Expelled from the Sect

Fu Hongchen was pinned beneath his foot, his face ground against the floor until it throbbed with pain.

Beside him lay his Soul-Piercing Cone. The fight just now had drained too much of its strength; even the artifact spirit within the Soul-Piercing Cone seemed listless.

Chu Zeming stomped hard on Fu Hongchen's face twice more and asked in a low voice, "How was it? Comfortable?"

Fu Hongchen's hand clawed fiercely at the ground. His gaze was vicious, but he did not say a word.

Chu Zeming gave a disdainful laugh, then sent Fu Hongchen flying with a kick, throwing him more than ten meters beyond the arena.

His body struck the ground with a dull thud.

Fu Hongchen had already suffered grave injuries in the battle. His white robes were stained with blood and dust, and he no longer possessed that graceful, handsome bearing of an exiled immortal.

Now that Chu Zeming had ruthlessly kicked him to the ground, Fu Hongchen could not help coughing violently. Before long, a streak of bright red blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

"Senior Brother!"

"Senior Brother Fu, what happened to you?"

"This is too much! How dare you treat our Kongtong Sect like this!"

The Kongtong Sect disciples hurriedly gathered around Fu Hongchen and helped him up, their faces full of righteous indignation.

In the middle of the arena, which had been split cleanly in two, Chu Zeming put away the Luminous Glaze Sword, raised his brows, and sneered. "I merely returned what you did to us. How is that excessive? Isn't your Kongtong Sect a great cultivation sect? Why is your Senior Brother Fu so utterly unable to withstand a single blow? Could it be that your renowned sect is nothing more than an empty name?"

A familiar scene, familiar words.

And now, they had been returned to the Kongtong Sect intact.

Below the arena, the Nine-Clear Haoran Sect disciples who had been bullied so miserably earlier could not help reddening their eyes.

With no one to stand up for them, they had chosen to be strong. Yet the moment they felt warmth and kindness, they could no longer contain the grievance in their hearts.

The arena had already shattered.

Chu Zeming simply stepped down from it. Standing in the vast martial training grounds with the Luminous Glaze Sword in hand, his dark, profound gaze swept over every cultivator of the Kongtong Sect as he asked, "Does your esteemed sect have any disciple left who wishes to fight me?"

Without question, no Kongtong Sect disciple stepped forward.

This man had clearly come to repay tooth for tooth. Going up meant getting beaten, then having one's face stomped on. Who would rush forward to be abused?

Besides, even Senior Brother Fu had lost. Who among them could defeat him?

Thus, for a time, every Kongtong Sect disciple fell silent.

His stomped face was still burning with pain. Fu Hongchen shot Chu Zeming a hateful look and said in a low voice, "Go. We're leaving!"

They had arrived puffed up with pride and left with their tails between their legs.

Watching the Kongtong Sect disciples depart, the Nine-Clear Haoran Sect disciples left behind—those who had just been trampled, crushed, and humiliated—could no longer hold it in.

"Senior Brother, I want to cry!"

"What, did a brick get in your eye... sob, sob, sob."

Chu Zeming put away the Luminous Glaze Sword.

He lifted his eyes to look at his sect junior brothers, their bodies covered in bruises and wounds, and said with utmost seriousness, word by word, "All right, don't cry. Remember everything that happened today. In the future, reclaim the dignity you lost with your own hands. Senior Brother cannot protect you for a lifetime. The immortal path is long, and many more things like this may happen in the future—perhaps even worse. When that time comes, what Senior Brother hopes to see are all of you, capable of standing on your own."

The young man in dark robes stood straight before the ruins of the destroyed arena. When he looked at them, a trace of gentleness appeared on his bold and striking face.

His voice was not loud, yet it branded itself deeply into the hearts of every disciple in the martial training grounds.

The martial training grounds had been damaged.

Chu Zeming was summoned into the main hall by Ling Yunzi once more.

Looking at the former chief disciple standing straight below him, who had made him lose face time and again and showed not the slightest respect in his eyes, Ling Yunzi slowly spoke. "Chu Zeming, as a servant, you are not qualified to use an arena reserved for inner sect disciples. Do you know your wrongdoing?"

Looking at Ling Yunzi's pretentious, aloof, and noble manner, Chu Zeming really fucking wanted to punch him and cave in his chest.

Suppressing his temper, Chu Zeming said evenly, "I know I was wrong."

Ling Yunzi's expression was cold. "The raw stone used for the arena in these martial training grounds was painstakingly found on the sixth level of the Spirit Mirror Platform by the previous sect master—my father. It took decades of polishing before it could take shape. In consideration of the fact that you were once my disciple, I will not pursue your offense of using the arena without permission. However, because of your recklessness, the sect arena has been destroyed. I will not punish you too severely. I will give you half a month to find an identical piece of raw stone in the Spirit Mirror Platform and bring it back to repair it. If you fail, leave the sect of your own accord."

Chu Zeming said, "...Yes."

After leaving the main hall, he found a group of disciples gathered outside, chattering away.

The moment they saw Chu Zeming emerge, they all crowded around him.

"Senior Brother, are you all right? Did the sect master punish you?"

"The sect master won't punish Senior Brother, will he? Senior Brother only destroyed the arena because he was standing up for us."

Chu Zeming gave everyone a reassuring smile. "No. He merely told me to find another identical piece of raw stone for the arena."

Hearing this, the disciples breathed sighs of relief.

Chu Zeming looked at their relieved, relaxed faces, but he did not tell them just how difficult it was to obtain the arena's raw stone—or that Ling Yunzi had given him only half a month.

His purpose was simple.

To drive him away under the guise of being a good person, a hypocrite.

The sixth level of the Spirit Mirror Platform.

When the original owner, at the Jindan Stage, had been taken over by Chu Zeming, he had only just unlocked the second stone door of the Spirit Mirror Platform. Now, within half a month, Chu Zeming had to open the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth stone doors, then find the arena's raw stone and bring it back.

Time was pressing. After leaving the main hall, Chu Zeming took Xiao Hei and headed straight for the Spirit Mirror Platform.

After obtaining a teleportation talisman, Chu Zeming did not hesitate before flashing into the Spirit Mirror Platform.

The scene around him abruptly changed, and nine stone doors appeared before Chu Zeming once more. Two doors shone with white light, while seven remained silent. Chu Zeming stretched out his hand, his fingertips touching the third dark-gray stone door—the Spirit Mirror Platform automatically recognized the strength of his Nascent Soul Realm cultivation, and the third stone door slowly lit up.

Chu Zeming withdrew his hand and stepped through the door.

After Chu Zeming left, the nine stone doors, which had originally stood in empty silence, suddenly began flickering with white light.

Then, a light and nimble voice rang out of nowhere within the Spirit Mirror Platform—

"Golden light... He has... Master's... power..."

After the voice faded, an illusory figure appeared before the third stone door Chu Zeming had entered—a tiny, translucent silver-white shadow.

Its features could not be seen. It looked like a ghost.

It gazed at the place where Chu Zeming had vanished, then slowly followed after him like a little tail.

After it left, all nine doors of the Spirit Mirror Platform vanished, as though they had never existed.

After all, he already possessed Nascent Soul Realm strength.

Against the demons and monsters of the third level of the Spirit Mirror Platform, Chu Zeming was like a great blade chopping cabbages, cutting through them with casual ease. On top of that, Xiao Hei guarded him all the way, and no terrifying demon beast dared approach the two of them. Once the strongest demon beast within the Spirit Mirror Platform was defeated, the fourth door slowly opened for Chu Zeming.

Behind Chu Zeming, the white shadow hid itself behind tree trunks and in the grass, following the dark-robed youth from neither too close nor too far away, like a little tail.

One level after another...

As time passed, Chu Zeming's battle experience grew with each passing day.

By the time he reached the sixth level, his entire body was covered in wounds, blood dripping everywhere. Even the hand holding the Luminous Glaze Sword trembled faintly.

He had exhausted too much strength.

Standing at the edge of a cliff, Chu Zeming looked up—an endless sea of crimson blood stretched in every direction. The stench of blood filled the entire sixth level of the Spirit Mirror Platform. Amid the surging red waves, countless floating corpses with savage faces bobbed up and down... Looking at the bizarre scene before him, Chu Zeming's heart filled with shock.

How could the sixth level of the Spirit Mirror Platform look like this?

Strange voices rose and fell from the sea of blood.

"Immortal... Become immortal... Cannot become immortal... Die... Become immortal..."

The voices came from the floating corpses within the sea of blood.

They had been dead for thousands upon thousands of years, yet the obsessions in their bodies had not faded. Relying on the final trace of resentment from their lives, they endlessly repeated the same cry. Their shouts drowned out the sound of the blood waves, brimming with despair, rage, unwillingness... and every kind of emotion.

Standing before the boundless sea of blood, Chu Zeming seemed, in that instant, to see the scene from the mural—countless struggling, furious cultivators.

What, exactly, did becoming immortal mean?

Why did their voices reveal such despair?

Watching the floating corpses struggle desperately in the sea of blood, Chu Zeming's expression became somewhat dazed, and he slowly stepped forward.

Suddenly, a sharp pain pierced his chest.

Chu Zeming hissed in pain, then abruptly snapped out of his daze.

Looking again, there were no floating corpses in the sea of blood, no strange voices around him. Everything, every last thing, had been an illusion.

A wave of lingering fear rose in his heart. Chu Zeming lowered his head to look at Xiao Hei and said softly, "Thank you, Dragon Treasure."

Xiao Hei flashed his little teeth and rubbed against Chu Zeming affectionately. Before he could rub against him for long, however, he suddenly heard Chu Zeming ask, "When you bit me, did you poison me?"

Xiao Hei angrily turned his head away, curling all four limbs and his head together.

Chu Zeming reached out and untangled him. "Don't be angry. I was just teasing you."

Xiao Hei and Chu Zeming had formed a life-bound contract; the two had long become one. Naturally, Chu Zeming knew Xiao Hei would never poison him. The smile faded from his face as he crouched down and looked beneath his feet—

A sheer cliff formed from black rock. After being soaked and battered by bloody water over countless years, the black stone seemed to have been stained red. This was the raw stone used to make the arena.

At the same time, a gigantic bloody hand slowly condensed from the sea of blood and grabbed toward the dark-robed youth on the shore.

Chu Zeming was looking down when he suddenly sensed a terrifying threat descending from above. His heart jolted, and he leapt backward to evade it. He fiercely raised the Luminous Glaze Sword in his hand, then slashed at the bloody hand reaching for him.

The blood shattered with a crash, then condensed once more into a horrifying bloody hand that crushed down toward Chu Zeming. As the hand gradually solidified, a giant a hundred zhang tall, its entire body condensed from resentment, slowly rose from the sea of blood...

Outside the Spirit Mirror Platform.

The elders and sect master of the Nine-Clear Haoran Sect all stood guard at the entrance. Behind them stood every disciple of the Nine-Clear Haoran Sect.

All the disciples stared tensely at the entrance to the Spirit Mirror Platform.

A long time had passed, yet the entrance to the Spirit Mirror Platform remained silent and still. No one had emerged.

Could something have happened to Senior Brother inside?

They were worried, but none dared say anything.

Qin Elder looked at Ling Yunzi, his expression dark with displeasure. "Sect Master, I have followed the teachings of the previous sect master and done my utmost to assist you, managing the sect with all my heart. Because you are still young, I chose to turn a blind eye to your repeated mistakes. How could you do something so muddleheaded? Why are you targeting Zeming? You clearly know what is on the sixth level of the Spirit Mirror Platform!"

Ling Yunzi looked calmly at Qin Elder and said lightly, "Those at the Nascent Soul Realm can pass through the first five levels of the Spirit Mirror Platform safely. The sixth level is indeed terrifying, but he can choose to crush his jade talisman and come out."

Qin Elder said angrily, "But the raw stone is on the sixth level! If he cannot obtain it, then coming out means leaving the sect! Zeming took first place in the Joint Grand Tournament and has already reached the Nascent Soul Realm at such a young age. He is a future pillar of our sect. You are confused! How could you force him to leave?"

Ling Yunzi's gaze stirred slightly, and he coldly demanded, "Qin Elder, you think far too highly of Chu Zeming. If Chu Zeming can achieve greatness in the future, then he will surely turn danger into safety during this crisis on the sixth level! If he cannot, why are you so concerned about him? My father's divinations have never been wrong. The disciple destined to lead our sect toward prosperity must be one who joined the sect midway! Chu Zeming is merely an insignificant disciple. Why have you mobilized so much over him to question me, even lecturing me before the disciples of the entire sect? I want to know—are you the sect master, or am I? And last time, when I was attacked by an evildoer, I did not wish to suspect Chu Zeming. But since he is now in the Nascent Soul Realm, then he could indeed have used a secret art to ambush me. I did not seek trouble with him and only wanted him to leave the sect of his own accord. That is already magnanimous and merciful of me! How dare you come lecture me, Qin Elder?!"

Having said that, Ling Yunzi's expression turned slightly cold. With a sweep of his sleeve, an incense stick appeared at the entrance to the Spirit Mirror Platform.

Ling Yunzi turned around and coldly announced to all the disciples, "Today marks the end of the half-month deadline. Chu Zeming entered at this very hour. I will grant him one more incense stick's time. If he has not emerged by then, I will, in my capacity as sect master of the Nine-Clear Haoran Sect, expel him from the sect!"