Chapter 85: Past Matters
Upon hearing his sentence, Zhang Yu Xing[1] was stunned silly, and shouted out: “Teacher-Uncle, this can’t be, why are you going to such lengths?”
“Because I can!” Upon saying this, he gathered up some internal energy, and hollered out, “SCRAM!” [2]
Following his shout, gales started to tear through the courtyard, as though a hurricane was making its way across, making Zhang Yu Xing, a respected and dignified JinDan cultivator, was made to roll out of the courtyard, with an expression of surprise and shock plastered across his face. Just like how a butterfly attempts to resist a gale by madly flapping its wings, he could muster no resistance against this act from the sect master.
The moment his toes left the courtyard, his feet was snatched by the bodyguards of the sect master that were stationed outside and dragged towards the back of the mountain. No matter how the former wailed and begged, the disciples paid nary a heed to him, dragging him as though they were dragging a dead dog.
Seeing how the JinDan cultivator was manhandled by the Sect master, not only did Little Fatty take a sharp intake of breath, even the nearby Hong Ying’s face displayed a color change due to shock, clearly it was not often that she saw her father being angered to this current state.
Only when Zhang Yu Xing’s wailing had completely vanished, did the Sect Master’s livid face gradually ease up. He coldly commented: “This Daddy only went into closed-door cultivation for twenty years, and these sons of b*tches actually dare to lay a finger on my sect people; if I don’t step in and clear up this mess, people would actually think that I’m easy to bully! Hmph!”
Alright, forget about it, by killing a chicken to startle the monkeys, this could be considered as having vented your frustrations, no need to continue being worked up!” The First Lady[3] took this chance to quickly pacify him.
“Hmm, I understand, wife!” his voice turned abnormally gentle upon replying his wife, at the same time exhausting the flames of anger in his heart. Turning to Little Fatty, he jokingly commented with a strained expression: “Pudgy boy[4], I helped you to settle your grudges, you won’t blame me for doing that in the future right?”
“Of course, I wouldn’t dream of it!” Little Fatty was already on the verge of being frightened to death from the incident before, would he still suggest otherwise?
Looking at him, the Sect Master could not help but knit his brow, clearly, he was not too pleased with the act of cowardice Little Fatty was displaying. On the other hand, the First Lady smiled knowingly at him, saying: Child, do you still doubt our origin? That’s why you’re still afraid that Zhang Yu Xing and his bunch of rascals would look toward you for revenge?”
“This~” Little Fatty thoughts were totally seen through and exposed, leaving him speechless, unable to continue speaking.
“Silly child!” The First Lady benevolently smiled towards him, “Rest assured, in the future, with us husband and wife in the Mystical Sky Yard looking after you, there will not be anyone who would dare to harbor thoughts against you!”
“Many thanks to the Madam!” Seeing that the other party did not take offense, he breathed a sigh of relief, before curiously asking: “Madam, I’m not sure about this, but what relationship exists between my parents and you? Even when my parents were still alive, they never mentioned about you at all!”
“Ai! Those two foolish children, always putting on a strong front!” When the Sect Master heard this statement, he could not help but let out a sigh, before explaining: “Actually, I watched your father grow up, and his skills were all personally taught by me, although we were not master-disciple in name, but in reality, our relationship was more towards a father-son relationship!”
“Ah?!” When Little Fatty heard this, he was flabbergasted; never in his wildest imaginations did he think they had such a relationship!
The First Lady saw his jaw-dropping look, and, with an amused look, began reminiscing the past for his sake.
As in turns out, Little Fatty’s father, Song Shi Ming was actually abandoned as a baby, left alone wrapped in swaddling clothes. It was by mere coincidence that the Sect Master discovered him. For most cases, the Sect Master would look for a family willing to adopt him, and take it as sowing good karma, but he would have never adopted the baby himself. However, Song Shi Ming was an exception due to his high innate talent for the fire element, being so shockingly impressive that it would even earn him a place in the inner courts of Mystical Sky Yard. Furthermore, his meridians were also remarkable, and immensely suited for cultivating sword arts. Thus, for a fire elemental sword user such as the Sect Master, Song Shi Ming was a heaven-borne student for him.
One must understand that famous teachers might be difficult to implore, but a bright student is even harder to solicit. Especially so for a fire element sword cultivator such as the Sect Master, one had to have an innate fire element body constitution, as well as insist for a good set of meridians, else that particular student would only be able to practice fire element related cultivating techniques, and not sword related techniques.
Just fulfilling the first criteria, to the point that YuanYing cultivators to regard highly upon was already scarce beyond belief; in the past ten years or so, those geniuses who could directly enter the inner court this way would not even number past a hundred, and out of them, only ten was inclined towards the fire element. As for those with meridians inclined towards sword cultivation, they were considered rarities even in a ten thousand mile radius, to envision finding one amongst the ten odd fire element cultivating geniuses, one could imagine how arduous it would be.
Under this kind of circumstances, for the Sect Master to find a suitable successor could be literally considered a tribulation. And Song Shi Ming just happened to fit the bill. Imagine, how overjoyed the Sect Master was then! Was there any reason not to accept him under his tutelage?
Just like that, Song Shi Ming was adopted by the Sect Master, and while being raised personally by the First Lady herself, he had already set a solid foundation while he was still in his childhood. Only ten odd years later, when he had succeeded in reaching the foundational stage did he then leave the couple’s side.
In this ten odd years, the couple raised him as though it was their own, and if not for the fact that the latter’s age was too young, and that the couple’s status too high, which would lead to much embarrassment if they were to accept him as their disciple, and have all the hundred-year-old foundational cultivators call him Teacher-Uncle, they would not have hesitated in bringing him under their wing. However, they had planned that once Song Shi Ming succeeded in forming his JinDan, they would then hold a formal apprentice acceptance ceremony. Naturally, this spoke volumes about their affections to each other.
However, never in their wildest dreams did the couple think that, only after a mere twenty years of closed-door seclusion, that the affairs on the mountain would take such a drastic change; not only had Song Shi Ming and his wife dubiously disappeared, even their child had met with a similar fate. This thoroughly provoked the fires of wrath in the Sect Master’s heart, sentencing a JinDan cultivator straight to hell. For an esteemed position such as a JinDan cultivator, the Sect Master would still think twice before meting out such a severe punishment.
Upon understanding the entire picture, Little Fatty finally understood as to why the Sect Master and his wife looked at him as though he was family. He could actually feel the warmth and sincerity of the other party, letting his heart feel as though a warm spring breeze was passing through. This allowed him to fully let down his barriers, seeing them as his relatives and elders.
When the Sect Master saw that Little Fatty had finally dropped his guard around them, and opened up his inner self, he could not help but grin, starting to chat with him to brief him regarding the future plans of the Sect
It was also through this process that Little Fatty finally understood why that one Zhang Yu Xing would so flagrantly persecute against who should take up the mantle of the succeeding the Sect Master, this was because he had an immense power backing him and that he bore resentment towards Song Shi Ming.
As in turns out, the Mystical Sky Yard had a total of four YuanYing cultivators. Apart from the sect master and his wife, there was also another guy and lady. The guy was called Huo Yun Daoist, while the lady was called Mei Hua Celestial. Huo Yun Daoist had a fiery temper which was pretty much similar to the sect master. He had many disciples and descendants under him, and their standings in the Mystical Sky Yard could be considered even higher than the sect master and his wife. Although both side’s relationships were not sour, they could not be considered to be warm either. As for Zhang Yu Xing, he is one of the 8 direct disciples of Huo Yun Daoist.
[1] → His original name was Zhang Yu Xing, but the author somehow changed his name to Zhang Xing Yu. Since the author can’t make up his mind, we’ll decide on Zhang Yu Xing.
[2] → The temptation to put GT*O was strong…
[3] → Will be simplifying the Sect Master’s Wife to First Lady
[4] → After much discussion, we came to the conclusion that Little Fatty Block sounded too un-endearing, and will be changing to Pudgy boy. Little Pudge was actually good butttt… I wouldn’t want to go through the next 900 chapters imagining the MC as a smaller version of Pudge. XD