Shi Jian: This Disciple's Words Aren't Exactly Pleasant to Hear!

"The medicinal materials needed to cultivate the three immortal aspects—I've already had the medicine-shop owner help me collect them. They said it would take a few days, though there are some herbs they said they can't buy..." Liu Xiu spoke helplessly. Even if Shi Jian did not ask, he had been ready to bring it up, so that Shi Jian would help him buy the herbs. Even if Shi Jian had no such channels, he felt Maoshan would, or else that Maoshan itself kept a medicine shop. Oh. Should that be called the Alchemy Pavilion?! Shi Jian nodded. "Mm. Write down the names of the herbs you can't buy and hand them to your master. Your master will buy them for you from the Main Altar!" "Thank you, Master..." Liu Xiu said. He knew this was one of the benefits of being a disciple of a great orthodox sect. The mere business of gathering medicinal materials for pill refinement could keep those rogue cultivators busy for ages. And all he had to do was have his master buy them! The difference was plain to see! Shi Jian hummed, then began to ask. He asked about nothing else—only how Liu Xiu had actually compiled that scripture. "Hm? Is that hard?" Liu Xiu said, puzzled. It was nothing more than taking what one knew and setting it out in another way of saying it. "......" "Oh? What, Master—you can't?" "......" Honestly, this disciple's words weren't exactly pleasant to hear! The corner of Shi Jian's mouth twitched. Expressionless, he looked at Liu Xiu. Aware he had said the wrong thing, Liu Xiu hurriedly changed the subject. "Master, did I cultivate the thunder arts wrong?" He asked mainly because of that disdainful eye-roll cast his way. Especially since the eye-roll had come only after the other looked at his kidneys, which made him think of the Gui Water thunder seed he was still gestating. And besides, an eye-roll was still an eye, but Liu Xiu felt it could be swapped for a look of appreciation or something of the sort. Also, he did not quite understand why the other would roll their eyes at him. All he had done was reverse the order of cultivation. Others nurtured inner thunder to gestate a thunder seed, then borrowed outer thunder to cultivate. He had borrowed the outer world to gestate a thunder seed, so as to give rise to inner thunder. The process was a little off, granted, but he still felt it was quite normal. At least he had succeeded, hadn't he! He felt there was nothing wrong with how he had cultivated! "......No!" "Oh, oh, then that's fine!" "......Mm!" His expression barely holding, Shi Jian gave a slight nod. He did not understand how Liu Xiu had cultivated a thunder seed by means of outer thunder. But since it had already been cultivated, that meant there was a reason for it to exist—even if the mere thought of it gave him a headache. The two went on talking. Or rather, Shi Jian spoke of what to watch for in cultivating an immortal aspect, though he himself had never cultivated one. But at his realm, he knew what ought to be done. Listening, Liu Xiu thought to himself that he had not taken the wrong master. He had not even set out on the road, and Shi Jian had already paved half of it. Only Shi Shaojian, in his own bedroom, cultivated with the help of the neutral and live wires while wondering whether Liu Xiu and Shi Jian looked alike. As for why, he was beginning to suspect that Liu Xiu was his own blood brother! The night passed without incident. The next day, the nineteenth of the fifth month. The Yizhuang, at the door of Shi Jian's room. "Master, aren't you eating breakfast?" He had called for a long while, only to find that not only was Shi Shaojian—once again staying up all night practicing the thunder arts—ignoring him, but Shi Jian was ignoring him too. Liu Xiu looked oddly at the door, which opened at a light push. He looked into the empty bedroom and called "Master" a few times. Finding no one, he walked in. What met his eye, on the desk by the window, was a sheet of paper held down by a paperweight, with the two characters "Pudong" written on it. "......" You're in that much of a hurry!! Seeing that the ink on the paper had dried, Liu Xiu knew Shi Jian had run off to Pudong before daybreak to buy books on electromagnetism. Liu Xiu did not leave the bedroom at once. He went up to the offering table and looked at the portraits of the Thunder Bureau's immortals and gods enshrined there, the Celestial Worthy of the Ninth Heaven Who Responds to the Origin and Universally Transforms with the Sound of Thunder among them. He thought for a moment. He grabbed the big handful of offering incense on the table, circulated the incense-lighting art, turned his hand and gave it a flick to light them, then stuffed the incense burner until it was packed full. That done, Liu Xiu bowed with respect. The other had given him a disdainful eye-roll yesterday, but he believed that sooner or later the other would feel his sincerity! Hm? Why did those words feel a little strange! Liu Xiu scratched his head, puzzled, left Shi Jian's bedroom, and pulled the door shut behind him—though he did not shut it all the way. Nothing for it. He had offered too much incense! He called Shi Shaojian to come eat once more. Only then did Shi Shaojian stroll unhurriedly out of his bedroom, come to the stone table in the courtyard, and sit. "Where's Master?" Seeing Liu Xiu sit straight down, Shi Shaojian swept a glance around the Yizhuang. Not seeing Shi Jian, he asked in puzzlement, and Liu Xiu told him that Shi Jian had gone to Pudong to buy books. "......" Honestly, I don't believe it! Shi Shaojian looked at Liu Xiu with suspicion and began to eat with his mind elsewhere. Liu Xiu looked strangely at Shi Shaojian, who kept watching him even while he ate, and couldn't shake the feeling that the other had been shocked silly. But honestly, his senior brother really was shock-resistant!! In his previous life, when his work had been moving funds, he had occasionally given people a shock as well, yet he had never met anyone this shock-resistant! "Junior brother, when were you born?" Shi Shaojian asked, pretending it was idle curiosity. His acting was simply too poor—so poor that Liu Xiu thought a moment and roughly knew what he was thinking. Inwardly speechless, he looked at Shi Shaojian, who seemed to be taking him for a blood brother, and began to answer. After several questions, Shi Shaojian looked at Liu Xiu, who seemed to have not the slightest connection with Shi Jian. He thought it over. He understood. Liu Xiu was indeed his father's second illegitimate son! And he might even be his own younger brother! As for why he thought so—simple. Because the circumstances of his birth, on the face of it, also had nothing to do with Shi Jian. And yet he was Shi Jian's illegitimate son! At this thought, Shi Shaojian looked at Liu Xiu with a complicated gaze. He hesitated a moment, then took from his pocket a wooden shield that looked to be of the same series as the Heavenly Thunder Sword, and held it out to Liu Xiu. "Here. This is the Heavenly Thunder Shield..." "???" No. You really have been shocked silly! Liu · Subway-Phone-Old-Man-Face · Xiu looked at Shi Shaojian with precisely that expression. He did not take the Heavenly Thunder Shield, no bigger than a child's fist. He only said, the corner of his mouth twitching, "Senior brother, I think you're overthink—" Liu Xiu said no more. For one thing, Shi Shaojian had tossed the Heavenly Thunder Shield straight into his arms. For another, Shi Jian was back. Forget it. It had been given, so it was given! He'd explain it to this idiot later!! Liu Xiu put the Heavenly Thunder Shield away and looked toward Shi Jian, descending from the sky with both hands empty. Just as he was startled at why the other's complexion looked so good, Shi Jian suddenly smiled. "Bought it!" Once he had landed, Shi Jian brushed his right hand across his left wrist, and a book on electromagnetic force appeared. Liu Xiu's brow rose as he looked at the jade bracelet on the other's wrist. A storage magic treasure?! But he knew this was not the time to ask about that. Smiling, he stepped forward, cupped his fists, and offered his congratulations. "Congratulations, Master, on obtaining the secret manual of electromagnetism! Accomplished in civil and martial virtue, commanding lightning and mastering magnetism—for a thousand autumns and ten thousand years, your might shall shake the cultivation world!" "......" These words of yours... aren't they pleasant in a slightly wrong way? Shi Jian stopped halfway through his smile and looked at Liu Xiu with a slight frown. Strange. He felt this line sounded awfully heterodox! Only Shi Shaojian, standing in the doorway of his own bedroom, stared blankly at the book in Shi Jian's hand. No—he really had gone to buy books! Wait. If it really was only buying books... Suddenly feeling he had overthought the whole thing, Shi Shaojian looked toward Liu Xiu with his eyes opened even wider. "Give me back my Heavenly Thun—" "Master, just now Senior Brother gave me this Heavenly Thunder Shield..." Liu Xiu said with a smile, pulling out the Heavenly Thunder Shield and cutting him off. He didn't mean anything else by it. It was just—once a thing had reached his hands, could it still be given back? Don't make him laugh. Was he the sort of person who gave things back! Before, when you had misunderstood, I could have returned it. But now the misunderstanding has been cleared up, so why would I give it back? If he did give it back, then wouldn't the misunderstanding have been cleared up for nothing! "If he gave it to you, then keep it!" In high spirits from having bought the book, Shi Jian said it without a care. Shi Shaojian stared at him, eyes wide. "No, the reason I gave him the Heavenly Thunder Shield was..." Shi Shaojian suddenly shut his mouth. He said no more. The reason was simple: he was afraid that if he actually said why, his master would shock him with the thunder arts! Liu Xiu glanced at Shi Shaojian, whose fists were clenched tight with anger, and looked at the English edition of the book on electromagnetic force in Shi Jian's hands. "Master, you understand English too?" "I don't. But I bought an English dictionary!" Shi Jian smiled and took out the English dictionary he had specially bought. Very soon he was not smiling. His face went blank again, and he frowned. Liu Xiu blinked at the sight and tried to read the face. Soon he had roughly read what Shi Jian was thinking at that moment. Damn it. The one who sold the dictionary deceived this seat. This thing can't be read at all...