Ranran sighed silently in her heart, and reminded herself again: Master is not the same as before, she should also be careful to keep some distance from Master, so as not to make him dislike her.
However, the days back in Xishan are much richer than before.
At least the amount of rice cooked is several times more than before.
Su Yishui recruited ten disciples at once this time. In addition to the previous four, there were a total of fourteen disciples.
Counting the master and his uncles, that’s nearly 20 people. Most of these people are young men in their 17s and 18s, and they can eat a lot, and they are far from the stage of fasting!
Second senior brother Yu Tong is too busy to prepare three meals a day for so many people, so in addition to Ran Ran, he also has to call Qiu Xier, Gao Cang and Bai Baishan to help.
The two girls were fine since they did the same things every day, but Gao Shan and Bai Bai Shan were very unhappy about it.
Now they can't even touch the edge of the martial arts training ground, but have to go to the kitchen all day long, cooking endless meals.
Seeing that those later comers all inherited the true teachings of their master, meditating in the thatched cottage and practicing martial arts in the training ground all day long, he naturally felt unhappy.
But the new disciples were very diligent. Ever since Xue Ranran came back, a few of them would take the initiative to go to the kitchen to help.
A boy who looks clean, is nimble and has a sweet mouth, is a good kid that everyone loves.
Just like now, Ranran was picking lentils, and the young man named Yue Sheng came over and moved a stool to sit next to Senior Sister Xue.
At this moment, he did not show the airs of a noble young man. From time to time, he chatted with Senior Sister Xue, asking about her experiences in Tianmai Mountain and expressing his admiration as her junior brother.
Gradually, the other two fellow apprentices also came over, listening to what Senior Sister Xue said while staring at her lively eyes and sweet smile.
When they first came to the mountain, they had only heard of this senior sister but had never seen her in person.
Later, when the senior sister and master came back, they were astounded when they saw this senior sister for the first time in the martial arts training ground.
Fourth Senior Sister is so beautiful!
Moreover, she is different from the mediocre senior brothers. She is the chosen girl who entered the marrow washing pool.
I wonder if she will look for a partner to practice with in the future? Or will she look for one among her fellow disciples?
After all, we are fellow disciples, and we are the first to see the moon. We all practice the same school, spend every day together, and feel more comfortable together.
For a while, there were many young men who had this idea in mind. After studying, they all wanted to see this senior sister by the poolside of the corridor in Xishan.
But this sister was a little too shy and didn't want to talk to them.
The time spent helping in the kitchen was particularly wonderful. After all, in the small kitchen, it was impossible for my sister not to talk.
As a result, there were not enough benches in the small kitchen at Xishan. In the end, even the second uncle was "invited" out by the filial nephews and nephews, and they took care of all the kitchen matters!
However, Gao Cang refused to leave. He looked at Qiu Xier smiling sweetly at his fellow apprentices and got angry, then chopped the white radish viciously with his knife.
Ranran looked at these young men who were close to her age without thinking much. She treated them all as her younger brothers and just smiled and talked to them casually.
This harmonious atmosphere continued at the dinner table.
Now Su Yishui does not eat with his disciples. Yu Tong brings the meals to the study.
The two uncles did not eat with the young men, but stayed in the study to serve their master.
Therefore, the huge dining hall was filled with Xishan’s younger disciples.
There were three tables, each of which could seat five to six people. But the table where Xue Ranran was sitting was particularly crowded, with eight people sitting at it.
Gao Cang couldn't even use his chopsticks to pick up any food because they were squeezed. He threw his chopsticks in anger and said, "Is there more meat in the bowls on this table than on other tables? Everyone has to squeeze in. How can we eat?"
At first, these young men were full of respect for their senior brothers from Xishan. After all, Gao Cang and his brothers were the first to join the sect, so they had to show respect to them.
But in the past month, the new disciples have also tasted the taste - the master simply looks down on these former disciples, so he has been recruiting new disciples with great fanfare.
Moreover, Gao Cang and his friends had too little foundation. A few times, he was eager to show off his skills outside the martial arts training ground, but these later disciples with more wisdom saw through his flaws.
You have to know that Gao Cang and his men can't even go to the martial arts training ground now, and they are just doing odd jobs in Xishan.
This kind of person is eating at the same table with them, and they don't even dislike him, so why does he throw his chopsticks and scold others?
Yue Sheng was the disciple with the best foundation besides Shen Kuo. Like Shen Kuo, although he had never joined the three major sects, he came from a family of cultivators. With the help of good fortune, he had opened up his spiritual meridians at an early age. Although he was only eighteen years old, he had already reached the second level of foundation building.
Therefore, all the new disciples respected him and Shen Kuang, and they were regarded as the leaders among the new disciples.
These past few days, when he went to help in the kitchen, he was often bullied by Bai Baishan, with Gao Cang always helping him. Yue Sheng had already secretly developed a resentment in his heart.
Now they were reprimanded by Gao Cang in front of Senior Sister Xue. Yue Sheng immediately felt embarrassed and stood up and said coldly: "Is your name engraved on this table? Why do you have to sit at this table alone? If you think it's too crowded, can't you sit at another table?"
Gao Cang was at this table because Qiu Xier was at this table. Qiu Xier was inseparable from Xue Ranran, and there were many handsome young men at this table, so she naturally didn't want to leave!
But he couldn't tell the reason for such a complicated situation.
At the beginning, the master had clearly forbidden him and Bai Baishan to show their affection to the junior sisters. The young man's ambiguous love was also self-evident.
Now he was being ridiculed by a new junior fellow apprentice in front of Qiu Xier. This was intolerable!
The two men's verbal battle escalated, and their voices became louder and louder. Words like "young brat is still wet behind the ears", "a good-for-nothing who got in early", and "taking advantage of his age to bully others" became more and more intense.
Finally, when the two men were swearing and wrestling with each other, Qiu Xier couldn't stand it anymore. She shouted and rushed over to help Gao Cang catch Yue Sheng.
Several young men who were good friends with Yue Sheng were not to be outdone and came over to help Qiu Xier. Even the usually tactful Bai Baishan was so angry that he jumped into the battle.
When he was wrestling with someone and his hands were not enough, he actually threw off his shoes and used his nimble feet to poke his fellow apprentices in the nostrils!
Unfortunately, Yue Sheng was smoked by his toes. He was so angry that he screamed and actually used the energy in his Dantian to attack Baibaishan.
After Bai Baishan was released to Uncle Zeng Yi's care, he stopped practicing Qi and felt very empty. If he was really hit by Yue Sheng, he would probably vomit blood and get injured.
Ran Ran was quick and agile. He flipped over the table and pushed Bai Baishan away. He then reached out and picked up a plate of peanuts on the table. With a little strength, three or four peanuts hit the knee acupoints of those people at once.
As a result, the teenagers had no time to react and all fell to their knees.
Yue Sheng was so angry that his eyes turned red. He didn't care about whether she was his senior sister or not. He yelled at Xue Ranran, "You actually helped those bastards. Hurry up and untie me..."
As a result, the fourth senior sister, who had a smile on her face and looked soft and gentle, actually came over. However, she did not untie the acupoints, but instead reached out and slapped Yue Sheng hard.
"Whose master are you pretending to be? It's not your turn to be the master of this West Hill!" Ran Ran no longer had a smile on his face. His stern face actually revealed a bit of intimidating murderous aura.
Yue Sheng wanted to glare at him, but Xue Ranran said coldly, "In the rules of Xishan, there has never been a rule that junior brothers can bully senior brothers by relying on their own abilities. If you just fight with fists and feet, it will be fine, but you actually use your true energy to sneak attack! Are you going to kill the second senior brother? If you are so capable, why do you want to become a disciple and learn skills? If you are like this, won't you bully your master and ancestors when you become powerful in the future?"
Yue Sheng's face flushed red, and he gritted his teeth and said, "If I did something wrong, my master would teach me. What right do you have to teach me?"
Ran Ran smiled, thinking that these young boys were sometimes just like unreasonable children, refusing to admit their mistakes, so she bent down, looked at Yue Sheng who was kneeling on the ground and unable to move, and suddenly stretched out her finger to flick his forehead, smiling and said: "It's because I am more capable than you!"
Yue Sheng's face was not only red, his eyes were also red. He always thought that he had a good foundation, but when Xue Ranran's peanuts bounced at him just now, he couldn't react and didn't dodge.
Being teased by a woman in a humiliating tone and being hit on the head, this kind of humiliation is really enough to make one's dantian explode...
"Have you made enough noise?" Just at this moment, a cold voice suddenly came from the door.
Everyone looked over and shrank their necks. It turned out that Su Yishui had been standing at the door of the hall, looking at them coldly.
Now, I can't even have dinner.
Su Yishui was too lazy to even ask the reason. He just ordered them to go down the mountain to fetch water and fill up a dry pool halfway up the mountain.
Everyone was dumbfounded after hearing this, wanting to cry out but not daring to.
When those disciples walked out with their heads down, Su Yishui glanced and saw Ran Ran standing there without moving.
"Didn't you hear what I just said? Why don't you go?" When Su Yishui said this, his tone was cold and there was anger in his eyes.
But only he himself knew that his inexplicable anger was not because his disciples were disobedient.
Rather, the scene he just saw seemed familiar, which aroused his old anger - when he was still a teenager, Su Yishui remembered vividly that he had also been hit on the head by a female devil with an arrogant tone.
She smiled and said, "What? You still don't accept what I said? Who said I am more capable than you? You have to listen to me..."
Similar tones and similar situations made him furious, so Su Yishui spoke to Xue Ranran in an aggressive tone.
But who would have thought that the little girl who always obeyed him would hold her neck high and say firmly: "I did nothing wrong, why should I be punished?"
Su Yishui did not get angry but laughed: "You are right, whose fault is it?"
Ran Ran said without flinching, "Disciples are not harmonious, they don't respect their elder brothers, and there is infighting among the same sect. It is naturally your fault as the master!"
Su Yi looked at her coldly, and suddenly stretched out his hand to pinch her vital point, gritted his teeth and said, "Say it again?"
Ranran knew that he was not a paper tiger trying to scare people. The current master was different from the hard-mouthed but soft-hearted master she knew before.
But she was still fearless and said calmly: "Master, when you first accepted Gao Cang and the others, their talents were like this, and they did not deceive you. You said at that time that accepting disciples depends on fate, and they are all people who have a fate with you, so no matter their talents, you will teach them wholeheartedly. Although you have forgotten the past now, they are indeed your disciples. Just like your adopted children, how can you just give up on them?"
Su Yishui said coldly: "I didn't blast these bastards out, aren't they still on the West Mountain?"
Ran Ran remained calm and retorted, "Why do Yue Sheng and the others have no respect for me? It's all because of your contempt for me. You only let them do rough work and don't allow them to practice with you. For young practitioners, this is not only a punishment, but also a humiliation! But what did they do wrong? They followed you through life and death, and even if they were not very capable, they never retreated easily when facing demons. Even if you became irritable because of the spirit spring and mocked them, they never thought of leaving. Now, they have been despised and bullied by their junior brothers, but you don't know right from wrong and give them fifty strokes of the cane each. Why should I go to fetch water for the wrong reason?"
Su Yishui smiled, looking at the girl who rarely showed her stubbornness, and slowly mocked her: "Just because I am more capable than you! Isn't that enough for you to be punished?"
Ranran knew that Su Yishui was using her words to shut her up.
Ran Ran rarely showed her stubbornness, but once she started, nine oxen couldn't pull her back. She said coldly: "You are indeed more capable than me, but if you are wrong, it is wrong. It is nothing for a teacher to make a mistake, and there is no need to admit your mistake to your disciple. I just don't know if there are enough dry ponds in the West Mountain, so that you don't have to punish your disciple again in the future without a legitimate reason!"
Su Yishui has always been a shrewd person. Even when he was angry, his face was just cold. But at this moment, he was really angry at this sharp-tongued and stubborn girl. Just when he raised his hand, Yuchen and Yutong rushed over and hurriedly separated the master and disciple. Yutong loudly scolded Ranran for being ignorant and talking nonsense, and then secretly winked at Ranran, signaling her to hurry out.
Although the master had a smile on his face just now, his eyes were filled with murderous intent. It was obvious that he was driven crazy by the girl Ranran.
In order to avoid the tragedy of a master killing his disciple to preach the truth in Xishan, she, as the master's uncle, naturally had to protect the little girl from disaster and quickly separate the master and disciple.
Ran Ran was also very angry today. After she finished speaking her mind, she felt a little better. Naturally, she took advantage of the situation and ran back to her room.
By this time the sun had begun to set, and the fellow students had all gone down the mountain to fetch water, leaving the courtyard deserted.
Ran Ran calmed down and collapsed powerlessly under the little reincarnation tree in the yard. He leaned over to look at the green leaves swaying in the wind and said weakly, "Today, Master will probably come and uproot you. Then we will go to hell together..."
Thinking of this, Ranran did not regret his impulse just now.
What she said was all from the heart. Rather than being disappointed in her master, it would be more accurate to say that she hoped her master would become successful and was disappointed that he failed to do so.
She hoped that she could scold her master to wake him up, so that he would not regret mistreating her eldest senior brother and the others after removing the soul-cleansing talisman.
But if you think about it carefully, the tradition of Xishan School was originally crooked. Didn't Su Yishui become so powerful that he overthrew her, who was once his master?
In this way, Yue Sheng and his people have inherited Su Yishui's legacy, disrespecting their elders, and when they become powerful, they must kill their master to prove their truth...
I wonder if the Xishan sect rules will be rewritten in the future, and those who don’t kill their master are not allowed to become disciples! But if so, I’m afraid there won’t be enough masters. Writing sect rules is a real art…
She was lost in thought for a moment, and was waiting lazily under the tree, but Su Yishui did not come to settle the score angrily, only Second Uncle brought her food.
"You can't even skip meals if you're angry with your master, right?"
Ran Ran got up and asked Yu Tong carefully, "Second Master... has Master calmed down?"
Yu Tong looked at her cautious and tentative look and couldn't help but laugh: "You still know how to be afraid? Then why did you say things like you were looking for death?"
Ran Ran smiled and said nothing, she just took the bowl and chopsticks and started eating. Tonight she had cooked the soup for two hours, it would be a pity if she didn't eat it.
After finishing the meal, the unhappiness in her heart almost dissipated. Ran Ran was not the type to immerse herself in sadness for too long, so she took out the second half of the Brahma Teachings that she brought with her and began to read through it page by page.
When she and her master were lurking at the Gaokan camp on the front line, she once heard Mu Ranwu and Tu Jiuyi say that they needed more talismans.
This shows that the Drunken Immortal is not in Mu Ranwu's hands, but in Chimen's hands. The spider in the back of the village and the incoherent words left by the Drunken Immortal have not been solved yet.
Although the master has gotten rid of the spiritual spring, his mind is still not very sharp. Naturally, we can't expect him to go deep into the Red Gate and rescue Jiu Laoxian.
So Ran Ran tried to see if he could find any more clues, but as he looked, he felt weak all over, so he closed his eyes and fell asleep under the tree.
Gao Cang and the others, who had just returned from the mountain to fetch water, gasped when they heard that Ran Ran had argued with his master and had not gone down the mountain to fetch water.
When they finally came back from carrying water, Qiu Xier couldn't help but worry, "Ran Ran, the master already favors the new disciples. You openly disobeyed the master's orders. Isn't that going to make him hate you even more?"
Ran Ran shook his head and said indifferently: "Since Master doesn't like you anymore, you might as well speak your mind. If you can convince Master to treat you well, that would be the best. Otherwise, you will be kicked out of the sect. Even if you go home to farm, you will feel at peace and have no regrets..."
These are truly what Ranran is thinking. If the master cannot treat his disciples well, he should not hinder the future of Gao Cang and the others.
The most important thing for a cultivator is to lay a solid foundation during his youth. If he were to waste his energy working in the kitchen, the elder brother and his friends might end up living a life of mediocrity.
But it seems that her words had no effect except being disliked. The eldest brother and his friends were still punished for the whole night and were exhausted with backaches.
But after a day like this, when Ranran was baking pancakes in the small kitchen, she suddenly heard Gao Cang excitedly shouting from the window: "Ranran, come quickly, the master wants us to meditate in the thatched cottage!"
Ran Ran took off her apron hesitantly and followed the others into the thatched cottage. As expected, new and old disciples had gathered together to study.
The aftereffects of filling up the Ku Tan are severe. Now the younger disciples who came in later look at Gao Cang and his disciples with strange eyes. When they sit down, they are clearly separated, with the middle aisle as the dividing line, and each sits in his own seat.
Ran Ran was afraid that Su Yishui would get angry when he saw her, so she chose to sit cross-legged on the straw mat behind Gaocang. In this way, the eldest senior brother's burly body was like a wall, which just blocked her completely.
After a while, Su Yishui, dressed in a simple and elegant long robe, came in. He no longer wore old clothes in the past. The clothes he wore, the feather crown on his head, and the jade pendant on his waist were all very exquisite and looked very expensive.
Ran Ran had to admit that this noble and imposing master looked even more handsome.
Ranran was somewhat avoiding her master, but Su Yishui had not looked at her straight in the eye since he came in. After they sat down, he briefly explained today's exercises and foundation-building exercises, and then began to practice.
However, the foundation-building method that Su Yishui was teaching now was completely different from what he had previously taught Gao Cang and the others. It was more complex and profound, and it required a very high level of comprehension when circulating Qi through the meridians.
Ran Ran tried to do it, and had to admit that although the method Su Yishui was teaching was difficult to understand, once understood, one's skills would improve by leaps and bounds.
But for Gaocang, Ranran, and Baibaishan, it was particularly difficult. It was like running on a flat road and thinking that you were running well, but suddenly you came to a steep cliff. Not to mention running, even climbing would be very difficult.
While the other new disciples were moving with ease, with steam rising from their heads, the old disciples were completely motionless, with no signs of gathering their true energy at all.
Even Ranran himself tried to transfer his Qi several times, but had to give up because he felt his meridians were blocked recently.
After an hour, Su Yishui suddenly opened his eyes, looked at the senior disciples who had made no progress, and said coldly: "As disciples who entered the sect early, they neglected their studies and could not keep up with the progress. Should they be punished for being so lazy?"
When Su Yishui said this, the new disciples all showed expressions of gloating.
Su Yishui looked straight at Xue Ranran who was hiding behind Gao Cang, his eyes were sharp and intimidating.
Gao Cang couldn't bear it any longer, so he silently moved the cushion under his butt, and embarrassedly revealed his junior sister behind him.
Ranran raised her head and glanced at him, but Su Yishui still looked at her, just waiting for her answer.
Ran Ran sighed, and began to understand the meaning of "revenge for every grievance" in "The Book of Play".
But she really had no choice but to say, "Master is right. I will accept the punishment!"
Then the four of them left the cottage dejectedly, ready to drain the dry pond that had just been filled with water.