Volume 1 Chapter 56: Senior Brother, Going for a Walk by the Lake with the Protagonist
The sun rose in the east. As usual, Ye Anping got up early according to his internal clock. He did a simple set of punches in the backyard of the therapy pavilion, went to the market street to buy breakfast, and then opened the therapy pavilion's doors.
From today onward, there was no need for him to worry about the Seven Killers Sect anymore. The blame for killing Wu You would be willingly taken on by the Profound Star Sect.
All that remained was his junior sister's Foundation Establishment.
But that would probably be two or three months away, so he wasn't in a hurry.
He lay back in a rocking chair in the main hall, killing time. Before long, a flying sword descended at the entrance of the therapy pavilion.
As usual, Bai Yuelin came over after morning lessons to help out, and would often bring along one or two senior or junior brothers who wanted to experience the therapy.
Today, she had brought a junior brother of relatively short stature, who looked about seventeen or eighteen.
Ye Anping glanced at the junior brother and remembered him—he was a regular at the therapy pavilion.
Ever since Bai Yuelin brought him here for the first time, he had come almost every day.
Coming straight here right after morning lessons was rare, though; normally he only showed up in the afternoon.
"Welcome—" Ye Anping greeted him.
Before he could finish the word welcome, the disciple—who was Bai Yuelin's junior brother, but Ye Anping's senior—cupped his fists and bowed a full ninety degrees to Ye Anping, performing a deep, formal salute.
?
Ye Anping was puzzled. "What's wrong?"
Then the disciple surnamed Xu stepped forward, took out a bottle of pills directly from his storage bag, and presented it with both hands.
"This is a bottle of Foundation Establishment Pills that I refined myself. I hope Young Master Ye won't find them unworthy."
Seeing this, Ye Anping hurriedly stood up from the rocking chair and returned the gesture, refusing:
"Senior Xu, I really can't accept this."
"Young Master Ye, please don't stand on ceremony. This is only a small token of my gratitude."
Ye Anping was completely confused. He quickly shot a look at the giggling Bai Yuelin, signaling her to explain.
Bai Yuelin covered her mouth and laughed softly. "Anping, Junior Brother Xu came especially to thank you today. Thanks to your therapy, he broke through to the late-stage Foundation Establishment last night. Just accept it. Seeing that you're only at the fifth level of Qi Refining, he spent two days and two nights refining these pills just for you."
"Huh?"
"Junior Brother Xu was actually stuck at the bottleneck of mid-stage Foundation Establishment for over twenty years," Bai Yuelin continued. "He tried many methods, and the elders helped him too, but nothing worked. After just a few therapy sessions, he finally broke through."
The disciple surnamed Xu nodded as well and said, "To be honest, over the past twenty years I tried many approaches, but the results were minimal. However, after just one session, I felt that Young Master Ye's therapy might truly help me break through the bottleneck. Please, you must accept this gift."
Hearing that, Ye Anping really couldn't refuse anymore. He accepted the pill bottle with cupped fists and offered his congratulations.
"Then this junior congratulates Senior Xu on your successful breakthrough."
"You're too polite."
Senior Xu returned the salute, glanced at Bai Yuelin, and said, "I came early today because the therapy pavilion is quiet in the morning, and I wanted to properly express my thanks. Senior Sister Bai, Young Master Ye—I still have matters to attend to. I'll come back again this afternoon."
"Go on~" Bai Yuelin waved him off.
"Then I won't see you out, Senior Xu," Ye Anping said.
After watching him fly away on his sword from the entrance, Ye Anping finally lowered his head, twisted open the pill bottle in his hand, and took a sniff of the Foundation Establishment Pills inside.
—Middle-to-lower quality Foundation Establishment Pills.
He couldn't give it to his junior sister—it was far too mediocre. It was useless to him as well. At best, he could only give it away; otherwise, he'd have to sell it for cash.
Seeing his expression, Bai Yuelin immediately guessed that he didn't think much of the gift. She wrapped an arm around his neck from behind and laughed.
"Dislike it, huh? Then why didn't you say so just now?"
"I still have a sense of propriety," Ye Anping shot her a glance and quickly wriggled out of her embrace. "I hope Senior Bai also remembers her manners. Don't just hug me for no reason."
"Aiya…" Bai Yuelin puffed out her cheeks, then laughed again. "Anping, this is great news though. Once Junior Brother Xu spreads word about his breakthrough, your therapy pavilion definitely won't be short on customers anymore, right?"
"I think it's pretty nice being quiet right now, it's relaxing."
"If you're running a shop, the more customers the better!" Bai Yuelin said matter-of-factly. "If you get too busy, you can always raise the price. Honestly, your prices are way too low. How much do you even earn in a month?"
"The boss himself isn't in a hurry, but the accountant is?" Ye Anping replied.
"What do you mean, accountant?!" Bai Yuelin grabbed his cheeks. "I'm your elder sister."
Ye Anping shrugged and answered indifferently, "We'll see. If it really gets crowded, I'll either limit the number of clients or raise the prices a bit."
"How about…" Bai Yuelin hesitated, then asked, "You teach me? When there are more people, I can help share the workload."
That wasn't entirely impossible.
But back when he was practicing this technique, he had cut his junior sister's meridians wrong more times than he could count.
This therapy's method of guiding spiritual energy emphasized finesse—turning spiritual energy into a needle and threading it through the meridians.
"Without a few years, you won't learn it."
"How do you know if you don't try?" Bai Yuelin said proudly. "Maybe I'm super talented! Anping, don't forget—even though I got knocked off the arena before, your senior sister here is still a singular spirit root genius! Hmph!"
Seeing her like this, Ye Anping fell silent for quite a while.
…Did this count as recovering from depression?
Then where was his discount coupon?! Huh?!
Ye Anping sighed. "Another day. Oh, right—I'm going to Willow Moon Lake later to take a walk with Miss Feng. Help me watch the shop for a bit."
"Ah? Willow Moon Lake?" Bai Yuelin blinked. "Why are you two going there?"
"Just taking a walk. Talking."
Bai Yuelin puffed up her lips. "You… you two are already together?"
"No."
"Then you're going to Willow Moon Lake together—if that's not being together, what is?" Bai Yuelin frowned and thought for a moment, then said seriously, "Anping, that Feng girl really is pretty, and her talent is outstanding. But based on your elder sister's many years of judging people—listen to me. That girl is completely incompatible with you."
Ye Anping almost wanted to praise her for having such sharp judgment, but he kept it to himself and only said, "I already told you—we're just taking a walk."
"Your elder sister is advising you," Bai Yuelin said, raising a finger in a lecturing pose. "When choosing a girl, don't just look at appearances. Lots of girls are wolves in sheep's clothing."
"I know."
"No you don't. Let your elder sister tell you a story—"
And so, Bai Yuelin launched into a local version of a story similar to King Zhou and the fox spirit Daji.
The gist of it was that the prettier someone was, the more poisonous their heart; that beautiful women bring disaster, and so on.
Since she insisted on telling it, Ye Anping couldn't stop her. He simply treated it like listening to a storytelling performance.
Before long, it was time for lunch.
Feng Yudie arrived.
Because he didn't want others to grow suspicious, Ye Anping had previously told her to come sit around the therapy pavilion whenever she had nothing to do, acting the part of a girl who had fallen for him. That shameless girl took the role a bit too seriously.
Over the past few days, she showed up punctually at lunchtime every day to mooch off roasted chicken—and if she couldn't finish it, she'd even pack the rest to take back with her.
Today, Feng Yudie was wearing that emerald-green silk dress again. Before she could even speak, Xiaotian suddenly flew over, landed on Ye Anping's shoulder, and pointed at Feng Yudie.
『Young Master Ye, we're back again! Yudie is wearing the dress you sold her today—doesn't she look beautiful? Won't you praise her a little?』
"..."
Ye Anping was momentarily speechless.
He had no idea whether this peculiar little Paimon-look-alike simply had extraordinary perseverance or something else going on, but ever since that last incident, every time it saw him, it would jump onto his shoulder and chatter away nonstop.
Several times, when his attention slipped for just a moment, he'd nearly answered its questions.
Seeing that Ye Anping still didn't react at all, Xiaotian thought for a bit, then leaned closer to his ear, peering inside with a look of shock on its face.
『Wow~ Young Master Ye, how long has it been since you cleaned your ears? That's a huge chunk of earwax!』
"..."
If Ye Anping so much as lifted a hand to scratch his ear right now, it would be admitting that he could see it.
Fortunately, he remembered very clearly that he'd cleaned his ears just that morning—otherwise that one line would've left him feeling gross and irritated for a long while.
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Link for character illustration:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1PdkaxAXCm0CjLL3M58xxLd1KyiUxEjjh