CHAPTER 72: CHAPTER 72 PURIFIED WATER WITHOUT RIPPLES_1

Su Bei walked to his room with a smile on his face and knocked on the door.

Then, reining in his unserious smile, he announced solemnly, "Master has returned."

The eyes of Xiao Ruoching, who had been cultivating with her eyes closed, snapped open. She pressed her thin lips together, nervously staring at the door.

Master has returned! I’m likely going to face a night-long interrogation by my master! But I have no regrets. If the five Spiritual Pearls were absorbed, they were absorbed. I’ll simply tell the truth: they were given to me by Ninth Uncle! Blame it all on Ninth Uncle! Since Ninth Uncle has already seen through Su Bei, she’ll surely cover for me! Yes! That’s the plan!

Xiao Ruoching took a deep breath, walked briskly to the door, and opened it.

"Disciple greets Master!"

Su Bei looked on with satisfaction at Xiao Ruoching, whose clothes were soaked with sweat from cultivation, and nodded.

With his hands clasped behind his back, he adopted an air of profound mystery and praised, "Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment! Not bad..."

Xiao Ruoching’s heart trembled. She forcefully suppressed a hint of nervousness and said, "Master, it... it was because of Ninth Uncle! Ninth Uncle came in just now and... and gave disciple five Spiritual Pearls."

Su Bei’s eyebrows knitted slightly, his eyes filled with confusion.

Ninth Uncle? That aloof beauty came here? Is this world becoming too strange? When I was about to be in danger, a cold and astonishingly beautiful Immortal ignored the public’s gaze, walked into the Red Pavilion, and then accurately found my disciple, all to give her five Spiritual Pearls to help her break through to the Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment? And coincidentally, my disciple advanced quickly, resolving my crisis and making me look good! What a story! Novels wouldn’t dare write something like this! Writing this would be a guaranteed flop! There’s no logic to it at all! Could Xiao Ruoching’s luck as a Child of Destiny really be this absurdly powerful?

Seeing Su Bei’s furrowed brows, Xiao Ruoching felt an unprovoked shiver, and her complexion turned a shade paler.

As expected! He’s suspecting me! Has he discovered something? It seems I must explain everything that happened clearly. As long as I tell the truth. Just tell half the truth, with no lies. Then there will surely be no loopholes!

After hesitating for a moment, Xiao Ruoching bit her thin lip and said, "Master! Ninth Uncle was passing by here, apparently on some important mission, and then, for some unknown reason, suddenly appeared beside your disciple! She also said that when you took me as your disciple, you didn’t give me any kind of initiation gift, so she gave these five Spiritual Pearls to your disciple!"

After finishing, Xiao Ruoching sat upright and looked directly into Su Bei’s eyes.

Su Bei, upon hearing his prodigal disciple’s explanation, had a sudden realization.

It seems Dan Wulan simply came to the Red Pavilion for information. But... why go upstairs for information? But my disciple has no reason to lie to me, right?

Nevertheless, Su Bei hypnotized himself into accepting this explanation.

What’s the point of arguing logic with a Child of Destiny? If you really dig into it, isn’t finding a Cultivation Technique by jumping off a cliff even more outrageous? Who spends their time at the bottom of a cliff, cultivates until they pass away, then deliberately writes down their Cultivation Technique and leaves it perfectly intact beside them? What’s even more outrageous is that for millennia, no one discovered it, until a Child of Destiny stumbled upon it!

Having realized this, Su Bei nodded and said, "Your Ninth Uncle is a pretty good person!"

Xiao Ruoching let out a sigh of relief, but still didn’t relax an ounce in her heart.

Seeing the inscrutable expression on her master’s face, she thought for a moment and tentatively asked, "Master, what do you think... What kind of person is Ninth Uncle?"

「 」

Dan Wulan quickly walked towards Xiao Ruoching’s room, but as she got closer, her steps involuntarily slowed down.

Her small hand tightly clenched the sword hanging at her waist.

Indeed, I still haven’t been able to truly let go! But... but my Dao Heart is already damaged. Even if it hasn’t completely shattered, Su Bei has already become my Heart Demon! Wouldn’t Senior Brother think it odd if I rashly asked him what he thinks of me? Wouldn’t everything I do clash with the aloof image Senior Brother likes?

Dan Wulan hesitated, her footsteps very light. She arrived near Xiao Ruoching’s room, hesitating whether to enter or not, how to face Su Bei if she did, how to confront that detestable Xiao Ruoching...

Suddenly, she heard a conversation coming from the room.

"Master, what do you think Ninth Uncle is like?"

Dan Wulan was stunned, standing still, her cool eyes betraying a hint of astonishment.

Su Bei and his disciple are discussing me! What kind of image do I have in Senior Brother’s heart?

A sense of nervousness instantly spread throughout Dan Wulan’s body. She had never felt time drag on so slowly.

Will Senior Brother scornfully chastise me? Will he think I’m utterly insignificant, just as Yu Hongxiu said? That’s right! In his eyes, I’m probably just such a willful, self-centered person...

Dan Wulan felt her heart had never beaten so fiercely. Her eyes reddened. She held her breath and perked up her ears, leaning in to listen to the conversation in the room.

「 」

Braziers were placed in all four corners of the room. Su Bei stood at one corner by the heavily embroidered curtains, his eyes fixed on Xiao Ruoching.

Xiao Ruoching didn’t dare to breathe. She felt her question just now was a slip of the tongue. It was so abrupt; how could Master not sense something?

Su Bei paused slightly.

An image instinctively surfaced in his mind: a figure in a purple robe, sleeves embroidered with a sea of clouds, silver threads tracing auspicious clouds. Three thousand strands of snow-white hair scattered carelessly, an elaborate hairpin adorning them, an Immortal as aloof as an ice mountain. This aloof woman... her affection for me is probably zero! But my disciple asked. I definitely can’t say that. Wouldn’t that make me lose face? My comment should be more profound. This way, it can show I’m Dan Wulan’s Senior Brother and also leave a grand image in my disciple’s heart!

With this in mind, Su Bei gently cleared his throat. An elegant curve formed on his lips as he smiled and said, "About your Ninth Uncle... She may seem to others to be somber and indifferent, keeping people at arm’s length... But deep down she knows all, it’s just that she’s not good with words!

"She’s seen all the grandeur in the world, possesses the topmost talent in the Twenty-One Provinces, and pride and aloofness seem to be etched in her bones.

"Yet to me, she is still the little girl from hundreds of years ago, who opened her eyes wide, reaching out her hand, wanting me to shake down a tree full of peach blossoms for her.

"Wulan, her name means ’No Ripple in Still Water.’ Just like the character of your Ninth Uncle, she is a pool of still water, where the wind leaves no trace, comfortably observing her own heart.

"I’ve always admired her, and I am proud to be her fifth senior brother..."