Chapter 284 - Strong Cultivation

Yan Tianhen swatted Esteemed Huai Yu’s hand away and felt that this man was not serious. “I just want to coil up your hair from the ground. Don’t you think it’s dirty?”

Esteemed Huai Yu didn’t think so, “If it’s dirty, it’s dirty. Anyway, it’s just a matter of a body-cleansing technique. It’s very convenient.”

Yan Tianhen asked suspiciously, “Master, you don’t know how to tie your hair, do you?”

Esteemed Huai Yu glanced at him, “Your Master is omnipotent and can do anything. I’m just too lazy to move.”

“....”

Yan Tianhen couldn’t bear to see this. He thought it was a great pity that his long black hair was stained with mud. “Master, if you don’t want to tie your hair, let me do it.”

Since someone offered to serve him, Esteemed Huai Yu naturally had no problem. He was quite happy, “Alright, but if you dare give me an ugly hair style, I will beat you.”

Yan Tianhen got up with a smile and stood behind Esteemed Huai Yu, holding his long hair in hand. “Don’t worry, Master, my craft is excellent.”

Yan Tianhen’s technique was quite good. When Lin Zhan was alive, he used to comb and tie his hair. Later, Yan Tianhen also learned to style Lin Zhan’s hair. But then, Lin Zhan died and Lin Xuanzhi became seriously ill. In those months, Yan Tianhen took good care of his Dage.

Lin Xuanzhi’s long hair was of excellent quality, just like silk. Yan Tianhen had not been willing to let it lose its luster so he sat by Lin Xuanzhi’s bed every day and dared not close his eyes. He would take great care of Lin Xuanzhi’s hair and braid it together, as if Lin Xuanzhi would get better if his hair was shiny and smooth.

Esteemed Huai Yu’s long hair was also quite good and didn’t have many knots in it. Yan Tianhen soon used a hair clasp to tie the long hair behind his head. Because it was too long and thick, he could only tie the upper half, leaving the lower half hanging behind his back. But at least it only reached his waist now and no longer dragged on the ground.

Esteemed Huai Yu touched the hair style on the back of his head and pulled at the hairpin, muttering, “Lad, you’re quite skilled.”

Yan Tianhen smiled, “Master, why do you want to keep your hair so long?”

Esteemed Huai Yu opened his mouth but didn’t say a word.

Why do you have such long hair?

Why don’t you tie it up?

He knew the answer but could never admit it.

Esteemed Huai Yu stood up and glanced at Yan Tianhen with a pair of bright eyes, “It’s none of your business. Children shouldn’t ask about adults’ business. Besides, whether my hair is long or short doesn’t matter to you.”

Yan Tianhen’s intuition told him that Esteemed Huai Yu’s mood suddenly deteriorated a lot. He vaguely felt that it was related to his question, but... wasn’t it just a common question? Why was Huai Yu so upset?

Yan Tianhen asked wryly, “Master, aren’t you going to cut it?”

Esteemed Huai Yu returned to normal, “Hey, do you have something against my hair today?”

Yan Tianhen smirked, “I can’t help it. I just want to say that if Master wants a trim, I can also cut it for Master. If Master doesn’t want a trim, I’ll help you with your hair every day. How about it?”

Esteemed Huai Yu looked at Yan Tianhen’s little face, though he clearly couldn’t see his true features. He was in a trance for a long time before asking, “Did you always treat Lin Zhan this way in the past?”

Yan Tianhen paused for a moment when he mentioned Lin Zhan. Then he lowered his eyes and nodded. “Yes, when Daddy was still here, he’d do my hair and I would do his. He taught me how. Unfortunately, I no longer had the chance since then.”

With one hand on his head, Yan Tianhen only heard Esteemed Huai Yu say, “When you go to the Nine Lands, you may still have a chance.”

Yan Tianhen suddenly looked up, “What do you mean?”

Was he implying what he was thinking?

Lin Zhan... Was Lin Zhan still alive?

Esteemed Huai Yu nodded, “He’s not dead, but if you don’t go to the Nine Lands, I’m afraid you won’t see him. Therefore, you better improve your cultivation. Your future lies not in the Five Continents, but in the Nine Lands.”

Yan Tianhen was stupefied and a bit dazed, not knowing which day it was now. “Nine Lands” had always been mentioned by various kinds of people. It’s like he’d been opened to a whole new world, and everyone he knew had at least peeped into the existence of that world once.

This feeling... was a little bit too exciting to think about.

If only he wasn’t the heir to the throne of the Qianyuan dynasty and was just a half-devil.

Yan Tianhen looked at Esteemed Huai Yu with complicated eyes and hesitated for a moment. Under the intolerant but very beautiful eyes of the other, Yan Tianhen was encouraged. Only then did he summon up the courage to say, “Master, do you know who I am?”

“Yes.”

Yan Tianhen’s heart jumped in his throat when Esteemed Huai Yu added, “You’re my disciple. Who else could you be?”

Yan Tianhen, “....”

Yan Tianhen asked again, “Master, why do you want me to go to the Nine Lands?”

Esteemed Huai Yu, replied “Isn’t this nonsense? All cultivators in the Five Continents wish to soar to the Upper Realm. Don’t tell me that you don’t have the same idea?”

Yan Tianhen couldn’t find a reason to refute.

“How is that possible? I also have the same dream. Master, you seem to know the Nine Lands very well. Have you ever been there?” Yan Tianhen asked in a roundabout way.

Esteemed Huai Yu pinched Yan’s face, “Don’t try to fish information from me. Whether or not I’ve been there before is none of your business. To tell you the truth, I didn’t intend to accept disciples, but my Senior Martial Brother just shoved you into my hands and had me teach you. You’ve been following Lin Zhan since you were a child, but you’re a demonic cultivator. Although Senior Martial Brother didn’t tell me more about you, I could also guess that there was something wrong with you.”

Yan Tianhen was shocked to find out that he had recklessly exposed himself, a burst of chagrin immediately greeting him.

Seeing this, Esteemed Huai Yu was overjoyed, “Don’t think you’re smart and be fooled by cleverness instead. I don’t plan to know too much about you. You don’t have to tell me.”

Yan Tianhen didn’t know whether to breathe a sigh of relief or to feel lost. However, if one less person knew his identity, he would feel more at ease.

“Should be ready to eat now?” Esteemed Huai Yu stretched out his toe and kicked the firewood. “Cut me a small piece.”

Yan Tianhen poked the snake meat with a dagger and judged that it was cooked. He took the wooden stick with the snake meat from the fire, inserted it into the ground, and cut a piece with a knife. He then handed it to Esteemed Huai Yu.

“It’s too big. Cut a small piece.”

Yan Tianhen had to cut through the middle again.

“Still big.”

Yan Tianhen cut again.

After a few cuts, Esteemed Huai Yu finally pinched a thumb-sized snake meat and put it in his mouth to chew.

“All right, you can eat the rest.” Esteemed Huai Yu went away contentedly. Before he left, he specifically told him, “I don’t care much about what I eat, but I have to have meat every day, and it mustn’t be heavy.”

Yan Tianhen remained standing in the wind, his clothes and hair in disarray.

Was this cheap master of his truly not messing with him?

He worked so hard and spent so much effort hunting that he nearly lost his little life to get such a snake. But Esteemed Huai Yu actually took only one bite and left. How dare he ask him to do this every day?

Yan Tianhen’s eyes were dark and he looked at the snake meat in his hand gloomily.

Fortunately, he still had Ah Bai and Hu Po.

After summoning Ah Bai and Hu Po over to clean up the roasted snake meat, Yan Tianhen laid down on the glistening riverside, comfortably crossing his hands under his head. He let the cool mountain wind sweep over his body and face at night.

Two young tiger cubs were chasing and frolicking nearby. Ah Bai had a new hobby recently, which was chasing his tail in circles. When he finally found it too arduous to bite his tail, Ah Bai began to chase Hu Po’s tail and bite it.

Although Yan Tianhen’s eyes were empty, his brain wasn’t. He kept thinking back to the afternoon, when Esteemed Huai Yu casually uprooted all of the weeds from an entire spiritual plant field without destroying any of the plants

Too powerful.

Yan Tianhen thought that the cultivation of this Esteemed Huai Yu was even more terrifying than he imagined.

Esteemed Huai Yu’s hand seals were something he had never seen before. But although his hand movement was extremely fast, Yan Tianhen could remember it after recalling it many times.

This was another unknown talent of his. He could copy and learn things just by looking at people’s hand seals. Of course, hand seals needed to be combined with special internal techniques to produce an effect. Even if Yan Tianhen learned the hand seals, it wouldn’t be very useful. However, Yan Tianhen still wanted to imitate the hand seals he saw.

Yan Tianhen closed his eyes and his mind replayed with slow motion the hand seals. He raised his hands and slowly and carefully executed one hand seal after another.

It was very complicated.

It took Yan Tianhen an hour to repeat the set of hand seals twice.

He opened his eyes, frowning slightly, and looked at his trembling hands. There was only one feeling. His hands ached like hell.

It seemed that Esteemed Huai Yu’s hand seals, in terms of difficulty, needed to be at least matched with a top-grade cultivation method.

Ah Bai, who was rolling with Hu Po, sat up to see Yan Tianhen sitting up and hurriedly dropped Hu Po. He shook his fat little butt’s tail and rushed towards Yan Tianhen, bumping into him.

Yan Tianhen yelped as he fell back to the ground, holding a heavy Ah Bai in his arms, and released a clear laugh. Seeing this, Hu Po also joined the war and one man and two tigers happily rolled around together.

Esteemed Huai Yu sat on the trunk of a fruit tree that was not too low. He leaned casually against it, chewing with a fruit in his hand.

After chewing, he spat out the core, chuckled and muttered in a low voice, “Obviously still a simple child. Why can’t you grow up?”

His hair was already scattered behind him. He was playing with a wooden hairpin in his hand. It was clearly the one that Yan Tianhen had inserted into his hair a few hours ago.

Esteemed Huai Yu looked at it for a moment, then clicked his tongue, “This little rabbit is really stingy. He’s wearing a jade hairpin worth thousands of gold, but he gives me a wooden stick that’s not even worth a single value. He doesn’t know anything about the world. I really don’t know whether he’s actually stupid or not!”

Despite that, Esteemed Huai Yu still placed this worthless hairpin into his storage ring.

Esteemed Huai Yu looked at Yan Tianhen playing by the river with the two tiger cubs. He gently tapped his chin and smiled, “Still, it’s better not to grow too much.”

A gust of wind swept through the trees, and Esteemed Huai Yu’s figure was gone.

“Ah Hen.” Feng Jingyu flew in through the window and landed on Yan Tianhen’s chest who was lying in bed, ready to fall asleep. The bird’s fat little body jumped twice and said solemnly, “This place is very strange.”

Seeing his serious expression, Yan Tianhen sat up, “What have you found?”

Feng Jingyu sat down on the edge of the bed, “I spent the whole day today searching for the boundary of this region, but everything here seems to be shrouded by something. When I get to the boundary, I get lost and go back without success. There are magic arrays everywhere! I’ve been flying all day but only went in circles!”

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Sarah: *blows on a tissue* HY watching over his son playing while acting like a tsundere over a damn hairpin and then thinking it’s best if YTH didn’t grow up too much I’M (ಥ﹏ಥ)

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Editor’s Little Theatre:

Editor has been on the hunt for IRL work and was unable to edit... and is out of brain juice OTL