The Value of Reputation [C28]

Later in the tent.

Shu Himo, Ro Jonhan, and Ru Seji are sitting in a circle looking at each other, Shu Himo had a nonchalant face, while Ro Jonhan seemed quite anxious.

"So, are you telling me I should not have defended myself by the attack of that guy?" Shu Himo felt weird hearing this from Ro Jonhan, what was he worried about?

"I'm not telling you to not defend yourself, I'm telling you to not kill them! What if you get hunted down by their sect then? And what if a war with our sect start with them?"

Shu Himo did not get why he was this worried at all, there is no way a sect start a war with another just for a single disciple, or every single sect would always be at war! Unless... "Does your sect have something going on with theirs? Maybe rivalry?" Seeing the expression of Ro Jonhan fall, he knew he was spot on.

"Tell me, the situation of your sect and their sect." Somehow, Shu Himo started roleplay as a supreme commander giving orders to his subaltern, creating a weird aura around him.

"Our sect was always enemies with theirs, no one knows when the conflict started but each generation was always against the other, normally we would have both the same strength but our sect, the Arasis have started to decline, in fact, while our elders, masters and all the seniors are quite strong, lately we are not getting many disciples, while their sect, the Veridas, have about the same strength as us, but unlike us they are getting a constant influx of disciples, gradually overcoming us."

Pondering for a moment, Shu Himo then asked "Let me ask a question, how do you all act when you are in front of them? Do you act like you did a moment ago just having hidden rage and not saying anything?" Seeing that Ro Jonhan's expression was even worse he knew that he hit the mark once again.

While moving and shaking his arms while talking like an experienced politician, Shu Himo started his speech "Hear me right now: you have to be more arrogant! If the others see you unable to retaliate against the insults of the Veridas sect what will they think? Obviously, they will think that your sect is weaker hence join the other! Reputation is an extremely important factor for sects, especially when attracting new disciples! You just said that your strength is still enough to fight, so you will have to change your ways before it's too late or it will just bring to the fall of your sect!"

This left Ro Jonhan deep in thought, but he still had to question one thing to Shu Himo: "Since you say that we should be more arrogant, why did you say just a couple minutes ago 'The most arrogant ones are always the first to die'?"

Smiling and showing 2 fingers of his right hand, then Shu Himo immediately answered "There are two reasons: the first reason is that the needed arrogance I said to you is not one to seek trouble but one to defend yourself in front of your enemies, and the second reason is that those 15 disciples were arrogant toward me, and that is their real mistake!"

Seeing the extreme arrogance of Shu Himo, talking about himself as if he were the law, Ro Jonhan was stupified: aren't you the most arrogant one here? But still, he also felt that his words were somewhat right and decided to think about it deeply, as something that could save the sect must always be the first priority.

-----

The next morning.

The predetermined data to enter the remains was finally reached, and every disciple stood in front of the entrance waiting for the signal. Shu Himo did not even feel to be exploring remains anymore, it seemed more like he was participating in a race. Every disciple was in a starting position as if they were going to start running at the cost of their lives, the few different ones were a couple young disciples at the back and Shu Himo, who was standing nonchalantly in the middle of tens of disciples while getting stared weirdly by everyone.

"Himo! Get ready to run, we have to get in the remain earlier possible!" This was the voice of Ru Seji, that was bewildered by how Shu Himo did not even ready himself.

"It's fine, just wait for the signal and run how fast you want, I will still catch up with you." Grinning, Shu Himo glanced at Ru Seji and then looked toward the entrance, he felt something wrong from within but he could not make up with what it is.

Looking around him, he noticed that no one felt that same feeling, but he then noticed that the few disciples that are standing up in the back have a weird object in their hands, what is that? Why are they standing up, unlike the others?

Not having anyone to answer his questions he decided to elevate his attention on those disciples compared to the others, as Shu Himo had the feeling that they knew the reason for the weird feeling from the remain and were here for it.

"The time has come, any disciple can now enter freely in the remain!" Hearing the voice of an elder, every disciple immediately started running, meanwhile, Shu Himo who was overthinking stood in place like if he did not hear the announcer.

Naturally, all the elders that were watching felt like laughing seeing him;

The others are all desperately running and you are standing there doing nothing, what did you come here for?

With such questions running in their heads, they all felt laughing, but a moment later, Shu Himo suddenly disappeared from their view, and as they did not expect he would be this fast they were not paying attention while looking so they all got startled seeing him vanishing: that speed is not something that a Body Strengthening realm can match! Even a Dantian Core Formation of the 3rd string is not that fast!

From laughing at him they now started to worry about their disciples, what would happen if they were to become enemies with a monster like that? What they did not know is that Shu Himo just used [Hopper], not even bothering staking it.

Ru Seji was worried for a moment seeing that Shu Himo was still behind but then seeing him immediately reappearing beside himself he got relieved, he was not surprised of his speed anymore, he actually even felt that he went too slow, was that to wait for him?

Shu Himo looking around finally noticed that this remain is made all of small stone blocks embedded with each other, the first room, where all the disciples were entering now seems like a great hall, and now all the disciples who entered saw multiple ways to choose from, but as they did not have any way to choose which one is the best, most of them just went randomly in groups with their own sect.

Shu Himo in the other hand just took Ru Seji's arm and dragged him toward a certain direction: toward where he felt the weird feeling coming from. Startled, Ru Seji wanted to stop him but saw in his face the seriousness and felt that this might be a good way, so he tagged along. But he still remembered to stop Shu Himo from dragging him.

Coincidentally, both Shu Himo and the disciples with the weird object went toward the same way while no other disciple went there, subconsciously dodging that zone.