Ch114 - A narrow path

So speaking, Tantai Meng and Xia Zhiqi left without regards to the little beggar’s reaction. He remained holding up the sugar figurine in the air like an unwanted wildflower.

“Big sis…”

At this time Tantai Meng was wearing a ragged white dress, different from her rough clothing and dresses of the past. But the biggest change was her attitude: cold as if she was a completely different person. The beggar subconsciously glanced at the sugar figurine in his hand before bolstering his courage to shout.

“Big sis! This sugar person’s really sweet, you bought it for me before! I’m not lying!” As he yelled, he chased after her, but Tantai Meng never slowed down. The people on the streets forced the beggar boy to weave through them while huffing and puffing. He accidentally hit someone with the candy and left sticky traces of their robes.

The victim cursed at him. “Little bastard without eyes, are you seeking death? Can you afford to pay for my clothes after soiling them?”

The beggar boy was floored as he stared at the stain, too stricken to speak. The man felt his dignity affronted and arched his brows. “Damn, a mute?” He slapped the beggar in the face and knocked him to the ground.

The beggar boy’s lips were split as his cheek grew red and swollen. It was probably too painful, so he ended up lying on the dirt to whimper and cry. The people around them looked over in amazement and Tantai Meng finally stopped walking. She seemed to plan on turning around by the time Xie Zhiwei hurried over, but he hesitated to wait and see her reaction first. Still, things didn’t go as planned. Xia Zhiqi tapped the blade of Frostverse Sword and a wave of bitterly cold qi hit the bully. There was the sound of ripping silk before the man’s robes were reduced to tatters. Forget about stains, he was left exposed in all but two important places.

Stunned and furious, he cried, “You shrew—ah, pain!”

Xia Zhiqi had always been a brutal type. She didn’t wait for the man to finish his accusations before hitting his face with her sword scabbard. Very soon, he was sporting two black bruises. As the man scurried off into the crowds like a rat, Tantai Meng continued following Xia Zhiqi who had kept her name and identity anonymous. Xie Zhiwei silently exhaled. The little beggar boy was still crying as he picked up the broken pieces of the sugar figurine from the ground, but after that his cries grew harder.

Xie Zhiwei crouched down and said, “You can’t keep these anymore. Your face is injured, the tears will make it sting.”

The teary boy looked at him before recognizing his features. “Aren’t you…the one with big sis…” There was blood in his mouth that dripped down his neck as he spoke.

Xie Zhiwei couldn’t bear it and prepared to help him bandage things up, but couldn’t find anything on him to use. He rested a hand against his forehead before deciding to find some medicine from the courage—when did I start bothering with other people’s affairs after coming into this world?

Yan Zhifei was waiting in the carriage when he saw Xie Zhiwei bring over a dirty little child. Puzzled, he asked, “Zhiwei, what are you doing?”

Xie Zhiwei told him about everything that happened. The boy’s eyes turned red when he brought up Tantai Meng, though he had no reaction about his own experience getting hit. Yan Zhifei creased his brows.

“Miss Tantai can’t be blamed for being ruthless. She suffered as a vagabond to make it to our mountain, but nearly lost her life because of your disciple. Now that she’s recovered her memories and Chi Yan’s already dead, she has nowhere to seek her revenge. Her heart is gloomy, so inevitably she’s grown cold and indifferent.”

Not just gloomy, Xie Zhiwei thought. Mengmeng used to be the cold and aloof heroine. Getting amnesia to become a silly sweet girl was an exception, while this is her original personality.

Chu Zhishi was rubbing his arm when he heard this and remarked, “It’s like a completely different soul in her body. She used to go senior this and senior that, but now she just says ‘city lord’ in an icy voice. I’m not used to it at all. Don’t know if it’ll get any better in the future, either.”

The little beggar’s nose twitched, his filthy face stained with two tear tracks. Chu Zhishi looked at him unhappily. “All you know is crying. Someone like you is only good for begging meals.”

Yan Zhifei scolded, “Zhishi, what are you saying?”

The beggar boy wiped his face furiously and rose to leave, but he had been starving for days and just gotten beaten, so he stumbled after a step. Before he could crash into Xie Zhiwei, Chu Zhishi pulled him back with a tsk. “If you have any backbone, don’t get beat up. What’s with the attitude?”

The beggar boy couldn’t break free as his cheeks flushed. “I…I don’t know how to fight! Wh, what else can I do but beg for food? Doing manual labor…they all think I’m short and weak…” He began to whimper again before he finished.

It was true. He was thin with a sallow complexion and turnip head. At no more than seven to eight years old, he wasn’t even a candidate for child labor. Xie Zhiwei and Yan Zhifei both exchanged reluctant looks, while Chu Zhishi raised his brows and suddenly declared, “I’ll teach you.”

The beggar boy suppressed the sobs in his voice, his mouth set into a stubborn line. “What can you teach me?”

“Fighting.”

The boy looked up with wide eyes.

Xie Zhiwei was surprised. “What do you mean by this, youngest junior brother?”

“Exactly what it implies on the surface,” Chu Zhishi released the little beggar boy and leaned lazily against the carriage seat. “Although his roots are average, he’s still young and can be cultivated gradually.”

The beggar boy was dazed as if dreaming. He didn’t know how to react. Although he was still young, he could tell from their conversation that these were the so-called legendary cultivating daoists. He had shown attitude and tried to leave the carriage because he was sure these immortals wouldn’t care about him anymore, but who expected the most irate one to take him as a disciple?

At last, Xie Zhiwei patted him on the back. “Hurry and call him shizun.”

He stammered back, “Shi, shizun.”

“Mm.” Chu Zhishi replied simply, full of bearing.

The little beggar had been impulsive before, but now he rubbed at the hems of his robes in confusion, not knowing what to do. Yan Zhifei had no objections and said to Chu Zhishi, “Since you’re going to accept him, you should give him a name.”

“Oh right,” Chu Zhishi asked the beggar boy, “What’s your surname?”

The beggar boy was about to reply when he looked up at Xie Zhiwei and stammered, “Tan…tai…” (澹……台……)

Xie Zhiwei knew what he was thinking and didn’t expose him.

Naturally, Chu Zhishi didn’t hear clearly. “What? Your surname’s Tan?” (谭)

The beggar boy glanced at Xie Zhiwei again, but when he saw the man wasn’t looking at him, he bit his lip and nodded. Chu Zhishi thought it over and inclined his head. “In the future you’ll be a disciple of the daoist sect’s Heavenly Sun City. The current generation uses the Dao (道) character, so let’s call you Daoyao.”

Xie Zhiwei observed the distant Chen Daoyuan scratching the mole on his face and felt that these names were chosen quite casually.

Since the matter of accepting a disciple was purely improvised, the ceremony was equally simple. The new disciple could simply bow to his new master to complete the ritual. Tan Daoyao (谭道遥) had just finished kowtowing and stood up when Tantai Meng and Xia Zhiqi arrived with all sorts of parcels and packages. Xia Zhiqi tossed all the items into the carriage, only to find they’d run out of places to sit.

“Tantai and I will sit in the carriage behind,” she said.

Tan Daoyao was sitting in the corner with his eyes lowered but quickly looked up at these words. Sure enough, an expressionless Tantai Meng was currently standing outside with her gaze hooded. But he was unaffected by her icy look and stood up happily. “Big sis! I’ll be a Heavenly Sun City disciple from now on!”

Tantai Meng raised her eyes in a rare reaction and said, “Is that so?”

“Mhm!” Tan Daoyao nodded furiously.

“That’s none of my business,” Tantai Meng turned and left.

Tan Daoyao stared blankly at her frosty back before tears glimmered in his eyes again.

—

The Aureate Sect had changed greatly over the course of a few months. All of the places damaged by the Demonic Sect had been repaired. Du Sheng had overseen the work and lost a lot of weight, but remained quite energetic. It seemed he had moved on from the shadow of his sect siblings’ deaths. After going through all the ritual pleasantries, the evening banquet was withdrawn and Du Sheng accompanied Yan Zhifei to talk freely in the main hall. Heavenly Sun City had gotten a new disciple, so a bunch of male disciples had surrounded Tan Daoyao to tell him all about the daoist sect. Tantai Meng and Xia Zhiqi preferred quieted and had both gone to the rear mountains to enjoy the Golden Lotus Pond.

Chu Zhishi’s arm had mostly recovered after a day and night. He was so happy he took a bamboo branch as a sword and demonstrated his sword skills in the front mountain. Since the weather was cold, the dew had turned to frost, but he still gathered a thin sheen of sweat on his forehead. He was still happy enough to let Xie Zhiwei give him pointers from the sidelines.

Xie Zhiwei was a little out of it. If the palace plotline had been dealt with easily, Mu He would definitely seek him out via Red Lotus, but there had been no movements all day. Chu Zhishi tossed over a stone and Xie Zhiwei caught it with creased brows.

Chu Zhishi grinned and asked, “Is second senior brother sleepy? Why are you always getting distracted? You didn’t even answer when I called.”

Xie Zhiwei dropped the stone and smiled back. “I had some wine at the banquet and grew drowsy. Your arm hasn’t recovered yet, so be more careful. Go back to your rooms.”

“Don’t, ah,” Chu Zhishi mopped his forehead with a handkerchief. “I know my limits. Second senior brother, at this rate I’ll be able to wield Thunderstrike within three days.”

Xie Zhiwei recalled how he used to fight with Lingkong and Thunderstrike in each hand against Chi Yan on One Step Cliff. Although he was defeated, it didn’t damage his prestige. He was a competitive type but could only use a bamboo branch at the moment, so it was a little pitiful.

He couldn’t help saying, “My disciple was indeed…too excessive. This senior brother will definitely have him make amends.”

“No need, what use is there if he does?” Chu Zhishi tossed the handkerchief aside. “This isn’t second senior brother’s fault, so stop speaking for his sake.”

Xie Zhiwei sighed. “But he’s still my disciple. I didn’t teach him properly.”

Chu Zhishi stared at him for a while before shaking his head. “You’re really such a stiff, second senior brother. After all that’s happened, you still talk nonstop about your disciple. If it was me I’d long…forget it. Since second senior brother insists on mentioning him, I don’t want his reparations. I just don’t want to see him again in the future.”

Xie Zhiwei was disappointed to the core. The original follower of the hero had completely broken apart with him. He still remembered how Chu Zhishi had gotten a large share of the pie after Mu He had taken over the world. At that time, the Bai father and son had first caused Xie Zhiwei’s death, then Yan Zhifei and Xia Zhiqi’s, so Mu He had teamed up with Chu Zhishi to eliminate them both. At the same time, Chu Zhishi had very logically taken over the daoist sect and revitalized it until it was the fame of the four seas. Now with the plot changed, Chu Zhishi was still an ordinary city lord and even held a mortal grudge against Mu He. He had no idea whether they’d get a good ending later.

When Chu Zhishi finished his piece, his expression didn’t change but his mood was affected. He was a thick-headed, coarse person to begin with, so he never cared about trivialities. This time had been an exception, however, because Mu He had nearly crippled him into a waste. Chu Zhishi feared neither Heaven nor Earth, but he did fear becoming useless.

Without a word, he held the bamboo and continued to practice his moves. Xie Zhiwei couldn’t say much more and kept him company, though the air was less harmonious than before. A gust of wind stirred the pine needles rustling down, some landing on Xie Zhiwei’s shoulders. He was about to brush them off when a red light shone before him and a fissure appeared three steps away to reveal a white-robed figure. Xie Zhiwei’s heart eased at the sight before he suddenly felt a headache coming on. After all, a certain someone had said he never wanted to see this person again.

Mu He withdrew Red Lotus and walked over with a smile. “Shizun, disciple is here.”

“Everything’s done?” Xie Zhiwei asked. Even he himself didn’t notice how extraordinarily gentle his tone had become.

“Not yet, but…”

“Let’s go, we’ll talk slowly somewhere else.” Xie Zhiwei interrupted and pulled Mu He after him. Mu He raised the corners of his mouth and followed obediently, not forgetting to pinch off the pine needles on Xie Zhiwei’s shoulders.

At this moment, a bamboo branch stabbed over with a whistling sound. Mu He only narrowed his eyes and didn’t move, but the bamboo seemed to bounce off an invisible object before being deflected sideways to stab into a pillar next to Xie Zhiwei.

Xie Zhiwei stilled his steps and turned back in horror while pulling Mu He behind him.

Chu Zhishi strode step by step until he was beneath the corridor and glanced behind him with an oppressive expression. “You still have the face to show up.”

—

tantai meng: (ಠ_ಠ)

me: gib our daughter back

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