Wait a minute, where is my master?

Above the city walls.

Seeing the Golden Thunderbolt once again, and having the fortune to witness the little Taoist cast a new magic, the Old Dean maintained a calm expression on his face, but his heart was like a turbulent river.

"Where on earth did that old Taoist Tianxing find a monster to take under his wing?

That Shen Zhi was also a well-known figure in the Demon Sect, a great Mahayana Realm cultivator, and yet he couldn't withstand even the time it takes for an incense to burn, no, not even half an incense stick's time, before he perished like this!

And this young one's strength isn't just formidable, his control over spiritual power is also so exquisite. That move just now, gathering spirit into fire out of thin air, is something that would take an ordinary cultivator decades of arduous practice to achieve."

As the Old Dean pondered this, a strange thought suddenly popped into his mind.

"Eh, since this young one can control spiritual power so exquisitely, could it be that when he grievously wounded me with the Golden Thunderbolt several months ago, he had also perfectly measured his strength?

No, no, this little Taoist is so polite and righteous. Although he is powerful, he does not bully others by flaunting his strength. He is even concerned about his nominal master, sparing no effort to search everywhere, so it certainly couldn't have been intentional. It must have been a misunderstanding."

As soon as this thought surfaced, it was promptly dismissed by the Old Dean.

No matter whether Jin Xu's use of spiritual power was intentional at the time, since the other party had said it was a misunderstanding, then it must certainly be one!

The Old Dean stroked his beard, descended from midair, and walked towards Jin Xu.

He planned to congratulate him, and in the process, inquire whether the little Taoist could conveniently extract that last bit of Golden Thunderbolt that had troubled him for so long.

Meanwhile, Lan Junyan, who had been hovering in midair, had already landed on the ground quite early. She walked dazedly to the fountain created by Jin Xu's strike.

She silently measured the size of the fountain with her eyes, then glanced at her own shoulders.

For a moment, she felt bewildered.

The terrifying Demon Cultivator who had broken through the Qingmu City Protection Array with three strikes was effortlessly defeated by this little Taoist in two.

'No wonder my senior brother apologized to him. But why did he look at me while he was confronting that Demon Cultivator just now?'

At the entrance to the Qingmu Secret Realm.

The leaders of the various Cultivation Forces and the Confucian Practitioners of Qingmu Academy had all gathered there, and three Hall Masters from the Demon Sect's Twelve Halls stood stiffly in place, completely stunned.

The short and ugly cultivator, who had just been boasting that after this deed he would be famous throughout the Nine Provinces Immortal World, was now trembling the most.

"Damn it, you Shen Zhi＆＊＃％％"

The short and ugly cultivator cursed inwardly, too terrified to move a muscle in reality.

They were surrounded by Righteous Path cultivators from across the city, any of whom they normally would have gone to great lengths to avoid.

Now, they were the ones being surrounded, and what's more infuriating was that they had walked into the trap of their own volition!

In a certain sense, they would indeed "become famous" in the Nine Provinces Cultivation World this time around, though the process was somewhat off the mark.

Previously, they might have served as background figures in the tales of Shen Zhi's exploits. Now, they were destined to become background figures in the exploits of Jin Xu.

The little Taoist glanced at the three Hall Masters standing at the entrance and walked straight toward the Old Dean of Qingmu Academy.

He had allowed these Immortal Sect forces and Confucian Practitioners to round up the three Hall Masters from the Demon Sect, as they claimed they wanted to vie for the chance to exchange the heads of the three for an opportunity to undergo the Wash Essence and Marrow ritual at Emperor Xia's court.

Cultivators who had seen the broadcast had already begun to guess Jin Xu's identity, but seeing the little Taoist in completely different robes and mask than when he was at Great Xia, they surmised he didn't want to be recognized and therefore, no one approached him to confirm.

Of course, the main reason was fear.

"Senior Yan..."

"Cough cough... No, you should keep calling me Brother Yan or Brother Yan, in the Cultivation World we respect the strong, and I truly can't bear the title of senior, Brother Jin," said the Old Dean, halting Jin Xu's attempt to address him as a senior after witnessing his strength anew.

"But my master and you are old acquaintances, and for the sake of propriety..."

Jin Xu looked at the Old Dean's coughing body and felt out of place for a moment.

After all, at that time he thought the other party was out to kill him, and the Old Dean's face had appeared several times in his nightmares!

"It's fine, when the time comes, Tianxing Taoist and I will each take our own."

"Besides, if your master knew you had this strength, he might even call you Brother Jin."

The second half of the sentence was muttered quietly by the Old Dean, but he thought that given Tianxing's bullish nature, he might really do something like that.

"What did you say?"

The little Taoist actually heard it, but really didn't know how to respond.

Luckily, he had learned some practical social skills while reading leisure books in his early years.

Skill number one: When you don't know how to respond, ask again, and the other party is likely to change the subject.

Sure enough, the Old Dean coughed twice and directed his words towards the water column not far away, "Ahem... it's nothing, I was saying you did a good job with this fountain. Oh, right, the last time we sparred, there seemed to be a strand of that Golden Thunderbolt still lingering in my body. Since it's not something of my own, what do you think about taking it back now?"

The Old Dean spoke casually, but the hand stroking his beard indicated his heart was not at ease.

"What did you say?"

This time it wasn't a social technique; Jin Xu genuinely hadn't caught on for a moment.

However, as someone who had been specially recruited back home, the words had barely left his mouth before he understood the implication.

"Oh, you're referring to that misunderstanding last time."

Saying this, the little Taoist stepped closer, his left hand conjuring a white light.

"Yes, cough cough... it's that, ah~"

Mid-sentence, the Old Dean found Jin Xu had pressed the Body Purification Skill onto his shoulder quicker than lightning could cover one's ears.

The sensation of having his insides ceaselessly tormented and now suddenly healed made the Old Dean accidentally lose control and let out a comfortable cry.

Fortunately, the sound wasn't loud, and most cultivators were busy discussing how to divide up the three Hall Masters. Nobody noticed what was happening here.

However, there was an exception: Lan Junyan, who stood beside the fountain.

She was deep in thought, puzzling over why Jin Xu had looked at her that time, when she heard a strange sound.

Lan Junyan turned her head and saw that her teacher was the source of the noise, and Jin Xu's hand was still on her teacher's shoulder.

???

Therefore, the leading scholar of Qingmu Academy had one more thing to add to her list of unexplained mysteries.

...

A small courtyard somewhere in Qingmu City.

The yard was not large, with three rooms.

At the center was a makeshift tent, and inside lay more than a dozen cultivators bound hand and foot, their mouths gagged.

These cultivators appeared to have average cultivation, with the highest being in the Golden Core Realm. Most of them were dressed plainly, with ordinary appearances, the type that would be lost in a crowd.

Outside the pavilion.

A child with greasy lips from eating a chicken drumstick was tentatively conversing with a cat staring blankly into the sky.

"Uncle Ju, do we need to call over the elders from our sect to back us up?"