Old Grudges
“Ku Mu, nice going. Wait… you failed?” The guardian elder’s voice was audible before he was visible.
Ku Mu wasn’t sure how to react. The compliments that came to the tip of his tongue reversed back down his throat.
Daoist Yun Dan appeared next to Mu Yu. “What happened?”
“Yeah, what happened?” asked the elder.
“I have no idea. Maybe my hand slipped?” proposed Mu Yu.
A closer inspection of the liaozhi unveiled the problem. The resistance portion of it wasn’t refined as it was supposed to. Mu Yu controlled the liaozhi and willed its fusion. Howbeit, removing his control over it also undid the separation. In other words, he had to constantly control the liaozhi consciously.
“Why am I not surprised,” derided Shi Minghuo, running over as fast as his legs could take him and glad to see he didn’t lose the bet.
“Oi, did anyone ask for your opinion?” the guardian elder scathingly asked of Shi Minghui.
“Uh, ahaha, Greetings Patriarch, Granduncle.”
Since Daoist Yun Dan and the elder fixed their interrogative gazes on him, Mu Yu blurted, “What are you giving me those looks for? Did you two get it on your first attempt?”
“That was a sign of success. We wouldn’t have been able to do that,” answered the elder. “What went wrong?”
“Buzz off! You’re not needed or welcome here. Xiaoshuai, hold him down. Dragon Vine!” commanded Ku Mu, summoning the dragon vine.
The dragon vine wasn’t going to challenge the two elders by itself. Since knew it would had no hopes of winning, it roared at the two, instead.
“You ungrateful runt, learn to accept criticism. I’m not even here for you. You don’t want your leg anymore. Is that it?”
“Bring it on if you have no shame!” responded Ku Mu, pulling his sleeves up and picking up his walking stick.
“Brother Ku Mu… you shouldn’t give Uncle Leng that attitude,” said Daoist Yun Dan.
“And what is your pompous bum doing here when the bet deadline has yet to come?” Mu Yu blasted Shi Minghui.
“Shi Minghui, leave,” instructed Daoist Yun Dan.
Ku Mu seriously swung at the elder; sadly, he was too weak to complete his attack. Still seething, he demanded, “Mu Yu, smash him for me!”
“Huh? Me? Okay! In the future. I promise.”
“You will what me, you brat?”
“I, uh, I was just joking, just joking, hehe. If you two want to fight, how about saving it for the ring? I want to give it another try. I just slipped up last time.”
“Hmph!” Ku Mu and the elder snorted in synchrony, ending their spat for the pill’s sake.
Daoist Yun Dan queried, “Mu Yu, how did you do it? I’ve never heard or seen anyone go as far as you. You may have failed, but you were incredibly close to succeeding.”
“I already told you it wasn’t so easy. You two can run along. Mu Yu and I need to space to think,” Ku Mu demanded.
“How will your half-baked alchemy skills help? Mu Yu, ask me any questions you have,” proposed the elder, gesturing with his hand.
“Half-baked? You do it, then, wiseacre.”
“Hey!”
“Father, can you stop?”
Seeing Leng Bingxue step in between Ku Mu and the elder in addition to her statement, Mu Yu blurted, “Father?!”
“Good timing, Xue’er. You judge what’s fair here. This runt walked out on us back then and abandoned you for all these years, wasting your youth. I barely criticise him, and he bites back. I raised him for nothing!”
Mu Yu: Oh, that’s why they hate each other’s guts.
Face burning, Leng Bingxue exclaimed, “Enough, Father! We have a junior present!”
“Even better. We can’t let him mislead the younger generation. I’ll tutor him, lest we have another traitor.”
Mu Yu didn’t dare to utter a sound as the elder’s gaze read, “Try disagreeing and you’ll catch these hands.” All Mu Yu could do was silently lament what he ever did to get implicated.
“If it wasn’t for you getting in the way during my youth, would I have chosen to leave Leng Bingxue? I disappeared from sight as you wanted, and now you accuse me because you regret your decision? Strong logic,” sarcastically denounced Ku Mu.
“I was testing you! It was a test! That proves you have no persistence! If you loved her, you would’ve persisted!”
“You weren’t testing squat! Explain the logic of your so-called test. You knew I have a speech handicap, yet you degraded me in public over it. Nice test. I have a test for you. Go to hell, and ask if the king of hell wants you,” responded Ku Mu, grabbing his chest as he huffed and puffed.
“Gramps, Gramps, calm down.”
Mu Yu gave Ku Mu a vial of serenity to drink. Despite that, Ku Mu just couldn’t physically handle it. His eyes rolled into the back of his head as he fell backward. Mu Yu quickly caught him, while the elder frantically pulled out a pile of pills from his cosmos sack.
“Those won’t help him.” Leng Bingxue rejected the pills from her father and added, “I won’t forgive you if any misfortune befalls him.”
Elder Leng never wanted to hurt Ku Mu, but his anger got the better of him.
“Mu Yu, Ku Mu’s life is in danger,” whispered Xiaoshuai. He jumped onto Ku Mu’s chest and gave it a few knocks. Voice solemn, he elaborated, “He’s an ordinary human now. His organs are dealing with the same issues an ordinary elder would. Even if he wasn’t aggravated, he didn’t have much longer.”
“Is there anything we can do?”
Xiaoshuai shook his head.
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