Chapter 6: Nourishing Shizun’s Kidneys

Only when the sun shone on his butt did Meng Baixu open his eyes.

He narrowed his eyes against the sunlight streaming in through the window. After blinking a few times, he saw the bamboo forest directly opposite the window.

What was that thing making noise last night again?

Insects. Right, bamboo worms!

In folk remedies, bamboo worms were said to strengthen virility. He would catch them all and feed them to Shizun! Then he would mix a little of the pill into the bamboo worms. If Shizun suspected anything, he would blame it all on Hengxue Mountain’s bamboo worms being too nourishing!

Carrying Wen Tingshu’s top-grade yuan core inside him, Meng Baixu had an endless amount of ox-like strength all over his body. He grabbed a dagger, flipped out from the window ledge, and landed in the bamboo forest.

Meng Baixu pressed his ear against a bamboo stalk and heard the faint rustling of bamboo worms wriggling.

There were bamboo worms inside!

They could be deep-fried, grilled, spicy-fried—fragrant in every way!

Meng Baixu used the dagger to split open a crack, stuck two fingers inside, and pinched out a tender green bamboo worm. Using materials from the spot, he took a bamboo twig and skewered the worm.

Then he gathered the withered bamboo leaves on the ground, flicked a spark onto them, and lit a fire. Meng Baixu happily began roasting the bamboo worm. He brought it to his mouth and was just about to take a bite when he suddenly remembered the yuan core inside his body.

Shizun had already lent him his yuan core. He would reluctantly act along with him for three days.

Shizun was in the east, feeding grass to the oxen. The birthday gifts he had given Shizun were being well cared for. Meng Baixu was very satisfied. He quietly pulled the aphrodisiac pill from his clothes and shaved a little powder onto the worm.

Meng Baixu precisely controlled the dosage. It was less than yesterday. It could strengthen virility, but the effect would not be immediate.

When the outer skin was roasted until crisp, the sound of Wen Tingshu approaching on the wind came from behind him.

His disciple had split bamboo and started a fire, wreaking havoc on the entire bamboo forest. Wen Tingshu had not cared too much. He was willing to give his disciple some space to throw a tantrum—until he smelled burnt meat.

“Endure it for now.”

Wen Tingshu bent down, took the skewer from Meng Baixu’s hand, and opened the qiankun pouch.

“I’ll temporarily keep this for you for two days.”

Meng Baixu said, “No! If you put it in the qiankun pouch, it won’t be fresh anymore! You eat it. I grilled it especially for you. I didn’t eat a single bite.”

Wen Tingshu froze. “For me?”

“Of course. Bamboo worms are very nutritious. They replenish qi and nourish the kidneys. Shizun, right now you don’t have your yuan core, so you’re weak and need a lot of nourishment.”

Meng Baixu circled Shizun, doing his utmost to promote it.

“This dish is a delicacy that mortals can only dream of having.”

Wen Tingshu stared at the ten or so worms nailed to a single skewer.

“You should keep it for yourself. This old man does not like grilled food.”

Meng Baixu said, “If you don’t eat it, I’ll return the yuan core to you and eat the bamboo worms myself.”

Wen Tingshu understood his disciple’s desire to compensate him.

Forget it. Burnt was still better than juicy.

“Did you add anything else?”

Meng Baixu held up two fingers and gestured. “Just a little cumin.”

He was truly impressed by Wen Tingshu’s once bitten, twice shy attitude. It proved that last night’s sensation was unfamiliar to him. Perhaps he had already been abstinent for hundreds of years.

If it was unfamiliar, then he should practice more.

Wen Tingshu compromised and brought the insect he had never eaten in his life close to his lips.

The charred-black worm entered his lips and teeth, ruining all sense of refinement.

Wen Tingshu had never raised a child. The last time he had come into contact with children was probably when he was still young. His second aunt had added a new child to the family, and his little nephew was naughty. He would often catch insects in the garden and, during family meals, suddenly toss them into his second uncle’s bowl, earning himself a beating.

In the blink of an eye, five hundred years had passed.

Wen Tingshu struggled through distant memories and found a few vivid children, comparing their behavior one by one with Meng Baixu’s.

Children all liked associating with insects.

Wen Tingshu ate the insect with its complicated taste. “Thank you.”

Meng Baixu was satisfied. He looked toward the bamboo forest and said words that made all the bamboo worms in the entire forest tremble.

“There are too many bamboo worms chewing on the bamboo. Shizun, I’m free today. I’ll catch them all and use them to nourish Shizun.”

Wen Tingshu said, “No need.”

Meng Baixu said, “It’s needed, it’s needed! Nourishing yourself during a weakened period can prolong your life.”

Better to live without bamboo than eat without meat. For the whole morning, Meng Baixu wreaked havoc on the bamboo forest and collected an entire jar of bamboo worms.

At noon, he added water and rice into the jar, then lit a fire underneath to simmer it.

Half a shichen later, a jar of soft, mushy, greenish great-nourishment porridge was finished.

Wen Tingshu looked at the completely unappetizing bowl of porridge before him. It was mixed with the corpses of bamboo worms both large and small. But seeing his disciple so enthusiastic, he did not dampen his spirits.

If lunch had looked, smelled, and tasted complete, Wen Tingshu would instead have felt ashamed for eating alone. Fortunately, Lanshe’s cooking skills were poor.

Wen Tingshu was just about to move his chopsticks when his gaze touched Meng Baixu’s dark, bright eyes. His slender fingers paused.

“Did you wash your hands this time?”

Meng Baixu confessed, “I didn’t.”

Aiyaa, why play tricks with a righteous saintly father? What he wanted was a top-grade open scheme. He had plenty of ways to make Wen Tingshu willingly eat it despite knowing there was medicine.

Wen Tingshu: “…”

Meng Baixu pushed the porridge in front of Shizun, his eyes full of sincerity.

“I checked. The medicine in my hand makes cows want to give birth to calves when they eat it. When humans eat it, it nourishes the kidneys. Paired with bamboo worms, the effect is doubled.”

Wen Tingshu said, “I don’t need it.”

Meng Baixu thought, Your endurance is not long enough. You need great nourishment.

“In the mortal world, no man can resist kidney-nourishing medicinal ingredients. Back when I sold—”

Their Fuguang Sect did many businesses. They provided shortcuts in cultivation for cultivators, and also sold great-nourishment medicinal ingredients to mortals. Sometimes, cultivators also bought virility medicine—especially cultivators who only broke through to Golden Core in old age. Their ability in that area could not improve just because they became immortal cultivators. Fast was fast, short was short.

“When I used to go from street to street selling medicine, I understood very well what medicine sold the best. Especially for someone of Shizun’s age…”

When Wen Tingshu heard his disciple mention the experience of walking the streets and selling medicine before meeting him, his brows furrowed in distress. When he heard the latter half, his brows furrowed even deeper.

“Mortals are mortals. Cultivators are cultivators.”

Meng Baixu said, “Could it be cultivators don’t want to strengthen virility?”

Wen Tingshu said, “Cultivators devote themselves wholeheartedly to seeking the Dao. Everything else is smoke before one’s eyes.”

“Shizun, is it because you’ve already lost interest in this area that you don’t like eating it?”

Meng Baixu began to discuss it.

“Is this the result of cultivation, or is this just your nature?”

Wen Tingshu: “…”

Meng Baixu propped his chin on his hand.

“Seeing Shizun like this makes me a little worried. Does cultivation make people lose the seven emotions and six desires? If I live until five hundred and no longer care about anything, then I would rather not live that long. Living one lifetime like a mortal, cherishing youth and indulging freely, would be enough.”

Wen Tingshu said, “That is not the case either.”

Meng Baixu sighed. “Cultivation is really meaningless. You have to do bigu and abstain from desire. Food, warmth, and lust are all gone.”

His disciple’s words revealed a negative view toward cultivation. Wen Tingshu frowned slightly.

Meng Baixu crossed his arms and turned his head away.

“Then I don’t want to cultivate immortality anymore.”

So he really had said this sentence.

Wen Tingshu faintly felt a headache coming on. Compared with drinking medicine, the fact that his disciple did not want to cultivate was what the Immortal Venerable truly could not accept.

“I will eat it. As long as one does not change one’s original heart, no matter how many years one cultivates, one will still remain a carefree youth wielding a sword. You do not need to worry too much.”

Wen Tingshu picked up the bowl.

When the first mouthful of brownish-green porridge entered his mouth, he thought that Lanshe truly had never cooked before. He did not even remember to add salt.

Meng Baixu thought that the first time the master and disciple met was at the Hengxue Sect recruitment assembly.

In truth, it had been earlier—in Yongzhou City, in the mortal realm. They had traveled together for a while.

On the mainland, there was the cultivation world and the mortal world. The mortal world had no spiritual qi. When cultivators arrived in the mortal world, they could not use spiritual power and were merely ordinary people with stronger bodies.

Wen Tingshu guarded Hengxue Mountain, so his original body could not leave. But a puppet transformed from one strand of his black hair could gain freedom. In the long years past, Wen Tingshu told the outside world that he was in seclusion on Hengxue Mountain. But occasionally, he would send out his puppet to the mortal world to learn a craft or do some work.

He had been a porter at the docks. He had kneaded dough at a small stall. Among the bustling masses of living beings, he was merely one of them, busying himself to fill his stomach.

It was just that most people had a home to return to.

He had no home.

Wen Tingshu met Meng Baixu in Yongzhou. At the time, Meng Baixu had lost both parents and was wandering outside. Hearing that he wanted to go to Hengxue Mountain to become a disciple, Wen Tingshu traveled with him.

Along the way, they encountered an accident. The puppet died, leaving Meng Baixu to continue on the road alone. Fortunately, at the Hengxue Sect recruitment assembly, Wen Tingshu waited until Meng Baixu arrived and accepted him as his disciple.

On the road, Meng Baixu had been innocent and lively, acting freely according to gratitude and grudges. His personality had been much livelier than when he was on Hengxue Mountain.

After becoming the Sect Master’s first disciple, Meng Baixu restrained himself a lot. He properly and obediently became the model Da-shixiong, never doing anything out of line.

The identity of Wen Tingshu’s disciple had brought Meng Baixu too many restraints.

Wen Tingshu drank the porridge one mouthful at a time and could not stop reflecting. Had it been too selfish of him to make Meng Baixu separate from the cultivators’ dormitory and live every day on Hengxue Mountain with such a boring Shifu as himself?

Wen Tingshu had never known that life on Hengxue Mountain was so dull it made his disciple question the meaning of cultivation.

Twenty was exactly the age when one was extremely curious about everything. If Meng Baixu lived with the cultivators, he would have young people to discuss things with. They could study together during the day and talk freely deep into the night…

But cultivators were a mixed bag. What if Lanshe was led astray?

Meng Baixu watched Shizun eat the porridge with his own eyes.

Cultivation was really interesting.

“Did Shizun eat it willingly?”

Wen Tingshu said, “Yes.”

Meng Baixu curved his eyes, his smile bright.

“There’s more tonight!”

The entire bamboo forest was left in ruins. Even Shizun, with the strongest combat power, could not save it.

That evening, Meng Baixu wanted to sleep with Shizun again, but Wen Tingshu stopped him, saying he would teach him how to break arrays and only rest after midnight.

Midnight would be the time Meng Baixu’s bigu ended. At that time, he could return the yuan core to Shizun.

Meng Baixu said, “Why do I have to study at night too? Aren’t you going to sleep early?”

Wen Tingshu had eaten all three meals prepared by his disciple today, so he was afraid he could not sleep early.

“You did not go to school today. You must make it up tonight.”

Meng Baixu: “…”

Wen Tingshu said, “The Hengxue Sect rules state that after cultivators complete bigu, they must go out for three months of training, eliminate demons and defend the Dao, and uphold justice.”

Meng Baixu’s face immediately turned ugly.

The so-called “eliminate demons and defend the Dao”—the demons they eliminated were him.

When Hengxue Sect disciples went out, they only did one thing: clear out secret realm arrays set up by the Fuguang Sect.

A thousand years ago, cultivators were unkind in their pursuit of the Dao. They relied on strength to bully the weak and oppressed mortals, causing the Heavenly Dao to tremble. Spiritual qi suddenly cut off, and all cultivators died with their Dao extinguished when they attempted breakthroughs.

Five hundred years ago, spiritual qi revived. The cultivators learned their lesson, cultivated their bodies and minds, held all living beings in their hearts, and respected their teachers and the Dao.

Wen Tingshu was the number one cultivator.

The powerful great beings who had died a thousand years ago had their obsessions transform into inheritance secret realms, floating above the continent.

It was said that above the entire cultivation world, secret realms were stacked upon secret realms, like three thousand small worlds.

And the only ones who could open these secret realms were the successive leaders of the Fuguang Sect.

After a secret realm was developed by the sect leader, cultivators could also enter and obtain scattered cultivation. However, this act was extremely risky. It was very easy to be possessed by the remnant soul of a great being and become insane, or be rejected by the inheritance, causing the secret realm to collapse with no survivors.

Among those who entered, fewer than two out of ten could retreat safely. Even so, countless people still rushed toward them.

Entering a secret realm required paying the Fuguang Sect ten thousand spirit stones, and survival was not guaranteed.

The Hengxue Sect explicitly forbade all cultivators from entering secret realms and had reached agreement on this with the major prestigious righteous sects.

Now, on the surface, no one cared about secret realms.

The customer base was already small, and ticket income had sharply dropped. Yet Wen Tingshu still sent people to clear secret realms and had even researched a set of array-breaking methods.

The Fuguang Sect would send people to guard the entrances of secret realms, so the Hengxue Sect would send people to follow them.

After the previous sect leader, Meng Fuguang, disappeared, the Great Elder formulated a policy of keeping a low profile. Over the years, they had been extremely discreet, hiding everywhere. No one knew of the little sect leader’s existence.

The Fuguang Sect’s low profile had given the righteous path an opening!

The Hengxue Sect, which had always ignored worldly affairs, had actually taken advantage of the time when the Fuguang Sect was united in hiding the little sect leader to open cultivation academies on a large scale. They stopped evil with goodness, stopped war with goodness, and used force to compel everyone onto the orthodox path of cultivation.

Between heaven and earth, righteousness surged.

Wen Tingshu’s self-created array-breaking method precisely attacked the common weaknesses of the secret realms. Another purpose of Meng Baixu’s undercover mission was to learn the enemy’s strengths and see whether he could patch up those weaknesses.

Unwilling yet having no choice, Meng Baixu followed Wen Tingshu and studied array-breaking.

When Wen Tingshu saw his disciple’s appearance, he found it amusing. Studying from dawn to night with an empty stomach—no wonder he was unhappy.

Fortunately, a person only needed to do bigu once. If there were another time, even Wen Tingshu would run out of tricks.

At midnight, bigu ended.

Just as the moment arrived, Meng Baixu suddenly moved close, his target clear as he pressed his mouth against Wen Tingshu’s.

The yuan core was passed out from his mouth and quickly returned to the Immortal Venerable’s dantian.

Meng Baixu deliberately widened his eyes to look carefully. For the first time, he saw surprise in Shizun’s eyes and could not help feeling smug.

“My cultivation is shallow. I was afraid that if I spat it out, someone might intercept it halfway and I’d lose Shizun’s lifeblood. Shizun, you don’t mind, do you?”

Wen Tingshu tightened his grip on the scroll in his hand and said calmly, “…It’s fine. Matters involving the yuan core should indeed be handled carefully.”

Meng Baixu touched the corner of his own mouth and yawned.

“I’m going back to my room to sleep. Shizun, you don’t need to make my breakfast tomorrow morning. I’ve made plans with Shen-shidi to go to the dining hall and eat tofu pudding.”

Tomorrow, Liu Xishi, who had gone under orders to move the illusion realm, would be back. They had arranged to meet at the dining hall and discuss things in detail.

Meng Baixu returned to his room with light steps, full of anticipation for tomorrow.

Wen Tingshu held the book, and the red behind his ear quickly faded.

Lanshe had forgotten the cold fish soup they had agreed on.

However, Meng Baixu had not become distant from his fellow disciples just because he lived alone on Hengxue Mountain. Wen Tingshu was pleased to see it.

Which one was Shen-shidi?

***

The next day, the road to the dining hall was practically shoulder to shoulder. All the cultivators had gone three days without eating, and each of them had brought spirit stones, preparing to eat and drink to their heart’s content.

There were many people at Liu Xishi’s tofu pudding stall, mostly female cultivators. Female cultivators probably liked sweet tofu pudding more, while most male cultivators were next door buying meat flatbread.

Meng Baixu lined up. Someone in front wanted to give him their spot, but he quickly waved and said there was no need.

“Lanshe-shixiong.”

Lin Yao patted his shoulder from behind.

“How was it?”

“Lin-shidi!”

Meng Baixu turned around and saw him, his excitement overflowing beyond words. The function of one pill was too comprehensive. Lin-shidi’s awareness in refining medicine was far too ahead of its time.

“Your medicine is really useful!”

Lin Yao smiled. “Congratulations, congratulations. Is the blue ox about to give birth to calves?”

Meng Baixu lifted his head, a smile at the corners of his mouth.

“Soon.”

Lin Yao said, “When the time comes, Da-shixiong can come find me to make pregnancy-stabilizing medicine. Shixiong, if you want to have two calves at once, I can help with that too.”

“Two?”

Meng Baixu shook his head.

“Two is a bit too many.”

One prodigal son was already enough for Wen Tingshu to suffer. Wen Tingshu’s family business was not that large either. He only had one Hengxue Sect.

Lin Yao said, “That’s true. The Sect Master likes peace and quiet. If there are two calves, they’ll easily butt horns and vent their anger on each other.”

Meng Baixu’s eyes turned.

Now that he put it that way, two also had the benefits of two.

Unfortunately, the Fuguang Sect leaders had always been single heirs. The little cub would inherit the father’s cultivation. If there were too many, he would not be able to bear it either.

Speaking of which, an only cub would have higher cultivation and stronger destructive power.

Like him.