A few days later, Zhang Wan discovered that ever since word had spread that he had been taken as a disciple by the two vice ministers of the Dust Bone Fourth Branch, quite a few unfamiliar fellow disciples had come to visit him and make friends.
There were too many of them, to the point that they were beginning to affect his daily cultivation.
Some fellow disciples came claiming they were merely curious about him, yet every word and action revealed that they wanted to test themselves against him and have a match.
From time to time, a few people he had only met several times would also come to tell him the latest rumors, saying things like so-and-so had secretly expressed dissatisfaction with him.
Later, even his good friends who had graduated from the Beginner Martial Arts Academy in the same class often came to tell him such things, saying that he could not let people look down on him like this and had to strike back.
This left Zhang Wan utterly speechless.
He simply shut the main gate and ignored everyone.
Every day, when he went out to tend the spirit fields, if someone came over to talk to him, he would exchange a few brief words before cutting the conversation short and giving them no chance to continue.
He was not stupid. Of course he knew there was a trap hidden in all this.
Knowing that he had been taken as a disciple by two Ninth Level Postnatal experts, it was perfectly normal for people to want to befriend him. He would not reject ordinary interactions.
But affecting his cultivation was another matter!
Those who came to waste his time while he was about to cultivate were ignored without exception. He made every one of them eat a closed door!
Though this would offend people, so what?
A martial artist's fists were the most important thing. Everything else was merely decoration.
If he delayed his cultivation just to avoid offending these fellow disciples who came to befriend him, then he would truly be a colossal idiot who had mistaken the small for the great!
If his cultivation was delayed because of this, his strength fell, and he lost the attention of his two masters, then the first people to stab him in the back would absolutely be these same fellow disciples who had come to befriend him!
Those who sincerely came to befriend him would never show up during his cultivation time and insist on dragging him into an acquaintance.
Those who came during his cultivation time, ate a closed door, and then harbored resentment because of it were scheming from the very beginning!
Offending such fellow disciples was no great loss.
They were never on the same road to begin with.
If he befriended people like that, who knew when they might stab him in the back?
As for the fellow disciples who came to challenge him, Zhang Wan neither disliked nor liked them. He also needed to fight others to improve his practical combat experience.
But it was impossible for him to spend too much time on arena gambling matches.
Besides, every time he fought a fellow disciple of roughly equal strength, although things would not escalate to a life-or-death struggle, he still needed several days to recover afterward.
If he fought too often, it would also affect his cultivation.
Therefore, Zhang Wan would only go to the mountain gate's martial arena for a battle when he happened to be in the mood.
The amusing thing was that regardless of whether he won or lost, a group of people would immediately come over to praise or console him. Then they would drag him off to a feast without even making him pay! At first, these people merely took him to sample spirit cuisine. Later, little by little, they began dragging him to spend money at charm cultivators' establishments, gambling dens, and stone-betting venues.
Zhang Wan saw through what these people wanted at a glance. They wanted to corrupt him with wine, women, wealth, and status! He did not bother to exchange pleasantries with them for long, directly stating that he was not interested and telling them to go have fun on their own.
Even when some people were displeased, feeling that Zhang Wan was refusing to show them respect, and stubbornly tried to drag him along, Zhang Wan remained unmoved.
So what if he refused to show them respect? There was no need to show respect for schemes harboring ill intent!
They might not necessarily have intended to corrupt Zhang Wan themselves. Perhaps they had been used by someone and pushed from behind. Even so, Zhang Wan wanted no part of this sort of thing.
At least for now.
He was too weak at present. What if someone made a move against him while he was going in and out of such places?
It would not need to be anything obvious. A method that caused damage through prolonged exposure and affected his foundation would be enough to make him take a fall!
If he then used experience points to restore his foundation, it would be easy for others to notice that something was wrong, bringing about an even greater storm.
Once his cultivation had risen in the future, and he no longer had to fear despicable schemes and secret attacks, then if these people still wanted to corrupt him, he definitely would not be polite.
He would beat them straight into bankruptcy!
The stone-betting venues and gambling dens were the same.
Once he became addicted, would he not be cutting off his own hand every single day?
Even if he wanted to go in and have some fun, he would first need to learn several related martial techniques, then use experience points to max them out before going in and slaughtering everyone!
Going in to gamble on luck without understanding anything—would that not be the purest possible way to give away spirit stones?
Because of all this, Zhang Wan became certain that someone behind the scenes wanted to set him up—and that they were using not only extremely covert methods, but several methods at once!
At first, they had secretly spread the news that he had been taken as a disciple by two Ninth Level Postnatal experts, arousing the curiosity of his fellow disciples and fanning the flames until these people came to befriend him.
Some of these people were good, and some were bad. Once he established ties with them, trouble would surely come endlessly in the future.
Whenever anything happened, these people would come to seek his help. Whether he helped them or not, they would annoy him to death.
Moreover, if he spent too much time making friends and building connections, his own cultivation would inevitably be delayed, slowing his progress.
If he saw through this and directly shut himself in, he would offend a large batch of narrow-minded fellow disciples.
Once these offended people got a chance in the future, they would definitely seize it to set Zhang Wan up.
Making friends and building connections was not inherently a bad thing, but it was something that required time to slowly filter and choose. Someone behind the scenes had directly pressed the accelerator, shortening that time. Originally, Zhang Wan could have spent some time gradually making friends with like-minded people without offending too many others. Now he had no choice but to shut his doors and offend quite a few fellow disciples.
There were traps in the arena matches later on as well. Too many people were curious about him and wanted to fight him.
If he accepted every challenge, he would not need to cultivate anymore. All his time would be spent recovering from injuries.
The methods of corruption that came afterward were even more deadly.
Whether it was charm cultivators, stone-betting venues, or gambling dens, once someone became obsessed with them, it would not necessarily mean their entire life was ruined, but at the very least half of it would be.
If they exhausted all their cultivation resources on such things, how could their cultivation still surge forward? Even geniuses would become mediocrities!
After seeing that he had not taken the bait, the people behind the scenes stirred up rumors. It was plainly an attempt to exploit young people's pride and inability to stand being wronged, provoking conflict between him and his fellow disciples.
If he had truly been young and hot-blooded, and had been blinded by the rumors for a moment before going to demand an explanation, the matter would probably have spiraled completely out of control.
As for the idea of finding the other party mentioned in the rumors and having a talk with them, Zhang Wan lost all desire to do so the moment he heard who the rumors concerned.
The person digging the pit behind the scenes was indeed clever. The targets of the rumors were all notorious firecrackers and unruly troublemakers among the outer disciples.
It was not that these people were brainless, or that he could not explain things clearly and tell them someone was provoking them from behind the scenes.
Rather, Zhang Wan felt that the rumors might not necessarily be false.
Perhaps they really had spouted such nonsense after getting drunk, only needing someone to give them a slight push.
Then someone with ulterior motives had spread their words.
If he truly went to confront them, he feared he would immediately discover that those idiots really had said such things. By then, even if he did not want to fight, he would have no choice.
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