Mingyuan had met the little servant, bestowed rewards, and briefly chatted with his beloved disciple. However, Yu Tianze didn’t mention offering any rare treasures to his master, nor did he voluntarily hand over his monthly allowance or any other gifts. Listening to Ming Yuan’s words of concern for him, he felt there were hints everywhere, and soon became impatient.
Ming Yuan, being the dignified master, assumed Yu Tianze hadn’t noticed and naturally couldn’t bring himself to ask for anything. It was then that Sun Yiwei, the second disciple who had been meditating and cultivating in another part of the cave, came to pay his respects to his senior brother.
Perfect timing, as Yu Tianze had already lost interest in engaging in the pretense with Ming Yuan. He simply turned his attention to Sun Yiwei.
His instructions, of course, were for Sun Yiwei to serve his master well, and he also mentioned that he could offer him some guidance. Sun Yiwei was overjoyed upon hearing this and immediately poured out all the questions he had accumulated. Yu Tianze listened and quickly found solutions, even if they differed from his own path. His understanding far surpassed Sun Yiwei’s, and his explanations at least offered some guidance.
Before they knew it, the two had been chatting for a long time.
Mu Zirun sat obediently behind Yu Tianze, his eyes fixed straight ahead, looking very serious and focused. He occasionally glanced up, only casually glancing at Ming Yuan, whose attention remained fixed on Yu Tianze. Ming Yuan even began to furrow hisbrow, which made Mu Zirun, who had been secretly observing, find it increasingly amusing.
This master seemed to genuinely want to say something to Yu Tianze, but Yu Tianze seemed unwilling to say a word. This master and disciple pair appeared to be only superficially harmonious. However, despite Yu Tianze’s best efforts to be discreet, his disguise wasn’t perfect. If it weren’t for the fact that Master Mingyuan, who always stepped on his own disciples, also trusted them implicitly, he probably would have discovered it long ago.
Mu Zirun pondered. His peak master seemed to want to distance himself from Master Mingyuan, but Master Mingyuan didn’t seem to know, and his peak master seemed unable to show it too obviously for some reason. Perhaps he would have to do something to help his peak master in the future.
But it was too early to talk about that; his priority now was to improve his strength and serve his peak master well.
Meanwhile, the more Sun Yiwei listened to Yu Tianze’s guidance, the more unfathomable his senior brother seemed. And after listening for so long, he also felt that his senior brother was nothing like the rumored capricious and unpredictable persona. Or perhaps he had gained some privileges because he was now a junior brother? Regardless, his impression of his senior brother was excellent; at least before he became a disciple, he had never heard of any other master or senior being so meticulous in instructing a junior. Even if his tone was rather cold, that was just his senior brother’s personality, wasn’t it? He neither scolded nor killed anyone; it was incredibly reassuring!
Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but sigh. How wonderful it would be if he had become a disciple of his senior brother… Master Mingyuan had a good temper and cared about him, but he wasn’t very good at cultivation. He had asked his master about some issues before, but his master’s guidance was very vague, as if he knew how to do it but couldn’t express it. In his opinion, this was because he was used to doing it but hadn’t truly understood it, which caused this phenomenon.
Then he sighed again. His master’s cultivation was indeed forged through force-feeding. He had originally hoped it was just a rumor, but his hope was dashed. He could only hope that he could see his senior brother more often in the future. Sun Yiwei glanced at Mu Zirun, a hint of envy in his eyes. Even as a menial servant, he would be willing to follow someone as talented as his senior brother. He calmed himself down, suppressing the sudden greed that appeared. He shouldn’t think about it anymore; at least his treatment was much better now that he was a disciple.
He shouldn’t be too greedy, or he’d become disliked. Two hours passed, and Sun Yiwei finished asking his questions. After answering them one by one, Yu Tianze, seeing that it was getting late, decisively took his leave. Ming Yuan had nothing to say to stop him, so he could only watch him go, while Yu Tianze took Mu Zirun’s hand and quickly left.
Watching Mu Zirun’s retreating figure, Ming Yuan’s gaze paused slightly. Tianze seemed to really care about this little servant. Back on his own peak with Mu Zirun in his arms, Yu Tianze ruffled Mu Zirun’s hair…Umm, it didn’t feel very good.
But it didn’t matter. He knew it was because the little brat hadn’t grown up yet. Once he fattened him up, he’d look quite good—every cultivator, whose flesh and blood were nourished by spiritual energy, had a head of silky hair, right?
In a good mood, he took Mu Zirun’s little hand and led him to a room on the other side of the Thunderfire Palace, tossing him a key.
Mu Zirun quickly took it, “Peak Master, what’s this?”
Yu Tianze pushed open the heavy stone door and said, “This is the key to open the door.”
Mu Zirun felt like his eyes were about to be blinded. The room behind the stone door was simply filled with all kinds of spirit stones! Low-grade spirit stones were piled up like small mountains, mid-grade spirit stones were also piled up in countless quantities, and high-grade spirit stones were relatively fewer, but they still filled a pool. No matter how you looked at it, it was dazzling…
This was a bit too extravagant.
Yu Tianze’s expression remained cold, “If you’re short of money on ordinary days, just use the key here. Any amount is fine; if you run out, I’ll find more.”
Mu Zirun, “…”
He suddenly felt a little worried about Yu Tianze’s wealth. While it’s true that you can’t make money if you don’t know how to spend it, wasn’t he being a little too careless…?
The incredibly generous Yu Tianze turned and went back into the secret room. Mu Zirun helplessly wiped his face and went out. The stone door closed naturally behind him, and Mu Zirun paused, shook his head, and then remembered something. Perfect timing; the demon spirits should have finished their business. He’d go ask them.
In his residence.
Yu Tianze was carefree throughout his life. Although he had good taste, he didn’t like to create anything too flashy, except when his master used to fuss over things. Now that it was his turn, he enjoyed himself, but he kept the Thunderfire Palace exactly as it was, without making any changes.
So, amidst the noble and luxurious furnishings, he sat cross-legged on a futon. Around the futon were forty-nine high-grade spirit stones, strung together to form a high-level spirit-gathering array. This array could extract all the nearby spiritual energy and compress it to a concentration twenty times greater.
The energy, almost condensed into rain, fell steadily, falling onto the person within the array. Yu Tianze was only wearing a light undergarment, and to be honest, the spiritual rain hitting his skin was a little painful. After all, if the spiritual energy was too concentrated and the body and meridians weren’t strong enough, it could lead to poor absorption, broken meridians, muscle rupture, and a series of other consequences.
However, there’s a saying, “No pain, no gain.” Of course, the spiritual rain was indeed formed from extremely concentrated spiritual energy, but for Yu Tianze, it wasn’t as extreme as “suffering.”
He simply felt waves of surging power entering his body through every pore, transforming into a pure torrent within his meridians, constantly washing over him, and finally flowing into his dantian, where it was continuously absorbed by his nascent soul. The spiritual rain fell rapidly, and the cleansing of spiritual energy came wave after wave. If Yu Tianze hadn’t cultivated both lightning and fire, his body already having been tempered by lightning and fire countless times, he probably wouldn’t have been able to endure it so strongly.
And the effect was remarkable. Yu Tianze was exceptionally intelligent, possessing top-notch comprehension and aptitude. He had previously wasted his time on Ming Yuan, but now, with his hard work, the results were truly exceptional. Within the Spirit Gathering Array, every hour he cultivated was equivalent to half a year’s worth of progress for an ordinary cultivator, and even a year for someone with inferior aptitude couldn’t match his rapid advancement. Therefore, the nascent soul within Yu Tianze’s dantian, wreathed in lightning and fire, visibly became clearer, even slowly growing stronger.
A look of contentment appeared on his face. The feeling of discovering his strength steadily increasing was something he couldn’t have enjoyed more. Since returning with Mu Zirun, Yu Tianze seemed to have untied some of his inner knots. The frustration from his previous seclusion dissipated, and the bottleneck he thought required more experience to overcome began to loosen.
In conclusion, bringing Mu Zirun back was the right decision; at least he was a help, not a hindrance. This feeling became even more pronounced when Yu Tianze emerged from his seclusion. Looking at the meal laid out on the jade table before him—one meat dish, two vegetable dishes, a soup, and a bowl of top-quality spirit rice—his emotions stirred slightly.
He looked up and saw a small child standing on the other side, looking at him with wide, obedient eyes filled with respect and affection.
Then, he heard the little boy say in a soft voice, “Peak Master, please try Zirun’s cooking, how is it?”
Yu Tianze sat down with a stern face, picked up a piece of meat with his chopsticks, put it in his mouth, and said, “Not bad.”
He then saw the little boy smile adorably, his eyes crinkling.
Yu Tianze looked at him coldly, “Go get yourself a bowl and eat with us.”
He saw the little boy smile even more happily and then run off. Of course, this was all Yu Tianze’s imagined scenario.
In reality, Mu Zirun felt he was “smoothing feathers” and “appeasing him.” Whether the other person had a stern face or a cold expression, it made little difference to him. It all seemed like someone a little awkward and unskilled at accepting others’ kindness.
With this mindset, Mu Zirun wasn’t afraid of Yu Tianze. Since the other person invited him to eat together, he quickly brought over a bowl of spirit rice and sat opposite him. However, Yu Tianze wasn’t good at conversation, so he didn’t initiate a conversation, but he had observed Yu Tianze quite a bit.
Afterwards, Mu Zirun covered his mouth, which was already throbbing with laughter, with his bowl.
Only eating meat and not vegetables… this guy is actually picky about food.
