He left, but the bitter expressions on the faces of the Cuixiang Mountain disciples only deepened.

"It’s over. His gaze alone was that terrifying. There’s no way we can fight that Zhong Ming!"

"Are we really going to end up in last place...? Without resources, without the sect’s benefits, our cultivation speed will be several times slower..."

"You’ve all forgotten the most important thing—the Demon Suppression Bureau! With a ranking this low, even with a B Class, we might have to go to the battlefield within a year..."

"Hiss... Going to the battlefield in a year? Isn’t that a death sentence?!"

Zhong Ming already had the support of the Yi, Xie, Dong, and Qin Families, but even so, the rewards from the Seven Peaks Competition were still useful to him.

He hadn’t forgotten that if he won first place in the Seven Peaks Competition, the sect would not only grant him the title of True Disciple but also fulfill one of his requests—for instance, upgrading his Spiritual Root from third-class to second-class.

Even Zhong Ming needed the sect’s rewards. For the ordinary, unsupported disciples of the Seven Profound Sect, the craving for these resources was carved into their very bones.

But after making an enemy of Zhong Ming, they could no longer see any hope of victory. They felt as if their benefits and treatment were all about to be stripped away.

Even their very lives would be threatened.

And this feeling of gaining something only to lose it left them feeling incredibly stifled, furious, and filled with a bellyful of resentment that needed to be vented.

This anger and resentment should have originally been directed at Zhong Ming.

But Zhong Ming was too strong—so strong that they didn’t dare to feel hatred toward him, nor could they do anything about it.

Under these circumstances, the disciples of Cuixiang Mountain vented their resentment on—Yuan Wei.

"You bastard! It’s all your fault! If you hadn’t slandered Xie Yushuang and provoked Zhong Ming, how could we have ended up like this?!"

The Cuixiang Mountain disciple who spoke stared at Yuan Wei with a gaze full of hatred and fury.

Immediately after him, someone else chimed in:

"That’s right! This is all your fault!"

"I remember you confessed to Xie Yushuang, didn’t you? Because she rejected you, you kept slandering Miss Yushuang. A despicable worm like you doesn’t deserve to be on Cuixiang Mountain."

"Shameless bastard..."

The crowd’s accusations left Yuan Wei stunned and filled his heart with terror.

Subconsciously, he tried to defend himself. "What does this have to... Do you think you can just wash your hands of this? When I said Xie Yushuang was a traitor, didn’t you all agree?!"

Yuan Wei had a point. While he was indeed the instigator of the bullying against Xie Yushuang, the other Cuixiang Mountain disciples who stood by and fanned the flames were accomplices.

Unfortunately, self-reflection is a difficult thing for people.

"Bastard! How dare you still try to argue at a time like this!"

"Let’s get him! Beat him to a pulp and make him pay. Maybe Senior Brother Zhong will forgive us then."

"Right, we can use him to earn Senior Brother Zhong’s forgiveness..."

Yuan Wei was indeed the cause of this whole incident. At this moment, the panicked and helpless disciples of Cuixiang Mountain wanted to sacrifice him to gain Zhong Ming’s forgiveness.

And so, a crowd surged forward and seized Yuan Wei.

Then, filled with fear, anger, and anxiety, the Cuixiang Mountain disciples gave Yuan Wei a savage beating.

This brawl made Su Lingya, Lin Yuxuan, and Cuixiang Mountain’s Eldest Senior Sister, Ning Yunlu, who had just come out, practically explode with anger.

"All of you, stop!"

After rebuking her fellow disciples, Ning Yunlu said with a face full of anger, "Fighting amongst yourselves in public! Do you have any idea what you’re doing...?"

Before she could finish, Ning Yunlu noticed something else, and her eyes narrowed. "What’s wrong with you? Why is everyone so pale, with your qi and blood in disarray?"

"..."

Her question was met with dead silence.

This scene only made Ning Yunlu angrier.

"What in the world happened? Are you not even going to listen to me anymore?"

As she spoke, she grabbed one disciple’s wrist and began to investigate his condition.

After a moment of investigation, Ning Yunlu’s brow furrowed, and a hint of rage appeared on her face.

"You’re all injured. Who did this?!"

Ning Yunlu was very protective of the disciples of her peak. At this moment, like an enraged lioness, she even took out her Magical Artifact.

"Did some senior bully a junior?"

This scene gave Yuan Wei a glimmer of hope.

Grievously injured, he shakily raised a hand and accused Zhong Ming of his violent acts to Ning Yunlu.

"Zhong Ming did all of this! The one who provoked our conflict was also Zhong Ming!"

"Zhong Ming? Him again! He’s always bullying us. Does he really think Cuixiang Mountain has no one to stand up for it?!"

Hearing that Zhong Ming was behind all this, Lin Yuxuan grew furious. The next moment, she too took out her Magical Artifact, ready to go find Zhong Ming and demand an explanation.

However, filled with rage, she had barely taken a step before the injured Cuixiang Mountain disciples stopped her.

"Senior Sister, don’t go."

"Stop! You’re no match for him."

"We can’t afford to provoke him any further!"

Lin Yuxuan: "You..."

She wanted to stand up for her junior brothers, but instead, the injured junior brothers were all stopping her, telling her not to provoke Zhong Ming. Their utter terror of Zhong Ming made Lin Yuxuan’s chest ache with anger.

She felt this way, and Ning Yunlu also felt her chest tighten with frustration.

"How can you be so cowardly? It was just one loss, wasn’t it? Lingya and Yuxuan weren’t out here just now. With their help, you’re telling me you still can’t beat the people from Longxi Peak?"

She still thought that her fellow disciples had lost because all the disciples of Longxi Peak had attacked together.

However, after she said this, the faces of the Cuixiang Mountain disciples were filled with bitterness.

Their expressions left Ning Yunlu completely baffled, wondering why they were acting this way.

Su Lingya, on the other hand, with her sharp and perceptive mind, sensed something was off.

"Junior Brother Yuan Wei only mentioned Zhong Ming... He didn’t defeat all of you by himself, did he?"

Her words made the expressions of the Cuixiang Mountain disciples even more bitter. But this time, someone stood up and said, "It’s just as Senior Sister suspected. The only one who defeated us was Senior Brother Zhong. And when he did, Senior Brother Zhong didn’t even draw his sword. He defeated all of us with just a look."

"..."

"..."

"..."

As soon as he said this, the scene fell silent.

After a long moment, Lin Yuxuan gave a dry laugh and said, "That’s not a very funny joke."

This made the Cuixiang Mountain disciple who had spoken first look even more distressed. "Senior Sister, I’m not joking. If Zhong Ming weren’t so ridiculously powerful, why would we be so afraid of him that we don’t even dare to retaliate?"

"Also, because of Yuan Wei’s provocation, Senior Brother Zhong is now completely enraged."

"When he left, he declared that he would consider us his opponents during the Seven Peaks Competition."

"..."

Defeating all of their B-level Rating disciples who were outside with a single glance—this was something so fantastical that Ning Yunlu, Lin Yuxuan, and even Su Lingya were unwilling to believe it.

But when Shichen Feng said all this, although the faces of their fellow disciples looked incredibly grim, not a single one stood up to object. This forced Ning Yunlu to accept it, as unbelievable as it was.

At the same time, Ning Yunlu and Su Lingya exchanged a glance, and the same thought flashed through both their minds... ’Cuixiang Mountain is in deep trouble.’