"Ah..."
Hearing Xiao Yishan’s words, Lin Huang shuddered. Like a rolling gourd, he tumbled down the large stone block—THUMP, THUMP—and splashed into the Cold Pool.
"I said, from today onward, you are my, Xiao Yishan’s, fourth Inner Chamber Disciple. Why aren’t you hurrying over to pay your respects to your master?" Xiao Yishan said, his hooligan nature somewhat returning as he looked on with sheer arrogance.
Lin Huang was slightly bewildered, wondering which of Xiao Yishan’s nerves had misfired.
"But my grandfather said he already found a master for me."
On the Azure Sky Continent, acknowledging a master was a matter treated with the utmost caution. In their lifetime, a martial artist could take a maximum of three masters: a Master of Guidance, a Master of Instruction, and a Master of the Dao!
The disciples corresponding to these three masters were respectively known as: Registered Disciple, Direct Disciple, and Inner Chamber Disciple.
"Hmph! In this world, is there any master more formidable than I, Xiao Yishan? If there is, I will definitely kill him!" Xiao Yishan said, his face full of dominance.
"Are you looking down on me because I’m only at the Celestial Element Realm? Do you think I can’t be your backer, can’t protect you, and don’t deserve to be your master?" Xiao Yishan demanded, staring Lin Huang down.
Lin Huang’s eyes widened, and he shook his head.
During his struggles in his past life, he had harbored thoughts of finding a master to guide his cultivation several times over a span of ten years. However, most of those people despised him for his poor aptitude and lack of a powerful background. Not a single person was willing to take him in.
Over time, Lin Huang’s desire to take a master faded.
His path in martial arts was entirely carved out through slaughter by the blade in his hand.
Back then, when the Celestial Secret Pavilion updated the Unrivaled List, their evaluation of Lin Huang had been: "A Crossing the River Pawn of the Han Realm, advancing step by step into the royal palace. If guided by a renowned master, he could become a general capable of sweeping across the world."
After the Celestial Secret Pavilion released the list, many experts had indeed wanted to take him as a disciple, but Lin Huang no longer cared for it!
Cultivating martial arts was a solitary endeavor.
Previously, Lin Huang had agreed to Lin Beichen’s arrangement ultimately just to set the old man’s mind at ease. Becoming a Registered Disciple would have been enough.
Yet, Xiao Yishan had demanded he become an Inner Chamber Disciple right from the start, which truly shocked Lin Huang. An Inner Chamber Disciple held extraordinary significance; it represented the passing down of a martial arts legacy and the continuation of a martial lineage.
"Elder Xiao, an Inner Chamber Disciple represents a master’s honor. I have poor talent, a low realm, and no solid background. Becoming your Inner Chamber Disciple would only make you lose face," Lin Huang tactfully refused.
"It doesn’t matter, I don’t care!" Xiao Yishan said boldly, seemingly oblivious to Lin Huang’s underlying meaning. "I once had a disciple whose aptitude was so poor he was mocked for ten years. Ten years later, he slaughtered seventy percent of the so-called geniuses in the world."
"Could I just be a Registered Disciple?" Lin Huang asked tentatively.
"Forget it, I won’t force you. Just think it through clearly—miss this chance, and it won’t come again," Xiao Yishan said with a smile. He patted Lin Huang’s shoulder and seamlessly grabbed the youth’s wrist.
The two sat amiably outside the thatched cottage, presenting a heartwarming picture of a kind father and a filial son.
"How about a Direct Disciple?" Lin Huang hissed in pain. With his wrist pinched in Xiao Yishan’s grasp, it felt as though he had been bitten. A sharp, needle-like pain seeped deep into his bones.
"As long as you’re willing. After all, I’m so incredible that countless people across the world beg to take me as their master. If you don’t want to be my Inner Chamber Disciple, so be it," Xiao Yishan spoke calmly. A smile graced his face, but the force of his grip on Lin Huang’s hand invariably increased by several degrees.
Lin Huang’s expression twisted, his entire face flushing red. He hadn’t expected Xiao Yishan’s force to penetrate every part of his body. It was truly somewhat terrifying.
"Inner Chamber Disciple it is, then!" Lin Huang sighed. Facing Xiao Yishan, he was still far too weak. If he could just be a bit stronger... well, he probably still wouldn’t be able to beat the man.
"Suddenly, I don’t want to take you as a disciple anymore." Xiao Yishan shook his head, further increasing the strength of his grip.
"Elder, from the very first day I met you, I felt you were wise, martial, and possessed an extraordinary aura! Even then, I wanted to take you as my Master of the Dao. Since the heavens allowed us to meet, it can only mean we are destined to be master and disciple. I beg you, Elder Xiao Yishan, please take me as your disciple." Turning his head to look at Xiao Yishan, Lin Huang forced a bright smile.
"Hahaha! Since you are begging me to be your master, then I will have to consider it..." Xiao Yishan let go of Lin Huang’s hand and laughed triumphantly.
"Do you wish to become the number one in the world?"
"No!"
"Do you wish for immortality?"
"No!"
"You don’t even desire to be number one in the world or to be immortal, yet you still want to take me, Xiao Yishan, as your master?" Xiao Yishan said in exasperation. He patted Lin Huang’s shoulder again and seized his wrist once more.
"I do! Isn’t cultivating martial arts precisely for the sake of becoming number one in the world and achieving immortality?" Lin Huang instantly changed his tune.
"I had three Direct Disciples, but their souls have all returned to the Yellow Springs. Are you not afraid?"
"I am not!"
"I have a monumental grudge yet to be avenged and an eternal great enterprise yet to be achieved. Are you afraid?"
"I am not!" Lin Huang nodded resolutely. He was already familiar with Xiao Yishan’s routines and had no choice but to speak against his conscience.
"I lost my father before I was born, my mother in my youth, and my wife and son in my middle age. I once had seven thousand Registered Disciples, eighty Direct Disciples, and three Inner Chamber Disciples. By now, they should all be dead in the Yellow Springs. A guy named Wang Yifeng once said I am the reincarnation of the Seven Kills Lone Star, destined to bring gruesome deaths to everyone around me. Are you afraid?" Xiao Yishan asked with a beaming smile.
"...I am not!" Lin Huang said, putting on a miserable face.
"Lin the kid, everything I just said was true." Xiao Yishan suddenly grew quiet. "I am an ominous person by nature; otherwise, I wouldn’t be living in the Qinglong Mountain Range. I know full well that my current realm is far from the peak of the continent’s martial arts, so I dare not act arrogantly. I truly do wish to take you as a disciple today, but as to whether or not you will take me as your master, think it through carefully."
At this moment, Lin Huang saw an unprecedented seriousness on Xiao Yishan’s face. Illuminated by the moonlight, his weather-beaten face carried a profound sense of bleakness and desolation.
"I, Xiao Yishan, probably won’t live for much longer, and I simply do not want this legacy to end. If you can take me as your master, I will undoubtedly teach you everything I know. If you cannot, I will still gift you some things as a token of the bond we’ve formed over these past two months." Xiao Yishan’s expression softened, a slightly bitter smile touching his lips.
Lin Huang was momentarily stunned, his thoughts churning like a turbulent tide.
...
"Today, I, the humble student Lin Huang, am fortunate to meet the renowned master Xiao Yishan, and I am willing to enter his tutelage. I pray that my master will look upon me with favor, pity my determination, resolve my doubts, instruct me in my rightful pursuits, and pass onto me the Great Dao. Following the footsteps of predecessors and emulating the legendary figures of past and present, I shall pursue the ultimate of martial arts and claim my place among the eternal gods! Let heaven and earth bear witness, and let the sages testify: this disciple sincerely bows to this lineage. From this moment forth, I shall honor my master as a father and serve by his side. By this will and this oath, I shall harbor no regrets for three lifetimes!"
Beneath the bright night sky and beside the roaring waterfall, Lin Huang’s voice rang out like striking metal and stone. It echoed enduringly through Thousand Feet Cliff, earnest and solemn.
Xiao Yishan nodded. He then stood up on the giant boulder and looked up at the bright moon in the azure sky. His robes fluttered in the night wind, his white-templed hair blowing wildly. He exuded an indescribable, overbearing dominance as his deep voice resonated like the roar of a tiger.
"Today, I, Xiao Yishan, open my doors to accept a disciple. I need no heaven and earth to bear witness, nor do I need all living beings to serve as a medium. I only need my hundred thousand comrades who rest in eternal slumber to open their eyes and look upon my, Xiao Yishan’s, final disciple... His name is Lin Huang!"
"Perform the master-acknowledgment ceremony!" Xiao Yishan turned around, his expression suppressed and bleak, yet he calmly accepted Lin Huang’s three profound kowtows of master acknowledgment.
Waiting quietly until Lin Huang finished the ceremony, Xiao Yishan burst into boisterous laughter. "It really wasn’t easy to trick you into acknowledging me as your master! I’ve practically used up a decade’s worth of facial expressions!"
Lin Huang’s face went blank, left entirely dumbfounded in the wind!
"Oh, right. Now that the ceremony is complete, I have to give my disciple a courtesy name. What should it be?" Xiao Yishan grinned conspiratorially, not waiting for Lin Huang to get angry.
"Master is brimming with talent and possesses an extraordinary bearing. You will surely come up with a peerlessly excellent name," Lin Huang said, bracing himself. After following Xiao Yishan for two months, he had also learned how to flatter.
"Makes sense!" Xiao Yishan nodded and smiled in satisfaction. "You have two senior brothers and one senior sister above you, making you the fourth in seniority. How about we call you..."
Lin Huang froze in place, his eyes widening. "Is he going to call me Old Fourth? Lin the Fourth!" he thought.
"Your courtesy name will be Changsheng!"
Before Lin Huang could recover his wits, Xiao Yishan let out a hoarse chuckle, his eyes filled with weather-beaten sorrow and reminiscence.
"Lin Huang, courtesy name Changsheng... Lin Changsheng!"