Chapter 57

Chapter 57: Crushed Step by Step
Feng Qi Yun was ranked second on the latest Inner Disciple ranking list. He lived in the best courtyard at the foot of the mountain.

No Inner Disciple was surprised that Xiu Luo picked him as her target.

That included Feng Qi Yun himself.

He said, “I can fight you, but you have to tell us first who that person just now was.”

Feng Qi Yun’s words spoke what everyone was thinking.

In their eyes, Yu Zhao was a complete mystery.

They were sure there was no such person among the Outer Disciples, so how did she become an Inner Disciple?

Xiu Luo thought about it. Neither Elder Hou nor Yu Zhao had hidden Yu Zhao’s identity, and Yu Zhao herself looked like she did not care at all. So Xiu Luo decided not to hide it either.

“Her name is Yu Zhao.”

“Yu Zhao?”

Feng Qi Yun’s brows moved.

That name sounded very familiar.

The other disciples also felt that the name rang a bell. They frowned and tried hard to remember.

Suddenly, a disciple’s mind lit up. He shouted excitedly: “I remember now! Isn’t Yu Zhao the one in the Five Elements Dao Sect that everyone wants to beat up…”

His words broke off halfway.

They had never seen Yu Zhao before, but they had heard more than a few rumors about her.

The way that unfamiliar girl had acted just now did not match the rumors at all.

[It shouldn’t be the same person, right?]

But right when everyone started to doubt it, Xiu Luo said seriously: “It’s her.”

Everyone present fell silent.

Wait. Weren’t the requirements for becoming a Personal Disciple supposed to be very high?

If even Yu Zhao could not meet the requirements, didn’t that mean they had even less of a chance?

Seeing them all stand there like wooden chickens one by one, Xiu Luo felt great. It was only right that they also experience a little shock from Yu Zhao.

Her eyes rolled, and her body shot out like an arrow leaving the bow. Her small fist flew straight toward Feng Qi Yun’s face.

Feng Qi Yun had not become an Inner Disciple much later than Xiu Luo. His body reacted even faster than his mind.

Almost the moment Xiu Luo moved, he rose with the wind. His hands crossed in front of him, and a green Eight Trigrams diagram formed in an instant.

Bang!

Xiu Luo’s fist smashed into the Eight Trigrams array.

The huge impact spread along both their arms.

They both stumbled back several steps.

Xiu Luo shook out her numb arm carelessly, then charged forward again.

Their figures tangled together once more, and the sound of fierce blows echoed again and again over the mountaintop.

The other Inner Disciples watched in awe until their scalps tingled.

Xiu Luo had just gone through a big round of fighting. Yet in such a short time, she had already recovered. Her stamina was truly scary.

No wonder she had been able to press them to the ground and rub them over and over. It was really because they did not have the same freakish recovery as she did.

Only people like Feng Qi Yun could fight Xiu Luo head-on.

No, from now on there would be one more person like that, Yu Zhao.

Half a stick of incense later, the winner was decided.

Xiu Luo moved proudly into her new home.

Feng Qi Yun, his face swollen, turned to look at the Inner Disciple ranked third, Wang Chen, with a very unfriendly gaze.

Wang Chen’s shoulders shook. He quickly raised both hands: “I’ll move, I’ll move! I’m not fighting you!”

Right after surrendering, he turned around, rubbed his hands, and stared at the disciple ranked Fourth Brother in the Inner Disciples, grinning in a bad way.

So, on the very first day that Yu Zhao became an Inner Disciple, all the Inner Disciples’ homes were swapped from top to bottom.

Yu Zhao knew nothing about this. She was in Closed-Door Cultivation.

At the same time, the news that she had been kicked out of the sect by Master Qing Yan was slowly spreading through the Five Elements Dao Sect.

…

Lone Moon Peak.

Fang Cheng Lang and Lan Zi Yu sat facing each other, both with ugly expressions. Neither of them spoke first.

After a long time, Lan Zi Yu finally could not hold it in. He slapped the table hard: “First Senior Brother, say something!”

This was too absurd.

He had only gone back to his own cave to sleep. When he woke up the next day, Yu Zhao was no longer his Junior Sister.

When Lan Zi Yu first heard the news from others, he thought they were joking with him and had thrown a huge fit.

It was not until a junior sister confirmed the news that he became both shocked and angry. Not knowing what to do, he had wanted to gather all the senior brothers to discuss it.

But Su Ming had gone who knew where and could not be found. Cui Jue was in Closed-Door Cultivation, doing Alchemy. Quan Ye was still at the Cliff of Reflection serving his punishment. In the end, only he and First Senior Brother were left sitting here.

Lan Zi Yu could only put all his hope on Fang Cheng Lang and hope he could think of a way to fix things.

Fang Cheng Lang did not answer Lan Zi Yu. The hands resting on his knees were clenched into tight fists.

No one knew that his first reaction to the news had not been worry or anger, but fear.

He was afraid to learn the truth. He was afraid that Yu Zhao had not been driven away by Master, but had asked to leave on her own.

After all, Yu Zhao now did not even want to talk to them. Her desire to draw a clear line between them was much too obvious.

On top of that, one more thing had always hung over Fang Cheng Lang’s heart.

The conversation he had heard in that nightmare clung to him like a bone-deep parasite. Whenever he had a quiet moment, he would remember his own cold and heartless words and Little Six’s painful whimpers.

Even though his reason told him that those scenes were only his imagination, he still could not shake the fear in his heart.

[What if… what if Little Six stayed on Lone Moon Peak, and the things in the dream really happened?]

Just thinking of it made Fang Cheng Lang want to kill the version of himself who had spoken in that dream.

That was why he had been so torn.

He did not know whether keeping Yu Zhao here was right or wrong.

Lan Zi Yu shouted: “First Senior Brother! Just what are you worried about? Are you really willing to let Yu Zhao leave? She is the Junior Sister you raised with your own hands!”

At a time like this, Lan Zi Yu no longer cared about the harsh words he had said before. He simply did not want Yu Zhao to go. No one was allowed to drive her away.

Lan Zi Yu’s words were like a sharp sword that cut through the haze in Fang Cheng Lang’s heart.

Fang Cheng Lang suddenly saw things clearly.

The future had not happened yet. Why should he trouble himself over it in advance?

Even if, taking the worst case, it all turned out to be true, the future was not fixed and unchangeable.

If even a mayfly could try to shake a big tree, then why could he not rely on his own strength to change the future?

Seeking the Way of Longevity was, in itself, an act of Defying Heaven and Changing Fate.

What was there for him to fear?

Fang Cheng Lang sprang to his feet. The sickly look faded from his face, and a strange light burst out in his eyes.

Lan Zi Yu thought Fang Cheng Lang had already made up his mind. He stood up excitedly with him: “First Senior Brother, what should we say when we go see Master later?”

“We’re not going to see Master. We’re going to find Little Six first.”

Answering Lan Zi Yu’s question, Fang Cheng Lang strode quickly down the mountain.

Lan Zi Yu was confused: “What’s the use of finding Little Six? What she says doesn’t matter. We should go together to beg Master, ask him to take back his order and spare Little Six this time.”

Fang Cheng Lang said coldly: “Little Six might not want to come back.”

“How is that possible!” Lan Zi Yu stared with wide eyes. “There is no way she wouldn’t come back. First Senior Brother, have you forgotten? Little Six listens to you the most!”

“Do you remember that time you said she was too distracted with her cultivation? After that, she trained like a madwoman. Even when she went to water Fourth Brother’s herb garden, she kept practicing her spells.”

“And there was another time. You said she was too noisy, so she kept a stone in her mouth every day to cut down how much she talked…”