Chapter 100: Initiating a Challenge

Chen Jingzhai’s facial expression changed slightly, but he soon regained his composure.

He believed that he had done nothing wrong. Besides that, his position as a Master-Uncle had been established long ago.

He was neither boastful nor did he look down on others.

He was confident because he had the ability and knowledge.

Moreover, he was not the one who gave himself the title of Master-Uncle.

Therefore, he was indeed qualified to give pointers to other disciples.

He did not expect Lin Zhiyao to regard his goodwill as malice.

Chen Qianqian’s performance in the battle forum was terrible regardless.

What was wrong with her being defeated shamefully again?

In his opinion, it was better for her to be humiliated now than to be killed when she ventured into the outside world in the future.

This was such simple logic. Yet Lin Zhiyao, a genius disciple from Yunchao Peak, was actually blinded to it.

It was outrageous that she had denounced her Master-Uncle.

She did not know her place.

Chen Jingzhai remained calm, but his gaze slowly turned as cold as ice.

Initially, he intended to be a gentle Master-Uncle and get along well with these young disciples.

Since they did not appreciate his kindness, he would show them what he was truly capable of!

He would show them how a strict and cold Master-Uncle gave pointers to his disciple nieces!

On the other side, Lin Zhiyao revealed a look of disdain when she noticed that Chen Jingzhai did not respond to her transmitted thoughts.

She initially thought that Master-Uncle would be a genius since he got first place in the Zhengdu battle.

However, from the looks of it now, he was nothing extraordinary. He became as quiet as a mouse after being chastised by her.

He was not worthy of her attention.

Lin Zhiyao despised docile male cultivators like him. Her respect for Chen Jingzhai was wearing thin.

Unbeknownst to her, her Master-Uncle was preparing to show his new side to her. Her trials had yet to come.

In the Heaven and Earth Palace of Daoxuan Peak, Mrs. Yang frowned and said, “Something is off.”

Peak Master Yang asked nonchalantly, “What’s off?”

“The vibe feels off,” Mrs. Yang commented. Her brows knitted together tightly as she pointed out, “Junior Brother Jingzhai has been expressionless since he defeated the disciple from Yunchao Peak. The other disciples have not been talking much either.”

“We are now on the ninth day of the battle forum. The disciples have been battling each other vigorously. Perhaps they are just tired,” Peak Master Yang said with a smile. “The Foundation Establishment Plane disciples are not so patient and are easily agitated. This is normal.”

“This is normal for the others, but Junior Brother Jingzhai is different,” Mrs. Yang disagreed while shaking her head. “It takes a lot of patience for him to concoct elixirs. It has only been nine days now. He is surely not tired yet. So why would he be impatient?”

“Perhaps Little Master-Uncle is irritated by the disciples of Yunchao Peak,” Sage Hao conjectured with a smile. “The members of Yunchao Peak demonstrate the strongest group solidarity among all the peaks. They are very united and might have scolded Little Master-Uncle after witnessing the female disciple being humiliated by him. Hahaha!”

“That is highly possible,” Peak Master Yang seconded while grinning. “The disciples of the other peaks are having a hard time dealing with the female disciples from Yunchao Peak. Junior Brother Jingzhai might have become the victim of their passionate love toward their members.”

“If that’s the case, the female disciples will soon pay the price for their actions,” Mrs. Yang said while relaxing. “Do they really think that Junior Brother Jingzhai is a soft-hearted person? He only cares about people that are close to him.”

Mrs. Yang was Chen Jingzhai’s senior sister, after all. So even though they had not met often and had not spent much time together, she was well aware of his personality.

“We shall see,” Peak Master Yang said excitedly.

“Anyhow, all of us owe Little Master-Uncle a huge debt of gratitude during this battle forum,” Sage Hao said while beaming and opening his palm. Then, a puppet the size of a mosquito flew out of it.

In just two days, the detection puppets manufactured by Puppet Hall had become the hottest commodity among the casual disciples of the various peaks.

Each detection puppet was sold for 50 spiritual stones. It was rather expensive.

However, the owners could refine the puppets with their own spiritual power. Each puppet would be able to identify its owner after it absorbed a drop of the latter’s blood. The puppets would only obey the commands of their owners.

The puppets would not stir up any fluctuations of essence power, and their size was that of a mosquito.

They would heighten the sensing ability of the Meditation Plane disciples.

When two Meditation Plane disciples fought against each other, the one who owned a detection puppet performed far better than the one without one.

At the very least, the disciples would not be defeated by sneak attacks with the help of the detection puppets.

Of course, Meditation Plane disciples might still be defeated when Foundation Establishment Plane disciples would make a sneak attack on them.

Even so, Meditation Plane disciples could react swiftly to the surprise attacks with the help of the detection puppets.

Such delicate detection puppets were only magic items, but they incorporated the ingenious design of being able to recognize their respective owners via the latter’s blood.

This design solved the issue of detection puppets having trouble recognizing the aura of their owners.

Besides being able to detect the presence of enemies, the puppet masters also included the feature of voice transmission in the puppets.

“The puppets are indeed great,” Peak Master Yang said while opening his palm. Then, a mosquito-sized puppet flew out of it. “We have no use for the function of detection, but these puppets can also transmit simple messages. That’s amazing.”

There was a lot of activity in the mountains, and Daoxuan Peak was extensive.

Usually, he would send messages to his disciples over transmitted thoughts or ask someone else to find them.

The mosquito-sized puppets could be used to send messages back and forth, even though they could only transmit simple words.

This could significantly improve communication between the peak’s deacons.

Even Peak Master Yang could not resist making a mosquito-sized puppet himself.

“Absolutely!” Sage Hao said with a smile. “A mosquito-sized puppet can store information about the aura of hundreds of other puppets. We only need to pour our spiritual power into the puppet to activate the Restriction for voice transmission. This makes handling matters so much more convenient. We will not need communication jade slips or flying swords for communicating within the sect.”

Fifty spiritual stones had settled a problem that previously required hundreds or thousands of spiritual stones.

Communication jade slips were more expensive than ordinary magic items.

It worked fine for single transmissions, but a communication jade slip would naturally crumble after multiple uses.

Even with the wealth of Daoxuan Peak, they could not afford to use communication jade slips all the time.

It was a different story with mosquito-sized puppets. Even if they became faulty, they were replaceable. Moreover, it only required 50 spiritual stones to do so.

“I never expected Junior Brother Jingzhai to have such in-depth knowledge about the Path of Puppets,” said Mrs. Yang with a distant tone. “Has he joined the wrong lineage? If he had joined the Heavenly Artisan lineage…”

“Madam, please watch your words,” warned Peak Master Yang as his expression turned sullen. “It is best not to speak of such things in front of me. No matter how proficient Junior Brother Jingzhai is in the Path of Puppets, he is a member of Daoxuan Peak.”

“That is right,” Sage Hao said hurriedly. “Little Master-Uncle’s name is listed in the jade record of the peaks!”

“I wonder who used to be against Junior Brother Jingzhai,” snorted Mrs. Yang.

Peak Master Yang and Sage Hao glanced at each other and immediately coughed in embarrassment.

When Mrs. Yang saw this, the corners of her mouth curled up slightly. She had a look of pride in her eyes.

Before she came, many parties had given her junior brother the cold shoulder.

Even though he had celestial bones and an exceptional character, he was not appreciated.

Did Daoxuan Peak really believe that they could hide this from her?

What about now?

Just because Junior Brother Jingzhai could concoct large quantities of Foundation Establishment Elixirs, he was even being sought after by Elixir Peak.

Now, he could even give Puppet Hall pointers.

If Junior Brother Jingzhai were to show any intention of leaving Daoxuan Peak, Puppet Hall would seek him out immediately.

A debt of gratitude was hard to repay. However, if Junior Brother Jingzhai was a member of Puppet Hall, they naturally did not need to. He would be one of them anyway.

Before this, he was looked down upon by various parties. Now, he was treated like a national treasure.

She could only describe this as being an absolute delight!

Mrs. Yang was truly proud of his journey.

Time passed.

The battles of the battle forum continued, seemingly without stopping.

By the twelfth day, 1,500 battles had taken place.

By now, each disciple had fought on the Eight Trigrams Platform at least once.

It was also the day when the 1,000 bottom-ranking members were eliminated from the battle forum.

The jade tokens in their hands instantly shattered due to their lack of victory.

The spirit light of Restrictions enveloped them as they disappeared from the battle forum.

Less than 2,000 people remained, around 1,900 in total. The free challenges began.

The disciples at the Beginning Foundation Establishment Plane could still challenge each other.

For Chen Jingzhai, the battles would still be child’s play.

This was the stage for disciples with powerful abilities to dominate.

The more victories they accumulated, the higher their chances of rising through the ranks to the first 100 spots.

On this day, Chen Jingzhai took the initiative to activate his jade token. He immediately chose to initiate a challenge.

His target was Du Ling, a disciple of Yunchao Peak.