Mu Yu
“Mu Yu, get up already. The sun’s up.” Village Chief Bu, sitting, beside Mu Yu’s bed, shook the latter gently.
“Okay.” Mu Yu opened his eyes. Bleary-eyed, he peered at the few stars that had yet to recede outside the window. The sun was nowhere in sight! The roosters had yet to sound off! He clicked his tongue in annoyance, then resumed sleeping.
“Mu Yu, don’t sleep in. Today’s unlike any other. As the second child from Waterstream Village who has the potential to become an immortal master, you have to get up early to give the immortal masters a good impression.” Village Chief Bu beamed.
“Sure,” Mu Yu pulled up his blankets and replied drowsily.
“Mu Yu, you have to do us proud! People from other villages berate our village as useless as if it’s an annual custom because we don’t have children who qualify as immortal masters. You have no idea how furious I am!”
“All right,” half-heartedly replied Mu Yu, scratching his belly.
“Five children from our neighbour, Rascal Village, became immortal masters in the past ten years. That’s one every two years on average. That rate is far, far greater than ours. Raindrop Village is even more impressive. I heard they have two every year, at the very least. That’s twenty in ten years, while we only have two! Isn’t that infuriating?” Village Chief Bu grumbled, not even sure Mu Yu heard him.
“Great,” Mu Yu tossed over to his other side and said blearily.
“Wake up already. You need to change into another set of clothes and groom yourself. You can’t carry yourself slovenly as an immortal master!”
Mu Yu’s lethargic reaction rendered the village chief exasperated. Mu Yu was the second child who could cultivate in the past ten years, but he was always nonchalant. He never cared about what an immortal master represented.
“All right.” Mu Yu tossed back over and stuck a foot out of the blankets, placing it onto the elder’s leg. The braised fish he just dreamed of was so tasty that he drooled.
“Are you going to just keep lazing in bed? I’ll beat you if you don’t get up,” threatened Village Chief Bu, despite never hitting Mu Yu before.
“I’ll get up.” Mu Yu’s eyes remained shut.
“I cooked your favourite braised fish dish. If you don’t want to eat it, I’ll just throw it away.”
“I’ll eat it!” Mu Yu instinctively sat up. His eyes twinkled as he wiped away the drool from the corner of his mouth. He slipped on a pair of underpants and rushed into the kitchen.
“You glutton.” Village Chief Bu shook his head. He picked up Mu Yu’s clothes from the seat and made his way into the kitchen. Village Chief Bu chuckled as he watched Mu Yu wolf down the food. He rubbed Mu Yu’s head and told the latter, “Your ancestors would be honoured if you become an immortal master. You have to make us proud. It’s a privilege few are blessed with. They can fly about and do anything, while we mortals can only kneel when we meet them. Once you become one and come back, your status will be completely different. Last year, when Lu Yiyi from Raindrop Village returned from Green Pine Sect, their village specially hung up lanterns and decorations, setting off firecrackers in celebration. It sure made me jealous!”
“Oh! Yes, yes, yes. I remember that. Their granary caught on fire from the firecrackers. They need fire awareness lessons.” Mu Yu continued to shovel rice into his mouth and he gulped down the village head’s braised fish. He loved this dish the most.
Everyone in the village knew Mu Yu was an orphan. Fifteen years ago, a pregnant woman arrived at the village and gave birth to Mu Yu. When Mu Yu turned two, she left without bidding farewell. Nobody thought well of her after the fact. Fortunately, Village Chief Bu adopted the boy and raised him for the last ten years. Mu Yu was finally old enough to join the academy.
“Yeah! It means that standard fire awareness is important. We have to hold a demonstration for fire prevention next time and explain the effective measures against f-,” Village Chief Bu smacked Mu Yu over the head. “Oi, don’t change the topic. The point is they had an immortal master! An immortal master, understand?”
People visited the village every year just to test the potential of children who had turned twelve. Should they qualify, they would be sent to the academy in town, where cultivation would happen.
The world was not as simple as most had imagined it to be. Cultivation was the path to success. Those with great accomplishments could cut mountains in half with a wave of a hand – even moving them and filling oceans would be a piece of cake. Everyone yearned for the potential to cultivate. They all wished that they would become someone powerful so that they could pursue longevity and look down on the world.
Mu Yu stuck out his tongue and mumbled, “If that immortal master was so impressive, why didn’t he extinguish the fire using his magic?”
Stumped, the village head fiddled with his beard before suggesting, “Maybe… Maybe the immortal master master experienced a cooldown period before he could use magic again? Man, how am I supposed to know how their skills work? Who knows? Maybe it was just a bad day to use magic that day.”
“Heh.” Mu Yu sniggered dryly.
Immortal masters even needed to check the date before they can cast magic? You sure are imaginative, geezer.
Mu Yu didn’t want to cultivate even though many people would throw their lives on the line for the opportunity. No one in the village knew a nightmare often plagued him. In his dream, he espied a ruthless demonic figure – a chaos incarnate – massacring humans. In the nightmare, the sky was dark red. The moon was blood-red, and the water was scarlet. Whenever he tried to identify the demonic figure, he would wake up covered in sweat. Speculating the demonic figure to be a cultivator, he unknowingly developed distaste for cultivators. Even he himself had no idea why he had the nightmare or its significance.
Mu Yu only desired to lead a peaceful life with Village Chief Bu. For all he knew, he wouldn’t necessarily be better off once he became an immortal master. Unfortunately, the Village Chief Bu’s wishes didn’t align with his.
“I’m not asking you to become an exalted man. I just want you to join a better sect, and do our village proud so that we can hold our heads up high in front of outsiders.”
“I know.” Mu Yu picked up a piece of preserved meat reserved for special occasions. Today wasn’t one. Mu Yu raised his head. Puzzled, he inquired, “Grandpa, how come you’re willing to cook this?”
“Once you leave, it’ll be a long time before you’ll be able to enjoy my cooking, so I can’t hold back, can I?” Village Chief Bu patted Mu Yu’s shoulder and smiled.
Mu Yu fell silently looked around. Village Chief Bu didn’t have children. He always treated Mu Yu as his own grandson, was a kind and diligent man; he didn’t ask for much, either. Mu Yu smiled. “Don’t worry, Grandpa. When I return, you’ll be able to go on a bragging spree.”
“That’s reassuring to hear. When you come back, I’ll display you to the people from other villages. I’ll kindly broaden their horizons and show them we have impressive people, as well,” Village Chief Bu, smiling from cheek to cheek.
Mu Yu blinked: Show me off? What am I? Some sort of commodity for exhibitions?
“Grandpa, it’s flaunt,” Mu Yu reminded out of good intentions.
“Yeah, yeah, same thing,” proudly remarked Village Chief Bu.
Mu Yu gave up. Suddenly, a fish bone was lodged in his throat.
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