Kongxu and Lonely

Studying every day was like a mechanical operation.

Zhang Xuezhou repeated this routine.

He ate dinner slowly, then spent another hour mulling over the tedious subject of number theory.

Only when the clock hands settled at nine did he lie down, feeling somewhat uneasy.

Compared with the calm and peace on campus, Zhang Xuezhou felt that winds were rising and clouds gathering on his other side.

The Scarlet Alliance State was a society governed by law, but on the other side, Zhang Xuezhou could see no sign of law at all.

If he died in an unfamiliar place, Zhang Xuezhou felt there would be little chance of anyone being held accountable.

His eyes flew open, and when Zhang Xuezhou realized he was still alive, he could not help feeling a little relieved.

A faint smell of smoke still lingered in the room.

There was no Daoist priest, and no wild beast.

In this Daoist temple, what Zhang Xuezhou had feared had not come to pass.

Looking at the soft light of the morning sun, he felt a great weight lift from his heart.

This was his first time leaving the bounds of Zhang Household Village, and also his first time spending the night alone in an unfamiliar place.

"Ten Yin Holy Son, a fishy smell?"

Zhang Xuezhou looked at himself, having spent the whole night steeped in smoke inside the sealed room, and felt that even the strongest fishy smell would surely have become too muddled to distinguish.

He did not know where the fishy smell the Daoist priest had mentioned came from, but by ordinary reckoning, this was as much as he could do about it for now.

I wonder whether Father and Mother have the fishy smell the Daoist priest mentioned, too!

Zhang Xuezhou glanced around the bedroom and took two more sets of the Daoist priest's old clothes.

He changed clothes and used smoke to drive away any strange odors on his body. Zhang Xuezhou felt this could effectively rid him of any problems with his scent.

He needed a backer, but not one who would bring him trouble.

The Ten Yin Holy Son seemed very powerful, but according to the Daoist priest, he was not from their side and was highly likely to be tracked down by the Flying Feather Army.

Zhang Zhong had once been a squad leader in the Northern Commandery's Flying Feather Army. Squad leader was the lowest officer rank in the Flying Feather Army, commanding a small group of five, and did not count among the imperial court's official ranks. Even so, attaining such a position required personal strength.

In the Flying Feather Army, people as strong as Zhang Zhong were as numerous as crucian carp crossing a river.

And to be sent on a pursuit mission, those people needed to be at least two tiers stronger, at the level of a commandant, if not higher.

The creed of people in the army was to use their fists rather than their mouths whenever possible. Zhang Xuezhou had no desire to be dealt with by the Flying Feather Army before he could say a word upon meeting them.

He had benefited from the Ten Yin Holy Son's influence yesterday, but today he wanted to shake off every connection completely and minimize its effects as much as possible.

Zhang Xuezhou also washed himself with drinking water stored at the temple, and only set his mind at ease after confirming that he had no unusual smell on him.

Once he had finished all that, he took up the "Yin Yang Great Compassion Nine Heavens Incantation" to pass the time while he waited for his parents to come up the mountain and meet him at the Nine-Foot Daoist Temple.

A knock at the door brought Zhang Xuezhou back to his senses.

"Who is it?"

He called out the question warily.

"Eh? Is Daoist Priest Kongxu not in the temple?"

A clear, hearty voice answered loudly from outside the temple.

"And you are?"

"I'm the Lonely Rogue Person. And you are... judging by how full and strong your voice sounds, you're certainly not a patient who came to ask Kongxu for treatment. Could you be Kongxu's new disciple?"

The voice outside the door paused briefly, then ventured a guess.

Someone able to enter the temple and stay there was either a wealthy or noble patient seeking treatment, or there was only one other possibility.

The Lonely Rogue Person's guess was not a novel line of thinking, but a deduction based on common sense.

Zhang Xuezhou understood that deduction after a moment's thought.

"So you're a friend of my master!"

He replied casually.

Rather than be mistaken for someone else, Zhang Xuezhou felt he could make use of the title of Daoist Priest Kongxu's disciple.

"Please, come in!"

He could not turn away a friend of the Nine-Foot Daoist Temple's master, nor was he capable of stopping him.

"Where's Kongxu?"

Once the wooden bolt on the temple gate was lowered, a middle-aged Daoist priest stood at the entrance with a long sword on his back.

He had phoenix eyes, sparse eyebrows and a ruddy complexion. The three strands of beard he wore added a touch of elegance, giving him an unworldly bearing.

"My master went out yesterday and has yet to return. Perhaps he's tied up with some important business and won't be able to return to the temple anytime soon!"

Zhang Xuezhou gave an honest answer.

As it happened, he had not figured out where the master of the Nine-Foot Daoist Temple had gone either, but the man certainly had not returned all night.

"He's probably caught himself another fat sheep!"

The Lonely Rogue Person pondered for a few seconds, then his face filled with envy.

"Your teacher is far better than the rest of us at swindling people out of their money... at gathering cultivation resources. He must have some important patient in need of treatment to have left in such a hurry!" the Lonely Rogue Person said after a pause.

"Quite right!" Zhang Xuezhou chimed in.

"I made an agreement with him some time ago to trade for that secretly refined Three Insects and Three Flowers Great Pill he has. It's a shame I missed him this time. By the time he comes back, it'll very likely... oh, you seem a little lost. Of course, you haven't entered a realm yet!"

Zhang Xuezhou had done his utmost to make his expression and manner seem natural.

But facing the Lonely Rogue Person, Zhang Xuezhou felt as though everything about him had been seen through.

If the Lonely Rogue Person had not already formed an impression, he felt he would most likely have been exposed on the spot.

The man's eyes were like an eagle's, able to sweep over him from head to toe and examine every tiny detail.

As the man's gaze swept over him, Zhang Xuezhou felt a chill run through his body, and a natural feeling of resistance arose.

"The secretly refined Three Insects and Three Flowers Great Pill is an excellent pill to use alongside cultivation in the Body Control Realm, and it also works wonders against certain special poisons. You haven't even entered the Meridian Circulation Realm yet, so you must know little about these things needed for cultivation," the Lonely Rogue Person said. "Your breath seed isn't weak. It seems Kongxu has given you some costly pills... oh, he's even put the ancient secret text of the 'Yin Yang Great Compassion Nine Heavens Incantation' in your hands!"

The Lonely Rogue Person observed him for a while, looking Zhang Xuezhou up and down before sweeping his gaze over the Nine Heavens Sect's inherited bamboo slips in Zhang Xuezhou's arms.

In the end, he had to conclude that the young man before him was surely Daoist Priest Kongxu's prized disciple. Otherwise, given Zou Bugui's nature, he would hardly have invested so much in training him.

Kongxu is skilled at treating injuries and illnesses, but his teaching leaves something to be desired. His few students lacked ability and died to the last one while roaming the jianghu. Could it be that he left the temple so I could bestow some good fortune on this junior while spending time with him?

The Lonely Rogue Person pondered this, and the realm-entry cultivation method in Zhang Xuezhou's arms made him all the more certain.

That works out well enough. If I come and go often, that old fellow will have to show me some consideration when he sells me goods in the future!

The Lonely Rogue Person squeezed a faint smile onto his face.

He casually found a stone stool in the temple, then began to speak.

This left Zhang Xuezhou somewhat bewildered.

He had been fretting over having a realm-entry method in hand but being unable to get started, with so much specialized terminology he could not understand. In the blink of an eye, a realm cultivator had volunteered to be his teacher and explain it to him.