After Muyou and Yiqi's trip to the Panther Martial Collections Hall, they stopped by the medicinal hall. Both of them could be considered loaded with Panther Tokens now. Since the first week, they had only spent less than 10 Panther Tokens on the spiritual herbs.
It was not because of them being stingy and liked hoarding Panther Tokens. Today was the day they were finally going buy a herb which they had been eyeing for a month.
"We want two of this." Muyou said to the counter staff as he pointed to a picture on the menu. It was the Silverback Gorilla's Heart. This was the item which Muyou and Yiqi had been saving up for, which cost 50 Panther Tokens. In the Medicinal Hall, there was a wide variety of medicinal items. There were items which could increase your inner strength growth aiding the next breakthrough, increase the Qi cultivation, heal inner injuries, antidotes to poison, refine the quality of one's inner strength, etc. Items which refined inner strength or Qi were the more expensive ones. The Silverback Gorilla's Heart was an item which helped one refines his inner strength. This was why although it was the cheapest item which refined he inner strength, it still cost a massive amount of 50 Panther Tokens!
Muyou and Yiqi were very excited about this Silverback Gorilla's Heart. The breakthroughs for each new meridian point were becoming increasingly more difficult and time-consuming. However, they were never the types who wanted rapid and unstable growth. They preferred quality over quantity. Thus, they decided to splurge their Panther Tokens on the Silverback Gorilla's Heart. They were very excited as to the effects of this Silverback Gorilla's Heart and promptly left the Medicinal Hall after they had acquired what they wanted.
When Muyou and Yiqi went back to their usual training courtyard, there was surprisingly a crowd gathered there.
"Muyou and Yiqi! You two are finally back!" Yue Hao exclaimed when he saw them. The crowd turned around and looked at them, as if the crowd had been waiting for them.
Among the crowd was Instructor Pang's class, Muyou and Yiqi's 28 classmates. There was nothing peculiar to their presence as this was their class training courtyard. However, other than their classmates, there were about 10+ odd people gathered there too. When Muyou saw the faces of the 10+ people, he groaned a little in his heart.
These 10+ people, were people from Pang Jing's faction and Xiao Lei's faction. For the past few days, these people had been constantly pestering Muyou and Yiqi in attempting to recruit Muyou and Yiqi. They had thrown out all sorts of offers and incentives in hopes of luring Muyou and Yiqi. There were promises like letting them be in the upper ranks of the faction, receiving a weekly bonus Panther Tokens, having more underlings under them, all sorts of benefits. However, Muyou and Yiqi rejected all of their offers.
Despite these continuous rejections, these people did not seem to give up. On the contrary, they became even more stubborn. They were like those persistent sales agents who refused to give up.
"Muyou and Yiqi we need your final answer now." A tall and tanned student stood out and approached them. He looked like he was about 18 years of age and much older than other students. This student was Xiao Zhen, one of Xiao Lei's trusted aide.
"Yes let's settle this issue once and for all." Pang Sheng looked towards Muyou and Yiqi. Pang Sheng was of average height, however he looked to be quite skinny and had a neat long pony-tail. He was Pang Jing's trusted aide.
Muyou and Yiqi were not unfamiliar with them, as they had been pestering Muyou and Yiqi countless of times for the past few days.
"What do you all mean by settling this issue? We have already given you two our answers. We do not want to join any factions. How can we make this even more clearer for both of you to understand? We will not join Pang Jing's faction nor Xiao Lei's faction." Muyou was getting exasperated now.
"So you are planning to form your own faction?" Xiao Zhen asked.
"Huh? What do you mean by forming our own faction? There are only the two of us, what kind of faction could we possibly form?" Muyou was puzzled.
"Only the two of you? All of your classmates, all 28 of them claim that they are following you. Isn't this equivalent to forming your own faction?" Xiao Zhen said as he glanced at all of the other students.
Before Muyou and Yiqi could reply, Yue Hao pulled both of them to the side as he explained the situation to them.
"As you know all of us do not want to join Pang Jing or Xiao Lei's faction as we were going to be merely exploited and bullied in their factions." Yue Hao said as Muyou and Yiqi nodded their heads.
"However, when they started to recruit us, we had to give a reason to reject them. Thus we said we were going to follow both of you. Somewhere down the line, the message started to change a little and was misunderstood a little and the whole story changed. So now, the situation was that everyone believed that you two had formed your own faction and that we were in your faction. Even some of the students truly believed that we were in your faction. That was why Pang Sheng and Xiao Zhen were so desperate to recruit the both of you. Recruiting both of you meant that your whole faction would become their faction's branch."
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
After hearing this explanation, Muyou and Yiqi were a little taken aback. They had no idea at how absurd the situation had became. They also understood why Pang Sheng and Xiao Zhen were increasingly desperate in their approaches.
"So what do you say? If you join us, you will not be neglected by young master Pang Jing and you will get to keep your current faction members." Pang Sheng asked again.
"Don't listen to them! Everybody knows that Pang Jing is a scheming bastard, you can never trust his words. Behind his every action, there are a thousand different schemes! Join young master Xiao Lei, he is a guy who admires strength and power! Once you prove your strength to him, you will be a treasured member in the faction." Xiao Zhen called out.
When the students from Pang Jing's faction heard Xiao Zhen's insult of Pang Jing, they started to rebut.
"What do you mean that our young master is a scheming bastard! Do not slander our young master!"
"You brute! Just because our young master is smarter than Xiao Lei, you dare to accuse our young master of being scheming!"
"Do not listen to him! Our young master is as honorable as Guan Yu!" (Guan Yu was a general in the Three Kingdoms era, late Eastern Han dynasty. Other than his bravery, he was also known for his loyalty to Liu Bei.)
When the students from Xiao Lei's faction heard the rebuttal, they started shouting out insults of Pang Jing again. This led to the whole situation turning into a protest between of both their factions as the other students watched in amusement.
"Quiet!" Xiao Zhen roared. Surprisingly, his voice was even louder than all of the bickering students' voices combined. Muyou and Yiqi were also surprised at Xiao Zhen's roar.
"If there was some roaring martial art skill, this Xiao Zhen is going to be the perfect candidate for it." Muyou mused to himself.
After the commotion had quietened down, everybody turned their attention to Muyou and Yiqi for their answer.
"Regarding the issue of my faction, we will settle it ourselves in private. I supposed there is no reason for me to explain these private matters to either of you?" Muyou said.
"What about pledging your allegiance to young master Pang Jing? We can seek his assurance on letting you retain your autonomy regarding issues of your own faction?" Pang Sheng said with a desperate tone.
Before Xiao Zhen could butt in and counter-offer, Muyou raised his hand.
"Sorry the answer is still no. Yiqi and I will not be joining either of your factions. The reasons are simple. We do not like to be under anyone. Moreover, our relationship to Pang Jing and Xiao Lei are like a stranger relationship. How can we simply pledge our loyalty to somebody we are totally unfamiliar with. We have only met Pang Jing once and exchanged only a few words. For Xiao Lei, we have not even met him. Therefore, I hope that you all can convey our reply to your respective young masters." Muyou gave his definite answer.
Pang Sheng had a dejected look as he sighed, "If that is your final answer, then we will report this back to our young master." With that he led his faction students away.
On the other hand, Xiao Zhen had a rather furious look. "You two do not know any better!" With this one statement, he stomped off with his faction members.
After they had left, the training courtyard was only left with Instructor Pang's class.
"So have all of you really decided to join my faction?" Muyou asked as everybody nodded.
Seeing their responses, Muyou turned towards Yiqi for his opinion. Yiqi was calmer and a better decision-maker than Muyou. Forming a faction in Panther's Academy was not an insignificant matter.
"If all of you have decided to join our faction, then we will not reject. In this faction, we do not oppress nor sabotage one another. Although we term it as faction, we are essentially a band of brothers, there is no superior or underling here." Yiqi said as the students' faces brightened up. "Every ship needs a captain and every dragon needs a head. Thus, for our faction, I nominate Muyou as the leader."
With this declaration by Yiqi, the students started to cheer as it meant that their faction had officially been formed. Obviously nobody would reject the notion of Muyou being the leader. They had long ago treated Muyou and Yiqi as the leaders of the class.