"Junior sister!" "Here!" "Let us begin the question!" "Yes!"
Li Changshou flicked his sleeve, and the little girl sitting cross-legged on the grass by the lake startled to attention, immediately mustering all twelve points of her focus.
"Suppose, junior sister, that your cultivation has reached the ninth step of the Nascent Soul realm, and while flying along you suddenly spot an unclaimed stretch of land where a cultivator at the sixth step of the Nascent Soul realm is forcing himself on a female qi-refiner of the Qi-Refining stage. What would you do? Here are three choices: A: Charge up and kill him—you become the embodiment of justice! B: From a distance, toss a magic treasure to strike him, then calmly walk away, ruining his fun. C: Pretend you saw nothing, and slip past from the side."
Blue Ling'e blinked. Both the premise and the options seemed to hold things beyond a girl her age could comprehend...
Li Changshou smiled and reminded her gently: "Single choice. Pick one."
"A?" Blue Ling'e answered with a hint of uncertainty.
Li Changshou said placidly: "How do you know this man hasn't hidden his true cultivation, deliberately revealing only the sixth step of Nascent Soul, when in fact he's already an expert of the Return-to-Void realm? Generally speaking, anyone bold enough to do something so vile without any disguise is sure to be base and shameless—how could you put your hopes in his honesty!"
"Then," Blue Ling'e furrowed her small brows, "B?"
"Junior sister, don't forget that you're also a female cultivator," Li Changshou sighed. "If all of Option A's premises were true, and this beast caught sight of a beauty like you, his beastly nature would only flare up more—wouldn't you be throwing yourself into it as well?"
Blue Ling'e's small face turned crimson, and she felt a dizzying muddle. In a weak voice she said: "But senior brother, Option C isn't what a cultivator of our order should do. Father once told me something like this when I was very small, that we brothers and sisters should stand up and aid the weak against the strong. Father said, if everyone sees injustice and refuses to help, then once the victim is you, wouldn't it be..."
"No, junior sister, you must remember: if you were in a peaceful, friendly grand environment, your way of thinking would be absolutely correct. But the Primordial is no peaceful place. Here experts abound, and qi-refiners will often fight to the death over a single magic treasure or a single spiritual root. Most cultivators who manage to survive are ruthless people at heart."
Li Changshou clasped his hands behind his back, gazing at the lake, and sighed: "To hold onto such a benevolent, justice-first mindset makes it very hard to keep living in this world. What we must do is not to commit evil, nor to serve evil—but neither must we go out of our way to stop it. Instead of playing the hero when our skills aren't yet up to it, better to just go on living, until we stand at the summit of all living creatures, able to set the rules, and then rewrite the survival conditions for every weak soul throughout the Primordial. So—do you understand?"
"Mm!" Blue Ling'e nodded heavily, her eyes full of light.
And it was at this very moment that the pair of siblings never noticed a wisp of green smoke drifting out from the thatched cottage nearby, floating quietly to rest behind them.
Li Changshou said gravely: "Junior sister! I'll give you one more chance to choose, and say it aloud, clearly and firmly! If you come across a male cultivator molesting a female cultivator, what should you do!"
Blue Ling'e's eyes were full of light, and in a voice not loud but extraordinarily steady she called: "C! Pretend I saw nothing! Slip past from the side!"
"Mm!" Li Changshou couldn't help but give his junior sister a thumbs up, a wave of emotion rising in his heart. Two days of teaching had already yielded such results. If this kept up, in a few years he wouldn't have to worry at all about his junior sister stirring up trouble that dragged him in as well! Having a junior sister who understood how to live quietly was truly...
All of a sudden, a cold wind blew from behind, and the hairs on both their bodies stood on end as an old, icy voice sounded from behind them: "Li... Chang... Shou!"
A clatter, a crack— That was Blue Ling'e's teeth chattering.
Li Changshou's mouth twitched as he turned to look, forcing a smile onto his face in a flash. "Master, you've finished your seclusion? Are you about to begin today's arduous teaching of your younger disciple... Master, let's talk things over! What are you drawing your fly whisk for! I'm your true disciple too! You can't spoil the younger one and bully the elder!"
"Wretch!" Daoist Qiyuan's beard and hair flew about, both eyes wide as saucers, and he raised the fly whisk to strike. "Cowardly and afraid, and now you're teaching your junior sister to be ruined too! Today your master will properly discipline you!"
Yet as the fly whisk came crashing down, Li Changshou's body was wrapped in a flash of green light, and in an instant he appeared on the other side of the willow tree, cupping his hands at his master and begging for mercy again. "You dare use the Wood Escape to dodge! Asking for a beating!" Qiyuan, even more furious, raised the fly whisk and charged after him. Li Changshou drifted backward, dodging his master's pursuit time and again. Daoist Qiyuan began to urge his techniques, and the fly whisk in his hand stretched into a furious growth, flooding the lakeshore with a sky-filling blur of sweeping whisk-shadows. But Li Changshou was like a loach, always finding a gap to slip through.
"Master, calm down! I'm doing this for junior sister's own good." "Our Immortal Crossing Sect belongs to the line of the Human Teaching—a sage sect of the Three Teachings! How did a junior full of crooked ideas come out of you!" "Isn't it that Master has a keen eye for talent?" "Bah! This old Daoist will purge the sect today! Waaah! I'm enraged!" "Master, you're not so handsome when you're angry..."
Beneath the willow shade, Ling'e, who had been tense watching her master about to strike her senior brother, was gradually coaxed into laughter by her master and senior brother chasing and 'bickering' with each other. She could tell that her master wasn't truly striking with all his force, and that her senior brother's dodging was relaxed and effortless.
After a few moments of this chase, her senior brother seemed to catch his foot and fall to the ground; her master pounced on him, pinned him down, and set about flogging his rear with the fly whisk, producing a series of rhythmic smacks...
A short while later, Daoist Qiyuan, having finished disciplining his eldest disciple, rose and straightened his rumpled robes, then roared a few words at the disheveled disciple on the ground: "Think carefully on your faults! From now on, you're forbidden from teaching your junior sister how to behave! Go and finish building your junior sister's thatched cottage!"
"Alas... yes, this disciple obeys..."
"Ling'e, come here! Your master will give you the teachings and pass on the arts! Forget all those crooked ideas your senior brother taught you!"
"Oh!" Ling'e answered weakly, then looked at her senior brother's swollen rear beneath his robe with concern, and caught a glimpse of the right hand Li Changshou had hidden in his sleeve... That right hand gave her a light wave, and made a thumbs-up gesture. Ling'e felt a little reassured, then, seeing her senior brother sprawled disheveled on the grass, she bowed her head and burst into a giggle, hurrying after her master's retreating figure. Her steps grew lighter and lighter, until she was nearly running...
Li Changshou lay there and let out a faint sigh as a white cloud drifted over and slowly lifted him up. Master really did strike! He rubbed his rear and drew in a sharp breath, then sighed again distantly. If he'd known his master would genuinely beat him, he wouldn't have let himself be caught... But no, he still had to respect his master's face. After all, the master's hopes of becoming an immortal were slim now, the pressure was great, and he was already struggling hard enough. To judge from the spells his master had just revealed, there was a show of strength but a hollowness within, and the lock of his qi-vitality was off and on—clearly the signs of rushing one's cultivation realm too hastily... Well then, best find a way to raise the master's chances of surviving the heavenly tribulation. Li Changshou scratched his head, lay belly-down on the cloud lost in thought, and drifted slowly toward the third thatched cottage nearby, which was nearly finished.
...
That night, lying in the thatched cottage her senior brother had just repaired for her, feeling the softness of the straw mat beneath her, Ling'e tossed and turned, unable to sleep for a long while. These past few days had been like a dream. In the year she turned nine; while strolling through the market with her mother, she'd been singled out by an old immortal, who took her as his disciple. Her parents were reluctant to part with her, but this was a great stroke of fortune. If she made progress in cultivation, then later her whole clan could bask in the reflected glory. So, after holding a disciple-taking banquet at home and carrying many of her mother's admonitions, she followed her master to the Immortal Crossing Sect. Then she had met her somewhat strange senior brother. Her senior brother had many long-winded arguments that sounded perfectly reasonable but somehow always felt a bit off; her master had warned her time and again that her senior brother was an odd man, and told her not to learn how to conduct herself from him, yet she always felt that her senior brother was actually a very capable qi-refiner. There weren't many rites and regulations in the mountain, the lake and the hills abounded in delicious things, and cultivating the Dao was quite fascinating, at least not as dull as she'd imagined before coming. Of course, what she enjoyed most was roasting food with her senior brother, feeding the fish together, wandering the mountain together, hunting down utterly delicious game to fill her little belly, and then sitting quietly by the lake for a while, listening to her senior brother spout his crooked reasoning... Would all the days to come be like this?
Nestled in the quilt of some unknown material, Ling'e let out a soft breath, turned over, and faced the window. She suddenly felt a shadow of a figure moving before her eyes. She blinked her drowsy eyes slightly wider—and instantly woke with a fright, her small body trembling a few times involuntarily. Outside the window, Li Changshou was lying prone on a white cloud, waving at her gently. "Night lessons, young lady." "Hm?" Ling'e blinked, then, shrinking back into the quilt, nodded lightly. "Mm..." "Now let's hear question number two!" Good grief, her senior brother really was an odd man.
...
And so, ten years passed.