A lot of disciples came to the Hidden Pavilion, more than a hundred people every day, many of them didn’t have any business here, but just wanted to look at Yang Chen’s obsessed appearance and would roam in Yang Chen’s surroundings daily.
Because this had become a habit for Yang Chen, the people close to him did not mind it much, in any case, everyone who entered the Hidden Pavilion was a servant or disciple of the Pure Yang Palace, so they were not allowed to exchange blows here. He also took no notice of other people, and thus, others also didn’t try to look for him. Therefore, Yang Chen did not pay any attention to whoever was near him and was solely engrossed in scanning the jade slips, one by one, using his spiritual awareness.
However, the voice made Yang Chen sluggish, as he was recalling some warm memories from the bottom of his heart. In his previous life, when Yang Chen was in the Nine Earth Manor, this was the voice which cared for him, and after his rebirth, Yang Chen had thought only of his master and forgot the warm sensation he had initially sensed.
Turning his head, Yang Chen looked at the owner of that voice. And exactly as in Yang Chen’s memories: well-fitted clothes with a finely crafted hem on her skirt, and a calm look in her eyes, with an exceptional complexion, similar to a fairy in a mythology, people stopped behind Yang Chen’s body as if they were in a trance.
“Gongsun Senior apprentice sister!”
After addressing her loudly, all of a sudden Yang Chen was at a loss for words, not knowing what to say and just silently stood, rooted to the ground.
“Junior apprentice brother Yang, this kind of random, impure reading is likely going to affect your cultivation.”
Gongsun Ling, looking at the junior apprentice brother whose name she had constantly heard recently, advised with good intentions.
However at that moment, Yang Chen’s mind had already returned to his previous life and the memories of Gongsun Ling started appearing bit by bit.
In every sect, some genius disciples brimming with talent would appear and certainly Gongsun Ling was one of those genius disciples. Only the cultivation world was utterly cruel and under the fierce competition, a lot of these gifted disciples have perished due to various reasons. This was also the reason why Yang Chen did not want Zhu Chen Tao to reveal his talent.
And so in his previous life, Gongsun Ling was precisely a genius disciple who had died. However, the reason for her death was not because of other people, but rather when she was on the verge of ascending, she failed and ended up disappearing like scattered ashes and dispersed smoke. Yang Chen’s impression of her was not as clear as that of Shi Qian Qian and Sun Qing Xue because of her premature death in the mortal world.
Still, during Yang Chen’s cultivation in his previous life, Senior apprentice sister Gongsun Ling had guided him many times. At that time, Yang Chen had only been an ordinary disciple, but Gongsun Ling was a direct disciple*. Even when Yang Chen was in trouble once, Gongsun Ling had saved him. At his master’s sect, apart from his master, at least, half of the warmth Yang Chen had received within the sect was due to Gongsun Ling.
Saving his life and other favors, the affairs of those days, although they hadn’t happened yet, naturally Yang Chen could not allow the disaster of those days to be repeated since he had already found Gongsun Ling.
Gongsun Ling had an excellent, earth attributed spirit root. As for how good, Yang Chen did not know the specifics, but he remembered that Gongsun Ling had become an outer disciple in one year, had reached foundation stage in ten years, later on in less than eighty years she had entered the ranks of JieDan experts, afterwards, within a hundred years, she had reached the YuanYing stage and within five hundred years the Da Cheng stage.
At that time, Yang Chen had merely stepped into the mid-JieDan stage. Even the matter of Yang Xi putting false charges on him had not happened yet. At the moment, it could be assumed that Gongsun Ling’s natural talent is rather good, not the least inferior to Shi QianQian and Sun Qing Xue. Even Yang Chen had started to doubt whether Gongsun Ling really had an earth attributed spirit root.
“Junior apprentice brother Yang! Junior apprentice brother Yang!”
Gongsun Ling saw Yang Chen blankly staring at her without speaking and became somewhat angry. A lot of people were infatuated with her charm, Gongsun Ling understood this very clearly, however, she had good intentions when warning Yang Chen, but seeing him bluntly stare at her, she was really not pleased.
“Sorry, Senior apprentice sister Gongsun, I was thinking about some small matters and was a little absent-minded!”
When Yang Chen heard Gongsun Ling’s voice, he managed to wake up. Based on Yang Chen’s temperament, only memories of the past could cause him to make such a mistake, otherwise, it was impossible for him to be so absent minded. Perhaps, Gongsun Ling had a place deep down in Yang Chen’s heart.
Hearing Yang Chen’s respectful reply, not trying to conceal his absentmindedness, made Gongsun Ling’s opinion of him a little more favorable. In a calm voice she started giving pointers to Yang Chen:
“Junior apprentice brother Yang, you’re looking at so many jade slips randomly, it won’t benefit your cultivation in any way.”
“Many Thanks, Senior apprentice sister, for thinking about me!”
Yang Chen hastily cupped his hands to express his thanks. At this point, he could clearly distinguish between his own good and bad.
However Gongsun Ling didn’t say much, and seeing Yang Chen express his thanks, she bluntly turned around to leave, only leaving behind a single sentence:
“You better work hard!”
Watching Gongsun Ling’s charming figure leave, as if obsessed, Yang Chen stayed at his current position without any movements.
On the following day, without restraining himself by following Gongsun Ling’s advice, he once again went to the Hidden Pavilion and started reading the jade slips one by one. Spending two more months on this, at last, Yang Chen had finally gone through all of the jade slips once.
Yang Chen in his previous life would always assiduously cultivate to reach the foundation stage and would only go to the Hidden Pavilion, just to look for fire attributed cultivation methods, how could he have this kind of leisure to read the all the jade slips in the Hidden Pavilion once? There were over a hundred thousand jade slips, reading an average of 500 jade slips every day took two hundred days of time from beginning to end.
Within these days, Yang Chen had unbeknownst to him acquired the nickname of a bookworm. Almost the entire Nine Earth Manor had become aware that Yang Chen had this kind of character.
Apart from ‘third fire fourth fire’ cultivation method, the rest of the ‘first tree second tree fifth earth sixth earth seventh metal eighth metal ninth water tenth water’ cultivation method had changed Yang Chen entirely already. The effects of changing were even better for the ‘eight types of cultivation’ method. Previously, to collect all of the bits to make the whole five phases of Yin and Yang, he could do nothing but collecting the cultivation methods of different types without thinking about the effects, but now, finally, he had found suitable cultivation methods.
The results could be seen immediately when the Yin and Yang five phases secrets began to move, when compared to those previous cultivation methods, the changed ones had a very smooth feeling to them. Additionally, because of these cultivation methods, Yang Chen’s knowledge of other attributes’ cultivation methods had also increased by a lot. Reading as many jade slips as he had, Yang Chen had naturally benefitted from them. Even at the qi layer, he had come to realize the spirit power of the five phases.
Adding to that Yang Chen’s knowledge regarding the fire attribute, it was like removing the weeds and keeping the flower, Yang Chen had become even more knowledgeable towards the five phases’ secrets. About the knowledge he could not gain, reading it again would be useless. He could only depend on himself to find the answers. After all, what’s written in these books is other people’s knowledge, Yang Chen must do is to grab it and convert it into his own.
The bookworm Yang Chen had come out of the Hidden Pavilion and was also not going in anymore. Suddenly, this news had spread wildly across the whole Nine Earth Manor.
Every day when Yang Chen was reading, a group of people would be forming around the scene, looking at him like he was a clown, giving a performance. Wherever Yang Chen went, he found these kinds of looks. Occasionally, a few of them did not contain this kind of ridicule but were instead filled with regret or perhaps confusion. But the entire Nine Earth Manor wasn’t able to find out what he wanted to do.
But Yang Chen did not pay any attention to that, instead, according to his old habits, apart from circulating the qi through his whole body once a day, he just stayed in his tiny courtyard, meditating, quietly pondering and digesting the large amount of information he had learned from the library of the Hidden Pavilion.
Perhaps in his past life, his knowledge was too much centralized around fire attributed cultivation. When Yang Chen’s mind was submerged in concentrating on each and every aspect, even if he only had the experience of the first qi layer, it would still have broadened Yang Chen’s horizons. With regards to the comprehension of the Yin and Yang five phases’ secrets, it had increased even more.
One month later, just as Yang Chen came out of his half secluded pondering, he immediately saw Sun Hai Jing. On Sun Hai Jing’s face was a clear expression of schadenfreude. He looked at Yang Chen as if he was watching a dead person.
“Junior apprentice brother Yang, congratulations!”
Sun Hai Jing looked at Yang Chen with a fake smile and said:
“Master says since Junior apprentice brother Yang has the status of a third qi layer disciple, in accordance with the rules, you can immediately go out to learn through experience!”
“Elder Disciple Sun is being considerate!”
Yang Chen paid absolutely no attention to Sun Hai Jing’s words, merely refuting them:
“May goes out to learn through experience, again it is not compulsory to go travel, perhaps Elder Disciple Sun wants to go very much?”
Sun Hai Jing sneered, as if he had known that Yang Chen would say this, after smiling sinisterly, he chuckled twice and then said:
“Not going out as if on the point of dying, Junior apprentice brother Yang, the order mentioned earlier demands that in the near future, Junior apprentice brother Yang will have to go out. Congratulations, Junior apprentice brother Yang, you’ll be like a fierce tiger in the mountains or a legendary flood-dragon within the sea, you have quite grand prospects,
ah!”
Yang Chen’s brows slightly creased. Pure Yang Palace’s superiors have asked him to go out to train? What is this? Could it be arranged by Chu Heng? Thinking about it, Yang Chen slightly shook his head, Chu Heng isn’t bold enough to plan this kind of thing. Moreover, only the top notch people, like the hall masters and the palace master, have the ability to order this kind of things. What does this mean?
Seeing Yang Chen’s expression, Sun Hai Jing felt so delighted within his heart, as if during the hottest of summers someone had given him a watermelon to eat. When Yang Chen was in Nine Earth Manor, there was no good method to deal with him, but so long as Yang Chen leaves the MeiQing Mountain, and leaves the territory under the influence of Pure Yang Palace, then certainly Yang Chen would not be so unbridled.
Taking his time to appreciate this moment, only then could Sun Hai Jing leave perfectly satisfied, but before leaving he did not forget to ridicule him, using a very sorry tone to say:
“Junior apprentice brother Yang, originally I intended to wait for the day when the sect’s martial arts competition is held and propose a life and death challenge to you. Junior apprentice brother Yang, you are quite ferocious, surely you will not be scared of the difference between our realms. Unfortunately, the meticulously prepared talisman tools and talisman gems will be useless. Ah, what a pity!”
“Talisman tools, talisman gems?”
Yang Chen sneered:
“Senior apprentice brother Sun you seem to have forgotten that reading at the Hidden Pavilion requires a number of sect’s contribution points. These contribution points, if exchanged for crystal stones, would be a good amount. Senior apprentice brother Sun, if I return alive, then certainly at the time of the Sect’s competition I will challenge Senior Brother Sun.”
A flustered and exasperated expression appeared on Sun Hai Jing’s face. Yang Chen reached out his hand to his neck, making a slashing motion. Indifferently releasing a portion of killing intent, he sarcastically said:
“At that time, you can at once clean this neck just wait! I will buy a countless number of talisman tools and talisman gems to crush you to death!”
This kind of person incessantly schemed against him within his master’s sect, Yang Chen was already determined to kill him as he absolutely could not allow Sun Hai Jing to live.
Influenced by Yang Chen’s killing intent, Sun Hai Jing was startled and his whole body shuddered, his complexion became pale in a flash, he could not help but withdraw by several steps, almost tripping on the courtyard’s doorstep behind him. His figure almost stumbled and only then was he able to stand firmly. In the split second when Yang Chen’s voice full of killing intent echoed in his ears, it seemed as if his soul itself had started shivering.
Perhaps this excessive show off just now had lost him too much face, so Sun Hai Jing stood firmly and after several deep breaths, his face regained a trace of color. However just like before, he was still endlessly scared. He stubbornly tried to regain his calm expression, but the muscles of his face were involuntarily trembling, absolutely unable to stabilize.
Finally, he forcefully pushed down his fear, but this still took a good moment. Yang Chen did not even pay any more attention to him and had long ago started walking towards his own room. However to regain his lost face, Sun Hai Jing diffidently yelled towards Yang Chen:
“Say that again, once you come back alive!”
After hastily escaping Yang Chen’s small courtyard until he returned to his own room, Sun Hai Jing was covered with cold sweat incessantly flowing all over him. Only after a long time was he able to calm down. Both of his hands were involuntarily trembling and his mouth kept on mumbling:
“Must not come back, must not come back!”
He was still really frightened.
Yang Chen was certain that Sun Hai Jing had received this information from Chu Heng’s place. What Yang Chen could not understand was, why they wanted to send him, a disciple of the first qi layer, outside to train. It made no sense. Yang Chen was not anxious, however. He was sure that some people will come to notify him.
Sure enough, a few moments later, a person came to notify Yang Chen and lead him to the Nine Earth Manor’s main hall. Here, Yang Chen saw Du Qian whom he had not met for a long time. Furthermore, Chu Heng was also present, and to his surprise, even Gongsun Ling was there.
“Yang Chen, to successfully cultivate, it won’t do, to build a cart behind closed doors.”
Chu Heng was speaking with an appearance of guiding him patiently and systematically, like a good teacher.
“It just so happens that a new period to go out and train has started, this time, you are also included. However, this time, there is a special arrangement planned for you, you must not refuse!”
Yang Chen looked over at Du Qian with suspicion. Of course, Du Qian was aware of Yang Chen’s doubt, but he only smiled and nodded his head slightly without saying anything. Yang Chen was convinced that Du Qian would not harm him, so this was absolutely not planned by Chu Heng.
“Yes!”
Yang Chen responded without saying much. But Gongsun Ling, standing on the side, was baffled when looking at Yang Chen. For what reason could a disciple of the first qi layer be allowed to go outside to train. Not only Gongsun Ling but Yang Chen himself did not understand the reason. This affair was really quite surprising, he did not know what to think about these kinds of arrangements.
“Go back and pack, you will leave at once!”
Chu Heng opened his mouth again to remind him once:
“Yang Chen, you are a disciple whom even I think highly of, so by all means: you must not get in any accidents on the road!”
These words were very righteous, but Yang Chen was very clear about the meaning hidden within them.
“Be careful of everything when you move out!”
Standing on the side Du Qian amiably warned, then, waving his hand, he said:
“Go and prepare, you will set out during noon! Before the second half of the seventh month, you must reach the Floating Mountain!”
While speaking he handed a talisman to Yang Chen.
“If you encounter any danger on the road, then immediately unleash this talisman, your Senior apprentice sister Gongsun will immediately rush to your aid.”