Master! I've Been Wronged!

Lu Qing'an frowned slightly, his gaze falling on Liu Jin.

"Why do I have a feeling this kid is trying to mess with me?" he muttered to himself, his face remaining as calm as ever, but his deep eyes had already narrowed slightly.

This was the first time he and Liu Jin had met; they had no prior grudges or interactions. So what was this causal fluctuation pointing towards him?

He's not one to guess.

Since you have doubts, let's take a look.

In the instant his eyes narrowed, the Rule of Cause and Effect within his body had already been activated silently.

That power doesn't require any hand seals or incantations to activate; with just a thought, the entire network of cause and effect in the world unfolds before his eyes, like a boundless, golden-black giant net.

Within this vast web, no causal link connected to him, however fine as a spider's thread or as distant as a lifetime, can escape his discernment.

His gaze pierced through the tangled web of cause and effect, landing on Liu Jin, and began to search for all the causal connections related to this person.

Almost at the same instant, Liu Jin, who was kneeling on the ground, suddenly widened his eyes.

His body suddenly tensed, his back straightening as if he had been stabbed in the back.

He abruptly raised his head, his gaze shooting straight at Lu Qing'an like lightning. His eyes churned with shock, anger, and wariness, and his voice almost blurted out, "You used Rule of Cause and Effect on me?!"

Although he did not cultivate the Great Dao of Cause and Effect, as the personal disciple of the sect master of the Nether Emperor Holy Sect, his perception of various Great Dao and rules far surpassed that of ordinary cultivators.

He was all too familiar with that subtle, prying sensation when the Rule of Cause and Effect were activated.

That's someone using the power of cause and effect to examine me, nakedly and without any concealment.

Lu Qing'an raised an eyebrow slightly, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes.

"Wow, that's impressive perception," he thought to himself.

Although he did not deliberately conceal the fluctuations of the Rule of Cause and Effect, with his control, ordinary cultivators at the Great Dao Realm should not have been able to detect them at all.

Liu Jin's ability to sense and pinpoint the source immediately is indeed befitting of his status as a direct disciple of the Nether Emperor Holy Sect Master.

But despite the unexpected turn of events, Lu Qing'an showed no embarrassment at being caught red-handed.

His expression remained calm, not even his eyebrows twitched. He simply sat there quietly, looking at Liu Jin as if he were observing an interesting junior.

Liu Jin was so angry at his nonchalant attitude of "what can you do to me if you see this?" that she was furious.

He abruptly turned to look at Luo Qiushan, pointed at Lu Qing'an, gritted his teeth, and complained, his tone filled with three parts anger and seven parts grievance. "Master! He disrespected me!!!"

He knelt on the ground, pointed at a cultivator in the "Eternal Realm," and accused the cultivator of disrespecting him to his master.

If a stranger saw this scene, they would find it utterly ridiculous.

A Great Dao Realm expert actually needs to ask his master for help to deal with an Eternal Realm cultivator?

But Liu Jin couldn't care less about saving face at this moment. Being spied on using the Rule of Cause and Effect was an offense that no cultivator could tolerate.

"No wonder Master treated him like that! So this kid has cultivated the Rule of Cause and Effect?!" Liu Jin's mind raced, the more he thought about it, the more he felt he had seen the truth. "Damn it! So what if he's cultivated it! Is this kid using it on me to show off?!"

The Rule of Cause and Effect is recognized as one of the most difficult rules to cultivate in the Hongmeng Holy Realm, even rarer than his Rule of Darkness.

A cultivator at the Eternal Realm who can cultivate the Rule of Cause and Effect certainly has reason to be proud.

But to examine him using the Rule of Cause and Effect —isn't that a blatant act of defiance?!

However, Luo Qiushan's reaction was completely unexpected by Liu Jin.

She didn't frown, didn't question Lu Qing'an, and didn't even show the slightest surprise.

She simply turned her head, glared fiercely at Liu Jin, and said with impatience and a sense of entitlement, "What's wrong with letting your Uncle Lu take a look? Is it any less of you?!"

Liu Jin's expression froze.

He knelt on the ground, mouth agape, eyes wide, his face a mixture of grievance, anger, shock, and resentment, twisted into an expression he himself couldn't quite describe.

His gaze darted back and forth between his master and Lu Qing'an, his lips moved, but no sound came out.

What devastated him even more was that after yelling at him, his master turned to look at Lu Qing'an and instantly put on a gentle smile, his tone becoming as warm as a spring breeze. "Fellow Daoist, please look around as you please!"

Her tone, her expression, her smile—she was clearly speaking to Lu Qing'an.

My apprentice is your junior. Look at him however you like, don't worry about me!

Liu Jin's heart completely collapsed at this moment.

He stared at his master's smiling face, only one thought echoing wildly in his mind, "Master! I'm your disciple! What are you doing?!"

Is a bond of master and disciple spanning thousands of years really less valuable than a man you've only known for less than half a day?

He was being spied on using the Rule of Cause and Effect, and instead of standing up for him, his master said, "What's wrong with letting your Uncle Lu take a look?"

Is there any justice in this world?

Is there no law left?!

Lu Qing'an looked at Liu Jin's face, which was so full of frustration it seemed about to explode, but his expression remained calm.

He put down his teacup and explained calmly, "I just felt that your disciple seemed to have some karmic entanglement with me, so I was just observing."

He was telling the truth.

He activated the Rule of Cause and Effect not to show off or demonstrate his power, but because he sensed the causal fluctuations pointing towards him.

At his level, any unusual cause-and-effect relationship is something to be wary of, especially since this cause-and-effect relationship carries an ominous aura.

Upon hearing this, Luo Qiushan's smile immediately faded, replaced by a serious look of surprise.

She knew Lu Qing'an wouldn't speak without reason.

This person has cultivated over three thousand rules to their fullest potential; his perception of Rule of Cause and Effect is absolutely infallible.

Since he says there is a cause-and-effect entanglement, then there must be!

She turned her head and looked again at Liu Jin kneeling on the ground, her brows furrowing into a stern expression, her voice deepening. "You possess the Rule of Cause and Effect, so this feeling should be correct!"

She paused, her gaze sharpening as if trying to see right through Liu Jin. "You wicked disciple! Have you met your Uncle Lu before?!"

Liu Jin knelt on the ground, feeling chills all over his body under his master's scrutinizing gaze.

He felt that he was having the worst day ever. First, his junior sister wanted to cultivate the Dao of Heartlessness, then he inexplicably gained an "Uncle Lu" in the Eternal Realm, and now his master suspected that he had offended this guy in the past.

He took a deep breath, suppressing the frustration in his heart, and uttered three words stiffly. "Never seen it before!!!"

He genuinely had never seen it before.

He could swear to the Heavenly Dao that he had never seen this man surnamed Lu before stepping into the Sect Master's Hall today.

Although the other person did have a face that was unforgettable, Liu Jin's memory wasn't so bad that he wouldn't remember people he had met before!

Luo Qiushan stared at her apprentice for a moment, and from his stubborn yet frank eyes, she confirmed that he was not lying.

However, Lu Qing'an's perception of cause and effect is never wrong. Since the entanglement of cause and effect does exist, and Liu Jin has never met Lu Qing'an, then there is only one possibility left.

Her face suddenly darkened, and her right hand clenched into a fist again, this time with even greater force, the whitening of her knuckles spreading from the joints to the entire back of her hand.

Her voice was as cold as a knife just drawn from ice. "You must be resentful! You're cursing your Uncle Lu!!"

Before she could finish speaking, she had already raised her clenched fist, which was shrouded in visible dark power, causing the temperature in the entire hall to drop several degrees in an instant. "I see you're really eager to accept my discipline!!!"

Liu Jin knelt on the ground, looking at his master's raised fist, and the hairs on the back of his head stood on end.

He knows his master too well!

She wasn't just saying it; she really meant to beat him up.

The ruler of the Great Dao of Darkness personally took action to "discipline" him, and he never wanted to experience that feeling again after just one time.

He practically screamed it out, his voice filled with the injustice of being wronged and a desperate urgency, even forgetting to use honorifics. "I didn't! The person I just cursed is the guy who betrayed my junior sister!!!"

This sentence is like a pebble thrown into a calm lake.

Luo Qiushan's fist, which was raised in mid-air, stopped.

She tilted her head slightly, her brows furrowing slowly, a hint of surprise and confusion flashing in her eyes.

The guy who wronged your junior sister? When has your junior sister ever been wronged?

She had been training her disciple for so many years, and she had never heard her mention anything related to heartbreak.

Lu Qing'an's hand, holding the teacup, paused slightly at that moment.