“What use is being strong if you lack worldly wisdom and combat experience?” Chen Ji said while catching up to him. “You are meant to become a hero famous throughout the land. If the whole world knows your name, as your Big Senior Brother, I can bask in your glory.”
Chen Ji thought back to the original owner in the novel. He was a cowardly person who had never truly done anything for Liu Jingyun or Qiu Lingzhou. Yet, after those two became world-famous, people would treat him with great respect simply because he was their senior brother. Chen Ji intended to enjoy every bit of the prestige that the original version of himself had experienced.
“Did I embarrass A-Ji just now?” Liu Jingyun asked.
Chen Ji shook his head. “Not at all! You performed wonderfully. Standing beside you made me feel very proud!”
“If I become famous across the world but A-Ji is not by my side, what flavor would that life have?”
“Huh?”
Chen Ji did not quite understand the implication and looked at Liu Jingyun with confusion. Liu Jingyun gave a faint, soft sigh and flicked Chen Ji’s forehead. “A-Ji, you should read more books and spend less time playing down the mountain.”
“You unfilial son! Are you implying that I am not well-read enough?”
“If you cannot understand my heart, A-Ji is a fool.”
“I think your skin is itching for a beating! You are mocking my lack of culture!”
Chen Ji angrily rolled up his sleeves, intending to give the brat a lesson, but Liu Jingyun suddenly stopped and looked toward a nearby stall. “Candied hawthorns,” he said. “A-Ji, you promised to buy some for Zhimu.”
Chen Ji followed his gaze and saw that the vendor only had a few skewers left. He hurried over and bought them all.
“Where is mine?” Liu Jingyun asked.
Chen Ji grit his teeth and handed a skewer to him. “I know you are very handsome, but a son should not disdain his father’s looks, understand?”
“A-Ji always likes to grant himself a higher seniority. You are currently not even as tall as I am. Where did all the food I fed you go?”
“I am not tall because you and Qiu Lingzhou exploited me! If you two had been more obedient and well-behaved when you first arrived at Emerald Bamboo Peak, would I have spent so much effort on you that I stopped growing?”
Thinking back to those bitter days, Chen Ji felt a wave of self-pity. Liu Jingyun smiled slightly. “Jingyun knows that I owed A-Ji in the past, which is why I have been thinking of how to repay you all these years.”
“Do you really think so?”
“Mhm.”
The gentle nod of his head warmed Chen Ji’s heart. His unfilial son had finally grown up and become sensible. How wonderful!
“Since you are being so good, I will give you an extra skewer,” Chen Ji said happily.
Liu Jingyun looked at the candied hawthorns, his lips curling up. “Does A-Ji still remember the first time you brought me and Qiu Dog down the mountain to buy these?”
“Of course I remember! It was the second day after Qiu Lingzhou arrived. In the time it took me to buy a skewer, you had tricked him onto a merchant ship, hoping he would leave Tianyun City forever! I was worried sick!”
“It is a pity I did not manage to send him away back then. Otherwise, he would not have been intruding on our lives for all these years.”
“Stop talking nonsense! Let us go back!” Chen Ji scolded him playfully.
He began eating a candied hawthorn as they walked toward the city gates. Time flies and years had passed in the blink of an eye. Looking at the familiar stalls and the gate, Chen Ji suddenly remembered the day Liu Jingyun tried to discard Qiu Lingzhou on that ship.
To be honest, the crowd that day was just as thick as it was today. Chen Ji had not even realized Qiu Lingzhou had been put on a ship until the boy, who had seen through the plan, escaped and ran back to stand right in front of them. As soon as Qiu Lingzhou returned, he and Liu Jingyun started a brawl. Chen Ji remembered them fighting right there by the city gate. Two little kids, neither willing to give in, rolling around until they were both black and blue. Recalling that image, Chen Ji could not help but burst into laughter.
Liu Jingyun looked at him with confusion. “What is A-Ji laughing at?”
“I was just thinking that even though you and Qiu Lingzhou always give me headaches, life with you both has never been boring.”
A faint smile appeared in Liu Jingyun’s eyes as well. “Since you find it interesting, why are you trying to chase me down the mountain to travel?”
Chen Ji brushed it off. “At your age, you should be out seeing the world and finding your own opportunities. What is the point of staying on the mountain with me?”
“It is interesting,” Liu Jingyun replied.
Chen Ji knew about Liu Jingyun’s stubbornness from the book. However, he did not know why Liu Jingyun was no longer following the original plot. In the novel, Liu Jingyun had already left the mountain to travel before Feng Zhimu even joined the peak. Now, no matter how much he pushed, the boy would not leave. Chen Ji began to wonder if he had misremembered the plot or if he had done something to make Liu Jingyun unwilling to leave.
They returned to Emerald Bamboo Peak, and soon after, the men from the lumber shop delivered the ordered wood. While Liu Jingyun and Qiu Lingzhou went to build the house, Chen Ji stayed behind to supervise Feng Zhimu’s mental cultivation.
Feng Zhimu was a descendant of the legendary archer Hou Yi. Compared to Liu Jingyun and Qiu Lingzhou, his childhood had been the most fortunate. He had parents and lived in the forest, living off the land alongside the birds and beasts. However, his father discovered the boy’s extraordinary talent for archery as he could hit targets with perfect accuracy even from a hundred meters away.
Since people in this world revered cultivation, Zhimu’s father sent him to the Tianyun Sect to see if the child had the potential to become an immortal. They encountered Haiyangzi on the road, and the master immediately took Feng Zhimu as his disciple. Zhimu’s father had initially thought Haiyangzi was a fraud, but once they reached the foot of Emerald Bamboo Peak, he realized it was the truth.
Because of his bloodline, Feng Zhimu’s cultivation speed was incredibly fast. As Chen Ji sat nearby, he could clearly feel the spiritual energy radiating from the boy becoming more profound as time passed. Zhimu’s fair skin gradually turned dark. Chen Ji knew this was the first step for a cultivator: expelling impurities from the body to purify the dantians. Once the dantians were pure enough, the absorbed spiritual energy would also be pure. This method significantly reduced the chance of a cultivator succumbing to demonic possession.
Chen Ji often wondered why someone who had cultivated for a hundred years could fall into the demonic path just by touching a bit of evil energy. Could a century of pure spiritual cultivation not resist that small amount of darkness? Or was it simply the power of one bad apple spoiling the whole bunch?
Feng Zhimu’s few hours of serious practice rivaled the results of Chen Ji’s entire year of cultivation. Seeing this, Chen Ji could not help but feel a bit envious. As the sky turned from bright to dark, Chen Ji interrupted Feng Zhimu’s session. The boy snapped his eyes open. Despite meditating all day, he did not look tired at all; instead, he was radiant and his eyes were full of light.
“Big Senior Brother, is it already dark?” he asked, looking as if he wanted to continue.
Chen Ji nodded. “Yes. Go take a bath and wash off the impurities. We can have dinner in a moment.”
“How did my hands get so dirty?” Feng Zhimu asked, looking at his hands in disbelief.
“It is a natural occurrence during cultivation. Just go wash up,” Chen Ji said.
“Okay!”
Feng Zhimu obediently went to bathe. Watching the little fellow’s retreating figure, Chen Ji sighed. “Having an obedient junior brother is truly the best!”