Chương 373: Inner disciple

Time flew by and it was already morning. Most importantly, today was the day of the inner peak test. Long Feng hadn't slept a wink through the night, so he simply took a shower and donned his black robes while strapping his sword to his waist. He was done in just half an hour and left his pavilion as the sun began to rise, heading to the Dao Heaven Hall. He rushed over at full speed and arrived in slightly under an hour.

As he walked through the doors and stepped into the hall, he instantly sensed a shift in the atmosphere as eight pairs of eyes focused on him. Long Feng's expression didn't change as he slowly swept his gaze across the wide hall. There were nine people in the hall in total, including a single warden. Almost all of the top deities were already present and the only one missing was Qiu Yushi. Long Feng's appearance wasn't unexpected to the deities.

In fact, they were already waiting for him as well, clearly aware that it would be hard for him to let this chance pass by him. And with his strength, he did have the ability to pass the test. He instantly became the focus of attention as he strolled in and stood alone. Long Feng didn't even flinch under their stares. Among the gazes, he could sense one that was filled with undisguised malice and hatred. Without glancing, he could tell that it was Zhou Zheng.

Smirking a bit, Long Feng met Zhou Zheng's gaze and waved his arm with a smile. Zhou Zheng bit his lower lip to suppress his rage while diverting his gaze with a cold snort. At the same time, the hatred in his heart grew every so slightly. After Long Feng arrived, they all thought only Qiu Yushi was left. But surprisingly, two more disciples arrived. Both of them were among the new early stage deities who broke through recently, and their confidence had instantly shot through the roof.

They naturally thought that since they were now deities, they could easily take part in the test as well and become Inner disciples. Why wait till next year when they could do so today? When the two deities walked in and were greeted by the combination gazes of everyone in the hall, their movements froze as they felt a huge pressure bearing down on them. Even though they were deities, they felt like they were in a swamp, and each step was exceedingly hard. Their hearts instantly filled with shock. This…

was the power of the top deities? Even then, they were still confident that they could become Inner peak disciples as well. Their reasoning was rather simple. When they were peak Imperials, they all had very similar power with other peak Imperials. Even though they were stronger, it wasn't by much and they would find it hard to kill another peak Imperial. According to their thoughts, that logic also applied to the deity realm.

Since they were all deities, then they were on the same level as the top deities and there was nothing to be afraid of. This renewed their confidence and they walked Into the hall. Situ Hong watched them with a gaze reminiscent of one watching a bunch of clowns before he looked away. The same went for the others. They stared at these two new deities with extremely mocking gazes, not bothering to hide their disdain. Long Feng naturally didn't care about those two.

He roughly calculated that their strengths was only a bit above that of crimson Chen after he became a deity. Before, that might've caused some trouble to him. But now, Long Feng could kill them both in under five moves. Killing was entirely different from just defeating, as it represented a huge gap in power in many cases. Everyone waited patiently. Nearly an hour later, Qiu Yushi finally rushed into the hall, looking as ragged as always. He looked around before letting out an exaggerated sigh.

"Phew! Thank the stars. I thought I was late and would have to wait until next year. I wouldn't have had the tears to cry." He grinned. After he arrived, the warden who had been sitting with his eyes closed slowly opened them and swept his gaze across the hall.

"Everyone is present. We will be leaving now." His voice resounded through the hall, reaching everyone's ears. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. As Long Feng began to wonder how they would head to the inner sect, the warden moved. He slowly rose to his feet and made a hand seal, causing the entire Dao Heaven Hall to shake as several runes lit up in the ground.

Long Feng's eyes instantly widened slightly as he recognized the arrangement of those runes.

"A teleportation formation…" He had seen these kinds of runes more than once already, and as a soul cultivator himself, he easily recognized them. While he was far from being able to set one up himself, he could still study them whenever he got the chance. The runes lit up beautifully, engulfing the hall in their glow. Long Feng had to close his eyes to negate the effects of the blinding light. When the light dissipated, the Dao Heaven Hall was empty.

A few minutes after they left, a figure appeared in the center of the hall, staring fixedly at a single spot. The figure was none other than the Head warden, and the spot he was staring at happened to be where Long Feng stood till they left. After a few breaths of time, he turned around and vanished again, leaving the hall to dwell in the silence.

The teleportation only took several seconds before the light around them dimmed. When they looked around, they were surprised to find themselves somewhere identical to the Dao Heaven Hall. Identical was the word, as it looked exactly the same as the Dao Heaven Hall save for the size. Even the large crystal wall as well as the twelve Dao tempering doors. This hall was easily several times larger than their Dao Heaven Hall, and the crystal wall was about three times larger.

The same thing went for the Dao tempering doors at the far end of the hall. The moment they appeared, they didn't even get the chance to fully assess the hall before a choking pressure engulfed them, threatening to crush their entire beings out of existence. This pressure didn't come from above. It seemed to exist everywhere within the hall itself, crushing into them from every direction. Long Feng felt as if his bones were being pushed to merge into each other, and the pain naturally didn't need an explanation.

Luckily, it only lasted for a second before the warden took out his token and waved it in the air.

"This lowly one pays respect to the elder." He clasped his fists bowed his head. The deities watched in shock as a Dao realm master was forced to bow before this pressure. Just thinking about it sent chills up their spines. The silence persisted for a few more seconds even after the pressure vanished before a lethargic voice echoed through their minds.

"State your purpose." The voice clearly rang in their ears, yet everyone seemed to hear it separately in their minds. The warden didn't lift his head up yet as he spoke, "Today is the day of the inner peak entrance test and this one has brought the disciples over. I hope we haven't bothered senior." He lowered his head even further as he explained. The voice didn't respond for a few seconds. Instead, a terrifying divine sense appeared out of nowhere and swept through the disciples.

The sense only lasted a split second, but the overwhelming presence it commanded left all the disciples feeling terrified. For that split second, it wasn't just a feeling but a reality that their lives didn't belong to them. If the owner of that sense wanted them dead, then they would already be dead without doubt. Each and every one of them felt completely exposed after the divine sense swept through them… their cultivations, their energy reserves, their souls, their blood, even their secrets weren't hidden.

Everyone was seen through by the sense. Everyone except Long Feng. The divine sense swept through him as well and left him shaken by it's presence, but it didn't peer through him completely. His cultivation was exposed, but that was it. The divine sense couldn't even break into his Dantian. Nevertheless, that didn't reduce the unbelievable presence of the divine sense by even a bit.

"Divine sense… something only Dao realm masters and above can form! How powerful!" Fang Feichen shivered as he muttered blankly.

"That divine sense likely belongs to someone much stronger than even the head warden! If I'm not mistaken, it's an inner peak elder who has surpassed the Dao realm!" Situ Hong added as his breathing became heavy. At the same time, a burning flame ignited in his heart. The realm beyond the Dao realm… that was something straight among the peak of this world. They were struggling just to reach the Dao realm. How could they comprehend the power beyond that?

"Rather good batch of disciples. It's been a while since someone with a rudimentary sword heart as well as a refined early stage deity came from the outer peak." The lethargic voice returned, resonating with the souls of everyone present. The warden couldn't help but smile while his head was lowered.

"They're only so so, elder." He said that, but in his heart, he knew that this was the best batch of outer peak disciples he had ever seen in his life. One thing baffled him though. He already knew who the refined early stage deity was — Qiu Yushi. But who was the person who possessed a rudimentary sword heart? This was the first time he was hearing about it. A sword heart was something many renowned sword masters couldn't attain, even after reaching the peak of sword intent.

It was extremely elusive and could take dozens to even a hundred years for a swordsman to barely reach the rudimentary stage. But the elder was saying there was a disciple who already formed a rudimentary sword heart among them? The warden didn't dare to doubt the elder's words, so it could only be the truth. Who was it though? Could it be Yang Qian? He was a sword genius and his attainments in it weren't low. He was getting really close to the major sword intent stage already at a little over twenty.

That was already a considerably hard feat.

"Wait for a bit. I've called for someone to handle them." The lethargic voice added before going silent. From the beginning to the end, the person who was speaking was nowhere to be seen. They all waited in silence, a wait that would unexpectedly last for over three hours. While they weren't bothered by standing for a mere three hours, that didn't mean they were happy to be left standing like statues for hours.

Yet another hour passed before someone finally strolled into the hall with an annoyed expression on their face. It was shockingly a youth, roughly in his twenties from his appearance. The youth assessed them all with his gaze and sucked his teeth.

"Che… it's another bunch of monkeys. Why was I picked out of everyone else to do this? What a pain in the ass." He grumbled audibly. The warden approached the person and clasped his fists lightly.

"I presume you're the person the elder sent for?"

"Isn't that obvious old man? Would I have otherwise come to welcome you bunch out of boredom?" The youth didn't bother to give the warden face as he replied in annoyance.

"I don't have much time to play around. Let's get this over with." The warden's lips twitched, but he didn't dare to so much as speak back.

"We apologize for the inconvenience. Please…" he stepped aside for the youth to walk past him. Long Feng, Qiu Yushi and the others all stared blankly at the unbelievable scene. The youth was clearly just a mere early stage deity just like them! While the warden was a true blue Dao realm master! How was it that the youth was acting so arrogantly and the warden wasn't so much as letting a frown on his face?

"All of you, I'm not here to waste my time. Come over and let's get this over with." The youth glanced at the twelve disciples and extended an arm to beckon at them all. The dozen disciples couldn't help but exchange glances, feeling utterly lost. What exactly was going on? The warden stepped forward and explained.

"This is an inner disciple of the sect. He will decide the test — that has always been the norm." His words left the twelve youths staring at him blankly. Long Feng couldn't help but frown slightly, then glance at the youth who was standing there with a proud and belittling expression on his face, then shook his head slightly.

"This is ridiculous. Does the inner peak elders take us as a joke? To send an inner disciple to oversee the test? And it's an early stage deity at that?" It would have been much easier to swallow if it was a mid stage or late stage deity. But this? Was this a joke? Not just him, all of them shared the same feelings. They already expected to be looked down upon, but not to such an extent! The inner disciple didn't care about their thoughts. He glanced at the warden and snorted.

"Old man, you didn't think to let them know about that before I arrived? Are you looking down on me?" The warden quickly shook his head and clasped his fist.

"Don't be offended. It merely slipped this one's mind." He explained while lowering his head slightly. Of course, he was rolling his eyes on the inside. If it wasn't for the sect rules, how would a foolish brat at the deity realm dare to speak to him with such tone? Wouldn't he snap his head off in a blink? The disciple snorted coldly.

"If something as basic as that can slip off your mind, then I don't know where you get off calling yourself a Dao realm master. Hmph!" He snorted again and didn't pay attention to the dark expression on the warden's face. He directly turned to the twelve outer peak disciples and frowned in disgust.

"I'm not willing to waste my time planning for some test for you monkeys, so I'm making this simple. Anyone who can withstand three moves from me and still be standing passes the test."