Chapter 31: My Disciple Must Have Been Abducted

Ji Tianxin lifted her head slightly and looked at the person beside her, softly calling out, “Master.”

The resentment on Bai Shu’s face vanished in an instant, as if he had been healed. He reached out and patted Ji Tianxin’s head, smiling. “Why aren’t you going back, Xin’er?”

Bai Shu had never imagined he would care so much for a disciple, yet he found himself unsettled the moment she was out of sight. Luckily, Xin’er was still a child—otherwise, he might truly have suspected that these feelings belonged to a man’s longing for a woman.

“I’ll stay here for a while,” Ji Tianxin replied.

Bai Shu frowned. “Did they tempt you to stay with something delicious?”

Xin’er was lazy and greedy; although she cultivated diligently, she would never move a finger unless absolutely necessary. She loved to sleep and to eat. Aside from these reasons, he really couldn’t think of what else could persuade his well-behaved disciple to remain.

Ji Tianxin pursed her lips, slightly embarrassed. “The osmanthus cakes are delicious.”

Good heavens!

Bai Shu shot to his feet, his expression darkening. Indeed, these people were up to no good, even daring to lure his disciple!

Sensing Bai Shu’s displeasure, Ji Tianxin spoke: “Master, please sit.”

Almost instinctively, Bai Shu obeyed and sat back down.

“I’ll stay for a while. It’s been a long time since I’ve lived like this—I want to try it,” Ji Tianxin explained, her black-and-white eyes fixed on Bai Shu, her small face earnest.

Bai Shu frowned again. “A life like this?”

He thought carefully. Xin’er had been abandoned as a child, and now that she was found, she wanted to live with her family for a while. There was nothing wrong with that. The more he thought about it, the more his heart ached for this disciple.

He knew well why she had returned this time. For years, she had been investigating the matter of the general’s residence and those responsible for her mother’s death. She had come back for revenge. And she had chosen to return on the anniversary of her mother’s death.

He sighed softly. “You’ve never been like an ordinary child, always with your own thoughts. From the very beginning, you were like this. Though you call me Master, I know you do so out of gratitude for saving your life. After all these years, in truth, I haven’t really taught you much...”

This was why Bai Shu treated Ji Tianxin so differently. She had never been like an ordinary child. He remembered that the first words she ever spoke were her own name.

Though he had always assumed the role of her master, Tianxin’s talent far surpassed his own. What he taught her was so simple for her—it was like moving a finger. And over the years, he realized Tianxin had her own way of cultivation. She would learn what he taught and incorporate it, but fundamentally, it was different.

He could sense that one day, Tianxin’s achievements would far exceed his own.

He had once wondered if Tianxin might be the reincarnation of a supreme cultivator who had taken over her body. But whenever this thought crossed his mind, he would immediately push it aside. Regardless, since Tianxin called him Master, she was his disciple—nothing more, nothing less. She was the child he had picked up from the mass grave that day. That was enough.

And apart from her cool and distant temperament and unusual cleverness, she was no different from any other child: just as lazy, just as fond of eating...

“No,” Ji Tianxin continued, “you are my first master, and my only one. Whatever you teach me, I will learn.”

She had never had a master before. Bai Shu was indeed the only one. In her previous life, she entered the path through cultivation of qi; in this one, through martial arts. To her, it was no different—just another thing to learn.