Chapter 60 – Elder
Huang Long looked at the bottles and let out a snort. “The river water from the back mountain is not allowed to be taken out. I’ll be taking these two bottles. You can go and rest. Remember to come meet me tomorrow and I’ll take you to the scripture library to find a suitable cultivation technique for you,” he said.
After Wang Lin heard this, he became very excited. On his way out, he respectfully said goodbye. Although his current cultivation was high, his only technique was the attraction technique.
After Wang Lin left, Huang Long turned. He respectfully bowed and said, “Elder Shangguan, do you think what Wang Lin said was true? And how should we deal with him?”
A skinny old man wearing a blue robe walked out into the main hall. His face was very gloomy.“How much of it is true? Huang Long, can you not tell that that little guy didn’t say a single word of truth?”
Huang Long revealed an embarrassed expression. This was one of the ten foundation building elders. In the cultivation world, strength was what mattered the most. Him being the sect head and his fellow martial brothers being elders was only a front put up for the outside world.
The rule of the Heng Yue Sect was that if one reached the Foundation Building stage, they could become an elder and enjoy that role’s privileges. If one achieved Core Formation, then they would become one of the true elders of the Heng Yue Sect, and if one reached Nascent Soul, then they would be considered an ancestor of the Heng Yue Sect.
Normally, the ten foundation building elders were in closed door training, but, after hearing the shocking news from the Xuan Dao Sect, Huang Long quickly found the ten elders to tell the two Core Formation true elders about this matter.
Wang Lin’s appearance was very unexpected for Huang Long, so he took the chance to bring Wang Lin here to question him and have the Foundation Building elders question him as well.
Elder Shangguan took a look at the bottles in Huang Long’s hand. He scanned them with his divine sense, then said, “This little brat did say one thing that was true. This is indeed the river water from the back mountain, and, if consumed every day, it will help with cultivation.”
Huang Long hesitated for a while. “Elder Shangguan, do you think the technique Wang Lin used was really the attraction technique?” he asked.
Elder Shangguan looked at Huang Long and said, “I saw his matches and I can confirm that the technique he used really was the attraction technique.”
Huang Long’s expression changed greatly. “Is it really the attraction technique? But how could it be so powerful that it could even catch magical treasures?” he asked.
Elder Shangguan coldly snorted and said, “Any technique, after practicing for an extensive period of time, will have some special effect, although it’s nothing to Foundation Building cultivators. This attraction technique is the most basic technique in the cultivation world. Do you still not understand that the more basic the technique, the longer its history?”
Huang Long quickly nodded in agreement.
Elder Shangguan pondered for a while, then said, “This child’s cultivation is indeed at the 3rd layer, but he has way too much spiritual energy in his body, so I can’t clearly check it all. My guess is that his power is that of 14th layer Qi Condensation, so he should be able to reach the Foundation Building stage soon. It is ok for a disciple like this to have his secrets, because the sect is in a very dangerous state. Hmph, the Xuan Dao Sect really deserves to be called a small sect. Sending some Qi Condensation juniors as elders and daring to try to win Wang Lin over in front of us with voice transmission!”
Huang Long was stunned. He didn’t ask further about the voice transmission, but asked, “Huang Long obeys. Elder Shangguan, regarding matters about the ancestors…”
Elder Shangguan let out a sigh. A scowl appeared on his face. He shook his head and said, “The ancestors haven’t sent back any messages in 30 years, I’m afraid… Alas, this is not something you can do anything about. If the Xuan Dao Sect really wants the Heng Yue Peak, then there is nothing we can do. The country of Zhao is a large place and will have a spot for our Heng Yue Sect. Once the two true elders break into Nascent Soul, hmph, all of this humiliation will be paid back.”
Huang Long let out a bitter smile and silently nodded.
As for Wang Lin, after he walked out of the main hall, all of the inner disciples made way for him and were full of respect. This treatment was completely opposite compared to the day before.
“Strength, in the cultivation world strength is all that matters.” Wang Lin felt a bit emotional as he walked back to Sun Dazhu’s garden.
The moment he entered, he immediately saw Sun Dazhu walk up with a smile on his face. “Good disciple, teacher has been waiting for you for a long time. Here, have some top quality recovery tea teacher made for you. It will make you feel much better once you’ve drank it.”
With that, he picked up a cup from the stone table in the garden and handed it to Wang Lin.
Wang Lin’s expression became a bit odd. Sun Dazhu’s behavior changed too quickly, causing Wang Lin to be stunned for a bit.
Sun Dazhu saw Wang Lin’s expression. He awkwardly smiled and said, with a sincere look in his eyes, “Wang Lin, as your teacher, I wasn’t every good and we had a lot of misunderstandings.”
Wang Lin didn’t take the cup. He scanned the tea with his divine sense and found fluctuations of spiritual energy. He said, “Disciple is tired, so I won’t be drinking this tea.”
Sun Dazhu quickly said, “Tired? Then you must get some rest. The place you were staying at before is too small. From today on, you can live in my room.”
Wang Lin’s expression remained calm, but he was very cautious in his heart. It has to be said that, within the sect, Sun Dazhu was the one that would be most suspicious of him, so Wang Lin shook his head and said, “It’s fine. I won’t be staying for long. I’ll return to the back mountain to go into closed door training in a few days.”
Sun Dazhu opened his mouth to say something, but Wang Lin quickly said goodbye and left. Sun Dazhu looked at the tea in his hand. His eyes were filled with a cold light.
Wang Lin suddenly turned around with a faint smile on his face and thoughtfully looked at Sun Dazhu.
Sun Dazhu’s face suddenly stiffened and he said, “Good disciple, is there anything else?”
Wang Lin revealed a sarcastic expression. He took a few steps forward and said, “Teacher, you look very nervous.”
Sun Dazhu’s heart skipped a beat. He took two steps back and regained his composure. “Teacher is indeed nervous. You, the disciple, are much stronger than me. I am only at the 5th layer of Qi Condensation,” he said.
Wang Lin looked at the tea and said, “Teacher, drink this tea for disciple.”
Sun Dazhu’s expression suddenly changed and he forced a smile. “What is this? If you don’t want to drink it, I’ll just dump it.” With that, he threw the cup to the ground and moved back a few more steps, until his feet were at the gate.
“Teacher, drink it.” Wang Lin’s expression remained calm. He activated his attraction technique. The cup that was falling to the ground stopped and floated toward Sun Dazhu. Wang Lin let out a sigh. He knew that Sun Dazhu had hostile intentions. There was indeed something wrong with the tea.
Sun Dazhu’s expression became unsettled. After pondering for a long time, he suddenly frowned and said, “Wang Lin, it seems you still have misunderstandings about your teacher. You believe there is something wrong with this tea? Fine, I’ll drink it.”
Sun Dazhu picked up the tea and drank it. Then, he threw the cup on the ground and said, with discontent, “Is that ok? The sect head has asked me to talk to him. It will be bad if I’m late. If there is anything else, let’s talk afterward.” With that, he turned to leave.
Wang Lin’s eyes lit up and he moved his body. Sun Dazhu’s expression changed and he quickly backed up, but how could his 5th layer cultivation compare to Wang Lin?
In a moment, he arrived next to Sun Dazhu. His eyes lit up and he slapped Sun Dazhu’s chest Before, when Sun Dazhu drank the tea, he realize that Sun Dazhu didn’t really drink the tea, but surrounded it with spiritual energy.
With that slap, Sun Dazhu’s spiritual energy was scattered and the tea quickly dissolved into Sun Dazhu’s body.
Sun Dazhu’s expression suddenly changed to one containing a hint of fury. He quickly said, “Wang Lin, what are you doing? Do you want to kill your teacher? If you kill me, the Heng Yue Sect will not forgive you!”
Wang Lin remained silent. He sent out his divine sense and found that the tea had completely dissolved in Sun Dazhu’s body. Then, he felt slivers of wires making their way from the tea to Sun Dazhu’s head.
Sun Dazhu also felt that something was wrong, but before he could speak, the wire-like object had already reached his head. Instantly, his grim expression started to relax.
Wang Lin stared at Sun Dazhu and immediately realized that something was off. Sun Dazhu’s expression seemed a bit dull.
He pondered a little, then asked, “Teacher, disciple is not trying to kill you, but you try to act against me. However, if teacher really did drink the tea, I wouldn’t have done this.”
Sun Dazhu’s expression stayed dull. He quickly said, “The tea should not be drunk.”
Wang Lin was stunned. He carefully examined Sun Dazhu for a while, then asked, “Why shouldn’t it be drunk?”
Sun Dazhu said, with a dull expression, “There is Three Thread Nematode Grass in the tea.”
Wang Lin’s eyes lit up. “What effect does the Three Thread Nematode Grass have?” he asked.
“The ability to control the person who drunk it for a short period of time. It is a key ingredient for making puppets.”
Killing intent flashed across Wang Lin’s eyes. “Why did you want me to take it?” he asked.
“Ever since I found out that you had those gourds, I had some doubts in my heart, so I took you in as my disciple. Originally, I wanted to get you to the first layer so I could use the soul searching technique on you, but I had already given you the Spiritual Energy Scattering Grass, so I thought it would take you more than ten years to reach the first layer and gave up on that idea. In the competition, you suddenly showed great strength, so I thought you must have had more of those gourds, and even other secrets. I want to increase my cultivation as well, so I thought of giving you this tea.”
Wang Lin took a deep breath and asked, “What is the Spiritual Energy Scattering Grass? Also, have you told anyone else about me? And why didn’t you use this Three Thread Nematode Grass on me before?”
“Spiritual Energy Scattering Grass is used to help remove all of your cultivation. As for the matter about you, I never told anyone. I didn’t want anyone besides me to steal the gourds, and, after that, things changed too suddenly, so talking now would end up hurting me instead, so I decided to act.”
“As for the Three Thread Nematode Grass, I didn’t have it before. I got it from another cultivator when I left the mountain last year. That cultivator said that if it’s used on a cultivator below Foundation Building, it has a 90% success rate. I originally wanted to use it on Lun Yunjie, to get some pills out of him.”
Wang Lin became furious and sneered. “Were you not afraid of me finding out?”
“In order to find the secret you hold, I can’t worry about too many things. I’m already old. If i don’t improve, then I will never be able to reach foundation building in my lifetime. In fact, I wasn’t sure if you were going to come back today, so I decided to gamble and prepared this tea. If you came back, I would offer you the tea, and if you didn’t, I assume you would be with the sect head and will live in the back mountain most of the time, so I wouldn’t have another chance to act.”
A cold light flashed across Wang Lin’s eyes. He coldly asked, “Before, you said that the sect head was looking for you. Is that true?”
“No.”
The moment Sun Dazhu’s word came out, Wang Lin’s eyes lit up and he slammed his hand on Sun Dazhu’s head. Blood started to pour out from Sun Dazhu’s orifices and he fell on the ground.
Wang Lin stared at Sun Dazhu’s body. He felt an indescribable feeling. This was the first time he had killed anyone, and it was his teacher.
After pondering for a long time, Wang Lin put away Sun Dazhu’s body. He walked out of the Heng Yue Sect with a dull expression until he reached a mountain, then threw the body down.