Cultivation Online

“Why aren’t you answering my questions, Disciple Tian? Why are you still at the sect when you should’ve left long ago? And pretending to be an Outer Court disciple, no less,” Elder Sun asked again when Yuan didn’t respond. “T-that’s… uh… I think you have the wrong person,” Yuan eventually responded.

The frown on Elder Sun’s face deepened after hearing his response, and she quickly said, “What kind of nonsense are you up to now, Disciple Tian? If you’re going to pretend to be someone else, you should, at the very least, change your face.”

“Uh… I don’t know who this Disciple Tian is, but my name is Xiao Yang, and I entered the Immortal Monastery not long ago,” Yuan said.

He had contemplated pretending to be Tian Yang for a brief moment but decided against it in the end due to a gut feeling.

“Do you think I am stupid or something?” Elder Sun said, still not believing Yuan.

“You can look me up. I came from the Bamboo Garden not long ago,” Yuan shrugged.

Elder Sun fell silent with a perplexed expression on her face.

“Then how do you know my name? If you’re not Disciple Tian, this should be our first time meeting,” she said a moment later, referring to when Yuan subconsciously muttered her name out of surprise.

“I heard about you from someone else. They mentioned a beautiful sect elder protecting disciples at the Hunting Grounds and that I might run into you when I come here,” Yuan quickly came up with an excuse.

Elder Sun coldly snorted at his words, but she didn’t say anything else.

After a moment of silence, she said, “Whatever. It’s easy to confirm your words. I will give you one last chance to come clean. If it turns out that you’re messing with me, I am going to give you a good beating!”

“I wouldn’t dare to mess with a sect elder,” Yuan shook his head.

Elder Sun disappeared the next moment, leaving Yuan speechless.

‘So Tian Yang was a disciple at the Immortal Monastery during its earliest days, huh? I didn’t think someone would recognize me…’ Yuan was truly shocked that Elder Sun was there and even recognized him as Tian Yang, as this had many implications.

‘She mentioned the Core Disciple examination… which means Tian Yang should be at the Desolate Continent right now… However, since Elder Sun is still at the Immortal Monastery, then that incident has yet to happen…’

Yuan recalled meeting Elder Sun at the Desolate Continent, so if she was still in the sect, it meant that Han Zexian’s Tomb had yet to open. ‘Maybe I’m overthinking. This is a trial created by the Immortal Monastery’s founder. It isn’t too far-fetched to think the founder had recreated the people of his era with their memories intact to make the trial more realistic.’

Yuan shook his head and decided not to think too much about it. He left the Hunting Grounds shortly after and made his way to the point store to sell his materials.

Meanwhile, Elder Sun went to inquire about Yuan.

“He was telling the truth… Xiao Yang…” Elder Sun mumbled to herself, her voice barely audible as she stood frozen in place, her expression dazed. “Why does he look exactly like Tian Yang?”

Despite the evidence urging her to believe that Yuan was someone else entirely and only looked like Tian Yang, she couldn’t ignore the familiar feeling she got from him.

“Why does he feel so familiar if he’s someone different? Even his demeanor was identical to Tian Yang… No, his eyes looked much more experienced… but everything else is just like Tian Yang…”

“Damn it, why am I overthinking this? If he claims he’s not Tian Yang, then he’s not Tian Yang.” Elder Sun eventually convinced herself that Yuan was a different person.

Meanwhile, at the point shop, Yuan sold all of the materials he’d gathered from the 91 magical beasts he hunted in a week and earned a little over 11 thousand points.

He also acquired six monster cores from the hunt, but he had no intentions to sell them.

‘Six monster cores will last me three months. I should also reach the sixth level by the end.’

Instead of spending his points, Yuan decided to save them for the next talent-boosting treasure, which cost a staggering 50,000 points.

After returning home, Yuan made the decision to dedicate himself entirely to cultivation. For the next month, he would not leave his home, only opening his doors once a week to receive food from Old Zhai.

During this time, more and more participants would graduate from the Bamboo Garden and enter the Immortal Monastery. Lan Yingying was one of these individuals. “If it isn’t Lady Lan. Are you looking for the Young Master?” Ji Ran coincidentally ran into Lan Yingying, who was wandering the residential area looking for Yuan.

Unlike the Bamboo Garden, both males and females lived in the same area.

“I am. Do you know where he’s staying?”

“He’s staying at Building 913. However, he’s currently in seclusion,” said Ji Ran, recalling what Yuan told him before entering seclusion. “That said, you can probably still see him since he has to eat once a week.”

Lan Yingying nodded, “Okay, I’ll wait for him.”

Since Lan Yingying was one of the earlier participants to arrive at the Immortal Monastery, she was able to pick the building next to Yuan as her living quarters.

A few days later, she noticed Old Zhai approaching Yuan’s living quarters with several plates of food. Seeing this, she hurriedly rushed outside and waited for Yuan to grab the food.

Sure enough, when Yuan opened the door for the food, he noticed Lan Yingying standing outside his building.

He smiled after seeing her and said, “I’m glad you made it out of the Bamboo Garden safely. Did anything happen while I was gone?”

“Those participants who had been hiding in their homes to avoid you finally came out. Other than that, not really,” she said.