After Lin Yue gave directions to the people by the roadside, they traveled for another month. During this month, Li Le was busy fighting every single day—fighting by day and fighting by night. Before he could even eat a bite of food, someone would draw a sword and point it at him.
Noticing that the young man from before was gone, Lin Yue asked him about it. Li Le calmly claimed he had beaten the man and driven him off. Seeing Lin Yue frown, Li Le flew into a rage and asked whose side she was actually on.
Lin Yue honestly shared her thoughts.
Seeing how logically she analyzed things, subtly implying that he was a notch inferior, Li Le excitedly spouted wild boasts, declaring that he would defeat every opponent under heaven and swearing to become the number one person in the martial realm!
After that, he put even more effort into fighting, not even having time to eat. He kept popping elixir pills he had exchanged from the Martial Arts Convention using a thousand-year lingzhi, secretly pushing himself to outdo everyone.
The medicinal potency of a thousand-year lingzhi was fierce; consuming one could boost one's internal energy by ten to several decades' worth. He had eaten one before, which raised his internal energy by ten years. The thousand-year lingzhi from the Martial Arts Convention was of inferior quality and was no longer of much use to him, so it was better to exchange it for elixir pills for everyone to pop together.
He had exchanged for twenty bottles. As he spoke, Li Le took out a bottle of elixir pills and stuffed it into Lin Yue's hands, saying it was recommended by the big boss of Longmen Escort Agency. The medicine had a gentle potency and minor side effects—taking one pill a day would keep her from growing weak, so she could pop them without worry.
Lin Yue accepted it. She had never taken elixir pills before, so she poured one out to look. Visually, it was a fine product, and smelling it revealed a pure medicinal aroma: hundred-year lingzhi, channel-clearing grass, hundred-leg immortal...
Lin Yue swallowed one. It tasted bitter as a warm current flowed down her throat, surging into her four limbs and gently warming her entire body. She immediately sat cross-legged and circulated her technique to absorb the medicinal power.
In half a shichen, she finished absorbing the medicinal power. Just as Li Le had said, the medicinal power was pure, and the slight boost to her internal energy was equivalent to three days of meditation.
Lin Yue did not eat the rest of the elixir pills. She had no enemies and no fights to take part in, so she was in no rush to boost her internal energy. Besides, the internal energy cultivated through elixir pills was far less pure than what was cultivated on one's own.
She saved them for research to see if she could make counterfeit versions to sell.
Lin Yue set up a medical banner and, using Li Le's name as leverage, sold the decades-old and century-old lingzhi, ginseng, Paris polyphylla, and other herbs she had picked in the mountains, making a massive profit of tens of thousands of taels.
Seeing her gather medicinal herbs as easily as picking mushrooms, Li Le turned green with envy and asked her secret. Lin Yue merely smiled and said it was just good luck. Li Le suddenly recalled that the man had said he only found him after meeting their martial aunt, and the way he looked at Lin Yue suddenly grew complicated.
Another person's good fortune was the beginning of his misfortune.
Lin Yue continued the journey with Old Huang and the children. Li Le was too busy—as they drew closer to the sect, many people were waiting to challenge him.
She took over Li Le's task of recruiting disciples. Whenever they passed by cities, villages, or towns, she went straight to beggars' dens to look. However, the sect master's requirements were too high, and after failing to find suitable children several times in a row, she thought it over and went to a brokerage, bringing out a little girl.
Her aptitude was the best among all the children.
Entering a small town similar to Dashantou Town, they walked roughly another twenty li to reach Mount Guiwu. Lush with trees, the mountain was not exceptionally high, yet one still had to look up at it; it was not terribly steep, but climbing it took quite a while. At its base lay a mountain village with a few dozen people who looked sallow and emaciated. The children in the village drooled as they watched the group pass by.
Sitting by the roots of a large tree in the village was an elderly man near the end of his life. Hunched over and leaning on a walking stick, he stared for a long time with cloudy yellow eyes as figures approached the village entrance, then suddenly opened his mouth and shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Gousheng!"
Seeing no answer, the old man leaned on his cane and walked toward the crowd, stopping right in front of Li Le. Li Le turned his head and stepped aside, acting as if he didn't know him, but the old man leaned over with him, peering closely at his face to identify him, so close his face almost touched Li Le's.
"Gousheng, is that you?"
"It's your Uncle Shuanzi! Do you still remember when you were three years old, playing around here in open-crotch pants, getting your dick pecked by Aunt Wang's big rooster, and it was your uncle who chased it away for you..."
Li Le's expression instantly shattered. He grabbed the old man and dragged him toward the side of the road.
"You've got the wrong person! I'm not Gousheng."
"You are Gousheng! You definitely are..."
"I'm not..."
Li Le and the old man got into an argument, one insisting he was not Gousheng, and the other insisting he was, citing numerous examples to prove it. Li Le's expression grew more colorful by the second.
"Clop, clop, clop..."
Lin Yue walked past leading the horse. Two children sat on horseback—the nine-year-old girl held Chen Zhiyi while holding onto the saddle. Old Huang led the donkey, with three children following beside him as they passed through the village and continued forward.
They walked for two ke before taking a small trail up the mountain. The sect entrance consisted of two wooden pillars holding up a plaque with the words "Guiwu" written on it. There were no fences connecting to it nearby, making it look somewhat like the ruins of a disbanded organization.
Li Le caught up at some point and vented his anger on the sect entrance. "This sect master will definitely replace it!"
Stepping onto the stone stairs extending down from the mountain, they walked up through the sect gate. The boulders grew more numerous, and ahead appeared a large green-brick courtyard. The main front gate was tightly shut, looking as if no one had come by in a long time.
Li Le looked up, flipped open a green brick beside the entrance, picked up the rusty front door key, inserted it into the keyhole, and turned it.
Snap. It broke.
Pausing for a moment, he loosened his hand, and the handle of the key dropped to the ground with a clink. Immediately after, the sound of a chain breaking rang out, followed by a creak as the door was pushed open, bringing the scenery inside the courtyard into view.
It had to be said that the courtyard was quite large. Straight ahead was the main hall, with rows of rooms on both the left and right sides, and an ancestral hall behind them. The back courtyard wall had collapsed from the middle, with weeds crawling along the green-brick walls onto the flagstones, extending forward through the cracks all the way to their feet.
Li Le said the wall hadn't collapsed on its own—that man had dismantled the green bricks to sell for money. According to him, the first-generation sect master of the Guiwu Sect was the personal disciple of the master of the Guiwu Main Sect, the number one sect in the world. Later, for unknown reasons, he clashed with his sect, rebelled, and came here to establish his own sect. Afterward, the Guiwu Main Sect was besieged and wiped out by various sects, and since then, no other sect in the martial realm had ever reached the status of a grand sect.
All of this had happened a hundred years ago.
It was already afternoon. The adults led the children in tidying up the compound, pulling out snakes, rats, centipedes... Old Huang soaked the giant centipedes and snakes in liquor to make steeping wine. Next came assigning rooms: the two boys shared one disciples' room, and the two girls shared another so they could look after each other, while Chen Zhiyi stayed with Old Huang.
Lin Yue chose an elder's room, separated from Li Le by an empty room. Dust tumbled down as soon as she opened the door. The interior was spacious, featuring a living area, side room, and bedroom, though currently, there was nothing inside except a wooden plank bed in the bedroom.
She opened the windows to air out the room and swept it clean. Coming out, she joined Old Huang in leading the children to the back courtyard to pick some wild greens, getting through the evening to call it a day.
The next day, everyone gathered at the ancestral hall. The hall enshrined the spirit tablets of eight generations of sect masters. In the very center was the tablet of the first-generation founder, Ye Guiwu, whose original name was Ye You, and at the very bottom was the tablet of Song Jiqing—the man who failed at punishing evil, got scammed out of the Guiwu Technique by her, and was ruthlessly kicked out had passed away.
Everyone bowed alongside Li Le.
"Ninth-Generation Sect Master of the Guiwu Sect, Li Le, leads the disciples of the Guiwu Sect to kowtow to our founder and past sect masters!"
After everyone bowed three times, Li Le began recounting the good deeds he had done during his five years of wandering, whether he had strictly abided by the sect rules, what insights he had gained, and so on. Finally, he spoke of attending the once-in-a-decade Martial Arts Convention and winning the title of martial champion. After boasting about himself for a bit, he brought up Lin Yue.
"Master, this is the descendant of Third Martial Uncle. His name is Lin—"
"My name is Lin Yue, daughter of Lin Ze."
Li Le turned to look at Lin Yue, his face showing the shocked expression of a Husky. "D-d-daughter? Why didn't you say so earlier!"
"They all knew."
Li Le swept a calm yet deadpan gaze across the crowd, followed by a wooden, stunned daze, looking as though his parents had just died.
Seeing this, Lin Yue hurriedly comforted him. "I won't tell anyone about your embarrassing moments."
Lin Yue added, "Especially girls."
Li Le, who had been fiercely competitive all his life, suddenly showed a crack in his expression.
Everyone quickly consoled him, assuring him that they hadn't actually heard anything, and that he was still the towering, peerless martial champion and number one sect master under heaven.
In the end, it was Lin Yue who reminded him that it was time for the children to enter the sect, bringing him back to his senses.
How to divide the five children? After discussing for a while, the two decided not to grant special treatment and had them formally bow to both of them as masters. Li Le was the sect master, and Lin Yue was considered an elder.
The five were ranked by age.
The oldest was a ten-year-old boy. Perhaps because he was a bit older and more sensible, he often helped with work along the way. He was named Jingcheng and became the eldest senior brother. The nine-year-old girl taken in from the brokerage was named Jingrong, after the saying "greatness comes from tolerance."
Next was the eight-year-old boy, who was more lively and named Jingyang. The girl who was five months younger, perhaps accustomed to being bullied, appeared somewhat timid and humble; she was named Jingtong. As for Chen Zhiyi, since "Yi" meant bright and clear, he was named Jingming.
The sect premises were somewhat dilapidated and needed repairs. Li Le bought green bricks to rebuild the back courtyard wall, leaving a back door to keep wild mountain animals from wandering in. He also climbed onto the roof to repair the houses so they wouldn't leak wind or rain.
A sect starting from scratch needed many items: stools, chairs, tables, mirrors, cabinets, large cauldrons, beds... After on-site inspection, Lin Yue drew up a shopping list.
Li Le, who was repairing the roof, took the rice paper. The dense writing made him knit his brows, his forehead throbbing violently, his eyes filled with protest.
"I just don't get it—why do we need so much!"
"Just taking stools and chairs alone, what's with square stools, round stools, bench stools, embroidered poufs, rolling stools, spring benches, folding armchairs, grandmaster chairs, scholar chairs, horseshoe armchairs, armchairs, recliners... and tables! Can this small compound even fit all this?" Some of them he had never even heard of—what on earth were they?
Lin Yue patiently explained, "Square stools can hold potted plants, round stools are for dining, bench stools go in the ancestral hall, embroidered poufs... grandmaster chairs and scholar chairs are placed in the main hall for guests, horseshoe armchairs are comfortable to sit in, armchairs go in the study for resting, folding armchairs can be folded for easy movement..."
Li Le felt his head growing twice as big. Why was she so meticulous? Wouldn't it be fine if they all used the same ones?
"Can't we buy less? It's not like we're a major sect."
Lin Yue pointed to the underlined section. "Buy these first. The rest is up to you."
The items to purchase were instantly halved. Li Le let out a huge sigh of relief and tried to cut it by half again, only to be rejected by Lin Yue.
"There are only a few of us here. There's really no need to buy so much or plant flowers and greenery for decoration. It's all mountains outside—if you want to look at them, just go outside and look!"
Lin Yue's stance was firm. "Transportation here is inconvenient and there's nothing around. If you want me to teach your disciples for a few years, my requirement is to have mountain and water views right at home. It cannot be lower than this standard..."
Hearing her put it so directly, Li Le instantly understood—these were not bought for the sect after all! Looking closely at the list, items like precious tea sets and fine tea leaves were only bought in single sets, with one set costing dozens of taels!
"It's not like we don't have money. Why live so shabbily?" Lin Yue countered.
"Is this called shabby? This is called luxurious!"
During the sect meeting, Lin Yue pulled out a stack of banknote bills, drew out a one-thousand-tael note, and handed it to him. "If you feel that way, then use my money to buy them."
The five children blinked their curious eyes, looking back and forth between the rustling bills in their hands and watching the two bicker endlessly.
Old Huang couldn't read and didn't recognize the face value of the banknotes, but the stack of notes in the sect master's hand was rather meager, whereas Lin Yue's stack was half a finger thick. Handing out a thousand taels just like that, she clearly looked exceedingly wealthy.
Furthermore, the sect master only knew how to shake his head, while Lin Yue spoke with clear logic, spent money without batting an eye, and was a refined person. At a glance, one could tell she came from a wealthy family and was accustomed to a life of luxury and fine dining—how could she be willing to endure the hardships of the poor with them?
Perceiving the heart of the matter, Old Huang advised:
"Sect Master, although things are a bit expensive, we're not short on money now. Besides, Elder came all this way with us to build up the sect, which isn't easy..."
With one taking a firm stance and the other offering earnest persuasion, Li Le grew thoroughly annoyed and finally compromised. "Fine, fine! Buy it all, buy it all!"
He took several trips to the county seat, bustling about for two months until most of the furniture was set up. During that time, he even built a few new rooms.
Lin Yue strolled around the compound. The courtyard finally looked inhabited, with two rows of clean, spacious disciples' rooms. Grapes and melons were planted in the corners, climbing up trellises onto the courtyard walls, ready to yield fruit in a few months.
Thinking of this, Lin Yue went to the back courtyard, looked at the large patch of weeds ahead, and said, "Enclose this area to build a vegetable garden so we can grow some vegetables to eat."
Looking at the area she circled, Li Le knit his brows deeply and said, "There are so many wild greens in the mountains. Enclosing just one or two mu for a vegetable garden should be enough, right?"
Most wild greens had a bitter taste and weren't very palatable, so Lin Yue wanted to grow more cultivated vegetables to improve their meals and avoid having to run to town every time they wanted vegetables. Besides, with eight people eating, requiring a large basin per meal, she marked out four or five mu.
"Eating only greens won't do; we also need to raise some chickens, ducks, geese, and sheep," Lin Yue said, laying out her plans. Growing vegetables—they just had to grow vegetables.
Hearing this, Old Huang became excited and chimed in as well. He wanted to farm a few mu of land at the foot of the mountain, blabbering about how common folk couldn't live without grain. Farming—they just had to farm.
"Does that mean we'll have chicken eggs, duck eggs, goose eggs, and goat milk to eat!"
The lively Jingyang suddenly shouted with a crisp voice. Hearing this, the eyes of the other children all lit up.
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