Elder Qin’nyao had hinted for Xiao Mahn to probe Fang Xing discreetly, yet Xiao Mahn had revealed this to him directly. Ever since Elder Qin’nyao hadn’t stopped Xiao Mahn from visiting, Fang Xing had guessed this old bag had gone through all of this effort in order to use Xu Linyun’s well-being as a threat and Xiao Mahn as a spy. He gave a cold smile and answered, "If she asks, just tell her I did learn a few things. Once she’s given you enough rewards, what would it matter if I revealed the truth to her then?"
Xiao Mahn laughed. "That would be good, but wouldn’t this cause you troubles, Young Master?"
Fang Xing let out a sigh and patted Xiao Mahn’s head. "Who was it that let you fall into her hands? We can only restrain ourselves until I get rid of the Xiao Jianming, then we’ll be able to run away as far as we like, without needing to tolerate her any longer!"
Xiao Mahn seemed to be looking forward to this. "You’d better take me along with you…" she replied after a short while.
Fang Xing laughed. "Don’t worry; of course I will!"
Xiao Mahn quietly nodded her head and left with the herbs and Spirit Stones necessary to craft the seventh-tier Poji Pellet, only to return again shortly after. This time there was a person’s ear clasped tight between her fingers, and the person attached was a fat and tall man, weighing in at around three hundred pounds with a ball-like body swelling out his robe. As Xiao Mahn dragged him here by the ear, he cried out in pain but did not dare to resist.
"Young Master, as I left, I saw this person loitering around the valley entrance. Who knows what sort of bad schemes he might have!" Xiao Mahn was clearly upset. She’d caught this fat guy trying to hide and had naturally believed he was up to no good.
Fang Xing smiled upon seeing this. "Fatty! How did you make it here?" This "fatty" was none other than the plump Taoist Yu Sanliang, whom he hadn’t seen in the past four years.
Xiao Mahn was a little surprised by this. "Young Master, you know him?"
Fang Xing laughed. "Of course! This is s.h.i.+xiong Zhu, a good friend of mine!"
Xiao Mahn immediately let go of the plump Taoist and politely cupped her hands. "Master Zhu, I—Xiao Mahn—acted too hastily."
The plump Taoist was clearly frightened and hurriedly waved his hands, but he was afraid of any physical contact with Xiao Mahn and could only frustratedly tweak his ears and scratch his cheek. "Oh my oh no, no need, it’s ok…. Although my name is Yu, not Zhu…. You… you’re the talented genius of Danxia Valley. I saw you once when Elder Qin’nyao was teaching. You… for someone like you to bow to me is just… too much rudeness on my part…."
Xiao Mahn snickered. "You’re my young master’s friend and I am his servant. Of course I should bow to you!"
Feeling even more embarra.s.sed, the plump Taoist looked towards Fang Xing as though asking for help.
Fang Xing just laughed. "I have only just one friend within the sect; you don’t need to be so polite, Fatty. But you better tell me the truth about what you were doing sneaking around outside, or else I—your grandpa—will beat it out of you!"
Seeing Fang Xing was laughing and cursing like he usually did, the plump Taoist actually let out a sigh of relief. "You’ve been promoted to be the third core disciple, but it feels like… like…. s.h.i.+di Fang, you don’t have the arrogance of a core disciple. It’s nice…."
As it so happened, the plump Taoist had been in seclusion when Fang Xing had returned from his training with Bai Qianzhang, and he hadn’t found out about Fang XIng’s returned until it was finished and Fang Xing had already left for Mount Desolation. When Fang Xing returned after that, Yu Sanliang had finally gotten the opportunity to visit Fang Xing, but this was right when he heard Fang Xing had been newly promoted to be the third core disciple. Fang Xing’s status had risen overnight, causing the plump Taoist to hesitate in his visit out of fear of shaming himself.
In the end, Yu Sanliang still came, but he was still worried and had loitered at the valley’s entrance without daring to enter. This was when Xiao Mahn saw him and dragged him inside.
In fact, Xiao Mahn still remembered Yu Sanliang as the man who’d kicked Fang Xing at the sect’s entrance during the Recruitment Ceremony, so she’d immediately thought of him as a bad person.
When Fang Xing noticed the plump Taoist was being a little hesitant with his words—as though he had something to say but was too embarra.s.sed to do so—he raised the question first, "We’re brothers, f*ck all that pretend arrogance. Do you have something to say?"
The plump Taoist’s face became bright red when he heard Fang Xing’s question, and he awkwardly looked at Xiao Mahn. Xiao Mahn was a clever girl and immediately left with a smile, allowing time for the two brothers to speak between themselves. This led the plump Taoist to sigh with relief, followed by a mournful look as he said, "s.h.i.+di Fang, I didn’t exactly come here only for this… but there is something…."
Fang Xing waved his hand. "Come inside first!" As he said this, Fang Xing also called the two disciplinary disciples over. He pa.s.sed them a Spirit Stone and sent them off to go buy some wine and meat, and the pair happily took the stone and immediately left, just like real servants. As for the plump Taoist, when he saw how Fang Xing was still treating him the same way as in the past, it felt as though a stone had been lifted from his heart, and all trace of nervousness left him as he followed Fang Xing into the pavilion.
Fang Xing had been observing all along, and he noticed the plump Taoist was now at the early stages of Spirit Stage tier four. Considering Yu Sanliang’s innate ability, this wasn’t bad at all; it seemed the resources Fang Xing had left behind for him hadn’t gone to waste.
Once the plump Taoist sat down, he let out a long sigh. "s.h.i.+di Fang, after what you did, it can be said that I—Yu Sanliang—have become famous inside the sect…."
Fang Xing smiled. "Famous? What happened?
The plump Taoist returned a bitter smile. "Did you not know? The two most famous people right now within the sect are the underwear thief—Feng Qingwei—and the kidnapper—Yu Sanliang…."
Fang Xing began laughing so hard his stomach started to hurt.
Upon further questioning, it seemed that once the Talisman Mission had ended, quite a few of the inner court disciples who’d returned spoke of what happened during the mission. The most interest stories had involved Feng Qingwei—who was said to have stolen Fang Xing’s underwear—and the abduction of the Myriad Beast Sect’s little princess. Feng Qingwei was currently so embarra.s.sed that she hadn’t taken a step out of her valley for the past half month, and the name "Yu Sanliang" similarly became well-known, turning him into another famous person.
"If it was only that, it would still be fine. The thing is… s.h.i.+di Fang, you have to help me…." As Yu Sanliang spoke, his face became bitter once more.
"Nn?" Fang Xing’s eyebrow rose, giving him a rather sinister look, "Is someone bullying you?"
Yu Sanliang hastily waved his hand. "No, not that. It’s just that I’ve been unlucky. Now that s.h.i.+di Fang and s.h.i.+xiong Xiao Jianming have set their grudges into stone, everyone is quite aware of this and seems to know about our close relations.h.i.+p…. And, well, three months ago, when I first made it into the inner court, I just happened to choose Earthern Sovereignty as my main study…. So, you know…."
Yu Sanliang had only just arrived at the inner court three months ago and—according to the rules—he had to choose one of the five Qing-Yun Sect disciples upon his entrance. However, this fatty had coincidentally chosen to study Shanhe Valley’s Earthern Sovereignty, and now that he’d studied it to basic proficiency, he’d need to become a Shanhe Valley disciple to continue. The grudge between Fang Xing against Xiao Jianming and Feng Qingwei had already been set in stone and was widely known, so the plump Taoist had become afraid.
This was the reason Yu Sanliang visited today; considering the relations.h.i.+p he had with Fang Xing, if Yu Sanliang were to enter Shanhe Valley, he might get flayed alive!
Fang Xing furrowed his brows. "This is indeed a problem. What do you want to do?"
Yu Sanliang’s face was filled with bitterness. "Normally speaking, once you choose one of the five Qing-Yun disciplines, you’re not allowed to choose a second one until you master the first to a certain proficiency. But I want you to maybe speak to some people from Duanzhen Valley, to allow me to change to studying Blue-Flame Grand Smithing instead…."
Fang Xing smiled. "That’s not so difficult. I’ll just let the valley know next time!" In his mind, this wasn’t a difficult task in the slightest; he didn’t even need to speak to Tie Rukuang and could just let Wu Xiangtong know.
The plump Taoist was relieved when he heard Fang Xing’s answer, and the two disciplinary disciples had also returned with wine and meat by now. The two of them began chatting again just like the old days, and there were naturally many topics to talk about since they’d been apart for three years. However, no matter what the plump Taoist spoke about, his large amount of grat.i.tude towards Fang Xing was very clear. It was all thanks to the resources Fang Xing had left behind for him that he was able to go from the useless n.o.body he was before to the inner court disciple he was now.
The two enjoyed their drinks, and it was well into night before the plump Taoist left. Giving the matter some thought, Fang Xing considered the possibility he would be leaving the sect in half a year’s time and how the likelihood of seeing this fatty would be slim. He stopped the plump Taoist right as he was about to leave and placed thirty mid-grade Spirit Stones and some leftover goods into some storage sacks he’d swiped from the Myriad Beasts disciples and shoved it all into Yu Sanliang’s hands. This caused the plump Taoist a great deal of embarra.s.sment, but Fang Xing demanded for him to accept it all and leave.
"Aiiii…. If I hadn’t done what I did…" the plump Taoist sighed on his way back. He considered how if his usually slow and stupid brain hadn’t seen Fang Xing’s potential—if he hadn’t had a sudden bout of inspiration to try to befriend the boy—he’d still be an outer sect n.o.body. If it weren’t for Fang Xing, would he have ever ended up becoming an inner sect disciple? His sighs—sometimes long, sometimes short—didn’t stop, and he started to feel the alcohol hitting his head. He sat down at a nearby pine tree and took out the storage sack Fang Xing had shoved into his arms.
The plump Taoist was nearly blinded by how many red lights and traces of purple there were when he opened the sack. He hadn’t thought Fang Xing would give him so many Spirit Stones in one go, and this sobered him up in an instant as he continued to look inside. There were mid-tier Flying Swords, all manner of medicinal pellets…. Every one of these items was rare even within the inner courts, causing his heart to once again fill with grat.i.tude.
"s.h.i.+di Fang is so generous…" the plump Taoist muttered to himself, only to suddenly find a light yellow booklet. Taking it out and borrowing some of the dim moonlight to read, he saw that it was a cultivation manual t.i.tled "Manual of Spirit Beast Metamorphosis".
"Oh? Is this something s.h.i.+di Fang left for me to learn?" The plump Taoist opened the booklet, and the more he read on, the more fascinated he became, until time was slowly forgotten….