Nine Star Hegemon Body Art (WN)
chapter-1046

The only ones left in the palace were Long Chen and the Elder Hall Master, Liu Cang.

Liu Cang just looked at Long Chen without saying anything, making Long Chen feel awkward. He didn’t know what to say.

“This wasn’t my fault.” In the end, Long Chen shrugged and broke this awkward atmosphere.

“I know.” Liu Cang nodded.

Of course he knew. As his opponent of many years, he was profoundly aware of the Law Enforcement Hall Master’s methods.

“I’m curious, if you had just used your brain slightly, you would have been able to resolve this problem in a more effective and self-protecting manner, so why did you choose this method?” asked Liu Cang curiously.

“The main thing is that it would be too troublesome. I don’t have the time,” said Long Chen helplessly.

How did he have the time necessary to play this stupid game with this pack of idiots? Being direct was much more effective.

“Many thanks for helping, Elder Hall Master.” Long Chen bowed toward him. In any case, Liu Cang had come out to help him.

“There’s no need to thank me. Those under the jurisdiction of my Elder Hall are my disciples. As long as you stand within reason, I will always stand by your side,” said Liu Cang.

Long Chen knew that this was a warning. This time, the Law Enforcement Hall had shed all pretenses of cordiality, making Long Chen a crucial target. As long as Long Chen didn’t go too far, the Elder Hall would be able to protect him. However, if he did go too far, he would leave an opening for the Law Enforcement Hall, and then it would be troublesome.

This was a game of rules. As long as he acted within the rules, he would be safe. But if he went beyond, it would be dangerous. Liu Cang felt like Long Chen’s guts were too big.

“Disciple understands. Next time, I will definitely take note,” said Long Chen, knowing that Liu Cang was saying this for his own good.

His meaning was obvious. He was a chess piece being used in the competition between the Elder Hall and the Law Enforcement Hall. Liu Cang’s words just now were a kind of promise, allowing Long Chen to be at ease.

“Other than that, don’t look down on the Xuan Master. His intelligence is not something you can imagine,” said Liu Cang.

Long Chen was startled. In truth, although he felt respect for the Xuan Master’s cultivation base, he did scoff a bit at his attitude toward managing the Xuantian Dao Sect.

But now that Liu Cang was intentionally bringing this up, it seemed he had clearly seen through his thoughts.

“Disciple understands.” Long Chen nodded. Now he felt that he was still too inexperienced.

“You can keep your inner sect disciple plate so you can enter the inner sect. But starting today, you’ll have to wear outer sect disciple’s robes.”

Liu Cang left, his final words being to take care of how far Long Chen went.

When Long Chen left the palace, he saw a sea of people outside. Countless disciples had surrounded the palace.

“Boss, you’re finally out!” All the Dragonblood warriors rushed over. Seeing that he was safe and sound, they relaxed.

The other disciples, especially the ones who had personally seen Long Chen beat up a teacher, found this inconceivable. After beating a teacher, this was all that happened?

“Sorry, but senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, you are now an outer sect disciple and must complete the missions given by the outer sect.” At this time, a group of disciples walked over, a new set of robes in their hands.

“What? That’s unacceptable! They can’t demote our boss to an outer sect disciple!” raged the Dragonblood warriors.

“Being demoted to the outer sect is already kind of the Dao Sect. Such trash should be directly expelled-”

PFFT!

A disciple had been in the midst of sneering when a lightning arrow pierced his chest, forming a large hole. He was almost directly killed, causing everyone to jump.

“Keep farting.” Long Chen icily stared at that person. “You’re the most useless trash. Other than spouting crap, you don’t have the slightest ability. If you keep going, I’ll make it so you can’t spout anything for the rest of your life.”

Everyone was startled. Long Chen was too violent, attacking without saying a word. But then thinking about how he even dared to beat a teacher, it seemed there really was nothing he didn’t dare to do.

“All of you should go back and do what you need to do. Just do what you normally do. What I’m doing is just a formality, and I’ll be back quickly.” Long Chen changed into outer sect robes and handed his old robes to a Dragonblood warrior. He had him bring a message back to everyone, telling them not to worry.

Seeing Long Chen’s figure disappearing from their sight, all the inner sect disciples were deeply shaken. This person was too coarse and wild.

Long Chen followed the group of outer sect disciples to a small transportation formation.

The Xuantian Dao Sect was just that large. Outer sect disciples worked on the edges of the sect, so they needed to use transportation formations to get around. Otherwise, it would waste far too much time.

Arriving at the outer regions, Long Chen clearly sensed the spiritual qi grow sparser. Furthermore, he saw many more people, male and female, young and old. It was like he had arrived at an ordinary city.

“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, you might be unaware of this, but the outer sect is completely different from the inner sect. We are not the true backbone of the sect. In fact, we’re like an army of hired workers. Outer sect disciples have to handle missions to get their cultivation resources, and the outer sect is practically not a sect, but a land of cities. The workers make up most of the numbers, and there are also descendants of generations of outer sect disciples and workers. So the outer sect is a very chaotic place,” explained one of the disciples.

“You can marry and have children here?” Long Chen was startled.

“Yes, the absolute majority of people here are from the four outer regions. Their talent is limited and they can’t enter the inner sect. In fact, some are unable to even qualify as outer sect disciples. But they’re also unwilling to leave, so they stay behind as workers. They pass their days by doing odd jobs or perhaps adventuring. As for the Dao Sect, it gives them a few resources as a reward. In any case, they won’t starve to death, but they won’t eat enough to get full. I’m not afraid of senior apprentice-brother Long Chen laughing at me, so I’ll tell you that our ancestors were just workers,” said one of them with a bitter smile.

Long Chen shook his head. “Those who work for their food are all worthy of respect. On the other hand, those people who reap without sowing, relying entirely on their reincarnation arts to live, but still look down on others, are the idiots that should be laughed at.”

“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen is as amiable and easy-going as the stories say.”

“You also know of me?” Long Chen was surprised.

“In the entire Xuantian Dao Sect, there are few people that don’t know of you. You come from the wilds, you led a group of the least-talented disciples through a life and death battle in the inner sect trial, you sacrificed your core disciple spot to save them, and you even risked your life to fight against a peak heavenly genius. In the outer sect, you are like a god. We, who are the descendants of people from the four outer regions, all view you as a model. You are our pride,” said one of them emotionally.

Long Chen hadn’t expected to get such a welcome in the outer sect. These outer sect disciples worshipped him.

“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, the powers in the outer sect are complicated, so you have to be careful.”

“What are you talking about?”

“There are too many people in the outer sect, and the outer sect disciples only take up one in ten thousand of them. There’s another portion that are workers, and another portion that are just commoners. Workers only get a hundred years of low rations. After a hundred years, they become commoners and need to think of other ways to survive. The Xuantian Dao Sect created many opportunities for the commoners to make a living, for example, planting medicinal ingredients, raising Magical Beasts, etc. The sect will allow them to survive. But as you know, wherever there is profit, there will be… Well, you understand!” said a disciple.

Long Chen understood. He felt like the outer sect was practically not even a place of cultivation. Outer sect disciples were the people with the highest income here, and from this disciple’s tone, it seemed there were many complicated twists and turns for the people here.

As they continued forward, Long Chen continued to ask many things about the outer sect. They explained everything they knew without holding anything back.

They quickly arrived at a city hundreds of miles wide. The streets were extremely lively, and Long Chen felt like he had returned to the Phoenix Cry capital. He felt an extremely familiar feeling.

“The law enforcer squad’s coming! Run!”

Long Chen and the outer sect disciples had only just walked onto a large street when they saw the street vendors hastily putting their things in their spatial rings and running in fright.

From the front, a group of large people with short cudgels charging over. They were muscular, but they were also so fat that they looked like they might burst. Whenever they saw anyone, they would beat them. Those people didn’t dare to fight back, and only miserably fled. Some who fled too slow were beaten black and blue, blood covering their heads.

Long Chen looked and sensed that those people’s cultivation bases weren’t high. Some of these people had cultivation bases below the Bone Forging realm. As for the people beating them, they were all at the Xiantian realm. Although they weren’t Celestials, beating these peddlers was easy for them. They were extremely tyrannical.

Once the peddlers were beaten to the ground by those people, the latter would reach for the spatial rings in their hands. Some people who refused to let go were once more beaten until they fell unconscious.

“What is this, robbery?” Long Chen was dumbfounded.

“No, this is the law enforcer squad’s way of enforcing the law.” Those disciples had seen this so many times that it was just a common occurrence.

“Why are they beating them? And to beat them so badly, is there some great enmity between them?” Long Chen didn’t understand.

“These people are all pitiful. They are unable to pay the expensive rent inside the city, and so they can only stealthily set up stalls on the streets in other places to make some money. But these law enforcers are tasked with handling them. To put it bluntly, without paying the protection fee, you have to be prepared to be beaten to death.

“The law enforcers don’t usually come out. They’ll only come when the merchants in the city report to them. The peddlers here infringe on the merchants’ profit, and the merchants paid the fee. So the peddlers end up being violently kicked out,” answered one of the disciples helplessly.

“How is this kicking them out? They’re just taking their money. Are they going to hand it over to higher authorities?” asked Long Chen.

“Probably not. These peddlers are all poor, so what they have isn’t worth much money. They’ll probably keep it for themselves,” said that disciple.

Long Chen nodded. He had long since activated a photographic jade to record the scene of these heroic law enforcers. He had never seen such a ‘heroic’ squad.

“Brat, are you looking to die?”

Seeing Long Chen recording them, one of the law enforcers suddenly roared and charged at Long Chen.