"Oho? Lad? Are you all right?"

The old man waved a hand in front of Zhu Jiao"s face. And then…

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Zhu Jiao screamed.

"A ghost! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! There"s a ghost!"

"How rude!" the ghost snapped, and then he folded his arms. "Well, it is true that I"m a ghost, though. But that"s not the point! Shouldn"t you be honored to be in my presence?"

"Ah…huh? What?"

Zhu Jiao blinked and stared at the old man, not understanding what was going on. Then he tilted his head while forcing himself to calm down and swallow his fear. Clenching his fists, he managed to stop himself from trembling.

Bravo. Good job, my friend. Face your fear of ghosts and overcome it! Then only will you understand the importance of spirit!

"Uh…who are you?"

The old ghost blanched at that, then waved his hands furiously.

"How can you not know who I am?!"

"Well, sorry to break it to you, grandpa, but I honestly have not seen you or heard of you at all in my whole life."

Zhu Jiao laughed sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. The old ghost glared at him, then turned away with a "hmph!"

"I see. So many years must have pa.s.sed since my demise, huh?"

"Your…demise?" Zhu Jiao repeated dumbly. "You"re dead?"

"No, I"m alive. That"s why I"m a ghost." The old man glared at Zhu Jiao. "Have you ever heard of a living ghost before?"

"Yeah!" I shouted. "Lady Rokujou from Genji Monogatari is the most famous example of a living ghost!"

Too bad neither of them heard me. Zhu Jiao just withdrew, chagrined. d.a.m.n it…this is why reading a lot was so important! You could counter such broad, sweeping statements with existing examples and throw your opponent"s stupidity back at him!

On the other hand, Zhu Jiao was far too stunned to react properly. He could only nod his head dumbly.

"I…see…"

"Hey! Why is your response so underwhelming?"

"No, it"s nothing."

Zhu Jiao shook his head, and then forced a smile.

"Well, anyway…sorry about that. Um…who are you again?"

The old ghost looked irritated, but he didn"t snap this time. Instead, he took a deep breath (I didn"t know ghosts could still breathe).

"I"m the Patriarch of the Golden Kirin Sect, and probably the last survivor. On my deathbed, I sealed my spirit into that Golden Amulet you have there, in hopes of finding a suitable heir to the Golden Kirin Sacred Beast techniques to succeed me. And you, my lad, have the great honor of being that suitable heir!"

"You sealed yourself into my golden amulet?" Zhu Jiao"s jaw was hanging. "But this is my family heirloom that has been pa.s.sed down for generations!"

That"s what you"re concerned about?!

I almost fell over from the ridiculousness of it. Here you are, finally getting your wish to succeed a secret martial art from some ghost that emerged from your family heirloom, but you were more concerned if he was telling the truth about your family treasure?

"Generations? So it really has been many years since my death. My guess is that my golden amulet had somehow landed in the hands of your ancestor, probably by way of stealing or buying or discovery. Then he pa.s.sed down his amulet to his descendants."

Going, "hmm…", the old ghost looked up and stared around.

"It seems that at least a century has pa.s.sed from when I was sealed. The air feels a bit different, as does the qi. Is this Wu Ling Academy? It looks very different from when I remembered it."

"Well, they probably renovated it several times during the last hundred years or so."

Zhu Jiao shrugged nonchalantly. I would have offered up a snarkier and more sarcastic reply, if this stupid preternatural pressure wasn"t weighing down on me and sapping my strength. I realized, disgruntled, that if I was stronger – as strong as Qi Fu Ren – I would have been able to withstand this. Ugh. I hated imagining the smug expression on Qi Fu Ren as he looked down on me.

"Hmph. What a complete waste of money." The old man stared scornfully at his surroundings and folded his arms. "They should have spent all those resources on training the students instead."

"…I"m sure that"s what they"re trying to do. We have state-of-the-art training facilities, access to vast resources, and even granted free medical services."

Zhu Jiao was actually defending Wu Ling Academy. Come to think of it, other than the condescending att.i.tude from Xiao Zhang and the majority of staff and students, the academy"s infrastructure, facilities and services were actually topnotch. At least we weren"t denied access to the library, training facilities and medical care. Despite the abuse and insults that we had to deal with all day, the academy actually took good care of all its students, One Star Const.i.tution or otherwise.

But the old man didn"t seem interested in how charitable and magnanimous the academy was. He leaned closer as he raised his voice enthusiastically.

"More importantly, lad, you have great potential! Become my disciple, and I will teach you the secret Golden Kirin Sacred Creature Arts! You will become invincible, and will restore our preeminent position within the Alliance once more!"

"Really?!" Zhu Jiao brightened up. Then he sobered. "But…I"m only a One Star Const.i.tution candidate. Will I really be able to…?"

"Nonsense! I can sense the talent in you. In fact…" the old man studied him for a while, and realization dawned on his wrinkled face. "I must apologize. I believe the reason why you weren"t able to cultivate far for the last three months or so is because your qi has been continually absorbed by my golden amulet. The amulet was designed in a way that it wouldn"t activate until it detects a suitable candidate, and one way it does that is by leeching off qi from the wearer until it gathers enough to awaken me. For you to have awaken me at such a young age means that you possess a natural affinity to gather large amounts of qi, at a rapid pace too!"

Everything was falling into place now. Now I understood why the test first indicated Li Fu Chen, no, I mean Xiao Yan…ugh, I mean Zhu Jiao as someone with Five Star Const.i.tution. He really did possess that tremendous potential, but his qi was sucked away by the golden amulet that he thought was his family heirloom. That led to his Five Star Const.i.tution plummeting to One Star during the test and also explained his extremely slow progress of cultivating when compared to the rest of our cla.s.s.

Wait…then what about me? So Zhu Jiao had a way out, but I was still stuck in the bottom? I was the only one who was genuine trash? I was fated to be a mob character forever?

What the f.u.c.k?!

"Hang on…"

My attention was drawn back to Zhu Jiao, who had folded his arms and was furiously glaring at the smug-looking old ghost.

"Are you telling me that the reason why I lost my talent…was because of you?"

"Uh, well…even if you put it that way, you"re not wrong…"

Facing Zhu Jiao"s wrath, the old ghost suddenly sounded uncertain of himself. He chuckled sheepishly and bowed his head apologetically.

"It appears that I"ve put you through quite a bit of suffering, my disciple. Sorry about that."

Hey, when did Zhu Jiao agree to be your disciple? Don"t act as if that"s already a given, you old b.a.s.t.a.r.d!

"You"ve no idea what I"ve been through!" Zhu Jiao growled. "The last three months have been nothing but frustration and h.e.l.l for me!"

"I"m sorry."

"Give my qi and talent back to me!"

"I plan to do that. No…in fact…" the old ghost turned serious. "I will make sure to mold you into an invincible warrior, one who will surpa.s.s even your past potential. After all, martial arts isn"t solely about talent. If you learn from me, I know you will be number one under heaven."

"You do realize that story has been deleted and removed from Royal Road, right?" I muttered under my breath. Thankfully, neither of them heard me.

Zhu Jiao regarded the old man skeptically. "How can I trust someone who has been leeching off my qi this entire time?"

"Well…I mean, despite this seeming to be a misfortune on the surface, you"ve to admit, this period of suffering helped build up your character, didn"t it? If it wasn"t for this period of humility, you wouldn"t be able to develop such a strong character and formidable mental fort.i.tude."

What the h.e.l.l was the old man babbling about?

Unfortunately, Zhu Jiao was stupid enough to buy that bulls.h.i.t. He was nodding, seemingly pleased by the praise.

"I guess that"s true."

No, it was not! What character development?! Other than his unfounded optimism, I couldn"t see where Zhu Jiao actually had strength in character or formidable mental fort.i.tude. Additionally, why did the old man"s reasoning sound so suspiciously familiar, like some other old master"s ghost that was trying to convince yet another protagonist that he was right to steal the poor guy"s qi for three years (instead of months) and justifying it as "character building"? Then went and told the guy to bow down and become his disciple? And despite the protagonist supposedly having matured and strengthen his character, being described as calm, logical and reasonable by the author, acted like a spoilt brat who was easily enraged and went around shouting at the old man?

So, was the old man going to teach Zhu Jiao how to be a receptarier or alchemist next? Or give him a low-tier mystic heart flame technique that could evolve in future?

"Please teach me. I, Zhu Jiao, pay my respects to Master!"

"Good, good." Zhu Jiao"s new master nodded and stroked his beard. "And I, Qi Lin, will accept Zhu Jiao as my heir and disciple. I will make sure you reach the very pinnacle of martial arts and dominate the Celestial Realm!"

"Thank you, Master!"

"Well then, let"s begin." The old man named Qi Lin rose to the air and snapped his fingers. "I aim to bring your strength up to par as quickly as possible. Right now…hmm, yes, you are still only at level one. But under my guidance, I will bring you up to level nine of the Qi Gathering Stage within two months!"

Zhu Jiao"s jaw dropped. "Can you really do that?"

Qi Lin chuckled. "Of course. Have faith in your master."

"Uh…sure." Zhu Jiao nodded. Then he jolted upright, as if suddenly remembering something. He immediately bowed down.

"Master, your disciple has a favor to ask of you!"

"What is it?"

Qi Lin watched the prostrate Zhu Jiao curiously. Zhu Jiao maintained his posture, his face still on the ground, as he made his request.

"I have a friend…a friend in a similar condition as me…can you also accept him as my fellow disciple and teach him the Golden Kirin Sacred Creature techniques as well? Please! This will be the only request I make of you!"

I couldn"t help but be touched. Even when he found fortune and latched on to a huge sliver of hope that allowed him to learn martial arts and catch up…no, surpa.s.s the others, he didn"t fail to remember me. Zhu Jiao was a real bro. I was on the verge of tears. I would have run up there and hug him if I wasn"t pinned down by this mysterious force of qi.

From henceforth, I decided to label this strange power the Hand of G.o.d (cough, Author). A convenient Deus ex Machina that descended from the heavens to stop me so that a particular plotline could advance without any interference.

Qi Lin stayed quiet for a few long seconds, to the point that even I became nervous when waiting for his answer. Then he finally shook his head and sighed.

"I"m very sorry, my disciple. This request…your master is unable to carry it out."

"Eh? Why?!"

Zhu Jiao stared upward, crestfallen. I lowered my head and gritted my teeth. Of course. Of course Qi Lin wouldn"t accept me as his disciple. I was just a mob character. It was my role to remain as nothing but wallpaper, to serve as a foil to main characters like Zhu Jiao. It would be impossible for unnamed mob trash like me to learn a super martial art to elevate me to the top.

"The Golden Kirin Sacred Creature techniques aren"t a martial art that can be casually taught to just anyone. There are heavy limitations. Only candidates with the right affinity and suitable talent will be able to master it. Forcing your friend to learn this martial art would only harm his progress, not help him. He"ll be better off learning martial arts from another sect."

"But…he only has a One Star Const.i.tution…none of the other sects will accept him or teach him anything."

Qi Lin sighed dramatically. "A One Star Const.i.tution, huh? Such is the fate of the untalented. I hate to say this, Jiao, but your friend"s future is bleak."

"No way…"

"If you really want to help him, then you have to grow strong in his place. Become powerful enough to change things. Protect him. Then, when you reach the top, you can overturn this stupid system where the only the strong are respected. Help your friend find a niche where he excels in. it doesn"t have to necessarily be martial arts."

"Ah…that"s right. Fei Wu is very smart. He"s more the type to study…"

"Sounds like he should be a scholar or official instead of a martial artist then." Qi Lin smiled wryly. "So before he achieves that eminent position, you will have to protect him."

b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l, I don"t need protection! I"m not some frail girl looking for prince charming to sweep me off my feet and save me! I"m not some pathetic nerdy loser…okay, maybe I was, but like h.e.l.l was I going to just depend on other people to haul my a.s.s out of the fire every single time! I wanted to learn how to fend for myself too! And who the h.e.l.l are you guys to decide my career for me?! I wasn"t even going to let my parents decide what my career will be, never mind you guys! I never intended to be a scholar! I was going to be a martial artist like everyone else! No, I was going to become a martial artist who surpa.s.sed everyone!

Not that anyone cared.

"…I understand."

No, you don"t! You don"t understand at all! d.a.m.n f.u.c.king it!

While I raged inwardly, I suddenly realized that my prophecy had come true. I just f.u.c.king knew it. I knew Zhu Jiao was different from me. Even though we had spent three months surviving insults and abuses together, and I had slowly forgotten about it and got used to thinking we would continue moving forward together, Zhu Jiao was a protagonist-type character. Like I suspected, he would receive a Deus ex Machina type of aid in the form of a golden light from the heavens and an old master ghost teaching him invincible techniques. Within a short period of time, he would be beating everyone up right and left – especially Qi Fu Ren and all those arrogant young masters and stuck-up geniuses who looked down on him – and causing every single beautiful girl in the continent to fall for his charm and strength. This was already set in f.u.c.king stone!

Meanwhile, I was doomed to forever dwell as a nameless mob character, to be forgotten after the first thirty chapters as Zhu Jiao left me and Wu Ling Academy behind. I was nothing but trash, a character created solely to populate the world in which Zhu Jiao would eventually dominate, and to sing his praises as I cemented myself firmly in the protagonist faction and spout rhetoric about how arrogant and evil the anti-protagonist faction was.

Was this my fate? To fade away into obscurity while all my other cla.s.smates forged ahead of me? To die a pitiful dog"s death to motivate the protagonist to get revenge and wipe out a major villain, which would be forgotten and replaced by even bigger villains as the story went on and on and repeated itself endlessly for over a thousand chapters?

"I will make sure I become strong enough so that I can protect myself and my friend. I will help him succeed as well, even if it"s no longer in the field of martial arts."

Don"t make that choice for me! I want to become a martial artist! I want to stand by your side and gain the power pierce the heavens and split the earth too!

"Good. While on this topic, I would need you to swear to me, my disciple."

Qi Lin sounded solemn.

"You must keep my existence a secret. Do not let anyone know that you"re now a disciple of the Golden Kirin Sect until I permit it. Do not tell anyone about me or the Golden Kirin Sacred Creature techniques. You"re allowed to use them when you fight, because n.o.body will recognize the Golden Kirin martial arts after so long, but make sure you withhold the name of our martial arts from them. Don"t mention this meeting, don"t talk about me to anyone."

"Eh?"

Zhu Jiao glanced up in surprise, as if to ask why. Qi Lin had antic.i.p.ated his question, for he continued to explain without pausing.

"You see…there are enemies. Not just in the demonic sects, but within the Alliance too. They might have forgotten the form and shape of my techniques, but I doubt they would have forgotten the name of the Golden Kirin Sect, and its former reputation. They will look for ways to destroy our sect, and hunt my spirit down. That"s why you must never reveal our meeting or my existence to anyone, or both of us will be in terrible danger."

"I understand." Zhu Jiao nodded briefly.

"Good."

Qi Lin seemed pleased as he folded his arms in approval. Was it my imagination, or did his eyes flicker in my direction.

"That includes your friend…the friend you want me to teach. I"m afraid I can"t teach him anything, but we can at least try and protect him. However, you also cannot tell him anything about me. I"m sorry. Even if you trust me, it"s not worth the risk. Furthermore, he"ll be in terrible danger if he possesses the knowledge of my existence, or of the Golden Kirin Sect. our enemies will stop at nothing to obtain information, and they might capture and torture the info out of him."

"That"s…"

Zhu Jiao paled.

I couldn"t help but sigh. It was way too late for that. I had seen and heard everything. Even if I wanted to forget, I couldn"t. Not after listening to such an interesting and insulting conversation that further damaged my already non-existent self-esteem and pummeled my crumbling morale to complete oblivion.

"…I understand."

"Good. Let"s go. First, let"s get off this hill. Then we"ll start our training."

"Yes, Master."

The moment Qi Lin vanished, the tremendous pressure that was holding me down disappeared as well. I was finally able to breathe properly. Noticing that Zhu Jiao was approaching my position, I panicked and quickly slid down the slope, stealthily using my Shadow Steps to throw myself in a cl.u.s.ter of trees and seek refuge in the shadows.

Why am I hiding?

Because I didn"t want to get Zhu Jiao into trouble. He had promised his new master that he wouldn"t tell anyone about him, even me. I didn"t want to force Zhu Jiao to break his promise and get him into trouble with Qi Lin.

That was what friends were for, right? I owed him…even when he was receiving such immense fortune, he didn"t forget about me. He didn"t succeed in helping me out, but the sentiment alone was worth a great deal to me.

Once Zhu Jiao was gone, I slipped out from my hiding place amongst the trees and resumed my run.

With even Zhu Jiao gaining a master, I would fall behind into a bottomless chasm of despair if I didn"t keep up with my training.