Qin Keqin's True Appearance

Today was the day of the protégé initiation ceremony and all the newly initiated protégés were now back to the Heavens Ridge Villa. 

All the newly core protégés and old core protégés had gathered at the Heavens Martial Hall at mid-day. Altogether, there were twenty core protégés that had gathered and that included Lu Qingyun, Tang Bufan, Ouyang Xue and the rest.

 Lu Qingyun, Tang Bufan and Zhang Gang were three of the newly recruited core protégés. As newly joined protégés, Tang Bufan and Zhang Gang had to address all the other core protégés as their senior brothers and sisters.

 Lu Qingyun was an exception of course. The rest of the nineteen core protégés had to address him as senior brother.

 Except for Ouyang Xue, the rest of the core protégés were clearly unimpressed by this new 'senior brother'. In fact, most of them had already done their homework and shared the gossips on him. They had already learnt that Lu Qingyun was only a lowly first realm cultivator.

 Needless to say, Lu Qingyun had broken the lowest record for being a core protégé. There was never a core protégé that was a first realm expert before.

 Lu Qingyun could feel the hostility that had come from some of the core protégés as they stared coldly at him. 

 Some of them had even greeted him coldly with an emphasis on 'Senior Brother' with some sarcasm.

 But Lu Qingyun did not mind at all. It was because he was rarely bothered with what people had thought of him.

 The core protégés were all standing quietly together in attendance as the six grand elders and many of the elders waited for their acting sect leader to arrive.

 Most of the core protégés had never seen the acting leader before and were curious about her appearance. Some of the core protégés may have seen her during the core protégé selection but at that time, she was veiled and hence none of them had an idea what she looked like.

 Ouyang Xue and Lu Qingyun were the only core protégés to have seen her true appearance.

 Grand Elder Celestial Shi Guanyin whispered to Grand Elder Yun Xing, "Junior sister, we are all grand elders and we have all already arrived. But our new acting sect leader has to keep us waiting for her."

 Yun Xing smiled weakly. She knew that Celestial Shi Guanyin was trying to stir up some shit so she merely nodded and did not reply to her.

She was merely a fourth realm immortal celestial while Shi Guanyin was a fifth realm golden celestial so she had to give her some token respect.

Although they may appeared to be amicable with each other, there was actually rivalries between her Yellow Hills Martial Hall and Shi Guanyin's Red Heaven Sword Hall.

 Celestial Bai Laoxiong was smiling broadly. He was patient to wait. It was because he had planned a show to welcome Qin Keqin today…

 Elder Ouyang had suddenly walked into the Heavens Martial Hall and announced, "Sect leader will be arriving soon."

 Immediately many of the core protégés immediately straightened up and were prepared to show the sect leader their best attitudes.

 Even Lu Qingyun was arranging his robe to make it look neat. He had not seen her for a almost week now…

 When Qin Keqin had walked into the Heavens Martial Hall and was standing in front of everyone, almost all the core protégés were stunned.

It was because it was as though a goddess had suddenly walked into their presence; she was not wearing any veils and her astonishing beauty and golden eyes were piercing in the hearts of men and maidens in the Heavens Martial Hall. 

 Even Shi Guanyin, Bai Laoxiong and many of the elders were also astonished. The truth was that they had also not seen her true appearance before; they had only recognized her from the leadership jade pendant that she was carrying and her voice.

 Qin Keqin was smiling quietly as she gazed at everyone and it was as though her gaze alone could melt the hearts of anyone, men or maidens.

 There was a small twitch that was on Shi Guanyin's face as she questioned in her heart, "This imposing presence…is she really a fifth realm expert? Or has she already broken through to the sixth realm?"

 Even Celestial Bai Laoxiong could feel her imposing presence that caused half of his strength to depart from him. It was as though her state of divinity was so much higher than him that it caused him to be deference to her.

 Some of the core protégés were even muttering, "She is our sect leader?"

 "She looks so young…"

 "She must be a monstrous talent…"

 "I haven't seen anyone as beautiful as her…"

 Lu Qingyun was probably the only one who was not in awe of her astonishing beauty. His spirit jumped when he saw her and he was very glad to see her again. He thought, "Keqin my master, today I am your core disciple…"

 Qin Keqin chuckled as she looked at the core protégés that had gathered. When her eyes met Lu Qingyun, she gave him a quick wink which startled him. "Good, we have twenty core protégés that are all here."

 She turned a little solemn as she smiled, "As you have known already, I'm your acting sect leader Qin Keqin. Thanks to the grace of my mother consort the Fairy Jade Light the Great Saintess Yuhuan, I am able to address you today in this position. My mother consort has no interest in running the Heavens Ridge Villa and has left the running of the sect to the six grand elders of the six martial halls. Similarly, I've no interest to take over as well."

Qin Keqin chuckled softly before adding, "As you know, I have taken recently taken a protégé to be my core disciple. So I hope that everyone will help me to look after him and be helpful to him. After all, I may not always be in the sect."

 Lu Qingyun was panicky thinking: Keqin is not staying in the sect?!

 When Tang Bufan had heard her, he was secretly pleased: So this senior brother of mine actually has a master that may not have the time to instruct him. What a joke!

 But he was also secretly looking at Qin Keqin; he had not expected that the sect leader would be such an astonishing beauty and that she would be so captivating to look at. To say she was a peerless beauty in the entire Nine Celestial Fraternity was not an understatement.

Her astonishing great beauty may be even be comparable to the current two greatest beauties of the Nine Celestial Fraternity, the Great Heroine Ye Jing and the Lovely Empress Lu Jiangsu. 

To think that he had once insulted her by calling her ugly…

 He inhaled a heavy sigh and was also thinking, "Who would have known that she will be so vengeful against me and she has actually sent her vixen fairy to cause me such endless trouble. If it is not for the Devil Goddess, I would have completely broken down by now. I ought to be more careful around this sect leader in the future…"

But he was also smirking coldly; it was because the Devil Goddess had told him that there would be a great show today and had given him some instructions to show off. 

 Qin Keqin added with a faint smile, "Mm, I really don't know what to say to everyone for my first sect speech. After all, I am quite shy too."

 When the core protégés heard her, many of them had broken out in smiles and were laughing along with her too.

 At first many of the core protégés had a negative opinion of her for making Lu Qingyun a core protégé of hers. But when they had seen her and interacted with her, all their negative opinions had suddenly vanished.

 Even Ouyang Xue felt less frightened of her now. She was thinking,: Since nothing has happened to me for a week now, I should be alright now...

 Qin Keqin smiled and said wryly, "I hope to see all the core protégés doing their best for the core protégés competition that will be held three months later. This will determine your martial ranking within the sect. I hope for a stellar performance from all of you."

Then she had suddenly displayed a huge golden bell from her spatial pouch and she was smiling to everyone, "This is the Great Origin Golden Bell and it can test your apptitudes toward cultivation. I hope to test all the core protégés today to gauge your potential for cultivation." 

Grand Elder Celestial Shi Guanyin, Grand Elder Celestial Bai Laoxiong and many others were all startled and were gasping with great shock, "This is... really the mythical Great Origin Golden Bell?!" 

The Great Origin Golden Bell was said to be an immortal profound treasure!