Clash, Anticipation

Ye Changting was Li Min Cheng's senior brother from the inner sect, and also a disciple of the Cloud Mountain School's Mysterious Mountain Lineage.

Though he gazed levelly at the escort agency staff present, his phoenix eyes carried an overbearing air of looking down from on high.

That was the confidence brought by having a great sect at his back.

The escorts and runners swept by his gaze mostly lowered their heads slightly, intimidated by the Cloud Mountain School's status.

Ye Changting merely withdrew his gaze with faint satisfaction at the deathly silent atmosphere.

He then glanced at the drastically pale Li Min Cheng and the chief escort still standing at the head of the council hall. With a cold snort, he slowly drew a scroll from his robes. "Yuchi Guang, as a member of the sect, why do you not bow upon seeing the deputy sect master's writ?"

"Young Master Ye, I was merely an Outer Disciple of the school in my early years. I have long since completed my training and descended the mountain, and am no longer bound by the sect's rules."

A faint smile appeared on Chief Escort Yuchi Guang's face as he slowly descended from the raised end of the council hall.

"Once a sect member, always a sect member. Yuchi Guang, Li Min Cheng, are you two planning to refuse the sect's writ?"

Ye Changting only gave a scornful laugh at that answer. He raised the writ, and his gaze turned icy.

"Wouldn't dare, wouldn't dare. Since its founding, the Tongda Escort Agency has been an affiliated force of the Cloud Mountain School. At such a critical time, we will naturally share the sect's fate. We would not dare harbor the slightest thought of betrayal."

The chief escort chuckled. His plump face looked benevolent and kind as he walked over and casually accepted the writ.

He also gave the motionless Li Min Cheng beside him a push, making him bend at the waist a little.

As if snapping back to his senses, Li Min Cheng clasped his hands in salute and gritted his teeth. "Min Cheng obeys the sect's writ."

Then he retreated half a step, his face pale.

He did not turn around.

He only felt the eyes of every brother and sister in the escort agency gathered upon him. There had to be many disappointed gazes among them, and he did not dare look back.

"Tch!"

Seeing Li Min Cheng seemingly lost and dispirited, Ye Changting's handsome face revealed a trace of contempt. "Junior Brother Li, weren't you quite proud in the inner sect before? You even pulled faces at me and fought me over women?"

"And now, aren't you just like a dog, at my... cough!"

Before he could finish, a fist slammed into his abdomen. He instantly collapsed to the ground, curling up clutching his stomach like a fully cooked shrimp. The agony spreading through his entire body left him unable to utter a word.

"Kid! When you're out in the world, you'd best keep that mouth clean!"

The chief escort withdrew his hand, still wearing that smiling, kindly expression.

Forget Li Min Cheng being stunned.

Even the young men and women from the Cloud Mountain School froze slightly.

"Hm?"

As for the two outer sect elders standing behind them, their calm expressions shifted faintly. One of them lightly tapped off with his toes, seeming weightless as he left a string of afterimages where he stood.

The chief escort seemed to have expected this long ago.

His feet traced an arc across the ground as he twisted aside, evading the opponent's afterimage-laced sword fingers. His right hand hooked upward slightly, fingers snapping out in succession like flying blades and whipping up a fiercely sharp spiral of wind.

Ding ding—

Clang clang—

The sounds of metal striking metal rang through the escort agency. Within a single breath, the two had exchanged more than a dozen blows.

Had both sides not held back, without leaking even a thread of Inner Qi, Li Min Cheng, Ye Changting, and the other young men and women of the Cloud Mountain School standing nearest would likely have been cut by the force of their strikes, or even hurled away.

"Enough! Stop!"

The other middle-aged elder, with a sharp mouth and monkey cheeks, shouted to halt them.

Bang—

As his words fell, the two exchanged another palm and fist.

The outer sect elder retreated three steps, his face filled with humiliation.

He was a formidable expert at the Mid Inner Qi Realm.

Though Yuchi Guang had broken through to the Inner Qi Realm before him back then, he had been unable to advance any further over the years and remained at the Early Inner Qi Realm.

Yet after this exchange, he discovered that he could not suppress this man in short order.

The chief escort retreated five or six steps in a row. Sweetness rose in his throat as blood with a sweet metallic tang rushed upward, and his bloated, plump face could not help flushing red.

"Chief Escort!"

Li Min Cheng looked deeply worried and hurried over, intending to support him.

"It is nothing."

Yuchi Guang brushed aside Li Min Cheng, who had moved close, swallowed the blood in his throat, and planted himself firmly where he stood.

He shook his slightly disheveled long hair, looking wild and unrestrained. "Elder Chen, Elder Fan, the escort agency has already accepted the sect's writ. With a great enemy about to descend upon us, are we truly to start fighting among ourselves now?"

Fighting among themselves?

Was the Tongda Escort Agency even worthy of it?

Hearing this, Elder Chen, who had acted earlier, merely sneered inwardly. Yet this was not the time to speak such words.

After all, they still had to go suppress other affiliated forces, such as the Gale Wind Sect and the Iron Palm Gang, along with other wealthy households harboring disloyal intentions.

At a juncture like this, they naturally could not ruin the larger picture over a dispute born of the younger generation's pride.

Elder Fan, the one with the sharp mouth and monkey cheeks, merely smiled faintly. "Brother Yuchi, Brother Chen was simply itching for a fight and wanted to exchange a few moves with you. He meant nothing else by it."

"After all, we could be considered fellow senior brothers back then. We used to spar in the Martial Training Hall every day. It was only later that we each made different choices."

After saying that, he glanced again at Ye Changting, who was trembling on the ground, and instructed several other young disciples to help him up.

"Let's go. Stop standing around! We still need to deliver the sect's writ to the Gale Wind Sect and the Iron Palm Gang."

Elder Fan called for the Cloud Mountain School party to leave.

Before departing, Elder Chen merely turned back and swept a cold gaze over everyone in the escort agency, as if committing every one of them to memory.

Then he turned and left.

Jiang Jingnian stood in a corner with Chai Li and the others, silently watching everything unfold before them.

The battle between the chief escort and that middle-aged elder had been dazzling to behold. Afterimages had even appeared in the air. Even with his current Mirror Reflection Insight, he could only barely make out part of it.

"Fights between Inner Qi Realm experts truly flow like drifting clouds and running water, impossible to fathom. Whether in speed, strength, or even precise control, they have surpassed the bounds of ordinary people."

"If Martial Masters in the martial arts dramas of my previous life counted as third-rate experts, then Inner Qi Realm experts are the first-rate kind who can leap over eaves and walk on walls, skim across water with lightness skills, and produce special effects with every gesture."

"At this point, they can truly be called inhuman!"

Compared with Chai Li and the others beside him, who were flustered and filled with complicated emotions, Jiang Jingnian instead studied with an eager, humble attitude, savoring every detail.

Again and again, he replayed in his mind the scene of the two Inner Qi Realm experts fighting.

He tried to use Mirror Reflection Insight to break down even half a move or a single technique.

Even though neither side had used that terrifying Inner Qi capable of covering the entire body.

The profound flavor of their martial arts was still beyond anything an ordinary Martial Master could compare to.

Faced with the intimidation brought by Inner Qi Realm elders, the escorts and runners instinctively felt fear. Even Li Min Cheng's face had turned pale.

Only Jiang Jingnian, unnoticed in a corner, had clear, bright eyes carrying a trace of anticipation.