Chapter 1966 Indeed an Inner Disciple
“Elder Mu…” Liu Lujie and w.a.n.g Jiandong froze on the spot.
Elder Mu and the others were there to solve the matter on their behalf, but they had actually been killed as soon as they had made a move.
Yet, they could be considered among the strongest people in the entire sect!
Bro…
Don’t you feel any difference fighting them at all? Do you not sense any difference in the intensity of their Sword Intent?
Shouldn’t it be obvious that they aren’t ordinary disciples just from their disposition?
Yet, you still killed them so easily…
What made the situation even harder to accept was that Elder Mu and the others had clearly attempted to retaliate against I Am Low Profile’s attack, but the outcome was the same as before, killed with a single slash.
It was still understandable that a core disciple might not be his opponents, but those were True Immortal realm elders! To kill ten of them with a single slash of his sword… this was utterly ridiculous!
Just how freakishly powerful was I Am Low Profile?
It was laughable how he, at one point, had thought that he could possibly defeat the latter…
Liu Lujie’s teeth just would not stop clattering as he stared at I Am Low Profile. He could not begin to imagine just what kind of monster was hidden beneath that humanlike exterior.
As for I Am Low Profile, right after defeating the ten elders, he charged forth to engage the other inner disciples. It was as if he had not been affected by the earlier encounter at all… or rather, he did not even notice that the ten people whom he had just faced were esteemed elders of the sect!
It was as if they were all small ants trying to stand against a giant.
“Wow, there sure are a lot of people here…”
Just as Liu Lujie had guessed, Zhang Xuan was completely unaware that the ten people whom he had just faced were elders of the sect.
They were dressed just like the other inner disciples, and they seemed to be in their early twenties from their appearances. Not to mention, they did not seem strong at all.
Of course, if it was on any other occasion, Zhang Xuan would surely have been able to tell the difference. However, it was unfortunate that he was in too much of a hurry. He knew that his zhenqi was limited, so if he did not quickly end them, he might just end up losing the battle.
If he lost, not only would he not receive a single Sword Pavilion Coin, he would also lose the only thirty-two Sword Pavilion Coins that he had on him!
That was his entire fortune!
There was no way in h.e.l.l that he would allow himself to lose that!
Thus, he couldn’t allow them to stall for time.
You want to fight me one-on-one?
Don’t waste my precious time!
You want to have a chat with me?
Spare me your nonsense!
If you can at least withstand a strike from me, I can still consider giving you the privilege of fighting me in a one-on- one battle. Otherwise, spare me from those unnecessary filler-ish speeches!
As such, when Elder Mu and the others were defeated in a single strike, he automatically a.s.sumed that they were no different from ordinary disciples. If there was any difference, it was just that they were much more supercilious.
“I have already expended a third of my zhenqi. I need to speed up…”
Lifting his head, Zhang Xuan saw that the crowd, from eight hundred at the very start, had grown to a humongous five thousand. With the pa.s.sing of time, more and more inner disciples would surely gather there. He could not afford to waste a second.
Hu!
His silhouette vanished into an afterimage as he sped up his movements.
“Even Elder Mu and the others aren’t a match for him. It seems like I Am Low Profile is a far more formidable figure than we thought. Let’s hurry up and return. Otherwise, if Elder Mu throws a tantrum during our absence…” Liu Lujie said.
“Un!” w.a.n.g Jiandong nodded in agreement.
The situation was clearly way out of their control. There was no meaning in them staying there anymore.
But just as they were about to leave, a sharp glint bolted through the air, heading their way.
Padah! Padah!
Yet again, there was a sharp pain in their necks, and their heads bounced several times on the ground before coming to a stop.
“Sh*t!”
“This is already the third time!”
The two of them were on the verge of tears.
Just what in the world did they do so wrong to deserve being decapitated three times within an hour?
It was ridiculous!
They had never suffered such a huge setback ever since they started practicing the sword. Yet, shortly after I Am Low Profile made an appearance, they had already died three times back-to-back!
Those two experts felt as if they were going berserk.
As their consciousness retreated from the Ethereal Hall and returned into the main hall, Liu Lujie and w.a.n.g Jiandong found themselves awakening to a very still, heavy atmosphere. Elder Mu and the others were seated silently on the stools, not saying a word at all.
It was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop.
There was an awfully long silence that left Liu Lujie feeling deeply uncomfortable. Eventually, he was unable to take it anymore, so he meekly called out, “Elder Mu…”
It was then that the petrified elders finally seemed to come back to life.
“Was I beheaded by that fellow?”
“It seems so…”
“How were we defeated so quickly?”
“I didn’t even have time to react…”
“Neither did I…”
The ten elders had dazed expressions on their faces, as if they had just been through an unbelievable dream.
As True Immortal cultivators, they had spent long years immersed in the profoundness of swordsmans.h.i.+p. They might not be the strongest sword pract.i.tioners within the sect, but their skills were far beyond the level of ordinary core disciples.
Even if their cultivation had been suppressed to Ancient Sage 1-dan, they never would have thought that they could have been defeated that easily.
Yet, just a moment ago, before they could even say their piece, their heads had already rolled.
Implausible! Inconceivable! Impossible!
It was as if the common sense that they always lived by had suddenly failed them.
This was especially so for Elder Mu. He felt so embarra.s.sed that he wished that he could simply meld into his shadow and disappear.
It was a moment ago that he had confidently declared that Liu Lujie and w.a.n.g Jiandong had lost to that fellow due to their weakness. He had spoken as if everything would be settled now that he was there. But in the end, he was slaughtered before he could even finish his sentence, as if a half-a.s.sed villain.
How humiliating!
He had never felt so ashamed in his many years as an elder!
There was another long silence in the air before an elder finally asked the golden question. “What should we do now?” “This…” Elder Mu pondered for a long while before turning to Liu Lujie and asking, “What’s that fellow called?”
“I Am Low Profile!” Liu Lujie replied.
“Low profile?” Elder Mu suddenly felt spasms in his heart. He had to clutch it tightly in order to prevent himself from fainting on the spot.
A person who had caused such a huge commotion by challenging all the inner disciples and unhesitatingly killing even the elders…
Low profile?
Why did this term sound particularly p.r.i.c.kly to his ears?
Elder Mu stood up as he sternly commanded, “Don’t tell anyone that we were here!”
“Ah?” Liu Lujie was taken aback.
Did this mean that… not even Elder Lu and the others were going to bother about this matter either? “Let’s leave!” Elder Mu said before walking out.
In just a few moments, the ten elders had already vanished from the residence, as if they had never been there in the first place.
“Senior Liu…” w.a.n.g Jiandong’s face was warped in utter shock.
“Elder Mu had no other choice. As an elder, he was supposed to resolve this matter, but he ended up getting killed instead. Given what has happened, the only thing he could do is feign ignorance. Otherwise, how is he supposed to keep his head up in the sect in the future?” Liu Lujie said with a bitter smile.
It was not that they did not want to bother about this matter, but there was nothing that they could do!
If others learned that they had been killed by an inner disciple, they would be laughed at by their peers!
On an aerial beast, one of the elders turned to the silent Elder Mu and asked, “Are we… really not going to interfere in that matter?”
“Of course not,” Elder Mu replied. “We are heading to the Sword Gazebo to check what exactly is up with I Am Low Profile!”
“Sword Gazebo? That’s the place where the sect controls the internal Ethereal Hall, right? It would indeed be possible to track down I Am Low Profile’s exact locations from there… but as inner elders, we don’t have the right to access such private information!” the other elder replied.
If the Ethereal Tokens were the devices used to enter the local network, the Sword Gazebo was where the central computer and the server were located.
Through the central computer, it was possible to track the exact locations of those who were in the Ethereal Hall. However, such information was not allowed to be accessed easily.
The reason the Ascendant Cloud Sword Pavilion had chosen to establish an Ethereal Hall internally was because of the benefits it brought. They wished to create an anonymous world where their disciples could interact and fight with one another regardless of their ident.i.ty and standing.
As such, even the sect leader would not dare access the information lightly. Otherwise, the very nature of the Ethereal Hall would change if the disciples felt that their anonymity on the platform was being threatened. It would go against everything that the Ethereal Hall stood for!
“I don’t need his personal particulars or where he is.” Elder Mu shook his head. “All I need to know is his exact strength!”
“His exact strength?”
As activating the Ethereal Token required one to drip a droplet of blood on it, it was possible for the system to detect the strength of the cultivator to a very precise degree.
An elder swiftly realized what Elder Mu was up to. “Are you trying to verify if he’s an inner disciple?”
“Indeed. Given I Am Low Profile’s swordsmans.h.i.+p, I am really wondering if this is a prank pulled by a core disciple. If his cultivation hasn’t reached Pseudo Immortal, it means that he’s truly an inner disciple. If so, there’s no need for us to interfere any further in this matter,” Elder Mu said.
The crowd nodded in realization.
If I Am Low Profile was a core disciple, it would only be right for them as elders to intervene, or else it would be a huge blow to the inner disciples.
On the other hand, if I Am Low Profile was an inner disciple, at the very least, it would just be inner disciples losing to an inner disciple. It would be an internal affair, and it would not be too shameful.
In fact, it might even be a blessing in disguise.
The incredible strength displayed by I Am Low Profile would serve as a perfect example of how powerful an inner disciple could actually be, and perhaps, it might even motivate them much more than before to push for greater heights after seeing that the sky was the limit!
It did not take long for the aerial beast to arrive at the Sword Gazebo.
Elder Mu placed his ident.i.ty token down and said, “I would like to check the strength of the cultivator who uses the nickname ‘I Am Low Profile’!”
Weng!
There was a flicker on the wall, and a line of words appeared—Dimension Shatterer realm consummation.
“He’s at Dimension Shatterer realm consummation?”
“If that’s the case… he really is an inner disciple.”
“The minimum requirement for becoming a core disciple is for one’s cultivation to reach Pseudo Immortal. He clearly hasn’t reached that mark…”
“But when did such a formidable figure appear among the inner disciples?”
All ten elders were stunned by the result before them.
After witnessing I Am Low Profile’s tremendous strength, they had really thought that the other party might be one of those overpowered geniuses of the core disciples. But the result reflected in the Sword Gazebo told them clearly that the other party was a true inner disciple!
But as elders, how could they be unaware that there was such a powerful existence among the inner disciples?
In Elder Bai Ye’s residence, upon seeing Bai Ruanqing, Bai Feng immediately rushed forward and asked, “How is it? Have you found that medicine seller?”
He had to take care of the Old Master, so after taking the young lady to the inner disciples’ market, he had quickly rushed back to the residence.
“Not yet…” Bai Ruanqing shook her head.
Noticing that something was amiss with Bai Ruanqing’s current state—for some reason, she appeared to be a little subdued—Bai Feng worriedly asked, “Did something happen?”
“Yes… Earlier, there was someone who issued a challenge to all of the inner disciples. When I heard of the matter, I entered the inner disciples’ Ethereal Hall and challenged that person to a battle…” Bai Ruanqing quickly went through what had just happened.
“You were defeated in a single move even after executing the Heavysnow Swordsmans.h.i.+p that I have imparted to you?” Bai Feng’s eyes widened in shock.
“That’s right,” Bai Ruanqing replied awkwardly. “I can’t really describe it, but the other party’s swordsmans.h.i.+p made me feel as though the Heavysnow Swordsmans.h.i.+p is completely useless.”
“How can that be?” Bai Feng frowned. “Even though the Heavysnow Swordsmans.h.i.+p is not the most powerful sword art in the Ascendant Cloud Sword Pavilion, it’s still not something that an inner disciple would be able to withstand…”
He pondered silent for a moment before saying, “Do you have another Ethereal Token? I would like to take a look myself!”