Library of Heaven’s Path

“You are going to fall out with me over that Zhang Xuan?” Zhang Qian could hardly believe what he had just heard.

He did all of this in order to win the goodwill of Chen Leyao and the Glacier Plain Court, but why did it seem like his efforts were backfiring on him?

Weren’t you so angry at him that you even wanted to make a move on him earlier? Why are you protecting him now?

“Zhang Qian, the previous slap was just a warning. I hope that you will know what’s best for yourself!” Chen Leyao waved her hands casually.

“You… Why? I want to know why!” Overwhelmed with rage, Zhang Qian bellowed in agitation.

He really couldn’t understand how the woman before him could be so fickle in her attitude.

“You don’t need to know why. Just know that if you dare to cause any trouble to Zhang shi, you will be making an enemy out of me as well!” Chen Leyao replied with a steely and determined tone.

From her voice, there was no doubt that her words weren’t just a mere threat. She wouldn’t hesitate to make a move if Zhang Qian really dared to do anything to Zhang Xuan!

“You…” Zhang Qian clenched his fists tightly as his body trembled from anger. He wanted to lash out at the woman before him, and it took the final shreds of his rationality to prevent him from doing so.

Putting aside the fact that Chen Leyao was nowhere weaker than him, he couldn’t afford to offend the Glacier Plain Court at this point in time.

“Very well…” Zhang Qian stared at Chen Leyao for a moment longer before suppressing his rage forcefully. Flinging his sleeves, he carried Zhang Yu up and walked away.

He had come all the way here to fawn on Chen Leyao, only to have his subordinate pummeled by the latter instead… The more he thought about it, the more furious he felt.

“Zhang Xuan, it’s all your fault… If I don’t make you pay the price for that, my surname shall not be Zhang!” Unable to vent his frustrations of Chen Leyao, Zhang Qian turned all of his hostility toward Zhang Xuan instead.

If not for that brat, how could he possibly suffer such humiliation? His relationship with those from the Glacier Plain Court wouldn’t have turned awry either.

As this thought flashed across his mind, he turned around to glance in Chen Leyao’s direction, only to see the latter looking at Zhang Xuan with a complicated look in her eyes.

“Damn it!” Seeing this, Zhang Qian’s anger flared up once more.

But amidst this anger, some doubts emerged in his mind as well.

Chen Leyao was an aloof person who wouldn’t even bother to keep up conventional politeness before others. Why would she suddenly regard that fellow so highly?

Was she charmed by him?

“Senior Leyao, Zhang Qian is an exceptional individual, be it in terms of background or talent. Is it really wise to fall out with him like that?” another young lady from the Glacier Plain Court walked up to Chen Leyao and asked.

She had gone off for a moment earlier, so she didn’t hear the earlier conversation. All she saw was Senior Leyao making a move on Zhang Qian’s subordinate, and this act left her deeply perplexed.

Regardless of which aspect one was looking from, Zhang Qian was an outstanding master teacher. It would be best to befriend such a person rather than to make an enemy out of him, so why would Senior Leyao suddenly fall out with one another?

“Do you know who the young man here with us earlier was?” Chen Leyao asked.

The young lady pondered for a moment before shaking her head, “I have no idea.”

“He’s Zhang Xuan, Zhang shi!” Chen Leyao replied with a grim expression.

“Zhang Xuan… Zhang Xuan?! Senior Leyao, you can’t be saying that… he’s the man who resolved the problems in our cultivation techniques, our benefactor?” the young lady’s body froze on the spot.

“That’s him! If I’m not mistaken, he’s our young court chief’s teacher as well…” Chen Leyao continued.

“H-how is that possible?” The young lady widened her eyes in disbelief.

Their Glacier Plain Court’s Yin Formula and Yang Formula were powerful but fundamentally flawed, which resulted in the premature deaths of the cultivators practicing them. Even those who had reached Saint realm would survive no more than three hundred years, paling far in comparison to the average thousand years lifespan most ordinary Saint realm cultivators would have.

Like flowers, the young ladies of the Glacier Plain Court blossomed for just a short moment before withering in desolation.

Chen Leyao and the others thought that they were bound to walk down the same road as well, but a gift from the heavens descended upon them… Eight months ago, when Elder Liu Xuan brought their current young court chief back, she also handed over a revised copy of their Yin Formula and Yang Formula over to the Glacier Plain Court.

The revised version had resolved the various side effects that cultivating the Yin Formula and the Yang Formula would cause, allowing their lifespan to revert back to the length of an ordinary cultivator!

Even though news concerning the origin of the revised cultivation technique had been suppressed by the upper echelons, Chen Leyao, as one of the core members of the Glacier Plain Court, still managed to learn a thing or two about it.

From what she had heard, it was the teacher of their young court chief who created the revised version, a master teacher named ‘Zhang Xuan’…

All along, Chen Leyao had envisioned the benefactor to be an old man, at least an 8-star master teacher at minimum. Yet, who could have thought that he would be so young, roughly the same age as them!

“By revising the cultivation technique, he has bestowed upon us a new life…” Realizing this as well, the young lady’s face flushed crimson in agitation.

“Indeed. Given how indebted we are to him, it’s really unforgivable that I have attempted to make a move on him… Should we head over to pay our respects to him, as well as to apologize for my earlier mistake?” Chen Leyao asked awkwardly.

“Sounds good.” The young lady nodded. She quickly gathered the rest of the members of the Glacier Plain Court who weren’t around previously and explained the situation to them as well, and they revealed looks of shock as well.

Their gazes couldn’t help but drift in Zhang Xuan’s direction.

“How can you be so reckless?” Looking at Zhang Xuan, Zhao Xingmo couldn’t help but berate furiously.

The other party was a genius of the Zhang Clan! To knock him into the ground with a single slap, humiliating him in such a manner… That was equivalent to thoroughly offending the Zhang Clan! How was he going to survive in the Sanctum of Sages after this matter?

“I only intended to ask a few questions, but Zhang Qian just had to stick his leg into the matter for no reason.” Zhang Xuan replied nonchalantly.

As powerful as the Zhang Clan was, they couldn’t possibly do whatever they want in the Sanctum of Sages. One had to play by the rules here!

And as long as it was they were playing within the rules, there was really nothing for Zhang Xuan to fear!

If forced to a corner, Zhang Xuan didn’t mind going all out to bring down whatever influence the Zhang Clan had in the Sanctum of Sages!

“The only reason why you are able to remain calm is because you don’t understand the extent of the influence that the Zhang Clan wields in the Sanctum of Sages. If you were to know, there’s no way you would be thinking the same anymore…”

Seeing that Zhang Xuan didn’t care at all, Zhao Xingmo shook his head and said, “Why don’t I put it this way for you? The Sanctum of Sages is an academy that towers above the Sage Clans, but as the number one clan, the numbers of slots that the Zhang Clan receives each year is really substantial, and most of their dispatched candidates are able to successfully clear the final selection as well. Their clan members could be found in every single grade, and they dominate most of the important roles in the academy as well… Offending one of them would be equivalent to offending all of them. Once that happens, no matter what you attempt to do in the Sanctum of Sages, you will find yourself impeded at every step.”

Sometimes, it was more frightening and troublesome to offend a ruffian than an official. At least officials would still be bound by rules and self-decency, but ruffians would stoop to anything to make your life a living hell.

“Even if they have the numbers, they wouldn’t dare to mess around in the Sanctum of Sages.” Zhang Xuan replied nonchalantly.

“Even if they don’t mess around, just following the rules will be enough to leave you with a headache. Putting everything aside, if all of them were to challenge you one by one, do you think that you’ll still have time to cultivate?” Zhao Xingmo asked.

“That would really be troublesome…” Zhang Xuan scratched his head.

Indeed.

Even if Zhang Xuan was able to defeat all of those challengers, their pestering would still be more than enough to annoy him to no end. That would indeed be difficult to deal with.

“Furthermore, you didn’t just offend the Zhang Clan just now, you offended the Glacier Plain Court as well. Even if the influence of the Glacier Plain Court in the Sanctum of Sages pales in comparison to the Zhang Clan, it’s still not to be underestimated. Furthermore, due to the nature of their group, their rallying power is no joke either! Just a call, and countless helpers would come their way. As long as they were to openly express their hostility, there would be plenty of geniuses who would be willing to teach you a lesson in their stead!” Zhao Xingmo continued on.

It was one thing that the members of the Glacier Plain Court were all ladies, but they were top-notch beauties at that. It was for this reason that most people were fixated on the idea of marrying a lady from the Glacier Plain Court.

As such, the Glacier Plain Court also became one of the powers which no one dared to offend. The endless stream of trouble that could ensue from crossing them would really be able to give anyone a headache.

Zhang Xuan sure knew how to pick his enemies! He had warned the young man so many times against it, but he still ran over to provoke them…

Can’t you just quietly wait here for the final selection to start? How good would that be?

What were the words you have said earlier? Low profile?

Are you sure that this can be considered as low profile?

If that was low profile, there would be no one high profile in the world!

“Listen to my advice and apologize to those from the Glacier Plain Court. I think there’s still some room for reconciliation with them. Otherwise, if the two of them combine their forces to deal with you, even ten lives wouldn’t be enough for them to take!” Zhao Xingmo pondered for a moment before advising.

While he was only in charge of bringing them here, he had a good opinion of Zhang Xuan. He didn’t hope for the latter to suffer over a moment of folly just after he had entered the Sanctum of Sages.

“This…”

Just as Zhang Xuan scratched his head, not knowing how to respond to those words, Zhang Jiuxiao’s anxious voice suddenly sounded by the side, “The members of the Glacier Plain Court are making their way over to us…”

“Ah?”

Zhao Xingmo and Zhang Xuan quickly turned their gazes over, and indeed, Chen Leyao and the other young ladies from the Glacier Plain Court were walking in their direction.

They might still have been able to pray that the young ladies from the Glacier Plain Court were just walking coincidentally in their direction, but those impassioned gazes fixated on Zhang Xuan had completely ruled out that possibility.

“They must be here to thrash it out with you, Zhang shi. I fear that they might have already come to some sort of agreement with Zhang Qian. This is really bad…” Zhao Xingmo frowned in worry.

Too anxious to drag Zhang Xuan away, he didn’t see Chen Leyao making a move on Zhang Yu earlier. So, when the entire group from the Glacier Plain Court marched imposingly in their direction, he immediately thought that they were here to cause them trouble.

“Zhang shi, you should first apologize to them before they say anything later on… At the very least, try to appease them before they do anything!” Zhao Xingmo anxiously sent a telepathic message over to Zhang Xuan.

“Apologize to them?” Zhang Xuan felt deeply conflicted at this moment. “How should I go around doing it?”

Apologizing wasn’t a big deal to him, but he knew that he hadn’t done wrong this time around, so he really couldn’t bring himself to admit that it was his fault!

“How to go around doing it?”

Not expecting Zhang Xuan to have such a low emotional quotient, Zhao Xingmo nearly tore his hair out in exasperation. “Alright, I’ll guide you step by step. Just repeat after me word for word, alright?”

“As soon as they come, say these words, ‘Fairy Leyao, please forgive me for my bluntness earlier. I’ll apologize to you sincerely here, so I hope that you can overlook my faux pas…’”

“… Alright then.” Knowing that Zhao Xingmo was doing this for his good, Zhang Xuan eventually decided to go along with his plan after a moment of hesitation.

By the time he memorized those words from Zhao Xingmo, the young ladies of the Glacier Plain Court were already standing before him. Thus, he cleared his throat and began on his monologue, “Fairy Leyao…”

But before he could finish his words, the young lady before him had already bowed deeply and said, “Zhang shi, please forgive me for my bluntness earlier. I’ll apologize to you sincerely here, so I hope that you can overlook my faux pas…”

“Ah?” Hearing oddly familiar words coming from Chen Leyao’s mouth, Zhang Xuan was stunned.

“Cough cough!” Zhao Xingmo also widened his eyes in shock, and he nearly collapsed to the ground.

Wasn’t the other party here to cause trouble?

Why did they suddenly start apologizing instead?

More importantly, to be saying the exact same words which he had just taught Zhang Xuan…

“This is a specialty from our Glacier Plain Court, Wintry Spirit Essence. It has exceptional effects for those who are at Leaving Aperture realm. If you don’t find it too shabby, please do accept my gift. It’s a compensation for my earlier rudeness…”

Before the both of them could recover from their shock, Chen Leyao had already whipped out a jade bottle and passed it over.

“Wintry Spirit Essence? B-but that’s one of the most valuable resources in the Glacier Plain Court! Even a single bottle would cost a thousand concentrated high-tier spirit stones…” Zhao Xingmo widened his eyes in shock, and he nearly choked on his own saliva.

Wintry Spirit Essence was a rare commodity even in the Glacier Plain Court, and it was barely sufficient for their internal consumption. As such, it was nearly impossible to find it in the open market. Yet, Chen Leyao was actually intending to give it to Zhang Xuan just like that…

Just what in the world was going on?

Weren’t they marching here angrily to pick a bone with Zhang Xuan?

Why were they moving around carefully instead, apologizing and even passing over a gift as well?

Unable to make sense of the perplexing situation before him, Zhao Xingmo felt a little light-headed.