Core Disciples

After a while, Leng San walked out of his room, smiling. He squinted his eyes at Yi Longwang. Right now, he changed his face into a young man around the age of eighteen that could easily steal the hearts of women. It was the same face of the young man that broke into the sect last night. The boy already told Yi Longtian and Yi Longhu that he would use this appearance in the tournament as a sect’s representative named Ma Chen.

“My lady, how long must I wait to see you dress up as a girl?”

Yi Longwang was a bit shocked by Leng San’s unfamiliar face. But her father had told her in advance, so she didn’t ask him about it. The girl then furrowed her brows in response to Leng San’s question.

“Stop dreaming. I am determined to live as a man to succeed as the next leader of the Soaring Sword Sect,” the girl put her nose in the air and crossed her arms.

“Is there a rule in your sect that prohibits a woman to succeed as the next leader?”

“No!! Except sects that only accept female disciples, have you ever seen any sect that has a female leader?” The girl slightly frowned.

“Haha, so this means that you’re just overthinking things without any basis. If I’m not mistaken, your father didn’t tell you to dress up as a man.”

“I wanted to dress as a man, so I did. Is there a problem?” Yi Longwang was getting irritated at Leng San.

Actually, lying to the people of the Indigo Cloud City was not her chief motive. Her mother had been severely depressed as her father had numerous mistresses, which made her feel from a young age that being a woman was a disadvantage in every aspect. Later on, her mother died from a terminal illness when she was five years old. Since then, she decided to live her life as a man once she grew up. The girl asked her father and grandpa to instruct everyone in the sect to treat her as a man. After a decade, the people of the Indigo Cloud City and the new members of the sect were led to believe that she was really a man.

But once Yi Longwang grew up, she felt she should not continue to lie to the people. But the lying had gone on for too long. She would have turned into an object of ridicule if she were to announce, suddenly, that she was not a man, so she had no choice but to continue her act.

“Alright, alright, I will stop arguing with you. Let’s start the lesson.”

Leng San changed the topic as he saw the girl was getting angry.

“Tsk!!” She slightly flicked her head and led Leng San to the training ground.

The girl never failed to amuse Leng San.

At the training ground, there were about thirty core disciples. All of their qi were at the indigo stage, ranging from middle to high level. Those with high-level indigo qi were mostly over twenty years old. And there was an instructor whose blue qi was at the eighth level.

Leng San cupped his hands and bowed to everyone to show respect. The instructor welcomed him with a smile and nodded, unlike the other thirty core disciples that only took a slight glance at the boy before turning away. Some of them even looked down on Leng San.

As Leng San wanted to conceal his energy, the boy used an advanced technique to control the amount of qi that he would reveal to the public. So, during that time, Leng San appeared to have only low-level indigo qi to not appear suspicious. As he saw the gestures of the core disciples, Leng San thinly grinned.

‘Prodigies of one of the largest sects are arrogant and spoiled, as I’ve expected. I will teach them a lesson once there’s a chance.’

Yi Longwang was used to their attitude, so she did not say anything. Instead, she sped up her pace to quickly escape from their eyes to the bottom most corner of the training ground to prevent a confrontation between Leng San and the core disciples. There was a set of manuscripts at the location that Yi Longwang took Leng San to.

“Ignore those core disciples. Just focus on learning the techniques,” Yi Longwang told Leng San as she and Leng San sat on a marble bench.

“The way they look at me was weird. As if I did something wrong.”

“Before you came here, my father already announced the list of representatives of the sect for the tournament. To which he had announced that you will join the sect as a core disciple as of today and will represent the sect straightaway.”

Leng San slightly nodded.

“I understand now. They are thinking that I was chosen to be the representative by pulling some strings. Also, I immediately joined as a core disciple on my very first day without being an outer disciple or inner disciple before. So naturally, they were displeased with me.”

“You caught on fast. Everything is as you said. So just try to stick with me. Or else you might end up kissing the ground!!”

Yi Longwang grinned as she warned the boy.

“Haha, I am afraid that instead of me, they will end up kissing the ground!!”

Leng San said in a loud voice, intentionally. Yi Longwang’s face grew pale. She covered Leng San’s mouth while glancing at the core disciples.

“For god’s sake!!” The girl swore.

Obviously, the core disciples, who had been honing their skills and senses, heard Leng San clearly. Thirty pairs of eyes went straight to Leng San. If they were arrows, the boy would have turned into a porcupine. Leng San smirked and looked straight at them.

As this incident happened during their lesson, they could only clench their fists. But on the inside, every single one of them was outraged.

Yi Longwang quickly shoved a manuscript into Leng San’s hand to intervene.

“Now read them so that you don’t have time to pick fights with other people!!” The girl glared at Leng San.

Leng San was somehow satisfied. He smiled and opened the manuscript to read, obediently. However, from the first page, Leng San had to knit his eyebrows. After ten breaths, he turned to the second page, third page, fourth page, and picked up the next manuscript...

“What in the world is this!? These techniques are…” Leng San’s face wrenched.

“Now what’s the problem. These are my sect’s techniques. Body movement was divided into four levels. For the study of qi swords, it was divided into five levels. And there are another five levels for real swords.

I think it would suffice if you are able to use the first levels of the body movement and the qi swords within nine days. For the real swords, there’s no need for you to remember them as real weapons are forbidden.”

Yi Longwang puffed her chest, feeling proud of herself that she had learned all the sect’s techniques, except the advanced techniques she had not mastered yet.

Leng San placed down the manuscript and sighed. He then turned to look at Yi Longwang.

“My lady…”

“Don’t call me ‘my lady’ if we’re not alone,” she glared at Leng San again.

“Erm... Master Yi Long, please allow me to tell you something. I hope that you’re not going to get mad at me.”

“What?”

“The techniques of your sect are incomplete.”

Yi Longwang couldn’t believe her ears. Leng San quickly continued to speak.

“The techniques of your sect had been inherited from the Soaring Dragon Sect in the past… but there weren’t even a third of all the techniques that the Soaring Dragon Sect had in your sect’s manuscripts.”

“Y...you’re telling me that the techniques that have been inherited for a thousand years of my sect aren’t perfect!? I don’t believe it, or else how could my sect become such a large sect within this city?”

The girl was confident in her sect’s techniques.

Leng San shook his head. He knew that words alone wouldn’t be able to convince the successor of the clan. The boy then picked up a manuscript. This was the manuscript of the level 1 qi swords, namely, Sword Finger. Leng San read the manuscript for about thirty breaths and put it down.

“My...eh...Master Yi Long, try using the Sword Finger at that boulder,” Leng San pointed at a giant boulder that was big enough for eight people to hug.

Yi Longwang was a bit hesitant but did what Leng San told her. She circulated her qi to the tip of her finger and flicked her wrist to shoot.

Bang!

The Sword Finger hit the boulder, creating a loud noise. It went inside the boulder around one foot deep. At the point of collision, a dent with a radius of about one palm appeared.

Leng San squinted his eyes. He circulated his qi according to the manuscript he just read and flicked his wrist to shoot at the same boulder.

Whoosh!!

The Sword Finger hit the boulder at the spot beside Yi Longwang’s, but there was not any collision sound. Instead, the Sword Finger went through the boulder and felled a tree behind.

Bammmm

Startled, Yi Longwang stood up. Her Sword Finger was incomparable to Leng San’s!! There was not any dent at the point of collision. Only a small round hole was created when the attack passed through as if the boulder was soft tofu.

“Wh... what technique did you use!?” Yi Longwang was overly thrilled.

“The same Sword Finger that you just used,” Leng San threw the manuscript at Yi Longwang’s hand. The girl couldn’t be more astonished.

“You’re telling me that you could use the technique by reading the manuscript only once!? And that destructiveness!!”

“Yes… I read only once. But as I’ve told you, this is not complete yet, so I made a little adjustment.”

Leng San grinned wide, squinted his eyes, and took a slight glance in another direction as he sensed some threatening intent.

Suddenly, a group of core disciples approached Leng San and Yi Longwang, who was sitting at the bench as the instructor had left the training ground.

“How are you doing, Junior Brother Ma Chen? Aren’t you going to introduce yourself to your seniors?” One of the core disciples said...