"Long Tongue Old Monster?" Ji Lanxin pondered aloud. "What a strange title."
Ji Family Head explained, "He got that title because when he was young, something went wrong while cultivating the Serpent Art. His tongue developed an abnormality, becoming thin, long, and forked like a snake's tongue. If not for your grandfather stepping in back then, his entire body might have turned into a snake-like monster."
Ji Lanxin said admiringly, "So Grandfather saved his life and earned this favor from him?"
Ji Family Head nodded. "You could say that, but what he owes your grandfather goes far beyond that. After his cultivation went awry, your grandfather found him a secret art that complemented his cultivation technique, resolving the shackles that would have hindered his future cultivation. That was what allowed him to achieve what he has today."
Ji Lanxin asked in confusion, "Since he acknowledges this favor, he can't be a bad person. Why was he placed on the Black List? Aren't all those on the Black List heinous villains?"
"His evil was forced out of him." Ji Family Head's face showed a trace of emotion, and he said with faint indignation, "He came from a middling faction and was one of its finest disciples in his youth. But after that mishap in cultivation, his strength plummeted. Then, after his tongue mutated, everything changed."
"The decline in his strength subjected him to endless mockery and ridicule from his fellow disciples. The change in his appearance made the junior sister he loved most transfer her affections to another—choosing, no less, the senior brother he had always been at odds with."
"In a fit of anger, he left his sect and hid deep in the mountains, cultivating in gloom and solitude. Later, with the help of the secret art your grandfather gave