Chapter 67: Chapter 61: Won’t Be Fooled Again
As someone who had received the True Inheritance of both Qing Xuan Master and Celestial Sea Peak’s Grand Elder, Flowing Clouds Master, Xu Ran was quite experienced when it came to motivating disciples.
Since Shen Wuchen possessed such lofty ambition, Xu Ran naturally had to indulge him. At the same time, he would add a little pressure to make sure he didn’t slack off.
So, just after Shen Wuchen left, Xu Ran thought for a moment before taking out his Communication Jade Talisman to contact Zhang Zhentian.
Although their relationship had been a bit delicate when they met two nights ago, he was confident Zhang Zhentian wouldn’t refuse a request like this.
Besides, the matter involved him anyway. It was best to give him a heads-up to avoid any future misunderstandings between the two of them.
When Zhang Zhentian received Xu Ran’s message and learned about Shen Wuchen, it immediately stirred up some rather unpleasant memories.
Zhang Zhentian was no longer the ignorant and naive youth he once was. He was the Evergreen Sword Saint, renowned throughout the Cultivation Realm. Now mature, he had long since come to understand many things from his past.
Just thinking about what his grandfather, Flowing Clouds Master, and Qing Xuan Master had conspired to do to him back then made his stomach turn.
He swore he wasn’t the type to wish the same hardships he had endured upon others.
But if it was a special request from someone else... well, that was a different story.
Especially since the person asking was Senior Brother Xu, the very man who had once conspired with his grandfather and Qing Xuan Master to "temper" him.
At this thought, Zhang Zhentian’s spirits lifted. He sent an incredibly solemn reply to Xu Ran: "Rest assured, Senior Brother. I will not fail you. Leave Junior Brother Shen to me. I will be sure to temper him well."
A gleam of anticipation flashed in his eyes, his expression thrilled. Time flies. It was finally his turn to play this role for someone else.
A few days later, the disciples of Spirit Stream Peak received some exciting news:
Their pride and joy, the Evergreen Sword Saint—Senior Brother Zhang Zhentian, who was now renowned throughout the Cultivation Realm—was deeply concerned about the progress of his fellow junior disciples. He planned to personally test their cultivation and deliver a sermon. Attendance was mandatory for all disciples of Spirit Stream Peak.
As the disciple with the highest cultivation of his generation, Shen Wuchen was the first to be tested by Zhang Zhentian.
Zhang Zhentian looked at Shen Wuchen and offered a word of praise. "I never thought that after my time, the Sect would produce another prodigy like you, Junior Brother Shen. This is a blessing for the Sect. I’m looking forward to your performance."
Shen Wuchen stared at Zhang Zhentian with a cold, arrogant expression, his fists, hidden in his sleeves, clenched so tightly his knuckles had turned white.
’It’s true I want to challenge Zhang Zhentian, but not now! The timing is all wrong.’
But given the circumstances, he had no choice but to brace himself and go through with it.
So, he said to Zhang Zhentian with a deadpan expression, "Begin."
Zhang Zhentian suppressed his cultivation to the same Realm as Shen Wuchen and offered another compliment. "Very good. Junior Brother Shen, your presence is quite impressive. You are truly a prodigy of this generation."
After a single move, he stared at Shen Wuchen, who was now lying on the ground. He feigned a look of astonishment and hesitated for a long moment before saying softly, "Junior Brother Shen, you... How are you so weak?"
He then shook his head slightly and lamented, "Is this the standard of the Sect’s prodigies these days?"
"Who is responsible for teaching you? Isn’t this just leading..." He trailed off, as if he had suddenly remembered something. His face stiffened, and he swallowed the rest of his sentence.
"Sigh!" With a long sigh, everyone present could feel his disappointment.
"The war has only just ended, and you’ve already become so complacent."
With that, he flicked his sleeve and turned to leave, presenting nothing but a desolate silhouette to the crowd.
The expressions on the faces of the Spirit Stream Peak disciples changed. A few of them desperately wanted to shout an explanation to Zhang Zhentian—that Shen Wuchen had never been skilled in combat, that he had only managed to place in the top ten of the inter-sect grand competition back when he was at the Qi Cultivation Ninth Layer.
But in the end, they held their tongues. Even if they said it, so what? No matter how you looked at it, Shen Wuchen had the highest cultivation among them. That was a fact.
And they themselves couldn’t even defeat Shen Wuchen, so what right did they have to make excuses?
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What was meant to be a highly anticipated assembly ended so unceremoniously.
The disciples of Spirit Stream Peak were utterly ashamed. They secretly swore to themselves that they would train harder and make the Evergreen Sword Saint see them in a new light.
Shen Wuchen didn’t know how he left the training grounds. He only pushed himself up from the ground after everyone else had dispersed.
He began to walk, his expression numb. He didn’t know where he was going. Zhang Zhentian’s unfinished sentence echoed relentlessly in his mind:
"Who is responsible for teaching you? Isn’t this just leading a student astray?"
He knew that’s what Zhang Zhentian had meant to say. The man must have suddenly remembered that Spirit Stream Peak’s Instructor Hall was run by Master Xu and stopped himself from finishing the sentence.
He didn’t know if Zhang Zhentian had held his tongue out of respect for his past relationship with Master Xu, or if it was because, in his heart, he believed that a disciple taught by Master Xu was expected to be this weak.
Either reason was unbearable.
He had planned to defeat Zhang Zhentian and force him to kneel before Master Xu in apology. But now, in a twist of irony, his failure had resulted in his opponent defending Master Xu’s reputation.
What made it even harder to accept was Zhang Zhentian’s display of power. It had been just a single, casual move. He could tell the man hadn’t even been serious, yet he had been defeated all the same.
He didn’t even understand how he had lost.
’A prodigy like that... do I really have any hope of defeating him?’
Shen Wuchen walked for he knew not how long, to he knew not where. Eventually, a fruit tree covered in pink peach blossoms came into his blurred vision.
Beneath the tree stood a woman in an elegant, light-blue dress, her dark hair dancing in the breeze.
A gentle breeze carried a faint, fresh scent to his nose. It was impossible to tell if it came from the fruit tree or the lovely figure standing beneath it.
He snapped back to his senses. The numbness vanished from his face, replaced by his usual cold, arrogant mask. His gaze fixed on the figure ahead as he spoke in a stiff, cold tone, "What are you doing here?"
Ye Qingyue met his gaze and smiled lightly. "I came to console you, Senior Brother."
Hearing this, Shen Wuchen’s ears burned hot. His head felt as if it had been doused in boiling water.
The expression on his face grew even colder.
He snorted, his tone dripping with disdain. "What a joke. My Dao Heart is resolute. How could a single, minor failure make me so weak as to need comforting?"
Ye Qingyue stared at his face for a long moment before nodding slightly. Her eyes curved into crescents as she said softly,
"You’re right. After all, you survived losing so many times during the Sect’s grand competition. What’s one more little failure? Of course I have nothing to worry about."
Shen Wuchen’s expression froze. He quickly recovered, however, and said with his signature arrogance,
"My pursuit is of the Great Dao. The triumphs and failures of a moment are as fleeting as clouds to me."
Ye Qingyue covered her mouth to hide a smile. It was the first time she’d ever heard someone make losing sound so grand.
She cupped her hands in a mock-formal gesture and said with a light laugh, "Your resilience on the path of the Dao is truly admirable, Senior Brother. I have no doubt that you will attain the Great Dao, defeat the Evergreen Sword Saint, and repay today’s defeat a hundred times over."
Shen Wuchen shot her a glance. The moment his eyes fell on her captivating face, he quickly looked away.
’This woman... she’s trying to use these misleading words to disrupt my Dao Heart again. I won’t fall for it.’
’In this life, I seek only the Great Dao. All else is fleeting as a cloud.’
He said coldly, "You will see that day."
With that, he turned and strode away, leaving Ye Qingyue with nothing but the sight of his proud, retreating back.
Ye Qingyue stared at his back until he was some distance away, then let out a "PFFT," covering her mouth as her eyes crinkled in a fit of laughter.
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