Zhanxian

“The disciples who have been instructed would have the final say?”

The Palace Master was startled, but immediately realized something and gently laughed:

“Right, right, indeed those disciples should have the final say!”

In matters of cultivation, the person who experienced it personally knew the best. Other people may sense if their cultivation was higher, but they wouldn’t know what kind of problems one faced during their cultivation. Whatever method they used, it would not be better than the person’s own sensation.

It would not be unreasonable to say that the person himself would know if he had made some mistakes or not, but if his cultivation had been continuing smoothly, his spirit power was stable, and his spiritual awareness was rising stably, what kind of problem could there be?

What sort of cultivation method could be suitable for everyone and what sort of cultivation method could also guarantee to be hundred percent correct? Perhaps a cultivation method which was suitable for someone was wrong for another. Everyone’s innate talent was different and so was their comprehension and thus they had discrepancies in their cultivation, otherwise, wouldn’t everyone be the same?

Even the Palace Master found Yang Chen’s words reasonable, not to mention the other hall masters. As for Song Hang, he didn’t have any chance to speak, since even Palace Master could not pass the judgement here, what about him?

“Let the instructed disciples have the final say?”

But Song Hang didn’t really approve of this method:

“Palace Master, if these outer disciples are scared of him, then they would not dare to speak the truth, wouldn’t he get away with it then?”

“Then can you tell me another way?”

The Palace Master seemed to know that the main antagonist for the people of the Luminous Moon Hall was Yang Chen, but not even overlooking such a simple problem was truly excessive. His voice contained a trace of discontentment.

“Indeed, this disciple has a way.”

As if he hadn’t sensed the discontentment in Palace Master’s voice, Song Hang slowly said:

“According to Yang Chen, since the outer disciples have the final say in this method, just let them speak. But they must be put under Hall Master Meng’s Mind Confusing Trick. Under the Mind Confusing Trick, they will probably not be able to lie!”

“Yang Chen, what do you think?”

The Palace Master turned to Yang Chen to ask for his opinion.

“I agree to Palace Master’s orders!”

Yang Chen did not care much about this. What he wanted was to have those outer disciples tell the truth. Song Hang feared that Yang Chen would force them by abusing his authority, so he wanted to use the the mind confusing technique, but this was exactly what Yang Chen had been looking for. With this, any kind of trick Song Hang used would just be greatly easy to spot.

“Good!”

The Palace Master immediately declared his decision:

“So this matter will be conducted according to Song Hang’s advice. Since Song Hang is the one who had raised the question, then you should also be the one to select the outer disciples whom you want to call and question them on the spot!”

“Yes, Palace Master!”

Song Hang was looking forward to this moment and immediately went out with Meng Xian, the hall master of the Law Enforcement Hall and began to look for suitable disciples to call in for questioning.

The Palace Master and the other hall masters kept on waiting in the hall and began to enquire about Gao Yue’s matter from Yang Chen. They had all seen the condition of Gao Yue’s injury, especially Medicine Hall’s hall master Zhu Chen Tao. Everyone knew that her spiritual awareness had suffered heavy losses and was constantly dissipating, but they couldn’t find a good method to save her. Surprisingly, Yang Chen was able to cure her in only four months, which had really caught everyone’s attention.

“Disciple also didn’t have any special methods. Since the matter was extremely urgent, without any better option, I was forced to use a pair cultivation method for spiritual awareness, mentioned in some book.”

Yang Chen didn’t tell them the complete truth, but also didn’t hide everything:

“Master’s spiritual awareness was dissipating continuously and in my desperation, I tried this method, which succeeded after countless difficulties.”

The reason why he had told them about the pair cultivation method was to provide them with a reasonable explanation. Naturally, he had constantly stressed that the affair was extremely urgent and he was also afraid that this method of pair cultivation wouldn’t be accepted by the sect, or there would be many great troubles in the future.

But with his reasons, everyone had no other option than accepting it. Other than dying, the only option was the pair cultivation of spiritual awareness. It had to be said that this was not a genuine pair cultivation of joining bodies and at least there hadn’t been any disgraceful actions between master and disciple. Others had no way to investigate this.

“Eh? This method is so effective?”

The Palace Master thought of something and asked again:

“Can it be used in our sect?”

Other hall masters were also attentively listening, since they also were very interested in this method.

“Difficult!”

Yang Chen immediately shook his head. Some things weren’t suitable for others to know, even if they were from the same sect, especially when there were people like Song Hang and Liang Shao Ming in the sect:

“The procedure of the cultivation method is very complicated, and although it is said to be pair cultivation, this disciple was barely able to restore master’s spiritual awareness after major decrease in my own. The spiritual awareness of both master and disciple have fallen by one realm. Just master waking up was the silver lining in this great misfortune.”

Yang Chen had already talked about all of this with Gao Yue properly and she had agreed not to release the secret of the Pair Cultivation. With his reasons, everyone also understood that point. If this was really such a good method, then why wasn’t it recorded among the cultivation methods, but within a random book?

“Yang Chen, if Song Hang is able to find someone who has not been able to make anything of himself, wouldn’t you be punished?”

Zhu Chen Tao was worrying for Yang Chen from the start. Seeing that Yang Chen was so nonchalant about the issue, he couldn’t help but ask.

Zhu Chen Tao certainly seemed to be asking Yang Chen, but in reality he was reminding everyone on the scene that, if a few disciples weren’t any good, and that influenced Yang Chen’s conviction, then there was a problem.

“No worries. Many thanks for your concern, uncle master Zhu!”

Yang Chen however, did not appear to be worried about this, as if he had a hidden card up his sleeve:

“Whomever he finds, it will be the same, there will be no effect on the outcome!”

Even the Palace Master was astonished by Yang Chen’s confidence and his reply. The sect was quite big and had several hundred outer disciples, so there would always be one or two who had failed to live up to the expectations, so why did Yang Chen have such confidence? No one asked about it however. In any case, the results would be clear very soon.

Everyone tacitly understood this and let this question slide. Switching to his experiences at the Greater Mountains, the special products available there and so on, slowly killing time, waiting for the disciples chosen by Song Hang.

After an hour, Song Hang and Meng Xian finally brought twenty disciples to the main hall. All people were chosen by Song Hang, Meng Xian had just followed as a witness and hadn’t chosen anyone.

However, Meng Xian was resentful that Song Hang had even selected some servants and regarded them as outer disciples. Although, looking at this, Meng Xian had wrinkled his brows yet he didn’t say anything. These servants were also at the Nine Earth Manor and according to the rules, they could also go to the Merit Transferring Disciple for guidance.

“Yang Chen, this time, I will make you concede your guilt!”

Song Hang who had returned in high spirits after choosing the disciples sneered towards Yang Chen.

“Do as you like, uncle master!”

Yang Chen made an inviting gesture without any concern and moved to one side, while allowing Song Hang and Meng Xian to take the center stage.

The matter of interrogating them was also handed to Song Hang, the person in question himself. Song Hang pointed to a disciple without any politeness and made him come to the center. Afterwards he asked the hall master Meng Xian to take the initiative. Since Meng Xian was not only a YuanYing stage expert, but also the hall master of the Law Enforcement Hall, Song Hang did not dare to be arrogant and asked him courteously.

The Mind Confusing Technique was a simple hypnosis to puzzle the mind. Under normal circumstances, the person who it was going to be used on would rebel and remain on guard, so it would not be completely successful. This was also the reason why Mo Qian and her disciples hadn’t used such a simple technique on Yang Chen.

But the target was an outer disciple in the end, a qi layer youngster. Meng Xian himself was a YuanYing stage expert, so the difference between their realms was extremely high. In addition to that, the Palace Master was instructing all of the disciples to not resist, so hall master Meng Xian barely had to spend any effort on hypnotising this third qi layer disciple.

“You, speak truthfully, when Yang Chen was the Merit Transferring Disciple, did he guide you meticulously?”

Song Hang who was completely engrossed in humiliating Yang Chen, he did not even ask for the name of the qi layer disciple and directly came to the point.

“Yes, uncle master ancestor!”

Although he had been hypnotised, this qi layer disciple still knew the difference between juniors and seniors and only answered after making the proper salutations:

“This disciple has received great help from uncle master Yang. He focused on the special traits of this disciple’s cultivation method and cultivation and explained everything in detail, allowing this disciple to have a sudden enlightenment. Disciple cannot thank him enough!”

Song Hang couldn’t help but become gloomy, because he originally wanted to hear an answer that Yang Chen hadn’t cleared the doubts of the disciple, but he hadn’t anticipated such an answer in favor of Yang Chen.

In the beginning, Song Hang had wished to ask who of these disciples had received pointers from Yang Chen and look for those who hadn’t. But with Meng Xian on his side, he did not dare to be so brazen and so he thought of a way to show his fairness and took Meng Xian with him at the time of choosing disciples and picked them only by looking at their cultivation and did not ask anything, hoping that these would be the disciples he wanted, but he anticipated such an answer.

“What was your cultivation before he guided you and how much has it increased?”

Song Hang also couldn’t be excessively impudent in front of the Palace Master and the group of hall master, so he continued to ask:

“Speak truthfully!”

“Reporting to ancestor, this disciple is very slow witted, even after becoming an outer disciple for two years, disciple has remained at the first qi layer.”

Both eyes of that disciple were blurry, but his reply was clear:

“After uncle master Yang’s guidance, disciple had a sudden flash of realization and within less than a year, disciple has already reached the third qi layer.”

This disciple’s cultivation had been very low, which was the reason why Song Hang had picked him, hoping that he would be able to embarrass Yang Chen, but he hadn’t expected the reply to be like this. How could this be called as hampering the development of disciples? Actually this was the mark of a great master!

Even if it was Song Hang himself, he also wouldn’t dare to boast that, within a short ten months, he would be able to make a dim witted first qi layer disciple enter the third qi layer. Perhaps it was possible through the use of pills, but Yang Chen certainly hadn’t been at the Nine Earth Manor for ten months, so it was basically impossible for him to use such a method.

“I will ask again! When Yang Chen had gone out, how were you able to find the solutions for cultivation problems which you faced during that time?”

Hearing answers in favor of Yang Chen, Song Hang had no choice but to forcefully steer it towards a direction when Yang Chen wasn’t here. Only, he was a JieDan stage hall master, the substitute hall master of the Luminous Moon Hall, yet he still used such a method to deal with Yang Chen. This really made the other people there to look down on him.

“There were no such problems!”

This disciple bluntly killed Song Hang’s efforts in its early stages:

“The pointers that uncle master Yang gave were extremely detailed. They included what problems disciple would face at what times and how to solve them. They have all been explained to this disciple and this disciple only had to follow the orders. Until this day, this disciple did not face any problems outside of what uncle master Yang has said, so within two years, disciple has no need to go to uncle master Yang for guidance!”

Bang!

The last words of this disciple were like a clap of thunder and made the Palace Master and the other hall masters feel the utmost shock. What did he mean by that? Every problem within his cultivation was within the range of Yang Chen’s explanation and he just had to verify it? He didn’t need any guidance for two years? What level of teaching was this? Even if it was the Palace Master, he also didn’t dare to assure that he could have done better than Yang Chen.

Song Hang was completely embarrassed, but he didn’t call this reply in doubt. This disciple was under the effect of the Mind Confusing Technique of Meng Xian, so he could not lie. But this was certainly not the answer which Song Hang had desired.

Perhaps this disciple had been cheated by Yang Chen. Song Hang was unwilling to give up and immediately switched him with another disciple and asked a similar set of questions.

What was astonishing for them was that this disciple’s reply was precisely the same as the previous one. Yang Chen’s guidance was incomparably thorough and he also didn’t need any guidance for one or two years. He only had to follow the orders and cultivate, that would suffice.

Even after asking ten disciples, there wasn’t anyone who had not received guidance. All of them gave almost the same answer. Song Hang who still wasn’t willing to give up, also asked the few servants whom he had brought, but what made him give up all hopes was that even these servants had received pointers from Yang Chen and their cultivations had also increased.

How was this condemning him? This was clearly just applying makeup to his face. Moreover, in front of the Palace Master, it was like asking for an award for Yang Chen.

“How can this be possible?”

Unwillingness was spread across Song Hang’s entire face, but with incomparable astonishment he said:

“How can you be proficient in all of those cultivation methods and even understand all of the problems within the cultivation methods?”

“Why is this so impossible?”

Yang Chen smiled:

“If uncle master Song remembered the entire Hidden Pavilion, then you can also have a similar level of achievement!”

“Impossible! Absolutely impossible!”

Song Hang madly shouted:

“You have certainly cast a hypnosis on these disciples of the Nine Earth Manor, true or not? True or not?”

Once the Palace Master and the others heard this, their complexions were immediately changed. This was clearly just causing trouble without purpose.

“Uncle Master Song cultivates the Heavenly Chaste Water Secrets right?”

Yang Chen suddenly smiled:

“Your cultivation is already at the peak JieDan stage, but recently it has been getting harder to circulate spirit power, and then after circulating you feel an acute pain in your shoulders and you also have a sensation of being pricked by needles in your lower back, while your cultivation hasn’t improved even a bit and you haven’t been able to find a solution? You also feel that your flying sword isn’t moving as strongly as you wish? And you haven’t felt the signs of forming a nascent soul for a long time?”

“How do you know this?”

Song Hang was startled and asked with great alarm, then his complexion turned cheerful:

“Do you know how to solve it?”

“Since I know the symptoms, naturally I also know how to solve it!”

Yang Chen laughed and gave a ridiculing look to Song Hang.

“How can this be solved then?”

Song Hang impatiently asked.

“Although I know the method!”

Yang Chen calmly asked:

“Why should I tell you?”