Urban Extraordinary Immortal Doctor
Chapter 1036: Fiery Sect

Chapter 1036: Chapter 1036: Fiery Sect

"It seems that the journey to Purple Flame City won’t be peaceful all the way! Hah... Two fools who overestimate their abilities. They’re simply seeking their own deaths!"

Fang Bai’s Divine Sense withdrew from Lei Li and Zhuang Zhi, a mocking smile appearing on the corner of his mouth.

There had been no interaction between Fang Bai and Lei Li, let alone any grudge. Fang Bai didn’t understand why the old man targeted him, and from what he had overheard Lei Li muttering, it seemed Lei Li intended to kill him on their way to Purple Flame City.

Fang Bai was a martial arts prodigy the likes of which Bitao Martial Academy had never seen before, favored and valued by the majority of the academy’s upper echelons. Yet Lei Li and Zhuang Zhi, as part of these upper echelons, had conspired to kill him, which was truly illogical.

However, the killing intent exhibited by Lei Li was fleeting, and aside from Fang Bai, no one else had detected it.

If another disciple of Bitao Martial Academy were to learn that the two powerful figures, Lei Li and Zhuang Zhi, wanted to kill them, they would be extremely anxious and lose sleep over it.

But Fang Bai didn’t care about it at all. After leaving the plaza in front of the mountain gate with Ge Feng and the others, he dismissed the matter from his mind.

And that was the confidence of the strong.

Led by Ge Feng, the ten-member team from Bitao Martial Academy arrived at the stables at the foot of the mountain, and each selected a "Swiftwind Horse."

The Swiftwind Horse was the offspring of a normal horse and a Wind System Spirit Beast, domesticated and bred by martial artists. Due to its speed, endurance, and affordability, it quickly became the martial artists’ preferred mode of transportation.

Although some martial artists could move very quickly on their own, even surpassing Swiftwind Horses, such sustained rapid movement consumed a great deal of Essence Energy. Therefore, unless there was an emergency, martial artists usually chose to ride Swiftwind Horses for long journeys.

Compared to some minor sects, Bitao Martial Academy, as a fourth-ranked Sect, was quite wealthy. They had their own stable that bred Swiftwind Horses, conveniently providing disciples with transportation for their missions.

The Bitao Martial Academy was thousands of miles away from Purple Flame City. With stops along the way, it would take roughly five days to reach their destination, so Fang Bai and the others selected horses that looked particularly robust.

...

Hooves clattered, dust billowed.

Ten sturdy Swiftwind Horses sped out of the stables, kicking up dust clouds as they charged toward Purple Flame City in the Thousand Lakes Capital City, thousands of miles away.

This ten-member team represented the thousands of disciples from Bitao Martial Academy to attend the Sect Conference. The results of the martial arts competition would directly determine the academy’s significant interests for the next five years. Therefore, including Ge Feng, nearly everyone was excited and nervous, fearing they might let down the high hopes of their fellow disciples.

Only Fang Bai remained calm, always wearing an expression of serene detachment as if nothing could disrupt his composure.

For this reason, Ge Feng held him in high esteem, more convinced than ever that Fang Bai had the makings of a grandmaster and was destined for great things.

The ten Swiftwind Horses galloped along the wide and smooth road, with Ge Feng leading the way at the front, followed closely by three Personal Transmission Disciples, and then the three Core Disciples, with three Inner Court Disciples bringing up the rear.

On the first day, the Bitao Martial Academy’s team traveled over a thousand miles. As evening approached, they stopped at a small market town to rest and replenish food and drink, planning to set off again early the next morning.

The ten found a relatively clean inn where they entrusted their Swiftwind Horses to the care of the inn’s servants. After opening ten rooms and washing up, they gathered in the inn’s ground-floor hall to eat, drink, laugh, connect with fellow disciples, and didn’t disperse until late into the night, each returning to their own lodgings to rest.

Among the ten-member team from Bitao Martial Academy participating in the Sect Conference, besides being favored by Ge Feng, Fang Bai also had good relations with Liu Qingqing and Huang Miao.

Shen Yulin was an impulsive and righteous person and was quite enthusiastic towards Fang Bai as well.

As for Yang Lin, due to previous conflicts with Fang Bai, although he now treated Fang Bai with distant respect on the surface, he still harbored a deep hatred for him.

The other disciples, such as Core Disciple Long Xing, Yun Yan, and Personal Transmission Disciples Yang Gang and Hua Hua, due to their infrequent interactions with Fang Bai, had a relationship with him that couldn’t be considered either good or bad but was just a common camaraderie among sect members.

Fang Bai noticed and remembered each person’s attitude towards him.

Fang Bai believed that after the Sect Conference concluded, his performance would surprise Long Xing and the others, ensuring they would no longer dare to look down on him.

At the same time, he also hoped to make those of the ilk of Yang Lin who harbored malicious thoughts against him refrain from doing so in the future, forcing them to keep their tails between their legs and behave.

The night passed peacefully, with neither Lei Li nor Zhuang Zhi appearing nearby; however, Fang Bai had a premonition that Lei Li would definitely cause some trouble during this period.

The following morning, the ten-member team from Bitao Martial Academy continued their journey towards Purple Flame City.

Before entering a mountainous region, Ge Feng and his team encountered another group also heading to Purple Flame City for the Sect Conference.

This team, similar in composition and overall strength to the Bitao Martial Academy team, was also led by an Elder with nine accompanying disciples.

According to Shen Yulin, the leading Personal Transmission Disciple, this team belonged to the Fiery Sect, a Fourth-Rank Sect with comparable strength to Bitao Martial Academy. Their territories also bordered each other.

For years, Bitao Martial Academy and Fiery Sect, both significantly lacking in cultivation resources, had more than once engaged in bloody conflicts over Essence Stone Veins and wild Spiritual Medicines found along their borders, but neither had gained much advantage over the other.

After the intervention and mediation by the Third-Rank Purple Flame Sect, both sides agreed to exercise restraint and not invade each other’s territories, thus preventing any large-scale conflicts with heavy disciple casualties.

However, when the disciples of both sects met, they often glared at each other with brows furrowed, an air of defiance on both sides.

The ten Fiery Sect disciples, also mounted on Swiftwind Horses, consisted of an equal mix of males and females, all dressed in the uniform red attire of the sect, appearing like surges of blazing flames.

"Brother Ge, we meet again!"

A slightly effeminate voice came from the Fiery Sect group. The voice was not loud, but it carried an undertone of True Essence Force that caused Huang Miao, Liu Qingqing, and others’ eardrums to buzz and their bodies to sway, nearly falling off their Swiftwind Horses.

The speaker was none other than Leng Han, the leading Elder of the Fiery Sect team.

Although Leng Han’s voice might have been somewhat high-pitched and effeminate, as if that of a eunuch, in person, he was a tall and burly elder, standing nearly two meters tall with bushy eyebrows and fierce eyes.

Interestingly, like Ge Feng, Leng Han also oversaw his sect’s Elixir Hall, responsible for distributing and managing the sect’s cultivation resources, which granted him significant power.

Leng Han himself was a formidable figure with mid-Desolate Level strength; he had previously been evenly matched with Ge Feng in a duel. In recent years, feeling his power had increased substantially, he had been seeking an opportunity to challenge Ge Feng once more, aiming to defeat him and quash Bitao Martial Academy’s prestige.