Chapter 70
“Help me pass that spoon.” Tan Yuan said.
She was busy in the kitchen. She took the spoon handed over by the handyman, lifted the porcelain lid, and a fragrant aroma wafted out. She scooped up a mouthful of soup to taste, and a delicious flavor bloomed in her mouth.
Xie Qingzheng thought to herself: I never thought this Miao woman, besides poisoning people with gu, could also cook, and the taste is not bad.
The handymen in the kitchen said, one after another:
“Miss Tan, you are so thoughtful, making delicious food for Hall Master Mu every day for three consecutive months.”
“A disciple showing filial piety to her master, this kind of filial piety is the most precious.”
“It’s just that Hall Master Mu has already achieved Bigu. Does she still eat these things?”
Tan Yuan said, “Of course she eats them! I make her delicious food in different ways every day, and she will finish them all!”
Although the ingredients for her soup were a bit strange, either snakes and insects, or scorpions and centipedes, no one in the sect dared to drink it. Only Mu Ning would take the bowl from her hand and drink the soup she had made to the last drop.
Mu Ning also had three other disciples. The three disciples surrounded her and asked in a chorus, “Master, Master, is it good?”
“Can the soup that Fourth Junior Sister made be drunk?”
“Master, will you be poisoned?”
Tan Yuan rested her chin on her hand and looked at her with a smile.
Mu Ning said, “The taste is not bad. You can also try it.”
The three disciples all shook their heads and dispersed, practicing their swords and flutes in the courtyard.
Xie Qingzheng thought of her own cooking skills and thought to herself: I should ask her for some advice another day, how to cook things to make them more delicious.
Mu Ning was very strict with her three disciples, making them practice their swords and flutes every day without slacking. But she didn’t discipline the last-to-enter Tan Yuan much.
Tan Yuan thought that was Mu Ning’s indulgence and doting on her, but Xie Qingzheng felt that Mu Ning was avoiding suspicion, and also that she didn’t really see her as her own disciple, but treated her with the courtesy of a guest.
She was the Holy Maiden of the Miao region and would eventually have to return to the Miao region. Out of the difference between their sects, Mu Ning could not really teach her the advanced heart methods and sword techniques of the Yaoguang sect. They only had the name of master and disciple.
But Tan Yuan sincerely regarded Mu Ning as her master, and the three senior sisters and brothers as her fellow disciples.
She admired her master and didn’t think there was anything wrong with it. She thought about pleasing Mu Ning every day, washing her hands to make soup, and staying by Mu Ning’s side day and night, always pestering her.
Mu Ning would teach Tan Yuan the literature, poetry, and introductory sword techniques and flute music of the Central Plains. Tan Yuan would in turn teach the people of the Yaoguang sect some gu arts and poison techniques.
But the cultivators of the Yaoguang sect were not very willing to learn. Tan Yuan was a little puzzled and went to ask Mu Ning what was going on.
Mu Ning said, “Using poison and gu arts is beneath one’s status.”
In the eyes of these orthodox Xuanmen cultivators, using poison and gu was ultimately not respectable.
Tan Yuan said, “You people of the Central Plains are too prejudiced. My gu and my poison can defeat and kill the enemy, and naturally can also save lives.”
Mu Ning just smiled and said nothing. Tan Yuan asked her, “Do you also think that our Miao region’s gu arts are not respectable?”
Mu Ning said, “The Great Dao has three thousand paths. Each has its own path of cultivation. There is nothing respectable or not respectable.”
Tan Yuan nodded. “What you said is reasonable.”
Mu Ning added, “You don’t have to make food for me every day.”
Tan Yuan smiled. “But you still ate it all, didn’t you?”
Mu Ning said nothing.
Xie Qingzheng thought to herself: She ate it all because she couldn’t bear to see you work all morning for nothing.
But then she thought again, her master had also been like this in the past. It was probably because she couldn’t bear it, so no matter how difficult it was to swallow what she had cooked, her master had also eaten it all…
Thinking of this, Xie Qingzheng suddenly missed Mo Jiangxue very much.
Although the Mu Ning in the dream had her master’s face, she still missed the real person in reality more.
Tan Yuan was next to Mu Ning and asked, “Don’t you like to eat it? Is what I made very bad?”
Mu Ning sighed. “No, it’s not bad. It’s just that I have already achieved Bigu and can go without eating.”
Tan Yuan: “But the soup I made has the effect of consolidating the foundation and replenishing the essence. It’s beneficial and not harmful for you to drink it, Master.”
Mu Ning added, “Yuan’er, you don’t have to come and pay your respects every day. You can go out with the cultivators of the Yaoguang sect more often. It’s rare for you to come to the Central Plains. You should travel around and see the scenery of the Central Plains.”
She was subtly persuading her that they needed to keep some distance.
But Tan Yuan didn’t hear it and said with a smile, “I like to be by your side. Why don’t you go out with me? I heard that there is a kind of udumbara flower in the Luoyang Garan Temple in the Central Plains. It buds for a hundred years, grows a flower for a hundred years, and blooms for a hundred years. From budding to blooming, it takes three hundred years. After it blooms, it is as big as a soup bowl, and its fragrance can be smelled from a li away. Some people praise it as ‘one bloom can topple a city.’ I’ve always wanted to see it. Why don’t you go with me to see it?”
Mu Ning said, “This udumbara flower blooms once every three hundred years. After it blooms, it withers in one shichen. It’s too short, and there’s nothing to see.”
Tan Yuan pleaded, “But I just want to see it. Will you go with me?”
Mu Ning refused, “I still have sect matters to attend to. I’ll have your second senior sister go with you.”
Tan Yuan thought for a moment and said frankly, “I always feel that you’ve been avoiding me lately. Why is that? What are you avoiding? You weren’t like this in the reeds that day. It can’t be that in your eyes, I, a Miao woman, am just like those Miao witchcraft and gu arts, not worthy of your attention?”
Mu Ning coughed and said, “I had drunk too much that day and lost my sense of propriety. I’m sorry.”
She said it lightly, dismissing the ambiguity of that day as “losing her sense of propriety.”
Xie Qingzheng felt a wave of disappointment from Tan Yuan’s body.
Tan Yuan stared at Mu Ning and said, “You Han people are so fickle. It’s so hard to understand.”
Then, she said a few sentences in the Miao language. Mu Ning didn’t understand and looked bewildered.
Xie Qingzheng also didn’t understand, but she felt a dull ache from Tan Yuan’s heart.
After Tan Yuan finished speaking, she turned and left, rowing away from the Yaoguang sect alone.
The Holy Maiden and the spirit envoys of the Miao region had all learned Chinese since they were children. She spoke fluent Chinese and was also dressed as a cultivator of the Yaoguang sect. She had been in the Yaoguang sect for three months and had learned a lot of Han culture. Along the way, everyone took her for a Han woman.
She was naturally fond of socializing. Along the way, she would chat and laugh with strangers, and much of the frustration in her heart dissipated. Then she made up her mind to go and see the udumbara flower alone.
She asked the passersby for the location of the Luoyang Garan Temple, went to the temple, spent a fortune, and bought the udumbara flower that bloomed once every three hundred years from the abbot of the temple. When the udumbara flower bloomed, she picked it, preserved it with the secret method of the Immortal Cult, and then rode a butterfly back to the Wind Hall of the Yaoguang sect.
But she did not appear openly. Instead, she hid on the roof and looked at Mu Ning standing in the courtyard.
Mu Ning looked up at the bright moon in the sky. A cultivator behind her reported, “We’ve found out that the Holy Maiden has gone to the Garan Temple.”
The head senior sister said, “Fourth Junior Sister likes to play. Maybe she’ll be back after playing for a few days.”
The second senior sister said, “The demonic cult has been rampant lately, and the Yaoguang sect is extremely busy. That girl just left without a word, making Master worry for so many days. Master has hardly eaten or slept these past few days. When she comes back, she must be taught a good lesson!”
Xie Qingzheng felt a wave of joy from Tan Yuan’s heart and couldn’t help but find it funny.
Mu Ning shot a look at her second disciple and said, “What do you mean, hardly eaten or slept? She is a person of the Immortal Cult. If something were to happen to her in our Yaoguang sect, that would be no laughing matter.”
Oh, so that was the reason. Tan Yuan was disappointed again.
The third senior brother said, “Our master can’t bear to teach her a lesson. Ever since she became a disciple, Master has been with her every day.”
Mu Ning shot a look at her third disciple and was about to reprimand him when someone else came to report, “The people of the Immortal Cult are here!”
The head senior sister said, “Is Fourth Junior Sister back?”
Mu Ning also thought it was Tan Yuan who had returned, and her eyes lit up.
The person added, “The Immortal Cult has sent the Spirit Snake Elder to visit the Holy Maiden.”
The second senior sister said, “So it wasn’t that girl who came back. Master, you must have thought it was her too, right? The people of the Immortal Cult are here. How are we supposed to explain this? What a willful girl. Could it be that she’s not coming back?”
The third senior brother said, “She’s been gone for so many days and hasn’t come back. Maybe she went back to the Immortal Cult herself.”
Mu Ning said, “Stop talking. Follow me to welcome the Spirit Snake Elder.”
The Spirit Snake Elder had a bad temper, and the Miao people were direct in their speech. Tan Yuan was afraid that if she were gone, the Spirit Snake Elder would have a conflict with Mu Ning. She quickly jumped down from the roof and said in a loud voice, “I’m back!”
Everyone was taken aback for a moment, then they surrounded her, one pinching her, another scolding her, “You brat, you just run away from home without a word!”
“Where have you been playing?”
“Next time you go on a long trip, you have to say something. You made us so worried!”
“Master hasn’t slept well these past few days!”
“We haven’t slept well either, going out to inquire about you every day!”
“I was just out playing for a few days.” Tan Yuan’s heart warmed, feeling everyone’s concern. It really felt a bit like home.
Mu Ning stood in the courtyard, quietly gazing at her, and only said one sentence, “It’s good that you’re back. Follow me to see the Spirit Snake Elder.”
Every month, the Miao region would send someone to the Central Plains to visit Tan Yuan. Her younger sister, Tan Yao, and her mother would also send her things.
The moment everyone entered the hall, they saw a Miao woman sitting in the hall. The gaze of the person in the lead swept over the group of cultivators, locked on Tan Yuan, and then she led the group to kneel and kowtow to Tan Yuan.
Tan Yuan helped the Spirit Snake Elder up, her heart curious. “The Spirit Snake Elder has at least twenty Miao women with her when she travels. Why did she only bring four people this time? And although we Miao people do not follow the etiquette of the Han people, we also know to do as the Romans do. If we are to salute, we should salute my master first. Why would they bow to me first?”
The Spirit Snake Elder then saluted Mu Ning and untied a bundle from her back, saying, “I heard that the demonic cult has been rampant lately and has been frequently harassing your esteemed sect. My cult has specially taken the heads of the demons and presents them to Hall Master Mu for inspection.”
Mu Ning took a step forward to look at the things in her bundle.
She opened the bundle, and two bloody human heads were revealed. But they were not the heads of any demonic cult members, but the heads of the two left and right envoys of the Yaoguang sect.
The moment the people of the Yaoguang sect saw this, they let out a cry and were greatly alarmed.
Tan Yuan shouted sternly, “Master, be careful! She is not the Spirit Snake Elder at all!”
Without warning, with a bang, the “Spirit Snake Elder” struck out with her palm, hitting Tan Yuan in the chest. Tan Yuan spat out a mouthful of blood, and Xie Qingzheng only felt a heart-wrenching pain.
Mu Ning’s face changed drastically. She quickly protected her behind her, and with a backhand, she struck the Spirit Snake Elder dead. The crowd drew their swords and rushed forward, controlling the other four.
Tan Yuan’s lungs were seriously injured. Before she fell, she only vaguely heard the crowd shout, “It’s the demonic cult!”
“The demonic cult has killed the left and right envoys!”
“Quickly send a message to the Sect Master!”
Mu Ning held her tightly in her arms.
She lay in Mu Ning’s arms, trembling as she took out the shattered udumbara flower, and murmured, “I didn’t even get to let you see it bloom… it was shattered…”
When Xie Qingzheng woke up, she could still vaguely feel a pain in her chest.
She clutched her chest and sat up, thinking to herself: Senior Tanluan is really something. Even when she’s about to die, she doesn’t forget to flirt with Senior Mu Ning…
That palm strike on Mu Ning, with Mu Ning’s cultivation, would at most have only injured her. But on Tanluan, it could have taken half her life. If she hadn’t known that Tanluan was still alive and well, Xie Qingzheng would have almost put herself to sleep and entered the dream again to see if she had died…
The sky was already bright. Xie Qingzheng got up from the bed and recalled the history of the sect she had learned on Weiming Peak. The three sects, Tianxuan, Tianji, and Yaoguang, had all been frequently harassed by the demonic cult during that period, and had even been on the verge of being wiped out, which was why the three sects had later merged to fight against the demonic cult…
She had not heard of the name Mu Ning in the Xuanji Sect. Could it be that Senior Mu Ning had died in the turmoil back then?
Or, had Mu Ning really been with Tanluan, and had been discovered by the people of the Yaoguang sect? A master-disciple affair, a violation of morality, and so she had been expelled by the seniors?
Senior Mu Ning had already had a good impression of Tan Yuan before. With this palm strike, the two of them would probably make their feelings clear.
What a pity, what a pity… The Tanluan of today was all alone, and had also become frivolous and passionate.
Xie Qingzheng was even more curious about what had really happened back then. She wanted to enter the dream again, but then she thought of Mo Jiangxue.
She should go and see her master first… she missed her master a little…
Xie Qingzheng walked to Mo Jiangxue’s room and, on a whim, asked, “Master, if someone were to risk their life to save you, would you fall in love with them?”
If her master would, then Mu Ning would definitely also fall in love with Tanluan.
Mo Jiangxue looked at her with cold eyes. “Is that a question you should be asking me?”
Xie Qingzheng let out a soft snort. “If you don’t want to say it, then don’t.”
She was using her status to pressure her again…
She had figured it out. When her master didn’t want to answer her questions, she would always use her status to pressure her.
Mo Jiangxue asked Xie Qingzheng, “Have you been reading some messy books with A-Yan again? Or have you been daydreaming?”
