I, the transmigrated villain, please wait, gentle master.

Chapter 175 Dream of a Millet Dream and the Sound of Rain (4)

"However, I suddenly remembered something. When I was thirteen years old, I traveled with my master through the mortal realm, and it seems I came here before..."

The second senior brother pondered, "In this Huangliang City, there seems to be a family whose child is extremely talented. Master left a token for him. Perhaps we will have another junior brother in the future."

"But Master never mentioned the specifics. I have no idea what the family's surname was or what tokens they sent."

He turned to Mei Shiyu and asked, "Back then, Xiao Shisan was not fully aware of things and had no memory of them, so he probably has no recollection of them at all, right?"

Mei Shiyu nodded, having long forgotten everything.

It was only in the last two years that he was able to cultivate his soul and spirit to be complete, and he finally became more and more like a "human" person, no longer a stone that was unaware of its own temperature.

It's a pity that he cultivated the path of ruthlessness.

Before he could even understand and see through "human nature," he had already been taught how to abandon "the seven emotions and six desires."

As a result, he always had a vague understanding of worldly affairs and emotions, only half-knowing and half-understanding them.

Mei Shiyu didn't remember, but Li Tingyun found it more and more familiar the more she listened.

He remembered what his mother had said, the funny things that happened at his first birthday celebration, the gold ingot, the mountain spirit coin...

The twists and turns of fate in this world are so ingenious, yet everything is also so unfortunate. Li Tingyun could not admit a single word, nor dared to admit it.

If he were to tell anyone, he would surely be bombarded with questions, but how could he dare let anyone find out what he had been doing all night?!

Just a few hours ago, he killed his own father and scared his mother to death. His sins were heinous and unforgivable! He was afraid of being exposed and investigated. Whenever he heard words like "parents" or "home," he would tense up and tremble with fear.

Mei Shiyu said he wanted to take him back to the "sect". He didn't know what that place was, and he absolutely did not want to go there or go with him. If Mei Shiyu hadn't held him so tightly, he would have found a chance to run away long ago!

"What's so strange about that? Master has always liked to 'pick up' disciples while traveling around."

The eldest brother had a strange smile on his lips. "Which of us thirteen brothers wasn't picked up by him? He's always like this. As long as someone is talented enough and catches his eye, he either kidnaps them on the spot or leaves them a token. He never tires of it."

"He not only picks disciples for himself, but also picks disciples for his disciples. Thirteen direct disciples are already too many. I suppose the one Master took a liking to in Huangliang City was not chosen for himself, but was prepared for us fellow disciples. He may not necessarily become our junior brother, but may even become our nephew."

"Second Junior Brother, aren't quite a few of those troublemakers under your tutelage people chosen by Master and forced upon you? You know Master's taste... he never picks on anyone who's easy to deal with!"

"Ha, Master wants to gather all the talents in the world into his own pocket, but 'geniuses' are often arrogant and look down on everyone, one after another, they are hard to deal with!"

The second senior brother frowned: "It's one thing to talk about Master behind his back, and I occasionally like to chirp a few words too... but why are you talking like that? It sounds weird, like you're making veiled accusations! Just say what you want to say, okay?"

"I always speak in this tone! How come every word sounds wrong to you? Are you deaf, or are you deliberately trying to make things difficult for me?" The eldest brother emphasized the last three words, as if he was furious.

The two almost started arguing again, but Mei Shiyu pretended not to hear. As the younger brother, he usually didn't have the right to interrupt.

Normally, he only has two sentences that he can say most fluently.

One of them is: "The eldest brother is right!"

Another line is: "Second Brother Pig is right!"

Perhaps there's a third point: The eldest and second senior brothers are both right...

However, the eldest brother suddenly turned his attention to the innocent boy, scolding him: "Look at yourself, you're filthy! Put that filthy brat down now, how long are you going to keep holding him?! Where's your sword? Where did you put it? Go get it back right now! Don't delay the rest of the journey."

Mei Shiyu put the little boy in his arms on the ground; he simply couldn't carry the chubby boy any longer.

Pointing to the ruins, he said somewhat embarrassedly, "But my sword... I can't pull it out..."

As expected, he received a sarcastic remark:

"You're really capable."

A sword light flashed past, and Mei Shiyu grabbed the hilt. Wasn't that the Qing Shuang he had stuck into the crack in the ground?

It turned out that his senior brother had already pulled it out for him sometime earlier.

No matter how embarrassed Mei Shiyu was, he still had to thank him.

"Hmph!" The little boy behind him scoffed with disdain.

Li Tingyun once again demonstrated his talent for accurately hitting the nail on the head:

"You're so smug, aren't you? Putting others down makes you seem so great, doesn't it?"

The eldest brother's face immediately fell, but he couldn't argue with a child.

If he says something, he seems petty; if he says nothing, he suffers in silence.

There's no way to advance or retreat.

Unfortunately, the second brother laughed out loud.

"Hey kid, why are you always hiding behind my junior brother? Don't you think he's as cold as ice?"

"He has an ice spirit root, he can turn water into ice and create frost with every step he takes. Look at you, shivering like that, are you cold?"

"Come, come to big brother, my chest is burning hotter than a furnace! Let me warm you up!"

The second senior brother was carefree and didn't mind that Li Tingyun had kicked his shoe into his mouth. He was just a child, a bit mischievous, but he himself was even more mischievous when he was young! As an old rascal who had been "mischievous" for hundreds of years, he didn't think he could be offended by a child.

He was too enthusiastic. Li Tingyun felt that he was being presumptuous and held Mei Shiyu tightly around the waist. She would rather freeze to death and become an icicle than be dragged into his "fiery" embrace.

The more Li Tingyun refused, the more his second senior brother stretched out his arms, teasing him like an eagle catching a chick—teasing children is a great perverse pleasure for adults, and what's even more infuriating is that his "Taoist brother" actually became an accomplice, directly pushing him over.

Mei Shiyu said to him, "I do have a lower body temperature than normal, and my second senior brother is the warmest! When I was little, I especially loved being carried on his shoulders and spun around. It felt like I was flying. Do you want to try it too?"

So Li Tingyun was carried on someone's shoulder and forced to experience the feeling of flying.

The eldest brother couldn't stand it anymore, coughed twice, and then said, "Thirteen, Master instructed your second brother and me to take you down the mountain for training. Three months have passed since we left. Have you had enough fun? It's time to go back, isn't it?"

Mei Shiyu turned her face away. "Senior brother, we didn't come out to 'play'. We've been investigating the Spirit Root Hunter Group. We've only just made some progress. Why should we go back? If we go back, won't everything be for nothing?"

He took out a stack of yellow paper blood talismans from his personal storage space—the Bodhi Ring—and held them up in front of his senior brother for him to see.

"Where the 'spirit official' appears, there will always be similar yellow talismans. I have collected many fragments and found that this kind of talisman paper is very special. It is not drawn with cinnabar, but with human blood. And it is not ordinary human blood, but... I am just guessing, it is very likely a 'furnace'..."

When Li Tingyun heard the familiar words, both of his ears perked up, but Mei Shiyu was interrupted before he could finish speaking.

"Saying all this is useless!" the senior brother said impatiently. "This matter is considered a major mystery in the entire cultivation world. It requires the sect to work together to plan it out in a long time. It cannot be solved by you alone in a short period of time."

"Sometimes, there's no need to overestimate yourself. What you can do is minimal. It's more important to get back to the sect."

"Sect affairs are complicated, and we've been away for too long. Are you planning to have our master, the 'old man,' cultivate in seclusion while handling miscellaneous matters during his tribulation stage?"

The eldest brother had his own reasons, but Mei Shiyu disagreed. Although he always said, "Ah, yes, yes, yes," you are right, he is right, this is right, that is right, but that doesn't mean he would "obediently listen" in every situation.

In fact, he is quite rebellious. When he is stubborn, even if all twelve of his senior brothers and sisters, plus his most respected master, were placed on the other side of the scale, they might not be able to lift him up from his stable position.

Mei Shiyu countered, "Senior brother said to 'take it in stride,' but how long do we have to wait?"

"If we go back now, the clues we've found will be completely lost. Dealing with this later will be like starting all over again, facing a whole host of problems. There's no time to lose! If we're going to investigate, why wait?"

"I don't think too highly of myself. Even if I can do very little, it's better than doing nothing."

"So what?" the senior brother sneered. "A beginner cultivator who can't even summon his natal divine weapon at will, yet he's so full of ambition on his first trip down the mountain for training, vowing to fight to the end against an enemy who is a hundred times stronger than you but has been hiding his true strength. What do you rely on? Courage or ignorance? Confidence or arrogance? Naïve or stupid?"

"Hey, hey, hey!" The second brother glanced at the eldest brother disdainfully. "What are you yelling about? Can't you be the eldest brother? You're always scolding this person and that person. How come a blade of grass growing in your field burns brighter than the fire in my belly? I 'hate' you because I can't stand your behavior, but why do you always 'hate' Little Thirteen?"

The second senior brother is straightforward and outspoken. He says whatever he thinks and doesn't hold back when he sees something he doesn't like. He hasn't been beaten to death yet, probably because very few people can beat him.

As it turns out, as long as you are powerful enough, any kind of scoundrel can get by in the martial arts world. Even if you walk sideways, no one will dare to mess with you.

The eldest brother and he couldn't agree on anything, but the brother's tone softened considerably: "What kind of talk is that? When did I ever have a grudge against the thirteenth brother? Is it wrong to stick to the facts? My tone was harsh because I was anxious, so please bear with me and understand."

The second senior brother chuckled noncommittally. The eldest senior brother, too lazy to argue with him, said to Mei Shiyu, "Let go of that child and let him go home by himself. Everyone has their own destiny, and we can't control him. At most, we'll give him some charity..."

Mei Shiyu held Li Tingyun's hand the whole time, estimating that his injuries had mostly healed, but she was still a little worried, so she asked, "How are you feeling now? Do you want me to take you home?"

The child didn't make a fuss or cry, but strangely, his eyes darted away, and he stammered, "No, I don't need you to take me. I can go home by myself! My home... my home isn't far from here... I'm leaving! Don't worry about me!"

After saying that, he turned and ran.

He was fully aware of the chaotic and terrifying crisis he was in.

His next task is to do what he should do: go back and clean up the mess, at least bury his parents, and then find a way to make a living.

It was by no means a matter of coveting a fleeting moment of "warmth" that did not belong to him, entrusting his life and a huge secret to someone else.

"Hey, wait!" The second senior brother grabbed him even faster than Mei Shiyu. "Kid, aren't you scared walking alone at night? Aren't you afraid that some starving ghost will suddenly appear and eat you up?"

Li Tingyun shouted, "I'm not afraid of ghosts! Let me go! I want to go home!"

"Well, you should at least put on your shoes first, right?" Mei Shiyu picked up the shoe that he had shoved into someone's mouth and then spat out, helped him put it on, and offered some advice—not to Li Tingyun, but to his second senior brother.

“Senior brother, you should let go. He is an ‘extraordinary’ child. Perhaps he really doesn’t need our help. What we think is ‘good intentions’ may be a burden or a hindrance to him.”

The second senior brother let go, and Li Tingyun looked back. Suddenly, a gold ingot appeared in front of him.

Mei Shiyu placed the gold ingot in his hand and said, "You don't want others to 'manage' you, and you don't want us to interfere in everything about you, but I think you need this."

“Actually… you’ve already given it to me.” Li Tingyun murmured softly.

Seeing the child with his head down, seemingly lost in thought, Mei Shiyu suddenly looked up at him with a determined gaze and asked, "Brother Taoist, what's your name? Where is this 'sect' you mentioned? Can you tell me how I can find you in the future?"

Mei Shiyu did not look down on his words and actions just because he was a child, so he answered him very seriously and said to him:

"Losing one's spiritual root is not terrible; what is terrible is giving up on oneself. How can one deny a person based solely on their aptitude? I do not agree with this fallacy at all. I only believe that success is achieved through perseverance, and no effort is wasted."

"Half-generated spiritual roots don't preclude one from cultivating immortality. My master... Anyway, life's circumstances are strange. Some people are prodigies in their youth but don't necessarily excel as adults, while others accumulate knowledge and experience before achieving great things later in life. Everyone has their own unique talents, don't they?"

"Also, I'd like to ask you, what's your surname and given name? Although my memory isn't very good, I really want to remember you. Let's get to know each other. It would be great to make friends even if we're just strangers meeting."

There is a saying that there are four great joys in a person's life: rain after a long drought, meeting an old friend in a foreign land, the wedding night, and passing the imperial examination.

"When you come to Dao Xuan Sect to find me, it will be the time of 'reunion with an old friend.' When you ask my name, I will be surprised to see you for the first time; when you say my name, I will remember your old face. I think I will be very happy at that time, because I can introduce you to others as my 'old friend.'"

"If you make a name for yourself, I can tell everyone that I knew you before you became famous! Wouldn't that be a wonderful thing?"

Li Tingyun looked at him with a smile. Although his face was so dirty that his expression was completely obscured, his smile was still bright and enthusiastic.

Mei Shiyu could sense it; he thought the child would be happy to "befriend" him, but unexpectedly, Li Tingyun said:

"I'm not going to tell you my name."

"And I don't need you to remember me..."

You absolutely, positively, must forget me!