True Person Daoxu bowed obsequiously and said flatteringly, "This disciple is Daoxu, an elder of the Hengyue Sect. I pay my respects to Progenitor Luo Chuan."
"Luo Chuan—the powerhouse who broke through to the Core Formation Stage in his teens?"
"I've heard of him. They say he's the youngest Core Formation cultivator in all of Zhao Kingdom, and his strength has long since reached the pinnacle."
"Looks like he's already broken through to the Nascent Soul Realm. Otherwise, why would Pu Nanzi be so wary of him?"
"The Nascent Soul Realm? Isn't that the level of an ancestor?"
The Hengyue Sect disciples stared wide-eyed in shock. They couldn't believe that this handsome young man was the peerless prodigy who had once made a name for himself throughout Zhao Kingdom.
Among the crowd, a disciple in a yellow robe also noticed Luo Chuan in the sky. His heart filled with shock and astonishment.
"To break through to the Nascent Soul Realm in your twenties—tsk, tsk, what extraordinary talent. Given enough time to cultivate, he'd have no trouble surpassing the realm I reached back then."
As Wang Lin stood there in shock, Situ Nan's voice came from within his mind, where he was sealed inside the Heaven Defying Bead.
It was easy to tell from his tone that even he hadn't expected such a young Nascent Soul cultivator to appear in the little Zhao Kingdom.
"Senior Situ, is breaking through to the Nascent Soul Realm in your twenties really that astonishing?"
Wang Lin stared in shock in Luo Chuan's direction, then asked curiously, "How old were you when you broke through to the Nascent Soul Realm?"
Inside the Heaven Defying Bead, Situ Nan curled his lip and replied irritably, "Of course it is. A cultivator who breaks through to the Nascent Soul Realm at twenty is peerless. I was already eighty when I broke through."
"And I did it in a high-level cultivation country brimming with spiritual energy. In this tiny Level 3 Cultivation Country, it'd probably take at least a hundred years."
Situ Nan stared at Luo Chuan with envy. When he saw that peerless face, he suddenly stood up, visibly excited.
"Good, good! What a handsome body. If only I could possess him!"
Situ Nan gazed at Luo Chuan's face, excitement written all over his own. If his cultivation weren't so weak right now, he would have possessed the man himself.
After all, strength meant nothing to him. What mattered most was good looks—and a body that could sleep with every woman on Vermilion Bird Planet.
Wang Lin awkwardly rubbed his nose and said softly, "Senior, now that you're only a wisp of soul, facing a Nascent Soul cultivator..."
"If I were still as I was back then, a mere Nascent Soul cultivator would be an ant. Hmph, he wouldn't even be worthy of putting on my shoes."
Situ Nan replied irritably.
With one hand behind his back, Luo Chuan looked at Pu Nanzi before him and said calmly, "Pu Nanzi, it's been a long time since we last met."
As his voice fell, the space within a hundred zhang around him was instantly torn apart. Surging energy spread in every direction like raging waves.
Pu Nanzi's throat bobbed. He dropped straight to his knees, sweat pouring down as he stammered, "Back then, you were merely in the early Core Formation Stage. How long has it been? You've already broken through to the late Nascent Soul Stage!"
Pu Nanzi's expression looked like the third reaction meme on your phone. He stood there, dumbstruck, unable to believe that the Core Formation brat from back then had now reached the Nascent Soul Realm.
Pu Nanzi trembled in terror. "D-don't kill me! I'm willing to hand over my Soul Blood."
Although Pu Nanzi was in the Nascent Soul Middle Stage, he was as fragile as an ant before Luo Chuan, who had reached the late Nascent Soul Stage.
Luo Chuan ignored Pu Nanzi's pleas. Instead, he surveyed the ruined sect before him and moved a finger. A streak of force instantly pierced Pu Nanzi's skull.
Pu Nanzi stared at Luo Chuan in disbelief. His body collapsed to the ground in an instant, without even a chance to react. His soul was destroyed on the spot.
When the Mystic Dao Sect disciples saw their Progenitor killed in an instant, they immediately summoned their flying swords and fled into the distance without looking back.
But with cultivation at merely the Foundation Establishment Realm and Golden Core Realm, they were nothing but ants before a Nascent Soul cultivator. Even if they ran a hundred miles, he could kill them in an instant.
Luo Chuan showed no mercy. He raised the Jade Flute to his lips and began to play softly.
As the lilting tune rang out, the Mystic Dao Sect disciples' orifices bled, and they dropped dead on the spot, their bodies dissolving into thick clouds of blood that filled the air.
Seeing their Progenitor strike, the Hengyue Sect disciples also knelt in excitement.
"Our Exiled Immortal Progenitor has returned! These ants must all be killed!"
Liu Wenju rushed before Luo Chuan, tears streaming down his face. "Progenitor... this disciple has failed the sect... My master and the others... all perished on the Outer Realm Battlefield..."
Back then, a sudden upheaval on the Outer Realm Battlefield had caused most of the Nascent Soul cultivators in Zhao Kingdom to be transported there by Lin Yi, the Heaven-Reaching Tower's envoy, to repair the battlefield.
Countless Nascent Soul powerhouses perished along the way. Every Nascent Soul Progenitor of the Hengyue Sect had fallen, and the sect's living strength had been all but wiped out.
Fortunately, Luo Chuan had only been in the Core Formation Stage back then and hadn't qualified to enter the Outer Realm Battlefield, so he had narrowly escaped disaster.
Now, he was the Hengyue Sect's only remaining Nascent Soul Progenitor. If he had returned any later, the Mystic Dao Sect might have swallowed up the Hengyue Sect as well.
With one hand behind his back, Luo Chuan said indifferently, "Since the Mystic Dao Sect dared to break the pact between our sects, I have no reason to honor the ties we once shared."
"Progenitor, you mean..."
Liu Wenju looked up, his face full of curiosity.
"Take back the Mystic Dao Sect and bring all its disciples into the Hengyue Sect."
Luo Chuan knew that with Pu Nanzi, the Mystic Dao Sect's Nascent Soul Progenitor, dead, other sects would swallow up the Mystic Dao Sect even if he did nothing.
Rather than let another top sect seize it, the Hengyue Sect could turn the tables and bring the Mystic Dao Sect under its wing, making it a second source of prosperity for the sect.
Liu Wenju and the others nodded. The Mystic Dao Sect had shown no mercy, so the Hengyue Sect would return the favor.
Luo Chuan loosely gripped the Jade Flute. A bamboo leaf transformed into a flying boat and settled gently on the ground.
Liu Wenju was awestruck. "Transforming an object with spiritual power—is this the true strength of a Nascent Soul cultivator?"
"Let's go."
With one hand behind his back, Luo Chuan boarded the flying boat formed from the fallen leaf and sped toward the Mystic Dao Sect.
At that moment, on the Mystic Dao Sect's plaza, several Qi Condensation Realm disciples in matching robes had been waiting for quite some time under the leadership of two Foundation Establishment elders.
"Will the Hengyue Sect put up a fierce resistance when Progenitor goes to take it over?"
Qin Gulei turned to Ouyang Dao with a grave expression. "Senior brother, should we go there ourselves, just in case the Hengyue Sect juniors threaten Progenitor?"