"You there, yes, you! The guy hiding behind that occupied latrine, come out!"
Xuhan yelled while pointing a finger at his target.
A few moments later, a teen wearing the clothes of outer court disciples awkwardly came out from the bush behind the public latrine on the road that led to the black sheep mountain peak from the treasury.

"Why are you following me, huh? Explain yourself!"
Feeling relieved that he had discovered this suspicious guy before he could do anything, Xuhan put up a strong front and aggressively interrogated him.

The guy looked quite irritated at being yelled at by a cultivator who had barely reached the first layer of physique transformation realm. With a cold harrumph, he flicked his sleeves elegantly and glared back at Xuhan with equal disdain and aggression in his eyes.

"My elder brother has summoned you to his abode in the inner court. You're to come with me right now!"

Xuhan was taken aback by the answer. What was this? When did the script devolve into a mafia novel ?

"I think you've got the wrong person..." He said hopefully.

"Nope. You're that guy who always sticks around Mu Ran, from what people told me. It has to be you."

Hearing his answer, Xuhan's eyes narrowed. Thinking back, it was likely that the senior disciple who lost to Mu Ran in the auction was the one behind this . Summoning him to his abode in the inner court? That senior was really an inner court disciple?

Alarm bells rang inside Xuhan's mind. If he went there with this guy, the situation might take turn for the worse. Neither Xuhan nor Mu Ran had the ability to contend against an inner court disciple.

"I'm not going. What a ridiculous farce! Just because some random disciple summoned me to his abode, I have to go there without considering the danger?"

The disciple's face darkened at his answer.
"Han Xuhan! The law in the sect dictates that as an outer court disciple, you must listen to any order given by an inner court disciple. Do you dare to disobey?"

'Fuck...' Xuhan groaned mentally before somehow managing to bypass the accusation.

"Of course I know that this rule exists. But there is an exception to this rule. If it seems like an order that can harm me or place me in danger, I can disobey without any punishment. If you want to complain, go tell the elder in charge of these matters. Let's see if he permits you to act so unscrupulously."

Xuhan's answer enraged the unfamiliar young man, probably because it was the correct answer. With a growl, he shot toward Xuhan, his face giving off a determined aura.

"You'll come with me, right now. Let's see how you can resist."

Xuhan was caught off guard, never expecting him to be so desperate as to resort to physical force. As a cultivator at the first layer of physique transformation realm, Xuhan could feel that this outer court disciple was much stronger than him in terms of cultivation base.

Thankfully, the young man didn't seem to have a cultivation base high enough to use any particular techniques in battles. The scuffle that ensued between the two of them was purely a physical brawl just like mortals, the only difference being that both of them were much stronger than their looks suggested.

Xuhan's opponent's physical abilities had already surpassed what a mortal could achieve. Just five of his punches were enough to nearly knock Xuhan out.

The fight barely lasted ten seconds. By the end of it, Xuhan was lying down on the side of the road with one of his teeth crooked and a few ribs cracking dangerously.

"Damn, don't you feel any shame while beating up a poor guy with so low cultivation? Sissies like you who only know how to pick on weaklings should be killed off at birth. This is why population control is a necessary step..."

Pissed and aching all over, Xuhan started spewing all sorts of vulgarities that could put many street children to shame. He had picked up most of them during his life in the orphanage. It felt immensely satisfying to at least come out on the winning end of the verbal battle even though he was beaten pretty thoroughly.

His opponent was quite dazed at first upon being faced with the brutal verbal onslaught. Then his expression became even darker than before.

"Shameless bastard, you were pretty confident before the fight. After losing so miserably, you want to call me a bully?"

With menacing expression, the boy rushed toward Xuhan again. But this time, Xuhan was prepared for the attack. As soon as he got close, Xuhan threw out some soil at his face, making him flinch and stagger back.

Taking the opening, Xuhan tackled him like rodeo bull charging at its opponent and both of them uncontrollably smashed into the door of the public latrine behind.
The door failed to bear the blunt force and momentum brought by them and crashed inwards...

Feeling that something somewhere during the fight had gone wrong, the two seperated and stood up as fast as possible.

Inside the spacious toilet, a very pretty female disciple was standing dumbstruck. Thankfully, her clothes were on her and neither of the two boys saw anything they shouldn't have...

But why did she look so tearful...? Ah, bad question.

Suddenly the awkward stalemate was broken by the rumbling sound of an upset stomach. The female disciple whimpered and clasped a hand over her tummy, a red blush appearing on her ears and neck.

"You- what are you looking at, huh? Never seen a pretty girl with diarrhoea before?"

She gave them a venomous gaze full of tears and ran away like the fleeting wind of autumn, her stomach rumbling the whole time...

"I'll remember your faces, you damned perverts!"

Both Xuhan and his opponent were still dazed. Neither could wrap their heads around the chain of events that had just taken place. Xuhan' opponent looked especially affected, his gaze blank and lost.

Xuhan suddenly felt a chill going down his spine. The qi in his body was rebelling as if attracted to something. Blood vessels popped up on his temples from an unknown pressure that suddenly emanated around his opponent.

"That's right, oh yes...How did I not think like this before... Of course, it all makes sense now... I can already feel it... Oh the boundary is within my reach..."

The guy suddenly started muttering strange words, mostly exclamations about understanding something profound. For some reason, it made Xuhan shiver.

"Heavens... For we are humans, our very selves are made of how we act. We are nothing but what we hide in our hearts... there is purity and beauty, and there is rot and corruption. It is not a balanced system, but a constantly shifting scale... purity doesn't make us holy, and the corruption doesn't make us filthy. But that doesn't mean we are a neutral creature but in actuality...
This is us, humans whose exterior is a mere cover, yet what hides inside is something terribly complex, full of chaos...what appears beautiful may not be so inside, and what appears disgusting may hold a pure meaning hidden under the filth... and this is what makes us...us, this is what makes us humans. "

The qi in Xuhan's body tumbled like a boat filled with water caught in storm. Blood poured out of his nose and mouth as he retreated from that crazy guy as fast as possible.

A sinking feeling in his guts told him that he was very familiar with what was happening.

"Dear god, I've run into a shounen protagonist who can breakthrough in the middle of a fight scene after hearing the sound of an upset stomach...#^$*$£#...

These sort of protagonists can gain enlightenment in the dao of sound by hearing a fart and the dao of water by taking a piss...

Looks like I'm gonna get my ass handed to me no matter what today. Shit, I should've known something was up when my scheme with the elder went so smoothly. I'm never this lucky..."

An invisible storm seemed to surround the disciple breaking through to a higher layer. Xuhan had to retreat almost fifty meters before he felt safe. While he was contemplating whether he should run away, a new presence in the vicinity caught his eyes.

It was the elder scam...cough, elder Shen.

Immediately, Xuhan's eyes became brighter. He had been thinking that the elder hadn't received a proper punishment for pulling that stunt on him. This was the perfect chance to blackmail-erm..convince him to help.

"Elder Shen, this disciple was trying to forcibly detain me with a random excuse after noticing my pouch full of spirit stones. You know very well what will happen if I dont reach my hut in time safely and conduct the business regarding the second book, don't you? If you don't want things to blow up from here now, please protect me!"

Elder Shen's face became dark upon hearing his shout. He had been attracted here by the aura of disciple breaking through in an untimely manner. Feeling rather helpless, he waited for the disciple to finish his breakthrough while Xuhan ran behind him to pour down more threats-no-pleas in the meantime.

Soon, the invisible storm surrounding the disciple disappeared and an impressive aura emanated from his body. Upon breaking out of his reverie, he noticed the elder who had been attracted by the commotion made by his breakthrough and bowed deeply.

"Elder Shen, this disciple is Xu Qing-"

"SHUT UP! HOW DARE YOU ASSAULT A DISCIPLE WHO IS UNDER MY PROTECTION? WITHIN THE MOUNTAIN PEAK UNDER MY JURISDICTION? SEEKING DEATH!"

Before he could even register what went wrong, the disciple felt his collar being snatched by an extremely pissed off elder who dragged him toward his mountain peak without giving him a chance to explain himself.

Chuckling to himself, Xuhan showed a middle finger toward the sky and limped on toward his hut in the black sheep mountain peak.