood by the mouth of a cave, where a boulder blocked the way, eyes gleaming with the thrill of discovery. The faint golden light in his long blonde hair and his striking features could have made him the hero of his own tale.
"Liu Zhenhai," Elder Bai's voice softened slightly. "Do you see anything?"
"Yes, Elder Bai," he replied, his voice calm. "I'm certain the treasure is behind this boulder."
The word 'treasure' sent a jolt of interest through Su Xiaobai. 'So that's what they're here for.'
In a way, it made sense.
The Xiantian Sect—a righteous sect that prided itself on tradition and hierarchy—divided its disciples into levels.
A sect was different from a clan; while clans were essentially family powerhouses, passing down techniques within bloodlines, sects were open institutions where anyone with talent could rise through the ranks.
Inside Xiantian sect — The Outer Court disciples wore gray, blending in like unassuming dust, while Inner Court disciples like these blue-robed idiots strutted about, desperate to look important. But it was the crimson-robed Core Disciples, the elite, who were the true powers of the sect—right below the elders like Bai Yujian herself.
Sect disciples were always sniffing around for treasures and opportunities to prove themselves.
Apparently, Liu Zhenhai, with his sharp instincts and privileged position as a personal disciple, had found this place first and dragged his fellow lackeys along.
Meanwhile, Su Xiaobai's own heart sank. He had stumbled across this place by chance, following an old map he'd scavenged from Fairy Lianhua, hoping for some 'minor' fortune to get him by.
Instead, he'd found himself right under the noses of Xiantian disciples—and an elder who could turn him to dust with a flick of her finger.
As he lay there, Su Xiaobai could only hope that Elder Bai had the restraint—and mercy—not to crush him as easily as she had crushed her disciples' egos.