Xiao Yuanjun

Though the expert before him had made a rather unusual entrance, anyone who could walk through the air without touching the ground had to be a powerful cultivator of at least the Golden Core Realm.

Under Zhang Yuan's gaze, the expert slowly turned around.

The first thing he saw was a young girl's face, beautiful enough to make fish sink and geese fall from the sky. Only her eyes differed somewhat from those of an ordinary girl.

An ordinary girl's eyes might be lively, gentle, or tender as water, but these eyes held nothing except absolute confidence.

Nor was this lofty expert lofty in the physical sense. Had she not been floating in midair, the girl would probably have stood a head shorter than Zhang Yuan.

As for her figure, her loose Daoist robe revealed nothing.

None of that mattered, though. What mattered was that she had to be an old divine immortal who had regained her youth.

Zhang Yuan swiftly reached his conclusion.

"Young friend, you seem to have run into some trouble." The expert lowered her gaze slightly.

"Please save me, honored expert!" Zhang Yuan seized the chance to cry for help.

"Saving you is easy, but we are neither kin nor friends. Why should I save you?" the expert asked with a smile.

Zhang Yuan thought briefly, then prepared to start by promising her a grand pie in the sky.

Before he could speak, however, the expert said, "How about this? Answer one question for me. Once you do, I will not only save you, but also grant you one request."

"Please ask, honored expert," Zhang Yuan said.

After a moment's thought, the expert asked, "Do you know how many major realms there are on the immortal path?"

Zhang Yuan froze.

Not because he did not know, but because the question was far too simple. Even ordinary people on the streets could give an answer of sorts, getting a few details wrong at most.

"Qi refining, foundation establishment, golden core, nascent soul..." Zhang Yuan answered without hesitation.

"Not so. The Great Dao is boundless, and the immortal path is vast. How could a mere handful of realms encompass the entire immortal path? Your answer is a little shallow, young friend." The expert shook her head slightly.

Zhang Yuan's heart sank. Sure enough, it wasn't that simple. He said, "Please enlighten me, honored expert."

"Listen carefully. Regardless of which tradition we follow, we cultivators have three major realms, and only three. The first is the ant realm, the second the fellow daoist realm, and the third the senior realm," the expert explained unhurriedly.

Understanding dawned on Zhang Yuan.

So she was an expert of the cautious school.

"Your insight is unique, honored expert. I am impressed. However, I believe there should be one more realm among them," Zhang Yuan said, following her lead after a little thought.

"One more realm? Let's hear it." The expert was clearly interested.

"This realm stands outside the other three. It is called the young friend realm, and refers specifically to cultivators whose cultivation is low, but who have someone powerful backing them," Zhang Yuan explained.

"You have quite a gift for understanding, young friend. How about becoming my disciple?"

With that, the expert narrowed her eyes slightly and stared at Zhang Yuan.

"Your disciple Zhang Yuan pays his respects, Master! May I ask your Daoist name?" How could Zhang Yuan refuse? He immediately tried to force his shattered body to perform the disciple's bow.

"With your body in this state, we can dispense with the ceremony for now."

The expert waved a hand, then adopted a solemn expression. "I am Xiao Yuanjun. I cultivate the Congenital True Law of Self-Transcendence and command four divine abilities. As I have yet to prove and attain celestial human, I do not yet have a Daoist name."

"You answered my question, so I promised to grant you one request. Have you decided? It is fine if you haven't. You can take your time thinking about it later."

Xiao Yuanjun smiled, a look of triumph showing in her confident eyes. Her air of lofty expertise promptly diminished by half.

"I have. I want to kill someone," Zhang Yuan said at once.

His earlier declaration that Li Jiehua would die had not been idle talk. He had always repaid every grudge.

"Easy enough. The man in the temple just now, right?" Xiao Yuanjun nodded.

"Yes, but he belongs to the Eastern Bian Li Clan, and he is at the very pinnacle of foundation establishment Perfection. He is no weakling..." Zhang Yuan offered a warning.

The Li Clan resided in the east of the Bian Kingdom, hence the name Eastern Bian Li Clan.

"No need to say more. He is merely an outer dao foundation establishment cultivator." Xiao Yuanjun waved a hand, signaling him to stop.

The next instant.

With a light sweep of Xiao Yuanjun's sleeve, a gust of defiling wind appeared and flew in the direction Li Jiehua had left.

The ruined temple was a good forty or fifty li from Cloud Province City.

With his cultivation at the very pinnacle of foundation establishment Perfection, Li Jiehua took less than a quarter of an hour to reach the outskirts of the provincial city. Only two or three li remained between him and its walls.

"Perfect timing. Father cut off my monthly allowance to force me to break through to golden core. Heh, that old bastard. Whoever wants to reach golden core can go right ahead. These resources will be enough for me to squander for a few months."

Li Jiehua hefted the Heaven and Earth Bag in his hand.

As the son of the Eastern Bian Li Clan's patriarch, he was a notorious wastrel in Cloud Province City, an expert in every kind of eating, drinking, and merrymaking.

But once he broke through to golden core, he would have to work for the lineage. Then his days as a wastrel would be over.

The resources Zhang Yuan had given him could truly be said to have put out the fire singeing his eyebrows.

In excellent spirits, Li Jiehua hummed a little tune sung at Cloud Province City's Peaceful Haven Tower and strolled toward the city gate.

Suddenly, a howling sound came from behind him.

Li Jiehua turned to look.

A gust of defiling wind was racing toward him. Wherever it passed, weeds withered, old trees shriveled, and all vitality was instantly extinguished.

"That's... a divine ability!"

"Someone wants to kill me!"

Li Jiehua's eyes stretched so wide they nearly split at the corners. He sprang into motion, rushing toward Cloud Province City.

Yet no matter how much he quickened his pace, the defiling wind stayed close behind him, drawing nearer and nearer.

At last, the defiling wind touched the hem of Li Jiehua's clothes.

The next instant, it seemed to come alive. Like a worm clinging to bone, it gradually crawled over his entire body.

In an instant, Li Jiehua's flesh sloughed off, and pus and blood poured out. Before long, nothing remained but a skeleton and a fairly intact head, which the defiling wind carried back.

The ruined temple.

Thud.

Li Jiehua's head hit the ground and rolled twice, his eyes staring straight at Zhang Yuan, unable to close in death.

Zhang Yuan's expression did not change, but inwardly he was shocked by Xiao Yuanjun's methods.

Li Jiehua was indeed a wastrel, and his cultivation had been piled up with the Li Clan's resources. Even so, he was still a cultivator at the very pinnacle of foundation establishment Perfection. A gust of wind had simply blown him to death?

From the moment Xiao Yuanjun swept her sleeve to the moment Li Jiehua's head returned to the ruined temple, had even five seconds passed?

She really was an old divine immortal!

What realm was Xiao Yuanjun in?

Golden core, nascent soul, or something even higher?

"Your divine abilities are truly vast, Master. May I ask what realm you are currently in?" Zhang Yuan asked tentatively.

"Tenth-level qi refinement," Xiao Yuanjun answered calmly.

Zhang Yuan: ...

Tenth-level qi refinement could kill someone at foundation establishment Perfection? Did she think he had never cultivated?

Before his spiritual root was taken, he had possessed fourth-level qi refining cultivation himself.

"My qi refining is not the qi refining you know. Mine is tenth-turn qi refinement of the sha ingestion gang devoration path, whereas that man practiced outer dao foundation establishment. Cultivators of these two paths cannot be compared," Xiao Yuanjun explained.

"The sha ingestion gang devoration path? The outer dao?"

Zhang Yuan was bewildered. He had been with the Li Clan for five or six months since arriving in this world, yet he had never heard of anything like this.

But Xiao Yuanjun had no reason to deceive him, and the strength she had demonstrated was undeniably real.

By the look of it, the Li Clan had hidden quite a few things from him.

Damn the Eastern Bian Li Clan!