Chapter 20

Duan Xuan’s Inner World

Thanks to Duan Xuan wanting to inspect the disciples’ cultivation progress, no one was in the mood to joke around. Each one returned to their dwellings to either practice their techniques or to rest.

Early the next morning, while the sky was still black as ink, Wen Jing got dressed and headed to the main hall.

Already waiting within the main hall were five or six people waiting in agony for their master.

Within《A Calamity for All Living Things》, Duan Xuan was a controversial person who was regarded with mixed opinions. Some liked his straightforward character while others felt he was irresponsible to his disciples and predicted he might only be cannon fodder.

In the beginning, Wen Jing also didn’t hold a good opinion of Duan Xuan until a reader called “Real Water Has No Scent” gathered together all the pa.s.sages about Duan Xuan and carefully a.n.a.lyzed them. Afterwards, Wen Jing changed his opinion.

This article called 《Duan Xuan’s Inner World》was a lengthy posting of over 4000 characters and was a pleasure to read.

【Duan Xuan’s biggest accusation is that he’s irresponsible, indifferent, and doesn’t oversee his disciple’s cultivation studies. Let’s see if that’s true.

Chapter 37: “Jun YanZhi then used the《True Yang Sword Secret》 which he had trained to the fourth level. The sword point collided with Duan Xuan’s unbroken spiritual energy which protected his entire body. Duan Xuan looked at him coldly. Spiritual energy poured out and with the sound of shattering metal, the sword neatly snapped into four pieces. Jun YanZhi looked at the broken sword lying on the ground, he had a realization.”

Here, Duan Xuan is very ruthless. During his disciples’ training, his sword is destroyed.

However, Jun Yanzhi’s “realization”, was due to what?

And look here.

Chapter 98: “The bitter cultivator struck out with his hands against the raised red longsword as he laughed and called out: ‘Even if I don’t use a sword, I can still chop you to pieces.’ Saying this, he seized the handle of a long sword from a Qi Refining disciple at the side and flew at Jun YanZhi. Jun YanZhi flipped over his right hand and grasped the handle of a cyan longsword. He did not urgently dash forth but only protected his body with his spiritual energy and strove to resist. After a while, the cyan longsword suddenly flew out. Fast as lightning, it rushed towards the opposite party and collided with a metallic sound. The longsword of the bitter cultivator had snapped in two. It was very shocking.”

Do you feel that Jun YanZhi’s move is similar to Duan Xuan? I think it is.

Jun YanZhi has the highest comprehension of those in Hui Shi peak. His “realization” was not abnormal. I think he understood what Duan Xuan was trying to teach him.

If everyone feels this is far-fetched here’s another.

Chapter 101: “Jun YanZhi said: ‘All swords have flaws. The lower the quality, the more obvious the flaws. During a confrontation when probing with spiritual energy, perhaps these weak points can be discovered and then this weakness can be used.’ Gui XinBi said with envy: ‘Fourth Senior Brother’s comprehension is high. I don’t know how to do that’

Jun YanZhi said: ‘This was taught by Master.'”

Here are a few more examples.

……

Why didn’t he directly teach his disciples? I think there are several reasons.

First, because he’s a genius.

For example, primary and middle school teachers are specially trained to teach and it is a necessary skill to express complex concepts in the simplest language. But how many genius university professors are good at teaching? Almost none? Anyway, I’ve never seen any.

Duan Xuan is a gold core cultivator and also one of the youngest. His personality is cold and eccentric, the fact that he never learned to teach isn’t strange.

Secondly, the later chapters mentioned a reason.

Chapter 263: “Master Lu Zhen once said: ‘Cultivators learn from their own experience. The more you don’t understand, the harder you study in order to engrave it into your bones. If others explain it to you from the beginning you will never go astray, but afterwards, if no one is around to explain it, it’s likely you’ll be in a bad position of only being able to progress with great difficulty.’ “

This paragraph is very interesting. What he’s saying is: You cannot force learning. You must let the student use his own brain and teach them how to think for themselves.

The status that Lu Zhen holds, these words show the depth of influence he has over Duan Xuan, to say the least.

Therefore, I feel that Duan Xuan’s charges of “Rejecting Friendship”, “Disliking to Pay Attention to Ordinary Matters Between the Peaks”, and “Not Interested in Strengthening Hui Shi Peak” are valid, but it would be wrong to accuse him of disregarding his disciples’ cultivation. 】

ーー Excerpt from 《Duan Xuan’s Inner World》

This kind of person, the system displayed a moral standing of -243 which left a person at a loss.

Jun YanZhi stood not far away and silently glanced at Wen Jing.

Several disciples were somewhat anxious. Gu JinPing said uneasily: “Last year master beat me head to foot. This year I hope it doesn’t hurt too much.”

Li Shu said sourly: “At least master exchanged blows with you. He completely refused to acknowledge me and eighth junior brother.”

As a five element waste spiritual root, he wanted to fight but the other wasn’t willing to bother.

After a little while, the disciples entered one by one and stood waiting for Duan Xuan to arrive.

Finally, the sky began to brighten and a man wearing a dark gray Taoist robe flew in.

Relaxed and unhurried, he called Liu QianMo out of the ranks and without saying a word they began to fight within the palace hall.

Wen Jing didn’t need to fight today. Happy to be idle, he smoothed his lips as he watched the two men fly as they fought.

An hour later, defeated, Liu QianMo limped to the side to switch out with He Ling.

Time flew by as Wen Jing watched with fascination.

The scene where Duan Xuan taught Jun YanZhi was ambiguous text, but now that it was happening right in front of him, it was even more confusing. Eyes unblinking, Wen Jing did his utmost to watch but couldn’t see Jun YanZhi’s “realization”. Even if the movements came to an immediate halt, Wen Jing would only believe that Senior Brother Jun YanZhi was only grieving over his broken sword.

It seems that he was no ‘Real Water Has No Scent’. He was afraid that even if he tried his whole life he wouldn’t be able to accomplish the same thing.

The winter days were short. By the time seven disciples had fought, the color of the sky had grown dark.

Duan Xuan looked at the grey sky outside the main hall. He frowned slightly then turned his head towards the remaining Li Shu, Mo ShaoYan and Wen Jing and said: “You three step up.”

“Yes.”

Li Shu and Mo ShaoYan felt moved at this words and promptly stepped foward. Wen Jing wasn’t paying attention so he only stepped forward after they had moved.

They still hadn’t learned any sword skills and could only use the most basic Piercing Ray technique. Three portions of stone shaped spiritual energy flew together at Duan Xuan.

Although Piercing Ray was a simple technique, if a cultivator wanted to create a sharp edge is was not simple. It required constant practice. Duan Xuan frowned slightly and easily collected those three portions of spiritual energy and returned them. The spiritual energy flew at the eyes of the three individuals.

“Master!” Liu QianMo cried out with alarm.

Shocked, those three attempted to dodge but fell short as they were hit in the head. Small cries of pain rang out one by one. Li Shu’s forehead, Mo ShaoYan’s b.l.o.o.d.y nose, and Wen Jing’s cheek slowly turned red and they got up confused and disoriented.

So vicious, so vicious……a spiritual energy attack aimed at the eyes. A person couldn’t help but to close their eyes and become easy targets.

Wen Jing rubbed his swollen cheek and fought back tears as he bowed and said: “Many thanks for Master’s teachings.”

Li Shu and Mo ShaoYan also clutched their wounds and gave thanks.

Duan Xuan coldly looked at Wen Jing, his expression seemed to have a thread of oddness: “You come over here.”

Wen Jing was extremely alarmed. What was he going to do?

He stood motionless. Seeing this, Duan Xuan felt a trace of impatience and his voice became somewhat colder: “The youngest one.”

Wen Jing looked around and determined that he was the youngest one. Tearing up slightly, he hesitated then walked up.

Duan Xuan pulled Wen Jing’s arm and poured a torrent of spiritual energy out.

The palace hall was silent.

For a long time Duan Xuan coldly watched Wen Jing then suddenly said: “QianMo.”

“Master.” Liu QianMo promptly stepped forward.

“This winter, have him soak inside the ice spring every day for eight hours without fail.”

Duan Xuan released Wen Jing’s arm and returned to his grim and stern expression.

Everyone was stunned.

Wen Jing felt regret to the point that his teeth wanted to break.

“Yes.”

Liu QianMo didn’t know what to do, so he promised without any alternative. Liu QianMo asked: “Master, this disciple has some items to report regarding Hui Shi peak. May I have some time?”

Duan Xuan frowned slightly, saying: “These matters should be handled by you.”

Done speaking, he suddenly rose into the air and flew outside the hall.

Liu QianMo looked at the distant figure, his thoughts gloomy. With no alternative he replied: “Understood.”

Wow, it’s been a year and we’ve gone from a near wasteland to BL novels starting to pop up like mushrooms. This is great. Anyway, boring chapter since it’s just background and setting stuff up. Let’s see how poor Wen Jing survives his ordeal.

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