Chapter 165: Stars, the Sun and the Moon, a Grand Game of Chess

Feng Mu and Yuan Xidi left, and the atmosphere at breakfast grew slightly frozen.

Zhao Zhixin's mouth corner muscles twitched, and for a long while he couldn't snap back to his senses; he couldn't figure out whether his little junior brother had actually listened to his words.

Little Junior Brother surely wouldn't be like those righteous types, feigning praise while actually being sarcastic, would he?

Mm, probably not; Zhao Zhixin was very certain that Little Junior Brother's true nature was black.

So Little Junior Brother was sincerely praising and envying, he had listened to his words, only it might have produced the opposite effect?!

Zhao Zhixin sighed, looking toward Li Guishe as if for help, and complained a little: "Master, you old man won't even persuade Little Junior Brother; him being like this will ruin the atmosphere of our 【Rong Gui Pai】."

Li Guishe's toes, which had been curling, stiffened; his counting instantly went chaotic, and he had to start over.

He glared at Zhao Zhixin in annoyance, then swept a glance over everyone, and said in a deep voice: "Back then when this master transmitted the 【Blood Flesh Initial Solution True Art】 to you all, he indeed taught you the true essence of the evil path: no taboos whatsoever, completely unrestrained, enjoy the moment."

Li Guishe let out a long sigh: "That was because you all lack sufficient talent and comprehension; it is truly difficult to cultivate the 【Blood Flesh Initial Solution True Art】 to great perfection."

He sucked on his pipe: "Since hope is slim, better to squander freely within this limited, counting-down life; do whatever you want, that way you won't waste this evil art, nor count as having come to this world for nothing."

Li Guishe slowly exhaled ring after ring of smoke; his face appeared even older and deeper in the smoke:

"Boss is different; Boss didn't cultivate our sect's evil art, so his lifespan is safe."

"As for the rest, hmm, even including this master, each has a rapidly flowing hourglass hanging over his head; even if we exert all our strength to pour sand into it, the end result is only that it flows faster and faster, a helpless outcome."

Li Guishe could teach all the disciples of 【Rong Gui Pai】 excellently, clearly understanding the principle of teaching according to aptitude; the truth he spoke was unpleasant to hear but absolutely struck the heart.

"Different from you all, your Little Junior Brother is extremely compatible with the 【Blood Flesh Initial Solution True Art】; he is an evil-path genius encountered once in hundreds of years by our sect, truly capable of cultivating this art to great perfection."

Li Guishe lightly knocked the ash from his pipe, raised his head, and gazed up at the towering, massive butt of Upper City, as if reminiscing about the past, a faint nostalgia showing on his face, his voice carrying a few notes of depth and emotion:

"We are like meteors streaking across the sky, yearning to bloom with the most dazzling brilliance in our brief life trajectories, pursuing that split-second glory and splendor."

"But Old Eight, he is different. He refuses to be merely a fleeting meteor; what he wants to become is a sun that spans eternity."

The faces of Zhao Zhixin and the others changed slightly, but such fluctuation lasted only a brief instant. Immediately afterward, they joked with each other, and the atmosphere relaxed.

"Look, didn't I tell you not to go ask Master? You insisted on asking, and what's the result? Our face has been thrown all over the ground, shattered beyond further shattering."

"Hehe—, I told you long ago that Master's past admonitions to us were nothing but well-intentioned lies; you actually all believed them. Look, now the truth is out, right?"

"I feel Master wasn't wrong; anyway I think being a meteor isn't bad — though brief, it's brilliant. Being a sun hanging in the sky all the time is too tiring instead."

Several senior and junior brothers and sisters bantered with each other, even though none of them had ever personally witnessed the splendor of the sun or the passage of a meteor; their knowledge of these two celestial bodies was limited to those yellowed ancient textual records and scattered banned video clips circulating on the Internet.

Zhao Zhixin glanced at Master's meaningful gaze, and his heart inexplicably gave a start.

He took a deep breath, touched his head, and said: "Then let's all be good meteors, and before the sun rises overhead, properly light the path ahead for the sun."

The group of senior and junior brothers and sisters stopped laughing, looked at each other, silently nodded, each having made a decision in their heart, then stood up and dispersed.

After everyone left, Hong Ya slowly put down her bowl and chopsticks, and said to Master Li Guishe with a face full of hope: "Master, when can our Douqiong Martial Hall go to Upper City?"

Li Guishe gave Hong Ya a deep, meaningful look and said in surprise: "Didn't you used to think Upper City's butt was too ugly, and that us staying put in the Nine Districts was just fine?"

Hong Ya nodded and then shook her head, saying: "The Nine Districts are pretty good, but Hong Ya also wants to go up and see what stars actually look like?"

Li Guishe didn't rush to answer; he unhurriedly took out a handful of tobacco leaves from his pocket, crumbled them into his pipe, then took a deep drag, smiling without speaking.

Seeing Master not answer, Hong Ya pursed her lips, hmphed, took out her phone, and while deleting her saved playlist, walked toward her boudoir.

Hong Ya actually hadn't told Master the truth; she didn't just want to go to Upper City to see stars, she also wanted to see the moon.

Hong Ya had once bartered from a scavenger who came out of the Yi Ji Qu an ancient book with yellowed pages; its cover and title were both damaged, only the publication time could be vaguely recognized as the previous epoch.

It was a novel, the story also missing characters and pages, incomplete; Hong Ya read it once and stashed it away.

But there was a sentence inside that left a rather deep impression on her.

——The moon is also a star, but it is the star closest to the sun!

Yes, Hong Ya not only wanted to be a star, she also wanted to be the moon; it had nothing to do with love; she had just been the little junior sister for so long that finally an even younger little junior brother arrived, and she wanted to experience more of the prestige of being a senior sister.

Little Junior Brother wants to be the sun; then she, Hong Ya, at the very least had to be a moon, otherwise her dignity as a senior sister would be completely gone.

A senior sister's dignity partly comes from seniority, and another part must come from fists; neither can be missing; don't look at how Hong Ya hasn't been a senior sister for long, but she has already deeply experienced the hardship within.

Most importantly, if everyone goes off to be meteors that vanish in an instant, leaving only Little Junior Brother alone as the sun, wouldn't that be too pitiful?

At this moment, Hong Ya also made a decision in her heart; she took a deep breath, went back to her room, and with one fist smashed the laptop on the desk to pieces.

With a cracking sound, Hong Ya's face suddenly changed: "Bad, this time my determination was too heavy, to the point I forgot this laptop was borrowed from Senior Brother!!!"

After the meal the dinner table was empty, only Li Guishe and Li Bashan sitting opposite each other, the surrounding atmosphere appearing somewhat silent.

Li Guishe was still puffing smoke; Li Bashan, from just now until the end, hadn't said a single word, just kept his head down eating dry rice.

Today his eating speed was especially slow; only now did he slowly lick up the last grain of rice.

Li Bashan slowly set down his rice bucket, his expression rarely serious and stern as he looked at Li Guishe, and said in a muffled voice: "Master, you shouldn't have said those words just now."

Li Guishe narrowed his eyes: "Are you blaming this master?"

Li Bashan's expression didn't change; he pondered for a long time, then said stiffly: "I am Master's disciple, so I won't blame Master, but I am also the senior brother of the junior brothers and sisters, so I am very suspicious — what exactly do you intend to do, Master?"

Li Guishe avoided his eldest disciple's blazing gaze; this eldest disciple he had carefully nurtured, though seemingly dull-witted and indeed unable to think too many turns, possessed an intuition terrifyingly sharp.

This point, in the past days, was what Li Guishe most appreciated and praised.

However at this moment, this sharpness of intuition made Li Guishe feel a bit of a headache, because it meant his carefully nurtured eldest disciple had already generated suspicion toward him; whatever he did, it would be very hard to hide from his eldest disciple's unreasonable intuition.

He answered irrelevantly: "Do you still remember, the day Old Eight entered the sect, the signboard accidentally fell and cracked on the ground?"

Li Bashan nodded, recalling: "Of course I remember; that signboard actually hid a secret manual."

Li Guishe gently set down the pipe in his hand, and with a sigh, said:

"It was precisely that secret manual, named 【Bizarre Demon Technique】. Recently this master has been studying it, and discovered this art is not only vast and profound; its profundity and evil strangeness also exceed this master's imagination, truly shocking."

Li Bashan puzzled: "Disciple doesn't understand."

Li Guishe's brows lightly furrowed; his usually somewhat comical monkey face now revealed three parts ferocity, his voice carrying a trace of gloom:

"Upon careful consideration, this master now realizes with alarm that what the Ancestral Masters sent was not only an unexpected surprise, but also accompanied by enormous trouble. This master's heart is also hesitant and undecided, not knowing what to do."

Li Bashan still couldn't fully grasp the deep meaning in Master's words, but he replied according to his heart's intuition: "I don't know the Ancestral Masters; I only recognize Master and my junior brothers and sisters."

Li Bashan paused, and said in a muffled voice: "If the Ancestral Masters send a gift, Master likes it and accepts it; if the Ancestral Masters send trouble, I'll go dig up the Ancestral Masters' grave for Master."

Li Guishe's pupils shrank slightly, as if his heart stirred, but in the end he still sighed heavily: "Bashan, you don't understand. If simply digging up a grave could solve it, I wouldn't be agonizing over it."

Li Bashan remained silent.

Li Guishe slowly stood up, gripping his pipe tightly, walking into the house while speaking faintly:

"In any case, Bashan, protect your junior martial brother well. As for me, I need to play a grand game."

"Yes, Master!" Li Bashan accepted the order, but his inner premonition was very bad, a feeling of unease as if his nostrils were blocked by a sock while sleeping, his breathing faintly unsteady.

End of Chapter