"Just who was that Outer Court disciple? I have never seen him before, nor do I recognize his face! Does anyone here know him?" One of the disciples there suddenly asked out loud.
"No, I have also never seen him around here before, and I come to this place nearly every day!"
"Me neither! I have trained here every day for the past 2 years without missing a single day and I also don’t recognize him!"
Since nobody there recognized Yuan’s identity, they all turned to look at Fairy Min with a questioning gaze.
After a moment of silence, one of them decided to ask her, "Fairy Min, do you perhaps know who that Outer Court disciple was?"
"I don’t know him!" Min Li responded in an irritated voice before standing up and patting her clothes and knees.
Once she’d fixed her appearance, Min Li walked away while resisting the urge to cry, as she’d unintentionally suffered a humiliating defeat by Yuan before so many disciples, which will surely affect her reputation and possibly her family’s face.
Sometime later, once Min Li left the scene, the disciples at the practice area looked at each other and said, "Did you see how dejected Fairy Min looked just now? I think it would be better if we don’t talk about this..."
"Yeah, I think so too. After all, talking bad about Fairy Min is akin to slapping the Min Family in the face, and I don’t want to risk offending one of the Seven Legacy Families."
"Me too! I didn’t see anything here today!"
"Good! Then let’s act as though nothing happened here today!"
However, even if the majority of the disciples there agreed to keep what happened today a secret, there were bound to be a few of them who couldn’t keep their mouths shut and spoke about the event at the practice area to others, which quickly spread throughout the sect as a rumor.
Luckily for Fairy Min, since only a few people spoke about it at first, the other disciples doubted this rumor when they heard it, as it was simply too unbelievable.
"What? Fairy Min lost to some unknown Outer Court disciple in a challenge? That’s outrageous!"
"Some unknown Outer Court disciple managed to destroy a Training Puppet with an ordinary dagger and a Mortal-rank technique— the Flying Daggers technique, no less? How is that possible? You must have been dreaming!"
"There’s no way Fairy Min would lose to some nobody! Quit your bullshit!"
"I am telling you the truth! If you go to the practice area now, you would see many cracked Training Puppets! These damages had been done by that Outer Court disciple!" The disciple that spread the rumors said, feeling slightly annoyed that nobody believed him.
"Do you think I am stupid? Of course, there would be cracked Training Puppets in the practice area! Do you know how many disciples practice there every day? I’d personally cracked one myself after hitting it over 1,000 times in a single day!"
"That’s not what I mean!"
"Hmph! I don’t know who you are but if you continue to gossip about Fairy Min in a negative light, I will personally give your skull some cracks! Get lost!"
"..."
That disciple was speechless. After pondering for a minute, he realized that it made sense why nobody would believe him, as the event was simply too unbelievable! If he didn’t witness it himself, he would’ve definitely reacted the same as these disciples.
Meanwhile, after returning to her own room, Min Li collapsed on the bed with her head buried deep inside her pillow and began crying her eyes out, releasing all of her frustration alone after today’s defeat.
"I swear I won’t lose to you next time, Disciple Yuan!" Min Li cried out loud sometime later.
As for Yuan, he was casually laying on the comfortable bed inside his room while staring at the floating Starry Abyss in the air. Even though he’d already reached mastery level 2 for this technique, he just cannot seem to get enough of it, as it’d reminded him of the flying sword.
"Hopefully I’ll be able to control a flying sword soon," he mumbled in a low voice.
After spending some time reading the guidebook some more to decide where he wanted to go for tomorrow, Yuan logged off the game to cultivate in the real world until Yu Rou returned from school to feed him dinner.
’Even though I haven’t slept in an entire week, I don’t feel tired, even filled to the brim with energy. I wonder if this is actually healthy for me...’ Yuan wondered to himself as he calmed his mind to prepare for another night of cultivation.
However, unlike the past few days, Yuan did not cultivate throughout the whole night and decided to cultivate only for a few hours before going to sleep.
The next morning, Yu Rou said to him, "Brother, Doctor Wang will be coming later this morning. Do you think you can wait for him to finish before you play the game? I have school so I won’t be able to attend, but Meixiu will be here if you need anything."
"Okay," Yuan said.
Once Yu Rou left for school, Yuan began cultivating until someone knocked on his room.
"Young Master, Doctor Wang is here to see you," Meixiu knocked on his door and said.
"Let him in," Yuan responded.
Doctor Wang entered the room with Meixiu a moment later.
"How have you been feeling lately, Young Master? Does your body hurt anywhere? Do you feel any different than usual?" Doctor Wang asked him.
"No, I feel as great as usual," Yuan quickly responded.
’As great as usual...?’ Doctor Wang raised his eyebrows in a surprised manner. Normally, one wouldn’t claim to feel ’great’ if they were in Yuan’s condition.
"T-That’s great to hear. Anyway, I have brought some equipment with me to scan your body today, but since this is portable equipment, it is also weaker than the ones in the hospital, so I will need to remove your clothes." Doctor Wang said before turning to look at Meixiu and said, "Do you mind helping the Young Master strip while I prepare the equipment? Thank you."
"Uhhhh..." A speechless and perplexed look appeared on Meixiu’s face, but she nodded regardless, and then she approached Yuan on the bed a moment later.