“Those are clansmen.”
Ai Changyuan spoke with slight disdain, making clear his disregard for Hu Jianghao and his team of clansmen.
Lu Qianqian pointed out with awkwardness. “Um, Changyuan, you’re a clansman too.”
Ai clan descended from Transcendent, but if there was one clan that had the right to call itself noble, it would be his.
“Don’t go lumping me together with garbage, Little Qian.” Ai Changyuan face fell. “That’s all they ever amount to, clansmen and nothing else. Unlike me, who outgrew it.”
Lu Qianqian cocked her head. Her naive thinking didn’t get his excuse.
Ai Changyuan knocked her head. “Modern clans must be known as Dao seekers, and a Dao seeker must have three qualities: a deep and thorough knowledge, a heart for Dao, and a relentless willpower.
“Thorough knowledge implies understanding predecessors’ paths and building on their foundation.
“A heart for Dao means to have a fundamental awareness of it, to have a rough idea of what you’re pursuing. This is a must.
Ai Changyuan turned in Hu Jianghao’s direction, sneering. “And those losers use their clans to take advantage of the first quality, the cheapest of the three that can be made up for it with time. It’s only a matter of time before they’re left behind by real geniuses.” Thıs text ıs hosted at 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡~𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚~𝙣𝙚𝙩
Lu Qianqian stuck out her tongue. “The way you’re saying it’s like they’re pitiful.”
“It had happened once before.” Ai Changyuan shook his head. “They could sense it too. The fear of abandonment led them to group, yearning to follow Elusive Palace’s collective example in seeking Dao.”
Lu Qianqian nodded. “Putting it like that sounds like a path as well.”
Ai Changyuan shook his head. “They forgot one crucial fact—every single one of the people in Whill Manor back then was an epitome of talent.”
Suo Whill Manor, the mecca of modern cultivation. The ruler, Suo Eryu, was a Scorching Metal Valley disciple, of average cultivation but sharp business sense, one of the very rare few in the cultivation world. Founder Suo was a forthright man, loyal and righteous, and loved to interact with heroes. When Whill Manor was established, Founder Suo invited the geniuses of those times to debate and compete on Dao. No one could’ve imagined the first Golden Core cultivators that gathered there would end up becoming Unfettered one after the other. Even those like Daoist Proscribe Heisenberg, People’s Champion Neumann, people of lower seniority, geniuses born late, were being witnessed, through the seven Whill Manor debates, as they rose from mere disciples to the glorious rank of Unfettered. The Whill Manor Debade became the greatest legend of this era.
Quantum Grandmaster Bohr, Daoist Proscribe Heisenberg, Supreme Lord Einstein, and Arbiter of Arithmetic Hilbert were among the participating cultivators at the debates, renowned as Whill Manor personas. Their debates made the cultivation world aware of the elusive path, hence Whill Manor personas pointed at collective Dao seekers.
Lu Qianqian wasn’t fond of Hu Jianghao’s ilk either and just like Ai Changyuan, she snickered at their expense. But then her mood sank again, “Changyuan, I have a question. You see Senior Brother Hu and the others as losers, but what about me?”
Ai Changyuan blinked. “A friend.”
“But I’m not as good as him…”
Ai Changyuan laughed. “Is that what you’re worried about?”
The girl was dejected. “I wasn’t born… in a good family…”
“Did anyone think the world of Cracked Peak’s Ai clan before Transcendent as well? If not for Bernoulli Yuehan and Bernoulli Yage brothers leaving home for the Myriad Arts Sect, the Bernoulli family would’ve remained unknown. Daoist Proscribe is wildly known as the greatest genius the world has seen in centuries, but do you know which clan he belongs to?” Ai Changyuan smiled. “Lighten up, your beginning doesn’t control your future.”
Seeing her hesitating still, Ai Changyuan sighed. “Recall how we became friends?”
Lu Qianqian had a fond look. “You were awful, making me eat the crabapple.”
Ai Changyuan shrugged. “I didn’t think you’d be dumb enough to bite it twice, then plop down then and there to absorb and comprehend it. Those fools don’t have the guts to even try it—as far as willpower goes, you are more than worthy to be a Dao seeker.”
Ai Changyuan rubbed her head again. Looking at the Newton apple, he was reminded of the other genius who took two bites.
[Wang Qi, see you at the examination.]
As Ai Changyuan chatted under the moon with fellow crabapple-eating friend, the people over at the Argent Apex Immortal Institute camp were commenting on him too.
Wang Qi was tucked in bed. He spent all his spiritual power blade dancing around oblivious that he ended his display on such a high note that he belly planted into the water below so hard his innards were hurting, not to mention staying in the cold river water for a long time. It took a long time for Mao Zimiao to pick up on the issue and went to pick him up, enough for a certain bookworm obsessed with matrix mechanics practice to go into hypothermic shock.
Mao Zimiao ran to Ai Dinglan to drop him. The quirky true disciple flexed her magic a hint, to mostly heal him, but left the other harm already there alone, letting him end up getting sick and bedridden.
“Cough~” Wang Qi threw a coughing fit and looked miserable. “A life of a genius, yet I must endure the long years, besieged by wind and frost, blade and sword. Just beyond, the peach blossom blooms, yet within, I grow thinner.” (Tamon: a poem from Dreams of Red Chamber.)
“It’s December, what peach blossoms?” Wu Shiqin poked and finished writing.
“Cough, Shiqin, you can’t understand. My heart yearns for the endless skies, but my vitality is thinner than paper…”
“Stop talking like you’re dying or crippled when it’s just a flesh wound.”
Mao Zimiao complained. “Shiqin, let him be. Little Qi is in pain.”
Wu Shiqin lifted her paper. “I heard he got hurt from meeting with Langde Immortal Institute’s genius. Here I was thinking they traded fists and came to put it on record.”
“Is this a straight-up guilty verdict?”
Wu Shiqin digressed. “Wouldn’t you have fought him if it were fun?”