Severing Ties: The Sect Regrets My Departure

“Are you worthy?”

Lu Dongshan’s three words were arrogant to the extreme. They hung in the air, a slap in the face to the entire White Qilin Sect.

The Golden Core elders standing beside Chi Mingfei exploded with rage.

“Audacious!”

“How dare you insult my Senior Brother!”

“A piece of trash who trapped himself for five hundred years dares to be so presumptuous?!”

They looked ready to charge, praying for Chi Mingfei to unleash his Soul Formation might and crush this insolent upstart. Even if Lu Dongshan had also reached the Soul Formation stage, they believed their Senior Brother Chi, a veteran of the realm, would surely emerge victorious.

However…

“Shut up!”

Their righteous indignation earned them nothing but a furious rebuke. Chi Mingfei, the pillar of the White Qilin Sect, stared fixedly at Lu Dongshan, his eyes filled not with battle lust, but with deep, gnawing wariness.

“What do you want, Lu Dongshan?” Chi Mingfei hissed. “Step aside. My business is with Gu Xiu.”

“You…” Chi Mingfei’s face darkened, but before he could retort, Lu Dongshan sneered.

“Chi Mingfei, the three of us were once hailed as the ‘Three Prodigies’ of our generation. But do I really need to remind you how much water was diluted into your title?”

The words choked Chi Mingfei. His face flushed green, then white.

They were indeed contemporaries. Chi Mingfei had even competed with Gu Xiu for the Falling Rain Valley legacy centuries ago. But the cruel reality of cultivation was that some people walked the path, while others flew. A single encounter was enough to prove that Chi Mingfei could not even glimpse the taillights of monsters like Gu Xiu or Lu Dongshan.

Prodigies came in tiers. And in front of these two, Chi Mingfei did not deserve the name.

“Moreover,” Lu Dongshan leaned forward, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper, “do you really think I don’t know what scheme you are plotting in the shadows?”

Chi Mingfei’s pupils contracted to pinpoints. “What are you talking about?”

“Do I need to spell it out?” Lu Dongshan curled his lip. “The White Qilin Sect is a sinking ship. You want to find a life raft. You are willing to endure humiliation, to sleep on firewood and taste gall just to survive. That is understandable. Survival is not shameful.”

“But let me give you a piece of advice.”

Lu Dongshan’s eyes bored into him.

“Be content with what you have seen today. If you keep testing the waters… aren’t you afraid that in the end, you’ll just be a pile of bleached bones? That you will lose everything, and all your hard work will merely be preparing the bridal chamber for another man to enjoy?”

Lu Dongshan’s words were cryptic to the crowd. The Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion disciples looked at each other blankly.

But Chi Mingfei felt a chill run down his spine.

What… what does he know?

Just as Chi Mingfei’s expression wavered, the jade pendant tucked in his robes vibrated against his chest. He injected a sliver of spiritual sense to check it, and his face instantly sank.

He shot Lu Dongshan a cold, venomous glare.

Then, he looked deeply at Gu Xiu, who stood silently within the ship’s formation.

Without another word, Chi Mingfei waved his hand. “Let’s go!”

“Senior Brother?” the elders gasped, confused.

“The Azure Mystic Peak Master… is at the White Qilin Sect!” Chi Mingfei gritted out.

The disciples’ expressions changed instantly. Without hesitation, they abandoned their opponents, transformed into streaks of rainbow light, and fled toward the horizon.

With a Soul Formation expert covering their retreat, the battered forces of the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion had no way to stop them. And even if they could, no one wanted to provoke a desperate beast. They had survived with minimal casualties while the enemy left behind a pile of corpses. That was victory enough.

More importantly, although the wolf had left, a tiger remained.

Lu Dongshan was still there.

Facing the wary gazes of the Pavilion’s crew, Lu Dongshan’s intimidating aura vanished. He grinned, winked at Gu Xiu, and then turned to a trembling Wan Xiaobei.

“Your Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion has been doing well lately, hasn’t it?”

“Thank you for the praise, Senior,” Wan Xiaobei replied hurriedly, her heart pounding. She was terrified.

He definitely thinks Guest Elder Feng is the real Immortal Venerable Gu Xiu. We can keep up the act for now… but if he finds out we’re lying, he’ll tear us apart! We need to stall until reinforcements arrive!

While Wan Xiaobei was frantically plotting, Lu Dongshan dropped a bombshell.

“So,” he asked casually, picking his ear. “Do you guys need a hired thug?”

“Wha… what???”

Wan Xiaobei froze.

The Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion was a wealthy powerhouse in the Eastern Wasteland. It was normal for cultivators to seek employment.

But… this was a Soul Formation expert!

Beings of this level were the patriarchs of great clans or the pillars of Sacred Lands. They didn’t look for jobs; they accepted offerings. The Pavilion did employ Soul Formation experts, but those relationships were forged through years of negotiation and astronomical sums.

A Soul Formation expert walking up to the front door and asking for a job? Unprecedented.

Before Wan Xiaobei could recover, Lu Dongshan began counting off his demands on his fingers.

“Salary, you guys figure it out. I’m not picky. I’ll fight when there’s trouble, but when there’s nothing going on, you can’t restrict my freedom.”

“Housing is important. I like big places. You must provide a large mansion. Preferably close to the pleasure quarters.”

“Also, and this is key, I don’t have many hobbies, but I do enjoy a lively household. You need to arrange eight or ten pretty young ladies to keep me company. A few more wouldn’t hurt…”

He rambled on, listing his requirements for a hedonistic lifestyle.

Wan Xiaobei listened, her internal scream growing louder.

It’s over! Guest Elder Feng’s cover as the Azure Mystic Sword Immortal… is going to blow up in our faces!!!

While Wan Xiaobei panicked, the situation at the White Qilin Sect was far grimmer.

Chi Mingfei descended from the sky with his surviving subordinates, his face dark as a thunderhead.

At the sect’s main entrance, several disciples were scrubbing bloodstains from the stone steps using water talismans. To the side, two corpses wearing White Qilin robes were being wrapped for burial.

“Chi Mingfei, your disciples are truly getting worse with each generation. I helped you discipline them a bit. Accidentally killed two. My sincere apologies.”

The voice was languid, dripping with false sweetness.

A young woman in purple robes walked slowly out of the main hall.

Lu Qingyao.

Master of the Spirit Beast Peak of the Azure Mystic Sacred Land. The seventh disciple of the Azure Mystic Supreme.

She claimed to be apologetic, but her eyes were cold, and her tone was mocking.

Seeing her, a surge of killing intent rose in Chi Mingfei’s eyes.

Lu Qingyao ignored his glare. She frowned, looking annoyed. “What? I already explained it was an accident. You wouldn’t… actually want to pursue this over two pieces of trash, would you?”

“Immortal Lu killed my disciples in my own sect,” Chi Mingfei said through gritted teeth. “Do you think I should just let it go?”

“Of course you should. In fact, you should thank me.”

“What did you say?”

“Their potential was garbage,” Lu Qingyao scoffed. “Even if they cultivated for a hundred years, they would only waste your resources. If they stepped into the outside world, a real prodigy would have swatted them like flies anyway. By killing them now, I saved you a fortune in spirit stones. Shouldn’t you be grateful?”

The White Qilin disciples clenched their fists, trembling with rage. This was sophistry!

“Talent or no talent, they were my disciples!” Chi Mingfei roared. “Immortal Lu, is your hand reaching too far?!”

“I did it for your own good,” Lu Qingyao said dismissively, examining her fingernails. “If not for the fact that your sect is useful for raising my spirit beasts, I wouldn’t bother disciplining your trash for you.”

She looked up, her eyes narrowing into a sneer. “Tell me, Sect Leader Chi… am I right?”

She was only at the Golden Core Grand Perfection stage. In the world of cultivation, for a Golden Core to speak this way to a Soul Formation expert was courting death. It was audacious to the extreme.

But Chi Mingfei stood there, his jaw clenched so hard his teeth creaked.

Finally, he bowed his head.

“Thank you… Peak Master Lu… for taking the trouble.”

Tears of humiliation fell from the eyes of the White Qilin disciples.

It was pathetic. For years, Lu Qingyao had treated their sect like her personal kennel. She ordered them around, beat them, and killed them as she pleased, treating them worse than the lowest servants of the Spirit Beast Peak.

But they were powerless.

Their old Sect Leader was dying. Chi Mingfei was their strongest shield, and even he had to bow.

Not just because she was backed by the Azure Mystic Sacred Land and a Supreme.

But because Lu Qingyao held the lifeline of everyone in the White Qilin Sect in her hands.

And despite her lower realm, she was terrifying. Her true combat power defied logic; ordinary Nascent Souls, perhaps even Soul Formation experts, could not suppress her.

She was a true Child of Destiny.

Lu Qingyao seemed disappointed that Chi Mingfei didn’t snap. She curled her lip. “So? Did you get the legacy from the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion?”

“No.”

“No?” Her eyes flashed.

“We encountered a powerful enemy.”

“Who?”

Chi Mingfei took a deep breath. “Lu Dongshan.”

“Lu Dongshan?”

“Yes. He is protecting the Pavilion.”

“Trash!” Lu Qingyao shrieked, her face twisting. “Chi Mingfei, five hundred years ago you were trash. Five hundred years later, you are still trash!”

She unleashed a torrent of abuse. Chi Mingfei stood silent, taking every insult, his fists clenching and unclenching at his sides.

Finally, Lu Qingyao vented enough spleen. “Forget it. I can’t rely on you useless idiots. I’ll deal with the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion myself sooner or later.”

“Remember this,” she commanded coldly. “My Junior Brother is preparing to emerge from seclusion in two days. Prepare the spirit beasts he needs immediately. If you dare delay his journey, I will skin you all alive!”

She summoned a cloud of auspicious light and shot into the sky, leaving without a backward glance.

“Senior Brother!” a disciple cried out, weeping blood. “Let’s fight that witch to the death!”

“I can’t take this anymore! Our sect is being destroyed by her!”

“Better to die in battle than live like dogs! Senior Uncle, we are not afraid of death!”

Chi Mingfei looked at the hateful, desperate faces of his martial nephews.

He said nothing.

He shook his head, turned around, and walked into his private chambers, closing the heavy doors behind him.

He offered no comfort. He spoke no words of vengeance. To the disciples, it looked like cowardice.

But inside the room, Chi Mingfei leaned against the door, his fingernails digging into his palms until blood dripped onto the floor.

He felt the humiliation burning his soul. He knew the White Qilin Sect was broken.

But he had to endure.

Sleeping on firewood. Tasting gall.

Fortunately… the wait was almost over.

He activated a silencing formation and walked to a hidden corner of the room. He triggered a mechanism, revealing a secret chamber.

Inside, there was only a pool of ink-black water, rippling with strange spiritual energy.

Chi Mingfei took a brush and wrote a message on a piece of spirit paper.

Gu Xiu is indeed not at Azure Mystic!

He hesitated, thinking, but added nothing else. He tossed the paper into the ink pool. The black water swallowed it instantly.

He didn’t leave. He stood in the dark, head bowed, waiting.

Moments later, the pool rippled.

Words surfaced on the black water, glowing with a chilling light.

Chi Mingfei read them, and for the first time in centuries, a savage, ecstatic light filled his eyes.

The message was eight characters long.

Cold Dew Day, Annihilate Azure Mystic Together!