9.14 – It really gave him a special sense of achievement when he saw it
translator: xiin
editor: alamerysl
Yu Shaofeng did not partic.i.p.ate in the inter-sect compet.i.tion, but Chi Jian and Xue Ling both did. As a spectator, he felt a little stifled.
Xue Ling did not try to console him, but Chi Jian told him: “This is my first and last time partic.i.p.ating. Perhaps you should look forward to the fact that your cultivation might exceed the compet.i.tion regulations by the time the next compet.i.tion comes around?"
Yu Shaofeng’s talent should be the highest amongst the people who had been accepted into Sky Sword Sect during the recent disciple recruiting convention. He joined Still Peak, which was considered the peak with the highest density of spiritual Qi. He had a martial brother whose cultivation level would also immediately rise up every time he casually cultivated, and a Master who was strong enough to be completely unshakeable to look up to. It made his current cultivation level seem like nothing special, but at the end of the day, he had only joined the sect a short time ago, and he hadn’t even partic.i.p.ated in any actual combat yet. It would be against established practices for him to partic.i.p.ate in an inter-sect compet.i.tion like this now. But in fact, based on his strength, if he didn’t partic.i.p.ate in this compet.i.tion, perhaps his strength would have exceeded the compet.i.tion limits the next time the inter-sect compet.i.tion
Until the Fenshen stage, based on the purity of Yu Shaofeng"s spiritual root, as long as his spiritual power acc.u.mulated to a certain level, he would rise up in ranks. Basically, he didn’t even need to cultivate his spiritual consciousness - he only needed to allow it to grow along with his strength, and it would smoothly grow along with his cultivation.
Partic.i.p.ating in the inter-sect compet.i.tion would not be very useful to him. If it hadn"t been that Xue Ling wanted to obtain the map fragment for the secret realm and give it to Yu Shaofeng so that he could find good things, Xue Ling also would have disdained partic.i.p.ating in the compet.i.tion.
Once Chi Jian had spoken, Xue Ling followed his lead and continued, "This kind of inter-sect compet.i.tion can help you gain experience, but you can also do that when you go out and wander about. If you really want to, after the Sishui Secret Realm, I"ll forge your sword for you, and you can go out and temper yourself with Chi Jian.”
After all, Yu Shaofeng was the protagonist. It was not difficult to keep him shut in one place before he ever came out to see the world, but since he had already come out, there was no reason to shut him back in. Xue Ling was ready to let go - since Chi Jian had already showed up, with him around, these two would probably be able to make it through most things.
There was no need to ask why Xue Ling felt more relieved with Chi Jian than Yu Shaofeng. Chi Jian had already tempered himself on his travels many times as he trained his sword intent, and had much more life experience than the genuinely silly and sweet Yu Shaofeng. Let alone, he was Yu Shaofeng"s destined companion, and they would have a greater chance of running into more trouble together. Their chances of turning bad luck into good luck were also higher, and their chances of successfully getting more powerful were even greater this way.
“Martial brother, are you serious?” Yu Shaofeng found it unbelievable. After all, his martial brother has always been unreliable and short-sighted, and if he couldn"t see him, he would often feel uneasy. Why was it that he was now so casually willing to throw him out?
“Of course I"m serious.” Xue Ling looked at the time. Tomorrow, the grand inter-sect compet.i.tion would start, and five days later, it would end and the Sishui Secret Realm would be opened. The secret realm would remain open for two months, which was enough for him to create a sword. "We still have two months" time, and then I"ll need to go back and face the wall in punishment."
Yu Shaofeng looked embarra.s.sed. After all, his elder martial brother needed to face the wall because of him. And he was going to go out and play while his martial brother was being punished… no matter how he looked at it, he didn"t seem like a good little martial brother at all…
“Enough. Who are you trying to look guilty for? I, your martial brother, do not need your guilt. Bring Chi Jian with you and get out - the further the better. It"s enough if I don"t need to see you and feel irritated." Xue Ling planned to use the three months of wall punishment to break through to Chuqiao. After three months, his cultivation level should also have stabilized.
Since he wanted to let protagonist out and wander, he naturally needed to improve his own strength so that they would have some backing while they were running around provoking the world.
That d.a.m.ned repressed Chi Lan could not be relied on; it would be better if he managed this himself. “After you go out, remember to listen to Chi Jian. He"s much steadier than you are. You should learn more from him."
Chi Jian"s face remained unchanged by such praise, and he looked very calm: “Thank you martial brother Xue for your praise.”
“Enough. I only praised you a little. I hope that in the future, you"ll look after this foolish younger martial brother of mine."
“Even if elder martial brother hadn"t told me to, I still would have."
Xue Ling looked suspiciously at Chi Jian a few times, but could tell nothing from his expression, so he let it go. This was exactly why he hated those with facial paralysis. They wore the same expression all day long, and he couldn"t tell what they were thinking at all. It made them so hard to predict, and he really hated it the most.
After sending off his annoying younger martial brother, the inter-sect compet.i.tion began on schedule.
It was the first day of the inter-sect compet.i.tion. As one of the five great sects, Sky Sword Sect"s disciples were still some of the strongest amongst their age groups. Their performances were not bad, and it was very in line with the descriptions in the original text. Only the Earth Peak"s leading disciple was kicked out in the first round.
The reason for his disqualification was that he attacked his own people, and then he was immediately beaten out by others.
That Earth Peak disciple had originally been sent to test Xue Ling"s abilities, but they had not expected that Xue Ling would be so relentless, unhesitatingly making a move and completely uncaring about the fact that they were from the same sect. He was still turning around in circles when he was slapped out of the arena, and finally slowed down and vomited out a mouthful of blood before finally realizing that he had lost any chance of partic.i.p.ating in the next match.
The big free-for-all compet.i.tion in the first round of the inter-sect compet.i.tion was chaotic, but not very interesting. It posed no threat to those who had high strength at all. Xue Ling even took the time to raise an eyebrow at the leader of the disciples from Earth Peak, the one whose face he had disfigured, making the other party so angry he almost killed his opponent and ended up being reprimanded by the elder who was in charge of refereeing after he had to step in and stop him.
Chi Jian was only eliminated on the fourth day. Based on his middle stage Chidan cultivation, it was not embarra.s.sing for him to lose to disciple brother in the early Yuanying stage. After all, he had already made it to the last day of the compet.i.tion.
After he came off stage, Yu Shaofeng told him with a grin that at least he had not been matched up with his martial brother, otherwise it would be a shame he ended up knocked down even before his sword was able to leave its sheath.
After watching several of Xue Ling"s duels, Chi Jian could only helplessly conclude that Yu Shaofeng had been right.
He was not Xue Ling’s opponent. The other party very excessive - it was unknown if it was due to wanting to save time or for other reasons, but he only ever made one move in every compet.i.tion, sending his opponent off the arena platform in disgrace. It made his wins look like clever trickery.
His methods and means caused a lot of people around them to express their opinions since it seemed rather humiliating to his opponents, but none of the opponents who had been thrown off the stage had come up to ask him to be more serious or apologize to them.
“It"s probably because they all know that your martial brother is being very serious.” Chi Jian could see something more than what was on the surface, so he explained to Yu Shaofeng, “Although he only used one move, martial brother Xue actually released his Qi right from the start… even if they were more serious, or used a stronger move, he would still be able to send his opponent flying in one move. Maybe they could say that he was using clever tricks at the start, but for him to be able to do this for the entire compet.i.tion, it just shows his absolute strength."
Yu Shaofeng didn’t care at all about how his martial brother won. In any case, he won. Why should he drag on something that could be solved in one move to seven or eight moves? It was just a waste of time. For someone like his martial brother who did not cultivate when back home in Still Peak, but cultivated like a maniac when he went out, competing with them was just a waste of his cultivation time.
“When my martial brother first told me that he would use that meteorite to make my sword for me, I knew he would win." Yu Shaofeng was very certain when he said this.
And this was proven to be true. Even the elder martial brother of Earth Peak who had his face disfigured could not withstand more than one move under Xue Ling"s hands.
Having this kind of performance for the finals in the inter-sect compet.i.tion probably made this the most anti-climactic ending amongst all previous inter-sect compet.i.tions. Xue Ling"s genuine strength was put out there for everyone to see, and everyone discovered that other than saying "wow" and "wow, wow, wow!" when faced with this beautiful cultivator, they could say nothing else.
They could only praise that he really deserved to be known as someone who had been trained up by the Venerable Crimson Flame. n.o.body could find fault with his strength.
After too many people spoke this way, the strength that Xue Ling had shown became credited to Chi Lan, and Xue Ling turned unhappy when he heard it.
The Venerable Crimson Flame absolutely did not know that there was a kind of matter called "sitting at home doing nothing, but still getting the blame". He knew nothing of this matter, but the big hat of being an a.s.shole still landed on his head.
Xue Ling felt more and more that calling that man "Master" was a great bargain for the other party. It was he who won the compet.i.tion. How come that b.a.s.t.a.r.d took over all the credit and gained reputation from it?!
Chi Jian was rather curious about why he was in such a bad mood. He was rarely curious, so he reached out and poked Yu Shaofeng.
Yu Shaofeng looked at him strangely, then raised his finger and held it against his lips, indicating that if he had something to say, he should keep it quiet. When his elder martial brother was in a bad mood, it was not a good idea to offend him - they would not come to a good end. Just look at that disciple brother from Earth Peak who had come down from the compet.i.tion stage today and turned insane.
His elder martial brother had many means.
“Why is your martial brother unhappy even though he won? He seems very discontented?” Chi Jian was puzzled. Even if it was a victory that was won without any suspense and not worth celebrating, there was still no need to face the world with a dark expression, looking like the whole world was bullying him.
“Probably…” In fact, Yu Shaofeng also knew very little. Only, he looked at Xue Ling"s current appearance, thought about it, and said, "He"s not satisfied because clearly he was the one who won, but everyone is praising Master for teaching him well…"
“… Does martial brother Xue dislike Uncle?
Yu Shaofeng thought and said, “I don’t know… I haven’t been at Still Peak for long, and haven"t watched them interact. But there are rumours in the sect that Master likes martial brother very much… I"ve met Master, and he really does like martial brother a lot. But martial brother"s att.i.tude towards Master…" He thought about it for a while, but couldn"t figure out how to express how he looked, and could finally only give a general description, "… What martial brother says and does are frequently not the same… He frequently acts like he is very indifferent towards Master, but … he probably really likes Master."
Chi Jian nodded thoughtfully, and the exploration of the relationship between his uncle and his senior disciple ended here.
In fact, if he had looked into it further, he would probably have saved himself from spending a lot of time being entangled and stumped. Unfortunately, he had always been less concerned about things that were not related to himself, and at this time, he did not care too much about the people and things that were related to Yu Shaofeng.
Chi Jian would regret this many years later, but who could he blame for his low EQ?
The day after the inter-sect compet.i.tion ended, the Sishui Secret Realm was opened. Most of the disciples who attended had not really come to get a good ranking in the compet.i.tion - their goal was precisely the Sishui Secret Realm.
The Sishui Secret Realm was a secret realm that opened every one thousand years, and not every inter-sect compet.i.tion ended with the opening of this realm. The Sishui Secret Realm was several times vaster than Xue Ling"s original Nankai Secret Realm, and there were many unknown treasures and many unexplored places. Many people would enter every time it was opened. Xue Ling brought the map that had been drawn by a previous explorer of the realm, and therefore could see most of the terrain within the secret realm.
There was a cultivation cap for the Sishui Secret Realm, and only those who were under the stage of Chuqiao could enter. Xue Ling was invincible amongst other cultivators within the Yuanying stage, so he did not have to worry about the map in his hands being s.n.a.t.c.hed from him at all.
Xue Ling knew that Yu Shaofeng especially liked his new friend, so he asked him to invite Chi Jian to enter the secret realm with them. Chi Jian readily agreed, and the three of them travelled together.
Others also wanted Xue Ling to take them with him, but most of them had to call Xue Ling "martial uncle" based on their generational statuses, and were too in awe of him. Since they did not dare to speak up, Xue Ling also wouldn"t bother to look at them; even when several of the elders came over to express their hopes that he would bring some of Sky Sect"s people, Xue Ling used the excuse that he had a goal in mind and needed to take care of his younger martial brother and Chi Jian in order to gracefully refuse.
He spoke pleasantly, and the elders who asked had smiles on their faces when they went in, and were still smiling when they left. At least on the surface, there was n.o.body who could, or dared to force him to bring along more people.
They all knew whose disciple he was. Although he was smiling, heavens knew when his temper would one day become as fierce as Chi Lan"s.
The fact that they could provoke anyone, but could not provoke Chi Lan was something that had been engraved in their minds long ago. Finally, when the secret realm opened, only the two unfortunate children remained by Xue Ling"s side.
There were certain consequences to bringing these two people into the secret realm. That was to say, they were the protagonists, and strange encounters would definitely occur. If Xue Ling did not intervene, they would be particularly p.r.o.ne to b.u.mping into unfortunate or lucky things. During this time"s tempering, Yu Shaofeng went a little wild.
He had originally had the temperament of a teenager, but had been pressed down severely during his younger years. Now that Xue Ling let him do as he pleased, his recent happier life had affected his subconscious. He frequently had a smile on his face, and was no longer as rigid and strict about things as he had been before. When he was in front of Chi Jian, he often liked to prank and play tricks, and was completely like a little teenager.
Xue Ling was also very happy that he could be so cheerful and carefree. In his eyes, it would be best if this silly child could have a smooth life for his entire life. His current temperament was very pleasant, and he saw no reason to torture him and force him onto the road of blackening through all kinds of struggles. His laugh was so silly and sweet, and it really gave him a special sense of achievement when he saw it~
System: “…” Well, it also couldn"t criticize its host. After all, he looked so happy raising children… And it looked like he hadn"t done a bad job of it either… It could only hope that he won"t turn bad in the future.