Dual Cultivation God Returns

Chapter 448 The Swordsman

While the greetings happened, Xue Bing quietly moved to the side of her Master, Qiu Yilao and from that position turned her cold, seemingly emotionless gaze to Wu Long, the thoughts swirling in those turquoise-colored eyes unreadable even to her Sect Master.

Meanwhile, although Grand Elder Fu of the Cloud Piercing Sect has been avoiding Wu Long's gaze, in truth he had no reason to cower, because the latter's attention was entirely not on him when it did shift from the delegation of the Profound Music Palace to the one he led.

There was a man looking to be in his thirties standing among the group of disciples behind the pale Grand Elder, whose eyes were covered by a cloth strip, two seemingly old scars peeking from beneath it. And though it was obvious the man was blind, his face was turned to look at Wu Long the entire time since the moment he appeared in the hall.

He was standing by the Prime Disciple of that sect, who did not interest Wu Long in the slightest even though the young man was staring daggers at him.

'Hooh... interesting'

Wu Long's eyes slightly narrowed, while the blind man's grip on the sheathe of his sword almost imperceptibly tightened.

There was another pale face in the hall, one which Wu Long did eventually turn his gaze to with a smile.

It was none other than Guo Dinshan, a Core Disciple of the Profound Martial Arts Valley who had once so generously sent him a nice Guandao Spear he used with gratitude. Though he did not show up to deliver it himself, passing it through some friends outside the capital of the Azure Eagle Empire.

The young man flinched from the gaze full of gratitude for the nice gift, rapidly whispering something to the man in Prime Disciple robes next to him.

The whole delegation from that sect was looking at Wu Long with cautious but unfriendly looks to begin with so there was nothing that changed from the contents of Guo Dinshan's whispers, only a little added hostility in the gaze of the Prime Disciple who received it.

'Hah, he has made enemies out of two of the Five Great Sects and still asked to be invited... what an interesting man'

Qiu Yilao observed the scene with a light smile touching her delicate features, turning her gaze to her disciple standing next to her.

An curious look appeared on her face since she never saw the latter being so interested in other people as it seemed that Xue Bing's gaze never left Wu Long from the time she took her place.

"It seems that the Yin Yang Unity Palace lacks awareness of their Sect's standing"

An Inner Court Elder from the Cloud Piercing Sect coldly remarked with a clearly audible "hmph", causing a gaze of widened eyes screaming 'What are you doing you maniac!!!' to turn to him from the pale man right beside him.

Wu Long's group arrived after the Five Great Sects, which should have been the last to arrive since their status was the highest among the participants. There were sects whose delegations arrived a month prior and have been greeting every sect arriving with lowered heads.

"Hahaha, they must have had a reason for their delay, Elder Hou"

An elderly man with bald head dressed in yellow robes lightly laughed while his fingers went through prayer beads in his hand, causing Wu Long's gaze to finally land on the last of the Five Great Sects that he had yet to meet, the Brilliant Sun Temple.

The group stood out among the rest as all of them had shaved heads and wore robes with bright yellow color, contrary to more toned down dark blue colors of the robes from Frozen Garden Palace, conservative white color of the Cloud Piercing Sect, the strict black robes with crimson lining of the Profound Martial Arts Valley, and earthy dark and unsaturated green color of the Profound Music Palace.

Even the other sects expressed preference for more toned down, modest coloring in the sect robes, including the Yin Yang Unity Palace which had plain milky white robes Wu Long was currently wearing.

Thus the Brilliant Sun Temple sect members' yellow robes drew attention no matter where they were seen. Although that was also true because they were rarely seen outside of their sect at all.

'Heh, speak of it and you will see it, Pure Yang Life and Death Sutra cultivators...'

Wu Long thought as he not long ago recounted to Song Lingfei that there were cultivation techniques that required one to keep their chastity.

In case of this sect's sutra, it was an extreme version that would cause the collapse of one's foundation and therefore loss of all cultivation if one were to lose their Pure Yang Qi. And if that cultivator happened to be over the age a mortal could live to, quite rapid decay and death.

"Grand Elder Gan seems to imply that them having a reason excuses their belated arrival, shouldn't their invitation be revoked due to being late?"

"Hohoho, that ought to be in the prerogative of Sect Master Qiu to decide as the host, Elder Hou"

The Elder of the Cloud Piercing Sect who seemed blinder than the man in the cloth behind him continued to press despite the eyes of Grand Elder Fu next to him starting to almost pop out of his eye sockets from anger and frustration while his nostrils widened from angry breathing.

"Hah! If we- ouch..."

Finally, as Elder Hou opened up his mouth again he felt the heel of Grand Elder Fu's foot almost flatten his own foot, causing him to quietly exclaim, subsequently looking at the latter with bewilderment and then fear as he finally noticed his expression.

"Wha-..."

"Shut. up."

As he wanted to clarify what was happening Grand Elder Fu's words pronounced in a hissing manner through clenched teeth reached his ears, with a hard stop between them indicating the level of fury the clueless Elder invoked.

"Hmm, if the Cloud Piercing Sect is protes-..."

"Ah, my apologies for barging into Sect Master Qiu's speech, but I would like to correct a misunderstanding since the Cloud Piercing Sect has no protests.

It was just a silly remark by the aging Elder Hou, who should probably gou~, before he's made a real ho-... anyway he should retire soon..."

As Qiu Yilao started to raise her eyebrow to mitigate the dispute, Grand Elder Fu suddenly stumbled forward, visibly shaken and jumbling his words, ultimately sending a flabbergasted Inner Court Elder to early retirement.

"If Grand Elder Fu says so..."

Qiu Yilao shook her head, holding in a chuckle while the elderly man in yellow robes previously called Grand Elder Gan openly and heartily laughed.

"Hahaha, congratulations on your retirement, Elder Ho...u I must admit that I expected to see your face on these meetings a lot longer"

The Elder in question's face jumped from sour to angry, then confused, then bewildered and then again sour expression, fluctuating like that as he was unable to answer while Wu Long shrugged his shoulders with an innocent smile, not missing a fearful look appearing on Grand Elder Fu's face as he turned back to his delegation and was met with a sight of a face with eyes covered by a cloth.