After dragging Chen Shu Ze over to this side, Xiang Han felt that his mission was halfway to completion. The next step was to cultivate their master-disciple… ahem, relationship. Additionally, although mentoring wasn't his main mission, he felt it should be on their agenda.
He spent a night analysing the plan before leaving his courtyard the next day, feeling refreshed. He found two ordinary disciples and quickly found Chen Shu Ze's residence. Then…
Chen Shu Ze had just come back from the Spirit Valley Garden when he saw Xiang Han standing in front of the stone hut with a frown. He swiftly used a cleaning spell to tidy himself before going forward to greet him. "This disciple greets Shizun."
His tone was filled with apprehension and worry as he wondered if Xiang Han was still angry about the matter from yesterday.
Xiang Han turned around expressionlessly and asked, "This is the house Meng'er arranged for you?"
"Uh, I… chose it." Chen Shu Ze quite liked it here, thus he covered for Liu Meng'er.
However, Xiang Han only laughed coldly. "You've just become a disciple, but you've already learnt to deceive your master?"
Chen Shu Ze's heart squeezed as he hardened his scalp to explain. "Shijie brought me to many places, but I ultimately chose this."
"Where's your shijie? Call her over." Xiang Han said stoically.
"Shijie, she… went down the mountain." Chen Shu Ze hesitated.
Xiang Han was speechless. "Where did you go earlier?"
"Answering Shizun, this disciple accepted a task at the Spiritual Valley Garden and went to water the crops."
Xiang Han's lips twitched, speechless once again.
"Cancel this task. In the future, you just need to concentrate on cultivating." As well as cultivating their master-disciple feelings, Xiang Han silently added in his heart.
Chen Shu Ze was filled with hesitation. With his useless spiritual root, was there a need to cultivate and waste resources? But whatever Xiang Han said, he was willing to oblige. So he agreed without thinking.
Xiang Han was very satisfied. "Come with me."
They returned to the courtyard and Xiang Han had Chen Shu Ze sit down before instructing him, "Shu Ze, since you are my disciple and have decided to embark on this path, there are some things you should know. Actually…"
Seeing Chen Shu Ze stare nervously at him, Xiang Han deliberately dragged it out. "You are not human."
Chen Shu Ze was stunned. His entire person… ahem, entire… in any case, from head to toe, he did not feel well. He wondered: Is Shizun scolding him? Or… is there another meaning to it?
Xiang Han held back a laugh. "That's not right either. Strictly speaking, you should be a demon."
Ah? Chen Shu Ze continued to be dumbstruck.
"Ahem, it's like this. If I'm not wrong, you should be half human and half demon. Which means that between your mother and father, one of them is a demon cultivator."
A long time ago, Chen Shu Ze's father had fallen for a female demon cultivator. She was a beautiful wolf demon, called Lu Hongqu. Chen Shu Ze's father's thousand years of hard work were destroyed the moment he met Lu Hongqu. In Father Chen's words, that demon was too powerful – he was unable to resist.
After they got together, they enjoyed a period of sweetness and it didn't take long for Chen Shu Ze to be born. When Father Chen saw the white wolf in his embrace, his mind blanked. His wife had red hair, even if she returned to her original form, it was a red wolf. How could such a joke be born?
It must be noted that in the three generations of his wife's family, there was not a single white wolf. Once he recalled how the white wolf living next door often got along with Lu Hongqu, Father Chen's heart immediately turned into dirt.
Although his heart was broken, he dared not ask his wife whether she liked that man. Luckily, the wolf cub's face was covered in fur so it was impossible to tell who it looked like. It might unexpectedly resemble him.
Humans and demons had different cultivation methods. Humans required a spiritual root but demons did not. Humans could absorb the spiritual energy from the earth and enhance their wisdom to cultivate the five elements, but demons could not. With human influence, they could easily enhance their wisdom but cultivating was extremely difficult.
Due to the difference in bloodlines, their five elements were muddled. When cultivating the spiritual root, it would be affected by the demon veins. But when they cultivated their demon core, it would affect their spiritual root. Normally, the best solution would be to choose one and destroy the other, but such a practice was extremely cruel.
However, since Father Chen dared to have this child, he naturally had a better solution. Thus, it didn't take long for him to bring the little wolf cub back to his sect. But when he passed by the neighboring mountain, he coincidentally met the hateful white wolf.
Meetings between rivals in love would often leave them red-eyed and angry. Father Chen set the wolf cub down on the floor and patted his head. "Be good, go over there and chase some butterflies."
Then, no extra words were spoken as they began to fight. Their battle lasted for a long time until Lu Hongqu rushed over to break them apart.
When Lu Hongqu saw her husband still at their neighboring peak two days after leaving, with no trace of the wolf cub, she grew furious. "Where's our son?"
"Chasing butterf…" Before he could finish, Father Chen was shocked. Because his son was gone.
What happened later was complicated. The wolf cub was chasing butterflies but accidentally went too far and was picked up by a cultivator who treated him as a pet. The cultivator was not a bad person. After he saw that the wolf cub had gained intelligence, he simply helped it seal its demonic energy and allowed it to live as a regular human.
However, peaceful days did not last long. A few months later, a spiritual treasure appeared near the borders of Du'e. The cultivator brought the little wolf cub along but was killed by other cultivators, while the wolf cub was sent flying until he directly passed through the different realms and appeared in the lower realm. Then, he became Chen Shu Ze, the adopted son of a wealthy family with the surname of Chen.
It was extremely tough and he almost died.
Xiang Han could not help sighing. He watched Chen Shu Ze freeze and continued, "With your talent, you'll undoubtedly succeed whether it is cultivating the righteous path or the demonic path. However, you may only choose one. Have you decided what you will choose?"
Chen Shu Ze returned to his senses but he did not answer, only hesitated. "Shizun, you don't mind the fact that I'm… not human?"
Xiang Han shook his head, unperturbed. "There is a reason for every existence. Humans can cultivate, so can other living creatures."
"R-Really?" Chen Shu Ze slowly lowered his head, evidently recovering from the sudden impact. It was understandable since even his species had changed.
Xiang Han gave a soft cough. "Forget it, you can go back and carefully think about it before you tell me."
"No, I've decided." Chen Shu Ze abruptly raised his head and spoke, his tone resolute. "I want to cultivate the righteous way. I want to be human."
Xiang Han shook his head helplessly. "Cultivating the righteous way isn't just about eliminating your other half. In this world, there is a way for half-demons to cultivate. But… cultivating the demon core cannot be done with the righteous way. You can only choose one."
"I will cultivate the righteous way." Chen Shu Ze's voice was firm. He believed that cultivating his demon core would surely bring trouble to Xiang Han since cultivating the demonic path was frowned upon in the lower realm.
Seeing that he had made up his mind, Xiang Han nodded. "Alright, I will first help you to release the seal and open up your demonic veins."
"Shizun, will I revert into a wolf after the seal is undone?" Chen Shu Ze asked with worry. "Moreover, why do I have to open my demonic veins if I'm cultivating the righteous path?"
"It depends on whether you want to revert. But since you have always lived in a human form, you will not be familiar with changing forms, and will not revert under normal circumstances."
"Oh." Chen Shu Ze nodded seriously and seemed to sigh in relief.
"As for opening your demonic veins, it's because it is merged with your other veins. If it is not opened, it will affect your cultivation. Additionally, when the spiritual energy circulates through both veins, it will make cultivation much harder."
"But you just said… the demon veins will affect the spiritual root," Chen Shu Ze asked with hesitation.
Xiang Han endured. But he could not hold back. "I will help you cut off the parts that are affected."
Chen Shu Ze finally shut up and Xiang Han heaved a sigh of relief but he still explained, "When you cultivate the
This was the same method Father Chen had thought of. After the System had gathered the information, Xiang Han easily learned the details of the
Once he was done explaining, Xiang Han went in to retrieve some spiritual spring water for the tub. He poured it out and had Chen Shu Ze soak in it.
Noticing that Xiang Han had been observing him expressionlessly all this while, Chen Shu Ze suddenly felt embarrassed. When he sat into the tub, he was still fully clad in his clothes.
"Take it all off." Xiang Han coughed lightly, seemingly without a change in expression. In reality, he was almost bursting from holding it in.
Chen Shu Ze could not guess his petty thoughts and believed it was a necessity. Hence, he took it off.
With a single glance, Xiang Han grew jealous. Chen Shu Ze looked so thin, but why did he suddenly become so well-built once his shirt was off?
"Shizun, can we begin?" Back-facing him, Chen Shu Ze asked with hesitation in his voice.
"En." Xiang Han schooled his expression. "Sit properly and remain calm."
It wasn't difficult to undo the seal since the cultivator who placed it wasn't powerful. After laying a barrier in the courtyard, it took less than five minutes for Xiang Han to succeed. However, just as he was intending to unblock the demonic core, the beautiful back before him began to warp and transform into a layer of snow-white fur.
Xiang Han was stunned. Then, he heard the water splash.
When he looked down, he only saw two claws extended from the tub. A white wolf sat inside, having turned around at some point, to look pitifully at him. There wasn't a single bit of fierceness or dominance.
"Change back." Xiang Han's temples throbbed. Thankfully, he had just set up a barrier. Otherwise, with the demon aura extending in all directions, others would have already noticed.
"Wu, wu, wu…" The white wolf called out softly, its eyes filled with helplessness.
Xiang Han was exasperated. This was the disadvantage of leaving his mother; He did not even know how to speak after reverting to his original form.
"Think carefully about how you reverted to this form." Xiang Han couldn't help touching his forehead. If he did not change back to a human form, there was no way for him to do anything.
Fortunately, Chen Shu Ze was smart enough to change back without much problems but he was obviously a little embarrassed. After he changed back, he didn't dare to look at Xiang Han.
Xiang Han didn't pay attention to this. He quickly walked behind him and began to move. When unsealing the demon veins, it was necessary to put pressure on a certain acupuncture point in the back of his hand. When cool fingertips touched the back of his hand, Chen Shu Ze couldn't help but freeze for a moment. His expression suddenly became tense.
Xiang Han's posture was very good, but when he touched Chen Shu Ze's hand, he couldn't help rubbing it.
He thought to himself: His hands feel nice.
Chen Shu Ze froze again for a moment, only to feel a burning heat on the back of his hand. He suddenly felt a little uncomfortable.
Did Shizun just… touch his hand? Was it an illusion or… His thoughts were suddenly thrown into disarray.
Xiang Han quickly began to mobilise his spiritual energy. Seeing that Chen Shu Ze was distracted, he couldn't help reminding him, "Focus."
Chen Shu Ze's thoughts dissipated in an instant and he scolded himself internally: It's an illusion, it must be an illusion! How could a person as arrogant and cold as Shizun do such a thing? Besides, they are both men and have a master and disciple relationship… Sigh, what the hell was he thinking about? It is simply blasphemy.
Xiang Han didn't know that his image was almost ruined. At this time, he was also cursing himself internally: Endure, you can't succumb no matter how good it is, stop thinking about it!
It wasn't easy to unseal a demon vein in the Golden Core stage. After half an hour, Xiang Han finally succeeded, but he was about to collapse.
In order to uphold his image, he immediately urged Chen Shu Ze, "Alright, you can go and come back tomorrow morning."
After unsealing his demon veins, Chen Shu Ze felt extremely light and even his spiritual energy was much clearer. Hearing Xiang Han's words, he subconsciously got up, but forgot that he wasn't wearing any clothes.
Xiang Han caught a glimpse of a certain part and suddenly became jealous again. He threw the clothes directly at Chen Shu Ze's face and gnashed his teeth. "Put this on and go back immediately!"
T/n: Can't wait for Chen Shuze to commit blasphemy XD jk, I don't know what's going to happen next
E/n: Honestly, I'm only here for the blasphemy
…
Vivi: Also, as u might have noticed I haven't been posting much… ya gurl has been super busy with her new job and barely have time, let alone translate so any chapters in the near future are from my existing stockpile. Once that's gone, uh…. we'll think about that later