Guan Ruyu felt somewhat restless. Even he did not know where this restlessness came from. But a sense of unease spread through his heart, lingering long after the Sea God Festival had ended.
Was it because someone had stolen his thunder at the Sea God Festival? Because that Sword Cultivator had inexplicably made him feel pressured? Because what he was plotting actually involved Shanmen Quanzhen?
But deep down, he refused to admit that his unease came from fear. Such a mindset was detrimental to his Dao Heart.
In theory, a powerful Sword Cultivator who happened to be passing through should have had nothing to do with him. But that was only in theory. Too much in the cultivation world defied theory, so cultivators often trusted their intuition more.
He came from the Weiliao Kingdom and was one of its three True Disciples, but he was not the senior True Disciple. That was the problem.
Wei Liao was a small lineage, allotted only three True Disciple places when viewed on the scale of the Outer Cosmos. That did not even make it the most wretched on the Brocade Continent. Others had fewer; some small kingdoms, for instance, had only one.
With only three True Disciples, they still had to compete over their relative standing. Outsiders might find that somewhat laughable, but to those caught up in it, there was nothing unusual about it. For a small lineage, it meant fewer changes and greater stability. If someone could secure the position of senior True Disciple while still in the Heaven-Connecting Realm, then, proceeding step by step, taking charge of the kingdom in the future would be only natural.
That was very tempting.
Of the three True Disciples, he ranked second. He believed he was not much inferior to his senior brother, but