"Y-you..." Old Ye swallowed repeatedly as he looked at this monstrous new disciple. "The Sect Master said that one should be reasonable..."
Qin Haoxuan laughed. Having studied since childhood, he understood this well: reason with reasonable people, but trying to reason with unreasonable people was pure foolishness. Once, a great Confucian scholar had tried to reason with a bandit chief, only to have his head lopped off with a single slash.
With people like these, fists were the fastest way to communicate! If everyone was to have an easier time over the next seven days, then come on! Let them use their fists to have a proper talk about reason!
Qin Haoxuan grabbed Old Ye, who was slumped nearest to him, and drove a vicious punch into his chest. Several cracks rang out. With his Essence Energy exhausted and no strength left to resist, several of Old Ye's ribs broke, and he lay on the ground howling miserably.
Throwing Old Ye aside, Qin Haoxuan immediately pounced on another man and brought his iron fist down without hesitation...
A disciple at the Immortal Seedling Realm Third Leaf who still had a little spiritual power left tried to resist. He gathered his spiritual power and formed another hand seal, about to attack Qin Haoxuan again. Qin Haoxuan glared fiercely at him. Though Qin Haoxuan's gaze was far from ferocious enough to terrify gods and ghosts, the Immortal Seedling Realm Third Leaf expert froze at once. He felt as though his soul had suffered a crushing blow, his mind turning completely blank. Not only did the spiritual art in his hand fail to launch, but Qin Haoxuan pounced on him and beat him into a pig-headed mess, then viciously stomped him several times before he was done!
Long afterward, whenever that disciple who had suffered Qin Haoxuan's divine sense attack looked at him, it was as though he had seen a ghost. Recalling the grievous wound his soul had suffered, that terror of having his soul scatter and spirit fly apart haunted him with nightmares for many years.
What was called a brutal beating? The people Qin Haoxuan had dealt with came to understand, deep in their bones, exactly what a brutal beating was.
The two law enforcement disciples peeking from behind the iron door looked at one another. They had thought Qin Haoxuan would suffer badly no matter what, but not only was he fine, he had thoroughly enjoyed a newcomer's meal and fought one against many, beating that group of Immortal Seedling Realm Second and Third Leaf cultivators until they cried for their fathers and mothers.
After the lesson, forget revenge—none of them even dared approach Qin Haoxuan. What a joke. He was a monster who could not be injured no matter how they hit him. If they still dared provoke him, would that not be like an old man hanging himself, thinking his life was too long?
Once the "newcomer's meal" came to an end, the scorching heat within Qin Haoxuan rose again. Although the heat waves from the Lava Cellar offset part of it, the remaining heat had to be vented either by getting beaten up or through cultivation.
Qin Haoxuan activated the Great Dao Heart Seed Demon Technique. Spiritual power carrying the violent heat of the lava poured madly into his body. Others had to painstakingly filter out that violent element mixed within the spiritual power; if they absorbed it all into their bodies, they would inevitably suffer cultivation deviation. But Qin Haoxuan had no such concern. A Witch Cultivator's body was extraordinarily tough. Once that spiritual power laced with violent heat entered him, it instead neutralized the violent energy within his own spiritual power, like a cool hand gently stroking his feverish body.
Part of the spiritual power watered his immortal seed, while another part entered his bone marrow. Though his cultivation speed could not compare to the rate at which a violet seed absorbed spiritual power, it was still much faster than outside.
Yet some people simply could not bear to let Qin Haoxuan live too comfortably, even when he had already been locked in solitary confinement.
At dusk, Zhang Kuang stood in a secluded house within the menial disciples' residential area of Spirit Field Valley, surrounded by a crowd of fawning menial disciples.
"Perhaps you all know that my fellow townsman, Qin Haoxuan, and I have a grudge. Last year, he even broke several of my ribs. Now that he has been locked in the Lava Cellar, I do not intend to give him a chance to turn things around!" Murderous intent gleamed in Zhang Kuang's eyes as he swept his gaze across the menial disciples. "I have spoken to a law enforcement disciple. As long as someone is willing to deliberately make a mistake, he will help me send that person into the Lava Cellar! I want Qin Haoxuan to have nowhere to run!"
After saying this, Zhang Kuang added, "Once my spiritual arts reach great accomplishment and I gain a place in the Taichu Sect, I will certainly not forget those who help me today!"
The Taichu Sect had over ten thousand disciples, with countless capable people and powerful experts. It was exceedingly difficult to stand out among them and cast off the identity of a menial disciple. Yet if a violet seed disciple with limitless potential made such a promise, then even if the future was not necessarily glorious, he could at least help them escape the lowly menial registry, where they were looked down upon everywhere, and allow them to enjoy the treatment of ordinary disciples. This was an enormous temptation to them all.
At once, the menial disciples scrambled to volunteer.
"I'll go!" A man who bore some resemblance to Yuan Shanhu casually threw a punch at a tree as thick around as his waist. With a crash, the tree snapped and fell to the ground with a tremendous bang, drowning out the others' chaotic cries to volunteer. "I am Yuan Shanhu's cousin, Yuan Shanxiang! Immortal Seedling Realm Fifth Leaf! Qin Haoxuan got my cousin locked in solitary confinement while injured. I will never let him off lightly!"
Each additional leaf in the Immortal Seedling Realm represented another level of strength. Immortal Seedling Realm Fifth Leaf was already a relatively high cultivation level among these menial disciples. Once Yuan Shanxiang stepped forward, the other disciples who knew themselves inferior fell silent.
Seeing Yuan Shanxiang's muscles, brimming with explosive power, and the strength he had displayed, Zhang Kuang immediately smiled in satisfaction. Qin Haoxuan, Qin Haoxuan—could your body possibly be tougher than that tree?
Qin Haoxuan knew nothing of this, nor could he have imagined that Zhang Kuang was so desperate to put him to death. After cultivating with his eyes closed for an unknown number of hours, he suddenly heard the rattling sound of the iron door opening. Waves of food fragrance drifted into his nose, and Qin Haoxuan, who had still been meditating, could no longer sit still.
Damn it! What was going on today? Even when I had gone hungry for an entire day before, I had never been this ravenous. I'm starving to death!
It was not only Qin Haoxuan who lost his composure at the scent of food. The Immortal Seedling Realm disciples he had injured, lying listlessly in the corners, also had their eyes light up!
They looked exactly like a pack of starving ghosts reborn into the world.
For ordinary people, eating was something that had to be done every day—indeed, at every meal.
But for newcomers locked in the solitary confinement cells, it was usually nothing more than a distant luxury.
Cultivators already had great appetites. In a place like the Lava Cellar, they needed to eat even more to replenish the excessive physical strength they expended. One could imagine how unbearable it was to go an entire day without food.
"Food's here! Food's here!"
The disciple delivering food divided a large pot of rice into sixteen portions and cast a pitying glance at the newly arrived Qin Haoxuan. Unless a newcomer was exceptionally good at fighting or had powerful backing, going without food on the first day was an ironclad rule of Solitary Confinement Mountain.
Yet, to the food-delivery disciple's surprise, the old hands who would normally pounce like wolves and tigers before the food was even set down did not dare come forward today. They only stole fearful glances at Qin Haoxuan.
What was going on?
For a moment, the food-delivery disciple could not make heads or tails of it. Could these people be afraid of this newcomer? Looking closely, he saw that each of them bore bruises to varying degrees. Old Ye, who normally shouted the loudest, had his face swollen into a pig's head! Meanwhile, the newcomer was completely uninjured. Could it be that this whole group had been bullied by the newcomer instead?
That made no sense! No matter how he looked at this newcomer, he was only at the initial stage of the Immortal Root Planting Realm. He had only recently undergone Seed Breaking, was still far from Rooting, and was a hundred and eight thousand miles away from sprouting! Even if he had sprouted, he should not have been a match for Immortal Seedling Realm experts, should he? What was more, every person here was a wolf-and-tiger-like Immortal Seedling Realm expert, each one especially skilled at stirring up trouble—that was why they had been sent here. And among them was even an Immortal Seedling Realm Third Leaf expert!
As though to confirm his doubts, Qin Haoxuan leisurely rose to his feet and walked to the door. He took his portion of food and wolfed it down. When Qin Haoxuan glared at the old hands, though each was so hungry that his chest was pressed to his back, not one dared come near.
Only after Qin Haoxuan took his food back to where he had been sitting did the battered old hands swarm forward to collect theirs.
Qin Haoxuan finished all his food in just a few bites. Ever since beginning cultivation, he had been able to eat twenty steamed buns per meal. Cultivation's tremendous drain on physical strength was one reason, while another was that the Taichu Sect's food was especially delicious and contained a special power that happened to replenish the enormous amount of strength consumed in cultivation!
I used to think Immortals did not eat the food of mortals. It turns out that was complete nonsense! Calling cultivators rice buckets would not be the slightest exaggeration!
After finishing his huge bowl of food, Qin Haoxuan still felt ravenous. Looking at the old hands, he saw that more than half the food remained in the bowls they had just collected. He walked straight over and stopped them from shoveling food into their mouths. Under the food-delivery disciple's dumbfounded gaze, he swept clean the meals of all fifteen old hands, who dared to be angry but dared not speak. Even the other rice-bucket-like cultivators could not help cursing from the depths of their hearts when they saw him eat: "Rice bucket!"
The food-delivery disciple felt the world spin around him. Having seen strong people bully the weak all his life, this was the first time he had seen the weak bully the strong!
Watching Qin Haoxuan's ferocious eating, the old hands who dared not voice their anger gathered together and whispered among themselves.
"With our cultivation and strength, we could not even injure him. What kind of freak is he?"
"I heard that the strongest Martial Dao Innate experts can defeat Immortal Seedling Realm Seventh Leaf cultivators. But Martial Dao Innate experts cannot cultivate immortality, because martial arts and immortal cultivation cannot merge. I think he may very well be one of those Martial Dao Innate experts."
"He must be! Otherwise, how could an ordinary mortal possibly be our match?"
Martial Dao Innate experts were extremely formidable beings in the mortal world. Without immense perseverance and a great opportunity, no one could become Martial Dao Innate. The old hands' gazes toward Qin Haoxuan gained several more degrees of wariness.
After eating and drinking his fill, Qin Haoxuan continued cultivating. In others' eyes, the Lava Cellar was a place of suffering and solitary confinement; in Qin Haoxuan's eyes, it was a blessed cave paradise for cultivation. He had only seven days, so he had to seize every moment to cultivate and completely digest the medicinal power of the One-Leaf Golden Lotus within him. Such an opportunity was far too rare!
"Brother Haoxuan, Brother Haoxuan."
At the familiar, gentle call, Qin Haoxuan opened his eyes from cultivation and saw Xu Yu's face beyond the iron door. Her pretty face was flushed red and purple from struggling to breathe in the extreme heat. A wordless surge of emotion rose in his heart. He had walked the road from Spirit Field Valley to the Lava Cellar himself and knew how difficult and dangerous it was. Yet Xu Yu, whose body was still not as strong as his, had braved countless dangers to come here.
"These are the notes from this afternoon's lesson. Take a look. I heard it is very hot here, so I brought you some water." Xu Yu walked before Qin Haoxuan, handed him the notebook, then took out a waterskin.
Qin Haoxuan clearly saw the bloody cracks in her lips from the scorching heat. A soft corner of his heart was instantly touched. He handed the waterskin she had pushed at him back to her. "You drink it. Wet your throat."
"It's fine. I'm not thirsty." Xu Yu looked at the old hands gathered together, then at Qin Haoxuan, and said dejectedly, "I went to see the Sect Master, but he had gone traveling. I did not get to see him..."
Many people have said that Qin Haoxuan sounds so tacky as a protagonist's name.
Others have said, "Highrise, didn't you always use homophones before? Drive = advance, Qin Fen = diligence. Why this time?"
Then let me give one unified answer. Look carefully, friends.
Qin Haoxuan
The Five Elements are respectively: fire, water, earth.
The stroke counts are respectively: 10, 11, 10.
Overall numerology score: 100 points.
The Heaven, Personality, Earth, Total, and Outer numbers are respectively: 11 (wood), 21 (wood), 21 (wood), 31 (wood), 11 (wood).
A destiny chart—a perfect-score name. That is the reason.
Before you continue