While Sun Qiang was not a master teacher, having spent a long period of time with Zhang Xuan, he was still aware of most of the rules concerning master teachers.
Their Old Master, Yang Xuan, was one of the top experts of the continent, but even the strongest of experts would have their own weaknesses that others could exploit. In order to prevent the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe from designing a trap to deal with them, the appearance, strength, cultivation techniques, battle techniques, and other private information of those experts were made classified secrets that only the top echelon of the Master Teacher Pavilion was privy to.
Yet, an old fogey who came out of nowhere actually had the cheek to ask him for those details! Was he unaware of the rules?
“You are asking if I am worthy?” Yang Xuan could not help but chuckle softly upon hearing those words.
He had never thought the day would come when someone would ask him if he was worthy of knowing his own appearance.
“What are you laughing at? Now that you know that I’m Yang shi’s butler, you should hurry up and release me! Otherwise, if the Old Master hears of this, none of you will get off the hook easily!” Sun Qiang bellowed angrily.
“I’m afraid it’s impossible for what you have said to occur.” Yang shi shook his head as he looked at Sun Qiang with a pitiful gaze. “There’s no point letting this farce run any longer than this. Sun Qiang, I am the Old Master whom you have speaking of all this while, Yang Xuan!”
Sun Qiang was taken aback for a moment before he finally understood what Yang shi was saying. In an instant, he exploded. “Yang Xuan? How dare you impersonate the Old Master in front of me? Don’t you know that it’s a heinous crime to pretend to be a high-ranked master teacher?”
He had been with the Old Master for almost a year now, so he was familiar with the latter’s looks and habits. Yet, this old fogey who had popped out of nowhere actually dared claim to be the Old Master.
Hu!
Barely after Sun Qiang stopped roaring, a token appeared right before his face.
“This is the master teacher token that represents my identity. You may have a look at it,” Yang shi replied calmly.
Usually, he would have gotten angry at seeing another person using his name and acting all self-important, but he did not. This was because he could hear the conviction in the plump man’s words.
In other words, the plump man was not putting on an act at all. He truly believed in what he was saying, and that meant that he was also a victim of the entire deception.
If that was the case, could it be that someone had impersonated him and accepted Zhang Xuan as his student… and the both of them were victims of the lies another person had cooked up?
Yang shi suddenly felt more determined than ever to uncover the truth.
Sun Qiang shot a wary glance at Yang Xuan before slowly turning his attention to the token. On the token, he saw two huge characters, ‘Yang Xuan’, inscribed on it. These two characters had an imposing aura to them that it seemed to pierce right into one’s soul.
“I am Yang Xuan, a grand elder of the Master Teacher Pavilion headquarters. Your Old Master is the one who has impersonated me!”
“This…” Sun Qiang suddenly fell silent as a frightening realization crept into his mind.
Slowly, his body began to shudder uncontrollably.
The reason he had dared to throw his weight around was in view of the fact that they were in the Sanctum of Sages, and the persons-in-charge were master teachers. As long as they were master teachers, they would have no choice but to defer to his identity as Yang Xuan’s butler. On top of that, even though the Young Master did cause a huge fuss, he had not made any mistakes. In view of his identity, they would not dare do anything to him. So, the Sanctum of Sages was paradoxically the safest place for him to be.
He had never thought that the foreign-looking old man before him would actually be Yang shi. If that was the case, who was the fellow whom he had met previously?
The shock at having been told such a huge lie made his body turn completely cold, and he could not help but doubt everything that he had held faith in.
Ever since the Old Master had chosen him back in the Tianxuan Kingdom, he had followed him all the way up the ranks. Many things had happened along the journey, but every single time, the Old Master would appear at the most crucial of moment and save them from the crises that they were in. It did not take long for the Old Master to take on an indomitable image in his mind, becoming his faith and hope. In fact, when he first heard of Yang Xuan’s title as one of the strongest cultivators on the Master Teacher Continent, he had never, even for a single moment, doubted that the Old Master would be a fake.
Yet, the old man before him was telling him that the Old Master was the impersonator. In an instant, it was as if his entire world had collapsed.
“Impossible… This can’t be true… You are lying to me!” Sun Qiang’s face paled, and he nearly collapsed to the ground.
“What is so impossible about this? It’s time for you to open your eyes to reality! Someone as esteemed as Yang shi would only take in top-notch experts like Hu Yiwei as his butler! Just think about it, what right does a weakling like you have to become Yang shi’s butler?” Elder Ge sneered coldly.
“But…” Sun Qiang tried to refute, but he could not find the words to say.
Noticing the traumatized state that Sun Qiang was in, Sword Saint Meng swiftly realized that if she did not pose her question now, she might no longer get a chance to do so. So, she quickly interjected and asked, “Sun Qiang, how old is your Young Master, Zhang Xuan, this year? Do you know his birthday?”
“Impossible… How could someone as formidable as our Old Master possibly be an impersonator?” However, Sun Qiang simply shook his head non-stop, as if he could not hear Sword Saint Meng’s words at all.
“Alright, there’s no point asking him anymore. He has always believed himself to be my butler, and the revelation that the person whom he has been following all this time is a fake has caused his world to shatter into pieces. Given his current state, he won’t be able to respond coherently to any of your questions!” Yang shi shook his head and sighed.
In the days that he had spent roaming around the Master Teacher Continent, he had seen many such cases. There were some individuals who had hypnotized themselves into believing that they were something that they were not, to the extent that they had even adjusted their behavior and actions to correspond with their beliefs as well. Clearly, the plump man before him was also one such person.
Given that his Old Master had introduced himself as Yang Xuan right from the start, it was inevitable that the other party would simply take that for granted. Lies weaved upon a lie, he eventually placed himself into a non-existent identity, playing a character that he believed to be his own calling. As time went by, it became harder and harder for him to jump out of that identity, to the point where the truth was no longer something that he could accept.
“But…” Sword Saint Meng began to protest anxiously.
“There’s no need to panic. I understand how you feel, but no matter how many rumors you hear, there’s no way you can be certain whether Zhang Xuan is your son or not. The only effective way for you to verify it is to meet him in person!” Yang shi said.
No matter how many rumors one heard, the only way to verify if something was true was to check it with one’s own eyes.
Since that was the case, it did not really matter whether Sword Saint Meng was able to question Sun Qiang or not. Eventually, she would still have to meet Zhang Xuan personally in order to confirm his identity.
“But… where did he go?” Sword Saint Meng exclaimed anxiously.
“I don’t know either, but as long as we continue looking, I believe that we’ll be able to find some traces of him,” Yang shi said.
It was impossible for anything to appear or vanish without leaving any traces. As long as they investigated carefully, they would be able to find some clues to where Zhang Xuan was heading.
“Hmm?” All of a sudden, while Yang shi was clarifying some details regarding the incident with Zhan shi, his eyebrows shot up. He flicked his wrist, and a Communication Jade Token appeared in his hands.
His Communication Jade Token was different from the ones held by other master teachers. It was made out of a crystalline material, giving it a transparent exterior. Vaguely, one could sense a powerful formation harnessing great energy embedded within the token.
The Communication Jade Token of the Master Teacher Pavilion headquarters was a tool that was powerful enough to allow one to communicate with others no matter where one was on the Master Teacher Continent!
However, it was a pity that an exorbitant price had to be paid to forge even a single one of these tokens, so only the highest-ranking master teachers were qualified to hold one.
“What’s wrong?” Noticing the anomaly in Yang shi’s complexion, the First Elder Zhang Wuheng quickly turned his gaze over.
“There’s news on Zhang Xuan…” After reading through the information on the Communication Jade Token, Yang shi exhaled deeply before stowing the token back into his storage ring.
“Where is he?” Sword Saint Meng asked anxiously.
“The Master Teacher Pavilion headquarters have just received news that he has used my name to wreak havoc in the Glacier Plain Court and kidnapped their young court chief,” Yang shi said.
“Used Yang shi’s name? Kidnapped the Glacier Plain Court’s young court chief?”
Everyone was stunned by the scale of what they had just heard.
Just what was that fellow up to?
Was he unaware of the extent of the influence that the Master Teacher Pavilion had over the Master Teacher Continent?
To be causing trouble everywhere he went, was he tired of living?
“That’s right. From the looks of it, it appears that the Teleportation Formation leads right toward the Glacier Plain Court. I’m going over to take a look personally. Who’s going to follow me? I’m afraid that if the Master Teacher Pavilion headquarters get ahead of us, we might just lose the chance to meet him!” Yang shi said.
At this point, his curiosity toward Zhang Xuan was starting to become a little unbearable.
To think that that fellow would head to the Glacier Plain Court disguised as him… just what was his goal?
Hearing that the Master Teacher Pavilion headquarters was likely to make a move, Sword Saint Meng pleaded anxiously, “Yang shi, may I ask you get the Master Teacher Pavilion headquarters to hold back on this matter for now? Zhang Xuan… h-he’s still young… it might just have been a moment of folly!”
The Master Teacher Pavilion was not the strongest power on the Master Teacher Continent for nothing. Once they made a move, not even the deities would be able to save Zhang Xuan.
“I’m afraid that even I am helpless before this matter. Unless your Zhang Clan, the Sanctum of Sages, and the Glacier Plain Court let this matter drop, the Master Teacher Pavilion is compelled to step in and resolve this conflict.
“Most likely, the news should have reached the top echelons of the Master Teacher Pavilion headquarters now, and the deputy pavilion master will be the one to make the final call. It’s been a long time since I participated in the matters of the Master Teacher Pavilion, so I fear that I no longer possess the authority to overwrite his decision!” Yang shi shook his head.
I know a lot of you might detest Sun Qiang as a character, but one of the avid Sun Qiang supporter on the Discord channel whom I’ll address as Tr*be-san has made a fair point about him that I’d like to share here.
It might appear that Sun Qiang is arrogant and a show-off, often causing much trouble for Zhang Xuan, but his actions are actually well-calculated and rational if you think about it from his point of view. The only reason why it felt cringeworthy to us is because we know that ‘Yang Xuan’ is a fake identity that Zhang Xuan had made up, but Sun Qiang doesn’t know that.
Sun Qiang knows how to make use of ‘Yang Xuan’s’ identity to pull his weight and get things done (such that obtaining pinnacle spirit stones for Zhang Xuan through exploiting ‘Yang Xuan’s’ identity a while back).
On top of that, if we pay careful attention, he had only exploited his identity in scenarios where he’s confident that it’ll work out well, such as in front of master teachers or in cases where ‘Yang Xuan’ has already established his seniority over the other party.
In other words, while he did act incorrigibly arrogant, he knew for certain that he would be able to get away with it (under the assumption that ‘Yang Xuan’ is real, of course), and he also thought that it would be inappropriate for him to behave too humbly before others when he’s ‘Yang Xuan’s’ butler, which is why he behaved the way he did.
What really went wrong in Sun Qiang’s case was that he had received wrong information regarding ‘Yang Xuan’, which led him to estimate his own standing wrongly, thus leading to the series of tragedies. This could be seen in how Sun Qiang did lie low when they first entered the Sanctum of Sages, not daring to cause any trouble even when he was snubbed by others. It was only when he learned of Yang Xuan’s standing in the world did he exploit it in order to raise his and Zhang Xuan’s standing in the Sanctum of Sages, and that did bring quite some benefits to Zhang Xuan too (like Zhan shi personally bringing him into the Inner Sanctum, so on and so forth).
I hope that this alternative point of view could allow you to appreciate Sun Qiang a little better in the novel. Things did go wrong for him, but he’s definitely no reckless fool.
