Chapter 7 - The Black Forest

"Green funeral smoke from the ancient alley. Dare I ask what year it is today?

"Are you willing to go to Yanmen Pass with me in my dreams?

"Blame the Senluo Palace. Or blame my reckless and frivolous words.

"Don't you see me stepping on the jade bridge…"

On the griffin, Qin Jue sang at the top of his voice, as if the people around him didn't exist. The several mentors seemed to have already become accustomed to it and acted as if nothing was happening.

Qin Jue's singing couldn't be considered angelic, but it was extremely pleasant to listen to. In addition to his arrogant and uninhibited free and easy manner, it could be said to have perfectly fused with this song, causing others to be unable to help but be intoxicated by it, even drawing the attention of the disciples on the other griffins.

"Who is that? He sings so well."

"What song is this? Why haven't I heard it before?"

"Did you guys notice that not only does that person sing well, he's also very handsome!"

"You're right. He's so charming!"

"…"

Despite the excited discussion of the surrounding female disciples, Luo Weiwei was quite calm. She had heard Qin Jue sing before, so she wasn't surprised.

But now she could confirm that the person was indeed Qin Jue.

After the song ended, Qin Jue raised his head and drank all the spirit wine in the pot. Then he lay down straight and fell asleep.

Everyone: "…"

The disciples who had been chosen to enter the Xuanyi Mountain Sect all had decent aptitude and talent. As the griffins continued to advance, many of the disciples entered a cultivation state. Otherwise, even though a day's time was not considered long, it was still very difficult to endure, especially when it came to the griffins.

Luo Weiwei was no exception. Under her best imitation, the Pure Yang True Technique seemed almost no different from the Clear Void Scripture. Even the mentors could not tell. This was also the main reason why she had been able to easily conceal herself in the Xuanyi Mountain Sect for more than a month.

In the blink of an eye, a day passed, and the griffin finally arrived at the Black Forest. Qin Jue stretched lazily and woke up soon after.

From afar, he could see a boundless forest at the end of his field of vision. Faint beast roars could be heard coming from the forest, making it seem intimidating.

Because there would be new disciples training in the Black Forest every year, the Xuanyi Mountain Sect had specially set up a branch here. Under the control of the mentors, the griffins slowly landed outside this outpost, and the several cultivators stationed here immediately came forward to welcome them.

Swoosh!

Qin Jue hated dealing with this kind of situation the most. He simply leaped over several Xuanyi Mountain Sect cultivators and entered the branch hall by himself, leaving behind a group of dumbfounded disciples and mentors.

A cultivator guarding the branch blinked his eyes and asked blankly, "Just now… did something go over our heads?"

"I didn't see clearly. It looked like a person?" another branch cultivator said with uncertainty.

Mentor Chen, who was on the same griffin as Qin Jue, jumped down and said, "It was just Uncle-Grandmaster."

Upon hearing this, the branch's cultivators were enlightened. "I see."

They were all cultivators from the Xuanyi Mountain Sect and naturally knew of Qin Jue. They immediately stopped talking. He was the sect master's junior brother, after all.

"Right, where's Elder Wu?" the division leader asked.

His name was Zhang Yue, and he was the branch's hall master who was stationed here. He was in charge of receiving the mentors and disciples who had come to train.

"Elder Wu isn't here." Mentor Chen smiled bitterly and said, "Due to certain physical reasons, Elder Wu is unable to participate in this training. They had no other choice but to replace him."

Zhang Yue was stunned. "Who did they replace him with?"

"You saw him just now."

"Could it be… Uncle-Grandmaster?" Zhang Yue's eyes twitched.

"That's right." Mentor Chen nodded.

"…"

It wasn't that Zhang Yue had any complaints about Qin Jue, but his impression of Qin Jue was that he never cared about anything and liked to drink.

Could such an unreliable Uncle-Grandmaster really guarantee the safety of the disciples?

Zhang Yue felt a headache coming on. It seemed like he would have to spend more effort on this training.

"Hall Master Zhang, it's best to arrange these disciples first." Seeing Zhang Yue remain silent for a long time, Mentor Chen reminded him.

"Yes, yes, yes!" Zhang Yue suddenly woke up and quickly ordered, "Hurry up and arrange accommodation for these disciples. Also, mentors, please follow me."

"Thank you, Hall Master Zhang."

"Hahaha, you're too polite. We're all fellow disciples." Zhang Yue waved his hand and forced a smile.

…

This branch hall had been built on the outskirts of the Black Forest. Although it wasn't a large compound, it was certainly enough for several mentors and the over two hundred new disciples to live in. As for Qin Jue, he was currently lying on the roof of a building, being bored. He took out a pot of spirit wine from his storage ring and drank it in big gulps.

"From here, the scenery seems pretty good," Qin Jue said with interest.

The reason why it was called the Black Forest wasn't because the trees here were black. On the contrary, every tree here was incomparably green and full of vitality.

But at night, the Black Forest seemed to sever its connection with the outside world. It would become extremely cold, making ordinary people unable to endure it.

Therefore, living beings that could survive in the Black Forest for a long time were extremely powerful even if they weren't fiend beasts. Some fiend beasts in the depths of the Forest had even reached the Heaven Stage.

The training place for the new disciples of the Xuanyi Mountain Sect was at the outermost edge of the Black Forest. After screening, there were basically only low-level Yellow Stage fiend beasts left there. However, to be safe, they still needed the protection of high-level cultivators. Which was what Qin Jue and the several other mentors were here for.

"Hey, who are you? Come down!" At this time, a young man stood below and shouted at Qin Jue, his tone very angry.

"Why?" Qin Jue was unmoved.

"This is the Branch Hall Pavilion!" the young man chided.

"Oh." Qin Jue took a sip of wine and directly chose to ignore him.

"Do you have a death wish?" The young man was furious and was about to jump up to fight Qin Jue when Zhang Yue suddenly led several mentors over.

"What's going on, Ruocheng?" asked Zhang Yue with a slight frown.

"Hall Master." The young man suppressed his anger and pointed at Qin Jue on the roof. "I don't know who this person is, but he's actually lying on our Branch Hall Pavilion drinking wine. He simply doesn't respect our Xuanyi Mountain Sect!"

Zhang Yue looked closely and immediately recognized Qin Jue. He immediately smiled bitterly and said, "Forget it, don't worry about him."

Hearing this, the young man thought that he had heard wrongly. However, Zhang Yue's next words stunned the young man. "He is the junior brother of the sect master. According to seniority, we should call him Uncle-Grandmaster."

"Is he… the uncle-grandmaster who's only in his teens?!" The young man gaped in disbelief.

"Who else could it be?"

The young man was speechless.

Although he had never seen Qin Jue before, the young man had long heard about the matter of the Sect Master's Junior Brother being a teenager. He just didn't expect that Qin Jue was actually so young!

"Don't worry about him. Let's go inside," Zhang Yue said calmly.

The other mentors looked at each other and tacitly pretended not to see anything. In any case, they were already used to it. He was the junior brother of the sect master, after all.