The barefoot man in hemp robes, sword in arms, slowly raised his head and coldly swept his gaze over the girl.
When she drew closer, his lips parted as he was about to speak. "You..."
The next moment.
Jiang Yuechu had already passed him and walked straight to the bluestone.
She paid no heed to the icy, bone-piercing gazes around her.
She merely stopped, clasped her hands in salute, and gave the old man seated cross-legged atop the bluestone an exceedingly formal bow.
"Some personal matters held me up. I arrived late."
"..."
Around the bluestone, silence fell instantly.
Everyone stared at the girl, traces of anger in their eyes.
What was this supposed to mean?
Could it be that, seeing their master had lost all his cultivation, she thought he no longer deserved the respect due to him?!
Yet in the face of her words.
Qin Zhisui, seated atop the bluestone, said nothing. He merely sank into a long silence.
After a long while, he gently shook his head. "It's fine. Find a place and sit down first."
"Master!"
The barefoot man in hemp robes, sword in arms, abruptly rose to his feet.
His hard features were covered in frost.
Immediately afterward, several more figures rose in tacit unison.
In an instant.
The once peaceful and tranquil back mountain of Crouching Ox Ridge became suffocating.
The auras of several Myriad-Forms Heaven Realm cultivators spread through the air, faintly pressing down upon the girl.
Dead leaves whirled through the air, and the wind howled.
The hemp-robed man stared at the calm-faced Jiang Yuechu and suppressed his fury as he said coldly, "We do not know what considerations Master had in keeping someone so ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth."
"But on her very first day of hearing the