Chapter 41: Not Playing Around with Disciple Leads to Death
It’s as though Zhu Yao had found a new source of entertainment, as she kept enlarging and shrinking, enlarging and shrinking every part of her body.
Eh! Wait a minute. Why did she feel like she was like a balloon, becoming bigger wherever she blows?
Finally realizing this truth, Zhu Yao tearfully stopped. Sensing the mass of air in her body, she actually found out that not only did it not disappear, there were signs of it growing. Hence, she tried to disperse that mass of air, spreading them uniformly across every corner of her body.
This took up more effort than moving an entire mass of air, as she took entirely two hours before she finished guiding the air. And, her body had already turned into the figure of a fifteen or sixteen year old girl.
Growing up in a single night, this sure felt a little fantastical!
Carefully inspecting her new body, the size of every part of her body was very normal. The places that were supposed to be sunk, sank, and for the places that were supposed to be raised……
Flat! This was illogical.
Zhu Yao silently inspected the pair of undeveloped small buns in front of her chest, and suddenly had an idea. Since she was able to control the size of her body, then did that not mean that she could… re-adjust some places that she were lacking in?
When she thought of this, Zhu Yao was a little excited, and immediately controlled the mass of air, guiding it to her chest, silently chanting: b, c, d, e, f……
However, no matter how she guided the mass of energy, the small buns in front of her chest were still very principled, and kept to their original sizes.
She did not believe that she couldn’t do it, and guided the entire mass of energy towards her chest. In the end, with a poof, she returned to being a dumpling. Great, now she did not even have a pair of small little buns.
The hell! Does it have to be that hard to make my chest bountiful?
Zhu Yao could only give up on her grand plan, and once again, gathered the mass of energy, returning to her earlier teenage girl figure.
She was really was curious about her looks, as she cast an Ice-Gathering Art, and made use of the reflection on the ice to look at her own face. It seemed like her plump little bun face finally had sharpened edges to it, and had developed into the good direction of a pumpkin seed-like face. However, it was still possible to see traces of her former bulging cheeks, and her eyes still rather looked the same as before, with double eyelids. A face that looked a little like a doll’s, cuter than average, and lacked the feminine charm of a mature woman, in general, she was not considered ugly. But, unknown as to whether it was because of the aftermath of her bun face, her entire face was tightly stiffened. She wanted to smile, only to find out that she was only able to make a strange arc.
Not good, not only was she flat-chested, she even grew out a poker face!
Zhu Yao realized that, after she completely familiarized herself with this body, the mass of air in her body had already disappeared, and she could no longer find a single wisp of air. Hence, she could only inform her master about the incident of her growing up in a single night.
However, her master seemed to have known about it before she even told him, and was not too shocked about her new look.
Yu Yan’s expression turned solemn, as he looked at his disciple in front of him whose height was already at his chest. “Initially, I was worried that there would be effects on your body due to the Heavenly Lightning, but it seems like there’s no problem now.”
“Ah?” What do you mean?
However, Yu Yan turned around and brought her outside. With a wave of his hand, several spiritual swords instantly flew out, landing at a few different directions. The endless cries of of the crickets and the caws of the birds instantly disappeared completely, as an Isolation Barrier had been formed.
“Use all your strength to release your strongest move.”
Zhu Yao was a little dazed. Although she did not know his intentions, she still obediently circulated all of the spiritual energy in her body, and summoned a Heavenfall.
A bolt of Heavenly Lightning fell from the sky, directly striking towards grass patch not far away from her. Yet, the moment before it struck on the ground, it was dissipated by the barrier.
Zhu Yao was just about to ask, but, the moment she took a step, guru, she rolled onto the ground.
The hell! Why did she revert back into a child? And she no longer had that enlarging and shrinking mass of air in her body, a cloud of ‘what the fu–’ ran over her head¹.
“As I thought!” Yu Yan calmly carried the little dumpling off the ground, and returned to the cottage.
“Master?” Just what was going on? She could not understand at all!
“Do you know why regular people have to be a full year old before it’s possible to test for their Spirit Veins?” Yu Yan pulled up her little fat hand, cupped her wrist, and inspected her body through her pulse.
Zhu Yao shook her head. “Do Spirit Veins only grow after one is a year old?”
“The type of Spirit Veins one has is determined since birth, and is not developed on another day.” Only after inspecting that she was indeed fine and sound, did he finally retract his hand. “As to why Spirit Veins can only be tested after one is a year old, is because the body of an infant is too weak, and is basically unable to hold spiritual energy. If one were to forcefully cultivate before then, that infant will die from severed meridians.” The reason why he only broke through into Foundation at ten years old, even though he entered the sect at three years old, was because of this reason. Before he was ten, his body was basically unable to endure the pressure of Foundation.
“But I’m fine!” She was a healthy little dumpling.
“Initially, I was worried about this point as well. But today, I realized you’re able to freely change the size of your body.” Yu Yan stroked her head thoughtfully. “This body of yours, it seems like… it has been specially prepared for your resurrection.”
Zhu Yao was a little startled, and suddenly had the feeling as though she had received a big Level Up reward.
“Then why did I revert back now?”
“Because that art you cast earlier, had already used up all of your spiritual energy. Once your spiritual energy recovers, you will revert back to that form.”
“……” She felt like she was Conan Edogawa!
“Then when can I change back?”
“Once your spiritual energy recovers for two days, it will be enough.”
“Master!”
“Mn?”
“Next time, can you please finish your explanation in one go, instead of giving examples?” Clearly, he could have told her directly, why did he have to bring her out to cast that bolt of Heavenly Lightning? You can’t play around with your disciple like this!
Yu Yan’s expression instantly stiffened, unfortunately, because of the cold face he had kept up for so long, it basically could not be seen. “Don’t imagine things, have an early rest.”
Calmly placing his disciple on the bed, calmly covering her with the blanket, and then, he calmly walked to the other side of his room, calmly opening the closet, and calmly taking out a white cotton cloth.
And he calmly asked. “Do you want to change diapers?”
“Change your sister’s!”
Ever since she found out that her body could grow bigger, smaller, longer and shorter at uncertain times, Zhu Yao became very well-behaved, patiently waiting to grow up. There were too many mysteries surrounding her body, and even her master did not know about them, not to mention the words on her corpse back then, and that strange loading bar, which even she could not clearly explain. She kind of felt that she had caught a glimpse of some sort of rule, but after thinking deeply about it, she felt it was illogical.
So as to not bring about unnecessary trouble, she decided to wait till she was fully grown. At the very least, until the time when there’s not too much of a difference with her figure when her spiritual energy depletes? Speaking of which, she found it hilarious. Back then, she kept feeling that she was too old, and when she came into the sect, she was greatly surrounded by a bunch of little turnips. And now, she was actually hoping that she could grow up faster.
Before she was ten, she decided not to head down the mountain.
However, this morning, she felt Wang Xuzhi’s spiritual pressure. That spiritual pressure came from the Main Mountain’s direction. It was both rash and quick, carrying a killing rage which could even be felt from the Jade Forest Mountain.
Zhu Yao felt that something must have happened to him. A few days ago, Xiao Yi formed his Azoth Core, so he should have came out by now. With his obsession with Xiao Yi, that little wimp would not do anything stupid, right?
In the end, Zhu Yao still decided to head out to look. Leaving the Jade Forest Mountain, she headed towards the direction where the spiritual pressure was dispersing from.
¹’心中一百匹草泥马奔过’: Literal translation: A hundred mud horses sprinted past in her heart. ‘Mud horses or 草泥马’ is actually a profanity in Chinese, but because I felt the joke wouldn’t work well with a literal translation, I went with something similar in English instead.