Chapter 6: Su Wantian

“I am so unlucky.”

Night had fallen.

The young scholar sat by the river, drenched and sighing, and when Xun Qiu, sitting next to him, heard this, he immediately became anxious as well.

“I’m the unlucky one, okay?

If it weren’t for you, you troublemaker, I’d be staying in an inn with Fairy Yun right now!

If you provoked a monster, why couldn’t you just go and die on your own!”

“Don’t say that to others.”

The young scholar said lazily.

“I don’t have the strength to hit you right now, but others won’t care that you’re just a child.”

“Who are you calling a child!”

“See, only children get worked up over things like this.”

“Ugh…”

Xun Qiu gritted his teeth, wanting to retort, but he also knew that he had almost no chance of winning a verbal battle with a literate and mischievous guy like this scholar, so he had to awkwardly change the subject.

“Hey, you troublemaker, what’s your name?”

“My heavens, you’ve finally deigned to ask for my name.”

The scholar said casually.

“Su Wantian, courtesy name An’you.”

“…Very feminine.”

Xun Qiu, naturally, didn’t know what allusions or deep meanings were contained in the name of a scholar like this and just muttered based on his first impression.

“Seeing you carrying a basket of books before, your family must be well-off.

Why did you come to the mountains alone?”

Su Wantian had also thrown caution to the wind.

After a brush with death, many things he had once valued now seemed meaningless.

He still maintained that half-dead demeanor and said:

“Naturally, it’s because I failed the imperial examinations and have no face to see my parents and elders.

I planned to hide in the mountains for a while, for two or three years.

My parents would naturally think I had an accident, and when I go back then, they won’t care about whether I passed or failed.”

“…You’re such a good-for-nothing.”

“Then what do you think I should do.”

“Naturally, go back and kowtow to your parents and beg for forgiveness, and don’t get up if they don’t forgive you!”

“Isn’t that even more good-for-nothing!”

Su Wantian felt an immense weariness in his heart for a moment.

“How can one talk about such things with their parents so calmly and shamelessly?

Just the thought of it makes me want to kill myself in shame…”

“Tch, I don’t understand the thoughts of people like you who have parents.”

Xun Qiu said with confusion.

“But since they’re family, as long as you make things clear and sincerely ask for forgiveness, it should usually be fine, right?”

“What kind of talk is that?

Can murder and arson also be forgiven… huh?

What did you mean by that sentence just now?”

Su Wantian realized belatedly.

“Um… you’re an orphan?”

“Pretty much.”

Xun Qiu thought for a moment, his expression serious.

“But I still have friends.”

Su Wantian felt a little guilty for a moment and also understood where Xun Qiu’s unusual and carefree personality came from.

“Sorry… then that friend you mentioned, are you referring to that fairy from before?”

“No, it’s the big yellow dog on the street back home!”

“Isn’t that the same as not having any!”

Su Wantian couldn’t hold it in and shouted.

“I’m asking about a person!

A person!

Don’t you have any friends who are people?”

“What are you shouting so loudly for…”

Xun Qiu rubbed his face.

“No.

The people on the street all seem to dislike me.

Although they’ll occasionally toss me some leftovers, they don’t like their own children playing with me…

Sigh, let me tell you, even Big Yellow was only willing to play with me after I fed him continuously for a month!”

“That’s so pathetic…”

Su Wantian had originally thought that failing the imperial examinations three times in a row was pathetic enough, but now, hearing what Xun Qiu said, he suddenly felt that at least his family was happy and his upbringing was fortunate…

Indeed, as long as there are people in the world who are worse off than oneself, one can live with their head held high.

He remembered the fairy in the simple dress he had seen during the day and understood in his heart that she was probably the “Fairy Yun” Xun Qiu was talking about.

For a moment, he didn’t know what he was thinking and asked:

“So, you’re currently cultivating the Dao with that Fairy Yun?”

Xun Qiu was noncommittal about this.

“I guess so… but she wants me to join the Grand Profound Sect…”

“The Grand Profound Sect?!”

Su Wantian flipped over and grabbed Xun Qiu’s shoulders, his reaction frighteningly large.

“For real?

You’re joining the Grand Profound Sect?

The leader of the Twelve Sects, the orthodox school of Daoism, the true martial inheritance?”

Xun Qiu hadn’t heard of so many titles, but that didn’t stop him from showing off smugly.

“What, am I a genius of unparalleled talent and astonishing comprehension?

Is it so surprising that I’m joining the Grand Profound Sect?”

Su Wantian looked him up and down and said seriously:

“Then are you a girl disguised as a boy?”

“…?”

Xun Qiu had no idea what the causal connection was between his two sentences, but Su Wantian didn’t seem to expect an answer on the spot.

He just felt that if Xun Qiu were a peerless beauty disguised as a man, then his experience today would be like that of a protagonist in a cultivation story.

But after thinking about it, he felt that it was too far-fetched, so he simply lay back down.

“What a coincidence, I was also thinking of going to the Grand Profound Sect to cultivate the Dao.”

This time, it was Xun Qiu’s turn to find it incredible.

“You?”

“That’s right.

I crossed mountains and ridges just to go to the Grand Profound Sect.”

Su Wantian said.

“What I said just now wasn’t false, but think about it, between sneaking into the deep mountains to avoid my parents and running off to cultivate immortality after discovering my talent for it, doesn’t the latter sound a bit more presentable?

Even if I go and find out I don’t have the talent, it won’t stop me from hiding, right?”

“You troublemaker, you really are a good-for-nothing.”

“So why did you ask for my name in the first place…”

The two of them chatted idly until the night grew deep, and they both fell asleep in a drowsy state.

Although they should have built a fire at this time to dry their clothes and prevent catching a cold, neither of them had the strength for it, and the flames could easily attract monsters, so they just slept with the sky as their blanket and the ground as their bed.

Whether it was luck or someone helping them, when they woke up the next morning, they had neither caught a cold nor been torn apart and eaten by monsters.

Their spirits and strength had also recovered a lot… at least enough to walk out of this mountain forest.

As for where to go, of course, it was to follow Su Wantian back to his home.

Although he couldn’t say he was completely indifferent, after their conversation last night, Su Wantian really didn’t care as much about his ethereal face.

He already understood that he was not cut out for studying and had made up his mind to go with Xun Qiu to the Grand Profound Sect to try his luck.

This time, he was going back just to say goodbye.

And Xun Qiu was also happy to have a companion on the road.

For one, he didn’t know the specific location of the Grand Profound Sect, and in his current state, he couldn’t walk there alone.

For another, he felt that it was unlikely that Yun Qingping had really left.

She was probably waiting for him somewhere, and at the very least, she would give him the medicine she had promised for reshaping his body.

The two of them spent a whole morning coming down the mountain and arrived at Su Wantian’s hometown, Xinyang City, in the afternoon.

The cultivation world, the Five Continents and Four Extremes that Yun Qingping had spoken of, were frighteningly large.

Each continent was large enough to contain thousands of countries.

But for mortals, a country, a city, was already big enough, especially for a country bumpkin like Xun Qiu who had never seen the world.

After seeing the city walls, the main streets, and the bustling street scenes on both sides of Xinyang City, he had been exclaiming in amazement all the way, which made Su Wantian extremely weary.

The two did not immediately return to the Su residence but, based on Xun Qiu’s intuition, found an inn and asked if a woman who looked like an immortal had stayed here… and there really was one.

Although it wasn’t good to tell outsiders such things, Su Wantian made full use of the Su family’s influence in the local area.

After managing to prove his identity, with just a few words, he not only found out that Yun Qingping had booked a room here last night but also got the room key.

He had a clear conscience about this.

After all, the other party was an immortal in Xun Qiu’s words.

How capable would he have to be to harm her?

The two found the room the innkeeper had mentioned.

There was no one inside.

On the bed, there was a letter and a small jade bottle.

Su Wantian glanced at the former and handed it to Xun Qiu, but Xun Qiu didn’t even look at it before handing it back to him.

“What, aren’t you going to read it?”

“No.”

Xun Qiu said succinctly.

“I’m illiterate.

You read it to me.”