Chapter Ninety-Two: More Than a Dozen Days

Knowing is enough; never, ever forget it. Zui Hongchen gave another worried reminder, for her junior brother was a little too frivolous in temperament, and that inevitably made her concerned.

“I won’t forget.”

Faced with his senior sister’s repeated admonitions, he felt no impatience at all. Instead, a warm feeling rose in him, and he could not help but smile.

“What is there to smile about?” Zui Hongchen asked sternly.

“Nothing. By the way, Senior Sister, how many days have I been in seclusion?”

“Only three days.”

“Three days already?” Liu Ping was startled. After receiving the messages of those two arts, he had felt as though only an hour had passed, at most three. He had not expected three days to have gone by.

“For such formidable arts, only three days is not much at all.”

“True.” Liu Ping nodded. He chatted idly for a while longer, then gradually grew sleepy and went back to the guest room to rest.

The next morning, Hua’er woke him by pushing at him with eager little hands, her face full of anticipation. Seeing Liu Ping open his eyes, she said happily, “Uncle Master, I’m hungry.”

Liu Ping said nothing, turned over, and kept sleeping.

“Uncle Master, don’t sleep.” Hua’er pleaded, “I’m so hungry. You said you’d cook for me, and so many days have already passed. How can you break your word? You’re my uncle master, after all. Shouldn’t you set an example?”

“Of course I shouldn’t be like that. But if you keep disturbing your uncle master’s sleep, isn’t that rude?” Seeing the little girl trying to argue her way out of it, Liu Ping turned his head and asked with a smile.

“I suppose it is rude, but I’m still little. Surely Uncle Master won’t blame me?” The tiny little girl put on a pitiful look again.

Liu Ping scooped her up onto the bed and rubbed her plump little cheeks. “You little rascal. In front of your uncle master, you don’t have even a little respect?”

“Of course not. Uncle Master is such a good person. Why would I need to be afraid? All I have is liking for you.” Hua’er said slyly.

“If you like your uncle master so much, why not just grow up and marry me?” Liu Ping could not help teasing her.

“Okay, okay. Only after I marry Uncle Master, Uncle Master has to cook dishes for Hua’er every day.” Hua’er agreed at once, then began bargaining.

Liu Ping said, “If you marry me, these little things will naturally be your job. You still want your husband to do them? What kind of wife would that make you?”

Hua’er pouted. “Then when Hua’er grows up, I won’t marry Uncle Master!”

Liu Ping was speechless. He pinched her cheeks, making her puff up her lips in displeasure, and in return she also pinched his face, showing that she was absolutely not easy to bully.

In the morning they had Leaf’s eight-treasure porridge. At noon he went into the kitchen and made a feast. A few days earlier he had deliberately bought quite a lot of seasonings and stored them in his treasure pouch, and now they came in handy, allowing him to make all manner of dishes.

Sweet and sour pork ribs, braised carp, pork with preserved mustard greens, boiled sliced meat in chili broth, pumpkin with salted egg yolk, stir-fried beef with scallions, assorted stir-fried seafood and vegetables, and a whole series of homestyle dishes. Besides these, there were many snacks as well: rolling donkey cakes, stir-fried hawthorn sweets, noodles with bean paste, aiwowo rice cakes, yam cakes, almond tofu, and cloud-treasure wontons.

One dish after another was made in his hands. Many were secretly carried off by Hua’er and never made it to the dining table; no one knew which corner she hid in to eat them up.

In fact, what Liu Ping did not know was that Hua’er, after secretly taking away another dish and a plate of sweet and sour pork ribs, was not doing it out of greed at all, but for another purpose.

She placed a plate on the floor before the cabinet in the study, set down a little sweet and sour pork rib as if feeding a kitten, and then turned and left.

Not long after, from inside the cabinet, Guo’er, wrapped in a quilt, sniffed the fragrance suspiciously and cracked the cabinet open a little. Her eyes darted about, and soon she saw the sweet and sour pork rib on the floor.

She swallowed hard. After hesitating for quite a while, she finally opened the cabinet, stepped out, picked up the rib on the plate, and ate it in one bite.

“Delicious…”

Guo’er murmured. She did not even spit out the bones, but ate it clean and swallowed it down. Just as she was about to go back, she caught the scent of something else.

At the entrance to the study was another plate, and on it was a sweet and sour pork rib.

She walked over unconsciously and ate it. Then she saw that there was another plate outside, so she kept going.

As she walked, she ate the sweet and sour pork ribs Hua’er had placed on the floor. Before long, Guo’er had been lured all the way to the room where the dining table was set. Seeing a table full of food, she hesitated for a moment and was just about to leave, when Hua’er pounced on her, grabbed her, and dragged her to the table.

When Liu Ping came over, he saw Guo’er seated in the chair and could not help smiling. “I haven’t seen you in a long time.”

Guo’er buried her face inside the quilt, her little face flushed red. She gave a soft reply, then said in a voice as faint as a mosquito’s buzz, “Uncle Master... hello.”

After that, they ate to their hearts’ content, chatting and laughing together. The atmosphere was exceedingly warm.

Zui Hongchen also kept smiling, clearly in a very good mood. Whether it was because of the food or because of this atmosphere, one could not tell.

Afterward, they stayed in this blessed grotto-heaven for another dozen days, devoting themselves to cultivation. Under his senior sister’s guidance, Liu Ping finally caused the seed of the Earth Blossom to take root, which truly thrilled him for a while. There were still plenty of cultivation resources in his treasure pouch, enough to refine the Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown. He only hoped that before the end of the year, he could advance as quickly as possible to Earth Immortal.

During this period, Liu Ping exchanged many words with his senior sister. Not only did he receive her guidance, he also obtained more than a dozen magic treasures. Though they were all low-grade treasures, crafted by her in her leisure time, they were perfectly suited for a Human Immortal. Once she learned that Liu Ping had cultivated the Dao Soldier Wings, she gave them to him without the slightest hesitation. Liu Ping was not the sort to fuss over such things, and accepted them frankly.

Over those dozen days, the progress of the Dao Soldier Wings went fairly smoothly. He could barely control nine magic treasures, but as for the Descent of Gods and Demons, he was still at a complete loss. That could not be rushed, nor could it be forced.

Unexpectedly, the most noticeable change was Liu Ping’s bearing. He now had something of an otherworldly quality about him, a transformation brought about by his cultivation of World Heart.

World Heart was the supreme mental art his senior sister had obtained from the White Emperor’s inheritance, and it was profoundly mysterious.

Cultivating it could not increase strength or enhance attack power, but it was of enormous help to one’s state of mind.

A strong person is called strong not because of brute power, but because their heart is strong.

This is not nonsense. The weak, no matter how much power they possess, are still weak, because their hearts are frail. They cannot bear setbacks, cannot endure loneliness, cannot resist temptation, much less cast off desire. It is not they who control power, but power that controls them.

By contrast, the strong—no matter how weak they may be at present—so long as they do not die, there will surely come a day when they become strong. No matter how many setbacks they suffer or how many obstacles stand in their way, they will grit their teeth and charge forward again and again, until at last they grow powerful.

This World Heart could slowly make a normally ordinary heart become strong. One could imagine how precious it was.

Though the days in the small blessed grotto-heaven were pleasant, he still had to leave eventually. After staying for more than ten days, it was time to return.

Liu Ping went back outside and then to the academy, only to discover that there was not a single student there.

He went to the dormitory, but still did not see Zhu Yingtai, and could not help wondering, “What is going on?”

After running into a lecturer and asking about it, he learned the reason.

It turned out that with the Dragon Boat Festival approaching, the Heavenly Mandate Academy had simply granted a month-long holiday. If it had only been seven days, many students would have chosen to remain in the academy. But now that it was a full month, their hearts longed for home, and all of them had returned.

“So that’s how it is.” Liu Ping understood at once, nodded, bade the lecturer farewell, and returned to the dormitory. After packing his luggage, he immediately found the letter Zhu Yingtai had left for him.