After hearing Qin Feng's words, the three of them exchanged glances.
Clearly, they understood his perspective. After all, before they had ever interacted with Jiang Yan, they had thought the exact same way.
"Senior Brother, you should stay and take a look. Who knows, it might actually be of help to you," Lin Yuan couldn't help but say.
Among the four, Qin Feng and Yun Feiyang had entered the sect the earliest, with Yun Feiyang arriving two months before Qin Feng, making him the senior brother to the other three. Next in seniority was Qin Feng, followed by Lin Yuan, and finally Liu Ruyan.
However, in terms of actual strength, Liu Ruyan was undoubtedly the strongest of the four, possessing the cultivation of the Fourth Layer of the Spirit Transformation Realm. Following her was Yun Feiyang at the Second Layer of the Spirit Transformation Realm. As for Qin Feng and Lin Yuan, because they focused their efforts on alchemy and array formation, their personal martial cultivation was naturally not as high, currently resting at the Seventh and Eighth Layers of the Vein Condensation Realm.
Though they had not yet reached the Spirit Transformation Realm, their Seventh and Eighth Layer Vein Condensation cultivation placed them in the top tier of ordinary disciples within the Dao Sect today.
Lin Yuan, of course, possessed the attainments of a second-rank alchemist. Such a status, if displayed outside the sect, would prompt not only Spirit Transformation Realm cultivators but even ordinary Return sought-after experts to try and win him over rather than offend him.
Then there was Qin Feng, whose mastery of array formations was extraordinary. Though he was only at the Seventh and Eighth Layers of the Vein Condensation Realm now, if he were to fight and someone accidentally became trapped within one of his arrays, even ordinary experts at the Third and Fourth Layers of the Spirit Transformation Realm would find themselves in a lot of trouble.
"Ru Peak is the way of books and scholars, which has nothing to do with my array formations at all. How could it possibly help me?"
Hearing Lin Yuan's words, Qin Feng let out a disdainful chuckle.
He waved his hand. "Although I haven't met this Eldest Senior Brother, I've heard that apart from entering the sect a few years earlier than us, he is inferior to us in every way. What could he possibly teach us? Teach us how to read?"
"Reading... is also a shortcut to cultivation."
Liu Ruyan frowned; she couldn't bring herself to agree with Qin Feng's words.
Setting Jiang Yan aside for the moment, her own master was Zhang Yuanshu, the current Master of Ru Peak who was traveling abroad. In her early years, she too had prejudices against these scholars, believing that trying to improve oneself through reading was nothing short of a fantasy. It wasn't until she witnessed the terrifying strength of Zhang Yuanshu that Liu Ruyan completely changed her view, leading her to become his disciple, join the Dao Sect, and become a disciple of Sword Peak.
Although she hadn't followed Zhang Yuanshu to comprehend the way of the scholars, Liu Ruyan felt that powerful scholar-experts like Zhang Yuanshu were by no means rare in this world; it was simply difficult for ordinary people to ever cross paths with them.
"If it's truly as Junior Sister says, why did you become a disciple of Sword Peak despite studying under Peak Master Zhang? In the end, it just shows that Junior Sister doesn't truly approve of the scholarly path," Qin Feng shook his head.
"What are you all chatting about instead of cultivating?"
Just at that moment, the door not far away was pushed open, and Jiang Yan walked out, rubbing his eyes as if he had just woken up.
Lin Yuan didn't waste a second; he immediately went to fetch a basin of warm water for him.
Jiang Yan stood on ceremony with no one, washing his face right there in front of everyone.
"Ah! That feels good!"
After washing his face, Jiang Yan let out a long breath, feeling much more refreshed.
He then looked at Liu Ruyan and the others. "Junior Sister, just continue practicing your swordsmanship according to the method I taught you yesterday. Practice it for another two or three days, and then I will explain the next set of movements and their flaws to you."
"Hum!"
With a flick of his wrist, he retrieved a medicinal pill from his storage bag and handed it to Yun Feiyang. "Junior Brother, this is the Body-Tempering Pill you wanted. After taking it later, practice right here on Ru Peak. I'll get you another piece of extraterrestrial meteorite to use as a punching bag."
"And you—did you remember the refinement technique from last night? Why aren't you going back to try it a few more times? Don't tell me you're heartbroken over those ruined herbs. If you can actually successfully refine the pill one day, what do these herbs even matter?"
With just a few simple words, Jiang Yan dismissed the three of them.
Then, he turned his gaze to Qin Feng. "You're a disciple from Array Peak?"
"Qin Feng greets Eldest Senior Brother."
In front of Jiang Yan, Qin Feng naturally dropped the complaining tone he had used earlier. Surface-level etiquette still had to be maintained, after all; the other man was the Eldest Senior Brother with the highest seniority among the current generation of disciples, and he wouldn't dare be disrespectful.
Still, beneath this polite exterior, Qin Feng still didn't approve of Jiang Yan in his heart.
"When it comes to array formations, there isn't much I can teach you. This field relies mostly on one's own comprehension, and at most, outsiders can only offer some clarification. Tell me, have you encountered any difficult problems recently?" Jiang Yan yawned, cutting straight to the point without beating around the bush.
"Difficult problems do exist, but I'm afraid that even if I state them, Senior Brother might not be able to solve them..."
Looking at the other man, Qin Feng felt that this Eldest Senior Brother was simply too arrogant. Anyone who didn't know better might actually think he was some sort of grandmaster of array formations.
He himself was the personal disciple of Xu Hua, the Master of Array Peak, and had even participated in setting up the sect-protecting grand array. When it came to attainments in array formations, leave aside Array Peak and the Dao Sect—even among the younger generation of Xuan Province, very few could compare to him.
Yet now, Jiang Yan, an absolute layman, dared to speak so boastfully about offering him guidance on array knowledge. This inevitably filled Qin Feng with a sense of disdain.
"What do you mean by 'might not be able to solve'? You haven't even said it yet, so how do you know if it can be solved or not? Since I've accepted your Array Peak's tuition fees, I naturally won't hold back. Whatever you ought to know, I will tell you—that's the most basic professional ethics of a teacher, isn't it?" Jiang Yan frowned slightly.
"Since Eldest Senior Brother puts it that way..."
Qin Feng had originally intended to spare the other man some face; if he actually brought up the problem and Jiang Yan couldn't answer it, wouldn't things become awkward?
But at this point, having lived this long, he had never seen anyone so arrogant.
The man was clearly a scholar, yet he brazenly dared to discuss array formations with him. Qin Feng truly didn't know what to say.
"Hum!"
Without wasting any more breath, he directly produced some spirit stones and, right in front of Jiang Yan, casually laid out an array.
"Senior Brother, please take a look. This is a small Spirit-Gathering Array. As the name suggests, this kind of array can gather the spiritual Qi of heaven and earth to improve the cultivation environment of a specific area. But my process of setting it up was completely identical to what is recorded in the books, and the array was indeed successfully formed. Yet, no matter what I do, it simply won't last long. After at most half an incense stick's time, the array disperses on its own."
"Is that it? The personal disciple of the Array Peak Master? You couldn't even figure out such a simple problem?" Jiang Yan blinked in surprise.
Hearing this, a flash of irritation stirred within Qin Feng, but he didn't dare show it on his surface, instead asking with a forced smile, "Please enlighten me, Senior Brother. If you can truly solve this for me, I will reward you handsomely!"
He wasn't bragging: throughout the entire Dao Sect, even his master, Xu Hua the Master of Array Peak, would find it very difficult to explain this problem fully and clearly.
Could Jiang Yan, a mere layman, possibly possess greater attainments in array formations than the Master of Array Peak?