I Think You Resemble Someone, Senior

After stepping outside, Zhu Lianqing stood beneath the eaves with her arms folded, lost in thought as usual.

Her clear eyes gazed at the sky, but her expression was not as relaxed as before.

A moment later, Zhu Lianqing caught sight of a figure approaching her out of the corner of her eye.

She gathered her wandering gaze and looked at the person walking toward her.

Xie Lingchuan stopped a few steps away and tilted his head to look at the sky, just as she had.

"Do you have troubles too, Senior?"

Zhu Lianqing was rather surprised that Xie Lingchuan had taken the initiative to speak to her.

"I'm alone in this world, free to come and go. There really isn't much that troubles me, but the fickleness of worldly affairs is indeed worth a sigh."

"Is it because of Miss A Man and Wei Mingchi?"

"Yes."

At her answer, the corners of Xie Lingchuan's lips rose slightly, but it was not a smile. It was more like a sigh.

"So even you have feelings about romantic love, Senior. I thought someone as clear-sighted and broad-minded as you would simply laugh off worldly love, hatred, anger, and obsession."

Zhu Lianqing was quite surprised that Xie Lingchuan would ask such a thing, because he seemed much more like someone devoted to cultivating the Dao, unconcerned with the mortal world.

But Xie Lingchuan was behaving so strangely now that it was almost excessive.

Not only had he struck up a conversation with her, but he was asking about "love, hatred, anger, and obsession."

Could this little disciple of hers...

Have fallen into puppy love?

The more Zhu Lianqing thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. Xie Lingchuan's symptoms were exactly those of a green young lad whose heart had first awakened to love but who had no idea how to go about it.

She wondered which young lady he had met after leaving the mountain who had awakened him.

Unable to resist teasing him, Zhu Lianqing said, "I never would have guessed, Young Hero Xie. You're so quiet all day, but you're actually quite the gossip."

Without a change in expression, Xie Lingchuan said, "I was merely curious. If I've offended you, please forgive me."

"Don't worry about it. Everyone has a curious streak. But I'm curious too-why would you see me that way?"

"Because I think you resemble someone, Senior. That person is just like that."

Zhu Lianqing raised an eyebrow. "Who is that person?"

Xie Lingchuan's dark eyes shifted from the sky to Zhu Lianqing, and the inexplicable feelings within them crashed straight into her gaze.

Then Zhu Lianqing heard him say three words-

"My honored master."

Zhu Lianqing's heart lurched for no reason.

What was this about?

Though she was already drenched in sweat on the inside, Zhu Lianqing remained as steady as an old dog on the outside. Her lips curved into a smile.

"I resemble your master? You must be joking, Young Hero Xie. Who in this world hasn't heard of Immortal Master Zhu? Her heart holds boundless love, and she brings salvation to all living beings. How could I resemble her in the slightest? You could even say that the difference between Immortal Master Zhu and me is like that between clouds and mud."

Please, when she was at her sect on Mount Shangqing, she had been the very picture of cold aloofness, all right? When had she ever let herself run wild like this?

It would be a miracle if there were even the slightest resemblance!

After hearing her out, Xie Lingchuan nodded. "Indeed. After exchanging a few words with you just now, I no longer think you resemble her."

Zhu Lianqing choked inwardly.

This brat was playing with her, wasn't he? First she resembled her, then she didn't.

He should count himself lucky he was her own disciple, or she would have jumped up and flicked his forehead.

Outwardly, Zhu Lianqing asked amiably, "You just said I resembled her. Why don't I anymore?"

"At first, I only thought you were as unrestrained as my master. But you have feelings about Miss A Man and Young Master Wei's situation, whereas my master would merely laugh it off."

"She has always treated worldly romance with indifference."

After hearing Xie Lingchuan out, Zhu Lianqing felt that her past habit of keeping silent and pretending to be an expert at the sect had been a tremendous success.

In truth, it was not that Zhu Lianqing had no interest in love, hatred, anger, and obsession. She had simply munched on the gossip and gone over it silently in her head without saying anything aloud.

She could never get enough of those melodramatic love triangles in the sect, where some junior brother fell for a senior sister, only for that senior sister to be in love with her own junior sister!

Looking at Xie Lingchuan, Zhu Lianqing asked, "Everyone says Immortal Master Zhu's love knows no bounds. Why is it that, after hearing her direct disciple speak today, I feel as though she's rather heartless instead?"

Zhu Lianqing had expected Xie Lingchuan to deny it outright. Instead, he affirmed her words with absolute conviction.

"My master is indeed very heartless."

Zhu Lianqing nearly grew so angry that smoke poured from all seven orifices.

Fine, fine, fine. She was heartless. If she had known, she should have made Xie Lingchuan hold his horse stance for another hour back on Evergreen Peak, so he could experience what true heartlessness was.

As though he did not understand her silence, Xie Lingchuan added, "But for someone like my master, who reached the pinnacle of the cultivation world through the way of the sword, isn't it just as well to be a little heartless? She isn't troubled by love, hatred, anger, or obsession, so she shows neither partial affection nor partial hatred. Only then can she become Perfected Lord Nanhua, whose love knows no bounds in the eyes of the world. Only that is the Dao."

What a fine display of disparaging first to praise afterward!

Zhu Lianqing's heart finally settled back into place.

So this was what her disciple truly thought when he called her "heartless."

Zhu Lianqing could not help abandoning her earlier suspicion that her disciple had fallen into puppy love. It turned out he was contemplating the Dao.

"Then what do you think of this master's Dao that you speak of? Do you want to follow the same Dao as her?"

Xie Lingchuan shook his head. "How could I be qualified to judge my master's Dao? As for... my own Dao, I don't know."

Watching Xie Lingchuan lower his eyes in thought, Zhu Lianqing could not help feeling a little tenderness toward him.

Poor child. He had lost his master at such a young age, and when he was confused about cultivation and comprehending the Dao, he didn't even know whom to turn to.

"It's perfectly normal not to know. You're still very young, and you have plenty of time to comprehend your own Dao. Travel more, see more. There's no need to rush."

Xie Lingchuan raised his eyes to glance at Zhu Lianqing and nodded, his tone polite yet distant.

"Thank you for showing me the way, Senior."

After Xie Lingchuan walked away, Zhu Lianqing could not help thinking back over everything she had done on Mount Shangqing.

Although his words just now had seemed full of admiration for her Dao, upon closer consideration, Zhu Lianqing realized that the child really did seem to think she was heartless.

But surely she hadn't done anything so vile that it made people's hair stand on end?

And so Zhu Lianqing spent the entire afternoon bouncing between "my little disciple is so hard to please" and "have I really not treated him well enough?"

Xie Lingchuan, by contrast, became extremely quiet again after their conversation.

While the group of four from the Third Sect Leader's sect practiced their swordplay and reviewed their lessons over there, he sat alone nearby, meditating with his eyes closed.

Zhu Lianqing pondered by herself for ages, yet still could not figure out just how she had been heartless.

So she simply stopped thinking about it.

She had not been a master for years anyway.