My Junior Brother is a Hidden Boss

Chapter 3: I Must Have Been Blind

The night was hazy, enveloping the Cangyun Immortal Sect in profound tranquility.

Suddenly, a long, agonizing howl shattered the silence.

Countless brilliant rays of light erupted from Cangyun Peak as a figure staggered haphazardly into the sky.

It was the Sect Leader of the Cangyun Immortal Sect, Luo Tian.

At this moment, Luo Tian possessed none of the lofty majesty expected of a Sect Leader. His robes were torn to shreds, his hair was a chaotic mess, and his face was mottled with purple bruises. His eyes were swollen completely shut, painting a picture of absolute misery.

A black shadow shot up right behind him, giving relentless, oppressive chase.

“Audacious lunatic! You push a man too far!”

Luo Tian roared in fury, so livid that smoke practically plumed from his seven orifices. He, the dignified Sect Leader, had been dragged out of bed in the dead of night just to be brutally beaten-and he hadn’t even managed to fight back.

While he hadn’t sustained any crippling injuries, the utter humiliation was unbearable!

Nearly nine years ago, a fiend had mysteriously surfaced within the Sect, sporadically ambushing victims for a savage beating without ever leaving a trace.

As the years ticked by, this phantom grew increasingly deranged. Dissatisfied with pummeling mere disciples, it escalated to ambushing peak Elders, before finally setting its sights on the Peak Masters themselves.

And tonight, the maniac had finally targeted him, the Sect Leader.

The more Luo Tian dwelled on it, the more his blood boiled. This assailant never permanently maimed anyone, but the sheer unpredictability of the beatings was psychological torture.

This lone menace had single-handedly terrorized the entire Sect into waking at the crack of dawn, forcing everyone to cultivate like their lives depended on it out of sheer paranoia.

Soon enough, the commotion drew a crowd of concerned cultivators, but the shadow had long since dissolved into the night.

The Peak Masters rushed to the scene, yet they arrived far too late.

Over on Qingyun Peak, Ye Tianyi had awoken at the first sign of a disturbance.

Just as he summoned his sword to render aid, he caught the faintest glimpse of a black silhouette slipping into Qingyun Peak’s borders.

His heart seized in alarm, and he immediately moved to intercept.

Yet, after a thorough sweep of the perimeter, he found nothing amiss. The only person in sight was Lu Changsheng, strolling leisurely from the direction of Eldest Senior Brother’s Secluded Cultivation chambers.

“Second Senior Brother, still awake at this hour?” Lu Changsheng asked smoothly.

Ye Tianyi narrowed his eyes. “Junior Brother, did you notice an intruder breaching Qingyun Peak just now?”

“Not a soul!”

“Are you certain?”

Ye Tianyi cast a deeply suspicious glare at his Junior Brother. Choosing to hold his tongue, he spun on his heel and rushed toward Cangyun Peak to assist the Sect Leader.

Lu Changsheng watched his Senior Brother depart, exhaling a long, weary sigh. This Sect is an absolute management nightmare. Without a little physical motivation, none of them bother to hit their cultivation metrics. If the workforce keeps slacking off like this, how are we ever going to scale operations? Who’s supposed to act as my meat shield?

Wearing the aggrieved expression of a frustrated CEO let down by incompetent middle management, he shuffled back to his quarters to rest.

I play it safe, sure, but a man needs accurate data on his own combat output.

Otherwise, how am I supposed to calculate the risk-to-reward ratio before engaging an enemy?

Thus, following every successful breakthrough, he invariably sought out the most complacent members of the Sect for a ‘performance review.’

Naturally, he conducted rigorous risk assessments before every strike, guaranteeing his absolute anonymity.

As an insurance policy, he had obsessively mastered every evasion art in existence. Unless an opponent outleveled him by several major realms, catching him was mathematically impossible.

His proficiency in aura-concealment and phantom movement was so flawless that even his own mother wouldn’t recognize him in an alleyway.

This foolproof stealth infrastructure was exactly what authorized his side hustle as the infamous Night Demon.

However, today’s cultivation session had once again triggered the agonizing backlash of his Myriad Tribulations Immortal Physique. Pushing himself to ambush the Sect Leader before his health bar had fully regenerated left him practically paralyzed with pain.

The night dragged on. It wasn’t until high noon, after thoroughly confirming the Sect Leader would survive, that the anxious crowds atop Cangyun Peak finally dispersed.

Ye Tianyi wearily retraced his steps to his own peak.

He still couldn’t wrap his mind around the sheer, unbridled lunacy required to mercilessly batter a Sect Leader in his own bed.

Recalling the countless victims who shared similar traumatic encounters, all of whom wept bitterly and cursed the assailant as a literal monster, Ye Tianyi shuddered.

Yet, as he neared Qingyun Peak, the memory of that elusive black shadow resurfaced. He had chased it, only to find his Junior Brother standing right there.

A deeply disturbing, entirely absurd hypothesis crept into his mind.

Could the culprit from last night… actually be Junior Brother?

Lu Changsheng’s presence had simply been too perfectly timed.

However, the very second he stepped onto the grounds of Qingyun Peak, he instantly realized his brain must be leaking to ever entertain such a ridiculous notion.

Before him, in a wide open courtyard, Lu Changsheng was slumped entirely boneless across a rocking chair.

Several stunningly beautiful female disciples, barely in their twenties, flanked him. They were diligently massaging his shoulders and kneading his legs.

The Junior Sisters were sweating profusely, their brows furrowed as they poured genuine spiritual effort into the massage.

Lu Changsheng, conversely, wore an expression of decadent bliss, occasionally letting out a soft, contented groan.

“Senior Brother Changsheng, is this pressure adequate?”

“Increase the torque a bit. My tolerance threshold is high!”

“Like this?”

“Yes, yes, right on the acupoint! Put some more shoulder into it!”

“Understood!”

The Junior Sister nodded, applying even more rigorous strength.

Lu Changsheng melted further into the chair. “Just forward me your cultivation bottlenecks later. I’ll run them by Eldest Senior Brother. I never leave my contractors unpaid!”

The group continued their cheerful, highly inappropriate banter.

Ye Tianyi’s expression contorted violently, the righteous fury in his chest finally snapping its restraints.

“What in the heavens are you doing?!”

His thunderous roar shocked the female disciples pale. They scrambled backward like frightened quail, huddling to the side.

Lu Changsheng actually jolted in his seat. Blinking owlishly, he asked, “What’s the emergency, Senior Brother?”

“I asked what you are doing!”

Ye Tianyi demanded, his voice trembling with rage.

Lu Changsheng reflexively answered, “Undergoing physical therapy?”

“Physical… I…”

The sheer brazenness of the reply short-circuited Ye Tianyi’s brain.

Was that supposed to be an answer?! Did the boy think he was genuinely asking for a definition?!

Sensing the misunderstanding, Lu Changsheng quickly spun a defense. “Senior Brother, don’t be so violently orthodox. Proper deep-tissue circulation aids meridian flow and mitigates lactic acid buildup. It’s an essential recovery protocol.”

His breakthrough the previous day had thoroughly pulverized his nerves, and the residual agony would take days to clear. This physical toll was exactly why he spent most of his waking hours napping beneath the old pine.

He wasn’t lazy; his hardware was just critically overheated. He had only recently discovered that targeted spiritual massages temporarily reduced the pain debuffs.

Thus, he outsourced his recovery to these Junior Sisters.

Ye Tianyi stared, absolutely rendered mute by Lu Changsheng’s shameless corporate jargon. Finding no purchase there, he spun on the terrified female disciples.

“You are inner disciples of the esteemed Qingyun Peak! Instead of pursuing the Dao, you debase yourselves here, serving as mere parlor entertainment for his idle whims! It is… it is utterly…”

He choked on his own outrage, unable to find a word vile enough.

The Junior Sisters immediately bowed in a panic. “Second Senior Brother, we entered this arrangement entirely voluntarily!”

“Voluntarily?!”

“Yes!” one braver disciple squeaked out. “Our cultivation paths hit bottlenecks. With the Peak Master absent and the Elders constantly in Secluded Cultivation, Senior Brother Changsheng graciously acts as a liaison, forwarding our questions to Eldest Senior Brother! When we discovered he suffers from chronic meridian agony, we offered our services as compensation… We are not ‘entertainment’…”

Ye Tianyi was utterly blindsided.

Lu Changsheng nodded sagely. “Exactly, Senior Brother. You leaped to a highly unprofessional conclusion!”

“You…!”

Ye Tianyi felt a very real urge to cough up three liters of blood.

The girls were telling the truth-mostly. The minor discrepancy was that the person solving their high-level cultivation bottlenecks wasn’t Eldest Senior Brother. It was Lu Changsheng himself.

With my current stats, debugging Qi Condensation errors is child’s play. Consider it an investment in human resources. If the Cangyun Immortal Sect’s stock value goes up, I profit.

Even those lazy Peak Masters and Elders only hit the gym because my Night Demon persona keeps their KPIs terrified. A rising tide lifts all boats!

Thanks to my shadow management, we’re already dominating the market share against the other two Great Sects of Cangzhou. The ROI speaks for itself.

Once the Sect establishes an impenetrable monopoly, I can finally retire in peace, freeload off the Sect’s security perimeter, and organically ascend to Immortality. That is the ultimate retirement plan.

The outside world is a lawless PvP zone. If I walk out there, some over-leveled veteran will undoubtedly gank me for loot.

Hence, zero PR. Keep the profile low. If the public thinks I’m a useless nepo-baby, that’s just excellent camouflage.

A bad reputation is just a highly effective spam filter.

As long as I maintain this parasitic relationship with the Sect, nothing can touch me.

Ye Tianyi’s face remained as dark as the abyss. “You are dismissed. Return to your quarters!”

“Yes, Senior Brother!”

The Junior Sisters didn’t dare breathe a word of protest. Bowing hastily, they fled the scene.

Left alone, Ye Tianyi locked a terrifying glare onto Lu Changsheng. Today, come hell or high water, he was going to forcibly realign this boy’s Dao heart. He would absolutely not allow Qingyun Peak’s honor to be trampled!

Once again, the heavens denied him the opportunity. A young girl frantically rushed onto the summit of Qingyun Peak.

Locking eyes with Lu Changsheng, she screamed, “Senior Brother Changsheng, disaster! Eldest Senior Brother has suffered a critical cultivation deviation!”