“You dare!?”

“What if I do? I will not let you speak ill of my master!”

‘What the hell is going on here…’

After returning from the golden palace Zhang Dong was greeted by a display of animosity between two young men. One of them was his own disciple Zhang Liu and the other was a young man around the same age. Both of them were staring at each other with rage in their eyes, behind the unknown youth he also spotted one of his nephews that for some reason was grinning.

‘Husband, you might have to intervene.’

Liena was quick to send him a message that only he could hear and give him the shortened version of what happened. Apparently, this young man was a disciple of Long Fengge the youngest son of the Azure Emperor. He had continued to badmouth the sect's name in a roundabout way, mostly mentioning how it was below the Long Clan's prestige.

‘So he insinuated that I should pack up and get my ass over here?’

‘Ah yes, something like that…’

Zhang Dong and Long Qing had just arrived in this large open courtyard of the Azure Castle. It was even larger than the one he had in his own castle and was also bustling with people and various other creatures. Fountains filled with deep blue fish that possessed a strong Qi signature, beats that looked like a mix of lion and horse were trotting around while everything was happening.

It seemed that his disciple couldn’t take the back talking of this other young master. Judging by the fact that this other young man was a disciple of Long Fengge that was almost at the top of the totem pole probably didn’t help. His life was probably met with little backtalking and resistance so when he got called out it was impossible in his head that he might have said something wrong.

“Ha ha, are the youngsters getting along already?”

The Azure Emperor’s laugh resounded through the whole courtyard and brought attention to him and Zhang Dong that was floating next to him. Even the two arguing youths had to bow their heads and stop fighting before these two world-class cultivators. While they mostly only respected the one dressed in blue, the golden one was slowly gaining some traction.

“Excuse me father, my disciple sometimes gets into heated exchanges like this.”

“It’s good to be passionate, perhaps the two want to exchange moves with each other to further their bonds?”

‘What is this idiot…’

Zhang Dong just wanted to grab his family members and get on with the get-together without causing a scene. When they arrived the two had quieted down but were clearly glaring at each other. It was already a miracle that the two youths were allowed to be here together with the Azure Emperor’s inner circle.

“That’s a great idea father, how about it Enlai are you up for a friendly spar?”

“I am master, but I’m not sure if my opponent will agree…”

Zhang Dong could see the young man’s status, he was a year older than Zhang Liu and their cultivation level was very similar as both were at the core formation stage. Their Qi pools were very similar which would put their skills to the test. It was clear that Enlai was confident in the Long Clan’s superiority here and not afraid to face off against the country bumpkin from the United Element Sect.

Even if cultivation realms and Qi were very similar this didn’t mean that the fighters were equal. Mastering various battle skills could create a large gap between the fighters that were of similar stature. Zhang Liu’s opponent was clearly of this mind as he was not afraid of challenging the unknown fighter.

“Is that so, well we from the Long Clan are not bullies and we don’t want to offend our esteemed uncle so I propose that we just continue with our chat instead?”

While Long Fengge seemed to want to de-escalate the issue, the words he chose had venom in them. It was clear as day that he was insinuating that Zhang Dong’s disciple was inferior to his and would lose miserably embarrassing his master in the process.

While just ignoring those words would have probably been the proper way of doing things, cultivators were filled with unrivaled pride. Before Zhang Dong could send a message to his own disciple Liu jumped forward to accept the challenge.

“I accept!”

There was a large grass field the size of a football field that was devoid of any structures. It was the perfect stage for the two to battle it out and was probably created for this very reason. Cultivators liked to fight and show off, it was also the main way of handling any disputes. The one with the bigger fist and backing was always right.

‘Master don’t worry, I will teach this scoundrel a lesson!’

Liu looked toward Zhang Dong while sending him a quick voice message himself. It was as if he was ordered to go protect the honor of his master along with the sect. It also seemed that Xue, his sister was of the same mind as she was staring daggers into the other young man that was also quite handsome.

But this was an obvious trap that Zhang Dong was convinced of. He had already embarrassed his brother’s children when he was here the first time. They could not get to him so the next best thing would be to target his family and friends. Disciples were a reflection of their master so when they failed it would tarnish their reputation. If Fengge’s disciple came out on top it would be like he was getting slapped by him directly.

“Wait, father!”

“Oh, would you like to stop the sparring match Fengge?”

“No father, I just thought of a better idea, why don’t we use a more accessible arena where more of our youths could witness their senior brothers exchanging pointers!”

“That’s a great idea!”

‘Damn, that guy is really trying to push it…’

It seemed Fengge took losing his clothes quite badly and now wants revenge. Instead of having the two battles in this small area he wanted to have everyone from the Long clan witness the fight. They even had recording devices that could store this sparring match for future generations to watch. It was clear that he wanted to immortalize Zhang Liu’s failure and along with it cause a big blow to Zhang Dong’s prestige.

‘He is older than me but acting like a ten-year-old brat, hard to get past that young master mentality.’

He could only shake his head while shrugging. Fengge was still a young master to the core that had probably never had anyone besides Zhang Dong cause him this much grief. All the best techniques and resources were handed down to him along with the best teachers so he could rise up above the others.

Yet he did not see those as privileges gained by his own birth, it was his god-given right to be above others. It was very similar for the other cultivators that towered over others and were unable to process any blockades that were put before them.

“Or do you have something against it brother?”

Finally, they decided to ask him, the one responsible for one side of the predicament. He could have ended it here and told everyone to calm down. This would of course be considered weak behavior, similar to running away from the fight. He would lose face from not allowing his disciple to continue even when he had agreed and Liu would be considered inferior as even his master was unwilling to let him fight.

“No, go ahead, you have my permission.”

“That’s great to hear!”

Fengge was a bit surprised that Zhang Dong replied quickly while glancing his way. In actuality, he was also interested in seeing how the techniques he upgraded would fare against the ones produced here. Both of the fighters were confident young warriors that were able to bring out the most out of their battle techniques.

‘While this guy is only thinking about his little revenge he doesn’t realize how much face he could lose. Liu is still the underdog no one expects him to win this fight but if he wins it all then Long Clan’s methods of schooling their disciples will be questioned…’

The Azure Emperor clearly didn’t care one way or another but the other elders were furrowing their brows as all of this was happening. They all knew that they would suffer quite the blow to their prestige if an unknown disciple toppled one of their own. They were of similar age and realm which meant that only their skills would be pitted up against each other.

“Big brother Liu looks mad.”

Zhang Xiu commented while pulling on Zhang Xue’s dress.

“Is elder brother going to be okay?”

Said Zhang Jun while next to his older sister.

“Don’t worry, your elder brother is strong, he will be victorious!”

“Yay~”

His two potatoes cheered towards their elder brother, it was actually quite sweet to see his disciples act as older siblings to their children. The relationships that masters and their students had were considered as deep as being related by blood, sometimes they went even deeper than that. He was glad that in his absence his children found some people to bond with.

“Then it is settled, let us prepare!”

Long Qing clapped his hands which roused various cultivators from the distance. The order to prepare a venue for the two disciples to have their fight was carried out quickly. Within ten minutes the large arena was cleared out and they were already sitting down in the VIP booth that overlooked all the other seats.

Various Long Clan members came from the skies to fill out the area. Everyone from the younger generations wanted to see a battle between what seemed to be two top disciples. Others were just enticed by the Golden Dragon that the disciple carried the name off.

It was actually quite impressive, in the distance, he could see cultivators on swords pulling along advertisements for the event. There were strange slogans such as ‘Golden Dragon’s strongest disciple vs Long Clan’s young hope’ flying around. It painted his disciple as some kind of villain coming to destroy their peace. Thus it was clear that no one was cheering for Zhang Liu but the other handsome youth that was all smiles and waving at all the beauties that batted their eyelashes at him.

“Young master Enlai, please look this way!”

“You are the best young master Enlai, show the upstart what the Long Clan is made of!”

“Don’t listen to them Liu!”

Replied Zhang Xue that seemed to be without any help with cheering on. Her voice was blocked out by all the shouts from the various onlookers. Soon the battle was starting and both of the combatants made their way towards the stage, who would win no one knew.