"Damn Wang Yuan! You've doomed me!"
Wang Hu roared in his heart. Facing an opponent as formidable as Jiang Chen, he no longer dared to harbor any thought of resistance.
To reach where he was today, he had no idea how much effort he had put in or how much humiliation he had endured. If his cultivation were crippled, then... he would surely end up countless times more miserable than when he first started.
At the same time, an immense wave of fury surged within him toward his cousin.
Utterly furious!
If not for this Wang Yuan, how could he have ended up in this state? Not only had he lost all his face, but the resources he had accumulated over such a long time—resources prepared for his breakthrough to the Qi Refining 6th Layer—were also gone.
Even as a Qi Refining 5th Layer cultivator who resorted to extortion and plunder, the speed at which he could accumulate resources was much faster than others.
Yet, having reached his current realm, the resources he required were a truly staggering figure.
After taking the storage ring, Jiang Chen checked the resources inside, smiled faintly, and said, "Looks like this really is your entire life's savings."
There were quite a lot of resources inside. Although they wouldn't last very long for a "money-devouring beast" like Jiang Chen, sustaining him for ten days or so wouldn't be a problem at all.
Having secured these resources, Jiang Chen left directly.
To him, this incident was merely a minor interlude. Jiang Chen's grand objective was to go check in!
Checking in was the thing he looked forward to most every day.
Only after Jiang Chen had walked some distance away did the silent atmosphere finally break, and people began to talk one after another.
"No way... Is this Jiang Chen a bit too freakish?"
"Yeah, I originally thought he was at the Qi Refining 3rd Layer, but the strength he just displayed was completely that of the Qi Refining 5th Layer... And among those at the Qi Refining 5th Layer, he's a rather formidable existence at that, otherwise Wang Hu wouldn't have been defeated by him so easily!"
"..."
Everyone's emotions were somewhat complicated.
Especially those who had entered at around the same time as Jiang Chen; their feelings were a chaotic mix, and their eyes held all sorts of emotions.
Jealousy, envy, apprehension, fear... and so on.
In the end, all of it turned into sighs.
Ever since they entered, they had been bullied and completely unable to turn the tables, handicapped by their poor strength and mediocre talent.
Yet Jiang Chen, who had entered at the same time as them, hadn't been bullied at all; instead, he had directly crushed Wang Hu, who threw his weight around in the outer sect!
Facing such a stark contrast, only they themselves knew the true taste of those feelings.
As for the female cultivator who had been hiding in Jiang Chen's room, she was completely dumbfounded, taking a few unconscious steps forward until she stood at the doorway...
Never in her wildest dreams would this courtesan have imagined that Jiang Chen could be so ferocious...
"What... what... what on earth is Jiang Chen's actual cultivation level?"
Liu Yun remained silent, biting her lower lip while her pretty eyes flickered continuously with astonishment and shock.
Yes.
Up to this point, she could no longer figure him out.
You had to remember that when Jiang Chen first appeared, he had displayed Qi Refining 3rd Layer strength!
Back then, Liu Yun had actually already taken note of him and observed him for a while.
Yet it had only been a little over ten days. If someone told her Jiang Chen had directly jumped from the Qi Refining 3rd Layer to the Qi Refining 5th Layer, she certainly wouldn't believe it.
But if someone claimed Jiang Chen had been at the Qi Refining 5th Layer right from the start... wouldn't that be even more unbelievable?
"Forget it, I won't think about it anymore."
"This Jiang Chen is simply a monster!"
Liu Yun shook her head with a bitter smile, choosing to dwell on it no longer. How could someone like her ever truly see through a monster like him?
Wang Hu was still kneeling on the ground. Glancing out of the corner of his eye toward the direction Jiang Chen had left, and seeing that Jiang Chen's figure had completely vanished from sight, he abruptly leaped to his feet and struck Wang Yuan across the face with a slap.
"You piece of trash!"
"More trouble than you're worth!"
"Do you know I almost got killed by you today?!"
Now that he was certain Jiang Chen had left, Wang Hu could no longer suppress the rage in his heart and let loose.
This slap sent Wang Yuan flying directly through the air to crash onto the ground, knocking out several teeth amid a spray of bloody mist.
He looked at Wang Hu in a daze.
Yet deep in his eyes lurked fear, terror, and even... a trace of anger. But it was only a trace. Facing Wang Hu—facing the older cousin who shielded him and allowed him to throw his weight around in the outer sect—Wang Yuan did not dare to act presumptuously in the slightest.
Wang Hu stared coldly at Wang Yuan and said, "Get lost!"
Wang Yuan was speechless, thinking to himself, "Wasn't it because you suspected Jiang Chen had a treasure and wanted to snatch it from him that you came here in the first place?"
At first, he had called Wang Hu to stand up for him, but Wang Hu had hesitated and made all sorts of excuses, only rushing over in a fiery hurry once he suspected Jiang Chen possessed a treasure.
Of course, Wang Yuan didn't dare voice these thoughts aloud, and silently walked away.
The surrounding whispered chatter was still ongoing. A few stray sentences drifted into Wang Hu's ears, instantly driving him to the boiling point. He roared furiously, "Get lost, all of you!"
"If you don't want to die, get the hell out of here!"
Hearing this, the group of menial disciples scattered like birds and beasts, not daring to linger any longer.
Jiang Chen could force Wang Hu to his knees, but they... certainly could not.
...
Just after walking a short distance away, Jiang Chen began browsing the menial tasks, muttering to himself, "Today's menial tasks actually look pretty decent."
"It's surprisingly the outer perimeter of the Weapon Pavilion?!"
The Weapon Pavilion was also an extremely important place within the Xianyun Sword Sect.
It housed a massive array of weapon resources and was similarly divided into three sections: the outer perimeter, the inner perimeter, and the core area. The weapons stored in each of these three areas varied drastically in grade.
If sect disciples wished to obtain weapons from here, it wasn't through rewards, but rather... by communicating with the weapons. Anyone capable of pulling a weapon free could claim it as their own.
"I hope I can get a decent reward today."
A sense of anticipation stirred within Jiang Chen. He produced his menial token, activated a teleportation, and arrived directly at the outer perimeter of the Weapon Pavilion.
At this moment, the outer perimeter of the Weapon Pavilion had quite a few people present, though most of them remained inside the pavilion trying to pull out weapons.
Once inside, one's perception would be blocked by an invisible array, making it impossible to sense the outside situation.
The remaining dozen or so people were stationed around the outer perimeter of the Weapon Pavilion to sweep and clean; they were all menial disciples.
As Jiang Chen walked over, the group hastily plastered smiles on their faces.
"Senior Brother Jiang, you're here?"
"Senior Brother Jiang, do you need me to help you sweep up?"
"..."
The group was overwhelmingly enthusiastic and eager. It took Jiang Chen a moment of effort to send them on their way, as the saying goes: you don't hit a smiling person.
Jiang Chen also knew that the news of him handling Wang Hu had undoubtedly already spread.
Otherwise, these people wouldn't be acting so ingratiatingly.
Jiang Chen began his sweeping work.
As for those menial disciples, they didn't dare get too close to Jiang Chen, constantly maintaining a certain distance out of fear that they might slip up somewhere and offend him.
"Tsk, I never expected Senior Brother Jiang to be so powerful. Such talent is probably extraordinary."
"Yeah, even if it can't compare to those of fourth-grade aptitude, it's still considered quite impressive. He probably has a good chance of entering the outer sect."
"..."
The menial disciples muttered among themselves with emotion.
With this battle concluded, everyone knew that Jiang Chen was not someone to be trifled with and possessed immense potential. Consequently, their hearts held only thoughts of getting on his good terms rather than making an enemy of him.