"How is that possible!"

"How could he be from the world below?"

"Could a Longevity Realm expert really emerge from that foul place?"

Everyone present was shocked and began to murmur amongst themselves. Some even shot to their feet.

Su Pei had never expected Su Xuan to say such a thing, and her gaze filled with astonishment. Just as she was about to question him further, a man suddenly slapped his tea table. He shot forward like an arrow, swinging a palm toward Su Xuan. The aura flaring from his body revealed him to be a Middle Stage Longevity Realm expert!

"Elder Gongsun, you're going too far!" Su Pei's face darkened as she immediately shouted a rebuke.

But the man did not pull back his attack.

Su Xuan's brow furrowed slightly. He raised his right hand, traced a semicircle in the air, and punched its center.

BOOM!

A wave of energy erupted outward. The female disciple holding the teapot couldn't maintain her footing and stumbled back several steps.

The attacker, Elder Gongsun, slid backward, his feet hissing against the ground, his back about to slam into Cai Wei's tea table. Cai Wei leaped to his feet and slammed a palm against Elder Gongsun's back, barely halting his momentum!

"Hmph!" Humbled by Su Xuan's counterattack and left disheveled, Elder Gongsun couldn't save face. He snorted coldly, cupped his hands toward Su Pei, and said grimly, "Sect Leader, you saw it yourself. This young man is still hiding his cultivation. He's clearly an expert above the Middle Stage of the Longevity Realm; otherwise, my palm strike would have killed him! And he was lying just now. I swear, he is definitely not from the world below!"

"I really am in the Middle Stage of the Longevity Realm," Su Xuan said, shrugging calmly from his seat. "And I really did come from the world below."

He had been able to repel Elder Gongsun so easily for two reasons. First, Elder Gongsun was getting on in years, and his cultivation power had grown somewhat slack. Second, Su Xuan's own cultivation had been solidified after the battle in the pit, making him far stronger than an average expert at the Middle Stage of the Longevity Realm.

If there were a third reason, it would be that his physical body had also reached the Longevity Realm.

It was entirely reasonable for him to repel Elder Gongsun.

Because of this small incident, when everyone looked at Su Xuan again, their eyes held a trace of poorly concealed apprehension and an even more intense confusion.

Hey! Just look at your cultivation level. Are you *really* from the world below? If the world below could nurture an expert like you, then we should all just pack up and move the entire sect down there!

"Sect Leader, I find this young man highly suspicious. He could very well be a spy sent by a rival power. I implore you to investigate him thoroughly!" Elder Gongsun pressed on aggressively when Su Pei remained silent. As he spoke, he even shuffled to the side, as if afraid Su Xuan might get angry and attack him.

"Young Master Su, could we perhaps be a bit more candid with each other?" Su Pei, who also didn't believe Su Xuan was from the world below, spoke gravely. "If you..."

"There's no need for 'ifs'," Su Xuan said, standing up. "I don't care about the trial results. I participated in the trial simply to obtain the Blood Immortal Vine to save a loved one. You don't have to change the rules for my sake. I can leave the Yu Xian Sect right now."

With that, Su Xuan turned and walked toward the hall's exit.

HUM!

A strange vibration filled the air. With no perceptible movement, Su Pei vanished from her spot and reappeared directly in front of Su Xuan.

"Is there something else?" Su Xuan asked, stopping.

"Yes." Su Pei nodded. "There is one more thing I want to understand."

"Alright," Su Xuan said, his eyes narrowing. "Before you ask me, I have a question for you."

"Feel free to ask, Young Master Su."

"What's the deal with the pit? How could monsters like that burst out of the ground? Did you deliberately send the trialists to their deaths?"

"I can answer that for you," Elder Gongsun suddenly interjected. "The bottom of the pit is protected by a great formation. The trialists are bait, used to lure out monsters capable of breaking the formation so that we can then exterminate them. That's all. The Blood Immortal Vine is not something you get for free."

Su Pei glanced at Elder Gongsun before turning back to Su Xuan. "Young Master Su, previous trials all went smoothly. The monsters in the pit would never have broken out so soon, which usually gives us plenty of time to clear them out after the trial ends. This time, however, there was an accident. They found a weak point in the formation. If it weren't for you, this trial would have ended in disaster. We truly did not invite you here to argue."

"Brother Su, we are also acting for the safety of the region," Cai Wei added. "If those monsters were to escape unexpectedly, many people would die. It's not just our Yu Xian Sect, either. There are pits like this in many other places, and the methods they use are even more... ruthless than ours."

"What exactly are they? Why do they emerge from underground?" Su Xuan asked.

The great hall fell silent. No one answered him. It was as if they were all collectively hiding a secret.

"What was it you wanted to ask me?" Su Xuan prompted, changing the subject. In truth, he wasn't particularly interested in these matters—certainly less interested than he was in the two or three greatswords he had snatched earlier.

Su Pei's gaze swept across everyone in the hall before she slowly turned to Su Xuan. "Do you know Ancestor Meng?"

The gravity in her tone was unprecedented. All eyes focused once more on Su Xuan.

Without a second thought, he replied, "I don't know him." Then he asked her, "Do you think I know him?"

As soon as he asked the question, he noticed a strange change in the hall's environment. Through his mutated eyes, he saw an energy barrier materialize, enclosing both him and Su Pei. It seemed that no matter what she said next, no one else would be able to hear.

The moment the barrier appeared, Su Pei's expression inexplicably relaxed. She said to him discreetly, "Because you... you..."

"Am I as handsome as Ancestor Meng?"

This wasn't a joke. He vaguely recalled Min Chun once mentioning that Ancestor Meng was as handsome as he was.

Su Pei's expression became slightly flustered. "It's because you and he are too similar in some ways. You both came from the world below, and you both rose to prominence in an extremely short time. He also went down into the pits, and your way of doing things is identical to his. It seems you two... share a deep connection."

Su Xuan threw his hands up, speechless.

"I'm not joking," Su Pei insisted.

"I really don't know him," Su Xuan said. "The first time I even heard the name Ancestor Meng was on my way to the upper world."

With that, he strode toward the exit of the hall. As he passed through the barrier, the quiet murmur of voices finally reached his ears. He had also made a mental imprint of the technique Su Pei used, planning to study it later to see if he could create a similar barrier himself.

Watching Su Xuan's retreating back, Su Pei murmured, "There's another reason. My surname is Su, and so is yours. Are you certain you weren't sent by Ancestor Meng to give me some kind of message?"

No one answered her.

She then murmured to herself again, "You might not be able to leave the upper world after all..."

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