Chapter 9: yeah, it not a good title, but that's mostly all that happens
Lu Biming immediately realized his mistake, biting his own wagging tongue. Of course, how would Luo Binggong have known what happened that night anyway? The girl couldn't say a word.
He rushed to mend it.
"Brother, you are taking this too personally, it was only a small beating, I was just setting her right, I was going to give her some pills afterwards!"
"You think just giving her pills would've healed the wounds you inflicted on her?!!!" Luo Binggong was a very, very gentle man. However, when it came to defending one he considered his own, he got very personal. "First, you don't even give her a decent place to stay, then, you also don't provide her food or any amenities! Those, I can bear, but this, beating her to the point that she was near death, her bones sticking straight out of the flesh, every organ in her body punctured, her head caved in slightly, this!!! Even if you don't like her, this is going too far!"
Now, might I remind you, Luo Binggong isn't a very private person and does everything that he does in front of all his disciples. Therefore at this moment, their entire argument is literally under a small pavilion in the middle of the training hall for all of Luo Bingong's disciples, and everyone in the training hall at this point, was currently staring at Lu Biming in shock, at what they'd just heard.
"I knew Lu Biming never held his hand when he chooses to discipline his disciples, but to do this… and to do it to such a little girl too…"
"Yes, this is too cruel, how can you consider yourself a daoist, not only neglecting her, but also beating your youngest disciple to near death, too cruel!!"
Lu Biming heard everything around him, and at this point, he could feel his reputation plummeting to the ground. He quickly tried to repair what was left, by backtracking. "Wait! It wasn't all me!"
"Oh?" Questioned Luo Binggong. "Please explain, who was it then?" Lu Biming searched his head, right! His first disciple was told to discipline her first! He had to have at least given her one blow before she set fire to his residence!
"Ahem." He coughed quietly. "It was also my.."
"Stop trying to pass the blame for your actions." He was unluckily interrupted by the sect master who slowly floated down to the ground from above. Why was he above? Because the craftsman peak was situated on the shoulder of his peak (ish), hence anything that happened in craftsman peak (hill), the main sect peak could easily be privy to, especially a nascent soul like himself.
And to even enter the main peak, one must pass through Luo Binggong's jurisdiction.
Everyone bowed except for Luo Binggong, who was currently holding Hui, and also too offended at the moment to feel reverent. Lu Biming, seeing that he was not bowing, also took that as an excuse to not bow, so as to not put himself below Luo Binggong. The sect master just sighed. He gestured to Luo Binggong. "Just give him his disciple back."
"But Sect Leader!" Argued Luo Binggong helplessly. He always respected authority, but this was going too far, even for him.
"I know you don't like it, but that's his disciple, not yours, he can do with it what he wants."
"!!!" Luo Binggong was frustrated, but there wasn't a lot he could do in front of two nascent soul experts, so he unfolded his arms, allowing Lu Biming to reach Hui. Hui wasn't ready to let go, but Lu Biming ripped her away mercilessly. Hui looked down at the clothing that had torn in her hands. She looked back as she was taken away. No! Brother Binggong!
Hui was dragged back to their peak (which is actually just a hill) and was forced to kneel again before Lu Biming. Who was striding back and forth, raging about all her wrongdoings, and how she should correct herself, and then finally came punishments. Hui had enough, and just wanted to leave at this point, her mind in its own inner dialogue.
"..For making your master and fellow disciples search all night for you!" Did I force you to search? "You're no longer allowed to go down the mountain! For embarrassing your master and fellow brothers, in front of others!" And why do you think you were embarrassed? "From now on, you'll be required to clean your master and fellow disciple's residences twice a week!" Just say you liked how good my cleaning was. "You will be given the duty of making food on those days as well!" …and my cooking, apparently.
Finally, he had finished his ranting, and Hui was allowed to go back to her house. The wood shed. Seeing all the planks she'd worked so hard to cut, already claimed to rebuild Lu Biming's place, she sighed again and then walked toward the peak of their mountain (which is just a finger on the hill).
The hill that they lived on was abnormally-shaped, in that it gradually rose, and at the very top of this gradual rise, there was a small plateau, in which the master and his disciples had built their homes. However, if you went a little farther through the woods, you'd reach a rock outcropping that went almost straight up, made solely out of straight stone and went at least twice as high as the hill below, (almost making it a mountain) but was completely unlivable. If you went around to the back, at the base, there was a small cave, this was where Lu Biming went into seclusion for any long period of time, but besides that, there was no other livable place on it, so it was kind of just good scenery. However, Hui, as someone who wanted a house that was unbreakable, just in case her master got in a bad mood, or remembered what she'd done to his place, decided to make it livable. She hopped to the top, with Li Haoli's qinggong, which she'd gotten progressively better at in the last few days. After reaching just below the top, she took out the pick ax from her dull grey spacial ring. Using the funny looking pick ax, that was alike to black, glassy obsidian, but held a dark blue gemstone at the base of the handle, she smashed it into the rock wall. Apparently it mustn't have been obsidian tho, 'cause it didn't break.
Whenever she took it out, it called forth lightning, so up till then, she hadn't found a use for it, and having ptsd from the chains, didn't enjoy getting struck by lightning. However, now that her body was able to circulate qi, she used that to control the spiritual weapon, making the lightning arc over her body as she swung the pick ax and began to carve out a cave in the cliff face. It took her about a month of constant hammering before she was finally somewhat satisfied. By then, Lu Biming had already gone into seclusion and barely remembered her existence, except when she came to clean, and Gu Feng had learnt his lesson, usually avoiding her at all costs. The only one she had any relationship with was Li Yueming at this rate, and that was only because he never talked and kind of just acknowledged her existence whenever she came by. Plus, he loved her carrot carvings.
One day, when she'd almost finished her work, she got ready to head to the kitchen to cut up some carrots, when the man who never spoke suddenly opened his mouth. "qilin."
Hui turned around, confused for a second.
He looked at her directly, as if saying the most important thing in the world to her. "I want a qilin."
So she carved the carrots into qilins.
He was very happy, and since then, every time she came in to clean, he'd always say one or two words, and she'd make them into whatever it was. She'd also noticed that the drawing he'd thrown away that she'd put a bird on, now hung in his main room, above the desk where he liked to work. Hui quickly grew attached to his silent care. She even found various drawings of herself blowing up the master's house in flames, stashed away under the clothes in his closet.
5 months after going into seclusion, the master came out again, only to be immediately greeted by Hui.
She bowed. "I've finished learning the Manual you gave to me, master."
"Yeah? So what?" He asked.
She continued bowing. "Is there anything else you are willing to teach this humble one?"
He huffed, walking past her. "And why should I be required to teach anything to a useless waste like you?"
Hui bowed at his departure. "Understood."
She turned around to go back to her place. She'd already snuck away from the mountain, and gone to the sect master's residence, requesting from him some techniques, using the excuse that her master was in seclusion and unable to teach her. Plus, for a couple figure carved carrots, she'd gotten her second brother to teach her everything he knew. And after pulling out all of Gu Feng's hair, had also learnt everything from him.
Master? What master? The only one who could claim to be her master was the heavens themselves!!