Long Yin Hei.

First Protector of the Mysterious Light Shadow Sect.

The Shadow Dragon.

Master of the Zhao Family prodigy, Zhao Bu, and leader of the Shadow Dragon Faction.

A few days before, Zhao Bu had told him that he had broken through the bottleneck of the peak Advanced stage and had reached the Superior stage. With his skills, he should have had no problem defeating Sou Rou and he would have become the Sect Head.

He didn't want to throw away lives in a meaningless war. After all... He needed the life force of as many experts as possible to completely free himself of the seal imposed on him by his foe!

So he made a plan. A plan to take Wu Rou by surprise by having Zhao Bu defeat her disciple in a battle amongst the younger generation, the stakes being the disciple's master would become the Sect Head.

He had prepared everything, from the seal that would make his disciple's cultivation look like he had not broken through yet to even going to the point of calling back his own team of powerful cultivators. He even got some people to help, led by his right hand man Chu Sai, in case something went wrong. And if even those weren't enough, he still had his trump card!

Up until that point, everything was going well and his plan looked like it would be a huge success!

But.

When that old man that he had almost forgotten, Lao Jianghu, had appeared... Everything had started going downhill!

At first it was only a slight loss of face when he had toyed around with him for a bit. Yin Hei didn't care too much about that, after all, if it meant freeing himself, he would not care about 'Face' too much!

But then, that bastard actually wished to change the rules of the match! What's more, Wu Rou had agreed with him on the matter! And, the finishing blow, Lao Jianghu was actually a mid level Reverend stage expert!

He had no choice but to give up and make the disciple fight for becoming the Sect Head themselves, but up until then there still weren't so many problems that he couldn't deal with.

Zhao Bu was on his side and even if he became the head he could manipulate him to do what he wanted... But then, Lao Jianghu hindered his plans again! Long Yin Hei was starting to notice that something was wrong, as if this had all been planned to harm him. A slight suspicion of what that might mean rose into his mind, some of the pieces even seemed to fit together...

But he had shaken off the idea. After all, he knew for sure that it wasn't possible, after all, He was currently in the body of the Crippled Sect Head, not some Third Protector, and it was impossible for both him, the Shadow Dragon, and Him, his foe, to reincarnate into different bodies. Even a Sealing Master like the Tiger would be unable to find a loophole there.

What happened next though, shocked him even more. A potential Twin Star? He may be talking about that girl, Xiao Wu, whom he had been alerted of some time ago, but she was still not powerful enough to even try to fight against either of his or Wu Rou's disciple, so that probably wasn't it either.

Then that youth clad in red had appeared.

And shit got screwed up.

...

Cheng Hao swung his blade left and right and then put the blade horizontally on his right shoulder with a flick of his wrist. He raised his left harm, the one not holding the blade, in front of him, opened his hand and lowered his waist.

He stood still and looked like he was prepared to bear the full power of the attack head on!

Seeing that, the young male of the Zhao family smiled as he made a hand seal! The spear suddenly began to glow red, it immediately began to shake violently as it got even faster and the faster it became, the bigger it got! The previous Advanced stage quality Qi had suddenly turned into Superior stage quality Qi!

Zhao Bu was actually a Superior stage cultivator!

Cheng Hao's eyes didn't widen nor did he show any shocked expression when seeing that, instead, on his face his thin lips arranged into a mocking smile. Zhao Bu shivered when he saw Cheng Hao's sword slowly rising behind his back, the blade glinting under the sun and emanating a blue hue...

"It can't be! He couldn't possibly be thinking of..." Zhao Bu trembled and stepped back. He backed away as he felt that the blade Cheng Hao was swinging would be able to cut through all and everything, even if it was only because it was swung by Cheng Hao himself!

That blue hue seemed to chill the bones, the blade looked like it would delve so deep into the flesh that it would cut out the soul and the young child's eyes looked like two bottomless pits that could swallow people up effortlessly!

The child smiled as the spear bore down on him like a mountain falling down on an ant: he looked just like a hero prepared to give his life in the face of an insurmountable enemy, all of that because he chose to save the young girl!

As, in the crowd, everyone thought of it like that in their hearts, nobody could understand why would Zhao Bu look so scared when he had just thrown at his opponent such a powerful attack!

*swish*

The javelin flew through the air leaving behind a bright red streak of light, the spearhead getting hot and hotter until it seemed it could catch fire at any moment.

The crowd watched in amazement as the spear reached the small boy and pushed forward. There could only be one word to describe the attack: Death! Absolute defeat! Nothing could survive such a blow that bore down the strength of a mountain!

A Core Elder shook his head in amazement "Such power... It is like a gigantic mountain is falling on that boy, it is regrettable that such a talent would be wasted, but there is nothing he could have done, the might of such an attack flying towards you is something beyond the power of man!" He turned and prepared to leave.

The crowd sighed: indeed, such a genius's flame had been extinguished just like that! The people watching turned towards Zhao Bu but the boy was staring ahead of him blankly, his eyes full of fear and his moth gaping as much as it could.

The person who had spoken before suddenly could feel a bad feeling swelling up in his chest: why was there no heart-rending shrieking? Why was there no cry of pain? The boy couldn't have just disappeared into ashes, so fast that he didn't even have the chance to utter a single word, right?

Or maybe...

He shivered and turned just in time to see the gigantic spear stopping in mid air.

The proud and bright red fog that had been exuded by the spear up until a moment ago was nowhere to be seen, even the golden luster and the aura of a weapon belonging to the gods had disappeared, leaving nothing behind!

*Creak* a series of creaking and crackling sounds sounded out as a single crack made its way through the weapon's body...

The spear fell down but when it touched the ground, it suddenly split in two cleanly. After a series of much more sinister cracking sounds, the spear suddenly shattered, turning into countless dust-like light shards that floated away.

Zhao Bu spat out a mouthful of blood as his full power attack had just been destroyed and the Qi he had gathered had scattered away.

"You dare to fight me in a contest of strength?" The voice of a child stunned all the people hearing it because it meant one thing: Cheng Hao did not only parry the attack, he was alive and well!

The figure of the boy was standing firmly on the grown, his right arm holding the blade was still in the motion of swinging down and his whole body completely uninjured made the crowd's blood boil as they heard their heart beating nonstop, like a drum, in their ears.

The boy tapped his weapon's edge and it could be seen that it had only slightly bent, not even a crack could be seen on its surface... That was just plain ridiculous!

If one thought that the weapon Cheng Hao had used was a cheap shortsword with a slight enchantment and the one Zhao Bu used was the pure manifestation of his Qi, it was the difference between the lowly Earth and the divine Heavens!

But even that difference couldn't stop Cheng Hao: without breaking so much as a sweat, he cut the flow of all living things apart! The very essence of life, the Qi, cut apart with a plain blade anyone could have bought for a few coins at the closest weapons shop!

"You had your way, now it is my turn..." Cheng Hao grinned fiercely, his face contorting and resembling a bloodthirsty demon's.

He lifted his blade again and slashed it down! The strength behind the blow was so great that the sword shattered the moment the slash ended! It was way stronger than the slash he had performed before... And many times more powerful than Zhao Bu's attack!

A massive sword wave that looked like a dragon the size of a small mountain sped towards the crawling Zhao Bu. The boy had long before attempted to flee but his legs refused to move as he was scared witless in front of Cheng Hao's strength.

He clenched his fist and yelled, not caring for face any longer "Master! Help me!"

When Long Yin Hei heard these words, his face turned uglier and his expression became sour. Still, he could not allow his own disciple to be killed right in front of him!

He stepped forward, bombarding the attack with his pressure! The blade slightly slowed down but didn't show any signs of stopping as it approached the First Protector. Yin Hei lifted his eyebrow and secretly admired 'What incredible power...'

He waved his sleeve and suddenly an illusory fanged mouth appeared from his shadow, grew bigger and bit down at the gigantic sword slash.

When it bit down, Cheng Hao's attack struggled for a bit but in the end it couldn't break through the Reverend stage expert's defines. Both the attack and the mouth disappeared into shards of light and strands of shadows.

Seeing he was safe, Zhao Bu sniffed and began to cry as snot flew out from his nose "Ma-Masted! He Tied do ghill bi! (Ma-Master! He tried to kill me!)"

A vein popped on Yin Hei's forehead as he turned angrily and slapped him hard on the cheek "You trash! You have to beg your master in front of all these people to save you from a child's attack! What has become of your and my face?"

*step*

Cheng Hao stepped forward smiling "As expected from my subordinate, he really does show the rights to bear the title of First Protector, to dispel my attack with so little effort, it truly shows his strength!"

He looked around and saw that Fang Lu had already taken care of Dan Yang, the man with the face of a middle aged man was laying unconscious on the ground, his body showing no external injuries. When he saw him looking at himself, the chubby youth, Fang Lu, turned and bowed wholeheartedly, placing his right hand on his chest, a sign of subordination towards somebody.

Cheng Hao smiled and nodded his head in his direction before turning to look at First Protector. Right now though, Yin Hei was not angry but confused, as if he had just realized something was amiss.

Cheng Hao's eyebrow rose and the corners of his mouth twitched but then he smiled 'He has found out, hasn't he?'

"Very well, it looks like I have won this little skirmish... When is the ceremony for appointing the Sect Head beginning?"

The crowd fell silent.

Ruthless.

Overpowering.

Arrogant.

Overbearing.

These were all qualities that made people admire the strong... They were the qualities of a king! And they all showed up in the body of that Eight years old child!

An old cultivator pondered and murmured as he had great insights on the path of a cultivator "Facing foes as strong as gods without batting an eye, holding incredible power and using it protect both the self and the others! Believing in one's strength showing no sign of faltering, even towards those stronger than he is... Doing all of these, it can only be then that one can call himself... A True Cultivator!"

Hearing those words, many felt enlightened and felt like they had understood what a cultivator truly was today! A true cultivator is one who faces the odds and comes out as the winner, protecting the things dear to him and getting what he sought after at the same time!

And such a person... Cheng Hao was undoubtedly one!