Chapter 8 Beat down session
Wei Tian stepped forward into the practice ring and extended a hand.
“As senior, it is my duty to correct misguided loyalty.”
His cultivation in the Third-stage qi gathering stage flared and circulated visibly along his forearms.
“You defend him?” he asked Wei Gu. “Then prove he was worth the loss.”
Wu Zhen stepped forward without hesitation but Lu Tian did not move, he just watched. He wanted to observe the determination of the ten to decide whether to use them. As the defenders he would groom to defend the world, they needed to have a strong sense of determination and character. As for skills and techniques, he had so many, thanks to his reign as Sect Master and his photographic memory.
Liang Jie attacked first, his stance grounded, his Saber steady. He had improved in the weeks since his near-death experience at ambush at the sect mission, but he was still outmatched by Wei Gu in terms of raw cultivation level.
Wei Gu parried him easily and countered with force. The impact sent Wu Zhen and Liang Jie skidding backward across the earth.
Han Yue lunged to intercept, but Wei Gu twisted aside and struck her shoulder with the hilt of his blade. She stumbled as her breath was knocked from her lungs at the impact.
Wu Zhen stood up roaring and charged again, abandoning technique for fury. He hated Wei Gu for suppressing them because of he was stronger and did not like who they supported. Lu Tian was his hero and the person who he looked up to the most in the sect and that was why he joined his group for the sect mission. He felt so much anger that the disciple who had great prospects in the sect became a cripple to protect him, yet he could not defend his honor.
Wei Gu sidestepped and drove a palm into his ribs sending him back to the ground again. Within moments, three were down.
The remaining disciples surged forward together and that was their mistake. Five disciples from Wei Gu’s faction who had remained watching entered the ring at his signal. What had begun as a challenge turned into a suppression and a full-blownfight between groups. Blows landed without restraint.
Xiang Feng blocked a strike meant for Liang Jie and took it across the temple instead. Han Yue was driven to one knee. Wu Zhen rose again only to be forced down by sheer difference in cultivation stage.
Lu Tian’s fingers curled slightly at his side. He did not intervene because this defeat was important. They needed to understand something deeper than technique. They needed to understand power. Just like he felt on the day of doom, his power was nothing before the cultivators from the upper realm. One needed the greatest strength to protect anything. Without strength, a man is all bark and no fight. He learnt that lesson during the greatest loss of his previous life. Now, he watched as they learnt their first and most important lesson.
Wei Gu stood over Wu Zhen, breath steady, gaze cold.
“This,” he said loudly enough for all to hear, “is what happens when you cling to someone who cannot advance.”
He looked past them to Lu Tian. “Leadership requires strength.”
The courtyard waited and then Lu Tian stepped forward. Not quickly, not angrily. He helped Wu Zhen to his feet first. Then Han Yue and the others. He examined bruises, assessed breathing, adjusted shoulders gently back into alignment where needed. His touch was precise, efficient.
Only after ensuring they were standing did he turn to Wei Gu.
“You are correct about one thing,” Lu Tian said quietly.
Wei Gu raised a brow.
“Leadership does require strength.”
He stepped into the practice ring. The air seemed to shift, though no visible qi flared.
Wei Gu laughed once. “You?”
Lu Tian’s gaze did not waver. “Have you forgotten our last fight?”
Wei Gu scoffed. “was that a fight? I’m still wondering what forbidden technique you used. Only true strength matters”
Lu Tian just smiled and ordered. “Strike.”
It was not a challenge but an instruction. Wei Gu obliged.
He attacked without restraint, confident that one blow wouldmake up for the last fight and send the crippled disciple to the infirmary permanently.
But when his palm descended, it did not meet flesh the way he expected. It met something dense. His strike slowed, compressed by an invisible power. Lu Tian’s hand rose and touched Wei Tian’s wrist lightly with just two fingers and hisvoid-core pulsed.
Wei Gu felt it as if gravity had shifted beneath him. His qi, circulating confidently moments before, faltered. For the briefest instant, it felt as though something was swallowing its momentum.
His body lurched forward involuntarily.
Lu Tian stepped aside and allowed Wei Tian’s own force to carry him past.
Wei Tian stumbled, he did not fall but he had lost center.
The disciples all gasped. Wei Gu is also unable to handle the cripple in a new fight. Did that mean Lu Tian was no longer a cripple, or was it Wei Gu who was weak? Murmurs filled the arena.
Lu Tian did not pursue Wei Gu to attack him. He simply said, “Balance first, pride later.”
Wei Tian’s face flushed with humiliation and anger. The waste was teaching him with a tone of superiority.
But before escalation could continue, an overseeing instructor barked sharply from the veranda. “Enough! This is a training yard, not a battlefield.”
The confrontation dissolved under authority. Yet the damage had already been done. Not just physical damage but political damage. Lines had been drawn in public.
Wei Gu’s faction glared as they withdrew.
The ten stood bruised but unbowed and Lu Tian knew it was time for his next move.
Later that evening, the ten gathered in his room after getting their injuries treated. A heavy silence lingered between them. Finally, Lu Tian spoke. “I will not remain here.”
They looked up at him with confusion. His voice was calm, but there was something resolute beneath it.
“This sect is rotting from indifference. Staying here will not strengthen us.”
Wu Zhen’s jaw tightened. “Then we leave.”
Lu Tian studied them carefully.
“You were beaten today because your cultivation stages are lower. That will not change inside these walls.”
“And outside?” Han Yue asked quietly.
“Outside,” he said, “we choose our growth.”
There was no grand speech. No dramatic vow, only clarity of purpose and a determination to grow stronger.
“I will seek opportunities beyond the sect. In ruins, battlefieldsand forests others avoid.”
Xiang Feng did not hesitate. “Then we will follow you.”
Liang Jie nodded. “We owe you our lives.”
Lu Tian’s gaze softened, just slightly.
“You owe me nothing.”
Wu Zhen met his eyes steadily. “We choose to follow you.”
Silence settled again.
Then Lu Tian inclined his head. “Prepare excuses to give the elders. Request leave individually for family matters or external cultivation. The elders will not question it.”
“And if they do?” Mu Jian asked.
“They won’t.”
Because the elders had already stopped caring about the training and dedication of the disciples.
