Ye Wu Tian led me to a tower that served as the Divine Dragon Sect's library. The elder in charge of the library bowed respectfully.
"A new disciple?" he asked, glancing at me. Ye Wu Tian shook his head.
"No, he got a Magic Carp."
"Ah, what a pity." The librarian sighed. He cocked his head to the side when he caught sight of the Magic Carp in my hands, but he didn't smirk or scoff at me. He simply nodded in understanding. "I suppose you're just here for the beginner's training manual then?"
"That's right."
"Give me a second."
The elderly librarian rose to his feet and waddled over, his pudgy body nudging the side of his desk. He proceeded to the shelf behind him, browsed through a few books before pulling out one of them. He then returned to the counter, pushing the thin training manual to me.
"You can keep it," he told me. "We have like several thousand copies. This book is mass produced. If we need to, we'll just print another."
��Thank you." I accepted the training manual. Glancing at the cover, I saw the title embroidered over the front. Beginner's Guide to Summoning. Pretty apt.
"As for your Magic Carp, I'm going teach you how to keep him in your summoning space." Ye Wu Tian briefly explained the process, which was to surround Magic Carp with qi. I followed his instructions, and Magic Carp disappeared from view. "I'll also teach you how to summon him. Though I doubt you'll ever summon him – he's simply useless in a battle."
"Why? All he can do is flop or splash about?"
"Exactly." Ye Wu Tian looked surprised. "You know about Magic Carps before this?"
"Uh, well…sort of." I couldn't tell him I played a pocket monster game with similar beasts. He would be annoyed.
"Anyway, here's the method. It's all written in the beginner's training manual, but I'll demonstrate it for you since I'm here anyway."
It didn't take me more than a few minutes to succeed summoning and dismissing Magic Carp a few times, as practice.
"The rest of the basic summoning techniques should be in that book, so it's up to you to master them."
Ye Wu Tian didn't seem convinced that my Magic Carp would be useful for anything other than as emergency food when I was starving."
"At least it's better than eating Paimon," I muttered. Ye Wu Tian gave me a strange stare before he sighed and shook his head.
"Anyway, if there's anything you need, feel free to contact me. You might not be a disciple of my Divine Dragon Sect, but at the very least I can answer any questions you might have regarding summoning."
"Thank you very much."
We then left the library and proceeded toward the gates that served as a front for the Divine Dragon Sect. Once I passed through them, I would find myself back in the Tian Long Temple.
Before we reached the gates, however, my attention was drawn toward a furor in the meadow next to the dragon pool.
"How did trash like you become the first disciple?!"
"You must have cheated!"
"Oh? If you aren't convinced, then you can try me out."
A single young man was standing in the center of the meadow, surrounded by a circle of angry disciples. He looked unperturbed and beckoned for them to fight him with his fingers.
"What's going on?" Ye Wu Tian growled, proceeding over to the commotion. The bullies – that was what they clearly were – quickly spun around in shock.
"These idiots are complaining that I cheated to become the first disciple," the young man in the center replied almost indifferently. "So I challenged them to test out my strength for themselves. But they seem to be all bark and no bite."
"Long Ao Tian! How dare you!?" one of the bullies yelled. The person named Long Ao Tian simply shrugged.
"Oh? Then why aren't you accepting my challenge? Aren't you scared?"
"You…!"
"If you want the status of first disciple, then defeat me and claim it. Otherwise, you only sound like a bunch of loser dogs, jealously complaining about something you can't have."
"I'll kill you!"
Immediately, three of the bullies lunged at him. I scowled and moved forward to help, but Ye Wu Tian threw out a hand and stopped me. When I glanced at him in surprise, he smiled mysteriously and nodded toward Long Ao Tian.
"Hah!" Long Ao Tian laughed and shook his head. Suddenly, a golden aura burst forth from his body and coalesced into the shape of a dragon. Before his opponents could reach him, they were sent flying, blood spurting from their mouths.
"Wait," I spoke up, suddenly remembering something when I saw Long Ao Tian's dragon. "Aren't they summoning cultivators? Why are they trying to punch Long Ao Tian instead of summoning their spirit beasts?"
"Because they are stupid," Ye Wu Tian replied simply. "This is why Long Ao Tian is the first disciple and they aren't."
"Damn you!" one of th other bullies shouted. "This isn't possible! How can a trash like you summon a dragon?!"
"Isn't it obvious that he's not trash?!" I exploded, clutching my head in exasperation.
"They are prejudiced against Long Ao Tian," Ye Wu Tian explained with a shrug. "Somehow they delude themselves into believing they are better than him, no matter how many times he kicked their sorry asses."
The other disciples weren't paying much attention, and they finally resorted to summoning their respective spirit beasts. One of them had a black bull, another summoned a gigantic yellow serpent, and a third summoned a lightning tiger. There was also an armored rhinoceros and a majestic lion.
All five spirit beasts pounced on Long Ao Tian, but he gathered his dragon's qi around his body to reinforce himself and began punching the spirit beasts away.
"Impressive." Ye Wu Tian nodded in approval. "Long Ao Tian has finally learned how to merge his spirit with that of his spirit beast's, and therefore make use of his spirit beast's strength and abilities."
I watched in amazement. Sure enough, Long Ao Tian's golden aura appeared to have dragon scales on them, which deflected the spirit beasts' attacks effortlessly. With one punch, he obliterated the black bull, and then he grabbed the yellow serpent and tore it apart with his bare hands. Sweeping about, he kicked the lightning tiger away before slamming a knee into the lion. Standing his ground, he punched the charging armored rhinoceros head-on, and actually sent it flying.
Then he pounced on the circle of bullies, punching and kicking. A few of them tried to flee, but Long Ao Tian's dragon swooped upon them, coiling its body around them to restrain their movements.
"You can't do this!" One of them wailed.
"You cheated!" Another shouted. "Where is your sense of honor?!"
"Yeah! You already defeated our spirit beasts! Why are you aiming your attacks at us? It's against the rules to attack your fellow disciples!"
"What the fuck?!" I blurted out, unable to believe what I was hearing. How shameless could these fuckers be? "They were the ones who attacked him first…not only that, they all ganged up on him! And their spirit beasts all clearly targeted Long Ao Tian instead of his dragon! And now they want to talk about his honor, about him cheating, or him breaking the rules?!"
"Why do you think I haven't stepped in at all?" Ye Wu Tian asked mildly. I glanced at him and saw that he hadn't budged an inch.
Long Ao Tian had noticed the elder, though. He bowed his head and cupped his hands respectfully.
"Should I leave these fools to Elder Ye to deal with?"
"Nah, don't bother." Ye Wu Tian held up his hand. "Do whatever you want to them. Don't go too far, though. Remember that killing your fellow disciples in cold blood is not allowed."
"As long as I leave them alive, I can do whatever I want to them?"
"Yes."
Long Ao Tian grinned, and then in several swift moves, he broke the bullies' arms and legs. He then pulverized their dantian, crippling them. They shrieked, pleaded and begged, but Ye Wu Tian remained unmoved.
"They would have done the same to Long Ao Tian if the situation was reversed," he explained when I watched the whole thing in shock. He turned to me with a grim smile. "If you want to survive in a cultivation world, you have to be ruthless. Strength is the only way to survive. Tie up loose ends. Otherwise, in the future, they will come after him for revenge."
"Why don't you all just be demonic cultivators then?" I threw my hands up in exasperation. The whole "strength is everything" bullshit was just a poor excuse to do whatever they wanted, to kill whoever they wanted. Someone pissed you off? Murder him, then justify it as "he was too weak, he deserved to die." If civilization ran along such nonsensical logic, it would collapse.
Long Ao Tian then left without a word, swaggering arrogantly like all cultivation web novel and manhua protagonists. I watched the groaning and broken cultivators on the ground, feeling sorry for them. Yeah, they deserved it, but somehow I had the feeling that Long Ao Tian was not very different from them. He was just as arrogant, cruel and ruthless. The only difference was that he was the protagonist and therefore possessed plot armor and preferential treatment from the author.
Clearly Ye Wu Tian didn't share my opinion. He was smiling and nodding in approval.
"As expected of the first disciple. I hope his marriage with the first young miss of the Na Lan family goes well. The both of them are a match made in heaven. The reincarnation of the divine dragon and the reincarnation of the heavenly phoenix. Their children would become the strongest in the cultivator world."
"Oh, right. Long Ao Tian is the fiancé of Na Lan Yan Ran?"
"That's correct."
"Uh, okay. Cool." I nodded, trying not to sound too amused. Ye Wu Tian was right. The both of them matched each other perfectly. An arrogant asshole and a stuck up bitch…truly a match made in hell. They would definitely be so happy together.
"The unification of the Divine Dragon Sect and the Na Lan clan will be a joyous occasion," Ye Wu Tian continued, a faraway look in his eyes. "We'll become a superpower in the world of cultivators. There will be few who can oppose us. We will absolutely dominate over the other sects!"
"Uh, okay. Good luck with that."
I was starting to have a bad feeling about this. Originally, I didn't trust the Na Lan clan, especially after what Kai Li Si told me. Increasingly, it appeared that he didn't tell me the truth regarding my marriage, or I had trolled him with a trashy son-in-law story that I had read elsewhere. That said, from what I had seen, I had little reason to trust the Na Lan family, especially when both Na Lan Yan Ran and her father looked down on me.
And now the Divine Dragon Sect was displaying disturbing ambitions of conquest. It appeared that I couldn't trust them either.
Fortunately, they refused to accept me into their sect. That was looking more like a stroke of luck. I didn't want to be part of a sect who desired to subjugate all the other sects. I was an advocate of freedom and liberty, a world where people could live without having to fear tyranny and oppression. Where the people in power would assume responsibility and serve the masses, instead of abusing their positions and authority. Great power came with great responsibility. Just because you were strong didn't mean you could do whatever you like and kill whoever you like.
Honestly, granting strength to those who desired it was always a bad idea.
Taking a deep breath, I suppressed the discomfort and bowed politely to Ye Wu Tian.
"Thank you for everything. I appreciate your help. I might not become a successful summoning cultivator, but I will do my best to learn the basics and be responsible for my spirit beast."
"Hmm. Good luck." Ye Wu Tian sounded dismissive of me. I bowed again and hastily left for the gates.
I couldn't wait to get out of this sect.