Chapter 102: Unleash My Viciousness
With that, he turned around to leave.
Yun Chen’s gaze was complicated as he stared at Ye Guan’s departing figure. He should have been my schoolmate. Unfortunately, not only is the Guanxuan Academy suppressing him, but they’ve wronged him as well. Sigh…
Yun Chen sighed. He was furious, but he was helpless as well.
The Guanxuan Academy had always taught their students to be righteous and fair, but the harsh reality gave Yun Chen a tight slap to the face. It turned out that the world was drastically different from what he thought.
No one would bother to uphold justice for the weak.
The students wore complicated looks. They felt sympathetic toward Ye Guan, but they couldn’t really do anything about it.
Young Lord Mo’s expression was ugly, and he was struggling to suppress his killing intent. However, he wasn’t dumb enough to take revenge on Ye Guan here. There were simply too many eyes for him to move!
An old man walked over to Young Lord Mo.
Young Lord Mo hurriedly bowed and greeted him, “Sir Li!”
Li Qiu stared at him and said blandly, “Young Lord Mo, you’ll have to return to the Profound Clan!”
Young Lord Mo was stunned.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Pack up and leave. We don’t want you here!” said Li Qiu.
He then left without waiting for Young Lord Mo’s response.
Young Lord Mo’s face was extremely ugly as he stood rooted and quivered in fury.
Li Qiu had basically humiliated him by chasing him out of the Guanxuan Academy in front of so many students.
This was all Ye Guan’s fault!
…
Ye Guan returned to the Daoist Sect.
He decided not to kill Young Lord Mo because Young Lord Mo’s death could easily be used as a weapon against him in the future.
After all, the Zhongtu Divine Continent’s Guanxuan Academy was way more insidious than Nanzhou’s Guanxuan Academy.
In addition, he would have offended the Profound Clan if he had killed Young Lord Mo. He wasn’t clear about the Profound Clan’s prowess, but one thing was for sure—they were definitely not weak.
Ye Guan reckoned that Young Lord Mo was just a small fly in the Profound Clan, but his death would definitely attract a bigger fly. If Ye Guan defeated the bigger fly, a group of bigger flies would come after him.
In other words, killing Young Lord Mo was a risky move that could have implicated the Daoist Sect.
However, the primary reason was that he had sensed a powerful aura in the vicinity earlier. Ye Guan reckoned that if he had made a move, the owner of the powerful aura would have emerged to intervene.
The Academy would definitely not let him kill Young Lord Mo, so he decided to deal with the matter in a different way. Ye Guan was aware that Young Lord Mo would definitely take revenge on him, but he didn’t really mind it.
Young Lord Mo was extremely weak in Ye Guan’s eyes, and he could kill him whenever he wanted.
However, the Profound Clan was a different story altogether.
It was clear that Ye Guan truly needed time—he needed enough time to grow.
Ye Guan himself also didn’t think that his current cultivation base and power were enough for him to become the champion of the Destiny Contest.
Ye Guan actually had no idea what the contest was all about. The only thing he knew for sure was that the An Clan and the Ancient Heavenly Dragon Clan wouldn’t dare to kill him in the open if he ended up becoming the champion of the Destiny Contest.
Ye Guan took a deep breath while he was on his way home. He had neither a powerful family background nor a powerful Dao Protector, so he had to think deeply about the ramifications of his actions. He couldn’t afford to be careless.
Upon returning to the Daoist Sect, Ye Guan refrained from cultivating. Aside from reading books every day, he would help Nanling Yiyi with some of the chores.
The Daoist Sect was poor and far from any cities, so the food that they had been eating was all grown by Nanling Yiyi.
Nanling Yiyi was no longer alone. Ye Guan was here to help her.
Nanling Yiyi was in the garden. Her legs were covered in soil, but her white skin could still be seen despite the dirt. Ye Guan wasn’t too far away from her, and he was sweeping the weeds with a hoe.
The weather was nice and clear today. The clear blue sky was visible because there were only a few clouds overhead. Nanling Yiyi’s laughter would occasionally reverberate throughout the vegetable garden.
Nanling Yiyi eventually decided to rest. She brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear and stared at Ye Guan. She stared at him for quite a while before she called out to him with a grin. “Junior Disciple Ye!”
Ye Guan paused and turned to look at her.
Nanling Yiyi asked, “You’re a Great Sword Immortal, so why are you doing manual labor here?”
Ye Guan chuckled and shook his head. Unbeknownst to everyone, he was already a Half-step Sword Sovereign, but he didn’t feel like he had achieved something great because he had a few guesses about Master Pagoda’s history.
Ye Guan was aware that there would always be a higher mountain, and he knew that if one were to constrict their ambitions to a box, they would never be able to come out of that box.
The many books he had consumed had reiterated it as well, and Ye Guan felt that it made sense. He had always told himself that he had to stay calm and not get too excited upon every breakthrough he had made.
This isn’t that impressive. I can’t get carried away until I become as strong as the Sword Master!
Nanling Yiyi walked toward Ye Guan and sat in front of him.
She eventually lay down and put her hands behind her head. While staring at a cloud in the sky, she asked, “Junior Disciple Ye, are you going to become the champion of the Destiny Contest?”
Ye Guan followed suit and lay down next to her.
He closed his eyes and pondered over her words for a moment before replying, “I don’t know. No one knows the future for sure, but one thing is for sure—I will do my best. The rest will be up to the heavens!”
Nanling Yiyi turned to look at Ye Guan, and she blushed upon seeing his face up close. Nanling Yiyi had acknowledged Ye Guan’s looks long ago, but it seemed that he had gotten more handsome than back then.
Ye Guan said, “Master said that the Nanling Clan came here to visit you.”
“Yes,” said Nanling Yiyi with a nod. There was a moment of silence between them, but Nanling Yiyi soon shattered it by asking softly, “Do you want me to go back, too?”
Ye Guan shook his head.
“I don’t think they’ll be glad to see you back home,” he said.
Nanling Yiyi nodded. “I think so, too, but Master wants me to go back.”
“I think Master is just worried that the Daoist Sect had been holding you back all this while,” said Ye Guan.
“But…” Nanling Yiyi shook her head and said, “I like it here.”
Ye Guan turned to meet her gaze and smiled before saying, “Stay here, then. No one can force you to do anything while I’m still alive.”
Nanling Yiyi smiled sweetly and said, “Okay, I’ll stay here!”
Ye Guan closed his eyes once more.
His heart felt at peace as the cool winds swept past him.
For some reason, Ye Guan stopped thinking about cultivating since he left the Profound Tower. No, it wasn’t accurate to say that he stopped thinking about cultivating.
Ye Guan had stopped cultivating because he was convinced that cultivation wasn’t just about becoming even stronger physically.
He was convinced that a cultivator’s heart was important as well.
In other words, he was certain that cultivation wasn’t just about climbing realms. A cultivator had to cultivate their heart as well!
If a cultivator wanted to cultivate their heart, they had to go through the hardships of mortals. Ye Guan found that experiencing the seemingly mundane struggles of mortals was the best way to temper one’s heart.
“Master Pagoda,” Ye Guan asked, “Be honest, my father isn’t actually a live-in son-in-law, is he?”
Little Pagoda went silent. Again! This brat is asking me questions again!
Ye Guan was unaware of Little Pagoda’s thoughts, so he continued. “I’ve come up with two reasons why they decided to hand me over to the Ye Clan: either they had no other choice, or they wanted me to cultivate without a silver spoon in my mouth.”
“I’m thinking that they probably wanted me to reach the summit by going through so many hardships by myself along the way. Which of the two is the right one, Master Pagoda?”
Little Pagoda was silent.
Ye Guan chuckled hollowly and added, “Master Pagoda, please tell me something!”
“Do you hate your parents?” asked Little Pagoda.
Ye Guan instantly saw through Little Pagoda’s intentions—he wanted to change the topic! Ye Guan had discovered that Little Pagoda tended to change the topic whenever Ye Guan asked him questions that he couldn’t answer.
Ye Guan replied, “I’ll see how it goes first. It would be great if they had to leave me by myself because they had no other choice but to do so.
”Anyway, I still have some resentment toward them. I’m not a saint, after all. I’m sure they won’t understand how painful it was for me to grow up without them.”
Little Pagoda sighed.
“Regardless…” Ye Guan said, “I really have to thank you, Master Pagoda. If it hadn’t been for you, I wouldn’t have gotten this far even if I were to work hard.”
Master Pagoda was the reason he became a Half-step Sword Sovereign. Talent? Hard work? Well, they were important as well, but one wouldn’t get far into the world of cultivation without guidance.
The world had a caste system wherein the strong would become even stronger while the weak would only get trampled on. Without great opportunities or great luck, it was virtually impossible to climb up the ranks of the world’s caste.
“You’re welcome,” said Master Pagoda.
Ye Guan asked, “Master Pagoda, let me ask you one last question. Answer me, and I won’t ask you any more questions.”
“Ask away?”
“My parents… are they good people?”
“They’re wonderful.”
Ye Guan grinned brightly. That was all he needed to know for now.
The days passed quickly, and it was soon a month ago since Ye Guan returned to the Daoist Sect from the Profound Tower. Daybreak had just arrived, but the door to Ye Guan’s residence was already open.
Ye Guan was wearing a white robe today, and his long hair draped over his shoulders. His eyes were sparkling, evidently looking forward to today’s events. His gait was calm and unhurried, and his overall demeanor resembled a half-drawn sword giving the world a peek at its sharpness.
I’m a good person while I’m calm, but my viciousness is unleashed the moment I make a move. Ye Guan slowly walked away from his residence, but he abruptly came to a halt upon seeing two people standing in the distance.
They were Monk Dao and Nanling Yiyi.
Ye Guan wordlessly stared at them. He had decided to leave at the crack of dawn because he wasn’t really a fan of farewells. In addition, their parting this time could become permanent rather than temporary.
And that was why Ye Guan didn’t approach them…
He hopped onto his sword and disappeared into the horizon.
Nanling Yiyi ran toward where Ye Guan was standing just a few seconds ago, but it was already too late. Ye Guan had already disappeared into the distance with his sword.
Nanling Yiyi stared into the distance for a long time before she turned around and ran toward the great hall. She knelt in front of the incense table and poured her heart out with her hands clasped together.
“Old Ancestor, please protect Junior Disciple Ye! I’m willing to pay for his safety with my life, so please… please protect him!”