Novel Full Chapter 71: One Year Later
The Supreme Imperial Law Elder of Kongshan Sect.
These eight words undoubtedly declared Huo Mu’s absolute status within the Kongshan Sect.
“I don’t quite understand…”
Chen Yan’s mind instantly fell into chaos.
Grand Elder.
The weight of these four words, Chen Yan understood all too well.
He understood why Fu Qian suddenly appeared to have aged many years upon seeing Song Mingde’s list.
Even for the Martial Elder of Qingchan Peak, the pressure from the Supreme Imperial Law Elder could still be described as an insurmountable mountain.
If it were merely a slip of paper with only thirteen names written on it, even if the names of all four Supreme Elders of Kongshan Sect were written there, Fu Qian would not have shown such a reaction.
The real issue was that he could connect the names on the list.
Thus inferring that Song Mingde was not lying, but had revealed the truth.
“You’re saying this list was written by Song Mingde?”
Lin Qifeng frowned.
“Yes.”
Chen Yan replied.
“He was just a minor outer court steward. Even with the greatest abilities, how could he possibly investigate all the way to the Imperial Law Court?”
Lin Qifeng was still skeptical.
Forget that Song Mingde was just a minor outer court steward.
Even Lin Qifeng himself, a direct disciple of the Sect Leader, would find meeting Huo Mu as difficult as ascending to heaven.
“This disciple also finds it hard to believe, but judging by Elder Fu’s attitude towards this list…”
Chen Yan trailed off.
“You think there’s a problem behind this.”
Lin Qifeng said.
“Yes.”
Chen Yan nodded.
“But this is not something you should be considering now. What you should be most concerned with at present is how to logically become the Chief Disciple of Kongyuan Mountain.”
Lin Qifeng stated.
“This disciple has always been puzzled. Why do Master and Martial Uncle Yue want me to become the Chief Disciple of Kongyuan Mountain?”
Chen Yan asked.
“If you don’t go, who will?”
Lin Qifeng looked at Chen Yan as if he were looking at a fool:
“Could it be that we two should pin our hopes on Zhao Bin instead?”
The image of that young man wearing a yellow robe surfaced in Chen Yan’s mind.
To be honest, if placed within the inner sect, Zhao Bin’s talent was not among the top tier.
It was considerably higher than that of an ordinary core disciple, but among direct disciples, he was only considered average.
Compared to the likes of Chu Xiyao, Qin Yue, and Li Haowen, the gap was quite large.
He was even slightly inferior to Qi Yadong.
The First Senior Brother of the Alchemy Hall—this was Zhao Bin’s current identity, and he had been performing well in that role.
But asking him to advance further and compete for the position of Chief Disciple of Kongyuan Mountain was simply not enough.
As for Chen Yan.
Others might not see through what was going on, but Lin Qifeng knew all too clearly.
The reason he could instantly kill Qi Yadong, who had suppressed his cultivation to the peak of the Body Forging Realm, was not due to cheating.
It was his own genuine strength.
Judging solely by his physical performance during the outer court competition, Chen Yan’s prowess was definitely above the Martial Spring Realm.
And not just an ordinary Martial Spring Realm at that.
Given his age of seventeen and the level of this generation of disciples on Kongyuan Mountain, Chen Yan had great hope of competing for the position of Chief Disciple of Kongyuan Mountain.
This was also just the first step in Lin Qifeng and Yue Chi’s plan.
“Do not involve yourself further in the matters of Qingchan Peak.”
Lin Qifeng said:
“Don’t worry about what Old Man Fu and Bai Qiming might do to you. After you leave here in a moment, go speak with your Martial Uncle Yue. Let him help clean up any mess that wasn’t properly dealt with.”
Then, Lin Qifeng paused briefly:
“You must understand, if this truly involves that person, forget about you, even your Martial Uncle Yue and I would have no way to do anything about it.”
Chen Yan stood in place, pondered for a moment, then made up his mind:
“This disciple understands.”
…
One year later.
In front of the courtyard of the Scripture Hall on Kongyuan Mountain.
There was still a year and a half until the occurrence of the outer court calamity.
The whereabouts of the Black Flood Dragon Remnant Soul remained unknown to this day.
The tension between the Qingchan True Dharma lineage and the Qingchan Martial Discipline lineage was also, for the time being, still being kept in check.
Chen Yan had heeded Lin Qifeng’s words, because he truly could do nothing.
His original plan was to utilize Fu Qian’s power to settle the matter of Song Mingde’s list, preferably recover the Black Flood Dragon Remnant Soul, and prevent that calamity from happening.
But the subsequent developments made him realize this approach was unworkable.
Because Fu Qian’s power alone was far from sufficient.
If he could, through countless reincarnations, raise his own strength to the Unity Realm or above, perhaps he could easily resolve the outer court calamity a year and a half later.
But Chen Yan had no way to do that.
First, because his talent for immortal cultivation was too poor. Relying solely on cultivation, even if he cultivated for a thousand years in each cycle, and then cultivated for a thousand cycles, he might barely touch the threshold of the Qi Sea Realm.
Second, because if he wanted to rely on Reincarnation Rewards to increase his cultivation, currently, what seemed most related to the reincarnation evaluation grade was the advancement of the reincarnation nodes, with his own performance being secondary.
What if, during the process of his own accumulation and cultivation improvement, he accidentally advanced the reincarnation save point past the year and a half mark?
Then Chen Yan would forever lose the chance to try again.
In fact, after twenty reincarnations, Chen Yan had long since gradually come to terms with it.
Especially after his own identity had undergone a dramatic change.
He was no longer that marginalized disciple idling away in the outer court.
For him, whose world had now become much broader, Cheng Ziying was no longer his entire world, as she had been for his former, incapable self.
But Chen Yan still wanted to try one more time. Not just for Cheng Ziying, not just for the tens of thousands of outer court disciples who perished in that calamity.
But also to bid farewell to his own obsession, his own inner demon.
During this past year, Chen Yan had also died a few times and refreshed the reincarnation save point twice.
Each death was a deliberate act of taking great risks, and he tried his best to perform better, unlike the meaningless deaths before.
These two refreshes of the reincarnation save point resulted in one evaluation of B and another of C-.
He received a small realm’s worth of cultivation improvement and a mental cultivation method named “Purple Mansion Record,” respectively.
His current cultivation realm had now reached the late stage of the Martial Spring Realm.
If he could obtain two more B-grade reincarnation evaluations, Chen Yan would most likely be able to break through to the Qi Sea Realm.
Much faster than cultivating.
Chen Yan walked slowly towards the direction of the Scripture Hall.
In the courtyard outside the Kongyuan Mountain Scripture Hall, several inner sect disciples were gathered together chatting.
“Did you hear about the results of this year’s outer court competition?”
“Why are you bothering to pay attention to the outer court competition in your free time? It’s just child’s play.”
“But after this year’s outer court competition, three outer court disciples were promoted to the inner sect! One of them, I heard, directly became a core disciple of Mingxiao Peak!”
“I’ve also heard about that. That outer court disciple is a female cultivator, seems her surname is Cheng… Cheng something or other?”
“Instead of discussing these things, we should talk about the Heavenly Summit Mountain Dao Inquiry.”
“Right, the Chenping Continent Dao Discussion Conference is going to be held in a little over a month, isn’t it?”
“The Heavenly Summit Mountain Dao Inquiry then will be the main event.”
“I heard Qin Qingyu of the Star Heaven Sect and Moon Void Sect has been on a strong momentum lately. The outcome of the Heavenly Summit Mountain Dao Inquiry is probably already predetermined…”
“Don’t boost others’ prestige like that. Are our Kongshan Sect’s Chu Xiyao and Li Haowen really worse than them?”
“But they are from Qingchan Peak and Yuanhua Mountain. As for our Kongyuan Mountain…”
Suddenly, the disciple who was speaking stopped.
Because they noticed Chen Yan entering the courtyard.
“Senior Brother Chen.”
“Greetings, Chief Disciple Chen!”
“Chief Disciple Chen.”
He merely smiled and nodded slightly, continuing his walk into the Scripture Hall.
By now, Chen Yan had officially been the Chief Disciple of Kongyuan Mountain for over half a year.