Chapter 156: Potential? What Is That?
Chapter 156: Chapter 156: Potential? What Is That?
Seeing someone making a scene, Liu Jianjian couldn’t help but look over.
The young man stood with his arms crossed, a look of pure arrogance on his face.
"Palace Master, I see you possess a Second Realm cultivation. You should therefore understand the importance of innate talent."
"My talent for the Martial Dao is outstanding. Given time, reaching the Second Realm will be no issue for me. Now, please have Zhu Ge come out to speak with me at once."
"Accept me, and I will surely bring glory to the Six Paths Palace. In time, the name of the Six Paths Palace will be known across the land!"
The young man spoke with incredible arrogance, but his cultivation was undeniably strong; he was at the Late-Confucian Realm.
Someone like him would indeed be an immediate combat asset to the Six Paths Palace.
Although Liu Jianjian was put off by his arrogance, she didn’t take it upon herself to drive him away.
"Wait here. I’ll go and ask," Liu Jianjian said, not wanting to waste any more words on him. She turned and walked toward the valley.
’Even if Zhu Ge decides to accept him,’ she resolved inwardly, ’I’ll never be nice to this guy.’
After Liu Jianjian left, the others began to discuss the matter among themselves.
"Wow, that guy seems like a big deal!"
"I heard his parents have ties to the Jianshui City Lord. That’s why all those academies were fighting over themselves to hire him as a teacher—they all want to curry favor!"
"Unbelievable. A guy like that is coming to join the Six Paths Palace?"
"Doesn’t that just prove how capable the Palace Master of the Six Paths Palace is?"
"That’s true."
Many of the onlookers were envious of the young man.
After all, they were mostly the leftovers, the ones the major powers in Jianshui City had passed over.
With no family connections and no great talent, their only choice was to try their luck with an up-and-coming power like this one.
However, some felt the young man had made the wrong choice.
"If you ask me, it’s not a smart move. After all, the Palace Master of the Six Paths Palace is only at the Second Realm."
"Oh? ’Only’ the Second Realm? What do you mean by that, friend?"
"There are branches of some major, cross-regional powers in Jianshui City. Their cultivation techniques and stipends might be average, but once you’re in, you’re officially a member of a major power!"
"If you join one of them, you might become a Great Power in the future! And even if you don’t, it’s a stable position!"
"You might as well join the Court and become an official, then! Besides, who says joining guarantees you’ll become a Great Power? I hear it’s incredibly difficult. Many people spend their entire lives and never get past a First Realm Cultivation."
"Hah, that’s a nasty thing to say, friend. Why don’t you go become an official, or a City Lord? You don’t like it because it’s stable? Besides, even if I’m stuck at the First Realm my whole life, at least I’ll be a member of a major, cross-regional power!"
"Just for the title of being in a major power? For a stable but meager stipend?"
Many people were deep in discussion, and some had even started arguing.
Liu Jianjian hadn’t forbidden them from talking, so some of their voices grew louder and louder.
This drew more and more people into the discussion.
Amid the crowd, however, some people weren’t participating in the discussion. Instead, they were squatting and poking at the dirt, standing with their eyes closed in quiet rest, or sitting cross-legged on the ground.
Meanwhile, Liu Jianjian had reported the situation to the Bone Monster Avatar.
"You’re agonizing over this?"
Zhu Ge laughed in exasperation. "Isn’t the Six Paths Palace in the middle of the wilderness? Why didn’t you just kill him and feed him to the thorny vines or the Blood Mulberry outside the valley?"
"But... I heard he could be useful. He has a First Realm Cultivation," Liu Jianjian said, sticking out her tongue playfully.
"He’d be a ready-made fighter the moment he joins! Plus, I heard his parents have ties to the Jianshui City Lord."
"Lots of cross-regional sects offered him generous packages, but he didn’t join them! He came to us instead. He must be a real talent!"
"Talent? A fighter?" Zhu Ge was at a loss for words. "And what’s this about cross-regional sects? I..."
’Those giant babies in Jianshui City are just too sheltered.’
’With the Jianshui City Lord around, the people in there have never faced any real danger.’
’That young man is only at the First Realm. On an average day since coming to the Six Paths Palace, I’ve probably killed over a dozen First Realm Demon Beasts myself.’
’You can tell just by listening to him that he’s been coddled by his parents his whole life. What damn good would he be on a battlefield?’
’And as for those cross-regional sects?’
’If you don’t become a Great Power, you’re just an ant. It doesn’t matter whether you join a cross-regional sect or not.’
’If you only have a First Realm Cultivation, even if you join a major sect, they’ll just kick you out to be cannon fodder the moment danger arrives.’
’But if you have the cultivation of a Great Power, people will respect you even if you don’t belong to any sect.’
But Liu Jianjian probably didn’t know any of this.
After all, she had spent her life surviving in the mountain forests. How would she know about things like personal connections, talent assessment, and the like?
The old Liu Jianjian only knew about the Eight Trigrams.
"Jianjian, who taught you all this?" Zhu Ge asked, exasperated.
"The Sword Hero did," Liu Jianjian said sheepishly. "Its former master spent his life drifting between cities. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I asked it."
"Don’t listen to it in the future..." Zhu Ge didn’t even have the energy to retort, but seeing Liu Jianjian’s expression, he decided to set her straight before she was led astray.
"Jianjian, you need to understand that everything else is superficial. The only thing that truly matters is your own strength."
"If you were someone like True Monarch Minmian, would it matter whether you joined a sect, how powerful your background was, or who your parents were? No. All that matters is that people see you are powerful."
"But what if you provoked someone like True Monarch Minmian, while only having that young man’s level of cultivation? What good would it do for your parents to know the Jianshui City Lord then?"
Zhu Ge shook his head. "Joining my sect is a matter of mutual consent."
"I’ve set the requirements and made the rules clear. They should follow those rules, plain and simple."
"If they don’t accept my trials and they don’t accept my rules, then they shouldn’t have come at all."
"They can’t just show up here and expect me to change the rules to let them right into the Six Paths Palace. He’s not nearly important enough for that."
"Does he think his parents are True Monarch Minmian or the True Monarch of the Lantern? And he expects *me* to personally greet him?"
"Potential? Innate talent? What damn good are they? Is that what fighting is about? Is he going to run up to a Plague God Sparrow and have a potential-off, and the sparrow will just kill itself if its potential is lower? What a joke!"
Zhu Ge guessed the young man had been sheltered under his parents’ wings for so long that he genuinely believed he was some great talent.
A person with such high ambition and low ability would only be a liability to the growth of the Six Paths Palace.
"I understand, Master. I understand." Liu Jianjian’s cheeks flushed, and she looked a little embarrassed. "I was just afraid of interfering with your plans and strategies."
Zhu Ge smiled. "Jianjian, you have to understand, those people can’t compare to you. Even if he were incredibly useful, it wouldn’t change your place in my heart."
"No matter how talented he is, to me, he’s not as important as your smile."
To Zhu Ge, the Demon Hunting Divine Technique that Liu Jianjian cultivated was exceptionally powerful.
Her future potential was limitless.
’Besides, even taking a step back, what if Liu Jianjian didn’t have that cultivation technique?’
They had spent some time together, and Zhu Ge had grown to like Liu Jianjian’s personality.
She was cautious but responsible, innocent but not foolish.
Liu Jianjian always put her heart and soul into handling matters for him, and she had complete faith in both him and Hua Liusha.
To Zhu Ge, important people—like parents or children—were not things to be traded away for any amount of gain.
"So, just send him packing. And make sure to say something nasty to mock him. Otherwise, all that preening he did would be for nothing, right?"