My Junior Brother is a Hidden Boss

Chapter 7: Lu Changsheng? No Need to Fear!

The pavilion had been swept clean; a serene calm had returned to the Drunken Moon Pavilion.

Su Muyue stood in silence, her expression an unreadable mask as she replayed the recent events in her mind.

“What occupies your thoughts, Young Miss?” an elderly man approached, unable to suppress his curiosity.

“I am thinking about Lu Changsheng.”

“Is there something amiss with him?” the old man inquired.

Su Muyue turned slightly. “Elder Qi, what is your assessment of this person?”

The old man pondered for a long time, yet his conclusion was distilled into a single, decisive sentence.

“He is nothing but a frivolous playboy.”

“Is that truly all you see?”

“Putting aside today’s farce, who within the entire Cangyun Sect does not know of his reputation? Previously, I too suspected he might be concealing his true depths. I even tracked him from the shadows. Yet, aside from sipping tea, sleeping until noon, and idling about the city, he has scarcely done a single day of proper work!”

The old man spoke with the absolute certainty of one who had conducted meticulous, day-and-night surveillance over many long years.

Furthermore, there was a specialized formation inscribed upon the very corridor before them. It naturally probed anyone who walked its path, laying their cultivation base bare.

Lu Changsheng had frequented this place countless times, and it was not as though he had shown absolutely zero progress.

From the ninth layer of Qi Condensation a few years ago, he had crawled to the first layer of Spirit Accumulation, then the second, and recently, he had finally dragged himself to the third layer of Spirit Accumulation.

Forget the illustrious direct disciples; he could not even measure up to the vast majority of the Cangyun Sect’s ordinary inner disciples.

Su Muyue, however, simply shook her head. “I cannot shake the feeling that this person is far from simple. He is… profoundly interesting.”

The old man pressed the matter no further, offering only a gentle reminder. “It is fine for the Young Miss to indulge her curiosity, provided you do not lose sight of our true purpose. We absolutely must obtain the Cangyun Diagram!”

“I am well aware.”

Su Muyue gave a solemn nod.

Meanwhile, concealed in the shadows, Lu Changsheng quietly observed those few Core Formation cultivators.

A heavy silence had hung over them at first, unbroken until Shi Feng was finally carried into the courtyard on a bloody stretcher.

Seeing his battered, miserable state, the others drew their brows together in deep frowns.

One of them waved a dismissive hand. “Take him down to heal his wounds.”

“Understood.”

Watching Shi Feng’s retreating form, someone finally broke the silence. “This Lu Changsheng truly is… an unconventional breed.”

He struggled to find the words to describe the sheer absurdity of what had just transpired.

It was a classic tale of two young hotbloods fighting over a jade beauty. By all the laws of the cultivation world, a dramatic duel should have been inevitable.

And indeed, blood was shed-but only because Lu Changsheng had summoned a mob to ruthlessly curb-stomp Shi Feng into the dirt.

“I originally planned to have Shi Feng batter Lu Changsheng to lure out Zhou Qingyu and probe his true strength. I never expected the brat to just call in a thug squad for a one-sided beatdown!”

“It is not entirely surprising. The flaw lies in our own calculations.”

“How so?”

“Lu Changsheng’s cultivation is hovering at a pathetic third layer of Spirit Accumulation. Refusing to fight Shi Feng head-on proves he has basic survival instincts. Besides, what kind of martial pride could a pampered parasite possibly possess? Why would he ever dirty his own hands?”

“A fair point.”

Listening from the dark, Lu Changsheng raised a single brow. ‘A pampered parasite? Wow. One-star review for customer profiling right there,’ he muttered inwardly.

The three men exchanged meaningful glances. One finally said, “Let it go. We shall test Zhou Qingyu’s edge another day. Our primary objective takes precedence.”

“Indeed.”

“The patrol guard in Cangyun City rotates today. There is a gap between the current squad returning to the Cangyun Sect and the relief squad arriving. We have exactly half an hour to strike.”

“That is more than enough time. The Ning family only brought a single Core Formation escort on this trip. I will kite the escort away; you two seize the window to make the kill.”

The conspirators finalized their grim layout.

Lu Changsheng perked up. So these masked bozos were actually gunning for the Ning family? His little confrontation at the pavilion was just collateral damage?

“We have but one shot at this. Tomorrow they ascend Qingyun Peak, and the opportunity will vanish forever. The moment I draw the guard away, you execute the Ning siblings. If the heirs of the Ning family bleed out in the streets of Cangyun City, the Ning Patriarch will absolutely demand blood in return.”

“Cangyun will be plunged into chaos. By leveraging the Ning family’s righteous fury, we can finally uproot the Sect entirely!”

Hss! Lu Changsheng inhaled sharply.

Hearing their business plan, Lu Changsheng was genuinely shocked.

He hadn’t expected these guys to be running such a high-stakes corporate sabotage campaign.

Ning Yuxin was here on a VIP tour of Qingyun Peak. If she and her brother got flatlined in Cangyun City’s jurisdiction, the Sect would face a massive PR nightmare and zero-liability lawsuits.

Throw in a little astroturfing to fan the flames, and the resulting war between the Ning family and the Cangyun Sect would be an apocalyptic migraine.

‘Talk about a hostile corporate takeover,’ he mused.

Lu Changsheng really hadn’t planned on stepping into a geopolitical landmine tonight.

Normally, he couldn’t care less who these people wanted to murder. It wasn’t his business.

But if the Ning siblings died, Cangyun would descend into martial law. That directly impacted his bottom line.

Without the Sect acting as his all-inclusive, hazard-free retirement fund, where would he go?

These bastards weren’t just plotting a murder; they were explicitly trying to smash his iron rice bowl! Unforgivable.

Without further delay, one of the cultivators blurred into motion, darting toward the Drunken Immortal Tower.

They had the Sect’s guard rotations mapped out and knew Ning Yuxin’s exact itinerary. This wasn’t a crime of passion; this was a heavily premeditated operation.

Soon, a subtle commotion rippled from afar. Two distinct bursts of spiritual pressure flared and immediately shot out of the city limits, one chasing the other.

The bait had been taken, drawn far away to avoid triggering the spiritual tripwires of the Cangyun Sect Elders.

Seeing their premium window open, the two remaining Core Formation assassins coiled their legs, ready to launch.

But the instant they rose, the ambient moonlight was blotted out. A solitary figure drifted down from the heavens, descending with feather-light grace.

It was a young man, clad in robes of pristine white that seemed utterly untouched by worldly dust. With his hands casually clasped behind his back, he touched down softly, barring their path.

“Lu Changsheng!”

Both assassins barked in unison, thoroughly thrown off balance.

Lu Changsheng stood before them, a warm, perfectly manicured smile on his face. “Esteemed seniors, how exactly has my humble Cangyun Sect slighted you, that you would try to bankrupt my peaceful livelihood in such a manner?”

“You heard us?”

Lu Changsheng gave a polite, agreeable nod.

The two instantly tightened their guards. Their gazes darted through the shadows, while their divine sense violently expanded to sweep the perimeter.

They assumed they had walked into a massive ambush, but their sweeping senses returned nothing. There were no hidden enforcers. Just this single, lazy youth.

“It is only Lu Changsheng. Stand down, there is no threat!”

One of the assassins scoffed.

The other sneered maliciously. “If you had kept your head down, you might have lived out your pathetic days. But you just had to jump out and court death!”

“Stop wasting breath. Erase him.”

With a flick of his wrist, roiling Spiritual power erupted. His fingers blurred into a sword seal, fully intending to casually sever the boy’s life without a second thought.

Seeing the lethality in their eyes, Lu Changsheng let out a quiet sigh. “A two-on-one dispute resolution is a bit outside my usual service package, but I suppose I can accommodate you.”

“Accommodate?”

“You think a piece of trash like you can handle us?”

The two men threw their heads back and laughed. The sheer arrogance of this Spirit Accumulation trash was the funniest joke they had heard all year.

Still chuckling, the first assassin unleashed his killing strike.

But the instant the razor-sharp sword aura neared Lu Changsheng, an unfathomable, crushing pressure materialized from the void. The incoming attack hit an invisible wall and instantly disintegrated into useless sparks.

“What the-“

The attacker’s sneer froze. Before his mind could even process the failure of his technique, Lu Changsheng lazily lifted a single finger. A sliver of incandescent sword light condensed, tearing the void open with a horrifying shriek. In a microsecond, it bypassed all defenses and effortlessly severed the assassin’s neck.

Thud.

The headless corpse collapsed into the dirt, a fountain of blood painting the moonlight. The surviving cultivator’s pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks, his chest seized by a paralyzing, suffocating terror.

“Core Formation… how is this possible…?”

The remaining old man stared in absolute dread, his very soul shivering as he finally sensed the true depths of the boy’s cultivation.

The youth standing casually before him was no more than eighteen, yet he radiated the oppressive majesty of a supreme Core Formation overlord. The sheer density of his aura was a bottomless abyss, completely dwarfing their own pathetic realms.

The young prodigies of Cangzhou? The fabled Little Sword Immortal Zhou Qingyu? Compared to the monstrous entity standing before him, they were nothing but fireflies trying to outshine a blazing sun.

His survival instincts screaming, the old man bit the tip of his tongue and burned his blood essence. He spun on his heel, executing his strongest evasive blood art to flee into the night.

He didn’t even harbor the thought of revenge. That aura was an insurmountable peak of despair; resisting was futile.

But Lu Changsheng simply took a single, unhurried step. The fabric of space seemed to fold beneath his boots. Like a phantom born of nightmares, he materialized directly in the fleeing man’s path, eclipsing the moon.

Not a single word was spoken. He merely pressed his palm downward. A tidal wave of absolute Spiritual power descended, obliterating the old man’s defenses and effortlessly snuffing out his life force like a candle in a hurricane.

Even as darkness claimed his fading consciousness, the old man remained trapped in a state of terminal disbelief. In his final breath, an agonizing epiphany took root: the true terror of the Cangyun Sect was not their ancient legacy, nor was it the genius Zhou Qingyu. It was the smiling, harmless playboy standing right here.

Lu Changsheng gazed down at the two cooling corpses, his expression returning to a state of idle boredom. With a casual flick of his fingers, a silent blue flame ignited, washing over the bodies until nothing remained but fine, pale ash.

He waved his sleeve, summoning a gentle gust of wind that scattered the ash to the four corners of the courtyard. Only when the crime scene was impeccably sterilized did he turn to leave.

Yet, as he glanced toward the dark woods beyond the city limits, he paused, calculating a final variable. Deciding it was better to be thorough, he tapped his fingertip against the air. A brilliant beam of spiritual light pierced the clouds.

It was the Cangyun Sect’s highest-tier distress signal.

…