feiniaonovel Chapter 642: Whispers of the Powerful
Chapter 642: Whispers of the Powerful
The Branch Leader took a slow step closer to Ethan, his long, heavy robes dragging across the stone floor with a quiet hiss. His sharp, calculating gaze remained locked onto the youth’s eyes, trying to peer past the absolute wall of calm that surrounded him.
"Young man," said the Branch Leader, his voice dropping into a low, measured tone that felt more like a cautious probe than a direct interrogation. "May I finally inquire as to your true name?"
He had held the supreme authority over this dangerous frontier branch for far too long to be reckless. The cultivation world was plagued with ancient monsters who chose to mask their presence as ordinary disciples, and hidden experts who could obliterate an entire mountain peak if an arrogant elder looked at them wrong. One did not survive in the borderlands by blindly offending people who refused to tremble in the face of power.
"I am Ethan Brightsword, Leader," said Ethan, his face an unreadable, calm mask as he gave a polite but completely horizontal nod. "I am merely a newly admitted recruit of the outer peak. Nobody who deserves such a heavy inquiry from a master of your station."
"Ethan... Ethan Brightsword..." the Branch Leader muttered, rolling the syllables over his tongue as if trying to match them to any legendary lineage or hidden clan of the Central Zone.
Before he could push the interrogation any further, the heavy wind rustled the black bamboo outside, and two figures broke through the courtyard’s perimeter warded array. They were both Senior Elders of the branch, but their faces carried entirely different expressions of urgency as they recognized the towering youth standing at the training chamber’s doorway.
The first was Elder Ash—the veteran swordsman who had spent months secretly monitoring Ethan at the remote frontier outpost. He was the one who had quietly provided Ethan with the necessary tactical advice to navigate the sect’s entrance trials without raising immediate alarms. He was also a deeply entrenched agent of the Fourth Princess of the empire, tasked with ensuring that this terrifying, unorthodox talent was safely funneled into her growing faction.
The second was Elder Driz, and the contrast on his face was absolute. Driz was practically trembling, a cold, suffocating sweat drenching his inner collar. Ever since the Admiral’s ironclad warning had reached his desk, Driz had lived in a state of constant, waking nightmare. He knew that if he failed to urgently secure Ethan’s total, unconditional forgiveness for his past administrative slights, the Admiral’s blade would cleanly decapitate him before the next full moon.
"Senior Brother Ethan!" Driz shouted out rapidly, completely ignoring the Branch Leader’s presence as he rushed forward with a look of frantic, pathetic desperation. "I... I have brought the finalized spatial registry documents you requested from my office! If there is any fault, any delay at all, please let this old servant correct it immediately!"
Elder Ash stepped up right behind him, his eyes lingering on the radiant, youthful glow of the newly ascended Great Elder Hestia before fixing a knowing, intensely serious look onto Ethan.
"It seems the small pond of the outer peak could not contain your stride for long, Ethan," said Ash, his voice carrying the steady weight of the Fourth Princess’s backing. "To force a bottleneck of this caliber to violently shatter... your medical methods are truly as unholy as the reports suggested."
The Branch Leader’s eyes narrowed into dangerously thin slits as he watched the two veteran elders practically line up to curry favor with a rookie. The political chess board of his branch had just been violently tilted, and the center of the storm was a boy with a sword and a jar of medicinal paste.
The Branch Leader’s brow furrowed heavily as he looked between the bowing Elder Driz and the remarkably calm Elder Ash. The sheer level of deference being displayed toward an outer disciple was entirely unacceptable under normal sect protocols.
"What is the meaning of this, Ash?" barked the Branch Leader, his heavy, domain-level aura subtly flexing to remind everyone in the room who held the ultimate authority on this peak. "Why are two Senior Elders of my branch acting like common merchant assistants before a newly admitted rookie? Speak clearly."
Elder Ash stepped forward, executing a flawless, practiced bow to mask the true, deeper layer of the Fourth Princess’s political machinations.
"Leader, please forgive our abruptness," said Ash, his voice steady and projecting a tone of deep, calculating confidentiality. "The official registry profiles have kept this young man’s true lineage thoroughly discreet to prevent spooking him or drawing unnecessary attention from our adversaries. According to our exhaustive deep-border tracking, Ethan is the sole surviving first-disciple of Master Green Leaf—a legendary, fiercely independent errant physician who chose to live in absolute isolation deep within the Green Mountain sector."
"Master Green Leaf?" the Branch Leader muttered, his eyes narrowing as he searched his century-old memories for the obscure title.
"Yes, Leader," Ash lied smoothly, his face a perfectly constructed wall of imperial diplomacy. "The old physician was an eccentric, reclusive monster who possessed medical insights that completely defied the standard conventions of the Alchemical Pavilion. This youth is a literal, certified prodigy who inherited that entire unholy medical legacy. We deliberately chose to handle his admission with absolute secrecy because if the spies of the *Soaring Dragon Kingdom* ever discovered a medical talent capable of violently forcing a Golden Core bottleneck to shatter, they would deploy an entire legion to kidnap him. Possessing a prodigy of his caliber will aggressively elevate the overall combat readiness and survival rate of our frontline army to a terrifying degree."
The Branch Leader’s cold eyes subtly flickered. A physician who could single-handedly manufactured Golden Core powerhouses out of dying veterans was a strategic nuclear asset in a border war. His gaze drifted back to Ethan, the intense suspicion in his chest slightly giving way to a dark, opportunistic greed.
"Ash," said the Branch Leader, his voice dropping into a low, interrogative growl. "Your jurisdictional command is the Northern Front Sector. Are you telling me this youth truly marched directly out of your perimeter?"
"He did, Leader," said Ash, nodding his head with a solemn, heavy expression. "The tragic reality is that the young man’s entire family and medical master were completely and utterly destroyed just a little over a month ago. The massive, high-tier beast horde that violently assaulted the North Summit completely wiped out a vast majority of the border villages—and the reclusive valley of Green Mountain was right in the center of that bloody slaughterhouse. Ethan is the last remaining torch of Master Green Leaf’s legacy."
Ethan stood quietly in the parlor, his amethyst eyes watching the veteran elder weave a thoroughly brilliant, tragic backstory out of thin air. He didn’t say a single word to contradict the narrative, a faint, dangerous smile playing on his lips as he realized the identity mask the Fourth Princess had carved for him was completely flawless. He was no longer a terrifying, unexplainable anomaly from the frontier—he was now a tragic, heavily protected medical weapon that the branch would desperately protect at all costs.
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From this moment forward, to avoid confusion regarding cultivation ranks, I will include this footer with the current established levels.
Note: These are only the ranks mentioned so far to avoid spoilers.
Body Refinement Realm
Skin Refinement / Bone Refinement / Organ Refinement
Spiritual Gathering Realm
Spiritual Perception / Spiritual Mist / Spiritual Condensation
Spiritual Core Realm
Core Solidification / Core Awakening / Spiritual Collapse (Half-step Spiritual Core)
Spiritual Soul Realm
Spiritual Soul Awakening / Soul Nourishing / Soul-Core Fusion
Golden Core Realm
Prime Fusion / Core Perfection / Core Destruction
Spiritual Sea Realm
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??
Dao Manifestation Realm
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??
Spiritual Transcendence
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??
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Sword mastery levels
Sword Intent.
Sword Aura.