Qin was a seed disciple in the Saint Jade Sect. She was also the second daughter of the Patriarch of the Xiawu Clan. There was nothing she couldn’t have. Her talent was high, she reached level 20 when she was only twelve. Her clan had specially groomed her with the best material and training possible. She was treated better than most daughters of from noble families.

The setbacks she had encountered in life could be counted in one hand. The biggest one of them was also the most humiliating one. It was not being able to learn the Celestial Maiden technique from her sect. This was the supreme technique that only the Headmaster and two elders know. The reason why she couldn’t learn it was extremely shameful. This technique required a female practitioner with her chastity intact. She even lied about not losing her virginity but after failing to learn the first phase of the skill, the truth was revealed.

Because she was one of the rising star in the sect, everyone expected her to learn the most scared skill from the headmaster. It wasn’t long until the real reason was leaked out and her humiliation began. It was inevitable that a sect with over ten thousand females would gossip about this piece of news. The news naturally got back to her clan and her status with her family fell, she was no longer a candidate to be a top elder or headmaster. Her family naturally focused their efforts on their other heirs.

This shameful event happened more than a century ago. She’s still one of the top seed disciple within the core sect at the moment and her cultivation had reached the upper Heaven Domain. However, recently a new sect member joined three years ago and started climbing up the ranks at an astonishing speed. She was already picked to inherit the Celestial Maiden technique from the headmaster even though she was only eighteen years old at the Master Domain. This wasn’t all, unknown to the public, this girl also contained a rare special body. According to her master, the sect’s hidden skill left by the founder could only be learnt by those with someone from a certain bloodline or body type.

Just recently the top seed disciple from Sword Storm Valley Sect visited but didn’t give her the time of day. He was the most handsome guy that most will see in their lifetime. Nine out of ten women would rate him as flawless. Although he ignored her, he was captivated by Eu-Meh’s beauty and spent all his time trying to talk to her. Qin was definitely not going to let it go so she gave some orders to junior disciples that followed around like puppies to ruin her.

“Damn those incompetent fools. How did they mess up?” Qin muttered to herself after she got summoned by the elders and headmaster. She knew the sect rules were strict, committing immoral acts was the highest crime a disciple could do. However as a seed disciple that’ll eventually step into the King Domain, her punishment shouldn’t be too heavy.

Qin was escorted into the tent where the headmaster resides by two core disciples.

“Headmasters. Elders.” Qin said with a bow as she feigned innocence to the situation.

“Qin, there’s serious allegations made against you.” Elder Liang said gravely as she tried to control her emotions. “Tell us the truth. Did you or did you not ask your juniors to attack junior Eu-Meh?

”

Qin was stunned for a second. Her master had always doted her and gave her special treatment. She was not used to this type of tone but she quickly responded. “I would never give such orders. It’s true that I am jealous of little Eu-Meh, she’s beautiful and talented, in a few years she’ll undoubtedly catchup. I am sorry if the junior disciples interpreted it in the wrong way.”

“Psh.” Elder Su sneered quietly.

One of the female disciples that personally got the instructions from Qin secretly cursed in her heart. She’s the one that provided the aphrodisiac pill. She even asked senior El-Rin to concoct it. She’s the one that told us today is the day the elders will convene with important guests. If I say any of that, she’ll definitely find a way to get rid of me later though.

“If I may, how did you two know that Elder Su would have to meet up with important guests today? Giving you guys time to bully Eu-Meh.” Ryu asked innocently as he picked up her thoughts. The Mind Tome suddenly activate its specialization with Ryu, Telepathy, and passed that thought over. Ryu suspects that the tome might actually be listening to thoughts all around and just notifying Ryu of important information.

“Right, how did you know the core elders would be attending a meeting?” Elder Su asked suspiciously. She didn’t even tell her own disciple. The only reason she caught wind of her missing disciple is because she constantly worry about her and searched for her with her sense out of habit. There’s no way these two inner court disciples could have found out. Elder Liang eyes widened, she did tell her disciple Qin about today’s meeting.

“We…” The pair didn’t know how to answer.

The Infinity Tomes behind Ryu suddenly flashed opened and a stream of information entered Ryu’s mind. The relevant information regarding creating love potions and pills entered his mind. Alexis was proficient in alchemy and had a library full of alchemy books and even a small alchemy workshop.

“Oh and that pill, it seems like a high class pill. I imagine that it would be made within the sect. I’m sure an expert alchemist can discern who made it.” Ryu continued on.

“Correct, I can do that.” One elder spoke up. The headmaster nodded and she proceeded to inspect the pill.

“This is a pretty advanced pill, most ingredients are found in our sect’s treasury but the purple crystal stove used is a dead giveaway. If I’m not mistaken… only two of our core disciples can do such work. El-Rin and Su-Ji.” The elder spoke slowly after inspecting the pill and sniffing it.

The two disciples were promptly called over.

“This pill, which of you concocted it?”

El-Rin started panicking right away. She knew that Qin was up to no good when she asked for this pill. Qin had promised it wouldn’t be traced back to her. El-Rin accepted many youth retaining potion, designer bags, and gold for this favor. If this gets exposed, she’ll be punished heavily as well.

“This type of pill requires fresh herbs to make. There’s a fragrance of a gallbladder from a viper type beast that expires within a few weeks. Blood from a Yellow-Tailed Fox or any other creatures with high acidity in their blood can reveal the culprit.” Ryu said as more information was provided to him by the tomes.

“That… is correct. You must be a fellow alchemist of at least rank 7.” The elder said with respect. To be able to identify the ingredients from a pill requires one to be a high expert in pill making. This elder deduced the ingredients for the pill based on their sect’s unique pill making methods.

“I’m sorry, it was all my fault. I made the pill for Qin.” El-Rin quickly admitted after realizing she has been corned. Without a second thought she kneeled down and begged for forgiveness.

The headmaster sighed as she made up her mind. “The people from Resilient Gaia Sect can only be punished by their sect. Recommend the highest degree of punishment and return them please Elder Huan. El-Rin you’ll be sentenced to spend one century in the halls of reflection after we return. You should’ve known better than to create such a harmful pill that couldn’t be used for anything but evil. The two of you can decide if you want to lose your cultivation right here and now or be permanently working as helpers for the outer court’s elders. As for Qin, I’ll leave the punishment up to your master. You may all leave now. I would like a work with our guest.”

Elder Liang’s eyebrows were pulled down together, her lips formed a rectangle after being tightly closed and the veins on her forehead looked like it could pop any moment. Elder Su looked satisfied that the perpetrators after her disciple were punished accordingly. The rest of the elders could only frown at this internal trifle and start whispering amongst themselves.

Without a warning Elder Liang appeared before Qin and put her palm against her chest. Before Qin can protest, a stream of dreadful Qi was injected into her body and crippled her cultivation that took centuries to build up. Blood was forced up her throat and she eventually coughed it out. Within a second her level dipped to level 30.

With a trembling voice Elder Liang spoke in a voice loud enough for all to hear. “Qin your hand in this matter is evident, your intentions were harmful. If you continued on in the future you would definitely caused greater evil in the world. From today on you’ll be demoted from my disciple to a helper to the outer courts.”

This stunned the elders and disciples that started to leave Ryu alone with the headmaster. Even the servants were leaving dropped what they were carrying. Raising a disciple to the Heaven Domain takes a long time. The headmaster’s sigh rang throughout the tent and everyone who heard it snapped out of the trance and continued exiting.

Eu-Meh waited impatiently outside for Ryu. Her master didn’t like how her disciple is focused so much on Ryu but given that her life was saved by him, she couldn’t entirely blame her. He also helped in deducing the culprits and managed to fight on even ground with her. His age was so young too, how talented was he?

“Elder Su, do you know how much longer they’ll be?” The middle aged man that met with all twelve elders and the headmaster before them asked.

“Elder Jin, was there something else you needed to discuss with our sect head?” Elder Su replied politely.

“That man that entered with you… seemed to have helped our sect out in the past. We didn’t know his name or whereabouts but it seems like our two young ladies here recognized him.” Elder Jin explained.

“Oh really? Well I’m sure it won’t be long.” Elder Su replied. Even she didn’t know how long it would take, no one knew what they were talking about inside.

After a good half an hour, the tent finally opened up. Ryu was walked out personally by the headmaster. Everyone outside gave them a quizzical look. Ryu was bowing and thanking the headmaster while she thanked him back.

“It is him! You were right Ling-Er!” One of the girls exclaimed.

“Are you sure that’s him?” Elder Jin asked. Ling-Er nodded. It had been a few weeks since she saw him but this was definitely the same man that saved them from their assailants in the Forbidden Forest!

“That can’t be right. This kid is in the King Domain! You guys said he was only in the Grandmaster Domain. There’s no way he could have advanced twenty levels in such a short time.” Elder Cian, the middle aged woman waiting with them said with skepticism.

“I’m sure it’s him. His looks didn’t change too much, only his hair grew! Before it was just past his hips, now it’s close to his ankles.” Ling-Er said confidently.

“That’s also impossible, you guys met him around two months ago. How does his hair grow so fast?” Elder Cian asked. This was because Ryu was training in the Astral Spirit Temple with Prince Na’Vi for months within its accelerated time.

“Hey you! Do you remember us from the Forbidden Forest?” Ling-Yu shouted out boldly. Ryu was just about to talk to Eu-Meh more but was intercepted by her.

“I don’t believe we have met before.” Ryu replied carefully as he stared at the Raging Thunder badge. The two girls he saved in the Forbidden Forest instantly came to his mind but the two girls in front of him are unrecognizable to him. That was because after Ling-Yu and Ling-Er safely made it back to their sect, they underwent a complete makeover.

These two girls have special bodies that allows them to practice lightning martial skills easily. Special bodies are rarer than special bloodlines. Special bodies only have a small chance of being born when their parents have high cultivation. Special bloodlines are inherited when one of parents has it. Even if the blood is not pure, there is a chance the special blood line will awaken even if it has been diluted.

“Sure you do, you gave us a medicine to cure our father. It worked like a charm! The problem is that his condition is coming back again, do you have more medicine?” Ling-Yu asked bluntly.

Ok now I remember, it’s this annoying girl… Ryu thought to himself. However, it would be extremely inconvenient to reveal himself in front of these girls now.

“I’m sorry, you must have mistaken me for someone else but I just happen to be a decent doctor. Perhaps I can help cure your father.” Ryu replied politely. The wound that the head of the Raging Thunder Sect was inflicted by Alexis, Ryu feels partially responsible in rectifying this. Previously in the Forbidden Forest he didn’t know these two girls belonged to the Raging Thunder Sect. In fact one of the last missions Alexis had was to capture these girls! The job came from within the sect too, unfortunately it was from an anonymous requester.

“Really now…” Elder Cian said suspiciously.

“I can personally vouch for his skills.” The headmaster of Saint Jade Sect suddenly spoke up. No one had noticed that she was standing in front of her tent all this time. “In fact he’s one of the best doctors in this continent.”

“We would be honored to have you over.” Elder Jin quickly chipped in. If the headmaster said so then it must be true. The Raging Thunder Sect had a great relationship with the Saint Jade Sect. Their sect leaders even travelled the continent together, defeating evil wherever they went when they were younger.

The four of them came to this city hoping to buy any medicine that could help their sect leader. Since nothing showed up during the auction, they decided to stay for the next one. Coincidentally they were in the same auction as the one Ryu attended. When the lightning fruits were on auction, the four of them didn’t dare bid on it since they knew that the Resilient Gaia Sect attempted to kidnap the two daughters of their leader. Drawing attention from them would be suicide. Thankfully the Saint Jade Sect was also in town so they decided to visit and ask their sect for help and protection.

Before the four members from the Raging Thunder Sect could speak more, Ryu already left to talk to Eu-Meh. Ryu noticed that Eu-Meh is looking at him differently all the sudden. She had spoken to the two girls just now.

The two daughters of the Raging Thunder Sect’s leader was rescued a few weeks ago from the Forbidden Forest. That’s around the time when the Wang Family got punished. Could some divine miracle have happened that saved little Ryu three years ago and matured him into this person in front of me?

The Mind Tome leaked Eu-Meh’s thoughts to Ryu. Ryu frowned at the tome, he doesn’t appreciate it sneaking in on people’s thoughts like that. However the Mind Tome only passes thoughts that it deems relevant to Ryu.

“Let’s talk somewhere more private.” Ryu said to Eu-Meh. The pair went off to a private area while Elder Su was motioned to stay behind by the headmaster.