What’s it like to be surrounded by a bunch of noisy kids? And what if there’s more than just one or two? Yan Zihui, trapped in such a situation, was having a headache.
Could someone come and take these brats away, please?!
In the brief moment when Yan Zihui was distracted, the mischievous quartet quickly climbed onto the windowsill, strutted to the spacious couch, and made themselves comfortable. Next, the number one foodie among them, Lu Yaoyao, skillfully brought out an assortment of snacks and arranged the array of dishes on the small tea table in front of them.
Wen Zixing even patted the spot they had deliberately left for Yan Zihui and enthusiastically called out, “Senior Brother, come sit with us!”
With a deadpan expression, Yan Zihui walked over, trying to play dumb. “What story? Your senior brother doesn’t know how to tell stories. It’s late, so you should all go back and rest.”
“Didn’t you say we should go out early tomorrow morning?” he added.
Lu Yaoyao was quick with a reply, “It’s fine! We cultivators can easily go without sleep for a day or two.””
Chao Muxue, with an innocent look on her face, chimed in, “Senior Brother, we can’t go to bed without hearing a story.”
Yan Zihui: “…” What are they, toddlers?
“Senior Brother, you brought it up first! Now that our interests are piqued, we won’t get a wink of sleep until we hear the whole story.”
Yan Zihui shot them a glare. Was this supposed to be his fault now?
Lu Yaoyao urged, “Senior Brother, come on, tell us! You say there’s a bad relationship between Guiyuan Sect and Moxuan City, isn’t it? This is also a kind of experience. Even if you don’t tell us now, we’ll find out eventually. Since we’ll know sooner or later, why not let us hear it from you first?”
With four pairs of eager, curious eyes staring expectantly at him, Yan Zihui sighed in resignation. “You really got me this time.” He walked over to the couch and sat down. “Actually, there’s not much to it, but maybe it will be good for you to learn about this matter, especially you, Yaoyao.”
Lu Yaoyao tilted her head. Could it be another one of her father’s rotten peach blossoms?1
“The city lord of Moxuan City was once Martial Uncle Mo’s fiancée. To be fair, our Guiyuan Sect was at fault in this matter…”
Martial Uncle Mo… that’s Master! Hmm, at least it isn’t Father—… wait, what? Her master?
Lu Yaoyao blinked in confusion. “Did Master let her down?”
“In a way, yes.” Yan Zihui rubbed his nose, feeling a bit uncomfortable gossiping about the romantic affairs of his elders. He cleared his throat twice before continuing.
“But my master doesn’t have a Dao companion?” Lu Yaoyao was perplexed. She’d been Master’s personal disciple for a few years now, and surely she would know if the Master had a Dao companion.
Could it be that the city lord of Moxuan City was really her Master’s wife?
Chao Muxue speculated, “Could it have been a misunderstanding?”
Yan Zihui shook his head. “It wasn’t a misunderstanding. Here’s the story: The former city lord of Moxuan City was a close friend of our sect’s late elder, who was also Martial Uncle Mo’s master. Eventually, they made a pact to betroth the former city lord’s daughter to Martial Uncle Mo when they were both children, so they would become a Dao couple in the future.”
“But from the moment Martial Uncle Mo became aware of it, he was always very opposed to the engagement, while the other party was very fond of him. Anyway, some things happened in between, and in the end, Moxuan City and our sect had a falling out, and the engagement was called off.”
Chao Muxue frowned. “I never thought Martial Uncle Mo was the type to break an innocent woman’s heart…”
Wen Zixing chimed in, “I don’t think it’s all Martial Uncle Mo’s fault. The way Senior Brother is telling it so vaguely, there must be more to the story.”
With just those few sentences, all they learned was that Martial Uncle Mo and the other party were once engaged, and that the engagement was eventually broken off, leading to a fallout between the two sides. The exact reasons weren’t clear at all.
Lu Yaoyao suddenly found that her snack didn’t taste so good anymore. She put them down and nervously fidgeted with her fingers. “I’m not trying to be biased toward Master, but is there some kind of misunderstanding here? Master doesn’t seem like an irresponsible person…”
Yan Zihui nodded, then shook his head. “The woman’s personality wasn’t the type that Martial Uncle Mo liked. I’ve heard some things from the elders in private. You can take it with a grain of salt, but don’t talk about it later, since our side wasn’t entirely blameless. The woman was the only daughter of the former city lord of Moxuan City. She was doted on her whole life, which made her quite spoiled…”
“Martial Uncle Mo couldn’t stand her behavior from a young age and refused to honor the engagement. He insisted on canceling it. At the same time, Martial Uncle Mo had a female friend he was close to. The woman believed Martial Uncle Mo had fallen for that female friend, so she killed the person.”
“In reality, that female friend was just a friend. She was close with Martial Uncle Mo because they studied the same subject and often exchanged ideas about alchemy, so they met frequently. But she was harmed without reason. Obviously, Martial Uncle Mo was furious. He nearly killed the current city lord, but the former city lord and the late elder stopped him… A life was lost, and the engagement was ultimately called off. Martial Uncle Mo has always felt guilty for causing his friend’s death and lost interest in relationships, dedicating himself solely to the pursuit of the Dao.”
Lu Yaoyao’s eyes widened in shock. Was the woman really that terrible? To the point of taking an innocent life!
“Then canceling the engagement was the right thing to do! Our sect couldn’t possibly marry someone so cruel, right?” Wen Zixing said. As he thought, there was more to the story! How could Moxuan City still have the audacity to resent the Guiyuan Sect?
Yan Zihui shook his head. “You can’t just look at things one-sidedly. Our sect was also at fault in this matter. The engagement was a valid marriage contract arranged with the consent of both elders, and the woman had believed in it since childhood. But Martial Uncle Mo, after deciding he didn’t like her, refused to honor the engagement. In that sense, we wronged them.”
“At first, the two of them argued constantly, but Martial Uncle Mo’s master thought it was just typical lovers’ quarrels. He didn’t take Martial Uncle Mo’s protests seriously and refused to cancel the engagement. It wasn’t until someone died that he finally relented… Because of this, the late elder was deeply saddened. He lost a close friendship of several centuries, caused the death of his disciple’s friend, and ultimately grew estranged from his disciple. His regret led to heart demons… and eventually, his demise.”2[/efn_note]
Yan Zihui sighed. “The late elder believed it was all his fault. If he hadn’t arranged the betrothal in the first place, or if he had agreed to cancel it when Martial Uncle Mo first resisted, perhaps the tragedy could have been avoided.”
Lu Yaoyao sighed as well. To think that Master has such a past…
Du Qianshan commented, “If one side was so opposed, canceling the engagement was better for both of them. Otherwise, if they are really forced to marry, wouldn’t it just create more resentment?”
“It’s also our sect’s responsibility for not handling it properly in time,” Yan Zihui admitted. “Because things were dragged out, it ended up involving an innocent third party, eventually leading to a preventable tragedy.”
“In the eyes of the former city lord and his daughter, it was Martial Uncle Mo and our sect who wronged them, which is why they’re so hostile toward our disciples. Especially after the daughter took over as the new city lord, she’s been even more openly antagonistic.”
“But our sect also acknowledges our part of the blame in the matter, so we tolerate Moxuan City to some extent. Of course, we have our bottom line, and Moxuan City knows where the line is. They’ve never harmed our disciples but have driven out all known Guiyuan Sect forces within Moxuan City and occasionally made things difficult for our disciples they encounter outside.”
Lu Yaoyao was silent for a while. How was one supposed to make sense of this? Regardless of the circumstances, if the woman was upset with Master, she should direct her anger at him instead of harming an innocent life! Master wasn’t entirely blameless either—since he didn’t want to continue with the engagement, he should have resolved it sooner, instead of dragging things off and allowing an innocent person to get caught in the crossfire.
Seeing the complex expression on Lu Yaoyao’s face, Yan Zihui gently patted her head. “Don’t be too disappointed in your Master. He’s had his share of hardships, too.” Martial Uncle Mo never expected the woman would be so ruthless. He lost a close friend and, not long after, his own master as well.
Wen Zixing sighed. “This just seems like a series of unfortunate coincidences.”
“Speaking of which—” Yan Zihui chuckled, “Offsprings of powerful cultivators are typically raised with excessive pampering, so they tend to develop quite spoiled tempers.”
That was the case for many disciples who hailed from influential cultivation clans—their temperaments were far from pleasant. The foremost example was that infamous young master of the Wentian Sect
Lu Yaoyao hesitated, then weakly protested, “I’m not like that…”
Yan Zihui quickly added, “Of course not. Our Yaoyao is sensible, considerate, and adorable. You’d never be spoiled!”
“And Senior Brother, you’re not spoiled either!” Lu Yaoyao blinked. Senior Brother Zihui was also a descendant of a powerful elder, and yet he had such a great personality! It goes to show that having a bad temper doesn’t necessarily come from being spoiled.
“That’s why our sect is the best,” Wen Zixing remarked sincerely, glancing at the two ‘silver spoon babies’ in their group.
“Storytime’s over. Time for you all to go rest,” Yan Zihui said, shooing them away.
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Translator’s Note:
Sorry for the late update >_<
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- Peach blossom: euphemism for romance. Rotten peach blossom, as you might guess, means bad entanglement.
- Sometimes translated as either ‘heart demon’ or ‘inner demon,’ it has nothing to do with the race of demon or devil but instead the manifestation of the cultivator’s negative emotions and other mental barriers that hinder their training/cultivation. In some cases, heart demons can even attack the cultivators from the inside, and failure to adequately resist them may result in Qi Deviation.
I don’t really feel that Lu Yaoyao’s master was at fault that much, since he clearly rejected the marriage and stated his stance, but at the same time, marriages are usually made by the elders in the family and are supposed to be honored.
He should have used a different approach to explain his desire to not honor the engagement with both reason and emotion, so that both parties can clearly understand the cons of forcing such a marriage. If anything, though, his master was the one truly at fault because he disregarded his disciple’s views on the matter and didn’t take the matter seriously until after someone was killed.
Thanks for the chapter! 😀