Wu Family (4)

After leaving the training area, the young people began to talk about this mysterious guest and his possible relationship with Wu Yuying.

"Could he be her fiancé?", they began to theorize. There was confusion and disdain in their speech, as if they were questioning Long Ming's qualifications for this.

"That's impossible, he doesn't seem to come from any noble family in Jianshang. Besides, what if he's a spy? Honestly, I can't trust him."

"Ahem! Focus on the training!" Wu Feng called the attention of all the young ones as he noticed they were deviating from their training. With a stern look, he began to explain the sword techniques of the Wu family, as well as making them do a series of physical exercises to build a strong body. Despite this, his mind was also focused on Long Ming and the reason for his visit.

Unaware of all these things, Long Ming continued to walk with Wu Yuying. This time, she was much more communicative and even asked some questions about Long Ming.

"Do you happen to know if there's any auction in Jianshang? Or a pavilion that has yellow-grade cultivation manuals?" at some point, Long Ming asked an important question. Yellow-grade cultivation manuals referred to the Qi Gathering realm, meaning it's the manual needed for a cultivator to go from the peak of the Body Tempering realm to the Qi Gathering realm.

Long Ming had been at the peak of the Body Tempering realm for a year, solely due to the lack of a manual to help him reach the Qi Gathering realm. Interestingly, yellow-grade cultivation manuals are in a sort of limbo in the manual market.

It turns out that yellow-grade cultivation manuals tend to be very expensive for hermit cultivators (like Long Ming) and hardly would a member of a cultivator family cultivate any method other than their family's. In other words, there is a lack of demand for this type of manual. Despite this, they are occasionally sold at auctions related to cultivation items. In some recent auctions, Long Ming had managed to acquire a yellow-grade cultivation manual, but he found it insufficient to advance to the second realm, so he wanted to buy a few more.

"An auction? There's the Qin Yuan Pavilion, known for auctioning various treasures, pills, and even some yellow-grade martial arts manuals, occasionally even black-grade ones. Now a pavilion with cultivation manuals, I'm afraid it doesn't exist. As you may know, cultivation manuals are very important for cultivators, as well as for society itself, so all families and clans keep a very strict control over these manuals; to make people go after them, if they want to become cultivators," she responded after contemplating for a while. Her answer didn't surprise Long Ming, as he knew how difficult it was to find pavilions that sold cultivation manuals.

"Where is the Qin Yuan Pavilion?"

"Do you happen to need any cultivation manuals? If so, we can lend you some manuals from our own library," Wu Yuying offered after a few seconds of contemplation. At this point, she practically accepted that they were engaged, so it seemed quite natural for him to read some books. Of course, he wouldn't read the most important manuals and techniques of the family, but those of little value, Long Ming should be able to read.

"...," Long Ming suddenly stopped walking and looked back at her. Sensing this, she turned around and looked into his eyes, with apparent confusion on her face; her confusion deepened even more upon noticing Long Ming's expression.

"Do you really think your father wants to marry us?" he asked, somewhat curious and, even slightly, amused. Long Ming found this the only plausible reason for her to have offered this possibility. After all, it was common knowledge that the library, the armory, and the vault are the backbone of any family, clan, etc.; so allowing entry into one of these places was the same as allowing the person to learn about all their secrets.

"A-and he doesn't?" she then asked, her expression somewhat embarrassed by Long Ming's direct question.

"Pfft, no, he doesn't," he replied, holding back a laugh because of this unexpected situation, after all this time he had even forgotten about this so-called marriage, so he hadn't remembered to clarify these things to her. Wu Yuying seemed to have become even more confused by this revelation, so Long Ming decided to continue.

"Look, I confess that you are a very beautiful and talented girl, but the reason why Old Gao and I came here has nothing to do with you. To be honest, we came from a very distant city, so I only knew of your existence when your father mentioned you during our brief conversation. And even if we were coming here to propose a marriage, I have no affiliation with Old Gao and much less any reputation that would justify our marriage. They were just teasing you because of your misunderstanding," Long Ming had the impression of seeing Wu Yuying's face turn redder and redder as he spoke, which made him even more amused.

"T-then why did you try to talk to me so much?" she asked, her face as red as a tomato. Observing her expression, Long Ming felt a foreboding, but since he had been brutally honest so far, he continued with his honesty and replied, "you're a fun girl."

"Idiot!" she said completely annoyed by all these sudden revelations and walked away without waiting for him.

"Hey, wait for me! I'm still your guest!" he said as he ran after her.

After a few minutes of silent walking, they arrived at a garden that, from Long Ming's perspective, was simply perfect. In the center of the garden stood a huge cherry blossom tree, with a gigantic and completely pink canopy, surrounded by several small ponds, with water lilies, fish, and even swans. All of this worked to make that place fantastic and unreal.

For some reason, an indescribable feeling of fascination, calmness, seized Long Ming, leaving him paralyzed as he watched that place. A few minutes later, he noticed these thoughts turning into melancholy, although he already knew the reason.

"What a beautiful place..." he murmured from the depths of his heart, unable to express anything else but that.

"Hm? Indeed, this is my mother's favorite garden. Every afternoon she comes here to have tea, and occasionally invites some of her friends to chat here," Yuying replied, looking with equal admiration.

"... I believe we should return. After so long, they must have talked enough, besides, I need to leave already," Long Ming said after a few seconds and walked towards the building where Gao Ting and Wu Qinlao were. At that moment it was already starting to get dark, revealing how much time they had spent walking and talking.

"What do you mean?" Yuying murmured, confused by his comment. Nevertheless, she followed him to the building.

After a few minutes of steady walking, they returned to the same building, then Long Ming lightly knocked on the door and said, "we have returned from our expedition. Have you talked enough?"

"Oh! Yes, of course. Come in!" it was Gao Ting who spoke, with his voice slightly altered.

'They switched tea for alcohol,' he thought inwardly as he entered the room and observed the duo conversing calmly.

"I thank Senior Wu Qinlao for his hospitality and welcome, but I believe staying longer than this would be excessive. Since I have brought Old Gao here, my mission is already complete. Therefore, I humbly take my leave," Long Ming stated after formally bowing.

"How can you say your mission is complete, lad? Did I get my new house? And didn't you say you would stay by my side to ensure my safety? Wu Qinlao and I agreed that my house will be built in a city two hours away. But due to all the construction issues and such, it will take about a month until it's ready. So I need you to stay with me during this time. Luckily, Wu Qinlao allowed us to stay at his residence for this month," Gao Ting replied, completely disregarding Long Ming's desire to leave the city.

"Old man, how can you ask so much from the Wu family? Aren't you ashamed?" Long Ming asked perplexed. Forget about building a whole house for free, they even allowed them to sleep inside their residence during construction!

"Tsk, this kid here is only alive because of me! So this is the least he can do, tsk," Gao Ting responded, while pointing at Wu Qinlao. It was obvious to everyone that he was completely drunk.

"He's right, moreover, you don't need to worry about the minor details. As the patriarch of this family, I have the authority to host my guests," Wu Qinlao spoke calmly before taking another sip from a bottle he held in his hand.

"Ah, alright then," Long Ming yielded to Gao Ting's pressure, accepting to accompany him for another month.

"Anyway, you seem to have had too much to drink, old man. Mr. Wu, may I take Old Gao to his quarters? At his age, he needs plenty of rest to stay healthy," he suddenly spoke upon noticing Gao Ting's staggering state.

"Of course, I'll inform the rest of the members shortly, so you can go to the guest rooms without worry. Ying'er, could you take them to the guest room?" Wu Qinlao spoke calmly as he also stood up. He probably would go talk to the other important members of the family, as hosting a guest probably wasn't something he could do impulsively.

After nodding slightly, Long Ming approached Gao Ting and supported him with his arms. Wu Yuying offered to help, but Long Ming politely declined and only asked her to guide him to the guest room.

"Kid, you don't need to carry me like this. I'm already big enough to manage on my own. I probably have the age to be your grandfather!" Gao Ting grumbled as they walked, trying to shake off Long Ming, but without success.

"Damn old man, you're reeking," Long Ming grumbled, ignoring his drunken behavior.

After a few minutes, they arrived at a small building with several individual rooms side by side. Long Ming entered one of these rooms and laid Gao Ting on a bed, and within a few seconds, Gao Ting seemed to be asleep. With a slight sigh, Long Ming went to his own room and bid farewell to Wu Yuying before entering it. However, suddenly, he called her back and asked, "By any chance, where can I take a bath?"

"There's access to a bathroom in the rooms," she replied. Then Long Ming nodded slightly and closed the door again, of course, only after thanking Wu Yuying.

As soon as he closed the door, Long Ming's expression abruptly became empty, as if there were no emotions in his soul. Then he stored his twinblade in his spatial ring and lay down on his bed, completely contemplative.

'A garden with a cherry blossom tree, huh...' he began to reminisce about the garden in the Wu residence, then he also remembered one of Lin Fei's dreams. She liked trees and flowers a lot, so she always wanted to make a garden where she could plant as many plants and trees as she could. Lost in his reminiscences, he continued to stare at the ceiling, occasionally his memories went even further into the past, to his native village and the fateful day he fled.

'Tsk, it doesn't make sense to think about that now,' then he lay down and took out some books from his spatial ring. Since reaching the Body Tempering realm, he had been looking for books about Qi and cultivation, so they could help him create a new manual. Unfortunately, it turned out to be even more complicated to make a manual for the Qi Gathering realm than for the Body Tempering realm, so even after a year, he hadn't made much progress.

Fortunately, he managed to buy a manual at some auction and found some others in that tomb, so he had made some progress in the last few weeks. However, he felt that it would take a few more books, an epiphany, or something like that, for him to be able to finalize the draft of the manual.

So he began to study until his biological clock alerted him that he should sleep, then he decided to go to sleep.