Liu Ming walked elegantly with his hands clasped behind his back. Behind him, his three female disciples followed with somewhat unsatisfied expressions, unsure how to voice their concerns.
Finally, Su Yan spoke up. "Lord Liu, may I ask a question?"
Liu Ming looked back and gently held out a hand to correct her.
"Uh, I would prefer if you called me Brother Ming or Young Master instead."
An uncomfortable smile crossed his face.
After hearing Ling Tian being called Young Master, the name felt more fitting to him. It was much better than being referred to as Patriarch, which he felt made him seem old. He preferred a youthful honorific, so when people heard his name, they would picture a young, handsome man, not an old man with long white beards and even longer robes.
"Okay, Young Master..." Su Yan said, trying to get accustomed to it.
Liu Ming snapped his fingers. "So, your question. What would you like to know?"
They walked as they talked.
"I was curious about why you decided to spare the Young Master. It was odd because you were ready to behead him, but then you stopped at the last moment. It didn't look like you hesitated. It seemed more like you chose to show him mercy."
Thinking over Su Yan's question for a moment, Liu Ming shifted his gaze away from her and stared straight ahead.
"I originally planned to kill him, but I realized that wouldn't send the best message to his sect or the world. My grandfather was afraid of my cultivation potential. He thought people might get to me before I was strong enough to defend myself, so he hid me from the cultivation world. Now that I've returned, I don't want my grandfather's image to be disrespected anymore."
Xiu Meixiang placed a finger on her small chin and tilted her head. "Hm? What does Senior Brother mean?"
Liu Ming smiled from ear to ear and stretched out his arms as he explained his plan.
"I didn't kill that young master, but I did cripple his meridians and used my sacred sword to sever his connection to his prized heavenly grotto. His cultivation has fallen back to the Grotto Spirit stage, so you can now consider him a failure of his generation. From here on, he'll always try to become a tiger but will end up as a dog, time and time again."
Yu Lan chuckled sweetly at this.
Meanwhile, Xiu Meixiang was still confused. "So he'll never cultivate again?" she asked.
Yu Lan shook her head and answered, "Just think of the Ling Clan's young master as a fish that cannot breathe in water or swim──still a fish, but unable to fulfill its natural role."
"Oh, how benevolent of Brother Ming!" Xiu Meixiang lit up.
"Err, not really..."
For a cultivator, having their meridians crippled and their foundation destroyed was a fate worse than death. It left them in constant pain and robbed them of their potential and purpose.
Death, while final, could sometimes be seen as a release from suffering. Living without cultivation meant a life filled with despair and lost potential.
Liu Ming had just taken everything from Ling Tian.
His power, his purpose, and his dignity.
He would be lucky if his sect even took him back.
Yu Lan rested her chin on her hand, gazing thoughtfully at Liu Ming's back.
'I didn't think Brother Ming would be so quick to kill those cultivators. He's lived in Clear Water Village his whole life, so I'm sure he's never had to deal with killing anyone before. This must be his first time... but he seems totally unaffected by it.'
She closed her eyes and smiled, feeling content with how everything had turned out.
Liu Ming calmly instructed, "Yan Mei, come see me later tonight. There's something I want to give you."
Su Yan pointed at herself, clearly surprised. "Me, Young Master?"
"Mhm." Liu Ming nodded with a smile.
Yu Lan and Xiu Meixiang exchanged surprised glances, then looked at Su Yan, and back at each other. While Su Yan's mind was clear, the same couldn't be said for the other two disciples who had different thoughts swirling in their heads.
Xiu Meixiang's face flushed redder the more she thought about it.
'What does Senior Brother want with Elder Sister Yan?! He even called her Yan Mei! Should I be concerned? What does he need Elder Sister Yan for that I can't do? I can cook, I can clean──heck, I can even give massages if that's what he needs. I should be the one spending time bonding with Senior Brother!'
She shook her head to clear away her inappropriate thoughts.
Yu Lan, on the other hand, glanced at Su Yan's body and then down at her own superior chest.
'Should I be worried? Naturally, I consider myself more attractive than Elder Sister Yan, yes? Yet, I feel like my pride is being challenged. However, I'm not foolish like Meixiang. It's likely Senior Brother just wants to discuss important matters with her. I'm sure he doesn't see us in that way.'
The blonde-haired beauty crossed her arms and let out an exaggerated huff of disapproval.
━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━
The distance from the Sacred Cloud School to the Sword God School was incredibly vast. It was so long that just thinking about it made one tired.
The Sacred Cloud Mountain Range lay in the southwest of the Eastern Reaches, while the Sword Chain Mountain was in the northeast.
Ling Tian, completely wasted and beaten to a pulp like a crippled man, now faced the daunting task of walking all the way home from the Sacred Cloud Mountain Range.
"Damn it...
"Damn you, Liu Ming! Damn you!
"I'll make your life a living hell... I swear it!"
The countless cities, towns, prefectures, and forests in between seemed endless.
He no longer had any flying artifacts, nor did he retain the peak physical condition he once boasted about. Now, he was reduced to crawling in tattered robes, his body filthy and wounded.
────AGGHK!!
The constant, excruciating pain of his crippled cultivation gnawed at his mind.
"I hate you, Liu Ming!"
The hell-breaking hatred Ling Tian harbored wasn't just because his Dao protectors were slain, his father sealed away, and his cultivation stripped from him.
What hurt the most was the humiliation Liu Ming inflicted.
Around his neck, a rope was tied to a board that boldly proclaimed him the...
『ROYAL BITCH OF THE SACRED CLOUD SCHOOL』
It also boldly announced the sect's return under the rule of the Heavenly Sword Patriarch's grandson, and declared that they were now accepting new disciples.
As he crawled through forests and cities, people didn't offer help──they laughed.
"Isn't that the Ling Clan's young master?"
"Why is he crawling around like a dog and shamelessly promoting the Sacred Cloud School's disciple recruitment? Is he out of his mind or what?"
"Hehe, word is he got thrashed by the Heavenly Sword Patriarch's grandson, who's a Core Spirit expert. There are rumors that this same guy also took out the head of the Ling Clan."
"He deserves it! Who told him to act so arrogantly before?"
Ling Tian knew he didn't deserve their sympathy, which only made him cry until his eyes bled.
He wanted desperately to break free from the rope, but only a cultivator at the Refined Spirit stage could manage it. Liu Ming could have made the rope stronger, maybe even Core Spirit level, but he opted for an easy taunt.
"You're so weak that you can't even break a rope with strength comparable to the Refined Spirit stage. Bahaha, what a joke!"
Ling Tian imagined Liu Ming saying this with a grin on his face.
"LIU MING!
"LIU MING!
"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!"
He slammed his wounded fist against the rocky earth.
That's how low the once-proud Ling Clan young master had fallen.