“You, did you just call my father a dog?”
Xi Shen asked to confirm what he just heard.
“So what if I did? Perhaps your mother is a bitch as well, that’s why she gave birth to a bastard like you!”
Yu Fung sneered in contempt.
‘Who does this punk think he is? He’s nothing but trash! So what if he beat up some lowly worker disciples I randomly pick up, can he even touch me? He must want his body to be delivered in pieces back to his family in his backwater village.’
Yu Fung thought to himself as he stared venomously at Xi Shen.
Meanwhile, Xi Shen had the smile fall from his face to be replaced with a frighteningly cold expression.
He was rather enjoying himself a moment ago, fooling around by digging a hole for this arrogant brat. But hearing his mother being insulted something, snapped within him and his heart turn grim.
Xi Shen didn’t want to play anymore.
Stepping forward, Xi Shen’s figure vanished to appear in front of Yu Fung.
“Wha-what?!”
Yu Fung took a step back in shock, but before he could retreat, Xi Shen’s hand shot out and his five fingers wrapped themselves around his neck before lifting him off the ground.
Looking like a chicken being held by its neck, Yu Fung’s legs kicked in the air and he instinctively latched onto Xi Shen’s arm holding his neck.
“Wh-why you, are you fucking crazy?! Let go of me you fucking bastard, do you think I won’t have you killed for this!! You…”
“Bam!”
“cAcK”
“AHHHH!!!”
Without giving Yu Fung a chance to say anymore, Xi Shen punched him square in the face breaking his nose in one go.
Despite the position Yu Fung had as the grandson of the 7th Elder, his cultivation was extremely lacking. He was only at the Meridian Opening Realm ready to breakthrough to the Sea Expansion Realm despite nearly being sixteen.
As for why the grandson of an Elder was walking around being escorted by worker disciples, was the simple fact that he wasn't the only grandson of the 7th elder.
In this world, almost every cultivator in powerful positions practiced polygamy or polyandry, in order to produce a few sons or daughters to carry on their bloodline or have multiple options for an heir to choose from.
It wasn’t just his father, the Emperor, who was naturally responsible for producing an heir, that was the only one to practice it.
With that said, the current position of Yu Fung in his family could be considered pathetic. He was born with a low innate talent so his family practically abandon him and left him to his devices.
His current cultivation was a product of pills that he desperately took in order to not lose his position as a Conclave disciple. If he were to turn sixteen and still hadn’t reached the Sea Expansion Realm, even if his grandfather wanted to, he couldn't prevent his expulsion to the Outer Academy.
It’s sad really, since he was born, Yu Fung hadn’t even seen his grandfather's face. And when his talents were found out his parents turned their attention to his much more talented older and younger siblings.
Yu Fung was even getting ruthlessly bullied and mocked by his family members. The only thing his parents would do when he reported it was silently looked at him, a tinge of regret and disappointment in their eyes.
He could have used all this as motivation to push himself to get stronger since even with low a talent for cultivation, some people have still gone on to do extraordinary things in the cultivation world in other fields. Proving to all, of their worth.
But Yu Fung. He just chose to target worker disciples, people who couldn’t fight back against him, to release his frustrations.
His current situation was sad, but his actions didn’t make it any better.
And even if Xi Shen was told of his situation, of the abuse and neglect he suffered to become this way, he had already insulted his mother so Xi Shen wouldn’t have given a damn.
Xi Shen was currently pounding his fist mercilessly into Yu Fung’s face.
The people watching were standing there with their jaws on the floor, as Xi Shen just repeatedly pull back and smashed his fist into Yu Fung's face, with a completely stone expression.
Cracks and crunches echoed out as the crowd of disciples were horrified at this display of brutality. Yu Fung’s face was visibly starting to swell to resemble a pig’s head after each punch from this person.
*Bam* *Bam* *Bam*
Xi Shen finally came to a stop after some time, and look at Yu Fung.
His eyes were swollen shut, his lips were busted up, and several bruised and dark spots were on his face.
Xi Shen frowned.
‘I lost control there for a moment. I almost smash his skull in with my first punch, luckily I manage to restrain myself at the last second.’
Xi Shen then let go of a limp Yu Fung and he fell to the ground sprawled out. He was completely unmoving.
He was then ignored by Xi Shen who turned and simply left. His mood was slightly ruined now thanks to that fool.
“Is-is he dead?”
A bystander in the crowd said as he looked at Yu Fung.
“No, he’s not, look his chest is moving.” Someone else responded.
“Shouldn’t we report this?”
Everyone looked at each other for a moment, before they all simultaneously turned around and left to go about their day, completely ignoring Yu Fung and his attendants.
And with that, Xi Shen unknowingly gained the reputation of being the worker disciples’ savior. News of his heroic deed had spread throughout the Sword Pavilion in the Conclave Academy, and soon all worker disciples were in the know.
Showers of praise and thankful prayers came from those worker disciples. Yu Fung had tormented them so much that when Xi Shen defeated him they practically raised him to a deity-like status in their hearts.
In their homes, alters sprung up with an image of a shoe-less shadowy figure holding a bamboo stick placed in the center. The figure was depicted as a lone hero who would go around helping the common folk.
Previously, they were scared that once Yu Fung recovered he would continue his tyranny, but he never did. Making them grateful for this lone and mysterious hero’s actions even more.
This even spread from the worker disciples to the Conclave Disciples' ears, causing all of them to become baffled upon hearing the different iterations of this lone vigilante going around the Academy beating up the wicked and correcting injustice.
The more this went on the more the stories become completely outlandish. Now there was even a version of the story that talks of him riding down on a golden chariot from the sky, and defeating evil doers with his Divine Pole of Justice.
Not even three days had passed and now the entire Sword Pavilion main branch in the Conclave Academy had news of a mysterious and powerful disciple roaming around its corridors began being talked about by everyone.
The event that day had completely blown out of proportion and seemed to take on a form of its own to become this sort of legend, a myth among the Conclave Disciples. Not just in the Sword Pavilion, but even the other divisions had people talking about this new powerful disciple.
And with this comes a burning curiosity to find out who this person was.
Factions then began to move, ready to search high and low for this person to recruit him, as well as numerous individuals who consider themselves talented who rush to seek out and battle this person.
Some became jealous of this person’s fame and wanted to defeat him to gain it for themselves. While others were just in it for the fun and were really curious about who this person could be.
Among the top geniuses in the Conclave Academy, all were known, but his person suddenly sprang up out of nowhere overnight.
Speculations as to whether it was an existing top talent was secretly this person was passed around, however, no one knew who to suspect.
“Hey, I heard the Flowing River Sword Faction has joined this crazy search. With the Extreme Yang Sword Faction and the Stormy Violet In The East Sword Faction, that makes it three of the top Factions after this person!”
“Just who is he to create such a ruckus in the Conclave Academy? His talents must be extraordinary!”
“Yeah, I heard he defeated some powerful Demonic Cultivator tyrant and saved a bunch of people. He’s become a sensation overnight!”
Three Sword Pavilion Conclave Disciples discussed among themselves as they headed for the public training grounds.
“Hey, have you heard about this mysterious disciple that everyone’s been talking about lately? Well get this, I heard a rumor that he was wearing Inner Disciple robes. I don’t know if this is true, what do you guys think?”
“Inner Disciple robes? No, he can’t be an Inner Disciple, he’s just way too powerful. He must be a Conclave Disciple like us. We probably didn’t know about him until now because he must be a Chosen.”
“Yeah, that’s right! A Chosen, why didn’t I think of that! That would explain why we never heard of someone this powerful until now, there are numerous hidden dragons and crouching tigers in the hidden society of Chosens. One of them must have stepped out of the shadows.”
“Ahh man, who is this Bare Feet Hero? I want to see this person. Just who is he really?”
“Pissh! Get in a line! You're not the only one who wants to know who this person is, even those brutes from the Blade Pavilion have set their eyes over here. They’re probably jealous of all the attention someone of the Sword Pavilion is getting in the Academy and want to squash it by defeating him.”
Five other Conclave Disciple within a Pavilion were drinking Spirit Wine and speculating this person’s identity.
“Hey, why the hell aren’t you wearing any shoes?!”
“Dude where are you living, under a rock?! Didn’t you hear about the Shoe-less Hero? He’s become everyone’s idol recently and people have started to mimic his trademark appearance!”
“Yeah, why do you have shoes on? You're the weird one here!”
The news had also spread to even the Outer Academy, and being younger in age, they latched onto this senior brother and made him their role model. Now a society had formed sweeping across not just the Outer Academy but the Inner and Core Academy as well. This society was dubbed the Shoe-less Society.
These were the devoted supporters of the Shoe-less Hero, the newest sensation in the Celestial Academy!
Meanwhile, in his courtyard, Xi Shen, who had gone into one-week seclusion had just returned to the outside world and was listening to Lihua telling him of the recent events in the Academy.
Dumbfounded couldn’t even begin to describe what Xi Shen was currently feeling. He was completely speechless for a minute or two.
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om