Why do I have so many masters?-Chapter 415 - 90 This is my grandma (1/2)

Wang Anfeng was almost petrified.

The people around him might as well have been struck hard on the back of the head; their minds went blank as they looked at the girl holding the upside-down longsword, their emotions fluctuating wildly and struggling to calm down.

The plum blossoms scattered because of the wind.

But the girl was far more dazzling than these plum blossoms.

Almost making it impossible to look away.

Wang Anfeng looked at Xue Qinshuang, at her moon-like eyes, and felt almost as if he were in a dream. However, the feel of the wooden sword in his hand told him that this was not a mere daydream during his idle time, but a tangible reality that was happening before his eyes, an undeniable present.

He took a deep breath.

The thin, cool air of winter, carrying a chill, was drawn into his lungs. Without shifting his gaze from Xue Qinshuang, Wang Anfeng nodded seriously, his eyes as sharp and resolute as the sword in his hand.

A crisp crackling sound.

Li Changxing almost broke the plum branch he was holding. He was behind a plum tree, ten meters away, dressed in ordinary clothes. He had intended to secretly observe, but he did not expect to witness such a scene.

The youth’s palm rested on the trunk of the plum tree.

His eyes widened, fixated on the scene before him.

This scene had virtually shattered all the etiquette education he had ever received and, after shattering it, still stood on those broken pieces, clawing and snarling at him.

How... how could this be?

Li Changxing felt an inexplicable sense of shame and annoyance, which seemed to be mixed with a hint of envy. It was this trace of envy that intensified his feelings of indignation.

Disrespectful! Disrespectful!

To be so ignorant of propriety!

The youth’s fingers unconsciously exerted force.

The plum tree trembled, and petals scattered everywhere. The Great Eunuch behind him had to gently lift his hand and tap the youth’s shoulder, whispering a reminder:

"Your Highness, if you apply more force, you will break this plum branch."

"Ah?"

Li Changxing woke up from his trance, uttered a low cry, released his palm, took two steps backwards, and looked at the nearly broken plum tree without saying a word. His silence meant Li Sheng, too, did not open his mouth.

A long and awkward silence ensued.

During the silence, Li Changxing coughed lightly, looking straight ahead, and said:

"In the past, I had heard that Fufeng’s martial arts were fierce."

"I never thought that in these matters as well, the concern for minor details would be so...so overlooked."

"Yes, overlooked."

"Indeed, overlooked."

With one hand behind his back and his still somewhat childish face taut, Li Changxing acted as though he had seen nothing, that nothing had happened, turned around, and walked in a stiff, formal step in another direction.

His expression was dignified and serene.

His posture was erect.

Li Changxing suppressed the chaos that arose from his familiar world being shattered, preserving the dignity of the Imperial Family.

I am the Imperial Grandson.

I haven’t seen anything.

Perhaps because he was walking quickly, the youth stumbled and nearly fell. His hand braced against a nearby plum tree, and several blossoms were shaken loose, landing on his shoulder and settling in his black hair. Li Changxing straightened up, did not turn back, did not shake off the plum blossoms, and continued forward with a stern face, as if nothing had just occurred.

Yeah, what haven’t I seen?

The youth’s countenance remained calm and maintained the Imperial Family’s dignity.

His steps seemed to quicken slightly.

Li Sheng watched with a smile as Li Changxing fled in disarray.

Turning to look at the elder leisurely drinking under the pavilion, his eyes slightly opened to reveal a pair of pure white pupils, he stared intently for a few moments before turning around, stepping out, and appearing next to the faraway Li Changxing in an instant.

Such a movement technique did not catch the attention of passerby.

As if it were as natural as flowers falling or the sun rising, too common to warrant any attention.

At the same time, Xue Qinshuang’s lips slightly curved as she said:

"After all, we are friends who have shared life and death. It’s only right that you should miss me."

Wang Anfeng’s expression froze momentarily.

Looking up, he saw the girl’s somewhat cramped smile. The courage he had just mustered was like a punch thrown into the air, feeling as though he had wrongly applied his strength, vanishing completely. Yet, almost immediately, a strange sense of relief arose within him.

He still did not know how to treat Xue Qinshuang.

Perhaps this was just right for now.

The swordsman with the short sword watched Wang Anfeng’s facial expressions, scoffed disdainfully, straightened up, and sheathed the sword that he had never drawn, placing it back at his waist. He turned and walked back to the pavilion.

He had acted earlier because he felt Wang Anfeng was being disrespectful to their master, and in his anger, he had attacked.

Now, having calmed down, having been with Master Lin for a long time, he knew well that since the master had not shown anger, his own rash actions would make the master seem small-minded. Thus, he stopped himself.

Upon returning to the pavilion, he bowed to the old wine-simmering elder and asked in a low voice:

"Master, shall we leave?"

He knew the master had come out today to meet this keeper of the documents.

The elder did not look at him but replied indifferently:

"Why should we leave when the guest has yet to arrive?"

Dong Xuan was momentarily stunned.

Upon the stone table, the stove fire that had been extinguished unknowingly rekindled. The wine jug seemed small, yet it appeared to never run dry, having poured four cups of wine, and still the amount within the jug did not lessen. Accompanying the gradually intensifying stove fire, faint ripples emerged.

The rich aroma of wine permeated the air.

Xue Qinshuang raised her eyes to look at the elderly man beneath the pavilion, sheathed her sword, and raised her hand in a courteous gesture, saying,

"Xue Family’s third daughter from Tian Dong greets Mr. Lin."

The elderly man’s gaze fell upon the young girl, and then behind her.

Xue Qinshuang was dressed in white, with a red shirt draped over, attired like a woman.

At her waist hung a short sword about a foot in length.

There was nothing remarkable about this short sword.

Mr. Lin’s gaze lingered on the short sword for a few moments and then slowly withdrew without saying anything, simply nodding faintly.

With a casual wave of his hand, without any visible movement, the scene before everyone’s eyes suddenly changed. They were transported from the pavilions and terraces to a winding path a hundred yards away, as if they had been shifted to another place entirely.

There was a moment of absolute silence, followed by low exclamations of surprise from the crowd, all of them shocked at the mysterious means of the old man. They debated in low voices whether it was merely profound inner strength that moved them in an instant, or if it involved an extraordinary palm force that whisked them away without harm. In their discussions, admiration was the only sentiment that prevailed.

Wang Anfeng’s eyes opened slightly.

In his perception, the distance they had covered matched exactly the size of that self-contained ’world.’

Rather than saying they had been sent out of the pavilion complex by the elderly man using some top-notch martial arts, it would be more accurate to say that the ’world’ itself had expelled them.

Xue Qinshuang, noticing the change in Wang Anfeng’s aura, turned to see the strands of shock rising in his eyes and, with slight curiosity, asked,

"What are you thinking about?"

Wang Anfeng took another look at the pavilion concealed beneath the cold plum trees and, with no intention of hiding his thoughts from Xue Qinshuang, lowered his voice so that only the two of them could hear, saying,

"The realm of this Mr. Lin."

The shock in Wang Anfeng’s eyes had not yet dissipated as he uttered softly,

"I remember, in the previous generation, among the five who dominated the world,

"The strongest among them had already cast the entire world out of his own realm. Thus, no one could touch him, and no one could even find him. Those natural barriers and challenges couldn’t stop the many masters of the world."

"But even as a grandmaster who had crossed numerous dangerous barriers and finally saw that dilapidated cottage, that unkempt old man, they could never cross that final line."

"The state described by the Confucian Sect as ’a world within a few inches’ or by the Taoist Sect as ’days and months within a pot, a universe in a sleeve,’ probably is like this."

"Within that line lies the three thousand worlds, the myriad forms of all living beings."

This was told by Libo when Wang Anfeng was a child, discussing the masters of the world, and he couldn’t find a better description now, so he simply quoted it verbatim. It was not a surprising statement, after all, and the last two lines were the reflections his master and Mr. Ying had upon hearing about it.

A toothless old woman was standing just tens of meters behind Wang Anfeng and Xue Qinshuang.

With her cultivation at the peak of the Fourth Rank and especially as someone coming from a noble clan of assassins in Jianghu, the old woman easily overheard Wang Anfeng’s lowered voice.

The old woman halted in her steps.

She had intended to see who the troublemaking youngster was, but now she found herself unable to move forward.

She looked at Wang Anfeng, her initially indifferent eyes now filled with a mixture of surprise and uncertainty. She had simply regarded Wang Anfeng as a talented young martial artist from the academy, but now, she was somewhat unsure.

It was because the details that Wang Anfeng had mentioned were too vividly real.

The manifold dangerous terrains, the run-down cottage, the unkempt old man.

And that despairing, insurmountable line.

Her son was among the top three assassins in the world, with unequaled qinggong. Ten years ago, when his qinggong had reached completion, he had sought out that senior, only to return without success. The details he talked about upon his return were the same as those mentioned by the young man in front of her.

That is to say, he too had approached the senior’s abode after much pursuit.

But could it be that he was unable to enter?

The final assessment differed slightly from what her son had said, but for some reason, even though she should have trusted her son more, the old woman found herself convinced by her own experience, her own wisdom, her own martial arts cultivation, that what the young man said might be closer to the truth.

And it was far more profound and mysterious.

It was not something that an ordinary master could express, even less so an ordinary...

Her heart was deeply shaken; she dared not continue her thoughts.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

And because of the turmoil in her heart, her aura briefly became unstable and leaked out. Xue Qinshuang noticed it, and the young woman turned to see the old woman. A brief stiffness passed over her naturally composed features, seemingly accompanied by a fleeting blush, then she disappeared out of sight, turned back to Wang Anfeng, who was curiously looking over, pressed her lips together, and said,

"Ah, Anfeng, let me introduce you..."

Wang Anfeng looked curiously at the kind-looking old woman before him, raising his hand to perform the gesture of respect due to his junior status.

He then heard Xue Qinshuang’s words.

The young girl’s voice seemed somewhat low as she said,

"My grandmother."

The young man’s expression suddenly stiffened.

........................

In the pavilion.

The old man was leisurely pouring wine when he lifted his eyes. Without any discernible movement, the cup full of exquisite wine appeared ten yards away, rotating and moving forward, not a single drop wavering.

The cup hovered in mid-air.

Below it sprouted a cold plum branch bearing three elegant blossoms in full bloom.

The plum branch was held at an angle.

Sharp as a sword.

PS: The first release of today is here...

Thanks to book friend 140814153603458 for the generous gift, and to Fa Hai Lei Yin for the generous gift, much appreciated...