Did I Take In a Genius?

Ye Qingyun met Guo Xiaoyun halfway up the mountain, coming down to look for him.

Seeing Ye Qingyun return safely, Guo Xiaoyun's heart finally settled back into place.

Master and disciple returned up the mountain together with Damao.

"Master, two people came to visit you earlier."

Guo Xiaoyun had not forgotten Gongsun Yue and Bai Suyi, the master and disciple.

"Oh? Who?"

Ye Qingyun's heart tightened.

They couldn't be Buddhist monks too, could they?

"An old man and a pretty young lady."

"The old man said he was the sect master of some Nine Spirits Sect. His name was Gongsun something. I couldn't remember it."

"The pretty lady was called Bai Suyi. She said she was your friend, Master."

At this point, Guo Xiaoyun waggled his eyebrows at Ye Qingyun with a chuckle.

"Master, you even know such a pretty lady?"

Ye Qingyun felt awkward.

"She's just a friend. You're too young to be thinking all that nonsense."

"Oh."

"Did they say anything when they came?"

"They just said they were visiting you, and they gave me a bottle of pills. I poured them tea. They stayed until the afternoon, but you still hadn't come back, so they left and said they'd visit again next time."

Ye Qingyun nodded and thought nothing more of it.

"Master, these pills taste pretty good. Do you want some too?"

Guo Xiaoyun held the Essence Pills Gongsun Yue had given him, crunching away as though he were eating broad beans.

"Let me try one."

Ye Qingyun also took one and put it in his mouth.

It tasted a little sweet and had a crunchy texture.

"Not bad. If you like them, go ahead and eat them all."

Ye Qingyun said.

"Mm-hmm."

Guo Xiaoyun immediately tipped the whole bottle of Essence Pills into his mouth and crunched away to his heart's content.

A moment later.

Guo Xiaoyun had eaten the entire bottle of eight Essence Pills.

Had any other martial artists seen this, the sight would surely have left them dumbstruck.

Although Essence Pills were not particularly high-grade pills.

An ordinary mortal who had never cultivated had just eaten a whole bottle of them?

That was simply courting death.

An ordinary person would absolutely have exploded and died.

Yet Guo Xiaoyun was completely fine.

He even let out a satisfied burp as though nothing had happened.

After returning to the mountain, Ye Qingyun's life seemed to regain its peace.

With Guo Xiaoyun sharing some of the farmwork he used to do, Ye Qingyun had a much easier time.

Of course, Ye Qingyun had not forgotten to teach Guo Xiaoyun.

After all, the boy had become his disciple, not his nanny.

Ye Qingyun did not know how to cultivate, so he could only teach him something else.

"Xiaoyun, I'll teach you to write today."

"I know how to write."

"What?"

"I really do."

Seeing that Ye Qingyun did not believe him, Guo Xiaoyun fetched paper and a brush and wrote a few characters in front of him.

Although the writing was crooked, it was still legible.

Ye Qingyun was a little surprised.

"Who taught you?"

Guo Xiaoyun smiled. "I learned from Old Huang, the storyteller at the teahouse."

Old Huang?

Ye Qingyun remembered the man.

Not long ago, he had gone to the teahouse to while away some time and had interacted with Old Huang.

"How many characters do you know?"

Ye Qingyun asked again.

"Pretty much all of them, I think."

Guo Xiaoyun continued writing.

Ye Qingyun was speechless.

It seemed there was no need for him to teach the boy to write.

"Then I'll teach you to paint."

Ye Qingyun said.

"Sure."

Guo Xiaoyun was quite interested.

Ye Qingyun first taught him to start by painting simple things.

He fetched an egg.

He placed it before Guo Xiaoyun.

"Paint this egg. Do ten paintings first and see whether there are any differences."

"All right."

Guo Xiaoyun obediently began painting the egg.

Ye Qingyun smiled faintly.

He did not know whether his teaching method was right.

But he remembered that a master painter in his former world had trained this way.

"I'm done."

Before long.

The ten paintings of the egg were finished.

Ye Qingyun took them and looked.

Each of the ten paintings was different.

But they shared one thing: they were all utterly perfect.

They depicted the egg from all different angles.

Ye Qingyun was dumbfounded.

Holy shit?

Had I actually taken in a genius disciple?

He fetched a pear next.

"Paint this."

"All right!"

A moment later.

Guo Xiaoyun finished painting.

One look further confirmed Ye Qingyun's guess.

Guo Xiaoyun really was a genius.

"Paint this."

"All right!"

"Paint that."

"All right!"

For the entire day, Ye Qingyun did not have Guo Xiaoyun do anything else. He just kept him painting.

From the egg at the beginning, he had progressed to landscapes by the end.

And Guo Xiaoyun seemed to understand these things innately. He could do them as soon as he tried, without needing any guidance from Ye Qingyun at all.

Moreover, Guo Xiaoyun's paintings were excellent, without a single flaw to be found.

"Have you learned to paint before?"

Ye Qingyun was rather astonished.

Guo Xiaoyun shook his head.

"No."

"Then how can you paint so well?"

Guo Xiaoyun smiled a little sheepishly.

"I don't know either. Whatever I see in front of me, I just think about it for a moment, and my hands can paint it."

Ye Qingyun: "..."

He was utterly speechless.

A genius!

Only genius could explain all this.

A group of monks suddenly arrived at the foot of Floating Cloud Mountain.

Led by Huikong, the monks gazed at Floating Cloud Mountain with devotion on their faces.

"The Holy Son lives in seclusion in this mountain to cultivate."

Huikong said.

"Since the Holy Son is here, we should all stay here too."

"Indeed. The Holy Son must have his reasons for choosing to cultivate here. We cannot go wrong by following him."

"Fellow practitioners, why don't we build temples here and guard the Holy Son?"

"An excellent idea!"

"Agreed!"

"Agreed!"

Huikong and the dozens of other monks were unanimous.

They began building temples at the foot of the mountain.

This also attracted many people's attention.

"Why have so many monks suddenly come to this mountain?"

"From the looks of it, could they be planning to build temples on the mountain?"

"They really are."

"What's going on?"

Ye Qingyun still had no idea that things had already begun bustling at the foot of his Floating Cloud Mountain.

Especially once the Song father and son learned that temples were being built at the foot of Floating Cloud Mountain, things developed in an even stranger direction.

"Son! Quick, quick, quick! Hurry to Floating Cloud Mountain!"

"They're building temples at the foot of Master Ye's mountain. Let's hurry over and help. We'll contribute as much as we can."

"Don't worry, Father! I understand. I'll definitely put even more effort into doing good deeds!"

The Song father and son rushed to Floating Cloud Mountain with the Song Clan's martial artists.

Seeing that the Song father and son had come to help them build temples, the monks naturally welcomed them warmly. Discovering that the pair were actually devoted to the Buddha delighted them even more.

"Why are you building temples at the foot of Master Ye's mountain?"

During their conversation, Song Xiaotian asked curiously.

"Master Ye? Do you mean the Holy Son?"

Huikong asked in surprise.

"Holy Son? What Holy Son?"

Song Xiaotian looked bewildered.

"Ye Qingyun is our Buddhist Holy Son. His understanding of Buddhist teachings is unfathomably profound. We came from the Buddhist community of the Western Realm to follow him, which is why we are building temples here."