Yuan Ji was now the Palace Master Yuan Ji and he had taken over the Emperor Hall Sect.
Suddenly he found himself taking charge of some three thousand protégés. These protégés were mostly low level cultivators and only a couple of them were fourth realm cultivators.
Three months had quickly passed.
And Yuan Ji had regained his profound strength to the fifth cultivation realm.
Although three months had quickly passed, it was like three days to him.
It was because he suddenly found himself with three roles; Palace Master (because the former Palace Mistress Xia Jiaqing had gone missing), Elder (all the other elders were killed) and top protégé fighter (all the top cultivators were also killed).
He found himself cursing Xia Jiaqing again, "Why don't you come back and be the Palace Mistress again. Do you know that you left behind a pile of shit to me?"
The minute the Emperor Hall Sect had lost most of its top cultivators, the other celestial clans in the surrounding vicinity were sending him challenges after challenges to reclaim lost honor or territories.
"I'm in mourning. According to the fraternity laws of the Desolate Celestial Fraternity, they have to wait three months to challenge me or my sect. Go and tell them to wait for three months!"
"What? The three months are almost up?!"
"...."
He was forced to seek help from Fairy Ye Chengxi to help him to run the Emperor Hall Sect and had made her an honorable elder of the Emperor Hall Sect.
Because he was also so short of elders, he was forced to ask Shangguan Yan for help too. Although she was a weak cultivator but she was nevertheless still a fourth realm cultivator.
But the thing that worried him the most was that he had almost run out of excuses why he was not consummating his union with Shangguan Yan.
Whenever he sees her, he would feel extremely guilty.
Today he was on the way to the practice platform because Shangguan Yan and Fairy Ye Chengxi were giving an instruction there to the inner protégés.
"I shouldn't be cultivating all the time. I should at least take a look around my new sect. At least I should show my face once a while." He said to himself.
All of a sudden he had paused in his tracks and hid himself.
It was because he had suddenly overheard some protégés exchanging gossips on him and he was frowning.
"Our new Palace Mistress Shangguan Yan is so personal and enticing. Our Palace Master is so lucky to have her. I can't imagine having such an enticing beauty like her in bed every day."
"Our Palace Mistress is an unranked great beauty. Now that she is a Palace Mistress, she may be ranked as the fifth great beauty soon."
"If that is the case then won't our Palace Master have two great beauties as his consorts?"
"Of course! Why do you think our Palace Master invites Fairy Ye Chengxi here to be our honorable elder? Things are not so simple. It is because he can see her every day."
"But I rarely see Palace Master talking to Fairy Ye Chengxi. In fact, Palace Master is rarely in sight."
"You're too young, too simple."
"You never know what they are doing at night. Why do you think that our Palace Master is always not around during the day?"
"Why?"
"Because he has completely exhausted himself with the two great beauties during the night! Haha!"
"Listen, this is our personal secret. Don't go around telling anyone…"
"Actually our Palace Master is quite handsome…it is no wonder that even Fairy Ye Chengxi and our previous Palace Mistress Xia Jiaqing are all looking at him in a weird manner."
"Yes, I agree…" A female protégé said.
"Other than the Great Poet Ji Yuan, I don't think anyone is as great looking as our Palace Master…"
"But it is a pity. The Great Poet Ji Yuan is only handsome when he is beardless…"
"I have heard that the one and only portrait of the beardless Ji Yuan is worth 10,000 high grade spirit stones and is now hanging in the forbidden ground of the Hundred Flower Divine Palace…"
Yuan Ji: …
Yuan Ji: …
Yuan Ji: …
Did he hear what he was hearing from these outrageous protégés?
He resisted the temptation to confront these protégés as he continued quietly to the practice platform while muttering, "I am busy cultivating during the day and night so that I can save all your asses from getting kicked by the other celestial clans. These good-for-nothing protégés only know how to gossip nonstop."
He was soon at the practice platform but remained out of sight.
"Hm, Chengxi isn't here yet?" He thought. "Maybe it is too troublesome for her to travel here every day. I should offer to give her a residence here. This place has plenty of rooms for her anyway."
Shangguan Yan had just finished a practice round with the inner protégés that numbered some three hundreds and she was now chatting with them.
"Palace Mistress, we have heard that you used to be a core protégé of the Orthodox Sword Sect and you are a junior sister to Sword Saintess Fairy Ye Chengxi. We are curious how you managed to be a core protégé? We are all inner protégés here and we hope to become a core protégé one day."
Shangguan Yan was smiling gently at the inner protégés.
Her smiles were like a beautiful breeze that seemed to lift the spirits of all the onlookers and that included Yuan Ji.
He was a little smitten when he saw her gentle countenance.
"How come I never know that she can smile so beautifully?"
"Because you've never make her smile at all." His inner demon countered.
"I am actually not a good core protégé." Shangguan Yan said quietly. "I have to practice twelve hours a day while the others only have to practice three hours a day. I am actually not good with the sword."
Everyone was suddenly quiet because they could sense her melancholy gaze upon them; it was as though she could express her emotions through her countenance and quiet voice.
"I've actually no time for my cultivation so I try to make it up by only sleeping two hours a day and during meal breaks."
When Yuan Ji heard her, he was suddenly very downcast as he muttered, "Yan'Er, sorry…"
It was because he knew that he had punished her for being so weak in her sword techniques.
"This is a sword sect. We practice our sword together with our cultivation practice. How can you be so useless with your sword? From now onward, you will practice your sword from day to night until I'm happy with you. Don't forget that you're a core protégé and not an ordinary protégé. How can your swordplay be weaker than an ordinary protégé?"
All the inner protégés were suddenly quiet. It was because none of them were willing to practice their swords for twelve hours a day.
Shangguan Yan smiled bitterly, "After nearly a hundred years, my sword skill is still no better than one-tenth of my sister Chengxi. And I continued to practice twelve hours a day for the past one hundred years even though my old master is no longer around."
Yuan Ji was stoned when he had heard her. "I am no longer around. Why the hell do you continue to practice so hard for? I can't see it anyway."
Actually all the inner protégés were also thinking the same but they did not dare to interrupt Shangguan Yan.
She continued melancholy, "When my old master took me in as a core protégé, I've promised him that I will not fail him and I will work hard to meet his expectations. Whether my old master is still around or not, I never fail to practice my sword while I was still in the Orthodox Sword Sect."
Yuan Ji was smiling bitterly. "When I took you in, you are still a child. A child promise is not worth remembering!" Then he was trembling, "I didn't know that you are suffering so much while you're in the Orthodox Sword Sect. Maybe coming to the Emperor Hall Sect is a release for you instead…."
Then he added bitterly, "You must have hated your old master so much, am I right?"
Some of the inner protégés could not resist sighing loudly, "Then Palace Mistress must have hated your old master?"
"If I were Palace Mistress, I would hate him!"
"Death to Palace Mistress' old master…"
Yuan Ji cursed them softly, "These idiots. Why are they cursing me all of a sudden?"