13 Chapter 12: The Mysterious Elder (1/2)
Zhu Jiao stared at the mysterious old man who was hovering above him for a few long seconds. His brow twitched and he opened his mouth as if to say something, but no words came out. His eyes continued to widen as he tried to comprehend just what he was seeing.
”Oho? Lad? Are you all right?”
The old man waved a hand in front of Zhu Jiao's face. And then…
”AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
Zhu Jiao screamed.
”A ghost! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! There's a ghost!”
”How rude!” the ghost snapped, and then he folded his arms. ”Well, it is true that I'm a ghost, though. But that's not the point! Shouldn't you be honored to be in my presence?”
”Ah…huh? What?”
Zhu Jiao blinked and stared at the old man, not understanding what was going on. Then he tilted his head while forcing himself to calm down and swallow his fear. Clenching his fists, he managed to stop himself from trembling.
Bravo. Good job, my friend. Face your fear of ghosts and overcome it! Then only will you understand the importance of spirit!
”Uh…who are you?”
The old ghost blanched at that, then waved his hands furiously.
”How can you not know who I am?!”
”Well, sorry to break it to you, grandpa, but I honestly have not seen you or heard of you at all in my whole life.”
Zhu Jiao laughed sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. The old ghost glared at him, then turned away with a ”hmph!”
”I see. So many years must have passed since my demise, huh?”
”Your…demise?” Zhu Jiao repeated dumbly. ”You're dead?”
”No, I'm alive. That's why I'm a ghost.” The old man glared at Zhu Jiao. ”Have you ever heard of a living ghost before?”
”Yeah!” I shouted. ”Lady Rokujou from Genji Monogatari is the most famous example of a living ghost!”
Too bad neither of them heard me. Zhu Jiao just withdrew, chagrined. Damn it…this is why reading a lot was so important! You could counter such broad, sweeping statements with existing examples and throw your opponent's stupidity back at him!
On the other hand, Zhu Jiao was far too stunned to react properly. He could only nod his head dumbly.
”I…see…”
”Hey! Why is your response so underwhelming?”
”No, it's nothing.”
Zhu Jiao shook his head, and then forced a smile.
”Well, anyway…sorry about that. Um…who are you again?”
The old ghost looked irritated, but he didn't snap this time. Instead, he took a deep breath (I didn't know ghosts could still breathe).
”I'm the Patriarch of the Golden Kirin Sect, and probably the last survivor. On my deathbed, I sealed my spirit into that Golden Amulet you have there, in hopes of finding a suitable heir to the Golden Kirin Sacred Beast techniques to succeed me. And you, my lad, have the great honor of being that suitable heir!”
”You sealed yourself into my golden amulet?” Zhu Jiao's jaw was hanging. ”But this is my family heirloom that has been passed down for generations!”
That's what you're concerned about?!
I almost fell over from the ridiculousness of it. Here you are, finally getting your wish to succeed a secret martial art from some ghost that emerged from your family heirloom, but you were more concerned if he was telling the truth about your family treasure?
”Generations? So it really has been many years since my death. My guess is that my golden amulet had somehow landed in the hands of your ancestor, probably by way of stealing or buying or discovery. Then he passed down his amulet to his descendants.”
Going, ”hmm…”, the old ghost looked up and stared around.
”It seems that at least a century has passed from when I was sealed. The air feels a bit different, as does the qi. Is this Wu Ling Academy? It looks very different from when I remembered it.”
”Well, they probably renovated it several times during the last hundred years or so.”
Zhu Jiao shrugged nonchalantly. I would have offered up a snarkier and more sarcastic reply, if this stupid preternatural pressure wasn't weighing down on me and sapping my strength. I realized, disgruntled, that if I was stronger – as strong as Qi Fu Ren – I would have been able to withstand this. Ugh. I hated imagining the smug expression on Qi Fu Ren as he looked down on me.
”Hmph. What a complete waste of money.” The old man stared scornfully at his surroundings and folded his arms. ”They should have spent all those resources on training the students instead.”
”…I'm sure that's what they're trying to do. We have state-of-the-art training facilities, access to vast resources, and even granted free medical services.”
Zhu Jiao was actually defending Wu Ling Academy. Come to think of it, other than the condescending attitude from Xiao Zhang and the majority of staff and students, the academy's infrastructure, facilities and services were actually topnotch. At least we weren't denied access to the library, training facilities and medical care. Despite the abuse and insults that we had to deal with all day, the academy actually took good care of all its students, One Star Constitution or otherwise.
But the old man didn't seem interested in how charitable and magnanimous the academy was. He leaned closer as he raised his voice enthusiastically.
”More importantly, lad, you have great potential! Become my disciple, and I will teach you the secret Golden Kirin Sacred Creature Arts! You will become invincible, and will restore our preeminent position within the Alliance once more!”
”Really?!” Zhu Jiao brightened up. Then he sobered. ”But…I'm only a One Star Constitution candidate. Will I really be able to…?”
”Nonsense! I can sense the talent in you. In fact…” the old man studied him for a while, and realization dawned on his wrinkled face. ”I must apologize. I believe the reason why you weren't able to cultivate far for the last three months or so is because your qi has been continually absorbed by my golden amulet. The amulet was designed in a way that it wouldn't activate until it detects a suitable candidate, and one way it does that is by leeching off qi from the wearer until it gathers enough to awaken me. For you to have awaken me at such a young age means that you possess a natural affinity to gather large amounts of qi, at a rapid pace too!”
Everything was falling into place now. Now I understood why the test first indicated Li Fu Chen, no, I mean Xiao Yan…ugh, I mean Zhu Jiao as someone with Five Star Constitution. He really did possess that tremendous potential, but his qi was sucked away by the golden amulet that he thought was his family heirloom. That led to his Five Star Constitution plummeting to One Star during the test and also explained his extremely slow progress of cultivating when compared to the rest of our class.
Wait…then what about me? So Zhu Jiao had a way out, but I was still stuck in the bottom? I was the only one who was genuine trash? I was fated to be a mob character forever?
What the fuck?!
”Hang on…”
My attention was drawn back to Zhu Jiao, who had folded his arms and was furiously glaring at the smug-looking old ghost.
”Are you telling me that the reason why I lost my talent…was because of you?”
”Uh, well…even if you put it that way, you're not wrong…”
Facing Zhu Jiao's wrath, the old ghost suddenly sounded uncertain of himself. He chuckled sheepishly and bowed his head apologetically.
”It appears that I've put you through quite a bit of suffering, my disciple. Sorry about that.”
Hey, when did Zhu Jiao agree to be your disciple? Don't act as if that's already a given, you old bastard!
”You've no idea what I've been through!” Zhu Jiao growled. ”The last three months have been nothing but frustration and hell for me!”
”I'm sorry.”
”Give my qi and talent back to me!”
”I plan to do that. No…in fact…” the old ghost turned serious. ”I will make sure to mold you into an invincible warrior, one who will surpass even your past potential. After all, martial arts isn't solely about talent. If you learn from me, I know you will be number one under heaven.”
”You do realize that story has been deleted and removed from Royal Road, right?” I muttered under my breath. Thankfully, neither of them heard me.
Zhu Jiao regarded the old man skeptically. ”How can I trust someone who has been leeching off my qi this entire time?”
”Well…I mean, despite this seeming to be a misfortune on the surface, you've to admit, this period of suffering helped build up your character, didn't it? If it wasn't for this period of humility, you wouldn't be able to develop such a strong character and formidable mental fortitude.”