173: Chapter 172 A Second Move, the Unlucky Yuan Xin

After Ye Qingxuan and his group teleported away, on the back mountain of Maoshan, Qilin stood in place, feeling a deep sense of loss.

Just at that moment, the human emperor banner within her Sea of Consciousness trembled gently, flying straight out of her body and hovering behind her.

Then, with a flash of golden light, Ye Qingxuan's figure stepped out from within the banner.

Qilin suddenly widened her eyes, her face full of shock: "Senior Brother! Didn't you already leave?"

Ye Qingxuan glanced at her and said indifferently: "I am only a Clone."

Qilin instantly understood. A Clone was not an absolutely rational Dao Body; a Clone was equivalent to Ye Qingxuan himself, just with a different body.

This Clone was hidden by Ye Qingxuan inside the human emperor banner beforehand. Only after his true body had teleported away using the National Destiny Space did he manifest, sparing himself from being teleported away together with the true body.

"Don't celebrate too early."

Ye Qingxuan's Clone said, "The energy of this Clone of mine is limited and can only maintain itself for at most three hundred years. During the time ahead, I will guide your cultivation. Remember, do not tell anyone about the fact that I am still here."

Finished speaking, the Clone transformed into a streak of golden light, shrinking back into the human emperor banner.

He was also very clear in his heart that there was no guarantee those old fellows in the Upper Realm were not still eyeing this world. In case the matter of exploiting this loophole was exposed, it would inevitably bring trouble to his true body.

Qilin was both shocked and delighted, a heavy stone in her heart finally dropping to the ground. So Senior Brother had not completely left! At the same time, she couldn't help but complain inwardly: "Three hundred years? And only? I'm only in my twenties this year!!"

Is this the concept of time for a cultivator?

Following that, the human emperor banner flashed with several more rays of golden light. A Pill Furnace, a long sword, along with a set of blue Daoist robes, a headwear, and boots emerged one after another, a complete set of offensive and defensive Magical Artifacts hovering in front of Qilin.

Ye Qingxuan's voice directly echoed in Qilin's Sea of Consciousness.

"I haven't given you your apprenticeship gift before. This set of Magical Artifacts was refined by that Dao Body of mine while he had some spare time recently. Put them away properly."

"The Chiyang Furnace, Qinglian Sword, Water Curtain Daoist Robe, Lotus Crown, and Wandering God Boots are all High Grade Spiritual Artifacts, which are enough for you to use for the time being."

"As for the numerous Medicinal Pills stored inside the Pill Furnace, hand them over to Xiujing afterward and let him take the lead in distributing them to everyone in the sect. Remind them to impart the Dao properly."

Qilin was very curious inside and couldn't help asking: "Senior Brother, why can't you tell others that you are still left here?"

From inside the human emperor banner came the calm voice of Ye Qingxuan's Clone: "My previous methods of action were too ruthless and severe; many people only submit on the surface and may not be convinced in their hearts. I want to wait until my true body leaves to see which harboring-ulterior-motives generation dares to jump out and cause trouble, and settle accounts with them all together then."

Qilin suddenly realized: "So that's how it is."

She felt all warm and fuzzy inside, raising her hand to put away the entire set of Magical Artifacts before her. Recalling the method to refine Magic Treasures, she immediately dripped her blood to claim ownership and began refining this batch of Magical Artifacts.

Not long after, the few Magical Artifacts were preliminarily refined by her.

A faint cyan light flashed, and Qilin's appearance had already changed. Draped in a blue Daoist robe and wearing a lotus Daoist crown on her head, she looked like a picturesque female Daoist.

She reached out to grasp the Qinglian Sword, circulating the Sword-Flying Technique, spiritual light rising beneath her feet as she flew straight toward the Maoshan Square.

— —

The light and shadow before his eyes shifted, and Ye Qingxuan had already returned to the back mountain of Maoshan.

Just as he intended to stand up, he sensed a series of chaotic fluctuations coming from the direction of the arena. Ye Qingxuan swept his Divine Sense over, and instantly his entire face turned black with dark lines.

He saw that Yuanhui, Yuanqing, Yuanxing, Yuandan, and Yuanrang were surrounding and attacking Master Yuanxin.

Everyone suppressed their own magic power, purely relying on Physical Body strength, punching with flesh and blood to gang up on Master Yuanxin.

Master Yuanxin's eye sockets were bruised, and he was parrying in an extremely wretched and flustered state.

Ye Qingxuan circulated his Divine Ability slightly and instantly understood the cause and effect.

The root cause was still Qilin. His Master had taken in another Genius with an Innate Dao Body, and several of his Junior Martial Uncles were extremely sour in their hearts.

After returning to the mountain gate, Master Yuanxin still couldn't help showing off about this matter everywhere. After a few times, it directly provoked everyone's anger to surge, and they simply dragged him onto the arena, planning to beat him up to vent their anger.

Qingming, along with Senior Brothers like Qingyun and Qingmo, stood quietly in mid-air, calmly watching Master Yuanxin taking a beating on the arena, completely devoid of any intention to step forward to break up the fight.

This was just ordinary bickering and fighting among Master and his fellow martial brothers; there was fundamentally no need to interfere.

For so many years, this kind of thing had already been staged countless times. Ever since taking in Ye Qingxuan, as long as Master Yuanxin showed off too much, several Junior Martial Uncles would join forces to gang up and beat him up. Everyone was long used to it and no longer found it strange.

Although he knew in his heart that this was just playful fighting between martial brothers and wouldn't even leave a single scratch of superficial injury, seeing his own Master being beaten, Ye Qingxuan still felt somewhat bad about it. With a flash of his figure, he teleported onto the hovering arena.

The several Junior Martial Uncles who were currently surrounding and attacking Master Yuanxin saw Ye Qingxuan appear and immediately stopped their actions.

Looking at Master Yuanxin again, his appearance was wretched, as if he had been trampled over in turns by hundreds of elephants.

The several Junior Martial Uncles greeted Ye Qingxuan: "Qingxuan is back. We just haven't stretched our muscles and bones for a long time, and were just sparring and practicing our fists with your Master."

Their faces carried a bit of sheepish smiles. As soon as their voices fell, they urged their escape techniques and slipped away in a flash, all running out of sight.

Ye Qingxuan stepped forward and reached out to help Master Yuanxin up, dusting off the dirt from his body with a face full of helplessness: "My good Master, stop showing off everywhere all the time. Over all these years, haven't you been beaten enough times?"

Master Yuanxin had a careless and nonchalant expression, waving his hand: "Hah, this Master just did it on purpose to infuriate them. I took in a Disciple with supreme talent, am I not even allowed to show off? You Rebellious Disciple, you didn't even know to come over and help this Master just now."

Having said that, Master Yuanxin's magic power rolled slightly, and the bruised punch marks and footprints on his body instantly vanished completely. His wretched appearance was swept away, and he restored the Immortal Qi-floating Sect Head of the Shangqing Sect.

At this time, Qingming, Qingyun, and Qingmo also landed and walked to the side of the two.

The Great Master sighed and advised: "Master, you should still listen to Qingxuan's advice. As the Sect Head of the Shangqing Sect, you were ganged up on and beaten by your fellow martial brothers. If this matter spreads out, it will inevitably be laughed at by outsiders."

Master Yuanxin glared fiercely at him: "Rebellious Disciple! When I am bickering and fighting with my own martial brothers, is it your turn to discipline me?"

After hearing these words, Qingming and the others all closed their mouths and stopped advising. In their hearts, they all understood that this was the unique way of getting along for Master Yuanxin's generation: whoever was in the wrong got beaten up, and they weren't even allowed to fight back. One could only say it was truly exceptionally special.

Master Yuanxin mumbled grumpily again: "Hmph, if this Master can take in yet another Disciple like you, Qingxuan, let alone taking one beating, even if they beat me every day, I would be completely willing! They want to take in such a Disciple but can't even get one."

Finishing his words, Master Yuanxin flicked his sleeves, humming a little tune as he flew toward the Shangqing Main Hall.

Ye Qingxuan and his several martial brothers looked at each other, sighing helplessly in unison as they followed behind to hurry over. Although these were all harmless jokes, the beatings their Master had taken over these years were truly far too many.

You must know that before taking in Ye Qingxuan, Master Yuanxin was always the one who threw punches to beat people. Ye Qingxuan silently calculated in his heart and spoke: "This is already the eighth time, right?"

Qingming recalled for a moment and nodded slowly: "Indeed."

Qingyun frowned: "I always feel that this is still not the last time."

Qingmo turned his head to look at Ye Qingxuan, the meaning within his eyes self-evident.

Ye Qingxuan spoke: "Our Dao sect respects the numbers one, three, and nine the most, and nine is the extreme of Yang numbers. It looks like Master will most likely have to take one more beating."

As his voice fell, Ye Qingxuan raised his hand, and a crescent-moon-shaped Magic Treasure emerged in his palm—it was precisely Master Wangchen's herb garden.

Seeing this Magic Treasure, Qingmo's eyes instantly flashed brightly.

Within the Shangqing Sect, his Alchemy skills were second only to Ye Qingxuan and on par with Qingling.

Rare medicinal herbs, to an Alchemist, were like a lecher who had practiced celibacy for ten years seeing a peerless beauty; that temptation was hard to resist.

Ye Qingxuan looked at his appearance and couldn't help smiling, directly throwing the moon wheel toward Qingmo.

Qingmo hurriedly reached out to catch it, his eyes full of curiosity: "Junior Brother, this is..."

"Fourth Senior Brother, you can put it away first."

Ye Qingxuan waved his hand: "Later I am going to the Underworld to gather the two main ingredients for refining the Soul-Returning Pill."

After speaking, he swept his Divine Sense and looked toward the direction where Qingling was in seclusion, casually asking: "Has Ningshuang still not come out of seclusion?"

As soon as these words came out, Qingming, Qingyun, and Qingmo all revealed playful expressions on their faces.

Qingyun: "Yo, calling her Ningshuang directly now, you don't even call her Senior Sister nowadays."

Qingming: "And who knows when we will be able to hold our little junior nephew/niece."

Qingmo: "Miss her?"

Ye Qingxuan rolled his eyes at the three of them, his face full of speechlessness: "A junior nephew will be here very soon. Once I finish helping Master Wangchen repair her Divine Soul, I will send her into Reincarnation. When she is reborn into the world, she will be my founding senior Disciple."

Speaking to this point, Ye Qingxuan paused, looking thoughtfully in the direction where Master Yuanxin had gone far away.

"A Body Integration mighty figure's Reincarnation, even if their Innate Physique is ordinary, their Aptitude probably won't be much worse than Qilin's, and might even be stronger."

The four of them looked at each other. Well, it seemed that their Master, Master Yuanxin, was destined to take yet another beating.