The guilt that he felt could be considered as an obligation or duty of sort. After all, the blood of the Shen family flowed in him.
If he was devoid of all emotions and ties, things like blood-ties would not do much to restrain him. However, he was not heartless and cold. This was why he would maintain their bond.
He finally understood why Qing Xuan had an upper house. This was to allow for the seniors who had attained success in their cultivation and could not cut their loved ones off to keep the ones they love close. Their loved ones could cultivate along them, but if they could not attain the state of Huandan, they would eventually return to the earth as dust and sand.
As for those who had not attained the state of Huandan, they were not allowed to take in disciples of their own. This served to safeguard Qing Xuan from becoming the private property of one or a few families.
After all, even if one were to rely on external alchemy or celestial core to attain the state of Huandan, it would not guarantee success after all. These were all rare items, and it was difficult to get one’s hand on them.
The system was not perfect, but it served its purpose. Since the founding of Qing Xuan, there were families who tried to utilize the system, but they were still stubbed out by the passing of time.
“Your hands are stained by ink, go clean them,” Shen Lian whispered to her as he thought about all that.
There was a basin next to them, and Shen Lian filled it up with water with just a piece of Talisman paper.
Again, young Ruoxi was not surprised at all. Shen Lian rolled her sleeves up and she extended her small hands into the water basin. She cleaned her hands thoroughly, removing all the ink stains on them.
The clean water turned into a shade of black, and she brought the basin out to pour the water away.
Back then, not only that she did not have to pour the water away herself, even the simple act of washing hands took care of by the servant girls. However, Shen Lian was not going to spoil her that way.
She felt wronged in the beginning but had since gotten used to it.
As she poured the water outwards, a yelp could be heard. It was a thick voice with a hint of pitchy tone.
“You little sh*t, do you not have eyes?” Said the person.
Shortly after, the sound of whip breaking through the air could be heard.
However, before the whip landed on Young Ruoxi, it was grasped by a young man.
The young man would be Shen Lian. He walked towards Young Ruoxi. Young Ruoxi was not afraid at all, she looked directly at the man who was about to injure her.
The person was fair and did not have any facial hair. He rode on the horse and there were water stains on his boots.
There was another horse next to him, and a valiant youth rode on it.
“This uncultured young girl is one of yours?” The person queried in his pitchy voice.
“She is just a child who did not know better and dirtied your shoes, what is the point of being so infuriated?” Shen Lian looked at the person with a neutral expression on his face. He still held the whip in his hands, but Shen Lian was holding onto its end with two of his fingers.
The fair man with no facial hair tried to wrench his horse whip out of Shen Lian’s fingers but to no avail. He tried to let go and he realized that the horsewhip was glued to his hand, as though it was forged by iron, and he could not let go even if he tried to.
Beads of sweat with the size of soybean dripped down from his forehead, and he could not even say a single word.
The valiant youth saw and knew that they had run into an expert. “Little brother, my servant was too rude, and I apologize on behalf of him. Let’s put this behind us?” He said as he gestured with his hands cupped in front of his chest.
Shen Lian glanced at the fair man with no facial hair and looked at the valiant youth again. He smiled and let go of his fingers.
The valiant youth took a look at Shen Lian’s clinic and asked, “Little brother, you own a clinic? “Walking Dead”, that’s interesting.”
Shen Lian named his clinic, the “Walking Dead”, and it was definitely a bold move. There was even a pair of couplet –”Medicine for the deadliest disease; Only the destined ones will be saved.”
In Shendu, a lot of people would pull stunts as such as a gimmick. He was young, and there were plenty of clinics around, which was why up till now he did not have any patient.
Actually, he did have one or two neighbors who came to see him. They were down with a minor illness that was along the lines of a headache or fever. They wanted to offer the pair of siblings some help, which was why they came to get some medicine. However, Shen Lian refused to treat minor illnesses as such.
This raised suspicion with regards to his medical capabilities as a healer.
As words got around, there was not even a person who was curious anymore.
The location of his shop was not central. If one did not pay close attention, one would not realize that there was a clinic here.
Shen Lian did not bother with idle chit-chat, he brought Young Ruoxi back into the house.
The valiant youth was not offended. “Let’s go,” he said to the servant next to him.
The servant was taught a lesson by Shen Lian, and was still breathing heavily. He was not someone without knowledge, and he knew that Shen Lian was not a simple person. Moreover, the valiant youth did not want to dwell on the matter anymore. He took a hint and did not cause more trouble.
“The Shendu City is indeed a place filled with crouching tigers and hidden dragons,” the youth said as they left.
“Sir, don’t we need people like these now? The kid just now was good. Even the disciples of the famed Master Kuhui could not toy around with me like he did. Do you want me to look into his background, and let’s see if we can get him to work for us? He will be a great help,” the fair servant suggested.
“I’m very glad that you can look past what happened earlier and suggest something like that. However, we just arrived in Shendu and it would be best to keep a low profile. Why do you think Qi Wang offered to throw me a welcome party tonight? He is trying to aggravate me,” the youth snickered.
******
Shen Lian looked at Young Ruoxi who was in front of him, “You were not afraid just now, it seems like you have grown quite a lot lately,” he said.
“With brother here, of course, I wouldn’t be afraid of anything,” Young Ruoxi looked up and replied.
Shen Lian gave her a rub on her forehead. “I could not possibly be bringing you around for the rest of my life,” he thought. He was not about to vocalize his thoughts, as it would be really hurtful for the little girl.
As he had dabbled in Feng Shui, he could see the purple aura shrouding the youth. He was someone of utmost importance but was trying to keep a low profile.
Within Shendu City, the dragon aura of the Empress was strong as mid-day, but there was a hint of depression to it. If nothing was done, the dragon aura would start waning after reaching its pinnacle.
As he still had no clue about the Taixu Strategy, he was studying about all these in order to facilitate his comprehension through analogies.
Shendu was the Capital City, and the entire place was a huge Feng Shui set-up. Its effect rippled out and could reach ten thousand miles from here.
The entire geographical position of Da Zhou centered on the Feng Shui set-up at Shendu, and everything would converge here. However, the Qi of earth that stemmed from all directions rushed towards Shendu; at the same time, these Qi of earth were carefully arranged in an orderly manner.
Someone penned the making of this, and the scariest part was that this was an intentional act.
Shen Lian thought if a person was capable of manipulating the river and mountains, said person might even be the likes of holy deities.
Hoping for some inspirations, he wanted to peek into the Dao meaning behind this. Maybe he could instill the eight Qi into his body and carefully arranged them in an orderly manner. That would solve the conflicts and clashes between the different types of Qi.
This was his main purpose of coming to Shendu. Moreover, he knew that the Empress was a strong believer of Buddhism, and Kuhui was an important and well-known figure in the Shendu City.
“I will start teaching you about the cultivation of Qi tomorrow. Even though I cannot teach you about the one hundred and eight techniques of Qing Xuan, by the time that you are ready for Celestialism, I should be able to return to the Mountains. Hence, we should start building a good foundation for you to work within the future,” he said.
His words were also meant as a motivation for himself, of course, Ruoxi would not be able to understand it.