Master and Disciple Bonds (Please Vote)

Late that night, Wang Tiaodeng called Deng Yuechuan into his room. "Who taught you to say those things tonight?"

Deng Yuechuan answered, trembling, "Senior Shao told me to. He said that if I got even one word wrong when I returned to the shop, I'd be dead."

Wang Tiaodeng nodded slightly, then asked, "When Xiao Chu and the others went over, did they see Shao Tiangan?"

Deng Yuechuan shook his head. "No. Senior Shao gave me those instructions and left. He vanished in the blink of an eye. I don't know where he went."

Wang Tiaodeng sighed softly. "Yuechuan, you handled this badly."

Deng Yuechuan froze. "Master, I did everything you told me to."

"If you did everything I told you to, why didn't it work?"

"Because Zhang Laifu didn't come!"

"Have you thought about why Zhang Laifu didn't come?"

That stumped Deng Yuechuan. "Master, I really don't know."

Wang Tiaodeng's face filled with the reproach of a man lamenting iron that would not become steel. "Yuechuan, your sights are too high and your temper too fierce. You're too brazen in everything you say and do. That's why Zhang Laifu was on his guard against you."

Deng Yuechuan blinked. What his master said made sense, but then again, it didn't quite.

He admitted his sights were high, but he hardly ever dealt with Zhang Laifu. Zhang Laifu usually stayed in his own room. Why would he be on guard because of Deng Yuechuan?

Besides, Zhang Laifu had no idea Deng Yuechuan had gone to the Old Shipyard. If he was wary of anyone, it had to be Master.

Never mind. It couldn't be Master's fault. If Master said Deng Yuechuan was at fault, then he was.

Deng Yuechuan hurried to admit his mistake, but Wang Tiaodeng still looked disappointed. "Yuechuan, you're not young anymore. If you can't even handle something this simple, how am I supposed to entrust you with anything important in the future?

"I wanted us to do business together and build up a family fortune. But you're so hopeless that I truly wonder if taking you as my disciple was a mistake."

"Master, please don't be angry. I really know I was wrong. Whatever you ask of me from now on, I'll get it done..."

Tears ran down Deng Yuechuan's face. He knelt at Wang Tiaodeng's feet, crying and pleading.

"Very well. We'll leave it at that. Go back to your room." Wang Tiaodeng pulled Deng Yuechuan to his feet and saw him out.

"Thank you, Master. You're so generous. I'll never forget your kindness as long as I live."

That was how it was done. Deng Yuechuan hadn't done a thing wrong from start to finish, yet now he owed Wang Tiaodeng an enormous debt of gratitude.

Wang Tiaodeng knew that the next time he asked Deng Yuechuan to do something, the boy wouldn't dare refuse.

He hadn't managed to kill Zhang Laifu this time. Tomorrow, he would have to get someone to find out why. Had the boy really gone to have his hand treated, or had he caught wind of the plan?

If he had caught wind of it, who had leaked the news?

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Someone was knocking at the door.

"Who is it?"

"Master, it's me." Deng Yuechuan had come back.

Wang Tiaodeng opened the door and let him in.

Deng Yuechuan knelt on the floor and apologized again. "Master, I thought it over carefully. This was my first time helping with something big, and I made a mistake because I wasn't confident. I've learned my lesson. It won't happen again!"

"I'm glad you feel that way. Go back and get some sleep." Wang Tiaodeng saw him out again.

Sleep?

Deng Yuechuan was terrified Wang Tiaodeng would disown him as a disciple. How could he possibly sleep?

He wanted to do something to make amends, but what could he do now?

I've got it!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The knocking came again. Wang Tiaodeng opened the door to find Deng Yuechuan back once more.

"What is it now?" Wang Tiaodeng was getting angry.

Deng Yuechuan stepped inside and said quietly, "Chen Xiaowang must have had something to do with this. He follows Zhang Laifu around every day. I bet he's the one who ruined it."

Wang Tiaodeng frowned. "Did you tell Chen Xiaowang about the plan?"

"No!"

"Then how could he have ruined it? If he didn't know about it, how could he possibly interfere?"

"Master, I just think he's the sort of person who..."

"Enough, enough. Go back and rest. I told you, it's over!"

Wang Tiaodeng sent Deng Yuechuan away again. He had barely lain back down when the knocking started once more.

"What do you want from me?" Wang Tiaodeng yanked the door open in a fury. A cloud of green smoke billowed straight into his face and rushed up his nostrils.

"I was about to ask you the same thing. What do you want from me?" It wasn't Deng Yuechuan standing outside. It was Zhang Laifu.

Wang Tiaodeng stood stunned for a long moment. He had just been planning to investigate Zhang Laifu tomorrow. He hadn't expected the boy to come looking for him tonight.

Does this boy have a death wish? He dares come after me?

Zhang Laifu swung his knife at Wang Tiaodeng's head. Wang Tiaodeng grabbed a lantern and easily caught the blade on its pole.

Zhang Laifu had been practicing martial arts lately. He had wanted to fight Wang Tiaodeng with a lantern too, but then he'd thought better of it. Wang Tiaodeng was an expert with lanterns; using one against him would offer no advantage.

But even with a knife, Zhang Laifu had no advantage.

After decades roaming the martial world, Wang Tiaodeng was far beyond the ordinary fighter. The lantern pole seemed alive in his hands. With a twist and a flick, he knocked the knife aside and struck Zhang Laifu's wrist. The knife fell from his hand.

Wang Tiaodeng was about to drive the pole straight through Zhang Laifu when a twisting pain seized his chest. He couldn't help coughing.

Once he started, he couldn't stop. He coughed until his vision blurred, his legs went weak, and his ribs felt ready to snap.

That green smoke...

I've been poisoned.

That boy dared release smoke? Isn't he afraid of being poisoned too? Is he willing to sacrifice himself?

Zhang Laifu wasn't afraid. With the Alarm Clock in his hand, the smoke couldn't hurt him. He glanced down at the knife on the floor.

Wang Tiaodeng held the lantern pole across his body and clutched his chest, still coughing.

He waited for Zhang Laifu to pick up the knife. The moment Zhang Laifu reached down, he would cripple the boy's arm!

Zhang Laifu abruptly lowered his head, and Wang Tiaodeng swung the pole at once.

That was the instinct of a veteran of the martial world. Wang Tiaodeng could tell when Zhang Laifu would reach for the knife. Poisoned as he was, this strike could still break the boy's hand.

Squelch!

Zhang Laifu pulled another knife from his clothes and plunged it into Wang Tiaodeng's shoulder.

He hadn't picked up the knife.

He had brought a spare.

Zhang Laifu even explained, "I was just looking down. I wasn't going to pick it up. I came to visit my master, so of course I couldn't bring only one knife. We're master and disciple, after all."

Wang Tiaodeng smashed the lantern's shade. Its bamboo ribs shot toward Zhang Laifu's face, nearly stabbing him.

But Wang Tiaodeng was poisoned and wounded. The attack was too slow, and Zhang Laifu dodged it.

Zhang Laifu kept hacking with his knife. Wang Tiaodeng parried with the lantern pole in his left hand while his right snatched up a bundle of bamboo strips. He bent the frame, pasted on paper, wound wire around it, inserted a candle, and fixed it to a pole. In the blink of an eye, he had made a lantern with one hand.

He drove its pole into the ground more than two inches deep. The lantern stood firm. Then he rubbed the pad of his thumb against the pole, trying to light the candle inside.

The Paper Lantern Craftsman's signature technique, Single Bright Rod, required him to make the lantern, plant it, and light it. The lantern had to be made on the spot.

Once he lit it, Wang Tiaodeng could unleash his Trade Circles technique and take Zhang Laifu's life.

But he tried several times, and his thumb pressed with the wrong force in the wrong place. The lantern would not light.

Wang Tiaodeng froze. He had practiced his craft all his life and used this technique countless times. How could he fail to strike a light?

"Won't light, won't light. Bones and sinews out of place—don't scratch!"

A sheet of Talisman Paper drifted down. First Wang Tiaodeng felt a numb itch in his thumb; then agony stabbed through the joint, as if his bones and sinews really had slipped out of place.

He looked up. Li Yunsheng was crouched on the roof beam, burning incense.

The Zhu You Practice's signature technique: Illness Comes from the Mouth!

All ten of Wang Tiaodeng's fingers had stopped obeying him.