Chapter 11: Master-Accepting Ceremony Complete

Even at this moment, she still wouldn’t forget to threaten him.
The Sword Sovereign of the Clouds found it amusing.
He let go of her, and Su Yanwei immediately raised her head and sat up straight, looking at him warily.

“Speak nicely! Gentlemen use words, not fists.”

“Anyone who hits children is scum!”

The Sword Sovereign chuckled as he looked at her.

“If you only had this much courage, how did you dare come provoke me?”

“Because you don’t hit kids!” Su Yanwei replied without hesitation.
“Didn’t you say that yourself? Or is the dignified Sword Sovereign of the Clouds from the Shushan Sect going to go back on his word?”

The Sword Sovereign thought to himself:
This is truly the ultimate in wielding a chicken feather like it’s an imperial decree… What a cunning child!
But he didn’t find her annoying, in fact, that too was a kind of skill.

“Tell me,” he looked at Su Yanwei and asked,
“Why must you insist on taking me as your master?”

He was genuinely curious.

Su Yanwei was straightforward.

“Because I want to run away from home.”

“Why run away from home?” the Sword Sovereign found it strange.
Rumor had it that Su Jingting and Ye Qingmeng loved their only daughter dearly.
This clever, likable girl should have been spoiled and pampered.

“That’s a long story…” Su Yanwei put on a look of sorrow and melancholy that made it look like it really was complicated.

“Stop!” The Sword Sovereign hurriedly cut her off.
“Keep it short.”

“Oh.” Interrupted, Su Yanwei looked a bit disappointed, then she said boldly,
“Do you need a reason to run away from home?”

The Sword Sovereign looked at her and laughed.

“Perhaps others don’t, but you do.”

“In the Su family, you can easily obtain things most people in the world can never get,” he said.
“So why leave?”

“You can’t have both the fish and the bear’s paw,” Su Yanwei answered seriously, looking at him.
“Sometimes you have to give up something to gain something even more precious.”

“A caged bird has no worries about food, yet it still longs to fly free.”

“Because the sky is right there in front of its eyes.”

The Sword Sovereign silently watched her for a long while.
Then he reached out and ruffled her hair.

“I’ll take you as my disciple.”

This hair is kind of prickly… A little troublemaker indeed.

“Really?” At this point, Su Yanwei actually became suspicious of him instead.
She stared at his face.
“You’re not tricking a kid, are you?”

The Sword Sovereign smirked.

“How would I dare?”

Su Yanwei shot him a sideways glance, thinking he was teasing her.

At that moment, the dessert shop owner came over carrying two bowls.

“Here you go, your two bowls of red bean soup!”

He placed them on the table and left.

Su Yanwei glanced at the red bean soup, hopped down from her stool, picked up a bowl, and knelt in front of the Sword Sovereign.

She raised the bowl high above her head.

“Master above, please accept this disciple’s formal bow. Today, I use red bean soup instead of tea Master, please have tea!”

“……”

Such a unique way to perform the disciple’s ceremony.

The Sword Sovereign’s mouth twitched as he looked at the newly minted disciple kneeling in front of him, holding up the red bean soup.
He couldn’t help but be both annoyed and amused.
She’s good at borrowing the situation.This red bean soup was even bought with his money!

Looking at Su Yanwei, who seemed determined not to get up until he drank, the Sword Sovereign sighed inwardly.
This little devil would surely be troublesome in the future.

But he still reached out, took the bowl, and drank a sip.
It was very sweet.

“Get up, little disciple.”

And so, the ceremony was done.
Su Yanwei was now officially his disciple.

Success!

At that moment, Su Yanwei finally felt a sense of certainty.
It had really worked.

She had successfully “staged an accident”!

Her very first try, inexperienced as she was, had landed right on target instant success!
I really am a clever little fox, Su Yanwei thought to herself gleefully.

“Why are you still standing there looking silly?” the Sword Sovereign teased with a sly smile.
“Surprised beyond words?”

Su Yanwei quickly stood up, patted the dust off her robe, and shot him a look.

“Master, you really know how to flatter yourself. It’s not that big a deal, no need to act like it is.”

The Sword Sovereign: …

Weren’t you the one just now crying and begging to be my disciple? And now that you’ve gotten what you want, you’re turning your face already?

“When you say that, you might check your own face first,” he reminded her kindly.
“Your smile is almost reaching your ears.”

Su Yanwei immediately rubbed her cheeks, squeezing them, then forced her expression into a solemn, deadpan look.

“Who, who’s smiling so wide their mouth reaches their ears?”

“Don’t make things up! That’s slander!”

Watching her change expressions in a second, the Sword Sovereign thought:
Truly astonishing.

After successfully “staging the accident” no, officially becoming his disciple, Su Yanwei was in a great mood.

She sat back down, picked up her spoon, and started eating the red bean soup.

“Mmm… so sweet.”

The Sword Sovereign watched her complaining about it being sweet, but then honestly eating more than half the bowl.
Once again, he confirmed: She really does love sweets.

When she’d finished the last bite, Su Yanwei put down her spoon, took out her handkerchief, wiped her mouth, and said:

“Shouyang Mountain.”

“The antidote is on Shouyang Mountain.”

The Sword Sovereign lifted his gaze to look at her.

“Soul-Devouring Powder is made using a poisonous flower called Sanrihong as the main ingredient,” Su Yanwei explained.
“At the time it was created, no antidote was made.”

“But heaven never cuts off all hope; the Dao of Heaven is merciful and always leaves a chance.”

“Sanrihong itself is poisonous, but its leaves are the antidote,” Su Yanwei said, looking seriously at the Sword Sovereign.
“If you find Sanrihong’s leaves and give them to your eldest disciple, it will neutralize the flower’s poison and dissolve the Soul-Devouring Powder.”

The Sword Sovereign was silent for a long while.

After a moment, he asked:

“Where did you learn this?”

“From the travel writings of the Recluse of Mirror Lake,” Su Yanwei answered honestly.
“Although the cultivation world doubts whether everything in those writings is real, I believe it is.”

The Sword Sovereign nodded.

“I’ve also read the Recluse of Mirror Lake’s travel writings, a very worthwhile book.”

“But what you just said, I’ve never seen in the text.”

“You must’ve only read the first volume!” Su Yanwei said confidently.
“The middle and final volumes are the essence especially the last, which records many mysteries and unsolved secrets of the cultivation world.”

“The travel writings were lost over time; only a few copies of the first volume survive. The middle and last volumes are missing.”

Su Yanwei said proudly:

“As it happens, I have the complete set.”

In truth, just half a month ago, her own set was still missing the last volume.

But recently, her father, Su Jingting, had found the missing last volume and given it to her, finally completing the set.

The records about Soul-Devouring Powder and Sanrihong were in that last volume.

The Sword Sovereign now realized how much Su Jingting spoiled his daughter, even managing to find the hardest-to-complete work in the cultivation world, just for her.

Due to various reasons, the Recluse of Mirror Lake’s writings were mostly fragmented; only the first volume circulated.
Even after much effort, the Sword Sovereign himself had only ever found the first and middle volumes; the last had eluded him, and it had always been a regret.

He hadn’t expected to encounter it here, like this.

Life truly is strange.

“Where is Shouyang Mountain?” he asked.

“Head south from Qingfeng Ridge until you reach the end of the land,” Su Yanwei said.
“Pass through the barrier between this world and the Beyond.
Follow the trail of white butterfly flowers.
Where the flowers lead, that is Shouyang Mountain.”