Hearing the voice, Yun Xiaoyao turned around to look.
A tall man in a cyan robe was looking at him with a pleasant surprise on his face.
Yun Xiaoyao was slightly stunned when he saw the man. "Brother Yefan, why are you here?"
The man's name was Yè Fán, the Sword Prince of the Sword Sect, a top power in the Southern Prefecture, and one of Yun Xiaoyao's few close friends back in the day.
The Sword Prince was essentially the equivalent of a Saint Son in the Sword Sect, much like the Saint Son of the Qilin Sacred Land.
As the two most controversial geniuses of the past, sparring matches between them had naturally been inevitable.
In over a hundred spars, Yè Fán had never won once, but that very fact had forged a deep and lasting friendship between them.
Yè Fán smiled faintly. "I happened to be passing by earlier and suddenly sensed a familiar aura, so I came down to take a look. I never expected it to be you, Xiaoyao."
"Speaking of which, shouldn't you be at the Qilin Sacred Land? Why are you at the Qingyun Sacred Land?"
Hearing this, Yun Xiaoyao did not hide anything. He truthfully recounted what had happened and told Yè Fán about his cultivation having plummeted.
Upon hearing of his friend's ordeal, Yè Fán was filled with boundless fury.
As for Yun Xiaoyao's cultivation level dropping, he did not care in the least.
He believed that with Yun Xiaoyao's talent, recovering his cultivation was merely a matter of time.
"Those people are truly blind! If it weren't for you, Xiaoyao, stepping forward to beat back a million-strong army in the past, where would they have gotten such a good life?"
"Not only are they ungrateful, but they actually drove you out!"
Yun Xiaoyao smiled faintly and said nothing.
As for the Qilin Sacred Land, he had already made up his mind long ago.
Yè Fán pondered for a moment, then suddenly asked, "So, Xiaoyao, have you joined the Qingyun Sacred Land now?"
Hearing this, Yun Xiaoyao could neither laugh nor cry.
"I haven't joined them. They thought I was too old."
At these words, Yè Fán froze, then burst into hearty laughter.
"A bunch of fools, truly a bunch of fools! They fail to appreciate such a genius!"
"Xiaoyao, I formally invite you to join the Sword Sect now. If you are willing to come, I am willing to cede the position of Sword Prince to you!"
"You know very well what kind of people we Sword Cultivators are, Xiaoyao. Not only will we not be like the Qilin Sacred Land, but we will also pour all our resources into nurturing you!"
On this point, Yun Xiaoyao thoroughly agreed.
He knew the character of Sword Cultivators all too well, so he naturally had no doubts.
What moved him was that even though his cultivation had regressed and he now lacked any backing, Yè Fán was still willing to help him.
He was even willing to step aside and hand over the position of Sword Prince to him.
What reason did he have to refuse Yè Fán?
"Alright, I accept. I will join the Sword Sect!"
Hearing Yun Xiaoyao's consent, Yè Fán was immensely thrilled.
"Great! Let's head back right now. If the Sword Master learns of this news, he will definitely be even happier than I am."
Without further ado, Yè Fán impatiently summoned his sword, taking Yun Xiaoyao with him as they soared away.
Less than half an hour after the two left, the outer sect plaza of the Qingyun Sacred Land had completely erupted into chaos.
Staring at the Qilin Decree floating above them and listening to the furious voice of Liǔ Yúnyān echoing from within, the crowd fell into deep contemplation.
"Effective as of today, Yun Xiaoyao is expelled from the Qilin Sacred Land, never to return for the rest of his life!"
Silence—a dead silence.
And the most silent of all was none other than the recruitment disciple who had previously turned Yun Xiaoyao away.
Instantly, everyone's gazes converged uniformly upon him.
"Come to think of it, wasn't there someone named Yun Xiaoyao who came to take the test just now, but got turned away by him?"
"Seems so. And the face of that guy looked exacty like the portrait depicted on the Qilin Decree."
"Drop the 'seems so'—that person was Yun Xiaoyao! Yun Xiaoyao of the Qilin Sacred Land, the one who fought a million-strong army all by himself!"
"Wait, doesn't this mean the Qingyun Sacred Land just rejected Yun Xiaoyao's application to join the sect?"
At this, everyone snapped to their senses, casting bizarre looks at the disciple.
Right at that moment, an immensely formidable aura suddenly descended above the crowd.
The newcomer wore a cyan Daoist robe embroidered with a cyan cloud, signifying that he was an elder of the Qingyun Sacred Land.
Glancing at the rowdy crowd below, he walked up to the recruitment disciple, frowning as he demanded, "What is going on here? Why did I hear the name Yun Xiaoyao? Has he been here?"
At this, the disciple's body trembled violently, stammering and utterly too terrified to speak.
The onlookers, loving a good spectacle, immediately blurted out how Yun Xiaoyao had come to take the assessment earlier and had been turned away.
In an instant, the Qingyun Sacred Land elder was dumbfounded.
He had just attended a meeting and was on his way to spread the news, only to find out that the person had already been here, and had actually been rejected by a disciple of their own sect.
For a moment, the elder felt like dying.
With an angry roar, he lashed out and slapped the disciple across the face, sending him flying over a hundred meters away.
"Do you have any idea what you've done? You just handed a peerless monster over to another sect!"
"Damn it, you can go face the Sacred Lord's wrath yourself when the time comes!"
With that, the elder channeled the spiritual Qi within his body to the limit and bolted down the mountain like a madman.
***
Qilin Sacred Mountain.
Sitting upon the main seat, Liǔ Yúnyān listened to the grievances of the three disciples before her, her already irritable mood souring even further.
"Master, please think of a way! I've been trying to refine the pills Junior Brother needs to break through to the Golden Core stage for three days now, but the cauldron explodes every single time it reaches the crucial moment."
"That's right, the formations I've been refining are doing the same thing. Every time it gets to the critical moment, something goes wrong, and I have no idea why."
Hearing their explanations, Liǔ Yúnyān frowned.
"What? Both of you run into errors every time it reaches the crucial moment?"
"Yes!"
The two nodded in unison.
Liǔ Yúnyān's brows furrowed even deeper.
She then looked over at Bái Chén.
"Chén'er, have you had any similar issues happen to you recently?"
Hearing this, Bái Chén, who wore an honest and obedient expression, shook his head while inwardly sneering nonstop.
"This stupid woman still doesn't realize that the Qilin Sacred Land's fortune has vanished entirely because of Yun Xiaoyao alone."
"Still, it's better that she doesn't know. At this rate, the Qilin Sacred Land won't be able to hold out much longer anyway, and when that day comes, it will all belong to my Heavenly Demon Sect!"
At that moment, an elder walked into the hall.
"Sacred Lord, today is the monthly distribution day for medicinal pills."
Liǔ Yúnyān slightly furrowed her brows. "What is it? Can't you handle such a trivial matter yourselves? Why do you need to come and ask me?"
"However..."
The elder stammered, his expression rather awkward.
"What kind of proper demeanor is this stammering? Just say whatever you have to say!" Liǔ Yúnyān rebuked coldly, her eyes filled with impatience.
"Yes!"
The elder drew a deep breath and spoke at a rapid pace, "Reporting to the Sacred Lord, the remaining pills in the pill chamber are no longer enough for this month's distribution."
"Usually, Saint... Yun Xiaoyao is the one who refines the pills, but he hasn't come by at all this month, so..."
Liǔ Yúnyān snapped angrily, "Without Yun Xiaoyao, can't you refine them yourselves? Are you telling me that nobody in the Pill-Refining Peak knows how to make pills?"
She then turned her gaze to Líng Yānrán.
"Yānrán, go to the Pill-Refining Peak to see what's going on, and help refine some pills while you're there to get this month's supplies distributed as soon as possible."
"Master, I..."
Líng Yānrán wanted to say that she had no time because she needed to refine pills for Bái Chén, but seeing Liǔ Yúnyān's angry expression, she swallowed her words and obediently followed the elder out.
After the two left, Liǔ Yúnyān sat in her chair, her chest heaving up and down.
Seeing this, Bái Chén rolled his eyes and quickly stepped forward to comfort her.
"Master, please don't let this anger ruin your health. Eldest Senior Brother probably just went out to clear his head; he'll be back before long."
Hearing this, Liǔ Yúnyān took a deep breath, suppressing the fury in her heart.
"If only he were as sensible as you, Chén'er. I must have raised an ungrateful wretch!"
"I merely scolded him a couple of times, yet he refuses to accept it and actually quits the Sacred Land directly! If he comes back within three days, perhaps I can still forgive him!"
Listening to Liǔ Yúnyān's self-talk, Bái Chén chuckled inwardly.
"Yun Xiaoyao, oh Yun Xiaoyao, you better not come back. You must stay firm on quitting the Sacred Land."
"Only then can I complete my plan!"