A gentleman seeks revenge, and from dawn till dusk he plans.

The people of Fentian Palace lay on the ground groaning, every one of them sporting bruised and swollen faces.

Lie Tianxiong struggled to his feet. Seeing the miserable state of his disciples, he gritted his teeth in hatred.

"Who on earth was it? If I don't avenge this, my surname is no longer Lie!"

An elder asked timidly, "Could it be the Qingxuan Sect?"

Lie Tianxiong spat fiercely onto the ground. "Impossible! With how cowardly the Qingxuan Sect is, how could they have such an expert? Unless those old monsters with one foot in the grave came out of seclusion from their forbidden grounds...

But that person just now had vitality as vigorous as a bull; did they look like they were about to breathe their last? It must be some enemy we've offended in the past!"

The group looked at each other, but no one could recall when they had provoked such a ruthless character.

With great difficulty, they helped each other up, barely managed to tidy their tattered clothes, and continued on their journey.

Two hours later, the people of Fentian Palace hadn't traveled very far.

Suddenly, a burly man in a black robe emerged from the woods ahead, carrying a wooden club thicker than a man's thigh—it was none other than Shi Wanshan, the Peak Master of Qingyue Peak.

Shi Wanshan looked at the group of bruised and battered guys on the ground. He was taken aback at first, then covered his mouth, almost bursting into laughter.

"Good heavens! Who did this? They hit even harder than I do! How satisfying!"

Seeing another person appear, Lie Tianxiong thought it was the gray shadow from before returning. He instantly blew his top, "You again! You dare to come back? You're courting death!"

Shi Wanshan was stunned by the roar, but then his temper flared as well.

"What are you barking about? I was just passing by, alright?"

He had been hesitating whether to make a move or not, but provoked by this, he swung his club and charged forward.

"Let me give you a taste of your grandpa's big stick!"

The people of Fentian Palace were already injured; how could they withstand the incredibly strong Shi Wanshan?

This guy swung his wooden club, sweeping horizontally and smashing vertically, specifically aiming for their joints.

Before long, screams echoed one after another through the canyon. Several people were beaten until their arms and legs bent at bizarre angles, looking thirty percent more miserable than when Xuanyangzi had finished with them just earlier.

Shi Wanshan clapped his hands, looking at the group of people piled up on the ground like a human pyramid, and nodded in satisfaction.

"Mm, this looks much more pleasing to the eye. That's what you get for yelling at me. Now you know whose voice is louder, right?"

With that, he shouldered his club and swaggered away, humming a little tune.

On his way back, Shi Wanshan suddenly bumped into a skinny man in black. Both of them were bundled up tightly, revealing only their eyes.

As they brushed past each other, Shi Wanshan muttered in his heart, "Why does this guy's aura feel a bit familiar?"

The man in black was also secretly wondering.

"This burly man looks like some reckless brute from one of the peaks..."

By tacit understanding, both quickened their pace, neither daring to greet the other—after all, they had just finished a fight and still had murderous intent written all over their faces.

This man in black was none other than Ye Guying, the Peak Master of Jianxiao Peak.

He had originally been holding in a bellyful of anger, wanting to sneak over and teach the people of Fentian Palace a lesson, but when he rushed to the canyon, he was dumbfounded by what he saw.

"Whoa! Who was even more eager than me? They were quite ruthless!"

Looking at the groaning people of Fentian Palace on the ground, Ye Guying felt an immense sense of satisfaction.

He stroked his chin. "Forget it. Beating them up now seems a bit lacking in martial virtue.

I'll give them some time to recover. Once they've rested and regained some spirit, I'll give them a surprise double strike."

Two hours later, the people of Fentian Palace had just finished bandaging each other's wounds and were limping along, trying to continue their journey, when Ye Guying suddenly darted out from behind a tree.

Before long, bizarre noises echoed through the canyon—some were rolling on the ground in pain, while others were crying for their parents in agony.

Ye Guying clapped his hands, looked at the twitching crowd on the ground, and turned to vanish into the night, not leaving even a single footprint behind.

The people of Fentian Palace were completely paralyzed. Lie Tianxiong looked up at the top of the canyon and let out a roar of despair.

"Which thousand-cuts-deserving bastard is it—!"

His echo reverberated through the valley, startling a flock of crows.

Meanwhile, on Zizhu Peak, Gu Changge was using his divine sense to watch the live broadcast for amusement, laughing until he was rocking back and forth.

The little black bird on his shoulder also chirped along, as if clapping its hands.

"They say a gentleman can wait ten years for revenge, but the Qingxuan Sect is something else—they take their revenge from morning till night," Gu Changge said with a smile, looking down.

Actually, he had originally wanted to take action himself. Now it seemed that the Sect Master and Peak Masters had beaten him to the punch.

Seeing them in such a miserable state, I guess I won't make a move today.

I'll let them rest for today, and then give them a strike tomorrow.

"Sigh, I am simply too kind-hearted. I cannot bear to see the suffering of the world."

Gu Changge sighed softly.

This sigh carried quite a bit of compassion for all living things.

It shocked the little black bird into stopping its chirping. It tilted its head to look at him, as if saying, Keep pretending, just keep pretending.

Gu Changge twirled a fallen bamboo leaf between his fingertips.

"Look at them. First, they were beaten by the Sect Master like flogged dogs, then smashed by Senior Brother Shi like rolling gourds, and now even Senior Brother Ye couldn't resist stepping on them a few times—tsk tsk, too miserable, truly too miserable."

He tossed the bamboo leaf into the air, his tone suddenly turning sorrowful. "If I were to add another strike, wouldn't that be taking advantage of their precarious state? If word got out, people would say I, Gu Changge, am bullying the weak. No, wait, I'm not even twenty yet, so it should be the young bullying the old..."

The little black bird fluttered its wings and took off, circling twice above his head, as if mocking this guy's kindness.

Gu Changge looked up at it and let out a sigh of feigned profundity. "You don't understand. This is called a gentleman's revenge; it emphasizes a slow and steady flow."

In the distance, Xiao Ruobai was still burying himself in bitter cultivation, completely unaware that several big shots of the sect had already used the most unadorned methods to teach Fentian Palace a lesson on how to keep a low profile.

In this vast region, seven major sects were entrenched, balancing each other and maintaining the order of the cultivation world.

The Qingxuan Sect was located in the heartland of Xuanzhou, centered around the Qingyun Mountain Range, with a sphere of influence radiating for ten thousand miles.

Besides the Qingxuan Sect, the other six major sects each had their own strengths.

They were the Wanfa Pavilion, Fentian Palace, Hanyue Valley, Tianyan Sect, Yuqing Sect, and Pozhen Sect.

Fentian Palace was located in the extreme southern volcanic region, specializing in fire-attribute cultivation methods. Its disciples had fiery tempers and fierce combat power. They had always been at odds with the Qingxuan Sect, and the dispute over Black Wind Ridge was a microcosm of the accumulated grievances between the two factions.

By taking a high-profile stance in hosting the Seven Sects Tournament this time, they aimed to use the opportunity to establish their status as the number one sect in Xuanzhou.

The Wanfa Pavilion was universally acknowledged as the number one sect among the seven. Located in the Wenqu Mountain Range, the pavilion housed billions of books. Not only did it cover auxiliary methods such as alchemy, talismans, formations, and artifact forging, but its martial arts heritage was also all-inclusive and universally accommodating.

The Pavilion Masters of past generations were mostly wise men who were well-versed in a hundred schools of thought. Although they did not actively expand their territory, no one dared to underestimate their profound foundation.

In the Seven Sects Tournaments over the past century, the Wanfa Pavilion had taken the top spot thirty times with absolute superiority, leaving the other sects to compete only for second place.

Hanyue Valley had always remained neutral, yet no one dared to provoke them lightly.

These seven major sects would hold a sect tournament every three years, hosted by the champion sect of the previous tournament. The purpose was to exchange martial skills and allocate resource veins.

The tournament was not only about the sect rankings but also involved the distribution of spirit veins across Xuanzhou—the higher the ranking, the more abundant the cultivation resources they could occupy.

It was precisely because of this that Fentian Palace was so eager to take first place in this tournament.

This time, they had exchanged treasures with the Wanfa Pavilion for the right to host the sect tournament.

Having recruited quite a few disciples with Heaven-grade aptitude in recent years, and with Lie Tianxiong, a Palace Master in the Heaven and Human Realm holding down the fort, their ambitions had long since been laid bare.