Training Disciples

"Pfft." Immortal Master Zhang jolted awake from his stupor and suddenly vomited a pool of thick blood, filthy­ing the beautiful marble floor.

He then felt an unbearable pain in his chest. Ignoring even the injury to his right arm, he struggled to his feet, his vision blurred.

"Zhang Gouneng?"

"Who? Who dares address this immortal by name?" Immortal Master Zhang did not seem fully awake yet, and he flew into a rage.

"Fellow Daoist, wake up first." Kang Dabao found it a little funny. Why could other people say such shameless things without thinking, while he could not? Brother, you were only at the First Layer of Qi Refining! Your foundation was like floating duckweed, less stable than those of many cultivators who had just entered the Dao. How could you have the nerve?

"This is... this is Gongxing Stockade!" Zhang Gouneng staggered a few steps and realized he was in the main hall of Gongxing Stockade, with two men standing beside him, their eyes spitting fire.

"Jin Huohua, and his son?" He then saw two youths standing in attendance in the hall, with a man sitting upright between them. The man wore coarse trousers and a hemp robe, had a broad face and a heavy chin, and looked at him with a smile that was not quite a smile.

"Is that you, Sect Leader Kang of the Chongming Sect?" Zhang Gouneng finally came fully to his senses. Still, he forced his injured body to stand with difficulty and bowed.

"I didn't expect you to remember me, Fellow Daoist." Kang Dabao cupped his hands in return.

"Does Fellow Daoist Chen Yu know you came here this time?" Kang Dabao asked with a smile.

"My twenty years of service refining pills for the master have ended. In his kindness, the master gave me travel money and let me return home." Zhang Gouneng's injuries hurt more and more, and his head was not clear. He had never even considered why Kang Dabao would want to reminisce with him here and now.

"Good." The smile on Kang Dabao's face grew wider.

"Sect Leader Kang, I am gravely-"

"Bang."

Before he could finish speaking, Zhang Gouneng's corpse fell to the floor. One of Jin Huohua's iron fists was covered in yellow and white matter. Looking at the corpse, he still could not vent his fury. He ground his teeth, wishing he could eat Zhang Gouneng's flesh raw.

"Thank you, Immortal Master Xie, for helping my Jin Household avenge this great wrong!" Jin Huohua calmed himself and bowed to the floor with Jin Shilun.

"Your son has entered my tutelage, so we are family. It was only right." Kang Dabao treated the matter as nothing of consequence.

"Master, Gongxing Stockade has suffered a great calamity. My father also wants to move our clansmen to the sect. I wonder..." Jin Shilun had lost many close relatives and could not settle his feelings. His eyes were still red.

"That's a small matter. Spend the next few days with your father, and then everyone in the stockade can return to the sect with us." Kang Dabao waved Jin Huohua away and took his three disciples to a secluded guest room.

"On the path of immortal cultivation, first, you must be diligent. Diligence can make up for a lack of talent, and the clumsy bird must start flying early. Second, you must cherish your lives and not be eager to fight. Third, you must be cunning and guard against others setting their sights on you. Fourth, you must be decisive. When circumstances demand urgent action, you should kill; unless necessary, kill only those who can be killed."

After Kang Dabao's speech, his three disciples seemed to understand and yet not understand. All three pairs of eyes were glazed over.

"Today, I'll explain the fourth point to you. Do you know who Zhang Gouneng was?"

"No. When we heard you speak his name just now, Master, we thought he was an old acquaintance of yours." The disciples shook their heads, and Han Yundao answered.

"I wouldn't call him an old acquaintance, though I did meet him quite some time ago. Come to think of it, he was a pitiful man. He was Chen Yu's pill slave in Linghe Market. Zhang Gouneng was originally an impoverished scholar who yearned for the Dao. After a chance encounter with him, Chen Yu discovered he had the aptitude of a Spirit Root and signed a contract with him. It stipulated that Chen Yu would teach him a breathing method, and for twenty years after entering the Dao, he would be at Chen Yu's beck and call. He even willingly let Chen Yu place a restriction on him, giving Chen Yu control over his life and death."

Even as Kang Dabao told the story, he felt that Chen Yu truly was Zhou Bapi reincarnated.

The story was widely known among the cultivators of Pingrong County and made for a rather interesting topic of conversation.

Rumor had it that Zhang Gouneng's Spirit Root was not too poor, though it was a Mixed Spirit Root. Yet in the twenty years he had spent at Chen Yu's beck and call, his cultivation had not advanced an inch, remaining stuck at the First Layer of Qi Refining. Who knew whether he had spent even one full day cultivating in all those years?

An even wilder rumor claimed that Zhang Gouneng had not had a single uninterrupted night's sleep in those twenty years.

It was only because law and order in the Great Wei Immortal Dynasty had fallen into decay in recent years. Four or five hundred years ago, someone who enslaved a cultivator as Chen Yu had would certainly have been branded an Evil Cultivator, then escorted to the Demon Correction Office and sentenced to hard labor.

Now, though, who had the time to care? Even the sky full of aggrieved souls in places like Old Crow Mountain stood there for all to see, yet no one could see them.

Even so, it was a little surprising that Chen Yu had honored the contract, actually letting Zhang Gouneng go with all his limbs intact and even giving him travel money.

In Kang Dabao's place, how would he have dared?

The First Layer of Qi Refining still made him a cultivator! After twenty years of enslavement, let him go home? Who knew what opportunities he might encounter in the rest of his life? Was Chen Yu really not afraid that the river would shift west after thirty years, and Zhang Gouneng would come in the dead of night to take his whole family's heads?

"Since I began cultivating, I have always been cautious in my dealings. What I fear most is making enemies of cultivators with backing. If I really have to fight one, I must do my utmost to take his life. Someone like Zhang Gouneng, though, had little ability, no one to rely on, and scant possessions—not even a first-tier Law Artifact. Today he also made such a bitter enemy of your Jin Household, Shilun, so naturally he could be killed.

"Even so, before killing him, I checked his Storage Bag. He didn't have a single Law Artifact, only five Spirit Stones in total and a few low-grade talismans. He did have a few Pill Formulas, though I don't know whether they were genuine or whether he copied them down during his many years tending the fires. I asked him why he had come here and learned that he had nothing more to do with Chen Yu. I also knew a little about him. Only then did I strike.

"You should do the same when you encounter trouble in the future. When you meet a powerful person or some noble or official's young master, there's no shame in humbling yourselves."

Kang Dabao continued his instruction. The disciples before him wore differing expressions.

Han Yundao was clever and seemed to have his own thoughts after listening, looking pensive;

Duan Anle was honest and simple, and obediently took the lesson to heart;

Jin Shilun came from a martial family and was quite spirited. He admired the notion of repaying kindness and avenging wrongs to his heart's content, of upholding justice as a wandering hero, and he rather disagreed with Kang Dabao's approach.

"Jin Shilun, what do you think?" Seeing this, Kang Dabao called on him.

"Master, your disciple thinks a true man should not fear the powerful and should help those in danger and need," Jin Shilun answered firmly.

"So Zhang Gouneng was wrong to bully the weak."

"Of course he was wrong. That was nothing but a petty villain's behavior."

"Then is Jin Qi a true man?"

"When my second grandfather was twenty, he took up his sword and fought forty-seven Guan River bandits single-handedly, saving nearly a thousand people. He also protected the peace of the stockade for decades. Naturally he is a true man," Jin Shilun answered proudly.

"If Zhang Gouneng had violated someone other than Jin Qi's second wife, or someone outside your Jin Household, would your second grandfather have intervened?" Kang Dabao asked softly.

"This..." Jin Shilun could not answer.

"Jin Qi seems to be over seventy, doesn't he? But his second wife seems to be only nineteen?" Kang Dabao asked with a smile.

"My second grandmother was originally the legitimate daughter of a wealthy family in Gongxing Stockade. She admired my second grandfather because he was a hero of the stockade." Jin Shilun's voice grew a little weaker.

"What do you mean by a 'hero of the stockade'? Someone with great martial skills?" Kang Dabao looked at Jin Shilun teasingly. "Then tell me, if that wealthy family had a choice, would they choose an immortal or Jin Qi?"

"..." Jin Shilun lowered his head without a word.

"There's certainly nothing wrong with 'not fearing the powerful and helping those in danger and need.' The strong can do that, but the weak cannot. Your second grandfather was actually very afraid of a power like Zhang Gouneng. If he'd been smarter and a little more afraid, the Jin Household wouldn't have suffered this calamity today. If Zhang Gouneng had been smarter, he could have wiped out your Jin Household almost without lifting a finger."

Kang Dabao patted Jin Shilun on the shoulder. He rather liked young people with hot blood in their veins, but in the cultivation world, young people had no right to be reckless, especially those without ability.

"What, you don't believe me?" Kang Dabao shook his head, finding Jin Shilun's stubborn expression rather amusing.

"Before you came to our rescue, Master, Zhang Gouneng was already like a lamp with its oil spent," Jin Shilun said, somewhat unconvinced.

"First, he had little ability. Even among Rogue Cultivators, it's rare to find someone like him who doesn't know a single proper Law Technique. Second, he was too poor. Apart from a few low-grade Fireball Talismans and Golden Armor Talismans that few people would buy even at a street stall, he had nothing but a pile of odds and ends, not even a ranked Law Artifact.

"If he'd been even a little better off, I'm afraid few people in your stockade would still be standing. Lastly, he spent twenty years as Chen Yu's pill slave, and it made a fool of him," Kang Dabao said mildly.

"If I were him, once all the stockade's skilled fighters had gathered, a single sentence would have been enough. Why would I need to risk my own life fighting?" Kang Dabao looked at Jin Shilun and said coldly, "Whoever brings me the heads of the Jin Household uncle and nephew, I'll teach him an Immortal Method."

"Boom." Jin Shilun's mind exploded with a bang, and he seemed to see the people of the stockade slaughtering one another.

"Zhang Gouneng spent twenty years as a slave in the cultivation world. He returned to the mortal world so he could do as he pleased, only to be defied by a mortal in the end. The weak don't need face. It's enough to stay alive, whatever it takes. It wasn't that Jin Qi didn't fear the powerful. He simply wasn't clever, too foolish to let go of his face," Kang Dabao said leisurely.

"Master, I don't think that's right!" Han Yundao spoke up at that moment.

"Oh?" Kang Dabao was happy to hear what his disciple thought. "Then tell me."

"If someone wanted to harm Second Martial Uncle or Third Martial Uncle, or Changsheng and Ruyi, would you be afraid too, Master, and refuse to save them?" Han Yundao tilted his head and smiled, but Kang Dabao could not see the slightest bit of charm in it.

"I don't know what you're talking about. In any case, remember this: none of you are allowed to show off when you go out in the future. Keep your little tails between your legs!" Kang Dabao's expression soured. He went into the inner room on his own and shut the door.

"Haha." Outside, Han Yundao and Duan Anle laughed and cackled.

"Senior Brothers..." Jin Shilun had still not fully recovered his senses.

"Master is the best of men. Of course he would save them." Han Yundao did not speak, but Duan Anle answered from beside him, his tone utterly certain.

"Master can't bear to see those closest to him humiliated. As for himself, he takes it in stride; anything goes," Han Yundao added. He then turned to Jin Shilun. "But Master was right. Your second grandfather really was just unable to let go of his pride."

He was only about ten, yet he shook his head and spoke with such solemnity that Jin Shilun stared, not knowing how to argue.

"Mortals are grass. Martial families like your Jin Household are wild chickens and hares, Zhang Gouneng was a jackal, and our Chongming Sect is a slightly stronger jackal. Look up, and above us are lions, tigers, bears, true dragons and true phoenixes, gods and Buddhas filling the sky." Han Yundao pointed at the clear blue sky and smiled at the other two. "But if we get a little stronger, we'll be bullied a little less in the end, right?"

"I'm going to become a Golden Core patriarch and bring glory to my family," Duan Anle suddenly said.

"Then I'll form a Nascent Soul and become sect leader someday!" Not to be outdone, Han Yundao shouted.

"I... I..." The sudden lofty ambitions of his two senior brothers left Jin Shilun struggling to keep up.

"Get out if you're going to make a racket! Golden Core, Nascent Soul-enter the Dao first, damn it!" Kang Dabao's roar came from the inner room, and the two youngsters hurriedly pulled Jin Shilun out of the house.

"Yundao, when I become a patriarch, I'll give Master a female cultivator to be our mistress."

"Hah, then I'll give him ten!"

"All you do is brag! I'm serious. I think that one in Xuanwei City..."

Today I have to drive to school to pick up my sister-in-law. When I get back tonight, I have to go to my father-in-law's for dinner, and there'll be drinking, so I may only have time for one update. Thank you all for your support.