Maybe he'd finally had enough sleep.
At any rate, once spring arrived that year, Luo Yunji was no longer quite so prone to sleeping. He still clung to his bed, but he wasn't nearly as hard to wake as before.
Maybe he'd grown a year older!
Had he become more sensible?
Song Daren woke his little junior brother with ease and prepared his washing things for him. Then he led the little junior brother, who was still dawdling as he tied his sash, outside.
"Good morning, Little Junior Brother!" Everyone greeted Luo Yunji with smiles when they saw his sleepy, bewildered face.
"Morning! Second Senior Brother, Fourth Senior Brother, Fifth Senior Brother, Third Senior Brother, Sixth Senior Brother. Eh! Where's Eldest Senior Brother?" Luo Yunji rubbed his eyes and kept fumbling with his sash, asking in a daze.
"You little rascal! Have you forgotten who got you out of bed?" Eldest Senior Brother was standing behind Luo Yunji. He set a wooden basin filled with water on the stand in front of him and chided him with a laugh.
"Haha! Little Junior Brother is still so out of it!" Everyone burst into laughter.
"Junior Sister has broken through to the fourth level. She's reached the Object Manipulation Realm," Sixth Senior Brother said with some concern.
"Looks like Master's going to lecture us again," Fifth Senior Brother Lu Daxin said, rubbing his nose.
Sure enough, after breakfast, Tian Buyi scolded Second, Third, Fifth, and Sixth Senior Brothers, half pleased and half worried. He also gave Luo Yunji, the youngest and least diligent in his cultivation, a tongue-lashing.
Luo Yunji, however, seemed not to have taken in a word Tian Buyi said. He still wore that dazed expression, which made Tian Buyi furious.
The Taiji Mystic Purity Dao had incantations only for the first four levels of the Jade Purity Realm. After that, one had to rely entirely on personal insight, along with the experiences of those who came before. This was what had given rise to the countless arts of the Azure Cloud Sect. After all, different people saw and understood the same thing differently. And with cultivation arts, even the slightest variation could produce completely opposite effects.
Luo Yunji was deeply troubled. When he reached the fourth level of the Jade Purity Realm, his portly Master had told him there were no more cultivation formulas—only realms and the experience of those who came before. Was this some kind of joke?
Lazy and easygoing as he was, he fretted over it for only a little while before giving up on the unreliable cultivation method. Every day, he still ate when it was time to eat and slept when it was time to sleep. And when it was time to chop bamboo, he still slept!
"Little Junior Brother! Time for your lessons." Tian Linger skipped over to Luo Yunji and said with a smile.
"Oh! I'll get the knives!" Luo Yunji went to the woodshed, grabbed two woodcutting knives, and followed his senior sister toward the Back Mountain.
"Little Junior Brother's gotten a lot more self-motivated!"
"Yeah! Eldest Senior Brother doesn't even have to carry him there anymore!"
"Haha!" The senior brothers laughed and teased them as they watched the two little figures go.
"By the way, Eldest Senior Brother, are you going down the mountain in a few days?" Fourth Senior Brother He Dazhi asked Song Daren.
"Fourth Senior Brother, are you looking to buy books?" Everyone on Big Bamboo Peak knew Fourth Senior Brother loved to read. Maybe that was why he had eventually surpassed Second and Third Senior Brothers in cultivation. He was undoubtedly the cleverest person on Big Bamboo Peak.
"If there are any new books, please pick up a few for me."
"No problem! I'll remember," Song Daren replied heartily with a laugh. "Does anyone else need anything?" Song Daren hadn't forgotten his other junior brothers.
"Eldest Senior Brother, if you come across any good sheet music, please bring me back a few books too," Second Senior Brother said after a moment's thought.
"Sure!" The others didn't have anything in particular they needed.
Beyond the bamboo groves of the Back Mountain, a pine forest stood far in the distance. Luo Yunji had thought the path was too long and hadn't set foot in it for years. Deep in the bamboo forest, though, lay a clear spring, its water sweet and cool. A waterfall hung above it, and when the sun was out, a rainbow always arched through the air. The spring was quite large, about two or three mu in area. Beside it stood a huge boulder, where Luo Yunji sprawled every day.
The boulder stood at just the right distance from the waterfall—not too near, not too far. The sound of water crashing below made a perfect lullaby, and with the rustling of bamboo leaves in the breeze, it was hard to imagine anything more pleasant.
Sometimes Luo Yunji wondered if he wasn't actually too fond of sleep. Maybe nature's sounds were simply so beautiful that they always lulled people to sleep.
After morning lessons, Master arranged for Fourth Senior Brother He Dazhi to teach him to read and write. Fourth Senior Brother was widely considered the cleverest person on Big Bamboo Peak—though, of course, no one had asked Master's opinion.
After studying with He Dazhi for a while, Luo Yunji had learned to read and write. In private, he had read every book on Big Bamboo Peak and become curious about the world beyond the peak—even the world beyond Azure Cloud Mountain. But he was too lazy to go anywhere, so he could only wonder about it.
He was nine that year, and his senior sister Tian Linger was thirteen. He had begun cultivating under Master at six and reached the fourth level of the Taiji Mystic Purity Dao at eight, taking less than two years.
When Master told him there were no more cultivation formulas and that he would have to rely on his own insight, he was so speechless that he nearly gave up cultivation altogether. Every day, he just wandered about at his leisure. Perhaps his temperament suited the Daoist principle of quietude and non-action. After all, the Azure Cloud Sect had also originated from the Daoist tradition. Luo Yunji had now reached the fifth level of the Taiji Mystic Purity Dao, though he had never shown it in front of anyone. Tian Buyi had never deliberately checked his cultivation. Whenever he saw Luo Yunji's lazy, roguish manner, he would scold him in frustration.
According to the sect rules, once a disciple reached the fourth level, he had to go down the mountain to seek a fortuitous opportunity and obtain a magical treasure of his own.
For one thing, Luo Yunji was too lazy to go anywhere. For another, Tian Buyi and Su Ru thought he was still young and a little scatterbrained. They were afraid someone might kidnap and sell him the moment he went down the mountain, so they never brought it up.
All the senior brothers on Big Bamboo Peak assumed their little junior brother's cultivation had stalled.
Only Tian Linger, who did lessons with him every day, knew how monstrous his talent was. Whenever she came to find him after finishing her own lessons, she would see him asleep on the boulder, without having done his work. She began to think about ways to teach him a lesson. But whether she tried to divert the spring water onto him or push him off the boulder and into the spring, none of her attempts ever worked.
Every time she played a trick on him, Luo Yunji easily thwarted it. Whenever she tossed things at him, a layer of pale blue light, visible to the naked eye, would appear and shield him. And when she tried to push him off the boulder, the same light would stop her, keeping her from even touching his body.
"Little Junior Brother! I'm done with my lessons." Tian Linger stood beneath the boulder, looking up and calling loudly. Thankfully, that layer of light didn't block sound. Otherwise, given her little junior brother's lazy nature, he might have slept until who knew when.
Luo Yunji rubbed his eyes. "That fast?" He still hadn't had enough sleep.
"It's almost noon already!" Tian Linger could finally understand how her father felt about their little junior brother.
He really was lazy!
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