Chapter 141

Chapter 141: Drawbacks Begin to Show
At the Five Elements Dao Sect.

After finishing a month of cultivation, Zhang Jun went to relax in the square on the Main Peak. There he saw his First Senior Sister Zhou Jin Yue walking up the mountain with her brows tightly furrowed.

He stepped in front of her and asked with a smile: “First Senior Sister, who made you angry?”

In the Five Elements Dao Sect, Zhou Jin Yue was known for her gentle temper. It was rare to see her really angry.

Zhang Jun was very curious which bold fool had dared to provoke his senior sister.

Zhou Jin Yue saw him and said: “You’ve come out of seclusion?”

When she saw Zhang Jun, her tightly knit brows relaxed a little, but her face was still serious.

Zhang Jun’s playful mood vanished. He also became serious and said: “Yes, I just came out. First Senior Sister, what happened?”

Zhou Jin Yue paused to think, then shook her head and said: “It’s nothing serious.”

Zhang Jun immediately refused to believe it and said: “Impossible, First Senior Sister. I’m your own junior brother, you can’t hide it from me.”

Zhang Jun knew his First Senior Sister very well. Since she was young, she had been taught to put the sect first. Only when it was something that concerned the sect would she be this anxious and uneasy.

He had been in closed-door cultivation for a month, cut off from news, and now he too started to worry.

He said: “First Senior Sister, don’t hide it from me. Tell me what is troubling you, and we’ll think of a way to solve it together.”

Seeing that she could not hide it, Zhou Jin Yue let out a long sigh and could only tell Zhang Jun what she was worried about.

After listening, Zhang Jun was completely confused.

He asked: “First Senior Sister, you mean you feel uneasy because the disciples have been neglecting their cultivation lately?”

Zhou Jin Yue nodded and said: “I just passed by the inner disciples’ training grounds. Other than Xiu Luo, Feng Qi Yun, and a few others, none of the other disciples were there.”

Zhang Jun froze for a moment.

The inner disciples were known as the hardest-working group among the disciples of the Five Elements Dao Sect.

Every day they were either cultivating or sparring.

With the Cultivation World Grand Tournament coming soon, their enthusiasm for cultivation had risen again. It was no exaggeration to say that even a dog passing by them would be dragged into a fight.

For them to slack off at such an important time was truly strange.

Zhang Jun asked: “Then where did they go?”

Zhou Jin Yue answered: “Lone Moon Peak.”

Zhang Jun repeated in shock: “Lone Moon Peak?”

Zhou corrected him: “To be exact, the foot of Lone Moon Peak.”

Zhou Jin Yue’s eyes grew deep. Lone Moon Peak was Master Qing Yan’s residence, and no one except his personal disciples was allowed to go up without a reason.

Since the inner disciples could not go up the mountain, they gathered at its foot.

Zhang Jun was extremely surprised and asked: “What are they doing at Lone Moon Peak?”

They could not have suddenly become so confident that they thought they could challenge the disciples of Lone Moon Peak, right?

Zhou Jin Yue answered: “They’re waiting for Ye Cong Xin.”

A hint of coldness appeared at the corner of Zhou Jin Yue’s lips. This was what made her the most uneasy.

According to the inner disciples, after chatting with Senior Sister Ye Cong Xin, they would feel a sudden enlightenment, as if everything became clear. Some even said that just by talking with Ye Cong Xin a few more times, they had a small insight and broke through on the spot.

So they treated talking with Ye Cong Xin as a new kind of cultivation method that took little effort but showed quick results. Every day they happily kept watch at the foot of Lone Moon Peak, just hoping to say a few words to her.

Zhang Jun listened in a daze. After a long while, he scratched his head and managed to force out a sentence: “They can’t have practiced too hard and gone into qi deviation, right?”

He thought it was nonsense. If you could break through just by saying a few words, would cultivators still need to train? You could just grab Ye Cong Xin to talk every day, go up a level in one day and three levels in two days. How fast would that be?

Zhou Jin Yue said: “They didn’t go into qi deviation. They just want a shortcut. Among those people, besides inner disciples, there are quite a few personal disciples as well.”

She had observed that none of the top-ranked inner disciples and personal disciples were among them. That was the only thing that gave her a bit of comfort.

Zhang Jun said: “Strange, this is too strange.”

Zhang Jun was puzzled too. If only one or two people believed this nonsense, he would just treat it as a joke. But with so many believing it, his own heart could not help but waver a little.

He asked: “Does Master know about this?”

Zhou Jin Yue replied: “Not yet. But many elders in the sect have already noticed it. I think it’ll reach Master’s ears soon.”

Zhang Jun let out a breath and said: “First Senior Sister, I think it’s best if you don’t step forward. Let Master handle it.”

If this matter was handled poorly, it would very easily cause resentment among the disciples. Zhang Jun did not want Zhou Jin Yue to be dragged into it.

Zhou Jin Yue said: “I know.”

She also knew how tricky this was. Even though she was very worried, she did not rush to Lone Moon Peak in a burst of hot blood to drive the disciples away.

She only felt heartache and confusion about it, and her guard against Ye Cong Xin grew very strong.

In the past, she had thought of Ye Cong Xin as a soft and harmless, optimistic junior sister.

Only after she found out that Yu Zhao’s situation on Lone Moon Peak had been extremely hard did she slowly realize that Ye Cong Xin was not as pure and kind as she seemed.

Especially after they went together to Dragon Roar Valley, Ye Cong Xin had tried to snatch the Starry Sky Stone from Yu Zhao even though she had not contributed anything.

After being rejected by everyone, Ye Cong Xin did not give up. When they returned to the Five Elements Dao Sect, she even complained to Master Qing Yan, forcing Yu Zhao to ask to leave the sect on her own.

Zhou Jin Yue’s opinion of Ye Cong Xin had dropped to the bottom from then on, but she had only thought of her as deeply scheming.

But this gathering of disciples made Zhou Jin Yue fully realize that she had still underestimated Ye Cong Xin.

[How did Ye Cong Xin manage to make the disciples have such blind faith in her ability?]

On this side, Zhou Jin Yue felt wary of Ye Cong Xin. On Lone Moon Peak, Ye Cong Xin was almost driven crazy by the situation that was slipping out of control.

She asked the System: “System, can the Affinity be lowered?”

The System chimed: “Ding. Host, once a deal is made, it cannot be taken back.”

Ye Cong Xin complained: “But didn’t you see how crazy those people are acting? I already said it has nothing to do with me, but they won’t believe me at all. This stupid Affinity is going to get me killed.”

Ye Cong Xin paced back and forth in her room in agitation.

Back then, in order to quickly gain Favorability, she had raised her Affinity to 90 points. Anyone whose will was not firm would, upon seeing her for the first time, immediately treat her as a close friend and believe her words without doubt.

At first, the high Affinity had helped her a lot. She could complete Favorability missions without lifting a finger and freely snatch Fortune.

But only after returning to the Five Elements Dao Sect did she realize that having her Affinity so high brought many inconveniences.

Fellow disciples who had already liked her a lot now clung to her like sticky plaster whenever they saw her, and she could not shake them off no matter what.

Even fellow disciples who used to think little of her changed their view of her and tried to please her again and again.

After enjoying some time of being treated like the moon surrounded by stars, Ye Cong Xin found that wherever she went, in less than the time it took a stick of incense to burn, a large number of disciples would gather. Once there were many people, there would be friction, and the short-tempered disciples could start fighting after just a few words.

Because of this, the elders of the Disciplinary Hall had criticized her by name many times.

She wanted those people to stop sticking to her, but they would not listen and only got worse. Now they were blocking the foot of the mountain, making her not dare to go down at all.

If this continued, her strange situation would definitely draw the attention of the sect master and even Master. The existence of the System was very likely to be exposed.

The System chimed again: “Ding. No one in the Cultivation World can discover the System’s existence. Host, please use it without worry.”