Yan Tianhen sternly said, “Senior Martial Brother, it’s wrong of you to put it this way. You can’t judge me based off of your first impression. Although I am white and chubby right now and look particularly handsome and attractive, I have lived through bitter times before. Suffering hardships and whatnot are common occurrences for me.”
He didn’t dare comment on other matters, but Yan Tianhen still had a lot he could say on this point.
Back then, when his Dage was seriously injured, he struggled to find a way to eke out a living in the Lin family. He tried every means to make money and just fell short of going to the street to beg, but in the end, didn’t he still survive through that period, tumbling and crawling?
However, the young man’s attention was not on the suffering part; instead, the corners of his mouth twitched as he sized up Yan Tianhen’s small figure, asking disdainfully, “You’re white and chubby?″
Yan Tianhen touched the baby fat on his face and nodded.
The young man slapped him on the head. “Is there something wrong with your eyes? Have a little self-awareness for Laozi. I’m telling you, every single disciple under Esteemed Huai Yu’s door must eat till they’re white and chubby and wear bright and beautiful clothes every day. They must eat and wear only the best and be domineering when they go out, looking down at people from the tip of their nose. Their reputation must not be inferior to others!”
Yan Tianhen, “…Ah?”
“Ah, what ah, your first lesson is to eat, eat, eat!” The young man made the final decision with a single hammer blow.
Yan Tianhen swallowed with difficulty and whispered, “You’re not white and chubby either.”
The young man gave Yan Tianhen a contemptuous glance. “Idiot, although I’m not chubby, I’m white. Look at you, of the words ‘white’ and chubby’, you don’t fit a single one.”
Yan Tianhen felt the cracks on his face and felt that this Senior Martial Brother’s words seemed very reasonable.
However, even if he ate, it was still impossible for him to eat the various lines off his face!
Speaking of which, although his skin wasn’t as white as his Dage’s, which was so white that it almost shined, his skin wasn’t particularly dark either, was it?
En, not particularly dark.
Not long after following this Senior Martial Brother, Yan Tianhen saw a clearing.
There were several houses built with black bamboo standing on the clearing, and beside them were several circles fenced in with bamboo, which seemed to be used for raising chickens and ducks.
Yan Tianhen asked in a soft voice, “Um, Senior Martial Brother?”
“Speak.”
“Didn’t you say that all our food and clothing are of the highest quality?”
Senior Martial Brother casually asked, “Why?”
Yan Tianhen looked towards the bamboo houses and then thought about the palace built with colored glass on Sinking Sword Peak. He felt a sudden urge to cry.
Senior Martial Brother discerned what he was thinking and immediately exploded, “What does a little brat like you know? Every single bamboo shoot here is worth much more than you. If Esteemed Lan Yue wants to come and live here, he still needs to ask me for permission. You shouldn’t live in fortune but not appreciate it. Otherwise, you should sleep on the big stone outside.”
Yan Tianhen sighed in his heart while he put a smile on his face. “Senior Martial Brother is joking. I don’t think it’s bad here.”
Senior Martial Brother pointed to the adjacent room. “This is your room. You can live here in the future. This one in the middle is my room. The leftmost one is temporarily empty. I see that you brought two tiger cubs, so you can let them live there for now.”
Yan Tianhen hurriedly thanked him. After thinking for a minute, he then felt that something wasn’t quite right.
“Ah, Senior Martial Brother, are there only three houses on this mountain?” Yan Tianhen asked.
“There aren’t many people in total. How many more cottages do you want?” The young man once again started his sharp retorts.
Yan Tianhen asked, “But…where does our Master live?”
The young man was stunned. He raised his eyebrows and looked at Yan Tianhen. “Master travels and sightsees outside all year round, so he doesn’t have a residence here.”
Yan Tianhen couldn’t stop himself from chuckling, “All right, if you say so.”
Young man, “…”
What do you mean “If you say so”?
This lad seemed much more interesting than he had imagined.
The young man’s eyeballs turned and he lifted Yan Tianhen’s chin with a smile. “Boy, you’re not actually stupid, are you? When did you see through it?”
Yan Tianhen’s round apricot eyes widened, and he summoned up the courage to meet Esteemed Huai Yu’s gaze, “I saw through it from the very beginning when Master appeared.”
Esteemed Huai Yu narrowed his eyes, looking a little dangerous.
Yan Tianhen hurriedly explained, “On the way here before, Senior Martial Brother Zhan had already told me the situation here very carefully! He said that Master was the only one on this mountain peak and that Master had no other disciples. He even said that the dense fog forest was personally arranged by Master. Naturally, only Master alone could deactivate it.”
Esteemed Huai Yu was also too lazy to argue with Yan Tianhen; on the contrary, he even a little happy. If he truly accepted such a sweet, naive, and young disciple, then he’d really have to consider returning the goods.
Esteemed Huai Yu withdrew his hand and leisurely said, “Since you know, then I won’t tease you anymore. Since that guy, Zhan Fengting, told you a lot, I won’t say more about the basic situation. However, I have to tell you my rules first!”
Yan Tianhen gestured that he was all ears, ready to listen with respectful attention.
“There’s nothing else, you just have to obey me.”
Yan Tianhen, “….”
Esteemed Huai Yu yawned. “Alright, I’m tired too. I’ll give you two days to rest and adjust. Let’s start cultivating the day after tomorrow.”
After making a lot of small matters clear, Esteemed Huai Yu looked at the two tiger cubs, which looked like little snowballs, “This Venerable is too lazy to care about the two tiger cubs. However, you have to watch them. If they dare trample on one of Laozi’s spiritual plant fields, be careful that I’ll skin them!”
Ah Bai, who had been chasing after a butterfly, was suddenly scared into silence. Oh heavens, why does every powerful human want to peel off my poor skin?
Yan Tianhen nodded, “Okay, I’ll keep that in mind.”
He gave Ah Bai a look and indicated that Ah Bai should follow him quickly and not run around so that others couldn’t get ahold of their weaknesses.
Esteemed Huai Yu walked towards the middle cottage, “There’s nothing fun on the mountain. If you want to play, you can go down the mountain. I don’t have any money on me, so you’ll have to figure it out for yourself if there’s something you want to buy. However, you can’t sell anything on this mountain. Do you understand?”
“I understand.”
The door was suddenly shut in his face. Yan Tianhen stood on the clearing, deeply worried about his future.
“Maomao, I feel that this Master of mine is not very reliable.” Yan Tianhen lied on the bed, talking to Feng Jingyu, his heart deeply worried.
Feng Jingyu took a deep breath and, dazed, lay sprawled out on his back on the pillow beside Yan Tianhen’s head. “Although he’s not reliable, he’s a very rich landlord.”
Yan Tianhen obviously didn’t believe it. “A rich landlord who lives in a bamboo cottage?”
“Hey, don’t you look down on this bamboo.” Feng Jingyu jumped to his feet after flipping over, his eyes burning. “This bamboo is the Golden-Ringed King Black Bamboo. Not only is it a good material for crafting equipment, but it can also be used to refine medicinal pills. A house made of this bamboo can also gather spiritual Qi and dispel poisonous gas in the body.” Here, he clicked his tongue.
Feng Jingyu jumped onto the windowsill beside him and pecked at the bamboo with his small beak. “It’s at least 500 years old. It’s not common in the Five Continents.”
Yan Tianhen was dumbfounded. “I didn’t expect this bamboo to be so incredible!”
“Yeah.” Feng Jingyu showed an intoxicated expression and flew back to lie on Yan Tianhen’s belly. “The bamboo shoots produced from this bamboo are also delicious. When I was in the West Imperial Palace, I used to eat a bowl every day.”
Yan Tianhen became energized. “What does it taste like?”
“It’s especially chewy and firm to the bite. It also has a kind of natural bamboo shoot fragrance. It’s like swallowing spiritual Qi and feels especially invigorating.”
Yan Tianhen’s eyes were green with envy. “Maomao, are there such bamboo shoots in this mountain?”
“I haven’t seen it yet, but I can look for it. This king is too tired to fly now. Let’s sleep first.”
Yan Tianhen was also as tired as one could be. Before he entered the dense fog forest, Lin Xuanzhi had had the foresight to stuff a lot of food into Yan Tianhen’s storage bag. As a result, Yan Tianhen was not hungry during these seven days. It’s just that when he walked through the foggy forest, he didn’t know what kinds of scary things would jump out, so Yan Tianhen had been on edge these past seven days, physically and emotionally exhausted.
After he relaxed, Yan Tianhen soon fell asleep.
It was a sweet sleep until Yan Tianhen’s sleep-befuddled brain faintly felt the Voice Transmission Bell, which was hung on him, shaking and ringing nonstop, which woke him up.
There was a loud noise from the door. Yan Tianhen was suddenly roused awake and jumped up from the bed. He looked left and right. “What happened? Is there an earthquake?”
“Earthquake your head!” He saw Esteemed Huai Yu rush in gloomily, standing in front of his bed with a dark expression. “Hurry up and silence the sound from that thing, Laozi’s ears are about to fall off.”
Only then did Yan Tianhen realize that his Voice Transmission Bell rang.
Yan Tianhen quickly opened the bell and put it in his ear. His voice increased octaves as he said excitedly, “Dage, is that you?”
Lin Xuanzhi was relieved to hear Yan Tianhen’s voice, but he still asked in a heavy voice, “Why couldn’t I contact you these days?”
Yan Tianhen asked curiously, “Couldn’t contact me? I don’t know; I’ve been in the dense fog forest for the past few days — maybe something’s blocking the transmission!”
As he said that, Yan Tianhen leveled a suspicious gaze at Esteemed Huai Yu.
“What’s strange about this? The dense fog in the fog forest can make all auxiliary magic treasures stop working.”
Lin Xuanzhi’s side was silent for a moment, “Could Your Distinguished Self be Martial Uncle Huai Yu?”
“Who else could it be?”
Huai Yu said somewhat impatiently, “If you have time, lower the noise of this thing. It’s so loud that it can wake me up from dreaming.”
Yan Tianhen nodded, “Don’t worry, Master, I’ll tell Dage right away.”
Esteemed Huai Yu mumbled a few words to himself, then yawned and went back to sleep.
After closing the door, Yan Tianhen lowered his voice, “Dage, the bell didn’t even wake me up; how come he woke up?”
Lin Xuanzhi explained, “Esteemed Huai Yu has considerably high cultivation. It’s no surprise that even the slightest sound can enter his ears.”
Yan Tianhen looked at the sky, gauging the time of day, “Ah, I actually slept for a day and a night.”
It was currently the afternoon of the second day and was even 11pm in the evening.
Lin Xuanzhi frowned upon hearing this. “Why did you sleep for so long? How long did it take you to walk out of the dense fog forest before?”
Yan Tianhen touched his nose and said, “I only walked out yesterday. That medicinal pill wasn’t a medicinal pill for cracking the array at all.”
Yan Tianhen’s chatty switch was flipped on, so he gave a rough description of his miserable experience these past few days.
After hearing this, Lin Xuanzhi felt very distressed, but he couldn’t say anything bad about Esteemed Huai Yu, so as to not let this fellow, who didn’t play according to the rules, hear it secretly and do something to Yan Tianhen.
Lin Xuanzhi could only comfort him, “Esteemed Huai Yu’s temperament is indeed unpredictable. However, when I came into contact with him in the past, I found that he was someone who knew the severity of matters. When he trapped you in the dense fog forest, he should have been testing your temperament.”
Yan Tianhen nodded. “I thought so too. I almost gave up. Fortunately, I was afraid of losing face in front of my Dage, which was how I lasted for so many days.”
Lin Xuanzhi smiled faintly, “You never have to worry about losing face in front of me.”
Yan Tianhen smiled for a while, “Dage, how are you these days?”
Lin Xuanzhi gave a wry smile, “Not so good either…”
The two people told each other their situations. When Yan Tianhen heard that Lin Xuanzhi had been beaten repeatedly in the Fierce Gale Cliff, he was amazed, but his heart also itched impatiently; he really wanted to go see for himself exactly what the Fierce Gale Cliff was like.
