Why do I have so many masters?-Chapter 549 - 190

Master Huaidie struggled for a long while, yet her gaze could not be torn away from the short sword lying horizontally on the table. She had pursued this sword for the better part of her life, and it had long since become an obsession. To let go of it at this moment was easier said than done.

After standing in place for a long time, she finally let out a resigned sigh, turned around, and walked to the side of the tea house.

The Scholar continued to drink his tea with eyes downcast.

The tea house's waiter approached her, but did not greet her. Instead, he simply added a pot of tea to Master Huaidie's table and then retreated on his own, not uttering a single word throughout the process.

Master Huaidie looked around and for some reason, this piece of Heaven and Earth, as well as the passersby, gave her an indescribable sense of oppression. Collecting herself, she slowly took a seat at the tea house table, her eyes falling on the Fish Intestine Sword, and said,

"How do I know whether this sword is real or fake?"

"You say it's real, so it must be?"

She tried to soften her tone as much as possible, but asking about authenticity is inherently a grating matter, and no matter how hard she tried, it sounded harsh and piercing.

Yet the Scholar did not get angry. He simply chuckled softly, carelessly flicked his sleeve, and the Fish Intestine Sword slid next to Master Huaidie, close enough for her to grasp with a single lift of her hand.

Master Huaidie's breath involuntarily hitched.

"Since you want to know,"

"why not give it a try?"

The Scholar raised his eyes, and Master Huaidie saw his face for the first time. He was quite handsome, with a smile on his lips that always seemed tinged with a touch of detachment.

Master Huaidie fell silent. After he spoke those words, she knew that no matter what strategies she had, she could not truly resist. The Scholar in front of her dared to let her hold the Fish Intestine Sword, which meant he was certain she could not pose a threat to him.

The feeling of having her life completely in someone else's hands was not pleasant.

Ironically, she was already all too familiar with this sensation.

Master Huaidie laughed at herself mockingly and, for some reason, her desire for the Fish Intestine Sword was not as intense as before. Yet she still did not hesitate to reach out and grasp the sword.

The touch of the sword hilt was ice cold, indistinguishable from the one she had pursued for nearly a decade. Had it not been for the fact that her original Fish Intestine Sword lay shattered before her eyes, she might have thought the one in her hand was the very same one she had used for all those years.

But that sword had been smashed to pieces before her very eyes, scattered on the ground.

"How is it?"

The Scholar asked in a calm voice.

Master Huaidie snapped back to her senses, her wrist flicking slightly as the Fish Intestine Sword tore through the air and vanished from her hand. Her Inner Strength circulated within her, tracing the spirit embedded in the blade, which felt much more lively than the Fish Intestine Sword of previous days and far less obstructed.

A faint glow moved along the blade, making it appear even more extraordinary.

She sat there stunned, and only after a moment did she gently place the sword on the table, pushing it towards the Scholar. She opened her mouth, her voice low and uncertain,

"It's real..."

At least, it was more genuine than the original one.

The Scholar smiled lightly again, flicking the Sword Edge with his finger. The sword glided across the table's surface, coming to a stop next to Master Huaidie. He said nonchalantly,

"Then, this sword is yours."

Master Huaidie's heart skipped a beat; it was impossible not to be moved, but at that moment, she made no motion to accept the sword, simply sitting silently, her eyes on the cup of clear tea, without reaching out for the sword.

The Scholar in the blue robe withdrew his smile and did not press her further, simply lifting his cup to drink again, and said lightly,

"Of course, if you don't wish to take it, you may leave."

Master Huaidie looked at him, fell silent, and then said,

"Was it you who saved me?"

The Scholar nodded, saying,

"You were struck by the Diancang Finger."

"When I found you, you were on the brink of death. Had I not intervened to disperse your Inner Qi, you would have died alongside that Iron Pagoda."

Iron Pagoda...

Master Huaidie's face paused slightly with a twinge of pain, but what rose immediately was hatred. Her palm involuntarily clenched tightly, and the Qi Mechanism around her began to turn cold.

The Scholar looked at her and flicked his cup, saying lightly,

"Wish for revenge?"

Master Huaidie took a breath and said,

"May I ask Senior, who is that person..."

"Tell you so that you can go and get yourself killed? Your life was saved by me, and it cannot be wasted so frivolously, not even by yourself."

The Scholar's voice remained even.

Master Huaidie stood up and bowed deeply to the blue-robed Scholar, saying,

"I hope Senior will inform me..."

The Scholar's brow furrowed, and eventually, as if moved by pity, he tapped the table and said calmly, "I can only tell you his name; as for the rest, you'll have to find out by yourself."

"Such matters, you ought to be familiar with."

Gratitude flashed across Master Huaidie's face as she bowed deeply once more and said,

"Thank you, Senior."

The Scholar waved his hand and said lightly,

"Do not thank me yet."

"Your life was saved by me, and you must do something for me in return to make it even. Do you have any objections to this?"

Master Huaidie shook her head and said,

"Having received the grace of a saved life, it is only right to do so."

The Scholar nodded and said,

"Good..."

"Then it's no harm in telling you... That person comes from the Divine Thieves Sect, known as Hong Luoyu. As for the remaining things, you can find out for yourself."

There was a pause in the voice, then it continued:

"It seems that you are unwilling to accept the Fish Intestine Sword?"

Shi Huaidie remained silent, shaking her head, and then quietly apologized. The moment she had touched the Fish Intestine Sword, the feeling that her life was no longer her own intensified, temporarily suppressing her desire for the sword.

She dared not look at the Fish Intestine Sword again.

Afraid that one more glance would root her feet to the ground, afraid that holding the sword again would turn her once more into a puppet, easily discarded by others.

The green-robed Scholar seemed somewhat helpless, his sleeve sweeping across the tabletop, and the Fish Intestine Sword disappeared. Shi Huaidie sighed with relief, but also felt a sense of loss, her heart a mix of complex emotions.

The green-robed Scholar glanced at Shi Huaidie and said:

"Sit down and finish this cup of tea."

"Afterwards, I will send you back to the place you were before."

Shi Huaidie nodded respectfully and sat at the table, her hands cradling the tea cup, and said:

"Senior, you just said that you wanted me to do something..."

"May I know what it is?"

The Scholar shook his head and replied:

"This matter is not urgent for now, you will naturally find out later."

"When the time comes, I will send someone to find you."

Shi Huaidie nodded, her gaze on the tea cup, reflecting on her experiences of the day. She had come close to death, and yet it was this brush with death that allowed her to break free from her previous identity and constraints, to truly live freely from now on.

Yet she had just missed the Fish Intestine Sword.

Her emotions were indescribable. As she lifted the cup to drink, the tea was plain on her tongue, and by the time she set down the cup, the surroundings had changed drastically – from a bustling street-side tea house to a wooded land covered with white frost and frozen soil.

Shi Huaidie's expression changed dramatically. Such a miraculous act stirred great waves in her heart. She stood in a daze for a long while before returning to her senses, and then she saw two graves on this frozen soil.

One was Tie Futu's.

And the other was her own.

She did not know what to say, standing silently in front of her own grave.

The wind blew through tree tops, leafless, and all the more bleak.

By the tea house table, the Scholar drank the last of his tea. The tea house server who was walking over to refill his water suddenly stiffened, and this rigidity spread quickly down the entire street, even to the whole world, like a plague.

In a moment of stillness.

The Scholar stood up and walked slowly away, fading into all directions of Heaven and Earth.

With every step, he seemed to be ascending to heaven, his wide robes billowing gently, the very picture of ease. Behind him, all beings of Heaven and Earth, all phenomena, crumbled away into oblivion.

In Shi Huaidie's eyes, the Scholar, who had seemed a generous senior, now wore an indifferent expression. When he appeared again, it was atop the scenery of Shaolin Temple's mountain peak, casually sitting on a bamboo chair.

The Fish Intestine Sword was carelessly tossed onto the table.

The White-haired Taoist sat beside, his fingers slightly opened, and he played with the famous sword that had a formidable reputation outside. Admiring the Sword Qi on the blade, he exclaimed in praise:

"By borrowing the power of Heaven and Earth, you've drawn out a portion of its essence, stimulating the remaining essence to become even more lively. What should have destroyed its foundation has instead made its Sword Qi even more extraordinary."

"Adding splendor to the flowers, fanning the flames with oil, sir's methods are indeed remarkable."

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Ying Sir remained indifferent, not responding, just flipping through the book in his hands. The Ancient Taoist wasn't annoyed, continuing to examine the Fish Intestine Sword with a smile.

Before, when Hong Luoyu was outside, he could traverse through three thousand worlds with but a finger-point, moving with incredible speed, fast enough that even the Ancient Taoist could only catch glimpses.

First, he made the sword tremble, shaking Shi Huaidie's right hand free.

Then, in an instant, he switched the sword with a counterfeit, and by the time Shi Huaidie realized, the sword had already begun to crumble. If by chance she felt something amiss, she would just attribute it to the Fish Intestine Sword being shattered, its essence altered.

She would never guess that the weapon she had used for years had been switched out.

Hong Luoyu's martial arts focused on Qinggong, perhaps not excelling in direct combat, but if the opponent couldn't keep up with his speed, then Hong Luoyu's threat was no less than that of a Great Grandmaster, who appears but once every three hundred years, unable to be overcome by numbers.

Just like the peak power of Yuan Ci's punch, considered unbeatable.

Just like...

The Ancient Taoist zoned out, suddenly feeling uninterested, and placed the Fish Intestine Sword on the table. The Scholar next to him, lazily engrossed in his book, noticed the Ancient Taoist's gaze and frowned slightly, asking:

"What's the matter?"

The White-haired Taoist remained unchanged in expression, only smiling as he said:

"Nothing much. I was just wondering why you didn't outright recruit that woman into your fold."

"Also, since you transmitted a message to have Hong Luoyu strike her acupoint and feign death, why did you pretend to be enemies with Hong Luoyu and that youngster? Aren't you afraid she will continue to be adversaries with the youngster after leaving?"

The green-robed Scholar turned a page in his book and said indifferently:

"To be enemies is to be enemies."

"The more antagonistic she is, the more useful she will be."

"Moreover, she will never find out any information about Hong Luoyu. When the time comes, she will be begging me to take her under my command, to tame her fierce pride, making her truly useful."

The Scholar's voice remained calm.

The Ancient Taoist's expression paused, looking at the Scholar beside him who lounged back in the bamboo chair, holding a book. He could vaguely perceive from his features the coldness and indifference of the past, reminding him of what the man, who now looked like a short-tempered Scholar, used to be like.

The Scholar closed his eyes, the epitome of languor, and said:

"It's all just an idle piece in the game, after all..."

PS: Today's second update is here...