Imperial Delegation

A delegation from the imperial capital had come to Yashan city. Among the delegation was the son of a duke, Yu Qingwei. Duke Yu was one of the few Nascent Soul cultivators within Great Yan and his son was already in the Core Formation Realm. Many people had high hopes for Yu Qingwei's future.

Early in the morning, a knock came on Yu Qingwei's door causing him to sleepily open his eyes. He was currently staying at the largest hotel in Yashan city, The Purple Pavilion.

"Young Master Yu, are you awake? You're late for the meeting with the city lord."

Yu Qingwei shot up in surprise and ran to the door. Swinging it open quickly, Yu Qingwei saw an old man standing in the hallway.

"Old Ping! Why didn't you come to wake me earlier!"

Shu Ping was Yu Qingwei's attendant and guard. He raised an eyebrow as he looked Yu Qingwei up and down.

"I did, young master. You assured me that you were getting ready." Yu Qingwei scowled as he vaguely remembered mumbling something to someone at the door while half-asleep. "Perhaps you should go back inside and close the door before getting dressed?"

Yu Qingwei belatedly realized that he had answered the door naked.

"Come in! Help me get dressed. Quickly!"

Yu Qingwei turned back around and rushed back to the bed, tearing the blankets off and revealing a bleary-eyed woman in a similar state of undress.

"Get out!" Yu Qingwei shouted as he grabbed the woman by the arm and pulled her out of bed.

The woman, confused by the rude awakening, resisted being pushed out of the room and tried to cover her modesty as she noticed the old man in the room.

"Young master?! I-,"

"Shut up! There's no time! Hurry and get out!"

"My clothes!"

"There's no time! Why do you care? You work in a brothel!" Yu Qingwei shoved the struggling woman out the door.

"Young master, please!"

Yu Qingwei threw her outer robe out the door and slammed the door in her face.

Shu Ping watched this silently from the side.

"Young master, there are many people out and about already. Perhaps it would be best if you give her some clothes."

"I did give her some clothes! She can cover up with that robe if she's so embarrassed. Hurry, help me get ready! Master Zhang said we're going to the shopping mall today!"

Shu Ping sighed and shook his head but still went forward to help Yu Qingwei. Whether or not a prostitute was humiliated wasn't his concern.

——

The imperial delegation was waiting impatiently at the city gates. None of the people in the delegation were simple and they were not used to being kept waiting. Unfortunately, the young man they were waiting for was not someone they could offend.

Yang Wen glanced uneasily at the old man next to him. Zhang Fei was a close advisor of the emperor and Yang Wen always felt very nervous talking with him. Now that they were all stuck waiting for Yu Qingwei, Yang Wen didn't know how to entertain him.

Luckily, Zhang Fei didn't seem to care about the situation much. Content to quietly sit and cultivate. The others in the delegation were more irritated, but only Zhang Fei's mood was something Yang Wen had to watch out for.

Finally, the delegation saw Yu Qingwei running down the street toward them.

"Sorry! Sorry! Some stupid woman was begging for my favor at my door." Yu Qingwei shrugged helplessly, "Who can blame her? I, Yu Qingwei, am simply too great. Unfortunately for her, I am not magnanimous enough to take in any random woman off the street as my concubine!"

Shu Ping silently walked behind Yu Qingwei, not contradicting Yu Qingwei's bragging.

"In the end, I had to send Old Ping out to get rid of her!"

Zhang Fei slowly opened his eyes as Yu Qingwei kept talking. He raised his eyebrows disapprovingly and sighed.

"If you're finally ready, we can get going now."

Yu Qingwei stopped his excuses in the middle of a sentence and hurriedly replied.

"Oh! Yes! I'm ready. My apologies, Master Zhang."

The delegation finally left Yashan city late in the morning.

——

"What dense spiritual energy!" Yu Qingwei exclaimed as the imperial delegation walked through the valley.

The rest of the delegation ignored Yu Qingwei's comment, just as they had been for the entire trip here, but he didn't let that stop him.

"It's almost as dense as the spiritual energy in the cultivation room my father built for me." Yu Qingwei looked at the people around him. "Almost." He made sure to reiterate. Seeing no reaction, Yu Qingwei continued.

"Old Ping! When we get home, remind me to get a new formation master to upgrade my cultivation room and punish the old one. He told me that a further upgrade to the cultivation room wasn't possible, but if some place in the middle of the Demon Tooth Mountains has spiritual energy this dense then he was obviously lying to me."

Shu Ping nodded.

"Of course, young master."

As the old courtyard house came into view, Yu Qingwei scoffed.

"What a sorry building. It's so small and old! My house in the capital is nearly ten times as large!" Yu Qingwei laughed. "Yang Wen, you say the owner of this place is very strong? How strong can he be to live in such a sorry place?"

Yang Wen gave a helpless nod.

"Young Master Yu is wise."

Yu Qingwei smiled. Acting fierce around these people who couldn't disagree with him was one of his favorite pastimes. It was just Yang Wen's misfortune to be the most easily bullied person around right now.

Walking through the main gate, Yu Qingwei wrinkled his nose.

"What a dirty little place! Yang Wen, where have you taken us?" Yu Qingwei asked in disbelief.

Looking around at the old building, it was uninhabitable. The once great gates were falling off their hinges. The windows and doors were all either missing or hanging open, letting the wind and rain into the buildings surrounding the courtyard. The plants were overgrown, the path was cracked and shattered. There were even wild animals living here!

"What's a fox doing here?! Yang Wen, are you making a fool of us? How dare you suggest that the food you brought over came from here! Did you feed us food you found in the middle of the woods?"

Yu Qingwei spoke very domineeringly. He was hoping to put on a show of punishing Yang Wen on behalf of the delegation. Maybe Zhang Fei would be impressed with him and give him some benefits.

Then, the fox spoke.

"Oh? Who's this? I don't think I've met any of you before."

Mei looked up from where she was napping on the stone bench, Yu Qingwei's voice having woken her up.

Yu Qingwei sputtered in shock. His angry diatribe against Yang Wen died off immediately.

"D-demonic beast! Old Ping! Kill it! Kill it! Save me!"

Shu Ping was also shocked. A core formation beast! He was even having trouble seeing through the beast's cultivation, it may very well be higher than his. His eyes narrowed with a murderous intent.

Shu Ping swiped out with his palm and the Qi in his body flared fiercely.

Mei's eyes widened in shock and she yelped as Shu Ping's spiritual energy crushed down onto her, obliterating the old stone bench and completely smashing through the building behind her, opening the courtyard up to the outside.

Mei groaned in pain underneath the rubble. Luckily, Mei's cultivation base faintly surpassed Shu Ping's cultivation base and she survived his unexpected attack. Even so, she felt a stabbing pain in her ribs as she struggled to breathe and she could no longer put any weight on one of her legs.

Mei swung her tails out behind her and threw the rubble off of her body, her strength as a Late-Stage Core Formation Beast completely destroying the rest of the courtyard house's eastern building.

Mei panted in pain and shock as she stared over at the group of people who had just shown up. She recognized Yang Wen but the rest of them were new.

"It's still alive! Old Ping!"

Shu Ping looked at Mei in shock. Shu Ping was a Middle-Stage Golden Core cultivator and yet this fox had stood up, seemingly barely injured from his attack. His expression hardened and he reached for the sword at his waist.

Meanwhile, the remaining group of people were only just now reacting. The attack and reaction speed of a Golden Core cultivator and beast was just too quick for these majority Foundation Establishment and Qi Gathering Realm cultivators.

Yang Wen realized with horror what had just happened.

"Young master! No!" Yang Wen called out but it was too late.

Shu Ping swung his sword down and a bright sword light flashed, cutting through the air with a tyrannical aura.

Mei desperately jumped to the side, trying to dodge but her injured leg slowed her down too much. Blood spurted as the sword light landed square on her chest and cut to the bone.

Mei cried out in pain as the tyrannical energy of the sword light attacked her body from the inside. Inside her dantian, her demonic core slowly lost its golden gleam and began to crack as the sword energy attacked it directly.

In a panic, Mei flared her Qi and forced the sword energy out of her body. The power of her cultivation base pressed down on the contingent and forced many of them to their knees.

Mei looked desperate as Shu Ping readied himself for another attack.

Finally, Mei attacked.

The weaker cultivators in the crowd screamed as the true unrestrained power of the Core Formation Realm was released. Burning golden flames exploded from Mei's body, engulfing the entire building and beginning to spreading throughout the valley.

Shu Ping stood resolutely in front of Yu Qingwei and forcibly cut down the flames.

More than half of the imperial contingent was reduced to ash by the domineering fire. The only ones that survived the initial blast were those few who were strong enough to protect themselves and those who had life-saving magical treasures. Even then, many of those life-saving measures simply couldn't stand up to the overwhelming power that Mei released, quickly failing in front of the burning energy.

Unnoticed by everyone, Zhang Fei subtly waved his hand, and the flames diverted around a few key figures in the crowd, including Yang Wen.

Shu Ping flared his spiritual energy to its peak and cut down with all his strength, sending a powerful sword light screaming through the air. It stretched high into the sky and cut deep into the ground, parting the flames in front of it as it flew straight at the injured fox.

Mei desperately circulated her spiritual energy and tried to make the fire resist the sword light cutting through it, but her golden core was already scarred and fractured by the tyrannical sword energy.

Mei could only watch with a disbelieving gaze as the sword light grew closer and closer. Then, just before it hit her, it stopped.

The sword light stopped. The fire stopped. The screams stopped. Everything stopped.

The spiritual energy in the air froze and pressed down on everyone like a mountain. Even the spiritual energy within the cultivators' bodies froze, refusing to listen to its owner.

Time seemed to stop.

Then, the spiritual energy in the air grew sharper. The mountain of stone pressing down on everyone turned into a mountain of blades. A growing rage filled the air.

People couldn't even cry out in pain as they felt like they were being skinned alive.

The only thing that could be heard was the relieved whisper of a fox.

"Big Brother."