Ye Jingwen raised his arm and caught his sword in his hand. Seeing the extremely thick ice sheet below him gradually becoming fuzzy and turning into rock walls made a smile appear on his face. 

Although he had no unique treasures, he was a sword cultivator, so he was never complacent in refining his natal sword. Furthermore, he was also very diligent in practicing, so when it came to techniques used in fights of magical power, he was always confident.

This Middle Ages magic formation was very hard to break, but because of that, he felt very accomplished when he succeeded in breaking it—more than twenty years' worth of painstaking practice wasn't a waste of his efforts.

Once the formation was broken, he flung his arms, causing the sword in his hand to transform into a beam of light as it flew back to the scabbard hanging behind his back. Right afterward, he took out the medicine purse the school distributed and began to cautiously sort and pick the spiritual plants growing in his surroundings.

Not long after he began picking, however, he sensed the presence of someone else in the vicinity through his divine sense. He turned around to look and discovered it was actually a fellow disciple; that person was also in the late stage of the Foundation Building realm.

Ye Jingwen didn't pay him much attention. Anyone who could break out of the formation in such a short time was an elite among elites; they were proud people, so in this kind of situation, there was generally a tacit understanding between them—they'd team up if they recognized each other but would pretend to see nothing if they didn't.

But very quickly, a wrinkle formed on Ye Jingwen's brows... because that unfamiliar late stage Foundation Building cultivator started to pick the spiritual plants around him!

Inside this rock cave, although there was no obvious part.i.tion, there were room-like s.p.a.ces which were somewhat s.p.a.cious connected through slightly narrower stone paths. Right when that person broke out of the formation, he came out in the other room-like s.p.a.ce but now, he actually pa.s.sed the stone path and was picking in Ye Jingwen's s.p.a.ce.

Ye Jingwen also noticed that this person's method of picking spiritual plants was simply crude. He didn't care whether he injured the roots or not; he just picked them and immediately squeezed them into his medicine purse, so he was a lot faster than Ye Jingwen. Moreover, as he picked, he also kept glancing at the spiritual plants on Ye Jingwen's side. He was obviously doing this on purpose from the beginning—seeing as Ye Jingwen's speed was rather slow, he wanted to grab some for himself.

"Excuse me, Senior Martial Brother." Ye Jingwen couldn't help but call out.

That man's hands continued busy themselves. He only raised his head briefly to glance at him.

This att.i.tude... He obviously regarded him as a Foundation Building newcomer! As the anger in Ye Jingwen's heart flared up, he said coldly, "Aren't you picking past your boundaries?"

Although that cultivator continued to do his own thing, he answered, "What is Junior Martial Brother anxious about? These spiritual plants aren't yours alone. When we entered the formation, the sect head already said that after we pa.s.sed each test, we should take every spiritual plant we see, so of course, they belong to whoever takes them first."

What he said sounded reasonable, but it was nothing but sophistry. If cultivators from the same group like them really acted on the self-serving principle of grabbing benefits for themselves, wouldn't conflicts break out very easily? Because of that, there were some unwritten, customary rules that everyone complied with under normal circ.u.mstances.

This person didn't abide by the rules and turned things upside down to justify his own actions—although Ye Jingwen didn't have a tyrannical temper, he was a sword cultivator, so how could he tolerate someone taking advantage of him? At once, he said, "I'm already harvesting the spiritual plants in this area, so Senior Martial Brother, please withdraw from here!"

The cultivator finally stopped pretending not to see him. He dusted off his hands, stood up then gave Ye Jingwen a once over before he finally spoke: "Junior Martial Brother, you're still young; why do you care about this section of spiritual plants? It isn't that Senior Martial Brother wants to vie for things with you; it's just that with my current age, my core-formation really can't be delayed any longer, so I can't let this opportunity go. How about you just give way to me?" 

Had this person explained this to him in the beginning, Ye Jingwen might've conceded. He was a sword cultivator; he didn't depend on medicinal pills as much as mainstream Dharma cultivators. However, this person began by taking advantage of him first before he finally explained the reason. Furthermore, he immediately claimed to be "senior martial brother," and his tone also didn't sound like he was asking.

Ye Jingwen repeated coldly, "Senior Martial Brother, please withdraw from here!"

Seeing Ye Jingwen's unyielding att.i.tude made a hint of anger finally appear on the cultivator's face. He stared at Ye Jingwen, saying: "I'm a disciple of Master Daoist Wuliang and a grand-disciple of Grandmaster Zhenyang of Morning Sun Peak, Dong s.h.i.+yang. May I ask—what's Junior Martial Brother's name?"

He was actually trying to use his ident.i.ty to pressure others! Ye Jingwen said coldly, "A disciple of Master Daoist Qingyuan of Clear Spring Peak, Ye Jingwen."

Upon hearing this, something seemed to flash in the cultivator's gaze. "So Junior Martial Brother is Grandmaster Jinghe's grand-disciple... It's no wonder you're like this..." He then looked at Ye Jingwen up and down; his meaning was obvious. 

Ye Jingwen felt even angrier. Lord Daoist Jinghe's temper wasn't good, so his reputation wasn't that pleasant, but that was the perception held by outsiders; as for the school's members, Lord Daoist Jinghe never bullied them around. This person was also a disciple of Xuanqing School, but he had this att.i.tude—how could this possibly not anger Ye Jingwen? He immediately said angrily: "Senior Martial Brother, please mind your words—don't insult the grandmaster of our Clear Spring Peak!"

"When did I insult grandmaster?" Dong s.h.i.+yang chuckled mockingly. "Junior Martial Brother, you're making things up. I didn't do anything."

"You—" Ye Jingwen's expression darkened. He stopped talking; his sword was already out of its scabbard, hovering next to him. 

The other person's expression also turned gloomy when he saw Ye Jingwen taking out his sword. He said, "Junior Martial Brother, do you want to start a fight against a fellow disciple?"

This time, it was Ye Jingwen's turn to let out a mocking chuckle. "Senior Martial Brother Dong, you're making things up yourself. I was merely taking out my sword, but you already accused me of starting a fight against you?"

"You—" The man's face turned white in anger.

The two of them were ready to jump at each other's throats; a fight was about to break out at any moment. All of a sudden, however, soft rupturing suddenly rang out from somewhere on the side—there was actually another person appearing here after breaking out of the formation.

Dong s.h.i.+yang turned to look. A split second later, he called out in delight: "Martial Uncle Bai!"

On the other hand, Ye Jingwen's expression turned even gloomier. That person was Lord Daoist Zhenyang's disciple, Bai Yanfei!

Bai Yanfei had a very ugly expression on his face. His cultivation level was still in the middle stage of the Foundation Building realm now. Although his achievements could be considered pretty good according to his age, he always wanted to compare himself to young talents like Qin Shoujing and Li Lingxi, who both reached the Core Formation realm before their hundreds, so his current achievements were barely satisfactory to him.

Xuanqing School had always been famous for producing talented cultivators. Among the people in his generation, Qin Shoujing formed his Gold Core at seventy eight years old, while Li Lingxi did so at ninety six years old, and both were deservedly labeled geniuses. As a disciple with a single spiritual root that appeared only once every several hundred years, Bai Yanfei had never been afraid to be compared with other cultivators. However, he was already fifty seven years old now, but he was still only in the middle stage of the Foundation Building realm—it was practically certain that he wouldn't be as good as Qin Shoujing. Even overtaking Li Lingxi was quite difficult for him. With Bai Yanfei's arrogant personality, this truth was indeed hard to bear.

As it happened, when he faced his first test–the Five Spirits Killing Body–in this Ten Thousand Laws of Nature Formation, he already exerted so much strength before he could break out of the formation, and he had even been rendered into such a miserable state, so he was in an extremely p.i.s.sed mood now. When he heard someone calling him, he immediately glared at that person and snapped: "What are you calling for?!"

After being snapped at despite calling him cordially, Dong s.h.i.+yang was dumbfounded for a moment. Nevertheless, he quickly realized there was still someone else there, so he immediately pretended like he didn't care and continued to smile. "Martial Uncle Bai, you've come out too?"

Bai Yanfei also noticed his tone just now was too improper. Right then, he vaguely responded with an "en," threw a brief glance at the two people, and proceeded to look for a way forward. 

How could Dong s.h.i.+yang possibly let him leave like this? He hastily said, "Martial Uncle Bai, aren't you going to take the spiritual plants?"

In fact, Bai Yanfei didn't really care about the reward for this task. His master was Xuanqing School's head grand supreme elder, and his own apt.i.tude was terrific, so normally, he never lacked medicinal pills. But harvesting spiritual plants was the main task this time after all, so when he heard what Dong s.h.i.+yang said, he directly crouched down and casually picked two strains of spiritual plants.

The expression on Ye Jingwen's face worsened. This Bai Yanfei didn't pick the medicinal materials from the area he came out from; instead, Ban Yanfei came to his area and directly crouched down and began picking!

Upon seeing the complacent glance Dong s.h.i.+yang threw at him, Ye Jingwen smoothed out his expression then called out: "Martial Uncle Bai!" 

Bai Yanfei didn't care about him and just lazily responded with another "en." He thought Ye Jingwen was just greeting him like Dong s.h.i.+yang did.

The next moment, however, he unexpectedly heard Ye Jingwen say: "Martial Uncle Bai, as an elder, shouldn't you be a bit more compliant with the rules?" Even though Ye Jingwen already did his best to hold back his anger, some of it still seeped through his words. 

Bai Yanfei stopped, stood up and turned around. He looked at Ye Jingwen with a frown. "What do you mean?"

Ye Jingwen said, "If you want to pick spiritual plants, you should've picked the spiritual plants growing in the area you came out from; this area is where I'm currently picking. It's alright if you're just not restricting the disciples of Morning Sun Peak, but how can you set an example for him by breaking the rules?"

For a moment, Bai Yanfei seemed to not understand what Ye Jingwen was talking about, so he turned his gaze towards Dong s.h.i.+yang. He saw Dong s.h.i.+yang looking at him fearfully; his behavior was the complete opposite of Ye Jingwen's.

Such a contrast created some dissatisfaction towards Ye Jingwen. "What's the matter with you? Since you called me 'Martial Uncle Bai,' how could you speak to me like this?"

Ye Jingwen's anger reached its peak. Not only did Bai Yanfei not correct his att.i.tude, but he also used an elder tone to reprimand him. Ye Jingwen sneered: "It depends on how Martial Uncle Bai acts—you've set an example for others in breaking the rules, but you still want to put on the air of an elder?"

"You—" When had Bai Yanfei ever been talked to like this? All in all, aside from his master, it was only a certain woman from Clear Spring Peak who ever reprimanded him like this, and that was simply a memory he never wanted to recall! "You're unreasonable! These spiritual plants naturally belong to those who pick them first! Why can't I pick from this area?"

Dong s.h.i.+yang b.u.t.ted in from the side: "Precisely! I also don't understand what this Junior Martial Brother Ye's thinking. This might be the rule in their Clear Spring Peak, but we're not people from Clear Spring Peak, so why should we comply with it?"

Clear Spring Peak! These three words ignited Bai Yanfei's fury. He then sneered, "So you're from Clear Spring Peak... Hmph! Just as expected!" 

Ye Jingwen was always very proud of Clear Spring Peak—how could he possibly endure having someone insulting it? He immediately shouted, "Martial Uncle Bai! You're a martial uncle, so please mind your manners!"

Bai Yanfei said angrily, "How am I not minding my manners? Disciple, do you not know how to respect your elders? It's obviously you who is talking rudely to your elder, yet you actually dared to say I'm not minding my manners?"

Ye Jingwen glared ferociously at him. "Martial Uncle Bai, as an elder, you didn't comply with the rules, you didn't restrict your disciple, and you also acted disdainfully towards my Clear Spring Peak—which part of that is minding your manners? Disciples of Clear Spring Peak naturally have to be respectful if we run into elders that ought to be respected, but if you can't even mind your own manners, do you still deserve to be respected by others?"

"You—" What Ye Jingwen said was indeed extremely blunt. Bai Yanfei's expression changed. Then when he saw Ye Jingwen's flying sword flying around him, he sneered: "Fine! You want to settle this the hard way, do you? That being the case, what other reason are you looking for?" After he said that, he irrationally groped around his waist from which he took a crescent-shaped knife. The knife glinted as he poured his spiritual aura into it.

Upon seeing that not only was this martial uncle unreasonable, but he even wanted to fight his junior, Ye Jingwen also flared up. No longer caring about the rule forbidding fellow disciples to harm each other, he raised his arm and made a pointing gesture, causing the flying sword hovering around next to him to suddenly brighten.

In response, Dong s.h.i.+yang also took out his own magic tool, just in case a fight really broke out. 

"Bang!" A violent explosion noise rang out; another disciple had broken out of the formation. Just as that person was about to happily pick spiritual plants, she saw the three people standing not too far from her with their swords against each other. She called out in alarm: "Senior Martial Brother Ye!" It was Luo Fengxue...