Your Disciple or Your Master? - Chapter 2

Xie Wuwang had yet to emerge from seclusion. My sect leader senior brother said he was on the verge of ascending.

Ever since we had each received our own mountains, I had never dared come here. I only entered the Cold Spring now because I genuinely feared I might die.

Things between us were awkward.

It had happened on an otherwise ordinary day. After drinking the peach-blossom wine my second senior brother brewed, I climbed into Master’s bed in the middle of the night, straddled his waist, and kissed him. Xie Wuwang threw me straight onto the floor.

The next day, he moved to his own mountain and entered seclusion.

Master cultivated the Path of Heartlessness. I really had gone too far that night.

That was why I couldn’t resist taking Xie Xingran in when I met someone who looked so much like him.

My fellow disciples didn’t understand, but they all agreed that I had nerves of steel.

After lowering me into the spring, Xie Xingran prepared to leave. The cold made my entire body shake, and my teeth chattered so hard that I could barely speak, but I still reminded him, “All right, go back. Second Elder is teaching today.”

My second senior brother was an alchemist. Xie Xingran’s furnaces always exploded, and I still owed Fifth Elder a great many spirit herbs because of him. Whenever Second Brother taught a class, I sent Xie Xingran to sit in.

He looked at me anxiously, the corners of his eyes red. I patted his head. “Come collect your master after class.”

Not long after he left, frost coated my lashes and eyebrows. I was nearly an ice sculpture. The pain had indeed diminished, however, and the spring’s icy, pure spiritual power was repairing my meridians.

I closed my eyes. Just as I was about to lose consciousness from the cold, ripples spread through the water. Someone had entered the spring.

I slowly opened my eyes and found Xie Wuwang standing before me. He frowned, his expression stern. “Qingya, who hurt you? How did you come to be injured so badly?”

Master?

Wasn’t he in seclusion?

Suppressing a cough, I replied respectfully, “A few days ago, this disciple accidentally triggered a restriction in a secret realm.”

In truth, Xie Xingran had touched something inside the secret realm and caused a catastrophe. I went in to save him, never expecting to emerge in such a wretched state.

I was a mighty Spirit Transformation cultivator, yet my Golden Core had cracked, my cultivation had plummeted, and I had nearly died.

Fortunately, Xie Xingran hadn’t been hurt. An attack like that might have scattered his soul.

“You aren’t this careless. Did that new disciple of yours cause it?”

Xie Wuwang’s reach was boundless. He probably knew already.

I nodded with a bitter smile. “I failed to teach him properly.”

A sudden sweetness rose in my throat, and blood spilled from the corner of my mouth. My vision went black.

Xie Wuwang’s pupils contracted. He reached out and caught me.

The spring was too cold. My body shook uncontrollably and my teeth knocked together, yet I still tried my hardest to pull away. “Thank you, Master…”

The hand on my shoulder tightened until the veins stood out. A flash of violence crossed his habitually cold face. He moved behind me and pressed his chest to my back.

“Master?”

Xie Wuwang’s body was colder than the spring.

He placed a hand over my dantian and sent spiritual power inside. The pain gradually faded. Even the spring no longer felt so unbearable. My rigid body relaxed, and the shivering stopped.

I meant to say something, but my head tipped sideways and came to rest on his shoulder as I fell asleep.

Through the haze, something tickled my neck.

Xie Wuwang’s breathing was heavy.