Lu Qingyun broke his sect sword

The testing for the new core protégés of the 6 Martial Halls was soon over.

After Tang Bufan and Lu Qingyun, there was just one other that had been chosen to be a core protégé and he had joined the Blue Lake Sword Hall that was led by Grand Elder Mu Han.

The name of this protégé was Guo Jing.

Grand Elder Celestial Kong Guxin said to everyone when the testing was over, "If you work hard, you will be given an opportunity to be an inner protégé or even a core protégé in the future. There will be a new testing for all of you in a year time. But the condition is that you must earn a minimum of 100 contribution points for the Heavens Ridge Villa in order to be qualified for this testing to be an inner protégé. So work hard and do your best for the Heavens Ridge Villa."

Then he smiled, "All of you will be randomly assigned to 1 of the 6 Martial Halls to be an ordinary protégé by picking a colour stone in the box that is in front of me."

The 3 exceptions were naturally Lu Qingyun, Tang Bufan and Guo Jing who had all been selected as a core protégé.

The rest of the candidates were then all dismissed to be an ordinary protégé and to be taken away by the elders of their respective martial halls.

As for Lu Qingyun, he was taken away by Elder Ouyang.

Lu Qingyun asked him curiously, "Where are we going?"

Elder Ouyang laughed, "Naturally we are going to the sect's treasury room to pick your sect's items."

Then he said solemnly, "Young man, do you know that we didn't have a sect leader's core protégé for a long time. In fact, I don't even remember we have any in the first place. You have no idea how lucky you are to be a core protégé of the Celestial Qin."

Lu Qingyun smiled weakly, "I didn't expect for that to happen either."

Elder Ouyang smiled, "Usually it is quite clear to us what are the training routines of the various protégés are. But for you, it may be a little special."

"Oh?' Lu Qingyun asked curiously.

Elder Ouyang explained, "Since you are the core protégé of our sect leader, your training routines should be arranged by her instead of the grand elders as you do not belong to any of the six martial halls. However, there is a little problem though…"

When he had said to this point, he was sighing heavily.

"Senior, please do not hesitate to let me know what it is. You can speak your mind freely to me." Lu Qingyun said respectfully.

Elder Ouyang then smiled weakly, "There is actually no martial hall and no cultivation slips at the main peak. Also, we are unsure how long our sect leader Celestial Qin will be staying."

Lu Qingyun blinked his eyes when he had heard that.

Elder Ouyang said weakly, "But of course, we will invite you to join in the experiential training, the trials and the martial tournaments. And any important events so as to not to let you feel that we have forgotten about you. As long as Celestial Qin is around, this shouldn't be an issue. But in the mean time you ought to cultivate hard on your cultivation realm and your profound arts. If you don't mind, I can even guide you a thing or two even though my talent is quite limited."

Lu Qingyun got his meaning immediately.

"Senior, you are afraid that I may lose the face of the Celestial Qin as a core protégé, am I right?"

Elder Ouyang laughed awkwardly.

He had gone one big round to try to hint this to Lu Qingyun but this young man got his point immediately.

Elder Ouyang said to him, "Good. You got me now. Therefore, you ought to cultivate hard as there will be many eyes that are on you. After all, you are the core protégé of the acting sect leader."

Lu Qingyun curiously asked, "Why is that I got a feeling that Celestial Qin will leave anytime?"

Elder Ouyang smiled awkwardly, "That is because she doesn't stay here. And we don't even know that she will be here until quite recently."

Lu Qingyun was surprised, "She doesn't stay around here? Then where is she from?"

Elder Ouyang said, "Even our founder the Fairy Jade Light didn't stay here as well. That is why we don't have a sect leader most of the time and that is why the position of sect leader is always vacant until Fairy Jade Light has returned. That's the main reason why the main peak is mostly empty unless the Fairy Jade Light or her daughter the Celestial Qin visit the Heaven Ridge Villa. But usually they would only stay for a few weeks before leaving again."

Lu Qingyun asked curiously, "Why don't they stay?"

He was actually curious about Qin Keqin.

Elder Ouyang answered, "I don't know. Last time when Celestial Qin was here, I had overheard that she as going for treasure hunting in a dangerous place."

Lu Qingyun nodded; it was pretty common for cultivators to go to places for their lucky occurrences and Qin Keqin should be the same too or else she won't be a golden celestial today.

"We are here."

Elder Ouyang had brought Lu Qingyun to a place where there was an old man sitting alone in a room.

"Elder Mu, this is Lu Qingyun and he is a core protégé…"

"A core protégé? From which martial hall? Is he related to you? That he needs an elder to accompany him for his sect's items?" Elder Mu had suddenly interrupted him with an unhappy look. "You know that I don't give special treatment to anyone."

Then he put a spatial pouch, a low grade mortal-step sect robe and a mortal-step precious sword on the table. "Take this and leave immediately."

Elder Ouyang laughed, "He is the core protégé of Celestial Qin."

Elder Mu was startled, "What?! What did you just say? He is a core protégé of our acting sect leader Celestial Qin Keqin?!"

He immediately stood up to appraise Lu Qingyun, "He is indeed handsome."

Elder Ouyang smiled weakly, "Is that the main point?"

Elder Mu frowned, "That is the main point. Only a handsome protégé is worthy to be a core protégé of our beautiful acting sect leader. All others are shit."

Elder Ouyang: …

Lu Qingyun: …

Elder Mu then walked to take a sword from the room before he flashed the precious sword in front of Lu Qingyun before he put it in his hands, "Young man, you are so lucky. This high grade mortal-step precious sword is for you!"

Lu Qingyun was startled when Elder Mu had suddenly shoved the precious sword in his hand.

As he panicky tried to keep it, the precious sword had suddenly shattered in his hands.

This shocked Elder Mu who was stammering, "This is supposed to be a good sword…"

"You didn't break this sword by accident too, did you?" said Elder Ouyang to Lu Qingyun. 

It was because he had suddenly remembered that Lu Qingyun had also damaged Grand Elder Yun Xing's earth-step precious sword.