My Junior Brother is a Hidden Boss

Chapter 15: When You Call for Help, Make Sure to Shout Loudly

Everything was in place. At Luo Tian’s command, a thunderous cheer erupted. Countless figures stepped into the void, taking flight via Sword Riding.

From afar, streaks of brilliant rainbow light arched across Cangyun City, looking for all the world as if a legion of sword immortals had descended to the mortal realm.

This grand spectacle stirred the entirety of Cangyun City.

Countless gazes turned skyward, brimming with reverence and yearning.

Those nearing the twilight of their lives felt a profound melancholy. They remembered witnessing this exact scene in their childhood, when Cangyun had marched out to repel a beast tide, securing decades of peace.

Seeing it once more, they remembered the hot-blooded passion of their youth, mourning their lack of affinity with the immortal Dao. Countless mortals could only watch from the dust, carrying their regrets to the grave.

Lu Changsheng trailed behind. Too lazy to expend his own Magic Power on Sword Riding, he simply hitched a ride, letting Ye Tianyi ferry him through the clouds.

Zhou Qingyu had initially offered him a spot, but his Eldest Senior Brother was essentially a walking spotlight. Tagging along with him would generate far too much unwanted aggro. It was much safer to stick with Ye Tianyi and maintain a low-profile market presence.

The vanguard traversed three thousand li before halting before a massive mountain range.

As far as the eye could see, the Hundred Thousand Mountains stretched across the horizon, a magnificent and imposing sea of peaks.

A fortified mountain pass lay ahead. In the distance, a torrential wave of malevolent energy surged toward the heavens. The beast tide had formed and was stampeding in their direction.

A middle-aged man emerged from the mountain pass and looked to Luo Tian.

“Sect Leader, the beast tide has arrived. They will reach our position in exactly one hour!”

Luo Tian nodded and surveyed the staging ground.

“Where are my Cangyun disciples?!”

“Here!”

“Repel the beast tide! Let this be your trial in blood! Shield the mortal realm from harm!”

“Yes!”

Hearing this thunderous, mountain-shaking cry, the young cultivators swelled with heroic vigor. Their blood boiled with the urge to slaughter Demon Beasts and prevent any harm from reaching the common people.

Yet, as the beast tide truly descended upon them, the atmosphere turned palpably heavy.

A seemingly infinite sea of grotesque and twisted Demon Beasts surged forward. Their roars shook the earth, eyes burning with bloodshot frenzy or glinting with cold malice as they charged the pass.

“Disciples of all peaks, heed my command! Follow the Elders, split into seven phalanxes, and kill!”

The instant the order echoed out, the army moved.

Zhou Qingyu stood with his hands resting casually behind his back. His gaze swept over the chaotic battlefield with a transcendent emptiness, completely unbothered by the impending slaughter. He maintained an indescribable, icy composure.

Lu Changsheng cast a sideways glance. The three operatives from the Xuantian Sect were also observing the incoming horde.

At that moment, an Elder called out, “Fellow Daoists of the Xuantian Sect!”

“Fellow Daoist!” the old man from the Xuantian Sect replied.

The Elder bowed slightly. “Our Danyun Peak specializes in the Dao of Alchemy and lacks prowess in combat. We beseech you, Fellow Daoists, lend us your strength!”

Lu Changsheng immediately read between the lines.

Sect Leader Luo Tian was actively mitigating risk. He had likely deduced these operatives were gunning for Zhou Qingyu and was orchestrating a tactical separation.

Astonishingly, the Xuantian Sect delegation didn’t put up a fight. They accepted the assignment cheerfully, following the Elder away from the main vanguard and heading toward a completely different sector.

Lu Changsheng blinked in surprise. He fully expected them to manufacture an excuse to stay in the primary combat zone. Instead, they just clocked out and walked away?

Are they charging up some kind of ultimate backdoor exploit?

Zhou Qingyu was far too Peerless and aloof to ever anticipate underhanded corporate sabotage. Lu Changsheng sighed internally; he would have to run security oversight himself.

Just then, he spotted Luo Qianling sprinting toward them in an absolute panic.

“Senior Brother Changsheng!”

“What’s wrong?”

Seeing her rush back, the surrounding disciples were bewildered. She had only just left to join her father’s detail.

Luo Qianling didn’t waste a single breath, speaking with an intensely grave tone: “I forgot to brief you on a critical detail!”

“What detail?”

“If you encounter a fatal error and need to call for help, make sure you scream at the absolute top of your lungs! Otherwise, I’m terrified I won’t hear you in time to dispatch my father to rescue you!”

Pfft…

Caught entirely off guard, countless surrounding disciples desperately choked back laughter.

Lu Changsheng’s eyebrow twitched. She had sprinted all the way across the staging ground… just to deliver that PSA?

With half the Sect’s personnel watching, even with his thick skin, a faint flush crept onto his face.

Screaming for help? Do I look like I need a tutorial on basic survival mechanics?

Still, he recognized the genuine, if mortifying, concern in Luo Qianling’s intent. He nodded with solemn gravity.

“Thank you for the heads-up, Junior Sister. When I scream, I will ensure maximum decibel output.”

“Oh, good!”

Luo Qianling exhaled a massive sigh of relief, turning to skip back toward the Sect Leader’s command platform.

She had initially lobbied to embed in this unit, but Luo Tian vehemently vetoed the idea. He also feared that assigning Lu Changsheng as her bodyguard would damage the boy’s public reputation. After a tense negotiation, this was their compromise.

Lu Changsheng quickly called out to stop her.

“Junior Sister, hold on a second!”

“What is it?”

A small cloth pouch materialized in Lu Changsheng’s palm.

“Keep this on your person. Do not unequip it.”

“What is this?” Luo Qianling asked, confused.

Lu Changsheng replied softly, “A talisman. A comprehensive insurance policy for your safety.”

Hearing this, the young girl’s cheeks flushed crimson. She accepted the pouch, pressed it reverently against her chest, and bolted away with her face buried in her hands.

The surrounding disciples were still practically rupturing their internal organs trying not to laugh.

Even the perpetually stone-faced Ye Tianyi allowed the barest, imperceptible upward twitch of his lips.

Only Zhou Qingyu remained a statue; aside from Cultivation and his Sword Dao, the man had zero interest in terrestrial affairs.

In that exact fraction of a second, a tyrannical surge of sword qi erupted. Zhou Qingyu raised his hand and slashed downward, effortlessly vertically bisecting a massive, several-zhang-tall demonic bull.

The beast tide had officially commenced.

Zhou Qingyu spearheaded the charge. Dropping his hand, a gleaming longsword materialized in his grasp. With a casual flick of his wrist, intersecting arcs of lethal sword qi shredded the landscape, piercing straight through the mountainous terrain as he plunged alone into the infinite sea of monsters.

Chaos detonated across the front lines. A maelstrom of roaring Magic Power and deafening shrieks consumed the pass.

The Elder of Qingyun Peak led the inner disciples into the grinder, but Zhou Qingyu was already a mile ahead.

His usually mild, jade-like aura crystallized into something oppressively sharp. Even when swarmed by multiple Demon Beasts at the eighth or ninth layer of Essence Condensation, his expression didn’t so much as twitch.

A torrential flood of sword light erupted. Under the awestruck gaze of the entire battlefield, monstrous beasts were butchered by the dozens. Boiling blood geysered into the air, raining down in a crimson mist. Massive, severed carcasses crashed into the earth, the kinetic impacts sending tremors through the mountain range.

Yet, standing at the absolute epicenter of the carnage, Zhou Qingyu’s white robes remained immaculate, untouched by a single drop of gore.

In that fleeting moment, he was the literal incarnation of a Peerless sword immortal descending from the heavens. Wielding his blade with apocalyptic efficiency, he massacred everything in his radius. The sheer, overwhelming violence of his art left even the seasoned Elders trembling in shock.

And the most terrifying part? He was still only at Essence Condensation. Once he finalized his Core Formation, what horrific heights would he reach?

Lu Changsheng absorbed this cinematic display with absolute apathy. He had been strategically assigned to the rear guard with a handful of others, tasked with mopping up any stray Demon Beasts that slipped past the frontline meatgrinder.

While the vanguard engaged in glorious, bloody combat, Lu Changsheng didn’t even bother tracking the fight visually. With a subtle pulse of his Divine Sense, the entire battlefield was mapped in his mind; using his actual eyes was an inefficient use of calories.

Instead, he kept his spatial Magical Artifact wide open, stealthily hoovering up high-value Demon Beast carcasses that dropped in his vicinity.

A single Essence Condensation stage beast corpse could fetch a hundred Spirit Stones on the black market. Even the low-level Spirit Accumulation fodder could be liquidated for thirty to fifty. As for the Core Formation beasts? They contained actual demon cores—premium, high-yield assets that the Sect’s logistics division would eagerly harvest for alchemy.

Just acting as the battlefield janitor was generating a massive windfall of untaxed revenue.

He actually found himself annoyed by the vanguard’s slow clear rate. If he wasn’t so paranoid about exposing his actual combat metrics, he would have stepped in to optimize the farming route himself.

He also kept a discrete overwatch on the Sect’s personnel. If anyone triggered a fatal aggro pull, he was prepared to covertly intercept the lethal blow, ensuring no one actually died on his watch.

A few disciples noticed him seemingly loitering and shook their heads in exasperation.

But no one filed a complaint. Given his public “strength,” they knew he was a non-combat asset. As long as he stayed out of the AoE zones and didn’t pull extra mobs, they didn’t care what he did.

No one harbored any illusions of him turning the tide. Truthfully, the Sect didn’t even need these disciples to hold the pass; their deployment was merely a corporate training exercise.

Yet, Lu Changsheng had never anticipated that a mandatory field exercise would yield such ridiculous profit margins. He was absolutely raking in the Spirit Stones. Pure, unadulterated ROI.

The operation proceeded with clockwork efficiency. Five days blurred past without a single critical error.

Lu Changsheng was thoroughly lost in the euphoric high of asset acquisition when a sudden discrepancy flagged in his mental processes.

Did I actually miscalculate the Xuantian Sect’s motives?

But just as the thought crystallized, the ambient air—previously choked with the suffocating, metallic stench of fresh blood—suddenly shifted. Drifting through the carnage was a faint, cloying, and unnervingly sweet fragrance.

…