19 Iron Spear Clan

"Senior brother Ren, Senior brother Lin and also junior sister Wan! You are back! Eh? What happened?" The moment Meng's group arrived at the Iron Spear Clan's ground, the other disciples arrived to greet the 3 of them before looking with curious expressions at Meng who had his right hand still being held by Wan Xiu.

"Hm?" Someone from a distance also noticed their arrival and decided to watch and listen from afar.

"This kind brother here is named Su Meng and what had happened...well..." Wan Xiu quickly let go of Meng's hand and stepped forward, introducing Meng before she started retelling what had happened with an embarrassed face, obviously, she skipped the part where she had to undress a bit otherwise she would die out of shame.

"What?! Are you telling the truth?! I hope you aren't playing jokes on us once again, senior brother Lin!" One of the disciples asked in disbelief before looking at Ren who apparently was more trustworthy for them and he just nodded his head with a serious expression.

"Wow...T-That's unbelievable...The second stage of Elementary Realm killing the Nascent Realm beast in one move." A lot of disciples muttered. This caused quite a big commotion and naturally, even older disciples noticed this along with a few elders.

They quickly arrived asking what is going on and everyone quickly explained it to them but most of them had a doubting expression while observing Meng.

"Boy, your name is Su Meng, right?" One of the elders finally decided to address Meng directly.

Meng just respectfully nodded his head.

"Then would you like to join our Iron Spear Clan? We don't focus much on profound strength so we don't really care that much about your second stage of the elementary realm, however, what we do care for, are the skills and techniques. You may take the examination since 3 of our disciples say that you saved them, however, you are eligible to take it just because you saved them. We won't make the examination easier for you just because your profound strength is weaker than the bare minimum to join." The elder said before he closed his eyes, waiting for Meng's answer.

'Quite reasonable. They can't just let an outsider in through the backdoor and they can't have full trust in those three's words so instead of not trusting them and throwing me out, they give me the opportunity even though I don't meet the qualifications. This elder's reasoning is very logical and no one here is actually looking at me in contempt. This clan looks like a nice place where I can spend my time cultivating and sleeping.' Meng considered everything and decided to join this clan as it seemed to him that they are one of those more righteous clans in this world where almost everyone is just arrogant and relying on their background.

"Naturally, I wouldn't want any rumors to spread around here that I joined through the backdoor or connections." Meng

"Good! You will need to fight with one of our weakest disciples in your age category. How old are you, boy?" The elder released a hearty laugh upon hearing Meng answer without any delay at all.

"I recently turned 16 years old." Meng said with a slight bow.

"Alright, then your opponent should be..." The elder said while thinking about Meng's age category however before he could decide, someone approached them and interrupted the elder.

"The elder Jin, please wait!" It was a young man with long hair tied in a high ponytail, holding quite particular spear that looked quite simple yet it was giving off a strong aura on its own.

"Hm? Oh! It is the young master Tie! Does young master Tie have anything to say?" The elder Jin asked with a friendly smile, it was apparent that he held this young man in high regard.

"I have overheard the entire conversation. I believe in junior brothers and sister's words. If brother Su truly defeated Nascent Realm beast in one move, we can't risk sending someone too weak. Although I am 1 year older, how about sparring with me, brother Su? You are free to refuse since the difference in our profound strengths is one whole realm and 2 stages...not to even mention my age." A young man asked Meng in a polite tone. Meng could see in his eyes that he was very curious and most importantly the desire to fight the strong opponents.

"..." Meng didn't answer immediately as he kept observing the young man in front of him.

"...Please don't feel ashamed to ref-" The young man wanted to assure Meng as he probably thought that he was hesitating.

However, out of his expectations, Meng suddenly released a wide smile which surprised a lot of people, including his challenger who was at the 4th stage of Nascent Profound Realm.

"Brother Meng?" Xiu whispered with a worried expression.

"How could I possibly refuse someone who is looking at me with such challenging eyes?! Would you mind if I fight you with my sword? I intend to learn the way of spear after joining the clan." Meng said with a slightly crazy smile. He already took a liking to the young man who was in front of him, mainly due to his fighting spirit and politeness despite being much stronger than the other young disciples.

"...Make sure this information won't get out of our grounds." The previous elder whispered to someone who quickly rushed somewhere. Meng was not sure if he did it in case this young master Tie lost to avoid any shame on his name or maybe it was also to protect Meng, after all, if he were to win, the Iron Spear Clan would just catch a big fish.

.

.

The news spread pretty quickly on the clan's grounds between other disciples and almost everyone went to attend their fight and see this with their own eyes.

"Is it even possible to defeat someone one whole realm and 2 stages higher? I think that the new guy is probably talented but this feat is simply unbelievable"

"Who knows...but that's why we are here to watch the spar, no? Plus he doesn't have to necessarily defeat young master Tie, as long as he will impress him, he will be fine. Impressing young master Tie is quite hard but if he has technique and skills, he doesn't need profound strength to impress him."

"Don't doubt brother Su! I think you will see something very interesting today." Xiu announced to other fellow disciples with Lin and Ren standing behind her with smiles on their faces. Although she said that, she was still worried for Meng, even though he defeated that beast in one move, fighting a human cultivator whose skills are as honed as young master Tie's skills is a completely different matter altogether.

The other disciples gulped down upon hearing her words and just fixed their eyes on the stage where Meng and Tie were standing opposite to each other.

"Tie Hengjun, 17 years old, 4th stage of Nascent Profound Realm! Let's have a fair spar!"

"Su Meng, 16 years old, 2nd stage of Elementary Profound Realm. Please show me some guidance, young master Tie." Meng responded in kind with a slight bow.

"Brother Su, please start" Tie said and Meng immediately saw through his intentions.

Meng knew that this guy had no idea about Meng's strength so instead of attacking Meng and heavily injuring him, he gave Meng the first move to measure his strength.

"Young master Tie is indeed very fair and righteous! I accept this however I hope young master Tie will fight with everything he has." Meng said with a smile and extended his right arm to the side and a sword appeared in his hand.

Meng decided to slowly take a first step forward which made Tie narrow his eyes in focus but the next moment when Meng appeared right in front of him, his eyes widened in surprise. Meng thrust his sword towards Tie's shoulder but Tie quickly reflected it with his spear despite being caught off-guard.

"What a speed! I can't believe he actually caught young master Tie off-guard with his speed!" Disciples were also shocked seeing Meng traversing more than 20 steps in an instant but on the other hand, the elders instead of looking at the fight with shocked eyes, they looked at the trio who brought Meng here with wide-open eyes in the realization that they probably truly didn't change their story a bit.

Meng continued being on the offensive side but even though every attack was focused on his opponent's weak spot, his opponent was able to swiftly parry his attack despite slightly falling behind under the pressure of consecutive attacks aimed at his weak spots.

"Brother Su, your speed, your technique, also your battle experience to attack at which moment are simply superb! Please defend yourself with everything you have now!" Tie shouted in admiration before a light blue profound energy enveloped his spear. He performed 3 consecutive attacks at a much faster speed than Meng but Meng was able to deflect them or dodge them however after those 3 attacks continued the last 4th attack with at least 2 fold stronger than the previous ones.

Meng was forced to receive it head-on with his sword which caused the light blue profound energy around the tip of the spear to erupt, causing Meng to slide a few meters back. He also noticed a small crack on his sword.

'If I wouldn't have had my physique during that last attack, it would have been my loss. His profound energy is indeed denser than mine and even though my energy is most likely much better than anyone else's here, I am still too weak.' Meng thought with an excited smile, it was his first time fighting a human and so skilled one at that, he was obviously excited.

"Young master Tie, please receive this!" Since it was still just a spar, Meng warned him before he slashed his sword in a cross-motion.

'River Crossing Slash!'

Blue profound energy was released from his sword toward his opponent.

"?!" Tie once again widened his eyes as he saw blue profound energy in X form tearing through the ground towards him at unbelievable speed. This was the second time Tie felt in danger aside from the time when Meng caught him off-guard.