"The Wu Shang Sect has been declining these past few years."
The demon king Lin Qingyu, always eager to stir up trouble, modified this statement and presented it to Li Tingyun.
Li Tingyun, enraged, slammed his palm onto the table, shattering it into dust and smoke.
"Damn it!"
Li Tingyun stared at Lin Qingyu's leisurely disappearing figure in the sky, wishing he could tear Bai Shengyi into a thousand pieces!
Li Yihui and Yuan Bingxin had long since shrunk to the side, neither daring to incur Li Tingyun's wrath at this moment.
Yuan Bingxin immediately knelt on the ground, confessing, "It's all Bingxin's fault. I should have stopped my junior brother at the time. I truly didn't expect Bai Shengyi to have such a temper."
"Exactly, Master. Why don't we just get rid of that wench—" Li Yihui made a gesture of slitting his throat with his hand.
"Idiot!" Li Tingyun cursed angrily. "If I could kill her, do you think I would have let her off just now?"
Li Tingyun had to admit that the young girl Bai Shengyi was rather peculiar, as he had suffered many setbacks at her hands.
More importantly, long before she had even reached the Golden Core stage, he had sent people to kill her without success. Could he succeed now?
Li Tingyun was not foolish!
Moreover, the Shenqi Grand Gathering was still to be held, and the Wu Shang Sect's current situation was not good.
They had already lost the excellent opportunity to bring the Shenqi Continent under their control, and it was possible that the Shenqi Grand Gathering would be targeted by Shenqi Mountain.
In Li Tingyun's opinion, the most important thing now was to gain more say in the Shenqi Grand Gathering and to allocate more resources, rather than bickering with these cast-off slaves over trivial matters at the risk of lowering their status.
"Trash!"
The more Li Tingyun thought about it, the angrier he became. Seeing the culprit, Li Yihui, still acting like a brainless pig, he kicked him in a fit of rage!
He had not held back at all with his kick, sending Li Yihui flying out of the top floor window.
Li Yihui's screams echoed from outside, and Yuan Bingxin's heart tightened.
She quickly said, "Sect Master, please calm your anger! Sect Master, Bingxin believes the most urgent matter now is to properly handle the impact of this incident on the sect. Although our Wu Shang Sect does not fear gossip, we cannot allow Bai Shengyi to slander us like this!"
"Bingxin volunteers to handle this matter and will absolutely not disappoint the Sect Master," she added through gritted teeth, inwardly hating Li Yihui even more.
If it weren't for this idiot Li Yihui, she wouldn't have been put in such an awkward position.
If one were to be precise, she had been implicated by Li Yihui.
But who was to blame for their Sect Master's inherent bias?
Yuan Bingxin was absolutely certain that if Li Yihui had been closer to Li Tingyun just now, that kick would have landed on her.
An oppressive silence spread. After a long while, Yuan Bingxin finally heard Li Tingyun's cold and stern voice.
"Go. If you don't handle it properly, you can also go back and be punished."
Yuan Bingxin's proud neck swayed precariously as she responded with a trembling voice, "Yes."
Even though Qin Si and Bai Shengyi had taken strong and clear stances on behalf of Shenqi Academy during the meeting, and even though Qin Si had established Shenqi Mountain, truth be told, the sects from the outer continents still looked down upon the people of the Shenqi Continent.
In their ingrained impression, the Shenqi Continent was the forsaken continent. If it weren't for the sheer luck of having young cultivators like Qin Si and Bai Shengyi, who had reached the Mahayana stage, and the Qinglan Dao Monarch, not to mention the support of the Yi Zong Er Ge Yue Qing Shan, they would have been insignificant.
Therefore, when they moved about in Anping City, although their attitude wasn't as malicious as that of the Wu Shang Sect, they didn't pay much attention to the mortals in the city.
This was especially true for the people of the Qu Jing Sect.
"Sect Master, we should not get involved in this matter," an elder said, standing behind Jing Liusheng, and advised, "Shenqi Mountain is clearly using the Wu Shang Sect to establish its authority. This is their own feud. We should also restrain our disciples and avoid running into the muzzle of a gun at this time."
"Mm." Jing Liusheng waved his hand indifferently. "Have Elder Yu seen the news sent back by Lan'er?"
The elder, named Elder Yu, nodded. "Our young family master is becoming more and more outstanding."
"That Xiao Huan Yu secret realm... it should be the secret realm that Rong Bugui had previously kept tightly sealed but was rumored everywhere. For Lan'er to be able to scout it in advance is a great contribution to the family."
"Indeed," Elder Yu agreed. "However, there is one matter that I must mention to the Sect Master."
"Speak."
"The Jing family member named Jing Fei, whom our young family master mentioned, has awakened the Jing family's special constitution, which allows him to refine pills across cultivation levels. The highest grade of pills he can currently refine is said to be eighth grade." Elder Yu paused. "Family Master, I believe this person can be recalled to the Jing family."
Although their current young family master, Jing Lan, was called a genius, that was only in the path of cultivation. In the art of alchemy, none of the younger generation of the outer continent's Jing family had awakened a special constitution. Elder Yu thought the Jing family's alchemy techniques were on the verge of decline.
Jing Liusheng said with an inscrutable expression, "I will think about it further."
The Fang Lan Sect, Qi Shan Pavilion, and other major sects reacted differently upon hearing the news from their disciples about the market incident, but they all intended to protect themselves. The Fang Lan Sect, in particular, wanted to avoid provoking Bai Shengyi for the time being.
She only wanted to find an opportunity to kill Bai Shengyi.
"You're going to make so many enemies!" Luo Feihua reminded Bai Shengyi with a sigh.
Bai Shengyi told her to hide in the crowd nearby, not only her but also Feng Wuya and Bai Yu Yue, all of whom were sent away by Bai Shengyi, "Find a safe spot for yourselves."
Luo Feihua really wanted to say that her side was the safest, but seeing the powerful cultivators approaching aggressively not far away, she obediently kept her distance.
Yuan Bingxin utilized her mother's network and found the Lord of Hua Ling Mountain to mediate.
As they walked, seeing the commoners not far ahead who were about to be impacted, Bai Shengyi waved her hand, and a barrier enveloped the commoners, forcefully halting their steps.
"Bai... Bai Daojun." Yuan Bingxin couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy.
They were the same age, yet Bai Shengyi was already a Mahayana cultivator, while she, who was originally a genius, had been left far behind by Bai Shengyi, and now had to call her "Daojun"!
She suppressed this sense of humiliation, her cold face breaking into a smile, and used her spiritual power to project her voice to all sides: "This person was long ago expelled from my sect by the Sect Master of Wu Shang Sect. It's not appropriate for you to brazenly damage my sect's reputation like this, is it?"
As the saying goes, a smiling face is not struck. Yuan Bingxin believed that Bai Shengyi was the type who would yield to gentleness rather than force.
Unfortunately for her, she was disappointed.
Bai Shengyi also amplified her voice with spiritual power, her tone cold and extremely penetrating.
"I, your grandmother, am merely stating a fact. How does that damage your sect's reputation?"
"You've come at just the right time. This person persecuted mortals using his cultivation, a grave offense. According to the rules of my Anping City, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. He forced others to take pills, and I shall award him a pill as well. You Wu Shang Sect should have no objections to such a punishment, right?"
Seeing that Bai Shengyi was determined to pin this matter on the Wu Shang Sect, Yuan Bingxin's heart sank, and she looked eagerly at the Lord of Hua Ling Mountain.