The Apostle Association occupied an extremely large area. It was a long way from the fixed-point teleportation device to the Emerald Tower located in the center of the association. By the time Moya finished analyzing the power of the association, they had only walked a small part of the way.

  "Strange, why are there so few people on the road?" Moya looked around and muttered softly.

  Indeed, the three of them had walked for a while, but they hadn't even encountered a single apostle. Under normal circumstances, this was definitely abnormal.

  Chen Yue was also a bit suspicious, but at this moment, the most important thing was to go and see Venia. Although he had gained a lot from his arduous cultivation in the Aisi Mountains, there were more doubts about his cultivation path. He hoped that the knowledgeable Venia could give him some guidance.

  For example, the mutation of the Source of Life when breaking through the bottleneck, and the unpredictable Blade Beast... and so on.

  After walking for a while longer, even Macedon became puzzled and said, "Strange. It wasn't like this when I came here just now..."

  Before he could finish his sentence, a huge commotion suddenly came from ahead, which was so loud that it attracted everyone's attention.

  The three of them immediately stopped and looked at each other in surprise.

  "It seems to be from the dueling arena," Moya said hesitantly.

  "Yes, that's the place," Macedon nodded in affirmation. Glancing at Chen Yue, whose expression hadn't changed much, a sharp light suddenly flashed in his eyes. "Let's go and have a look."

  Macedon's proposal had its own reasons. Although with Chen Yue's return, the possibility of people fleeing in fear no longer existed, Chen Yue's reputation had inevitably been ruined. If it wasn't handled properly, it would definitely affect their reputations.

  If Chen Yue could wash away his bad reputation through a duel and they could also see his strength at the same time, why not do it?

  Since Macedon, as a disciple, had spoken, and Chen Yue thought that he couldn't delay for long anyway, he agreed.

  When they got near the dueling arena and saw the dense crowd, the three of them couldn't help but take a deep breath.

  Goodness! Most of the apostles in the association had rushed here.

  What amazing thing had happened inside that had attracted the interest of so many apostles?

  An extremely strong curiosity welled up in the hearts of the three of them at the same time.

  Moya casually grabbed a low-level apostle who was hurrying by. The man was suddenly pulled to a stop and immediately became furious. However, before he could lose his temper, Macedon's calm voice rang out:

  "What's going on inside?"

  "Who are you... Ah, Lord Macedon." When he saw Macedon's appearance clearly, the man's body trembled and he forcibly swallowed the rest of his words. His expression instantly became extremely respectful.

  "Well, it's said that a follower who didn't know his place wanted to challenge a second-level apostle, so everyone came to watch," the apostle said animatedly.

  "A follower challenging a second-level apostle?" The three of them were speechless when they heard this and all felt a bit incredulous. After all, there was a clear distinction in status between followers and apostles. The two were like nobles and butlers and couldn't be compared at all.

  "How absurd," Macedon said coldly.

  The status of followers was completely raised by apostles. To put it more seriously, that follower's behavior was blatant insubordination. I'm afraid that regardless of whether he won or lost the duel, the follower would receive extremely severe punishment.

  "How dare that follower? Isn't he afraid of being blacklisted by the association?" Moya wondered.

  "It seems that the second-level apostle said something rude and greatly offended the apostle he followed, so this happened," the apostle said with an envious look on his face. "Speaking of which, although this follower is being insubordinate, he's doing it to defend his master. Many people are envious of that apostle for having such a loyal follower."

  Macedon's expression softened a little when he heard this. If there was such a reason, it was barely acceptable. However, it was still hard to forgive...

  "Who is the follower?" Chen Yue, who hadn't spoken all this time, suddenly asked.

  "It seems to be called Ling something'er..." The apostle casually glanced at Chen Yue, and then his eyes suddenly widened to the maximum. Pointing at Chen Yue, he said in disbelief, "You, you're Chen Yue."

  "Chen Yue?"

  Like a stone creating a thousand ripples, he didn't deliberately suppress his voice. This exclamation immediately attracted the attention of the apostles who were coming over. When they saw Chen Yue standing quietly aside, they all cast meaningful glances at him, with curiosity, contempt, and envy...

  It was this seemingly overly young youth who had become a prominent figure in recent days and the key to the confrontation among several major forces in the Apostle Association. Although his reputation wasn't good, if one could be noticed by several respected deacon adults at the same time, it would be worth it even if the reputation was several times worse.

  Leaving aside their complicated feelings, Chen Yue didn't have the slightest mood to savor them at this moment. Because, if there was no accident, the follower in this apostle's mouth should be Ling Zhu'er.

  "That should be my follower," Chen Yue explained to Macedon and Moya with a gloomy face and then strode towards the dueling arena.

  Macedon and Moya were both stunned for a moment, and then they quickly followed.

  As soon as Macedon left, the others immediately became excited. Chen Yue, who hadn't returned for a long time, suddenly came back and happened to encounter his follower having a duel because someone had insulted him. Tsk, what an exciting and anticipate situation this was!

  There was no need for anyone to instigate them. This group of people immediately rushed towards the dueling arena in a swarm. In this way, probably more than 90% of the apostles in the Apostle Association had gathered here, except for those big shots.

  Chen Yue's steps were big, and Macedon and Moya couldn't keep up with him at all. Soon, they lost sight of him. When the two of them rushed to the dueling arena in a hurry and saw the lively scene in front of them, they were stunned for a moment.

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  The dueling arena of the Apostle Association had been built with a lot of thought. There were many high platforms around each venue to allow apostles to observe better.

  At this moment, a large number of people were crowded around the venue that was only about half the size of a football field. Even on the surrounding high platforms, there were two or three apostles standing on eight or nine out of ten of them, looking excitedly at the inside of the venue.

  The two of them stood on the periphery and couldn't see the scene inside at all. They could only vaguely hear the sounds of cursing and fighting coming through the wall of people, and with the occasional loud shouts from the apostles and followers watching outside, it was even harder to tell what was going on.

  "Did Chen Yue go in?" Macedon said with a headache. Judging from Chen Yue's expression just now, he was extremely angry. He was really worried that Chen Yue would lose his temper and make the situation uncontrollable, which would be a loss outweighing the gain.

  At this moment, Macedon began to regret a little. Perhaps, he shouldn't have proposed coming to the dueling arena at all.

  "Let's go up to the high platform and have a look," Moya suggested. Macedon's eyes lit up, and he immediately pulled Moya up to a nearby high platform. The high platforms closer to the venue were already full of people, and only the high platforms on the edge had vacancies.

  "Strange." The two of them stared into the dueling arena for a while, but they didn't find Chen Yue's figure. Judging from the reaction of the apostles watching outside, obviously the news of Chen Yue's return hadn't spread yet, which also meant that Chen Yue wasn't among the onlookers.

  The two of them looked around, searching for Chen Yue's figure.

  "He's there." Moya had sharp eyes and vaguely saw Chen Yue's figure on the southernmost high platform.

  Seeing that Chen Yue hadn't impulsively rushed directly into the dueling arena, Macedon couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. He pulled Moya and walked towards that high platform. Fortunately, the attention of the others was all on the dueling arena and didn't notice them running around. Otherwise, with Macedon's status, he might lose a bit of face.

  Both of them were orthodox apostles, and their physical qualities weren't outstanding. By the time they rushed to the high platform where Chen Yue was in a hurry, they were both a bit out of breath.

  "Phew... Chen Yue, you..." After taking a few quick breaths, Macedon, whose heart had been hanging in the air for a long time, was about to scold Chen Yue when he noticed Chen Yue's eyes. Suddenly, a feeling of uneasiness rose from the bottom of his heart. His body trembled, and he looked at Chen Yue in disbelief. The second half of his sentence turned into a question: "Why didn't you go in and stop it?"

  Moya gave him a strange look. When they were under the high platform just now, he had noticed that Macedon's face didn't look good and was actually worried about Chen Yue in his heart, afraid that he would make an enemy of a powerful figure like Macedon. Who would have thought that Macedon seemed to have lost his temper all of a sudden, which was really puzzling.

  He looked up at Chen Yue's expression. Except for being a bit gloomy, there was nothing strange about it.

  There were already waves in Macedon's heart. The feeling of uneasiness that had just risen from the bottom of his heart wasn't his real feeling, but came from his summoned beast. Although his summoned beast wasn't very powerful, it had a very special ability. It could sense the hostility from the outside world and judge the degree of threat. This ability had saved him many times in the past, so Macedon had no doubts about it at all.

  That feeling of uneasiness indicated that the other party already had the ability to threaten his own life safety. Considering that Chen Yue's hostility should be directed at others in the dueling arena...

  Macedon shuddered and strange thoughts popped up in his mind.

  This guy, is he still a first-level apostle?

  ...

  It was extremely difficult for apostles to level up, so Macedon didn't expect that Chen Yue had already reached the second level at this moment. What's more, he wouldn't have thought that when Chen Yue was in the Aisi Mountains, he had already dared to fight against a fifth-level peak monster like the Ramoer giant ape. In terms of overall strength, probably only third-level peak apostles could firmly surpass Chen Yue at this moment.

  Unfortunately, Macedon hadn't reached that level yet.

  Although he sensed the change in Macedon's attitude, Chen Yue didn't take it to heart. When he saw the two of them coming, he first apologized to Macedon and then explained.

  "For the time being, my follower hasn't been at a disadvantage. Being able to fight against an apostle is also a rare experience for her, so I don't want to stop it immediately."

  The two of them were stunned when they heard this. Just now, they had been only focused on looking for Chen Yue. Although they had glanced at the battle in the dueling arena a few times, they hadn't looked into it carefully. At this time, when they heard what Chen Yue said, they quickly looked towards the dueling arena.

  This high platform was even farther from the dueling arena than the previous one, but it was still easy to distinguish the battle situation.

  The second-level apostle fighting against Ling Zhu'er had an ugly and ferocious green-spotted spider as his summoned beast. It moved as fast as the wind, running back and forth in the dueling arena, and from time to time spat out a basin-sized green mucus that corroded small pits on the ground when it landed. One could imagine how miserable the outcome would be if it landed on a person.

  Moya's face turned a bit pale when he saw this. The green-spotted spider had two life halos under its feet, obviously a two-star summoned beast. Judging from the terrifying corrosive power of its mucus, it was probably in the upper-middle level among two-star summoned beasts. Moya estimated that if he fought against it, he probably wouldn't be able to last for three minutes.

  Could that delicate little girl withstand its attacks and not be at a disadvantage? If they hadn't seen it with their own eyes, the two of them would never have believed it.

  However, to their surprise, what Chen Yue said seemed to be a bit modest...

  At this moment, in the face of the fierce and extremely threatening attacks of the green-spotted spider, Ling Zhu'er not only coped with them completely but also occasionally launched extremely precise counterattacks that forced the green-spotted spider to retreat in a hurry.

  "Surprisingly, she's got the upper hand."

  ...

  Swallowing hard, Moya asked hesitantly, "Chen Yue, what level of fighter is your follower?"

  "Well," Chen Yue's eyes flickered. "Before, she was just a second-level fighter, but now, she should be a third-level fighter."

  "Third level?" This time, not only Moya was shocked, but even Macedon was stunned. Just the strength of that green-spotted spider alone would make an ordinary third-level professional an easy target.

  "What kind of apostle has what kind of follower," the two of them thought sourly in their hearts. "Both are abnormal."

  Flicking his fingers in the air a few times, Chen Yue was also a bit speechless. He hadn't expected Ling Zhu'er's strength to improve so quickly. In less than half a year, the intensity of her fighting spirit had reached the third-level standard. Coupled with the sword skills she learned from him, I'm afraid that even a fourth-level fighter wouldn't be able to get the upper hand against her.

  "It seems that I was right to take this little girl in. She's a natural swordsman," Chen Yue thought, and a sharp light flashed in his eyes. "Anyway, I must protect her."