Shu Yu assumed, since she joined the lofty and revered Malice-Suppressing Sect in such an unbelievable manner and successfully became the disciple of the strongest eldest martial brother, that she would trigger some ridiculous instant leveling up of cultivation and become a respected cultivator admired by thousands, she would save her Fu Wang and together they would embark on the luminous path to the peak of life.
But soon, she realized that she was too naive.
Five days after arriving at the Blossom Isle, Shu Yu’s responsibility was to do only one thing: Water the flowers.
Cultivation? Huhm, she did ask that Master of hers, but the other just smiled like a dazzling religious conman and merely replied, “It is not time yet, be at ease.” And whenever she asked again, he would smile and say nothing. His attitude was mild and gentle, like a slippery old fox, she couldn’t find any cracks on him at all.
There was a whole chat stream of comments inside her head. Shu Yu who possesses a verbal combat power of five points was ushered away with a few words and she obediently went to water the flowers for a few days. By the end of those days, everything in her eyes seemed to blur into overlapping images of purples and blues.
After seven days of living in the Blossom Isle, Shu Yu started to respect her Master, or better said, she started to respect every of the eldest disciples who have lived on this Blossom Isle for decades.
Alright, the Blossom Isle was indeed very pretty, when first looking at it, it was simply romantic, it was a hundred times better than the lavender gardens in the modern day. But even the most beautiful of places would start making you eye sick if you looked at it for too long.
If she was the one living here for decades at a time and had to stare at this exact same sea of flowers every single day – as if it was the only kind of flower was left in the whole world – it was possible she would’ve gone crazy.
As she spaced out in her head, Shu Yu dutifully carried a small wooden bucket and used a small wooden ladle to water the stardew blossoms.
She wasn’t required to cultivate, her work every day was super light. Tian Jueming did not give her any assignments, something like needing to water a minimum amount of flowers, nor did he even force her to water these flowers, he only said to do as she wished.
But Shu Yu was an earnest person. Every day she woke up and dutifully carried the wooden bucket Tian Jueming had given her and threw herself amidst the flower beds to water them.
This small wooden bucket was always only half full, it wasn’t heavy to carry but no matter how much water she scooped out, the water inside never decreased. Just from this point alone, Shu Yu could finally see that her Master was indeed a cultivator.
Truthfully, Tian Jueming was different from what Shu Yu had imagined a cultivator to be. Shu Yu never saw him train; every day, except for the moments where he would vanish somewhere, he would always sit outside reading books or fiddle with strange little things. Whenever this happened, Shu Yu didn’t dare look at him, because at times like this, Tian Jueming would look too like Fu Wang.
Fu Wang was often like this when they were in the Clear Wilderness, quietly reading books and intently tinkering with things she didn’t understand. But Fu Wang and Tian Jueming were different; whenever her gaze landed on him, Fu Wang would raise his head and smile at her, occasionally he would even drop what he was doing and come over to hug her. And Tian Jueming, when Shu Yu happened to look at him for a while, seemed to be completely unaware of her, it was instead Shu Yu who came to her senses and hastily turned away.
Speaking of which, as a Master, Tian Jueming was particularly responsible, he could even be described as an ever evolving ‘mother’. On the first day of her arrival to Blossom Isle, the ninth martial uncle came to the isle with a large pile of food and excitedly told her about how he received a missive from his eldest martial brother to bring her food, ingredients, and some daily necessities. He exuberantly circled a few places in the isle; according to him, he had only come here for a total of three times.
So, you have barely seen your eldest martial brother a few times, why do you still worship him so much?
Shu Yu saw her overly excited ninth martial uncle off. After that, every three days he would bring stuff to the isle, all of them for Shu Yu; he also let her look at the shopping list that Tian Jueming had given him, from the small to important stuff it was all written down to detail, he had already considered everything.
With Fu Wang as an exception, not even Shu Yu’s parents would think so intricately for her. Especially when Tian Jueming, who had long since abstained from food, had especially repaired a kitchen area for her. When he rolled up his sleeves and cooked for her, the complex expressions inside Shu Yu could almost be seen leaking through her gaze.
By the time she saw Tian Jueming washing her clothes, Shu Yu was on the verge of kneeling down to her righteous-looking Master, who seemed oblivious to the point of otherworldly.
However, with an indulgent expression, he said matter-of-factly, “I am your Master. Once a Master, always a Father, taking care of you is a given, no need to act so distant from your Master.”
Shu Yu’s face crunched into itself. She didn’t have such a young father, alright?! And for a man other than Fu Wang to cook for her and wash her clothes, she couldn’t bear it at all!
No no no, this wasn’t the point, the important point was that this Master’s cooking was worse than hers, don’t even mention being able to outperform Fu Wang, was his cooking even something that a human being could eat?
Also! When he washed her clothes, oh gods, she only brought two sets of clothes with her from the very start, and when it was washed into an irreparably damaged state, she had no choice but to wash and change into his clothes! After her ninth martial uncle bought more clothes for her, two sets of robes were again washed and ruined by this certain Master!
Sometimes, Shu Yu thought this Master to be strange, because sometimes when facing her, he would make some small and overly close actions, like patting her hair or touching her cheeks. If his face wasn’t serene, calm, and indulgent every time it happened – as if this was something very normal – then Shu Yu would’ve definitely thought this man to be a pervert who was deliberately taking advantage of her.
“Master, I’m not used to being this close with others.”
“This Master is also not used to being close with others, but my dear disciple is different, after all, we are Master and Disciple.”
The feeling of involuntarily being fended off by the opposing side’s transparent words was, on the other hand, very familiar. But she was firm and determined, so every day, she would spend most of her time running around the isle and watering the flowers, trying not to appear in front of that Master if she could help it.
Clear droplets of water were sprinkled on the purple-blue sea of blossoms. Shu Yu occasionally saw a small rainbow appear over the beds, so beautiful it made her want to take a photo with a phone and show it to Fu Wang, but unfortunately, there were no phones here. The air was clean and refreshing with the faint fragrance of flowers; of course, Shu Yu was equipped with paper talismans given to her by Tian Jueming, otherwise, it would be bad if she fell into a hallucination again.
Shu Yu wasn’t opposed to the feeling of it, but she worried that she would accidentally say something that shouldn’t be said if she sank into an illusion. If that Master found out anything off with her, then how would she find the opportunity to save Fu Wang?
She had been prepared to fight the long waiting battle. It was easy to understand. Fu Wang had been imprisoned for so many years, she certainly wouldn’t be able to easily whisk him away from such a powerful place, maybe she would even have to wait until she took over the eldest martial brother’s position… well, the eldest martial sister’s position… Then, she would be bestowed the secrets of the Malice-Suppressing Sect or its treasures or something like that, and find information about Fu Wang from them.
But she was completely mistaken.
Her opportunity came too fast and unexpectedly slapped her right in the face.
That evening, she trudged back to the wooden hut with the bucket of water and saw her Master sitting on the front porch, looking up at the sky with a solemn expression. Under the thick atmosphere pressing around, Shu Yu felt like something was most likely going to happen.
Sure enough, Tian Jueming beckoned her over. Shu Yu quickly walked towards him and made her way in front of him and sat on the other stone bench at his gesture to do so.
“As you’re my disciple, then there are things you should know about the Malice-Suppressing Sect.”
Shu Yu’s heart skipped a bit. She stared at him intently.
“Do you know why our sect is called the Malice-Suppressing Sect?” Tian Jueming asked.
Shu Yu could guess why. The Grand Advisor of Tianyun Kingdom had told her, Fu Wang was imprisoned under Acheron Mountain all those years ago and it was exactly the place where the Malice-Suppressing Sect was located.
Malice-Suppressing, suppressing malice, that malice… was most likely Fu Wang.
Under Tian Jueming’s gaze, she shook her head. “This disciple doesn’t know.”
Tian Jueming suddenly smiled, like the spring breeze against willow leaves, and said with a warm voice, “The reason for that is exactly why the Malice-Suppressing Sect was created in the first place, it was to suppress a malicious devil.”
“More than a millennia ago, there existed a Devil Lord who became a plague upon all living beings. He brought endless disasters, both demons and humans alike were mercilessly slaughtered by him, there was no way to stop him. Fortunately, the Heavenly Dao is inherently about the balance of being, that Devil’s karmic sins became too great, the venomous hostility on his body too thick, and he was struck by nine hundred and ninety-nine heavenly thunderbolts through seven days and seven nights, but it still failed to kill him, so in the end, he could only be imprisoned inside an area. The intent was to wear down his devil qi through virtuous and righteous karma, and then completely eradicate him.”
Shu Yu’s fingers were trembling a little. Her voice wavered a little, “Then he… That Devil Lord, is he already– is he dead?”
Tian Jueming shook his head. “No.”
Before Shu Yu could release a sigh of relief, she heard him tack on: “But he will, soon.”
“Our Malice-Suppressing Sect has punished the wicked and advocated benevolence day after day. We are the head of this world’s righteous cultivators. With such vast and suppressive aura crushing him underneath, perhaps in about a hundred years more, that wicked devil would probably be completely torn to pieces and sprinkled away like dust.”
After a while, Shu Yu asked again: “That Devil Lord, did he kill a lot of people?”
With her head lowered, Shu Yu didn’t see Tian Jueming’s smile suddenly stretching widely, nor the brief glint of crimson in his eyes. “Yes. The Devil Lord’s hands are tainted with countless lives, he possesses no pity nor mercy in his heart, his birth has only wrought devastation and ashes to the living. Devils are the origin of all evil, if we do not completely kill him, there will come a day where he will once again bring disaster upon the world. When such a time arrives, all living beings will suffer greatly and the tragedy of more than a thousand years ago will repeat itself once again. That is why, we must not be compassionate towards him, the right thing to do is to drive him to utter extinction.”
His voice was gentle, but there was an unremovable iciness and loftiness lingering in his words, he seemed to be full of killing intent towards the wicked devil. “You are a disciple of the Malice-Suppressing Sect. When the time comes, remember, you mustn’t allow that Devil to escape from his prison and scourge innocent lives. Do you understand?”
“… … I understand.”
Shu Yu said in a small voice. Suddenly she felt Tian Jueming’s hand over her own, she tried flinching away in surprise. However, Tian Jueming didn’t let go of her, instead, he squeezed her hand tighter and said, “There’s one more thing. It’s about my dear disciple.”
Shu Yu couldn’t break his hold. His severe expression didn’t show anything else, so she could only push down her feelings, her attention once again caught by his words. She stopped resisting and asked, “About me? What is it?”
For some reason, she had a very bad premonition about it.
Tian Jueming’s eyes were bright as he stared into her eyes, saying slowly and intently: “I glimpsed a change while divining the future, and you were that change. You are a child born with great fortune and blessings, you are the beloved child of the Heavenly Dao; if it is you, then you need only three months, and you will be able to completely annihilate that devil.”
“This Master has the Nine Killing Needles, there are ninety-nine in total. If my dear disciple personally stabs into that Devil Lord’s body with these needles, one for each day, then after three months, that devil will be completely eradicated. These needles can only be used by normal humans who possess great blessings from fate, that is why this Master has not let you cultivate right away.”
Shu Yu abruptly ripped her hands from his own. Her face was slightly stiff. “If we leave him alone, won’t he die sooner or later? Why do we have to do anything about it?”
“Naturally, it is to prevent any unexpected accidents. A century is still too long a time, and now when we have the option to eliminate this threat in merely three months, isn’t it preferable?” Tian Jueming’s expression was as gentle and warm as ever, but in Shu Yu’s eyes, it only made her feel like she was plunged into an icy pit.
He spoke again, “Is my dear disciple afraid? It is alright, that Devil Lord is already extremely weakened, he has fallen into a deep and long slumber and is unable to wake from it. He is also tightly shackled and will be unable to harm you.”
Shu Yu was quiet for a long while, then she let out a long breath. “Master, can you take me to see that Devil Lord? I want to see what kind of person he is first.”
“Of course, this Master can take you there now. However, my dear disciple has said something incorrect; that is not a person, that is a wicked devil.” With a beaming smile, Tian Jueming placed the box containing the Nine Killing Needles on her stiff palm and off-handedly, he gently stroked her long hair.
When those silky locks flowed and completely slipped from between his fingers, Tian Jueming withdrew his hands, his face full of warmth and compassion. “My dear disciple must remember, this is for the sake of all living beings, that is why you mustn’t hesitate, nor is there any need to be afraid.”
Chapter Description:
Tian Jueming: My dear disciple, quickly, by the name of the moon itself, kill him!