Determined Not to Live in the Straw Hut

"Senior Great Uncle, you are back."  Xu Kong brings Qi Huan to the gate of Mount Qing Yun.  Throngs of people raise their heads and gaze towards them in eagerness.

A man who looks like a pale-faced scholar stands at the very front.  Sharp eyebrows, star-like eyes, tall nosebridge, and tightly pursed up lips, even though he looks a little solemn, he still looks handsome.  His entire body is shrouded in blue robes, he really gives off celestial-like air.  He looks more like a celestial than Xu Kong who is standing next to her.

"Xiao Feng Zi, why did you personally come?" seeing the man, Xu Kong lowers the huge gourd and pulls Qi Huan down as well.

"Senior Grandfather and Senior Granduncle has been searching for you."  Ling Feng Zi helplessly sighs.  This senior granduncle is really good, he has warm personality and can be very generous.  But he has a child-like heart, he likes going on a hide-and-seek at times.

"Alright, I will look for your senior grandfather.  Hehe, this is my disciple, look after her for me," Xu Kong Zi pushes Qi Huan to Ling Feng Zi and then irresponsibly fly away.

QI Huan blinks, one of her hands tremblingly points at Xu Kong Zi's back profile that gradually turns smaller.  She can't believe there is a teacher like him out there.

"Disciple....." What Xu Kong Zi said not only angers Qi Huan to death, it also takes Ling Feng Zi by surprise.

He now has another Senior Uncle?!

Just as Ling Feng Zi looks over at Qi Huan, Qi Huan does the same; just more blatantly.  Who cares about a woman's modesty and discretion, she almost glue their faces together.

Cough Cough.  "S-Senior Uncle."  Ling Feng Zi retreats two steps back from Qi Huan's enthusiastic gaze, only starting to speak after a while.  His tone is calm, but Qi Huan is certain she can sense grievance in his voice.

These two or three days on the road tells Qi Huan that Xu Kong Zi isn't a regular cultivator.  While they were on the road, every other cultivators they bumped into, no matter how far would stop and pay respect to him.  Xu Kong Zi only acknowledged them by nodding a little.  She didn't know Xu Kong Zi has such a high position in Mount Qing Yuan.  The moment she arrives there, she automatically becomes other's Senior Uncle.

Not only that, this convenient Junior Nephew fits her aesthetical standard.  Not only does he have a handsome face, his body also look like it belongs to a model.  Appreciating the beauty that is her Junior Nephew, Qi Huan does not pay any attention to what he was saying.

"Senior Uncle."  Qi Huan's hungry eyes scares Ling Feng Zi so much that he retreats a few steps.

"Ah?  Oh, what?" Qi Huan wipes the corner of her lips.  Once she is sure there is no saliva dripping, she laughs foolishly at Ling Feng Zi.

"I don't think Senior Granduncle will be back anytime soon, let me bring you to rest first."

"Then I will have to trouble you."  QI Huan laughs as she pats Ling Feng Zi's shoulder, making sure to give them a good squeeze.  Such a nice feel, one look and she can tell he works out a lot.

Being groped by Qi Huan, Ling Feng Zi shivers and upon seeing the look in Qi Huan's eyes, he becomes more alert.   He knew it.  Senior Granduncle is such a peculiar person, the person he takes as a disciple is definitely not normal as well.  He secretly tells himself to get as far away from this Senior Uncle as possible in the future.

"All of you can go for now."  Ling Feng Zi orders the many disciples behind him before he takes Qi Huan away.

"Yes, sect leader!"

"......." He is the sect leader ah......

This Ling Feng Zi is pretty responsible, at least more than that Xu Kong.  He did not simply give Qi Huan a room and let it be over with.  He actually takes Qi Huan around the entire Qing Yun Mountain to acquaint her with the sect and let everybody knows about her arrival as the sect leader's senior uncle.

At the end of everything, Ling Feng Zi brings her to the mountain peak where Xu Kong lives at.  He even arrange her the most luxurious straw house over there!  You heard it right, straw house!

Seeing the straw house, Qi Huan tells herself that she must be dreaming.  Why did she see palace-like buildings on other people's mountain peaks while she has to live in a straw house?

Seeing the dissatisfaction on Qi Huan's face, Ling Feng Zi explains everything with an even more serious expression, "Senior Granduncle is the only practitioner of ascetical cultivation in our sect."

Ascetical cultivation?  That means he eats the worst of food, lives in the worst of places, does not use any herbs or pills and just cultivates according to his own capabilities.  This is why out of so many masters under Dacheng, Xu Kong is considered as the first amongst them all. That is why he receives a lot of respect from everyone.  But respect is respect, Qi Huan never says she intends to have an ascetical cultivation with him.

"This is an abuse!  This is inhumane!  I want to complain to humanitarian organization!"  Qi Huan can't help but get irated as she circles around the hut.  Straw house is straw house, but what is the meaning behind putting a large cord inside the hut?  What do they take her as, Xiao Long Nu?

Ling Feng Zi lowers his head and coughs twice, but from the trembling in his shoulder, Qi Huan can tell that he is delighting in this.  After a while, he finally speaks.  "This is the Coil Dragon Rope.  If you cultivate above it, you can concentrate on your ling qi."

"Does that mean you have to sleep on the Coil Dragon Rope?" Qi Huan suspiciously look up.

"Correct."  Ling Feng Zi says.  Upon seeing Qi Huan's questioning eyes, Ling Feng Zi opens his mouth once again, "....... But the one I sleep on is Coil Dragon Rope woven into a mat....."

"......Let's swap."

"........"  A silent protest.

"If you refuse to swap with me, I'll use the rope to hang myself.  Once I becomes a ghost, I will find shifu and tell him you mistreated me."  Qi Huan threatens him like it was nobody's business.

Ling Feng Zhi looks at Qi Huan's shameless face with eyes full of grievance, but she is unmoved.  She always did shameless things like this so she has grown used to it.

Unfortunately, this is only the beginning.  Women are creatures you must never; never offend!   This is the first thing Qi Huan taught Ling Feng Zi.

Qi Huan spends the next two hours and thirty minutes convincing Ling Feng Zi that she is only a weak woman.  It is very dangerous for her to live in a dangerous room, so in the end, she manages to live in Ling Feng Zi's palace halls in his mountain peak.

So now, Ling Feng Zi has to live in the hut that Qi Huan rejected.   He has to sleep on the cord too.

After Qi Huan happily leaves, he finally understand why his Senior Granduncle flings his newly accepted disciple to him.  Perhaps he already could tell how scary his disciple is.

He made up his mind.  From now on, he must must must avoid this Senior Uncle.

The Incomplete Secret Technique

She must say, this Ling Feng Zi treats Qi Huan, this Senior Uncle really well.  Rather than looking down on her for having no prior experience in cultivation, he tries his best to send all the powerful cultivating manuals in the sect for her.

No other new recruits have the luxury to choose any high grade manuals.  Xu Kong Zi's position is just too high, so naturally, Qi Huan receives preferential treatment as his disciple.

But, after receiving the books, Qi Huan is not happy.  She even wonders if she could release some amulets on Ling Feng Zi.  What does he mean by this?  Nevermind the ancient calligraphy style, after exerting quite an effort, she can only recognize a few characters.  The oracles characters are still okay since it's integrated with image.  But the tadpole characters are too much!  He clearly wants to mock her illiteracy.

No matter what, she is a still a graduate from a famous university, but after time-travelling, she can't even recognize the character 'big'.  That Ling Feng Zi even gives her a thin purple and gold booklet.  It seems to have only a couple of pages.  Purple and golden color seems to glimmers in the pages.  Even though Qi Huan doesn't know what it is, she knows it's a treasure.

Ling Feng Zi told her this is a treasure from their Qing Yun Sect.  He especially took it out to let her have a look at it.

When Qi Huan excitedly turns over to look at the first page, she finally understands why Ling Feng Zi said 'to have a look', this is an empty heavenly book.  Her eyes almost pop out and she still couldn't spot a single character.

In the end, Qi Huan understands.  Even people like Xu Kong have to exert energy and still only understood half of the page.

After she leaf over all those books, Qi Huan curses Ling Feng Zi.  In the end, after a morning filled with anger, Qi Huan choose the thinnest book about constructing the foundation called, 'Path within Human'

Don't think for a minute that Qi Huan knows how to choose the book that suits her best, she only chose it because it is the only book where the title contains all the characters she recognize.  The thinness of the book is a contributing factor as well.

When it comes to cultivation, Qi Huan didn't really have the wish to become the strongest one out of the lot.  She only hopes she can live a little longer, have a healthier body, and fly here and there in the sky.  She has never been greedy, this is enough to satisfy her.

Seeing Qi Huan choosing that book, Ling Feng Zi is surprised.  He hesitates for a moment, wanting to say something to Qi Huan.  But after pondering, he didn't open his mouth.

Celestial figures trust on fate the most.  So he considers Qi Huan selecting a book as a fate as well.  He sent over so many books about building the foundation and she chose that one, this is clearly her fate.

Not that the book isn't good. On the contrary, it's a really powerful book.  Years ago, the entire realm had a bloody battle over this technique.  In the end, the people who snatched that technique all died, leaving only three.  And those three people split the book into three parts, each of them taking one.  Since they can't cultivate with that technique, they naturally won't let others as well.

Out of the three people, one of them is Xu Kong's Senior Granduncle, Qi Huan's Senior Grand Ancestor.   He renamed that book as 'Path Within People.'  This part of the book teaches Zhuji, Ningqi, and Jiedan.  Yuanying, Huashen, Dujie and Dacheng are in the other two books.

Back then, someone tried to cultivate with this 'Path Within People' book.  The progress is pretty fast, but problem arises after he finished with Jiedan.  He did not have the rest of the technique.  He wanted to use techniques from other books to replace the rest of the technique, but there were no suitable replacements that suit his own lingqi.

With no other way in hand, he had to personally crippled his own cultivation and started all over again with a new book.  In the end, the book that should have been glorious became something like a chicken ribs, useless but can't bear to be casted side.

(TN: Chicken Ribs (鸡肋): something of little value)

Another reason why Ling Feng Zi did not stop Qi Huan was because her capability is not high, cultivating at her age is considered old.  From what Ling Feng Zi could see, unless a master that has already reached Dacheng gave her powers or if  the heavens somewhat drop a 'Cleansing the Essence of the Marrow' pellet, she will not be able to reach yuanying even if she tires herself to death.

So Ling Feng Zi did not say anything to Qi Huan about choosing that book.  Since she can't get very high anyway, might as well let her learn until Jiedan, at least by then she will have the ability to protect herself.  Once you get to Jiedan, living up to four or five hundred years will not be a problem.

Besides, Ling Feng Zhi is confident that as long as Mount Qing Yun is here, nothing dangerous can befall Qi Huan.  Obtaining the level Jiedan, Qi Huan will be able to go here and there unfettered.

Moreover, Ling Feng Zi isn't looking down on Qi Huan, but with her personality, she definitely will not be the kind willing to dwell in a cave.  Might as well let her study Jiedan and let her go down the mountain to gain experience and help the common people.  As long as she didn't bring disaster to the people above the mountain, everything else is alright.

Thinking of that, Ling Feng Zi wipe the cold sweat on his forehead.  He really shouldn't look down on this Senior Uncle.  Even the most promising of new recruits who are not scared of tigers are not as courageous as her.  She actually pulls out off of her shifu's spiritual roots nice and clean.

If Senior Granduncle Xu Kong finds out that the thousand year old magnolia had been cut off by Qi Huan with a sickle and brought back to her room to represent her elegance and temperament, will he vomit blood out of anger?

These kind of things could only be done by Qi Huan.  He can't do anything, she entered the sect through the back door.  Her position is so high it can strangle others to death.  Right now, all the powerful ancestors are either in a retreat or had gone down the mountain to cultivate.  So other than him, this sect leader, the person with the highest position is Qi Huan.  Nobody dares to seek trouble with her.

At this moment, Ling Feng Zi is thankful he sees things ahead.  After Qi Huan lives in his mountain peak, he puts all of his valuables and treasures in his own space bags, he didn't left Qi Huan a single hair strand.  This is also why Qi Huan has been looking disgruntled upon meeting him.

After getting the book, Qi Huan did not ask Ling Feng Zi to leave.  What a joke, the characters inside looks familiar, they know Qi Huan, but Qi Huan didn't know them.

In the end, it is Ling Feng Zi who has to explain every single word to her.  In the end, he even gives her the details on how to draw in qi to her body, he almost cultivates on the behalf of Qi Huan.

The two people were at it until evening.  By then, Qi Huan finally understands Zhuji and how to draw in qi.  As for Ling Feng Zi, seeing Qi Huan in satisfaction and awe, he finally sees someone so stupid that she startles the sky and shakes the earth.

Not even 1000 characters in, she actually needs him to explain everything one by one twenty times.  Of course, Qi Huan would never tell Ling Feng Zi that she already understood everything by the fifth explanation.  She just like seeing his expression when he is so helpless and yet have to endure.

serene: I like Qi Huan, Xu Kong and Ling Feng Zi!  Wow, I like everyone for once!