My Master Knows It All

55: Chapter 51 Qi Sect Sword Sect_1 55: Chapter 51 Qi Sect Sword Sect_1 The crane soared, and the tears in Cao Zhen’s eyes were dried by the wind again and again.

Listening to his mother’s calling over and over again in the China Cloud, her voice eventually turned into a murmured storytelling, and then into alternating bouts of crying and laughing.

Finally, she said to the surroundings, “Son, remember to eat and don’t stay up late over there.”

“I know,” Cao Zhen quietly responded.

Although he always told his mother ‘I know, I know’ in the past, this time was the first time he didn’t reply nonchalantly like before, but his most earnest response was actually one his mother couldn’t hear.

Cao Xinbang embraced his wife gently and said, “Our son is still alive.

You shouldn’t cry like this; it’s inauspicious.”

Upon hearing her husband say this, Wu Xuehua completely stopped sobbing.

She too feared bringing bad luck to her son who was not dead.

“Now that we’re free from worries about food and drink, let’s just live our lives well and cultivate diligently,” Cao Xinbang whispered in Wu Xuehua’s ear.

“When our son makes something of himself in the future, he’ll come to take us to enjoy our blessings.”

“As long as he’s doing well, he doesn’t have to be successful or come to take us to enjoy our blessings,” Wu Xuehua said softly in her husband’s embrace.

“It doesn’t matter if we never see each other again in our lifetime, as long as he’s alive, as long as he’s alive.”

Seeing and hearing this, Cao Zhen couldn’t bear to listen any longer.

He had been cultivating ever since he arrived in this world but had never been 100 percent certain of the purpose of his cultivation.

Now, looking at his parents, he finally solidified his cultivation goal.

It wasn’t to ascend to immortality, nor to dominate the world and rest on the knees of beauties, and it wasn’t to single-handedly decide the fate of all for the benefit of the people.

It was all for his parents.

Cao Zhen disconnected from his father’s link and turned to Zhao Ji’s documents.

He really didn’t have a good impression of Song Huizong, who was associated with the national humiliation of Jingkang, and in his memory, the emperor seemed rather inept.

He truly didn’t want to deal with such a person.

However, after just seeing his parents’ situation, Cao Zhen felt that every person and every thing must have a useful side to them.

So, he opened Zhao Ji’s document and saw that the emperor was writing.

“Green branches grow dense after the Clear and Bright Festival, the lonely drizzle of yellow plum rain suddenly stops…”

Elegant thin-gold characters of the crane-style calligraphy appeared on the white paper as Zhao Ji finished writing and admired his proud creation.

Although Cao Zhen hadn’t studied brush calligraphy in detail, upon seeing this calligraphy, he couldn’t help but sigh with admiration.

The writing was indeed beautiful, and it would be considered the work of a top-tier artist in any era.

“Your Majesty!

Splendid writing!”

Praises began to be sung by others in the vicinity.

It was only then Cao Zhen realized that the China Cloud didn’t just connect to modern Earth, but also to any time and space on Earth; the ancient Zhao Ji could be connected to as well.

“Would you like to download the user’s skill data?”

After hearing the offer from the China Cloud, Cao Zhen thought for a moment that he would inevitably need to sign documents in the Hundred Peaks Sect.

Having grown accustomed to typing on computers and mobile phones on Earth, his unsightly handwriting was somewhat embarrassing, so he chose to download.

Having downloaded the data, Cao Zhen glanced again at Song Huizong, who was still enjoying the flattery, and thought that although the emperor deserved his fate, the people of the Song dynasty had suffered terribly because of him.

Thus, he wanted to offer a few prophetic warnings, but he realized that he had randomly accessed the user and could only watch, not interact.

The crane flew for a while longer, reaching the Hidden Dragon Immortal Palace at Ascension Peak.

Above the grand entrance of the imposing Immortal Palace, the words “Hidden Dragon Immortal Palace” were written in a flamboyant and beautiful script.

“These four characters are mediocre,” Cao Zhen instinctively commented as he looked up at the plaque, then he froze, realizing what he’d said.

If he had seen these words before, with his own limited knowledge, the best he could probably have said would be ‘wow, awesome!’

But now, after downloading Zhao Ji’s artistic foundation, these characters appeared to him as merely mediocre at best.

“What arrogance!”

A voice tinged with faint anger came from inside the Hidden Dragon Immortal Palace, and soon the owner of the voice walked out from the entrance.

The person who came out was a young man, whose attire didn’t seem to be that of a staff member of the Hidden Dragon Immortal Palace; he was probably a disciple of the Hundred Peaks Sect who had come here for training.

The prideful young man walked out, and upon seeing that the newcomer was dressed as a Peak Master, he, too, stood frozen in place, a twinge of nervousness surging within.

After a moment of staring at each other, Cao Zhen was the first to laugh.

Indeed, he shouldn’t have critiqued someone else’s writing; by normal standards, the calligraphy was already very, very good.

Seeing Cao Zhen laugh, the young man felt embarrassed, sensing the other’s laughter was because he had made an arrogant entrance with bold words, only to find the other party was a Peak Master, which made him seem cowardly.

“Even if you are a Peak Master, isn’t it a bit too much to be criticizing the words of the Hidden Dragon Immortal Palace?” the young man said as he fist-saluted.

“Disciple Xu Ruyi from Wonderful Pen Peak.”

Upon hearing ‘Disciple of Wonderful Pen Peak,’ Cao Zhen immediately understood why the other had such a strong reaction.

Most of the peaks in the Hundred Peaks Sect had their own characteristics, except for a few peaks without any particular distinction.

Wonderful Pen Peak cultivated immortality through calligraphy and painting.

The members of this peak were all adept at calligraphy and painting, with rather mystical spell capabilities.

It was said that if any organization within the Hundred Peaks Sect had some money and needed to put up a plaque, they would mostly seek someone from Wonderful Pen Peak to do the writing.

It was rumored even the hall “Harmony in Unity,” presided over by the True Person Sect Leader, was penned by a former Peak Master of Wonderful Pen Peak.

The Hidden Dragon Immortal Palace was such a wealthy place that nine out of ten door plaques were naturally written by someone from Wonderful Pen Peak, and it was very likely that they were written by a past master of Wonderful Pen Peak.

Having figured it all out, Cao Zhen didn’t want any friction with Wonderful Pen Peak.

He nodded and said, “You’re right, I overestimated myself.

This writing is exceedingly good…”

Upon hearing Cao Zhen admit his mistake, Xu Ruyi was momentarily stunned.

Was this not a Peak Master admitting he was wrong?

“I think this writing is very ordinary.”

Another figure emerged from within, a tall, young man with the refined and slightly wild air of a scholar.

He held a folding fan which he lightly waved in front of him, his eyes bearing provocative pride.

Upon seeing Cao Zhen, his expression stiffened.

A Peak Master?

Like Xu Ruyi before him, the newcomer was also dumbfounded on the spot.

He hadn’t heard the earlier conversation about Cao Zhen’s status as a Peak Master; he only heard Cao Zhen’s two different opinions on the plaque’s writing.

Cao Zhen looked at the arrogantly strutting young man, wondering if the realization of his identity made him internally exclaim, ‘Damn it, it’s a Peak Master?’

How awkward!

Cao Zhen could feel the embarrassment radiating from the young man before him.

“Disciple Chang Tiance of Immortal Pen Peak pays his respects to the Peak Master,” Chang Tiance said as he folded his fan and saluted with a fist, “Why did the Peak Master change his previous opinion?”

Immortal Pen Peak?

Cao Zhen instantly understood why someone was picking a fight.

One interesting aspect of the Hundred Peaks Sect’s one hundred peaks was that each peak had its own unique feature, but there were also peaks with similar specializations.

For example, Immortal Pen Peak and Wonderful Pen Peak both focused on incorporating calligraphy and painting into the path of immortal cultivation.

Their rankings were also similar, sometimes one was higher and at other times the other.

This resulted in mutual lack of acceptance.

They were similar to the Sword Sect and Qi Sect of the Huashan School in “The Smiling, Proud Wanderer”; of course, this rivalry fell short of being mortal enemies on sight, being simply a mutual belief that the other was inferior in the approach to the artistic path of cultivation.

Chang Tiance, having heard someone criticize the writing on Wonderful Pen Peak’s plaque, was secretly thrilled.

But when he realized the speaker actually feared Wonderful Pen Peak’s reputation, he decided to stand up for him and at the same time blunt Wonderful Pen Peak’s edge.

What he did not expect was that this person would be a Peak Master.

This left him with most of his ready arguments rotting in his belly, unusable.

Cao Zhen didn’t care whether the two peaks were truly at odds over their principles, or just mutually disdainful literati.

After all, he had no intention of getting involved, and casually said, “Art is in the eye of the beholder.”

Seeing that Cao Zhen didn’t want to dwell on it, Chang Tiance felt it was too good an opportunity to miss — a chance to use a Peak Master’s words to needle Wonderful Pen Peak.

How could he let it go so easily?

“Are you afraid of Wonderful Pen Peak, Peak Master?” Chang Tiance hurriedly resorted to provocation.

Cao Zhen found himself disliking this disciple of Immortal Pen Peak, Chang Tiance.

Was the latter trying to treat him like a fool?

Why drag him into a quarrel between their two peaks?

“The rules of the Hundred Peaks Sect are to foster affection among the Hundred Peaks; we are one family.” Cao Zhen frowned as he measured up Chang Tiance, “Sowing discord with your every word, is this how your Peak Master teaches you?”

Chang Tiance immediately felt guilty.

In ordinary days within the sect, aside from those from the Law Enforcement Immortal Palace, few would make such principled accusations.

Seeing that the young man had indeed backed down, Cao Zhen turned to Xu Ruyi and said, “You’re the same, unable to accept criticism from others, you will ultimately have difficulty achieving greatness.”

After educating both, Cao Zhen felt confident that neither would think he was favoring the other, and he calmly headed towards the registration area.

Chang Tiance and Xu Ruyi were stunned for a moment, then looked at each other to see their mutual embarrassment.

Yet, they also felt unnecessarily scolded, and if things were to end here, it would be hard to save face.

“Hah, initially saying the writing was unimpressive, but changing tune upon learning it was the work of Wonderful Pen Peak,” Chang Tiance tried to keep face, “It must be a complete lack of understanding.”

Xu Ruyi, recalling that Cao Zhen’s initial critique was also one of disapproval until he heard the mention of Wonderful Pen Peak, agreed with Chang Tiance with a nod of his head.

“Exactly!

He doesn’t understand writing at all,” Xu Ruyi chimed in.

The disciples from two peaks that had always had friction found common ground for the first time over Cao Zhen.

“Perhaps after a few days of feigning connoisseurship, he believes he understands writing,” Chang Tiance spoke again, “Many Peak Masters in the Hundred Peaks Sect love to affect sophistication.”

Xu Ruyi readily nodded in agreement: “What Chang Junior Brother said is true.”

“Is Junior Brother Xu also new to the Hidden Dragon Immortal Palace?” Chang Tiance spoke up, “I was just about to go register when that Peak Master interfered.

I haven’t had the chance yet.”

“I haven’t had the chance to register either,” Xu Ruyi quickened his pace to the registration area of the Hidden Dragon Immortal Palace, intending to write down his name first and show Chang Tiance from Immortal Pen Peak what true calligraphic cultivation was all about!

Seeing Xu Ruyi quicken his pace, Chang Tiance instantly grasped his intentions and hastened his own steps to the registration desk.

He picked up a writing brush, took a deep breath, and instantly adjusted his spirit to its peak, ready to show his true calligraphy skills and what it really meant to pursue the path of cultivation through calligraphy!

Both completed their spiritual adjustments at the same time, and at that moment, a breeze blew by, flipping the page where Cao Zhen had registered his name to the front of them.