Chapter 20: Master’s Telling You to Come Back Home for Dinner
Because of this talk, Zhu Yao understood that her master not only lack common sense, he was face blind as well! Who wouldn’t be able to remember the name of a Mountain Lord after living for more than ten thousand years? With such a personality, Zhu Yao reckoned he had already offended every single person that he could have offended, and when compared to him, Zhu Yao was really more kind-hearted and pure. Hence, Zhu Yao felt completely at ease.
But, Yu Yan was a man of his words. When he told her he would not allow her to head down the mountain, in a blink of an eye, the teleportation formation was removed. Without a formation to send her out, and since she did not know how to use a flying sword either, Zhu Yao began to forcefully accept his education in this closed environment. Yu Yan had also begun to stare at her while she cultivated every single hour of the day, but even if he did so, Zhu Yao was still unable to sense a hint of the spiritual energy he spoke of, as though she was born naturally as a spiritual energy insulator.
Her master had told her that, she admitted into the sect later than most, unlike a child, her mind was unable to focus on a single objective, so, it was hard for her to remove distractions, and concentrate on cultivating. If she were to translate it into human words, ‘she has grown old, and she thinks too much.’ When Zhu Yao realized this truth, tears began to fall.
It was not her fault for being old. At the very least, she was still not in her thirties, and when compared to the hundreds and thousands of people in this cultivation world, she would still be considered as an infant, you know.
After being confined for three months, she, who achieved nothing, felt deeply saddened.
Suddenly, a ‘dong dong dong’ knocking sound came from the window. Zhu Yao was momentarily puzzled, just who was it? In this Jade Forest Mountain, other than her and her master, there were no one else. And, master had never knocked on the door. （－－）
Opening the window, what’s outside was not a human figure, but a delicate paper crane. Flapping its small wings, it stopped before her. It seemed like the knocking sound on her window earlier was due to its pecking. This was the first time Zhu Yao had ever seen such a mystic art, and curiously, she reached out her hand.
The paper crane obediently landed on her palm, and instantly, it turned into a written strip of paper. It seemed like this mystic art was used to send letters.
Zhu Yao picked up the letter. The words on it were a little childish, they were crooked, and were not uniform in size, from the looks of it, it seemed to have been written by a child. And, this was written on the letter.
“Ugly wife, you liar! Senior-martial brother told me to call you grand-martial aunt, but I will never admit it, hmph!” Zhu Yao instantly realized the person who wrote this letter, and momentarily, her hands were itching to spank a certain little kid, whose surname was Wang, in the buttocks. When did her name turn from nothing but just ‘hey’, to ‘wife’, and then, ‘ugly wife’?
When she carefully read it again, she actually realized there was something else added in at the corner as well. If she had not looked at it carefully, she would not have found it at all. Putting the letter closer to her eyes, and only after staring it for a while did she recognize the words written there. “Thank you, for back then!”
She heaved a deep sigh. Was he thanking her for consoling him back then? Zhu Yao shook her head. The way this awkward spoiled brat conveyed his thanks was really strange as well.
If three months were not enough to prove a person was talentless in a certain field, then, five years would probably be conclusive enough. Within this five years, no matter how Zhu Yao diligently tried to sense spiritual energy, she still could not feel a hint of it, perfectly explaining the profound meaning behind the word ‘loser’. Even she had begun to suspect that it was due to a problem to her world-crossing method. Just why was this happening to her?
Could it be due to the difference in her constitution as a person of two worlds, which was causing her inability to cultivate? But, this world’s Mystic Arts and medicine were able to work on her perfectly.
Standing on the mountain peak, Zhu Yao looked at the endless stream of clouds in front of her, and silently grieved. From Little Wang’s letters, which were becoming more neatly and properly written, she found out that, since a year ago, Wang Xuzhi had cultivated to the tenth level of Essence, and this speed, out of all of the disciples, was the fastest. Reverend Zi Mo even took him in personally as his personal succeeding disciple.
Zhu Yao was happy for him, but, as for herself, all she had was a gigantic sense of powerlessness which was about to completely squash her entire being down. Haah, just what was the meaning behind her coming into this world? It’s an emergency, someone, please, tell me.
“Quack, quack. Your master’s telling you to come back home for dinner, your master’s telling you to come back home for dinner!” The cries of a crane interrupted her thoughts of self-pity, and Zhu Yao raised her head skywards, looking towards the celestial crane whose voice sounded extremely like a duck.
When she received Wang Xuzhi’s paper crane five years ago, just for a moment of fun, she went to consult her master about this method of sending letters. However, he misunderstood, and thought she liked this method of sending letters. Hence, a certain master immediately emulated it, however, he felt a paper crane was a little low-class, and was not suitable for his high-class, and cold image.
Thus, he used an actual crane.
……
“Your master is telling you to come back home for dinner. Quack, quack. Your master is telling you to come back home for dinner. Quack!”
“Are you a celestial crane or a duck?” Zhu Yao rolled her eyes at the crane which only knew how to repeat a single sentence, turned around, and quickly walked back. If she did not head back, she believed that stupid crane would continue to cry out.
Placing down the plate on his hands, Yu Yan looked at his disciple who was lightly jogging back from afar, and sat down satisfyingly. After Zhu Yao gave him a greeting, he watched her as she began to stuff big mouthfuls of food into her mouth, before speaking up indifferently. “I will be leaving the mountain for a period of time tomorrow.”
Zhu Yao was startled, and she looked straight towards him. This ten-thousand-year hikikomori is actually going to step out of his house? “Master, where will you be going?”
“In a few days, it will be the Inter-Sect Tournament that occurs once every hundred years. Every single sect and clan in the world, will be gathering at the Ancient Hill Sect.”
The Inter-Sect Tournament was the most important event in the cultivation world. Ancient Hill Sect was referred to as the cultivation world’s number one sect, and every Inter-Sect Tournament was hosted by Ancient Hill Sect.
“Is Master going to participate in the tournament as well?” Zhu Yao was a little excited. Truthfully, after being here for so many years, she had seen how her master’s cooking figure, her master’s sewing figure, but she had never seen how he looks like when he fights. “Who are you going to fight with? Can master beat him?”
Yu Yan’s brows furrowed, he really could not hold himself back from knocking his stupid disciple in the head. “Many and various people from all over the world will be coming. To prevent devils and monsters from taking the opportunity to mix into the crowd, I have to reinforce the Great Mountain Barrier Formation.” His stupid disciple did not even bother to think that, practitioners who were above the Nascent Soul level of cultivation, had powers capable of moving mountains and splitting seas, and they would not easily battle one another, let alone him.
“Oh.” So he was only heading to reinforce a formation, and here I thought I could see master in action. “Then, who are the participants in the tournament?”
“Every sect will choose three representatives each for the Essence, Foundation, and Azoth categories, and every one of them will fight for the top three positions.”
Zhu Yao’s eyes glinted, no longer bothering to eat, she picked out a chair that was closest to her master and sat right on it. “Master, will it be really lively on that day? May I…”
“No!” Before Zhu Yao could even finish, her words were forced back by Yu Yan, and he dealt another blow to her. “Unless you build your Foundation.”
“Master…” Zhu Yao dragged the last syllable, and pitifully looked at the person in front of her. Wanting her to make a breakthrough into Foundation was definitely an impossible fantasy, she had already been confined for five years without making a single progress.
Yu Yan continued to ignore her.
Zhu Yao felt even more depressed. Master, you’re heartless, shameless and vexatious.
The person in front of her simply kept the plates and chopsticks, and without even looking back, he headed into the kitchen to wash them.
Zhu Yao laid on the table in defeat, and looked at the empty table. Wait a minute. “Master, I’m not done eating!”