Ezio walked to the feast held in his honor. The bathing took about half an hour, where it should take about 10 minutes, thus Ezio was a bit nervous. The worst thing that could happen to him now was him having fun in the lake with the nurse. Nothing happened, but he splashed some water. In this Buddhist Sect, almost anything he would do could be forgiven, except that one.
But Ezio was meant to become "Conqueror of all Women." Dammit, he was a man with a dream. Thus he had to take these little risks, or he could not progress at all.
Lost in his thoughts he arrived at the feast area. The seat of honor was free for him to sit, and he obliged. The main table was filled with big guns, like Abbot and Supreme Elders. In the lower table, there were inner sect elders and core disciples, the next one with outer sect elders and inner sect disciples. The next one was with Miscellaneous Elders and outer sect disciples, and the last one with nurses and other miscellaneous disciples.
Even though it was a humble sect, seniority was important like in all others. In most of the Sects or Clans, an Outer Elder was equal to Inner Disciple, and Inner Elder to a Core Disciple. But today as a Star Disciple, Ezio was seen as the future Sect Master, thus seated equally to the Abbot. Of course, Abbot never intended to leave his seat to Ezio. Firstly he had no Buddhist material, secondly, he always felt this Sect, even this country was too small for Ezio. He still couldn't prove it, but somehow he knew Ezio had duo Mana and Qi cultivation. What Abbot wanted to do was keep Ezio close to the Sect so that when he grew up, the sect could have the backing of a strong cultivator.
After seating equal to Abbot, some gazes penetrated his heart. If gaze could kill, he would be like a beehive in just a second. But Ezio didn't care at all. He smiled at the female disciples, sect elders, hell any beautiful women. He was always mischievous, and the sect accepted him that way. Abbot was okay with it, after all, so no one could complain about it.
After eating and drinking for a while, an Inner Sect Elder got up from his seat and clapped his hands to get everybody's attention.
"Now the feast is over, let's have a friendly competition, what do you all say? I am sure, our newly elated Seamless Qi Master will give us a good show." said the Elder while looking at Ezio with a smirk.
"What do you say, Young Master Ezio. I am sure even though you just broke through, you shouldn't have a problem with having a fight with my personal disciple, Tian Huang."
"Shameless." Ezio heard a murmur from the Abbot. It was very low, but he heard it anyway. Yes, Inner Sect Elder Tian Xu was shameless. His grandson and personal disciple, Tian Huang was at the peak of the Qi Vortex Creation. He was stone-throwing away from the Qi Force Opening Realm.
There weren't any sects without inner struggle or political schemes. And The Cleansing Buddhist Sect was no exception. Tian Xu's father once wanted to become the Leader, but the previous Abbot chose Prince Invincible Virtue over Tian Xu's father and these two factions were on opposite sides ever since. It got worse after Tian Xu's father disappeared mysteriously, but it was a story for another day.
Now Tian Xu wanted his grandson and Ezio to fight, so when the hero of the day, the Seamless Qi Master lost the fight, all the cultivators present would think more highly of his family. After all, he gave up all of his hopes to become the leader and pushed all of his hopes on his grandson.
In normal times, newly elated Qi Vortex Creation practitioners couldn't win against the one at the peak of the same realm. Before Mana Force or Qi Force was acquired, Mana Cultivator and the Qi Cultivator could not use elemental spells or the Martial Art Daos, thus all there is to show was the body strength. And the longer one cultivated, the stronger one would get. But Ezio was different. Because when he was born he had strength equal to an adult mortal and had his powers advanced twice with his two breakthroughs, he was now stronger than the someone at the peak of the Qi Vortex Creation Realm.
Ezio never wanted to show off his strength, firstly he didn't want unnecessary attention for it might bring him trouble, secondly, this small sect wasn't worthy simply. With the Mysterious Room residing in his mindscape, he was destined to conquer this world, so what was there to show off. But he was not a pushover either. When he was targeted by this cheap-off scheme, he started to get angry.
"Hahaha, Uncle Tian is jesting for sure. I dare not say that I can compete with Senior Brother Tian, but of course, this is a friendly competition, and I would like to test my newly found strength. So if it's okay with the Abbot as well, I would like to fight. After all, it is nobody's, and I mean no one except Abbot's call to decide something like that." Ezio said with a smile, hiding all his anger. He lived two lives and saw lots of schemes. A cheap-off scheme like this was nothing new to him. He said it was Abbot's call because he knew Tian branch and Abbot had enmity between them.
Tian Xu understood that too, of course. He frowned and looked at his grandson. He didn't say anything but all the masters felt the minute details of Qi fluctuation in the air. He was speaking with his grandson telepathically.
"Break the arms of that arrogant beast, but don't cripple him. Just embarrass him."
Tian Huang nodded secretly.
Ezio could guess what the Grandfather and Grandson duo was speaking, but he didn't care. He had no plan to meddle with the sect's politics, he never ever once planned to stay and rule the sect, but since they schemed against him, he would make them regret it. He jumped to the platform at the side of the feast area after Abbot nodded. Since this was a festival area, there was a platform to watch fights as well.
***
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