Supreme Disciple

On the side of Tianmu Mountain at the Xuantian Branch, a thousand zhang above the ground, there was an Immortal Cave. Standing here, one could overlook the scenery of the entire branch.

This Immortal Cave was the highest building of the Xuantian Branch; it was precisely the Immortal Cave of the Xuantian Branch's Sect Leader, Ling Yunzi.

Inside the Immortal Cave, Long Chen was curiously examining the surroundings. To Long Chen's surprise, the Sect Leader's Immortal Cave was extremely simple, completely different from what he had imagined.

There was no decoration on the walls. The cave was exactly as it had been carved out, not much different from the caves where wild beasts lived that Long Chen had encountered in the wild.

However, Long Chen did not dare to voice his inner thoughts, because Ling Yunzi and Tu Fang were watching him right in front of him.

Inside the Immortal Cave, there was only a large meditation cushion. On the cushion was a wooden table, and on the table sat a teapot and a few teacups.

"Sit," Ling Yunzi said with a faint smile when he saw Long Chen enter.

"With two Seniors present, how could a Disciple sit?" Although Long Chen said this, he had already sat down.

"Hahaha, Long Chen, you really are a sly little fox. Is there ever a time when you feel restrained?" Ling Yunzi couldn't help but laugh.

It seemed that Long Chen was born carefree, fearing neither heaven nor earth. Expressions like fear, panic, or shock were basically never seen on his face.

Even when Long Chen faced the terrifying giant hand of the Evil Path expert back then, he had never shown despair. Ling Yunzi particularly admired this about Long Chen.

As long as he was not dead, he remained full of confidence in himself. Basically, only two types of people could do this: a madman or a fool.

Yet, at least on the surface, Long Chen was a normal person. But to say he was normal, he wasn't quite that normal either.

Because when normal people met Ling Yunzi, even those Elder-level experts had to be trembling with fear, terrified of saying the wrong thing, feeling immense pressure. But Long Chen simply didn't have that kind of awareness.

"Hehe, my biggest advantage is my strong mental fortitude, so there is nothing I can't let go of." Long Chen chuckled and, without standing on ceremony, picked up the teapot on the table, poured a cup of tea for each of them, and respectfully handed it to them, saying, "Seniors, please have some tea. Thank you both for your care for Long Chen."

Ling Yunzi and Tu Fang laughed, reached out to take the tea Long Chen handed over, and couldn't help but secretly praise him in their hearts.

Although Long Chen was carefree, generous, and bold, and didn't care about trifles, in reality, he was meticulous and observant.

Otherwise, during the war between the Righteous Path and the Evil Path, he wouldn't have been able to control the rhythm of the battle so well. The Evil Path Disciples were clearly several times stronger than the Righteous Path Disciples, yet they were led around by the nose by Long Chen, resulting in a nearly perfect counterattack.

And the way Long Chen held the tea just now was also very particular. Holding the cup with his right hand, his index finger slightly curled without touching the cup body—this was the standard etiquette for serving tea to Elders.

And his left hand seemed to be supporting the bottom of the cup very casually, but in reality, only his middle finger and ring finger were touching the bottom of the cup. This was a unique etiquette for Martial Artists, a way of serving tea to someone they admired.

This way of serving tea was generally passed down among the secular world, and very few true cultivators knew about it, but Ling Yunzi and Tu Fang recognized it.

"Child, hearing you say that makes us ashamed. We have only been acting according to the branch's rules and haven't given you any special treatment," Tu Fang said, shaking his head.

After serving tea to both of them, Long Chen refilled the tea and poured a cup for himself, smiling, "Although I haven't interacted much with the two Seniors, Long Chen can feel the care and affection you both have for me. That is enough."

Although both were high and mighty existences, and Ling Yunzi was the distinguished Sect Leader, Long Chen felt that in their bones, they didn't have any airs, which made him feel favorably toward them.

Most importantly, although they kept saying they were acting according to the rules, through some details, Long Chen could still feel their care for him.

Ling Yunzi laughed heartily, "Kid, you're interesting and have character. No wonder so many Disciples are so loyal to you. But hearing you say that makes me a bit embarrassed."

"What is it?" Seeing Ling Yunzi sigh at the end, Long Chen was stunned.

"Tu Fang, you tell him." Ling Yunzi gently picked up the teacup and took a small sip. Although Ling Yunzi's expression was very calm, Long Chen keenly noticed that a vein on the back of Ling Yunzi's hand slightly bulged for a moment before slowly calming down.

If it were an ordinary person with this reaction, Long Chen wouldn't care, but Ling Yunzi was an Innate expert whose body was already in harmony with the energy of heaven and earth. He could control every hair and even every cell of his body to the extreme; this situation definitely shouldn't have happened.

Since this situation had occurred, it meant that Ling Yunzi's spirit was in a special state at this moment, and this state was most likely anger.

With one sword strike, he slashed the terrifying giant hand of the Evil Path expert; with one sword strike, he shattered the door of space. How composed and unhurried that was.

Yet, such a peerless expert could actually be angry, which left Long Chen somewhat confused.

Tu Fang nodded and said to Long Chen, "This time, you killed that Evil Path Elder. Based on your cultivation and combat strength, we applied for Supreme Grade Disciple benefits for you."

"Supreme Grade Disciple?" Long Chen couldn't help but be stunned.

"That's right, a Supreme Grade Disciple. The prerequisite for someone generally called a Supreme Grade Disciple is being a Dao Deriver."

"But this Disciple is not a Dao Deriver," Long Chen said with a bitter smile.

He didn't even have a Spiritual Root, so what would he use to derive the Dao? Mentioning this made Long Chen sad, and he cursed the guy who stole his Spiritual Root for a long time.

Tu Fang said, "You are not a Dao Deriver, but your combat strength is not inferior to any Dao Deriver at all."

Although he said this, he thought in his heart: What is a Dao Deriver? If you don't die, those Dao Derivers aren't even fit to carry your shoes.

"Furthermore, you have killed a Dao Deriver, slashed an Evil Path Elder at the Eighth Sacrifice Bone Forging Realm, and even cut off the thigh of a Supreme Grade Disciple. This is enough to prove your strength."

"That Yin Luo, oh no, that Yin Luo is a Supreme Grade Disciple?" Long Chen couldn't help but be shocked.

"That's right. When Yin Luo was born, he was blessed by Dao patterns. By the age of five, Dao patterns covered his whole body, triggering visions of heaven and earth, which is why he was cultivated as a Supreme Grade Disciple," Tu Fang sighed and said.

Yin Luo was very famous. When this war broke out, in order to deal with Yin Luo, they had asked the branch for reinforcements, hoping the branch could support them with a Supreme Grade Disciple to fight against Yin Luo.

After all, the Xuantian Branch where Ling Yunzi was located was the 108th Branch, the very last one, and its strength couldn't be compared to other branches.

The top-ranked branches all had Supreme Grade Geniuses, but they were simply unwilling to fight.

The branch considered that if there was no Supreme Grade Disciple helping in the battle, the 108th Branch would suffer heavy losses, so they directly assigned a Supreme Grade Disciple from the 1st Branch to come and support.

Originally, the 1st Branch was the strongest among all branches and had three Supreme Grade Geniuses. Assigning one to come over was just to help out.

But what made Tu Fang angry was that that Disciple actually used the excuse of getting lost and was late by a full half month.

By the time he arrived, the entire battle was over. This made Ling Yunzi furious, and he directly reported the matter of that Disciple to the high-level management of the branch.

However, the 1st Branch had extremely deep background connections with the high-level management of the branch and actually suppressed this matter.

This made Ling Yunzi and Tu Fang furious. This was simply bullying people too much. Being late on the battlefield involved the lives of countless Disciples, and it just ended like that.

In this war, it was truly heaven's blessing. Mo Nian's sudden appearance, Chu Yao's astonishing combat strength, A Man's power, and the desperate killing moves of Tang Waner and the others, finally, under Long Chen's leadership, won this war with such a disparity in strength.

If it was just this matter being suppressed, that would be fine. After all, they had a strong foundation, and we were the last-ranked existence. We couldn't afford to offend them, so we just had to endure it.

However, when Tu Fang brought a large number of heads of Evil Path Disciples to the branch to exchange for resources, he reported Long Chen's battle against the Eighth Sacrifice Bone Forging Realm Elder, hoping to apply for a Supreme Grade Disciple status for Long Chen.

One must know that Supreme Grade Disciples were all invincible at the same rank. Even the branch had to attach great importance to them and would receive very generous resources for cultivation.

But as soon as Tu Fang submitted the application, it was rejected by an Elder of the branch on the grounds of: fabrication.

Tu Fang was so angry at the time that he immediately took the teleportation array back to the branch and retrieved the Image Recording Jade from Ling Yunzi, which was the evidence recording the entire battle process.

When Tu Fang ran back to the branch and submitted the Image Recording Jade, that verifying Elder didn't speak anymore.

He told Tu Fang to wait a moment; this matter was a bit special and needed to be reported up to the higher-ups for a decision.

Tu Fang found it strange at the time. The normal procedure was that it should be approved very quickly.

However, he felt that this matter was indeed a bit special. After all, Long Chen was only a Peak Blood Condensation Disciple and not a Dao Deriver. It was understandable that others found it incredible and wanted to discuss it.

But Tu Fang waited until the next day, and that Elder sent down a message saying he was very sorry; the quota for this year's Supreme Grade Geniuses had been used up, and there were no more resources to distribute, so he could only say sorry.

At that time, Tu Fang felt like his lungs were about to explode with anger. This was clearly intentional obstruction. The branch had been passed down for hundreds of thousands of years; would it lack the resources for one Genius?

But Tu Fang had no choice. He couldn't reach the higher-ups, so he could only swallow his anger, collect the exchanged resources, and return to the branch.

However, just as he was about to leave the branch, he heard a piece of news: the 1st Branch had just given birth to another Supreme Grade Genius.

This left Tu Fang dumbfounded. Wasn't there no quota left? Could this Supreme Grade Genius just be pulled out of your pot?

However, this time Tu Fang was more cautious. He didn't go directly to find that Elder but secretly inquired around. It turned out that the Elder responsible for reviewing Supreme Grade Geniuses had a very close relationship with the Sect Leader of the 1st Branch.

Only then did Tu Fang suddenly realize. No wonder Long Chen's review couldn't pass; because they had just reported them to the higher-ups regarding the matter of the 1st Branch's Supreme Grade Disciple, which had angered the 1st Branch.

After figuring this out, Tu Fang knew that there was absolutely no hope this time, so he returned dejectedly.

After hearing Tu Fang's account, a smile appeared on Long Chen's face. He stood up and bowed respectfully to Ling Yunzi and Tu Fang.