59 A Dark-Feather-Year!

"What ... what happened?" most of disciples from the Cyan-Feather widened their eyes, and could hardly believe their eyes.

Just a passing by? Then WEI Gaoyuan was knocked down? That was it? What did that Wei Gaoyuan do? Even the disciples of Xin did not see clearly what had happened at that instant.

"How is it possible?" Elder Xu muttered, shaking his head constantly.

As a martial artist of the Nature, each movement, every detail, of Wei Gaoyuan to knock down his disciple was captured in his eyes: Wei Gaoyuan sped up and lunged; flicked WEI Gaoyuan's wrist with his finger while passing by, ceasing the shooting Sword-Qi; as he came behind WEI Gaoyuan, he just drew out of his sword, with a clear sound of the blade sliding through the scabbard; somehow, he didn't use the sword, but gave WEI Gaoyuan's back neck a simple "Knifehand"; as everyone could saw it at last, Wei Gaoyuan's sword was sliding back into the scabbard.

Five movements completed in one pattern.

(Knifehand: one of the common unarmed tricks, take the hand as a knife to strike. It's usually acted in two patterns: "Handtip-kinife"—use the finger-tip to pierce the opponent, and "Handside-kinife"— use the side of a hand as the blade of a knife to hack at the opponent.)

"Wei Gaoyuan of the Dark-Feather, win!" the referee first reacted and announced loudly.

There should have been an eruption of thundering cheer, but this time only silence; even some whispering of discussion came to an abrupt end.

Wei Gaoyuan greeted the referee with a bow as a junior, then stepped down the platform, as calmly as he stepped up.

When the shouts for Wei Gaoyuan burst around the platform, he had returned to the camp of the Dark-Feather. Elder Wu was not in. He might go to watch the competitions of brothers and sisters. Wei Gaoyuan saw Zhu Qinglong first, who looked at him with a silly smile and then said in an impassioned and dramatic tone, "You buddy really got it!! You really deserve the genius...the genius' daddy!" He swallowed "the genius fake spiritual root."

Wei Gaoyuan greeted with a smile and a few of helpless head-shakings.

Moments later, Liu Xingfei came in, staring at Wei Gaoyuan for a while and giving his chest a punch, "You must get a secret level-up! I could barely catch your pattern clearly!" He added, "Don't pick up me if you challenge the top ten of Xin!" He said it in a smile, glancing at the camp of the Cyan-Feather not far away: Dong Feiye had also been in the top ten of Xin, so what was junior brother Wei's next move?

As a matter of fact, never had Wei Gaoyuan felt like challenging anyone next. He subconsciously followed the eyes of Liu Xingfei to look at the camp of the Cyan-Feather, having cursed the guy in his heart thousands of times who made and spread the rumor…

Elder Xu was squinting at Wei Gaoyuan right now, who was being treated by the healing team. His fingers were rubbed slowly, intentionally or not, seeming like sitting on the pins and needles.

Fortunately, WEI Gaoyuan was just faint, not injured at all. Wei Gaoyuan's last hit should not be heavy. After being rescued, he appeared at a loss for seconds, and soon turned into frustration, annoyance and unwillingness.

The Cyan-Feather's long term efforts on himself was rewarded with a No.2, and he was defeated by just one pattern. Now, everything seemed to get the answer in his mind. Why did that Scarlet-Feather disciple come to argue and make trouble months ago? Why did there exist such a big gap between himself and Wei Gaoyuan? Who was the disciple his master wanted to take in actually at the new disciple selection?...

After returned, how should he respond to his master, to his brothers and sisters?

WEI Gaoyuan's mind was rushing incoherently here and there…

...

Crowded around a group of brothers and sisters, Wei Gaoyuan returned to the Dark-Feather Peak. He still looked peaceful, far more peaceful than the warm brothers and sisters in the Dark-Feather, who truely let him feel warm in heart.

Zhu Qinglong finally got the sixth of Gui. He seemed quite happy and satisfied with his achievement now as he had been grinning since came back, as if he'd got the No.1.

The calmness of Wei Gaoyuan confused him. He said, "Come on~ Even Standing at the peak of Gui can not make you a little excited?"

"Look at me, I'm so glad," Wei Gaoyuan immediately replied with a smile, a perfunctory smile.

Zhu Qinglong shook his head, turning down the corners of his mouth, "Okay~ Okay~ Even the opportunity to visit the inner section can not make you a little exited?"

The awards for the No. 1 disciple of Gui at the year-end evaluation included a sword, a scroll of swordsmanship, a Vitality Elixir, a Meridian-Collateral Washing Elixir, one hundred silver coins and the opportunity to enter the inner section for three days.

Any disciple of Gui would not deny that it was a huge bonus: the sword couldn't be low in level; the Vitality Elixir was good in healing, namely a chance to save a live in emergency; the Meridian-Collateral Washing, as its name showed, had the power to draw out impurities accumulated in the meridian-collateral system of body, which was undoubtedly beneficial to a Martial Artist.

However, all of these would be a small beer if compared to the permission of entering the inner section for three days. Normally, inner sections were not the places a mortal could get access to. It was the realms of those powerful who could fly above the clouds and dive under the earth; it was the place that transformed a caterpillar into a butterfly, even if it was merely three days— Zhu Qinglong thought so at least…

After a while, another group of noisy disciples was approaching. They were chatting about Chu Yuntian, who just won the first of Xin.

Chu Yuntian might have heard Wei Gaoyuan's news on the way back, so he greeted Wei Gaoyuan with a happy hug as soon as he entered the camp, "Congratulations! Junior brother Wei! "

Wei Gaoyuan smiled, "Congratulations to our No.1 of Xin!"

Chu Yuntian gave a mysterious smile, "You made the No.1 of Xin that night~ I just cracked Xie Liancheng's pattern on the platform, even though he has improved his swordsmanship a lot too."

Xie Liancheng's pattern had been bothering Chun Yuntian for a year since he was defeated. That night, Wei Gaoyuan's third pattern of "Chasing Wind Sword" and a friendly competition swordsmanship gave him an valuable epiphany, two days before the final of Xin began.

Also, Wei Gaoyuan gradually realized how he did the fourth pattern that night. That seemed to come after a swordsmanship instinct flashing in combating against a strong swordsman. After hundreds of tries, although he could do it again, it was not as natural and perfect as it was at that night.

A few moments later, Elder Wu returned, his dark face shining with great pleasure.

The outer section stipulated that the disciple who was not below the third-level of the Mystery could be free to go down the mountain. Therefore, most disciples of Jia and Yi would choose a journey outside into Jianghu to gain themselves more experience and Positive Karma, or to take a part time job in some major cities. Except for the final performance before graduation, they were seldom found in the activities of the outer section.

Some of the Bing might participate in the year-end evaluation, but it was just less than a half of the whole grade. For those ranked highest in stage, especially, only one or two of them at most tended to appear while returned, which made the No.1 of the high grades lose its worth and attraction more or less.

Naturally, disciples had different levels of talents, and the gap between their strength probably got enlarged gradually with time passing by. After several years' cultivation and exploration of talents, those who had extraordinary aptitude might enter as high as the first two levels of the Mystery, a few even breaking into the Nature! So, they often showed little interest in such level of activities, even if some of them did return occasionally for some personal reasons.

Apart from the highest grades, a few of the Ding were also absent from the evaluation this year, who must have entered into the first three levels of the Mystery.

As a result, the remaining grades, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren and Gui, became the focus of public attention this year.

And the Dark-Feather just seized the two of the six No.1. It was a Dark-Feather-Year!