The gazes of many fellow disciples seemed somewhat panicked…

But this wasn’t much of an issue, as long as they weren’t curious, investigative, or finding it exciting, it wasn’t a big deal.

Li Changshou had anticipated these reactions from his peers.

His only concern was whether this small method of disciplining his opponent would be disliked by the sect elders, leading to blame and reproach.

Li Changshou had carefully weighed this.

The opponent’s provocative words had insulted all of Lesser Spirit Peak’s past ancestors.

If he hadn’t responded, it might have left the impression of being ‘deeply scheming,’ making people wary of him and affecting his image as an inferior immortal seedling.

Responding like this, administering punishment that neither injured the opponent nor lacked a playful element, could make people think he settled scores immediately and wasn’t deeply calculating…

Li Changshou sat directly back on his meditation cushion, his gaze sweeping around as disciples turned away or lowered their heads, not daring to meet his eyes.

He glanced at his Little Uncle Master laughing herself breathless beside him, inwardly admiring [the wonders of heaven and earth’s creation, the brilliance of living beings], then closed his eyes to ‘recover magical power’ while secretly deploying the Wind Speech Charm to monitor various areas.

Soon, Li Changshou smiled inwardly.

Most of the reacting elders sided with him.

Though the Vigor Pills’ favor played a part, everyone was reasonable, mostly feeling the Rain Forest Peak disciple had been disrespectful first.

Li Changshou had carefully planned that in his next few appearances, he would fight normally without using earth-burrowing, win or lose, bringing his image back to ‘positive’ and ‘ordinary’…

The next disciple battle had already begun.

Coincidentally, two disciples who had studied earth-burrowing after Li Changshou and Ao Yi’s sparring match met each other. Having watched Li Changshou’s recent battle, both were confident, showing slight smiles.

The sect official reminded them to stop at first touch, and the battle began.

These two male disciples made Daoist bows to each other, their gazes meeting, their spiritual energies connecting, almost simultaneously flying backward.

Both quickly formed hand seals, their movements so similar they looked like they were copying each other!

Forming seals simultaneously, each threw out two magical treasures – flying swords, jade ruyi scepters, flying daggers, small gourds…

Earth-burrowing!

Earth-burrowing!

With two soft “poof” sounds, these two figures sank into the ground the moment they landed, as if the ground had opened up trap doors, their forms completely disappearing!

Surrounding disciples looked everywhere, while immortals in the clouds and on the jade platform stared intently.

The four magical treasures hung in mid-air, spinning in place…

Targets… disappeared…

The two disciples underground were also confused.

Inspired by Lesser Spirit Peak’s spiked mace, they had used earth-burrowing to hide themselves while attacking opponents with magical treasures, thinking they could remain undefeated.

But…

How does earth-burrowing fight earth-burrowing?

A female disciple from some peak burst out laughing, and laughter spread everywhere.

The Virtue Realm Sect experts on the jade platform felt slightly embarrassed but suddenly heard weak laughter as Sect Master Wu You began laughing in his seat.

“This batch of disciples is quite interesting… haha, *cough* *cough* *cough*!”

The visitors from Golden Tortoise Island, Human Teaching inheritance, and various unimportant immortal sects all smiled at the scene below.

Originally, they thought this would be a boring half-month, as battles between small disciples who hadn’t reached immortality naturally wouldn’t be interesting to watch.

But unexpectedly, this Virtue Realm Sect was quite entertaining.

After a while, the two battling disciples figured out how to deal with the situation, beginning to search for each other underground, engaging in a hidden contest…

After a ‘great’ battle between earth dragon and rock tiger, one disciple accidentally got forced out of the ground and was immediately struck by two waiting magical treasures, suffering light injuries and losing his advantageous position.

In later battles, more disciples used earth-burrowing.

Because of this, Li Changshou’s earth-burrowing technique gained some cover, seeming less conspicuous, as if it were the Virtue Realm Sect’s specialty immortal technique…

Though the average battle duration was somewhat lengthened.

After another hour, You Qin Xuanya took the stage, cleanly yet gracefully defeating her opponent, the First Seat senior disciple’s prominence unmatched…

As the sun set in the west, the first day’s battles concluded, with all disciples having fought one round.

The twelve preliminary rounds took the most time, but the competition would progress faster toward the end, with battles becoming more spectacular.

After half an hour, a Celestial Immortal elder would lecture the disciples. During this half-hour, disciples made their summaries…

Li Changshou, who had been meditating continuously, suddenly heard a recitation from beside him.

Jiu Jiu, hugging half a jar of wine, swayed as she chanted:

“Lo, west of the East Sea lies the East Victory Divine Continent, wherein lies a Human Teaching inheritance called the Virtue Realm Sect.

Within the Virtue Realm Sect’s Lesser Spirit Peak is a disciple named Li Changshou, now Returning to the Dao realm, skilled in pill refining and formations, possessing burrowing techniques, fond of many-spiked maces!”

Ling E laughed beside her, “Uncle Master, stop reciting, my Senior Brother will get angry.”

“Little Changshou!”

“Hmm?” Li Changshou opened his eyes to look over, smiling as he took out two bottles of candy pills, which Jiu Jiu promptly snatched.

Jiu Jiu smiled with satisfaction and said, “Let me play with that magical treasure of yours!”

“It’s just a magical weapon,” Li Changshou casually pulled out the spiked mace and handed it to his Uncle Master. “There are many outside guests now, Uncle Master, please don’t play pranks on people.”

“Hmph! Do you think this Uncle Master is that unreliable?”

Jiu Jiu rolled her eyes, shouldered the spiked mace, lifted her chest proudly, and then flew away on a cloud.

Soon after, a scream came from far away, from who knows whom.

When this battle weapon returned, its spikes were stained with immortal blood, and disciples’ gazes wouldn’t linger on it.

“That was satisfying!”

Jiu Jiu returned the spiked mace to Li Changshou, “Lend it to me again next time!”

Li Changshou’s mouth twitched slightly, not daring to ask anything as he put away the spiked mace.

The elder lecturing on scriptures and Dao methods on the first day was Deputy Sect Master Zhong Yu.

This old Daoist flew into the air on a cloud, said a few profound and possibly self-incomprehensible scripture phrases, and then began lecturing on the Human Teaching’s “Teaching Goodness Scripture.”

In any case, he wouldn’t lecture on the contents of the “Effortless Scripture.”

That night, disciples endured their yawns, listening to lectures all night.

The guests on the jade platform had already returned to the Virtue Realm Hall, where wine feasts entertained them as they discussed the Dao and chatted leisurely, quite happily.

Early the second morning, disciples were again energetic as the second round of preliminaries began.

Jiu Jiu, who had freeloaded food and entertainment at the Virtue Realm Hall for half the night, appeared on time behind Li Changshou and Ling E.

Jiu Jiu said:

“Little Ling E, keep working hard. When you go on stage later, do like yesterday, don’t be afraid, make them cry!

Little Changshou…

If you encounter female disciples, absolutely don’t use yesterday’s move!”

“Don’t worry, Uncle Master,” Li Changshou smiled. “I know my limits.”

Whether it was Uncle Master Jiu’s words bringing bad luck or not, Li Changshou’s hundred-and-thirty-second match today was indeed against a female disciple.

Today there seemed to be no behind-the-scenes manipulation, with elders not arranging ‘evenly matched battles.’

This female disciple was only at the Returning Void realm’s sixth stage, naturally far behind Li Changshou…

Seeing Li Changshou flying over the disciples’ heads on a cloud to land in the arena with her, this female disciple’s face immediately lost color.

Li Changshou continued with his previous plan – this match he wouldn’t use earth-burrowing or the spiked mace, just using talisman formations to force his opponent to surrender.

But what Li Changshou didn’t expect was…

As the two sect officials came forward to check their jade slips and then retreated to the sidelines, just as one official raised his hand to signal the battle’s start, that female disciple stepped back twice, looking at Li Changshou with extreme wariness.

Li Changshou tried hard to show a peaceful smile, with some talismans flying out from both sleeves, still numbering seventy-two…

This familiar opening routine…

“I surrender!”

Li Changshou’s movements froze.

That female disciple showed grief and anger, gritting her teeth, her eyes full of unwillingness, as if suffering great humiliation.

After saying these three words, she turned and flew away, her departing figure so resolute.

Li Changshou: …

What had he done?

At once, the surrounding gazes toward Li Changshou were mostly helpless and reproachful, with a tiny bit of fear, as if he had bullied that female disciple.

Shaking his head, Li Changshou flew back to his position, sitting cross-legged with slight depression.

Today’s match was truly inexplicable.

However, it wasn’t just this match on the second day…

On the third day’s third round, Li Changshou appeared at noon, facing a top hundred-ranked excellent disciple of the sect, whose cultivation had reached the Returning Void realm’s ninth stage.

Before facing Li Changshou, this person’s gaze showed deep wariness, constantly calculating with finger formations, seemingly wanting to use his meager calculation ability to immediately find a strategy against earth-burrowing plus spiked mace.

This time, before the sect officials came forward, this disciple let out a long sigh…

“I cannot break this set of techniques.”

With these words, he made a Daoist bow to Li Changshou and turned to fly toward the crowd.

“Lesser Spirit Peak disciple Li Changshou wins!”

Li Changshou: …

No matter, there were still seven matches left, enough to restore his reputation.

Though when using the Wind Speech Charm now, he heard things like:

“That fierce one from Lesser Spirit Peak has scared away two opponents already.”

“There’s no choice but to retreat, his earth-burrowing and spiked mace are unsolvable… they say that spiked mace is an immortal treasure, specifically breaking protective immortal light.”

“Sigh, who would have thought there’d be such an unexpectedly strong one this time, we all underestimated Lesser Spirit Peak’s fierce one before.”

“What should we do if we meet him tomorrow?”

“Just surrender, there are still so many matches, you can’t be unlucky enough to meet him twice.”

Thus, on the fourth day…

Yesterday’s familiar face appeared before Li Changshou again, just the time changed from noon to afternoon.

Before the sect officials could come forward, Li Changshou immediately said: “Fellow disciple, why don’t we fight face to…”

“Why must it be Senior Brother again…”

This person showed helplessness, looking up with a long sigh. “It is fate, destiny, I still cannot break your techniques.

In this world, there are always some things that cannot be done, this is the truth my master taught me.

As a person, why force oneself so? Cultivation seeks the two characteristics of freedom.

Senior Brother… I surrender.”

With these words, his face darkened as he turned to fly from the arena.

That desolate departing figure seemed accompanied by a familiar strain of string music…

Li Changshou could only twitch his mouth corner several times, watching the fourth square on his jade slip light up as he flew back to his seat expressionless.

The words heard through the Wind Speech Charm were uniformly sighing:

“So fierce, this fellow disciple is almost driven mad.”

“This fellow disciple is unlucky, just the third time…”

“Ah, don’t say that, speaking of it might bring trouble!”

Li Changshou’s mouth corner twitched slightly. Beside him, Ling E seemed to want to say something but hesitated, quickly being pulled away by Jiu Jiu to receive instruction on tomorrow’s battle techniques.

Ling E had won three and lost one in four battles, previously losing to a senior sister ranked seventy-second, still not fully revealing her cultivation level.

On the fifth day, Li Changshou’s current ‘reputation predicament’ finally saw a turning point.

He was to face Du Lin Peak’s talented disciple Liu Sizhe, currently ranked sixth in the sect!

Finally, a chance for an ‘open and aboveboard,’ ‘evenly matched’ battle!

Li Changshou, the ‘Virtue Realm Sect’s hidden guardian’ during the previous calamity, actually felt a bit excited.

“Junior Brother Liu,” Li Changshou called out, “Today, shall we both fight with full strength, openly and fairly?”

Liu Sizhe forced an ugly smile and said seriously: “Today I will certainly properly experience Senior Brother Li’s techniques. Sizhe won’t retreat without fighting like others.

Moreover, Sizhe has made some preparations.”

Li Changshou inwardly sighed in relief, suddenly feeling emotional.

Look!

What is a true immortal seedling?

This is an immortal seedling!

Confident, composed, and graceful, able to well demonstrate the spirit of the current Virtue Realm Sect disciples, bringing honor to the sect!

As a fellow disciple of such an immortal seedling, Li Changshou couldn’t help feeling… a little proud.

Then, as the two sect officials routinely came forward to check their jade slips…

Liu Sizhe took out several treasures — as Du Lin Peak’s immortal seedling, Liu Sizhe naturally didn’t lack these.

In particular, he had an immortal treasure-level armor, which after taking out, he hesitated slightly before unfastening and binding it around his lower waist, protecting his weak point area.

Thinking again, Liu Sizhe seemed to still feel inadequate and took out a treasured garment, anxiously reinforcing it further.

After doing all this, Liu Sizhe gripped a long sword and smiled slightly at Li Changshou.

“Senior Brother, please instruct me.”

Li Changshou: …