After Accidentally Entering the Forbidden Land and Forming a Bond with the Grandmaster - Chapter 14

His Wife Is Only Nineteen.

He was thirsty, and the other was thirsty; both of them were thirsty.

Xie Zhuo was quite satisfied with this explanation. Because Chu Lanci offered to cook for him and looked so full of anticipation, Xie Zhuo allowed him to go.

Having received his Master’s permission, Chu Lanci was incredibly motivated. Finally, he could do something for his Master. He prepared the ingredients and busily whipped up a table full of food, though his repertoire was limited to simple home-cooked meals. Once finished, he went to call Xie Zhuo. “Master, it is ready.” He planned to stay one more night, sleep, and then finally head home.

Xie Zhuo looked up and saw Chu Lanci’s eyes sparkling, as if he were offering a heart full of joy for him to taste. He walked over and sat down. During the meal, Chu Lanci intentionally sought out topics of conversation, chatting about everything.

“Tingfeng Village has a small river where I especially love to row a boat. Sometimes when I am free in the afternoon, I go there. The river is full of lotus flowers. It is very beautiful. However, it is not very peaceful there because people are always drowning in it.”

After he said this, Xie Zhuo suddenly asked, “How old are you?”

Chu Lanci let out a small sound of surprise before replying brightly, “Nineteen.”

Xie Zhuo did the math. He was four hundred and twenty years old. According to mortal calculations, that was roughly four thousand two hundred years old. He was a full four millennia older than the boy. “You plan to marry at nineteen?”

Chu Lanci replied, “Well, everyone in the village is like that. Anyway, having a partner after marriage counts as having a companion. Two people can protect each other.”

Xie Zhuo hummed in response, but he thought to himself that nineteen was incredibly young.

“What about Master? Master looks very young as well.”

Xie Zhuo was actually stumped by the question. He disdained lying, but cultivators were different from mortals. Sometimes a single period of secluded meditation lasted four or five hundred years, and one would lose track of time upon emerging. Therefore, he could only estimate his age because he did not know the exact number himself. In the Qianshan Mountains, powerful beings who had cultivated for over ten thousand years were everywhere.

“Is that so?” He did not give a direct answer. Instead, he looked at Chu Lanci with a deep, inscrutable gaze.

Chu Lanci laughed. “It is true, haha.” Once again, the conversation had died. Chu Lanci swore he did not do it on purpose, but the dialogue just ended regardless.

Because the atmosphere felt a bit ambiguous, he wondered if he was overthinking things. He felt as though his Master was looking at him like a predator watching its prey. Did all cultivators possess such a strong sense of pressure, or was it just his Master? He lowered his head and stopped speaking.

After eating, the two washed up and went to bed. Everything remained peaceful afterward. Early the next morning, Xie Zhuo escorted him to Tingfeng Village. Chu Lanci had finally returned to his small home. Naturally, all the furniture they had made together followed Chu Lanci to his house.

Chu Lanci politely invited Xie Zhuo inside. “Master, please come in and sit for a while. However, my house is very small, haha. Please do not look down on it.”

Actually, it was not that small. It was like a sparrow, possessing all its vital organs. However, Xie Zhuo scanned it with his spiritual sense and said, “I will not go in. I have matters to attend to back at Qianshan.”

Chu Lanci did not think much of it and quickly said, “Alright, then please go ahead and attend to your business, Master.” A powerful cultivator must be busy, and he did not want to delay him. “I will come to visit you as soon as I am free,” he added pointedly. He hoped the Master would not pretend not to know him later since they did have a few days of fate between them after all.

Xie Zhuo was very satisfied with Chu Lanci’s attitude. He nodded slightly and said, “Alright, wait for my news. I will find you once I am finished with my work.”

Chu Lanci was overjoyed. “Really?” He was still a bit confused. “But why are you looking for me?”

Was he to be a lackey? Could he really be the lackey of a great master?

Xie Zhuo remained silent for a moment. “Do you not want to enter Qianshan?”

Chu Lanci stared with wide eyes. “But, but I do not have a spiritual root.”

“With me here, you can enter even without a spiritual root. Or do you not want to?”

“No, that is not it,” Chu Lanci said. “Of course, I want to go up the mountain. I want to. I want to very much.” So, his Master still intended to take him along.

“Then come. I will handle everything,” Xie Zhuo said.

Chu Lanci’s heart raced with excitement. He quickly said, “Thank you, Master!”

“You said thank you again,” Xie Zhuo teased, feeling in a good mood.

Chu Lanci laughed heartily three times.

After Xie Zhuo left, Chu Lanci returned to his small hut. He spun around three times in excitement, imagining a beautiful life ahead. Although it seemed a distant dream, he thought the way immortals fought demons and monsters was very cool. He wanted to be like that. Additionally, it meant he could have a regular salary. In short, it was fantastic. He felt as though everything remained the same, yet everything had changed.

Tingfeng Village was a very small village situated at the boundary between two sects. The village had been destroyed countless times but had been rebuilt several times under the protection of the Immortal Alliance. He had even heard that there were once high-level experts in the village, though their whereabouts were now unknown. Regardless, Tingfeng Village now had about twenty residents in total, including five or six children.

Any young person capable of cultivating had already left to do so. For example, Deacon Cui was from Tingfeng Village. Only Chu Lanci remained because he lacked skills and had a weak constitution. As the only young man left in the village, he stayed behind and took responsibility for everything. This ranged from the village’s safety to the education of the children. He handled it all. The money he earned was used not only for his own survival but also to support the entire village.

Because he had been away for a while, his students, as well as Old Man Li and Auntie Zhang from next door, all came to visit him. They greeted him warmly, offering melons and fruits. He distributed the stones and delicious fruits he had brought back from the Forbidden Land to the villagers. It was almost as if he were returning from his husband’s house.

After distributing the items, Chu Lanci tidied up his home. He then planned to find Deacon Cui. He had made such a mess of the task of delivering food to the Forbidden Land that he did not know if he could keep the job. He thought that if they did not let him continue, he would try his luck at the Ten Thousand Buddha Sect nearby. Although his Master said he would take him to Qianshan, he still needed to settle his own affairs first.

He finished making the remaining lanterns and set them out. Then, he bathed and changed into clean clothes. As he changed, he looked at the blue marks on his body. They had faded significantly. It was only now that he realized, in a daze, that these marks did not look like they came from a beating. Instead, they looked like they were made by someone sucking and kissing him.

If anyone asked how he knew, it was because his Master had left a few more marks on his neck while helping him on the boat yesterday. They were identical to the previous blue marks.

He slowly finished dressing. When he looked up, he saw someone peeping through the window. Chu Lanci pushed the window open and saw it was his student, You Xiaozhang. He was Auntie Zhang’s grandson and was ten years old, making him the eldest of the students. His parents, like Chu Lanci’s, were long gone.

“Is something the matter, Xiaozhang?”

You Xiaozhang had a stern little face and did not seem to be in a good mood. He asked, “Where did you go? You have blue marks on your body.”

Chu Lanci said, “Peeping at me while I bathe is not good behavior.” To him, this was not a big deal. They were just children. Sometimes these kids wanted hugs, and he always let them have their way.

You Xiaozhang did not answer directly but asked solemnly, “Teacher, Xiaozhang is asking you a question.”

Chu Lanci shrugged. “I went to do some work. The marks are there because I was beaten by someone.”

You Xiaozhang immediately said, “Who dares to hit Teacher? I will go hit him!”

Chu Lanci smiled. “Good boy. Come and help me pour out the bathwater.”

The teacher and student helped each other pour the water. Looking at the small You Xiaozhang, Chu Lanci suddenly thought of Xie Zhuo again. He called him Master, so he was technically Xie Zhuo’s student as well. It seemed that such things should not happen between a master and a disciple. He must have said something that caused his Master to misunderstand.

Should he explain himself again?

However, even if he wanted to explain, Xie Zhuo did not give him the chance. Xie Zhuo did not show up for the next few days. Chu Lanci did not really expect him to. He did not mind and, after adjusting for a few days, set off for Qianshan. Qianshan was quite far from Tingfeng Village. It would take him a full day to walk there, so he brought dry rations.

Although the cultivation world was dangerous, it did not mean one’s life was constantly in peril. Mortals like him were generally backed by the Immortal Alliance. The Alliance regularly issued protective talismans to mortals, which could at least prevent sneak attacks from cultivators below the Nascent Soul stage. Of course, it was hard to say for anyone higher than that.

When he arrived at Qianshan, he found the entire place in a state of chaos. The so-called Outer Gate Deacon was nowhere to be found. Chu Lanci asked someone and learned that Qianshan was undergoing a massive reorganization as they had a new Sect Leader.

Chu Lanci asked, “What about Deacon Cui?”

Reorganization was fine, but his wages had not been paid yet.

The disciple replied, “I do not know. The new Sect Leader acts with thunderous efficiency. Anyone who made a mistake was likely dragged to the Disciplinary Hall.”

Chu Lanci frowned. That would not do. The leader could change, but his wages had to be paid. He had nearly lost his life just to deliver food to the Forbidden Land. Honestly, he was the only one who could do that job because everyone else felt miserable near the Forbidden Land; only his constitution could handle it. In short, he needed his pay.

However, Qianshan was too vast, and everyone there possessed cultivation. Even if Chu Lanci wanted his wages back, he did not dare to act out. He hovered timidly at the Qianshan mountain gate all morning and was about to head back down, thinking he would return another time.

As it happened, just as he was about to leave, someone called out to him. Chu Lanci did not hear it at first, so the person called out several times before flying directly in front of him. Only then did Chu Lanci see the person.

It was Deacon Cui.

“I say, Lanci, every time I call you, you pretend not to hear,” Deacon Cui said with a smile.

Chu Lanci replied, “Ah, I did not do it on purpose. Sometimes my hearing is not very good. I am sorry, Deacon Cui.”

Deacon Cui was very fond of his fellow villager. Chu Lanci was certainly not efficient and was slow in everything he did, but he was good-looking and had a great temperament. He had almost never seen him get angry. He appeared a bit silly, yet he made everyone feel as though they were bathed in a spring breeze.

“I was just about to look for you, and here you are. When you went to the Forbidden Land last time, did anything happen? Were you not swept into the Forbidden Land?”

Chu Lanci let out a nervous sound. He did not know if he should talk about it. He had already accepted Xie Zhuo as his Master. Were they going to arrest his Master now? If so, he certainly could not say he knew him. He decided to distance himself first.

“Deacon, I was just about to mention that. I do not know anything. I went down the mountain right after I finished delivering the food.”

Deacon Cui was curious. “So, you have had no contact with our Sect Leader?”

“Your Sect Leader? Who is that?”

The expression on Deacon Cui’s face was hard to describe. “The new Sect Leader, Xie Zhuo. He is the number one swordsman in the world today.”

Support After Accidentally Entering the Forbidden Land and Forming a Bond with the Grandmaster