Trinity Traitor: From One Person to the Other

Chapter 835 Zhang Lingyu, put your hand on Xia He's conscience and tell me, what does your master look like?
"I captured a Quanxing demon, so what?"

He Songling looked at Zhang Lingyu with an innocent expression: "Tell me in front of your master, what's your opinion on me arresting the Quanxing demon? She's one of the leaders who gathered a group of lawless elements and attacked and even burned down your sect's mountain. Zhang Lingyu, you're not going to oppose me arresting her, are you?"

"I'm not against it..." Zhang Lingyu gritted her teeth, unsure what to say, "Is this how you arrest people?!"

"What's wrong with me?" He Songling's hand slid down from Xia He's shoulder and casually clasped both of her hands behind her back. With a surge of divine power, he made her two hands grow together, even fusing the bones in her hands into one, as if Xia He had a congenital deformity.

"You!" Zhang Lingyu glared angrily at He Songling.

"Look at him, look at him, he's still not convinced." He Songling spread his hands at Zhang Zhiwei: "Old Celestial Master, if you were to go down the mountain to deal with Quanxing one day, this kid might even help Quanxing fight against you. This kind of traitorous dog would have been refined by now in the past!"

"Just shut up already." Zhang Zhiwei looked at the two people in front of him, feeling utterly overwhelmed. He was actually least worried about Xia He.

Regardless of whether Xia He is bad or dirty, her purpose and habits in doing things are very obvious and predictable. But Zhang Lingyu is different. Her apprentice always lives a very conflicted life, which is also her own fault for not being married and having children at her age, and for not knowing how to raise children.

Zhang Zhiwei hadn't anticipated the immense pressure that the nearly centenarian Celestial Master would place on the young child by personally taking him in as his guardian. For Zhang Lingyu, failing to be the best was tantamount to failure. Throughout his formative years, he unknowingly shouldered countless invisible pressures.

Perhaps his illicit affair with Xia He was similar. After regaining his senses, he was once again consumed by remorse for his "mistakes," falling into an endless cycle.

Even now, Zhang Zhiwei, the seemingly omnipotent and all-powerful master of Longhu Mountain, doesn't know how to help this child truly break free from his limitations.

As for He Songling, his mental illness is not within the scope of this discussion.

“Lingyu, I’ll give you two choices.” Zhang Zhiwei sighed, then held up one finger and said, “First, you can marry Xia and have the wedding on Longhu Mountain. This won’t affect you in any way. Our Zhengyi sect doesn’t have the strict rules and regulations of Quanzhen and Chan sects. Getting married and having children won’t affect your becoming a Celestial Master.”

"Huh? Me, me?"

Zhang Lingyu's face turned red in an instant, so fast and so deep that it looked like it had been dyed with special effects.

The implications of his master's words were enormous. Did his master not dislike Xia He? What did it mean that I could get married? And what did it mean that I became a master?
This is where Zhang Lingyu is far inferior to Zhang Zhiwei. Back then, Zhang Zhiwei could not only speak unscrupulously about wanting to be a Heavenly Master and being able to be one, but he could even openly say things like he didn't want to be a Heavenly Master and that "I have no rivals."

Now, Zhang Lingyu doesn't even have the courage to face the reasonable desires in his heart. He doesn't dare to face Xia He or the position of Celestial Master.

It's not that he doesn't want to, it's that he doesn't dare to think about it.

The difference is too great; he's even less capable than Zhang Huaiyi back then.

"Why are you blushing like a teapot?" He Songling pressed Xia He down and complained, "You and this old woman have already had a relationship, that's an unchangeable fact, and your yin energy is proof of that all the time; as for the position of Celestial Master, if the old Celestial Master hadn't had the desire, why would he have recklessly taken a child as his personal disciple when he was almost a hundred years old and even bestowed a surname upon him?"
Do you know how many people he's made into "grandfathers"? Just because the Celestial Master accepted a disciple, countless abbots and sect leaders of the Zhengyi Temple, who were incredibly prestigious and held high positions outside, had to obediently bow and call you "grandfather" when they saw you. Do you know how much resistance that caused? If he didn't intend for you to become the Celestial Master, would he have done something like this? Do you think your master enjoys being scolded?

"Ah, I... Ah, this..." Zhang Lingyu wasn't unaware of this principle, but he had always been afraid to face it squarely, to think about it, let alone to understand it thoroughly.

"So, Lingyu, have you decided to keep Xia Xia here on the mountain to get married?" Zhang Zhiwei ignored He Songling and asked his disciple.

“Well, I… Master, this has to be consensual, right? Xia He, she…” Zhang Lingyu said, glancing at Xia He, only to find that Xia He was deliberately trying to provoke her, using her charm on He Songling.

Then He Songling punched the ground.

Zhang Lingyu's face darkened again.

"I don't think Miss Xia He is very willing. Our Celestial Master's Mansion can't force people to do things, right?"

"Old Zhang, what's wrong with this kid's brain? Did you teach him? You really have the nerve to instill such nonsense as you being a positive role model in a child?" He Songling wanted to laugh when he heard Zhang Lingyu's words. The Celestial Master's Mansion can't force people to do things? Look, if it were Zhang Zhiwei, let alone Xia He, he would have beaten Wugensheng to a pulp.

"Master Dao has always been a positive character!" Zhang Zhiwei finally couldn't help but retort to He Songling. However, he knew he was in trouble as soon as he finished speaking, for sure, he heard He Songling chuckle mischievously.

"Hehehe, with your looks, an ugly face, squinty eyes, you'd scare kids to death if you were outside. If you stood with the Quanxing gang, they'd think you were the Quanxing leader. And you're playing the positive role? Hahahaha, don't you want to laugh at yourself for saying that?"

"You're not allowed to be disrespectful to my master!" Zhang Lingyu was busy putting out fires on two fronts. On one hand, he had to scold He Songling for mistreating Xia He, and on the other hand, he had to stop He Songling from insulting his master. Unfortunately, all he could do was talk; he couldn't accomplish anything.

"I'm powerless? Tell me honestly, what does your master look like?" He Songling pulled Xia He out and threw her in front of Zhang Lingyu: "If you think your conscience isn't big enough, touch her and say it."

“You, surnamed Ling…” Zhang Lingyu’s face was so red it was practically steaming.

"Sigh. I can't help but sigh. Lingyu, what can I say to you? Just beat him up! Even if you can't beat him, don't you even have the courage to do it?"

"Well, I saw that he and you two got along quite well, so I thought..."

"What do you think you are?!"

Enraged, Zhang Zhiwei slapped Zhang Lingyu on the back of the head, a move he had never made in his more than twenty years of taking on disciples. "If you were really afraid to fight because you couldn't beat him, I would let it go. But you're afraid to fight because you suspect he has some kind of relationship with me? You're finished, kid."

(End of this chapter)