Taking a Master

He tried to bow. "Disciple Wen Xu pays his respects to Junior Granduncle-Master."

Yet beneath the vast heavens and boundless earth, his voice echoed across the mountain peak, but no one answered him.

Wen Xu did not have much spiritual power. Before long, he was so cold that his will was about to blur. In that instant, he thought, Sure enough, fate has never favored me. Even with a Supreme-Grade Spiritual Root, the smooth sailing others imagine has nothing to do with me.

But so what! Today, he would succeed in taking a master! He had to enter Yonglu Mountain!

"You are called Wen Xu, aren't you?"

Suddenly, a man's voice came drifting from a distant, elusive place. Though he had not seen the man, the voice carried endless wind and snow. This must be the Junior Granduncle-Master the sect master had mentioned.

"Yes, this disciple is named Wen Xu."

"You can hear, and you can speak. Your name was well chosen. Unfortunately, I dislike noisy people, and I dislike liars even more."

Wen Xu wanted to explain, only to discover that he could no longer speak.

His vision swam, and suddenly a man covered in snow appeared before him.

"Can't you see? You can see, yet you claim you cannot. Since you do not want those eyes, why not give them to someone who needs the light more?"

The man's voice was cold and merciless. Though Wen Xu could not make out his face, he could still sense the killing aura around him. This man was treating him like a dead thing!

Terror suddenly surged through Wen Xu's heart. Perhaps he had been frightened to the extreme, for he actually found his voice again. "This disciple can see, yet it is as though I cannot. Since childhood, I have been unable to recognize anyone's face. Even those closest to me, even people I have seen countless times—I have never been able to recognize them clearly. Would anyone truly want a pair of eyes like these?"

This was the first time Wen Xu had revealed the truth about his eyes to anyone. He did not know why, but today he spoke without the slightest hesitation. He did not even stumble over his words, simply saying it all with such ease.

As though telling this person the truth was the simplest thing in the world.

And it was precisely because he realized this that the terror in his eyes grew ever greater.

"Oh? Such a strange thing exists? It seems you were not entirely lying." The man propped up his chin and pondered for a moment, then said, "In that case, I shall accept you as my disciple."

Taking a Master

In an instant, the wind, snow, frost, and ice vanished. Wen Xu could no longer hold himself up and collapsed. When his muddled consciousness cleared again, he discovered—

He had never truly stepped onto the final stair.

"Are you not coming up?"

The strip of cloth over his eyes had long since disappeared, leaving Wen Xu, who had been pretending to be blind for days, somewhat unaccustomed to it. Besides... he had actually revealed his greatest secret without hesitation. How could he not be afraid?

He could not help raising his head to look up at the man who had just said he would take him as a disciple. Unfortunately, no matter how powerful the man was, Wen Xu still could not see his face clearly. It seemed that even cultivation could not cure his face blindness.

"Can you see your master's face clearly? Oh, no, that is not right. You have not yet taken me as your master. I ought to be more reserved."

Wen Xu had always been unwavering in his desire to take a master. Once he set his mind on something, he had to see it through. Yet now, after what had just happened, he hesitated for the first time in a long while.

He had once been a scholar and understood well the importance of a good teacher. Thus, before he became a Provincial Graduate, he had never formally taken a master. To scholars, the bond between master and disciple was practically that of father and son. If he wished to rise above the rest, he needed a teacher willing to truly lead him through the door.

To put it bluntly, he wanted a teacher who could help him soar straight into the clouds in the future.

Unfortunately, he had never encountered such a teacher. Now, however, he had stepped onto an entirely different path. The man before him was undoubtedly incredibly powerful—perhaps powerful beyond anything Wen Xu could imagine. But... no one liked being completely naked before another person. Though the man had not said it outright, Wen Xu knew that everything about him had been seen through.

Wen Xu thought, If I were as frank and straightforward as Bian Chunchou, I definitely would not hesitate at all. Unfortunately, I am not that kind of person.

"Didn't you... dislike liars?"

The man suddenly lowered his gaze and looked directly into Wen Xu's unfocused eyes. "You do not wish to take a master?"

"No, this disciple..."

"Then do it. Once you have taken a master, I will tell you some secrets of our lineage that are never passed down."

That sounded even less reliable, but the arrow was already on the string and had to be loosed. Wen Xu suspected that if he turned and left now, the man before him might press his head down and force him to take a master. Mediocre Mountain had truly led him into a pit!

Taking the initiative was still more dignified than having someone press him down. Thus, Wen Xu stepped onto the final stair and, amid the ice and snow of Springless Peak, completed the most important ceremony of taking a master in his life.

"Disciple Wen Xu pays his respects to Master."

Springless Peak's weather was bitterly cold. Wen Xu felt that, with his current cultivation, he likely could not remain here long. Yet he soon discovered that Springless Hall on Springless Peak was brimming with spring, warm and cozy—truly as different from outside as heaven and earth.

A great power of the Body Integration Realm was terrifying indeed!

"Then let your master introduce himself." The man shook the snow from his body, beckoned, and summoned a cup of spiritual tea from thin air, handing it to his newly accepted youngest disciple. "Did I frighten you just now?"

Wen Xu was handed a cup of spiritual tea and did not try too hard to hide it. "A little. This secret... this disciple has never told a second person."

"You have not even told your birth parents?" the man asked curiously.

Wen Xu shook his head. "This disciple has never met them."

Ah, it seemed he had said the wrong thing. The man hurriedly changed the subject. "Your master's Daoist title is Cheng Wei. My cultivation should be about the same as Jun Zhaoying's. Otherwise, those old men would not have willingly handed you over for me to take as my disciple."

Wen Xu's attention was immediately diverted, just as expected.

"There was one thing you said earlier that was wrong."

"This disciple is slow-witted."

"You said you had never told this secret to a second person. To be precise, your master is not human. This is not much of a secret in the Cultivation Realm."