THIS MASTER'S DISCIPLE WAS TOO FOOLISH

Chu Wanning lost his consciousness the moment Mo Ran pulled the sword out of his chest. Pulling Chu Wanning into his arms, Mo Ran shielded him from the fall and landed hard against the ground. "Ugh!!!"

Mo Ran groaned from pain. He sat up with a lot of efforts, holding Chu Wanning in his arms. Fear crept into Mo Ran's heart, turning his heart into a block of ice. Chu Wanning's face was white as a sheet of paper, and his lips were blue-ish.

"Wanning?" Mo Ran unconsciously called.

He tapped at Chu Wanning's cheek nervously.

"Wanning?"

Chu Wanning remained motionless. His front side was almost completely dyed in red. Mo Ran raised a trembling hand to touch Chu Wanning's face. He sighed in relief when he felt warm breath against his fingers.

Seeing Chu Wanning in a bloody state was never a good experience for Mo Ran. In this life, unfortunately, Chu Wanning had appeared bloody in front of him more than once, and it was extremely distressing for Mo Ran. It's not that he cared about his Shizun. Mo Ran kept telling himself that he merely did not want to see Chu Wanning die before him in that state. It all stemmed from his kind heart, so to say. After all, in this life, Chu Wanning had yet to commit the atrocious deed of leaving Shi Mei to die. When that time came, though, Mo Ran made sure to be the one to save Shi Mei. Screw Chu Wanning.

Around him, Shi Mei and Xue Meng started to stir.

Mo Ran put Chu Wanning on the ground and quickly checked Shi Mei's condition.

"Shi Mei! Shi Mei, are you alright???"

Shi Mei let out a soft whimper.

"A-Ran…"

"What's wrong?? Are you hurt??"

Some distance away, Xue Meng opened his eyes in fright.

"AAAAHHHHHH PERVERTTTTT DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH ME!!!!!"

"…"

"…"

Shi Mei and Mo Ran stared at Xue Meng. The latter cleared his throat and started to look around.

"Oh. You two are awake. By the way, where is Shizun? SHIZUN!!!!"

Xue Meng leaped on his feet and dashed toward Chu Wanning, who was still lying on the ground motionlessly.

"Why is Shizun still sleeping? Oh, was he not hurt?"

Mo Ran and Shi Mei also came closer. Mo Ran was genuinely surprised to see that all wounds on Chu Wanning had healed, leaving not even a trace of blood on his clothing. Was it all nothing but an illusion?

"Why is Shizun not waking up?"

Xue Meng looked at Mo Ran when he asked the question. Mo Ran shrugged.

"Why do you ask me? Ask Gouchen the Exalted."

Anger flashed through Xue Meng's eyes.

"Mo Ran, you!!! Shizun sacrificed himself for you and got hurt in your stead. How can you remain indifferent? Shameless!"

Mo Ran's blood pressure shot through the roof after hearing Xue Meng's words.

"Shizun sacrificed himself for me, but I was the one who woke up to save him! What about you, Xue Meng? You are sleeping so soundly, did you yourself think about Shizun? How dare you lecture me?"

"YOU!!!"

Xue Meng lunged forward and landed a punch on Mo Ran's left cheek. The latter's eyes burned with fury. He retaliated with another punch. The two teenagers were quickly involved in a brawl, rolling on the ground and hitting whatever body parts they could reach.

"STOP! STOP FIGHTING!! YOUNG MASTER! A-RAN!!!"

None of them noticed when Chu Wanning opened his eyes. What he saw right after he woke up was the scene of Mo Ran and Xue Meng exchanging fists. Chu Wanning sighed. Why was he blessed with two utterly misbehaved disciples?

Golden light emerged from Chu Wanning's palm and transformed into Tianwen. The golden vine snaked its way forward and hit both Mo Ran and Xue Meng. None of them was expecting to be hit with Tianwen, thus they fell to the ground with a loud thump.

"SHIZUN!!!"

Xue Meng did not care that he had just been hit with Tianwen. He quickly rushed to Chu Wanning's side to help him up. On the other side, Shi Mei went to help Mo Ran up. Mo Ran and Chu Wanning gazed at each other.

Chu Wanning looked at Mo Ran, then at Shi Mei. He did not trade cards with Mo Ran because he was expecting gratitude from the teenager. Of course not. As a shizun, it was his responsibility to protect his disciple. Too bad that he was still a human being with desire. When faced with the truth that the person he liked did not care the least about him, Chu Wanning still got hurt.

"Xue Meng," he called out with a hoarse voice. "Help me up…"

"Yes, Shizun!!"

"A-Ran…"

Shi Mei pulled Mo Ran up from the ground. Mo Ran glared at Chu Wanning and Xue Meng alternately. Forget that he was the one who woke up to save Chu Wanning. Chu Wanning would not even give him some face. It's always Xue Meng this, Xue Meng that. Mo Ran balled his fingers into fists. His fingernails dug into his palm, leaving deep marks that Mo Ran did not care about. Mo Ran knew it. He had always known from his past life that Chu Wanning never once thought that he was good for anything. It did not matter what Mo Ran did to be good to Chu Wanning. Chu Wanning would never acknowledge Mo Ran. The only person in Chu Wanning's eyes was Xue Meng. The sour taste in Mo Ran's mouth intensified the more he saw those two together.

Chu Wanning and Xue Meng.

Every time he saw them together, holding hands or generally being close to each other, Mo Ran got sick in the stomach.

-How is that appropriate to be so close with your disciple, Chu Wanning???

-How shameless are you???

"A-Ran, are you okay?"

"I am… hiss!!!"

Mo Ran touched the corner of his lips. It was swollen and bleeding. His mood darkened even more. One was Chu Wanning, the other was Xue Meng. Heck, could he not be gentler when fighting with his cousin??? He truly had inherited everything from Chu Wanning, including the latter's tendency for violence. It had been Chu Wanning's first and foremost motto : hit first, then ask.

"A-Ran, did you really wake up first? Did you save Shizun?"

"Ah… yes."

"A-Ran is so amazing! Both Young Master and I are so entranced in our sleep. If not for A-Ran, we might have died in our dreams!"

"Hahaha… No, it's nothing."

Mo Ran smiled brightly when Shi Mei praised him. At least someone acknowledged his hard work. More importantly, the praise came from Shi Mei! A praise from Shi Mei was a thousand times better than one from Chu Wanning!

Just then, the tree shook, accompanied by a rumbling sound. Zhaixin Liu's ghoulish form emerged from the smelting pool and the insides of the weapon arsenal started to rattle. In his hand, he was holding the golden sword of Gouchen the Exalted.

"RUN!!!!"

Chu Wanning pushed all his three disciples toward the exit.

"Shizun, something… someone is talking in my ears!"

"Ignore him!" Chu Wanning snapped. "It's Temptation of the Heart, it is his technique to make enemies slaughter each other! Just go toward the exit!!!"

"Chu Wanning…"

Chu Wanning shook his head. The many shelves of the weapon arsenal sprang and the weapons rained upon them. Chu Wanning quickly summoned a barrier for each of his disciples. A sword managed to cut his arm before he summoned one for himself.

"Chu Wanning… are you not tired of protecting those who are not the least bit grateful to you?"

"Take this chance, just lift the barrier from Shi Mei and let him die. No one will blame you, not even Mo Ran. It is only a small accident, but it is enough to wipe your rival from the face of the earth."

"No! No way!!! Go to hell!!!" Chu Wanning roared.

"Mo Ran… Mo Ran, are you not resentful? You are supposed to draw a sword from Jincheng Lake, but look, you are leaving with nothing in your hands. Take this sword, Mo Ran… take it and be the master of an unrivaled spiritual weapon!"

Mo Ran stopped running and looked back at Zhaixin Liu, a certain longing was reflected in his eyes. Yes, so he lost Bugui. So what. If he could get his hands on another spiritual weapon, why would he miss it? Heck, Zhaixin Liu was offering it to him!

Mo Ran slowly approached the smelting pool.

Sword of Gouchen the Exalted… Sword of Gouchen the Exalted!

Chu Wanning was running behind Xue Meng and Shi Mei. They almost reached the exit, but then he had a bad feeling. Where was Mo Ran in all the chaos? His heart almost stopped when he spotted Mo Ran. The teenager was slowly walking toward the smelting pool with a blank expression.

"MO RAN!!!"

Chu Wanning yanked at Mo Ran's wrist when he was only two steps apart from the smelting pool.

"Wake up! Don't listen to him! Let's go!"

Mo Ran gazed at Chu Wanning, looking a little dumbfounded as if he was wondering why Chu Wanning was even there.

"Mo Ran… your Shizun does not want you to be stronger than him. Remember that you had only managed to defeat him in your past life because of Bugui. What will happen from now on if you are left in his mercy? How are you going to save Shi Mei if you are powerless? If you are weak?"

Mo Ran's lips parted. A lump of sadness built up in his throat.

"Shizun, you… You are always like this." he accused while staring at Chu Wanning.

Chu Wanning did not understand what Mo Ran was saying. His grip around Mo Ran's wrist tightened.

"What are you saying? If there is something you are dissatisfied about, let's talk about it outside. We cannot stay here! The tree is going to collapse soon!"

Chu Wanning pulled at Mo Ran's wrist, but Mo Ran was not interested to leave. He stubbornly refused to move.

"You just want me to be weak," he continued. "You do not truly care about your disciples. Oh, wait. Yes, you care about only Xue Meng. If Xue Meng has not gotten his own spiritual weapon, you might be here, fighting me for the sword to give to Xue Meng, am I right?"

Chu Wanning was so shocked by Mo Ran's words that no defense came out from between his lips.

Mo Ran interpreted Chu Wanning's silence as affirmation. He gave him a sad look.

"I knew it."

"Shizun, I… I wanna be strong. I will never want to be inferior to Xue Meng. I need to be strong."

For Shi Mei.

Mo Ran reached out and took the sword from Zhaixin Liu's firey hands before Chu Wanning could stop him.