Chapter 122: Little Martial Uncle: Who Was Chu Huaixu?

Inside the Purple Bamboo Forest, it looked as if the people had split into two groups.

Little Martial Uncle and the Second Elder were in one group, and the others were in the other.

Everyone exchanged glances, each more baffled than the last.

Little Martial Uncle had actually asked... who was Chu Huaixu?

Li Chunsong reacted immediately.

He spoke up at once, “Little Martial Uncle, Chu Huaixu is that youth you told me to bring up the mountain. Didn’t you ask his name?”

“He is called Chu Huaixu — the Sword Attendant you fetched.”

“The other girl was called Han Shuangjiang,” he added as a bit of “popular science.”

Jiang Zhi, dressed entirely in white, looked at Li Chunsong with a very strange expression.

“I know Han Shuangjiang,” he said.

“But the Chu Huaixu you described was a short-statured youth, only this tall,” he even gestured a little.

“And he had a somewhat masculine body with a feminine appearance, looking like a girl disguising herself as a boy.”

“How odd. Wasn’t he called Xu Ziqing? Why would he give himself a false name after coming up the mountain?” Jiang Zhi began to analyze as well.

But the more he spoke, the stranger the expressions on Xiang Yan and the others became, and Chu Yinyin actually exclaimed aloud, “What! Xu Ziqing?”

“Yes, Little Junior Sister, his real name was Xu Ziqing.” The Second Elder who had accompanied Little Martial Uncle down the mountain answered.

Chu Yinyin’s big eyes went wide. She shouted loudly, “You are mistaken! Xu Ziqing didn’t invent a false name.”

“Chu Huaixu was Chu Huaixu, Xu Ziqing was Xu Ziqing — they were two different people!”

Xiang Yan and the others’ faces turned very ugly.

They felt as if a thunderclap had just exploded inside their heads.

So Xu Ziqing was the person Little Martial Uncle had looked for at the foot of the mountain?

That truth was far more unexpected than anyone had imagined.

But upon thinking carefully, many of the strange incidents on the mountain recently suddenly made sense!

No wonder Xu Ziqing could take that sword.

Because he himself had been a Sword Attendant!

No wonder Chu Huaixu had missed the sword — because he had never been the chosen one!

Then the question arose.

“Why was the person who had been fetched up the mountain Chu Huaixu?”

That thought arose simultaneously in the hearts of Xiang Yan and the others.

Then everyone’s gazes turned in unison to Li Chunsong.

The face of this dead-bet dog went pale in an instant; he suddenly felt his throat go dry and swallowed.

The man in white, Little Martial Uncle, shifted his aura at once.

The legendary killing prodigy stared fixedly at Li Chunsong. He did not call the Sixth Elder by name, but said, “Six, I think you need to give me an explanation.”

The dead-bet dog swallowed again.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but did not know where to begin.

“Little Martial Uncle, I... I think I fetched the wrong person,” Li Chunsong said cautiously.

“What!?” Jiang Zhi’s tone immediately rose a few degrees.

“You can’t even handle such a small matter!” The Dao Gate’s Little Martial Uncle instantly flew into a rage.

Don’t be fooled by his normally cultivated demeanor — that was an act because he was old.

Someone who proved the Dao through killing had the most explosive temper in his youth!

“Then where was Xu Ziqing?” Jiang Zhi demanded immediately.

Knowing he had made a big mistake, Li Chunsong hurried to explain:

“Little Martial Uncle, rest assured, Xu Ziqing was also on the mountain and had joined Dao Gate.”

He scrambled to patch things up for himself, “Actually, I didn’t bring anyone back wrongly! I didn’t bring the wrong person! Rather, there was one extra — yes yes yes, there was just one extra!”

From another perspective: you sent me to fetch two geniuses back to the sect, and by happenstance it became three — profit!

But Li Chunsong also knew he was in the wrong, so he quickly added, “But I will still go to the Enforcement Court to accept punishment. Big Senior Brother, please punish me severely! Don’t talk about face!”

He immediately cast a pleading look toward Enforcement Elder Lu Pan.

He would rather endure the thunder-whip at the Enforcement Court than be dragged by Little Martial Uncle into special training.

A single remark of “let me see whether you have improved these years” would open a nightmare lasting several days.

“You bungled this job; I will certainly punish you severely!” Lu Pan immediately understood and snorted coldly.

Jiang Zhi had lived to his age; he was not unaware of such small tricks.

But he said nothing further, because now was not the time for settling accounts.

He asked at once, “Then tell me, you brought Han Shuangjiang and that Chu Huaixu up the mountain — how did Xu Ziqing enter Dao Gate?”

After all, he was only a mere False Spirit Embryo.

Hearing this, Li Chunsong bowed his head slightly; his face flushed somewhat, part reluctant to answer and part embarrassed.

“Well... ahem! He entered Dao Gate in the capacity of a menial.”

He wanted to find a hole to crawl into.

He had been sent to fetch the prophesied Savior of the Dao Ancestor, but instead he had fetched the wrong person and made him a menial.

“Whose menial? Which steward’s?”

“Chu Huaixu’s...” his voice grew ever softer as he spoke.

“Why him again!” Jiang Zhi’s tone cooled.

He took a deep breath, feeling that all the arrangements had gone awry.

And how could an ordinary disciple already have a menial upon first entering the sect?

But this was obviously not the time to pursue such trivial details.

“So Xu Ziqing was still serving as a menial and hadn’t begun cultivation?”

“No, if he were merely a menial, why would you know his name, why would you pay attention to a lowly menial?”

Li Chunsong hurriedly replied, “He did cultivate — he only entered Dao Gate initially as a menial, but he very quickly became a Registered Disciple.”

“How could a menial suddenly become a Registered Disciple?” Little Martial Uncle frowned again, feeling that everything was odd.

“Chu Huaixu recommended him to me,” Li Chunsong answered instantly.

He felt a slight relief inwardly; Chu Huaixu had saved half his life.

If the Heaven’s Mandated One had still been doing chores, he would truly be dead meat!

Little Martial Uncle would have dealt with him mercilessly.

“Why him again!” Jiang Zhi muttered under his breath.

“Why did he recommend him?”

“Because he discovered Xu Ziqing’s talent and said his comprehension was extremely high,” the dead-bet dog said.

Jiang Zhi’s brows loosened a little.

That reason was barely reasonable.

Only he still felt something was amiss.

“Enough. Since he did enter my Dao Gate and was cultivating normally, I will not pursue this with you for now.”

Li Chunsong breathed a sigh of relief.

Little Martial Uncle immediately asked, “Given Xu Ziqing’s cultivation speed, he should be close to all nine apertures being open by now, right?”

At this he regained some pride, returning to his previous look of divine calculation and confident certainty, and he said, “I deliberately left behind a copy of the ‘Sword Refining Art.’”

“This foundational stage technique, though somewhat unorthodox, was highly compatible with a False Spirit Embryo like Xu Ziqing, and could make up for some of his slow cultivation shortcomings.”

“Although it certainly couldn’t catch him up to Han Shuangjiang, it wouldn’t be much slower than an ordinary Dao Gate disciple.”

“If he had cultivated other foundational phase techniques, I think he would at most have opened three or four apertures by now.”

The situation remained under his control; he had not even asked whether Xu Ziqing had chosen the ‘Sword Refining Art.’

Because he firmly believed the child would pick the only jade slip with the character for ‘sword’ among the bunch.

If he had voiced the question, it would make himself seem less clever.

He enjoyed putting on airs of mystery.

This was why Xiang Yan and the others had always said: Little Martial Uncle was still reliable in important matters.

In truth, that was precisely proof that he was unreliable in daily ones!

However, after Little Martial Uncle finished speaking, he noticed the others’ expressions had turned somewhat strange again.

Jiang Zhi raised an eyebrow slightly, and a very bad premonition rose in his heart.

“Could it be, he didn’t cultivate the ‘Sword Refining Art’?” he demanded sharply.

Wouldn’t that throw the whole plan into chaos?

“Without external aid, how long would Xu Ziqing have to train?”

“By the time the first layer of the Origin Spirit Realm opened, he still might not have all nine apertures cleared!”

Xiang Yan gave a light cough and said, “Little Martial Uncle, your foresight was truly divine. Xu Ziqing did cultivate the ‘Sword Refining Art.’”

Jiang Zhi, clad in white robes, gave a light snort; the anxiety vanished from his face in an instant, and he once again regained his air of wisdom and confidence, as if he had picked up the pearl of foresight he had dropped.

“I naturally knew he would walk along the path I laid out for him.”

“But why do you all wear such expressions?”

Xiang Yan replied, “Because his cultivation speed was just a bit faster than what you predicted.”

“Hm? He already cleared all nine apertures? Impossible!” The Dao Gate’s Little Martial Uncle did not believe his estimates could be wrong.

“Could it be that he encountered some chance in the Outer Sect, entered an inheritance secret realm?”

“But no, that can’t be.”

“The Outer Sect has very few secret realms, and for mere foundational disciples, the number they can break into is fewer still.”

“The First Realm was considered the true entry into cultivation. Almost no secret realm was ever designed for those at the foundational stage,” he said.

“For him, a mere False Spirit Embryo, to cultivate far beyond my predictions... could it be...”

Little Martial Uncle immediately fixed his gaze on Li Chunsong again, feeling he had ruined things once more. He said, “Did you believe that Chu Huaixu was the Heaven’s Mandated One, and so you did not interfere in his cultivation, but provided Xu Ziqing with aid instead?”

“He must have taken Spiritual Pills!” he concluded in analysis.

“We did not,” Li Chunsong spoke at once.

“From your tone, it sounds like he did take Spiritual Pills? Who gave them!” Jiang Zhi interrogated.

“According to Xu Ziqing... it was Chu Huaixu,” Li Chunsong answered.

The Dao Gate’s Little Martial Uncle’s expression shifted instantly again.

Why was it Chu Huaixu yet again!!

“What pills were given to him?” he pressed.

“There was soaking in Body Tempering Medicine Liquid, taking various first-grade Spiritual Pills, and even... even one Xuantian Embryo Breathing Pill.” Li Chunsong gritted his teeth and confessed it all, not daring to hide anything.

Hearing this, Jiang Zhi flared up instantly, grinding his teeth as he said each word:

“Xuan! Tian! Embryo! Breathing! Pill!”

“So he had his fate forcibly altered, his Spirit Embryo improved in quality?”

“How dare he!”

“And moreover, how could an Outer Sect disciple have obtained a Xuantian Embryo Breathing Pill, and still be so generous, giving away such a treasure to another!” His tone rose again.

Chu Yinyin knew it was her turn.

She carried her own burden, so she immediately replied, “Little Martial Uncle, it was my gift to him upon becoming his master.”

The Dao Gate’s Second Elder, who had been standing nearby in shock all along, was suddenly dumbstruck as well.

“What? How did it involve me too!” he muttered inwardly.

After all, as the Dao Gate’s only Pill Refining Grandmaster among the elders, the pill Chu Yinyin had given had actually come from him.

Why did it seem like everyone was somehow entangled in this mess?

I wasn’t even on the mountain at the time...

Link after link, one after another, it was absurd!

The man with the storyteller’s air immediately turned his head to glare at the Dao Gate’s Second Elder.

Because when chatting idly in 【Red Sleeves Beckon】, they had spoken of the Xuantian Embryo Breathing Pill, and he knew it was he who had given it to Chu Yinyin.

“Gift upon becoming a disciple?” Jiang Zhi seized upon the key phrase. “How could an Outer Sect disciple acknowledge you as master, how could he enter the Gentleman Temple? Every day you lot only break rules!”

Chu Yinyin felt deeply wronged, and quickly raised her voice to defend herself: “What nonsense! I never said I was taking him as a disciple right away — I didn’t even allow him to call me Second Master!”

As soon as she spoke, the thin Daoist nun sitting on a giant rock gave a soft sigh.

She knew it was her turn now.

Sure enough, Jiang Zhi immediately asked, “A future Second Master? Then who is to be his future First Master?”

The words had barely fallen when a voice floated over from behind him.

“It... it was me,” Shen Man said haltingly.

But her tone, as always, was calm.

Jiang Zhi, upon hearing this, was so furious he laughed.

“Good! Very good! Excellent! So this inexplicable Chu Huaixu has even become my future grand-disciple!”

Wonderful. Just wonderful. I have a share too, I have a share!

Li Chunsong’s mind was clear as a mirror; he felt the conversation had collapsed.

At first, everyone had thought to rely on Chu Yinyin to divert the fire. But the way things had developed was utterly contrary to their expectations! Too absurd!

It turned out everything had been wrong from the root!

And yet, for some reason, every mistake seemed, by sheer coincidence... to have been patched over?

But this misunderstanding had grown far too large!

He personally guessed that merely going to the Enforcement Court for punishment would no longer be enough...

Sure enough, Little Martial Uncle chose him as the first scapegoat.

He heard Jiang Zhi loudly demand, “Li Chunsong, oh Li Chunsong, how could you not even get the right person? Did you never ask that Chu Huaixu whether he had seen me?”

The dead-bet dog felt his mind explode as if something had gone off inside his head, leaving him buzzing.

In that instant, it was as if a spark of lightning flashed across his mind.

He suddenly recalled an earlier scene, one moment from that day.

On that rainy night, he had gone to Biyou Terrace in the Wumeng Mountains, and brought Chu Huaixu and Han Shuangjiang up the mountain.

The three had landed on Medicine Mountain. He had warned Chu Huaixu and Han Shuangjiang to bury the matter of meeting a storyteller at the foot of the mountain in their stomachs, never to mention it to anyone.

Han Shuangjiang had answered, “Yes, disciple obeys.”

But Chu Huaixu’s reply at the time had made him think the boy was sharp-tongued and amusing.

What he had said was:

“Disciple has never met any storyteller.”

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