BXBX NOVEL Chapter 63: Favoritism
William woke up early at around 6 am. He went to the kitchen to get some breakfast but realized he had completely forgotten to buy groceries from the Sect Market.
I guess I\'m eating at Wild Clover again... William had become a regular in just a few days.
The lines were abnormally long in the morning, stretching from the entrance to the nearby street. It turned out that there was a special breakfast item being served that day because of the arrival of a special guest, and many Cultivators were in line waiting for it.
William waited for a few hours in line, but he gave up at 8 when he was only halfway through to the front. William\'s stomach growled angrily at him for neglecting it, but there wasn\'t anywhere to eat.
He ended up walking half an hour to the market to pick up some simple groceries. He brought it back to the residence then quickly ate some scrambled eggs and toast.
"It\'s already past nine? What a waste of a morning.." he complained. With a half-full stomach, William trudged to the Lecture Hall.
Elder Wen was at the entrance speaking to a group of new disciples. When he noticed William, Elder Wen revealed a smile and waved animatedly.
"Who\'s that?" one of the new disciples near Elder Wen noticed how he treated William and became curious.
Elder Wen smiled amiably while still looking at William. "He\'s one of your peers, possibly the strongest out of all the new disciples."
The other disciples wore confused looks. William didn\'t seem to be all that strong. In fact, they couldn\'t even sense an ounce of Mana or Cultivation from him, almost as if William was just a normal person. What gave Elder Wen the confidence to say such words?
Elder Wen had also noticed that William didn\'t have the same overwhelming amount of Fire Mana as before. He could tell the Mana was being suppressed before, but the Mana was almost perfectly concealed now. Without a pair of trained eyes such as Elder Wen\'s, others would suspect William had no talent for Magic at all.
So he\'s improved in such a short amount of time. Elder Wen\'s hopes were raised that William might just be the turning point for the Five Elements Sect\'s poor performance against the Pure Martial Sect in recent years.
William approached the group. "Good morning Elder Wen." he bowed respectfully, perfectly imitating that of a well-mannered Cultivator.
"Good morning to you as well, disciple William. I hope you\'ve been well these last few days." Elder Wen nodded.
The other disciples noticed a clear favoritism and their mood soured slightly, but they didn\'t let it show. Instead they also greeted William, hoping to get in his good graces.
William enjoyed the treatment the others were giving him. Even if it\'s only a few days, it seems I\'ve already gained the opportunity to establish myself as the senior of the group. I didn\'t even need to beat anyone up!
The time for the lecture was drawing near, so William decided to take his seat in the same place as two nights ago. Surprisingly, five male disciples and a female disciple from the previous group chose to sit with William.
The young man with medium length white hair closest to William on the right spoke first. "I\'m Warren from the Barnabus Family, nice to meet you."
A dark-haired boy with broad shoulders spoke next. "I\'m Gil of the Gerald Mercenary group."
The only girl, with long blue hair and wearing a white dress made of silk introduced herself next. William actually found her quite beautiful. "I\'m Lia Rhio of the Rhio Family. I hope we can get along."
The other two boys introduced themselves as well, but William wasn\'t listening after hearing Lia\'s last name. "Rhio? Are you familiar with a Peter Rhio?"
The other boys noticed they were ignored and became angry, but didn\'t want to pick a fight with the man that Elder Wen declared was a candidate for the strongest new disciple.
Meanwhile Lia was surprised that William was familiar with her family. After all, their main headquarters was in Heartsteel Village over half a Continent away. "The future head of the Rhio Family? I know who he is but we aren\'t very close. After all, I am from a branch family that doesn\'t receive as much support. Why do you ask?"
William nodded in understanding. She probably isn\'t planning to target me then; it must be a coincidence that she appeared in the Sect the same time as me.
"Oh no reason, I\'m William by the way. Nice to meet you all." he looked at each of them including the two boys he ignored earlier, hoping to limit the number of enemies he made in one day to the single digits.
The six disciples noticed William didn\'t declare his background. Warren decided to ask, "William, what city are you from?"
"Just a small village you\'ve probably never heard of. Nothing worth mentioning." William was still quite suspicious of others. What if they decided to pay a visit to Misha or Charlotte while he was in the Sect?
Warren noticed William\'s reluctance to answer and decided not to press further. The disciples became more talkative with introductions out of the way, and spoke of current events where they lived and complained about their living situations.
After hearing their complaints of no running water or even a fridge to store their goods, William realized he truly was treated well by the Sect Master.
Elder Wen approached the stage in the distance, interruoting William\'s thoughts. "Quiet down everyone, don\'t make me ask a second time." his face was serious.
The entire room went silent. The disciples were all eager to hear what Elder Wen had to say and listened intently.
Elder Wen smiled in satisfaction, "It seems I have a well-behaved group this time...good. The last set didn\'t even make it to the third lecture before I had to...clean up a few messes."
Something about the way Elder Wen finished that sentence made the disciples shiver. William understood first-hand what Elder Wen meant, after watching Kori be beaten senselessly by a Prairie Bear after just falling asleep.
Elder Wen continued. "As you spend more time in the Sect, you will learn that I love to talk for hours, but that will not be happening today. But there are a few things I must say before we move on.
If you are a good student, I will help you every step of the way until you are proficient. If you are a great student, my assistance may not even be required, and you will earn benefits suitable to your status in my eyes. If you are a poor student...let\'s not allow that to happen."
He paced back and forth on the stage, allowing his words to sink in. Elder Wen enjoyed these moments of pause, where he could almost read a disciple\'s thoughts on their face as they contemplated his words.
He took a peek at a few students he had already determined to be bad apples, then made a sudden announcement. "With that being said, let\'s find out what kind of student you are with a quick test!"