Vol 1 Chapter 7 (1/2)
Volume 1, Chapter 7 – Using the Name of a Powerful Family
“Senior Brother Ai, if Young Master Hu knows about this matter, he will absolutely not spare this Bian’s life. This Bian can only ask Senior Brother Ai to save me.” Said Bian Qiao as he kowtowed to a young man.
The incident at Thousand Rock Pavilion became shocking news. Almost all the disciples from the Three Great Schools knew about this incident. However, for Bian Qiao, losing his face was only a small problem. The true problem was that Zhang Yan took the ancient parchment poem which belonged to Hu Shengyu that day. He never thought that it would be taken away by Zhang Yan, this meant that his own life was at stake.
He was determined to get the parchment back at any cost. But the people around him were ordinary disciples who had always been bullied by him, and they persuaded him not to do so. Zhang Yan was a Primordial Qi Condensation cultivator, and to continue pestering him would only court more trouble and self-disgrace.
Fortunately, Hu Shengyu was still in closed-door meditation. He was very arrogant and aloof, because of this he had very few friends. Therefore, n.o.body had mentioned this matter in front of him until now. Thus, Bian Qiao visited and treated Ai Zhongwen, a well-known disciple within the Three Great School, today. He wanted Ai Zhongwen to mediate and reclaim the ancient poem parchment. This was his intention – to quickly solve the problem, he asked for Ai Zhongwen’s help.
Although Ai Zhongwen was only a novice disciple, he came from a mysterious and powerful ancient family, the Anfeng Ai Clan. This was Bian Qiao’s first reason for inviting him. The second reason was that Ai Zhongwen had a vast network. The third was that he was also a disciple from the Profound Virtue Temple, as was Zhang Yan. It was heard that the Masters in the Profound Virtue Temple intended to receive him as an inner disciple. Sooner or later, he would become an inner disciple, which would make most people within the Three Great Schools willing to give some face to him.
Ai Zhongwen smiled, “Senior Brother Bian is anxious and too hasty. First, I need to know about this Zhang Yan’s origin.”
He waved his hand to the attendant at his side and pointed to the bookshelf behind his back. The attendant took a register book from the shelf, read it and turned to report, “Zhang Yan, male, a native of Donghua Continent, and came to the mountain at the age of 17 years old.”
Ai Zhongwen was surprised, “No other information?”
The attendant nodded.
Ai Zhongwen pondered. Although there were many young geniuses who can decipher the Eclipse codes, they were mostly from prominent families, direct descendants, or disciples. It was because they had a master in their family to explain the Dao laws. Since Zhang Yan was very proficient in the Eclipse codes, it was natural that he should have come from one of those prominent families. But why hadn’t he heard about him before?
A voice full of contempt and disdain suddenly came from his side, “Originally he was only a trivial unknown teenager, I thought he was some kind of supreme being. I don’t know why he has such an excellent deciphering method and he even dared to insult brother Bian. Brother Bian, please rest a.s.sured, your problem is my problem. I will help you solve this problem and teach him our customs!”
Bian Qiao couldn’t help but rejoice. He immediately bowed down, “Senior Brother Lin is willing to help with this problem. This Bian is naturally very grateful. After this problem is solved, Bian promises to present you with generous gifts.”
This ‘Senior Brother Lin’ was called Lin Tong. His elder brother was one of the inner disciples in the Profound Virtue Temple, and he had a good relations.h.i.+p with Ai Zhongwen. He was originally looking for Ai Zhongwen to drink and happened to overhear this matter.
Ai Zhongwen quickly looked at Lin Tong and reminded him: “I heard Zhang Yan is at the Primordial Qi Condensation realm. Senior Brother Lin should not underestimate this person.”
Lin Tong laughed loudly, “I have been here for 9 years and have my big brother Lin Yuan to direct me. I had also entered Primordial Qi Condensation realm two years ago. How long has this Zhang Yan entered the Temple? I suspected that the news about him is mostly wrong and absolutely exaggerated!”
Bian Qiao’s eyes twinkled. He had personally seen Zhang Yan, so he was absolutely sure about Zhang Yan’s strength. However, he didn’t say a word in front of Lin Tong, since it was not a wise thing to do. Instead, he felt secretly happy. If Lin Tong was to involve himself in this matter, regardless of the final outcome, that little thief Zhang Yan would end up troubled. If the latter provoked Lin Yuan, this would be even more wonderful.
Ai Zhongwen frowned but didn’t say anything.
He knew Lin Tong perfectly well. He, on many occasions, had always been arrogant. However, the Lin family had truly been a powerful family for many generations, and Lin Tong got here because of his family’s influence. Besides, he did have a powerful elder brother as his backer on Cangwu Mountain, which made him develop the habit of thinking that n.o.body existed but himself. With this mindset, how would he place Zhang Yan in his eyes? This time, affected by the strong liquor he had drunk before, he quickly pulled Ai Zhongwen to leave as he then arrogantly left the words: “Senior Brother Bian, just wait here calmly to hear some good news from me, hahaha…”
Ai Zhongwen was not as optimistic as Lin Tong. He initially heard about Zhang Yan, that this particular disciple was able to decipher three authentic Dao manuals in only one day. He didn’t even need a bamboo token to deduct the manuals, which made him greatly startled.
One must know that even an ordinary Dao manual usually consisted of profound and difficult mnemonics, which caused deciphering the texts to be very time consuming. For example, a Dao manual which only consisted of several thousand words would be very difficult for some people with low intellect. Even if they desperately put all their efforts into studying for 7 or 8 years, that would not even be enough to comprehend the manual. Ai Zhongwen had also secretly calculated. The bamboo slips he was holding in his hand contained 3,612 words, and it took 5 geniuses to decipher the entire words. This achievement itself could even make these genius disciples to justifiably feel proud amongst other disciples. But their achievement paled in comparison to Zhang Yan.
He also heard that there were really some G.o.dly talents in this world. However, he had never seen someone who solely relied on the talent of perception alone to decipher the Eclipse code. Was Zhang Yan one of those particular G.o.dly talents?
Thus, in his mind, there would only be two possibilities. First, Zhang Yan was recently taken in and taught by a certain supreme Daoist. Second, Zhang Yan intentionally concealed his family’s background.
He felt that his suspicion was quite justified. As long as one’s interpretation method was excellent, even if one’s perception was not too high, deciphering ordinary Dao manuals would not be that difficult. But these interpreting methods were not methods that any average person could ever obtain. Only people who came from an ancient, powerful family could get their hands on these methods. Each ancient family had their own unique method in deciphering the Eclipse codes. The more profound the legacy, the more powerful the ancient family was, and the more excellent the interpreting method that ancient family had.
He didn’t know that Zhang Yan actually had no profound method. Zhang Yan initially only had great potential in deciphering the Eclipse codes. And coupled with his advantage of having ten more the amount of time than other people to interpret the texts, even the most profound method could not surpa.s.s this advantage.
In Ai Zhongwen’s view, Zhang Yan absolutely came from a mysterious ancient family. So, it wouldn’t be strange that Zhang Yan would have this ability, even if his family was in decline.
But if he a.s.sumed that his previous inference was true, then…?
“In the view of certain Daoist Masters, this…”
Ai Zhongwen’s heart rippled. He suddenly thought that it was also very possible that the School’s master was involved in this matter, and this certain Master might be taking Zhang Yan as a direct disciple.
Zhang Yan came to the mountain about three years ago and had always been living in obscurity, but now he suddenly rose and amazed the world overnight. The more Ai Zhongwen thought about this, the more that he suspected that these two possibilities were higher.
When he thought to this point, his footsteps slowed. He was gradually left behind by the impatient Lin Tong.
Lin Tong was waiting for him to walk on the plank pa.s.sageway, along the cliff leading to Zhang Yan’s cave mansion. At this moment, Lin Tong looked up and was surprised to see that someone was walking in the opposite direction before him. He impatiently shouted, “Who is blocking the pa.s.sageway? A good dog never obstructs the way! This is Big Brother Lin, why don’t you step aside?”
The opposite man in front snorted and ignored him.
Ai Zhongwen rushed forward and was suddenly startled as he saw the man in front of Lin Tong already stepping on the field side. He was greatly shocked as he shouted: “Fellow Daoist, please wait for a moment.”
The man only coldly glanced at Ai Zhongwen. This glance made Ai Zhongwen feel cold as if he was being poured a bucket of cold water. It was so cold that it even penetrated his heart, and made his foot stiff and paralyzed.
Fortunately, the man didn’t say anything and walked straight from the side.
Ai Zhongwen stared at that man’s back and was dazed for a while. He then walked toward Lin Tong and supported him up, “Brother Lin, are you alright?”