Boom! Boom! Boom!

The deep, resonant toll of the ancient bell rolled across the whole of Azure Cloud Mountain. Every soul of the Northern Isle Cangwu Sect, from the Golden Core elders down to the lowliest disciples, paled at the sound. Without a word they dropped whatever was in their hands and converged on the great hall from every direction.

When the Azure Cloud Bell sounded, great matters were afoot, and every member was bound to assemble at once. Such was the law of the Northern Isle Cangwu Sect.

"What's happened?" The disciples exchanged bewildered glances. Unless some grave upheaval had occurred, the Azure Cloud Bell was never lightly rung. Could something truly disastrous have come to pass?

The matter of Chen Jiu's face-to-face negotiations with Wei Zhao had been kept in strictest secrecy; almost everyone had been left in the dark, knowing nothing of it.

Even Lu Ping'an was astonished. He had not witnessed the clash between Chen Jiu and Wei Zhao. In truth, he had departed the Heaven-Ascending Cliff the moment Chen Jiu ordered him to carry Chen Dongcheng away, and so he had no clear knowledge of what had happened afterward.

"That makes no sense. Master clearly said to handle it quietly. Even if Wei Zhao has been dealt with, there's no need to ring the Azure Cloud Bell over it." Lu Ping'an was thoroughly baffled. Even now he took it for granted that Chen Jiu could crush Wei Zhao with ease—the man was, after all, a genuine Nascent Soul monster. How could he possibly lose to some primordial spirit of unknown origin?

Lu Ping'an was at a loss, and the rest were even more so—until they made out the figure standing beside the Azure Cloud Bell, whereupon the astonishment on their faces deepened.

"Xin Yi'an, what the devil are you playing at!" Lu Ping'an's brows knit sharply, and the other Golden Core higher-ups alike showed their displeasure. The Azure Cloud Bell was not a thing just anyone could touch; at the very least it took one of vice-sect-master rank. A bottom-rung elder like Xin Yi'an had no right to it at all.

In times past, surrounded by such unfriendly faces, Xin Yi'an would have been frightened out of his wits. Today, though he was still somewhat nervous, there was not a trace of panic in his heart. After all, he understood better than anyone that from this day forth a new era had dawned for the Northern Isle Cangwu Sect.

"I'm not playing at anything," Xin Yi'an said calmly. "There's an urgent matter, so I rang the Azure Cloud Bell to summon everyone."

"And you have the right to do that? Rather full of yourself, aren't you?" A Golden Core elder of the Chen faction sneered to his face.

"Ringing the Azure Cloud Bell without authorization—you do know what crime that is, don't you, Xin Yi'an?" Lu Ping'an followed with a cold laugh, then added, "Come to think of it, what urgent matter could you possibly have? Don't tell me that so-called Grand-Uncle Grandmaster of ours has croaked?"

Convinced in his heart that Wei Zhao was bound to die at Chen Jiu's hands, Lu Ping'an now spoke with far greater recklessness than before.

"Surely not? Isn't that impostor locked up on the Heaven-Ascending Cliff? He can't very well have run himself into a wall and died," someone chimed in with deliberate mockery.

The other higher-ups and disciples of the native faction merely looked at one another. Xin Yi'an had spent no small effort courting them of late, yet those who truly answered his call were few and far between. Besides their fear of the Supreme Elder's prestige, another rumor had been the key to their wavering: that Grand-Uncle Grandmaster of theirs was said to be an impostor.

Xin Yi'an glanced at them and cleared his throat. "As to whether Uncle-Master Grandmaster Wei Zhao is an impostor—from today onward there will no longer be any doubt about it."

"Oh? Because he's dead?" Lu Ping'an curled his lip dismissively. In his eyes Wei Zhao was already a dead man.

Everyone was watching Xin Yi'an when he grinned and pointed to an open patch of ground beside the Azure Cloud Bell. A white cloth had been laid over it, and beneath the cloth was unmistakably the shape of a human figure.

"So he really is dead." Lu Ping'an grew only more certain. He was sure the corpse beneath the white cloth must be Wei Zhao's, for only a corpse could have been carried out of the One-Step-to-Heaven Formation.

"More or less." Xin Yi'an smiled a smile that was not quite a smile, then turned to face the crowd. "I think it's necessary to explain properly to everyone what happened today at the Heaven-Ascending Cliff. Elder Lu surely won't forbid me to speak?"

"Hmph, what is there to say!" Lu Ping'an snorted coldly. Still ignorant of the truth, he was even now thinking only of handling things quietly, and he changed the subject: "Come to think of it, Xin Yi'an, you've got some nerve. All that's dead is one impostor of unknown origin, and you dare ring the Azure Cloud Bell on your own authority to summon every disciple. What punishment do you deserve!"

"But..." Xin Yi'an paused, and the corners of his mouth curved. "What if the person lying here is not Uncle-Master Grandmaster Wei Zhao?"

"What do you mean?" Lu Ping'an did not take it in for a moment.

"What I mean is..." Halfway through, Xin Yi'an strode forward and flung aside the white cloth. When they saw the face of the man lying on the ground, the entire assembly turned ashen with shock, and Lu Ping'an went so white he nearly fainted on the spot.

"Since the one in trouble is the Supreme Elder, ringing the Azure Cloud Bell shouldn't be out of order, should it?" Xin Yi'an said with perfect composure.

No one answered. They could not answer—because their jaws were already on the floor.

A long while passed before Lu Ping'an's voice came, stammering with disbelief: "This... this... how is this possible?!"

The one lying on the ground was not Wei Zhao, but Chen Jiu. How could that be?

"Surely not? Has some Nascent Soul monster from another sect come knocking at our gates?" The others, still in the dark, remained aghast. In their minds, the only one who could defeat a Nascent Soul monster was naturally another Nascent Soul monster—say, Bing Wushuang of the Snow Sword Sect, who had departed not long ago.

"No. The Supreme Elder questioned Uncle-Master Grandmaster Wei Zhao's identity, and so Uncle-Master Grandmaster Wei Zhao disposed of him. It's as simple as that," Xin Yi'an said mildly.

At those words, a dead silence fell once more over the hall.

The Supreme Elder disposed of? In times past that would have been the greatest joke imaginable; but now no one could laugh, because Chen Jiu lay right there before them—an ironclad fact.

Yet even so, everyone still found the scene before their eyes too incredible to credit. Could it be an illusion?

To deceive so many people with a phantom was surely a tale of sheer fantasy—and yet to dispose of a Nascent Soul monster like Chen Jiu without a sound was equally fantastical. To the crowd, the two were about equally credible.

"From today on, Uncle-Master Grandmaster Wei Zhao is the one anchor of our Northern Isle Cangwu Sect, and as for this Supreme Elder, he is a thing of the past. You may all mourn him as you please, but there's no need to keep bringing him up from now on." With that, Xin Yi'an glanced at the utterly distraught Lu Ping'an and added, "I trust Elder Lu has no objection?" (To be continued.)