Chapter 241

“Uh, Senior Sister, Senior Brother, why are both of your clothes like that?”

Both of their clothes were tattered. Given that direct disciples’ sect uniforms were made of special materials, it was rare to see them in such a state, as if they had just escaped from a battlefield in Syria.

Song Hansheng: “…” Damn.

They had forgotten to change their clothes.

Ye Qiao’s ‘humble’ smile froze for a moment before she calmly adjusted her clothes. “This is our trend. Junior Brother, you’re too young to understand.”

The inner disciple stared blankly and nodded, “Can I join your trend?” He had longed to be part of the world of direct disciples.

Song Hansheng hesitated for a moment but eventually nodded in agreement, gritting his teeth and saying, “Sure.”

Song Hansheng and Ye Qiao maintained a composed appearance in front of everyone, as if this was the trend among direct disciples—a unique style others couldn’t comprehend.

But the moment they turned their backs to the crowd, they exchanged a glance and their expressions twisted in frustration.

Damn! Their illustrious reputations!

Duan Yu observed Song Hansheng’s feigned calm explanation and realized that the two must have experienced some intense beatings in the inheritance site, which had damaged their clothes.

Now, under Ye Qiao’s influence, it had become a characteristic of direct disciples?

And Song Hansheng was going along with it.

Duan Yu found it hard to put into words.

Had this batch of direct disciples finally gone crazy?

…

Ye Qiao and Song Hansheng had a smooth time, while others were also engaged in rescue operations.

Watching Mu Chongxi effortlessly knock out a demon beast with a single punch, Su Zhuo remained silent for a long time.

He looked deeply at the demon beast, which had nearly had its brain beaten out, and asked, “Mu Chongxi, what inheritance did you receive in the inheritance site?”

Why did it seem like he was becoming more violent?

Mu Chongxi extended his hand in confusion. “The Dragon Clan’s. Why?”

Su Zhuo moved away from Mu Chongxi without showing any emotion, afraid that if he displeased him, Mu Chongxi might punch him in the head.

Mu Chongxi, unaware of Su Zhuo’s hidden fear, grabbed Su Zhuo, annoyed by his slow pace. He used the Breeze Step to rush into the battlefield impatiently.

With talisman users providing support, the sword cultivator found it extremely comfortable. In scenes where a group of demon beasts surrounded cultivators, a fiery red long sword was thrust into the ground, erupting with intense flames. The bright sword spirit burned countless demon beasts in the fierce fire.

A light blue talisman landed, forming a defensive shield that firmly enclosed the cultivators.

“That’s the Chaoxi Sword!” A cultivator, who had nearly given up hope, saw the sword and almost shed tears. He recognized Mu Chongxi, having seen the youth’s matches in the grand competition.

He was from Changming Sect, and was a direct disciple like those from Yueqing Sect.

Similar scenes played out in many sects.

A group of direct disciples descended the mountain in grandeur to rescue people. The rescued cultivators, who had survived a calamity, were ecstatic and overwhelmed with excitement.

“Those are the direct disciples of our cultivation world. From now on, I won’t call Chu Xingzhi an idiot anymore. When he stood in front of us back then, it was like a deity descended. I almost cried.”

“Zhou Xingyun and Ye Qinghan’s sword strike against the demon king made me understand for the first time why direct disciples are so special at the same cultivation level.”

“Ye Qiao and Song Han Sheng beating down eight demon kings—I’ve never seen such a ruthless cooperation before.”

“I used to really dislike the people from the Wenjian Sect. I thought they walked around without looking where they were going and looked down on ordinary cultivators. But after being saved by Zhu You, I realized that the direct disciples must have their reasons for doing what they do!”

“Wenjian Sect is truly amazing. Next time, I’m signing up for Changming Sect.”

*

After half a month of intense efforts, the chaos caused by the demon tribes around the Five Sects was barely brought under control. Currently, the Eight Great Families still hadn’t shown any signs of activity, seemingly determined to keep playing dead.

With the Five Sects putting in effort, there was naturally no need for the Eight Great Families to provide support.

After all, they didn’t need to recruit any disciples or worry about how outsiders viewed them. For the Eight Great Families, having only the purest bloodline direct descendants was enough.

The pretense of playing dead was quite disgusting.

“Given the current situation, the Eight Great Families aren’t lending us any people,” Duan Yu said, casting a deep glance at the group of direct disciples who were all lying on the ground exhausted. “We’re short-handed.”

“Why didn’t you recruit more cultivators back then?” Chu Xingzhi pouted. The past half month had nearly killed them. What direct disciples? They felt like they were just dogs.

An elder from the Wenjian Sect kicked him. “Stand properly. Lying around like that is unbecoming.”

Since staying with the Changming Sect, even their direct disciples, who were usually as upright as young poplars, had ended up sprawled on the ground!

“Too many resources, not enough to go around,” Elder Zhao shot them a sideways glance.

The inner disciples had to stay behind to guard the area around the Five Sects. Only the Eight Great Families could spare people to assist, yet none of these old families made a sound, as if they had all agreed on it.

Ming Xuan pondered, “The demons haven’t been dealt with yet, and our masters haven’t returned.”

After dealing with the two siblings wreaking havoc here, the main battlefield was still with the demons, who had gone crazy attacking and seizing territories.

It was inevitable that the small city cultivators couldn’t hold out, and the inner disciples of the Five Sects were all stationed at their respective cities, leaving those near the demon territories without any support.

Just relying on the sect leaders and a few elders was far from enough.

It was impossible to be in multiple cities at once, no matter how strong one was.

“To be honest,” Ye Qiao, who had been listening for a long time, summarized with one point: “You guys aren’t doing very well.”

“How can you speak to elders like that?” Duan Yu’s brow twitched, and he prepared to deliver a reprimand.

Ye Qiao’s head thudded against the table, letting out a yelp as she held her forehead. She calmly said, “That’s the way it is. If you had let me come with enough cultivators and direct disciples, I could have led them to fight back.”

In the end, the sect leaders didn’t really understand how to utilize people properly; they only knew how to use force to suppress.

Miao Miao, who was sleepy and drowsy, reflexively shouted, “Ye Qiao is brilliant!”

Duan Yu: “…”

He also remembered that she had led the alchemists to fight back during the grand competition, but the problem now was back to square one. “The Eight Great Families aren’t lending us any people. We’re short-handed, and our relationship with the Eight Great Families isn’t great. No matter who goes to them, they won’t compromise.”

“It’s okay,” Ye Qiao waved her hand nonchalantly. “You can’t do it, but we can.”

“The Five Sects are the Five Sects, and we are us. If we lack manners, we can still get things done.”

It was well-known that this batch of direct disciples lacked manners, which was common knowledge in the cultivation world. No matter how angry they got, they couldn’t be beaten to death.

“At worst, after this is over, we’ll end up in prison,” Ye Qiao said, smiling. “Elder, you’ll provide us with prison food, won’t you?”

She had never been in the Eight Great Families’ prison, so it might be worth trying once things settled down.

Duan Yu hadn’t expected her to be so prepared to go to prison.

But…

“Are you sure they will help you?” He didn’t think Ye Qiao had the clout to make those old fossils from the Eight Great Families back down.

“They definitely won’t help me,” Ye Qiao admitted with self-awareness. She shrugged. “But their direct descendants might.”

Direct descendants were mostly teenagers.

It was the age of rebelliousness.

Taking the grand competition as an example, no direct disciple would be uninterested in gaining fame through battle. Even direct disciples had room to showcase their abilities in the grand competition, and once their strength was solid, they became popular figures in the cultivation world.

The direct descendants confined within the family had never even had the chance to prove themselves.

This turmoil was a great opportunity. As long as they stirred up their emotions effectively, there would always be some rebellious teenagers willing to join them to the demon territories.

During the half-month of exterminating two siblings, the Qi Family, through their relentless brainwashing efforts, successfully recruited eight direct descendants to join them on the “pirate ship.”

“The direct descendants of the Song Family have been sent away, nearly half of the Ming Family’s treasury was mysteriously stolen.”

“Half of the direct descendants of the Ye Family were suddenly reassigned.”

“Is this a distortion of morality or a degeneration of humanity?!”

On the forums, cultivators discussed this fervently, speculating about who might be behind these actions.