Grandmaster’s Past

Leaving the dining hall, Grandmaster directly headed towards the forest. He'd always liked plants, and especially the quiet in the forest.

Tang San and JoyBoy followed behind Grandmaster without asking anything, only quietly accompanying their Teacher. They could sense Grandmaster's complex feelings. At this moment they thought that letting their Teacher calm down a bit should be the best option.

Walking into the forest, the temperature clearly dropped compared to outside, the fresh and cool atmosphere rousing Grandmaster's spirit and it seemed even his mood eased a bit.

Stopping, Grandmaster turned to Tang San and JoyBoy, calmly saying

"Little San and little JoyBoy, aren't you both very curious about my relationship with Erlong, why it is like this right now, why I would evade her for twenty years?"

Tang San and JoyBoy nodded. Grandmaster sighed and indirectly started telling them the story of how he met with Flender and Liu Erlong. He then proceeded to telling about their adventures in the Spirit Master world, about how they found out about their three Spirit fusion ability. JoyBoy was only listening to the entire story and letting Tang San talk with Grandmaster and ask him questions.

"With the passing of time, the two youths both grew to like that young lady with the Fire Dragon Spirit, but because they thought of each other as brothers, they were unwilling to state it clearly. Especially that youth unable to possess strength because of his variant spirit, buried this affection even deeper in his heart.

As a result of the three unexpectedly discovering that between the three of them they were able to use a kind of formidable spirit fusion ability, relying on this formidable strength, they gradually became known in the Spirit Master world as the Golden Iron Triangle."

Here Grandmaster sighed once again.

"Things like feelings accumulate over time, and the deeper they are buried, sometimes they will instead grow even more intense. As the three grew older their feelings also grew more profound. At last one day, that powerful youth was unable to hold back the torment of his feelings and confessed them to that young lady. But, the result was extremely unexpected to the two youths.

The young lady always knew the two youths cared for her, and it was precisely because of this that she was afraid to speak out her own choice and hurt the other. Now confronted with the strong youth's confession, she was finally unable to conceal it further and called it out in front of both youths. She told them that the one she liked was the youth whose strength was inferior due to a variant spirit, but through perseverance and great effort gained superb theoretical understanding.

You should already have guessed that the young lady was Erlong, and the two youths were me and Flender. Even now I still clearly remember Flender's disappointed expression that time, and still the sound of my own heartbeat. At that time I suddenly felt a happiness I had never had in my whole life. However, me and Erlong were both unwilling to harm Flender, for a while there was silence between the three of us. Like that, a long time passed with a stifling mood over us. Finally, Flender stood up. He was the oldest of us and said that he wanted me to be his brother, and Erlong to be his brother's wife.

Tang San couldn't help saying

"Dean Flender really is a good person. Perhaps this is the best conclusion."

Both JoyBoy and Grandmaster nodded.

"For a lifetime I will never forget Flender's words. He said that he had already lost his love, and he absolutely didn't want to lose his brother and sister. He blessed us from his heart."

Tang San puzzled asked

"Since it was like this, you and Erlong should have been able to marry, then why would..."

Grandmaster smiled wryly

"If everything had gone smoothly, there wouldn't be a story. Perhaps our children would already be older than you. But, I don't know if it was Heaven's joke on us, but everything we had was destroyed.

I remember that day very clearly. The stars were especially bright in the night sky, with Flender presiding for us, me and Erlong were finally married. Even if at that time we didn't have anything, didn't have the blessings of family or friends, didn't have a grand ceremony, at that time we all felt incomparably happy.

The three of us were drinking together, Flender intending to say goodbye to us and go out to travel on his own. Suddenly several people appeared. And these were people I was familiar with. The person in the lead was my uncle, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon clan's present second master, Yu Luomian. At that time his arrival made me extremely startled, but since that day was my day of exaltation, and since he was family, me and Erlong could still relate to this second uncle, and we immediately happily invited him into our house."

Grandmaster continued

"Before we married, as me, Erlong and Flender travelled the Continent, we never asked each other about our backgrounds, those were our private matters. Since I wasn't allowed to speak about my family, Flender was born from a poor household, and Erlong never spontaneously mentioned it. My second uncle's purpose in finding us, was unexpectedly to recognize blood relations. Erlong, Erlong was actually his illegitimate daughter.

When Erlong heard me address him as second uncle her face already paled. As I asked her, not daring to believe it, seeing her nod, I felt as if I'd been struck by thunder from a clear sky. How I hadn't expected, my affectionate wife, was actually my cousin."

Teardrops, escaping control rolled down Grandmaster's face while Tang San had a shocked expression on his face. His voice choked with emotion, Grandmaster's expression was hard to make out,

"At that time, second uncle looking at our clothing clearly understood what was going on. His first words were, 'how can you marry this useless trash'. Originally I'd always thought second uncle was good to me, not looking at me like the others of the clan. Until that time when I learned my mistake, in fact, even he thought of me as trash.

I later learned that Erlong was born from my second uncle and a prostitute. Because of Erlong's mother's background he didn't dare bring her back home. When Erlong left to travel the world, her mother had already passed away from illness. She was always brought up by second uncle in the outer territories. He also let her follow matrilineally. Her mother chose the name Erlong after her father. My second uncle's infant name was precisely Erlong."

Tang San asked

"But, Teacher, if senior Erlong is your patrilineal cousin, then her spirit should be inherited from your clan, Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon. Don't tell me, don't tell me that senior Erlong's spirit is actually also..."

Grandmaster nodded

"Yes, Erlong also has a variant spirit, only hers didn't become weak. Although it didn't become formidable, in the end it's still extremely strong. Thunder variation has similarities to flame, this is the origin of her Fire Dragon Spirit. It was this kind of coincidence that formed this tragedy between us.

Then, I ran like mad. At that time I wanted to die. I already had no one else. Erlong wanted to chase after me, but second uncle stopped her. If it wasn't for Flender catching up to me, stopping me from suicide, perhaps there wouldn't be a Grandmaster now.

Although afterwards I lost the desire to die, at that time Erlong was my whole life. You've also seen that I'm not considered handsome or strong. But she rejected Flender who was stronger than me, and chose me. I loved her so, but spouse changed into little sister. That kind of pain is unimaginable to most people. In the end, discouraged, I could only choose to run. I didn't let Flender follow, only quietly leaving on my own.

Afterwards, I heard from Flender that Erlong and my second uncle had a big falling out after returning to the clan, searching for me everywhere like mad. I wanted to see her so much, but I couldn't. I couldn't destroy her reputation.

Siblings marrying isn't tolerated by the world. Even if I didn't care, Erlong is a woman, how could I let her endure that? Even more, what my second uncle said was right, I'm only trash, a useless trash, that's all. Erlong and me together, I don't even have the ability to protect her. She shouldn't be with me.

Year after year passed, I didn't even dare listen to rumors about Erlong. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to keep from going to find her. In my confusion, I could only throw my heart and soul into spirit research. Only when I met you could I reveal my heart again. I entrusted my heart to you. These years have been a bit easier. I know Flender definitely knew Erlong was here, he's not a careless person, if he didn't know in advance, after being provoked at Heaven Dou Imperial Academy just before, how would he have again gone looking for an academy?

Only I thought nothing of it at the time. Meeting Erlong again can only bring me more pain. Erlong is far stronger than me. This time, even if I wanted to escape this vortex of pain it would perhaps already be impossible for me."

Aftet Grandmaster finished telling them about his past, Tang San tried to explain to him why he should remain with Liu Erlong without caring about what worldly opinions. When that didn't work, he even shouted that Grandmaster was only hiding because of his inferiority complex.

Grandmaster looked stupidly at Tang San, lips moving but already speechless. Although he and Flender were equally proud, he who possessed an inferior spirit, deep in his heart always had an inferiority complex. Flender and Erlong had never dared say what they really thought, but the agitated Tang San had hit the key point.

"He's right. Why must you have an inferiority complex, what if ten million people call you trash? As long as I, Liu Erlong, believe you are the strongest it's enough. Xiao Gang, do you truly not understand? If I cared about the family relation between us, would I always search for you like this? Would I always be in such pain?"

Liu Erlong slowly walked out in the distance behind Xiao Gang, JoyBoy and Tang San, teardrops constantly rolling down her face, looking at Grandmaster, firmly approaching step by step with a brilliantly tender countenance.

This time, Grandmaster at last didn't once again try to escape Liu Erlong's gaze. Watching her approach step by step, Grandmaster's heartbeat clearly sped up. The obstruction in his heart gradually fractured under the surges of emotion. The protective barrier of twenty years was already unable to further suppress the love deep in his heart.

Tang San and JoyBoy looked at each other and very quietly retreated, gradually moving into the forest. They knew that at this moment nobody should disturb them. Inwardly they wished the best for Grandmaster.

Since JoyBoy was constantly maintaining three hundred and fifty times boost, once he went to the forest, he told Tang San that he was returning to his room to cultivate and disappeared from there and directly went to his room and started cultivating after summoning his martial spirit.

He did that because he knew that the next event will be very important in Tang San's life and he didn't want to risk anything by meeting Dugu Bo. He was worried that if he met Dugu Bo and saw his arrogant expression, he might not be able to control himself and beat him up.