Enduring humiliation for three years, seizing the elixir, the treasure, and the holy maiden.

In fact, Shen Shu and Ying Ning'er grew up together at the mountain gate.

The two were childhood sweethearts, inseparable since they were little.

Moreover, just before Ying Ning'er left the sect, Shen Shu publicly expressed his feelings to her.

Ying Ning'er then said that she would give her senior brother an answer when she returned to the sect...

Now the person has returned.

I followed behind a male monk with his hands behind his back.

The way she treated the male monk with such respect.

Shen Shu felt as if her heart had been squeezed by something.

"Where is the Sect Master of Baoguang Pavilion?"

"Why don't you come out and have a chat?"

The seventy or eighty Golden Core disciples inside the hall pressed their heads even more firmly against the bluestone.

The person in the front row, who was at the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm, opened and closed his mouth, but didn't dare to make a sound.

However, the junior brother next to him, who was in the late stage of the Golden Core realm, asked a question in a low voice.

"Senior brother."

"This one."

"Has he surpassed the Nascent Soul stage?"

"Is something beyond the Nascent Soul stage still called 'beyond the Nascent Soul stage'?"

The senior brother's voice trembled.

"Can a Nascent Soul cultivator shatter the void with a single step?"

"That's the Refinement of Emptiness."

"Refining to Void..."

"In my entire life, I've never even seen a shadow of a Void Refinement cultivator."

Li Huaizong could no longer stand on the prayer mat in the main hall.

He flicked his sleeve, and a shield of light shot out, rushing straight into the opening.

Halfway there, it was pressed down by that oppressive force and sank three zhang (approximately 10 meters).

As he sank, the jade hairpin that had been with him for two hundred years slipped out of his hair, fell into the bamboo forest below, and disappeared without a trace.

Li Huaizong had no time to spare.

He bent over to the point where the ground almost broke, and cupped his hands in a gesture of respect.

"This junior is Li Huaizong, the sect leader of Baoguang Pavilion."

"Greetings, senior."

"The entire Baoguang Pavilion respectfully welcomes Senior Lianxu to our sect."

As soon as he shouted that, the two hundred or so people below the mountain gate all knelt down in unison.

Li Huaizong buried his head.

My heart is filled with darkness.

In his 1,100-year life, his highest level of friendship was with a Nascent Soul Grand Manager at the auction house in Luoyan City.

A cultivator who has reached the Void Refinement stage.

Those are beings that can be counted on one's fingers on the entire Xuanhuang Continent.

Which one would personally step into such a small gate as Baoguang Pavilion?

Unless they're there to collect a debt.

Li Huaizong mentally reviewed all the old grievances from 1,100 years ago.

I can't find it.

Not a single one could be found.

But that's alright.

A cultivator at the Void Refinement stage doesn't need a reason to destroy a third-rate sect.

If even one word is said that is offensive, the 230 lives of Baoguang Pavilion could be lost in the blink of an eye.

Li Huaizong raised his eyelids slightly.

They were halfway up when they froze.

Behind that senior.

The girl standing there.

Dressed in a light blue gauze, her jade-like feet, folded atop the shield, were dazzlingly white, with a red rope tied around her ankles.

That red rope is the name-marking rope of the Holy Maiden of Baoguang Pavilion.

Li Huaizong finally let out a sigh of relief.

Ying Ning'er.

This girl didn't die.

Not only did he not die, but he also did not die.

This girl followed this senior cultivator back.

Li Huaizong's heart immediately settled back into place.

It turns out it wasn't about collecting debts.

So it was this girl who managed to get involved with this guy.

This is an incredible opportunity.

This girl stumbled upon an incredible stroke of luck in the lawless land of Black Mountain Continent.

Li Huaizong probed Ying Ning'er with his divine sense.

After the investigation, the person was dumbfounded.

The primordial spirit solidifies.

Early stage of the Nascent Soul stage.

Li Huaizong's hand trembled slightly inside his sleeve.

What level of cultivation did this girl have when she came down the mountain three years ago?

Mid-stage Nascent Soul stage.

He was stuck in the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm for eighty years.

The girl who hadn't moved an inch in eighty years transformed into a deity in three years.

Li Huaizong's mind immediately began to race.

Early stage of the Nascent Soul stage.

He's now on par with Shen Shuping.

Following such a senior, many more years will pass.

Li Huaizong himself was in the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm.

In a few years, this girl will be on equal footing with him, the sect leader.

"Sect Leader Li."

Su Chen's voice fell.

Li Huaizong shuddered and quickly bent his waist another half step.

"This junior is here."

"My surname is Su."

Su Chen put his hands behind his back.

"Su Chen, Grand Elder of Luoyan City, Xuanhuang Continent."

"You, Zong Yingning, have now been taken under my command."

This sentence is delivered with force.

The entire mountain fell silent.

It was so quiet that you could hear the sound of leaves rubbing against each other in the bamboo grove below.

then.

The two hundred or so people below erupted in anger.

"Su Chen?"

"Which Su Chen?"

"Which other Su Chen is there?!"

The disciple in the early Nascent Soul stage in the front row grabbed the arm of the junior brother next to him.

"The great battle of Tian Shu Star City back then."

"Back in the Nascent Soul stage, this man stood alone in the void, fighting against eight Nascent Soul cultivators."

"There are also hundreds of Nascent Soul cultivators."

"In the end, all eight Nascent Soul cultivators submitted."

"That battle destroyed three of Luoyan City's defensive formations."

"The God of Slaughter of the Xuanhuang Continent!"

The junior brother's mouth was open.

"Then... isn't that Senior Su a Nascent Soul cultivator?"

"Didn't you see that kick just now?"

"He has reached the Void Refinement stage."

"They've reached the Void Refinement stage!"

Li Huaizong knelt in the void, and the scattered rumors in his mind began to string together one by one.

Back then, the young master of a major sect died at the hands of this man.

In the battle at Tian Shu Star City, it was this man who overpowered all the other heroes.

Li Huaizong's heart was pounding wildly at that moment.

The Holy Maiden of Baoguang Pavilion became a disciple of this one.

In normal years...

For one's own holy daughter to switch allegiance to another's sect is a disgrace worthy of being recorded in the family genealogy.

This is something that will make the entire treasure appraisal industry of the Xuanhuang Continent laugh for three hundred years.

But now.

Li Huaizong just wants to laugh now.

This is not a disgrace at all.

This is the greatest blessing Baoguang Pavilion has received in its two thousand years of history.

On the bluestone of the main hall.

Shen Shu knelt down and slowly exhaled the breath that had been trapped in his chest.

To become an apprentice.

It turns out it was about becoming an apprentice.

The tightness in Shen Shu's heart dissipated considerably.

A cultivator who has reached the Void Refinement stage.

This was something he should never even look up at in his entire life.

If that senior wanted the junior sister's person, Shen Shu, a mere early-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, wouldn't even have the right to speak.

But if they are just master and disciple.

Then there's more to say.

Shen Shu slowly pulled his knee, which was embedded in the stone, out.

When it was pulled out, two pits were left on the stone surface.

"The senior's reputation is illustrious."

Li Huaizong bent over again.

"It is a blessing for our Holy Maiden to become a disciple of a senior, and it is also a blessing for our Baoguang Pavilion."

"Since a senior has graced us with his presence, our sect must naturally provide him with the best hospitality."

"The main hall is simple and crude; I only hope that you will not find it offensive, senior."

Su Chen glanced at the palaces halfway up the mountain.

The palace has seven floors, stacked one on top of the other.

The beast head on the roof ridge is missing a horn, and a small clump of grass is growing over the gap.

Poor family background.

However, the spiritual energy in this place is quite clean.

"Let's go."

The main hall of Baoguang Pavilion was more spacious than Su Chen had imagined.

There are sixteen pillars on both sides, and the pillars are covered with incantations for identifying treasures, with the engravings filled with incense ash.

Seventy or eighty disciples left completely.

What remained were the sect leader and four elders.

All four are at the late Nascent Soul stage.

They sat upright, with both hands on their knees, and no one dared to move.

...