When the final stroke of the sealing array was completed, Yi Ling had nearly exhausted all his strength. He leaned on his sword hilt and knelt on the ground.
Blood seeped from the corners of his mouth. His jade-white skin had turned translucent from severe blood loss, and his body swayed, so frail that a single gust of wind might blow him over.
Yi Ling gazed blankly at Cang Yu, his young disciple who was currently suppressed before him, feeling a dull ache in his heart.
In his lifetime, he had taken two disciples. One was Luo Xingzhou, who possessed a top-tier Water Spiritual Root; due to his exceptional talent, he rarely required Yi Ling to worry about his cultivation. The other was Cang Yu.
Cang Yu was merely a Five-Element Spiritual Root possessor and originally had no qualification to join Yi Ling’s lineage. It was only because Luo Xingzhou was moved by Cang Yu’s repeated pleas that he persuaded Yi Ling to make an exception and accept him as a personal disciple. Consequently, Yi Ling’s initial impression of Cang Yu had not been favorable; had it not been for Luo Xingzhou’s persistent requests, Yi Ling would never have accepted him.
Later, Cang Yu not only slacked off in his cultivation but also constantly resorted to crooked ways in malicious attempts to frame Luo Xingzhou. No matter how good Yi Ling’s temper was, he could not tolerate Cang Yu’s repeated evildoings. In the end, he cast Cang Yu onto an isolated mountain peak within the sect, leaving him to fend for himself.
Unexpectedly, Cang Yu was one day infected by demonic qi, caused a massive uproar in the sect, was expelled, and subsequently embarked on the path of demonic cultivation.
Yet, no matter how heinous Cang Yu was, he remained Yi Ling’s disciple. Had Yi Ling not witnessed Cang Yu using demonic arts to harm the innocent with his own eyes, he would never have reached this point with him.
However, everything had settled.
Yi Ling cultivated the Dao of Common Souls. A demon lord who slaughtered indiscriminately could only be an enemy, never a disciple.
“Master.” A gentle voice came from behind Yi Ling. It was Luo Xingzhou.
Luo Xingzhou held a sword in hand, a soft smile on his lips as he walked toward Yi Ling with light steps. He seemed to be in a very good mood, his lake-blue eyes shimmering with ripples of light. “Hearing that Junior Brother has fallen into demonic ways, I feel deeply regretful.”
Yet no trace of regret could be seen on his face.
Luo Xingzhou stopped beside Yi Ling, leaned down slowly, and whispered into his ear, “I know Master takes pity on all living beings and certainly cannot bring yourself to be ruthless toward Junior Brother. Therefore, I have ended him on Master’s behalf.”
“What?” Yi Ling turned his head in shock, subconsciously reaching out to pull him back.
However, heavily injured as he was, his cultivation level had dropped to the Core Formation Stage; he was entirely incapable of contending with Luo Xingzhou.
Luo Xingzhou brushed Yi Ling’s hand off effortlessly. Swiping his fingertips across the sword blade, pure spiritual energy swirled around it, and in a flash of lightning and fire, he thrust it toward Cang Yu. Instantly, the latter shattered into countless specks of light and dissipated.
Spiritual energy dispersed; his soul was wiped out.
“Xingzhou! What are you doing?!” Yi Ling tried to stand up, but he lacked any strength. Instead, the emotional agitation caused his blood and qi to surge, and he spat out a mouthful of dark blood that dripped onto his luxurious robes.
Luo Xingzhou seemed like a completely different person. In the past, he had always been obedient to everything Yi Ling said and had never disobeyed. Today, however, he actually killed someone right in front of Yi Ling, employing such an extraordinarily malevolent method as completely annihilating a soul.
“Is Master not happy?” The smile on Luo Xingzhou’s face deepened. “I have helped you eliminate a major trouble in your heart.”
“Bastard!” For the first time, Yi Ling was so thoroughly disappointed in him. His hand gripping the sword hilt trembled slightly. “No matter what Cang Xuanyuan did, he was once my disciple. By doing this, you are defying your Master’s command!”
“Sigh.” Luo Xingzhou put away his smile, casting his eyes down at Yi Ling, who was kneeling on the ground. “Forget it. Since things have reached this point, I don’t have the energy to keep playing master-disciple affection with you anymore.”
Pinching Yi Ling’s jaw with two fingers, he exerted a force that sent Yi Ling collapsing onto the ground.
Luo Xingzhou stepped on his chest from a high angle, staring at this disheveled, refined noble, his face wearing an expression of sadistic pleasure.
“Yi Ling, I truly hate you to the core.” With every sentence he spoke, he increased the pressure under his foot, causing Yi Ling to let out a muffled groan, his hibiscus-pink eyes clouding over with a layer of mist from the pain.
“Whether it is family background, talent, or opportunities, why is it that you get whatever you want in this life?” Luo Xingzhou added force with every word. “Why were you born possessing things I could never obtain in my whole life?!”
Lacking the reinforcement of high cultivation, Yi Ling’s lips had already turned pale from the pain, and a layer of cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
Luo Xingzhou smiled disdainfully. “Precisely because you have everything, when you gave me your innate sword bone back then, you didn’t feel the slightest bit of reluctance, did you?”
Yi Ling remained silent. He watched Luo Xingzhou curse at him with wide, bloodshot eyes and vent his fury, yet his heart felt hardly any ripples.
It was not that he lacked anger, but rather that he had never imagined Luo Xingzhou would become like this.
Luo Xingzhou finally had enough of cursing. He said in a cold voice, “If not for the fact that you still have something I want on your person, I would definitely have killed you with my own hands in front of Cang Xuanyuan.”
Something he wanted?
Yi Ling was practically a ruined person now. Aside from his own top-tier Ice Spiritual Root, nothing else was of any use. But Luo Xingzhou himself possessed a Single Spiritual Root; there was no need for him to risk losing his entire cultivation base to swap spiritual roots.
In the next instant, Luo Xingzhou pressed his hand against Yi Ling’s dantian. Yi Ling immediately knew what he intended to do. He wanted to make a sound to stop him, but was choked by excruciating pain.
Luo Xingzhou reached right inside, tearing through blood and flesh.
The pain of flesh being ripped open almost made Yi Ling pass out. Boundless blood stained his robes, and his vision turned blurry. With what little consciousness he had left, he felt Luo Xingzhou seize his inner core and yank it out from a tangle of spiritual meridians.
Luo Xingzhou wiped away the blood on the inner core. Golden light streamed across its entirety, radiating an undeniable pressure even after leaving its host.
“As expected of divine power; spiritual energy truly cannot compare.” A craze flashed through Luo Xingzhou’s eyes. “Now, it belongs to me.”
Perhaps because the pain was so severe, Yi Ling, who had never shed a tear in his life, could not stop his tears from flowing.
“Why?” Looking at the complete stranger that was Luo Xingzhou, Yi Ling heard himself ask in a soft voice.
He had indeed valued Luo Xingzhou highly as a disciple. He never brought him trouble, grasped cultivation instantly, and sometimes came up with all sorts of ways to please him. Therefore, even on the single occasion when Luo Xingzhou committed an offense against his superior by boldly stating he wanted to become Dao companions with him, Yi Ling had not grown angry; he simply felt Luo Xingzhou was acting on a temporary impulse.
Later, when Luo Xingzhou met with disaster and his life hung in the balance, only Yi Ling’s own innate sword bone could save him, and Yi Ling had agreed without a moment’s hesitation.
Losing an innate sword bone meant not only losing a portion of one’s cultivation, but also meant that future breakthroughs would no longer be as easy as before.
Yet Yi Ling felt that exchanging a lifeless object for his disciple’s life was well worth it.
When did Luo Xingzhou start to change? Could it really be because he had sternly rejected him?
Feeling his limbs gradually grow cold, Yi Ling knew he did not have long to live.
Yet he still held onto a final sliver of hope, thinking that Luo Xingzhou had merely succumbed to a temporary qi deviation, that none of this was his true intention, and his consciousness was simply clouded.
“Xingzhou, why?”
Luo Xingzhou, who was admiring the inner core, finally remembered that a person was still lying on the ground. He unhurriedly put away the inner core, but when he turned his gaze over, he froze.
At this moment, Yi Ling was so weak that he only had the strength to breathe. His disheveled long hair was partly dampened by sweat, clinging to his pale skin. The hibiscus-pink hue in those peach-blossom eyes had faded, his lips were devoid of color, and the blood trickling from the corners of his mouth looked exceptionally stark.
Luo Xingzhou had never seen Yi Ling like this. In his memory, Yi Ling had always been that refined noble who lacked for nothing in food or clothing, never having experienced any hardship.
He was extraordinarily handsome and possessed a gentle disposition, making him the most beloved elder among the disciples in the sect.
The past Luo Xingzhou might have felt heartache or hesitated, but not anymore.
He was merely surprised that Yi Ling was still alive right now. Frowning with great displeasure, he thought to himself that he would have to act personally once more.
However, since he was in a good mood, he answered Yi Ling’s question offhandedly, “There is no why. This is destined by fate.”
Immediately after, he thrust a sword into Yi Ling’s heart without the slightest hesitation, even twisting it around to completely shred his heart.
Blood instantly stained a large portion of his robes, but Yi Ling could no longer feel any pain.
He thought to himself quietly: Luo Xingzhou was no longer his disciple.
Yi Ling possessed a good temperament and treated others generously. He was never stingy with his kindness; if someone desired something, he would give whatever he could, especially to his own disciples. If Luo Xingzhou needed his inner core to save his life, Yi Ling would not necessarily refuse to give it.
However, he could not accept Luo Xingzhou using deceit and betrayal against him.
At the moment before his consciousness dissipated, he suddenly heard a voice.
【Congratulations to the Host for successfully seizing the protagonist’s fortune. You may now leave.】
Yi Ling did not understand the meaning of these words, but in his blurred vision, Luo Xingzhou’s mouth did not move.
“Acting out thirty-odd years of master-disciple devotion and fraternal affection with them truly made me sick,” came Luo Xingzhou’s voice.
“I thought this task would be very difficult. As it turns out, after I merely used a few tricks, Yi Ling actually believed all these things were done by his younger disciple,” Luo Xingzhou sneered softly. “It seems the so-called ‘destined Dao companion’ you mentioned, 『System』, is nothing more than this.”
【Does this not precisely prove how formidable your methods are, Host?】
What?
Yi Ling was in disbelief.
Luo Xingzhou and the 『System』 were still recounting their achievements. Yi Ling could not comprehend most of their words, but he knew that Luo Xingzhou had been deceiving him from the very beginning.
Everything was his disguise; even the mistakes Cang Yu was accused of had all been framed by Luo Xingzhou single-handedly.
His sole purpose in approaching Yi Ling was to complete the 『System』’s task: to drive a wedge between them and steal the fortune.
Yi Ling had never experienced such intense hatred.
His gaze lingered on Luo Xingzhou’s hideous face, as if wanting to engrave it deeply into his sea of consciousness.
He hated Luo Xingzhou’s hypocrisy, and he hated his own foolishness.
If he had discovered Luo Xingzhou’s true face earlier, his younger disciple would not have borne those groundless accusations.
If he could start over once more, he would definitely return all of this in full.
As Yi Ling’s final trace of consciousness dissipated, a streak of secretive golden light shot out from between his brows and flew high into the sky.
“Xiao Han, Xiao Han?”
“Yi Xiao Han!”
Lu Yufeng saw Yi Ling, who had been conversing with him just a moment ago, suddenly close his eyes and faint. Terrified, he hurriedly grabbed his shoulders and shook him violently.
“Yi Xiao Han, you’re not about to die, are you?! Wake up! If you’re going to die, don’t die on my watch!”
Yi Ling woke up amid Lu Yufeng’s wailing. Opening his eyes, he saw his senior brother who had died at Cang Yu’s hands in his previous life, freezing in a daze without speaking a word.
“You’re finally awake,” Lu Yufeng wept so hard he seemed heartbroken. “If you were to die here with me, what would happen if word got out?!”
Was he not already dead?
The pain of having a sword thrust through his heart and his inner core gouged out before death still lingered without dissipating for a long time.
Bewildered, he swept his spiritual energy through his meridians for a round. Feeling that his inner core was still present at his dantian, he discovered that his cultivation, which had originally reached the Void Refining Stage, had returned to the Great Perfection of the Soul Formation Stage.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a scroll resting on the table between the two of them, upon which were written the names of the cultivators coming to attend the Disciple Recruitment Ceremony.
Yi Ling realized he had returned to the day he took disciples many years ago.
It was also on this exact day that he had accepted Luo Xingzhou and Cang Yu.
Luo Xingzhou…
In his past life, the top disciple he had valued so highly had dealt a fatal blow to him. Only right before dying did Yi Ling learn that the other party had approached him with an ulterior motive.
Furthermore, Luo Xingzhou carried something that did not belong to this realm, which he seemed to refer to as a 『System』.
The anger from being betrayed right before death had not yet dissipated. Unable to control his rage, Yi Ling subconsciously released a surge of pressure. With a press of his hand on the table, he directly shattered Lu Yufeng’s most precious gold-inlaid wooden table into pieces. Wild ice spiritual energy rushed wildly around the room, crushing everything wherever it passed.
Since Lu Yufeng had a cultivation level similar to Yi Ling’s, the pressure did not affect him much; he neutralized it casually with his wind spiritual energy. However, seeing his room turned into a complete mess in the blink of an eye, he immediately pursed his lips and said, “Yi Xiao Han, be angry all you want, but what do you mean by breaking my stuff? Pay me back five hundred thousand spiritual stones.”
Yi Ling cast a faint glance at him. Looking at Lu Yufeng’s extended hand, he reined in his anger, swiped his fingers across his storage ring, and a pouch of spiritual stones materialized in the other’s palm.
“My apologies. I did not mean to.”
Seeing that he had received his compensation, Lu Yufeng finally had the time to worry about Yi Ling’s condition. “What happened to you just now? Why did you faint all of a sudden?”
“Perhaps I haven’t rested much these past few days.” Yi Ling rubbed his brow. The pain emanating from his dantian remained engraved in his bones. Had he not felt the beating of his heart, he might have thought his rebirth was merely a dream.
Yi Ling was extraordinarily hardworking when it came to cultivation. Coupled with his naturally supreme talent, he had reached the Great Perfection of Soul Formation at the mere age of twenty-three. Lu Yufeng did not doubt this explanation.
“As long as you’re fine,” Lu Yufeng nodded, picking up the scroll. “This is the roster for this Disciple Recruitment Ceremony. I see that among this batch of disciples, only this cultivator named ‘Luo Xingzhou’ possesses a Single Water Spiritual Root. If you don’t want to spend effort on instructing a disciple, he is the most suitable.”
Lu Yufeng had indeed given Yi Ling this recommendation after considering all aspects. Having been senior and junior brothers for ten years, aside from Yi Ling himself, the person who understood him best in this world was Lu Yufeng.
Yi Ling was currently the Grand Elder of Lingxiao Palace. He had to accept a disciple during this Disciple Recruitment Ceremony to fulfill his duty; otherwise, the reputation of Lingxiao Palace would suffer.
Although Lu Yufeng was the Sect Master, he generally did not meddle in these matters. However, he had performed a divination: if Yi Ling did not accept a disciple, the incense money Lingxiao Palace could collect from the mortals under its protection would decrease by at least sixty percent.
A whole sixty percent!
Lu Yufeng loved nothing else; he only loved money. A reduction of sixty percent was no different from losing a Dao companion. Thus, after endless coaxing, he finally persuaded Yi Ling. Because of this, he made a point to carefully select a disciple who would require no effort on Yi Ling’s part whatsoever.
Looking at those three words placed at the very top of the roster, Yi Ling let out a cold laugh. “I will not take him.”
“?” No matter how dense Lu Yufeng was, he could tell something was off about Yi Ling. “Xiao Han, you’ve been abnormal ever since you woke up. What on earth happened to you?”
“I learned a bit of divination from you,” Yi Ling lowered his eyes, took the roster, and flipped to the last page. “If I accept him, I will suffer a blood calamity.”
“?” Lu Yufeng had naturally performed a divination long ago; how had he himself failed to calculate that at all?
“Yi Ling, can you give me a proper explanation?!” Lu Yufeng pressed his hand down firmly on the roster. “You never used to treat me with this kind of attitude.”
Yi Ling looked at him quietly, a look of confusion surfacing in his eyes. “I treated you very well in the past?”
In his past life, although Yi Ling had a gentle disposition, toward his senior brother Lu Yufeng, he still maintained his noble nature. Being lenient toward others was purely because no matter how many mistakes those people made, it would never fall upon his own head; thus, Yi Ling could always detach himself perfectly. As for being evaluated by many disciples as the easiest elder to get along with, he had actually not expected that.
Between him and Lu Yufeng, one was overly diligent while the other was overly fond of wealth. If their former Sect Master and master, who had been missing for many years, had not taken only the two of them as disciples in his entire life, the positions of Elder and Sect Master would definitely never have fallen to them.
Lu Yufeng choked. “Anyway, at least you wouldn’t make up a random excuse to brush me off in the past!”
Recalling how Lu Yufeng had used his last breath to protect him before dying in his previous life, Yi Ling softened toward this senior brother slightly. “I won’t hide it from you, but this matter is far too complex to explain clearly. In short, I will never accept Luo Xingzhou as my disciple in this lifetime.”
He raised his hand and moved Lu Yufeng’s hand away from the roster, tapping his fingertip lightly. The two characters “Cang Yu” floated up into the air.
“I will accept him as my disciple,” Yi Ling paused, “my sole personal disciple.”
Curious, Lu Yufeng stretched his neck to take a look: Cang Yu, Five-Element Spiritual Root, Qi Refining First Stage.
“?” He looked at Yi Ling with a gaze that practically asked if he had gone mad.
With this kind of aptitude, let alone a personal disciple, he wouldn’t even qualify as an outer disciple of Lingxiao Palace; at most, he would be a manual laborer for the rest of his life.
He hesitated to speak, then stopped, then hesitated again. “You, are you serious?”
Yi Ling nodded. He retrieved his Elder Seal and stamped it onto Cang Yu’s name.
This meant Cang Yu could directly join Yi Ling’s lineage without undergoing any assessment whatsoever.
Many people attending this Disciple Recruitment Ceremony aimed to become Yi Ling’s disciple; thus, the participating cultivators were not lacking in those with exceptional spiritual roots. There were even Nascent Soul Stage powerhouses who had resigned from their positions in other sects just to win Yi Ling’s favor.
A qualification dreamed of by countless people was thus casually given by Yi Ling to a Five-Element Spiritual Root useless fool.
Lu Yufeng couldn’t help but feel a pang of annoyance. Had he known Yi Ling cared so little about this spot, he would have sold it off. Whoever offered the most spiritual stones would get Yi Ling’s stamp on their name.
At the Harmony of Light and Dust Plaza in Lingxiao Palace.
The floor paved with white jade tiles emitted a brilliant luster under the sunlight. Six high platforms hovered in the air via floating stones at their bases, forming a circle.
A crowd of disciples stood in the center, chatter filling the air endlessly.
Cang Yu stood amidst the crowd, not yet having reacted to what was happening.
His last memory was being suppressed by Yi Ling, before being torn into fragments by a surge of spiritual energy.
Although there was no pain, at the thought that it was Yi Ling who had done it, a sharp, piercing pain instantly spread from his heart to his four limbs.
Yet right now, before his eyes was the scene of his eighteen-year-old self having just entered Lingxiao Palace.
Could it be that he had been reborn?
Since he had a second chance at life, Cang Yu decided he would no longer have any connection with Yi Ling in this lifetime.
In his past life, all his miserable experiences stemmed from his insistence on becoming Yi Ling’s disciple. Thus, in this life, he would no longer pursue such things.
Pulling his straw hat lower, he was just about to leave this place when an outstretched hand blocked his path.
Cang Yu’s entire body froze.
Core Formation Stage cultivation, familiar robes.
It was Luo Xingzhou.
Hidden inside his sleeves, Cang Yu’s fingers clenched tightly, his knuckles turning white, his fingertips almost cutting into his palms.
In his past life, Luo Xingzhou was accustomed to acting obediently in front of Yi Ling, shifting all the bad things he had done onto Cang Yu’s head. Cang Yu had been unable to defend himself, and Yi Ling naturally could not believe him either, ultimately ceasing to care about Cang Yu’s affairs altogether. Cang Yu being reviled by others and subjected to bullying were all thanks to Luo Xingzhou.
Cang Yu naturally knew why Luo Xingzhou blocked him. It was nothing more than playing a bit of self-harm drama to make Cang Yu play the villain who envied another’s talent and struck out to harm someone in public; he himself would put on a pitiable act, waiting to shed a few tears once Yi Ling noticed.
Extremely unwilling to engage in another clash with Luo Xingzhou, he spoke as calmly as possible: “Fellow cultivator, is there something you need?”
Sure enough, Luo Xingzhou mocked him just as he had in the past life: “With your aptitude, you still want to join Lingxiao Palace? Did you truly come here for cultivation? Or do you harbor other motives toward Elder Yi Ling?”
Luo Xingzhou said this almost right against his ear, so only the two of them could hear these words. In his previous life, it was precisely because Luo Xingzhou uttered wild insults toward Yi Ling that Cang Yu had made a move; he hadn’t expected that to give Luo Xingzhou an opportunity to frame him instead.
“Which is why I am planning to leave,” Cang Yu did not follow his provocation. “The Disciple Recruitment Ceremony has not yet begun; why can I not leave first?”
Luo Xingzhou seemed not to have expected Cang Yu to react this way. Seeing that Cang Yu truly intended to walk away directly, he abruptly grabbed Cang Yu’s wrist.
“Let go of me!” Cang Yu glared at him furiously. “Fellow cultivator, you are being far too offensive. I do not even know you; why are you acting so rude?”
Not a single fault could be picked out from Cang Yu’s words this time. Luo Xingzhou truly could not understand it.
He said within his sea of consciousness: “System, what is going on here? Didn’t you say Cang Yu has never read books and understands nothing of human interactions? Why is he reacting like this?”
【Apologies, Host. Perhaps an error has occurred. I will report back to the Main System. Just to be safe, you had better not continue this task for now.】
Helpless, Luo Xingzhou could only let go of him.
Cang Yu turned around to leave, but a voice sounded from behind him.
“Hey, what are you doing? Why the commotion? And the one about to leave, did you ask this Sect Master before walking off?” Lu Yufeng had just finished his tasks when he saw the chaotic group of disciples, one of whom actually wanted to sneak away early. Instantly feeling a surge of annoyance, he released a trace of pressure.
Since he had been spotted by Sect Master Lu, it seemed he could no longer leave.
Cang Yu could only lower his head and walk back to his original spot.
Feeling Lu Yufeng’s pressure, the disciples fell completely silent in an instant, looking at the Sect Master with fear and trepidation.
Only then was Lu Yufeng slightly satisfied. He raised his hand to summon a spiritual screen displaying the assessment content of the Disciple Recruitment Ceremony.
“This Disciple Recruitment Ceremony consists of three parts. First, the Academic Assessment, which covers basic cultivation common knowledge and techniques, totaling one hundred points. Those scoring below sixty points will miss the chance to enter Lingxiao Palace.
“Second, the Spiritual Root Test. Single and Dual Spiritual Roots will become Inner Disciples under the Elders; Triple Spiritual Roots will become Outer Disciples; those with Four Spiritual Roots or below will become Manual Labor Disciples.
“Third, Martial Arts Comparison. The martial arts arena will forcibly suppress your cultivation to the Mortal Realm. You will rely on the martial arts you have learned to decide victory or defeat. The top winner receives a Marrow Washing Pill and one hundred thousand spiritual stones as a reward. Furthermore, regardless of talent, the top winner may personally select an Elder to become their personal disciple.
“Of course, for this Disciple Recruitment Ceremony, the Elders have already selected their personal disciples, who may directly join their lineages without undergoing any assessment. Below, I shall read out the list.”
Lu Yufeng introduced the rules of the ceremony as usual. He opened the roster, but upon seeing Yi Ling’s seal stamped on that Five-Element Spiritual Root disciple’s name, he still couldn’t help cursing in his heart.
Cang Yu listened listlessly. In his past life, Luo Xingzhou had relied on framing him to secure the identity of Yi Ling’s personal disciple. In this life, since he had not succeeded, Cang Yu wondered if it would still…
“The disciple selected by Grand Elder Yi Ling is…”
The disciples looked at Lu Yufeng with both anticipation and nervousness.
“Cang Yu.”
A wave of silence ensued.
The disciples all wore expressions of disbelief, for they had never even heard of this person’s name before.
Luo Xingzhou seemed unfazed; he cast a glance at Cang Yu and let out a light hmph.
Cang Yu felt he might have misheard.
In his past life, he had won top place in the tournament, and it was only after Luo Xingzhou magnanimously forgave him that Yi Ling agreed to accept him as a disciple, and merely as an outer disciple at that. Why, in this life, without any apparent reason, would Yi Ling select a Five-Element Spiritual Root trash like himself?
Standing on the high platform, Lu Yufeng felt even more annoyed when he failed to see Cang Yu step forward. Raising his hand, he summoned the boy to his side.
Cang Yu was wearing ragged clothes with a straw hat on his head, making Lu Yufeng’s eyes ache just looking at him. His eyelids twitched; given Yi Ling’s temperament, wouldn’t seeing someone so unkempt disgust him to death?
He handed the jade token to Cang Yu grumpily. “Elder Yi is still busy with other matters. Change into the disciple robes first, then take this to Snowfall Peak to find him.”
Looking at the jade token bearing Yi Ling’s spiritual energy in his hand, Cang Yu felt all of this was extraordinarily surreal.
Yet he still stood there dazed, changed into his disciple robes, and walked to the foot of Snowfall Peak.
He had clearly thought about having no further contact with Yi Ling in this life, yet the moment Yi Ling chose him, he actively came over again.
Gazing up at the towering Snowfall Peak that pierced into the clouds, Cang Yu let out a deep sigh.
It seemed that what people often said about things turning out contrary to one’s wishes truly made sense.