Chapter 54
Chapter 54: I Was Wrong; I’ll Dare Again Next Month
Rong Shu immediately slipped the two wooden sabers back into her storage pouch, cast a cleansing spell on herself, then retied her slightly messy double buns.
Seeing that Rong Shu was ready, Lin Dao said: “Let’s go.”
…
Peace Martial City.
The last time Rong Shu came to Peace Martial City, she had come with Qin Yuan and Yu Ruan Ruan; this time, it was Senior Brother Lin Dao who brought her. The two visits felt different to her.
Rong Shu turned to the man beside her and asked: “Senior Brother, there isn’t an Alchemists’ Guild branch here, is there?”
Branches of the Alchemists’ Guild existed only in the twelve principal cities; not just any city would host one.
Lin Dao nodded and said: “No. But there are still shops that sell pills.”
“Oh, then let’s hurry and find one.”
At the thought that the pills in her storage pouch could soon be converted into spirit stones, Rong Shu’s heart leaped with excitement.
Pill shops were not hard to find; asking any passerby yielded directions.
Before they went in, Lin Dao halted and held out his hand as he turned to her: “Give me the pills first.”
“Oh.” Rong Shu handed over the prepared pills without hesitation.
He did not look like someone who would covet a handful of pills, hardly the sort to swallow her goods, so Rong Shu passed them over with an easy mind.
Inside, Lin Dao found the shop’s steward and exchanged all of Rong Shu’s pills for spirit stones. Only after they had left and walked a ways did he hand every last spirit stone to Rong Shu.
Lin Dao said: “We’ll buy spirit herbs at the next shop. I glanced at this one’s stock earlier; the quality is only so-so.”
“Mm.” Rong Shu had looked too; the herbs were indeed poor, some that should have been plump were shriveled, their color dull.
Next, Lin Dao took Rong Shu to a dedicated herb dealer to buy the ingredients for pill refining.
When that was done and Lin Dao showed no sign of leaving the city, Rong Shu asked: “Senior Brother, should we head back?”
“No rush,” Lin Dao said with a shake of his head. “Do you want to stroll a bit? Training hard is good, but you also need balance.”
Rong Shu blinked, then realized what he meant and said, a little at a loss: “Stroll? But I don’t know where to go…”
Hearing this, Lin Dao went to ask around about anything fun in the city. When he returned, he said to Rong Shu: “All set. There’s a large spirit-beast acrobatics troupe performing on the southern bank of the Jiangyue River. It’s lively over there. Want to take a look?”
“…Then let’s go take a look, just one look,” Rong Shu said, solemnly lifting a pinky to mark the limit.
“Mm,” Lin Dao answered.
…
Perhaps the troupe had advertised well, because the closer they drew to the Jiangyue River, the more crowded the streets became.
Soon the lanes were jammed. Even being careful, it was easy to brush shoulders and knock feet with strangers.
Lin Dao glanced at the skinny little Rong Shu beside him—she would be easy to bump and jostle—then, after a brief hesitation, he scooped her up.
Lifted without warning, Rong Shu was dazed for a beat and asked: “Senior Brother?”
“There are a lot of people,” Lin Dao explained.
“Oh.” Rong Shu folded her small hands primly in front of her and sat up straight in his arm.
After a moment of quiet, she could not help turning her head to look around.
They had not yet reached the troupe, but the street here was already buzzing.
When they arrived at the performance grounds, people were packed in rows deep, inside and out. Even held in one arm, with a higher vantage, Rong Shu still could not see everything ahead.
Soon, though, Lin Dao found a spot with a clear view and fewer people, and he set Rong Shu down.
Ahead, spirit beasts performed under their handlers’ direction.
Children dotted the crowd, many watching the show with their adults.
Rong Shu’s eyes widened as she pointed at a beast leaping through a ring of fire, and she said to Lin Dao, excitement bright in her voice: “Senior Brother, there are several spirit beasts I don’t recognize.”
Lin Dao glanced over and said: “That deer-like spirit beast is a Dappled Snow Deer.”
“This one, this one, it can breathe fire!” Rong Shu had heard the elders mention in lectures that some spirit beasts could wield qi, but this was her first time seeing flames spray from a beast’s throat with her own eyes.
Her gaze slid to the belly of the simian spirit beast, curiosity lighting her eyes. [Is its belly packed full of fire, or does its beast core store the flames? What’s the mechanism behind it?]
Before Rong Shu could puzzle it out, Lin Dao’s voice came again: “That’s a Mischief Red Monkey. It has the talent to use fire qi just like a cultivator. There are quite a few spirit beasts like that. You’ll see more in time.”
“If possible, I want to catch one and take a closer look,” Rong Shu said, rubbing her small hands as she stared with longing at the fire-breathing Mischief Red Monkey. [If I cut open its belly, would I find the principle behind the flames?]
Even cultivators who used fire qi did not spit fire like that.
Lin Dao had no idea what odd notions were running through her head. He only thought that, after seeing so many spirit beasts, the little girl probably wanted to make a contract with one.
But the little girl’s cultivation was still too weak. Even if she barely managed to form a contract, she would only be able to do so with something very weak and with no potential.
He offered a bit of comfort: “After you reach Foundation Establishment, you can contract a spirit beast.”
“Huh? Senior Brother, can’t you contract a spirit beast at the Qi Refining Stage?” Rong Shu asked in puzzlement.
Senior Brother Qin and Senior Sister Yu had formed contracts during the Qi Refining Stage.
“The Qi Refining Stage is too early,” Lin Dao said with a shake of his head. “Beast taming isn’t your main path. There’s no need to waste too much energy on spirit beasts. If you contract too many, they become a burden. Find one that suits you and has potential, and keep the number within two or three at most.”
“Got it, Senior Brother. Then I’ll wait until Foundation Establishment to catch a spirit beast,” Rong Shu said with a nod, reining in her tiny impulse.
Her path was the blade, not beast taming. She would not rely on spirit beasts to win. [If I master the blade well, I’ll cut down as many spirit beasts as come.]
Rong Shu continued watching the troupe’s show, while Lin Dao behind her fell into thought.
[If the little girl wants a spirit beast, she doesn’t need to catch it herself. A spirit beast is nothing rare. I could capture a promising youngling for her to raise from small.]
[Except what she most needs now is saber practice, to raise her strength. The spirit beast can wait…]
His train of thought suddenly broke.
He came back to himself with a start and realized: why was he thinking so far ahead?
[…She’s only a little girl we met in passing.]
Lin Dao’s gaze fell on Rong Shu and deepened for a heartbeat.
[…Maybe because she’s too much like Zi An and the others when they were small. A little bundle, well-behaved and sensible. You can’t help but lend a hand again and again, and keep her in mind.]
After watching the spirit-beast acrobatics in Peace Martial City for a while, Rong Shu and Lin Dao made it back to Heaven’s Evolution Sect before dark.
Rear mountain.
Rong Shu hopped down from the sect’s flying mount, turned to Lin Dao, and said with light, cheerful gratitude: “Thank you for taking me out, Senior Brother.”
Looking at her bright eyes, Lin Dao considered for a moment, then reached out to rub her small head and said: “Mm.”
“Go to the rear mountain and do your task.”
Rong Shu nodded and said: “Senior Brother, see you tomorrow.”
“See you tomorrow,” he replied.
…
The next day.
With no disciples coming to pick fights, Rong Shu could finally cultivate in peace.
The behind-the-scenes publicity, however, did not let up.
Rong Shu had to keep her momentum going; besides, she had promised to make Cheng Bu Fan’s name known.
Cheng Bu Fan still cared a little about appearances. He did not dare brag too loudly inside the sect, but beyond the sect he felt no scruples; the more exaggerated the better, the cooler and more over-the-top the better. For a time, outside cultivators who did not know the truth were indeed fooled. They spread the news far and wide and quietly kept an eye on a rising “new star” of Heaven’s Evolution Sect—Cheng Bu Fan.
Just as Cheng Bu Fan was dreaming his dreams of fame, in a city a thousand li from Heaven’s Evolution Sect—
In a tavern, a seemingly ordinary middle-aged man sat in a corner, drinking while studying the map spread across his table.
At that moment, the conversation of several cultivators drifted over from the next table. At first the middle-aged man paid it no mind, but a familiar name cropped up.
“Unbelievable,” someone said with relish. “Who would have thought an absolute genius from the outer sect would suddenly emerge in Heaven’s Evolution Sect?”
“A direct challenge against personal disciples, three matches in a row, three wins in a row,” another said. “And he still had energy left after. He clearly didn’t even go all out. How terrifying is that?”
“An outer sect disciple beat a personal disciple?” a skeptic asked. “Is that true? Not just rumors getting twisted?”
“It’s absolutely true,” someone insisted. “This is news circulating among Heaven’s Evolution Sect’s own disciples. In their arena, more than a thousand disciples saw it with their own eyes. How could it be faked?”
“Incredible,” another voice said. “Personal disciples of Heaven’s Evolution Sect either have profound cultivation far ahead of their peers or are extraordinarily gifted, destined to become figures of boundless prospects. Yet an ordinary outer sect disciple actually beat a personal disciple—and three times at that—in completely crushing fashion…”
“What’s that outer sect disciple’s name?” someone asked.
“He’s called… Cheng Bu Fan!”
The middle-aged drinker froze for a moment and murmured: “What’s going on? A genius disciple of Heaven’s Evolution Sect named Cheng Bu Fan? Could it be a namesake?”
“It can’t be that brat,” he muttered to himself. “If it really were him, he’d be laughing himself awake…”
He did not believe it, but unease stirred in his chest.
He had planned to return to the sect in two months. After thinking it over, he decided to move that up by a month.
…
…
Spirit Gathering Peak.
After the lecture, Rong Shu intended to head to the inner peaks as usual, but she ran into Qin Yuan, who was clearly looking for her.
Qin Yuan wore the same lukewarm expression as always, flawless in courtesy as he said: “Junior Sister Rong, you haven’t returned to Limitless Peak for many days. Master and the others are worried about you.”
Rong Shu brought out the explanation she had long prepared and said: “I took the sect’s nighttime assignments. To save time, I naturally haven’t been returning to Limitless Peak much. I’ve made Master and Senior Brother worry.”
Qin Yuan’s face did not change, though his tone carried a hint of implication as he said: “Junior Sister Rong, it’s not as if Limitless Peak has no place for you to stay. As a personal disciple of an Immortal Venerable, it’s not appropriate to live constantly in the quarters of an ordinary Foundation Establishment disciple on the inner peaks. Master has important matters. Come back with me.”
He had said a great deal, but the point clearly lay in the last sentence.
Rong Shu’s eyes flickered, then she nodded and said: “All right, Senior Brother Qin.”
When the two of them reached Limitless Peak’s Hall of Heartlessness, the instant Rong Shu saw Jun Xiu Ran—and before she could even salute—his voice, cold as ice, snapped across the hall: “Kneel!”
Rong Shu froze for a second, then obeyed and sank to her knees.
Jun Xiu Ran asked in a frosty tone: “Do you know what you did wrong?”
Head lowered, Rong Shu said: “This disciple was wrong.”
“Hmph!” A thin anger showed on Jun Xiu Ran’s face, and disappointment saturated his voice as he said: “As a personal disciple, instead of setting an example for the inner and outer sect disciples, you slacken your efforts, fish for shortcuts, and busy yourself with contemptible things.”
“Have you not heard? It’s spread through the inner and outer sects already. A personal disciple named Rong Shu, to evade a challenge, colluded with someone to put on a show, disgraced herself before the disciples, and became a laughingstock.”
With her head bowed, Rong Shu’s eyes flashed with understanding.
So her bargain master was angry over this.
No wonder. To most people, it did look shameful.
She did not know whether Jun Xiu Ran had heard it from the sect’s upper echelon or by some other channel.
But right now, there were only two words—admit fault.
She did not argue or explain the ins and outs. She simply bowed her head and apologized with sincere attitude: “This disciple recognizes her error and is unworthy of Master’s months of attentive instruction and meticulous care.”
The sentence “This disciple is willing to relinquish the position of personal disciple” circled twice in her throat, but in the end she did not say it.
In two months the sect’s secret realm would open. With her current displayed cultivation and talent, she had no qualifications to enter. Only the identity of a personal disciple would allow her in.
She needed that identity for now. Besides, she had promised Cheng Bu Fan that he would defeat a “personal disciple,” not an “outer sect disciple” whose cultivation and talent were beneath his.
Jun Xiu Ran had no idea of the thousand turns in her thoughts; it never occurred to him that the seemingly abashed Rong Shu still had the mind to think of other matters.
Hearing her say “attentive instruction” and “meticulous care,” Jun Xiu Ran—who, in truth, had done nothing at all—let a faint emotion slip into his eyes; inexplicably, the fire in his chest ebbed.
“Enough,” he said as he turned away, flicking his sleeve, his face cold. “This must not happen again.”
“In the future, do not do such disgraceful things. Even if you do not care to preserve your own name, you must think of the reputation of Ruan Ruan and the others who share your master, and you must think of the name of the entire Heaven’s Evolution Sect.”
Rong Shu answered obediently: “Yes. This disciple understands.”
[I admit fault; next month I’ll still dare.]