“How should we take care of the debt of that clan and He LianYun?”
After calling in Yang Chen, these were the first words of the Palace Master.
“If anyone dares to accuse the disciples of my Pure Yang Palace unjustly and is let off so lightly, wouldn’t my Pure Yang Palace be considered a pushover in the future?”
Yang Chen was at the Nine Earth Manor, performing the duties of the Merit Transferring Disciple, when he was suddenly called in by the Palace Master. On the way, he kept thinking about what kind of thing could have happened. Hearing the Palace Master’s words, Yang Chen smiled and said:
“I think the sect shouldn’t pay any attention to this matter.”
“There shouldn’t be anyone who thinks that, after accusing my Pure Yang Palace’s disciple and trying to steal our properly, they can still remain safe and sound!”
The Palace Master smiled towards Yang Chen and said:
“They must pay their debts!”
“I know about your grievance!”
The Palace Master paused for a moment and then calmly said:
“But everyone in this place knew that the clan was the owner of the Heaven Seizing Pill, therefore they had previously no option but to shift the blame onto you, but since everything has become clear now, it is time for those people to pay their debts!”
As for Yang Chen not making any complaints previously, that was just drivel, but Yang Chen knew that strong public opinion was enough to melt steel beams1. Even in his previous life, Yang Chen and Pure Yang Palace were definitely the victims, but when those people published their views, they just gave Pure Yang Palace another appearance: the appearance of someone overestimating their abilities and deserving to be punished.
Therefore, he previously observed public opinion in great detail, even when those people were criticizing them, the first thought of Yang Chen was to protect Pure Yang Palace’s reputation. Since the Palace Master had finally decided to counterattack, Yang Chen was naturally extremely happy.
“I am only informing you once so that you don’t keep thinking about it and focus on cultivation!”
Palace Master Zhong Jiao cared greatly about Yang Chen. Currently the Eccentric’s Hall of Pure Yang Palace wouldn’t have been established without Yang Chen’s support. Furthermore, considering Yang Chen’s previous performance, it made him a very influential figure within Pure Yang Palace, even though he was only at the Foundation stage.
“When do you wish to attack?”
Yang Chen was very satisfied regarding this matter and inquired further about it.
“When do you think we should attack?”
The Palace Master wanted to test Yang Chen with this question, to see if he could handle the responsibility. After all, this time, the greatest victim was Yang Chen himself.
“Right now!”
Yang Chen was a little impatient. Since they had tried to forcibly rob him, they could not blame him for being fierce:
“I will go together with hall master Gui, we should be enough!”
A Da Cheng stage expert together with Yang Chen going to eliminate a clan which had already declined a long time ago, together with the stray dog He LianYun, there shouldn’t be any accident. Zhong Jiao had already antic.i.p.ated that Yang Chen would wish to go himself, so he didn’t obstruct him and nodded in agreement, without saying another word.
Yang Chen almost jumped up standing and turned around to go to the Eccentrics’ Hall. Gui Shanyou was resting in the big room with his eyes closed, when he sensed Yang Chen coming from far away. He immediately stood up and without hesitation welcomed him.
“Senior, let’s go to kill some people!”
Yang Chen didn’t talk much rubbish and stated his purpose for coming in one sentence:
“To make people realize that they won’t be let off lightly after provoking my Pure Yang Palace.”
“Lead the way!”
Gui Shanyou was similarly rejuvenated, apparently guessing long ago whom Yang Chen wanted to kill and immediately walked after him without any preparation. In fact, there was no need for preparation, he already had his qiankun pouch on him and Gui Shanyou didn’t need to be careful about these people.
Just when he was about to set off, he suddenly thought of something. Apparently master Gao Yue’s current experience did not make Yang Chen feel relaxed. After all, one was a problem regarding strength, the other was regarding one’s att.i.tude. Sometimes, his master’s heart was somewhat flexible, she didn’t seem to completely understand the dangers on the path of cultivation. Perhaps, this would be a good opportunity to let her have a taste of it.
And same as Gao Yue, there was someone else who had this problem, that was his talented senior apprentice sister, Gongsun Ling. Gongsun Ling’s cultivation perception was astonishing, but she didn’t have many life and death experiences. In his previous life, this had led to her failing in her tribulation and everything being ruined at the last step, so it didn’t need to be said that she should also come along to gain some experience.
“Eliminating that clan and He LianYun?”
After hearing Yang Chen’s invitation, Gao Yue immediately stood up without saying anything and followed him.
She had observed everything that He LianYun and that clan did to slander Yang Chen and was furious, but since the Palace Master hadn’t said anything, she also didn’t dare to act without thinking. But with the sect leader’s command, there was no need to worry about other things, first she had to avenge Yang Chen’s grievance. Everything else would come after that.
“Experience?”
Since Gongsun Ling didn’t understand everything, she hesitated a little:
“Younger apprentice brother, is this the time for gaining experience? Haven’t I just recently returned from the Immortal Falling Well?”
Gongsun Ling had been immersed in that illusion spell of the senior and her research had already been nearing completion and was at the most crucial point, so she was not very excited about going.
“Senior apprentice sister, did you meet those people at the Li Lou village who made things deliberately difficult for you?”
Yang Chen asked with some curiosity.
“No, I didn’t!”
Gongsun Ling shook her head with a smile:
“They were all extremely considerate.”
Are people so different from each other? Yang Chen only had to think for a moment to get to the solution. On one hand, Elder Wu hadn’t ascended at that time, so with Yang Chen and Elder Wu’s relationship, who would dare to offend Yang Chen’s senior apprentice sister? Moreover, many people wished to establish a relation with Yang Chen, this future high grade pill concocting master, so showing consideration for Yang Chen’s senior apprentice sister was a given.
There was one more reason: Gongsun Ling was a beautiful woman, frankly speaking, she could be regarded as an exceptionally beautiful woman. Wherever beautiful women were, they would always be popular. The cultivation world was no exception, so some consideration was inevitable.
“Senior apprentice sister, what do you think is the aim of learning through experience?”
Yang Chen asked a question.
“To increase experience and fighting experience.”
Gongsun Ling was no fool, she naturally understood what Yang Chen wanted to say:
“I have fought with those underground spirit beasts in the Immortal Falling Well with great effort, I didn’t waste these ten years.”
Yang Chen believed her. After she returned, her killing intent was completely genuine, she had clearly worked hard in the Immortal Falling Well.
“Senior apprentice sister, did you receive any injuries in the Immortal Falling Well?”
Yang Chen asked with a smile.
“No, I didn’t!”
Gongsun Ling shook her head:
“You said that, when fighting with someone, one must properly familiarize oneself with the opponent and find his weaknesses. When I dealt with those underground spirit beasts, I scored complete victories!”
While saying this, Gongsun Ling felt quite proud.
“Alas!”
Yang Chen heaved a long sigh:
“It is quite troublesome that you didn’t sustain any injuries. Senior apprentice sister, in the future you will not always confront enemies whom you can defeat and neither will you never suffer injuries. Have you thought about what your response would be if you suffered injuries? Whether you should fight on with all of your might? Or whether you should flee immediately? Or perhaps you wouldn’t know what to do?
Gongsun Ling had apparently never thought about such a problem before. Yang Chen’s question was like a deafening blast in Gongsun Ling’s ears.
From the beginning, Gongsun Ling’s understanding of learning through experience was completely different from Yang Chen’s thoughts. This was not only Gongsun Ling’s problem, but rather the problem of the entire Pure Yang Palace.
For Yang Chen, it was one of the reasons why Pure Yang Palace was exterminated in his previous life. Pure Yang Palace had always been extremely moderate, everyone there only thought of immersing themselves in cultivation, without paying any attention to the outside world. Aside from matters that had some relation with them, they would only use force as a last resort.
This gained the Pure Yang Palace a reputation of being an upright and honest sect, but it didn’t have the slightest bit of use regarding the expansion of Pure Yang Palace. Pure Yang Palace didn’t had the slightest desire for a power struggle, but others didn’t think so. On the contrary, they thought that it was just an angle to gain fame. Pure Yang Palace had also defended its disciples several times, making people think that Pure Yang Palace had an ulterior motive and was hiding its strength, further adding to the evil designs that the Greatest Heaven Sect had for Pure Yang Palace. They were just waiting to find a reason to exterminate the sect.
Gongsun Ling’s thinking clearly represented Pure Yang Palace’s ideal manner, maintaining an att.i.tude of not caring for outside matters. Regarding cultivation, this kind of att.i.tude would not easily give rise to a heart’s devil, but regarding survival and battles, this kind of att.i.tude was deadly.
In this life, Yang Chen would not allow the past tragedies to repeat themselves. He had already begun to secretly influence the entire Pure Yang Palace, convinced that after several decades or maybe a century, Pure Yang Palace would become a completely different Pure Yang Palace.
“What would be difference in experience this time?”
A genius was a genius. Gongsun Ling quickly understood the underlying reason. Even if Yang Chen could not change the regular thinking of Gongsun Ling within a short time, Yang Chen had said something about life and death battles in the future and Gongsun Ling was no fool, she clearly knew right from wrong.
“This time, we are going to kill people!”
Yang Chen didn’t conceal it any longer and clearly stated his intentions:
“The opponents are comprised of both strong and weak, perhaps they don’t even have Foundation stage or qi layer youngsters, perhaps their experts are JieDan stage cultivators. We are going to kill these people, but there won’t be certainty like the underground spirit beasts!”
“Good!”
After a small moment of hesitation, Gongsun Ling nodded her head. ‘Killing people’, these words created a slight resistance in her mind, but she was clear that Yang Chen would not harm her.
Although the old tree demon was accompanying them, Yang Chen wanted Gao Yue and Gongsun Ling to experience life and death fights this time and thus hadn’t told them about the old tree demon, he had asked him to only a.s.sist them at the most crucial time. This crucial time was the time when he was certain that Gao Yue and Gongsun Ling were facing a matter of life and death, otherwise even if they sustained injuries, these two women should deal with it themselves.
During the entire journey, the old tree demon’s divided body was concealed within Yang Chen’s Medicine Garden, enjoying the huge amount of spirit power, and cultivating. As for outside matters, they were completely handled by Yang Chen.
Apart from Palace Master Zhong Jiao, Yang Chen and the old tree demon, n.o.body knew that the old tree demon was accompanying them, on the contrary, many people had seen Yang Chen, Gao Yue and Gongsun Ling leaving together, giving rise to many guesses within the Pure Yang Palace.
“Good news!”
At a secret hideout of the clan, an elder hastily rushed towards the clan chief’s room and shouted with great excitement:
“Yang Chen, Gao Yue and another Foundation stage female disciple of the Pure Yang Palace have left together to gain some experience, this is an exceptionally good opportunity for us!”
“Is this information reliable?”
The clan chief’s eyes began to shine.
“It certainly is!”
The elder was also excited:
“We have received fellow daoist He LianYun’s letter, and have also received this news from a clansman hidden in the MeiQing Mountains, who had seen those three come to the market there to make some purchases and then leave.”
“Do we know where they went to gain experience?”
Clan Chief excitedly asked.
“Fellow daoist He LianYun said that they intend to go to Liang Yang Mountain’s spirit beast market with the intention to purchase something.”
Elder quickly replied.
“En!”
Clan Chief stroked his beard and issued the command:
“Call all other elders over here, we should discuss the strategy to attack.”
“Yes!”
The elder agreed and quickly left to inform all the other elders.
Feeling complacent, the people of the clan hadn’t even antic.i.p.ated that, while they were discussing about dealing with Yang Chen, the Pure Yang Palace had already cla.s.sified them as targets for attacking.
Dealing with these three, Gao Yue who had sealed her cultivation and hadn’t even reached the Foundation stage, as well as two Foundation stage youngsters, Yang Chen and Gongsun Ling, the people of the clan didn’t think that they would have any trouble and only dispatched three JieDan stage experts with three Foundation stage clansmen. Furthermore, they also sent seven qi layer youngsters to act as their helpers.
All of them were waiting on the only path between the MeiQing Mountains and Yang Liang Mountain to ambush them. The qi layer disciples were scattered in all directions to observe an area with a radius of ten miles. As long as they saw even a hint of Yang Chen and his group, they were to immediately report back.
Within this area, the clansmen had set up the most formidable flags they could purchase. As long as someone entered a ten miles radius, they would be immediately trapped. In order to capture Yang Chen alive, the clansmen had made special efforts. They had even prepared to move everything, in case Yang Chen and his group did not come from this road.
Naturally, they needed to keep track of Yang Chen’s whereabouts at all times and for that it was necessary to have a secret expert carefully tracking them. Moreover, he also had to be able to notify the clansmen lying in ambush at all times.
But those pitiful clansmen absolutely hadn’t antic.i.p.ated that their JieDan stage expert, when he spied on Yang Chen and the other two, concealing his spiritual awareness as much as he could, he was immediately spotted by Yang Chen and Gao Yue, like spotting a torch in a pitch black night.
After the duo cultivation of spirit awareness with Yang Chen, Gao Yue’s spiritual awareness had already reached mid the JieDan stage, moreover her spiritual awareness had also gone through an extreme transformation. When the unfamiliar spiritual awareness spied on her for the first time, Gao Yue immediately discovered it. As for Yang Chen, nothing needed to be said. The formidable spiritual awareness threads from the cultivation of the Three Purities Secrets had even discovered the Da Cheng stage expert Gui Shanyou, so discovering this trifling clan’s JieDan expert was simplicity itself.
“It seems that someone can’t wait.”
When Yang Chen and Gao Yue glanced at each other, Yang Chen said with a smile.
Among the three people, Gongsun Ling’s spiritual awareness was the worst and she wasn’t able to discover the enemy, but she could see from Yang Chen’s and Gao Yue’s reaction that a formidable enemy had appeared.
“What should we do?”
After talking with Yang Chen last time, Gongsun Ling’s entire body seemed to be craving for a fight. Since Yang Chen and Gao Yue had discovered this anomaly, she also wanted to try.
“No need to worry right now!”
Yang Chen casually waved his hand, stopping Gongsun Ling from getting impulsive:
“We must first find where this is person and if we are on the right track or not. However, regardless of whoever he is, he will be in big trouble!”
Editor’s Note: Sorry.