Lan Sheng Zhe, “Is Ying’er your child? What happened to him?”
Village chief, a bit hesitant, spoke, “He, he is indeed my child. He was born with a weak constitution and easily gets sick, the cultivator promised to accept him as his personal disciple and teach him the immortal way after the job was done, but we never saw him after that day. I looked for him alot after that day, but nothing was found except for the fact he is from Moru Island.”
Lan Sheng Zhe, “How can you say for sure, he’s from there?”
Village chief, “Ayo I didn’t tell? He had a thick Moru accent!”
Moru Island? That’s under the protection of the Cleansing sect. Is the Cleansing sect involved in this? Lan Sheng Zhe, “I am no medical expert but I do have some basic knowledge. May I see your son?”
The village chief looked a bit reluctant but ended up calling his son anyway. Upon examining the chief’s son Lan Sheng Zhe found his constitution to be weak indeed, however the child has no spiritual roots in him. If what the village chief said is true then the cultivator had lied to them, what doesn’t make sense is why would the village chief believe the masked cultivator? It is very unlikely that he didn’t know his son could not cultivate.
In the meantime the village chief’s wife brought out the container and handed it to Lan Sheng Zhe. Lan Sheng Zhe took the medicine container and left for Moru Island.
…
When Lan Sheng Zhe arrived at the shore, he saw the annoying guy lying in his boat with the bamboo hat covering his face. Lan Sheng Zhe decided to ignore him and maneuver his sword to Moru Island, when he heard Cheng Yu’s languid voice.
“Gege, I’ve been waiting for you since dawn, give me some face will ya.” Cheng Yu got up and gestured to Lan Sheng Zhe to board his boat with his hand.
Lan Sheng Zhe, “How did you know I will be going to Moru Island?”
Cheng Yu, “Want to know? Get on then”
Lan Sheng Zhe gets on the boat, if this guy tries to do something funny he can just easily chop him up to pieces.
Cheng Yu started to row as he hummed a tune. Feeling Lan Sheng Zhe’s intense gaze waiting for his answer, Cheng Yu found it quite amusing. “What? You believed my nonsense? A sailor gotta make money no? Don’t be so cheap immortal gege..ssp!”
“Okay okay okay! I’ll tell you, can you not point your sword to my neck every time I open my mouth!”
Lan Sheng Zhe sheathed back his sword as he waited for Cheng Yu to continue.
Cheng Yu, “I knew the village chief destroyed the formation so naturally I knew who made him do it.”
Lan Sheng Zhe, “You know the masked guy?”
Cheng Yu, “Can’t say I know him, but I have seen him before a couple of times walking around like a thief in the Mist mountain. At first I thought he was a normal cultivator here to tame beasts or hunt. But he never took interest in neither killing nor taming, every time he came he did circles around the formation cave. I was curious so I started to follow him and the rest is history.”
Lan Sheng Zhe, “Did you follow him when he tasked the chief to destroy the formation?”
Cheng Yu, “I couldn’t, that guy probably figured out I was following him so he set a barrier before going in. I wasn’t curious enough to make an enemy out of a random guy so I left.”
Lan Sheng Zhe, “You clearly have cultivation but I cannot sense it. Why?”
Cheng Yu, “Gege what are you talking about? I’m just a weak mortal..”
Lan Sheng Zhe without any warning unsheathed his sword and with strong force attacked Cheng Yu. With no choice at hand Cheng Yu leaped in the air to avoid the attack and used spiritual energy as a shield to block the next attack.
After exposing Cheng Yu’s lie about having no cultivation, Lan Sheng Zhe stopped attacking and had a slight hint of smirk in his cold face rejoicing on catching the liar.
“YOU ARE CRAZY! They say not to bite the hand that helped you, and this is how you repay me! Jiezhi Xiande, Jiezhi Xiande, people say you are so virtuous and kind. How disappointing it would be when they find out you’re just a mad man.” Although Cheng Yu looked angry on the surface, he just found it funny how he finally made Lan Sheng Zhe lose his temper.
Feeling a bit guilty on behaving so improper, Lan Sheng Zhe said in sift voice, “You lied first”
Cheng Yu, “Mhph! So what if I did? What do I owe you? Why must I tell you the truth?” Cheng Yu sat down with a pout not talking to Lan Sheng Zhe anymore.
After a prolonged silence, Cheng Yu couldn’t stand the awkward silence. Looking at the distant view on Moru land coming closer he spoke “I wasn’t born like this. But later, later I went through enlightenment and I was able to dissolve my golden core and instead of using the energy within me I can manipulate and use the spiritual energy around me. I may be able to live a couple of hundred years longer but I am indeed a mortal with no cultivation in me. I didn’t lie”. After saying that Cheng Yu felt wronged by Lan Sheng Zhe.
Lan Sheng Zhe speechless felt like the guy in front of him was speaking utter nonsense. But he witnessed with his own eyes that he can manipulate the energy which didn’t belong to him. “You clearly had a golden core, why would you choose to dissolve it? What kind of practice is that? I’ve never heard of it. If this is true then even mortals with no spiritual roots can cultivate.” The last sentence was a mutter to himself as he spoke out his thoughts.
Cheng Yu, back to his carefree demeanor, “Immortal gege, you sure love to talk a lot. Why should I tell you my secret method? Plus can any mortal be enlightened? We are here, don’t try to distract me! You better not think of riding and not paying!”
Lan Sheng Zhe, seeing Cheng Yu is back to his nonsense, didn't bother asking anymore about it. “How much?”
Cheng Yu, “Five thousand Top grade spiritual stones. Not a single stone less!”
What in the world? With five thousand top grade spirit stones one can buy all the boats in the river, every second this guy just gets more ridiculous. Was Lan Sheng Zhe born yesterday? But Lan Sheng Zhe didn’t have the energy to bicker with this madman and threw his whole pouch to Cheng Yu and with one leap he was gone.
Cheng Yu, thinking he fooled the guy, opened the special pouch only to see a few hundred high grades and middle grade stones. Cheng Yu chuckled as he yelled “YOU CHEAPSKATE, I WILL COME TO COLLECT MY DEBT!!!”
…
As Lan Sheng Zhe approached Moru Island, the tranquility of the scene washed over him like a gentle breeze. The island was a verdant paradise, tall trees swayed gracefully in the soft wind, their leaves rustling softly in harmony with the waves lapping against the shore taking Lan Sheng Zhe back 15 years ago.
15 years ago, Lan Sheng Zhe accompanied his brother here to help build the Cleansing sect. Yan Xichen, the Cleansing sect’s leader, is Lan Zhi Zhou’s confidant since childhood. Over the course of time all the major clans started to accept outer disciples through examination and stray away from the idea of keeping cultivation technique to only the clan's bloodline, except for the Yan clan. Yan Xichen, the second son of Yan clan sect leader, disagreed with this kind of tradition and started a new sect all alone in Moru island, accepting anyone who had the potential to cultivate. It was a very tough time for Yan Xichen, thanks to Lan Zhi Zhou and Lan Sheng Zhe helping out at that time, he was able to successfully establish the sect.
It was also during this time he met Zhao Cheng Yin..
It was a bit embarrassing to think, he was in the river swimming when a sea beast attacked him. The beast was so cute he could not bear to severely hurt it, after all it was him, who broke into the beast’s home and knocked over the beast’s eggs. They were at a stalemate when Zhao Cheng Yin came and saved him.
By the time Zhao Cheng Yin fished him out, he looked more pitiful than a stray cat on a rainy night.
Suddenly a kid bumped into Lan Sheng Zhe, bringing him back to reality from the beautiful memories. Nothing has changed, only that person is no longer here.
Without any further delay, Lan Sheng Zhe went straight to the Cleansing sect.
The disciples were caught off guard and surprised to see Jiezhi Xiande here. Wasn’t his brother’s wedding yesterday? How could he be here so fast? Even their sect leader hasn’t made it back to sect.
Nevertheless they treated Lan Sheng Zhe with utmost respect as they let him inside the hall.
Lan Sheng Zhe, “I know Sect leader Xichen is not here, may I speak to elder Son Lang?”
Son Lang came as soon as he got the news of Lan Sheng Zhe’s arrival.
Son Lang delighted to see him, “Sheng Zhe, long time no see”
Lan Sheng Zhe, “Elder Son”
Son Lang, “How was your brother’s wedding? Send my deepest apologies to him, with the mountain beasts creating chaos the sect had no one else to watch over”
Lan Sheng Zhe, “Xiongzhang understands, elder Son need not worry. I’m actually here to mend the formation.”
Son Lang, “You are surely deserving of the name Jiezhi Xiande. Our sect lacks an elder efficient on array formations if Jiezhi Xiande ever gets some free time, please give us some guidance”
Lan Sheng Zhe was used to Son Lang’s teasings so he didn’t react much, “I’ll naturally help whenever I can, no need to ask so politely”
After seeing it was no fun teasing Lan Sheng Zhe, Son Lang got down to serious business and asked if he was here for any particular reason.
Lan Sheng Zhe, “Is there a cultivator in the sect around my shoulder height with a large scar on their hand?”
Son Lang, “Not that I am aware of, there are few new disciples I cannot confirm about. I’ll just ask all of them to come here”
The disciples arrived in a few minutes. Lan Sheng Zhe checked all the disciples and did not find a single one meeting the description.
Lan Sheng Zhe, “They’re all here?”
Son Lang, “Not all, some of Xichen’s disciples accompanied him to the banquet.”
This brought Lan Sheng Zhe back to square one, where he started from.
One of the new disciples seemed to want to say something to Son Lang but was hesitating.
Son Lang, “Just say what you want to say”
With permission granted the disciple got a little courage, “There is this gege who lives next to the Yumyum inn and has a big scar on his right hand.”
Lan Sheng Zhe, “Can you take me there?”
