Supreme Emperor of Swords

These 10 disciples had been too infuriatingly proud before, so they had brought this ridicule upon themselves.

The teal robed Eastern courtyard disciples relished the opportunity for revenge.

"You... you should watch out. Just wait; I'm not even a top 50 disciple in the Southern courtyard. When the courtyard tournament comes, you'll see our true power!" Nangong Zheng said pitifully as he was helped up by another disciple.

His face was bruised heavily and looked very awkward.

The arm that he had been struck on by Ding Hao was still smoking with silver frost and completely numb.

The other Southern courtyard disciples were equally injured.

Any part of their bodies that was struck by Ding Hao was covered in a palm-shaped piece of frost and completely numbed. They all stared at him in disbelief and fear.

Everyone knew that Ding Hao had formed his element Dark Qi.

His Qi was also the extremely rare frost Qi, which was very terrifying.

"Don't get too cocky. Just wait until senior brother Lyu Kuang, who has already entered the two-apertured realm, defeats all of you. We'll make up for this shame in two days!" Nangong Zheng said spitefully before leaving with his tail between his legs.

The Eastern courtyard disciples burst into laughter without care and continued to ridicule them.

They only stopped when the last purple robed disciple hobbled into the distance, and they all swarmed around Ding Hao.

"Senior brother Ding, you must have entered the martial apprentice realm! That's amazing!"

"Senior brother Ding, can you give us some advice? I spent all night cultivating 'Dark Sword Skills', but I've barely made progress!"

"That's right, senior brother Ding, the skills say that 'Heart rules Qi, and Qi arises in the heart. Stimulate the dantian with a dark rhythm and thus create dark Qi'. Isn't this sentence really confusing? What kind of rhythm is dark rhythm?"

Ding Hao's performance had completely won over his peers.

Everyone followed him into the dining hall, where someone had already prepared breakfast for him. They sat down around him as they ate, and even the proud Wang Xiaoqi was enthusiastically calling him "senior brother Ding".

"Dark rhythm is a rhythm that your body is most comfortable in, to the point where you lose yourself..."

Ding Hao was very easygoing and answered everyone's questions, sharing his cultivating experience fully. In the blink of an eye, the morning flew by.

His generosity once again won over the Eastern courtyard disciples.

Unknowingly, Ding Hao had most of the teal robed disciples on his side.

He had gained a large group of devout followers.

...

Watching the Southern courtyard disciples disappear into the distance, a couple of young men jumped out of a tree.

They all wore pure white shirts and seemed very graceful, with long swords hanging from their waists. They were clearly from the white robed Central courtyard.

"What do you all think?"

"I didn't expect the weakest teal robed Eastern courtyard to have such an interesting figure. Hehe, if we weren't so restricted, I would want to fight Ding Hao myself!"

"Don't do anything stupid!"

"Ding Hao has a rare godlike element, so his frosty mutant Qi is probably the final element."

"Why are you all praising him? He's just a clown who entered one-apertured martial apprentice realm, only good for defeating trash like Nangong Zheng. He's no threat to the Alliance of Seven."

"That's right. White robed Central courtyard is the strongest of the five, so Ding Hao wouldn't even be good enough for the top 30 in our courtyard."

"But Lyu Kuang from Southern courtyard has already won the support of half of its disciples and is the top choice for courtyard leader. He wants to win the tournament and is sending Nangong Zheng around to test out his competition."

"Lyu Kuang definitely cannot be underestimated. He's number 36 in the ranking and has the qualities of a leader, so he'll be great competition for our brother in the future!"

"Let's go tell big brother what we saw."

Having completed their mission, the disciples left the tree.

Only one of the six, a young man referred to as "the second brother", seemed to sense something and stared at a stone statue in the distance.

...

"Hm? Did Liang Feixue spot us?"

Under a martial artist statue, a chubby young man in a pale yellow robe said in surprise as he gnawed on a chicken leg.

"Liang Feixue is second only to Li Muyun in the Alliance of Seven in the Central courtyard, so its' not surprising that he spotted us," said a handsome young man lightly. "Anyways, we're not hiding."

"Ugh, you're right!"

"Let's go report what we saw to the other top contestants."

"Share it with them? I would have knocked out those proud idiots if they weren't also yellow robed Northern courtyard disciples. Why should we share the information we worked so hard to get?" The chubby person complained in annoyance.

He tossed the leg bone directly into a trash can that was hundreds of meters away.

"Yes, we're all yellow robed Northern courtyard disciples," said the handsome young man without looking back. "Ever since I entered Swordsmanship-seeking Sect, I've been competing with others. You must remember, the sect assesses us not only on our strength and progress but also our loyalty and leadership. A true core disciple must be strong in terms of martial arts, charisma, loyalty, and leadership!"