121-130

Chapter 121 - Xiao Fei Lin

"Su Yun, you're awake."

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In the next moment, Su Yun's toes curled, pussy tightened, and she hugged Xiao Fang tightly with her legs wrapped around his waist.

She climaxed, squirting all over his lap.

"Ahk!"

Xiao Fang hugged her tightly as he was going to release his sticking white liquid up her tight asshole. Xiao Fang gave her plump ass a nice spank and squeeze. She had an ass that would make any man go insane just to feel, naturally, Xiao Fang wanted to squeeze her nice ass too.

In the next moment, Xiao Fang felt his thick cum rushing to the tip of his cock then finally shooting deep in her asshole. Feeling him cum in her ass, her lower body jerked pleasurably. Xiao Fang's cum was not ordinary, anywhere it touched only made her feel good, and since it was sticking to the walls of her anus it only prolonged her climax even after he pulled his dick out.

Xiao Fang had to admit that Su Yun was a beautiful woman, without a doubt the best looking elder in the entire outer court, but it took more than one's looks to get respect from him. However, that didn't mean he didn't enjoy sleeping with her, he enjoyed touching her sexy body while thrusting his dick deep into her tight holes a lot. She was the ideal fuck partner and didn't mind spending time in bed with her. It goes without saying that he gained more from cultivating with her than with any of the outer court disciples in the sect.

"Hmph, I should've known you were faking it," Jiang Mei said with a frown.

Su Yun smiled beautifully.

"Admit it, it turned out better this way."

Su Yun bent down then started licking the cum out of Jiang Mei's pussy. Seeing that, Xiao Fang slipped his long dick back into Su Yun's hot meat sleeve then started casually rubbing his dick inside of her.

Truth was, Su Yun was actually asleep, she only woke up after Xiao Fang made her cum the first time with his hand.

Xiao Fang could tell that she was awake and knew why she wasn't getting up. He wasn't planning on dual cultivating with her, but after seeing her beautiful dripping wet pussy, he suddenly wanted the same thing she did. So he took his dick out then gave her what she wanted.

Xiao Hei was silent all this time. Back where she was from, spirit pets would get punished when speaking when not spoken to. They were treated like tools, and tools didn't talk, they obeyed.

Xiao Fang was sad to learn about her past, so he wanted to assimilate her into this country, a country where she shared the same rights and privileges as other cultivators.

Su Yun took one look at Xiao Hei then asked, "What's your name little one?"

Xiao Hei looked at Xiao Fang as if waiting for him to introduce her, but he only gave her a nod. Xiao Hei looked back at Su Yun then answered her.

"Xiao Hei."

"Xiao Hei? Is that your real name?"

Xiao Hei then pointed at Xiao Fang then said, "That's the name Xiao- Da Long gave me."

'You little…' Xiao Fang wanted to strangle her. Not only did she nearly say his real name, but she also made him look like some kind of bully.

'Xiao Hei' was a cute name for small black cats, but it wasn't appropriate to call a girl that.

"Xiao? Could that be your real surname?" Su Yun asked.

Xiao Fang smiled bitterly, but he didn't respond because he wasn't ready to reveal who he was just yet. If something was to happen in the future, Jiang Mei and Su Yun would have reasonable deniability of not knowing who he was.

Xiao Fang changed the subject by getting to the main issue. He explained to Su Yun about Xiao Hei's situation. He told her that Xiao Hei was already at the 6th stage of Illusory body method, but before he could tell Xiao Hei to demonstrate what she could do, Su Yun suddenly stopped them.

"Sure, I'll do it."

"..."

"I should warn you of the risks. If you're caught-" Xiao Fang asked.

"There's no need," she replied bluntly.

She seemed to have already made up her mind.

"I don't understand. Aren't you accepting it too quickly?"

Su Yun shook her head.

"Of course, I expect something in return."

"What do you want in return?"

"Nothing much, I just expect you to treat me well after we get into the inner court."

"Is that really it?"

Su Yun took his hand then guided it to her breasts, making him squeeze it to feel their softness.

"Maybe... you can treat me even better than just 'okay' in the inner court," she said with a lecherous look in her eye.

Xiao Fang knew exactly what she wanted, so he teased her a bit. His hand slid down her smooth skin till his fingers were digging into her pink cave.

"What if I said I was already planning on treating you better than 'okay'?"

"If you're asking, then I guess there is one more thing I want."

She then leaned in then whispered it to his ear,

"I want to sleep in the same bed as you, and I want you to fuck me every night."

"Haha, aren't you asking too much from me?" Xiao Fang joked.

She then gave him a kiss then climbed off of him, putting on a new change of clothes before walking towards the door.

"What are you staring at, let's go," Su Yun said to Xiao Hei.

Xiao Fang didn't see it before, but under all her clumsiness she had something going for her besides her looks. She had finesse and a certain charm not many women had.

Xiao Fang saw that Xiao Hei was waiting for his instructions, which made Xiao Fang sigh.

"You heard the lady. It's time you finally become a disciple of the Black Paradise sect," Xiao Fang told Xiao Hei.

{"Is this really okay?"}

{"Don't be so stiff. No one knows what a spirit pet is, so live free like a human. Just don't cause too many problems for me in the future."} Xiao Fang smiled lightly.

Xiao Hei's eyes widen.

{"Then, can you give me a human name?"}

Xiao Fang thought for a moment then said,

{"Sure, how does Xiao Fei Lin sound?"}

Xiao Hei's face lit up as she smiled happily. She then turned to Su Yun then said,

"My name is Xiao Fei Lin."

"Alright, Xiao Fei Lin. My name is Su Yun. After today you will be my disciple."

Xiao Hei nodded excitedly then followed Su Yun out.

Jiang Mei climbed on top of Xiao Fang then guided his meat to her pink cave before sitting on it. She began to move her waist as she started to speak.

"Will you really let Su Yun sleep on your bed?"

"Mn, I will. I was hoping you'd come join us. What do you say?"

Xiao Fang started thrusting his waist slowly, as if to convince her to say yes, but even without doing it there was no way she would say no.

"Nothing would make me happier," she said before kissing him.

Since Li Lian and Xun Wei would be hard at work in the core court, Xiao Fang didn't mind sharing his bed with two beauties to keep him company at night.

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Meanwhile in the Song family's Patriarch Hall, the news of Song Du had reached the ears of the Patriarch, and he then later broke the news to his direct family. The Patriarch of the Song family didn't know Song Du too well because he was a quiet kid growing up, but he still felt the pain of someone from his family tree being killed.

Although he knew things like this could happen, he was the kind of person that likes to get even.

"Do we know who killed him," Song Du's father asked the Patriarch.

The father seemed unusually calm when he asked, but it wasn't uncommon to see these kinds of crazy people in this world.

The Patriarch shook his head.

"We still don't know who it was, but they suspect it was a member of the Gao family."

The mother bursted into tears, but the father seemed almost amused by it.

The Patriarch tried to comfort the mourning mother.

"We will make the Gao pay 10 folds for what they did to your son."

"Ha! Don't bother avenging that little bastard. If he died to the Gao then he deserved it. Pa! what a disgrace. Don't act like you knew who my son was, everyone called him a mute and a pussy."

Song Du's mother finally couldn't take it anymore so she built up the courage to speak against her husband, saying, "He's only like that because you-!"

Before she could finish what she was saying, she was suddenly slapped by her husband, nearly killing her with a single blow.

"What do you know, you stupid bitch. He's only like that because you spoiled him so much."

Suddenly Song Du's father felt a hand wrapped around his neck. The Patriarch had heard enough.

"Loyalty, not only to the sect, but to your family."

What followed next where the sounds of inhumane torture.

For several seconds, Song Du's father was screaming as he was being tortured insane. He screamed so loud and miserably every one in the vicinity would have nightmares for years to come. Only when Song's Du's mother was regaining consciousness did he finally kill him.

With a slow but disturbing motion, the Patriarch had pulled his vertebrae out of his body while decapitating his head. Not only was his corpse headless, but it was now spineless too.

Song Du's mother didn't mourn her husband's gruesome death. She was horrified, but she was also relieved. The Patriarch walked out carrying her husband's head by the hair, leaving a trail of blood behind him.

Chapter 122 - Cultivation Methods

[ Jiang Mei's House ]

Xiao Fang and Jiang Mei spent their morning watching Su Yun train Xiao Hei through their bedroom window as they cuddled in their bed.

Since Xiao Hei already knew the basics, Su Yun was able to go straight to the more advanced stuff.

Xiao Hei created a clone then mobilized it. To attack Su Yun, after a while, Su Yun instructed Xiao Hei to fight her with her clone at the same time. So she did as she said.

Trying to fight while controlling her clone was much harder than it seemed, but Xiao Hei was quickly getting better at it. Eventually, her clone's movements became less mechanical and nearly indistinguishable from the original.

"Xiao Fei Lin is much stronger than she looks," Jiang Mei commented on their training session, but her words weren't as simple as she made it out to be.

"Mn, she's getting a bit too excited," Xiao Fang replied, intentionally not taking the hint.

He didn't think it was wise to reveal Xiao Hei's true cultivation realm because it was connected to his own.

Like Jiang Mei, Su Yun was actually considered a body cultivator because her body cultivation was in the Profound Body realm while her Spirit Cultivation was only in the Spirit Core realm. Since they were in the Profound Body realm, they could easily tell that Xiao Hei's body cultivation had exceeded the Body Refinement realm from her movements alone.

"Solid Body realm! I can't believe my disciple is so talented hahaha," Su Yun boasted, knowing that Jiang Mei could hear her.

Su Yun was certain that Xiao Hei was at least in the Solid Body realm, but until Xiao Hei went all out, she wouldn't know exactly what stage she was in.

"Shameless…" Jiang Mei said with black lines going down her head.

Xiao Hei gave Su Yun a confused look then said,

"But I'm not in the Solid Body realm…"

"You're not?"

Xiao Hei shook her head.

Su Yun suddenly remembered that Xiao Hei was a spirit pet.

'Ah... she probably goes by tiers,' Su Yun thought.

Tiered Beasts were normally categorized by tiers because they didn't have stages to their cultivation realms. As Cultivators need to make 9 breakthroughs to reach the next realm, Spirit Beasts only needed to make 1. So, when Xiao Hei told her that she wasn't in the Solid Body realm, Su Yun assumed that she went by tiers instead. This was a believable explanation to Su Yun because Xiao Hei's true form resembled a tiered beast, and also because she was certain that Xiao Hei was at least in the Solid Body realm.

"So that's how it is. For a moment there I was also convinced that she was in the Solid Body realm," Jiang Mei laughed as if she had just realized she was being pranked.

Of course, Xiao Fang knew that Xiao Hei was actually in the Profound Body realm, but he chose to change the subject.

"Do you think she's ready for the exam?" Xiao Fang asked Jiang Mei.

"I can't say for sure. She's a quick learner, but her observation skills seem to be lacking."

Xiao Fang agreed. All they could hope for was that she would get better with practice.

"I should leave, I have a few classes I need to teach today," Jiang Mei said as she stood up.

"They're making you teach before exam day?"

"Yeah, you can come visit if you want. Maybe you could learn a thing or two about concocting pills."

"I'll have to decline. I shouldn't be slacking the day before the exam," Xiao Fang just made up a random excuse.

Jiang Mei almost laughed.

"If you don't want to go, you can tell me. I know lectures aren't your thing."

Xiao Fang smirked, "It seems you already know me well."

Pill concocting was typically performed by women because it required a soft touch, delicate measurements, and a lot of patients. Xiao Fang didn't have any of those qualities. So he was convinced that he'd never learn the art of concocting pills.

Xiao Fang watched as Jiang Mei got dressed in front of him. He looked up and down her beautiful body, admiring the way she looked when she was naked.

Jiang Mei eventually noticed his lustful gaze, so she crawled back into bed then sat on his lap. She gently placed her hands on his face then gave him a passionate kiss.

His hands reached under her clothes to grope her round dumplings. Her butt felt so smooth, soft, and warm, that he was getting hard just by squeezing it. She had the kind of meaty ass no man would ever get tired of groping.

Xiao Fang started kissing her back. He was so turned on he was ready to let her have it, but then she suddenly stopped him. She separated her face from his then looked him in the eye.

"I'll see you later tonight," she said in a seductive tone.

"What a tease."

Jiang Mei smiled as if she pulled a prank on him.

With that, Jiang Mei got up and left. Then Xiao Fang stepped outside to meditate on the grass.

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Sometime later into Xiao Hei's training session, Xiao Hei stopped holding back, or at least she didn't realize it because she was having too much fun.

Xiao Hei's attacks started to get faster and faster. She didn't look like she was training anymore, but playing a game of tag. Su Yun thought it was a clever teaching method because it seemed to be helping her adapt to controlling her clone a lot faster than the standard teaching methods. But Xiao Hei was fast, and she only seemed to be going faster.

'Just how much is she holding back against me,' Su Yun frowned.

The stronger Xiao Hei was, the more difficult it was for Su Yun to see what she was doing wrong. She would need to focus less on identifying her flaws and more on simply dodging her attacks.

Suddenly, Xiao Hei's eyes became sharp. She had found an opening.

In the next moment, Xiao Hei pounced towards Su Yun with the full strength of her Profound Realm Body, and appeared in front of Su Yun in a blink of an eye.

!!!

Su Yun's eyes widened in shock, but she couldn't panic because she didn't have the time to.

Su Yun immediately jumped to the right to dodge, but Xiao Hei was able to adjust her attack path just on time to compensate.

"I got you," Xiao Hei said with a large grin on her face.

However, the moment Xiao Hei touched her, her hand went right through Su Yun's body.

"What!?" Xiao Hei thought in confusion.

Looking back, Xiao Hei saw that Su Yun was still standing in the same place as she was before. Her real body had never dodged to the right, she used an Illusory Body technique to make her think that she did.

"What kind of technique was that?" Xiao Hei asked with expecting eyes.

Su Yun stared at Xiao Hei with a strange expression on her face, because when Xiao Hei went all out, she inevitably revealed her true body cultivation realm.

'Profound Realm... Was I imagining it? No, I know what I felt. That was definitely the aura of a Profound Realm cultivator.'

This completely destroyed Su Yun's theory that Xiao Hei's cultivation path more closely resembled Tiered Beasts. She was no different than a normal human cultivator. However, for her to already be at the Profound realm seemed unbelievable, unless she was several decades older than she looked. This again wasn't too hard for Su Yun to believe because she didn't know anything about a spirit pet's lifespan. It could be more than double a human for all she knew.

Su Yun looked back at Xiao Fang who was meditating on the grass.

'Just where did he find this spirit pet from?' she wondered.

Getting no reply from Su Yun, Xiao Hei asked her question again.

"Master, that technique just now..."

"Huh? Oh right. It's called [ False Shadow ]. It's the 1st out the 3 levels of the Profound realm technique called [ Misdirection ]. Although it's a Body cultivation technique, you still need to be in the 1st stage of the Spirit Refinement realm to learn it."

Xiao Hei turned her head and looked at Xiao Fang with yearning eyes. Xiao Fang was deep into meditation so he didn't know what was going on. It was obvious what Xiao Hei wanted, but it wasn't like he could just breakthrough to the 1st stage of the Spirit Refinement realm whenever he wanted to.

Su Yun continued teaching Xiao Hei new ways to use her clone in combat, but she was still a long way from learning how to create more than 1 clone, but to make it easier on herself she created 3 clones to help her against Xiao Hei. The thing she felt Xiao Hei needed the most practice with was how to distinguish illusions from the real thing. Since she was learning the method, the only thing she needed was time, but time was limited.

...

Still sitting on the grass, Xiao Fang had his legs crossed into the lotus position and he had his qi continuously circulating through and around him. He spent the next few hours trying to make a breakthrough to the 9th stage of the [ Illusory body ] Spirit Foundation realm, but he was unsuccessful. He wasn't too disappointed though, because he was able to reach the 8th stage in 2 weeks. That itself was a major accomplishment.

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Xiao Fang's Cultivation Realm:

> Divine Sword: 1st stage profound Body realm

> Dual Cultivation: 6th stage Spirit Core realm

> Death Reaper: 1st stage Spirit Refinement realm

> Illusory Body: 8th stage Spirit Foundation realm

+ True Immortal Lightning Tribulation

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Xiao Fang sighed.

'I'm practicing too many cultivation methods,' he thought.

Similar to cultivation techniques, cultivation methods could also be categorized into specific types (offense, defense, support, area control, taboo, etc). Most people would only cultivate 1 or 2 cultivation methods, but Xiao Fang already had 4. From what he knew, his current method types were:

> Divine Sword - offense

> Dual Cultivation - taboo

> Illusory Body - support

He didn't know what type of cultivation method his Death Reaper method was. Just from the techniques written on it, he assumed it could be either an offense or support cultivation method. However, judging by the name alone, he wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be another taboo method

Chapter 123 - Rong Shi In The Woods

Since Jiang Mei wouldn't be back till later tonight, he decided to go walk around the sect.

When Xiao Fang came out of his meditative state, he was glad to see the progress Xiao Hei made in that time, but he was most surprised by Su Yun. Earlier he assumed Xiao Hei was a long way from learning how to create more than 1 clone during combat, but in just a few hours she was able to do it.

'Seems that I underestimated them.'

Although it was Xiao Hei's accomplishment, she never would've learned it without Su Yun's instructions.

After watching Xiao Hei train for a few minutes, Xiao Fang eventually got up and left.

This was likely the last day he would be in outer court, so he wanted to spend his last day walking around, visiting his favourite or most memorable locations. The Black Paradise sect had more tourist attractions in the outer court than the entire Divine Sword sect, so he enjoyed revisiting all of the sites one last time.

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Later that day, Xiao Fang stopped by the woods. He often hung out with Xun Wei here when they wanted to be outside and alone. However, a few minutes into walking through the woods, he saw someone he recognized.

She had soft brows, big brown eyes, shy pink lips, long black hair, and a simple jade hairpin running through her hair. Xiao Fang knew she wasn't lacking in the ass or tits department either because he cultivated with her a few times in the back room of the mission hall. But the thing Xiao Fang liked the most about her was the way she coloured nails.

She was none other than Rong Shi. (Chapter 41)

Rong Shi sat on the river bank, lightly pedaling her feet in the water as she watched the fishes swim.

"It's a nice day for a swim, don't you think?" Xiao Fang said as he approached her.

Hearing him speak, she didn't immediately reply. She eventually turned her head to see who it was, but the moment she saw his face she froze.

He could tell that she was both surprised and happy to see him. This was the last place she thought she would run into him, so she was at a loss for words.

Seeing that she was in a bit of shock, Xiao Fang sat next to her then spoke again saying,

"It's a bit strange seeing you outside of the mission hall, I was wondering where you were the last time I was there."

"You were looking for me?"

Xiao Fang nodded.

"Ah, I quit after I saved up enough merit points to attempt the inner court exam. I would've told you, but you're not exactly an easy person to get in contact with."

"Are you confident?"

"Confident?"

"You said you'll be taking the exam tomorrow. Do you think you'll pass?"

"ah... I think my chances are good," she answered.

Whether she was ready or not was irrelevant. For personal reasons, failure wasn't an option.

"In that case, I better pass the exam as well if I want to see you next year."

"You want... to see me again?"

Xiao Fang nodded again, making her blush.

"But isn't this your first year in the sect? You need to be at least in the Refinement Realm to participate in the exam."

"I know."

Catching the meaning behind his words, Rong Shi became shocked.

She knew he wasn't anyone from the 4 major families because the younger generation from those families were all famous, but to reach the Refinement realm in 1 year was something only someone in one of those major families could do.

"Y-you still shouldn't underestimate the exam. I hear over 90% of the people fail their first time."

"Thanks for the warning, maybe with some luck I'll be a part of the 10% that pass in their first attempt." Xiao Fang said.

Despite her warning, she still felt like he wasn't taking the exam seriously. Unfortunately, she couldn't say much about it since it was also her first time doing the exam.

Xiao Fang noticed the scroll on her lap.

"Are you practicing a new technique?" he asked.

She nodded then got up to show him. She took a few deep breaths then took a step into the river. Xiao Fang's eyes widened in surprise when she started walking on water.

Watching her walk towards the center of the river was impressive. He couldn't see it being too useful in battle, but it was still a nice trick to have.

She tossed the scroll over to him.

"Take it, I have no use for it anymore," she said.

Rong Shi felt like this was the least she could do. She didn't believe him when he told her that his cum would help her make breakthroughs with her cultivation, so she was surprised when she really started making faster breakthroughs.

Xiao Fang was surprised. Most people wouldn't share their cultivation techniques, not even with their closest friends.

Xiao Fang skimmed over the text and was surprised to find some similarities with the 1st level of his heavenly realm movement technique: [ Floating Leaf Rushing Tide ].

Since he already mastered [ Floating Leaf Rushing Tide ], it was much easier for him to learn the technique she gave him.

He read it over a few more times then meditated it as he attempted to change the nature of his qi. This was usually the most difficult part about cultivating a new technique, but he was able to feel his qi quickly change to the necessary state within a matter of seconds.

'Hmm. Perhaps someone I Dual Cultivated with had already learned this technique,' Xiao Fang thought.

When he was confident that he was ready, he finally took a step onto the water.

Rong Shi's eyes widened in shock.

Even if it was a low level technique, it still took her a few weeks to learn, but he was already walking towards her as if he had already mastered it.

"Ah. It seems you already know it," she said.

This was the only explanation she could think of.

Xiao Fang realized what he did must've seemed impossible, so he simply nodded to her assumption.

...

Rong Shi had a beautiful smile. The more Xiao Fang talked to her, the more Xiao Fang liked her. She was one of those girls he could comfortably talk to for hours without getting bored.

Later during their conversation they became a bit more touchy with each other, especially when they laughed. They talked to each other all afternoon and stayed in the forest together till it got dark. She didn't know when, but at some point he casually started to massage her smooth legs. Xiao Fang was always fascinated about the how she colour her nails, but only now that he was massaging her feet did he notice that she painted her toenails too.

Perhaps because they had already seen each other naked before, she felt okay that he was touching her so casually and erotically. She was actually enjoyed it.

Judging from the erotic looks she was giving him, Xiao Fang could tell that she was getting turned on by it.

She was unconsciously looking at his crotch, biting her lip, and her heartbeat was beating a bit faster. Even though she liked him a lot, she wasn't daring enough to have sex with him in the park. Xiao Fang could see that she didn't want to do it here.

'Hmm, maybe I shouldn't have been so touchy with her,' Xiao Fang thought.

He was tired of cultivating all the time, he just wanted to relax before the exam.

He had no experience just being friends with girls. Almost every girl he got close to he eventually slept with. So seducing women was pretty much second nature to him; it was his default mode.

Seeing that he was starting to be a little bit more reserved, she also started to do the same.

There was a bit of a pause before she asked him a personal question.

"Da Long isn't your name right? Aren't you going to tell me your real name?"

Xiao Fang didn't reply.

Seeing his reluctance to tell her, she decided not to push him. If he didn't want to say it, then he probably had a good reason not to.

"Well, how about I give you a proper nickname then."

Xiao Fang smirked.

"Do you have one in mind?"

She nodded then said, "Long Wang."

"Why does it feel like I'm getting named after my erection."

Rong Shi laughed.

"Whether you use the name or not is up to you."

"Since it came from you, maybe I should."

Rong Shi stopped laughing and looked at him to see if he was being serious.

The two of them stared into each other's eyes.

After a few seconds, her pupils started dilating, her thighs rubbed together, her pretty hands made small fists, and she unconsciously started sticking her chest out.

Just before she could move towards him, Xiao Fang looked away.

Rong Shi didn't realize it till now, but her heart was beating like crazy, her palms were sweating, her face was flushed, and her lower lips were tingling.

'Is something wrong with me?' She thought.

One minute she thought she absolutely wouldn't do it in the park, but in the next minute she was about to strip down and throw herself at him.

She couldn't explain why she was suddenly feeling the way she did, but if he didn't look away when he did she probably would've been all over him by now. There was something about his eyes that made him so enchanting.

Xiao Fang sighed.

Since Yu An told him about the Dual Cultivation technique called 'Charm', he learned why his eyes were always violet and why the girls in the outer court were falling for him so easily.

'Unfortunately I can't turn this ability off,' Xiao Fang thought as he closed his eyes.

"W-We should probably try to get in some last minute training before the exam," Rong Shi suggested.

"Mn, we should."

Still sitting on the surface of the river, Rong Shi crossed her legs and closed her eyes before circulating her qi around her body.

Seeing that she started meditating, Xiao Fang chose not to disturb her. He put his blindfold back on then quietly left the area.

A few seconds later, Rong Shi opened her eyes and saw that he was gone. She was a bit saddened to see him leave, but she had a feeling that it wasn't the last time she was going to see him.

Chapter 124 - Supreme Elder's Speech

As the elders and outer court disciples prepared for the inner court exam, rumors of the Matriarch accepting a disciple began to spread throughout the inner and core courts.

There were a few rumors as to who it was, but nothing had been confirmed because Li Lian and the Matriarch were no longer in the sect. They had gone to the Li family clan to tell them of the news.

The Patriarch of the Li family clan immediately arranged for a feast. Since the Matriarch treasured Li Lian so much, she didn't want to risk having something happen to her while she was gone. So she accepted the invitation, but only stayed because she wanted to protect Li Lian in case anything happened to her.

While news of Li Lian becoming the Matriarch's personal disciple was spreading like a storm, Li Lian's mom didn't share the same festive mood as many of her clansmen did. At that moment, she could only wonder whether or not Li Lian would still end up marrying Xiao Fang or not.

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News of Li Lian becoming the Matriarch's direct disciple eventually reached the 3 other major families. The family most affected by the news was the Gao family clan. Since they assumed her to be guilty of killing Gao Chen, they planned to make Li Lian give birth to a child with someone from the Gao family as punishment.

Repaying a life for a death was a common punishment for female criminals born into high nobility, but it seemed that they wouldn't even be getting that anymore.

Within an hour after confirming the news, the Gao family clan quickly retrieved all of their bounty posters with Li Lian's face on it. Even if Gao Chen's direct family wanted Li Lian to suffer, the Patriarch of the Gao family clan did not want to make an enemy out of the Black Paradise sect.

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Roughly an hour before the inner court exam began, Jiang Mei accompanied Xiao Fang to the waiting area, but when they were able to see the large gates and forming crowd, Jiang Mei stopped.

"This is as far as I go. I will be waiting for you in a different location."

"You seem nervous," Xiao Fang teased.

"I'm not nervous. What makes you think I'm nervous."

Xiao Fang took her hand. The moment his hand touched hers, she realized just how much her hands was shaking.

"How are you so calm? Aren't you worried you might fail?"

"I'm not. Just try to relax. I'll see you on the other side," Xiao Fang smiled.

Xiao Fang put his blindfold on then walked over to the exam waiting area after paying the 10,000 merit point fee.

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Xiao Fang was early, but judging by the large number of people already there, he felt like he came late.

The moment Xiao Fang walked into the crowd he immediately recognized most of the women there as previous customers of his. He was aware that he was sleeping with a lot of women, but he didn't expect so many of them to be taking the inner court exam this year.

He memorized all of their curves and their most alluring features. He could vividly recall how each of them looked when they were naked. He especially remembered the faces they made when they were cumming on his magnificent rod. However, he couldn't remember any of their names even to save his life.

Of course, there were some girls he remembered more than others. Some had really nice asses, while others had really nice tits, he especially remembered the freakier ones that were better in bed, but all of them were beautiful and remarkable in their own way.

Luckily, the men and women were separated, so it was relatively easy to stay unknown. However, Xiao Fang noticed that there were a few guys looking his way. Some with curiosity, others with a hint of malice. He didn't understand why they were so interested in him all of a sudden, but Xiao Fang didn't care enough to think about it.

...

Standing in front of the large 2 gates was an elder Xiao Fang didn't recognize. She had a strong and imposing presence, wore a white and purple robe, and appeared to be a bit older than middle aged.

Since this was his first year doing the exam, he assumed her appearance here was normal, but upon listening to the disciples around him, he learned that the Supreme Elder appearance here was actually extremely unusual.

...

"Why is there a Supreme Elder here? Does that mean they'll be making the exam harder?"

"I doubt it, but they're definitely taking the exam more seriously."

Many of the disciples chatted nervously about the appearance of a Supreme Elder. Xiao Fang on the other hand wasn't worried at all, he was just a bit concerned that Xiao Hei wasn't going to make it on time. Eventually, he saw Xiao Hei coming from the distance.

After paying the 10,000 merit point fee, she immediately spotted Xiao Fang.

{"I was wondering when you were going to show up."} Xiao Fang said through a spirit transmission.

{"Better late than never,"} Xiao Hei smiled.

The moment Xiao Hei entered the waiting area, she not only attracted many stares from the girls, but also the guys on the other side of the fence. Xiao Hei understood Xiao Fang well, so she never looked directly at him in case someone was curious at who a little beauty like her was smiling at.

Xiao Hei seemed exhausted, but it was to be expected considering how hard she'd been working these last few days.

.

.

.

Several minutes later, the outer court elder standing next to the supreme elder finally spoke.

"Quiet down."

Hearing the outer court elder speak, the disciples all quickly quieted down. They had been training for this day, so they didn't want to miss a single thing the elder had to say.

Before the outer court elder could speak, the Supreme Elder suddenly grabbed her shoulder.

Seeing that the Supreme Elder wanted to say something, the outer court elder respectfully took a step back.

Everyone now stared at the Supreme Elder attentively, waiting to see what she had to say. Many of them were expecting a strong authoritative tone from the Supreme Elder, but she had a very old calming and seductive voice.

"Disciples of the Black Paradise sect..."

The Supreme Elder looked out into the vast crowd of disciples with heavy eyes.

"I look at some of you and I see myself when I was an outer court disciple, so many years ago, but I wasn't nearly as beautiful," she laughed quietly.

Despite her words, if she were to say she were only the 2nd most beautiful person here, no one would claim to be first, because she was way too beautiful even at her age.

"However, back in those days the sect wasn't just the strongest in the province, we were respected by the top sects across the entire country. Oh, how we have fallen since then. Now they mock and bully us in front of our own disciples, and they stopped inviting us to major events. I cannot hold my head up high like I once did. The times have certainly changed."

There was dead silence. Even though many of the disciples were taking the exam for the first time this year, they still felt as if it was their fault for the downfall of the sect.

The Supreme Elder continued by delivering a motivating speech, finally concluding it by saying:

"You are our strength, our pride, our future. It's not the sect that makes you great, it's you that makes the sect great. Work hard, not just for yourself, but for those that came before you, and for those that will come after you. I wish you all the best on your exam. Give it all you got; make us proud."

With that being said, the Supreme Elder's body faded as if she was never really there.

'These elders really like using illusions to make dramatic exits,' Xiao Fang thought.

The disciples were invigorated. Even if they didn't pass the exam, they wanted to work hard for the elders that worked hard to train them. They felt like it was a responsibility they owed to the sect. It made them want to train their hardest everyday.

The time for the exam had finally arrived.

With the Supreme Elder gone, the outer court elder standing by the exam gates gave them all a quick introduction to the exam. After explaining what to expect inside, she finally opened the gates and the disciples ran in.

Chapter 125 - Special Pendant

Similar to the entrance exam, men and women were split up from each other. Xiao Fang was confident that the exam on the men's side would be much harder, but there was nothing he could do about it. This was the way the sect did things, if he didn't like it he'd have no choice but to leave.

When the gates finally opened, the female disciples all ran into the left entrance of the cave while the men ran into the right. Once inside, they all followed the path underground.

10 meters, 50 meters, 100 meters, the path led them deeper and deeper underground without any end in sight.

At this point, Xiao Fang had already created a large gap between himself and the rest of the group. He was currently more than a kilometer underground and could see two large doors in the distance.

Just as Xiao Fang approached the door, he saw an elder wearing inner court robes standing in front of it. To Xiao Fang's surprise, she didn't seem like an illusion.

Seeing Xiao Fang arrive, the elder became a bit confused.

'Didn't the exam just start?'

At first the elder thought she was just losing track of time, but then she noticed that no one else was even close to catching up to Xiao Fang.

'It seems there is some talent in the men's side this year,' she thought.

Xiao Fang stopped when he reached the elder. The elder noticed the blindfold over his eyes but didn't comment on it.

"You're a fast one. What's your name?"

Xiao Fang was a bit confused as to why she'd be asking for his name. He didn't want people knowing who he was, but he couldn't be impolite to an inner court elder either. So Xiao Fang just said the first name that popped into his name.

"Long Wang."

'Dammit. Why did I say that,' Xiao Fang thought.

He knew he sucked at improvising, but he really felt like beating himself up this time.

"Well, I have high expectations for you, Long Wang," the inner court elder said while handing him a pendant.

"This is the first part of your exam. Behind me is a vast cave hidden deep beneath the sect. Inside you will face many dangers. Your objective is to defeat the beasts and collect as much spirit energy as you can. Once the pendant shines red then you may proceed to the next part of your exam. You should've already been given a quick run down on how the pendant works, so I won't waste your time," she said while opening the large doors for him.

The elder at the start of the exam only instructed the disciples to wear the pendant around their necks, so Xiao Fang did just that.

The pendant that hanged off his necklace was palm-sized, white, circular, and there seemed to be special inscriptions written on the back of it, but Xiao Fang couldn't understand what it meant.

As far as Xiao Fang knew, even the weakest inscriptions were hard to come by, and they were usually used to enhance the strength, defense, agility, durability, or spirit power of weapons or armor. To find one inscribed on an amulet/pendant was extremely unusual.

Xiao Fang finally walked through the door that the elder held open. The moment Xiao Fang stepped through, he gasped.

"It's huge!" Xiao Fang's voice echoed out, alerting every living thing of his presence.

Although Xiao Fang was being unnecessarily loud, he really felt like he was walking into a separate world.

'There's no way something this big was created by the sect. The sect was probably built on top of it,' Xiao Fang thought.

To get a better look at it, Xiao Fang lifted his blindfold, letting it rest on his forehead.

Despite being more than a kilometers underground, there were several beautiful lights illuminating the dense, lush forest below. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

'Incredible.'

Not wanting to waste any more time, Xiao Fang quickly ran into the forest. Almost immediately after he ran in he could already sense the presence of several tiered beasts ranging from the 3rd tier to the 4th. Unless the men behind him grouped up into pairs of 2s or 3s, they could easily lose their life in this forest.

The first beast Xiao Fang encountered was in the 3rd tier. It had a large rock head, it was proportioned like a komodo dragon, but it had a longer neck and a shoulder height of nearly 1.5 meters high.

Xiao Fang moved quickly.

[ No Sword Style: Cutting Iron ]

The beast split into two, then Xiao Fang collected its core. However, the moment Xiao Fang took the core out of its body he noticed something strange about it. The core wasn't black, it was white.

'If I remember correctly, the colours were: Black(Ordinary), Blue(Saint), Purple(Demon), Red (Legendary), Gold(Celestial),' Xiao Fang thought.

Before Xiao Fang could analyze it, it suddenly began to transform into pure spirit qi before getting sucked into the pendant around his neck.

Once the beast core was gone, Xiao Fang noticed that the pendant was starting to glow a dim blue light.

'I see. So that's how this works.'

Xiao Fang quickly hunted down several more tiered beasts. The higher the tier of the beast the more spirit qi the pendant gained from absorbing it.

An hour later, Xiao Fang had hunted over thirty 3rd tiered beasts and five 4th tiered beasts. Before he knew it, the pendant around his neck was shining a bright red.

Xiao Fang didn't even break a sweat.

'Hmm, it seems that I'm already done.'

Looking down at the pendant, he started to notice something strange about it. He sat down on the grass then sent his consciousness into the pendant. The first thing Xiao Fang noticed was that the spirit qi the pendant absorbed had completely changed its nature.

The reason why something like this was incredible was because this was something only cultivators could do with their own qi. To see an inanimate object convert the nature of qi to something else was something he had never seen before. However, considering his background, there were many things about the spirit cultivation world he had no knowledge about.

'The nature of the qi is different, but why does it feel familiar?'

After a moment's thought, Xiao crossed his legs into the proper meditative position then took a strand of qi out of the pendant. He let it circulate through his body, before allowing it to enter his dantian. What he discovered was astounding.

"Illusory qi!"

Changing the nature of one's own qi took up a large part of cultivating any cultivation method. To have it already converted into cultivatable qi would reduce the time it takes to cultivate a cultivation method by more than 50%, and since he wouldn't be using up his own qi, he would be able to train for much longer too.

Xiao Fang felt like he had struck gold. This had to be the most incredible item he had ever seen. He knew that he needed to give the pendant back to the elder at the end of the exam, so Xiao Fang planned to use it as much as he could before that time came.

Xiao Fang didn't bother trying to find a safe place to cultivate, one of the benefits of having a strong swordsmen instinct is that he would be able to detect danger even if he was in deep sleep. Should a troublesome situation arise, he was confident that he would be able to handle it.

After taking a few calming breaths, he sent his consciousness back into the pendant then started cultivating more of the refined illusory qi.

.

.

.

Meanwhile on the women's side of the exam, Xiao Hei wanted to blend in with the other disciples so she stayed within the crowd, but as they ran down the narrow cave, 22 disciples were able to create a gap ahead of the rest. Xiao Hei followed the 22 girls as the gap between them and the rest of the disciples got larger and larger. If Xiao Fang were here, he'd recognize the 22 girls that were far in the lead. Especially Zhao Pan and Bai Fan who seemed to be creating a gap even ahead of the other 20.

Seeing Xiao Hei catch up, the 22nd fastest disciples started trying to get Xiao Hei's attention.

"Hey little girl, is this your first time taking this exam?" The girl whispered to Xiao Hei.

Xiao Hei found it strange that someone was talking to her, but she still nodded to her question.

"If you're new then you probably don't know."

"Don't know what?" Xiao Hei got curious.

"The first part of the exam is probably the hardest part of the exam, so disciples need to make temporary alliances to pass it."

Xiao Hei blinked her big eyes as she waited for the girl to explain. The girl assumed her planned to scare Xiao Hei was working, but then Xiao Hei's next words nearly made her vomit blood.

"You want me to protect you?"

After regaining her composure, the female disciple replied, "Sure, we can protect each other."

"Forget it, I don't need your help."

"You-"

The woman tried to make Xiao Hei change her mind, but Xiao Hei ignored her.

After listening to the elder explain the first part of the exam, Xiao Hei, and the 22 other disciples in front of her, each received a pendant before proceeding through the large doors.

'Hm? Isn't this...'

Unlike Xiao Fang, Xiao Hei was familiar with the inscription pattern written on the pendant. The quality of the inscription wasn't too remarkable, but she was still surprised to find one in this country.

...

A few minutes later, Xiao Hei had killed enough beasts to make the pendant around her neck shine red. Since she knew that finishing the first part of the exam so soon would raise a few eyebrows, she decided to hang out.

However, before she could get comfortable, she suddenly heard a scream.

Chapter 126 - You Should Run

Off in the distance, Xiao Hei could hear the scream of a few girls.

She didn't know who they were, nor did she care that they were in trouble, but she still got up to get a closer look.

Now sitting on a tree branch roughly a few hundred meters away from the girls that were in trouble, Xiao Hei could see what they were fleeing from.

'How troublesome,' Xiao Hei thought.

4 girls were running from a swarm of 2nd and 3rd tiered insect-type beasts.

Normally, 2nd tiered beasts could easily be handled by a refinement realm cultivator, but a refinement realm cultivator could only handle so many of them before getting overwhelmed by the numbers. A swarm this big was not something these girls were prepared to fight against. They were severely outnumbered. Not only were they outnumbered, but the swarm also contained a few 3rd tiered insects-type beasts as well. They were smart to flee.

The insects were 1 meter long with 6 wings, 6 sharp legs, and an ant shaped head.

The girls weren't weak, but the insects were just too quick, sturdy, and coordinated. Even after taking several attacks from girls they would still fly towards them as if nothing happened.

Happily swinging her legs off the tree branch, Xiao Hei watched in joy as the girls ran for their lives.

Although she liked Xiao Fang, Xiao Hei generally didn't like humans. From her personal experience, humans were deceitful, scheming, untrustworthy, and evil creatures.

Just when Xiao Hei was starting to get bored, one girl finally made a move.

The girl whipped her arm around, using a powerful spirit attack on another disciple. Since she was the slowest in the group, she was quickly falling behind from the other girls, so the only way to save herself was to throw someone else under the bus .

"What the hell are you doing!" The other 2 girls saw what she did.

The girl that was hit by the spirit attack was lying unconscious on the ground as her attacker finally ran past her. She simply ignored the 2 other girls as she continued her escape. This was no time for them to argue or fight amongst themselves. They needed to escape so the two other girls didn't bother helping the unconscious girl out.

Xiao Hei shook her head, she hated to see such betrayals, but it was commonplace amongst many humans. They often value their own lives over others.

After getting a better look at the girl that viciously attacked her own ally, she recognized her to be the same girl that tried to recruit Xiao Hei into her group.

"She said she wanted to protect me, but then she goes around doing stuff like this. Pathetic."

Even though Xiao Hei wanted to see the 4 girls get torn to shreds, the person she wanted to see suffer the most was the girl that had backstabbed her own ally.

The girl on the ground was seconds away from being overtaken by the swarm, while the backstabber was getting away as planned.

The other 2 girls in the group were hesitant. They wanted to help the girl that was unconscious, but they didn't think they would've been able to escape while carrying her.

"Let's go quick, we can't help her now."

The two girls seemed to have come to a decision to leave the unconscious girl for dead, but just as they were turning to escape, a figure suddenly rushed past them.

The two girls looked at each other for a brief moment before looking back at the swarm. It wasn't their imagination, someone really did run past them and they were headed directly towards the swarm!

It didn't take the 2 girls long to figure out who she was, she was the top genius in the outer court and her mother was a supreme elder. The girl running towards the swarm was none other than Bai Fan.

Bai Fan used one of her strongest techniques to clear a path. Suddenly, a bus-sized spirit attack was released from her palm, which killed a handful of the insects closest to the unconscious girl. The attack wasn't wide enough to hit too many of them, but it still bought her enough time to reach the girl on the ground.

Seeing Bai Fan use such a powerful attack got the 2 girls watching excited.

"It's Bai Fan! Bai Fan is going to save her!"

Bai Fan picked up the unconscious girl off the ground, but before she knew it she was already surrounded.

She began to execute her spirit techniques, killing any of the insects that got close to her. Even though the insects were quick, Bai Fan was quicker, and her movements were too unpredictable. Just from the calm disposition on her face, it really looked like she had everything under control.

However, the swarm became even more vicious and their attacks became even more difficult to dodge. She began to frown because there were just too many of them. Half the time she was getting hit by accident.

She wasn't able to fight all of the beasts with one hand. She needed to escape with the girl she was carrying first.

The girls thought Bai Fan was trapped, they didn't think it was possible for her to escape while carrying the girl, so they tried to help. They began executing all of their strongest techniques, but because they were so far away their attacks were easy to dodge and inflicted hardly any damage at all. They were too scared to get closer, so they felt useless.

"What do we do?"

"Go get help, tell them Bai Fan is in trouble," the other girl suggested.

"Alright, let's split up."

Everyone knew who Bai Fan was. If it meant making a favorable impression on Bai Fan, a few girls would even jump into a pit of fire for her.

The girls quickly left to get help.

Meanwhile, Xiao Hei watched from a far and scoffed when she saw the 2 girls leaving.

"Hmph, cowards. Do you really think she will survive for that long," Xiao Hei said to herself.

As much as Xiao Hei enjoyed watching humans suffer, she was actually beginning to frown.

Maybe it was because she liked Xiao Fang or just respected Bai Fan's bravado, she didn't enjoy watching this as much as she thought she would.

Without warning, Bai Fan was scratched again and she nearly dropped the unconscious girl. She didn't think she could keep this up for much longer. She needed to drop the girl.

'Dammit, do I need to use it already?' Bai Fan thought as her hand hovered over her spatial pouch.

[ Death Aura ]

Suddenly, she felt an overwhelming sensation, but it wasn't just her, the swarm suddenly stopped as well. They froze in the air as if they were deer in front of a headlight.

'What the-'

The killing intent was unlike anything she had ever felt before. It wasn't even directed at her, but it was making her eyes water, and her heart pound.

'How can someone's killing intent be this strong? No, this isn't killing intent, this is something else.' Bai Fan thought as beads of sweat began to form on her face.

Her eyes followed where the feeling was coming from till she saw a dark silhouette sitting on a tree branch a few hundred meters away. Since she was so deep in the woods, she couldn't make out Xiao Hei's face or what she was wearing, it was all dark. However, she could clearly see the shining red pendant hanging around her neck.

'Impossible! The exam just started.'

Bai Fan was in so much shock after seeing Xiao Hei's red pendant that she had completely forgotten about the situation she was currently in.

Suddenly, she heard a nonchalant voice sound out in her head.

{"You should run."}

Chapter 127 - The Girl With The Red Pendant

{ "You should run." }

Bai Fan's eyes widened when she received Xiao Hei's spirit transmission, but she didn't hesitate to flee the moment she received it.

Although her decision to run was a rational one, the direction she was running to was away from Xiao Hei. She didn't care that Xiao Hei had helped her out of this sticky situation, the feeling she got from her was far more terrifying than anything she felt from any of the insect-type beasts.

.

.

.

When Bai Fan was far enough away, she finally put the girl down then tried to wake her up.

*Cough Cough Cough*

The girl opened her eyes then saw Bai Fan, but in the next moment she began to panic as she quickly got back up. To her surprise they were completely alone.

"Bai Fan, what are you doing here? Where did they all go?"

"You don't remember what happened?"

"No, I don't. One moment I was running from a swarm, the next moment I'm waking up here."

"Li Xiang, I told you not to trust people so easily," Bai Fan scolded here.

Li Xiang was the sole daughter of the Patriarch of the Li Family Clan, unlike the cold-hearted beauty, Bai Fan, Li Xiang was much more playful and kind-hearted.

Bai Fan didn't like making friends, but Li Xiang was someone she paid close attention to. Even if they weren't friends, Bai Fan would often go on missions with her and regularly challenge her to fights. She did this because Li Xiang was the same age as her and also in the 7th stage of the refinement realm. There was no one else Bai Fan's age that could rival her, but not only was Li Xiang just as talented as her, she was also just as skilled as well.

...

Li Xiang was embarrassed that she was saved by her rival, so she didn't even offer a word of thanks, not that Bai Fan wanted one anyways.

"How the hell did you even get so many spirit beasts to chase after you anyways?" Bai Fan finally asked.

"Ah, you see..." Li Xiang smiled bitterly as she scratched the back of her neck. She paused so that she could think of a way to make her actions seem less foolish than it really was.

Bai Fan sighed as she could guess what had happened. Even if they weren't really friends, Bai Fan had been around Li Xiang for long enough to know just the kind of mischievous person she was. Perhaps the girl that backstabbed Li Xiang wasn't totally unjustified after all.

"Just forget it, I don't want to know," Bai Fan said before she started leaving.

Li Xiang followed behind her.

"Don't follow me."

The truth was Bai Fan didn't want Li Xiang following her because she didn't know what calamity Li Xiang would bring upon her. She was the kind of girl to do something dangerous just for the fun of it.

"Sister Bai, let's team up. How am I supposed to save you if you run away from me."

"If you keep following me, you're going to need to save yourself from me."

"I know you don't mean that," Li Xiang smiled brightly.

A dangerous look suddenly appeared in Bai Fan's eyes as she stopped running and turned around. In the next second, she executed a powerful spirit technique and aimed it straight at Li Xiang. With this attack she hoped to scare Li Xiang off.

Li Xiang reciprocated with a powerful technique of her own, cancelling hers out.

"You see? If you really wanted to hurt me, you wouldn't have used such a weak technique."

Bai Fan's eyes twitched out of annoyance. She knew that Li Xiang knew her attack wasn't weak at all. She was just trying to get under her skin like usual.

"Oh, common. Please let me come with you. These forests are too dangerous. It would be better if we teamed up."

Truth was, having Li Xiang as a partner would actually be a really good idea for passing the exam quicker. Also, knowing Li Xiang's character, she wouldn't stop annoying her until she got what she wanted.

Bai Fan sighed.

"Alright, let's team up."

.

.

.

The 2 girls resumed running through the forest when Li Xiang noticed that Bai Fan was following some kind of path as if she was familiar with the area.

"Bai Fan, are we going somewhere specific?"

"Yeah, I'm going back to where I rescued you from."

"Wait why are you going there?"

"I killed a number of them before I escaped. It won't be enough to make my pendant shine red, but it will certainly help."

"But isn't it still dangerous?"

"I don't know about you, but I'll be able to handle myself now that I'm not carrying you on my shoulder."

"Hehe, how about we make it a little interesting?"

"You better not pull anything, or I'm never teaming up with you again," Bai Fan warned Li Xiang.

"Hmph, you're no fun, Bai Fan."

...

Eventually, Bai Fan slowed down.

Bai Fan finally stopped moving and hid herself when she was close enough to see one of the flying beasts on the ground.

With caution, they both proceeded closer and closer to the open field, but what they saw was something they never expected to see. There were several dozens of insect-type beast corpses littered everywhere on the ground. Most were in the 2nd tier, while the others were in the 3rd.

"You... I thought you said you only killed a few."

"I thought so too," Bai Fan repied.

Bai Fan was in as much shock as Li Xiang, because whoever did this didn't even bother to take the beast cores out.

...

Bai Fan and Li Xiang quickly absorbed all of the beast cores, but they were still unable to make their pendants shine red. It seemed that they still had some ways to go.

"I don't get it, why would anyone just leave all of their beast cores here?" Li Xiang wondered.

Li Xiang wasn't expecting a response, but after a few seconds Bai Fan finally spoke.

"When I saved you, there was someone else there with me."

"Someone else? is it someone we know?"

"No... I don't think so. I couldn't see her face."

"Do you think she killed all of them alone?"

"It's likely. Were there any Spirit Core realm cultivators participating in the exam this year?," Bai Fan asked.

"Mn, I remember seeing a few, but it still doesn't explain why she would leave so many beast cores here."

"Maybe she didn't need it."

"What do you mean? Of course she would need it. She wouldn't be able to pass the exam without it."

"Unless... her pendant was already red."

There was a brief moment of silence before Li Xiang started laughing.

"Pfft, hahahah. Something like that would be impossible. It hasn't even been an hour since the exam started. How could someone already finish the first test?"

"I saw it. Her pendant was really red," Bai Fan spoke in a tone that made it clear to Li Xiang that she didn't care what she thought, she was confident in what she saw.

"You really-"

Li Xiang looked at Bai Fan with a serious gaze, but Bai Fan didn't bother looking back at her. Li Xiang could tell that Bai Fan was convinced by what she saw, but Li Xiang wasn't the kind of person to believe nonsense so easily.

"Believe nothing you hear, and only half the things you see. That is what they teach here in this sect, right?" Li Xiang said.

At first, Bai Fan didn't reply, but eventually she closed her eyes and shook her head.

"You're right. I was probably just imagining it."

Li Xiang laughed it off, then eventually forgot about it. Bai Fan on the other hand couldn't forget, nor could she stop thinking about it. Whoever the mystery girl was, she was clearly hiding her strength from the public. If there was a genius hiding within the sect, Bai Fan wanted to know who she was. Bai Fan didn't know her name, nor the way she looked, but that didn't discourage her from wanting to find her.

The mystery girl was still in the exam. If she didn't run into her during the exam, she would definitely see her at the end of it.

Chapter 128 - Reckless Dual Cultivation

Back on the men's side of the forest.

Xiao Fang was in the middle of cultivating his [ Illusory Body ] method when his concentration was suddenly broken. Although there was no one around, he could still feel a strong sense of bloodlust in the area.

In the next moment, several spirit attacks began shooting his way.

BOOM~!!!

The power of several spirit attacks raining down on Xiao Fang destroyed everything within a 30 meter radius.

The spirit attacks kept coming. The ground shook, and the sound of the attacks echoed throughout the forest.

There were at least 20 men there, but Xiao Fang didn't know who any of them were nor why they were after him.

When the attacks finally stopped, they could see that a large crater had formed. At the bottom of the crater was Xiao Fang lying lifeless on the ground.

The man that organized the attack jumped into the crater to approach Xiao Fang. When he saw that Xiao Fang wasn't moving he laughed, then eventually spoke.

"There aren't many guys in the sect, and we all live in district 33, but none of us recognized you. How can that be? Unless you are Da Long."

The man approached Xiao Fang to loot his shining red pendant, but the moment he touched his body it suddenly turned into a mist of spirit qi

The man's eyes widened in shock because he recognized what it was.

'An [ Illusory Body ] technique!' He thought.

He immediately turned around to warn the others, but before he could warn them, he suddenly heard their screams.

"Aghh!!"

"No, no don't-"

"Aghhhh!!"

One after the other, the men died while yelling blood curdling screams, but the man standing in the center of the crater could only look up in horror.

He couldn't see what was happening because the crater was too deep, but just from the sounds of bones being crushed and flesh being torn he was able to picture exactly what was going on.

Suddenly one of his men jumped into the crater in the attempt to flee, but he suddenly fell then started being dragged back out by an invisible force. The man desperately tried to hold onto something as he screamed for his life. It had to be the most horrific scream the man in the crater had ever heard.

Even when all of this was happening the man in the center of the crater stood motionless.

Eventually, the screams stopped. What followed next was the sound of a lifeless body hitting the ground.

Although he wouldn't have considered himself to be a cowardly man, at this moment he had never been so scared in his life.

There were a few moments of silence, but then he heard footsteps approaching the ring of the crater.

The walking eventually stopped, but all the man could do was stare down at his shoes. Even when he knew that Da Long was looking down at him, he couldn't even look up at him at all.

[ Fear ]

Xiao Fang's eyes glowed a haunting purple as he stared down at the man.

Xiao Fang was curious to see how strong the technique was, so this seemed like the perfect time to use it. The result surprised him.

During the slaughter of his own comrades, the man in the crater even waited in place obediently. He didn't even lift a finger as his ally was being dragged out of the crater right in front of him.

'Is he a coward or is [ Fear ] really that strong of a technique?' Xiao Fang thought.

He couldn't tell for sure. For all he knew, the man was already scared because Xiao Fang survived their first combined attack. There was no way of knowing for sure.

Xiao Fang stopped using [ Fear ], but the man was still frozen in place.

"Why did you ambush me?" Xiao Fang asked.

"G-go to hell."

With a swipe of a sleeve, Xiao Fang had effortlessly used a [ No Sword ] technique to cut the man's arm off.

The man screamed, but Xiao Fang seemed nonchalant.

"Wrong answer."

Since the man was a spirit cultivator, his tolerance to pain was practically nonexistent, so Xiao Fang gave him some time before asking him again, then the man finally answered.

"I used to think that I was lucky to be in this sect, but ever since you came, I realized the opposite to be true. you slept with every girl I liked, even the girl I was crushing on the most. You were all she could talk about, but you probably don't even remember her name. I blamed her for so long, but then I realized it was your fault, you must be using some kind of despicable method to get all these girls into your bed. I don't know what it is, and I don't care. I just wanted to make you pay. WE wanted to make you pay!!"

The man finally built up the courage to look Xiao Fang in the eyes, but his head was still tilted downwards in hesitation.

What he saw was no different than what he imagined. Xiao Fang's long hair was blacker than ink, his lips were neither a frown or smile, his jaw and brows were sharp, and his eyes were piercing into his soul. Xiao Fang looked like a king staring down an ant.

Xiao Fang was human, but the man felt like he was staring into the eyes of a demon.

"We all suffered because of you. You go around sleeping with whoever you want, but what about the rest of us. Did you expect us to do nothing?!" He then spat at Xiao Fang, but it didn't reach him.

The man pretty much summed up why so many people hated the Dual Cultivation sect. In this world, if a girl wasn't a virgin then she was tainted or dirtied.

For that reason alone, many of the guys that worshiped the girls in the outer court started to see them in a different way. Even if they denied sleeping with Da Long, it was extremely difficult to prove it, especially if they ever practiced any form of body cultivation before.

Xiao Fang felt like he could understand why the man was hurting. This was the same reason the Dual Cultivation sect was hated by so many people and why it got wiped out by Xiao Fang's grandfather.

If Xiao Fang was to continue down this path he would eventually make too many enemies to count, and it would be his fault that his family and friends could never live in peace.

The man in front of Xiao Fang would never forgive him for what he did. Whether Xiao Fang was in the right or wrong didn't matter, Xiao Fang wasn't foolish enough to spare a vengeful man.

"Are those your last words?" Xiao Fang asked.

Xiao Fang seemed incredibly cold and unsympathetic, but he was asking a genuine question. Either way the man was going to die, so if he needed to get something off his chest, now was the time.

The man looked at Xiao Fang as if he was the most evil man that had ever lived. He was no longer sad nor regretful, he was brimming with rage.

He took out his long dagger and shouted his final battle cry. Xiao Fang took out his sword as well. Not even an inner court disciple in the Divine Sword sect could get him to take out his sword, Xiao Fang was only doing it now out of respect. But the man didn't see it that way, he didn't think anything Xiao Fang could do was out of respect. He just assumed Xiao Fang was going to humiliate him with it.

The moment Xiao Fang took a step in the man's direction, the man suddenly lunged his dagger into his own chest.

The man didn't want to give Xiao Fang the satisfaction of killing him, but the truth was that Xiao Fang got no pleasure from his death anyways.

Blood leaked from the man's lips as he fell to his knees, but the fury in his eyes didn't die out one bit. Only a few seconds later did his vision blur, his frown relax, and his body hit the ground.

Even in death, his eyes were still full of hate. The amount of hate the man had for Xiao Fang was too great, if left alive he certainly would've become a troublesome person in the future. Maybe not to him, but to his family and future generations.

Despite the way the man felt about Xiao Fang, Xiao Fang felt respect towards him. To Swordsmen, the act of killing yourself in the face of defeat was the greatest form of bravery anyone could have.

Anyone can become fearless of something, but only the most fearless of men will die to their own sword, that's a testament to conquering the greatest fear of all, the fear of death.

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Xiao Fang gave the man a proper burial then lit up some incense sticks before putting it into the ground. The man reminded Xiao Fang of the dangers of reckless dual cultivation, so this was the least he could do for him.

Before getting up off his knees, Xiao Fang put his blindfold back on. The women in the sect were being seduced too easily because of it.

He needed to change the way he did things, and that started with his eyes. From now on, he will try to refrain from using his eyes unless there was a situation where he really needed to use it.

After he was done, he collected all of the pendants from the corpses then resumed cultivating his [ Illusory Body ] method as if nothing had happened.

Chapter 129 - Clean Robes

The way the Inner court exam was designed, each part of the exam had its own concealed place for testing. They wanted the testing areas to be completely isolated from the outside world so that the disciples wouldn't get distracted. However, between each of their tests there was a gap where elders, inner court disciples, and core court disciples could see and track the progress of the disciples doing the exam. Most people only stayed to see who was in the lead. Others were there to cheer for their family clansmen and friends.

"Should we send someone in to go check on them?" one elder suggested.

"Only a few hours has passed, you need to be patient," another elder responded.

The Inner Court Exam was timed, so the outer court disciples taking the exam needed to finish it before the time ran out. That's why many people were feeling anxious even though only a short amount of time had gone by.

...

Meanwhile underground, Xiao Fang had been cultivating his [ Illusory Body ] method for several hours till he finally made a breakthrough to the 9th stage of the [ Illusory Body ] Spirit Foundation realm.

This was the highest he could reach with the incomplete method. Now if he wanted to proceed further with this cultivation method he would need to pass the exam and start practicing the complete method instead.

After hunting more tiered beasts to make the pendant shine bright red again, Xiao Fang eventually walked towards the exit at the end of the cave.

...

On the women's side, Xiao Hei was also on her way out, but she was discretely tailing behind 2 other girls. The two girls were Bai Fan and Li Xiang.

Since she could only use [ Stealth ] for a short period of time and would have to wait for a few seconds before using it again, she used it reservingly.

The three of them had reached the end of the cave then saw a tunnel going back up to the surface. Just when they were able to see the light at the end of the cave, they started to hear faint sounds coming from the end of the tunnel.

"Do you hear that?" Li Xiang asked.

"I do. Unlike the entrance exam, there will be people following our progress," Bai Fan replied.

"Wait. People will be seeing us?"

Li Xiang began fixing her hair and dusting off her ripped and tattered clothes. After spending the entire day hunting tiered beasts she was tired and dirty.

Although Bai Fan was in even more of a mess, she didn't bother cleaning herself off. She didn't seem to care all that much about her appearance, but in truth she didn't need to. Even when she was looking like this, she was still the prettiest girl in the outer court.

"Ah wait, I can't go out there looking like this. Just give me a moment," Li Xiang said in a bit of panic.

Bai Fan sighed, but still agreed to wait for her.

After a few minutes they heard someone quickly coming up the zigzagging tunnel. The moment she turned the corner, Bai Fan and Li Xiang finally saw who it was.

"Sister Zhao."

"It seems that you completed the first part of the exam before me. I'm impressed, Bai Fan," Zhao Pan replied.

"I can't accept your compliment. Unlike you, I had a bit of help."

While Bai Fan acknowledged Zhao Pan's demon level talent, she was still a whole year younger than her. If Bai Fan had an extra year to train, she was confident she would've been able to beat Zhao Pan. What Bai Fan didn't know was that Zhao Pan didn't spend all of her time body cultivating like Bai Fan did with her spirit cultivation, she was also quite talented in her spirit cultivation as well.

Zhao Pan looked over Bai Fan's shoulder and saw Li Xiang combing her hair. Li Xiang was an incredibly beautiful girl, but she could be a bit shy and insecure about her appearance in front of a large crowd. She had emerald green eyes, light brown hair, and stood around 165cm tall.

"That's enough, Li Xiang. You look fine," Bai Fan said impatiently before walking out of the cave.

Li Xiang pouted then put her little jade comb away before following her out.

Zhao Pan was a bit amused. She waited a few seconds then walked out as well.

As soon as Bai Fan stepped out of the cave she was greeted by cheers, claps, and whistles. The inner court and core court disciples all knew who she was because her mother was a Supreme Elder.

After giving the elder her red pendant, the elder told her to walk up to the stage and introduce herself before continuing to the next part of the exam.

Bai Fan nodded then walked up the stage before looking out to the crowd.

"My name is Bai Fan, and I'm a first-year."

Bai Fan turned to proceed to the next stage of the exam, but then the crowd all started asking her one question,

"Are you a body or spirit cultivator?"

Bai Fan wasn't expecting to be asked that question so she was a bit surprised by it.

"I'm a Spirit Cultivator."

Suddenly the crowd exploded into cheers once again, but this time there was a noticeable difference between the body and spirit cultivators in the crowd.

Next up was Li Xiang.

Before Li Xiang could even say anything, several people within the crowd started cheering like crazy.

They weren't just cheering, clapping, and whistling, they were also blowing horns, banging drums, and waving white makeshift flags with the character 'Li' written on it. These disciples were all the Li family clansmen or the subsidiary family clansmen under the Li family clan.

Since Li Xiang was the only daughter of the Li family clan's Patriarch, they all felt like they were sending their praise directly to the Patriarch himself.

Li Xiang smiled brightly. She was almost embarrassed to be receiving so much praise like this.

With a soft voice she delightfully introduced herself to the crowd.

"My name is Li Xiang, and I'm a first-year spirit cultivator."

The crowd was explosive, even the elders were in shock. It was extremely rare for both the 1st and 2nd placed disciples to be in their first year.

Li Xiang walked over to Bai Fan.

"Looks like you're quite popular. They cheered twice as loud for you than they did for me."

"Ah, too embarrassing," Li Xiang smiled as she scratched the back of her head.

Bai Fan looked back at the cave exit. She was surprised to hear that she was the first to finish the first test.

'Was I really just imagining the girl with the red pendant?' she thought. She tried to think of reasons why the mysterious girl would hide her talents from the public, but was unable to think of anything.

"What are you looking at?" Li Xiang interrupted Bai Fan's train of thought.

"It's nothing," Bai Fan said as she turned around to continue the exam.

"Oh, keeping secrets with me now. I promise I won't tell anyone."

"I told you it was nothing."

"Please?"

"Get lost."

...

While the disciples were waiting for the next person to arrive, they talked amongst themselves.

Within that crowd were a few core court disciples, one of which was named Li Qin.

Li Qin wore a thin white robe that swayed in the air with just the slightest breeze. Her black hair flowed down her back resembling a beautiful ink painting of a waterfall on a white canvas.

Her aura was so profound her presence felt almost illusionary, and her gaze was so deep it always seemed as if she was contemplating the world.

Li Qui was none other than the number one genius from the Li family clan, but amongst her peers in the core court, her talent was only slightly above average.

...

"Congratulations, Li Qin. Li Xiang seems to be even more remarkable than you," a fellow core court disciple said.

Li Qin didn't even bother looking at her when she replied, "Mn, she's talented."

"Is that all you can say? I thought you'd be happy to see someone from the Li clan do well on the exam."

"Many geniuses fail due to being over-praised. It's better to wait and see than to be disappointed by the failure you contributed to create."

"The failure I contributed to create?" The other core court disciple didn't understand what Li Qin was saying.

In the time that they were talking, Zhao Pan had already introduced herself and was on her way to the next test.

When Zhao Pan said that she was a body cultivator the body cultivators in the crowd got up off their seats and started cheering louder than ever.

There weren't many body cultivators in the inner and core courts, so to see one in the top 3 was a big deal to them.

...

Xiao Hei understood the gist of things so after a bit of time passed she finally walked out of the cave then walked up to the stage.

"My name is Fei Lin, and I'm a first year body cultivator."

The elders and body cultivators in the crowd started going crazy with joy. It really seemed like this year was the beginning of a golden era for the sect.

"I've never seen the inner court disciples so excited before," one elder said.

"Can you blame them? Something like this isn't an usual occurrence," another elder replied.

.

.

.

As time went by, the crowd slowly became smaller and smaller. Many of the spectators started heading over to the next waiting area because they didn't want to miss seeing Bai Fan or Li Xiang finish the next test.

Several minutes later, the crowd had all moved to the next waiting area, but it was around that time that Xiao Fang walked out of the darkness of the cave.

After stepping out into the light, he was immediately stopped by two elders. One elder took his shining red pendant while the other elder curiously waved her hand in front of his face.

Xiao Fang then pretended to dodge her hand.

"So you can see even with blindfolds on, very interesting," the elder said.

Xiao Fang nodded once.

"Interesting boy." The elder said as she watched him walk away.

The elder assumed Xiao Fang wasn't really blind and was able to see though his blindfold. In the cultivation world, there were many interesting things like that, so she didn't think much of it. The other elder on the other hand seemed totally flabbergasted.

"What are you so shocked about? You don't actually think he's blind, do you?"

"His robes..."

"Hm? What about his robes?"

"Didn't you see it?"

"Stop beating around the bush. What the hell are you talking about?"

"Didn't he just come out of the 2nd level of the Ancestral Training Ground? How are his robes still so clean? There isn't even a scratch on him."

The other elder finally understood what she was talking about, but she couldn't believe it. She looked back at Xiao Fang on the stage with wide eyes. His robes really were clean.

"How did he…"

Xiao Fang didn't seem as if he had just came out of a life threatening forest, he looked like he just finished taking a stroll through a harmless garden. If that wasn't amazing enough, Xiao Fang was also alone.

Facing the remaining disciples in the stands, Xiao Fang introduced himself.

"My name is Long Wang, and I'm a first-year disciple."

Since he was a man, no one cared to ask whether he was a spirit or body cultivator.

"First-year? Is he really a first year?" The elders couldn't believe what they were hearing.

If he was a 9th or 10th-year disciple, then it would've been more believable that he could come out the first test unharmed, but 1st-year? It was simply too unbelievable.

Chapter 130 - Maze

"... there isn't a scratch on him."

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The Illusory Ancestral Training Ground is divided into 9 levels. To separate the guys from the girls, the girls were put on the 1st level while the guys were put on the 2nd. This was why there weren't too many people surprised that Xiao Hei came out of the first test looking as clean as Xiao Fang did.

1st level: 2nd - 3rd tiered beasts

2nd level: 3rd - 4th tiered beasts

3rd level: 4th - 5th tiered beasts

Etc...

Tier levels to Cultivation Realms:

1st Tier = ~5th stage foundation realm

2nd Tier = ~1st stage Refinement realm

3rd Tier = ~5th stage Refinement realm

4th Tier = ~1st stage Spirit Core realm

etc...

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.

Since the [ Illusory Body ] method could increase a cultivator's body power by an entire realm, the sect would usually only recommend girls in the [ Illusory Body ] Spirit Refinement realm to train in the 2nd level of the Ancestral Training Grounds. However, most, if not all of the men in the outer court, hadn't even started practicing a cultivation method yet. Although it wasn't too uncommon to find a few Spirit core or Solid Body realm cultivators doing the inner court exam, they were usually much older than Xiao Fang was.

...

Inside the 2nd testing area, Xiao Fang was walking through a hallway when he suddenly heard an illusory elder speak.

"If you are registered under an elder, proceed through the right door. If you have no master, enter through the left."

Xiao Fang walked up to the right door, but before he could open it the elder suddenly spoke again.

"Through this door is a maze. Your objective is to reach the other end. If you cannot pass this round before the sun comes down you will fail."

There was more than 12 hours left till the sun came down, so time wasn't an issue for him.

Xiao Fang walked through the right door then scanned the area once inside. What he sensed surprised him.

There were several openings to the maze, but nearly all of them reached the end without any blocked ends.

'Is this really a maze? Even a child could pass this test,' Xiao Fang thought.

Without thinking too much into it, Xiao Fang began walking down a random path. He was paying close attention to his surroundings, but nothing happened. The further down the path he walked the less cautious he became.

Out of curiosity, Xiao Fang removed his blindfold and took a peek. What he saw left him speechless.

The path he was on was twisting and turning, there were walls that he couldn't sense with his ears and there were paths that were actually a wall. Just looking around him made him feel dizzy.

"Now I get it. This explains the strong illusory qi I was sensing when I stepped into this maze."

Perhaps if Xiao Fang could only use his eyes it might've taken him much longer to complete this test, but since he could sense his surroundings with his ears, this test was like taking a walk in the park for him.

"Hmm, I wonder how Xiao Hei is doing,"

Since Xiao Fang had a lot of time, he tried to scan the entire maze, but this time with the intention to find Xiao Hei. Since the maze was huge, it took some time to find her, but when he did he was surprised because she was already almost halfway to the end.

'Not bad,' he thought.

Xiao Fang was a bit surprised by how well she was doing in the short amount of time that she was in here for. However, he quickly noticed that she wasn't alone.

'It seems she's made a new friend.' Xiao Fang was a bit amused by the thought.

He knew how much she hated humans, so he didn't expect her to be making friends with them so easily.

Curious about who her new friend was, Xiao Fang eavesdropped on their conversation, but he was unable to learn anything about her.

Xiao Fang was interested to know who this new girl could be for Xiao Hei to like her, so he altered his path to intersect the 2 girls.

With his speed, it took him less than a few minutes to reach them. Xiao Fang took his blindfold off when he was close enough to see them.

The girl walking with Xiao Hei had long brown-ish orange hair, a cute face, and stood around 156cm tall. More importantly, she had a small ass, but nicely shaped B cup tits.

Although he couldn't imagine having too much fun with her in bed, that didn't discourage him from wanting to try.

'How could an innocent minded person, such as myself, have such lewd thoughts at a time like this. And it's towards Xiao Hei's new friend too. I guess Xiao Hei wouldn't mind...'

Dirty thoughts aside, Xiao Fang was going to approach her when he suddenly remembered the man he buried in the ancestral training grounds.

Xiao Fang stopped, did he not learn anything from that experience? After thinking about it for a little while, Xiao Fang finally took out his blindfold then blindfolded himself again.

{"Xiao Hei, turn around."} Xiao Fang said to Xiao Hei through a spirit transmission.

Xiao Hei had a sudden look of surprise in her eyes as she turned around.

"Hm? Did you discover something?" The girl next to Xiao Hei asked.

Without replying to her question, Xiao Hei suddenly started running towards the twisting and warping path.

"Hey wait, for me," the girl cried out as she tried to catch up to Xiao Hei.

She knew Xiao Hei was much stronger than she looked, but seeing her run so fast still surprised her.

In the next moment, Xiao Hei was gone from sight. The girl didn't know whether to keep chasing or to just forget about her and continue doing the exam. She was upset because the deeper she went the harder the maze got, and she relied heavily on Xiao Hei to get to this point.

Although she wasn't going to give up, she couldn't help but frown.

However, a few seconds later she saw Xiao Hei again.

"Fei Lin, you're back! Why did you run off like that?"

The girl then looked up at the man standing behind Xiao Hei.

"Who's he?"