The sparring grounds finally settled down after a while, and the test continued.
“Next up is our second lineage disciple, Wun Ping.”
A hint of pride flashed across the second elder’s face when he announced Wun Ping’s name. Wun Fan easily noticed that subtle detail. Wun Ping stood up when his name was read and slowly walked down the steps, keeping up a calm and measured demeanor.
Wun Siu Lan couldn’t help but roll her eyes before Wun Ping even made it off the platform. She leaned by Wun Fan’s ear and whispered, “He’s definitely not made it to tenth level yet. I saw him fail to breakthrough a couple days ago; he was not in a good condition after that.”
Wun Fan shook his head when he heard this and replied with some thought, “Not necessarily.”
Wun Siu Lan frowned. She knew Wun Fan would never say something without his reasons. He always gave things a lot of thought. She then observed Wun Ping even more closely and noticed that he seemed to be very confident, and that discovery annoyed her.
“You’re frowning again. Let me just flatten that frown.”
Wun Fan rubbed between her eyebrows, smiling as he did so. He indicated for her to take a deep breath and Wun Siu Lan finally stopped being so restless. Wun Ching Yeung saw everything from where he sat. To think that Wun Fan was able to calm her down so easily with such a simple action when that girl would usually be a nuisance even for the great elder.
Wun Ching Yeung grew more proud of Wun Fan every time he looked at him, and the prouder he felt the more guilt he felt.
Wun Fan and Wun Siu Lan looked toward Wun Ping on the sparring grounds silently. Wun Ping bowed before the crowd and shouted, “Wun Ping, fourteen years old.”
He then pressed his hand onto the stone slab and ten dots lit up. Satisfaction was written all over his face as he looked back at Wun Fan on the platform, his gaze filled with provocation. Wun Fan simply smiled slightly in response before turning away to chatter with Wun Siu Lan. Wun Ping could feel Wun Fan’s contempt through that tiny action and the rage inside him burned even larger.
The servant faithfully recorded Wun Ping’s information and announced, “Wun Ping, tenth-level Martial Disciple!”
“Tch!”
Wun Ping had a hostile look in his eyes when he glanced at the servant. He felt like the servant’s reaction to his test didn’t match his impressive results. He was also dissatisfied that a mere servant had dared to call him by his full name. A nasty plot hatched in his mind. In the blink of an eye, he had decided the servant’s future. The servant felt a chill run down his spine. He could sense the coldness in Wun Ping’s eyes, but he had no idea how he had offended this young master of the clan.
Still, Wun Ping’s power managed to cause a ruckus. After all, reaching the tenth level of Martial Disciple at the age of fourteen was already quite impressive! Wun Ping patted away at some non-existent dust on his shoulder and walked before the roly-poly doll amidst the applause. He turned around with his back facing the doll.
While everyone was confused about what he was doing, Wun Ping spun around and landed a back fist on the doll. With a loud bang, the doll started spitting out a pile of silver coins. The other servant hastily went on his knees to pick up the coins. He then shouted ingratiatingly, “Young Master Wun Ping has obtained twenty-nine silver coins in a magnificent show of his strength!”
Wun Ping gave the servant a look of satisfaction, as if saying, You know how to do things.
Wun Ping took the twenty-nine coins and slowly walked back to the platform. As he walked past the third elder, the elder commented curtly, “Your strength is plenty, but your character is lacking.”
Wun Ping stared dumbfoundedly at the third elder. To his knowledge, the third elder rarely ever made comments on the disciples’ abilities. He bowed to express gratitude to the third elder, but in truth, he couldn’t be bothered to take the advice to heart.
The third elder said nothing when he saw Wun Ping’s reaction. He simply closed his eyes again, shaking his head while letting out a sigh.
Wun Ping mouthed the words ‘Mr. Level Six’ at Wun Fan when he walked past his table, trying to elicit some sort of reaction. Wun Fan simply stood up, straightened his clothes, patted Wun Siu Lan on the head and leapt off the platform in a fancy show of his abilities.
“Next is Wun Fan, the third young master of the Wun Clan, here to show his strength,” the second elder cleared his throat and announced loudly.
However, there was a hint of sarcasm in his words. There was something to his smile when he glanced at Wun Fan from the corner of his eyes. Wun Fan saw all of this. The second elder felt a slight bit of unease when he said his lines and looked back at Wun Ching Yeung. He relaxed a little when he saw that the clan master didn’t react in any way.
“Old man…”
Wun Fan knew what the second elder was doing. He was trying to make things awkward for him. The sparring grounds went quiet for a moment, until a disciple shouted out loud, “Good luck, Wun Fan!”
Then, another, “Get them this time, brother! Show them your might!”
The crowd’s cheers for Wun Fan continued for a while, showing Wun Fan’s good relations with the rest of the clan. He might not be the strongest but he was very mature in the way he handled interpersonal relationships and had built a great camaraderie between him and the other clan members, whether young or old. He was completely different from Wun Ping.
Wun Fan nodded and showed a slightly shy smile when he heard the encouragement, only further demonstrating his humble, respectful character. Some parents even pointed at their kids’ heads and told them to learn from Wun Fan.
Wun Fan bowed when he walked before the testing slab. He said in his boyish voice, “Wun Fan, eleven years old.”
Having said that, he touched the slab and rallied the aether in him. Six little spots appeared on the slab again, as if mocking him. There was a look of pained pity in the servant’s eyes as he reluctantly recorded the results and shouted, “Young Master Wun Fan, sixth-level Martial Disciple.”
Everyone felt pity for Wun Fan when they heard this, even the servants. However, Wun Fan showed no signs of dejection as he walked before the roly-poly. He wasn’t in a hurry to strike. Instead, he focused and pacified the slight waver of his heart. It was obvious that he wasn’t as unfazed as he made himself look in front of the slab earlier.
The words ‘sixth level Martial Disiciple’ naturally drew a lot of discussion from the clan members. Once, Wun Fan had been a legend. He had reached sixth-level Martial Disciple in less than six months since the start of his training. Everyone in the clan believed him to be the next generation’s leader. However, strangely enough, no matter how hard he tried, Wun Fan had never been able to break past the threshold of the sixth level. Certain gossip-mongers even gave him a nickname—Mr. Level Six.
This situation had persisted for almost three years now. That was how the saying came to be, “There’s a cripple in the Wun Clan; his name is Wun Fan.”
Wun Fan felt a wave of intrusive thoughts rise. He almost lost focus until he remembered the Iceheart Mantra of Taoism. He recited it to himself in his mind, Heart as cool as ice, calm in the face of crumbling skies; still through shifting winds, lax as winter mint; forget the self and mind only one, six senses calmed and still as stone.
The crowd said nothing as they watched Wun Fan remain unmoving on the field. Rather, it was Wun Ping who got impatient. He drank some tea from his cup and spoke with disdain, “Hurry up! We don’t have all day.”
Wun Siu Lan glared at Wun Ping furiously, her hands gripped into fists. She swore, if Wun Ping had the guts to say another word, she would rush over and beat him until he was stuck in a bed for the rest of his life, even if the clan master was present.
Wun Fan ignored all the discussion going on around him. He focused his breathing and paid attention to every movement in his body. He matched the tempo of his heartbeat closely to the rhythm of his body.
“Calm down first, then match the tempo of the breathing and the heart to the body.”
Wun Fan took a dozen steps backward under everyone’s curious gaze. He squatted down slightly as he muttered to himself, “Shoulder with the knees, hands with the feet!”
Anyone who knew their stuff could see that every muscle across Wun Fan’s entire body was tense and full of strength, like an arrow on a drawn bow. Wun Fan opened his eyes and stepped with his feet, shooting forward at the doll. With the aid of the running start, he kicked off from the ground and threw a flying knee at the roly-poly.
The roly-poly jerked backward and out fell a pile of silver coins. The impact affected Wun Fan’s knee as well. He rubbed his knee lightly to ease the slight pain.
Wun Siu Lan couldn’t stop laughing when she saw Wun Fan rubbing his knee. She put a thumbs up and blinked at him, while Wun Fan exaggerated his moaning and aching to her amusement.
Wun Ping rolled his eyes at Wun Siu Lan and Wun Fan’s interaction. He weighed the silver coins in his hand, completely disregarding Wun Fan’s insignificant strength. Still, he couldn’t understand what charisma Wun Fan had that made Wun Siu Lan walk so close to him.
The servant bent down to count the coins and was quickly done. “Young Master Wun Fan obtained a total of twenty-two silver coins.”496Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCd3ActFyzB
“What?”
“Twenty-two? Even my son only got thirteen silver coins back when he was at sixth level.”
“What a pity, if only there was a cure to that strange disease...”
Chattering rang out across the sparring grounds. This result was completely out of the second elder’s expectations. He didn’t expect anyone to have been able to retrieve twenty-two silver coins from the doll with the strength of a sixth-level Martial Disciple. He remembered that Wun Fan had only managed to obtain eleven silver coins last year as a sixth level, and that was already excellent compared to the average sixth-level Martial Disciple. Who would have thought he would be able to obtain double that amount this year?496Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCq2iHmLSKS
