Remembering You For Eternity

2.8 Love Is Madness

There was no doubt that Shuan Bing deserved to be Sage Shuan Yi's succeeding disciple, and it was not because the Sage was her own father.

Sage Shuan Yi only had two disciples before his closed-door cultivation that ultimately lead to his perpetual sleep. One was Shuan Bing, the other was Zuo JinLong. Both were tremendously talented, with good-looks and elegance to match.

Although everyone thought the pair was seemingly in love with each other, several cultivators could not help but to pity Shuan Bing.

Zuo JinLong was one of the contenders for Zuo Dynasty's throne back then. There were several other Princes competing, but Zuo JinLong definitely was one of the strongest candidates, having been bestowed with secret-arts of Wu Shan sect, courtesy of Sage Shuan Yi.

The several keen-eyed cultivators clucked their tongues in sympathy. If there was only one person who did not notice Shuan Bing's fondness towards her own shidi, it was her father, Sage Shuan Yi himself. If he knew, perhaps he would not have expended so much resources and his time to cultivate Zuo JinLong to be a powerful Enlightened, only for the latter to whisk Shuan Bing away from Wu sect. It practically derived her chance to attain Sage-ism.

Yun Ying was one of those cultivators.

She was a succeeding disciple of one of the Sages of Hui Lin sect (1), commonly called Lin sect. Despite being the oldest succeeding disciple and a DaShijie of her generation, she had been constantly put down by her own shidis and shimeis. It was because her talent lied in alchemy, not qi-cultivation as was normal.

Yun Ying hated fighting and was always somehow emotionally detached; hence she focused her time concocting different pills and qi-related medicines instead. Only her shifu knew her innate talent that should have been more than adequate for Yun Ying to steadfastly breakthrough to Sage-ism, only if she was willing. Needless to say, a Sage always had a perceptive eyes for talent. No one would recklessly choose a dull stone to be a succeeding disciple.

Nevertheless, talent was one thing, willingness was another. Yun Ying was idly stuck in her Martial-Artist stage for decades, even when her shimeis and shidis broke through to the preliminary threshold of Enlightened. She would not even bother to cultivate if not just to give her shifu some face.

During one of the meets between the various sects in the continent, it was Lin sect's turn to host the once-every-decade talent showcase of the younger generations.

It was her first time as well to meet Shuan Bing and Zuo JinLong of Wu Shan sect, as well as Zhu Hong of Chun Ping Gu sect. Shuan Bing and Zuo JinLong were both already Enlightened cultivators at the time, and Zhu Hong was still a Martial-Artist, just as Yun Ying was.

As usual, during the meet, friendly competitions and fights between the cultivators of the sects were conducted. After several bouts of fights, it was Zuo JinLong's turn to fight Zuo LangDi. Zuo LangDi was a Prince, a contender for the Zuo Dynasty's throne. He was Zuo JinLong's older half-brother, as well as Yun Ying's shidi, albeit under tutelage of a different Sage.

At the time, although Zuo JinLong won the fight by a horse' breath, he was injured grievously, causing his inner-qi to be in disarray. Shuan Bing's face paled and she even conceded loss to her next match, preferring to watch over Zuo JinLong instead in the recovery room of Lin sect.

Yun Ying was one of the disciples being in charge of fixing broken bones and nursing the hurt cultivators back to acceptable health. It was perfectly normal for minor casualties to happen after all, though death never happened.