Sect Leader Is Under Great Pressure CH 121 The Net Of Kun-Lai, The Heart Of The Masses
Feng Qingxiu kissed gently, his calloused fingers tracing over the delicate collarbones beneath him as if unlocking a secret mechanism. With practiced ease, he slid the robes aside. He even found himself silently thanking Senior Brother Yang for his guidance—those books on dismantling various robes had proven unexpectedly helpful, and he remembered every detail clearly.
In his mind, two little figures began to argue. One shouted, Go for it! Don’t miss this chance! The other cried, No, stop! This is against the natural order and morality—you still have time to back out.
The expanse of exposed skin below him was pristine and supple, so dazzling that Feng Qingxiu found himself both licking and caressing it. The two disheveled bodies writhed on the solemn Yin-Yang diagram, and he suddenly felt a warm sensation at his nose—he had a nosebleed.
Why would he have a nosebleed in a dream?!
Feng Qingxiu felt aggrieved, but his master beneath him finally couldn’t hold back and let out a soft laugh.
“Xiao Qing, you’re tickling me,” his master said gently.
No man could resist in such a situation, and Feng Qingxiu pounced.
*
A day later, the two masters of Zhuiyun Peak were still nowhere to be seen.
“Senior Brother?” Bai Shuixian and Yan Zhao, eager to catch up with their senior brother, gathered some trivial matters as an excuse and ascended Zhuiyun Peak under the guise of delivering reports. Unlike the formidable wards guarding the Sect Leader’s residence on Zhaoyue Peak, there was nothing here to stop them.
However, from afar, they spotted their senior brother napping at a stone table beneath a tree. They exchanged a look of mutual puzzlement.
Not even Synthesis, much less those at the Human Immortal stage, would normally fall asleep, especially not in a place lacking protective wards.
“Could it be that Senior Brother doesn’t want us to disturb him?” Bai Shuixian whispered to Yan Zhao.
Yan Zhao thought it was likely and, with a glint of mischief, devised a plan. Lowering his voice, he said to his junior sister, “I heard that An Xian has been bored lately and forcing others into sparring matches.”
“Indeed. Poor Qiao Qiao, as her apprentice, can’t escape all those debts she owes. He’s been chased mercilessly every day,” Bai Shuixian sighed empathetically. “He hasn't received a Dao Disc. We should suggest he go to the outer gates to gain experience. It’s about time he joined a peak officially.”
“But her instincts are terrifyingly accurate,” Yan Zhao murmured, sighing again. “If this keeps up, she might just destroy a flying peak in one of her matches.”
“Do you think the Sect Leader has developed any new sword techniques over the years?” Bai Shuixian asked in a low voice.
“Definitely,” Yan Zhao nodded. Sending out a divine consciousness to locate An Xian, he sent her a message: An Xian, it seems the Sect Leader is teaching his apprentice some new sword moves.
After sending the message, he nodded at his junior sister, and the two discreetly retreated.
Sure enough, in less than a breath’s time, An Xian shot toward the Sect Leader’s courtyard like a streak of white lightning, arriving with a crash.
The divine senses of a Human Immortal were razor-sharp, and the Kun-Lai Sect Leader woke instantly. Without moving from his spot, he raised his head, his hand still supporting his chin, and looked at her with calm detachment.
An Xian gasped, realizing she had been set up, but before she could explain, she got what she wanted—a firsthand demonstration of the Sect Leader’s new sword technique.
It took Qingnu a long time to extract the screaming Peak Master An from the stone she had been embedded into. Her excitement over gaining another Synthesis-level patient practically had her skipping as she walked. Meanwhile, Yan Zhao and Bai Shuixian, who had narrowly escaped a similar fate, quietly went to settle An Xian’s medical expenses with Qingnu.
“Senior Brother seems really unhappy,” Bai Shuixian whispered to Yan Zhao.
“Indeed. But he seemed fine earlier,” Yan Zhao frowned slightly. “Do you think we interrupted a pleasant dream of his?”
“Does he even dream?” Bai Shuixian doubted it. “Human Immortals have such strong self-control that they rarely dream.”
“Either way, let’s keep our distance for a while,” Yan Zhao said, taking their trivial matters with him as he turned to leave. Bai Shuixian quickly followed.
*
When Ji Yunlai woke up, he noticed that Xiao Qing in his room had also stirred.
Xiao Qing glanced around cautiously, then used an incantation to destroy his undergarments before retreating back into the covers, seemingly attempting to return to the dream.
After rolling around for a while, he appeared disappointed when he failed to reenter the dream. Sighing, he began to tidy himself and wash up.
Unfortunately, his shadow seemed to have returned to normal, betraying none of his thoughts.
Even so, Ji Yunlai caught subtle clues: Xiao Qing’s fingers occasionally moved as if wanting to touch something. After washing up, he stood in place, silently dazed, his face occasionally flushing red. He would then recite a calming mantra to quell certain physical reactions.
Several times, he seemed ready to open the door but hesitated, retreating as though his master outside was a terrifying beast.
Tch. So bold when invading my mind and sharing divine communion, yet now acting so timid and obedient? Ji Yunlai found this quite disappointing.
Still, Feng Qingxiu didn’t linger in his reverie for long. Within moments, he exited his room, tidy and composed, bowing with polite yet familiar deference to greet his master.
Ji Yunlai observed him calmly.
Across from him, Xiao Qing’s face was one of innocent obedience, as if nothing had happened.
Such impeccable acting! Ji Yunlai scoffed internally. “How are your studies progressing recently?”
Feng Qingxiu immediately stepped forward and presented his recent work, allowing his master to review it.
As expected, there were no issues. His talent for learning talisman seals was such that it felt more like revisiting what he already knew.
After examining the final diagram, Ji Yunlai asked, “Do you have any difficulties with your studies?”
Feng Qingxiu hesitated slightly before responding, “Master, it seems that my cultivation has increased again.”
Ji Yunlai extended his divine sense and frowned. He already knew that after Xiao Qing’s body had been tempered by demonic energy during the previous crisis, even though the energy had been sealed again, his body had undergone a fundamental transformation. Like a river channel widened by a flood, his cultivation surged forward, his Golden Core now pristine as crystal and on the verge of advancing to the Nascent Soul stage.
Suppressing it further was no longer an option—it would be like trying to stop a baby ready to be born.
“Then face the tribulation,” Ji Yunlai said, knowing resistance was futile. “The Forty-Nine Heavenly Tribulation won’t pose much of a challenge for you. Find a place to break through on your own.”
The Forty-Nine Tribulation was a minor hurdle for those advancing to the Nascent Soul stage. Barring extreme bad luck, Kun-Lai disciples typically passed without incident.
“Yes,” Feng Qingxiu replied, bowing before leaving.
*
Kun-Lai Mountain.
It had been nearly ten days since the Sect Leader left.
The mountain was in disarray, its inhabitants pale and haggard. To an outsider, it might have seemed like a ghostly realm of the walking dead.
“Ugh, another day wasted standing in line! What a waste of precious time!” A frustrated cultivator carrying a sack exclaimed, his expression so bitter one might think he intended to swallow the seemingly endless queue stretching down the mountain.
“Can’t Shennong Peak open more windows for buying rice?” another cultivator grumbled. “Do their rabbits just eat without working?”
“Keep your voice down. Don’t let them hear you,” a low-level cultivator warned anxiously.
“What if they do? Look at how long it takes them to count a few hundred spiritual stones!” The grumbler raised his voice, “Let me count instead. I dare you!”
A young cultivator dressed in robes embroidered with rice stalks emerged from the grain hall. His expression gentle, he reassured the crowd, “Please don’t worry. Shennong Peak consumes a large amount of spiritual stones, and this situation was unforeseen. There is enough rice for everyone, but many have been buying in bulk recently.”
"No choice, really. Who knows how long the Sect Leader will take to return? If we don’t want to queue up too long, we have to buy a little extra," a nearby cultivator sighed.
"Exactly. Back when we had the Net Charm, transactions were instantaneous—even thousands of exchanges could be settled in seconds. Even if you ran out of spiritual stones, you could schedule trades on the Net Charm at a set price and time to exchange later," said a cultivator in robes embroidered with rice ears. "Now everyone has to carry heaps of spiritual stones around. Higher-grade ones require change, medium-grade ones need discounts, and then there’s calculating stone quality differences before storing them. Honestly, we’re short-staffed."
"If we were that good at math, we’d have joined the Taiyi Peak by now!" someone quipped.
"You don’t even have it the worst," said a cultivator with medicinal herbs embroidered on his robes. "Counting all the spiritual stones at Qingnu Peak? That’s enough to make us medical cultivators cry."
"Serves you right for being so greedy!" a disciple from the Sword Peak scoffed.
"Dare to leave your name?" the Medicine Peak disciple retorted.
"What? Are you going to blacklist me? I don’t believe it. Kun-Lai also has the Pill Peak; you’re not the only game in town!" the Sword Peak disciple snapped.
"You probably can’t afford Pill Peak’s pills either," the medical cultivator said coolly. "The poverty of Sword Peak is far more famous than its swords."
This broadside sparked immediate conflict, and as tempers flared, disciples tried to cut in line, escalating the chaos.
Nearby, a Mountain Patrol Bureau cultivator, accustomed to such scenes, stepped in with a flurry of blows, forcing the disciples back into an orderly queue.
"Why didn’t you detain the troublemakers today?" someone whispered nearby.
Without answering directly, a Mountain Patrol cultivator with a wolf-tooth club smiled and replied, "The Mountain Patrol Bureau’s prison filled up two days after the network outage. The higher-ups now say for Foundation Establishment and Qi Condensation troublemakers, just beat them up and let them go."
Foundation Establishment and Qi Condensation juniors, after all, couldn’t stir up too much trouble.
"Don’t Golden Core cultivators get special treatment? No queues, right?" another cultivator asked curiously.
"These past days, there’ve been high-level cultivators selling unauthorized cultivation insights everywhere—not to mention bootlegged Nascent Soul insights sold at a discount," the Mountain Patrol cultivator said, shaking his head. "It’s absolute chaos, like a demonic festival."
"Right," a Medicine Peak disciple added gloomily. "Recently, many cultivators have succumbed to Qi deviation, claiming they can’t calm their minds without the Net Charm. They try to meditate forcibly and end up with their true energy flowing astray. Even on our peak, a few impatient disciples have run into problems. We’re so short-staffed we had to ask Yuzhi Peak to help with acupuncture..."
"How could you do that?" a sword cultivator exclaimed, horrified. The thought of temporary workers doing their acupuncture made the hairs on his back stand up. It was bad enough dealing with the Medicine Peak; now this?
"We didn’t want to either, but what choice do we have when the Sect Leader hasn’t returned yet?" the medical cultivator sighed.
"Yeah, if the Sect Leader doesn’t come back soon, I won’t be able to buy herbs, and my half-refined pills will be ruined," a disciple lamented. "Do you know how hard it is for a newcomer to gather materials for a full batch of pills?"
"Why didn’t you prepare everything at once? That’s the rule," another Medicine Peak disciple asked.
"Herb prices fluctuate! Haven’t you ever waited online for herbs?" the Pill Peak disciple shot back.
Typically, medicinal herbs deteriorated quickly once uprooted, making direct purchases expensive. “Herb waiting” involved monitoring for discounted herbs leftover from treatments or pill-making. Disciples often juggled watching their furnaces or patients while scanning the network for bargains. This method saved resources and reduced waste, benefiting both buyers and sellers.
"True," the Medicine Peak disciple muttered, thinking about his nearly empty wallet. "When will the Sect Leader come back~"
"Yeah, Sect Leader, please come back soon~"
"We’re waiting for you~"
The entire Shennong Peak was soon echoing with cries for the Sect Leader’s return, like a massive summoning ritual.
Passing unaffiliated cultivators couldn’t help but feel a chill run down their spines.