Ancestor Cyrus had six disciples living at Whitewater Courtyard: four men and two women, named Stuart Situ, Miles Gongsun, Thomas Zheng, Henry Wang, Jenny Gu, and Kathy Wenren.
Stuart Situ, Miles Gongsun, and Kathy Wenren were all late-stage Profound Immortals with strong formation skills. Thomas Zheng and Henry Wang were at mid-stage Profound Immortal, while Jenny Gu was only early-stage—but her formation skills were actually the highest among the six.
A year ago, they heard their master had taken on another disciple.
Normally, Ancestor Cyrus already had dozens of disciples, so one more didn’t matter. But then they heard that Ian Song was originally Ancestor Martin’s disciple, and their own master insisted on recruiting him after seeing his insane formations talent—even nearly fighting Ancestor Martin over it.
Being chosen by Ancestor Cyrus meant they were all extraordinary in their own right.
As the saying goes, geniuses are always proud.
So when their master fought to recruit Ian Song, it left them feeling a bit sour. Then Ancestor Cyrus even declared Ian was the most gifted young formations talent he’d ever seen.
That really made things worse—their resentment grew, and some even started to dislike Ian.
Especially since, for the whole year after joining, their junior brother Ian never came to pay his respects to his senior brothers and sisters. It felt like he didn’t care about them at all!
Today, Ancestor Cyrus sent word for them to greet Ian at the front of Whitewater Courtyard—because Ian was coming for the first time.
Six senior disciples sent out to welcome a junior brother?
So their dislike for Ian kept growing. At the same time, they started to wonder—did their master value Ian so much because he planned to pass on his true mantle?
A master can have many disciples, but only one true successor.
“Stuart, are we really doing this?”
At the front of Whitewater Courtyard, the six stood together. Jenny Gu looked worried as she asked Stuart Situ.
Whitewater Courtyard was surrounded by powerful arrays and restrictions. Ancestor Cyrus once said that anyone who could pass through the outer formations would be accepted as his disciple.
Normally, the outer formations were only half-activated, but even so, outsiders could hardly get in.
But today, just to give Ian a hard time, Stuart Situ fully activated all the arrays outside Whitewater Courtyard.
Stuart sneered, “Didn’t Master say our junior brother’s formations talent is amazing? I bet these arrays won’t stop him. If he can’t even enter Whitewater Courtyard, how does he deserve to be Master’s disciple?”
“That’s right!”
Miles Gongsun nodded in agreement. "Stuart's right. Who knows what trick Ian used to win over Master? Let's give him a proper test, so he doesn't look down on us as his seniors. Even if our talent isn't as good, we've been here hundreds or thousands of years longer—he can't just ignore us!"
"What if Master finds out and gets upset?"
Jenny Gu asked, still worried.
"Relax, we'll hold back. It's not like we'll really hurt him," Stuart said seriously.
Seeing they wouldn't budge, Jenny Gu couldn't say anything more.
Half an incense stick later.
A streak of light descended from the sky, landing outside Whitewater Courtyard.
Ian glanced over and instantly saw that more than 130 formations and dozens of powerful restrictions had been set up outside Whitewater Courtyard—all fully activated.
Just as he was about to speak—
A voice called out, "Junior Brother Ian, it's me, your senior Stuart. Master already knows you're coming—come on in!"
"Alright!"
Ian nodded, waiting for them to open the arrays—but after a while, nobody did.
Then Stuart's voice rang out again: "Junior Brother Ian, why aren't you coming in?"
Ian was sharp—he knew right away that the other disciples wanted to give him a hard time.
Not to mention Ancestor Cyrus had already given him the Purple Cloud Array Flag, which could let him walk through almost any formation. And with his own formations skill, getting through Whitewater Courtyard’s arrays was nothing.
After all, the formation knowledge he’d mastered was collected by the Star King himself.
What kind of being was a God-King?
Just a yawn from him could destroy the entire Langya Immortal World. Could his formations knowledge really be lacking?
Even some god-level arrays that were rare even in the God World were stored in the Library Pavilion. Ian couldn’t set them up yet, but he could use them for reference—so these arrays outside Whitewater Courtyard were nothing to him.
So, with a casual step, he entered the formation field.
Seeing Ian step into the array, Stuart couldn’t help but smile coldly. “He really doesn’t know how high the sky is.”
It had taken Stuart a full hundred years under Ancestor Cyrus to get through the fully activated arrays outside Whitewater Courtyard.
Ian took a step forward, then seemed to retreat five steps, then moved diagonally twice.
It looked like he’d backed up, but actually he’d advanced several meters.
The distance from the edge to the inside was only about twenty meters, and seeing Ian instantly cover several meters, Stuart and the others were a bit shocked.
“Looks like he’s got some real skill!”
Kathy Wenren chuckled, but Stuart’s face just grew darker.
Just then, Ian advanced several more meters, almost halfway through.
“No way, I can’t let him pass so easily!”
With that, Stuart formed a hand seal and sent out a command—suddenly, bolts of lightning shot out from the array, blasting toward Ian.
“Stuart, stop! This is going too far!”
Jenny Gu shouted.
Boom! Boom!
Lightning hammered the ground, blasting open huge pits—but none of it touched Ian, and in that instant, he advanced several more meters.
“Damn it!”
Stuart’s face grew even darker as he sent out another command, driving the arrays to attack Ian again.
“Stuart, stop! If you keep this up, it’ll just cause trouble!”
Henry Wang joined in, not because he liked Ian, but because he was worried—if Ian got hurt, and Ancestor Cyrus got mad, they’d all be in trouble. After all, Ancestor Cyrus clearly favored Ian.
But Stuart ignored both of them.
The arrays shifted again.
But it was like Ian could predict every change—he dodged with ease, took a few more steps, and passed through all the arrays, entering Whitewater Courtyard.
“Junior Brother Ian greets all senior brothers and sisters!”
Ian smiled and bowed respectfully.
Watching in secret, Ancestor Cyrus smiled, clearly pleased. Even the arrays he’d personally set up couldn’t stop Ian—passing through Whitewater Courtyard’s arrays was nothing.
As for not stopping Stuart and the others from making things difficult, it was because he wanted them to see just how big the gap was between them and Ian.