Until today, Ye Chen has no idea why Elder Ming demanded him to be his disciple...Only Elder Ming himself knows the reason.
--
During the years after enrolment and before qualifying to enter the hunt at fourteen, disciples are taught close combat offensive techniques such as directing spiritual energy to their fists, arms, or legs.
They are also required to learn defence techniques such as directing the energy to any part of the body that would get hurt - such as the stomach, chest, or back. This acts as a shield for them and weakens the point of impact.
Of course, there are other uses for body spiritual energy manipulation as the level increases, such as making a brand new appearance or to push out the poison from the body. The downside of this technique is that one cannot simultaneously divert their energy to more than one place. For example, if the cultivator is protecting his chest, he cannot split the energy to direct it to his hands while holding up the shield at his chest.
One reason why GongCi Sect's disciples have to go through close combat training is that although they are destined to have contracted spiritual beasts later in the years, one cannot rely too much on it. What if there were multiple enemies? What if the contract spiritual beast is out of combat and the enemy targets the cultivator instead? Thus the teachings of GongCi Sect is always about maintaining a proper balance when it comes to reliance on contract beast.
Face manipulation is used often among the elders of GongCi Sect, especially when teaching outer sect lessons. It is due to security reasons as outer disciples are in large numbers and are enrolled indiscriminately, there may be spies or casual disciples who harbour ill intentions.
Because of this face manipulation, Ye Chen was not aware that he had seen Elder Ming before four years ago, as Elder Ming's teaching appearance is a handsome man, and his original appearance is… well, plain.
--
4 Years ago...
"Stop it you bastard!" ten-year-old Ye Chen yelled at an older disciple two times his size.
"Mind your own business you fool. I am just teaching my contract beast some discipline, how is it any of your concern?" the disciple with a mole on his cheek shouted rudely at Ye Chen while kicking an orange pile of fur on the ground, each kick harder than the previous.
"Dumb useless thing. I only bought you because I was told by the merchant you are powerful. But it's been 6 months and you're still weak, losing to my friend's contractual beast, you want me to lose face ah! Do you want to embarrass me to death?" he continued to kick the defenceless little beast on the ground.
Its eyes were bruised shut and some parts of her fur were torn out. Its tail has signs of being burnt but it did not struggle when being hit. It was as though it was used to it and had submitted to fate.
"I SAID STOP IT. STOP IT OR... I'm going to kill you." Ye Chen's killing intent raised to a high level and started rushing towards the rude disciple.
"What did you say? Didn't your mother not teach you not to be rude to your elders? As your Shixiong I am going to teach you a lesson"
That was the last thing that Shixiong said before he blacked out.
This happened when Elder Ming was on duty, so he rushed over to the scene to assess the situation. When he arrived, he was surprised to see a big male teen lying face down on the ground while a young child was crouching down a few metres away from the body. He was crying and hugging the wounded beast and kept asking if it was feeling alright.
After instructing the medical team to bring the big teen to the medical ward, Elder Ming walked towards the boy who was still crying.
"Hey, little disciple, what happened to that Shixiong? Did someone beat him?" Elder Ming asked gently.
"It… it was me." Ye Chen replied while he was still crying.
"Why did you do that?" Elder Ming continues to enquire even though he was surprised that Ye Chen was able to take out someone twice his size.
"He was hurting it and he refused to stop. So I made him stop..." Ye Chen stopped crying and started to get angry recalling the incident.
"I see… so why are you crying?" Elder Ming rubs his chin, confused at the crying child. He beat up the bad guy, saved the beast from torture. Shouldn't he be happy instead?
"Seeing it being treated like this, my heart feels painful…." Ye Chen replied before starting to cry again.
Upon hearing his reply, Elder Ming stopped asking any more questions.
He understood those feelings.
--
There are many ways you can make a beast submit to you, but whichever way it is, by the time of contract, both parties must be mutual. Most would rather beat up beasts, forcing them to submit and threatening to kill if they do not accept a contract, and yet there are the rare few such as Elder Ming who believe that a beast also yearns for love and respect just like humans.
His thinking is rare as everyone around him preferred a faster and more efficient method. His techniques are considered the soft approach and are frowned upon by most cultivators since the success rate is significantly lower than the hard approach.
To achieve a higher success rate using the soft approach, he threw himself into research, mastered alchemy and successfully made many elixirs and spells which would aid the influence a cultivator has against a beast.
He never believed in forcing submission with violence, nor does he believe that a contract between human and beast are like master-servants. He feels that it's more of a partnership.
Seeing Ye Chen like this gave him a pleasant surprise and he told himself that, if Ye Chen ever makes it as an inner sect disciple, he would accept him as his direct disciple.
Despite the circumstances, the big teen was still severely injured, Ye Chen was punished for fighting on sect grounds. He had to maintain horse stance* every day in the parade square after class when the sun is highest from 10 am to 2 pm for three months.
His punishment is a hot topic for disciples of the school, many have heard of him injuring the Shixiong, but no one knew the whole story - they didn't bother to find out either since Ye Chen is like an eyesore. Too smart, too outspoken, too talented, everyone incompetent hates that.
At that time when the twins found out about this, they were upset that they couldn't do anything about it, but they also understood why Ye Chen would do something like that.
Mu Yang, "Ah… Ye-Di… do you regret your actions now?"
Ye Chen, "No…I feel more regret not beating him to death."
Mu Lian, "Damn brat! Is it worth it dirtying your hands for trash like that? Just get someone else to kill him instead."
Mu Yang, "Ah-Lian! Don't teach rubbish! Ye-Di, next time something like this happens, make sure you wear a mask so that you won't be in trouble ah!"
The trio burst into laughter over the jokes, Ye Chen thought that it was so much better being with them compared to the sect.
--
[Knock Knock]
Ye Chen who just got home after a day out with the twins wondered who it could be at this hour.
"Ye Chen, you have almost recovered, now we need to have a serious talk about what happened." Elder Ming's tone turned gloomy and kept a serious face.