Chapter 217: Pressure from the Elder of the Precious Tree Sect
Elder Iron was the epitome of frustration right now. He wanted to threaten and scare Jiang Chen for a bit and make him hand over the items. He wanted to take advantage of this to slap the old lordmaster’s face and poke holes in his bullshit.
Who knew that this kid would put up such an impenetrable front and even hint that he was picking on the weak and afraid of the strong, only picking on a young man because he couldn’t handle Ye Chonglou?
Although this was the truth, speaking the truth at an occasion like this made Elder Iron lose a great amount of face.
“You… what’s your name? What house do you belong to in the Skylaurel Kingdom? Do you understand decorum? Do you know who I am?!”
Jiang Chen flicked a baffled look at Elder Iron, thinking, is something wrong with your head? I’ve already called you Elder Iron, how would I not know who you are?
Of course, he couldn’t very well continue butting heads with Elder Iron here. He laughed wryly and decided to take his leave. Although the old mad dog barking in front of him hadn’t bitten anyone, it was still displeasing just to listen to him.
However, Jiang Chen taking a step away thoroughly infuriated the Elder Iron.
This… this was complete disregard of an elder of the Precious Tree Sect!
“Halt!”
Jiang Chen ignored him, but Ye Rong walked over and pulled on Jiang Chen’s arm, “Younger brother, just say some words and gloss the matter over.”
Elder Iron pointed at Ye Rong, “Little fellow, you go away! It’s none of your business.”
Ye Rong laughed wryly, “Elder Iron, he’s young and you’re an esteemed elder. Don’t be mad.”
Elder Iron’s anger had nothing to do with Jiang Chen’s age. He was ticked off at Jiang Chen’s uncooperative attitude.
“Alright, alright! Alright. The young men of the Skylaurel Kingdom have more and more attitude these days. Brat, don’t think that I won’t find out who you are just because you didn’t offer your name.”
Jiang Chen lightly pushed Ye Rong’s hand away and arched his eyebrows, “Elder Iron, you don’t have to ask around. I’m called Jiang Chen. Remember, Jiang as in the great river, and Chen as in dust.”
“Good, good! Brat, you’ve got some guts. Jiang Chen is it? I can clearly tell you now that you don’t need to think about even setting foot into the Precious Tree Sect doorway in this life.”
Elder Iron had pondered for a while to come up with what he thought was his most devastating threat.
Jiang Chen hadn’t planned on stirring up trouble today, this was truly called an undeserved catastrophe. Elder Iron had been met with a face full of dust from Ye Chonglou and he had vented his resulting rage on Jiang Chen.
However, Jiang Chen wasn’t a punching bag.
He’d already planned on keeping quiet seeing that the other was an elder of the Sect and he had tried his best to not pay attention to this fellow.
Who would’ve thought that this fellow would become more and more outrageous? He’d actually said publicly that he was blacklisting Jiang Chen on the Precious Tree Sect’s behalf.
Jiang Chen had held his temper in for so long and he could no longer do so. As good as his manners were, he was ready to erupt when confronted with such an unreasonable fellow.
“Elder Iron is it? I really hadn’t cared about whether or not I could enter the Precious Tree Sect before, but since you’ve thrown down the gauntlet, I’m going to make it in just for you. Not only will I enter the Sect, I’m going to do so with great fanfare and celebration. Your Sect will beg me to enter! This is all I’m going to say, watch how things go in the future.”
Jiang Chen couldn’t be bothered to look at the elder after venting this annoyance. He laughed coldly and left with a flourish of his sleeves.
Elder Iron had obviously overestimated his influence and power, as well as underestimated Jiang Chen’s fortitude. In his knowledge, all young people from a mundane, ordinary kingdom were supposed to be humble and almost grovel in front of the Precious Tree Sect. Add to that his status as an elder, he’d thought that the young man in front of him would be unable to bear up if he exerted even the slightest bit of pressure.
What young person in the Skylaurel Kingdom could bear it if he voiced the idea of blacklisting them from the Sect?
He’d thought that the young man would surely submit and lower his head in apology. Who would’ve thought that the young man wouldn’t follow his predefined plan at all?
Not only had he not submitted and asked for mercy, he’d been even cockier than an elder of the Precious Tree Sect!
The elder had never thought that the young men of current times would have such character and temper!
Shaking all over in his fury, Elder Iron stabbed with his finger, “Jiang Chen, I don’t care how much of a background you have, if you make it into the Precious Tree Sect anytime in this life, I’ll let you use my head as a seat cushion!”
He was a vaunted elder of the Precious Tree Sect and he had lost so much face in front of a young man that he couldn’t retreat. It was easy to see that the fires of rage were burning within his heart. He also made up his mind that even with Ye Chonglou’s recommendation, he would still collude with some compatriots and completely reject this Jiang Chen brat!
As long as he, Elder Iron, was within the Precious Tree Sect, he’d never allow Jiang Chen to enter the Sect!
Being one of the elders of the Sect, Elder Iron had great deal of power. It was an easy thing for him to deny a common disciple’s request to join the sect.
As strong as Ye Chonglou was, he still wasn’t the head of the Precious Tree Sect!
The atmosphere at the scene had been a bit stifled when all various disciples were incredibly surprised by this conflict.
In their eyes, this was simply too incredulous.
An ordinary disciple butting heads with an elder of the Precious Tree Sect? Had a door slammed on or a donkey kicked this young man’s brains? Wasn’t yelling at an elder of the Precious Tree Sect courting death?
See, now he’d gotten blacklisted by the elder.
As talented as you may be or as much potential as you had, how great could you grow if you could never make it into a sect? You’d only have some mundane wealth and fortune.
However, would you be able to enjoy your mundane wealth and fortune in peace after insulting an elder of the Precious Tree Sect?
Whenever the elder thought of you some day in the future, he’d be able to dispatch a disciple to trample you with a flick of his finger.
“This Jiang Chen had it too easy in the capital that he dared even strut around in front of the Precious Tree Sect. He’s in for it now!”
“Hah! He deserves it! I really wish there’d be more people like Jiang Chen so that I’d have less competition when the Sect holds its open recruitment in the future.”
“This kid has some guts alright. I’d probably lack even the courage to speak if it was me up there.”
“Ai, he’s unlucky too in that an elder of the Precious Tree Sect was creating trouble for him. If he handed his things over, he would’ve offended Tutor Ye. If he hadn’t, he’d be offending Elder Iron. He was destined to come up short when caught between two powerful people.”
The disciples present had all sorts of thoughts. Some felt that this was a pity for Jiang Chen, and others secretly felt that this was unfair to him. Of course, there were also others who gloated over Jiang Chen’s misfortune and there were even more who wished that he would be even unluckier.
Since Jiang Chen didn’t care about the attitude of even an elder of the Precious Tree Sect, why would he care about what the bystanders thought of him? He walked out of the valley entrance as if nothing had happened.
When he passed by Dan Fei, she felt a bit apologetic. Her beautiful eyes alighted on Jiang Chen as her mouth moved slightly, but she wasn’t sure how to comfort him.
This thorny matter had indeed been started by the lordmaster, and he bizarrely hadn’t stepped out to smooth things over for Jiang Chen.
This made the others present feel even more sorrowful for Jiang Chen. They all felt that he had become Tutor Ye’s discarded pawn and been thrown away.
It was because of this that the guilt within Dan Fei’s heart grew even stronger.
As she watched Jiang Chen walk outside all alone, Dan Fei’s upper cheek twitched a few times as she looked a bit aggrieved at the lordmaster.
What greeted her was the sight of a merrily smiling Lordmaster Ye, as if all this had nothing to do with him.
“Little Dan, are you thinking why I was so recalcitrant as to not help Jiang Chen?”
Dan Fei did indeed have such a thought within her heart, but she had always greatly respected the lordmaster and naturally wouldn’t admit to this.
“Heh heh, this little fellow is quite interesting. I like watching him reveal and shine in his true glory. Young men should dash forward and should exploded every now and then. It’s only then that they are energetic.”
“Lordmaster, it’s just that I’m afraid that Jiang Chen will think that we have no loyalty.” Dan Fei truly did feel guilty when she thought of Jiang Chen’s contributions up until now. “Jiang Chen must be feeling very aggrieved right now.”
“Little Dan, if you think this way, that means you don’t know our little friend Jiang Chen well enough.” The lordmaster laughed meaningfully. “Alright, let’s not chat of this any more. Let’s go as well.”
Many matters weighed heavily on Dan Fei’s heart along the way. She naturally didn’t have much enthusiasm for anything.
Even Ye Rong felt slightly indignant on Jiang Chen’s behalf. It wasn’t his fault today at all.
It had been Elder Iron’s fault, who was purposefully looking for bones to pick.
Elder Iron had then picked on Jiang Chen to make an example of when he couldn’t do anything to Tutor Ye. That was a truly low move, but although Ye Rong felt this way, there was nothing he could do about it.
When he returned to the capital, Ye Rong said to Xue Tong, “Xue Tong, go back and comfort your young master that plans can be slowly formulated for this in the future. There’s got to be another way, just like a road always appears when the carriage arrives in front of the mountain.”
Xue Tong was rather open minded about it all as he laughed. “Don’t worry fourth prince. Perhaps Elder Iron thinks that my young master’s words are quite arrogant, but with my knowledge of the young master, he may not actually think highly of an elder of the Precious Tree Sect.”
Ye Rong felt speechless in that moment. Even his followers are this cocky!
However, he supposed it made sense. Jiang Chen had created countless numbers of miracles all along the way. Just like Ye Rong had said in the beginning, Jiang Chen was gold buried in the sand. He was destined to shine brightly with great radiance one day.
With Jiang Chen’s stunning talents and knowledge, it really may not be Jiang Chen’s loss if the Precious Tree Sect didn’t want him. With such a young genius as Jiang Chen, there’d be plenty of sects who would fight for him.
The Precious Tree Sect wasn’t the only strong sect amongst the sixteen kingdom alliance.
When Jiang Chen returned home, he saw that all had been peaceful in the month that he’s been gone. Nothing particularly special had occurred. What surprised Jiang Chen was that after a month, Guo Jin’s level of training had advanced by leaps and bounds as he’d taken another step forward in breaking through to nine meridians true qi after Xue Tong. He had entered the ranks of the true qi masters!
“It looks like Xue Tong’s remaining Rare Jade Fruit will end up going to Guo Jin.”
Gouyu had still yet to emerge from closed door cultivation. It looked like she had received much after taking the Five Dragons Opening Heavens Pill and was likely trying to assail the spirit realm all in one go.
The person who’d had the best time during this period would be Qiao Baishi. As time progressed, Elder Ning of the Azure Heaven Southern Palace became more and more unable to tear herself away from Qiao Baishi.
The two of them actually did fall in love the more time they spent together. Although Elder Ning was a few years older than Qiao Baishi, this wasn’t a problem at all.
Elder Ning had taken the initiative and chased after Qiao Baishi. To think that Jiang Chen had actually ended up foretelling what would happen to the two of them!
However, Qiao Baishi was still quite cognizant of the greater picture and knew his place. Even though he’d confirmed his relationship with Elder Ning, he was still absolutely loyal to the Jiang family.
He would come visit every two or three days whenever he was in the capital to see if he could help with anything.