The Founder of Qi Cultivation, Reincarnates?

Hearing Fang Chen admitting his defeat, the crowd below can’t believe he was going to join Xi Shen’s Faction.

Xi Shen smiled at Fang Chen and his eyes twinkled as he said, “Hmm, you can go join the Sword Pavilion. I need to recruit two more persons to be able to officially create my Faction. You’d have to wait until then.”

Fang Chen with his fist still cup bowed his head and said, “Yes Faction Leader.”

He wasn’t the type of person who would go back on his word. He made a bet and he lost, so he would accept it as the outcome.

After saying that Fang Chen turned to leave, but Xi Shen suddenly called for him.

“Fang Chen, catch.”

Fang Chen turned around just in time to catch an object in his hands. When he look down to see it was the box with the Nine Revolutions Sea Expansion pill inside, his eyes held surprise as he look at Xi Shen.

Xi Shen then casually said, “That’s your welcoming gift into the Faction. When you have time you go into seclusion to take it.”

Fang Chen felt happiness welling up within his heart. At the same time, he felt a mix of other emotions since Xi Shen had so easily given him such an important pill.

He was grateful, and as he thank Xi Shen, it could be heard in his voice.

The crowd then watched in silence as Fang Chen left the stage with the box in hand. They couldn’t believe the results they had just witnessed.

Back on the stage, Xi Shen was thinking that with him, Yang Su, Fei Yin, and now Fang Chen, he just needed two more people to make it six persons. That was the required amount for creating a Faction.

He gave that Nine Revolutions Sea Expansion pill to Fang Chen to show that there were benefits in joining his Faction. He was trying to target the Inner Disciples that hadn't joined a Pavilion yet and didn’t have the support those Pavilions provide for their members. As for the rest, he didn’t care about them.

Xi Shen was hoping that after stepping down from this stage there would be a few persons who see Soul Cultivation in a different light. He wanted to erase the bad impression his Faction would get by being made of members who cultivate soul arts.

Although he would be lenient in his recruitment process, for example, if he found someone with a high affinity for cultivating the Sword Dao but not towards the Music Dao, he would still recruit them. But he met no one like that so far aside from maybe Fei Yin.

Even though his willpower was extremely strong, maybe even stronger than Fang Chen, Xi Shen was more slightly interested in his Sword abilities, since he was shown to have the power to battle above someone above his cultivation realm. Disciples like him in the Inner Academy are rare since each Divine Platform created in the Foundation Construction Realm can increase a person's power by two or even three-fold.

Xi Shen sat there and went over what his Faction could become as well as analyzing his current members' abilities.

His mind then went onto Yang Su. He never planned on making him cultivate Soul Arts, he can make great accomplishments if he stuck to the sword as well, but that was unless he wanted to. For Yang Su, Xi Shen wanted him to follow what interested him, as long as it suited his Six Elemental Qi Dao Foundation.

Yang Su held a different place in Xi Shen’s heart. He was neither a family member nor a simple friend or subordinate, but rather someone under his tutelage.

A disciple maybe?

As Xi Shen was thinking about all these things, he suddenly felt the connection to his Sword Pavilion identity medallion tremble.

Xi Shen sent his disguise Divine Will into his storage ring and took it out.

Sending his perception into the medallion he was pleasantly surprised that it was a message from Yang Su.

Reaching out to the message with his perception, Xi Shen began to listen to it.

“E-elder brother Shen!! You have to help! Members of the Bai Clan in the Sword Pavilion came to our courtyard for Junior brother Fei Yin! They said that if he doesn’t pass the eighth level of the Demon Suppressing Pagoda they’ll burn his family’s corpse that's back in the Bai Clan!!"

There was anger as well as disbelief in Yang Su's voice as he spoke hurriedly in the message.

"I didn’t know what to do, and I couldn’t convince junior brother Yin to wait for you. He went along with the Bai Clan members to get back his family’s coffins. Please hurry elder brother Shen, Fei Yin could die if he challenges the eighth level of the Demon Sealing Pagoda!”

The message was then cut off, and although he found it weird Yang Su was addressing Fei Yin as junior brother despite being a couple of years younger, Xi Shen had no time to ponder on that because the other contents of the message made his face completely morphed into a dark expression.

‘The Bai Clan was making a move?’

Xi Shen had thought that they would be hesitant to take action against Fei Yin now that he was affiliated with him, and he had even told Fei Yin that there was nothing to worry about other than their schemes in the dark.

But since they were openly going about carrying out their plan, that meant they gave two shits about Xi Shen being the second prince.

‘Are they testing how my family would react if they cause trouble for me? I can almost see their thought process when they came up with this plan. Seeing that I was the so-called fallen prince or talented trash, they think my family wouldn’t interfere least they got the reputation that they were creating bad relations with the Seven Major Clan because of a cripple. Plus there was a saying in the cultivation world, that the old generation shouldn’t interfere with the younger generation's conflicts. I knew my status wouldn’t deter them for long, but to immediately go after Fei Yin after I assured him it was okay, is making me eat my own words. If I don’t do something drastic, then they would start to think they could walk over me in the Academy.’

Xi Shen’s expression hardened.

‘After finding a member to join my Faction you want to take him from me? Damn you bastards from the Bai Clan, I’ll show you what I do to people who touch what's mine.’

Xi Shen instantly rose to his feet, getting ready to rush towards the Demon Sealing Pagoda and deal with this situation.

Even before he created his Faction the Bai Clan was already trying to cause problems for him. Xi Shen was enraged at this fact. He couldn’t reveal his Qi Cultivation at the moment, but he’ll definitely display how dangerous a Soul Cultivator could be if angered.

However, as soon as Xi Shen shot up from his sitting position, a disciple who wore the Sword Pavilions white robes with a violet sword insignia embroidered on its right chest leaped onto the stage in front of him.

“Second prince, my name is Lin Bei. I’m here to extend a ranking match challenge to you.”

Xi Shen's footsteps paused and his eyes flickered when he saw this youth appear in front of him. But more importantly, what caught his attention was the fact that he was from the Lin Clan and was a part of the Sovereign Sword Faction from what he could tell from the violet sword insignia on his chest. The fact that a Lin Clan member was a part of a Faction created by the eldest son of the Bai Clan was extremely telling.

Xi Shen’s eyes glowed with a dangerous light but went to walk around him while saying, “Not interested. I have some troublesome problems to take care of so I can’t accept fellow disciple Bei’s challenge.”

That disciple name Lin Bei quickly block Xi Shen’s path again and said with a slight smile, “Second prince I insist. I was watching your performance before and I was shocked that a Soul Cultivator could be so strong, so I wanted to experience it up close since I have never battled a Soul Cultivator before. I suspect this is a result of the second prince’s legendary Supreme-grade soul? Or how else can a mere Soul Attack from a useless Soul Cultivator defeat someone like brother Fang Chen?”

Lin Bei said that with a warm smile, but those words were anything from warm, they were cold and biting to the ears. They were words of praise said in a way to undermine and downplay Soul Cultivators' abilities.

This comment made people in the crowd start to recollect that Xi Shen indeed had a Supreme-grade soul.

No wonder his Soul Attacks were so powerful!

If it was a normal Soul Cultivator they wouldn’t be so strong. Now that the disciples got this piece of information, they realize Soul Cultivators were indeed weak like how they had thought, but it was just that it was Xi Shen that was abnormally strong for one.

Xi Shen's eyes turned completely cold at Lin Bei’s words, but after a moment Xi Shen gave him a dismissive glance before he turned around to leave the stage another way.

However, Lin Bei suddenly sprang forward, his sword that was by his side already drawn and slashing towards Xi Shen’s neck.

Everyone in the crowd was immediately shocked that this Lin Bei would sneak attack Xi Shen.

It was against the academy rules to hurt fellow disciples outside the arena or who were unwilling to spar, not to mention Xi Shen was still the second prince of the Li Royal Family and commanded at least the minimum amount of respect from disciples around his age.

But even as Xi Shen move his head slightly to the side to "barely" dodge Lin Bei's sword, everyone was dumbfounded that Lin Bei was raising his sword again to attack.

Everyone was wondering why Discipline Elder Zhong hadn’t stepped in immediately, but Lin Bei’s shout suddenly answered their questions.

“Second Prince, I am 898th on the Inner Disciple Rankings and I have arranged a ranking match with you before coming here, so I hope you would accompany me!”

Said Lin Bei despite being in the process of attacking Xi Shen for a second time.

Xi Shen had fully turned around and used his zither to parry Lin Bei's sword to the side.

After that Xi Shen push off the ground to retreat from him, but Lin Bei pressed forward while saying, “I didn’t expect the second prince to be able to dodge my two attacks. I understand, have you been cultivating external cultivation methods to go along with your Soul Cultivation?”

Lin Bei asked probingly, which made Xi Shen’s eyes flicker for a moment.

Even though cultivating a Fleshly Body cultivation method wasn’t the case for Xi Shen, with his Heavenly Physique along with his reconstructed bones, from an outsider's perspective that's what it looked like. Though it was good that they thought that.

Seeing Lin Bei slashing out his sword to attack him for the third time, Xi Shen frowned. Without a weapon, he only went to dodge again but all of a sudden, the speed of Lin Bei’s sword increased, and slash towards Xi Shen’s zither.

Its broken pieces scattered into the air and fell several feet away on the stage.

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Word Count: 1947