Chapter 87: This Venerable One Doesn't Want You to Take Anymore Disciples

The little dragon went and returned like the wind, zooming back in through the window only ten minutes later to holler: "I got it, I got it, so many magic traces in this inn, wahahaha!" "Hey lil' eel, what are you, afraid the neighbors won't hear? Yell louder." Leaning on the table, Mo Ran extended a finger and stroked the little dragon's body. Its tail swung over with a woosh to smack his hand, but didn't hurt at all,

only tickled instead—it was made of paper, after all.

"Don't touch this Venerable One, you annoying prettyboy! This Venerable One has yet to take a wife, can't just let you cop a feel like that!" Mo Ran burst out laughing: "Wait what now? A paper dragon like you wants a wife?" "Wha——! Puh puh puh! Who're you calling paper! You damn mutt!" "Huh, how come even you call me that? Is your surname Xue or something?" "Xue? Hmph, idiot brat, this Venerable One is the Dragon of the Candle,

mighty and unmatched, splitting the heavens and cleaving the earth, day and night as I open and close mine eyes, summer and winter with the draw of mine breath! My name is Zhu Jiuyin, and don't you forget it!" "...Yeeeah, didn't get a word of that."   "Wayayaya!" The little dragon did cartwheels in anger, smashing into the candlestick with its little head the width of two fingers, making the flame flicker and the wax sway. Mo Ran hurriedly went to steady the candle, but the little dragon bit his hand as soon as he reached out, not that it felt like much of anything, being paper and all. Zhu Jiuyin got picked it up by the tail and flung to the side by Mo Ran, going splat against the collars of Chu Wanning's robes and drooping glumly there.

"Chu Wanning." The little dragon lifted one of its whiskies and prodded him weakly, "That mangy mutt hit me."   Chu Wanning didn't even feel like wasting any breath on it, peeling it off himself and casually slapping it onto the table: "What spells did you find?" "Hmph hmph, you gotta call this Venerable One 'Dragon-Taizi' three times first, then——" Chu Wanning pinned it with a cold glare: "Speak."

"..." The little dragon bloated with anger at the disrespect, its whiskers pointing straight up as it glared at Chu Wanning with its beady little eyes, that venerable mouth of its hanging half open, huffing and puffing until it heaved up a gush of ink.

Chu Wanning narrowed his eyes: "Waste any more ink and I will set you on fire." He reached for its tail as if to dangle it over the fire, "Then you'll be a real candle dragon."   "Alright alright alright! You win! You win! I'll tell you! I'll tell you alright? Jeez!" The little dragon spit a couple more times, sending some more ink splattering while muttering not-at-all-discreetly: "So damn mean, no wonder I never see no wife, even after all these years!"   "Eh?" Mo Ran blinked and snuck a glance at Chu Wanning, grinning cheekily, "Didn't Shizun say something about a Shiniang?" "..." Chu Wanning ignored him, sword brows lowering as he snapped at the little dragon, "Less talking, more writing!"   "Hmph! Stinky man!" Plopping onto the writing paper laid out on the table, the little dragon gathered ink in its claw using magic and began to scrawl messily on the page,

muttering the whole time.

It couldn't be helped that it couldn't simply name the spells that it saw—— there was a limit to how much information a brain of paper could process, after all, it'd be too much to expect it to figure out what the spells were based on the leftover magical traces, so it could only draw them out. Luckily, Chu Wanning was more than capable of discerning the original spells, watching the little dragon scrawling along with lowered lashes and naming them as he went.

The little dragon drew a waning moon.

Chu Wanning: "Soothing spell. Someone here has insomnia." The little dragon drew the seven stars of the Big Dipper.

"Celestial defense array. Someone has defenses set up." The little dragon drew a rouge box.

"...radiant countenance spell." "Pfft," Mo Ran laughed, raising his hand to say: "I know this one! A simple beautification and skin care spell that girls use at night; probably that ButterflyBoned Beauty Feast?"   Chu Wanning didn't comment, seeming a bit agitated that every spell so far has been irrelevant and inconsequential. He furrowed his brows and tapped a slender finger against the table: "Next." The little dragon drew a heart.

Mo Ran wondered: "What's this?" "Heart-clearing spell." Chu Wanning said, frustrated, "It's unimportant.

Someone's meditating, is all. Next." The little dragon drew a dog head, all crooked.

"...Beast-taming spell..." Chu Wanning put a hand to his brow,

"You, pick the important spells to draw. Skip the trivial ones for cosmetics and playing with dogs and helping people sleep and whatnot. Next."

The little dragon looked up and fumed: "Well aren't you picky!"

"Draw!"

Out of fear of getting tossed into the candle flame and becoming a real "candle dragon", the little paper dragon could only huffily wipe its little claws across the paper again, this time drawing an extremely complicated, mysteriouslooking array.

"Looks like two circles, with a cross, and then a vertical line straight down,

some kind of Yin-Yang Divination looking thing?" Mo Ran's eyes opened wide,

"Shizun, could this be what our guy put on the weapon..." "No." Chu Wanning only took one glance and he could already feel a headache coming on, "Sound-changing spell." "Oh? What's it for?"   "Some people want to change their own voice, either because they dislike it or else out of some other necessity. This sound-changing spell lets them do that,

it's not a difficult spell." Chu Wanning paused, then said, "But it damages the throat if used for an extended period of time, such that it's very difficult to go back to the original voice...There's something unusual about this spell, I wonder who's using it." But Mo Ran only grinned: "Ah, so that's what it's for. Makes sense then." Chu Wanning sighed and was just about to move on when he paused, eyes flickering as if realizing something, and turned abruptly to look at Mo Ran.

"What do you mean it makes sense…...do you know something?" "What could I possibly know? I was just thinking it's pretty normal for someone to dislike their own voice. Who knows, maybe it's that Song girl, maybe her voice is actually hoarse and grating, and she wanted to make it sound sweeter?" "...…" Chu Wanning smoothed down his sleeve, "Thinking about nonsense all day." Then he turned back to the little dragon: "Next." The little dragon drew another heart.

Mo Ran: "Oi, didn't Shizun just tell you to skip things like heart-clearing spells?" "Puh, what do you know, brat." The little dragon shot him a seething glare,

then suddenly smacked its tail onto the paper, putting an inky blotch on the heart and then proceeding to spread it around until the entire heart was colored black.

"What's this? Black-hearted spell?" Chu Wanning seemed a little awkward, and was silent for a while before saying: "No. It should be an affection spell." "What's that?" "It's similar to the Xuanyuan Pavilion's pill of obsessive affection." Chu Wanning answered, "It bewitches a person to develop feelings of love and affection toward the caster, things like that. Generally used by women." Mo Ran opened his eyes wide: "No way? Could it be that Song Qiuting..." "How would i know about such things." Chu Wanning seemed irate, flinging his broad sleeve and saying, "Other people's love affairs are none of my business, why would I care who's messing around with whom."   "But Chu Wanning ah, are you sure you don't care about this affection spell?" The little dragon said gleefully, tail swaying this way and that, "This one's pretty interesting if you ask me, if you're willing to call me Dragon-Taizi three times,

then I'll..." Chu Wanning looked down at it with murder in his eyes: "Shut up and draw the next one." "Hmph! You'll regret this!" "Are you going to draw or not?" But the little dragon stopped drawing, sitting down with a plop and scratching its belly with its little claw.

Chu Wanning said coldly: "What, out of ink?"   "Idiot, out of spells." The little dragon rolled its eyes, "I've drawn so many already, and it's still not enough for you? There's no more, that's all there is, this inn is perfectly clean aside from these."   Both Chu Wanning and Mo Ran's expressions shifted slightly. Mo Ran asked: "That's it?" "That's it."   Chu Wanning: "There isn't one for assessing spiritual foundations?" "Nope."   The master and disciple exchanged a glance, disbelief written on both of their faces. If the mysterious person was using the auction to find another spiritual essence, then he must have put some kind of assessment spell on the holy weapon, but now it appeared that the holy weapon had no spell at all on it ——were they mistaken then? Did the long blade's appearance have nothing to do with the mysterious person?

Noting their silence, the little dragon soared into mid air and flew around left and right, whining: "Oi, pay attention to this Venerable One, drawing is exhausting you know! Where's this Venerable One's round of applause?"   Chu Wanning was already irritated to begin with; at its hollering, he simply lifted a hand with a sweep of his sleeve and summoned a yellow talisman in the air. The little dragon shrieked miserably at the very sight of it, yelling: "I don't wanna I don't wanna I don't wanna I don't wanna!!!!" But got sucked into the talisman anyway, turning back into a drawing. A tap of Chu Wanning's fingertip,

and the drawing itself also faded slowly away.

It kept squeezing its eyes in affront at Chu Wanning even as it was disappearing.

Chu Wanning said: "I'll call you when you're needed." Tears streamed down the little dragon's face: "You only ever remember me when you have need of me! Chu Wanning, you're heartless..." "Get lost already!" Chu Wanning was originally still being civil to it, but his brows dipped in anger at these words and he folded the talisman flat in half with an unceremonious slap of his hand before tucking it back into his sleeve.

Nighttime. Chu Wanning slept on the bed, Mo Ran took the floor.

Both troubled with worries.

They hadn't expected the holy weapon to be free of any spells whatsoever.

Did the mysterious person have some way of gauging spiritual foundation that they didn't know about, or was he just not in a hurry to find a replacement with strong spiritual energy?

"Mo Ran." He called to him in the darkness.

Mo Ran responded reflexively with a "Hm?" "Let's go back to Sisheng Peak tomorrow." Mo Ran's eyes opened.

"Huh?"   "If that person would let an opportunity like the Xuanyuan auction just slip past, then he probably already has some other method of searching. I'm afraid we won't find out much just carrying on like this. So let's go back to Sisheng Peak first, I'll have the sect leader message the other nine great sects in secret to check for any spiritual essences within their own sects, and to safeguard any that they find. Better than sitting on our hands hoping he just happens to show up."   "Will that be okay? What if the mysterious person is one of the sect leaders?" "That's very unlikely, but it doesn't matter even if he is. He already knows we're after him anyway."   "But how will Shizun make all those sect leaders listen to uncle?" Mo Ran asked, puzzled, "Tell them everything?" "That's not necessary, and they might not believe it anyway." Chu Wanning replied mildly, "I have my ways." Mo Ran asked: "Which is?" "I'll take disciples." "!!!!!"   "I'll have the sect leader tell the other sects that the frequent breaches in the ghost realm barrier poses a great danger to all, and that Yuheng of Sisheng Peak intends to accept up to five additional disciples to train in the use of techniques such as the Shangqing Barrier and the Shisha Barrier." Chu Wanning said quietly, "Those sects have tried time and again to invite me to teach,

specifically for these barrier techniques. If I put out the word that I'm willing to impart these techniques, they'll come. And, since I accept only those with outstanding spiritual foundations, they'll have to test all of their disciples to select the candidates, thereby fulfilling our goal." But Mo Ran didn't reply, his face going pale in the darkness: "Y-you're going to take more disciples?"   "If fate would have it." Chu Wanning rolled over, his voice quietening as if getting tired.

"I'll take the names of the candidates and have them practice standard barrier techniques by themselves first. If any among them manage to persevere for three years or so, then why not..." In the darkness, listening to the voice from the bed slowly drifting off, Mo Ran felt like a jar of vinegar had been spilled in his chest, so sour it made his heart ache.

Take on more disciples?

You only ever took three in the last lifetime, picky as you are, how come you're not being picky now? How could you take on more disciples just like that!

He kept wanting to say something to him, but every time the words got to his lips, they never got past.

Chu Wanning fell asleep, blissfully unaware of the sea of vinegar raging within Mo Ran.

It was cold at night. Mo Ran pulled on an outer garment and go up, calling to Chu Wanning in a low voice a couple of times to make sure he was really asleep, then quietly opened the door and snuck out of the room.

The halls of the inn were still and silent. A few red silk lanterns glowed peacefully with a low light, gentle circles of orange reflecting on the wooden floor like so many ripples.

Chu Wanning may have already tested the holy weapon.

But Mo Ran had yet to test his Bu'gui.

A holy weapon within a hundred feet of its master could be called to his side with a simple spell. Mo Ran didn't get a chance to check if it really was his weapon from the past life back at Xuanyuan Pavilion, how could he possibly miss this chance now?

His fingertip glowed with a crimson light.

Lowering his eyelashes, Mo Ran said in a low voice: "Bu'gui, come!"   There was nothing but silence for a few moments, but then the muffled sound of a blade rang out suddenly from somewhere in the distance. The sound was barely audible but it reverberated in his ears, hammering his heart.

Mo Ran's eyes shot open: "Bu'gui!" It was Bu'gui. The long blade was struggling, crying blood, its deep roar racing to him across oceans of blood, across lifetimes. It was as if he could hear Bu'gui weeping and crying for him, but it was trapped, confined by something Mo Ran knew nothing of.

It could feel its master's call but could not answer. There was something missing, something severing their connection.

But they once had a pact, once saw the beautiful sights from the tallest mountains together, and once waited for death together, in the scent of the last remaining bit of warmth at Wushan Palace.

There was something forcing them apart, but still their bonds remained, like tendons linking torn flesh.

Mo Ran's eyes were red and welling with tears, whispering: "Bu'gui..." It's you.

Why can't you return to my side.

Who's stopping you.

Wh…...

Creak.

The quiet sound of a door opening.

But in this suffocating darkness, it was loud as the crash of thunder.

Author's Notes:

Shizun: Wishing everyone a happy Christmas Eve Dog: Have a prosperous Year of the Cock!

Peacock: What nonsense is the one upstairs talking about! I'll wish everyone here an early Happy New Year!

Shi Mei: It's not Christmas yet, so I'll say Merry Christmas first~

Wolf cub: Wishing everyone a joyous Year of the Dog with Naobaijin!

Ye Wangxi: Why do I feel like "joyous Year of the Dog" sounds like cussing someone out...

Mei Hanxue: Wishing everyone that they have a beauty to accompany them every day ^_^ Little Paper Dragon: Look for Zhong Wu Yan when you have problems, and run to Xia Ying Chun when you have none[7]! Chu Wanning, you shallow-hearted man! Let me out now!!

[7] After a tale of how King Qixuan runs to the ugly but capable concubine Zhong Wu Yan when there are problems to be solved, and immediately flocks to beautiful but useless Xia Ying Chun to party when there are no troubles.