66: Chapter 66 Ye Wushuang Becomes a Disciple

Three days had passed since the conclusion of the disciple recruitment competition.

This morning, Ye Wushuang snapped his eyes open, as if dragged back from an abyss by an invisible force.

"Hiss—!"

He sucked in a sharp breath of cold air, his entire body springing up from the bed like a coiled wire, sitting bolt upright.

Sunlight filtered through the window lattice, casting several pillars of light where dust motes danced, illuminating his deathly pale face.

He gasped for air, his chest heaving violently, his forehead drenched in fine cold sweat that slid down his temples and dripped onto the slightly coarse bedding.

His body trembled uncontrollably, and a lingering panic remained in his eyes.

Subconsciously, he looked down and quickly scanned his body, his gaze finally locking onto his left arm.

The arm was intact, the skin smooth, without even a single scratch.

"Whew..."

Ye Wushuang let out a long, shaky breath of relief, like a survivor of a catastrophe. His tense shoulders slumped as he murmured in a voice as soft as a dream, "It's okay, it's okay... it was just a nightmare."

"What a joke. I am the dignified child of destiny. How could I... how could I be beaten to a pulp by that guy Chen Zilong?"

He raised a hand to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead, his brow furrowed as he recalled, "Kneeling before him and calling him grandfather? Severing my own arm? Even... ugh!"

At the thought of the most humiliating scene in the dream, Ye Wushuang's stomach churned, and a wave of intense nausea surged up his throat.

He suddenly covered his mouth and let out a short, violent retch.

The discomfort made him bend over, feeling as if he were about to vomit out his internal organs.

Finally, a surge of bitter bile gushed out uncontrollably.

After vomiting, although his mouth was bitter and his throat was burning...

...that heavy sense of nausea and suffocation miraculously vanished, leaving him feeling much refreshed.

Hesitating slightly, driven by a superstitious need for verification he couldn't quite explain, he lowered his head and squinted at the puddle of filth on the floor.

After confirming that the thing he imagined wasn't there, Ye Wushuang finally breathed a sigh of relief as if a thousand-pound burden had been lifted. He even managed a self-deprecating smirk.

"Tch! Scaring myself over nothing. How could I have actually eaten..."

"See, I'm fine!"

He patted his chest, as if to thoroughly disperse the remaining shadows. "Really... making a fuss over nothing."

In fact, what Ye Wushuang didn't know was that his stomach had already been pumped by the medical cultivators of the Xuantian Sect.

Moreover, those medical cultivators had initially refused.

Because it was too disgusting!

It was only after Lin Yi of Fire Cloud Peak paid a high price that the medical cultivators agreed to the stomach pumping.

And Ye Wushuang's severed arm had also been reattached by Lin Yi, using the heavenly treasure Purple Immortal Vine as a medium.

Ye Wushuang lay back on the bed, the bedding carrying a faint scent of herbs and sun-dried fabric.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath of the air that smelled of the mundane world, and whispered:

"That dream was too bizarre, terrifyingly realistic... fortunately, fortunately it was just a dream."

Composing himself, he began to look around.

It was a simple room with a bluestone floor and sparse furnishings—just basic tables, chairs, and a medicine cabinet. The air was filled with a faint, not unpleasant medicinal fragrance.

Several charts of meridians and acupuncture points hung on the walls.

He recognized it:

"The Xuantian Sect's medical ward? How did I end up here?"

He rubbed his still-throbbing temples, his heart full of confusion.

Just as he was about to sink his consciousness into the storage ring to ask the dragon soul for details, the door pushed open with a "creak."

A figure walked in.

The newcomer was somewhat short but sported a round, quite substantial belly that almost strained the seams of his black robe.

He wore a kind smile, his eyes curving in a benevolent manner, looking very much like a friendly uncle from next door.

The visitor was none other than the Peak Master of Fire Cloud Peak, Lin Yi.

"Oh, you're awake?" Lin Yi spoke with a beaming smile, his voice loud and carrying a hint of familiar warmth.

Ye Wushuang sized up this "kindly uncle" with confusion:

"And you are...?"

Lin Yi habitually patted his rounded belly with one hand while stroking a non-existent long beard with the other, introducing himself with quite a bit of pride:

"This old man is Lin Yi, the Peak Master of Fire Cloud Peak, one of the five main peaks of the Xuantian Sect."

"Peak Master of Fire Cloud Peak?"

Ye Wushuang's heart skipped a beat, but he remained calm on the surface. "Are you looking for me for... something?"

His tone carried a hint of wariness; after all, seeing a high-ranking member of the sect right after waking up felt a bit sudden.

"Haha,"

The smile on Lin Yi's face deepened, his eyes narrowing into slits, making him appear particularly sincere. "Strictly speaking, it was this old man who picked you up from the side of the competition stage and settled you here."

"Otherwise, who do you think got you into this comfortable private medical room?"

"Saved me? Why save me?" Ye Wushuang became even more confused, his brow knitting into a knot.

The memory of losing to Chen Zilong seemed to be shrouded in a layer of mist.

Looking at Ye Wushuang's dazed expression, Lin Yi muttered to himself:

"Could this kid have been so traumatized that he's suffering from temporary amnesia?"

However, he quickly dismissed the thought.

After all, that business that happened during the disciple recruitment competition...

Tch, no one would want to bring it up again.

He forgot?

Better if he forgot!

He cleared his throat and decided to get straight to the point, his plump face piled with sincerity:

"I, Lin Yi, see that you have an extraordinary skeletal structure and are a good seedling for cultivation. I intend to make an exception and take you as my personal disciple."

"How about it? Are you interested in taking this old man as your master?"

Ye Wushuang's instinctive reaction was to refuse.

He didn't have any particular favorable impression of this fat old man.

But just as the refusal was about to escape his lips, he remembered the previous instructions from the dragon soul inside the storage ring:

"No matter what, find a way to become a personal disciple of the Xuantian Sect first!"

Over at Purple Bamboo Peak, the path to becoming Liu Mei's disciple was clearly blocked for good.

But now...

Ye Wushuang's eyes flickered as he seemed to weigh the pros and cons.

Finally, as if making a decision, he rolled off the bed.

He nimbly straightened his somewhat rumpled robes, then without hesitation, knelt on one knee before Lin Yi and cupped his fists in a salute, his voice clear and loud:

"Disciple Ye Wushuang pays respects to Master!"

Seeing Ye Wushuang accept so decisively, Lin Yi's smile instantly bloomed like a chrysanthemum. His eyes narrowed into mere slits, and his large belly bounced happily with his laughter.

"Hahaha! Good! Good! Good! Splendid! From now on, you are the personal disciple of me, Lin Yi! Rest assured, following this Master, you will definitely not be treated poorly!"

While laughing heartily, he nimbly pulled a primitive token carved with flame patterns, a set of crimson-and-gold-trimmed robes unique to Fire Cloud Peak disciples, and an extraordinary-looking storage ring from his wide sleeves.

He stuffed them all into Ye Wushuang's hands.

"Take them! The identity token, the personal disciple robes, and this storage ring. Inside are some basic cultivation resources—consider it a greeting gift from your Master!" Lin Yi patted his chest with a heroic "follow me and you'll have meat to eat" posture.

Ye Wushuang took the items; they felt heavy in his hands.

Especially that storage ring, which glowed with internal spiritual light.

A grateful smile immediately appeared on his face as he thanked him repeatedly:

"Thank you for the generous gift, Master! This disciple will certainly cultivate hard and not fail Master's nurturing!"

However, before his voice could fade, a storm erupted in his mind!

The dragon soul's anxious and stern warning rang out like a thunderclap:

"Disciple, how can you just take a master so casually!"

"This man named Lin Yi has a faint aura of turbid qi about him."

"Only those of the Demon Race cultivate turbidity!"

"This person might be a member of the Demon Race!"

"You are the child of destiny. How can you take a member of the Demon Race as your master?"

"This is a desecration of the Heavenly Dao!"

Listening to the dragon soul's anxious voice that was almost jumping with agitation in his mind, the grateful smile on Ye Wushuang's face instantly cooled, and a barely perceptible cold glint flashed deep in his eyes.

The corner of his mouth twitched downward ever so slightly as he replied coldly with his divine sense in two words:

"Noisy!"

The dragon soul was choked by these two cold, impatient words, its remnant soul stagnating as a mysterious chill arose.

It never expected Ye Wushuang to so decisively take a suspected demon as his master, and even show such disdain for its warning.

"Ye Wushuang! Wake up! You are the child of destiny born of heaven's mandate!"

The dragon soul's voice was filled with grief. "By taking a member of the Demon Race as your master, you've become tainted with demonic karma. That incredibly precious providence of yours will leak and dissipate bit by bit like sand in an hourglass! Eventually, you will lose the favor of the Heavenly Dao!"

The irritation in Ye Wushuang's heart almost burst through his chest. He gripped the token and storage ring tightly, his knuckles turning white.

His divine sense transmission was as cold as midwinter ice, filled with blatant questioning and mockery:

"Old man, wasn't it you who told me to give up on Purple Bamboo Peak? Wasn't it you who told me to 'become a personal disciple first and worry about the rest later'?"

"Now that another Peak Master is finally willing to take me as a personal disciple, you jump out to obstruct me and nag!"

"Do you... just not want to see me do well? Hmm?"

These bone-chilling words, filled with suspicion and resentment, were like poisoned ice needles stabbing into the core of the dragon soul's remaining consciousness.

Its already weak remnant soul trembled violently, conveying an unbelievable shock followed by a deep sense of sorrow and helplessness.

It fell silent.

Not another ripple of divine sense was emitted.

The dragon soul silently and completely severed its last remaining mental connection with Ye Wushuang, retracting itself deeper into the darkest corner of the storage ring.

An unprecedented chill enveloped it.

It knew that things had already slid to the edge of the worst possible abyss.

It had to...

...prepare for the worst for that perhaps inevitable, most desperate future...

...