Shiya, that was her name, and it meant stone brat. To be more accurate, Shiya wasn't a name but something her parents called her. Her parents desperately wished for a boy, but Shiya was their ninth daughter.
Her second elder sister to her eight elder were all drowned by her parents for not being a boy. Had it not been for her eldest sister growing up and vowing to take care of Shiya, she would have been drowned too.
Shiya sighed. Her parents were going to marry her eldest sister, Daya, which literally meant the eldest brat, away. Rather than marrying away, it was closer to selling. The only person who treated her well was Daya, so Shiya was unwilling, and she heard that her husband's family didn't have a good reputation. She was only six years old, but Shiya knew that marrying into that kind of family was a calamity for Daya.
Because of this matter, Shiya argued with her parents and was even beaten for it. Shiya's father was a poor and aging man, and he could no longer support his family at his age, but he still wanted a son to inherit his lineage. Shiya's mother wasn't much better, this would be her last child to have a child, but fetuses could be easily lost. With the money from Daya's marriage, her parents planned to nourish the fetus and not allow Shiya's mother to work.
Luckily for Shiya, her parents weren't able to heavily injure her, and after a few bruises, she ran away. Since birth, Shiya had an unnaturally strong body, which only made her parents despise her more. Why does a girl have such a strong body? If she was only born a boy. Such were the thoughts of her parents.
When she left, the local bullies found her and teased her. Shiya would usually ignore them since she was long used to it, but this time her heart wasn't balanced, so how could she let them off? First, she led them to a location outside the village before picking up a large club-like stick and beating them black and blue.
Shiya sighed, "I wonder if anyone can save my eldest sister?"
At this time, a foreign but pleasant voice was heard behind Shiya.
"Little girl, I sensed that there is an amount of fate linking us. It just so happens I am looking for a disciple. Are you willing to be my disciple?"
Shiya stared suspiciously at Tianyi. There were two other people behind him, but they were not as eye-catching compared to Tianyi. She had never seen a person like Tianyi, and there was a sense of dissociation between him and the surroundings as if he was not a member of the mortal world.
"Big Brother, who are you?" Shiya asked.
Tianyi revealed a mysterious smile. "This one's family name is Xi, given name Tianyi. Born the exalted son of the Immortal Sword Empress, one of the three grand elders of the Buzhou Immortal Sect. I am Xi Tianyi."
Shiya just gave a blank look before finally saying, "Big Brother has a family name. Big Brother must be amazing."
Tianyi's smile stiffened. 'She's a child, Tianyi. She doesn't understand. Don't quibble with her for not understanding your awesome intro.'
"Yeah, you could say that." Tianyi sighed as he rubbed Shiya's head.
Shiya wanted to move, but she discovered that she couldn't escape Tianyi's clutches. Still, she soon stopped and narrowed her eyes in enjoyment. Not even her sister rubbed her head like this, mainly because her parents worked her like a mule.
"Little girl, if I save your elder sister, will you become my disciple?" Tianyi suddenly asked.
"What's a disciple?" Shiya asked while tilting her head, looking adorable with her large doe-like eyes.
"A disciple is the student of a master. The relationship between disciple and master is even more important than parent and child." Tianyi explained.
Shiya's eyes widened with hope. "I wanna be Big Brother's disciple. I wanna!"
Tianyi smiled and narrowed his eyes, but Su Bojing came next to Tianyi and whispered in his ears. He used his qi so that Shiya couldn't hear. "Young Master, I'm afraid that isn't good. She's just a random child. It's unlikely for her to have the necessary spiritual vein to cultivate."
Tianyi waved his hand and told Su Bojing to back down. From afar, he had seen how a little girl had beaten down four men thrice her age with a wooden stick. How could she be average? Even if her spiritual veins aren't, her physique definitely isn't.
Ba Shifang came forward at Tianyi's beckoning and began to test Shiya's cultivation talents. Tianyi wasn't too surprised when the spiritual vein testing orb glowed three colors. The best of the three was a perfect earth spiritual vein, and the other two were less remarkable.
Shiya's physique was as wondrous as Tianyi expected. The little girl possessed the Condensed Mountain Physique. The Condensed Mountain Physique was of the earth element, comparable and perhaps even more remarkable than the heavenly earth spiritual vein.
In fact, Shiya's perfect earth spiritual vein was probably the result of her physique, but the Condensed Mountain Physique had another trademarked feature: strength, pure brute strength. There was a record of a regular mortal who had this physique but didn't cultivate. At the prime of his life, his strength was comparable to an early foundation establishment disciple.
A mortal who had the physical strength of a foundation establishment disciple!
Tianyi resisted the urge to say, "I told you so," and instead ordered Su Bojing to save Shiya's older sister. Su Bojing respectfully brought Shiya away. While being led away, Shiya turned her head, and a yearning look appeared in her eyes as she stared at Tianyi as if he would disappear the moment she looked away.
Shiya's family was only mortal, so Su Bojing didn't have much trouble convincing them to let Daya leave the marriage. Of course, he didn't use brute force and instead left a large pile of precious jewels and gold. For a cultivator, regular jewels and gold were worthless. He could just grab them while near a vein.
"Hmpf, Mister Su, why did you give them so much money?" In Shiya's eyes, although she didn't want her parents to die, giving them so much money was not worth it, especially after how they treated Shiya and Daya.
"Shiya, don't be rude," Daya quickly said. She then gave a deep bow to Su Bojing and said, "Please, Lord Immortal, forgive my sister. She's young and doesn't know any better."
Su Bojing didn't care and smiled. He didn't give the jewels and gold without consideration but after a conversation with Tianyi. Although Tianyi couldn't use qi or spiritual sense, they still had a method to communicate. Only all the work fell on Su Bojing's shoulders.
"Little lass, do you really think you're parents can keep all that wealth?" Su Bojing asked with a meaningful smile.
When Su Bojing announced Tianyi's desire to accept Shiya as a disciple, he did so in a grand way that everyone in the village knew. He deliberately dropped the pile of jewels and gold in front of the door so that everyone could see.
Shiya's parents may have been too enthralled by their new wealth, but Su Bojing could clearly feel the covetous eyes of the villagers. Under the greed of the villagers, how could Shiya keep the wealth?
When Shiya returned, she kneeled in front of Tianyi and gave him three kowtows. Tianyi accepted her as his eldest disciple, but since she wasn't registered in the Buzhou Immortal Sect, she wasn't an official disciple of the sect yet.
As for Daya, Tianyi directly gave her a pill to increase her longevity. If she had good enough qualifications, Tianyi didn't mind giving her the Longevity Manual, a cultivation manual for the family of members of cultivators so that they could live longer, but Daya didn't. The pill Tianyi gave her was the Longevity Peach Leaf Pill. Although it wasn't as powerful as a Longevity Peach, it could still extend a mortal's lifespan by a hundred years.
"Your name is not Shiya. Since you do not have a name, I will bequeath a new one to you," Tianyi said. He paused and held his chin as he stared at his only disciple.
"I'll bequeath you the name Ming Xingyun, Fated Star. Your given name can also be read as lucky star. I, your master, hope that your life from now on will be happy and lucky."
Actually, the first word that Tianyi thought of for Shiya was Wei, since it really fitted such a cute little girl, but as soon as the thought appeared in Tianyi's mind, a cold sweat broke out on his back. If his new disciple became Bai Weiwei or Bai Ningwei 2.0 or 3.0, then he would really want to cry but have no tears.
Shiya, no, Ming Xingyun's eyes widened. Suddenly she felt something wet on her face and touched it, discovering that she was crying. Ming Xingyun remembered the first time she cried, but she couldn't remember when she had stopped crying. 'I finally have a name.'
That was all Ming Xingyun could think about. Off at the side, Daya covered her mouth as tears leaked down her eyes. She didn't view her parents as relatives; years of abuse had already grounded whatever feelings she had. Only Ming Xingyun was her family. For her to finally be given a name, and one given by such a powerful person, was a happy occasion.
"Master, please give my eldest sister a name too!" Ming Xingyun said as she kowtowed, slamming her head onto the ground.
Daya's face immediately paled. She rushed next to her sister and bowed, slamming her head into the ground. Unlike her ninth sister, Daya knows the reality of the world. If Ming Xingyun annoys Tianyi, then her lucky chance could be severed.
Contrary to Daya's fears, Tianyi smiled. The more sentimental Ming Xingyun was, the better Tianyi felt. This meant she wouldn't turn into an ungrateful bastard, a white-eyed wolf. Or at least, the chances of her being so will be reduced.
"En, since you two are sisters, it is not right to have different surnames. Your elder will also be surnamed Ming, and I bequeath the given name Yayun." Tianyi majestically said.
The newly named Ming Yayun froze in place, stunned. Once she recovered her processing capabilities, she kowtowed three times. "This grace, Yayun will never forget."
Tianyi lightly smiled as he saw Ming Xingyun and Yayun hug each other in joy and happiness.
After accepting and naming his disciple, Tianyi didn't immediately leave and instead stayed a bit. He wasn't in a hurry to return to the sect, and he wanted to finish some matters first.
His first goal was to purify Ming Xingyun's body from all impurities. Although she has a Condensed Mountain Physique, years of eating mortal food have contaminated her body, but the good thing was that she was still young.
Tianyi didn't have any Cleansing Pills, so he forced Ba Shifang to refine them. Neither Tianyi nor Ba Shifang were true alchemists, but Tianyi had dabbled in alchemy before losing his ability to use qi, so the duty naturally fell on Ba Shifang. Tianyi discovered that for some reason, Ba Shifang was extremely talented in alchemy, even more than him!
This caused Tianyi to scratch his head in confusion. Ba Shifang was his clone, and Tianyi didn't modify Ba Shifang to have any talents he didn't have. If there were any differences, it would be that Ba Shifang didn't have tribulation essence and cultivated the sixth grade Eight Symbolic Cores, Four Directions Souls. Still, Tianyi didn't look at a gift horse in the mouth and accepted the happy discovery.
In comparison to the Cleansing Pill, Tianyi also had Ming Xingyun in medicinal baths. It was true that she possessed the Condensed Mountain Physique, but that didn't mean her body couldn't be improved. Like Tianyi, who had soaked in medicinal baths for years before he started cultivating. Although his body's strength wasn't as powerful, it cleared many detours in Tianyi's cultivation path.
However, this wasn't the main reason Tianyi camped near Ming Xingyun's village. The other reason was to observe her parents using an artifact.
Ming Xingyun personally witnessed how their parents lived in luxury after acquiring all that wealth and even thought of moving to a nearby town or city, but they forgot that harboring a jade ring becomes a crime. In other words, having treasures invites disaster due to the greed of others.
A few days before Ming Xingyun's parents planned to move, their home was broken in by thieves. These thieves were naturally the villagers, and they stole all the wealth, causing Ming Xingyun's parents to be even poorer than before.
The next day, they pleaded with the village chief to bring the criminals to justice; however, the village chief also participated, so how could he wholeheartedly help Ming Xingyun's parents.
After some time passed, Ming Xingyun's parents also discovered some clues and were maddened by the conclusion they came to. They raved and shouted at the villagers, calling them bastards and thieves. The villagers silently endured their criticisms. After all, they committed a wrong first.
This all changed when Ming Xingyun's parents forcibly entered a family's house to reclaim their wealth. The house's owners broke one of Ming Xingyun's father's legs in retaliation and immediately regretted it. He didn't regret breaking his legs, but feared the punishment from Ming Xingyun's master.
However, as time passed, the villagers came to discover that no one sought justice for Ming Xingyun's parents anymore, and so, they were even more unscrupulous in their actions. Eventually, it reached the point where Ming Xingyun's parents had to beg for food in order to survive, living a life worse than death.
They no longer had any dignity and even began to blame each other for the situation, blame the world, and even blame their two daughters, calling them unfilial bastards. In truth, had Tianyi not taken action, they would have long died of starvation, but after he fed the two Longevity Peach Leaf Pills, in a hundred years, they would not die due to sickness or hunger.
Ming Xingyun watched all this. Her gaze towards her parents was complicated, but she did not move in to help. As long as they did not die and live a long life, she was satisfied. They treated their daughters like trash, and now everyone treated them like trash, but they never changed. She didn't even care that her parents didn't learn what they did wrong, but that was fine as well.
After experiencing this, Ming Xingyun's aura changed. She wasn't as naive nor clueless and even matured a bit.
Tianyi nodded with satisfaction before thinking, 'I'm a good master. Not only did I help cleanse her body of all impurities, but I taught her a life lesson without killing her parents. Am I not the textbook good master?'