The Gold Finger revealed Chu Liuxue’s background.
Chu Liuxue and Chu Suiyan-these two siblings were quite the pair. No blood relation, yet utterly inseparable. The elder sister looked plain as could be, while the younger brother was strikingly beautiful.
But the Gold Finger wanted Tao Mian to take Chu Liuxue as his disciple.
[Disciple Name: Chu Liuxue]
[Background: Daughter of Dou Huai, Valley Master of Heavenly End Valley in the Demon Realm]
[Aptitude: Low Grade Earth Spirit Root]
[History: The two great powers of the Demon Realm-Heavenly End Valley and Nether Hall-were sworn enemies for generations. Tan Yuan, Hall Master of Nether Hall, turned one of Dou Huai’s trusted confidants and obtained secret intelligence. Dou Huai was poisoned to death, and the entire Dou clan was massacred by Nether Hall.
In that desperate hour, the old servant at Madam Dou’s side swapped her own biological granddaughter for the swaddled legitimate daughter of the Dou family, and fought her way out to deliver the child to the mortal world.
The girl was taken in by an aging scholar and raised for several years. The scholar fell ill often and feared he could no longer care for his adopted daughter, so he entrusted her to a young couple in the village. The following year brought a great drought-not a single grain was harvested. To survive, the couple sold the girl. Fortunately, the girl was clever and managed to escape, wandering ever since.]
[The above is the relevant information regarding the disciple “Chu Liuxue.” Please, Host, nurture her carefully.]
[Congratulations, Host, on unlocking Rewards: Six Transformations of Heavenly End ×1, Soul-Devouring Palm ×1]
The notification the Gold Finger had popped up that day-every last word of it was about Chu Liuxue.
Not a single shred of information about Chu Suiyan.
This left Tao Mian rather troubled.
His previous disciples, whether Gu Yuan or Lu Yuandi, had both been one-in-ten-thousand geniuses.
But Chu Liuxue only had a Low Grade spirit root.
The Six Transformations of Heavenly End was an illusion art, and the Soul-Devouring Palm was a palm technique. Tao Mian leafed through the manuals briefly-both sets of arts were profoundly abstruse. Without natural talent, one couldn’t even reach the Novice stage.
No freeloading this time.
Though it was a shame he couldn’t Cloud Share anytime soon, Tao Mian kept a good attitude about it.
If the disciple was a bit slow, so be it. At worst, he’d just give her more time to study on her own.
He could afford to wait.
The problem, however, was that Chu Liuxue had absolutely zero interest in cultivation. She didn’t want it for herself, and she wouldn’t let her younger brother get involved either.
At first, Tao Mian couldn’t understand it. If it were him, and a handsome immortal showed up offering to teach him techniques, he’d drop to his knees and start kowtowing without a second thought.
Becoming someone’s disciple wasn’t anything to be embarrassed about.
But then he reconsidered: if at that very moment another handsome meal ticket descended from the sky, offering free food and lodging, he’d be perfectly happy to lie flat and coast.
Who could say no to money?
The more he thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed.
Chu Liuxue wouldn’t budge, and even though Chu Suiyan was willing, he couldn’t agree on his own. Tao Mian didn’t force the matter.
The purpose of this journey hadn’t changed. A month later, they arrived at the royal capital.
Tao Mian wanted to see Lu Yuandi. Chu Liuxue asked him whether Lu Yuandi knew they were coming.
Chu Liuxue: “…”
“Then how are we supposed to get into the palace?”
“Wait until nightfall.”
“And then what?”
“Climb over the wall.”
“…”
Chu Liuxue had thought he might have some brilliant plan. What a waste of anticipation.
When Tao Mian said climb the wall, he meant climb the wall. He brought the two children along and found a stretch where the guards were thin.
“Although you refuse to take me as your master, I’ve imparted plenty of wisdom to you along the way, so I count as half a teacher. My two disciples-watch closely. This is how you scale a wall.”
He vaulted lightly over the high wall. Chu Suiyan’s mouth fell open in a gasp of wonder and envy. Even Chu Liuxue looked faintly intrigued.
But the very next instant, panicked shouts erupted from the other side.
“Assassin!”
…
An inauspicious start, but the three of them were not thrown into the imperial dungeons. Instead, they were respectfully escorted into the palace.
The emperor, roused from her rest, showed no anger. She changed her clothes and came out to greet them with a beaming smile.
“Little Tao, why didn’t you send word ahead?”
Little Tao?
The imperial guards exchanged bewildered glances.
They’d never heard of anyone by that name…
Could it be… Her Majesty’s master, Tao Mian?
Cold sweat nearly soaked through every uniform in the room.
Who could have imagined that the Imperial Tutor would ignore the main gate and climb the wall instead?
And they had trussed him up like a criminal and dragged him before the emperor!
Lu Yuandi frowned at the sight of Tao Mian bound tight with rope. Tao Mian, broad-minded as ever, didn’t want her punishing anyone over something so trivial, so he spoke up first.
“Didn’t think that far ahead when I came. I’ve caused your people some trouble. Not bad, not bad-the palace really is well guarded.”
Only then did his second disciple relax her brow. She stepped forward and untied the hemp ropes herself.
“Never mind, never mind. All of you, withdraw. Little Tao, come with me. And these… are children you’ve taken in?”
“Book attendants. Picked them up by the roadside.”
Lu Yuandi finished freeing her master and led him toward the study. Only then did she spare a moment to look over the two unfamiliar children.
She noticed something. She turned back to Tao Mian. Tao Mian lowered his eyes. Lu Yuandi read the signal and swallowed the rest of her words.
She raised a hand and beckoned a round-faced palace maid, instructing her to take the two children somewhere to rest.
Chu Liuxue gripped her younger brother’s hand tightly, not daring to wander, her posture stiff and guarded.
Only after Tao Mian gave her a nod did she follow the unfamiliar maid away, her expression still uneasy.
The study door was shut tight. Only master and disciple remained.
Though years had passed since they last met, there was no awkwardness between them. Tao Mian poured himself tea without bothering to ask whether Lu Yuandi was thirsty. If she needed something, she’d say so.
Lu Yuandi indeed had no mind for tea. She spoke as thoughts came to her.
“Little Tao, that child is a demon.”
“Oh? You could tell?”
“You knew? No-you should have seen it long ago. Both of them are.”
“…That part I actually didn’t notice.”
“…”
Lu Yuandi raised a hand to her forehead. She knew Tao Mian was careless, but she hadn’t expected him to be this careless.
“A demon’s temperament undergoes earth-shaking changes as they grow. Right now they haven’t come of age, so they seem well-behaved. But once they mature, there’s no telling what they’ll become.”
“What? This is what you call well-behaved?” Tao Mian looked thoroughly aggrieved. “They’ve already turned my life upside down.”
Lu Yuandi knew he was exaggerating. In her experience, as long as Tao Mian wasn’t the one causing havoc for everyone else, that was already a blessing.
But her worry did not lessen in the slightest.
The terror of demons lay in the unknown. Lu Yuandi had encountered every kind-cunning, savage, most of them carrying a sort of pure, uncut malice.
She didn’t consider herself a good person, nor did she fear evil. She simply couldn’t bear to watch Tao Mian pour out his heart and his care, only to be left with nothing but grief.
She had looked into Gu Yuan’s life and come to understand roughly what sort of Senior Brother he had been.
The findings her people brought back were hardly surprising. Gu Yuan, like her, had walked clear-eyed into the mire of vengeance, until his body was drenched in the blood of his enemies.
A disappointed Tao Mian had once refused to see his eldest disciple. That he was still willing to visit her now was likely because Gu Yuan’s early death had wounded him too deeply, and he didn’t want to walk that same path again.
In truth, Tao Mian had never barred Lu Yuandi from returning to Peach Blossom Mountain. The one who didn’t dare go back was Lu Yuandi herself.
“Little Tao, I wish you hadn’t been the one I met first.”
Lu Yuandi murmured the words softly, but no reply came. She looked up and found that Tao Mian had, at some point, propped his head on his elbow and dozed off, slumped sideways in the wide rosewood chair.
Lu Yuandi blinked, unsure whether he was feigning sleep or truly spent.
Her lips pressed together, and for a rare moment, a trace of the stubborn tenacity from her youth surfaced on her face.
“But I have never regretted meeting you. Even if someday you come to resent ever taking in a disciple as scheming and vicious as me-even if you grow weary and sick of it-I won’t regret it. Not until the day I die.”