Chapter 163: The Master’s Back

I thought my house would be very lively, but after carrying Lu Shan and walking all the way back with my master, I found that it had become very quiet again… The guys who were drunk and unconscious and were sleeping in a mess in my courtyard were gone.

At this time, Elder Qi came over and said to me, “Master, they have been taken back by their own masters.”

I nodded and put Lu Shan on a chair in the courtyard. It was only then that I realized that Tao Bai had not been taken away. He looked very insecure, curled up in a corner and asleep… I guess he couldn’t rest easy without Lu Shan by his side.

Thinking about his experience, I felt that this child was really pitiful. For so many years, his only support had been Lu Shan.

“Find someone to send them back.” The master frowned slightly, then said something quietly to the elder… The elder didn’t ask any more questions, nodded, and then went down to make arrangements.

My master and I returned to the room. I was still drunk… At this time, fatigue also came out, and I was lying on the table, not knowing what to say for a while.

“Still like a little child.” The master looked at me, biting on a pipe of tobacco, his eyes calm, but his expression loving.

I enjoyed this feeling, and just smiled at the master.

“Go to sleep… I’ll stay here with you tonight,” the master said lightly.

“Are you going back at dawn?” I asked.

“No, I’m staying with you.” The Master’s words were very inexplicable.

“Why do you suddenly want to stay with me?” Is it because the Master is worried about the battle?

“Chengyi, you can hide from the world, but you can’t hide from me… Is it because of the will of the Taoist boy in you?” After saying this, the master took the pipe out of his mouth and suddenly looked at me. His eyes were more and more calm, just like the long years we had experienced, many sunrises and sunsets… I was eating, I was exercising in the morning, I was… He looked at me with the same eyes.

But I suddenly sat up straight, and said in a whisper, “Master, you…” And as I spoke, the emotions that I had been suppressing for the past few days finally became unbearable, and my eyes welled up with tears.

It was like a child who had been wronged by his elders finally discovered his grievance… How could he remain calm?

The master said nothing, but stood up… and touched my hair, still so calm… just like the calmness I needed when I was young and needed his protection, making me feel at ease… making me feel that as long as he was there, everything would be fine.

“Go to sleep first, don’t think about anything… I’m here, as long as I’m still here, no one can take my disciple away.” The master said this very softly, but it was extremely firm. I suddenly felt inexplicably at ease, looked at the master, and nodded emphatically.

Then, I didn’t say anything, and I didn’t even have time to take off my clothes… I just lay down on the bed, and then a strong feeling of sleepiness surrounded me… I felt that I hadn’t experienced this kind of sleepiness for a long time, the kind of feeling that you want to sleep peacefully on ordinary days, not the feeling of being exhausted to the limit and having to sleep.

I quickly became confused… but I felt that the Master had sat down by my bedside, placed his hand on my head, and touched it a few times… and then there was silence.

I didn’t sleep for long… I was woken up by my master in the morning, but after such a deep sleep, I was full of energy. Practitioners sleep less than ordinary people anyway… so it didn’t have much of an impact.

After I got up, Master quickly walked to the door, still with his hair and beard in a mess, and turned to me and shouted, “Hurry up! Get up for morning exercise!”

Morning exercise? This word was almost unfamiliar to me, who had been living a wandering life… However, the master looked at me and smiled. I was still a little confused, but I smiled at the master for some reason, then jumped out of bed and said, “Okay, morning exercise!”

The morning snow-capped mountains are as beautiful as they are at night. The morning sun, the vast grasslands, the white snow-capped mountains, the clear lakes, the galloping horses… all combine to create a picture full of hope.

After practicing a few sets of boxing, my body was already steaming hot, and the long robe that was in the way had already been pulled off, leaving me wearing only a pair of white pants… but I still couldn’t dispel the billowing heat from my body.

It had been a long time since I had exercised in the morning, and I felt a little tired, but my spirit was full of a strange kind of fulfillment… This made me feel good… My master was sitting on the lawn next to me, and his gaze was the same as when I was a child. Occasionally, when I didn’t do my movements properly, he would come over and either slap me or kick me.

I felt a little cool and refreshed when some cold lake water splashed on my face, and I shouted, “It feels great!” My master then came over with my robe and said to me, “Put it on when you’re done being crazy… before you catch a cold.”

I put on my robe and smiled at my master, “Do you think I can catch a cold?”

“A cultivator is also a human being, so how can he not catch a cold? Don’t give me any nonsense!” As he spoke, the master blew a whistle in the distance. There, a disciple from the Snow Mountain Sect, who was responsible for the animals on these grasslands, rode a horse and galloped over, also bringing two horses with him.

I didn’t know what my master was going to do, but he looked into the distance and said, “Chengyi, what do you think is the difference between practicing here and in the bamboo forest?”

“There is no difference.” I said without thinking. Originally, there is no difference. The effect of morning exercises is the same wherever you are.

“That’s right… Life is the same. No matter in good times or bad times, you are still you… You will not change yourself because of any environment, nor will you give up because of any difficulties. That is the foundation of maintaining your original heart. Do you understand? As long as you are still here, no environment can change you, and no matter what, you will not be overwhelmed… Don’t forget your original heart, and temper your original heart.” At this time, the disciple from the snowy mountain range with the horse had already arrived in front of me and my master.

He dismounted and handed the two horses, which were already saddled, to the master.

I stood still… but was thinking about what my master had said to me. The word “heart” had not been mentioned to me for many years… I had always thought that he thought I had grown up and no longer needed to mention the word “heart” to me on purpose, and I also thought that I had kept it well.

But my master didn’t let me think too much… Instead, he walked over to me with the two horses, mounted one himself, and rode off with a nimble and graceful motion that was anything but that of an old man approaching his 100th birthday.

Then he said to me, “Get on the horse!”

“Where to?” I instinctively grabbed the reins and then turned over and rode up.

The master looked into the distance and laughed, pointing to a distant snow-capped mountain and saying, “Let’s go to the foot of that snow-capped mountain… Chengyi, you and I are both cultivators. Today, let’s challenge that snow-capped mountain.”

While he was talking, my master didn’t give me a chance to respond. He just said “Gaa” and started galloping ahead. In the wind, I could hear him say, “If you’re late, I’ll give you a kick every minute.”

I believe that my master really can do it, so how dare I be slow? I immediately clamped my legs around the horse’s belly… and began to chase after my master.

The grassland here is not as vast as the vast, uninhabited grassland outside… But when I galloped on my horse, I realized that… what I saw with my eyes and the actual distance were not completely connected. After all, the world is vast, and people are so small… many things can only be seen with the eyes, not really measured with the body.

The horse was galloping, and the sound of the wind whistling past my ears… The vast grasslands gave me a feeling of infinite heart, just like many scenes in the past… I still saw my master’s reassuring back… but the horse beneath me seemed to be going faster, and the back was getting closer and closer to me… soon, I was walking side by side with my master.

“Chengyi… do you think the world is big?” The master didn’t slow down, but shouted at me in the howling wind.

“Yes!” I shouted back.

“Chengyi… do you feel small?” The master asked me again.

“Yes, on this grassland, I feel like a tiny black dot.” I said loudly with a smile.

“But the world is so big, and a small black dot is so small… But just because the world is big and you are small, does that mean you really don’t exist? Not only do you exist, but you have also left a long trail along the way. That is you… and you have existed, and the world cannot deny it! Therefore, at any time, you cannot give up on yourself… because the world cannot deny your existence, so how can your will dissipate because of the existence of the will of a previous life? Can that compare with the world?” The master suddenly turned around and shouted at me.

This time, I didn’t shout, but whispered, “Master…”

“My disciple will not disappear! He will not…” The master suddenly shouted to the heavens, and then once again accelerated… Looking up, I saw his reassuring back.