Teacher!
The simple word struck like a bolt from the blue.
Heng Xiao immediately frowned, upset as he refuted, “Little Friend, Ancestor Bo Yazi single-handedly built Xuanji Dao Sect as our one and only founder. How is it possible that he had studied under someone else?”
He found this absurd and even started to regret bringing Lin Xun here.
To his shock, however, the sect’s guardian who had stayed here for eons revealed a rare look of surprise and directly stood up!
His eyes lit up brightly like the sun in the sky. At the same time, he emanated a monstrous might that made it difficult for Heng Xiao to breathe.
Lin Xun was in an even more uncomfortable state as his mind was oppressed and his hair stood erect.
“How do you know this?” The old man’s voice was heavy. Each word rumbled in Lin Xun’s mind like a thunderclap, making him feel as if he would be doomed if he dared to lie.
However, Lin Xun was unexpectedly calm. “If you want to know, then just let me meet Senior Bo Yazi and you’ll find out for yourself.”
When he said this, he was under immense pressure.Meanwhile, Heng Xiao froze on the spot. Ancestor Bo Yazi…really studied under another teacher?
The withered old man looked deeply at Lin Xun. Then, his aura was suddenly collected and returned to his previously mundane state.
He casually said, “I am Bo Yazi.”
The calm sentence struck both Lin Xun and Heng Xiao dumb before a look of disbelief landed on their faces.
The guardian of Xuanji Dao Sect who had been here for countless years was actually its founding ancestor?
Lin Xun was stunned, while Heng Xiao was flabbergasted for a good while. He shouted in a cracked voice, “Impossible! The portrait of Founding Ancestor Bo Yazi is still hanging in our heritage room. Senior, please don’t joke about something like this!”
The old guardian was nonchalant as he responded, “That portrait is fake.”
Heng Xiao retorted, “But all of our records say that in ancient times, Ancestor Bo Yazi wanted to attempt to go on a higher path and thus decided to leave the sect, and has not been heard from since then…”
The old man cut him off, “Are records necessarily true?”
Heng Xiao froze and stood there in a daze.
The inconceivable thing he had learned today raged through his state of mind like a storm. He was still unable to digest and accept it.
Seeing this, the old man sighed softly, “Heng Xiao, you joined our sect in the winter of Year 4316, correct?”
Heng Xiao subconsciously nodded.
The old man continued, “Did your master, Yu Linzi, not tell you when you took over as Sect Master that only the founding ancestor Bo Yazi could cultivate at this Return Trove Peak?”
Heng Xiao’s eyes glazed over as he sank into thought. After a while, he nodded once again.
The old man asked, “Do you think a mere dao guardian can break this rule?”
With that, he casually tossed out a lavender-colored jade talisman. “See for yourself.”
Heng Xiao hastily caught the talisman. After inspecting it, he looked like he had been struck by lightning and almost lost his voice exclaiming, “This…this is…the founding ancestor’s Xuanji Dao Talisman!”
The old guardian explained no more, but Heng Xiao dropped to his knees. “Your humble disciple Heng Xiao greets the Founding Ancestor!”
His voice was incomparably emotional.
The turn of events was simply too unexpected. He had only wanted to do Lin Xun a favor, but who could have ever thought that it would lead him to discovering an earth-shattering secret of Return Trove Peak?!
The founding ancestor of the sect was alive and well in front of him!
Heng Xiao dared to be sure of this because the Xuanji Dao Talisman absolutely could not be counterfeited!
Even Lin Xun couldn’t help but ask, “Are you…really Senior Bo Yazi?”
“Get up.” With a wave of the old man’s sleeve, Heng Xiao was lifted up from his kneeling position.
Only then did the old guardian calmly reply to Lin Xun, “If I’m not him, how could I tell if you were telling the truth or not? But to think that a young man like you know I have another teacher. Who told you this? Don’t even think of leaving this place if you don’t tell me who.”
Heng Xiao couldn’t help but remind Lin Xun, “Little Friend, didn’t you want to see Ancestor Bo Yazi? He’s right in front of you.”
Lin Xun took a deep breath, and with a flip of his palm, a three-inch tall, glossy white jade bottle appeared.
He said softly, “This treasure should be able to prove my identity.”
The old guardian, however, couldn’t hear those words at all. From the first moment he saw that jade bottle, his entire expression changed entirely. His eyes were full of disbelief, and a series of dust-covered memories surged back into his mind like a tidal wave.
On the snow-white sandy beach of a blue ocean sat the tanned son of a fisherman family. He asked earnestly, “Can you teach me to cultivate?”
Next to him lazily lay a young man. He was resting his head on his arms, crossing his legs, and holding a green grass stalk between his lips.
Upon hearing the preteen’s question, he spat out the stalk and laughed, “Hahaha, you said you want to cultivate, little fellow?”
“Yes!”
“Seriously?”
“Why would I lie to you?”
The fisherman’s son was only around eleven to twelve years old. Upon being doubted, his face immediately turned red.
“Okay, okay, don’t be angry, little fisherman, hahaha.”
The young man sat up and rubbed the preteen’s head with a smile. Then, with a flip of his hand, a three-inch tall, shiny, creamy jade bottle appeared.
“Here, this is a test for you. If you can fill this bottle with sand, then when I come back next time, I’ll teach you how to cultivate.”
After dropping that statement, the young man took off in stride.
The youth snorted, “How hard can it be?”
However, what happened next had the preteen dumbfounded. No matter how hard he tried, that small, ordinary-looking bottle was like a bottomless pit that could never be filled.
He refused to give up, gritting his teeth and persistently pouring sand into the bottle with his hands every day after dinner. As he did this, a month flashed by.
That day, the young man returned to see the youth sweating profusely under the sunset. After watching him silence for a while, he let out a soft sigh.
Just at that moment, the preteen exclaimed, “I know!”
He picked up the jade bottle and planted it onto the sand upside down!
The young man was dumbfounded, then burst out laughing, “Resourceful kid. You put in the effort but also know how to adapt to the situation. When you hit a dead end, you change directions; when you change directions, you make progress. Such is cultivation!”
On that day, the youth finally learned that the young man was named Li Xuanwei and that he had come from a place called Fangchun Mountain.
The glossy white jade bottle was called the Dao Immeasurable Bottle!
The only thing the preteen found to be a pity was that the young man only agreed to accept him as a nominal disciple.
The scene in his memories then changed.
The youth from back then had grown into a reigning quasi-Emperor and was not far from certifying himself as an Emperor.
However, the young man from that year still addressed him as ‘little fisherman.’
“Little fisherman, you will have to pave your own path in the future. I’m going to a far, far away place, and I don’t know if I can return one day.”
That day, the young man found him, still smiling like he had back then.
However, he could see the melancholy in the young man’s expression.
“Where are you going, Master?” he couldn’t help but ask.
“I can’t tell you, or else it will definitely harm you,” said the young man with a smirk before drifting away in a flicker.
That was the last time he had seen his master.
That day, he, who had been conquering worlds for many years, cried like he never had before. Just like when he had been a preteen, full of reluctance to part as he bade farewell to his parents and followed his teacher on the path of cultivation.
As all the memories from bygone days came flooding back, the withered old man’s eyes reddened as he called out in a trembling voice, “Master…”
Even though he was an Emperor who had tread the path of the dao for countless years, at heart, he was still a small fisherman to his master!
“Master…” he kept muttering in a trance.
Heng Xiao’s eyes widened as he was alarmed. Why would Ancestor Bo Yazi become so out of sorts after seeing this bottle?
Lin Xun was also startled, but he quickly guessed that the old man was recalling Senior Brother Li Xuanwei!
It was only after a long time that Bo Yazi returned to his senses. Taking a few deep breaths, he barely managed to suppress the emotions in his heart.
His expression eased up quite a bit as he looked at Lin Xun and said, “Little Friend, where…did you get this treasure from?”
There was a hint of expectation in his voice.
Lin Xun answered truthfully, “My senior brother gave it to me.”
Bo Yazi was stunned, and then couldn’t help but ask, “Your senior brother is…?”
This time, Lin Xun replied through transmission, “Li Xuanwei.”
Bo Yazi’s pupils dilated. After a long, stunned silence, he also transmitted, “You are…a disciple of Fangchun Mountain?”
Lin Xun nodded. “Senior Brother Li Xuanwei is thirteenth in line, and I am fiftieth.”
Since he had confirmed Bo Yazi’s identity, there was no need to hide it anymore.
Hearing Lin Xun state his teacher’s seniority in the sect, the last trace of doubt in Bo Yazi’s heart was completely removed.
He inhaled deeply and fell to his knees, “Nominal Disciple Bo Yazi greets Junior Uncle.”
Boom!
Something exploded in Heng Xiao’s mind and made him dizzy.
Why is…why is the founding ancestor…giving such a grand salute to a junior?
Also, nominal disciple?! Junior uncle?!
Heng Xiao found himself on the verge of losing his sanity. Ever since entering Return Trove Peak, everything he had learned was so unimaginable that he felt like he was in a dream…
Lin Xun was also frightened. Bo Yazi was the founding ancestor of Xuanji Dao Sect, a terrifying existence who had been certified as an Emperor way back in the ancient era.
How could he remain calm when such a character knelt down to him using the etiquette of a junior?
“Senior, please get up! This junior can’t afford your salute.” Almost on instinct, Lin Xun went over to help up Bo Yazi.
However, he couldn’t pull the old man up at all!
Bo Yazi seriously said, “No matter your age or cultivation, you are the junior brother of my master, which makes you my junior uncle. It is only natural for me to salute you in this way.”
He paused shortly, then continued, “Also, please stop calling me ‘senior’ and referring to yourself as a junior to me. Although I am but a nominal disciple of your sect, rules of etiquette cannot be violated.”
His voice was earnest and solemn.
Lin Xun was rendered speechless. All he could do was smile bitterly.
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