Life and death challenge

After a day of journey, Hao Ren got to a mountain range. There was a pathway that led upwards towards the peak of the mountain. The Silver Lining sect is located precisely on this mountain range

The Silver Lining sect was a great sect and was built on a mountain range where the world energy was concentrated the most in the area, although its not as concentrated as the depths of the Nether forest, it was still a lot better than most locations in the surrounding vicinities.

Hao Ren stood at the front of the pathway and looked at the gate for some time and couldn't help but think back to his time at the forest. After completely clearing his head, he immediately moved towards the pathway before passing the gate

"Halt!"

Hao Ren heard a shout coming from the side of the pathway. The moment he walked about 10 feet close to the gate, he was blocked by a group of disciples of the sect who were tasked with guarding the gate leading to the sect. These disciples were at the side of the pathway, the moment they noticed an intruder, they immediately charged out to stop the person from going any further.

Hao Ren knew that every week, the sect would delegate a set of disciples to guard the gate. When he heard the shout, he immediately turned to look at the disciples who just shouted. He didn't recognize the disciples as he was not too familiar with the disciples of the sect.

"Who are you, what business do you have here?" one of the disciples asked haughtily. When the disciples saw Hao Ren, they looked at him with distain as he was quite young and they couldn't sense any strong aura coming from him. After Hao Ren completely fortified his aura, he completely suppressed it and added to his handsome looks, he didn't fit the normal appearance of martial artist.

Hao Ren looked at the disciples and didn't bother to waste his time with them. He immediately stated his name so he can quickly get passed this disciples and head into the sect

"I'm Hao Ren"

When the disciples first heard the name, they didn't think much of it as some of the disciples have forgotten about him. The low level disciples barely even knew him, although they have heard his name, only a few knew his face. The only time Hao Ren made a public appearance was during his battle with Wu Chen and the good seats were taken by the higher ranked disciples

"Okay, so what do you want here?. This is not a place where any body can just walk in without invitations" the disciples were pretty arrogant. They knew that their sect leader had already broken into the legendary Core Realm and the surrounding sects all came to congratulate their leader. Now none of the neighbouring sects disciples dares to act rudely towards disciples of the Silver Lining sect

Hao Ren was a little surprised by both the fact that none of the disciples knew him and how arrogant the disciples were acting

'Sigh, I thought I was famous in the sect?

Who knew one day I will be stopped and questioned outside the sect' Hao Ren thought with a sigh

"I am a guest of the sect, I had a battle with Wu Chen one year ago. You do remember the person who defeated Wu Chen right?" Hao Ren had to bring up his battle with Wu Chen as it was the only way the disciples could know who he was. Hao Ren has never seen himself as a disciple of the sect, he prefers using the term 'guest' as he believes he would be leaving the sect soon

"Hao Ren is dead, how dare you come here and pretend you are Hao Ren just so you can gain entry into the sect" one of the disciples immediately shouted at Hao Ren

The disciples can't be blamed for not recognizing him though, the eyesight of martial artist are pretty good and they get better with the increase in strength. Although this disciples are low ranked, the were still supposed to recognize some features of Hao Ren after seeing him in the battle against Wu Chen. But Hao Ren was completely different from then, currently his skin was fairer than it used to be and his hair was also longer. His facial features also got better than the previous time they saw him, and since they don't get to see him often, they wouldn't really think of him as the same person who defeated Wu Chen

"I remember now!"

One of the disciples who hadn't said anything all this while immediately shouted out in surprise. The shout came suddenly and a disciple who was already planning to attack quickly dismissed this thought

"Please forgive us Elder Brother Hao, you can head into the sect" the disciple immediately said

Hao Ren looked at him and felt quite happy that at least he was recognized by one of the disciples, he didn't show it out though as he had already mastered the act of hiding his emotions.

Hao Ren nodded at the disciple before heading into the sect

When the other disciples saw this, they immediately went over to the disciple who remembered Hao Ren to clarify if it was truly Hao Ren

"Is it truly him?"

"Yes, its him. I remember seeing him when he was heading out of the sect, although he has changed a little, I am still able to recognize him"

The disciple felt Hao Ren looked really familiar when he saw him walking in the direction of the sect, but he wasn't too sure that was why he didn't say anything at first. He only spoke after confirming his speculations about Hao Ren's identity

"I thought he was dead"

"Yeah, that was what I also heard"

"Could it be that Wu Chen was only lying?"

The disciples were first shocked when they found out Hao Ren was alive and immediately got into a heated discussion, they knew the sect would be shocked once they find out the news of Hao Ren's return

Hao Ren was surprised when he thought back to what the disciples said to him, 'How come they think I'm dead?'. Hao Ren asked himself the question that was disturbing his mind.

'Its definitely Wu Chen, he must have thought I died' Hao Ren immediately guessed who would have brought such a news back to the sect. Only Wu Chen and Yun Lu were present that day at the cliff, he didn't even know how he got into the cave but he guessed it was done by the wolf.

'Seems like they thought I died. Well, time to give them the shock of a life time' Hao Ren was smiling happily as he got into the inner parts of the sect. He headed to his courtyard and noticed it was still the same way he left

Very quickly, the news of Hao Ren's return spread much faster than the news of his death in the sect. A lot of people had different reactions upon hearing the news, some of them didn't really have much of an impression of Hao Ren so they just felt it wasn't anything. The people who had a good relationship with Hao Ren were excited when they heard the news, especially the sect leader and Elder Li

The same can not be said for Wu Chen and Elder Wu though, they both knew what really happened and that Wu Chen tried to kill Hao Ren in the forest, if Hao Ren decides to expose what happened to the sect leader, they might be in for a big punishment. Although the sect leader might not expel them from the sect, the punishment wouldn't be light also.

In Wu Chen's courtyard

"What do we do now?" Yun Lu asked Wu Chen with a worried look

Elder Wu and Elder Yun were also present in the courtyard. Wu Chen was also a little stressed out about the whole situation

"Hao Ren is a proud person, he wouldn't like to tell people about being almost killed by Wu Chen" Elder Wu said calmly while analyzing the whole situation. They all know about Hao Ren's proud nature, so when they heard what Elder Wu said, they thought he what he said made sense

"He is still crippled anyway, we shouldn't bother about him too much" Wu Chen said confidently

Elder Li came over to meet up with Hao Ren in his courtyard

"Haha, I knew you couldn't die just like that. Those villainous who spread fake rumours will be having headaches now" Elder Li burst into laughter the moment he entered the courtyard

"Brother Hao, its good that nothing happened to you" Xu Que was behind Elder Li and said immediately he saw Hao Ren

Hao Ren who was sitting lazily in his courtyard smiled the moment he saw the master and disciple, he knew they were the people who cared about the most in the sect. 'They most have been worried when they heard the news that I died' Hao Ren thought as he felt warmth in his heart

"Greetings Elder Li, Elder Brother Xu" Hao Ren stood up and greeted both Elder Li and Xu Que

After greeting both of them, he invited them in and told them about what happened in the forest. He omitted the part of meeting Senior Zhao and also the inheritance

When both Elder Li and Xu Que heard everything that happened, they immediately flew into rage as they never expected Wu Chen to be this despicable

"You don't need to worry about this though, I will definitely have my revenge" Hao Ren said icily

When Elder Li heard this, he was quite shocked then he thought about Hao Ren's talent and knew it wouldn't take long for Hao Ren to catch up to Wu Chen. Xu Que told Wu Chen about what happened in the sect during his absence, and also told him about Wu Chen's breakthrough.

Hao Ren was still calm when he heard this news, he wasn't even bothered about Elder Wu talk less of Wu Chen who was still at the Qi Gathering Realm. "I'm going to challenge Wu Chen in a life and death battle" Hao Ren immediately declared his intentions

Elder Wu and Xu Que were stunned by Hao Ren's declaration.

"Don't be rash boy, I know you have an enmity with Wu Chen but his current strength is already stronger than you" Elder Li immediately chided Hao Ren when he heard this

"Don't worry about that, I have my own ways" Hao Ren said confidently and strolled out of the courtyard heading in the direction of the life and death arena

When the sect disciples heard that Hao Ren challenged Wu Chen to a life and death battle, they were shocked before immediately exploding with excitement. It has been a long time since a life and death battle fought in the sect, although the sect does not encourage killings of fellow disciples, they also knew that it can't be avoided

When Wu Chen heard that Hao Ren challenged him to a life and death battle, he was first stunned before he burst into laughter. He was excited because now he can completely eliminate Hao Ren

Once again, Hao Ren has shocked the sect. But most of the disciples didn't think that Hao Ren could win the battle as Wu Chen has already made a breakthrough to the Ninth stage of the Qi Gathering Realm and doesn't have an opponent in the younger generation. How many levels can Hao Ren breakthrough in the space of one month