Chapter 35: Roar

“Yes, I came to apologize, and I am very sincere.” Pei Mingshan^[1] pulled a storage bag from his sleeve. “Little Grand-Uncle Master, why not take a look at my sincerity?”

Wen Xu laughed outright at this. “Pei Mingshan, you are not a disciple of Yonglu Mountain.”

Pei Mingshan’s hand paused, but he proved surprisingly adaptable. “Are you truly not going to look?”

“If your sincerity is limited to this, then Yonglu Mountain does not welcome you. As for your apology, it shouldn’t be directed only at me. Forgive me, but I cannot accept it.”

Wen Xu was probably too angry to think straight, and a sudden doubt cropped up in his mind. Was this person here to apologize or to make an enemy? He had met devious people before, but this was the first time he had encountered someone so utterly unpredictable.

A faint handprint was still visible on Pei Mingshan’s face. He had left it there on purpose, but unfortunately, he only remembered after climbing the mountain that this Little Grand-Uncle Master of Yonglu Mountain was blind. It was quite literally throwing glances at a blind man^[2].

How could he be blind?

But if he was faking it, what would be the point? Although this newly minted Little Grand-Uncle Master of Yonglu Mountain came from the Mortal Realm, his talent was peerless, and he enjoyed the Divine Venerable’s favor. There was absolutely no need for him to fake blindness.

But what kind of cultivator would have blindness that couldn’t be healed?

Pei Mingshan was a clever man, and clever men loved to overthink. The reason Venerable Chengwei was so feared was partly due to his Integration Stage cultivation, and partly due to his innate ability to see through human hearts.

Before this, Venerable Chengwei had lived in seclusion for over two hundred years. He hadn’t taken a disciple earlier or later, yet he chose this exact moment to take in a blind disciple with a Wind Spiritual Root. It was hard for Pei Mingshan not to suspect that Wen Xu might possess the talent to divine heavenly fate.

This would explain the Divine Venerable’s sudden decision to emerge from seclusion and take a disciple.

“So that’s why. I have already sent apologies to the other two senior brothers as well. To be honest, I now realize my mistake.” Pei Mingshan suddenly began to apologize with apparent sincerity. “Regarding the mission in Wushan Village, my behavior was indeed improper. If I had been more thorough, I would never have let the three of you fall into such a dangerous situation.”

“I really know I was wrong now. Please accept this gift, Little Grand-Uncle Master. My father flew into a massive rage yesterday, and my face is still swollen. To tell you the truth, that was also the first time I’ve ever seen an evil cultivator. I couldn’t cultivate since childhood, and even now I am only at the first level of Qi Refining. A while ago, I ran away from home after a disagreement, so I didn’t have any guards with me. That’s why I sought help from Yonglu Mountain.”

“I originally wanted to write the mission details more clearly, but I was afraid the evil cultivator would catch wind of it and flee. That’s how I caused such trouble. Fortunately, no disaster came of it. I have completely realized my mistake.”

Wen Xu: …When this man spoke like a decent human being, it was somehow even more hair-raising than when he didn’t.

“Forgive my poor hearing, but I don’t hear a single shred of regret in your words.”

Pei Mingshan had presumably finished his rehearsed lines, because the apologetic look vanished from his face instantly. “Then what did you hear?”

“The smugness of someone who thinks he’s pulling the strings, and the mockery of someone playing dumb to deceive the world. Is this how Young Master Pei always acts so overbearingly?” Wen Xu despised this kind of arrogant, self-entitled genius. Sure enough, whether in the Mortal Realm or the cultivation world, human nature was always the same.

“How could that be?”

Pei Mingshan actually sounded aggrieved. “I’ve been the Young Master of Jinding Pavilion since I was a child. In the eyes of others, I was born to be its future master. I grew up being pampered, believing everything they said was my birthright. But the day my spiritual root was tested, everything changed. I was no longer the person they expected. An heir born with a leaking dantian was even more of an embarrassment to them than an ordinary person who couldn’t cultivate at all.”

“Ever since my spiritual root was tested, I’ve been at the first level of Qi Refining. Even now, I’m still at the first level of Qi Refining. I might still look like the Young Master of Jinding Pavilion, but no one truly follows me from the bottom of their heart anymore, nor do they believe I have the ability to shoulder the heavy responsibility of Jinding Pavilion.”

“Little Grand-Uncle Master, with your outstanding talent, it must be hard for you to imagine falling from the heavens and crashing to the ground with no one caring, right?”

Listening to this Young Master recount his personal upbringing, Wen Xu felt completely unmoved. In fact, he almost wanted to laugh. What did he mean by falling from the heavens and crashing to the ground? It turned out that in the minds of these pampered geniuses, hitting the ground was the worst thing in the world.

But what about him? If the fate his master spoke of was real, then he hadn’t just crashed to the ground; he had practically been thrown into the eighteenth level of hell. Even he didn’t wallow in self-pity, so what right did this man have to demand his sympathy?

Just because his luck had turned, and he had entered Yonglu Mountain to become a Disciple of the Divine Venerable?

“I indeed find it hard to imagine.”

To be sure, having hope given and then snatched away was indeed tragic. But when it came to Pei Mingshan, Wen Xu couldn’t muster a shred of sympathy.

“So, what exactly do you want?” Wen Xu’s patience was wearing thin, but having been a scholar in the past, he could still manage a bit of restraint.

Pei Mingshan said, “I want to make friends with you, Little Grand-Uncle Master. Is that so hard to see?”

“Apologies, but I am blind.”

Pei Mingshan: …

Having hit a polite but firm wall, Pei Mingshan still managed to follow the thread of the conversation. “I heard that your good friend, Bian Chunzhou, has a useless water-and-fire spiritual root, and he saved you in the Poyun Secret Realm, which is why you… Ah-“

Even a scholar’s patience has its limits, Wen Xu thought. When someone practically delivered themselves to his doorstep to be a punching bag, he should have just beaten them up the moment they walked through the door!

“How dare you compare yourself to him! Pei Mingshan, you’re at the first level of Qi Refining, right? Then today, I will beat you using only the strength of the first level of Qi Refining. Fight back if you have the ability, and stop playing those useless little tricks!”

“You’re probably not just at the first level of Qi Refining, are you? Show me the same drive you had when you chased after me that day!”

“Pei Mingshan, I came from the Mortal Realm, but I am no fool! In the cultivation world, spiritual roots are tested at twelve years old at the earliest. By twelve, one should already know right from wrong. Do you dare say that if you could cultivate normally, you wouldn’t be the person you are today?”

“Your father named you Mingshan, to ‘understand goodness.’ Did he name you that with foresight, only after learning about the state of your spiritual root?”

“Bullshit! Stop making excuses for your hypocrisy and arrogance!”

Wen Xu had played the part of a scholar for so long that he had almost convinced himself he was a well-mannered gentleman. But in truth, when he was a child, he had been the best fighter among the street urchins! He might not remember the theory of how to hit someone to cause the most pain, but his body still did!

The Mortal Realm was extremely dangerous for those at the bottom, so Wen Xu had always kept his guard up. But after arriving in the cultivation world, both before and after joining Yonglu Mountain, the people and dragons he met had all been excessively kind. As a result, he had let his guard down, and he had almost failed to return from his very first mission down the mountain.

He hated his own powerlessness, but he hated these self-righteous scions of prestigious sects even more!

Jinding Pavilion was a massive enterprise with connections to all the major sects in the cultivation world. Although its master was only at the Nascent Soul stage, the elders they retained included plenty of Soul Transformation and Integration stage cultivators. But so what? Because of a so-called mission oversight, Bian Chunzhou, Chen Zui, and he himself had almost lost their lives in Biyu Tower.

If it had been unintentional, he could have forgiven it. But this bastard was clearly testing people, stirring up trouble, and wishing for nothing but chaos!

“Pei Mingshan, did you come here today to apologize as Spiritual Physician Ming, or as the Young Master of Jinding Pavilion? If it’s the former, was I wrong to beat you up? If it’s the latter, since you hate this identity so much, why do you still use it to-“

Pei Mingshan suddenly struck back. It was obvious that he cared deeply about his identity as the Young Master of Jinding Pavilion. “What do you know? What do you know? I-“

Bian Chunzhou arrived carrying the apology gifts sent by that dog of a Young Master, only to see his best friend fighting someone. Well, damn! He immediately rolled up his sleeves and charged in!

“You miserable bastard! How dare you come up the mountain to fight my brother! I’ll fight you to the death today!”

Then, the scene instantly turned from a duel into a two-on-one beatdown. The three of them got so carried away that none of them used spiritual energy. As a result, the two senior brothers guarding outside had no idea a fierce battle was quietly taking place inside.

Of course, even if they had noticed, they wouldn’t have come in to break it up. They would probably have kept watch at the door for their own brother, and maybe even handed him a sword if needed.

“Take your filthy money and get lost! You think you’re so great just because you’re rich? Who wants your charity!”

Pei Mingshan had never been in such a pathetic state in his life. Even on the day he was declared unable to cultivate, he had never been beaten like this. He touched his swollen face, thinking that the handprint from his father’s slap was now completely obscured.

“Do you really not want it? These cultivation resources are enough to get you to the Golden Core realm at least.”

Bian Chunzhou spat. “I never knew the phrase ‘looking down on the world’ could be so perfectly personified. Pei Mingshan, Young Master Pei, on the day you discovered there were evil cultivators in Biyu Tower, what was the very first thing that crossed your mind?”

Pei Mingshan had no interest in Bian Chunzhou. A Water-Fire Spiritual Root, where the elements clashed, was practically a trash root. At best, he could only cultivate to the peak of the Golden Core realm. His talent was only slightly better than Pei Mingshan’s own.

But as the only son of the Jinding Pavilion Master, even if Pei Mingshan couldn’t cultivate, he wouldn’t spare a glance for a cultivator who could only reach the Golden Core realm.

“I don’t like this question-and-answer format.”

At this moment, this man climbed to the very top of Bian Chunzhou’s list of most hated cultivators. “People like you have absolutely no empathy! Evil cultivators were harming people, yet you could still leisurely plan how to draft the mission posting. It’s laughable! The evil cultivator was the real rat in the gutter. Would he ever dare climb Yonglu Mountain’s Kaiyuan Peak to see what missions the disciples were taking? Do you have any idea how many more victims there were in Wushan Village because of your petty calculations?”

“Those are lives, real human lives! You call yourself a Mystic Physician? You don’t even have the basic respect for life! If all the Mystic Physicians in the world were like you, who would ever dare seek one out for treatment!”

“On that day, when the patient parasitized by the Evil Seed had their blood turn green, did your heart waver even once?”

“You think you’re miserable just because you can’t cultivate? I have a Water-Fire Spiritual Root! There are so many people in this world. If you want to be a bad person, then be openly bad! At least then I’d respect you for being consistent!”

After Bian Chunzhou finished his rapid-fire roar, the room fell dead silent. Even Pei Mingshan was speechless.