Secular Immortal of the Nine Realms - Chapter 121
Chapter 121: Bow to Me As Your Master, Respect Me As Your Father
“Big Senior Sister, I know we should be rushing to the Profound Saber Sect, but it is getting late. Why don’t we rest here for a night?” someone from the Bear Mountain Sword Sect proposed.
Quite a few people nodded in agreement.
Since they had driven off the Golden-eyed Demon Ape, they didn’t want to give up on this cooling place only to stay at a sweltering inn. Besides, they had been rushing the road so far that they hadn’t had an opportunity to rest up.
While the senior sister was hesitating, someone spoke up, “You should stay here and rest for the day. We have enough tents here.”
Fang Chen walked over and smiled at the senior sister and the other disciples of the Bear Mountain Sword Sect.
“Big brother, there was a huge monkey just now!” Fang Zhixue anxiously gestured with her hands, but she was unable to describe the massive physique of the Golden-eyed Demon Ape.
“This is our young master,” Xu Ge introduced to the senior sister.
“I’m Li Chen. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Fang Chen clasped his fist and said.
Xu Ge and Fang Zhixue’s eyebrows shot up. They quickly clasped their fists and introduced themselves too.
“I’m Xu Ge.”
“I’m Li Zhixue.”
A few of the younger Fang Clansmen came over and introduced themselves too.
“Li Dong here. It’s my honor to meet you.”
“Hello, I’m Li Mei.”
Ah, so it’s the Li Clan, the senior sister thought. She clasped her fist too and said, “I’m Zhong Ying from the Bear Mountain Sword Sect. It’s a pleasure to meet you too.”
“Miss Zhong has done us a huge favor by scaring away the massive ape on our behalf. Otherwise, we would have suffered heavy losses today. Please feel free to stay the night here,” Fang Chen said amicably.
“Why are you speaking with closed eyes?” one of the disciples asked.
Fang Chen opened his eyes, revealing his grayish-white eyes.
The disciples of the Bear Mountain Sword Sect were taken aback. He went blind at such a young age? How pitiful.
Zhong Ying glared at her junior brother. She wanted to reject the offer, but an aroma wafted in their direction just then. The Fang Clansmen had begun preparing dinner. She heard her juniors gulping down their saliva, so after some thought, she said, “I’ll be imposing on you then.”
At night, many of the younger Fang Clansmen gathered around the campfire to listen to stories about the pugilistic world from the Bear Mountain Sword Sect’s disciples. Excited claps could be heard every now and then.
Fang Zhixue was oddly immersed in those stories.
It was only after arriving at the southern region that she realized that the capital’s pugilistic world wasn’t exactly the pugilistic world. The stories there were nowhere as exciting as the ones here.
The stories ranged from a lone hero massacring the clan of a corrupted official and distributing their money to the suffering populace, or a young scion picking up a blade after his family was massacred by an enemy and training hard for decades so that he could exact vengeance.
Such stories were aplenty.
Meanwhile, Fang Chen ventured deep into the mountain. Following the aura left behind by the Golden-eyed Demon Ape, he soon arrived before a cavern.
Looking at the pitch-black cavern, he calmly ordered, “Come out.”
A moment later, a massive figure frightfully crawled out—the Golden-eyed Demon Ape.
It eyed Fang Chen with fearful eyes before speaking in an awkward tone, “This little fae didn’t know that Lord Immortal was here. Please forgive me if I offended you in any way…”
“You can speak human tongue?” Fang Chen was surprised. This fae doesn’t seem strong, but is it intelligent enough to learn human words on its own?
“This little fae gained enlightenment by cultivating and drinking the spirit spring water for many years.” The Golden-eyed Demon Ape’s enunciation was off, but it was comprehensible.
“Your spirit ki is in chaos. You barely managed to manifest an immortal vein… It’s because you didn’t inherit a proper legacy. You must have recklessly cultivated on your own,” Fang Chen stared at the Golden-eyed Demon Ape before suddenly remarking.
The Golden-eyed Demon Ape was startled. Seconds later, it kneeled on the ground and kowtowed non-stop, “Lord Immortal, please take pity on this little fae and bestow upon me your cultivation method. I’ll devote my life to serving you!”
Just then, there was a rustling sound nearby.
A massive serpent slowly slithered over. A massive tiger head peeked out from the bushes in another direction.
Before Fang Chen could say a word, these two beasts emulated a human’s posture by kneeling on the ground alongside the Golden-eyed Demon Ape and kowtowing. Clearly, they had been enlightened too, though they didn’t seem capable of speech.
“You are…?” Fang Chen was intrigued.
The massive serpent was over twenty meters in length, and the thickest part of its body was the width of a bucket. Its body was covered in scales reminiscent of black jade, and they glimmered eerily under the moonlight.
Similarly, the massive tiger was much larger than ordinary tigers. The fur around its neck was silvery-white in color, looking like a circle of sacred flames.
“Lord Immortal, they are my sworn siblings. I am the Big Brother, Big Cat is the Second Brother, and Little Snake is the Third Sister,” the Golden-eyed Demon Ape said in a lowered voice. “I told them that I met Lord Immortal at the spirit spring. Lord Immortal, we are kind faes. We haven’t eaten any humans since becoming enlightened. Please take us in as your servants and teach us your cultivation method. We earnestly wish to seek the path of immortality!”
After saying its piece, the Golden-eyed Demon Ape continued kowtowing.
The tiger and the serpent did the same too, their eyes gleaming with sincerity.
“In other words, you ate quite a few humans before you received enlightenment?” Fang Chen asked with an ambiguous smile.
The Golden-eyed Demon Ape was startled, but it nodded and honestly confessed, “We were like any other wild beasts back then. We saw humans as sustenance we had to eat to survive.”
“You’re honest.” Fang Chen nodded. He could tell that these three faes weren’t lying to him. “Are there any other beasts here who received enlightenment?”
The Golden-eyed Demon Ape replied with a hushed tone, “Lord Immortal, many beasts here accumulate spirit ki from drinking from the spirit spring over a long period of time, but most of them never become enlightened, and they don’t live for long either. Other than being stronger than normal beasts, they are nothing like us.”
“You looked like you were going to kill when you came to the spirit spring earlier,” Fang Chen pointed out with a smile.
“Lord Immortal, I only wanted to scare them away. It’s about to reach nightfall. The dumber beasts might go after those humans if they continued lingering here,” the Golden-eyed Demon Ape replied.
“Interesting.” Fang Chen nodded with a smile. “You didn’t inherit a legacy, but you became faes just from drinking from the spirit spring. Your talent is noteworthy among your kind. I intend to construct my base here, and I need guards. Are you willing to take me as your master?”
The three faes were taken aback. He… intends to take us in as his disciples?
The Golden-eyed Demon Ape howled in excitement. The youths who were chatting at the foot of the mountain shuddered and looked toward the mountain.
“Big Senior Sister, will those faes come after us again?” one of the Bear Mountain Sword Sect’s disciples asked in uncertainty.
“I don’t think so…” Zhong Ying murmured in reply. If those faes wanted to kill us, they would have long done so… I guess they are really intimidated by our Bear Mountain Sword Sect?
…
“Paying respect to master!”
The three faes kneeled before Fang Chen. They would have been delighted if the latter took them in as servants, but who could have thought that they would actually have the privilege to become the other party’s disciples?
It was way better to be an immortal’s disciples than to be fae servants. This meant that they would receive a proper cultivation legacy in the future!
It was hard to be initiated into the path of immortality, be it for mortals or faes.
“Why don’t I bestow you with a dharma name?” Fang Chen suggested.
“Yes, master!”
The three faes were excited once more.
Fang Chen pointed to the Golden-eyed Demon Ape with nostalgic eyes and said, “You shall be known as the Victorious Buddha from this day onward. Should you become an immortal, you will take on the name ‘Victorious Fighting Buddha’.”
“Victorious Buddha? Victorious Fighting Buddha?” the Golden-eyed Demon Ape mumbled the name before its body trembled in excitement.
Even Big Cat and Little Snake could tell that it was an incredible dharma name. It made them look forward to their dharma names.
—
Starve’s trivia
It’s common for monks to receive a dharma name when they renounce secularism and devote themselves to pursuing enlightenment. It is similar in this case too.
