Chapter 824 - 247: [Old Wang’s Story] (6200)_3
The little girl told him that she wanted to go to Jing’an Hall.
Because Jing’an Hall teaches many combat and offensive spells, making cultivation more aggressively progressive.
The little girl said she wanted to become a capable cultivator—just like when she witnessed Wang Guishan slaying the evil demon, that figure.
Wang Guishan felt somewhat uncomfortable deep down because... that demon-slaying incident was the first time he ever engaged in combat.
He was inherently someone who disliked conflict.
But the little girl also told Wang Guishan that she wanted to enter Jing’an Hall because it was easier to earn merits there. Accumulating merits could help increase her disciple level, allowing access to the Sutra Pavilion to exchange for superior cultivation techniques and divine skills...
She wanted to climb higher—Wang Guishan understood.
"Brother Guishan, I want to become someone who can stand by your side, someone worthy of you."
The little girl’s eyes sparkled as she looked at Wang Guishan.
Wang Guishan fell silent once again.
·
Jing’an Hall indeed offered many opportunities for merit—but that involved going out to slay evil spirits.
Wang Guishan asked his familiar fellow disciples from Jing’an Hall to take care of the little girl, in return for regularly repairing damaged magical artifacts and spirit swords for them for free.
The little girl would go out with her fellows; when encountering evil demons and spirits, she’d return injured from battle, and Wang Guishan would send over healing elixirs or even personally take care of her.
The little girl said during the last battle, she encountered a turtle demon, and her spirit sword wasn’t sharp enough to break through its shell, resulting in her injury.
Wang Guishan sold his spirit grass, which he had nurtured for eight years, exchanged for four units of refined gold essence, and personally reforged the little girl’s spirit sword, integrating the refined gold essence to make it three times sharper.
The little girl said she encountered an evil cultivator who harmed people with a powerful primordial spirit spell that confused the heart and mind.
Wang Guishan buried himself in the Artifact Refining Hall, throwing himself into hard labor day and night, assisting with the simplest and most strenuous forging tasks, until the flames of the forge nearly dried him out. He earned enough merits and rewards to buy a [Heart Protection Ring] capable of defending against divine sense attacks from the Artifact Hall, placing it on the little girl’s finger...
The little girl said...
Wang Guishan...
The little girl said...
Wang Guishan...
Gradually, Wang Guishan’s master looked at him with increasingly indifferent eyes.
Because in order to solve the little girl’s numerous predicaments, Wang Guishan had to exert a significant amount of effort, seeking or earning the things she needed.
He no longer spent time tending to the spiritual plants in the herb field, nor did he lock himself in the alchemy room fiddling with potions...
The name most often mentioned by the master in praise was no longer Wang Guishan.
Until one day.
Wang Guishan went to see the little girl and saw her face pale as she emerged from the training room, looking exhausted.
The little girl told him she had gone into seclusion four times but could not enter the Third Realm, stuck at the Guiyuan Realm and unable to achieve a realm breakthrough.
Wang Guishan looked helplessly at the stubborn girl he had single-handedly raised, seeing the unwillingness and insatiable ambition in her eyes.
He wanted to tell her that her lack of talent meant reaching the Guiyuan Realm was already due to the considerable resources he had invested, far exceeding those of other fellows, to make her a Second Realm cultivator.
He wanted to tell her that her inability to break through and ascend the stage was due to her greatly inadequate primordial spirit cultivation and insufficient divine sense.
Wang Guishan couldn’t bring himself to say it. He looked at the flame in the girl’s eyes, knowing he didn’t want to be the one to extinguish it.
From then on, Wang Guishan gave all of his sect-allotted Quenching God Pills to the girl.
Every year, the limited opportunities to listen to the "Enlightenment Bell" to enhance talent—he gave all his spots to the little girl.
He spent three years saving enough jade coins, left the sect, and went to an auction market to buy a bottle of elixir made from demon cores that could increase the primordial spirit.
On his way back, he was robbed by an evil cultivator with ill intentions. After a bloody battle, having taken three swords, and losing his own broken spirit sword, he managed to return to the sect severely injured.
Relying on that bottle of elixir, and the opportunities from previous years’ Quenching God Pills and the Enlightenment Bell.
The little girl finally achieved her wish, breaking through and ascending the stage, becoming a Third Realm cultivator.
Her first action after exiting seclusion was to visit Wang Guishan. At the time, he was still nursing his wounds, and seeing the excited and jubilant little girl standing by his bedside, he reached out to take her hand with a smile.
This time, the little girl subtly sidestepped to avoid it.
"Brother Guishan, from now on I’m a Third Realm cultivator just like you! I can finally hold my head high and stand by your side!"
Wang Guishan looked at the little girl and gently asked, "Then, we..."
The little girl replied with ease, "We are, of course, lifelong family! I told you, I will always admire and respect you, I’ll take care of you, serve you... I will always be your little sister! You will always be my dearest brother in my heart!"
·
"No, I can’t listen to this anymore."
Chen Yan looked at Old Wang with wide eyes: "Why didn’t you just slap her face crooked at the time? Such a rotten-hearted b*tch!"
Old Wang looked at Chen Yan calmly, "If there weren’t some foolish things, could it still be called a story?"
·
Sister? Brother?
Wang Guishan remained silent.
After the little girl left that day, a question kept lingering in his heart.
Over the years, treating her with all his heart and soul, did he really only see her as a sister?