Chapter 139: Master Has Disappeared

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Ye Fei lit a candle, finally able to see everything inside the house clearly. The table and chairs he had bought with the little money he earned after reaping Widow Wang’s wheat for an entire autumn were gone. Even the cabinet he had received in exchange for tending Old Uncle Liu’s cattle for a year had vanished without a trace.

“Could it be that, knowing I have money now, the old man started splurging?” Ye Fei muttered as he opened the door to the inner room. In the faint candlelight, he saw that the bed was empty.

Ye Fei stood rooted to the spot. It was as though a corner of his heart had been hollowed out. He had never experienced such a feeling before, as if he were standing in an endless desert with nothing around him in any direction.

“Master?” he called softly.

There was no response, only boundless silence.

Ye Fei walked silently to the bedside and dropped onto it, quietly waiting for the candle to burn itself out. The endless night seemed as though dawn would never come.

He had no idea how much time passed before the room gradually brightened. At last, the final rays of sunlight crept in through the doorway. Ye Fei rose silently. He intended to go into the village and ask around, to see whether anyone had news of his master.

His master had always been a scoundrel, but he had never disappeared without warning before. This time, Ye Fei had no idea what he was supposed to do.

“You little brat, you actually know how to come back? Where has that old lecher of a master of yours disappeared to? My child is sick, and I can’t find him anywhere!” Widow Wang began shouting outside the door early that morning, as though she wished to rouse the entire village with a single cry.

Ye Fei shook his head and said bitterly, “I don’t know.”

Widow Wang refused to let it go. “You’re his disciple. What kind of disciple doesn’t know where his own master is? You drank my milk, and I haven’t even settled that account with you yet!”

Ye Fei had no mind to argue with her. He turned to search the village for clues, but before he could take a step, Widow Wang grabbed him.

“Come look at my child. His whole body is covered in black spots. I know I speak harshly, but don’t take it personally.”

Ye Fei glanced at her and sighed softly. Widow Wang had given him plenty of things since he was little. Whenever there was something good to eat in her household, she always set some aside for him. In a way, she was half a mother-in-law to him—though to truly count as his mother-in-law, she would first have needed a proper matchmaker’s arrangement with his master.

“When did my master disappear?” Ye Fei finally asked.

Although he did not believe that his master was some kind of immortal, neither did he believe that the old man was an ordinary mortal.

He had sensed since childhood that his master would one day leave, but he had never paid much attention to it. Now that it had become reality, he had no idea how to deal with it.

Widow Wang said doubtfully, “The two of you left on the same day. That very evening, I brought you some dumplings. But when I went inside, the house was completely empty, as if no one had lived there for decades. It was so cold and desolate that I’ll never forget the feeling for the rest of my life.”

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No wonder his master had been so eager to send him down the mountain. It turned out the old man had already made plans to leave.

Forcing back his tears, Ye Fei followed Widow Wang to her home to treat the child. Her house stood at the entrance to the village, from where one could see the entire little settlement nestled in the valley.

“It’s only an allergy. Don’t let him eat wild fruit from outside anymore. My master never let me eat those wild fruits when I was young.”

Ye Fei gently twisted his left hand. At once, a blue flame coiled around the child, and the black spots covering his body miraculously vanished.

Since Ye Fei’s master had always treated the villagers’ illnesses, no one found anything particularly strange about a disease disappearing so suddenly.

“Your master probably isn’t coming back, is he?” Widow Wang asked as he was leaving.

The question put Ye Fei in an even worse mood.

“I don’t know.”

Widow Wang smiled faintly. “If he isn’t coming back, then he isn’t coming back. In this life, when fate between people has run its course, it’s over. Why force it?”

After hearing this, Ye Fei blurted out, “Coming from you, that sounds surprisingly natural. I’ll be going, then. If my master comes back…”

The village had no telephone or communications equipment, nothing Widow Wang could use to send word. Ye Fei gave a bitter laugh.

“If he comes back, tell him I’m looking for him.”

After all those years as master and disciple, had the old scoundrel really abandoned him and left?

The more Ye Fei thought about it, the angrier he became. The tears in his eyes slowly hardened into resentment.

“And he had the nerve to make me practice the Nine-Dragon Divine Technique. What use would mastering it be? The old bastard isn’t even here anymore. Who am I supposed to show off to?”

He stood atop the highest mountain in the village, staring fixedly at the little courtyard. Suddenly, he pulled the Nine-Dragon Divine Technique from his pocket, flung it onto the ground, and shouted viciously, “I’m done practicing!”

He waited quietly for something to happen. Yet apart from the mournful sound of the wind, there was not the slightest sign of anything unusual.

“He really left?” Ye Fei could hardly believe it.

Once before, when the old man had disappeared on a whim, Ye Fei had used the same trick, and the old man had returned not long afterward. But this time, it seemed he really was gone.

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He stooped dejectedly to pick up the manual. The tears in his eyes finally spilled over.

Since childhood, he had followed his master across the world. No matter how many times he found himself in mortal danger, merely thinking of his master had always given him the will to survive. But now, he no longer knew what he was supposed to live for.

“You bastard! How dare you call yourself a master? You actually ran off and abandoned your own disciple!”

“Who says I did?”

A deep, resonant male voice sounded from behind him.

Ye Fei turned around and saw an old man lying leisurely on a tree branch, a gourd of wine hanging from his body.

“Master!”

Ye Fei rushed over and began reporting everything in a torrent, like a string of firecrackers exploding.

“Master, I’ve reached the third stage! I can fly on a sword now! I found three senior sisters! And my background…”

“Shut up! You’re giving me a headache. After you finally left, I thought I could enjoy a few days of peace. Why have you come back? I truly can’t understand you. You’re a vigorous young man in your prime. Why aren’t you looking for women instead of chasing after an old man?”

The old man raised an eyebrow, his entire expression radiating displeasure toward Ye Fei.

…

Suppressing his grievances, Ye Fei said helplessly, “Isn’t it because I… haven’t mastered the Nine-Dragon Divine Technique? So I can’t be with women… That leaves me no choice but to come back to you. By the way, why did you take in my senior sisters in the first place?”

“So you could sleep with them!”

What the hell? How was this old man becoming more shameless by the day?

Ye Fei sucked in a breath. The alluring figures of his senior sisters once again appeared in his mind.

“No, Master, be serious. I really want to know why you took in my senior sisters back then. You never even taught them martial arts!”

His master grew even more puzzled.

“I taught them bedroom techniques. You’ll understand someday. For now, get back there and investigate your own background!”

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