Chapter 010

Chapter 10: If We Don’t Take Disciples, No One Will Be Left

Cold mist rolled thick across the pool as it swallowed Li Wan Zhi in an instant. He blew a string of bubbles and sank; Fang He An counted the time, then hauled him up.

Fang He An said with calm approval: “Better than before. Sixty breaths, twenty more than last time.”

Li Wan Zhi lay on the ground with his eyes rolled back and said nothing.

Ye Wan Wan watched him and gave up on asking this person about cultivating the Five Spiritual Roots. The Li Wan Zhi before her clearly did not have the skills he would have in later years. She had been prepared for that, yet the gap was so wide that it was still hard to accept. Even so, she was curious. What had he been through to become the person she would one day know? Cold, silent, counting every coin to the last. Right now, Li Wan Zhi was only a money lover. A hundred years later, would he really become a king of intelligence? [If anything, I can imagine his name in some village gate gang, and he would be the one with the biggest say.]

Fang He An beckoned with a gentle smile: “Junior sister, come here.” Having seen him kick Li Wan Zhi into the pool with perfect aim, Ye Wan Wan did not dare to take him lightly. This Senior Brother had very accurate legs.

Fang He An spoke kindly: “This is the Marrow Washing Pool. It cuts the old and cleanses the marrow, but everyone’s body is different, so the reaction to the pool isn’t the same. Since this is your first time, you do not need to stay long. Go in and feel it out.”

He added with easy warmth: “If you feel unwell, tell me. Senior brother will come help you.”

As he spoke, he handed Ye Wan Wan a clean set of clothes and a purple hair ribbon for a Heavenly One Sect disciple.

Fang He An arranged things with care: “You are a girl, so I will wait below the stone steps. If you need anything, call once. I will hear.” Then he grabbed Li Wan Zhi by the collar and walked off, not even bothering to change the boy’s wet clothes.

He chided as they went: “You are already at the fifth layer of Qi Refining. At least learn a drying technique to steam your clothes.”

Li Wan Zhi answered with a muffled groan: “Wuwuwu.”

Fang He An asked, still patient: “Why are you not talking?”

Li Wan Zhi forced a sound: “…Ah ah ah.”

Fang He An clicked his tongue: “Soaking turned your brain to mush, huh.”

Ye Wan Wan thought as she watched them leave: [Should I remind him that he just fed the medicine himself and already forgot?]

The two left the cold pool, stepping down the stone staircase until Ye Wan Wan could no longer see them. She set the clean clothes on the ground. After a moment, the stone platform rose and lifted the clothes up. Light gauze drifted down around the platform, screening this corner from view; even the chill in the Marrow Washing Pool softened.

Ye Wan Wan’s eyes moved slightly as she whispered to herself: “Array Arts?”

Her treatment was completely different from Li Wan Zhi’s.

The girl took off her outer robe, kept her underclothes, and stepped in barefoot. The pool’s cold mist sank into her skin. She expected stabbing cold, but what spread through her was warmth. It wrapped her ankles and spiraled upward. She did not feel sick; it was gentle.

She tested the water and found it was fine, then simply jumped in.

Warmth. That was Ye Wan Wan’s first feeling. The Marrow Washing Pool sent soothing heat through her, driving out early winter’s chill and the helplessness of being cast out of her old sect with nowhere to go. It made her whole body and mind relax.

[Is Senior Brother Fang teasing me? This feels like a hot spring, not a Marrow Washing Pool.] Yet threadlike power slipped into her meridians and treated the damage left by her self-crippling. It mended those tiny cracks, widened the meridian channels like a riverbed after dredging, and let spiritual power race freely within before roaring into her dantian to strengthen the five drifting clouds there.

Elsewhere, Yan Ju and Li Ming De were discussing: “Give that child to me,” Yan Ju said.

Li Ming De’s always-smiling face showed rare hesitation as he replied: “Junior brother, it is not that I refuse you. If you ask your senior brother for a disciple this first time, I will do my best to fulfill it. But this child, you cannot teach.”

Yan Ju’s sword-straight brows shot up as he echoed: “Cannot teach?”

It was not that he could not be given, but that he could not be taught. That was even more provoking.

Li Ming De nodded: “Mm. Cannot teach.”

Unhappy, Yan Ju folded his arms and said: “Senior brother, you could brush me off with some other excuse. But if you insist on this one, I want to hear why I cannot teach her.”

Li Ming De rubbed his chin and asked gently: “Did you not notice how special her spiritual roots are?”

“Heaven Grade Spiritual Root,” Yan Ju answered at once, still arms crossed. “I saw it.”

That was why he had come. A seedling this fine was rare, and her bones and toughness were also uncommon. Thinking of how no outside sect had discovered such a peerless seedling had truly surprised him. Now that she had fallen into Heavenly One Sect’s hands, they could not let her fade into the crowd.

Li Ming De’s voice dipped with meaning as he said: “It is a Heaven Grade Spiritual Root. But it is also Five Spiritual Roots.”

Yan Ju froze.

Li Ming De explained slowly: “It is already rare for someone to have one Heaven Grade Spiritual Root. Our little miss does not have one. She has five.”

Yan Ju stared for a long time, shocked. He knew his senior brother would not be wrong. But Heaven Grade Five Spiritual Roots…

He let out a breath and admitted without anger: “I really cannot teach that.” He asked, puzzled: “But senior brother, why did you agree when Little Bai insisted on keeping her?”

A Heaven Grade Spiritual Root was top tier. But Heaven Grade Five Spiritual Roots were different. They had another name: the Crippled Spiritual Root. No matter how you cultivated it, you could never break through the Nascent Soul Stage. You would be stuck forever at Core Formation. Unless you destroyed the other four and kept only one root. But such an act was forbidden in the Immortal Gate. No one knew whether, after destroying four, the remaining one could still be cultivated, or whether it would keep its original grade. No one had tried it. No one dared. Heavenly One Sect would never do this either. It would destroy her gift and go against the natural way.

Li Ming De smiled broadly: “You and I cannot teach her. But there is one person who can.”

Hearing this, Yan Ju knew at once who he meant. He looked at Li Ming De with a deep, knowing gaze and said: “Senior brother, let that thought go.”

“He said he would never take a disciple in this life.”

Li Ming De laughed: “There might be an exception.”

Yan Ju lifted a brow and folded his arms again: “Want to bet?”

Li Ming De agreed with a chuckle, then pretended to think before saying: “If you lose, you will take Li Wan Zhi as your disciple.”

Yan Ju went silent, then sighed: “What a vicious bet.”

Li Ming De teased: “Admit defeat already, Junior Brother Yan Ju?”

Yan Ju answered coolly: “I will bet with you because I do not believe he will accept anyone.” He rose and left the main hall. After a few steps, he said in a light tone: “I will go down the mountain for a few days. Senior brother, please watch over the mountain.”

Li Ming De asked: “What happened?”

Yan Ju replied: “The kitchen has food left for only three days. I am going down to earn money.”

Li Ming De paused, then said, a little sheepish: “…Thank you for your hard work, junior brother.”

Yan Ju’s voice was cold: “Senior brother, ask Xun Yin when he plans to actually grow grain. If he does not, we cannot afford to buy any.”

Li Ming De wiped sweat: “After so many years of fasting, we forgot how to plant the five grains. Xun Yin senior brother has been working on it for the past ten years.”

Yan Ju said crisply: “I will work hard too.”

Without looking back, he left. Raising a group of kids was not easy. It was the first time any of them had taken disciples. After many years of closed-door cultivation, they suddenly realized that if they did not recruit soon, Heavenly One Sect would truly be cut off. The 101st generation of disciples would have no one. Who would have thought the reason to force the elders of Heavenly One Sect down the mountain would be this one.