Chapter 49: The Xuanwu City Prodigy Gathering (Part Two)

Duan Yiming looked at the scarred thugs whose meridians had been sealed, then turned to Liao Chen in utter astonishment. "Master, what realm is this Senior Sister's cultivation at?"

Liao Chen chuckled. "This is your eldest senior sister, Jiang Qian, at the peak of the Imperial Realm. As for the others, I'll let them introduce themselves!"

"Junior Brother, I am Qin Tian, your second senior brother, at the peak of the Imperial Realm."

"I am Hu Ling'er, your third senior sister, at the peak of the Imperial Realm!"

"I am Ye Wushuang, your fourth senior brother, at the first level of the Saint Realm!"

"I am Li Yuanyuan, your fifth senior sister, at the fifth level of the Saint Realm."

Qin Tian, Hu Ling'er, Ye Wushuang, and Li Yuanyuan introduced themselves one by one. When Duan Yiming heard that all his senior brothers and sisters were masters above the Imperial Realm, he instantly realized that his master must be an even more powerful entity. In his view, his master was at least a Great Saint Realm expert.

With such powerful backers behind him, Duan Yiming immediately regained his confidence and bowed to his five senior brothers and sisters, saying, "Greetings to all five of you, senior brothers and sisters."

Having thus made their formal acquaintance, Liao Chen said, "Very well, Yiming, handle these people however you see fit!"

Duan Yiming nodded, then walked up to the thugs. "Scarred Tiger, back then my cultivation was low and my strength weak, so I couldn't do anything to you. But now, I have people backing me. I am going to cripple your cultivation and make you pay back every bit of oppression you subjected me to over the past two years!"

Before Scarred Tiger and his gang could even beg for mercy, Duan Yiming struck out with a palm, shattering their dantians. Immediately, piercing, heart-wrenching screams echoed from the group of thugs.

"Duan Yiming, you've crippled us! The Blood Saber Sect will never let you get away with this!" Scarred Tiger roared furiously. In his mind, crippling them was equivalent to directly severing the financial lifeline of the Blood Saber Sect, and the sect would definitely exact vengeance for them.

Although Duan Yiming knew the Blood Saber Sect was formidable, he glanced at his master and saw no reaction whatsoever. He deduced that the Blood Saber Sect was not worth mentioning in his master's eyes, so he said disdainfully, "Scarred Tiger, what if I cripple you today? Do you really believe the Blood Saber Sect would make a move against me for the sake of a few useless trash like you?"

"Besides, even if the Blood Saber Sect does come after me, so what? I now belong to a sect; why would I fear you? Get out!"

Leaving behind harsh threats, Scarred Tiger and his men scrambled away in a panic. Duan Yiming then looked back at Liao Chen and asked, "Master, won't I be bringing trouble upon you?"

Liao Chen laughed heartily. "It's fine, I actually like it when my disciples bring me trouble!"

Duan Yiming couldn't help cursing inwardly. Originally, he thought his master would scold him, but to his utter surprise, not only did his master not find it troublesome, but he actually enjoyed his disciples stirring up trouble for him. What kind of master was this? At that moment, Liao Chen became completely unfathomable to him. However, seeing that his five senior brothers and sisters also remained calm and collected, Duan Yiming thought to himself that his master must possess terrifyingly vast strength. If that were true, his master's cultivation had to be at least at the Great Saint Realm; otherwise, he could not imagine any other possibility.

Next, Liao Chen asked Duan Yiming about his family background. Duan Yiming recounted the truth: his parents had once been outer disciples of the Artifact Refining Sect. However, due to unknown reasons, both of their legs had been broken by people from the sect before they were expelled. For over a year, Duan Yiming had relied on crafting wooden puppets to earn a meager living to pay for his parents' medical care, and one could easily imagine how difficult their lives had been.

After listening, Liao Chen roughly guessed a possibility: perhaps his disciple's parents had stumbled upon some fortuitous encounter within the sect, but someone had witnessed it. An innocent man treasuring a jade ring becomes a target of theft, and thus they had been framed and expelled from the sect. To verify his hypothesis, he asked Duan Yiming to lead the way to his family's residence. Soon, the group arrived at Duan Yiming's home. The family lived in the slums of the city, a place quite similar to where Qin Tian had once lived. Seeing this scene, Qin Tian couldn't help recalling the days he had depended solely on his grandmother for survival.

"Dad, Mom, I'm back!" Duan Yiming greeted his parents, then introduced Liao Chen and the others. "Father, Mother, this is the master I just acknowledged today, these are my senior brothers and sisters, and these four are the sect's protectors."

Duan's father immediately stood up, cupped his fists, and saluted. "Greetings, Senior! Please forgive us, as my wife and I have impaired mobility and cannot properly entertain you all."

Liao Chen waved his hand dismissively. "Fellow Daoist Duan, please don't be so formal. Since I am Yiming's master, from now on we are one family. I heard that both of your legs are crippled, so I came to see if I could help."

Duan's father said with some shame, "Then I must trouble Senior!"

Liao Chen motioned for him to lie down and began examining his condition. Very soon, Liao Chen had the diagnosis.

"Fellow Daoist Duan, your body's meridians have been damaged, and the bones in both of your lower limbs are completely fractured. If not treated promptly, you would likely remain disabled for life. Fortunately, we caught it in time. Once you take my medicinal pill, I believe you will recover as good as new very soon."

With that, Liao Chen produced a fourth-grade Meridian-Nourishing Pill along with healing pills and handed them over. Duan's father took the pills, expressed his gratitude, and swallowed them.

Almost instantly, the medicinal efficacy began to work within Duan's father's body. The healing pills rapidly repaired his damaged meridians and bones, while the potent energy of the Meridian-Nourishing Pill directly expanded his meridians, instantly making up for his previous deficiencies and smoothly helping him break through his cultivation realm to the Heavenly Spirit Realm.

Overjoyed, Duan's father got up and knelt down to express his profound gratitude to Liao Chen. Liao Chen helped him up, then produced another pill and had Duan's mother, Lady Lei, take it. Half an hour later, Lady Lei's injuries were also completely healed, and her cultivation realm directly broke through to the Divine Ability Realm.

Only then did Liao Chen understand why Duan Yiming possessed such natural talent. Duan's father had decent innate talent, possessing a Five-Star Puppet Spiritual Body. As for Lady Lei, her talent was even more heaven-defying—an Eight-Star Puppet Spiritual Body. It was just that both of their talents had somehow been obscured and thus went unnoticed, causing them to barely manage as mere outer disciples of the Artifact Refining Sect.

Moreover, not all artifact-refining sects were skilled in crafting puppets; some excelled at forging weapons, some at crafting armor, some at puppet-making, some at array-disc manufacturing, and others at constructing flying ships. It was obvious that the sect the couple had entered did not specialize in puppet-making; otherwise, such exceptionally gifted disciples would never have been relegated to outer disciples.

Seeing that the couple had fully recovered, Liao Chen asked them, "Fellow Daoist, I heard from Yiming earlier that your legs were broken by people from the Artifact Refining Sect. May I know the reason? If it's inconvenient, you don't have to share."

Duan's father sighed. "Actually, there is nothing secret about it. My wife and I were cultivating in the Artifact Refining Sect. One day, while running an errand outside for the sect, by a fortuitous coincidence, we came across a fifth-grade metal puppet along with a manual on puppet-making. However, this matter was soon discovered by an inner disciple of the sect, who threatened us to hand over the puppet. Naturally, we refused, so he used underhanded tactics to frame us and crippled us into this state. Fortunately, the puppet manual is still with us. I present it to Senior now as a token of our gratitude for your immense kindness!"

Liao Chen waved his hand in refusal. "Fellow Daoist need not do that. Keep the puppet manual for yourselves; now that I have taken Yiming as my disciple, I haven't yet given him a welcome gift."

He then called Duan Yiming over and continued, "Yiming, as your master, I have given your senior brothers and sisters their welcome gifts, but I haven't given you yours yet. If word got out, people would surely accuse me of favoritism, so I am presenting your welcome gift to you right now. Here are one hundred pills each of third-grade to eighth-grade Meridian-Nourishing Pills, one hundred pills each of third-grade to eighth-grade Marrow-Washing Pills, one top-tier spiritual weapon—the Jinghong Sword—one copy of the divine-grade cultivation technique *Heavenly Dao Puppet Arts*, ten tons each of Five-Elements Crystals, Red Copper Ore, Red Iron Ore, Refined Iron Ore, and Outer-Space Meteorite Iron Ore, along with one hundred puppet souls each for the first through fourth grades. From now on, you must diligently study this cultivation technique and bring honor and renown to our sect's puppet-making lineage."

"Thank you, Master!" Duan Yiming never expected his master to be so generous, and he immediately dropped to his knees to express his gratitude.

Liao Chen gestured for him to rise. "Yiming, you are my disciple; there is no need for such kowtowing in the future."

"Yes, Master!" Duan Yiming acknowledged respectfully with his words, but whenever kowtowing was called for, he still kowtowed; whenever bowing was required, he still bowed, striking the ground so hard he left a deep crater in the floor.

Seeing this, Jiang Qian and the others felt a twinge of shame. Back then, they too had made similar promises to their master and felt he was right, so after that first initiation kowtow, they had never knelt to their master again. The five of them exchanged a tacit glance, resolving that from now on, whenever they ought to kowtow to their master, they must not be sloppy about it, lest they feel too ashamed to face anyone. After all, their master had not only bestowed upon them immense fortuitous encounters but also helped them so much; what was a mere kowtow compared to that?

Nearby, Duan's father and mother were also taken aback by the incredible generosity of their son's newly found master. Trembling slightly with apprehension, they said, "Senior, the welcome gift you gave Yiming is far too precious; we cannot accept it!"

"Indeed, Senior! We thank you on Yiming's behalf for your kind intentions, but please take these gifts back! Otherwise, the two of us will not feel at ease."

Liao Chen laughed heartily. "Fellow Daoists need not worry. I am Liao Chen, the Patriarch of the Wuji Sect. These items are of little consequence in my eyes. Since Yiming is now my personal disciple, his welcome gift naturally cannot be too shabby!"

"By the way, since you two are also puppet masters, would you be willing to join the Chenguang Sect as menial disciples? From now on, you can live with Yiming on the Personal Disciples' Peak, and you won't have to worry about the pain of separation."

The couple looked at each other, their faces filled with great joy. They immediately knelt and kowtowed in gratitude, saying, "We are willing!"

Liao Chen nodded. "Very well! From this moment on, your entire family are disciples of the Chenguang Sect. However, we still have one unfinished matter here in Xuanwu City. Once that is settled, we will all return to the sect together!"

Naturally, the couple had no objections. Afterward, the family joined Liao Chen and the others to attend the Grand Tournament of the Proud Heaven.