Chapter 22: I'm Just Scaring Him

After Zhangsun Zijun and Gong Sundi finished, the next few matches also went by very fast. The only one that lasted a bit longer was the match between Yi Xichen and Wu Mo. Just like last round, everyone was eager to see Yi Xichen unleash some powerful secret moves. But throughout the match, Yi Xichen fought very conservatively. He was pretty much being chased around by Wu Mo.

Until everyone was certain that Yi Xichen was going to lose, and just when Wu Mo started to get high on his horse, he suddenly realized — that he was entangled!

It turned out that while Yi Xichen was running around and dodging, he was also constantly laying out extremely thin Crystal Spider Silk. It wasn’t until Wu Mo was completely surrounded by the web did he find out that he was already trapped. While Wu Mo was standing there unable to unleash an attack, Yi Xichen quickly took the chance to hit him off the platform.

Although Yi Xichen won his match, many of the audience were still dissatisfied. Towards this, he couldn’t care less as usual. He knew that this wasn’t his problem, it was the weird mindset and attitude that the disciples had gradually formed under Yu Ying and Qiu Jian. For young disciples like himself, he knew that Heavenly Sword Sect was just a temporary shelter. In the future, the entire world would be the place for him to show off his strengths.

After all the matches ended, the audience slowly dispersed and the twenty disciples returned to Shennong Temple to pick their opponents for the next round.

In this round of drawing, everything was pretty much based on the disciple’s strength and previous victories, and the opponent would usually be someone of similar strength as well. The atmosphere seemed much more relaxed in the temple, mostly because everyone already had a good idea who their opponent could be.

Xiao Kui had mixed feelings in his heart. He has already won two matches, and his opponent for the next one would only be one out of four people.

He took a glance at Zhangsun Zijun.

Would his opponent be Zhangsun Zijun? If so, it would be inevitable for him to lose. If not… if not, then if he lost, he might miss this excellent opportunity to fight Zhangsun Zijun. For him, this might be a good thing, but…

Just as he was still struggling to think, he suddenly felt a hostile look. Sure indeed, it was still from Yi Xichen.

Xiao Kui looked towards him puzzledly. He still didn’t understand what kind of grudge he had with him.

After the wooden kites flew up, Zhangsun Zijun’s kite first flew into Lu Ziyao’s hands.

Lu Ziyao gave Zhangsun Zijun a friendly smile. For him, winning and losing wasn’t important at all. He just wanted to gain some experience and try to learn some things along the way.

As for Yi Xichen’s kite, after flying a lap in the temple, landed into Xiao Kui’s hands.

Xiao Kui was stunned for a second, then immediately became excited. Since his opponent wasn’t Lu Ziyao nor Zhangsun Zijun, he might win another round!

After the drawing process ended, the disciples left the temple. Standing outside and looking at tomorrow’s opponents, some were happy while others were worried.

Inside the Fengqi Temple.

Zhenren Yu Ying sat in the middle. He never went to watch the matches between the disciples. For him, their fights were more like child’s play, he didn’t care at all. Knowing the results was enough.

Several wooden bird kites flew in from the window and landed beside his feet.

He opened his eyes, “The drawing’s finished?” He picked up a kite, went into a daze for a while, then frowned, “Yi Xichen… didn’t expect it to be him…”

Outside the Shennong Temple.

Xiao Kui walked up to Yi Xichen with big steps and said with an arrogant tone, “Brother Yi, it seems like your luck is all used up.” In his eyes, winning with Yi Xichen’s methods were all nothing but luck.

“Oh?” Yi Xichen gave a disagreeing smile.

Sure enough, Xiao Kui burst into anger. Just as he was about to yell, he suddenly calmed back down. He gave a light laugh, ”Yi Xichen, you’re already this arrogant just by beating Brother Wang? I know precisely that the more arrogant you appear, the more afraid you are!”

Yi Xichen turned his head to look at Zhangsun Zijun, “Am I being very arrogant?”

Zhangsun Zijun shook his head, “He’s the one being arrogant.”

Xiao Kui: “……”

He was angered for real this time, “You think that you can fool everyone by using a cheap trick like Taking Consciousness?!”

That day when Yi Xichen won against Wang Qingqiao, everyone felt weird about this matter, but no one could really tell how he won. But the higher one’s cultivation, the easier it was for them to understand the truth. With Xiao Kui’s cultivation, although knew that this was impossible, he didn’t know the specifics either. Therefore, he used numerous ways to go find out. After asking about it from Lu Ziyao, then from Qiu Jian, he finally learned the truth – Taking Consciousness. 

Then, during the time between the rounds, Xiao Kui went through many old books about what Taking Consciousness really was. By now, he pretty much understood the general concept, but he didn’t get how Yi Xichen, a person with a false spirit root, could have his consciousness controlled. But after watching the previous two matches and not seeing any strong moves, he knew that he couldn’t undergo another Taking Consciousness.

As for being seen through by Xiao Kui, Yi Xichen didn’t seem to be very surprised. For the cultivators at Heavenly Sword Sect, the only thing that mattered was improving one’s cultivation. As for using what methods, no one really cared. If a disciple willingly let others take his consciousness, even at the risk of dying from the backlash, then it wasn’t really against the sect rules. But a method like Taking Consciousness could only work on someone who couldn’t exert their full potential like Yi Xichen. As for others, they wouldn’t gain anything much except for the backlashes. Yi Xichen said bluntly, “If I can have my consciousness taken once, I can have it taken twice. If you enjoy it too, you can have someone control yours as well.”

Xiao Kui became anxious, “You’re lying! You can’t accept Taking Consciousness twice in just a few days! Unless you’re ready to die!”

Of course Xiao Kui wasn’t worried about Yi Xichen’s health. He was worried about the match tomorrow. He was almost certain that Yi Xichen couldn’t accept Taking Conscious twice in such a short period of time. But seeing such a natural reaction from Yi Xichen, could it be… that he really could experience it again tomorrow?! Then it would be really difficult for Xiao Kui to win!

Zhangsun Zijun gave almost an unnoticeable frown. He didn’t want to break it to him in front of Xiao Kui, so he used a Target Communication technique towards Yi Xichen, “You can’t.” 

“I know,” Yi Xichen also used the Target Communication technique to reply to him, “I’m just scaring him.”

For sword cultivators, other than cultivating, one’s state of mind is the second most important thing. The whole point of sword cultivation was to be one with the sword. Once one’s state of mind was messed up, it would be hard for them to unleash a powerful attack. Today, Gong Sundi wanted to mess up Zhangsun Zijun’s state of mind, but didn’t succeed. And now, Yi Xichen was also trying to mess up Xiao Kui’s state of mind by scaring him, and… it seemed to be very successful.

Sure enough, Xiao Kui’s face color went from pale to red, then from red to black. He looked at Yi Xichen with suspicion and worry.

Just at this moment, the command token hanging off Yi Xichen’s waist gave a small vibration.

Every disciple of Heavenly Sword Sect had a command token, which was used for elders to summon their disciples. Since Heavenly Sword Sect had four elders, the token would turn a different color for each of the elders. But normally, only the disciple’s corresponding elder would summon their disciple, so Yi Xichen immediately thought that it must be from Yao Budu. But when he lowered his head and looked down, he was shocked to find out that the token had turned red.

Not only Yi Xichen, Zhangsun Zijun and Xiao Kui were both just as shocked. They both went to check their tokens, but their’s remained normal.

“The sect leader wants to see you?!” Xiao Kui couldn’t believe his eyes.

–The color red was the most important color of the command tokens. This belonged to the sect leader, Yu Ying. Just like how Yu Ying never accepted any disciples and never cared about the matters between the disciples, he never summoned any disciple before. A matter that made the sect leader use the command token must be something extremely urgent. For example, when the sect was under attack and the sect leader needed all the disciples to form an organized defense. That was why Xiao Kui and Zhangsun Zijun both immediately went to check their tokens as well.

Xiao Kui studied Yi Xichen with alarm, “Why is the sect leader looking for you?”

“After I won against Brother Wang two days ago, the sect leader once summoned me to accept me as his inner disciple. I’m afraid it’s for this matter again.”

“What?!” Xiao Kui almost fell onto the ground, “The the the… the sect leader wants to to to.. to take you as a disciple?!”

Xiao Kui felt as if he was about to go crazy! He admit, Yi Xichen did have some potential, but with his cultivation, he couldn’t tell how much potential he had. But Yu Ying never had any disciple before, yet Yi Xichen could change his mind? Unbelievable! Is Yi Xichen that strong already?!

Xiao Kui couldn’t even breathe at a steady pace anymore, and even the sword in his scabbard was trembling with him.

Yi Xichen smiled, “I don’t want to make the sect leader wait, sorry I’ll have to go now. Brother Xiao, see ya tomorrow!”

After admiring Xiao Kui’s dumbfounded expression, Yi Xichen gave another smile, and then left for Fengqi Temple. But just after a few steps, he heard a message from Zhangsun Zijun’s Target Communication. 

“Was that a lie?”

”Of course,” Yi Xichen replied, “I’m just scaring him.”

Zhangsun Zijun took a glance at Xiao Kui’s trembling sword. He was originally worried about tomorrow’s match, but now it seemed like he was worried for nothing. He continued via the Target Communication, “Well, you scared him to death.”

“Hahahaha!”

Yi Xichen couldn’t stop laughing. But looking at Fengqi Temple slowly appearing in front of him, he couldn’t help but wonder, Yu Ying Zhenren, who never cares about any matters between the disciples, what does he need me for?