Chapter 4

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

Translator: pockiijr

Editor: Sal

Proofreader: Sdofu

Li Hong quickly got to work, as if her life depended on it. First, she visited Xuan Zhong and expressed her thoughts. Xuan Zhong was elated that Chen Lin would be cultivating under their sect, which was a lot better than calling him master. With a worried expression on his face, Xuan Zhong brought up the matter of seniority. Li Hong answered with, “The master will address you as he pleases, you are his disciple after all.” Afterwards, they both agreed to let elder Miao Qing’s first disciple Dan Ling take care of him.

“Dan Ling has a kind heart, and has taken care of Chen Lin many times. He will surely want to come.” Xuan Zhong said.

‘Oh, it seems that this is the girl they found for him? Alright.’ Li Hong thought.

Hence, when Chen Lin finished his morning class and visited her during his lunch break, she sat on the branch, tilted her head downwards and asked the boy: “How was it? Are you happy?”

At first, Chen Lin thought it was odd that Elder Miao Qing’s first disciple had arrived at the practice grounds early in the morning, just to find him. She was all smiles as she led him to the inner disciples’ morning class, reminding him that taking three classes a day was a requirement, and giving him tips on how to handle the elders’ temperaments. At that moment, he pondered whether Li Hong had a part in this matter. Now that she had asked him this question, filled with expectations, his hunch was proven right.

And so, he smiled and said: “Senior sister Dan Ling is very kind. Although some basics are a bit unclear to me, Senior sister will explain them to me.”

Li Hong jumped off the branch and stepped on the grass, her feet bare. She raised her head and glanced at Chen Lin, noticing that he was indeed not even a bit sad, and nodded saying: “That’s good.” After saying this, she suddenly seemed to have thought of something and hurriedly ran into the treehouse.

Chen Lin originally wanted to follow her, but then remembered this was Li Hong’s residence, and stopped in his tracks, deciding to wait outside. A few minutes later, the small, long-haired girl came out, running towards him with a jade hairpin clutched in her hands.

Li Hong shoved the jade hairpin into Chen Lin’s hands, sternly saying: “I’ve been thinking about it these past two days. It seems the world is not what it once was a thousand years ago, however, some things have not changed. I do not leave the forbidden area much, and there are only a few places in the valley where I can reach and take care of you. Give this to Dan Ling, as an expression of my gratitude for taking care of you.”

Chen Lin was stunned, and glanced at the hairpin in his hands. The carved design on the ancient hairpin was that of a fine vine blossom, and the jade gave off a good feeling. Seeing this, he could more or less guess where the hairpin was from. He shook his head, declining: “Senior sister Dan Ling is a benevolent person, I don’t think she cares for such things.”

Li Hong was rendered speechless by his words. Who asked you to send it in my name? You don’t need a specific reason when sending a gift to win over a girl!

She really wanted to educate this teenager about a much needed ‘dating for dummies class’, but the personality of this body made her unable to be blunt about it. She could only do her best in terms of playing edge ball, and hoping that Chen Lin would understand her hints.

“Not caring about a gift’s value is one thing, the happiness of receiving a gift is another. Even if I don’t comb my hair or use hairpins, I was still very happy when Heng Yue gave me a hairpin.” Li Hong said.

“You mentioned before that Dan Ling has always taken care of you. I think that she will definitely be extremely happy when she receives your gift.” Li Hong said earnestly.

Li Hong did not know whether Chen Lin had understood the meaning behind her words or he simply did not dare to go against her words. Either way, he accepted the hairpin and thanked Li Hong.

Li Hong could not stand it when Tian Shen bothered her, so she asked a few more questions in accordance with Tian Shen’s request. “Did you face any difficulties learning from the jade slips I gave you before?”

The moment Chen Lin heard those words, he froze for a moment, his expression changing within a split-second.

Li Hong noticed and became a little nervous: “Is there a problem? Do the slips have no effect because they’re too old?”

“No, Yujian’s inner method is explained in detail, it’s just—” Chen Lin quickly shook his head in denial.

“Just?” Li Hong tilted her head curiously.

Chen Lin looked at Li Hong’s ignorant and innocent appearance, paused for a moment, and shook his head. “Nothing.” he murmured.

Li Hong gave him a suspicious look. Unfortunately, she couldn’t pry or ask anymore because of who she was, and could only urge him. “If you ever need anything, remember to tell me. As long as I have it, I will give it to you.”

“Alright.” Chen Lin smiled lightly.

Even if he had agreed, his eyes betrayed his thoughts. His eyes flickered and his expression slightly changed, which meant that he did not intend to tell Li Hong. Having noticed that subtle change, Li Hong felt like she might get a headache. Being too nice wasn’t necessarily a good thing. He hid everything inside, so even if others wanted to try and make him happy, they would fail to find the entrance to his heart.

“I think the great god is in a good mood,” Tian Shen hesitated before continuing, “So there should be no major problems with the jade slips.”

Li Hong had also felt the same way, Chen Lin probably would not lie, since he said that the jade slips do not have a problem, then the phrase “it’s just” is probably only because of some small problems during practice. She has mentioned before that she did not truly understand the methods of cultivation in He Xu Valley. Hence, if it was because she mentioned this before that has made him unable to ask her questions, it is still considered normal.

“Anyways, the Great God can definitely figure it out.” Tian Shen had already said so, what else does she have to worry about?

Li Hong had felt that she only had to think about how to help Chen Lin win over Miao Qing’s apprentice Dan Ling, that’s all.

Leaving aside this topic, Li Hong took Chen Lin to show him the house she had left for him in the forbidden area.

Although she said that it was a house, it was only a few tens of square meters she had separated from the tree cave she lives in. This sacred tree standing in He Xu valley is extremely huge, even the space it had left for Li Hong is approximately 200 square meters. Most of the space was filled with large amounts of rubbish. Li Hong took two glances at it, most of it were spiritual artifacts, too pitiful to be thrown away. Hence, she left them piled up instead. The amount of livable space was approximately 100 square meters, she is very fair. The amount of space that can be used to move around freely of 100 square meters was split into half by a tree cane. The left side was for her to lay around lazily, the right side was left for Chen Lin’s usage.

However, Li Hong felt that Chen Lin would not stay for long anyways, after he has attended about two to three years of the disciple lessons, made more friends and would no longer be bullied, she would also let him go live at the disciple’s accommodation so that it would be easier for him to interact more with them and deepen their friendship.

Chen Lin did not notice the look of accomplishment on Li Hong’s face as he was troubled by other matters.

Sure enough, when he saw the furnishings that Li Hong had prepared for him, a frivolous male voice had sounded in his mind immediately.

The man who should more or less be regarded as his ancestor sighed: “She is really nice to you, these are the things I used back then.”

He gazed at them for a while, following the figure in the sea of consciousness in looking at each of the objects, hearing the person in his head slowly saying: “This wicker chair is still made of the fine cane I stole from her, it had me almost losing my leg to her whip.”

For some unknown reason, Chen Lin suddenly remembered that when he first entered the forbidden area, Li Hong slightly raised her eyes, causing a disciple to get his teeth broken by the whip of the vines.In his mind, the remaining consciousness that belonged to Heng Yue was still sighing: “ Fortunately, she finally stopped rejecting me in the end. Do you see the ugly wooden cup on the table? She carved it for me with her own branches. So when you use this cup to fill water, even if it is ordinary stream water, it can become a spiritual spring.”

After a pause, Heng Yue said: “It seems that she does treat you as an apprentice.”

Chen Lin pursed the corners of his mouth, and in his own sea of consciousness, he politely bowed to Heng Yue: “I know that the GrandMaster does not take me lightly, Chen Lin will repay this with his life.”

Heng Yue stared at him, and it took a long time for him to hook the corner of his mouth slightly, and lazily said, “Remember your words.”

Chen Lin responded with a yes.

Heng Yue was the one who founded He Xu Valley. In the past years, there were not so many people in the continent who had come into contact with the Dao of Heaven. Only the Xiaoyao Sword Sect in the Qi Lian mountains, who were uniquely big, knew how to cultivate immortality. No one knew where Heng Yue came from, only knowing that as soon as he appeared, he was already capable of taking over the advantage that the Xiaoyao Sword Sect had. Feng Xi Shui, the sect elder of Xiaoyao Sword Sect in the past, was ordered to discourage him. However, after three days of war with him, they had become friends. He even aided in making some of Heng Yue’s wild practice methods. Heng Yue had founded He Xu Valley, but it was not without the help of this particular sword elder.

Later on, Heng Yue and Feng Xi Shui were both buried in the back mountains of the Xiaoyao Sword sect. The people of that time had never seen such a stunning person ever again in their lives. At the same time, they had never considered that Heng Yue had left a touch of his spiritual knowledge before his death, and had even sealed this touch of spiritual knowledge in the secret jade paper. If Li Hong had not give his things away, he would probably had lied in tree cave forever, never seeing the light of the sun.

Chenlin didn’t think it was an accident for Heng Yue to hand over his final consciousness to Li Hong. On the contrary, he believed that Heng Yue did so deliberately.

If Li Hong had no plans of accepting a disciple, he would accompany her, if she had, he would teach the disciple in her place.

Heng Yue said: “I was taught by her, do you still not know the standard of how well she teaches? Even Feng Xi Shui had said that I was lucky to not have died of broken meridians in such random methods of practicing. If I didn’t leave her with some proper methods and her newly accepted disciples weren’t as savvy as I was, they would’ve accidentally died during practice and she would end up crying for days straight.”

The voice of this immortal cultivator who smashed the mainland in previous years was full of helplessness.

“Her.”

Chen Lin was silent, but felt as if he had found out some incredible secret.

People in the world say that Zhen Heng Yue is self-taught, and his relationship with the sacred tree in He Xu Valley is that of close friends. But from Heng Yue’s words, it seemed that the sacred tree was his master, not a close friend.

But Chen Lin is always unable to ask the Matriarch about this matter.

Heng Yue said: “Don’t worry, since she gave you the jade slip, I won’t hide them. Mind Swordsmanship, the art of becoming invisible, as long as you are willing to learn, you’ll learn them all.

Li Hong found that there was something wrong with Chen Lin.

The child used to practice the sword skills he learned that day through glances under the tree after his morning class. However, during this period of time, he would instead meditate in the tree cave after class. If it weren’t for Tian Shen saying that his steady aura and his spiritual growth meant that he was cultivating, Li Hong would’ve thought that he was just lazy as herself.

“So you are also aware of your own laziness!” Tian Shen hates it when people do not develop to their fullest potential, “Do you no longer want to return?”

In fact, the environment here is very good. You don’t need to eat or drink, you would only need to bathe in the sun for a while in order to make yourself full. Li Hong is about to fall in love with this plant body. But no matter how good it is here, there are no video games. Li Hong asked Tian Shen about Chen Lin’s current state, and the answer he got was-better than before, but it didn’t seem to be satisfactory.

Li Hong couldn’t help but to curse secretly. This man looks like five good teenagers, how can he be so greedy! Only needing to bathe in the sun now is already a joy to her, if there are video games, I am afraid it is already practically living in heaven.

“Probably still missing a girlfriend.” Tian Shen concluded.

Li Hong was actually very dissatisfied with Tian Shen’s attitude of “love can cure all diseases”, but she did everything she could do for Chen Lin. As long as she has it, she would give it all to him. When the weather is hot, she would even help to fan away the mosquitoes (She would sit by Chen Lin’s side, the mosquitoes would immediately disappear. When it is winter, there will be warmth. When it is summer, it will be cooling.), during winter she would even make the cold go away and make warmth for him – she had already become such a good “mother” but yet the “son” was still unhappy.

Li Hong sat on the swing made of vines and swung for a long time before jumping off. When Chen Lin finished his practice and walked out of the tree cave, she stopped him for questioning.

Li Hong went straight to the point: “Have you gifted Dan Ling the hairpin?”