"You return first. Tomorrow, this old man will bring his disciple to pay you a visit."
Ouyang Zheng found himself riding a tiger with no way to dismount, roasted over the fire by Lu Wu-bing's string of arguments.
This request for apprenticeship was awkward to accept, yet just as awkward to refuse.
He could only tacitly agree.
For a moment, his expression looked rather unsightly.
"This disciple takes his leave."
Lu Wu-bing, meanwhile, was in excellent spirits. Without sparing the sword manual another glance, he cupped his hands in salute and happily left the inn.
"Good lad, he's latched onto me!"
Ouyang Zheng laughed despite himself.
"Congratulations, Father! Congratulations! On this trip down the mountain, you've taken in another fine disciple."
A young girl in a green dress sidled into the room with her hands clasped behind her back, offering her congratulations with a grin.
Ouyang Zheng shook his head. "He is already sixteen, an adult, yet his inner strength is scant and his stance unsteady. Clearly, he never laid a solid foundation.
"Now that his bones and physique have taken shape, even if he begins practicing the Celestial Star Sect's swordsmanship and inner arts, his achievements will be extremely limited. More importantly, getting involved in another's grudges will only invite karma..."
"I asked around these past two days. The Lu family of the Hall of Returning Spring is practically a living Buddha to countless households. Lu Changfeng's medical skill is miraculous, and he is an exceptionally good man who has helped so many poor folk.
"For the Eastern Sea Sword Sect to seize the sword manual, they actually intended to use trickery and force, destroying an entire family. They are truly as vicious as fiends, utterly against the code of the martial world.
"Don't you always say that our Celestial Star Sect stands upon the righteous path, that we should uphold justice and aid the needy, support those in danger and rescue those in distress? When we truly encounter injustice, how can we stand by with folded arms?"
"That is true enough, but the Eastern Sea Sword Sect is no weak force. Its sect master, Gu Dongting, is also a first-rate figure in the martial world with profound cultivation, and he has certain ties to Gong King Manor."
At this point, Ouyang Zheng sighed again. "The Celestial Star Sect is now battered by wind and rain. Outside, Violet Sun Peak watches us like a tiger eyeing its prey; inside, your two martial uncles hold us back at every turn. It truly would not be wise to make another powerful enemy. The Eastern Sea Sword Sect dominates Haizhou, rich and powerful, and it lies adjacent to Celestial Star Peak. If they deliberately make trouble... Sigh, why am I telling you all this?"
With his thoughts in turmoil, Ouyang Zheng realized he had said rather too much to his daughter.
Children were at the age of innocence and hot-blooded passion. If he told her of the martial world's mutual crushing and petty scrambling for gain, not only would she fail to agree with it, she would instead carry a heavy burden.
"I'm already grown up."
Ouyang Lan puffed out her cheeks and rolled her eyes, dissatisfied that her father still treated her like a child.
"I understand all of this. No matter what, the Eastern Sea Sword Sect's conduct is not the conduct of the righteous path. I simply cannot stand it.
"Besides, Lu Wu-bing is not as worthless as Father says. Perhaps his natural endowment is not very good, but he is clever, righteous at heart, and when he saw a child in danger on the street, he risked his own meager abilities to save them with all his strength. How bad could such a person possibly be?"
Most importantly, she had merely given him a quiet reminder, yet he had come knocking at their door. He had even found a way to make her father, who had not taken disciples for so long, pinch his nose and accept him as one. That was far too impressive.
"Clever, yes. I only fear he is too clever, too skilled at scheming." Ouyang Zheng was nearly speechless.
The world of adults was completely different from the world in a child's eyes.
His daughter had been pampered since childhood and was still too young to see through the dangers lurking in human hearts.
That boy plotted three steps with every step and laid traps everywhere. In their few exchanges earlier, he had actually stirred the emotions of an old hand like himself. Such meticulous calculation was simply inconceivable.
"Enough. Since this matter has already been decided, this old man will not go back on his word. Chongshan has gone to Tiger Ridge to gather information. You and Yun Chong keep a closer watch over the Lu family tonight."
In the Lu family's rear courtyard, Lu Changfeng suppressed his injuries and held his sword in hand. "Cough, cough... Wu-bing's journey is fraught with uncertain fortune and disaster. If, if..."
The moment he awoke from his coma, he learned from his wife that they had found something in the cellar. Moreover, his son had taken the sword manual to seek a master and request aid. Such conduct was no different from a child carrying gold through a crowded market, entrusting his life to another person's momentary kindness.
After the Eastern Sea Sword Sect's surprise attack, Lu Changfeng had not only deeply recognized the limits of his own martial ability, but also understood just how perilous the martial world was and how treacherous human hearts could be. At this moment, he could not help letting his imagination run wild.
Chen Yulian sighed. "You used to think too well of others, without the slightest thought of guarding against them. Now you think too poorly of everyone, forever suspicious and imagining ghosts. You should know that Mister Ouyang of the Celestial Star Sect is known for righteousness reaching the heavens. Wu-bing will certainly succeed in his journey."
"How so?" Seeing his wife's calm, unhurried expression, as though every knot in her heart had already dissolved into the wind, Lu Changfeng's anxious heart settled somewhat.
His wife came from a prominent Weijing household and had earned a reputation as a talented woman in her youth. Her insight was quite extraordinary. Since she was not worried at all, could it be that Wu-bing's action held an even deeper meaning?
"In any scheme, strategies themselves are neither good nor bad. Success or failure depends only on serving the dish according to the guest. Since Mister Ouyang possesses the reputation of righteousness reaching the heavens, one can imagine that he is usually upright in conduct and cherishes his own feathers greatly."
Chen Yulian spoke with assurance.
"If he lives up to his name, then with his chivalrous heart, once Wu-bing comes before him, he naturally will not allow the Eastern Sea Sword Sect to slaughter innocents, nor will he accept the sword manual and then refuse to act. If he were to seize it by trickery and force, or stand aside and watch people die, he would never get past that hurdle in his heart.
"Nor could he refuse to accept the sword manual... First, he would be reluctant to part with it. Second, if he sat idly by and Wu-bing truly arranged for people to secretly print and distribute the sword manual throughout the world, would that not plunge all under heaven into chaos and leave living beings drowning in misery? How could kind-hearted Mister Ouyang bear to see such a thing happen?"
"That's right. If Mister Ouyang is truly the same within as without, a virtuous elder, then it would indeed be so. But if he..."
Putting himself in the other man's place, Lu Changfeng realized that if he encountered such a situation, he truly would have no second choice.
Then he thought of how Gu Dongting, the Eastern Sea Sword Sect's sect master, also had no poor reputation in ordinary times, yet had committed the deed of destroying an entire family to seize a sword manual. His heart began beating a drum again.
Hearts were separated by bellies. Reputation and reality were often not the same thing at all.
Who could have imagined that even the father he most respected and worshipped would deceive people?
It was simply outrageous!
Chen Yulian continued, "Master fears that Mister Ouyang may be greedy, that he is not as kind and benevolent as martial-world rumors claim, and that his true nature is that of a villain.
"If he is a villain, then having obtained a divine sword manual capable of letting one dominate an era, how could he possibly allow many others to practice the same swordsmanship? He would surely wish to be the only one who knew it.
"Therefore, he will care more than anyone about the safety of our Lu family, wishing only that we remain safe and sound and never take that final, desperate step.
"As for whether our family has read the sword manual or secretly practiced it, he will not worry about that either.
"After all, in his eyes, Master and Wu-bing have spent all these years never even considering practicing such a demonic sword manual. You are genuine men of benevolence and virtue, proven through trial."
As she said this, Chen Yulian's gaze upon Lu Changfeng was exceedingly complicated.
"Very well. From now on, let Wu-bing decide the family's major affairs. We shall follow his wishes. After he becomes a disciple, we will close the Hall of Returning Spring in Jiangzhou and travel far away to Xiangzhou."
Lu Changfeng stood stunned for a long while before finally smiling with open-hearted ease.
As night's faint light began to stir, the torches lit by the courtyard guards cast swaying crimson radiance. Then they heard a delighted cry from afar: "Young Master has returned!"
That night, Lu Wu-bing practiced his swordsmanship through the entire night without resting for even a moment.
At midnight, he heard the clangor of blades outside the manor and the sound of garments slicing through the wind. From several hundred zhang away at the northwest corner came the distant roar of clashing force, like thunder shaking the heavens.
Faintly, he heard the sea rising in waves, its surf crashing and roaring...
A long laugh entered his ears. "Sect Master Gu, the night is cold and the wind harsh. Please take good care of your health."
"What formidable Myriad Phenomena Sky Net. This old man will remember it."
Another voice, somewhat shrill, whistled away into the distance and gradually faded from hearing.
Lu Wu-bing was overjoyed.
From the sounds outside the manor, he had roughly made out what had happened.
He hurried forward and climbed atop his family's wall. Looking into the distance, he saw a slender figure that seemed somewhat familiar flash through the thin moonlight before vanishing at once.
The faint yet pervasive killing intent, near and far, disappeared completely, as though it had never existed.
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