The Most Shameless in the World

Li Yingling's cultivation was far from weak, but her grasp of cultivation basics was almost movingly poor.

It wasn't that Chu Xingchen neglected her. He had put together some basic textbooks and tossed them to Li Yingling to read on her own.

Li Yingling simply seemed completely uninterested in that purely educational book.

After all, those books were nothing but basic primers, nowhere near as entertaining as cultivation stories.

Besides, that book was far too thick. The general index for the illustrated monster classifications alone took up four or five pages, never mind everything else.

After leafing through it for two days, Li Yingling decided it didn't seem very useful and tossed it aside to gather dust.

Chu Xingchen hadn't forced her to finish it, either.

After all, this was cultivation. Keep cultivating, and you would figure it out eventually.

So Li Yingling had no idea what wish power was, but she noticed the faint distaste on her master's and junior brother's faces.

Anything both her master and junior brother disliked surely couldn't be anything good.

Yet Yaoqin had come specifically to see it, so there was clearly more to it.

Chu Xingchen glanced at his disciple's slightly bewildered expression, sighed, and gave Li Yingling a quick explanation.

"You can basically think of it as counterfeit, shoddy cultivation pills. Once you stop using it, your cultivation plummets."

Understanding dawned on Li Yingling.

Yaoqin shook her head slightly. "If that were all, I naturally wouldn't have come to watch. But this Chanwood Dharma Assembly seems to be an experiment. They seem to have discovered other uses for wish power."

Chu Xingchen said, "My blind guess? They're planning to condense wish power onto magical artifacts."

After a moment's thought, Li Xingtian offered his own opinion:

"Even if wish power can be condensed onto magical artifacts, it wouldn't improve them much. Better to catch a spirit beast, feed it wish power, and use it to guard the gate."

Li Yingling didn't care about all that. As long as there was something entertaining to watch, she was happy. She hurriedly said:

"Why don't we just go and see? I heard this year's donation was the biggest ever. They're going to put the spirit tablet right on the Chanwood abbot's head!"

Chu Xingchen exclaimed in shock, "Holy shit, does this abbot have no bottom line?! How much did they pay?"

"They paid in spirit stones this time." Yaoqin covered the lower half of her face with her fan, but she couldn't hide the amusement in her voice. "Apparently, the spirit tablet is enormous this time. It should be quite conspicuous."

"..." Li Xingtian was speechless as well. Even in his previous life, he had never encountered anything so shameless.

Why did it feel like hardly anyone around him cared about saving face after he started hanging around his master?

Was it really true that those who stayed near ink got stained black?

Had Chu Xingchen known his second disciple was slandering him like this in his heart, he would surely have treated that wayward disciple to a round of Respect-the-Master-and-Value-the-Dao Fist.

Watching the Chanwood abbot make a fool of himself was far more appealing than finding out how wish power would be used.

The four thus reached a consensus and headed toward Chanwood Temple together.

Though the roads through the temple fair were crowded, Yaoqin cleared the way with her Golden Core abilities, allowing them to pass unhindered.

Li Yingling truly seemed to enjoy bustling gatherings like this, constantly looking around with delight all over her face.

She spotted plenty of things she liked along the way and bought quite a few.

A little pouch embroidered with lotus flowers, hairpins in unusual shapes.

She even bought four masks.

Li Yingling wore a little fox mask herself.

She bought Yaoqin a cute little white rabbit.

She bought her master a monkey mask.

She bought her junior brother a little pig mask.

Yaoqin turned the mask over in her hands. Though the workmanship wasn't particularly good, it looked rather cute at a glance. Without giving it much thought, she obligingly put it on.

Chu Xingchen looked at the monkey mask and said unhappily:

"No! The fox looks better. I want the fox."

Li Yingling laughed heartily and hurriedly put the fox mask in her hands onto her own face.

"No! Master, you're as crafty as a monkey, so you get the monkey."

Li Xingtian looked at the little pig mask in his hands, then turned to his master.

"Master..."

Chu Xingchen glanced at his second disciple's mask and refused decisively:

"No! I'm not swapping with you."

Li Yingling turned around, looking at the other three with delight she couldn't hide.

Her master put on the monkey mask with a look of utter distaste.

At their master's insistence, her junior brother helplessly put the little pig mask on his face as well.

Although the cute white rabbit mask covered Yaoqin's face, her distinctive aloof elegance didn't seem diminished in the slightest.

Still, they could tell she seemed quite happy too, watching the two reluctantly put on their masks.

As Li Yingling watched this scene, she didn't know why, but she simply wanted to call out.

Perhaps it was because she had never visited such a lively temple fair, or perhaps it was because this sect was the only place where Li Yingling had felt warmth from others.

And she did call out:

"Master!"

Chu Xingchen turned to look at his eldest disciple. She wore the fox mask, and her voice seemed to tremble a little, so he asked in puzzlement:

"What is it?"

Li Yingling answered with a laugh:

"Master and I are the closest in the whole world!"

Chu Xingchen answered in an utterly perfunctory tone:

"Yes, yes, yes. You and I are the closest in the whole world."

Satisfied by his answer, Li Yingling turned back around.

Li Xingtian felt a little helpless. There are only three people in our sect. If you two are the closest in the whole world, doesn't that make me a bit superfluous?

Chu Xingchen naturally wouldn't leave his second disciple out, so he patted his shoulder with the exasperation of someone disappointed that iron had failed to become steel.

"You used to be the closest to your master in the whole world, but since you withheld information, you've now been gloriously promoted to second place."

Li Xingtian grumbled inwardly, but his face remained full of gratitude. "Thank you for your favor, Master. Second is enough."

"Very good. Since you have no ambition whatsoever, you've dropped another place. Big Yellow now ranks above you."

Li Yingling asked in confusion, "Big Yellow? Why does that sound like a dog's name?"

Chu Xingchen confirmed, "Exactly. Your junior brother now ranks below a dog."

Li Xingtian barely reacted. His master always spoke in strange ways, but "a knife-like tongue and a tofu-soft heart" described him just as well.

Yaoqin, however, cast a dark look at him from behind her rabbit mask.

The dog ranks second, Li Xingtian ranks third, so doesn't that leave me somewhere beyond the rankings entirely?

Did all the help I gave go to a dog?

Chu Xingchen instantly sensed danger. His spirit stones were still in the hands of the wealthy woman before him, so he hurriedly said:

"You and I are the closest in all the heavens."

Yaoqin nodded in satisfaction at that, though she refused to concede aloud:

"You're only my two-hundredth closest in the world."

Hearing her master's quick-witted answer, Li Yingling gave him a thumbs-up!

That's Master for you. I still have so much to learn!

Li Yingling walked over to Chu Xingchen and chuckled softly. "Master is the most shameless in the world!"

Chu Xingchen replied just as quietly, "What do you mean, shameless? This is all wisdom! She's holding the entire sect's spirit stones right now!"

Li Yingling nodded in agreement, but the silver-bell laughter behind her mask never stopped.

Wayward disciple! This is absolutely a wayward disciple!

After the little interlude with the masks, the four continued toward Chanwood Temple amid laughter and cheerful chatter.

Along the way, there were not only vendors but also plenty of performers plying their trades, from acrobats to storytellers.

Li Yingling studied the troupe of acrobats with great curiosity.

She especially liked the fire-breather, applauding most enthusiastically at that stall.

Chu Xingchen was rather speechless.

Although Li Yingling was in the Foundation Establishment Realm with a single water spiritual root, five-element spells could still let her control flames.

If Li Yingling went up there to breathe fire, her performance would certainly look much better than that performer's.

Perhaps she was simply enjoying the novelty.

Chanwood Temple had an eight-bay entrance, and its gates were enormous.

With Yaoqin's help, Chu Xingchen and the others easily squeezed through the temple gates.

Li Yingling looked up toward the center of the temple, her expression astonished. Almost as though sighing in wonder, she apologized:

"Master, I'm sorry. I spoke too soon. He's definitely the most shameless in the world..."