Top-Tier Perception Starts From Basic Fist Techniques

Zhang Ling's expression cooled. "Senior, the Hundred Flowers Sect is indeed recruiting an Earthly Saint. However, we intend to recruit someone of influence, with a known history. So..."

Lu Changsheng smiled. "Will a man whose history you know handle the Earthly Saints camped in your mountains? Or is the plan to keep hiding behind your grand formation? Because unless I'm mistaken, that formation is already at its limits.

"How much longer it can hold is anyone's guess."

Zhang Ling's face drained of color. That was the sect's most closely held secret, and Lu Changsheng had seen through it simply by standing at the gate.

For a moment, she could feel them out there in the mountain range, one hostile gaze after another settled on their sect grounds. The Earthly Saints camping in their mountains refused to leave, watching the sect for an opening.

"Senior, please. Watch what you say." She drew a breath, gnashed her teeth, and directly asked, "What is it that you want from us?"

Lu Changsheng shook his head. "I'm new here. I haven't been in Sacred Star City long. What I want is people, capable ones, to do things for me."

There was nothing in that worth hiding. As of now, manpower was just what Lu Changsheng needed.

Zhang Ling's eyes lit up. "You have only just arrived? You're a rogue cultivator, then?"

"In the Sacred Region, yes. A rogue cultivator."

That pleased her more than she showed. A rogue cultivator with no sect behind him, no obligations anywhere, and also an Earthly Saint! Bring him in, deal with him honestly, and in time he could feel a sense of belonging. With an Earthly Saint overseeing and protecting the sect, most of what threatened the sect would simply go away.

However, one question mattered more than the rest, and that was strength. Being an Earthly Saint was not enough on its own. He had to stand near the top among them, or the men circling the sect would not be driven off.

She braced herself and kept her voice low. "Senior, we would need to test your strength."

"Test it?" Lu Changsheng laughed. "By all means. Your sect is proud of that formation, isn't it? Use it on me. Hit me with everything you have. Let's see whether it can touch me."

"Then be careful, senior." Zhang Ling agreed, and a moment later she set the grand formation in motion.

Boom!

The world around him changed at once, and Lu Changsheng found himself standing in the middle of a starfield, trapped deep inside the formation.

Crash!

𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Lightning flickered above him, then came down in thick columns.

With a thought, he unleashed his Dao Body.

Boom!

It rose into the void tens of thousands of meters tall, causing the space to buckle around it. A terrible presence rolled out across the whole starfield. Bolt after bolt broke against him without so much as damaging a hair.

What? He's that strong? He's an Earthly Saint, sure, but how is his Dao Body like that? That's just his Dao Body, and he hasn't even attacked yet. There's something inside him, too, an aura that belongs to his own Martial Dao. He's a top-tier Earthly Saint who's condensed the embryo of a Martial Dao!

If he actually strikes, the grand formation might not be able to contain him! A dozen thoughts went through Zhang Ling's head at once. There was no need to test anything further. His Dao Body had told her everything.

Buzz.

The starfield dimmed, and the mountain gate came back around them. She had withdrawn the formation.

"Well?" Lu Changsheng asked.

"Your strength is astonishing, senior. I concede."

She was about to say more when a powerful presence surged up in the distance, and an enormous Dao Body crossed the space between in a single stride and stopped outside the gate.

"Hold a moment, Fellow Daoist. There's nothing good about being Supreme Elder of the Hundred Flowers Sect. With your strength, the two of us could join forces and break this gate open.

"Once we are inside, every treasure in the sect would be ours for the taking. You can have all of it. I want only the Hundred Flowers Sacred Vase. What do you say?"

The faces of every disciple at the gate changed, and Zhang Ling rebuked him, saying, "Ancestor of the Floating Cloud Sect, you founded the Floating Cloud Sect and are a top-tier Earthly Saint! Why do you keep coming back for the treasure that guards our sect?"

The ancestor of the Floating Cloud Sect shook his head and cast his gaze at Lu Changsheng behind her, saying, "Fellow Daoist, the vase accelerates the growth of spirit herbs. Though it can only accelerate their growth by a few centuries, it allows the spirit herbs to reach maturity much faster. Pills refined from such old herbs do a great deal for disciples at the Divine Treasury Realm and Divine Ability Realm. It's the kind of treasure a sect is built on.

"For Earthly Saints like us, it's worthless. For Human Saints, it is also close to worthless. My sect has just been founded, though, and a treasure like that is exactly what I need.

"Join me in breaking the Hundred Flowers Sect open, and you can take whatever you want out of it. Wouldn't that be worth it? What do you say?"

He had been circling the Hundred Flowers Sect for a long time. The grand formation could always stop him, so he had been waiting. Watching Lu Changsheng's Dao Body shrug the formation off told him that the wait was over, so he showed himself instantly.

Zhang Ling flushed. If those two joined hands, the formation would very likely break, and the sect with it. Hence, she gritted her teeth, saying, "Senior, the Hundred Flowers Sect will honor you as our Supreme Elder. Give any orders, and the sect will go through anything to obey them."

There was nothing else left to do but outright hand him the sect. The alternative was the enemy standing right in front of her, after all.

Lu Changsheng looked at Zhang Ling, then at the Floating Cloud Sect's ancestor, and spoke calmly. "You heard her, fellow Daoist. I'm the Supreme Elder of the Hundred Flowers Sect now, so do as you intend with that information."

The old man's eyes narrowed, and the air went heavy. It stayed that way for a long time, but in the end, he decided that he had no appetite to fight. Something about the stranger in front of him felt dangerous.

"So be it. I don't force people." With that, he turned around and left.

"One more thing. Three days from now, no Earthly Saint will be allowed to set foot in the Hundred Flowers Sect's range. Any who are still here after that have only themselves to blame." Lu Changsheng's voice carried out across the whole mountain range.

"What? The arrogance of this man."

"Calling himself their Supreme Elder already?"

"There are a dozen-odd Earthly Saints in these mountains at the very least. I'd really like to see how this one fresh recruit will drive all of us out three days from now."

Word went around the range, and a good many of them did not like it.

None of that troubled Lu Changsheng. He had not called for a negotiation but simply gave them notice. As calm as ever, he turned back to Zhang Ling. "Sect Master, take me in. I'd like to see the place."

She blinked and quickly recovered. What he had just said to the people in the mountains was still ringing in her head. She opened the grand formation and brought him inside.

"Supreme Elder, this way."

Rare flowers and herbs grew everywhere inside, and the scent of them hung over the whole sect. The formation covered the grounds so that not even the deep winter touched them.

In the main hall, Lu Changsheng sat at the head seat.

"Tell me where the sect stands, Sect Master. All of it. Leave something out, and I may not be able to help you."

"Supreme Elder, we're not in a good situation..." She did not dare hold anything back and laid the whole of it out for him.