Chapter 84 – The Eternal Veil (VI)

Chapter 84

The Eternal Veil (VI)

Long Tao lazily followed after the two kids, feeling rather… bored.

He’d already taken care of everyone at mid-Foundation Establishment and above, doing so whilst hiding it from the prying eyes of Elder Qin. It wasn’t easy, and if he had been at the Qi Condensation Realm, he wouldn’t have been able to do it. But with the Sword Palace, he had quite a few tools to hide his actions.

“Master is too kind!” The young girl had never stopped complaining since they left. “Why did he speak up for her after she insulted him?! Hah! Like that wench knows anything about him!”

“Yes. Just because she’s scared, she faults us for not being scared?” Xi Zhao was a bit reluctant to join her at the start but had been worn down since. “You should have seen her freeze up when she was attacked! If I wasn’t there, she would have died!”

“And instead of thanking you, she goes to accuse the greatest man alive of incompetence! I hope she’s still with the sect once I break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm, as I will make a lesson out of her!”

“You’ve been quiet, Senior Brother Tao.” Xi Zhao spun and faced him. “Do you disagree?”

“… no, no, I fully agree,” he shrugged it away. “If it were me, I’d have personally cut her head off and lobbed it over to the town.”

“Precisely!” Dai Xiu growled as Xi Zhao winced. “This is a lesson, Junior Brother Zhao! Our Master’s kindness… others will try to exploit it, but we must be there to protect him!”

For a twelve-year-old, Long Tao mused, she was rather… feisty. Then again, she wasn’t this way ordinarily–just when it came to that strange master of theirs.

Long Tao vaguely understood why his master elected to ‘save’ the young woman. The man’s reputation was already in the gutter, and if it came out that a disciple was, in effect, executed because of what she said–which, to most of the sect at least, would be words of truth–there’d be seldom a chance of ever recovering that reputation.

Besides, having spent months with the man by now, Long Tao understood that his Master was strangely… unbothered by the whispers. And even after the woman’s direct accusation, he seemed the least harried.

There was always this duality toward the man where, on one hand, he appeared a complete novice, as though he’d walked into the world of cultivation just yesterday, yet, on occasion, there were these flashes of an enlightened mind who’d grown past all these things.

The way he treated practically everyone equally, the way he (suddenly) didn’t lord his status, the indifference to the way he was seen by mere disciples…

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Those were all the hallmarks of a mind made, and yet, without a shred of doubt, Lu Qi was a man unmade in more aspects than one.

“Maybe Master had a reason?” Xi Zhao protested slightly.

“Of course Master had a reason!” Dai Xiu said. “But such a kind heart… we must become its protectors! Do you understand, Junior Brother Zhao?”

“Y-yes, Senior Sister!” “It was quite odd, Long Tao mused, how the two settled into a relationship.

It wasn’t the younger calling the older a junior–that was par for the course, as not only had she taken under their Master first, but she was also decidedly stronger. The two had sparred frequently in the recent weeks, and Xi Zhao hadn’t managed to win even once.