Chapter Ten: Bitter Wine to the Throat, Heartache to the Core
"Mm-hmm."
"I'll go persuade him to come back."
At the mention of it, Jueyunzi's heart began to ache again. Tang Ruowei raised an eyebrow.
"Enough chatter! Do you have any idea how much this hurts me right now, you Body Integration Stage bastard?"
"What's the matter?" Bai Qiuran picked up another jar of Immortal Wine brewed from precious immortal herbs. As he pulled the seal from the jar, he said, "Sigh. Bitter wine to the throat, heartache to the core."
Black Magnetite from the Western Lands, Mystic Crystal from the Heavenly Sea, Demonic Meteorite Iron from the Savage Lands—he had gathered every one of the Cultivation World's rarest and most precious materials.
Bai Qiuran snapped his fingers. A tiny flame appeared at his fingertip, crimson red with a faint black glow at its heart.
So when Bai Qiuran threw a tantrum here, Tang Ruowei was the only one who dared try to talk him into going back. Anyone else—even Grand Elder Daoist Zhufeng, despite being in seclusion—would probably get beaten up.
"I'm happy!"
"Bai Qiuran travels the world and never breaks his word."
Tang Ruowei walked over to Bai Qiuran, reached out with both hands, and strained to haul him up.
"Does that mean our bet still stands?"
By now, the two of them had made a habit of trading barbs and poking at each other's sore spots.
Most of the Great Dao's powers could be wielded through Imprint Techniques. Though, once mastered, they were no less powerful than spells of the same type, they were difficult and obscure to learn. They demanded enormous time and effort, as well as an energy seed of the same attribute to serve as a catalyst.
Bai Qiuran sent the Undying Fire from his fingertip into the furnace with a Fire Seal, then began forging a brand-new Flying Sword for Tang Ruowei.
"Mm."
With this Fire Seal, he could do more—and do it better—than with an Origin Flame, even though he couldn't refine one without reaching the Golden Core realm.
The girl rolled her eyes at him.
After returning to Seven Star Peak, Tang Ruowei immediately confiscated all the Immortal Wine on Bai Qiuran, then drove him into his own forge.
"But you've forgotten our other agreement, haven't you? I want that top-grade Flying Sword right now! Get back in there and forge it for me!"
Just smelling the wine made Tang Ruowei feel the Foundation Establishment True Essence she had only just formed grow denser. That alone showed how high a grade the Immortal Wine was. Then she saw the empty jars strewn across the courtyard, and her white-haired master clutching a wine jar, gazing blankly at the bright moon overhead and mumbling to himself.
But time and effort were the two things Bai Qiuran had in abundance. And over the years, he had found every one of the finest energy seeds.
Because of their age, most of Jueyunzi's generation had grown up under Bai Qiuran's eye. They had all taken their share of beatings as children, and even now Bai Qiuran never went easy on them—not even the female Sixth Elder and Seventh Elder.
With a sharp crack, Bai Qiuran hurled the wine jar in his hand against the wall. He pressed a hand to his chest and said, "I knew, deep down, that this day would come. I just never thought it would come so soon. It's only natural that my master's realm is higher than mine. If my senior and junior fellow disciples surpass me, I can blame my dull aptitude. For three thousand years, I never took a single disciple. I was afraid of seeing this day. Have I finally been surpassed by a disciple I taught with my own two hands?"
"Where's the Sect Master?"
"Crying while drinking in my courtyard."
To make up for his lack of combat prowess—and, more importantly, to look more like a cultivator—Bai Qiuran had taken another path. He learned many things he could practice without reaching Foundation Establishment, and Imprint Techniques were among them.
Today, Bai Qiuran found the little girl unusually forceful. When he faced her, he felt as though he was in the wrong and couldn't refuse her. By the time he came to his senses, the materials had been laid out, and he was sitting cross-legged in front of the furnace.
Her shout startled Jueyunzi and Qing Yun, who had been watching from the doorway. The Sect Master and the elder then looked at her with admiration.
"Sugoi."
With that, Bai Qiuran gulped down the Immortal Wine, worth thousands of high-grade Spirit Stones.
For example, to master the Fire Seal, Bai Qiuran had pinned down a Demonic Phoenix in the Savage Lands and forced it to spit out a wisp of its True Fire. That was how he refined the Undying Fire.
"Of course not. I'm not stupid."
Jueyunzi watched the Immortal Wine vanish to no purpose. It wasn't his wine, but his heart still ached all the same. He decided that out of sight was out of mind, excused himself, and gave his courtyard to his elder to drown his sorrows. Then he went outside alone and stared dazedly at the bright moon that had hung over the Azure Nether Sword Sect for thousands of years.
"You've reached Foundation Establishment. Well, congratulations..."
"Junior Sister—Martial Aunt Ruowei, you're finally here."
Tang Ruowei was clever enough not to flaunt her seniority. She greeted Jueyunzi politely, then asked, "Where's my master?"
C-could this be the natural psychological pressure that Foundation Establishment cultivators exerted on Qi Refining cultivators?
When Bai Qiuran saw her push open the door, his eyes brimmed with tears.
Bai Qiuran was horrified, but just as he'd said, he had lost the bet and never meant to break his word.
"Fine."
Master and disciple tussled and tugged their way out of the Sect Master's residence and back to Seven Star Peak. Watching them, Qing Yun smiled faintly. "Ruowei really is impressive. If Martial Ancestor Uncle ever refuses to cooperate, we can ask her for help."
Because of seniority, the highest-ranking person in the sect after Bai Qiuran was his disciple, Tang Ruowei. Even when Grand Elder Daoist Zhufeng emerged from seclusion, he would have to call her Senior Sister—or even Martial Aunt.
"Look at him. He's crying while drinking in my courtyard."
Bai Qiuran sat on the steps outside the Sect Master's residence, tipped back a bottle of hard liquor, and drained it as if it were water. Then he bowed his head, tears and snot streaming down his face, and roared, "Damn it! She reached Foundation Establishment! She did it in just six years!"
"Ah, Ruowei..."
"Since he came here, he's drunk nearly thirty thousand high-grade Spirit Stones' worth of Immortal Wine."
"Isn't Martial Aunt Ruowei the best?"
"I finally reached Foundation Establishment, and she only took six years! Hey!"
"Sure enough, Martial Aunt Ruowei's the best."
"Master, come back to Seven Star Peak with me."
Bai Qiuran was still covering his face.
"Wait, don't tug on me! Men and women shouldn't touch! I can walk by myself!"
"Why are you covering your face?"
"So happy I could cry..."
A little while later, the Sixth Elder came flying up from the foot of the mountain with Tang Ruowei. When Jueyunzi saw them, his eyes lit up, and he hurried to greet them.
"Does that count as your 'request'?"
"Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!"
Tang Ruowei rolled up her sleeves and walked to the courtyard gate.
Jueyunzi glanced at the dozen empty wine jars scattered around his courtyard and muttered, "Martial Ancestor Uncle, maybe you should drink a little less..."
At Jueyunzi and Qing Yun's expectant gazes, Tang Ruowei shoved the courtyard gate open with a bang. A rich yet fragrant aroma of wine rolled out to meet her.
Bai Qiuran shook his head behind his hands. "I'm happy enough to cry..."
"Yes. Of course it does."
Over three thousand years, he had spent every waking moment thinking about that Flying Sword. Now, his long-held design took shape as countless seals and formations, which he struck into the materials, melted into a pool inside the furnace.
After repeated tempering and purification by the Undying Fire, the outline of a crystalline Flying Sword gradually took shape inside the furnace.
He had started gathering these materials as soon as Tang Ruowei broke through to the first level of Qi Refining.
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