Everyone knew that the North Courtyard and the East Courtyard didn’t like each other. If the disciples didn’t agree with each other on the road, they would fight. Moreover, on the whole, the North Courtyard won more often, so it was more arrogant.
Yan Tianhen gave a Tsk and said, “New and old grudges, this time we’ll settle them all at once.”
Qi Feiqing said: “Yes, just now the disciples of the two courtyards have cursed each other for a round. If Ruyu and Xie Lianheng had not stopped them, they would have already started fighting. Now they are in the stage of a temporary truce to save up strength.”
As the person in charge of the East Courtyard and the leader of the team, Gu Ruyu was naturally the busiest at this time.
Gu Ruyu looked at the disciples around him and said to Gu Ning, “Go and check if they are all here. When they are, get ready to draw lots.”
Gu Ning nodded and began to check everyone one by one.
Gu Ruyu saw Yan Tianhen, whom he had not seen for many days. It just happened that Yan Tianhen was also looking in this direction.
Gu Ruyu smiled and said, “So you finally left secluded cultivation. If you did not come again today, I would’ve assumed that you intend to give up directly.”
Yan Tianhen squeezed through the crowd and said, “What a joke. Honorable me has no idea how to write these two words ‘give up’ since I was born.”
Gu Ruyu was surrounded by many disciples in the East Courtyard. One disciple asked nonchalantly and curiously, “Tianhen, I heard that you took a rusty sword from Hidden Sword Peak. Is it true?”
Qi Feiqing raised his eyebrows and his face turned dark. He grabbed the kid and said, “Do you know how to speak? Next time you ask stupid questions, careful that this little master will skin you.”
The disciple shivered and shrank his head.
He didn’t he mean it, he was just curious.
But as soon as someone started talking, they could not stop. Not all the disciples of the East Courtyard were friendly to Yan Tianhen. Ever since Yan Tianhen stepped into the Sword Path, his swordsmanship had improved tremendously. Even the instructor couldn’t help praising him. He used Yan Tianhen as a benchmark to encourage these Sword Path disciples while saying, “Look at Yan Tianhen, not only he is outstanding in Alchemy, but his swordsmanship is also developing rapidly. You pure sword practitioners, if you don’t work hard, you won’t even be able to find your own alchemists in the future. Even an alchemist is better than you, so why would alchemists want to follow you?”
Therefore, Yan Tianhen had gained a lot of admirers as well as many enemies. How could these disciples let go of such a good chance to throw stones while he’s down?
Especially the disciple named Zhang Haomiao, who was ranked third in the East Courtyard; he was even more energetic when he heard that, and said in a strange way, “A powerful person like Prince Yan is the light of our East Courtyard. He’s a swordsman genius; how could he have taken a useless sword? Even if it is covered with blood rust, still, he must be much better than those of us who have precious swords, and he’s so good that he can kill us even without a sword, don’t you think so?”
Zhang Haomiao’s followers immediately agreed, “That’s for sure. People who are favored by Sword God Hall’s Tianshu Sword Saint are probably better than Huarong Sword Immortal.”
“Hahaha, but didn’t he still take a rusty sword in the end?”
“Hahahahaha....”
Gu Ruyu, with a cold face, walked up to Zhang Haomiao and said, “At the moment of the competition, don’t make us lose face here. Those who don’t know might think that you are a disciple of the North Courtyard.”
As soon as Zhang Haomiao saw Gu Ruyu, he immediately became scared. He had no confidence in his heart, but he still did not want to lose. He stuck out his neck and said, “I’m complimenting him. You can’t understand human words?”
Gu Ruyu sneered, and some disciples with Gu Ning came over. When they looked at Gu Ruyu’s expression, they knew that Gu Ruyu was really angry. Gu Ning immediately came to Gu Ruyu’s side and gently pulled his sleeve. He turned to Zhang Haomiao and said, “Zhang Haomiao, I see that you haven’t been taught enough by my Dage. There will be more opportunities to fight in the future. Don’t tell me that you want to be taken off the arena in a stretcher next time?”
Zhang Haomiao: “…”
Zhang Haomiao remembered the pain of being ruled by Gu Ruyu in the martial arts arena. This boy looked righteous and honest in appearance, but he was actually full of bad water. When he was fighting with him, Gu Ruyu chose to hit him in places that weren’t visible, and he always beat Zhang Haomiao until he looked like a sorry mess. It was especially embarrassing.
In the last match, he was kicked in his knees and finally had to be lifted down by people. The pain was secondary, but the shame and humiliation were traumatizing. So Zhang Haomiao stuck his neck out and warned Gu Ning with his eyes.
Yan Tianhen also spoke at the right time, and said leisurely, “Indeed, I don’t need to take action myself in order to kill you.”
Everyone looked at Yan Tianhen in unison.
Yan Tianhen hooked his lips and said, “If I ask the people here — if anyone can help me kill you, I will allow him to be a third grade official of Purple Emperor’s Heavenly Capital, or refine three Earth Rank pills for him. Do you think anyone will want to kill you for me?”
Zhang Haomiao’s face turned white and suddenly stepped back two steps. Everyone was in an uproar. Looking at the expression, he estimated that many people were waiting for Yan Tianhen to speak. It’s true that although Yan Tianhen never flaunted his position in his daily life, his status and identity were properly placed there. Was he someone who could be trampled on by others at will?
What’s more, he was an alchemist, and the most promising alchemist of this year to boot, so who wanted to offend him? If Zhang Haomiao had some background, he could be equal to Yan Tianhen and oppose him, but although he came from an aristocratic family, it was merely a small family who could not get into any rankings. To openly provoke Yan Tianhen was really asking to be humiliated. Zhang Haomiao looked at the eyes of the people watching the show, and suddenly blushed and shouted, “Inside the sect, you are never allowed to show your identity openly, you can’t oppress others with status! You are blatantly breaking the rules.”
Yan Tianhen said with a smile, “So, this young master didn’t say to give them this status now, but to wait until after leaving the sect, and then exchange the promise. This young master will always keep his word.”
Shen Congrong listened in the crowd, then smiled, and said, “Prince Yan is naturally a man of his word. If such a good thing actually exists, remember to count me in.”
Yin Changge usually did not like to talk much, but now, he couldn’t help laughing and said, “I don’t want to be an official, I just want you to refine an Earth Ranked pill for me, so count me in.”
After that, many disciples also spoke up. They didn’t really want to be an official, but in this atmosphere, everyone was still very happy to be a little playful.
However, Zhang Haomiao took it seriously. His legs were trembling, and the skin of his mouth was blue. He did not know who called out, “Huarong Sword Immortal has come”. Only then did these disciples of the East Courtyard suddenly stop talking and all look to the direction of the sound.
Lin Xuanzhi descended from the air with his sword, and after landing on the ground, he happened to meet the three Sword Saints, Yaoguang, Yuheng, and Tianquan.
Lin Xuanzhi did not come alone, and behind him were two little children who looked like they were carved with powder and jade.
The little boy still had a pair of furry ears on his head, and a tail dangling behind his buttocks. At a glance, everyone knew that they were the two tiger cubs who had just transformed.
Sword Saint Yaoguang raised his eyebrows, pretending to be surprised, and said jokingly, “Aiya, I haven’t seen you in a few days, but your two sons have already grown so much? Come on, talk, when did you secretly have sons, we didn’t even know!”
Ah Bai said in a child’s voice, “Zhizhi gave birth to us.”
“Nonsense.” Hu Po said with a dark expression, and continued to say, “It’s clearly Ah Hen. Don’t tell me you don’t know who’s on top and who’s on the bottom?”
Lin Xuanzhi: “….”
Yaoguang: “…”
Other people: “…”
Hahaha, it was so windy just now. I didn’t hear anything.
In fact, there was a lot of speculation about the relationship between Lin Xuanzhi and Yan Tianhen. Moreover, some of the Sword Saints in Sword God Hall already had an idea in their hearts. However, the two people had paid great attention to keeping the relationship secret and never admitted it openly in front of anyone. Thus, these Sword Saints pretended to be ignorant of it and would never tell an outsider.
After all, if the heir of the secular world and the light of orthodox Dao got together, it would be a big blow to the reputation of Myriad Dao Academy. They were afraid that even the Qianyuan Dynasty would encounter a bloodbath. The consequences would be unpredictable and unimaginable. These Sword Saints were really worried, wishing that the two could hide quickly. “Go, go, go, the lottery is about to begin, I want to see who will be unlucky this year and draw the name of someone who shouldn’t be drawn.” Sword Saint Yaoguang immediately changed the subject.
Sword Saint Yuheng also nodded and said, “Whoever draws that disciple of yours has bad luck for eight lifetimes.”
When he heard his disciple being mentioned, Yaoguang raised his head and said proudly, “Oh, he’s average. Huanyu is just a little hardworking is all. As for his talent…it’s just a little bit more powerful than his hard work, hahaha!”
Yuheng: “…”
Look at you, bragging like that!
Lin Xuanzhi couldn’t help but smile, thinking that these Myriad Dao Academy Sword Saints were really interesting. The arrival of the Sword Saints naturally caused a sensation among the disciples. After the salute, Sword Saint Yaoguang didn’t talk nonsense, and said: “Don’t be too slow, draw lots quickly, I’m still waiting to see if there are any unexpected combinations.”
When Yan Huanyu saw the Sword Saints coming, he also walked over from the site of the North Courtyard and said with a dark expression, “Master, you want to gamble again.”
Sword Saint Yaoguang said with a brazen face, “This is the only opportunity in seven years to bet openly. Doesn’t your master have to take advantage of this opportunity to make a comeback?”
Yan Huanyu’s expression was a little helpless.
The disciples all spoke one after another, and boldly asked Sword Saint Yaoguang who he was going to bet on. The disciples of the North Courtyard were in their own territory. Looking at the laughters here in the East Courtyard’s side, they were envious and said: “Why do the Sword Saints want to go to the East Courtyard? How can their disciples compare with us?”
Someone answered, “Isn’t it just because Huarong Sword Immortal took them to the East Courtyard directly?”
A disciple asked, “Why does Huarong Sword Immortal like the East Courtyard so much? Is it because Little Penglai is closest to the East Courtyard? Ah, if I knew, I would’ve applied for the East Courtyard too.”
Yan Chenxiao snorted disdainfully, thinking in his heart: What do you know? It’s because his concubine is in the East Courtyard.
Of course, Yan Chenxiao originally wanted to talk about this matter, but his elder brother severely warned him.
Although the East, West, South, and North Courtyards each occupy a corner of this martial arts field and have their own positions, when the lottery was drawn, they must be gathered together.
The disciples of the Four Courtyards participating in the Dao Division’s assessment had all been gathered, led by their respective deans, and concentrated in the most central position of the martial arts training ground.
The lots were drawn the most primitive way, by putting the leaf cards in a dark box, and whoever you drew would be your opponent. It was a black box made of unknown materials, and all the names of the disciples from the last generation of the South, North and East, and West Courtyards were placed in it.
