Lu Zhou glanced at the three disciples again as he slowly rose to his feet. His slap had made them suffer to much, to the point that they even had trouble standing up. Little Yuan’er was thoughtful enough to run over and help him until he got his footing and then stepped aside.
Lu Zhou stood with his hands clasped behind his back. Instead of looking at them, he walked to the edge of the gazebo and overlooked the mountains.
A mist was rising in tendrils between the mountains, swirling about in the air. Golden Court Mountain, without its shield, looked somewhat mysterious.
“Old Third!”
“Yes, Master!” Duanmu Sheng trembled as he bowed his head and answered.
“What is your ranking on the black roll?”
“This…I’m at the eighteenth place.”
“What about Old Fourth?”
“I…I’m not as good as Senior Brother. I’m at the twenty-fifth place.”
Zhao Yue did not wait for her master to ask. “I’m lucky enough to be at the twenty-eighth place.”
“Lucky?” Lu Zhou’s voice grew serious as he said, “You are really my amazing disciple…Since when has it become something worth showing off to have your name on the black roll? You’ve disgraced me!”
“I was wrong!” Zhao Yue’s heart trembled.
Lu Zhou had just begun to lecture when he suddenly thought of what Little Yuan’er had told him, that his name was at the top of the black roll. It seemed that he had disgraced himself the most…
For a moment, he felt embarrassed, but then he threw that aside.
“Since you know you are wrong, you have to change,” said Lu Zhou faintly.
Change?
How?
The three disciples looked at each other.
They thought they were on the same path as their master, and all their styles of doing things were also learned from their master!
“No evil shall be done henceforth. Can you do that?” Lu Zhou said word by word.
The trio paused. They gave their master a somewhat incomprehensible look, but then they replied in unison, “This disciple will obey Master’s order.”
A heavy silence fell upon the gazebo once again. After some time, as Lu Zhou looked at the scenery in the distance, he sighed and said, “One thing I’ve done wrong in my life is that I’ve only taught you how to cultivate but not how to conduct yourself.
“I was wrong, too, and because of that, I’ve produced a bunch of treacherous disciples like you!”
Without commenting on what they had done in the cultivation world, just the fact that they disobeyed their master and harbored the intention of betraying the sect was enough to mark them treacherous.
The four disciples did not dare to make a sound.
Who dared to say the master was wrong?
“Duanmu Sheng, Mingshi Yin!”
“Yes, Master!” Both disciples answered at the same time.
“The shield of Golden Court Mountain is broken now. Your punishment is to guard the mountain while the shield is being repaired, and you are not to leave without my permission. When the repair is done, I’ll forgive you,” said Lu Zhou faintly.
It was equivalent to restricting their freedom. Repairing the shield was not a simple task, and it would take at least eight to ten years to be completed. It was a reasonable punishment, which was far better than killing them.
Both men were overjoyed.
“This disciple will obey Master’s order!”
Lu Zhou’s eyes fell on his fifth disciple. “Zhao Yue!”
“Yes, Master?”
“Your Third and Fourth Senior Brothers need to stay on the mountain, so…I punish you to atone for your crimes down the mountain. Do you have any objection?”
Atone for her crimes?
Zhao Yue threw herself on the ground and said in a low voice, “This disciple will obey Master’s order and dare not to have any objection. But…”
“Say it!”
“What crimes do I have to atone for?”
Lu Zhou shook his head. These villainous disciples had followed Ji Tiandao for so many years that their view of life and values had been completely corrupted by him, and they had lost their basic ability to judge right and wrong.
He did not speak immediately but turned around and walked past them. Although he was without any aura or energy fluctuation, he still made the three disciples shudder.
“Yuan’er, tell me, what is good and what is evil?” Lu Zhou asked indifferently.
That gave Little Yuan’er a pause, and then she cupped her fist and said, “Helping people is good and harming people is evil?”
It was an answer that she came up with on the spur of the moment, and she never thought it was correct.
Lu Zhou shook his head when he heard the answer. “What do you think, Old Third?”
With his head bowed, Duanmu Sheng said, “Doing charitable deeds is good, while it is evil to kill and burn and plunder?”
Lu Zhou shook his head again.
“Old Fourth.”
“To serve the country and the people is good, and to help the villains do bad things is evil.” That was Mingshi Yin’s answer.
Lu Zhou still shook his head.
Their answers were too superficial and not what he wanted.
The four disciples looked on with puzzled faces as their master kept shaking his head.
With his hands clasped behind his back, Lu Zhou said, “In life, one does not have to do good deeds or serve the country and the people…One can never please everyone. But, one should not have any guilt in the heart.”
The four of them looked up slightly at their master with complicated eyes. They suddenly felt that their master was very different from before.
A month ago, he was telling them to kill anyone whom they did not find pleasing to the eyes. But now, he was making such thoughtful remarks. It was hard for them to not be surprised.
“One should not have any guilt in the heart… I understand now. I’ll definitely kill all those fanatics who had insulted Master…” Zhao Yue gritted her teeth and said.
“…”
It seemed that he had said so much for nothing. Lu Zhou did not know whether to laugh or cry.
“Never mind. I think it is better for you to stay on the mountain and be punished together with the others.” Lu Zhou shook his head.
Zhao Yue froze, and then she said, “This disciple will obey Master’s order.”
After all, these three disciples had followed Ji Tiandao for too long. Their view of life and values had been deeply rooted, which could not be modified by him with just a few words. She was too murderous, and it would be a terribly bad idea to let her leave the mountain.
At present, Lu Zhou’s cultivation base was very weak, so the crisis was still there. Moreover, those villainous disciples who had betrayed the sect were all eyeing him.
Lu Zhou glanced at them once again. Their loyalty had increased to 50%, 45% and 52% respectively.
These three villainous disciples were really stubborn!
The problem of good and evil could not be solved in a short time, but their loyalty must be increased to over 60%.
It seemed that the punishment of making them stay on the mountain was not enough.
Lu Zhou slowly turned around and walked back into the gazebo before sitting down cross-legged.
“From today on, no matter what you’ve done in the past, I can let bygones be bygones. But, if you do it again, if you are unfaithful and commit treason, I’ll not spare you easily.”
This time, even Little Yuan’er fell to her knees as well, and the four of them kept promising that they would not do that again. Sure enough, the loyalty of the three villainous disciples increased by 5%.
After the stick, he showed them the carrot by saying, “Since you have joined Golden Court Mountain and become my disciples, I’ll naturally protect you all…”
Their loyalty increased by another 10% while Little Yuan’er’s increased by 2%.
Lu Zhou nodded in his heart. The idea of protection had improved their loyalty a lot. The world was vast and full of wonders. Although there were many famous orthodox sects, there were also many hypocritical and treacherous people. In this competitive and ruthless world, people were not afraid of true villains, but of fake good men. The cultivation world was grotesque and diversified, full of intrigues. It was a blessing in life to have a roof over one’s head.
In fact, it was exactly the same idea they had when they came here to acknowledge him as their master.
“Ding! You’ve completed the task of punishing the three villainous disciples. You are rewarded with 100 reward points.”
He heard the system prompt.
“Leave!” Lu Zhou said in a faint voice.
“Yes, Master!” The four disciples left the gazebo.
Although their hearts were uneasy, they felt more surprised and puzzled, especially the three villainous disciples. They had committed treason, but their master only grounded them in Golden Court Mountain.
It was no different from a great favor.
If it had been before, there would have been a brutal beating and serious injury.
…
When all his disciples had left, Lu Zhou breathed a sigh of relief and opened up the personal menu.
Name: Lu Zhou
Race: Human
Cultivation Base: The ninth-tier of Body Tempering
Avatar: None
Merit Points: 200
Remaining life: 321 days
Items: Ji Tiandao Peak Form Card x 2, Critical Block Card (passive) x 5
Cultivation Techniques: None
…
He was extremely weak.
It was only after experiencing the peak form that Lu Zhou realized how weak this body was.
When he saw that he had 200 merit points, he said, “Lucky draw.”
“Ding! Each lucky draw consumes 50 merit points, and if the lucky draw fails, you will get 1 luck point.”
“That’s a rip-off!”
“Shopping mall.”
The interface in his eyes changed. The shopping mall was full of various weapons and cultivation techniques.
“You can even buy avatars?” Lu Zhou was rendered speechless.
An avatar was one of the strongest skills of cultivators. When cultivators cultivated to a certain realm, they would condense their divine senses into huge avatars. The stronger the cultivators, the stronger their avatars.
Unfortunately, most of the items were red and could not be purchased.
“An apprentice-rank avatar, ‘Basic Taiji’, costs 300 merit points…”
“A ‘Two Transformed Powers’ avatar costs 1,000 merit points…”
Lu Zhou noticed that the price for the highest-level avatar, ‘Myriad Supreme’, was simply a row of question marks.
“…”