Yi Ling only then realized that he had failed to control his strength, releasing his grip with a touch of embarrassment. Looking at the reddened corners of Cang Yu’s eyes, his heart softened a bit. He raised his hand, gently stroking the flushed skin, and pressed a healing spell upon it.
As the soothing, mist-like spiritual energy and the warmth of Yi Ling’s fingertips radiated from the corners of his eyes, Cang Yu’s face flushed hot. He stammered, “M-Master…”
“Even without what happened today, I would have given you this hairpin,” Yi Ling said, picking up the jade hairpin resting in Cang Yu’s palms and carefully pinning it into his hair again. “I attached a strand of my divine sense to it merely for convenience; there was no other motive.”
“Mm. This disciple understands now.” Cang Yu lowered his gaze. The bitterness in his heart had finally faded, yet his heart was still pounding so wildly that he did not dare meet Yi Ling’s eyes.
Seeing this, Yi Ling let out a soft sigh. “Why were you crying just now? Can you tell me?”
“This disciple…” Cang Yu was about to speak when he suddenly remembered that Lu Yufeng was still standing nearby.
Understanding his intent, Yi Ling turned to look at Lu Yufeng, his face plainly written with four words: You should leave now.
Lu Yufeng: “…”
Just a moment ago, he had been utterly shocked that Yi Ling would actually use a consultative tone to speak with Cang Yu. In the past, Yi Ling had never truly cared about anyone else’s feelings; he had always just offered a few superficial words of comfort, putting on an approachable facade to trick others into feeling endlessly grateful. It was truly a mystery how a person like him had ever managed to realize the Dao of All Living Beings.
Meeting Yi Ling’s gaze now, Lu Yufeng curled his lip, as the impression that Yi Ling favored his disciple over his friend deepened in his mind.
As he turned to leave, he sent a resentful divine-sense voice transmission: “Fine, fine, fine! It was I who interrupted your cozy talk between master and disciple. I’m leaving right now!”
Only after Lu Yufeng had left did Cang Yu stumble out his words: “I-If this disciple tells the truth, will Master get angry?”
“No,” Yi Ling replied firmly. Perhaps out of guilt and remorse from his past life, Yi Ling carefully considered what Cang Yu could possibly do to anger him, but ultimately drew a complete blank. “Say whatever you wish to say; just speak directly.”
Taking a deep breath, Cang Yu said, “This disciple feels unworthy of being your personal disciple. In terms of aptitude, someone with Five Spiritual Roots might not even reach the Foundation Establishment Realm in a lifetime; in terms of family background, this disciple is merely a drifting orphan. I cannot figure out why Master would be willing to accept me as your disciple.”
In Cang Yu’s heart, the gap between himself and Yi Ling was as vast as the difference between cloud and mud. Once the joy and excitement of becoming Yi Ling’s personal disciple had faded, this was a reality he had to face.
Would a genius of immortal cultivation take a useless person as a disciple? Unless there was an ulterior motive, it was completely impossible.
Hearing Cang Yu’s words, Yi Ling finally realized something.
For whatever reason, an inferiority complex rooted in low aptitude had been deeply etched into Cang Yu’s mind. Unable to understand unprovoked kindness from others, he had wanted to return the jade hairpin.
Yet in Yi Ling’s memory, before being framed in his past life, Cang Yu had clearly possessed a very lively and confident nature, never believing that aptitude alone determined one’s entire life. Just what had happened to turn him into what he was today?
“Cang Xuanyuan, look up at me.”
Cang Yu’s body tensed, but he obediently complied.
Yi Ling spoke seriously and solemnly: “I accepted you as my disciple asking for nothing in return, nor will I ever treat you as a joke. True, aptitude is important on the path of immortal cultivation, but I have never believed that aptitude determines everything. Besides, now that you are my disciple, I naturally have a thousand different ways to raise you to a height that others could never reach in their entire lives.”
He thought to himself that Cang Yu’s temperament could not be changed overnight, nor could he let it go just because of a few comforting words. Thus, the best method was to make Cang Yu truly powerful.
When Yi Ling first joined the Yun Chen Sect, he too had faced all kinds of gossip and criticism. It was only when he won first place at the Sword Testing Conference that he finally silenced the surging rumors.
“Then will Master take on other disciples?” Cang Yu looked at him quietly with his aqua-blue eyes. Perhaps because he had just cried, his eyes were glistening with tears, inexplicably reminding Yi Ling of the waters in the Heavenly Pool at Lingxiao Palace, which shared the exact same color.
It was very pleasing to the eye.
Cang Yu looked so thoroughly pitiable that Yi Ling could not help but raise his hand to rub the top of his head, his tone softer than even he realized: “No.”
“Then, this disciple has one more request.”
“Speak.”
Yi Ling was casually smoothing out the lapels of his robe that had been ruffled during the earlier sparring match when, caught off guard, his wrist was seized by Cang Yu.
Physical contact to this extent was clearly an overstepping of boundaries. Yi Ling’s brows knitted slightly, and just as he was about to break free, he saw Cang Yu’s face turn bright red, revealing a pitiful, pleading expression.
“Could Master hug this disciple again?”
Yi Ling: “…” He was completely unable to bring himself to refuse.
Wuwang Peak.
Lu Yufeng looked at the two who had rushed over with a half-smile that was not quite a smile. “Yo, finally finished being busy? You actually deigned to come over?”
Logically speaking, Yi Ling should have brought Cang Yu here half an hour ago to discuss entering Shangqing Academy for his studies. However, Lu Yufeng had waited in the hall for a long time without seeing any sign of them.
He looked at Cang Yu with a flushed face and disheveled clothes, then he looked at Yi Ling, who was slightly flustered with hair in disarray.
Lu Yufeng took a deep breath. Had he not known Yi Ling’s character so well, he would have truly suspected whether the two of them had done something scandalous.
Nevertheless, he chose to dutifully act as a proper Sect Master and refrain from prying into “private matters,” handing a scroll over to Cang Yu.
“What is this?” Cang Yu took it and examined it closely. He had no impression of this item at all. Though, given his status at Lingxiao Palace in his past life, it was only normal that he had never come into contact with such things.
Looking at it from the outside, although it was called a scroll, it was completely impossible to open. The silk surface was stuck together tightly, and no matter how much strength Cang Yu exerted, he could not budge it in the slightest.
Lu Yufeng hastily stopped his violent behavior, pulled out his own scroll, and lightly swiped his fingertip across it. A screen of spiritual light instantly popped up from within, revealing a varied array of patterns floating upon it.
“Use your spiritual energy and follow what I did.”
Following Lu Yufeng’s demonstration, Cang Yu successfully summoned the light screen and looked at Yi Ling in excitement: “Master, Master! Look!”
Looking at Cang Yu’s eyes, which were filled with anticipation, Yi Ling hesitated several times before finally nodding: “Not bad.”
Lu Yufeng could not help but gloat smugly, “This item is the ‘Scroll of Spiritual Resonance’ that took me a full half-year of research to create. It is far better to use than those useless sound-transmission stones. Now, every disciple in Lingxiao Palace has one. Not only can it transmit voices, but it also has various other functions. How about it? Want me to introduce them to you?”
Without waiting for Cang Yu’s reply, he began to explain on his own momentum.
Lu Yufeng tapped a small smiling stick figure waving its hand in the bottom right corner of the light screen: “A sound-transmission stone can only send a single message to one person at a time, but the Scroll of Spiritual Resonance’s Directory of Immortals can transmit messages to anyone, provided, of course, that both of you are listed in each other’s directory.”
His fingertip moved to an adjacent stick figure currently reading a book: “After all, the Scroll of Spiritual Resonance was made for Lingxiao Palace disciples to study their coursework. This section indexes every single tome in the Lingxiao Palace Library; you only need to tap it to read.”
He then tapped another stick figure facing away from the screen: “This place…”
Once Lu Yufeng began talking about these things, he seemed impossible to stop. Cang Yu listened to him explain a whole lot, but he barely remembered any of it. Instead, his head began to spin, leaving him no choice but to cast a helpless look toward Yi Ling for assistance.
“Alright, Senior Brother,” Yi Ling patted Lu Yufeng lightly on the shoulder. “If you explain all this now, he will not understand it anyway. It is better to let him explore and experience it himself.”
Having finally gotten a break, Cang Yu tapped on the Directory of Immortals and looked up at Yi Ling.
Yi Ling naturally knew what Cang Yu wanted. However, he rarely ever used the Scroll of Spiritual Resonance, thinking that if Cang Yu wanted to send him a message, using a sound-transmission stone would suffice.
Yet, as Lu Yufeng’s gaze drifted over with a subtle look, the words at the tip of Yi Ling’s tongue ultimately took a turn: “Alright.”
He retrieved his Scroll of Spiritual Resonance from his storage ring and tapped it against the one in Cang Yu’s hand.
Yi Ling’s name instantly appeared in Cang Yu’s Directory of Immortals, glowing with a golden light.
“Convenient, is it not?” Lu Yufeng could not help showing off again. “Do you know why your Master’s name is golden? That is a special privilege I specifically made for Elders and the Sect Master.”
Yi Ling felt a headache coming on just thinking about Lu Yufeng’s so-called special privileges, and said, “I do not use this often. In the future, if you want to send a message, just use a sound-transmission stone.”
Cang Yu, on the contrary, became somewhat curious and asked, “What special privilege?”
Lu Yufeng tapped the stick figure facing away from the screen. Immediately, a multitude of transmitted messages floated onto the light screen, though none of them clearly showed who had sent them.
He casually introduced: “This place is called ‘Discourse.’ Everyone’s real name is hidden, and the special privilege is:”
Lu Yufeng casually tapped open a message, only to see that there were already numerous replies beneath it. He left a reply as well. In the blink of an eye, a streak of glittering golden words flashed across the light screens of both master and disciple:
[Sect Master] Lu Yufeng replied to this message. Fellow Daoists, why not come take a look as well!
Yi Ling silently closed his eyes.
Cang Yu: “.”
He now completely understood why his Master rarely used the Scroll of Spiritual Resonance.
By the time they returned to Xueluo Peak, it was already nearly the Hour of the Boar (9:00 PM to 11:00 PM).
The side hall had been tidied up early on. Yi Ling casually handed Cang Yu a set of nightclothes: “Rest early. Tomorrow I will send you to Shangqing Academy. Once your coursework is done, wait for me at the entrance to pick you up.”
This set of nightclothes might have been stored away for some time; although it had been washed, it still carried the light fragrance of red plum blossoms from Xueluo Peak.
Cang Yu remembered that Yi Ling also carried this faint plum fragrance on his person.
With the tips of his ears burning red, he stepped into the side hall with unsteady, floating steps.
Yi Ling: “?”
However, what confused him was not any of this, but rather:
Cang Yu actually had zero reaction to the fact that he was going to drop him off and pick him up.
In his past life, if he gave Cang Yu just a few words of guidance, the boy would be happy for an entire day. Why was he acting so cold now?
Yi Ling frowned deeply. This was very abnormal. Could he have been possessed? But who could possibly possess Cang Yu right under his nose?
Forget it. No matter how things were now, Yi Ling was determined to bring back the old Cang Yu who used to delight him so much.
The Third Mark of the Hour of the Tiger (approx. 3:45 AM).
Yi Ling was sitting on a soft couch beside the bed, regulating his breath in meditation. Ever since he entered the world of immortal cultivation, he rarely slept. Firstly, for cultivators, meditation was equivalent to rest; secondly, after falling asleep, he would be unable to remain vigilant to his surroundings, something Yi Ling absolutely would not allow.
Therefore, the moment he heard a rustling sound beside him, he snapped his eyes open. An ice blade had instinctively condensed in his hand, mere moments away from striking out.
Then, he saw Cang Yu with his eyes wide open, walking straight toward the bed as if he had not even seen him, and lying down on it.
Yi Ling: “…?”