Chapter 248 Gossiping Liu Zheng
“I swear on my Devil Inside, cultivators of Qingcheng Taoist Temple will stay out of the earthly world for a hundred years and get out of Chuan. I promise we shall not actively fight anybody from the Lins. I shall kill anyone who breaks it in person!”
No sooner had Huizhu finished his sentences than An and Xin Yuanping were burst out from the well.
The strong water shoots high up to the sky. If not for Lin Luoran’s Mini World, the well-lit Mount Jun will be in a hot mess.
An is not seriously injured and he remains sober after being shot out of the well. He heard what Huizhu said loud and clear.
Getting out of Chuan? What does that supposed to mean?
Confused, An shouts, “Superior!”
Huizhu casts a glimpse at him calmly. “An, the cultivator of Qingcheng Taoist Temple, is hereby cast out. Effective immediately.”
An stiffens as if he was. .h.i.t by lightning — cast out? Has he done anything wrong? He is totally at a loss.
He looks at Lin Luoran, then the crazy Taoist he knows nothing of. Did the two of them threaten the Superior together?! Sometimes men have a precise hunch. Lin Luoran just turn them against each other to subdue the power of Qingcheng Taoist Temple in the future, never wanting an ungrateful person to be around waiting to avenge.
“Your Superior, An is a talent. You are giving up on him for a demonized woman? Do you want to think twice before you make the decision?” Lin Luoran asks with fake benignity, suggesting that the superior is not forced by anyone. He has made his own choice. As an onlooker, Liu Zheng almost bursts out laughing. Has she grown since the last time they saw each other three or four years ago? It’s great to know that she finally learns to protect herself in the world of arguing and fighting.
Eyes shut, Huizhu remains quiet.
An is totally beat, murmuring, “This is good. This is good…” What’s good about it? He does not know. He thinks to himself, if he had chosen Lin Luoran over Xin Yuanping, he would have been guiltier to face the superior. Now he is only cast out instead of fighting his superior, which is far better. Intellectually An can understand Huizhu’s choice, but psychologically he cannot accept it. He was abandoned when he was a baby and adopted by Huizhu. All these years of affectionate relations.h.i.+p is no match for the demonized woman…
“I don’t need your mercy! I didn’t ask you to save me! You think I will be grateful for this? No way!” She is badly injured, half-dead. Yet she puts up all her strength to say whose words. Huizhu looks at her and sighs. His expressionless face shows a hint of sympathy.
Maybe just a little bit of sympathy is enough to ignite Xin Yuanping. She coughs fiercely again.
Watching their reaction, Lin Luoran is in total anger. What they said and what they did show that she is the bad person, the one to blame. It was she who broke the relations.h.i.+p between the superior and his apprentice. It was she who kept the families from getting together… This is too dramatic and disgusting.
Huizhu is not planning for everyone to watch the drama. He says goodbye and crushes a magic figure full of wood Reiki, taking Xin Yuanping, who is still-screaming, away from Mount Jun.
Tourists are already coming to Liu Yi Well, separated from Lin Luoran and the others only by the Mini World. Rong Donglin is wondering how come the people outside cannot see them.
Sitting by the well blankly, An is soaked wet.
“Alas! Young man. What’s the matter with you? You are not jumping off that well for some petty things, are you?” He is soaked by the water from the well. Apparently, he just got out of the well. His blank face makes it more like an attempted suicide.
Lin Luoran casts a glimpse on An, who is outside the Mini World and surrounded by tourists. Maybe the most serious punishment for him is not death, but to be abandoned by his superior Huizhu.
“Senior, shall we go now?”
The crazy Taoist nods. They all turn around. Being outside of the Mini World, An cannot hear them clearly, yet he can see their turning figures.
Upon their departure, he jeers.
“Miss Lin, I had no idea you are such a person… What my superior did is not wrong.”
The tourists presume the young man is out of his mind coming out of the water, shouting at an empty pavilion. Lin Luoran raises her brows and smiles, turning around and responding in fury.
“Who do you think you are to judge me?”
…
“What is it between Huizhu and Xin Yuanping? Is he her father? Her lover? If you want to hide this disgraceful relations.h.i.+p, it is your business. I couldn’t care less!”
…
“Even if you ambushed me in the Dragon Palace, I didn’t kill you. You are cast out by Huizhu’s own choice. It has nothing to do with me! You are ridiculous!”
…
“Moving the Qingcheng Taoist Temple out of Chuan and staying out of the earthly world for a hundred years is nothing compared to what she had done to my family and others in the world of cultivation! How hilarious! You call yourselves the leaders of the world of cultivation yet you did such shameful things! Don’t you blush for yourself?”
…
“That’s all I have to say. Don’t ever call me Master Lin again. If you want to die, fine! If you want to beg Huizhu to take you in, suit yourself.”
Lin Luoran goes away with others resolutely. What she said is so to-the-point that makes An speechless.
He looks pale. He cannot even defend himself.
Because what Lin Luoran said is true.
*********
They go to somewhere with few tourists and Lin Luoran takes back the Mini World. She asked a lot of questions, which helped vent out her long-withholding feelings.
The crazy Taoist is getting mad again at the colored sculpture in the Xiangfei Temple, talking about nonsense like coming back to visit the fairy again soon. Rong Donglin is walking without the stick to check if his leg is healed.
Lin Luoran gets to have some time alone with Liu Zheng.
Perceiving her looming expression, he comforts her. “You are not wrong about this. Even the master himself talked to me through his mind that you have a big heart. If you do not confine yourself in petty things, you will have a bright future.” Although he is comforting her, he feels somewhat slightly helpless. Even though Lin Luoran is achieving something in the future, their distance remains the same, which makes him feel contradicted.
Lin Luoran smiles, “Senior doesn’t want me to kill those people as well, right?”
Liu Zheng tilts his head, thinking. And he nods.
“The master says he went through a lot at the final stage of Laying Foundation. As you know, cultivation is getting harder and harder. If we kill each other over petty issues, we will… be living alone in a world without our own kind.”
We will be living alone in a world without our own kind. Lin Luoran chews on this sentence for a while, realizing that this must be the thoughts of a cultivator at the level of Bearing Essence. It still takes a long time to get there.
However, the crazy Taoist is not an ordinary cultivator at the level of Bearing Essence, which comes as an epiphany to Lin Luoran after a long time.
Then again. “Xin Yuanping is a poor thing.” It’s not like she is going soft again. It’s from the bottom of her heart. But being pitiful doesn’t wipe out what she has done. Lin Luoran perceives the two aspects respectively.
To her surprise, Liu Zheng nods. “She is unhappy, having a father who only values the reputation of his family and himself.”
“Huizhu is… I thought he is only her master.” She covers her mouth with her hand. She was being angry, saying that Huizhu is Xin Yuanping’s father. She didn’t expect it to be true, which surprised herself. No wonder. If it is only for a discarded apprentice instead of his own blood, he would not choose Xin Yuanping over An resolutely.
When she was taken to the blood pool in the dungeon, she heard Xin talking to herself about her “miserable history”. She said she was cast out by her master. With that in mind, Lin Luoran has been putting two and two together. Until in the Dragon Palace, An and Xin Yuanping were on the same side. She thought she had the truth, yet she was wrong about their relations.h.i.+p.
“Your guess is wrong. She is Huizhu’s daughter.” He points a finger at the “mad” crazy Taoist. Apparently, this is the gossip he has heard from him.
The crazy Taoist doesn’t have logic. With his longevity, it’s normal for him to know some gossip. Therefore, Lin Luoran naturally believes what Liu Zheng said.
Liu Zheng can see she is no longer long-faced, so he throws some gossip to make a diversion.
“I bet you don’t know her original teacher.” He pauses to draw her attention and it does make her wonder.
He sounds like Lin Luoran knows her teacher.
“It was master Guo.”
Master Guo?! Comparing to Huizhu being Xin Yuanping’s father, the fact that a person as righteous as master Guo was her teacher makes it harder for Lin Luoran to accept.
But if that’s the case, her father being the most powerful man of the world of cultivation, master Guo being at the level of Laying Foundation, Xin Yuanping would be the princess of the world of cultivation. Why would she choose to demonize herself?!
Lin Luoran feels this transformation meaningless, yet Liu Zheng whispers some gossip to her.
Speaking of transformation, having the same experience of going in the blood pool, Xin Yuanping demonized while she was raised to the level of Laying Foundation, which is not a coincidence.
She was sent to master Guo, similar to what happened to Baojia’s great grandmother. To put it this way, Xin Yuanping’s mother was a mortal with no Taoist root. According to Liu Zheng, Huizhu has quite a talent. He chose this mortal because of the Dragon Palace…
“No one knows where he got the information about the Dragon Palace thus he was planning to steal the treasures inside. He knew the bloodline of Xin Yuanping’s mother was special… Miss Xin and the lady in the Fortune House share the same bloodline yet belong to different branches. Don’t look at me like that. I’m telling the truth.”
Lin Luoran shakes, feeling sorry for Huizhu. Xin Yuanping dried the blood of Elly, who shared the same bloodline with her without hesitation. A pathetic person must be one of the d.a.m.ned!
Xin Yuanping is after all the child of a mortal, so her Taoist root is not as good. Huizhu sent her to master Guo… Presumably, he hid the truth about her blood from her. At least she didn’t know back then. Then the secret somehow came to the light. She did something that master Guo couldn’t tolerate so she was cast out. You already know what happened next.”
Lin Luoran remains silent. The Taoist root again!
If Xin Yuanping had a pure Taoist root, would she have stayed with Huizhu?
A child with no recognition from her father, she thinks. That’s why the crazy Taoist would try to find a peaceful way of solving the problem. This is the same as what happened to Jiang Mingyue. Baojia’s great grandmother died because of it. Is that why the crazy Taoist acts this way? That could be the reason.
Lin Luoran lets out a sigh. Although people say that the cultivators are different from mortals. But those struggling cultivators on the way like them are so far from being immortal. Yet the Taoist root is indeed confusing.
For example, the problem of her own mother’s Taoist root has not been solved. Does cultivation really mean cutting off family and partner?
Lin Luoran feels like falling into confusion.
She tries to get rid of the confusion, yet another problem pops out.
“Ugh!” She shouts.
Liu Zheng is shocked. “What happened?”
“I need to go find the fisherman!” Liao must know something. She has to ask him about the Dragon Palace!