After passing the final exam and meeting Long Yijun and Elder Xuan, Yuan followed them out of the examination area through the portal and straight into the spectators’ room with the other sect elders present.
"Where is this?" Yuan looked around the unfamiliar scenery.
"This is the spectators’ room, where high-ranking sect elders can watch the disciple examination and see if there are any talented participants they can accept as disciples." Long Yijun said.
"Hello, Daoist Yuan. Why don’t you be my disciple? I can promise you that we’ll have a ’good’ time together," one of the female sect elders, who had a mature and enchanting figure, suddenly said to Yuan with an alluring gaze, even winking her bright eyes at him.
"How shameless of you, Elder Shan! The Sect Master and Grand Elder are present, you know!" Another sect elder quickly scolded her.
"So what? It’s not like they don’t already know my character." Elder Shan shrugged, and she continued, "Furthermore, someone as talented as Yuan... I would do anything to make him my disciple... hehe..."
Elder Shan glared at Yuan with a hungry look on her beautiful face, almost like a predator before its prey.
Yuan swallowed nervously when he saw this, as he has never been glared at with such a chilling gaze before.
"You’re scaring him, Elder Shan." Elder Xuan said to her, and he continued, "I know you all want him to be your disciple, but we can talk about that later. For now, let’s make sure he’s comfortable and understands the situation that we’re in."
Sometime later, Yuan took a seat with the others sitting around him.
"For starters, let’s introduce ourselves." Long Yijun said. "Once again, I am Long Yijun, the current Sect Master of the Dragon Essence Temple."
Elder Xuan went next and said, "I am one of three Grand Elders, Xuan Zan."
The mature female elder then said, "Surnamed Shan— Shan Shang, and I am in charge of the Core Disciples. If you are ever feeling lonely or bored, come find me, okay, Daoist Yuan? I’ll entertain you."
"..."
After a moment of awkward silence, the next elder in the room spoke, "Xin Ming, and I am also in charge of the Core Disciples alongside Elder Shan."
"Bai Ling, and I am in charge of the Disciplinary Hall. If you ever run into trouble, whether it be with another disciple or a sect elder, you can come find me."
Long Yijun then said, "There are a few more sect elders that had seen your performance from this place, but they had to leave early for other duties. Would you like to introduce yourself? A brief introduction about yourself and a little about why you decided to join our Dragon Essence Temple."
Yuan nodded and took off his black jade mask, revealing to them his handsome and young face.
"Oh my! You’re much younger and more handsome than I’d expected! I am definitely going to make you my disciple now!" Elder Shan’s eyes flickered with excitement after seeing Yuan’s face, and she even licked her lips in a weird manner.
Yuan tried his best to ignore the weird woman and said, "My name is Yuan, and I am 18 years old. I have only recently become a Cultivator and I want to learn more about the cultivation world, so I came to the Dragon Essence Temple to broaden my views!"
"..."
To Yuan’s surprise, nobody there responded to him, and they all stared at him with wide eyes filled with shock.
"Y-You’re only 18 years old? And you became a Cultivator only recently? How recently are we talking about? A few years ago?" Long Yijun was the first to snap out of his daze and ask Yuan.
"No, I became a Cultivator only a few weeks ago," Yuan responded with an innocent-looking expression on his face.
"A FEW WEEKS AGO?!"
Everybody in the room simultaneously exclaimed in a shocked voice with one of them even breaking his chair and falling onto the floor.
"Just where on earth did you come from? If you don’t mind, can you tell us your background? Which powerful family do you belong to? I can promise you that it won’t leave this room, and no matter where you came from, we don’t treat you any different— I swear on it as the Sect Master of the Dragon Essence Temple!" Long Yijun asked him in a nervous voice.
"Why does everyone think I am from a powerful family?" Yuan responded with puzzlement, and he continued, "I don’t belong to any powerful family."
"How is that possible? What about your parents? They must be powerful Cultivators, right?" Elder Xuan asked him next.
"No, my parents are not Cultivators. They are musicians," Yuan said. Since he didn’t have a family in this world, he told them about his family in the real world.
"What?! Your parents are mortals?! And they gave birth to a cultivation prodigy like you?! What are the Heavens thinking?!" Long Yijuan cried out loud.
It was as though the Heavens created a cultivation prodigy like Yuan just to mess with every Cultivator in the world. Not only is Yuan from a common background and a family of mortals, but he has talents that surpass even the Founder of the Dragon Essence Temple, who was once recognized as the number one expert in the entire Lower Heavens! If this is not spitting in the face of every Cultivator, especially those born from a powerful family, then what is?
"If what you say is true... and I don’t mean to doubt you... then we have a serious issue at hand," Long Yijun spoke a moment later with a serious expression on his face.
The other sect elders also nodded their heads with grim looks on their faces, instantly turning the atmosphere heavy.
"Eh? Why would it be an issue that I am not from a powerful family?" Yuan asked, still unaware of the situation he was in.
"Well, to put it simply, there will be countless people who will become envious of your talents, and because you have no powerful family backing you, there will be nothing to stop these people from trying to harm you— destroy you before you can grow too powerful," Long Yijun said to him.