Chapter 245 - Fake It Till You Make It
Elder Cheng's unconscious body falling from the sky had shocked everybody at the Carp Leaping Over Dragon's Gate Tower, immediately causing a scene there.
"E-Elder Cheng! What happened to you?!" Elder Xuan quickly went to check his pulses just to make sure he wasn't actually dead.
After confirming that Elder Cheng was alive, Elder Xuan released a sigh of relief.
"What happened? Where's Sect Master Long?" The other Sect Masters there wondered since Elder Cheng was seen following Long Yijun.
And as though their words had summoned the demon, Long Yijun could be seen approaching them from a distance, but there was something different about him compared to when he left.
When the Sect Masters and the other disciples there saw the rage on Long Yijun's face, they thought his parents had been murdered or something, causing their body to tremble uncontrollably.
"Sect Master! What's the matter? Why are you so angry?" Elder Xuan quickly approached Long Yijun.
"Hmph! Get this!"
Long Yijun quickly explained the situation to Elder Xuan without letting the others hear it.
"Elder Cheng did what?!"
Elder Xuan shook his head in regret, and all of the pity and worry he had for Elder Cheng disappeared in less than a second after learning what Elder Cheng had done to Yuan.
"Elder Bai!" Long Yijun suddenly called for Bai Ling, Disciplinary Hall's leader.
"Yes."
Elder Bai appeared beside him immediately.
"Toss Elder Cheng into the Confinement Chamber until we're done here! I'll deal with him later!" Long Yijun spoke in a demanding tone.
"Yes, Sect Master."
Elder Bai did not question Long Yijun and immediately went to pick up Elder Cheng before carrying him away, and the people there watched with gawking expressions on their faces.
"I apologize for the slight disturbance, fellow guests and disciples. Please, act as though nothing had happened just now." Long Yijun said to the people there with a smile on his face before walking back to his seat like nothing really happened just now, shocking the people even more.
'What the heck just happened?! Who was that sect elder and what did he do to piss Sect Master Long so much?!'
'As if I could forget such a scene just because you told me to! I probably won't ever forget the look on Sect Master Long's face for the rest of my life!'
Although the people there were extremely curious about the situation that had just occurred, nobody there actually dared to bring the topic up after seeing Long Yijun's fearsome demeanor just now— not even the Sect Masters from the other sects.
On the other hand, Long Yijun cursed inwardly, 'Fuck! Why are there so many people trying to offend Disciple Yuan?! It's almost like they're purposefully trying to chase him out of the sect with their scandalous behaviors! If I have to kick out every sect elder to keep Disciple Yuan safe until the Mystic Realm, I'll freaking do it!'
"Sect Master, while what Elder Cheng did was wrong, you should also calm down." Elder Xuan suddenly said to him. "Don't forget that it's Disciple Yuan's desire to experience sect life as a normal disciple, and for normal disciples, they experience these kinds of unfairness every day."
"..."
Long Yijun became somewhat speechless after hearing Elder Xuan's words. How could he have overlooked such a thing? If they keep on protecting Yuan from these unfair situations, he will never experience life as an ordinary Outer Court disciple, nor will he understand their struggles.
Therefore, unless it threatened Yuan's life, they shouldn't interfere with his life and let him deal with the problems by himself. Of course, once Yuan deals with the situation, they'll punish the offenders afterward.
"Thank you for the reminder, Elder Xuan. I nearly robbed him of what made him want to join the Dragon Essence Temple in the first place— experience." Long Yijun sighed.
At this moment, the 89th floor from the tower emitted a golden light, signaling that whoever was challenging the tower had managed to reach the 90th floor.
"Hahaha! Look at this, Sect Master Long. We're only at our second challenger and he's already managed to climb all the way to the 90th floor! At this rate, someone will defeat all 100 floors and we'll still have half of our disciples left!" One of the guest Sect Masters laughed out loud.
"Hmm? The 90th floor, huh? Not bad for someone who's supposed to be your sect's best disciple." Long Yijun responded in a casual manner, almost like he wasn't worried even in the slightest.
"Hmph! Act tough all you want now! I can't wait to see the desperation on your face when you have to hand over the Dragon Slaying Saber!"
Long Yijun smirked at such remarks and said, "Yes, I also cannot wait."
Meanwhile, after defeating Wu Laohu, Yuan returned to his room and laid on his bed, and he proceeded to stare at the empty ceiling with a dazed look on his face.
"It was much harder than I'd expected— acting like I did during the match," Yuan sighed out loud.
"Brother Yuan, what you did today is simply acting like a real 'Cultivator'." Xiao Hua said to him.
"A real Cultivator? What's the difference?"
"A real Cultivator won't let anything block their path— they will walk straight no matter what stands in their way. If a mountain blocks your path, you destroy that mountain. If an ocean blocks your path, you split that ocean. If another Cultivator blocks your path, you trample on that Cultivator. That's how the most successful and powerful Cultivators in this world behave, hence why they're called 'real Cultivators'." Xiao Hua explained to him.
"That's… very aggressive and unreasonable… I don't know if I want to become someone like that." Yuan sighed.
"Don't worry, Brother Yuan. You can become a true Cultivator even without being like that. As long as you know when and how to act like a true Cultivator, you'll be fine. If I recall correctly, there's this saying— fake it till you make it… You simply need to fake that character and hope people believe it."
"Hmmm…" Hearing Xiao Hua's words, Yuan turned silent to ponder again.