KK Translates

Arc 7 – Farewell to that Senior Brother
Chapter 167

It was already night. Lin Changfeng walked out and stopped outside the door for a moment. Instead of flying over, he decided to walk step by step towards the restricted area no one else could enter.

Chi Zhao didn’t understand why Jiye Zhenren never left his residence and he also didn’t understand why Jiye Zhenren didn’t let anyone enter. Even though other high levelled cultivators may look down on those that are lower, they weren’t as strange as him. If anyone didn’t want to be disturbed, they would find a place where no one could find them to train alone but this behaviour of confining himself inside the prosperous Zhao Tian sect and not letting anyone come closer was really difficult to understand.

Chi Zhao wasn’t the only one who didn’t understand. In fact, everyone else also didn’t understand. Some thought they did, but the truth was completely different from their guesses.

Standing outside Jiye Zhenren’s residence, Lin Changfeng said in a low voice, “Master, can this disciple enter?”

Jiye Zhenren slowly opened his eyes. After a long silence, he made a sound, “Mhn.”

As soon as Jin Changfeng entered, he immediately knelt in front of Jiye Zhenren.

Although Jiye Zhenren was old, he still looked like how he did in his prime. He quietly looked at Lin Changfeng who was kneeling before him. The temperaments of the two were similar and their appearances were also similar. With it like this, rather than a master and his disciple, he looked more like an ordinary older brother and his younger brother.

Once a cultivator enters the qi condensation stage, their appearance becomes fixed. They could develop further if they wanted to and then they would no longer change. Everyone naturally wished that they could stay young forever so in the major sects, most of the cultivators are people who looked like they were in their twenties or thirties. There were very few who would choose to change their appearance to an elderly man or woman.

Most people enter the qi condensation stage when they are in their twenties or thirties. Some with poorer skills only manage to enter at the age of forty or fifty. Very few are like Chi Zhao who reached this stage at the age of fifteen. He could choose to continue growing or he could choose to stay as how he was now, but in view of the height difference between himself and Lin Changfeng, Chi Zhao decided to continue growing for two more years.

……….

Facing his disciple who he had singlehandedly brought up, Jiye Zhenren’s current mood was a little different. After all, he had taken much care guiding this disciple of his over all these years and his feeling towards him couldn’t be compared to normal people.

Jiye Zhenren looked at Lin Changfeng who had his head bowed. Lin Changfeng reported resolutely,”Master, this disciple and youngest junior disciple have decided to form a contract.”

Chi Zhao had thought that Lin Changfeng was leaving to ask for Jiye Zhenren’s approval but in fact, Lin Changfeng didn’t have any intention to ask for his approval at all. He had already made his decision, and no one could change it.

There seemed to be a lot of things contained in Jiye Zhenren’s eyes, but if one looked closely, it also seemed as if it didn’t contain anything. After a while, he asked, “What contract?”

Lin Changfeng’s eyelids trembled. He originally wasn’t going to say this but Jiye Zhenren was too keen and seemed to have almost immediately understood his true intentions.

After furrowing his brows for a moment, Lin Changfeng flattened his lips and spoke truthfully, “Life and death contract.”

The life and death contract. It meant that they would share the same fate and would live together or die together.

If one becomes a Dao companion, the two could share their qi energy which was the foundation of Daoism. Since birth, humans are guided by this qi energy of theirs. Although many say that three parts of your life is determined by fate and seven parts is determined by your efforts, in fact, the final result was still the three parts that was pre-determined by fate.

No matter how ambitious one may be, no matter how much they persevered and how excellent their qualities were, if they were born as an ordinary person without any spiritual roots, they would not be able to enter the world of cultivation. Through sharing qi energy, one party would without a doubt be dragged down while the other party is raised higher. There are many Dao companions in the cultivation realm but there are also many who have ended that relationship. The longer one lived, the more likely their thoughts would change. The passionate love from back then may have been true at first but later the feelings fading and even turning into hatred was also true.

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There were too many variables, yet Lin Changfeng even wished to form a life and death contract with Chi Zhao.

To live together or die together, in other words, if one party died, the other party would also lose their life. Lin Changfeng was a cultivator in the late nascent soul stage and was only one step away from breaking through and entering the next stage. Coupled with his enviable talent and identity as the future sect leader of the Zhao Tian sect, it was actually difficult for him to die. On the contrary, Chi Zhao who had only entered the sect no more than two years ago was more likely to die at any time.

No matter how one looked at it, it seemed that Lin Changfeng didn’t want to live anymore.

If it was someone else’s master, at this moment, they would kind-heartedly try and persuade Lin Changfeng to give up this idea. After all, the life and death contract wasn’t a trifling matter and doing it was pretty much seeking death. Even if they just became Dao companions, Chi Zhao would probably have no objections.

But Jiye Zhenren said nothing.

He even let out a low laugh.

Lin Changfeng hadn’t seen Jiye Zhenren laugh in a very long time and was surprised for a moment. When he raised his head, that fleeting smile on Jiye Zhenren’s face had already faded. He looked out towards the half open window. Dim moonlight broken through the clouds and fog outside, entering the room, but the moment it entered, it faded into nothing.

“Qinghe said before that you and I are very similar.” Jiye Zhenren retracted his gaze and looked back at the disciple in front of him, “From the looks of it, we really are similar.”

If someone else was told that they are similar to Jiye Zhenren, they would probably be pleased to no end but after Lin Changfeng heard this line, he didn’t feel happy at all. His brows furrowed even further, and he lowered his eyes to conceal the emotions in it. He could only say neither too humbly or too arrogantly, “But this disciple is not master after all.”

Jiye Zhenren was taken aback for a moment. He then nodded in agreement, “Yes, you are not me.”

The room fell silent for a while. Jiye Zhenren than asked, “When will the contract ceremony be held?”

Lin Changfeng answered, “On the third day of next month.”

That was the day Yu Mochen had invited Chi Zhao to go down the mountain to train. Lin Changfeng pursed his lips. Master didn’t pay attention to outside affairs, so he probably didn’t know that he had decided on that date due to some selfishness on his part. Having lived for hundreds of years, this was probably his first time doing something petty like this, so he felt a little uncomfortable. The Jiye Zhenren above didn’t notice this abnormality and just counted the days.

This year was the Jihai year. Looking outside, it seems that winter has already come. If it’s the third of next month…..

It seems that there is only a dozen or so days left for preparation?

Jiye Zhenren nodded slightly, “Then you should go back and prepare. The ceremony shouldn’t be done sloppily. Take some money out of my private treasury and organise a proper one.”

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Before Jiye Zhenren retreated away into his residence for closed door training, he had given all of his private treasury to Lin Changfeng, including all the heavenly treasures and artifacts he had found in the past. It had been many years now. Unless it was a particularly urgent situation, Lin Changfeng wouldn’t touch them. Although Jiye Zhenren didn’t see it, he could imagine it and he felt a headache forming just at the thought of it, “Keeping it is just taking up space. This master has already said that I don’t need those things anymore.”

Lin Changfeng made a sound to indicate that he understood.

Since retreating away, except for making an appearance at the reception for new disciples, Jiye Zhenren almost never went out. Lin Changfeng who only saw him every six months felt that Jiye Zhenren seemed to be more humane than before.

When he first became Jiye Zhenren’s disciple, except for teaching, he wouldn’t say more than a single line to him in a year but now, Jiye Zhenren acted like how a father or brother would.

Lin Changfeng agreed readily but he had no intentions to use his master’s private funds. After all, he didn’t know when his master would change his mind and put an end to his seclusion. At that time, all those things would still need to be returned to him.

Seeing him like this, Jiye Zhenren knew what he was thinking. He however also knew that it was useless saying anything else, so he didn’t mention it anymore.

When it was time to leave, Lin Changfeng stood up but he just stood there without turning around. Jiye Zhenren raised his eyes to look at him. Lin Changfeng was silent for a moment and then he spoke, “This disciple is making a life and death contract not to live and die together with youngest junior brother but because this disciple felt that youngest junior brother would care about himself more knowing that there is a contract.”

The bleeding wound had left a lasting imprint on Lin Changfeng’s mind. He couldn’t accept Chi Zhao’s indifference to himself and after thinking about it for a long time, he felt that this was the only way to contain Chi Zhao.

Although a part of it was due to his own selfish desires, it was his concern for Chi Zhao’s safety that made him make this decision.

“If he still doesn’t care even after knowing, what are you going to do?”

This was something Lin Changfeng had also thought about. He raised his head and looked back at Jiye Zhenren, “If that’s the case, nothing else can be done.”

The last time this master and disciple met was half a year ago. At that time, Lin Changfeng was in a low mood and dark clouds seemed to be hanging over his head. It had only been half a year, but he was like a different person now. His eyes were clear and calm and there was no more suffocating haze in it. He had already thought it through and accepted all the possibilities that could come up in the future.

After Lin Changfeng left, Jiye Zhenren didn’t close his eyes like he would usually. He walked down, stood by the half open window and looked up at the bright moon.

Lin Changfeng respected him as a master, but respect didn’t mean approval or admiration.

Or, in other words, Lin Changfeng once admired him very much, but after so many years, seeing so many things and meeting all sorts of people with different personalities, the blind admiration he once had gradually faded, and began to judge what kind of person his master was rationally. The final conclusion he reached made that admiration change into respect.

Lin Changfeng was indeed very similar to him, but he was also very different. At the very least, when it came to the matter of a Dao companion, Lin Changfeng was much better than him.

“To live and die together, huh……..”

Jiye Zhenren looked out at the bright moon as he muttered this. Slowly, his gaze moved from the moon in the sky to the cliff not far away. A beast was still roaring loudly. Across the dense forest, the beast seemed to have noticed Jiye Zhenren’s gaze. That originally ferocious roar turned in to a whimper and, very soon, the sound of the beast was completely gone.

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