Chapter 114 - Subtly Probing the Immortal Ancestor
Life is the battle of survival. To die is to lose that battle.
Yaan’s words seemed to leave the disciples in a daze. Some seemed to be conflicted, as if they weren’t sure whether or not to accept his words. Others had bright gazes, looking like they had been enlightened.
To Yaan, he had simply stated a fact. He wasn’t trying to say anything deep or meaningful, this was merely what he had experienced throughout his life.
Life was a battle, a battle against your own impending death. To die was to lose this battle. To accept your death was to accept that you were too weak to continue fighting.
Compared to losing a battle against a person, or against a feeling of principles and morality, wasn’t losing the battle against your own life far more daunting? At least, that was how Yaan saw things.
These disciples had never even heard such ideas like this before now. Then again, there were very few demonic path Qi masters in the Southern Continent since all such individuals were hunted down, captured and executed. It was normal that these righteous ‘youths’ had never heard a demon’s viewpoint on life.
In fact, they were so far removed from that dark side of the world, that not only were they unable to identify the fact that Yaan was a demonic path cultivator, but they could not even identify his killing intent for what it was, they merely thought that it was some sort of ‘battle aura’. Yaan expected this though, otherwise he wouldn’t have revealed his extreme killing intent so easily.
As soon as he saw that everyone had accepted his authority and that they were no longer looking down on him for being younger than themselves, Yaan retracted his killing intent and silently waited.
Instantly, the class fell silent. Everyone stared forwards at Yaan, waiting for him to go on. Even Yu Xan did not speak, though he kept his brows furrowed and stared at Yaan with a conflicted expression, as if he was not sure what he felt right now.
Yaan was satisfied with this response. He knew that in order to get these ‘youths’ to quickly accept his authority, he needed to show off a bit.
He still felt strange about calling them youths, since they were all older than himself.
They all looked like young people, with the youngest appearance being nearly as young as himself. Amongst the righteous Qi masters who did not practise unorthodox techniques like demonic transformations, this was very uncommon, but not unexpected given that they were elites.
Even so, they were probably mostly in their thirties and early forties.
Having this age whilst still being in the Qi Temple realm was to be expected. One of the qualifications to step into the core sect was to possess 7th Layer Qi Temple realm cultivation. Reaching such a stage took time, even for the most talented of disciples. Most Qi masters would linger in the Qi Temple realm for longer than they needed to, because they were attempting to reach the highest possible layer before ascending to the Spirit Core realm.
Individuals like Zue Yin who developed 9th Layer Qi Temples before turning 30 were extraordinary exceptions, in fact, just attaining a 9th Layer Qi Temple was already exemplary by itself. She was able to progress rapidly thanks to the tempering of her bloodline, but also due to her accumulation of difficult experiences in the inheritance. These disciples, although talented, lacked both of these things.
Despite their actual ages, the way these disciples acted gave Yaan the false impression that they really were a group of teenagers and almost-adults. He was unable to treat them like actual mature cultivators.
“Do you all know why I have been brought in to teach you ‘survival and battle’?” Yaan asked slowly, looking around and staring at each disciple, one by one. Some backed down, lowering their heads or shrinking back, whilst others stared back defiantly.
Yaan paused on two people in particular, these were the two he had noted before. Compared to the talented Yu Xan, these two less spectacular individuals interested him more.
Particularly that one girl who barely even reacted to anything he said, and looked like she was about to fall asleep…
“It is to prepare us for war against the Demonic North.” Yu Xan replied firmly, hoping to restore some of his lost face by flaunting his knowledge on this matter. Unfortunately for him, around one third of this class were also privy to this information, though the rest looked shocked, some were borderline mortified.
“Indeed.” Yaan nodded expressionlessly. “The North and South have always been at odds, but tensions have risen further in recent years as multiple spies have been found throughout the Southern Continent. Though, it seems that the South has been ‘preparing for war’ for the past 200 years now…regardless, the fact still stands that you are all completely unprepared for a battle against the demons from the North.”
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“Unprepared?” Yu Xan again spoke out, narrowing his eyes and snorting. “I have been in countless battles throughout my life, I am prepared for any-”
BANG!
Suddenly, Yaan’s body blurred. When he reappeared, he was standing where Yu Xan had just been as the other 24 students stared at him in complete shock. They slowly turned around, looking at Yu Xan, who had been ejected like a cannonball after Yaan punched him in the ribs and shattered his ribcage, sending him flying across the field. A trail of blood was left in his wake, whilst some people even heard the Yu Clan prodigy let out a pained groan as he flew by.
As they stared at Yu Xan, expecting him to stand back up, the crowd became silent. After some time, they turned back to Yaan doubtfully.
“E-Elder Yaan, I think he’s unconscious…”
“Oh?” Yaan raised an eyebrow, as if he was surprised. “But I thought he said that he was prepared for anything?”
Everyone stared at Yaan speechlessly. What kind of reasoning was that to suddenly attack someone?
Well, Yaan was about to explain. He smiled slightly as Yu Xan finally stood back up, forcefully maintaining his upright posture as he walked back towards Yaan after subtly swallowing a recovery pill. He acted as if he was holding himself back, but clearly, he was just in too pitiful a state to even put up a fight.
That, and Yaan’s speed just now had seriously shocked him…he had to remind himself that this child-looking elder was actually a Spirit Core realm powerhouse!
Well, that’s what everyone thought anyway. The Fragment Sect’s Immortal Ancestor used some method on Yaan to disguise his true cultivation, so he would appear to be a Spirit Core realm Qi master to anyone who investigated. The truth would only be revealed if Yaan revealed his vital energy outside of his body, and for this reason, he was slightly limited in the methods he could use.
But only slightly. He could use his sword arts, his body was still powerful, and he could freely use his astral power, which was something that nobody in the Southern Continent would even recognise.
Just now, he merely used some of the footwork from his Agile Sword Arts to reach Yu Xan quickly, then made an example of him for this first lesson.
“Elder Yaan, is this really how an elder should act? Sneak attacking a disciple? You-”
“I attacked you at the opportune moment, just as every single cultivator from the North will do.” Yaan cut him off, glancing at him without a shred of sympathy. Hearing this, Yu Xan grit his teeth, glaring hatefully at Yaan.
Yaan couldn’t care less, what was some pampered young fool going to do to him? Get his clan to take revenge? Yaan was backed by the Fragment Sect, he didn’t care about what the Yu Clan tried. This was especially so given that in the South, ‘revenge’ generally did not even include killing! In such a situation, Yaan was unbothered by Yu Xan’s background.
“You all think you have experienced battle…but you have not. You have merely played around, sparing one another to develop your techniques. In a true life and death battle, there is often no clear start, and the end is only established once one side has been killed. If you have not killed in order to avoid being killed…then you have not battled!”
After saying this, before anyone could respond, Yaan smiled brightly and added:
“As such, in three months time, you will all be entering the Fragment Forbidden Land. If you manage to survive for three days, you pass the test and the sect will reward you.”
“What?!”
“The Fragment Forbidden Land? What’s that?”
“You don’t know? It’s a forbidden land located within the core sect, usually only the Spirit Core realm disciples enter the outer circle to temper themselves! As for the inner circle, only elders dare to enter!”
“It’s an actual forbidden land?! As in, an unlawful region occupied by savage demonic beasts, a place where people have been known to die?!”
“That’s right.” Yaan interrupted the chatter and spoke out.
“But Elder Yaan, we can’t be expected to enter a place like that!” The girl whom Yaan noticed seemed to have feelings for Yu Xan spoke out. Her gaze when confronting Yaan was firm, as if she expected him to back down…
“Why not?” Yaan replied, raising an eyebrow. The girl looked stunned for a moment, as if she couldn’t believe that a man wasn’t in the least affected by her charms!
Sure, she was attractive, but why would Yaan care?
Why would he care about sending them into the forbidden land?
Why would he care if he caused discontent and others looked down on his actions?
In the first place, he was trying to get himself removed from this job! Why would he want to teach some foolish disciples? He wanted to be relieved of this tiresome task as quickly as possible, so he was going to annoy as many people as needed until this happened!
The amount he was being paid to teach this class was not nearly enough to support his cultivation. Even if he earned a hundred times more, it still wouldn’t be enough! Most importantly, most of the resources handed out by the Fragment Sect were completely useless to his body tempering cultivation, even the things that he could exchange for were of minimal use at this point.
Rather than earning resources far too slowly by doing something like this, Yaan had other plans.
Plans such as extorting Zue Yin by reminding her about how that old man had sent her along with him for the explicit purpose of assisting his cultivation. She still possessed the resources she gathered in the inheritance, but also, she might be the only cultivator in the South with knowledge and ability regarding body tempering medicine alchemy!
Of course, Yaan couldn’t push this too far…the white haired immortal made sure that Yaan understood one point; he needed to integrate himself into the righteous faction. However, that meant that Yaan could freely make use of the righteous’ methods, did it not?
Doing a deliberately terrible job in order to be sent away from your position was, in fact, a method of the righteous. A demonic method would be to kill everyone, rob everyone, then flee as quickly as possible. In comparison, what he was doing right now was actually quite reasonable.
However, Yaan had another objective in doing this. He wanted to probe the white haired immortal, to see how he would react. Right now, he was deliberately pushing the disciples into something unreasonable, something that usually, the sect would not accept. Naturally, this action could cause him to lose his teaching position.
How would the Immortal Ancestor react to this? Would he remain silent and allow Yaan to resign from his post? Would he take issue with Yaan not putting forth greater efforts into integrating into the sect?
Yaan’s current position and safety were extremely tentative, he was being forced to stay here against his will, for reasons that he did not understand. He needed to try to comprehend the immortal’s intentions, and right now, this was the best and safest method he could think of.
“I-it’s dangerous!” The girl protested.
Yaan rolled his eyes.
“So will be the battles against the demons from the North. This experience will better prepare you for that eventuality. If you don’t like this, then feel free to leave the core sect, I won’t stop you. But know that those are your only two options…either train properly for the next three months to prepare yourselves for this test…or fail the test and be exiled from the Fragment Sect.”
Did Yaan have permission to exile disciples from the Fragment Sect? Actually, he didn’t know. Regardless, the angry, pale and shocked expressions on the faces of the elite disciples as they left this training session caused him to smile. With this, he was certain that they would all complain about him to their various influential backers.