Core Sect Elite Disciples

Yaan silently stared forwards, assessing the crowd before him with a plain expression.

Pride, arrogance, hot blooded energy, blatant discontent…

'Are these really adult cultivators? These core disciples are all at the upper stages of the Qi Temple Realm, so they should mostly be older than me, right…? Or could it be that the disciples in this sect are actually far more talented than I realised?'

Yaan frowned slightly, feeling dubious about this 'class' that he had been given. Supposedly, these were the new generation of elite disciples, they were the most recent batch of core disciples who scored the highest in their entrance examinations into the core sect. Naturally, they were also the youngest of the current core disciples.

In the Fragment Sect, whether someone was a core disciple or an elder had nothing to do with their age. There were only 200 or so elders in the sect, whilst every other member was merely a disciple. There were even many core disciples at the Spirit Core Realm whose age numbered in the hundreds!

There were currently a few thousand core disciples, and naturally, Yaan could not teach them all. However, the core disciple entrance exam was held once every ten years, the most recent exam being just over one year ago. He had heard that this time, around 150 disciples moved up from the inner sect and into the core sect, whilst his 'class' consisted of the 25 who scored the highest…the 'elite'.

They all possessed Qi Temple Realm cultivations. Entering the core sect was dependent on possessing talent, so they should also all be fairly young…

But 'young' was a relative term. Back in the Heavenly Path Sect, the talented core disciples with Qi Temple Realm cultivation were considered 'young' in their forties. However, Yaan knew that Zue Yin was only a few years older than him, whilst she had managed to reach the Spirit Core Realm already…perhaps these disciples were like her?

Yaan felt doubtful though. Zue Yin not only possessed extremely high talent, but she had also refined her phoenix bloodline to a high degree in the 4th Trial Realm. Normally, progressing so quickly was impossible for a Qi refiner, but Zue Yin was also extremely talented when it came to dao comprehension. But again, this was largely in part due to her bloodline. For ordinary Qi refiners, this sort of rate of progression was simply not possible.

Right now, Yaan and his class were gathered outside on a training field. This was at Yaan's request, he had no interest in sitting down and lecturing them - he was teaching them about battle and survival, so normal 'lecturing' simply made no sense to him.

"Who is the highest scoring student here?" Yaan suddenly asked, saying this first to the class before anything else. A few people looked startled, whilst some showed clearly irritated expressions and clicked their tongues as they cast their gazes towards a certain someone.

Before the person in question even spoke out, Yaan turned towards him, easily locating the young man from the crowd. Meeting Yaan's gaze, the proud young man who had been about to step forwards looked startled that he had been found out before even saying anything, but he quickly recovered.

The young man, a handsome and clearly overly prideful fellow with long black hair and a sharp gaze, stepped forwards and faced Yaan without a trace of humility.

"Elder Yaan, my name is Yu Xan, current heir to the Yu Clan. My father is Yu Ten, I'm sure that you know of him."

Ignoring the young man's arrogant demeanour and the name dropping of a person whom Yaan obviously did not know since he had only recently arrived in the Southern Continent, Yaan glanced back at the crowd and was able to make some deductions.

After mentioning the 'Yu Clan' and 'Yu Ten', a few people showed frustrated or even hateful expressions. Yaan knew about the Yu Clan, they were one of the eight great clans that resided on the border of the Fragment Sect. From what Yaan had gathered, each of these clans surpassed the Ghu Clan in size, though the Ghu Clan might possess some hidden strength that Yaan did not know about.

The eight clans were independent and ruled their own lands, but they affiliated themselves to the Fragment Sect in order to make use of their strength and resources, especially as a means to temper their younger generation. As such, many members of the eight clans could be found in the Fragment Sect. Yaan didn't doubt that there were other members of these clans within his class. This was most likely the reason for the disgruntlement towards the mention of the Yu Clan.

However, not everyone could call themselves an 'heir' to the clan. Being an heir didn't necessarily mean they were guaranteed the position of clan leader, but it did mean that they were a member of the main lineage, directly related to the current clan leader.

"Yu Xan. How old are you?" Yaan directly asked.

"Older than you." Yu Xan snorted slightly as his gaze towards Yaan narrowed. He did not conceal his displeasure at being lectured by someone younger than him. Truthfully, he also felt irritated that someone younger than him was actually able to become an elder of the sect!

"Oh?" Yaan smiled strangely, looking at the young man with a calm gaze. "You think that you're older than me, what makes you say that? Appearances can be deceiving…"

"I am not judging you by your appearance." Yu Xan smiled disdainfully, clearly looking down on Yaan's words. "I have already heard from my grandfather that Elder Yaan is not even thirty years of age. I am 37 years old…Elder Yaan, appearances can be deceiving."

After he threw Yaan's words back at him, a few people held their breath. In their eyes, Yu Xan was being too disrespectful towards an elder!

Others simply felt stunned that an elder of the Fragment Sect could be so young…

However, almost everyone had the feeling that Yu Xan was quite impressive, his tongue was so glib! It seemed that although Elder Yaan's cultivation base was superior, he could not match Yu Xan's experience!

Yaan casually looked at the various expressions across the crowd. He saw the disdain towards him increasing. He saw some girls looking at Yu Xan in admiration, whilst a few of the male disciples held clear respect in their eyes. Others, both male and female, looked bitter that Yu Xan had shown them up them once again.

"I see." Yaan nodded slowly.

Seeing that this elder did not care in the least about being refuted like this caused Yu Xan to frown, whilst others looked uncertain.

"I was mistaken, I misjudged your age. Not because of your appearance, but because your demeanour and mental state is akin to that of a child. In all honesty, this is true for 23 of the 25 disciples in this class." Yaan spoke with a smile as he insulted his entire class just minutes after meeting them.

For a moment, silence descended upon the class. Yaan smiled slightly when after a few seconds, his words finally dawned upon those present, causing many people to fly into a rage.

"You dare mock me? Elder Yaan, you may be an elder of the Fragment Sect, and I may be a disciple, but a man must have his pride! I will not accept this humiliation!" Yu Xan's gaze darkened and his expression became quite grim. His gaze towards Yaan was filled with ill intent…

But no killing intent. This surprised Yaan, until he realised something.

'Wait…these disciples…could it be that none of them have ever killed?'

This realisation made him feel even more shocked.

It should have been obvious, just thinking about the laws in the Southern Continent. When would they ever have the chance to kill? When would they ever be encouraged to kill?

No, perhaps eventually, they would be brought to kill a prisoner on death row to temper their mindset. Demonic path cultivators and demonic race members were arrested and kept in prisons until their execution for this exact purpose, but in the South, the number of those individuals was too lacking.

Bringing his drifting mind back to the present situation, Yaan looked at Yu Xan and pondered to himself.

"Pride, you say…" He muttered.

"Yes, pride! All men have their pride, you must understand this as a man, no?" Yu Xan asked Yaan disdainfully, almost daring him to refute this point.

"And what good does pride do you?" Yaan asked back.

"What? What good…what do you mean what good? Pride is the backbone of a man's life! If a man does not possess pride, then he is no man at all! I would rather die than lose my pride!"

This declaration of Yu Xan's seemed to inspire the students behind him.

"Yu Xan is a righteous hero after all!" One girl, clearly his biggest admirer, took the chance to chime in. Yu Xan's expression brightened as he heard the most attractive girl in this class compliment him, causing him to puff out his chest slightly.

"Tch." Another young man clicked his tongue, glaring at Yu Xan hatefully.

"Yu Xan…" Another clansman stared at Yu Xan, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists.

Yaan stared at Yu Xan for a long time, whilst his assessment of this so called 'elite disciple' dropped further and further.

Pride…

When Yaan was young and first introduced to the world of cultivation, he had always viewed pride as something useless. He believed that he had no such need for such a thing.

Recently, Yaan had the thought that maybe, he did have his own pride. He wasn't so ridiculous like those hot-blooded youths of course, his pride was different.

He would not die for his pride…what was there to feel prideful about in death? Death meant failure, that was nothing to be proud of. Yaan felt proud of his accomplishments, his resilience, his ability to adapt and to learn…he felt proud that he was not bound by emotions, such as pride, ironically enough. He had started to believe that perhaps, pride was something to be embraced, only, it needed to be cultivated in the right way.

But now, his mind stirred. As he saw the pride, which was present in almost all of the 25 disciples before him and influencing their entire identity to a tremendous degree, he had a thought.

'Pride is a dangerous thing…'

"How ridiculous." Yaan finally replied to Yu Xan.

"What?" Yu Xan's eyes widened, as if he could not believe the words to come from Yaan's mouth. "Elder Yaan, are you saying that pride is ridiculous?" He asked, as the disdain in his eyes grew deeper.

As a member of the righteous faction, he admired those heroes of high moral standing like his father and grandfather. To Yu Xan, becoming a heroic person like those people was his way of life, and also his ambition. He viewed anyone without pride as a coward.

"I'm saying that you are ridiculous." Yaan's smile faded as he stared at Yu Xan.

"You- Ah!"

When Yu Xan opened his mouth again to refute Yaan, suddenly, his knees trembled and he was forced to take multiple steps back. He stared at Yaan with wide eyes as his entire body trembled…

In fear.

For the first time in his life, Yu Xan felt true fear.

Everyone behind him also felt this fear, because Yaan had released his killing intent.

Yaan did not release his cultivation aura, he did not pressure these disciples with anything other than his pure killing intent. However, to these sheltered elites who had never experienced anything like this before, they were caught completely unprepared, frozen in terror and unable to respond.

Seeing their reactions, Yaan was able to confirm that not a single one of them was able to recognise this pressure as being killing intent.

"Let me introduce myself. I am Elder Yaan…" Yaan began speaking slowly.

The previous image of the naive elder who only managed to obtain his position due to his talent in cultivation was instantly destroyed. Replaced, was the image of a terrifying, battle-hardened god of war, a being that could obliterate them all with a flick of his wrist!

Yaan knew that developing a reputation for being of high moral standing was the way of the righteous…

But he was not righteous.

He was not of high moral standing.

He had his own way of doing things.

"I am your new teacher in the art of survival." He went on, speaking slowly as he scoured his gaze across the crowd, before settling again on Yu Xan.

Yu Xan had by now adjusted, though only somewhat, to the killing intent. Through gritted teeth, he forced himself to speak, despite the fact that his heart was still palpitating wildly. If nothing else, he did manage to stand his ground, Yaan had to give him at least that much.

"I thought you were teaching us about battle?" He asked, barely squeezing out this question.

Originally, he disdained the idea of being taught about battle by someone so young! Sure, Elder Yaan might have cultivation talent, but what could he know about combat? But now…

He was clearly a battle expert! This aura, whatever it was, was that of a sharp battle pressure!

"Survival is the ultimate battle." Yaan replied without missing a beat. "Survival is the battle against your life, against your fate, and against everything this world throws at you. You say that you would rather die than lose your pride…but to accept death is to accept that you are too weak to win the battle of survival!"