The Daily Life of a Disciple

Chapter 3

The assembly was held every decade, but this time it held great importance because every grandmaster there was going to announce the successor to their respective sects. Everyone in Red Hills has an inkling to who shizun was going to nominate, the only disciple who was worthy enough could be no one else but Eldest senior brother Jin.

So that's why it came to a surprise even to me and to second shixiong as well I suspect by the looks on his face when it was our shizun's turn to pick, he spoke in a light manner, the word rolling off his tongue like water streaming down the river, "I choose my second disciple, Wei Shen".

Second shixiong was held in high esteem in the sect and by no means undeserving, in fact, if Jin shixiong wasn't around no one would doubt that second was a good choice for a leader, he was kind when needed but merciless when necessary. However Jin shixiong was around and compared to the perfect first shixiong, second did fall short in terms of cultivation abilities. Not to say that he wasn't powerful but Jin shixiong was a once in a century genius who broke through the Core Formation stage at only ten years old.

Turns out it was a surprise to everyone because the whole room broke out in noisy drones at the declaration. Some even look to shizun to see if he had made a mistake and had just a misspoken but grew disappointed when they saw how unfazed shizun was. Shizun took a sip of tea from his jade cup. "I have made up my mind. This matter is final."

I sneaked a peek at Jin shixiong's face, at first glance it was easy to interpret his expression as being nonchalant or uncaring but if you know shixiong as I do, you can tell the from the change in his stance, his folded arms, the perched lips, and most importantly what gave it away were his ashen eyes that used to be clear like jade marbles - a telltale that he was perturbed.

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That night shizun summoned me to his study. He was writing something again, I wonder sometimes if being the grandmaster of a sect requires so much writing because that's all I've seen shizun do most of the times when he's not in seclusion or training the shixiongs. I saluted shizun curtly.

"Come, taste some peaches." Shizun was so accommodating this time I was partly afraid if he somehow found out about the potatoes swimming in his koi pond, but when I took a bite out of a peach that tasted uncannily similar to second shixiong's own and seconds passed by without me being poisoned, I knew fourth shixiong hadn't snitched on me.

Shizun at last put his brush down. "Give this to your eldest shixiong when you see him." He handed me the piece of paper he just wrote on and folded in a silk envelope.

I thought that was all that shizun wanted from me when he spoke no more but I took three steps back before shizun's voice interrupted me. "How is your zither lessons progressing Ling?"

I regretted not bolting out that door as soon as I got my hands on the envelope. The zither lessons hadn't gone anywhere, fifth shixiong had given up on me the moment my finger strung the first string. Fifth said that any tune I play could have an entire demon clan bleed through their ears, I thought he was complimenting me, he said he wasn't. Fifth gave up soon enough, that and I bribed him with books banned even from the outside, free of charge, and he'd even get to have the first pick out of the lot every time I come back from hunting.

My playing was atrocious (so every other shixiongs had told me) and I saw how even the mighty shizun hair rose with every strum but oddly enough shizun had said nothing until one particular note came out so crooked that I saw a bird outside the window become so disoriented that it crashed into the wall next to it, that's when shizun moved to sit at my side and I thought for sure that he was going to smash my head into the zither just like how that bird did to the wall. But he hadn't and instead he pinched a few strings with his fingertips and said to me, "Play." Shizun was shizun for a reason; he was even good at teaching the zither.