Qingyun Sect, Lin Zhou's small courtyard.
Lin Zhou had just returned from a stroll outside, holding two freshly picked wild fruits in his hand, when he saw Jiang Li rushing over, her face pale. Lying on the bed was Xiao Chen, who was unconscious, covered in blood, and his breath was so weak that it was almost imperceptible.
"Master! Look at Senior Brother!" Jiang Li's voice was choked with sobs.
Lin Zhou put away the wild fruit, walked to the bedside, looked down at Xiao Chen, and placed his hand on his pulse. He didn't even frown: "His spiritual energy is depleted, his internal organs are damaged, and he's been slightly poisoned... It's not a big problem."
He took out two pills from his storage ring—one was a "Qi-restoring pill" he had refined before, and the other was a "muscle-regenerating pill" that glowed green. He pried open Xiao Chen's mouth and stuffed them in.
The pill melted instantly upon entering the mouth, and a wisp of pale green energy, the very essence of life, swirled around Lin Zhou's fingertips as he gently pressed it against Xiao Chen's chest.
The pale green Dao principles slowly seeped into Xiao Chen's body. Wherever they passed, his damaged internal organs were repaired at a speed visible to the naked eye, and new spiritual power gradually emerged from his depleted spiritual veins. His pale face slowly regained its color.
Seeing this, Jiang Li finally felt relieved, but then anger rose within her: "Master, the Xuan Tian Sect has gone too far! They actually ambushed and killed our senior brother within the Southern Region, and even dispatched a Nascent Soul Realm expert! This disciple requests permission to destroy their lair!"
Lin Zhou withdrew his hand, dusted it off, and said lazily, "No need to go."
"Why?" Jiang Li asked anxiously.
"They've arrived." Lin Zhou looked up towards the southern border, his gaze calm. "They've come in a large group, and I estimate they'll arrive in about half an hour."
Jiang Li was taken aback, then gripped her rusty iron sword tightly, a fierce glint flashing in her eyes: "Good timing! Let them taste the power of the Qingyun Sect!"
Lin Zhou didn't say anything more. He walked to the rocking chair, lay down, and looked at the clouds drifting across the sky, as if he were talking about something unimportant: "When Xiao Chen wakes up, it'll be good for him to see the excitement."
The wind in the courtyard, carrying the fragrance of herbs, blew across Xiao Chen's sleeping face and towards the ever-approaching, enormous shadow belonging to the Xuan Tian Sect.
The sky over the southern region was shrouded in a huge shadow.
The Xuantian Sect's main ship hovered above Luoxia City. The dragon patterns on its hull gleamed with a cold luster in the sunlight. Its enormous size almost covered half of the city, and the oppressive aura it brought made the ordinary people in the city tremble, and even the cultivators felt a tightness in their chests.
"What is the Xuantian Sect trying to do?"
"Bringing so many troops to the Southern Region, aren't they going to start a war?"
"Look at the deck! It's Zhao Feng! Wasn't he stripped of his position as the young sect leader? How dare he come out?"
The cultivators of Luoxia City gathered outside the city, gazing at the giant ship in the sky, their discussions filled with fear and anger. In recent years, the Xuantian Sect had become increasingly domineering in the Northern Region, but unexpectedly, they had directly set their sights on the Southern Region.
Zhao Feng stood at the front of the flying boat, his black brocade robe fluttering in the wind. His gaze, sharp as a hawk's, swept over the densely packed Southern Region cultivators below. His voice, amplified by spiritual energy, clearly reached everyone's ears:
"Gentlemen of the Southern Region, I have come here today for only one thing—hand over Xiao Chen!"
"Xiao Chen?"
"Is it Xiao Chen, the one who won the Four Regions Martial Arts Tournament?"
A stir ran through the crowd. Many people recognized the name but couldn't understand why the Xuantian Sect would mobilize such a large force for him.
Zhao Feng seemed to see through their doubts and said coldly, "Xiao Chen from your Southern Region is incredibly audacious. He openly killed Xuan Ming, a Nascent Soul Realm elder of my Xuan Tian Sect, within the Southern Region's borders! If such an evil deed is not severely punished, what will become of the rules of the four regions? What will become of the face of my Xuan Tian Sect?"
"What?! Xiao Chen killed a Nascent Soul elder?"
"Impossible! He's only at the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm, how could he possibly kill someone at the Integration realm?"
"It must be the Xuantian Sect deliberately causing trouble! How can someone in the early Nascent Soul stage kill a Nascent Soul cultivator?"
Doubts arose one after another, and most cultivators in the Southern Region did not believe it. Although Xiao Chen was strong, he was not strong enough to defy the heavens. This seemed more like an excuse that the Xuan Tian Sect had made up to invade the Southern Region.
Zhao Feng was prepared. With a wave of his hand, a water mirror appeared out of thin air. In the water mirror, although the image was blurry, one could clearly see Xiao Chen standing with a gun in his hand, and Elder Xuanming lying on the ground with a gun stuck in his chest. The smell of blood seemed to permeate through the water mirror.
"The evidence is here, and you have no room for sophistry." Zhao Feng's tone was icy. "Xiao Chen is a cultivator from the Southern Region. He committed crimes in the Southern Region, and your Southern Region is to blame. As long as you hand him over and give my Xuantian Sect an explanation, we will leave immediately and will not harm any innocent people in the Southern Region."
"Why should we hand over the person?" a hot-tempered Nascent Soul cultivator from the Southern Region roared. "Who knows if you attacked Xiao Chen first, and he only retaliated afterward? On our Southern Region's territory, who gives you the right to point fingers?"
"Exactly! Xiao Chen is the pride of our Southern Region, why should he be handed over to you to deal with?"
"Want to take someone? You'll have to step over our corpses first!"
The emotions of the cultivators from the Southern Region were completely ignited. They might not know where Xiao Chen was, or they might have doubts about his strength, but the words "Southern Region" instinctively united them. The Xuan Tian Sect's confrontational approach was a slap in the face to all the cultivators of the Southern Region.
Looking at the indignant crowd, Zhao Feng's eyes flashed with a hint of mockery, but his words were righteous and indignant: "Gentlemen, that's not how it works. If my Xuantian Sect can't even protect its own elders, who would dare to rely on our sect? Who would believe that my Xuantian Sect can uphold justice?"
"If we don't give my sect a reasonable explanation for what happened today, cultivators from the four regions will only think that my Xuantian Sect is weak and easy to bully! At that time, the order of the four regions will collapse, which will benefit no one!"
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