"A raven has landed among a flock of phoenixes!"
"All around the table are heroes!"
"Who is the sovereign and who is the subject?"
Gazing upon the two children brandishing sticks and clamoring at him, the middle-aged cultivator's lips quivered faintly. He was, after all, an elder of the Star-Picking Lineage of Mount Emei. And now, he was being accosted by two diminutive urchins. If the other elders of the sect were to become cognizant of this, he could scarcely fathom the derision that would befall him. With a sigh and a pat on his forehead, he uttered with a blend of amusement and vexation, "My two young comrades, would you be so kind as to clear a path for me."
"Cease your prattle. Fork over your silver if you possess any wisdom. Otherwise, the rolling pin in my grasp shows no clemency!"
The middle-aged cultivator felt a sense of helplessness at the juvenile voice. This child seemed no more than seven summers at most. There was even a string of mucus dangling from his nostril! He was even donning a black eye patch, endeavoring to play the role of a one-eyed buccaneer. Did he truly believe himself to be a redoubtable brigand?
He spoke in an irked tone, "You two fledglings, do you know who I am?"
"I care not who you are!" The snot-nosed, eye-patch-wearing lad shouldered the rolling pin and snorted, "Let me apprise you, this is Winter Melon Village! I am Lin Xiaolu, the dreaded and merciless despot of Winter Melon Village! I show no quarter when slaying!"
"Precisely!" The little lass with a sky-high ponytail and a red bellyband beside the boy chimed in with a feigned bravado, "My elder brother is exceedingly fierce. He lays into people each day. He won't partake of a meal if he hasn't assailed someone that day!"
"Yes. When my mother was still extant, she used to chastise me daily. But I wouldn't dine even if she did. I had to strike someone down before I could sate my hunger. Are you quaking in your boots?"
The middle-aged cultivator:...
What in the blazes was amiss with these two juveniles?
What on earth was all this hullabaloo about?
The middle-aged cultivator was named Li Mingru. He was an elder of the Star-Picking Lineage of Mount Emei. Half an hour prior, his senior sister, the sect leader of Mount Emei, engaged him in a colloquy. She averred that he frittered away his days ensconced in his abode, quaffing, slumbering, and perusing licentious tomes. Otherwise, he would skulk about and peek at the female elders of other branches whilst they bathed. He was indolent throughout the day and eschewed cultivation. As a result, in the Star-Picking Lineage, the most venerable among the nine branches of Mount Emei, there had been nary a new disciple for a full score of years.
Therefore, she enjoined him to descend the mountain in search of disciples and declared that if he failed to unearth any, he needn't return.
Li Mingru was presently experiencing a welter of emotions. He had just absconded from Mount Emei and chanced upon these two ragamuffins. In his senior sister's parlance, this was dubbed fate. Moreover, it had been nigh on half an hour since he absented himself from Mount Emei. Presumably, his senior sister's ire should have abated by now.
After all, women have their capricious days each month.
If these two whelps were suitable, it wouldn't be an ill-conceived notion to spirit them back and report to the sect leader.
Contemplating thus, he regarded the lad before him and inquired, "Your name is Lin Xiaolu?"
"Verily!" The boy asseverated with a swagger, shouldering the rolling pin.
Li Mingru nodded with a grin and then directed his gaze at the little girl beside Lin Xiaolu.
"Then, what is your appellation?"
"My name is Xiaoyuer." The girl enunciated in a pellucid and crisp voice.
Li Mingru grunted in acknowledgement and proceeded to smile and query the two children, "Why are you here, aping brigands and obstructing the thoroughfare?"
Lin Xiaolu tilted his pate aloft and snorted, "Because we are peerless!"
Li Mingru:...
He almost erupted in laughter in exasperation. This child truly had a modicum of nerve.
"Do not your progenitors oversee you?" He persisted in his interrogation.
"Our parents have departed this mortal coil." Lin Xiaolu said, "We are professional reprobates in the village. Especially I. People dub me Lin Xiaolu, the dreaded and merciless tyrant of Winter Melon Village!"
"Indeed. My brother is the most ferocious in Winter Melon Village. He has shattered countless hearts. He longs to assail someone the moment he awakens each day." Xiaoyuer chimed in with a winsome yet menacing timbre, "The storyteller in the village even composed a biography about my brother. The title is 'Those Girls We Assailed in the Bygone Years'."
The childish locutions left Li Mingru thunderstruck and rendered him rather discomfited. His eyelids were even twitching spasmodically.
These two children were truly a remarkable pair.
Simultaneously, he also felt a tincture of melancholy in his heart.
Heaven and earth are callous, treating all entities like straw dogs. These two siblings were also a brace of unfortunate souls. Gazing at their feigned bravado, perhaps it was due to the forfeiture of their parents at a tender age and the dread of being bullied that they had become thus.
Alas, it was also fortuitous. It was as if he had stumbled upon two disciples gratis. He could directly convey them back and report to the sect leader.
Contemplating thus, he desisted from beating about the bush and directly beamed at the siblings and said, "I, Li Mingru, am an elder of the Star-Picking Lineage of Mount Emei. Observing that you two have a woeful antecedent, I am disposed to take you two as disciples and induct you into the Mount Emei sect. Are you amenable?"
"Pah!"
Lin Xiaolu, with a snotty nose and a one-eyed pirate patch, pointed at him with the rolling pin and fulminated, "You're prevaricating. Let me inform you, I Lin Xiao."
Before the boy could conclude his utterance, Li Mingru abruptly flicked his sleeve. The next instant, with a "whoosh", a tempestuous wind sprang up. The powerful gust even dislodged Lin Xiaolu's intimidating one-eyed pirate patch.
The two siblings, one elder and one younger, were instantaneously petrified by the spectacle. Li Mingru, beholding the terror inscribed on the countenances of the two children, felt a trifle smug.
It was truly gratifying to flaunt one's spiritual puissance in the presence of mortals.
A moment later, he retracted his spiritual power, and the gust dissipated posthaste. In the twinkling of an eye, it became placid and sunlit, as if all that had transpired moments ago had been an apparition.
"Well? Now you apprehend how puissant I am?" Li Mingru said with a self-satisfied smirk.
Lin Xiaolu was stupefied. His visage was smeared with mucus. Xiaoyuer, who was but five years of age, was even more terrified. She directly prostrated herself with a "plop".
"Divine immortal, beseech you to spare my life. Xiaoyuer will never dare again." The girl kowtowed repeatedly in fright, and her childish voice was suffused with sobs.
Lin Xiaolu, who was a trifle older, was also quaking with trepidation. But he still mustered the fortitude, unfurled his diminutive arms to shield his sister in front of him, stared with wide eyes, and bellowed in a tremulous voice, "What, what is your intention!
I, Lin Xiaolu, perpetrated everything in solitude. It has naught to do with my sister. The innocent should not be implicated. If you have a grievance, direct it at me. If I so much as flinch, I'm not the dreaded and merciless tyrant!"
"Pfft~"
Li Mingru almost burst out laughing. This child was truly engaging. He regarded the boy who was quivering with fear yet still tenaciously safeguarding his sister and evinced a glimmer of approbation in his eyes.
Well, he has a noble heart. He's a estimable brother.
Li Mingru clasped his hands behind his back, assumed an air of a reclusive virtuoso, and smiled with an air of nonchalant elegance, "Lin Xiaolu, I intend to take you two siblings as disciples and usher you into the Mount Emei sect. Are you willing?"
The boy, discerning that he didn't seem inclined to harm him and his sister, calmed somewhat. Then he regarded him with a queer expression and said, "You mean, you desire us to trail in your wake?"
"Cough cough." Li Mingru almost choked.
Damn it. He, a noble immortal of Mount Emei, was enlisting disciples, but this urchin made it sound as if he were recruiting gang affiliates.
He glowered at him in annoyance and said, "I'm taking you as disciples!"
"Oh~" The boy blinked his astute and large eyes.
"So, you'll be our preceptor from this moment forth?"
Li Mingru:...
"No, it's a master-disciple rapport. It's a master." Li Mingru corrected with a throbbing headache.
Damn it. This brat was truly a singularity.
What was he cogitating in that diminutive pate of his?
Was his family a clan of brigands?
After railing in his heart several times, he regarded the siblings anew and asked, "Henceforth, you two will adhere to me to cultivate. Are you willing?"
Lin Xiaolu hoisted up his sister who was still kneeling. Then he regarded the middle-aged cultivator before him and vacillated for an instant. Then he posed his final query in a juvenile voice.
"Can we sate our hunger if we cultivate?"
Li Mingru was taken aback by this query. His gaze fluttered faintly. Then he burst out guffawing. With a flick of his sleeve, he escorted the siblings and transmogrified into a white rainbow, hurtling straight into the firmament...