Jingzi Mountain offered nothing but honey and morning dew. While refreshing, man cannot live on bread alone he was no fairy maiden to survive on dew drops daily.
Tu Xiao was so hungry he could barely hold his wooden sword steady. His hand felt completely limp, as if it would lose all strength in the very next second.
He glanced up at his Master’s position, shuffled step by step to the pavilion, and cried out in grievance, “Master, can we take a break? I’m so exhausted, I can’t take it anymore.”
Bai Chen sat in deep meditation, his steady tone carrying a trace of disappointment.
“We haven’t even practiced for half an hour, and you’re already calling it exhausting? How do you expect to protect yourself and others like this?”
Tu Xiao weak and slouching, miserably cradling his wooden sword in his arms, stared up at Bai Chen with large, unblinking, aggrieved eyes.
“Master, from morning until now, all I’ve had is honey and nectar. I haven’t eaten a single grain of rice or a morsel of meat. Being able to last until sunset is already a miracle of my own fate.”
“I’m still a child, and I’m right at the age where I’m a bottomless pit for food. Even if you feed me spiritual ganoderma and spirit mushrooms every day to boost my spiritual energy, I’m still hungry. It doesn’t fill me up.”
Bai Chen lifted his hand slightly from meditation, his tone remaining calm.
“Then go.”
Tu Xiao hadn’t expected him to agree so quickly. Overjoyed, he dropped his wooden sword entirely and shouted, “Master is the best!!”
At this hour, the remaining food in the dining hall must still be abundant. Crystal shrimp dumplings, here I come! Tu Xiao’s heart surged with turbulent waves; he had always had a soft spot for food and couldn’t wait a moment longer.
“Master…”
Tu Xiao shuffled over cautiously, lightly tugging and shaking Hengchen’s sleeve. “Are you coming with me to the dining hall today too~?”
Bai Chen opened his eyes to meet his disciple’s sparkling orbs. “We already went yesterday.”
“Yesterday is yesterday, today is today.”
“Besides, we both promised Granny; she must have prepared fragrant crystal shrimp dumplings.”
“Master, you can’t not go.”
“I’m begging you, Master, just this once, okay? I want to eat crystal shrimp dumplings; if I’m late, there definitely won’t be any left.”
“Please, Master, I beg you, Master is the best…”
Bai Chen gave a firm tug on his sleeve, steadily supporting his boneless disciple, and sighed lightly. “You were the one who promised; when did this deity ever speak of it?”
More grievances again. Fine, whatever.
Unlike its usual tranquil self, the dining hall at this moment was bustling with people, the queue stretching thirty feet out the door.
“Why are so many people here? How is this possible, is this fake?!”
Tu Xiao widened his eyes in disbelief. Don’t most people rarely eat? Aren’t they supposed to practice inedia?
A queuing female cultivator turned around and exclaimed in shock, “It really is Hengchen Immortal Venerable!”
The crowd instantly surged with commotion, buzzing with discussions.
Shivering from the cold as he struggled in line, Tu Xiao felt a pang of regret he was still too late after all. Forget the crystal shrimp dumplings; he managed to grab nothing more than a single bowl of plain white rice.
His lower lip drooped, and he squatted down on the ground, wearing the expression of a tragic wretch.
Who had bullied his Master? He was clearly the Master’s well-behaved disciple! How on earth did he end up being painted as an overbearing, arrogant, and tyrannical bad disciple? Goodness knew how much red bean soup he wished he could eat after hearing Lin Wutong relay the rumors from the grapevine.
Tu Xiao wept inwardly, flat on the ground in total despair.
“My crystal shrimp dumplings… I don’t want to just eat plain rice…”
As soon as Bai Chen arrived, he saw his miserably squatting disciple on the ground, his eyes utterly devoid of light.
With a light flick of his fingertips, he retrieved a steaming plate of crystal shrimp dumplings from his storage space.
“Stop crying, eat these.”
Steaming crystal shrimp dumplings materialized, and behind the heat mist was a face of unearthly beauty. Tu Xiao suddenly felt that the plain rice smelled pretty good too. He dazedly put down the bowl in his hand and reached to take the dish from his Master’s hands.
He took a bite; inside was a whole, large shrimp. His stomach felt warm, and his heart fluttered lightly.
Didn’t Granny say they were out? He was being lied to like a child.
Having eaten something delicious, Tu Xiao’s voice became cheerful once more.
“Master is simply too amazing! You’re omnipotent, just like my mommy—you can conjure anything out of thin air.”
“M-Mn. Mn?”
Bai Chen’s echoing response cracked slightly out of tune. Looking at his happily munching disciple, he ultimately decided against asking what a “mommy” was.
Tu Xiao took another bite of a shrimp dumpling, popping them in one by one. When he tried to feed the very final one to his Master, he was refused, right on cue.
Blissfully, he swallowed it in a single bite.
Inside the dining hall, everyone including Granny let out three consecutive sneezes, each thinking roughly:
“Has my cultivation regressed?”
“So cold. Three pairs of trousers are still not enough.”
“This year’s winter seems exceptionally freezing…”
That winter, Granny went down the mountain to recuperate because cold Qi had invaded her body, and well over half of the disciples on Immortal Realm Mountain caught a chill in their bones, falling ill for three full days before they could trickle back to classes.
Because of this, Shen Yuze fiercely reprimanded all the disciples, condemning them as absurd and unscholarly, cutting corners, being insatiably gluttonous, and spreading idle gossip instead of maintaining a detached, desireless state of mind which was why they couldn’t even survive a single winter.
The meals prepared by the new cook consisted entirely of vegetarian dishes, claiming it aided cultivation, health, and wellness.
Eating greens occasionally to cleanse the gut wasn’t out of the question, but eating them year after year made Tu Xiao feel as though he wouldn’t achieve immortality, but rather grow weak in his limbs, black out before his eyes, and encounter ghosts first.
And he had been eating them for five whole years!!
The squab he had just eaten was both fragrant and tender. Tu Xiao stretched lazily, every movement radiating leisure and comfort. The sky was a dazzling blue, the bamboo leaves a dripping emerald, the stone steps shining brilliant white, and the air exceptionally crisp.
Just as he was about to step into the entrance of Jingzi Mountain, he spotted his Master standing not far away, wearing a leisurely expression that suggested he had anticipated this all along and was ready to catch them all in one net.
It was too late for regrets about his gluttony lasting until dawn. Since realization had come too late, he might as well take a desperate gamble.
Getting close to his Master was insanely difficult; hoping his Master would accompany him to meals in the future would probably be a rare luxury.
“Master, show mercy! I won’t dare do it again!”
Tu Xiao grimaced as he begged for mercy, his wrist twisted by Bai Chen into an impossible angle. He dropped to one knee on the stone slabs, his other hand swinging futilely against the ground.
Just half an hourglass ago, this brat had been full of confidence as he summoned his destiny sword, thrusting forward like a splitting gale.
The morning sunlight filtered through the green bamboo branches, casting mottled patterns of light and shadow upon the master’s snow-white robes.
Tu Xiao bit the inside of his cheek, thinking:
This time, I’ll definitely make Master look at me with new eyes and agree to accompany me down the mountain for a meal.
Failure in the past doesn’t mean failure now.
A fine swoosh sound rang out as the fine sword broke through the air. His Master hadn’t even dodged; it was merely his gaze that made one’s heart race with panic.
Was he really being underestimated this much? Tu Xiao was already calculating what to eat next; he still hadn’t gotten the chance to taste the sugar-water glutinous rice cakes down the mountain.
Bang!
Amid a dizzying spin of the world, his back hit the ground. All he saw was his Master raising a hand, and the sword was already in Bai Chen’s grip.
Without even blinking an eye, with fluttering wide sleeves and looking effortlessly handsome, his Master had knocked him flat on his back within three moves, casually delivering a parting kick to his rear end for good measure.
“Bullying the weak!”
Tu Xiao rubbed his backside and protested loudly.
You’ve already beaten me, so you surely can’t punish me anymore.
“Bullying you, so what?”
Bai Chen raised an eyebrow with absolute nonchalance, his eyes carrying a hint of amusement as he handed the sword back.
“Hold your sword properly, and don’t let it fall into someone else’s hands again.”
Tu Xiao curled his lips and rolled his eyes.
The moment his fingers brushed against the sword hilt, his entire body suddenly bounced up, opening his mouth to bite straight toward Bai Chen’s wrist.
With a snap, he bit empty air.
Somehow, Bai Chen’s fingers clamped onto his pulse point, giving it a gentle twist that brought tears of pain to his eyes.
“Ouch, ouch, ouch! This disciple knows he was wrong!”
“Good Master, spare this disciple.”
“It hurts so much, Tu Xiao’s hand feels like it’s broken.”
Hearing Tu Xiao’s pleas for mercy alongside his moist, watery eyes, Bai Chen finally loosened his grip, inwardly reflecting upon himself.
Did I even use any strength just now?
“Without a major matter and lacking official approval, who gave you the audacity to head down the mountain?”
He had only caught him this time; if he didn’t discipline and restrain him properly soon, the other three venerable lords would eventually spot him, and the punishment then would be far heavier than this.
“The bitter soup before every meal is too awful to eat.”
Tu Xiao blinked his tear-filled eyes, looking at the sword in his arms as he muttered, “I… I… I’m never full. Every day it’s just watery soups and rotten vegetable leaves. It starves me so much I can’t even lift my wooden sword, let alone the iron sword Master gave me. If I don’t go down the mountain for a decent meal to nourish myself, my bones won’t absorb any nutrients and I’ll never grow taller.”
“I’m already fifteen, and I’m still not as tall as Master. What do I do if I stay malnourished and stop growing?”
“I don’t want to, I don’t want to be a shorty.”
The disciple before him looked pitifully aggrieved, as though he had suffered the greatest injustice in the world.
Bai Chen turned away, deep in thought.
Mistaking this reaction for anger, Tu Xiao forgot about the pain and frantically clutched at the white sleeve.
“Xiao Xiao… really knows he’s wrong. I won’t go again in the future, Master, please don’t stay silent. Don’t ignore me, okay? You can beat me up if you want, just don’t give me the cold shoulder like this.”
His tone of confession grew even more muffled, sounding like firewood dampened by rain.
Silence equals the cold shoulder what a twisted logic.
“Stasis-dispersing ointment.”
“In another month, all the new disciples will go down the mountain for experiential training; you can go down legitimately without breaking the rules.”
Tu Xiao picked up the porcelain bottle from the ground. Is Master worried that I’ll violate mountain rules and get punished by the other lords?
“Master, don’t turn your back on me.”
His voice carried a nasal whine as he deliberately limped over to stand before Bai Chen, uncorking the porcelain bottle and tugging his outer robe aside to expose a patch of red on his shoulder blade.
“Master, I definitely can’t reach this spot myself, it hurts so much.”
“Since Master caused it, shouldn’t Master apply the medicine…”
His skin registered a cool touch, and Tu Xiao secretly hooked the corners of his lips upward.
From behind came his Master’s clear, soothing voice: “If you break the rules again, this deity will certainly not spare you.”
Tomorrow and tomorrow, how many tomorrows can there be? He knew his Master wouldn’t truly stay angry.
The sunlight stretched the master and disciple’s shadows out long, resembling a pair of crossed longswords.