Heaven Net Sect.

Xiao Yun, clutching the recently obtained Inner Sect Disciple command token, excitedly arrived at the Xuanfeng Edge, then felt the gathered spirit pill in his bosom.

This hard-accumulated spirit pill was just the right gift for his Spirit Master junior sister.

"When will he arrive?" A husky male voice sounded from the corner.

"In half an hour." A woman's enchanting voice responded.

Xiao Yun stopped in his tracks.

Wasn't that the Spirit Master junior sister's voice?

And why was there another man's voice?

Due to distance, he couldn't make out it clearly, so Xiao Yun turned around to the other side, and as he got closer, the conversation became more audible.

"There's still time, why don’t we…”

"Can you stop being so restless…”

"Don't be scared, just turn around…"

"Why are you so impatient…”

Heavy panting sounds emanated, accompanied by a series of indistinct whispers.

It was as if a thunderbolt struck Xiao Yun out of the blue, his mind was blank all of a sudden, the pure and saintly Spirit Master junior sister was not like that kind of woman after all.

Snap!

Xiao Yun's stepping foot kicked a stone.

"Who's there!" Accompanied by a shout, a tall and robust man dashed out, and when he saw Xiao Yun, he couldn't help but falter.

Along with the man, there came a Soul Master sister, hastily dressing herself up. Her cheeks carried a lingering blush. The moment she saw Xiao Yun, she was taken aback, "You... How did you get here so fast?"

So this is the woman I love…

Without thinking, Xiao Yun clenched his fist so strong that his veins popped out due to the tension.

"It seems like I came too early, spoiling your fun. Ling Yu, I didn't expect that you would be this type of woman. From this moment on, let's act like we've never met before," Xiao Yun bit out the words before bravely turning around to leave.

"Do it!" Ling Yu signaled the young man.

The young man suddenly struck out, not only was he fast, but he was also ruthless. He kicked Xiao Yun directly on his knee.

Crack!

The right knee instantly broke. Xiao Yun had no chance to prepare and collapsed to the ground. The excruciating pain surged, but compared to the physical agony, Xiao Yun's heart ached even more.

"Break both of his hands and one more leg. Also, crush his qi sea," Ling Yu's voice came once again.

Xiao Yun hadn't imagined Ling Yu could be so cruel. He felt as if he had plunged into an infernal ice pit. He wanted to fight back, but the young man was far more formidable than he was. Both of his hands and legs were broken, including his qi sea, he was left completely defenceless.

"Why would you do this to me..." Xiao Yun, enduring the severe pain, looked at Ling Yu, his teeth clenched.

"Why?"

After tidying up her clothes, Lingyu squatted down and stared at Xiaoyun and said, "Do you think I've been with you for half a year because I like you? Don't you look at yourself: a mere outer sect disciple, whereas I am a core disciple. How could I possibly have feelings for someone like you?"

“I might as well tell you frankly, the only reason for being around you is due to your Martial Spirit Seed.”

"Your Martial Spirit Seed, which has reached the seventh rank, is extremely rare. Fortunately, your Martial Spirit Seed has not awakened, so it will become nourishment for my sixth rank Martial Spirit Thunder Beast, allowing it to break through to the next rank."

"I have been feeding you Spirit Transforming Powder each month, and after six months, your Martial Spirit Seed has finally transformed. Now is the best time for me to harvest it."

"By the way, my name is not Lingyu, it is Lingyu Ji..."

Just after she finished speaking, a severe pain came from Xiaoyun's abdomen. He watched as his Internal Seventh Rank Martial Spirit was forcibly removed by Lingyu Ji.

The moment his Martial Spirit Seed was extracted, Xiaoyun gritted his teeth and with the last of his strength, he rolled off the nearby cliff.

“He jumped off the cliff,” a young man stated.

"It doesn't matter, this Xuanfeng Cliff is as high as a thousand feet, certain death awaits anyone who falls from it. You can join him," Lingyu Ji said as she suddenly thrust her sword through the young man’s chest.

"Why..." a young man numbly stared at Lingyu Ji.

"This matter cannot be spread, only the dead can keep secrets, and you no longer have much value,” Lingyu Ji emotionlessly pushed the young man aside.

……..

On the returning cloudship,

Many outer sect disciples, crippled and disheartened, sat within the cabin. The combat among the sect's disciples was brutal; one misstep and they’d be eliminated.

Those who were eliminated would be sent back to their hometown at the end of each month.

A young man dressed in gray was slumped in a corner of the cabin, with dull eyes and a pallid complexion. His limbs were bandaged.

"Isn't that Xiao Yun from Tianji Palace?"

"Yes, it's Xiao Yun indeed."

"Just three days ago, Xiao Yun was chosen to join the Inner Sect. How could he be dispatched back?" The disciples in the cabin started chattering.

The External Sect has eight palaces, with Tianji Palace ranking fourth, having about thirty thousand external sect disciples. Among them, Xiao Yun ranked in the top five in Tianji Palace.

Three days ago, at the Tianji Palace's Inner Sect Selection Assembly, Xiao Yun came out on top and got elected as an Inner Sect disciple.

Back then, countless External Sect disciples looked at him with green-eyed jealousy, wishing they could have been Xiao Yun.

They assumed that once Xiao Yun stepped into the Inner Sect, he would have a smooth road to success. Unexpectedly, in just a few days, he was sent back like the rest of them, which came as a huge surprise.

You see, most disciples who got into the Inner Sect are seldom dispatched back.

After all, those who can stand out among thirty thousand disciples, and become the top disciples in one palace of the External Sect, are not to be taken lightly.

While the dispatched disciples were musing, Xiao Yun, sitting in the corner, remained impassive, as if he didn't hear the chatter.

Xiao Yun was not dead.

He fell off from Xuanfeng Cliff, and as fate would have it, there happened to be an ascending airflow underneath, which relieved Xiao Yun's falling momentum and saved his life.

However, his limbs were broken, and his foundation Qi Sea was shattered...

Badly injured, Xiao Yun was quickly discovered and then dispatched home on a cloud boat by the External Affairs Officer of Tianluo Sect.

The Cloud Boat will start moving in half an hour, and the disciples sitting inside have already accepted their fate of being sent back, and started chatting idly.

"Do you all know about our Heavenly Luo Sect's core disciple, Ling Yuji?" A man in yellow initiated the conversation.

"Rubbish, who doesn't know about Ling Yuji?"

"What's up? Is there any news about her?"

The group of male disciples immediately became excited. This Ling Yuji is not only the number one stunning beauty of the Heavenly Luo Sect but also a genius disciple. Others have to go through multiple selections to become the internal disciples of the Heavenly Luo Sect, while she directly became an internal disciple, and in less than a year, she turned out to be a core disciple.

Her astonishing beauty combined with her status as a genius disciple has won countless gazes.

Any news about Ling Yuji would spark the interest of many disciples within the sect, not just the male ones, but also some female ones.

"There's a rumor going around that Ling Yuji awakened a Tier 7 Thunder Beast Martial Spirit two days ago, and even the Sect Master came out to possibly accept Ling Yuji as a direct disciple," the man in yellow continued.

"Is that true?"

"A Tier 7 Thunder Beast Martial Spirit? Are you sure?"

"Of course it's true. It was a steward who released the news, and I heard it with my own ears, it can't be fake," the man in yellow asserted confidently.

"A Tier 7 Thunder Beast Martial Spirit... I wonder how strong that is. I don't need a Tier 7 Thunder Beast Martial Spirit, a Tier 3 Martial Spirit would be fine already. No, even a Tier 2 would be enough," someone stated enviously.

"You're dreaming, Martial Spirit isn't that easy to awaken."

"If Martial Spirit was so easy to awaken, we'd all have one by now," the rest nodded in agreement, very few martial artists are able to awaken a Martial Spirit, the probability is merely one in a thousand.

It is said that a Martial Spirit is a seed left by a legendary deity inside the human body, and only by embarking on the path of a martial artist does one have a chance to awaken the Martial Spirit.

However, the probability of this happening is very low, out of one thousand martial practitioners, there might be one who awakens their Martial Spirit.

Martial Spirits could assist martial practitioners to speed up their cultivation speed, they can also enhance their strength, even allowing martial practitioners to harness unique abilities offered by these Martial Spirits.

Martial practitioners who possess a Martial Spirit are typically much stronger than those who do not.

In usual days, the Outer Sect disciples often encounter Martial Spirits of the first or second rank, ones of the third rank are rare, and the fifth or sixth ranks are exceedingly hard to come by.

As for the seventh rank...

To the Outer Sect disciples, this rank only exists in rumors.

As the Outer Sect disciples were discussing, nobody paid attention to Xiao Yun who was sitting in a corner.

At this moment, Xiao Yun's face contorted, his body shook violently, green veins bulged on his arms, his fingers desperately dug into the ground.

Ling Yu Ji!

Xiao Yun gritted his teeth.

Swollen internal organs, bloated limbs, shattered Sea of Qi energy, and a broken Martial Spirit seed...

All these were bestowed upon him by Ling Yu Ji.

"Ling Yu Ji! You wretch! I treated you with all my heart, yet you saw me merely as a cauldron. Not only did you take my Martial Spirit seed to enhance your own Martial Spirit, you also destroyed my foundation, my Sea of Qi,” Xiao Yun's nails drilled into the wooden boards beneath him, breaking and bleeding from exerting too much force.

The pain at his fingertips was trivial compared to the agony inflicted by the destruction.

Xiao Yun thought of denouncing her, but in the end, he didn't go through with it.

Since this incident happened outside the sect, and there were no eyewitnesses or physical evidence, no one would believe if it was reported. Moreover, if Spirit Rain Princess learned that he was still alive, she would surely attempt to kill him again.

"Spirit Rain Princess! If I have a chance to recover my strength, I will make you pay deeply for what you have done..." Xiao Yun growled through gritted teeth.

Boom!

A blast rang around him. Xiao Yun's pupils contracted abruptly as he saw a vortex-like black hole form in front of him, with complex patterns crisscrossing within it, exuding an ancient aura.

Xiao Yun noticed that the disciples nearby didn't react at all; they couldn't see the black hole's existence.

Suddenly, a foggy figure lunged out and crashed into Xiao Yun's forehead.

Soul...

Xiao Yun felt a severe pain in his head, then his consciousness gradually began to fade, his vision became blurry, as if the soul was vying for his body.

Immediately, a surge of intense anger welled up inside Xiao Yun.

First the Spirit Rain Princess stole my Martial Spirit Seed and left me crippled, and now you're trying to snatch my body, do you intend to drive me to desperation?

You want to take my body? Over my dead body!

Gritting his teeth, Xiao Yun fought to maintain his consciousness. He decided, as long as this soul sought to extinguish his consciousness, he would resist until the end.

Under the strong desire to survive, Xiao Yun persisted for a full quarter of an hour. The severe pain from his head gradually weakened. The soul echoed with cries of agony and resentment; it clearly didn't expect Xiao Yun to endure for a quarter of an hour, draining its power...

"Ha ha...you wanted to seize my body, but in the end, you're the one who dies..."

Xiao Yun started laughing. At that moment, the soul burst apart, and chunks of memory fragments poured into Xiao Yun's mind.

Looking at these memory fragments, Xiao Yun was stunned, "I actually killed one of the six great Heavenly Monarchs of the Divine Realm of Nine Heavens, the Heavenly Monarch Yun's soul..."