“Xue Mingzhao!” Wen Shuxian raised his voice and called out to her, his eyes filled with exasperation. It was just a supreme-grade spiritual root. Was there any need for such an exaggerated expression? Besides, wasn't she a supreme-grade spiritual root herself?
Xue Mingzhao snapped back to reality. Her throat tightened, and she almost choked on the remains of the spirit fruit in her mouth. Clutching her mouth, she coughed repeatedly. “Cough, cough, cough! Understood, understood! I'll go settle him in right now!”
She reached out and took the feather-light boy from him, her footsteps so light it felt as if she were walking on clouds.
Yaozha?
He said his name was Yaozha?
Wasn't this Shen Chaoyue's loyal puppy dog follower from the original novel?!
“Yaozha” was a humiliating nickname given to him by others. No one knew his origins or background; they only knew he was a helpless orphan.
When he was young, he scavenged leftovers on the streets to survive. As he grew a bit older, he would squat around the perimeters of various sects' medicine fields, eating discarded medicinal fruits and herb stems to stave off hunger. Over time, everyone began using “Yaozha” as his actual name.
The novel wrote that Shen Chaoyue had met the boy by chance while descending the mountain. He was squatting by the roadside, chewing on rotten medicine dregs. Out of a momentary softheartedness, she brought him back to her sect and even renamed him Shen Chaoyang.
During his test, it was discovered that the boy actually possessed a supreme-grade gold spiritual root, and he was accepted on the spot as a personal disciple by an elder of the Heavenly Origin Sect.
In the years that followed, the boy viewed Shen Chaoyue's charity-like kindness as his lifelong salvation. He constantly called her “Sister,” harboring an unvoiced adoration deep in his heart. In the end, to protect Shen Chaoyue, he met a tragic demise, leaving behind not even a complete corpse.
As Xue Mingzhao held the boy, who was as light as a handful of dry straw, a torrent of complaints erupted in her mind.
No way!
How did Shen Chaoyue's exclusive limited-edition character spawn right at the gates of my Grand Primordium Sect out of thin air?
I was just hosting a normal disciple recruitment assembly. How did I end up casually recruiting a supporting male lead from the original novel? And he even delivered himself right to my doorstep!
Is it too late to send him away?
Xue Mingzhao looked down at the boy in her arms, who was so thin he was practically a bag of bones.
His eyes were deeply sunken, ringed with dark circles, his lips were chapped, and his wrists were so thin they looked like they would snap with a gentle bend. His entire body was limp, completely devoid of strength, and his weight was unbelievably light.
...
Throwing him out right now would be a bit too heartless.
She hefted the boy slightly; he was as light as a ball of cotton. She sighed inwardly: Forget it, I'll wait until he wakes up.
A supreme-grade spiritual root meant excellent talent, but his entire life was tailor-made for Shen Chaoyue.
His introduction was to highlight the female lead's kindness, his falling in love was to showcase her charm, and in the end, he even had to sacrifice his life to keep her safe.
He was a pure tool!
The more Xue Mingzhao thought about it, the more her head ached. If they spent countless spirit stones and pills to raise him, and one day he ran into Shen Chaoyue and immediately defected to the Heavenly Origin Sect, wouldn't the Grand Primordium Sect's years of investment go down the drain?
And that was a minor issue. The main problem was that this guy would become extremely powerful later on. Losing some resources was one thing, but what if he turned around and attacked the Grand Primordium Sect?
He was a ticking time bomb!
After thinking it over, Xue Mingzhao decided to wait until he woke up, feed him, give him some spirit stones, and send him straight down the mountain.
Xue Mingzhao brought the boy to her Fifth Senior Brother's cave dwelling, where Ji Anzhi prepared some light spirit rice porridge to line his stomach.
Looking at the boy's pitiful, dying state, Xue Mingzhao muttered to herself that if they had been a step later in feeding him, he really might have starved to death.
Having settled the boy, Xue Mingzhao hurried to her master Su Mingyuan's grand hall, intending to fully explain her plan to send the boy away. She assumed her master would surely understand her concerns.
To her surprise, the moment she stepped through the doors, she saw the four elders gathered together, arguing heatedly. Their faces were flushed and their necks strained, looking exactly like middle-aged women fighting over discounted eggs at a wet market.
Su Mingyuan sat alone in the main seat, holding a teacup and taking slow, small sips, looking completely detached from worldly affairs.
He already had seven disciples and had no energy to take on any more personal disciples.
Upon seeing Xue Mingzhao enter, Su Mingyuan's eyes lit up instantly. He quickly waved at her, gesturing for her to come over and sit.
Wen Shuxian said righteously, “That is a supreme-grade gold spiritual root, a rare find in ten thousand years! I have not taken a single disciple since I began cultivating. I've remained chaste... Ah, no, I've kept myself disciple-less for so many years, and I've finally stumbled upon a natural talent who is a perfect match for metal-attributed cultivation techniques. And you all want to snatch him from me? Have you no shame?”
Mu Tianqing crossed his arms and shook his head. “You can't put it that way. What does your lack of disciples have to do with us? Does a good prospect appearing mean everyone else has to hand him over to you on a silver platter?”
Ji Yushu chimed in calmly and logically, “Quiet down, everyone. A supreme-grade gold spiritual root's spiritual energy is dense and stable, making it the most suitable for studying the Dao of formations. Following me is the optimal choice.”
Xu Qingyan said coldly, “I have been in secluded cultivation for many years, and my disciples have dwindled. I happen to lack a successor with an excellent foundation.”
Xue Mingzhao stood in place and remained silent for a long moment before weakly raising a hand. “I have a somewhat half-baked idea...”
Four pairs of eyes instantly locked onto her, and they asked in unison, “Who do you think this child should take as a master?”
Xue Mingzhao swallowed hard and braced herself to present her view. “In my opinion, we might as well let him go down the mountain. This child is not suited to stay in the Grand Primordium Sect.”
The four elders froze at the same time and exclaimed in unison, “What?!”
Four heavy gazes bore down on her, the pressure instantly reaching its peak.
Xue Mingzhao: "..."
She couldn't exactly say she had foreknowledge of the plot and knew this child would die for the Heavenly Origin Sect's disciple, Shen Chaoyue, in the future, could she?
She only braced herself to make up a lie. “The child's foundation is poor. Our sect's daily physical training and breathing exercises are very demanding, and he won't be able to handle it at all. Staying here will only ruin his health. It would be better to send him to a farming family at the foot of the mountain to be raised, so he can live a peaceful, ordinary life.”
Wen Shuxian immediately refuted, “A depleted body can be slowly nursed back to health! His foundation can be restored within three years. How can we give up a supreme-grade gold spiritual root just because of a temporary weakness? You are throwing the baby out with the bathwater!”
Ji Yushu agreed, “A gold spiritual root is inherently suited for slow nourishment. There's no need for high-intensity bone-strengthening in the early stages. I can provide him with gentle, low-grade metal-attributed techniques that nourish the meridians, which won't harm his body at all!”
Xue Mingzhao lowered her voice and assumed a solemn expression as if reading his fortune, even making a show of pinching her fingers to calculate. “I have observed his fate. His lifelong obsession is tied to an outsider, and in the future, he will easily sacrifice his life for someone else. His karmic tribulations are heavy.”
Mu Tianqing looked entirely skeptical. “...Since when did you learn divination?”
Wen Shuxian said solemnly, “Fate is never an unchangeable dead end. A person's character and nature depend entirely on nurture and guidance. I refuse to believe I can't teach a child well!”
Xue Mingzhao braced herself and pulled out another reason: “Our sect is poor. We can't afford to raise a supreme-grade spiritual root.”
This said, the four elders looked at each other in pairs, and for a moment, no one spoke.
Xue Mingzhao's heart hammered. She knew these reasons were all too flimsy and couldn't hold water at all.
Su Mingyuan cleared his throat. “Elders, please excuse yourselves for now. Mingzhao, stay behind. I have something to discuss with her.”
Once the elders had left the hall one by one, only the master and disciple remained inside.
Su Mingyuan set down his teacup and looked gently at Xue Mingzhao. “Mingzhao, is there some other secret surrounding this boy?”
Xue Mingzhao could only repeat the same excuses from earlier, sounding guilty even to herself.
Su Mingyuan listen to her and gave a soft laugh, shaking his head. “These excuses are far too poorly fabricated.”
“Do you know this child, or is there some entanglement between the two of you that others are unaware of?”
Xue Mingzhao pursed her lips and remained silent. How could she possibly speak of shocking secrets like transmigrating into a book or the original plot?
If she said it, wouldn't her master think she had succumbed to qi deviation during her cultivation?
Seeing her bowed head and silence, Su Mingyuan spoke slowly, his tone calm. “In that case, prepare some travel expenses and dry rations tomorrow, and send him down the mountain.”
Xue Mingzhao was taken aback. “Master, that's a supreme-grade spiritual root. You're agreeing just like that?”
Su Mingyuan held his teacup and cast a leisurely glance at her, speaking bluntly. “You harbor many secrets, and I have always been well aware of this. If you didn't have a truly unspeakable difficulty, you wouldn't have wracked your brains to make up so many full-of-holes reasons.”
“I believe your martial uncles have noticed as well.”
Xue Mingzhao opened her mouth. “Master, actually—”
Su Mingyuan raised a hand to interrupt her. “The path of life is long, and there are too many variables in the world. Whether it is a path you chose yourself or one you were forced to walk, no one knows what will happen in the future.”
“Since it is a secret, keep it well hidden. Do not easily reveal it to others, not even to those closest to you. You must remember this well.”
“That child is also pitiful. When he wakes up tomorrow, give him some more travel expenses before sending him down the mountain. I will speak to your martial uncles about it.”
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