Before Lu Piao decided to go and ask his junior's fiancée questions 'amicably', he recalled a piece of information he had heard from him. "Now that I remember, although Sun Qinglan is just an outer disciple she has recently been accepted as the disciple of an inner elder. And this master of hers isn't ordinary at all since he is an alchemy refiner."

Even though he also had a master who was an inner elder and had quite the influence within the inner sect, he wasn't confident at all since Sun Qinglan's master had about the same influence or even more.

Being a master in one of the three principal cultivation arts, Alchemy Refining, Weapon Refining and Array Refining, her master had made connections within the whole inner sect. This included the inner elders since he is a third grade alchemy refiner and any one of his pills are of the highest quality within the sect's market.

After pondering which course of action to take, Lu Piao decided on getting information from the other survivor apart from his junior's fiancée. "Let's first go and force everything out of this new outer disciple and see what happened."

The person he was thinking about was Ling Xu since his junior brother was Lu Wenjie and he hadn't gotten contact ever since he went on his mission. After a day passed from the day they would meet he sent his Azure Beak Bird to ask for information from a friend who works in the Internal Affairs Hall within the inner sect.

It was from this worker that he received the information about his junior brother who had yet to return from his mission which should have only taken a day at most.

The person that was in the room, Lu Piao, is Lu Wenjie's senior brother whom Ling Xu had heard about from Xie Jian. He is an inner disciple who had entered the inner sect a year ago.

Their first name are the same since they both come from the Lu Family from Bright Moon City. But while Lu Wenjie's status was that of the young master, he was just one of the few who accompanied to help him get enough resources to pass from a menial worker to an outer disciple faster.

But once Lu Wenjie entered the outer sect, he didn't fall behind since his talent was higher than his and he was able to keep the same cultivation speed even without enough resources after giving a part of his to his young master.

Afterwards, it took him just a year before entering the inner sect since he was extremely lucky and found a hidden cave in one of his missions which contained a spiritual pond full of condensed qi formed from one of the low grade spiritual veins in the mountain leaking its essence there.

In this way he progressed by leaps and bounds and left Lu Wenjie far behind as he begun been treated with respect even by his young master, who then begun calling him senior brother.

Although he is the young master of the Lu Family, strength is above all and Lu Wenjie had to lower himself so he could have a chance to enter the inner sect within the next year.

After he read the letter and had decided on what to do next, Lu Piao stood up and opened the door. As he left, the bird with two orange feathers on his head flapped its wings a few times and established itself in the roof made out of clear wood, basking in the rays of light that came from the sun.

…

Back in the outer sect, Ling Xu was back in his room, fully recovered from hours of constant training in the forest in his movement technique and sword intent. He had already had his meal as he recovered his qi naturally and the meat made out of Blood Qi beasts helped in the process.

Sitting in the lotus position, he first looked at his status panel.

[Name]: Ling Xu

[Realm]: 3rd stage of Qi Refining (21%)

[Cultivation]: Formless Qi Breathing (perfection), Existence Shadow Will (58%)

[Techniques]: Gale Wind (small success 75%), Flowing Stream Sword (perfection), Three Purities Sword (perfection), Blood Thread Transformation (completed)

[Avenue]: Sword Intent (25%)

His cultivation was progressing as expected, increasing around 8% the last two days. Now he was going to start the first round of the third day, refining qi into the body and strengthening his dantian and acupoints after absorbing the first middle grade qi refining pill.

His sword intent had also advanced 1% after the last three days of intense comprehension in his movement technique. Having reached a natural level of mastery in the sword since both his sword techniques, the Three Purities Sword which built the foundational moves of the sword and the Flowing Stream Sword which allowed his comprehension to deepen in a field, he could let his sword move freely as his body adapted while he concentrated in the Gale Wind movement technique.

He would only focus on it every few moves as he would feel how it moved and would constantly feel the changes in the sword, allowing him to deepen his understanding of it in that way.

Ling Xu had the qi refining pill in his hand but was interrupted as he heard someone knocking on his door. "I wonder who it is, no one has ever called me to the door since I became an outer disciple."

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He stood up and with his identity token he was about to open the door when he had a feeling. "This atmosphere…" a feeling of pressure could be sensed already from within his room before even opening the door.

It was surprising that he could feel it since every room within the outer sect had a small formation which isolated the sound from the outside and even protected them a little.

"Someone strong has come." He realized since this was the same feeling of pressure that could be felt when he was in the Blood Qi Realm and went against the Mutant Whirling Ape after he advanced to the Qi Refining Realm and when he met elder Wen, the first outer elder he got to know.

"From this feeling alone I can tell that this person has the cultivation of Foundation Building at least. I hope he doesn't have any ill intentions…" Opening the door a young man who seemed just one or two years older than him appeared.

The clothes he was wearing were the sect's uniform for inner disciples which was different from his uniform.

The sect uniforms are divided into menial worker, outer disciple, inner disciple and core disciple. The menial workers wear a plain brown robe since they have the lowest status within the sect. Afterwards, outer and inner disciples wear the same blue color robe but their main difference on it is the pattern in their collar.

Both have a cloud pattern on it but the outer disciples have it in a white color, combining with their lower white pants, and inner disciples have it in a yellow golden color, making their status apparent since gold always refers to someone of high status and power.

Apart from them, there also are the core disciples, although Ling Xu hasn't seen any core disciple from the sect yet he knew that their uniforms where with an ocean blue color and apart from the golden cloud patterns on the collar the rest of the upper robe also possessed golden decorations showing beautiful lines carved like the strokes from a sword.

"He is an inner disciple!" He knew right away since he already knew the division of uniforms. "I hope the reason he has knocked on my door is not what I think it is." Although he was calm and didn't sweat a single bead, Ling Xu was still nervous since his instincts told him the answer that he hoped wasn't true.

"This junior greets senior brother, I wonder what can I help you with?" He showed courtesy and bowed down since he was in the presence of someone with a higher status within the sect.

"Greetings junior brother, my name is Lu Piao." The inner disciple saluted without bowing since he didn't need to because of their difference which was already implied by the clothes they were wearing. "I am searching for an outer disciple named Ling Xu, is that you?"

"It came sooner than expected." He thought inwardly, hearing the first name match with Lu Wenjie's. "That's correct, my name is Ling Xu. Is there something this junior can help you with?"

"Actually yes, I heard that you recently went on a mission with my junior brother Lu Wenjie. But after you regressed he didn't come back with you and you didn't report anything about him disappearing so I came here to ask for your cooperation in this matter." This time he put his fists together showing a salute as he asked for his help, but Ling Xu could already feel the tone he bore.

"As expected!" Everything that he thought would happen happened. "Although he seems to be asking politely he will surely use force if I don't cooperate." He already guessed in his heart sensing a threat to his safety.

Although disciples within the sect couldn't harm each other and even less kill, what would happen when an inner disciple did something to an outer disciple?

Once the gap in realm was too high, it would take an instant for the inner disciple to do whatever he wanted with the outer disciple and nobody would know. Unless there were any witnesses of course.

But any outer disciple that found that situation would only turn a blind eye to it since it was extremely dangerous for anyone to get involved with those from the inner sect.

Remaining quiet for a few seconds, Ling Xu had already devised a plan which he had thought of ever since he knew that he would someday encounter Lu Wenjie's senior brother.

"Greetings to senior brother Piao!" He saluted with utmost enthusiasm, showing a friendly tone compared to the previous one containing respect.

Lu Piao was surprised by the sudden change in attitude since he didn't expect him to react this way, at first he had thought that Ling Xu would start to panic and then if he had to he would force anything he knew out of him.

"Brother Lu Wenjie isn't in the sect at the moment just like you said, the reason behind it is that he has met a difficult situation which doesn't allow him to come back soon."

"Hmm, what could it be that doesn't let him come back?" Lu Piao was interested in Ling Xu's response, his brain already spinning as he thought of something pretty fast. "Could it be that he has found an opportunity of his own?"

"Oho, you must have also found one yourself." Ling Xu thought, then he added right away. "I can't really say it but if senior brother is of trust you should know that brother Jie is trying his best to come stronger than ever."

Realizing that he said it aloud, Lu Piao nodded at his response. "That's right, there isn't just one opportunity one can find when going through the wild. Maybe junior brother doesn't have a choice but to meet one that doesn't allow him to return until he completes it."

Thinking about this, Lu Piao suddenly had a sense of urgency. "I didn't expect junior brother Jie to find an opportunity of his own, now he will be able to grow stronger and much faster. If he is lucky he may even enter Foundation Building within this year or even acquire something that allows him to surpass those with the same cultivation level and become an elite figure within the sect."

As he thought about this possibility he asked. "Do you know where this opportunity is?" Then he turned to look directly at this outer disciple's eyes, focused in his reaction to see if he actually knew anything about it.

"They shouldn't be as close as I thought." Ling Xu thought, realizing that this invented opportunity may have triggered Lu Wenjie's senior brother jealousy. "I don't know." He refused, moving his head horizontally. "After we ended the mission he left me and his fiancée, Sun Qinglan, to return as he begun heading even further. I only know the direction that he headed at."

"So that's it…" Sighing, Lu Piao gave up about finding him since he wouldn't be able to just with a clue of the general direction they headed. The size of the Profound Roots Mountain Range was immense and it couldn't be covered by just a Foundation Building cultivator alone. "It seems I will have to wait a month at least before receiving any news so I won't bother you anymore, farewell."

"It was an honor meeting you senior." He bowed down once again with his hands clasped together.

As he turned to leave, Ling Xu didn't close the door until he saw him disappear from his view. After a few seconds, he breathed once again. "Phew, he finally left. Now I have at the least one month before he begins suspecting, maybe I have between a month and a half or two before he comes back once again."

He observed how much time it would take before Lu Piao realized that something was wrong and he begun suspecting if what he said was true.

"Good kid, you managed to send him on your own."

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