Mountain winds rushed over, drying the fine sweat on his palms.
Stop?
What a wretched line!
Yet spoken in Master's deep queen-like voice, it carried an unprovoked, unassailable, icy aura of command, devoid of any playfulness whatsoever.
Xiao Ran deeply understood that serving a master was like serving a tiger.
It made sense, of course.
The strong always possessed boundless desires—take Wu Meiniang for instance—and Master was no exception.
Fortunately, though his hands ached from kneading, Xiao Ran still needed to continue his filial piety experiment.
Master's body was quite relaxed, soft to the touch, and the texture was acceptable enough not to be particularly distressing.
Xiao Ran resolutely let go and spoke directly:
"This disciple's strength is meager. Might we change to another position for the massage?"
Lingzhou Yue closed her eyes and took a sip of wine.
"As you like."
Xiao Ran carefully moved around to Master's front.
He found a hollow in a pine root to plant his left foot firmly, resting his right foot on a low-lying branch.
For him, observing a mighty figure of the cultivation world at such close range was a first, let alone a woman.
Her long eyebrows were like swords, growing naturally without any trace of trimming.
Her eyelashes were long, but lacking care, not very curled, and slightly cluttered.
Between her brows lacked the alluring charm that ought to be there, yet possessed a free-and-easy, magnificent beauty.
Her skin was extremely pale, smudged with faint green leaf stains, presumably picked up while flying swiftly through the jungle.
Her hair looked coarse from afar, but exceedingly smooth up close; it only appeared coarse because it was draped with quite a bit of foliage and grass dust.
She is a woman after all...
Xiao Ran sighed inwardly.
Suddenly, he heard Master's cold words:
"What are you looking at?"
As a time-traveler, Xiao Ran was not so easily shaken.
"This disciple wishes to commit Master's appearance to memory."
Lingzhou Yue was puzzled.
"Then why did you stop?"
Ah, this...
Xiao Ran had no choice but to confess honestly.
"This disciple's hands ache; I wanted to rest a moment."
A mortal, after all.
Lingzhou Yue sighed, pinching with two fingers: "This master will impart some spiritual power to you, ensuring you can knead for a whole day without your hands aching."
You really don't treat your disciple as an outsider!
Xiao Ran flatly rejected her good intentions.
"No need, this is also a part of this disciple's cultivation."
Cultivation...
Lingzhou Yue's eye twitched slightly as she reconfirmed Xiao Ran's heavenly-waste endowment, only then letting out a sigh of relief and feigning profundity:
"In the Dharma Ending Era, all living beings suffer, and everyone has their own pressures. Even this master is ailing, so you mustn't complain about aching hands anymore."
Immediately, she straightened her legs out toward Xiao Ran with an air of utter nonchalance.
Her movement was exceedingly natural.
This was being ailing?
Xiao Ran made no comment.
"Yes."
Even with aching hands, he had to keep going.
Though Master was aloof from worldly affairs and possessed somewhat of a tomboyish temperament, she was a woman nonetheless, and Xiao Ran still had a sense of propriety.
First of all, a woman's feet must never be touched. After all, he and Master were not in the relationship of Zhang Wuji and Zhao Min, nor Ximen Qing and Pan Jinlian.
That sort of filial piety would warp; how could he earn filial piety points then? Secondly, a woman's thighs must not be touched either, as it was too easy to brush against the roots of her legs, which might get him executed on the spot—even more dangerous.
Thinking thus, Xiao Ran gently lifted the long legs covered by Master's wide robes, repeatedly patting the areas a foot above and below her knees.
The rhythm was unhurried, and the force was just right.
Lingzhou Yue's feigned look of profundity quickly relaxed. Her brows and eyelashes smoothed out, swaying to the layers of rhythm alongside the gentle mountain breeze.
She hadn't expected that this disciple she'd picked up on a whim would be so quick to catch on. While seemingly abrupt and rude, he actually possessed a great sense of propriety, hitting the mark perfectly.
On Xiao Ran's end, the system had already chimed.
Congratulations to the host for obtaining 1 Filial Piety Point!
Sure enough, Master's body still had value left to be mined! Suddenly, his hands no longer ached. In an instant, infinite energy burst forth—one section stronger than five, lasting outrageously long, completely unable to stop.
After kneading for over an hour, the system chimed a second time.
Congratulations to the host for obtaining 1 Filial Piety Point!
Afterward, Xiao Ran continued to knead for another hour or so.
Regrettably, the system remained silent.
It seemed that seven filial piety points were close to his limit.
Wanting to break through further might involve a center and two basic points, not a realm a mere disciple could dabble in.
He guessed that at his current level, the limit of filial piety points he could bring forth through kneading and massaging Master was only ten.
Being able to knead out seven filial piety points was already quite impressive.
It all depended on whether he could keep it up tomorrow...
"Is that it?"
Lingzhou Yue felt unsatisfied, somewhat left wanting more.
What do you mean, is that it?
Xiao Ran felt as though he had already been squeezed dry.
Lingzhou Yue let out a long sigh, carrying the ethereal fragrance of wine.
"Sigh... You are a mortal after all; to toil the body to this extent is indeed not easy. Very well, let this count as the first step on your path of cultivation. Continue to work hard tomorrow; this master is going to sleep."
Xiao Ran could clearly hear the fobbing-off tone in her voice, almost omitting a drunken hiccup.
Burying his head in hard work and keeping a low profile perhaps weren't suited for dealing with this master.
Because she truly might not have intended to teach him anything at all...
Xiao Ran decided to test her.
"If Master could teach this disciple a cultivation method, this disciple would surely achieve twice the result with half the effort."
Lingzhou Yue suddenly remembered her promise.
"The essential cultivation method for the Balanced Five-Elements Endowment, right... Look at my memory."
Regrettably, after pondering for a long time, she couldn't find a cultivation method suitable for a mortal to practice.
If cultivation methods wouldn't do, she could only find a cultivation method's heart-art.
Suddenly, remembering something, she immediately fished a stack of heart-art fragments out from the folds of her wide lapel.
"This is a heart-art this master created herself in her youth. When roasting by the fire at home, half of it got burned away, and now only a fragment remains. You can make do and look it over."
Xiao Ran took it and looked. Good grief, with this heavy texture and archaic lettering, it was at least a thousand years old.
As if you created it yourself! "What is this cultivation method called?"
"This is a heart-art. A heart-art is the foundation of all cultivation methods. The name of the heart-art doesn't matter; look, here are the two characters for Resonance, so you can just call it the Art of Resonance... It seems to involve comprehending the heaven, earth, and all things, or something like that."
"Seems?"
"Cough, cough. This master's cultivation level is too high, making it unsuitable to practice this; after a long time, I've grown rusty. You are a person with the Balanced Five-Elements Endowment, theoretically very suited for this heart-art, and it requires no spiritual power—even mortals can give it a try."
"Really?" I don't believe it.
Xiao Ran wore an expression reminiscent of Lu Yu.
Lingzhou Yue's sword-like brows twitched.
"This master is not lying to you this time. The lower the cultivation level you are when you start practicing this heart-art, the better. Without mobilizing spiritual power, you merge into the natural Dao and comprehend the heaven, earth, and all things. Even if you fail to master it, it can still strengthen your body and prolong your life."
Naturally, she wouldn't say that this was a hell-difficulty heart-art!
Not mobilizing spiritual power did not mean no cultivation level was required; quite the contrary, this heart-art had exorbitantly high demands on a practitioner's natural talent and disposition—so high that in a millennium, she had rarely seen anyone successfully practice it, and even she herself only had a half-baked grasp of it.
With that, she stood up while yawning, stretched out a long, sweeping stretch, jumped down from the pine root, took a nice, hearty gulp of wine, and walked toward the thatched cottage.
That lazy silhouette exuded an air of dashing poise.
Xiao Ran was very tired and sat on the pine root to rest for a while.
The first day of entering the sect of cultivation was vastly different from the scenes he had fantasized about day and night for three years.
The sect was not the small sect he had imagined.
Master was not the proper master he had imagined.
The place of cultivation was not the deep grotto-heaven or famous mountains and great rivers he had imagined, but simply a barren mountain.
Fortunately, the mountain was high enough; clouds and mists curled in the distance, flocks of cranes soared, and the clear breeze blowing past carried invigorating spiritual energy...
It satisfied his expectations of a celestial land to some extent.
Now that the system had descended, it had already paved an ultimate path of bootlicking for him.
As for whatever cultivation method Master had tossed him, he hadn't pinned any hopes on it anyway.
Bored, he flipped open the heart-art fragment.
Sure enough...
Just as anticipated, every single character was legible, but put together, not a single sentence made sense.
Suddenly, the system chimed.
Detected Heaven Tier heart-art -- Fragment of Myriad Resonance. Although this heart-art is still in a sealed state within the shop, the host now possesses the original fragment and can learn this heart-art (Mortal Tier) by consuming 10 Filial Piety Points.
A Heaven Tier heart-art?
In a sealed state?
His fatigued body startled upright! Xiao Ran drew in a sharp, cold breath.
Aside from shock and excitement, he looked far off toward the thatched cottage.
Master actually cares about me?
Before you continue