Chapter 58: This Disciple Is Not Honest
Li Yan took note of the term "soul lamp", what was that? Just as he was about to ask about the soul lamp, Lin Daqiao spoke again.
"Little Junior Brother, just up ahead is where we live. I heard that in the past, there used to be many dwellings here.
"But a hundred years ago, some disciples who joined Little Bamboo Peak only wanted access to its cultivation resources. Once they showed a bit of talent, they no longer wished to handle the miscellaneous tasks of Little Bamboo Peak.
"Later on, they each transferred to the other four peaks to specialize in the arts of spirit insects, formations, or pill refining. Master was furious and closed the peak in seclusion, only occasionally accepting disciples since then.
"As a result, the original buildings here became too many. Master later used magic to dismantle seventy to eighty percent of them. Now those places are used to cultivate spiritual plants or for other purposes, leaving only twenty to thirty percent of the dwellings."
Before Li Yan could ask, Lin Daqiao had already slowed his steps and pointed to a cluster of houses up ahead.
Only then did Li Yan realize that, unknowingly, they had arrived in front of a group of buildings. The spiritual energy here was astonishingly rich; the air itself felt vaguely heavy, several times denser than the area they came from down the mountain.
These houses were also entirely made from black bamboo and faintly resembled an independent courtyard.
"Little Junior Brother, there are still more than fifty empty courtyards here. You can choose any one of them. From now on, that courtyard will be your personal residence. Each of these courtyards is about a thousand zhang apart, no one will disturb anyone else."
Li Yan looked around, but could only see this one standalone courtyard. According to Lin Daqiao, the neighboring courtyards were all separated by swaying dark green bamboo.
Green light sparkled and flowed slowly along the black bamboo, preventing anyone outside from seeing what's inside. It all felt tranquil and profound. In some areas, mist lingered above, obscuring the space.
Standing within this quiet bamboo grove, Li Yan couldn't help but feel his heart lighten, as if swaying with the rustling bamboo.
Lin Daqiao's voice broke the silence, snapping Li Yan back to attention.
"Oh, yes, thank you, Seventh Senior Brother," Li Yan quickly responded.
The two of them no longer spoke and began walking through the bamboo forest, occasionally opening a courtyard gate to take a look inside.
About the time it takes to drink a cup of tea later, Li Yan and Lin Daqiao stood inside a courtyard located in a very remote part of the compound, the far northwest corner of the dwelling area.
Although each courtyard was several li apart and the thick bamboo made it hard to see one another, Li Yan still chose a very remote courtyard.
There was no one else living nearby; the right side marked the very edge of the housing area. Outside the courtyard was an endless sea of black bamboo. He was quite fond of the seclusion here.
Li Yan looked around the courtyard with satisfaction and decided he would live here. He thought his Seventh Senior Brother might have a few things to say since it was such a remote location.
But Lin Daqiao showed no surprise at all, which caught Li Yan a bit off guard.
Later, he learned that cultivators generally preferred not to live too close to others. The other four peaks only had tightly packed dwellings because of their large number of disciples. Only disciples at the Foundation Establishment stage and above were eligible to live in independent courtyards like these.
Disciples in the Qi Condensation stage could only live in rows of small, single rooms, a clear distinction between Little Bamboo Peak and the other peaks.
A hundred years ago, Little Bamboo Peak also had large complexes specifically for Qi Condensation disciples, but the peak master Wei later tore them all down, leaving only a few dozen courtyards like this one.
The courtyard Li Yan chose occupied over sixty zhang of land, quite spacious. The walls were made of tightly woven bamboo fencing several zhang high. The buildings were also constructed from black bamboo and included five rooms in total.
The courtyard was open and serene. In the center stood a stone table and four stone stools. Above, the sky was half-covered and half-revealed by bamboo leaves stretching in from outside the wall.
In the southwestern corner of the courtyard, a small spiritual plant garden had been cultivated. It held many blue flowers Li Yan didn't recognize. The flowers stood about a foot tall, with slender green leaves, and emitted a faint orchid-like fragrance, lending the air a quiet, mysterious scent.
While Li Yan was examining the bamboo courtyard, Lin Daqiao reached out for Li Yan's storage pouch. With a tap and a flash of white light, an object appeared in his hand, it was that waist token, seemingly neither metal nor stone.
He chanted an incantation and waved the token. A dark light shot out from it and struck the bamboo fence wall.
Immediately, mist rose from the bamboo wall and began to swirl outward, forming a circular barrier that surrounded the courtyard without letting any of it seep inside. In just a short while, the courtyard was completely shrouded.
Li Yan stared blankly, not knowing what Seventh Senior Brother was doing.
"All right, in a bit, just drip your blood on this waist token to recognize it as your own!"
Seeing Li Yan's dazed expression, Lin Daqiao patted him on the shoulder.
"Every bamboo courtyard has a protective formation. This waist token contains the spells to control that formation. Once you drip your blood and recognize it as yours, you'll be able to control the formation.
"One token can only control one formation. For example, my token also contains the formation control spell, but it only works for the one I activated, the one protecting my courtyard.
"The token also has other uses. It contains recognition patterns for the sect's grand protective formation. Otherwise, if you barged into the sect, the formation would attack on its own.
"Our sect's protective array isn't like other sects', which only have illusion, defense, and direct attack mechanisms. Ours also hides unknown poisonous insects, toxic gases, and mists, that's what's truly terrifying. Even Nascent Soul stage ancestors are wary of it."
At this point, Lin Daqiao seemed to recall something, and his slightly dark skin turned a shade pale.
"Ahem, in short, you must take care of this waist token. If you lose it and need to get a replacement from the Duty Hall, you'll be punished.
"Mm, the protective formations of these bamboo courtyards are ordinary ones. They're meant to keep others from intruding during your cultivation and provide some alertness and defense.
"Their strength is roughly enough to block a full-powered strike from a Foundation Establishment cultivator. That's already quite powerful, such a strike could probably destroy a small mortal town.
"But within this sect, no Foundation Establishment cultivator would be foolish enough to go around attacking someone else's defensive array. It's more than enough.
"Mm, Little Junior Brother, if you ever feel it's not strong enough, you can go find Sixth Senior Sister or the uncles and elders at Four Symbols Peak. They can help you set up a better formation, much more powerful than this."
After briefly introducing the protective formation and the sect's grand array, Lin Daqiao's final words mentioned Sixth Senior Sister, which made Li Yan recall the tall, short-haired, tan-skinned cold beauty. He couldn't help but ask:
"Sixth Senior Sister knows formations too?"
Lin Daqiao patted Li Yan's shoulder again, which made him rather speechless and grumble inwardly.
'We just met, okay? Why do you keep patting me like that?'
"Little Junior Brother, our Little Bamboo Peak is like a general store. Though we handle miscellaneous affairs for the sect, the cultivation methods we learn are also diverse and abundant.
"Senior Sister Six isn't just skilled in formations, her personal strength is also formidable. Even Second Senior Brother is unwilling to spar with her too often.
"In terms of formation talent alone, the uncles and elders of Four Symbols Peak have tried more than once to recruit her over, but she refuses to devote herself to only one path like the other peaks.
"She's afraid that if she goes to Four Symbols Peak, her other cultivation arts will be neglected. Though formations are indeed unpredictable in battle, Senior Sister Six prefers to strengthen herself in multiple aspects."
"Formidable personal strength? Second Senior Brother is the one who really looks like a powerhouse."
Although Li Yan recalled the short-haired beauty and the explosive figure faintly revealed under her robe, he still couldn't imagine her going head-to-head with someone built like a bear, such as Second Senior Brother.
"Little Junior Brother, let's go inside. There's still quite a bit I need to explain to you."
Lin Daqiao clearly didn't want to elaborate further. He walked toward one of the houses, pointing out each one as he went.
"These rooms should be enough for your use, there's a rest room, a training room, a beast-rearing room, a pill refining room, and a sitting room. Unless you have extra hobbies, you won't need to construct more bamboo huts in this courtyard.
"Building additional rooms isn't hard either. Learn it for half a day and you'll get the hang of it. Just pay attention to your materials, not all bamboo is suitable for building.
"Even though this uninhabited courtyard does have some servants who come to sweep and tend to the spiritual plants, they don't come often. You see, there's still a bit of dust. Let me clean it for you."
Lin Daqiao kept talking to himself. Seeing that the courtyard wasn't particularly clean, he swept his robe forward. As if pushed by an invisible hand, the doors of several rooms simultaneously swung open.
Then, he rapidly formed a seal with his hands in front of his chest, shouting lightly:
"Go!"
A flash of white light shot out and instantly turned into several moist whirlwinds, each one swirling into the different rooms, the stone table, and stone stools in the courtyard. The motion was elegant and casual, even a bit ethereal.
A soft "woo woo" sound filled the courtyard. A few breaths later, silence returned.
"All done. Heh heh heh…"
Lin Daqiao clapped his hands and laughed, then walked straight into the central room.
Li Yan looked at the stone table and stools in the yard, and his eyes lit up. The slight dust from earlier had completely vanished, and the surfaces were now even gleaming faintly.
"This is immortal techniques, not just for flying and killing."
Li Yan's curiosity about immortal techniques grew even stronger. He turned his head to see Lin Daqiao stepping into the central room, so he hurried to follow.
The room was five or six zhang wide and felt spacious. There was a bamboo table with a tea set on it, several tall bamboo chairs, and the four walls were a pale bluish-white, with no decorations hanging. Two wide bamboo windows opened outward. The furnishings were extremely simple.
"This is the sitting room. The other rooms are similarly simple, mainly a bed, a meditation mat, and such. We cultivators don't care much for material things, especially Master, who particularly dislikes anything extravagant."
As he spoke, Lin Daqiao casually pulled out a chair and sat down.
Meanwhile, several dozen li away in another bamboo courtyard within the same bamboo forest, a young man and woman were speaking in a room.
"This new disciple of yours isn't honest. He's very cautious in his words and actions. He gave credit for killing that military advisor mostly to that so-called Marshal and his junior brother. I asked a few questions on purpose, and it was obvious he thought before answering."
A beautiful woman in white palace robes looked at the plump young man. Her large eyes sparkled mischievously.
This pair of young man and woman was none other than the Master and Mistress whom Li Yan had just recently bowed to.
"Sigh, yes. According to the findings of the disciples from Spirit Insect Peak, as well as investigations from our subordinate sects into his background, it's almost certain that he was the one who set the trap. Even the final strike was likely delivered by him.
"But today, he didn't tell the truth and attributed everything to others. For a mere mortal youth to harbor such thoughts, well, I suppose it must be tied to his past experiences. He already carries a deep distrust and wariness toward others."
Wei Chongran shook his head helplessly.
"Then what about the things he said regarding his cultivation? How much of it is true? Is he hiding something or is it all lies?"
The woman blinked her beautiful eyes and looked at her husband.
"Most likely he held things back, maybe even made most of it up. But does it matter?
"It's been hundreds of millions of years, and generation after generation of our sect has studied this kind of constitution without ever uncovering the true cause of its formation.
"If we used a Soul Searching technique, we could extract some information from his mind, but that's not the outcome I want. Everyone has their own fate.
"He's just a mortal boy who fought for a sliver of survival with his life, why should that be taken from him?
"That's why I accepted him. Otherwise, his ending could have been very tragic. Once he starts to feel a sense of belonging to the sect, I believe he'll eventually open up."
At this point, a bitter smile curled on his lips.
"Zhi Mei, perhaps I'm not suited for cultivation. Master entrusted me with the entire Little Bamboo Peak, and I've ended up managing it like this. After seeing the hardships that boy's gone through, I actually felt pity.
"Cultivation, immortality, perhaps I'll never be able to sever my mortal attachments. Maybe I'll never form a Nascent Soul in this lifetime."
A soft, white hand slowly reached out and clasped his chubby hand.
"This is exactly why I love you, because you have feelings, because you have your own principles."
The woman's eyes shimmered with tenderness, and in the next moment, she gave a light humph, like a playful young girl.
"Hmph, and don't forget, you weren't some goody-two-shoes back then either. You and your senior sister at the time…"
She propped her chin with her other jade-like hand, seeming to fall into memory for a moment.
(Chapter End)