Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Ada felt exceedingly uneasy and alarmed. If his Cultivation state hadn’t been so high, he would have expanded like a dandelion.
He lifted up his head and looked at Nan Wang with an innocent expression, in an attempt to tell her that Jing Jiu might not know who his mother was.
“It seems that he has been to the Water-Moon Nunnery.”
Nan Wang muttered to herself while looking at Shenmo Peak.
Ada meowed once, as he thought that he wasn’t by Jing Jiu’s side at that time.
With raised eyebrows, Nan Wang reproached him, saying, “You have been with him for so many years, but you don’t know anything about him! You keep a close watch on him for me when you go back.”
Having said that, she threw him into the air.
Shiyue Peak and Xilai Peak were the closest to each other among the nine peaks of Green Mountain; they were connected by a stone beam.
Shenmo Peak was the loneliest; it was a few miles away from its closest peak, Qingrong Peak.
Someone like Nan Wang who was in the upper state of the Broken Sea could throw the cat far away.
Ada, turning into a flash of white shadow, passed through the ocean of clouds and the night sky and landed on the top of Shenmo Peak after drawing a curved line in the sky.
Boom!!!
Stone chips splashed everywhere.
Gu Qing, Yuan Yü and Ping Yongjia, who were dazed by the cliff’s edge, and Cold Cicada, who were absorbing the energy of heaven and earth, were startled; they stood up hastily.
A pit appeared on the top of the cliff.
Ada climbed out of the pit. He swung his head a few times to shake off the stone chips, and spat a few times as if he was trying to cough up the fur ball. Then he turned toward Qingrong Peak, his eyes full of resentment and anger.
Fortunately, the formation was not activated on Shenmo Peak that day; otherwise, he would have lost a great deal of his hair and would be in pain for many days.
No matter how tasteless his name was and how harmless he seemed to be, and he seemed to have no significant status on Shenmo Peak, but Ada was nevertheless the Master White Ghost, a Principal Guard of Green Mountain, and the great grandmaster in the eyes of those young disciples. Gu Qing and other two couldn’t stand seeing him in such an embarrassed condition. They left in a hurry and went back to the Daoist Hall.
Jing Jiu came up behind him and asked, “Are you okay?”
Ada spun his head around and glared at Jing Jiu, thinking that he was not okay at all and that Jing Jiu should be able to see his condition clearly.
Jing Jiu felt a bit baffled, as he thought it was understandable that Ada felt resentful at the moment, but why did he also show a hint of hatred?
Ada meowed angrily.
“When you intended to beat up Bai Rujing, you didn’t inform me ahead of time, just pinching me instead. Don’t you know it’s quite painful? And, if I didn’t suppress his mind with my energy, could you beat him? If you think you can beat him, why did you hold me all the time? You just pretended to be powerful, right?!”
Jing Jiu thought that he had just broken the Sea State and that it would be safer to hold
Ada at that critical moment.
Ada’s anger didn’t go away yet, as he exclaimed, “I don’t care so much about your pretending, but you shouldn’t abandon me after your pretention. You let that alcoholic woman take me away!”
“She is not your match,” Jing Jiu said.
“It’s not a matter of whether I can beat her or not. If I disfigured her by scratching her face, how would Yuan Qijing react? And how would you react?”
Ada grew angrier, and yelled in his spiritual awareness, “I know exactly what you men have in mind!”
…
…
As they spoke of Yuan Qijing, he had actually come.
He came in person this time, not just through the Three-Foot Sword.
Ada glared at Yuan Qijing, but he didn’t dare do anything to him. Ada picked up Cold Cicada who was pretending to be dead on the ground and headed toward the manor cave, looking for Layue.
Yuan Qijing displayed a nonchalant expression, but his mood was a bit strange. “What has happened to Ada?” he asked.
Jing Jiu didn’t want to talk about Nan Wang, so he changed the topic, “Why couldn’t you wait for a night?”
“I don’t feel good if we don’t talk things over,” said Yuan Qijing expressionlessly.
He referred to the Will of Liu Ci, of course.
It was evident that Yuan Qijing had already guessed the content of the Will when Bai Rujing pushed him to read it; and it was also evident that he didn’t want to comply with it.
Jing Jiu walked to the edge of the cliff and sat down. His legs swung reflexively, but he found his feet were farther away from the ocean of clouds than before.
Yuan Qijing came behind him and took a look, and commented, “Your legs are not as long as his.”
“The clouds are lower than usual tonight,” Jing Jiu said.
“Do you really wish to be the sect master?” asked Yuan Qijing.
Jing Jiu returned, “Do you really not want me to be the sect master?”
Yuan Qijing’s face looked as if it were covered with a layer of snow when the starlight shone on it.
He didn’t feel hurt; he felt angry.
He thought that he wanted Jing Jiu to become the sect master three hundred years ago, but Jing Jiu refused and put Liu Ci in the position of the sect master.
“Do you think you will be a good sect master?”
Yuan Qijing added icily, “Liu Ci made a preposterous decision!”
Jing Jiu was quite outstanding in terms of his talent in Cultivation, his intelligence, and his calculating and scheming abilities; and he could even be considered as being perfect in those aspects, and an excellent candidate for the sect master.
Yet, Yuan Qijing knew clearly that Jing Jiu had one weakness.
He was too lazy.
Liu Ci was also well aware of this weakness of his, but why would Liu Ci write his name in the Will?
In Yuan Qijing’s view, it was a simple reason, which was to control him.
If Yuan Qijing really wanted to become the sect master of Green Mountain, nobody could stop him from doing so. He wouldn’t care about the opinions of Fang Jingtian, the Immortal Guangyuan, or Tianguang Peak.
Even if the Immortal Taiping returned to Green Mountain, he would still be the sect master if he wanted to. In all of Chaotian, only one person could force Yuan Qijing to give up the position of the sect master voluntarily.
Liu Ci seemed to be mild and low-key, but he was indeed a person with tremendous wisdom. He had used this one method to solve the possible problems related to the inheritance of Green Mountain.
Looking at the end of the ocean of clouds, Jing Jiu exclaimed, “Do you think I really want to be the sect master?”
Yuan Qijing retorted, “Don’t do it then, if you don’t want to. Haven’t you done so over the last several hundred years?”
Still looking at the distance with a complicated expression in his eyes, Jing Jiu said, “You don’t know the conversations I had with him over the years.”
Yuan Qijing mused at how Jing Jiu had learned to converse with people.
“The questions he asked me most often were: ‘Do you wish to be the sect master?”How about you become the sect master?”Do you wish to be the sect master if you think I’m not doing a good job?”You do it then.”
After a moment of silence, Jing Jiu said, “I’ll do it then.”
The wind blew over Green Mountain.
It came over without any warning.
It was quiet on the peak top for a long time.
Yuan Qijing remarked indifferently, “Provocation doesn’t work on you as far as I know. You’re doing it for the sake of the Inherited Heaven Sword.”
Though it was only a sheath, the people of Green Mountain were accustomed to calling it the Inherited Heaven Sword.
Jing Jiu mused that no matter what Yuan Qijing thought of him, he would not hand over the sheath, even though he could give up the position of the sect master.
Yuan Qijing leapt up in the air and was about to depart. “You should try and do your best since you’ve decided to do it,” he said.
Jing Jiu waved his hand, signaling for him to leave as soon as possible.
Yet, Yuan Qijing was not in a hurry to leave, asking, “When will the Grand Ceremony take place?”
Something as significant as inheriting the role of sect master of Green Mountain should be celebrated as ostentatiously as possible. And it would be the most celebrated ceremony in the Cultivation world.
Jing Jiu said, “I’m not a disciple of Shiyue Peak.”
The monkeys at the foot of the cliff gave a cautious and agreeable response.
“I’m not trying to display you like a monkey.”
Yuan Qijing suppressed his irritation forcibly as he continued, “Cloud-Dream Mountain has opened their mountains today. You know very well what this means. Green Mountain can’t keep a low-profile right now.”
Jing Jiu said after some thought, “You make the arrangement then.”
Yuan Qijing snapped, “If I arrange everything for you, why do we need you as a sect master?”
Jing Jiu didn’t give a response, as he thought that he wouldn’t hand over the Inherited Heaven Sword no matter what.
…
…
The morning light was visible already even though the morning sun hadn’t crested the mountains yet. The three disciples of Shenmo Peak had already woken up.
Standing at the edge of the cliff and looking at the ocean of clouds in front of them, they generated a sensation of splendor, but they also felt a bit nervous.
The sun climbed up amid the mountains; the waves formed in the ocean of clouds. It grew brighter on the peak top, but nobody had come.
Yuan Qü and Ping Yongjia exchanged a look, and smiled embarrassingly, as they mused that they had thought too much. Since the Cultivation practitioners preferred solitude and inactivity, the scene of officials attending the imperial court wouldn’t happen here because the sect master was not the same as the emperor.
Yet, Gu Qing felt it a bit odd; he didn’t dwell on it for too long. Shaking his head a few times, he took out the iron teapot and started boiling the tea.
After becoming the personal disciple of the Sect Master, Gu Qing didn’t feel any difference than before. He felt a bit of disappointment as well as relief. It was then that the monkeys at the foot of the cliff cried. After listening to the noise by cocking his head, Gu Qing said, “Some people wish to meet the Sect Master at the foot of the mountain.”
Yuan Qü strained to look down at the foot of the mountain, but he couldn’t see anything because his vision was blocked by the ocean of clouds, nor could he hear anything. However, for some reason he could feel a band of heat down there and seemed to hear a buzzing sound, as if a bunch of bees were flying.
As the three of them descended to the foot of the mountain, they found the visitors were the elders of the peaks.
Ping Yongjia was somewhat worried, as he asked, “Are they here to make troubles for my Master?”
…
…
The sect master of Green Mountain was not the same as the emperor; there were no state affairs waiting for Jing Jiu to deal with, nor were there the contentions and struggles that were ubiquitous in the imperial court for him to deal with. The reason the elders of the peaks came was because they indeed had some affairs they needed the new Sect Master to take care of.
It was Yuan Qijing who had taken care of the affairs of the sect after the Immortal Liu Ci left Green Mountain, but there were some affairs that required the decision of the Sect Master. Even though the Cultivation sects usually had fewer affairs in comparison to the mortal world, there were still a good amount of them that had accumulated over the past three years.
Gu Qing approached the senior masters of the peaks and bowed to them, asking what the matters were.
He was the principal disciple of the Sect Master and the teacher of the Crown Prince; the elders couldn’t regard him as a regular disciple. They cupped their hands to return his greeting, telling him their reason for coming here and asking him to inform the Sect Master.
Shenmo Peak hadn’t had similar experience before, and Gu Qing thought that his Master was definitely unwilling to deal with this sort of affairs, and he might…Gu Qing suddenly felt a heavy burden on his shoulder.
“Senior masters, let’s go up to the peak top and talk about it,” Yuan Qü said.
Ping Yongjia reminded in a low voice, “My Master doesn’t like the noise.”
Gu Qing thought what he said was sensible. So he led the elders of the peaks into that small wooden hut in the cliff.
This small wooden hut was built by Gu Qing and those monkeys thirty years ago. He had lived here for a few years, and Xiao He lived here for a while. Now it was used to receive the visiting guests. This hut seemed to be a receiving house for Shenmo Peak.
The elders of the peaks couldn’t help but feel irate after they found that they were led to such a place, as they thought that they would have to walk the mountain path and come to this place waiting every time they wanted to report to the Sect Master. This small wooden hut didn’t even have enough chairs; where would they all sit?
Gu Qing could tell that the senior masters were not in a good mood right now, so he asked the monkeys to move some tree stumps over, and asked Yuan Qü and Ping Yongjia to accompany them with care. Then Gu Qing was on his way to the peak top.
…
…
Gu Qing was a prudent and meticulous person. He remembered all the details of the matters those elders intended to report; so he repeated them word by word to Jing Jiu.
Zhao Layue shot Jing Jiu a glance, thinking that these matters would only make him feel irritated.
Jing Jiu seemed to take it in stride.
He knew that this sort of things would find him when he became the sect master. “You don’t have to tell me about this sort of things from now on. You can take care of them yourself,” he said to Gu Qing.
Though Gu Qing had already guessed this, he still couldn’t face it when it had actually occurred.
It was the reason why his Master had brought him back from Zhaoge City. In comparison to being the substitute sect master of Green Mountain, teaching Jing Yao to be a qualified emperor was not as important.
However, these affairs had to be decided by the sect master. Wasn’t it irresponsible to let him make the decisions for the sect master?
Gu Qing felt a tremendous burden on his shoulder. “I’m not Eunuch He who was in charge of everything,” he complained, which was extremely rare for Gu Qing.
“I’m not the Emperor of the Zhao State either,” said Jing Jiu.
