Yuehua Sword Sect, Xuhe Peak.
One of the six great peaks, yet this place looked half-dead. Weeds had swallowed the stone steps leading up the mountain. No one had cleaned them in years.
Two disciples were trudging up the path under the blazing sun, wilted like beaten dogs, grumbling the whole way.
“What a damn waste of time. Every disciple-taking ceremony, we’ve gotta come drag that crippled peak master out. And with the formation pressing down the air so no one can fly, we have to climb on foot. Annoying as hell.”
“Ain’t that the truth. Adrian Holloway didn’t even show up last time. I heard you can’t feel a shred of spiritual qi from him anymore. His cultivation backfired and scattered. He’s just trash now.”
“If the mountain-guarding formation wasn’t there, I’d have taught him a lesson already. Anyway, that useless bastard’s about to be kicked out of the sect before long. We wouldn’t even have to worry about punishment. Might as well vent a little.”
“...”
At the summit of Xuhe Peak, Adrian Holloway stood by the Tranquil Heart Pool in a white robe.
He looked like an exile from the heavens, clean and distant, too refined for the ruined peak behind him. His bearing was still extraordinary, as if ruin had never touched him.
The two disciples had just dragged themselves up to the top. The moment they saw him standing there like that, both sneered inwardly.
No cultivation left, and he was still putting on airs like some hidden master. So what if he was handsome? A pretty face didn’t change a thing. A cripple was still a cripple.
“Adrian Holloway, the ten-year disciple-taking ceremony is here. The Sect Master sent us to call you over to accept disciples.”
“The Sect Master has already spoken with the other peak masters. If you, Adrian Holloway, can’t take in even one disciple today, then get out of the sect. Xuhe Peak should’ve changed hands long ago.”
Every other word out of their mouths was his full name. Not a trace of respect.
If this had been any other peak master, those two would’ve been slapped off the mountain already.
But here, with Adrian Holloway, things were different. The only thing protecting him was the mountain formation. It could guard his body, nothing more. It could not restore what he had lost.
Ten years ago, Adrian Holloway had been one of Yuehua Sword Sect’s brightest monsters. Still young, he had already broken into the Po Xu Realm. When he went to the upper sect, even the saintess had taken a liking to him. The Holy Lord himself had issued a decree and arranged a marriage tie between the two sects.
Because of that, the Sect Master of Yuehua Sword Sect made an exception and opened another peak, giving Adrian Holloway the seat of Xuhe Peak Master.
Back then, he had stood in the spotlight. Glorious. Untouchable.
Then he had transmigrated over.
A worn-out office slave from another life, worked to death by endless 996 shifts, he had landed in the body of this Adrian Holloway, same name and all. And right after that, the man’s cultivation began to collapse like a broken dam. It dropped and dropped, until five years ago, he had become a complete mortal.
A peak master with no cultivation.
How could anyone stay?
The disciples under Xuhe Peak fled where they could, scattered where they couldn’t. By now, the whole peak had long since emptied out, leaving him alone like a man abandoned by the world.
Adrian Holloway had been here ten years.
There was no phone, no noise, no way back. Every day, he either raised flowers or fed fish. To others, it looked like calm elegance, the leisure of an immortal at peace.
Only he knew the truth.
He was bored enough to rot.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to go down the mountain. He didn’t dare.
Ten years ago, the old Adrian Holloway had offended plenty of people. Going down the mountain now would be no different from laying his neck on the butcher’s block. So he could only stay trapped on this tiny Xuhe Peak, living like a ghost in a painted cage.
But that was as far as it went.
This very morning, that damned system had finally activated for today’s disciple-taking ceremony.
The moment it woke up, Adrian Holloway had nearly laughed out loud.
This dog of a system had come way too late.
“Let’s go. I’ll take in a disciple at the ceremony.”
At that thought, Adrian Holloway felt some of the pressure ease off his chest. He flicked his sleeve and strode down the mountain.
The two disciples behind him sneered at once.
“What a joke. A cripple like him wants a disciple? Dream on. If I were him, I’d crawl out of the sect myself and save what little face I had left.”
“Hmph. A useless wreck, still putting on the air of a peak master. The other five peaks are thriving. Anyone with a sound head would sooner die than take him as master. Today’s the day he gets thrown out.”
Adrian said nothing as he walked ahead.