Thud thud…

Inside the Heavenly Tower Palace, Lan Yu knocked on the room door.

“Come in.”

A sluggish sound came from inside the house.

Lan Yu pushed open the door and walked in just to see Chu Kuangren letting out a yawn. He had just woken up not long ago, and he flashed her a faint smile.

She went forward and skillfully made Chu Kuangren's bed for him. Then while she helped him change into his clothes, she said, “Master, Elder Ruyan has asked me to remind you to arrive at Longevity Hall on time for the meeting.”

“Meeting? Oh, today is the beginning of the month.”

Chu Kuangren said it as if it had just dawned on him.

The Black Heaven Sect would hold a meeting once every month to discuss the matters that had unfolded throughout the whole of last month, such as how the disciples were performing, or if the other sage orthodoxies had done anything worth mentioning.

After he was done grooming himself, Chu Kuangren took a close look at himself in the mirror. “After being the Sect Leader for a year, I feel like my hairline has receded a bit. If this keeps on, I think I'll be bald in no time.”

Lan Yu laughed helplessly. “Master, you're just overthinking things. Your hair is still quite thick. Your hairline didn't change at all.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, you're still as good-looking as always.”

“Very well then.”

Along with Lan Yu, Chu Kuangren was about to venture out of the house.

In the courtyard, Lil Bing was feeding Lil Red some spirit fruits.

“Master.”

“Fairfrost Sage has sent us some spirit fruits again?”

“Yes, and this time she sent two large baskets of them. She told us that she has planted more because G.o.dly Phoenix likes to eat them.” Lil Bing pointed at the two baskets of crimson red spirit fruits at the side, which was emanating a surge of thick Fire-based Daoist Rhyme.

Any one of these was an incredibly valuable Top-tier medicine.

However, they were merely G.o.dly Phoenix, Lil Red's snacks too.

“How thoughtful of her. Oh, right.”

Chu Kuangren then took out a book and also a bottle.

Inside the bottle were some seeds.

“This is the solution to the alchemy question she asked me to solve last time, as well as some Supreme Elixir seeds. Please pa.s.s it to her for me later.”

Throughout the year, Fairfrost Sage had sought Chu Kuangren's consultation on her problems from time to time. Sometimes, some problems were more complicated so he would jot them down and save them up until he had some free time, then write down the solutions in a book for her.

Besides that, he would sometimes draw some very strange items from the gacha roll, and these Supreme Elixir seeds were one of those.

He did not have the time to plant them, so he pa.s.sed them to Fairfost Sage for her to deal with.

“Alright, Master.”

Outside the Heavenly Tower Palace.

Chu Kuangren and Lan Yu walked in the direction of the Longevity Hall.

Every disciple who met them on their way there would bow down respectfully.

“Greetings, Sect Leader.”

“Greetings, Sect Leader.”

As compared to a year ago, Black Heaven Sect had indeed changed a lot.

One of the most noteworthy things was that in just a year, the disciples' cultivation bases had shown improvements.

This was especially the case for Daoists like Murong Xuan and Nangong Huang. Under Chu Kuangren's close tutelage, their advancement in realms was incredibly fast.

At the Longevity Hall, the elders were already gathered in full.

When they saw Chu Kuangren, everyone bowed.

“Greetings, Sect Leader.”

“Alright, no need for courtesy. Let's begin.”

Chu Kuangren let out a faint smile before he sat down on the main seat of the big hall.

Each elder began to report their work progress.

The majority of those were unimportant small matters. It was not even halfway through the meeting yet and Chu Kuangren had already started to yawn. It was too boring for him.

“Oh, right. Horizon Wing Sect has asked us for backup recently. They said that they were overrun by tormented souls. I've already dispatched some people there to deal with it.”

Elder Ruyan suddenly brought this up.

Upon hearing that, Chu Kuangren's interest was finally piqued a little.

“Tormented souls?”

“Yes. Horizon Wing Sect is based near the Ancient Battlefield, so it's not uncommon for them to be invaded by tormented souls at times,” Elder Ruyan said.

Tormented souls originated from the Ancient Battlefield, one of the Ten Great Forbidden Areas. They were formed when the infinite ferocious qi at the Ancient Battlefield combined with the hateful spirits of those who had died, shaping this unique existence whose souls would wander at the regions around the Ancient Battlefield.

The tormented souls' disturbance on the Horizon Wind Sect was not anything unusual. Black Heaven Sect had also sent some people there to support them before, and such problems were always settled swiftly.

The elders began to report the remaining matters.

Nevertheless, these two words — Ancient Battlefield repeated in Chu Kuangren's mind.

He recalled the Sage War that the Eternal Sage King mentioned in the past, wherein the venue for it was exactly this Ancient Battlefield.

This inadvertently brought up his desire to go and look at the place.

“I've decided. I'll be heading to the Ancient Battlefield.”

His people were still in the midst of reporting to him, but when they heard what Chu Kuangren said, they were all momentarily stunned as they looked at each other.

“Sect Leader, why do you want to go to the Ancient Battlefield?”

“For training.”

Chu Kuangren simply made up an excuse.

“Sect Leader, what do you need more training for?” one of the elders said in a speechless tone, and the others expressed a similar look.

'Sect Leader, quit playing us.'

'You can already kill Sages, why else do you need training for?'

“Well, I just need it.”

“But once you're gone, who will look after Black Heaven Sect?”

“When I'm away, I'll temporarily put Elder Ruyan in charge over everything regarding the Sect. If there's anything important, just contact me.”

“But…”

Elder Ruyan and the rest were still somewhat hesitant.

“Alright, that's that. Black Heaven Sect has had such great improvements over this one year. You guys have also dealt with our sect's matters in a very organized manner. It's not like you won't be able to handle things without me here, isn't it?” Chu Kuangren smiled back at them.

What a pity.

He had secluded himself in the Black Heaven Sect for a year now.

If he still did not venture outside, he feared that his body would start to rust.

“Ah… alright then.”

Elder Ruyan nodded.

Truth be told, it was not that they did not want Chu Kuangren to leave. However, throughout this one year, the fact that Black Heaven Sect could develop until its state today was mostly owed to Chu Kuangren.

They had unknowingly developed a sense of dependency on this young Sect Leader who had just reached the age of twenty.

Hence when they heard that he was going to leave the sect, they felt at a loss and found it hard to believe that this would happen to them someday.

How did they develop such high dependence on such a young Sect Leader?

“Great.”

A smile was etched on Chu Kuangren's face. “Lan Yu, let's go. Let's pack our stuff and then go catch some waves. Oh, I mean, catch some training.”

Deep inside Black Heaven Sect.

Inside a cottage, Black Heaven's Third Forefather smiled faintly. “This little guy is going out to stir up trouble again. Shall we get someone to follow him?”

“There's no need for that.”

Black Heaven's Second Forefather's voice rang out. “Since he can already slay Sages, I don't think he'll need any Protectors now.”

Sages were known to have the combat strength in Firmament Star.

Undoubtedly, the current Chu Kuangren already stood amongst the most elite group of people in the entire world. Why else would he need Protectors for?

“Heh, who knows what sort of trouble would this little guy create this time?” Honorable Xuan Qi chuckled lightly and said.

He remembered the times when Chu Kuangren went out for training in the past. There was not once where he would not do something incredibly shocking and almost turned the whole world upside down.

Now that he was out once again, who knew what kind of havoc would he wreck this time.

Honorable Xuan Qi's sentence left the few other forefathers rather speechless.

“Everything this little guy does is incredible, but one thing he's too capable of is causing a stir.”

“Hah, that's pretty good too. Young people should have the energy to be allowed the freedom to express themselves. After all, there's still the few of us old ones to stand guard.”

Black Heaven's Second Forefather laughed.

Black Heaven Sect was now at an unprecedented height in their strength. Besides Chu Kuangren who had the combat strength of a Sage, they also had Second Forefather, Third Forefather, and Fairfrost Sage, not to mention Honorable Xuan Qi who was a Boundary Sage on his way to becoming a Sage.

On top of that, Seventh Forefather was going to attempt ascension soon as well.

Once he succeeded, they would have another Boundary Sage,

Moreover, Black Heaven Sect aside, these two sage orthodoxies — the School of White Lotus and Royal Azure Dynasty also provided Chu Kuangren with a strong backing.