The Founder of Qi Cultivation, Reincarnates?

“Lihua, tell my father that the Ming Clan has betrayed the Righteous Faction and joined forces with the Demonic Cult. I’ll leave our Faction in yours and Fei Yin’s hands since I'll be gone.”

Without looking around, Lihua nodded at Li Shen’s spiritual message to her. She couldn’t bear to turn to look at him.

But now, Lihua wished she had turned and looked back then. What kind of expression was he wearing as he faced death?

Lihua wasn’t like the others who had blind confidence in Li Shen’s survival. She was logical in the way she thought and her conclusion was that Li Shen had died. Even if he had truly been able to open a spatial tear before that heaven-shaking power had appeared in the Heavenly Calamity, his soul was already fading away.

Even if his body remained intact somehow, he would have already been dead, his soul having been dispersed.

But, even as Lihua came to this logical conclusion, a part of her couldn’t help but wish for that conclusion to be wrong.

Lihua sighed and looked around at where she was.

Lihua was currently at the valley gate of the Celestial Academy. Thousands of disciples were gathering to board the massive flying ship that would carry them to the Southern Border of the continent.

The current atmosphere was noisy as these disciples chatted excitedly. But a select group of disciples could be seen clearly separated from these disciples.

These stoic-expression disciples who remained quiet were the Chosens from the Celestial Academy.

This separation was a sign of the hierarchy among these disciples. But even among the Chosens, there was another hierarchy. It was separated into the Inner, Core, and Conclave disciple Chosens.

After everyone had returned to Celestial Academy after Li Shen’s death, Lihua applied for the faction to be moved to the Core Academy. Everyone in the group besides Yang Su had reached the early Core Formation Realm, and since the requirement to become a Core Academy disciple was entering the Core Formation Realm the request was easily approved.

Lihua, Fei Yin, and Jun were currently among the Core Academy Chosens. As Lihua looked around, she saw more than a few eyes on her and the group, but she was indifferent to their stares.

Frowning, Lihua asked.

“Why are they taking so long to reach here?”

Fei Yin turned to her and responded.

“Fang Chen has already picked up Tai and they’ll soon reach. Yang Su has received my message but hasn’t responded, though I believe he’ll show up soon.”

The frown never left Lihua’s face, but she change the topic and asked.

“What about Mu Fan and Li Wen?”

“Li Wen said he’ll meet us at the Southern Border since he won’t be able to hide like Tai and travel with us. As for Mu Fan, he said he'll leave from his clan.”

Fei Yin seeing Lihua frown said.

"Mu Fan's singular goal is to improve his clan's power, we can't and won't force him to stick to his position in our Faction."

Lihua sighed but nodded in agreement.

A commotion then suddenly occurred among the non-Chosens Inner disciples.

“YOU BASTARD!!!

“What were you trying to do by buying brother Haoran's device?! Don’t think we don’t know it's you fuckers!!”

Two large groups were currently yelling at each other.

Due to the similar yellow Inner Disciple robes, these two groups were almost indistinguishable. And it didn’t help that everyone in the groups was barefooted for some reason.

However, one small factor that could distinguish these two groups was the insignia on their chests. One was of a featureless mask, and the other was one pair of shoeless feet.

These insignia were of the Faceless Faction and the Shoeless Faction.

The leader of the Shoeless Faction that had just shouted was Fuangu. His face was red as he pointed at the young man opposite him.

This young man who looked no more than nineteen was Mao Wen, and he was the leader of the Faceless Faction.

Mao Wen was looking at Fuangu with an indifferent expression.

“What evidence do you have? Don’t just go around pointing fingers at our Faceless Faction!”

Fuangu hearing this had his body tremble in anger.

“That’s it, I had enough of you copycats!!”

“The Faceless Faction? More like DOG SHIT FACTION!!”

Mao Wen’s expression changed at that.

“Good, good, good! You dare call our faction dog shit? It's war!!”

With both of those declarations, they along with a hundred or so of the disciple behind them madly charged at each other.

The fight that broke out was intense from the get-go, and although no weapons or techniques were used, several cries of pain could be heard ringing out.

The rest of the disciples in the area upon seeing this fight breaking out took several steps back, all while sporting disgusted expressions.

“Ugh, again? What’s with these freaks?”

One disciple commented obviously annoyed.

“Why is the academy allowing these idiots to practice their stupid religion in the academy? The entire Inner Academy had become their battleground, it’s no different from a market street brawl at this point.”

A few more disciples voice their dissatisfaction with these two groups.

“Enough!”

Soon, the voice of an elder yelled and he flew into the air and waved his hand at the two groups fighting. Several balls of Qi appeared between the disciples' battles and blasted energy that forced them apart.

The intense fight had quickly come to an abrupt end.

“What are you two doing mingling with the Inner Academy Disciples? Go back to your own groups!”

The elder looked at Fuangu and Mao Wen before barking at them.

“But elder, this bastard was the one who provoked us first. He-”

“Bastard, I said where is your evidence!”

Mao Wen suddenly grab Fuangu's collar and soon another battle was on the verge of breaking out.

The elder in the sky watching this had his face twitching uncontrollably.

A look of unwillingness was manifesting in his eyes, but who told him to be the one who stepped forward?

His gaze landed on his fellow elders who were acting completely oblivious to what was going on.

While still feeling unwilling, this elder still had to participate in this madness.

“Enough the both of you! What kind of image are you going to give the Academy if you show outsiders your incompetence!”

“But elder-”

Fuangu went to speak, but he was cut off by the elder glaring at him.

The elder then said calmly.

“Explained to me what happened and what cause this ruckus.”

This elder felt like he was getting too old. He can’t believe this was what the younger generation was interested in now. Where was the scheming and plotting? He remembered that just a few years ago he had to resolve a matter between two Factions on the verge of fighting because one member had sneaked into the other faction’s Spirit Beast hunting grounds.

But what was this situation? The worst thing of all was how large these two factions had become, or should they be called religions at this point?