Chapter 34 Successive visitors
"Ah?"
"Slightly too old? That's really a pity." The disciple was astonished and his face expressed a look of pity.
To be able to break into the top 100 ranking of the lower courtyard within 2 months of entering Huashan, that was truly genius.
The top 100 of the lower courtyard consisted of people who had been there for 3 to 4 years, and had already mastered their sword skill and movement skill. Most of them had trained their Huashan basic skills to perfection stage.
The only thing holding them back, was the ability to learn an internal art.
If they were able to succeed in learning an internal art, their strength would rival disciples from Upper courtyard. Even in the upper courtyard where there were plenty of experts, they would be able to achieve an above average ranking.
This disciple felt great pity for Lin Yi. Just because he was slightly older, he had lost the chance to become a core disciple.
This was the decision of the Sect Master, and as a mere upper courtyard disciple there was nothing he could do but follow orders.
"It's quite a pity indeed." Yu Zecheng waved his hands and sighed.
"Alright Xiaoliu(小六，literally little six, could be a nickname）, that's enough. What kind of person is the Sect Master? He must have his reasons for every decision he makes, all we need to do is to carry out his orders."
After a moment of silence, Yu Zecheng said calmly: "Besides, isn't this a chance given by Sect Master? As long as he is able to succeed in learning an internal art within 3 months, he will be accepted into the upper courtyard and become a favored disciple, this is a prelude to becoming a core disciple. If Lin Yi is truly a genius, I believe he will surely be able to become a core disciple. If not, ah ah......"
"Also, becoming an upper courtyard disciple is not bad either, going from the lower courtyard to the upper courtyard before becoming a core disciple. One step at a time, enduring hardships along the way makes the future all the more brighter."
"Especially when it comes to the time to compete for the position of chief disciple, a disciple who had made his way up one step at a time would better convince everyone. Look at Linghu Feng, he had never stayed in the lower courtyard and started out in the upper courtyard. Even if he is highly skilled and has great talent, the undisputed number one among our generation, so what? There's still many people who does not agree that he should be the chief disciple."
Yu Zecheng smiled coldly and expressed his disdain of Linghu Feng.
Xiaoliu gave an astonished look at Yu Zecheng and felt shocked.
He would never have thought that Senior Brother Yu would dare to openly express his disdain of Linghu Feng.
Senior Brother Yu was only just an upper courtyard disciple isn't it?
Suddenly, he recalled what Senior Brother Yu just said, and felt there was more it than it seemed.
Could it be that Senior Brother Yu had recently improved by leaps and bounds and finally made that step into the ranks of second-rate experts?
If not, why would Senior Brother Yu say such words?
He clearly knew that Senior Brother Yu was someone who had advanced one step at a time from the lower courtyard to the upper courtyard before becoming one of the top figures in the upper courtyard, being in charge of giving out missions to disciples in the entire upper courtyard.
Even though he is only an upper courtyard disciple, he possessed great influence, the manager of the upper courtyard both in name and in reality.
Is he finally going to become one of the core disciples?
With Senior Brother Yu's foundation, once he made it he would be at least among the top ten of the core disciples.
"Senior Brother Yu, are...are you making it into the ranks of the core disciples?
Xiaoliu shockingly looked at Yu Zecheng with a wide open mouth.
Yu Zecheng simply smiled and did not reply.
Silence obviously meant consent.
As he thought about it, Xiaoliu grew excited.
Could it be that Senior Brother Yu wanted to compete with Linghu Feng over the position of chief disciple?
"Don't talk nonsense!" Yu Zecheng chided with a stern face.
"Oh oh oh!"
Xiaoliu hastily reined in his excitement and nodded nervously.
"Go to the sect library and get me a copy of 《Huashan Sutra》." Yu Zecheng wrote some words on a slip of paper, signed on it and passed it to Xiaoliu.
"Understood, I will go right away."
Xiaoliu nodded with a smile and headed out with the slip of paper.
"Hurry, I still need to make a trip to the lower courtyard!" Yu Zecheng urged him.
......
Lower courtyard, rank 2 residence of the top 100 rookies.
Han Bo tidied his messy hair and meticulously took care of his appearance.
After seeing Lin Yi defeat Zhang Xiong and make it to the top 100 of the lower courtyard with his own eyes, he was greatly distracted and speechless, like a dispirited drunkard.
He had a myriad of thoughts in his mind.
After numerous struggles between his reason and pride, pride finally lost to reason.
He finally made up his mind to give up all his pride and make a decision that even he found incredible ? to pledge allegiance to Lin Yi!
This idea had emerged when he was defeated by Lin Yi.
Along with the increasing number and strength of opponents defeated by Lin Yi, this idea also grew stronger.
Along with the defeat of Zhang Xiong and making it to the top 100.
The last shred of obstacle coming from his pride finally vanished.
He started to face up to reality and stopped his obsession with the pride from being called a genius youth.
He is originally a genius and a shrewd person.
Once he cleared all the obstructions in his mind, the more he felt that pledging allegiance to Lin Yi was a good move.
It was obvious from seeing the achievements of Jiang Xiaoyu and Yu Hai.
Who was Jiang Xiaoyu? A beginner who hadn't even learned any martial arts before. Yu Hai was slightly stronger, but also wasn't any much better.
But this two people had improved by leaps and bounds after they pledged allegiance to Lin Yi and received his guidance. Within 7 days, they both made it to the top 10 ranks of the rookies.
Even Han Bo himself felt tremendous pressure when facing them in a duel.
As the days passed by, he could feel the two of them improving each and every day.
Han Bo could no longer defeat the two of them with ease.
This was what made Lin Yi formidable. Not only was he able to improve his own strength rapidly, he was also able to do the same to those around him.
This kind of ability attracted Han Bo immensely.
"Now that he has reached the lower courtyard top 100, it shouldn't be considered lowering my status to pledge allegiance to him as a former rank 1 rookie."
Han Bo secretly thought to himself while clenching his fists tightly, a glint of determination flashing through his eyes: "Fame and wealth are but passing clouds, obtaining great skill in martial arts is the only right way. Forget whether it's an embarassment, as long as it allows me, Han Bo, to greatly increase my strength, I'm willing to admit to being an embarassment!"
Facing the mirror, he raised his fists, then walked out of his room and headed towards the rank 1 rookie residence.
......
Rank 1 rookie residence, Lin Yi was drenched in sweat, hard at work training his skills.
Breaking through the lower courtyard top 100, shocking the entire lower courtyard, and even creating a sensation throughout Huashan.
But Lin Yi was not affected much at all, only single-mindedly training and improving his martial arts.
In the recent days, he would diligently train whenever he had free time. He had finally trained both Huashan Swordplay and Huashan Movement skill to ninety thousand points of experience, leaving ten thousand more experience points to go.
"Perfection, here I come!" Lin Yi broke into a smile.
Huashan Swordplay was the Huashan basic sword skill, as well as the foundation for all of Huashan's high level sword skills.
Only by training Huashan Swordplay to perfection stage could one learn Huashan high level sword skills.
If one had not reached the perfection stage and started to learned the high level sword skills by force, their progress would be incredibly slow.
It was just like learning mathematics.
If one had not yet mastered addition and subtraction before starting to learn multiplication and division, the result would surely be terrible.
"Once I train Huashan Swordplay to perfection stage and obtain the right to learn high level sword skills, I can then move on to the next step of my plan. That is to learn an internal art, enter the upper courtyard, and join the ranks of third-rate experts. With my combat experience, I am sure to become the top among the third-rate experts and even be on par with second-rate experts."
"When that time comes, I will be able to travel around Jianghu and have the ability to protect myself."
"Jianghu, I'm truly coming!"
Although Huashan was a good place, and there were fights taking place nearly every day, but it was not what Lin Yi wanted.
The sparring between Huashan disciples greatly unsuited his tastes.
What he really liked was to live or die by the sword, where life could be decided by a single move.
The struggles of life and death in Jianghu was what truly suited his tastes.
As a battle maniac, he loved to be constantly under the threat of losing his life as well as the bloodbaths that could occur.
Smelling the scent of blood, only then could he sleep soundly.
Even though in Huashan, he seemed like a mild-mannered and kind person who is reluctant to injure others easily, only he himself knew exactly what kind of person he was.
He was definitely not a kind Samaritan, but not exactly an evil villain either.
He was more of a ruthless person who wouldn't hesitate to kill.
A peaceful life was not for him, he yearned for exciting adventures and putting his life on the line.
"Almost there, once I have trained Huashan Swordplay to perfection stage I will immediately defeat the lower courtyard top 100 and obtain an internal art sutra. Succeed in learning the internal art, enter the upper courtyard, and then proceed to bully and terrorize the people in the name of Huashan...uh, wrong, it's roam about Jianghu to help the weak and cut down the strong, as well as administer justice!", Lin Yi mumbled.
Once he imagined his future in Jianghu, his blood grew hot.
At this moment, a maid approached and said: "Young Master, Mister Han Bo seeks an audience."
"Han Bo? What is he here for?"
Lin Yi raised his brows, the image of the proud youth surfacing in his mind.
"Welcome him to the main hall, I will wait for him there." He ordered the maid, then used a towel to wipe the sweat on his forehead and then left the rear courtyard.
......
Han Bo followed the maid expressionlessly.
Although he maintained his pride on his face, he was very nervous deep inside.
Putting aside his pride to pledge allegiance, would he be accepted? Would he be chased out by Lin Yi? Or perhaps be mocked?
These scary thoughts lingered in his mind like a nightmare.
His face gradually grew pale and his heart grew even more restless and uneasy.
"Mister Han, we have reached the main hall. Young Master is inside, please enter." The maid politely said.
"En." Han Bo nodded his head without an expression on his face, raised his head and examined the main hall entrance. Then he clenched his fists, calmed his heart, and entered the main hall.
"Han Bo pays his respect to Senior Brother Lin Yi!"
Seeing Lin Yi calmly sitting there, Han Bo quickly greeted him.
"Junior Brother Han, may I know for what matter did you come here?" Lin Yi went straight to the topic and asked directly.
"I..." Han Bo was about to speak, when a servant rushed in while chattering: "Young Master, Young Master. Upper courtyard internal affairs supervisor Yu Zecheng seeks an audience!"
Upper courtyard...
Han Bo was stunned, and took back the words he was about to say.
"Ee?" Lin Yi uttered in shock, gave Han Bo a look and said with a laugh: "It's such a coincidence today, Junior Brother Han is here, and so is someone from the upper courtyard. I wonder for what reason he is here for?"
Waving a hand at the servant, Lin Yi said: "Go receive him quickly, no, I better do it personally."
He got up quickly and headed outside. Han Bo paused in silence for a moment before quickly following with his head lowered.