As he stood before the spirit stele, Wu Di’s heart thudded in his chest. How many years had he struggled, all for the sake of standing before everyone in the Wu Family and showing what he was made of?
So long as he entered the top ten, he could rebury his mother in the clan’s ancestral hall.
So long as he entered the top ten, he had a chance at living in the same world as Zheng Yunan.
Everything he’d done for the past few years was for this day. He tightly clenched the jade hairpin and took a series of deep breaths. Then, his gaze serious, he pressed his hand to the stele.
After a while…..
The stone stele showed no signs of changing. It was dull and lightless, as if Wu Di hadn’t infused any spirit energy into it at all.
The surrounding Wu Family disciples we dumbfounded. So many of them had taken the test, yet this was the first time something like this had happened.
“Wu Di, you haven’t crossed the threshold.’
Not crossing the threshold meant that he was a body tempering cultivator or false spiritual body cultivator and his body had only pure physical power: his spirit hadn’t yet entered his body. The spirit stele was called a spirit stele, so naturally, it only responded to spiritual energy. Without spiritual energy, it wouldn’t react.
“He hasn’t crossed the threshold? Haha, he hasn’t met the threshold….” Quite a few Wu Family disciples laughed uproariously and Wu Qiang, who’d been a little worried after Wu Di spoke up, pressed his lips into a grin.
As expected, the son of a servant girl was nothing but trash from the moment he was born.
The disciples who didn’t know the truth laughed insolently, but three among them frowned.
Li Kai, Zheng Yunan, and Wu Hai.
The first two knew that Wu Di had at least reached entering immortality, while Wu Hai had sensed his aura and knew that he was no false spiritual body cultivator.
There was obviously something shady going on.
They knew there was something fishy about this, but that didn’t mean the others knew. It was as if Wu Di, standing right in the center of the stage, had become a dancing clown. His eyes frantically darted about and his hands trembled.
How did this happen? Why did all the spiritual energy in my body suddenly vanish?
This was impossible…...
At that moment, they heard a playful chuckle from above. “Tch tch tch. How is that no matter where I go, I run into stubborn geezers like you, who refuse to just die already and only get more shameless with age?”
Everyone looked up to the sky and saw white-robed Ye Zichen float down from above.
“Master.”
Even after seeing Ye Zichen, Wu Di was still obviously despondent. All of his spiritual power was gone. The energy he"d acc.u.mulated after twenty years of bitter cultivation was gone, just like that.
It didn’t feel like his spiritual sea was sealed. If it were, he should still be able to sensei its existence.
Instead, he currently felt as if his entire spiritual sea had disappeared.
“Who are you?” the elder standing on stage shouted harshly. “How dare you trespa.s.s in our Wu Family’s estate?” He charged at Ye Zichen and attacked, his hands like tigers’ paws.
“Wu Di called me ‘master.’ Didn’t you hear him?”
Even after hearing these words, the elder didn’t stop. Given his strength, how could he not have heard Wu Di’s words? He was just feigning deafness is all. A few days ago, he’d heard from the young lady of the Li Family that Wu Di had found himself a master, an expert who was at least a human immortal.
It would be difficult for the Li Family to dispose of him on their own. This elder didn’t think he could harm Ye Zichen either, but he still charged at him with no regard for his own safety. His goal was to make Ye Zichen fight back and injure him. That way, the Wu Family would have to step in, and they might successfully get Wu Di exiled from the clan.
All of this was based on the a.s.sumption that the Wu Family was capable of opposing Ye Zichen.
However, if Ye Zichen exceeded the bounds of the Wu Family’s strength, his hopes….. Were all in vain!
“Pretending to be deaf?” Ye ZIchen smiled coldly. His hand cut through s.p.a.ce, slapping that elder across the face. The instant he attacked, the elder spun in a circle, vomiting blood and teeth. As he slammed into the walls of the arena, they crumbled.
The Wu Family disciples gathered to one side, protected by the clan elders. They watched Ye Zichen in utter astonishment.
“Who is this guy? How vicious! A single slap sent Elder Li flying.”
“This is Wu Di’s master! Didn’t you hear him yell earlier?”
“That Wu Di is really lucky. To think he’d find himself such a fierce master! But I’m afraid there’s no way to resolve this now. That Elder Li belongs to the Li Family. He’s no easy target. That slap didn’t hit the Li Family’s face either; it’s an insult to our Wu Family too.”
Hidden amongst the crowd, Li Na glowered sinisterly. This was that little beast, Wu Di’s, master. She’d asked the Axe Gang to dispose of him just a few days ago, but to her shock, within the past few days the local Axe Gang base crumpled, replaced by a new gang called ‘Upheaval.’
She’d a.s.sumed she no longer had any chance to dispose of him, but now he’d slapped the Wu Family’s face so blatantly…..
This wouldn’t end well for him, nor for Wu Di.
When she considered this, she grinned sinisterly. The others, meanwhile, watched the arena in astonishment.
The moment Ye Zichen appeared, Wei Jie wanted to rush up to greet him, but then he received a transmission telling him to stay back. Given his boss’s disposition, Wei Jie feared he had some trick in mind.
The Skyspan Trading Company Deacon also pulled out a painting. It depicted none other than Ye Zichen. “That’s the man the young miss asked me to protect. I’ll be interested to see just what kind of person he is for her to value him so highly.”
“Elder Li.”
Several Wu Family elders instantly surrounded Ye Zichen. They looked at him gravely. A few others rushed to Elder Li’s side to examine his injuries.
Ye Zichen looked at the serious, alert Wu Family Elders, rubbed his neck, and smiled. He looked utterly relaxed. “This is an unusual way of receiving guests.”
Ye Zichen totally disregarded them. Instead, he casually and confidently strolled towards the spirit stele. The elders instinctively made way for him.
“Protect the spirit stele!”
“This spirit stele is a supreme treasure of my Cai Family,” the earth immortal expert roared in fury. “If you don’t want to die, hurry up and back off.”
In response, Ye Zichen simply scratched his head. “Since this is a supreme treasure, you ought to send someone tougher to keep an eye on it. What can a bunch of small fries like you hope to accomplish bouncing around in front of me?”
Suddenly, his gaze turned cold. He waved his right hand. “Scram.”
The Cai Family experts guarding the stele, including the earth immortal expert, were sent flying from the stage. When they collided with the surrounding walls, they coughed up blood.
Ye Zichen walked up to the spirit stele, took a few quick looks at it, then turned back around.
By now, everyone present saw him as a star of calamity. Just a single look was enough to intimidate the Wu Family’s elders and retainers.
“Don’t be nervous. I’m the easy-going type,” said Ye Zichen. He smiled warmly at them, then walked up to Wu Di. He patted his apprentice on the shoulder, grabbed a few tiny, night-transparent needles from Wu Di’s dantian, and flew towards Cai Tong.