CH 21

Song Qingshi got up early and took Yue Wuhuan to the ancestral hall to do obeisance to his grand-master. 



Other sects placed great importance to their ancestral hall. In the Medicine King’s Valley’s case, it was both remote and unremarkable. Hidden by the thickets, it was shabby and old; not much better than the dwellings of the valley servants. Outside the ancestral hall was an herb garden. Wuhuan has passed by it several times without giving it a second glance, thinking it was just an abandoned building.



Song Qingshi opened the door that was sealed with a charm.



A thick layer of dust had settled in the ancestral hall. Aside from a simple table, some chairs and an altar, only an old picture scroll was inside.



“Actually, it doesn’t need to be locked. There’s no valuables in here,” Song Qingshi explained, feeling embarrassed. “I haven’t been here for many years. Wait a while. I’ll sweep up first.” He then rolled up his sleeves and used a wind spell to blow away the dust. He threw cleaning spells at the debris lying everywhere. He then set up the incense burner on the altar, placed fresh flowers and fruits and finally found a worn out praying mat. He patted off the dust, and said, feeling quite pleased, “Alright.” 



Yue Wuhuan stood to the side, holding the incense. He stood there in a daze. Never in his life has he seen such a casual and carefree sect…



Song Qingshi unfurled the picture scroll above the altar.



There was no figure on the scroll, no inscription or dedication, only an endless sea of ​​clouds, a bright glow shone from the depths of the sea of ​​clouds, lighting up the horizon.



Song Qingshi tried his best to give an introduction. “I got your grand-master’s inheritance by accident in a secret realm. Master didn’t leave a name. I only knew that his surname was Song. I didn’t have a surname at the time, so I took his surname out of respect…”



Murder and massacre was all too common in the immortal realm. There were many children who were left orphaned and the original body was one of them. Because of his inborn two kinds of spiritual fires, his innate talent for medicine and poisons, he accidentally obtained the inheritance of the Medicine King in the secret realm. He created the Medicine King’s Valley, set up his residence within and started practicing medicine and treating diseases. He refined pills and manufactured poisons. He occasionally went to secret realms to grab some rare medicines. Before he knew it, he had already gained the reputation he had today.



“In the immortal realm, inheritance is directly injected into the sea of ​​knowledge, so this painting is the only personally drawn work left by the first master. I guess it has a special value as a memento and so I used it for his enshrinement. Actually, I don’t know what this painting is. It might be a landscape…” Song Qingshi felt quite guilty about his casual judgment and quickly glossed over it. “In short, I have written down all the manuscripts that are suitable to impart to the sect and placed them in the library. You can read it yourself.”



After Song Qingshi finished his introduction, making sure that he hadn’t left anything out, he signaled for Yue Wuhuan to light the joss sticks.



Yue Wuhuan respectfully lighted the joss sticks. Just when he was about to kneel though, the joss sticks were extinguished. 



He re-lighted the joss sticks, then knelt down. The light on the joss sticks went out again.



Yue Wuhuan looked at Song Qingshi worriedly, “Could it be that…grand-master is not willing to accept me as a disciple?”



“Impossible, you’re so smart. Grand-master would be beside himself with joy.” Song Qingshi waved his hand and lowered his head, pondering for a moment. “Speaking of, I’ve never knelt before. Every time I come here, I clean up, light some joss sticks and leave. Oftentimes, I even forget. …I guess grand-master might not like being bowed down to by his disciples. Try to just offer the joss sticks directly.”



Yue Wuhuan skeptically inserted the burning joss sticks into the incense burner. While standing, he bowed. 



The incense in the incense burner really did burn steadily, staying lighted.



Yue Wuhuan couldn’t help but ask, “Isn’t this too disrespectful to the grand-master?”



“The grand-master doesn’t like these, he likes…” Song Qingshi sorted through the inheritance of the original body. The contents of the inheritance were mostly knowledge, leaving almost no traces of the man himself. The only thing he had left was a very interesting word. It seemed to have been his motto. “To question.”



Question authority, question knowledge, question everything in the world. 



To question was the driving force behind scientific research.



Song Qingshi expended a lot of energy to explain his idea to Yue Wuhuan. “Grand-master does not want us to respect him as an individual. What he wishes is for us to respect knowledge, to implement his ideas, to study hard, and research earnestly. He doesn’t want that just because he is the grand-master, that we dare not question what he has left behind. Although the grand-master is very powerful, he could have also mistakes. We must find the correct answer amongst all the constant mistakes.”



Yue Wuhuan hesitantly said, “The correct answer?”



Song Qingshi said happily, “En, I have researched and proven several mistakes of the grand-master, writing out revisions to the answer.” 



In the immortal realm, where great importance was placed on honoring one’s teacher and revering his teachings, his theory could be described as shocking and appalling.



Yue Wuhuan was too surprised to speak.



“Perhaps this is the foundation upon which the Medicine King’s Valley is built upon,” Song Qingshi said longingly. “If I die, like the grand-master, I also hope that I won’t be worshiped by my disciples. I won’t leave any portrait or name for future generations to revere. These things are simply a waste of time. If you have the time to do this, then it would be better that you spend that time on research, to finish the work I was not able to, to correct my mistakes and create more interesting…”



Before he could finish speaking, Yue Wuhuan forcibly pulled his arm and interrupted his wild thoughts. 



Yue Wuhuan stared at him fiercely, his face gloomy, like the dark sky about to pour down rain. Through almost gritted teeth, he said, “Don’t say such ominous things…”



Song Qingshi finally reacted and said with a smile, “Don’t worry, I’m talking about when I die of old age.”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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Yue Wuhuan also knew that he should yield but he didn’t want to apologize for this matter.



The two were silent for a long time and they finally quietly agreed to pretend like this topic never happened.



Thus the ceremony to formally become his disciple was finished. 



…



Song Qingshi liked to eat sweets, especially ice cream. Yue Wuhuan was very picky about the taste. He thought that food bought from outside was not good enough and that it was too dirty. The Medicine King’s Valley didn’t have a good cook, so he took time to study various recipes and methods for making sweets. Every day, he would change techniques and make all kinds of sweets for him. All of them were especially delicious.



After finding out about Song Qingshi’s personal pastry kitchen, An Long turned on ‘food-snatching’ mode and even tried to get Yue Wuhuan to cook for him as well.



Song Qingshi was instantly angry. “Is my eldest disciple here to wait upon people?” 



The Alaskan Malamute didn’t care about these reasons. He kept kicking up a fuss, all so that he could eat the sweets Yue Wuhuan made.



“Forget it. He’s very busy,” Song Qingshi was pestered to the point of losing his temper. He put down his book, rolled up his sleeves and said, “I’ll just make it for you.”



An Long’s eyes lit up with joy.



Although Song Qingshi loved sweets, he was never one to pursue his appetite. So, it was fine with him whether he ate or not. In the original world, he was a rich family’s spoilt son who simply had to open his hands and mouth for food. In this world, the original body would rather fast than cook. Therefore, in either lifetimes, he has never entered the kitchen. He mind held countless medical knowledge but it had no space for oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar… 



He stood ignorantly in the kitchen for a long while, trying to figuring out how the use of the various utensils. He couldn’t find a recipe and also didn’t know how to work an ordinary firewood stove. And so he simply resorted to using the alchemical fire and made the sweets according to the methods he used to refine pills.



In the end, he bustled about for a long time and brought out a dish of scorched round dumplings, each of which was exactly of the same size and degree of char. It could definitely satisfy anyone’s OCD tendencies.



“These are glutinous rice dumplings.” Song Qingshi has always been brave enough to face up to his failures. He took out the finished product just to prove that he had tried hard. He then advised, “It probably tastes terrible, so better to just throw it away. I’ll let the cook make something for you. Just don’t bother Yue Wuhuan. You can request anything you want.”



An Long smiled and looked at it for a while. Then suddenly, he picked up a dumpling and threw it into his mouth. 



Song Qingshi had no time to stop this Alaskan Malamute’s behavior of indiscriminately throwing food into his mouth. He was a little worried he might get diarrhea.



An Long chewed carefully for a long time and exclaimed, “It doesn’t look very good, but the taste is actually pretty good.”



Immediately afterwards, he happily threw a few more of the dumplings into his mouth, leaving only the last one.



Song Qingshi was stupefied. He didn’t even dare taste this thing after he’s taken it out of the stove. Could it really be that it didn’t taste that bad? So, mustering a brave and challenging mood, he put the last dumpling into his mouth and chewed it. The explosive taste instantly surged to his taste buds. It was so cloyingly sweet and it was mixed with all sorts of strange, aromatic spices. It even had a strange fishy taste to it. It was worse than even the bitterest pill. It had reached the level of absolutely nauseating. 



Song Qingshi was so disgusted, tears were starting to pour out. He quickly spit out the dumping and pointed accusingly at the Alaskan Malamute, not knowing what to say.



An Long was slapping the table and laughing madly. He was laughing so hard he couldn’t stand up straight.



He was like this before. He would willingly take on damage in order to make fun of the original body. He also had a good grasp of the original body’s bottom line. So he would repeatedly jump and dance around the edge of death, right just before the original body really gets angry and murderous, every time. Now, seeing Song Qingshi about to explode, he quickly wiped away the tears from his laughter and went back to being serious. He added, “I won’t go looking for Yue Wuhuan for something to eat anymore.”



Song Qingshi’s anger disappeared instantly. 



An Long said with a mischievous smile, “Well, it was your first time making it. It was so precious, I just had to taste it.”



Song Qingshi felt a little embarrassed thinking about his workmanship.



An Long took advantage of the situation, “By the way, would you like to see the new Gu that I developed? It’s very cute.”



Song Qingshi immediately put aside all thoughts of unimportant things like dumplings and happily dragged him to the research room. 



On the way, An Long smiled and asked, “You’re really worried about your darling Yue Wuhuan? What's wrong with him?”



Song Qingshi threw him a warning look.  Unwilling to answer this private question, he ordered, “Don’t mess around.”



An Long looked pensive. “Interesting. Really interesting…”



The more Song Qingshi refused to let him mess around, the more he wanted to mess around. 



Just how much fun would he be to mess with?



…



Yue Wuhuan finished practicing his swordsmanship and was about to go back to his room to take a bath and change clothes. When he was passing by the corridor, a small paper ball hit the back of his head.



The paper ball fell to the ground and rolled. It seemed to be wrapped around something. 



It was around this time that Song Qingshi did his medical experiments and couldn’t be disturb… So he squatted down obediently, picked up the ball of paper and, just as the other party planned, slowly unfolded it.



Inside the ball of paper, there was a terrifying two-headed centipede, with countless squirming feet and disgusting goo flowing out of its two weird mouthparts. It made threatening gestures and was about to pounce on him, baring its teeth and claws.



Yue Wuhuan thought for a while. He rewrapped it in the paper ball and threw it away. He said angrily, “An Xianzun, don’t do such childish things.”



“Why? Without Qingshi here, you don’t want to bother pretending to be all nice?” An Long laughed and walked from behind the screen wall. He beckoned and the centipede immediately crawled out of the paper ball and returned to his palm, “This little guy isn’t poisonous.  He was raised to scare people. Every time, he scares beauties into uncontrollable shrieking and trembling. It’s really funny. Why weren’t you the least bit afraid? Now, I’m a little disappointed.” 



Yue Wuhuan said helplessly, “If Xianzun needs it, I could shriek for your listening pleasure.”



“Never mind. Acted out performances are too fake. I don’t like it,” An Long flipped his hand and the centipede disappeared. He came over languidly and curiously looked Yue Wuhuan up and down. He sighed with great admiration, “I never thought that a man could be so beautiful. Your looks are even somewhat more superior than Lady Wan’s from the Bright Moon Pavilion. Despite knowing that you only like men, I don’t even feel disgusted.”



Bright Moon Pavilion was a well-known brothel in the immortal realm and Lady Wan was a courtesan whose reputation for being amorous reached far and wide.



This analogy could be considered as extremely malicious. 



Yue Wuhuan didn’t care, he smiled and said, “I have heard that An Xianzun’s confidantes are to be found all over the world and the you have reviewed countless beauties. You have numerous immortal ladies and enchantresses fighting for your affections, even coming to blows over you. Having you speak highly of Wuhuan’s beauty is truly an honor to Wuhuan’s reputation.”



“Wuhuan Gongzhi cracks jokes.” An Long heard his veiled ridicule of his loose ways, and was amused. “However, not many of my confidantes have been attracted by you into counting themselves among your close friends. I once knew a friend, what was his name? Hmmm…he was even a hero of the righteous way. He thought of you constantly. Upon knowing that you have married into the Medicine King’s Valley and that he could never get close to you again, he got blackout drunk and complained nonstop.”



When Yu Qing, after drinking in the Western Forest, started talking nonsense that tarnished Song Qing’s reputation, he killed him easily and sent the body to the Medicine King’s Valley for research.



Yue Wuhuan pretended to be ignorant of the matter. “I don’t make a habit of remembering dead people.” 



An Long sneered and said, “A beauty truly is cruel and ruthless.”



“That’s right. Courtesans are heartless and actors are faithless.” Yue Wuhuan directly brought to light his veiled mockery. He raised his head and tucked behind his ears, hair dampened by sweat from sword practice. He took a few steps and languidly leaned against the screen wall of the corridor. He raised his eyes and asked provocatively, “An Xianzun, don’t you find that living talents are more interesting?”



An Long followed. He leaned down and placed his right arm, the arm tattooed with the five evils, against the screen wall, right beside Yue Wuhuan’s ear. He then gave a vicious laugh. He towered above him and took off his disguise, revealing sharp wolf teeth. “I think this act you’ve put on is very amusing. But I want to know what’s hidden under the skin of this beauty. Can I see it?”



Yue Wuhuan asked with a smile, “Is An Xianzun interested in my true face?” 



An Long carelessly squeezed his chin, forcing him to look up. He carefully looked this face over.  He leaned in close and said resolutely, “Very interested.”



Yue Wuhuan watched him quietly for a while and then warned him, “Master seems to have finished his experiment ahead of time.”



An Long quickly withdrew his hand. He panicked for a moment and then suddenly remembered that he had blocked Song Qingshi’s mental probe and that he wouldn’t be discovered.



Yue Wuhuan bowed his head, holding back his smile. 



“You dare trick me?!” An Long realized that he had been tricked. He was furious and he wanted to bare his claws at this guy who didn’t realize what was good for him.



Instantly, Red Lotus Fire rose from under his feet.



An Long noticed the crisis and immediately jumped away.



Immediately afterwards, several bursts of Red Lotus Fire forced him to retreat three zhang away. 



Song Qingshi appeared behind him. He was itching to use the Red Lotus Flame to crush this Alaskan Malamute to death. He had just taken his eyes off him for a little while and he goes off to bully his family’s little angel! Fortunately, Yue Wuhuan had reminded him a few days before that he should use his mental probe to secretly check on what this Alaskan Malamute was up to, lest this damn dog tear down the Medicine King’s Valley! Although a Nascent Soul cultivator could block off a mental probe, once he discovered in the research room that the Alaskan Malamute’s presence had disappeared, he had an ominous premonition. He felt that the only reason he would hide his presence was if he was up to no good. After determining Yue Wuhuan’s location, he immediately rushed over.



An Long pointed at Yue Wuhuan and was so angry that he could not speak. “You, you, you!”



Yue Wuhuan whispered aggrievedly, “I didn’t lie.”



Song Qingshi rushed in front of Yue Wuhuan, carefully checking over for any injuries. He asked, nervously, “Is this guy bullying you?” 



Although he hadn’t seen how things turned out this way, was there still any need to think about who was right and who was wrong between this fierce and domineering Alaskan Malamute and the delicate and charming little angel? Was there any need to think who was weak and who was strong between the mentally fragile patient and the rough-skinned, muscle-bound Xianzun? Besides, An Long can kill Yue Wuhuan a hundred times over with just one finger! He must take good care of his family’s little angel! He would protect him even at the cost of losing this investment!



Song Qingshi with the conviction that justice was on his side, openly showed his bias.



An Long desperately directed pointed looks at Yue Wuhuan behind him. His looks were filled with a particularly strong deterring force.



Yue Wuhuan saw and gently shielding a miscreant from punishment, said, “No, An Xianzun was very nice. He was just joking with me.” 



Song Qingshi looked back at An Long suspiciously. The Red Lotus Fire on his body hadn’t yet been extinguished. There was even a faint tendency for it to be switched over to the Underworld Ghost Fire.



An Long instantly switched to an innocent smile. “I wouldn’t dare bully him. We were just having a chat, cracking jokes.”



“Yes,” Yue Wuhuan continued to persuade, “Master, I rarely go out, so I am quite curious about the outside world. An Xianzun is a very open and good-natured person of the world and he has condescended to talk with me about the many interesting things outside. I was delighted to hear his stories.”



An Long draped an arm over Yue Wuhuan’s shoulders. He patted his chest and laughed. “I hit it off with him and wanted to be friends.” 



Yue Wuhuan admitted with a smile, “An Xianzun really wasn’t bullying me.”



Song Qingshi gradually extinguished the flames and skeptically asked, “Is that so?”



The two nodded at the same time. “Yes.”



Song Qingshi was a little confused and scratched his head. The moment he saw An Long using a domineering posture to block Yue Wuhuan, refusing to let him leave, the fire in his heart rose. He really hadn’t been paying attention to what they had been doing. Was it really a misunderstanding? 



“Go on ahead. I’ll look for you to chat next time,” An Long called out a greeting to Yue Wuhuan, his tone carrying a veiled threat. He then dragged Song Qingshi away, “Let’s go. Let’s go and see if the petri dish yesterday has produced any results. .”



“Don’t be angry, I really wouldn’t dare bully your Crystal Man.”



“Article 72.”



“Fine, fine, fine. I won’t say anything. Come and accompany me to have a drink.” 



“No.”



“…”



Yue Wuhuan bowed respectfully and watched them leave.



The Western Forest’s Gu King has always stood in a high position. He never had any need for shrewd scheming. Force was enough to crush everything. 



Therefore, his probing and his thoughts were very shallow and easy to guess.



An Long just wanted to investigate his unbearable past. He was contemptuous and suspicious. He suspected that someone was behind him; he suspected that he harbored sinister designs on the Medicine King’s Valley; An Long suspected him of being overly-ambitious; he even suspected his feelings for Song Qingshi. However, An Long was worried that there if acted recklessly without any evidence, that Song Qingshi would openly quarrel with him. He didn’t want to openly and directly investigate so he wanted to find an excuse to entangle with him, try to find out his true face. And then crush him to death.



This matter was not difficult to solve.



Since the Western Forest’s Gu King wanted to see his true face, then he’ll show him his true face. 



He hopes An Long can stand it…