NOVEL NEXT Chapter 71: Find Elder Jiang and Beat The Crap Out of Him
In a secluded chamber of the Blue Dragon Sect, a disciple was performing his routine task of inspecting the elders' soul lamps.
Each soul lamp burned brightly as long as its corresponding elder was alive; if extinguished, it signaled their death and could be used to trace the location of their demise.
As the disciple's eyes landed on Shi Fan's lamp, his heart froze—the flame was gone.
His face paled, and panic surged through him.
"Notify the Sect Master immediately!" he shouted, bolting out of the chamber without hesitation.
—
After arriving at the White Crow Sect's east gate, Elder Peng helped them dismount before speaking.
"I need to speak with Elder Jiang and the Sect Master. You three can head to your quarters," he said.
Once Elder Peng left, Xue Qiang, who couldn't hold back any longer, asked, "Fanfan, what was that thing you used to kill Blue Dragon Sect's elder?"
Huang Xue also turned to him, her curiosity evident. Although she didn't ask, she too wanted to know.
"Heavenly lightning," Feng Fan replied. "Forget about it. It was a one-time use only. I can't do that again."
Seeing that he didn't want to elaborate, she didn't press further. Instead, she gave him a light kiss on the cheek before leaving.
"See you later," she said with a smile.
Feng Fan was stunned by the sudden display of affection in public.
Huang Xue watched the scene, her brows twitching slightly, but she said nothing.
After Xue Qiang left, Huang Xue glanced at Feng Fan, who still appeared somewhat stunned.
"Uh, no problem," replied Feng Fan, a little absent-minded.
Feng Fan shook his head. "Ten months to the young generation competition, I need to focus. The amount of resources I found during this trip should be enough for the next ten months… I hope."
Feng Fan returned to his room and began cultivating. In front of him, low-tier qi stones quickly lost their glow as he absorbed the spiritual qi within them.
After a day of cultivation, he finally broke through to the 7th level of both the Qi Gathering and Body Forging realms!
Although he had just improved his realm, Feng Fan was anything but happy. "Why is the spiritual qi needed to improve growing so fast?"
Before Feng Fan could complain further, a knock sounded on the door.
"Who is it?" He asked.
Feng Fan intended to deactivate the alarm array and open the door, but before he could act, the array was disabled by whoever was standing outside.
The door opened, and soon Elder Peng and another man appeared. It was a middle-aged man with short black hair, short stature, and a slim build.
"Took you long enough, lad. We've been waiting outside for over an hour while you were cultivating," Elder Peng said.
Feng Fan shot him a strange glance, a hint of discomfort crossing his face. 'Two old men watching me… That didn't sound right.'
Elder Peng noticed his expression and furrowed his brows. 'Whatever this rascal is thinking, it can't be anything good!'
Clearing his throat, Elder Peng quickly introduced the man beside him. "This is Elder Duan," he said, pointing to the other elder. "He's the best array master in the White Crow Sect. I told him about your abilities, and he decided to come see you personally."
Elder Duan stepped forward, his gaze calm and steady as he approached Feng Fan. "Hello, lad. My name is Duan Ping," he said. "Tell me about how you used arrays to steal the storage of the Huang and Wen families in Cloudveil City."
As Elder Duan began speaking with Feng Fan, Elder Peng silently left. He had done what he needed to do.
Feng Fan began explaining how he had used a combination of water-generation, heating, and cooling arrays to create a dense fog.
Truth be told, Feng Fan felt a little embarrassed.
He only knew four practical arrays. The other ones in the book he'd learned from were pretty much useless, good for nothing more than party tricks.
However, as Elder Duan listened, his eyes grew brighter and brighter with each word.
'This kid is a genius in the Array Dao! If he hadn't come to the sect from Earth just two months ago, I'd swear he'd been studying arrays since he was in his mother's womb!'
"But how did you break through the storage room's defenses and escape alive?" Elder Duan asked. "Those rooms are usually protected with lock arrays and alarm arrays."
"I tampered with the arrays," Feng Fan replied casually. "The alarm arrays were pretty easy to deactivate. The lock array took me a while since I'd never seen one before, but the second time was much easier."
Elder Duan's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, his mouth hanging open in shock.
"Y-You what?! You tampered with someone else's array?"
The moment Feng Fan saw his reaction, he realized he had done something most people wouldn't be able to.
'Now that I think about it, I could only tamper with them because of my spiritual qi vision,' thought Feng Fan.
"Yeah. Why?" he asked.
"Why?!" Elder Duan exclaimed.
"Do you have any idea how difficult it is to tamper with someone else's array? To tamper with an array created by a tier 1 array master, you'd need to be at least tier 2. Most people wouldn't even manage it unless they were tier 3! And you, someone who just started learning the Array Dao, managed to tamper with a tier 2 array. Don't you think that's absurd?"
Feng Fan nodded, his face showing no hint of shame.
"What can I say? I'm a genius!"
Elder Duan rolled his eyes. "Where did you learn about arrays? Was it from a manual passed down by your immortal master? That might explain it."
Feng Fan shook his head. "No, I learned it myself from this book."
He pulled out Array Basics for Dummies – A Simple Walkthrough to Master the Fundamentals of Immortal Arrays and handed it to Elder Duan.
Elder Duan stared at the book, his mouth agape and his hands trembling.
"I-I-Impossible!"
At that moment, Elder Duan no longer saw Feng Fan as a genius—he saw him as a monster!
"Is something wrong, Elder Duan?" Feng Fan asked, giving him a strange look.
Elder Duan took a deep breath to calm himself before replying, "It's nothing… but I do need to go find Elder Jiang and beat the crap out of him."
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'Who said this kid is trash?! To me, he's much better than any immortal talent at Qi Cultivation!' Elder Duan thought.
Feng Fan chuckled.
Something about Elder Duan's words piqued his curiosity, and he couldn't help but ask,
"Elder Duan, what are these tier divisions in arrays? I've noticed people also use them when talking about pills."
"When it comes to arrays, pills, or demon beasts, they're classified from Tier 1 to Tier 9, similar to the nine realms of body and qi cultivation," he explained. "Each tier is further divided into low, mid, high, and peak levels. Beyond Tier 9, they're referred to as immortal grade."
"Why are demon beasts classified like that?"
"Their cultivation path is unique," Elder Duan replied. "You could say it combines both qi and body cultivation at the same time, yet it's different from either. So, we prefer to classify them this way."