knife

Chapter 301 Master and Disciple
A black crow perched atop a peach tree outside the window, cawing loudly.

Yu Entai, who was writing at his desk, suddenly flew into a rage and threw the wolf-hair brush in his hand outside. However, the old man was not strong enough and the peach tree was quite far away. The brush fell to the ground, but the black crow was not affected at all. It even turned around, turned its rear end towards the old man, and while cawing, it also defecated a lump of excrement.

"An ominous sign, an ominous sign!" The old man crumpled the Xuan paper on the table into a ball, threw it on the ground, and staggered out the door.

Disturbed by this, all my elegant desire to write a few words was completely gone.

He stepped out of the door, took off one shoe, and threw it with all his might at the peach tree. With a clatter, the branches shook, and the black crow finally took flight, only stopping at the rooftop instead of the treetop. It tilted its head and looked at the old man, which infuriated him.

"Old Wang, Old Wang!" he shouted. "Get rid of this damned crow!"

Before the words were finished, a hearty laugh came from the doorway: "Teacher, what kind of crow could make you so angry?"

Amidst laughter, a tall, imposing figure strode past the screen wall and appeared before Yu Entai. Old Wang, with his white hair, followed behind the young man, his face beaming with smiles.

Yu Entai's eyes were somewhat glazed over.

"Teacher, Da Chui has come to see you!" Li Da Chui bowed respectfully to the ground.

After a long silence, with no sound from the old man or any sign of help, Li Dachui, bent over, tilted his head and glanced at the still dazed Grandpa Yu, then smiled and said, "Teacher, Dachui has come to see you. Are you happy?"

They must be overjoyed. Haven't they all been overjoyed to the point of madness?

Yu Entai finally spoke.

"So that's why the crows are cawing today, it's because you're coming!"

After saying that, the old man turned and left, but he had a shoe on one foot and no shoe on the other, so he walked with a limp.

Li Dachui quickly picked up his shoes and chased after him, saying, "Teacher, please slow down, don't fall!"

The black crows on the roof cawed loudly, seemingly quite pleased with themselves.

Li Dachui was furious. He made a gesture, and Fang Xiaomao, who was following behind them, sprang up. The black crow had just taken flight in fright when the Tiger Wing Blade flew through the air and slammed down on it with a snap.

With a loud caw, the black crow fell to the ground and was picked up and held in Fang Xiaomao's hand.

Even if it's just a crow, it belongs to Old Master Yu's family, so we can't just kill it. But we can't let it caw anymore either. Fang Xiaomao looked around, picked up a thin rope from the corner of the wall, tied the black crow's beak and wings together, and casually threw it into the corner of the room.

Old Wang didn't follow the master and apprentice inside. Instead, he looked at Fang Xiaomao with a smile and said, "The boy who was just a kid back then has now become quite accomplished, reaching the peak of the eighth rank?"

Fang Xiaomao respectfully replied, "I've been stuck here for a long time."

"Where are your senior brother and that little girl?"

"Senior brother has already advanced to the ninth rank, and I'm already at the eighth rank!" Fang Xiaomao said somewhat ashamed.

“At your age, reaching the peak of the eighth rank is already quite remarkable!” Old Wang sighed. “New talents emerge in every generation, and each new generation surpasses the old. Look at me, what level was I at when I left seclusion? I’m still at the same level now. No, no, no, I’ve regressed. I’m getting old, and my energy is failing! If I can’t take that step to the Innate Realm, I can only watch myself decline day by day.”

"I'd be happy if I could reach your level in this lifetime," Fang Xiaomao said earnestly. "Advancing to the Innate Realm is something that only one in a thousand peak Ninth Rank cultivators might achieve. I don't expect it, I don't expect it!"

"Sometimes comparing yourself to others is just infuriating!" Old Wang glanced into the room: "When did Young Master Big Hammer advance to the Innate Realm?"

"About this year!" Fang Xiaomao said.

"No unusual activity or anything special?"

Fang Xiaomao shook her head: "Young Master said that once I wake up, it will be done!"

Old Wang coughed violently, turned his head angrily, and kicked out. The black crow on the ground was sent flying into the air. However, the force of the kick was extremely skillful. It not only sent the black crow flying, but also snapped the thin rope. The crow was suddenly free in the air and fell more than ten feet down. It flapped its wings wildly, but then it took flight. This time, it didn't cry out again. With a whoosh, it flew away into the distance and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

"Impressive skills!" Fang Xiaomao exclaimed repeatedly. The strength of a ninth-grade peak expert was indeed beyond his reach.

When the old man emerged from seclusion, he was already a ninth-rank official. At that time, he was considered an extraordinary talent by Fang Xiaomao. Now that Fang Xiaomao's own skill had improved, his standards had naturally risen, but the old man's skill still filled him with envy. Inside the room, the old man sat cross-legged amidst a large pile of books and calligraphy. A calico cat lay sprawled on the floor, while another tabby cat stood atop the pile of books, its gleaming green eyes looking down at Li Dachui. As Li Dachui approached, the tabby cat leaped into the old man's lap.

Li Dachui sat cross-legged opposite the old man.

The old man looked at him for a long time, then sighed deeply: "You still came!"

Li Dachui nodded.

The old man's son spoke simply, but the meaning behind it was clear to everyone who understood.

If Li Dachui hadn't had ambitions for the interior of the pass, and hadn't aspired to conquer the world, he would never have come to the interior of the pass in the first place.

Having come this far, I've naturally made up my mind to embark on this path of no return.

And that's exactly what the old man dislikes.

"Do you know why I suddenly left back then?" the old man asked, stroking the tabby cat in his arms.

"I am a naughty disciple who dislikes pedantry and is not fond of literary jargon, which is displeasing to my teacher!" Li Dachui was somewhat ashamed, especially when he saw the room full of books and calligraphy. Speaking of which, what his subordinates complained about most was his dog-like handwriting. Anyone from outside the Great Wall could write better than him.

If someone were to tell others that Li Dachui is Yu Entai's disciple, they would surely be ridiculed for his shamelessness.

You should know that Yu Entai's calligraphy is truly worth a thousand pieces of gold.

“Of course not!” Yu Entai said, “Back then, I came out of seclusion and took you as my disciple to fulfill the promise I made to your mother, and also because I didn’t want you to follow the same path of no return that your mother took. Because of this, I had one argument after another with Zhou Xingxing, and finally left in a fit of anger, not because you didn’t like reading.”

Li Dachui chuckled and said, "Master, I feel much better now that you've said that. The old man always said that I was the one who drove you away!"

Yu Entai shook his head: "I actually hoped you would live a quiet life outside the Great Wall. Even if you couldn't become a scholar, becoming a martial artist like Stephen Chow would be fine too! But you still embarked on the path of conquering the world step by step. Thinking about the fate of your parents makes my heart ache!"

"Master, rest assured, I guarantee that I, your master, will never do anything beyond my capabilities!" Li Dachui said, "You've heard about what I've done outside the pass these past few years, haven't you? I've taken it one step at a time, never acting rashly or seeking personal gain. Actually, this time I'm just going into the pass to take a look. My main focus is still outside the pass; I'll deal with Beiyuan first."

“In this respect, you are indeed better than your mother. She was too reckless back then. When has there ever been absolute fairness in this world? I advised her back then that even if the emperor wanted to do those things, he might not be able to succeed. But she was too confident!” Yu Entai shook his head and said, “That’s true. How could the number one martial artist in the world at that time not be confident? So how do you feel about entering the pass this time?”

“Master, I just came from Luoyang!” Li Dachui said, “It’s in complete chaos there. Kou Zhong is dead, Yang Jian is dead, and He Zudao, Feng Congwen, and Zhang Quanyi are fighting each other like crazy.”

Yu Entai straightened up abruptly, and the tabby cat in his arms let out a loud meow and darted out of his arms. The other calico cat, which was still fast asleep, was startled awake and had just stood up when the tabby cat slapped it to the ground.

Old Man Yu pinched the cat so hard it hurt, and not daring to hurt its owner, he took his anger out on the calico cat.

"Is Kou Zhong's death related to you?"

Li Dachui bowed and laughed, "Teacher, your eyes are sharp. It was indeed me who killed him. I chopped off his head with one stroke and hung it on the Five Phoenix City Tower. How could I not avenge the murder of my mother? Since Yang Jian was present, I couldn't let him go either, so I killed him as well. The Yang family is no good either; they've been pulling a lot of strings behind the scenes to cause this turmoil in the world."

There was a loud bang outside, the sound of a head hitting the door. The two people inside turned around and saw a large hole in the door, with Old Wang's big head inside.

Old Wang leaned against the door. With his cultivation level, he didn't need to eavesdrop; he could naturally hear the conversation inside. Li Dachui didn't try to block him out either. As a result, he heard that Li Dachui had killed two innate masters. In shock, he slammed the back of his head into the door, making a big hole.

He pulled his head out, grabbed Fang Xiaomao who was squatting under the pillar playing with ants, and said, "Tell me, what happened? How could you kill two innate masters?"

Compared to the astonishment of the expert Old Wang, Yu Entai in the room was much calmer. As someone who was unfamiliar with the field, he naturally didn't know the intricacies involved.

"Cause and effect, retribution!" He just shook his head: "But with Kou Zhong dead, the Great Qin will probably perish even faster. You are also a descendant of the Li family!"

Li Dachui categorically denied it: "Although my surname is Li, I have little to do with the Li of the Great Qin Dynasty. Teacher, I can change my name at any time."

Yu Entai laughed and remained noncommittal.

"You didn't come to Chang'an just to see me this time, did you?"

(End of this chapter)