Were You Born in the Year of the Turtle?

"Ugh..." Early the next morning, Yi Xuan was sleeping with his head on the bedside when Shi Zhenghao's groan startled him awake.

Seeing that his senior brother had awakened, Yi Xuan hurriedly took his hand and sent the True Qi in his own body into Shi Zhenghao's.

Feeling the True Qi from the same source enter his body, Shi Zhenghao opened his eyes. Looking at Yi Xuan, who was concentrating on sending him True Qi, he said weakly, "Th-that's enough. I could heal myself faster than you can with that little bit of True Qi."

Hearing his senior brother's words, Yi Xuan cut off the flow of True Qi and said crossly, "You're at death's door and still complaining that the doctor's ugly? I shouldn't have saved you. It would've been better to leave you lying in that alley outside for the sect's enforcement team to find!"

"Say, if I really had left you alone and the enforcement team handed you over to Elder Wang, what do you think he would've done to you?" Yi Xuan asked with a wicked grin.

"Cough, cough... cough, cough! I don't know what he'd think, but his wife would definitely feel sorry for me. Hahaha, cough, cough, cough... cough, cough!" Shi Zhenghao said, laughing and coughing at the same time.

The Elder Wang they were talking about was the elder whose wife Shi Zhenghao had slept with back then. After all these years, if anyone in the sect hated Shi Zhenghao most, it had to be that elder.

Unfortunately, Elder Wang also knew that the enforcement elder had used him as a weapon, but even knowing that Shi Zhenghao had acted without meaning to, he couldn't possibly forgive him for something like that.

As for the enforcement elder, Elder Wang wanted nothing more than to eat his flesh and sleep on his skin, but the man's strength spoke for itself. Never mind the other elders-even compared with Yi Xuan's master, the sect leader, he was not the least bit inferior.

Half a year ago, the enforcement elder had even advanced to the Nascent Soul Realm, so Elder Wang had completely given up on doing anything to him.

Yi Xuan helped Shi Zhenghao sit cross-legged, then watched him circulate his cultivation to heal. An hour later, Shi Zhenghao spat out a mouthful of black blood, and a trace of color visibly returned to his pale face.

"How is it? Feeling better?" Yi Xuan asked with concern.

"Ah..." Shi Zhenghao let out a long sigh and nodded. "Much better than last night. That old bastard was ruthless. If I hadn't run fast enough, you might never have seen me again!"

"What happened? Who on earth did you offend?" Yi Xuan asked, somewhat curious.

Although Yi Xuan didn't know how strong his senior brother was now, he guessed that unless he had run into an expert above the Golden Core Realm, no cultivator below that realm could have injured him so badly.

"Golden Core?" Yi Xuan asked.

Shi Zhenghao nodded. "That's right! Remember the blank soul I gave you a few months ago?"

Yi Xuan nodded. How could he possibly forget it? It was only thanks to the blank soul Shi Zhenghao had given him that automated production was possible in the secret chamber beneath their feet.

"Didn't I tell you then that I got that soul from an Evil Cultivator?"

"Yeah!" Yi Xuan nodded. "I remember you said you killed that Evil Cultivator too, right? Then how did someone get on your trail? Was it some romantic debt you ran up?"

Shi Zhenghao shook his head with a bitter smile. "How could it be a romantic debt? The Evil Cultivator I killed bore a tracking mark unique to his sect. When he died, the mark transferred to his killer, and it can be sensed even from a thousand li away."

"Because of that mark, the Evil Cultivator's master, an old bastard at the Golden Core Realm, found me!"

After hearing Shi Zhenghao's explanation, Yi Xuan smiled. "Not bad! You actually managed to escape from a Golden Core True Person. Looks like you've gotten stronger, senior brother!"

Shi Zhenghao gave a bitter smile. "How could that be? You can't imagine how completely a Golden Core True Person can suppress a cultivator who hasn't reached the Golden Core Realm. I exchanged only three moves with that old bastard before he beat me until I spat blood."

"Then how did you get back?" Although Yi Xuan couldn't comprehend how powerful a Golden Core cultivator was, he could still sense the danger Shi Zhenghao had been in from his description.

"It was a Greater Teleportation Talisman that Master gave me when I left the sect more than ten years ago that saved me. In the heat of the moment, I couldn't think of any safe place to teleport to except your place, so the Greater Teleportation Talisman sent me straight to the alley where your courtyard was."

"Master, I've brought what you asked for!" While the two were talking, Liang Shi pushed the door open and entered.

Seeing a stranger come in, Shi Zhenghao forced himself to get up and leave, and Yi Xuan had a hard time stopping him.

"Don't worry, he's not an outsider. This is my new disciple!" Yi Xuan pulled Liang Shi over to the bed and introduced him to Shi Zhenghao.

Shi Zhenghao looked Liang Shi over, then shook his head. "What's going on with you two, master and disciple? The master is a Rootless Person, and the disciple's aptitude is terrible too. His Spirit Root was just a little short of falling to third grade, leaving him no hope of entering the immortal path!"

Liang Shi was very displeased by Shi Zhenghao's words. He could criticize Liang Shi, but Liang Shi absolutely would not allow him to mock his master.

"You're not much better than the two of us. Wasn't it my master who saved you?"

At Liang Shi's words, Shi Zhenghao's eyes flashed, and he stared fixedly at Liang Shi. Made uncomfortable all over by his stare, Liang Shi straightened up and said, "What are you looking at? Am I wrong?"

Shi Zhenghao turned to Yi Xuan and laughed. "Now I know why you took him as your disciple! This disciple of yours is good!"

"As if I needed you to tell me!" Yi Xuan said, taking the bottle containing the Origin Returning Pill from Liang Shi.

Yi Xuan placed the bottle in Shi Zhenghao's hand and stood up. "All right, this is an Origin Returning Pill. It should help with your injuries! Now that you're here, you're within the sect's territory. No matter how strong that Evil Cultivator is, he wouldn't dare come into the sect's territory and run wild!"

"Oh, right! Liang Shi!" Yi Xuan turned to look at Liang Shi. "Your martial uncle will be recuperating here with me for the next few days. Stop your lessons for now and go back and consolidate what you've learned on your own. You can resume your lessons once your martial uncle has fully recovered!"

Liang Shi nodded, pushed the door open, and left.

Another half month passed. Although Shi Zhenghao's injuries had not fully healed, he had mostly recovered.

At this moment, he was sitting with Yi Xuan at the stone table in the little courtyard, the two raising their cups and drinking together.

Yi Xuan looked at his senior brother, who was making himself more and more at home in Yi Xuan's house, and said, "When are you planning to leave? Or are you going to wait until Master comes out of seclusion?"

But Shi Zhenghao shook his head. "Leave? I wanted to leave ages ago, but that old dog outside must still be waiting for me. If I go out, I'm as good as dead. Looks like I'll just have to stay here with you for the long haul. Once I break through to the Golden Core Realm, I'll go out and kill him!"

Yi Xuan shook his head at those words. "Isn't he just a Golden Core cultivator? Look how scared you are—you don't even dare go outside! Were you born in the Year of the Turtle?"