Chen Ping'an left Yu Xuan behind and departed the mountaintop alone. He went to the bamboo building to change into his usual mountain attire, putting on a cotton robe and cloth shoes again. Green upon green.
Xie Gou sat at the table by the cliff and said she had not failed her mission, that she had delivered the message to that foppish Liu. Chen Ping'an smiled and nodded his thanks, asking her to tell Guo Zhujiu to join them for dinner as well.
Whenever Guo Zhujiu stayed in the mountains for a meal, Chen Ping'an would personally cook, frying several dishes he was good at. They might not compare to Zhu Lian's cooking, but it would not be against his conscience to say they went well with rice.
Yu Xuan felt rather helpless. Chen Daoyou's earlier self-assessment—"If aptitude falls short, ideas will make up the difference"—had left the old True Person speechless once more. Why was this fellow Daoist cursing people again? Old scholar, you ought to keep him in line.
Taofu Mountain had Five Sects of One Mountain, unique in the Vast Heaven and Earth. Yu Xuan recalled several immortal seedlings in his own household, whose aptitudes were quite outstanding and whose mountain climbing and cultivation had advanced with the force of splitting bamboo. Yet every one of them had far too lofty a State of Mind. He remembered one young Golden Core sword cultivator, registered in the Daoist Sword Immortal Lineage of Jingwei Guan, who had even looked down his nose at him, the Patriarch, and complained to his face that their founding Patriarch had not been a Sword Immortal—a fly in the ointment... Perhaps he should send them to Luopo Mountain to gain some experience? Weren't they all convinced they were brilliant beyond measure, treating breakthroughs as