Dragon Tamer

Chapter 120 - 121 Growing Big and Small

The Sword Sect’s Senior Sister, Zi Miaozhu’s eyes widened like large pearls, revealing a thick hostility. She seemed to have forgotten Zhu Minglang’s existence and was instead glaring at Nan Lingsha.

Nan Lingsha was not afraid of her, simply locking gazes with her.

The surrounding Sword Sect disciples all stood petrified, their gazes once again meticulously scrutinizing Zhu Minglang, not perceiving any remarkable ability in this man that could cause their Senior Sister to erupt in jealousy before everyone here!

“Junior Sister, I have important matters to discuss with Grandfather, so let’s not get hung up on this issue,” Zhu Minglang said.

“Fine, I won’t pester you, she can play the minor role, and I’ll play the major one,” Zi Miaozhu said.

“Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang!!!!!”

The swords floating beside the Sword Sect disciples suddenly fell to the ground, devoid of the slightest bit of Sword Qi, scattering in disarray – just like the sound of their breaking hearts!

Senior Sister, our Senior Sister Zi Miaozhu…

Our Sword Sect’s goddess, why do you need to compromise so much in front of an insignificant nobody?

“Junior Sister, stop being unreasonable. First, there is no arranged match between you and me, nor have we ever had any romantic involvement—only the most common interaction between senior brother and junior sister. Secondly, Nan Lingsha is not my companion, just a traveling Divine and Mortal with me. Her words just now were merely to test our friendship,” Zhu Minglang seriously explained.

“She’s not your companion?” Senior Sister Zi Miaozhu asked.

“No,” Zhu Minglang answered seriously.

“That’s more like it…” Senior Sister Zi Miaozhu breathed a sigh of relief, her face gradually brightening with a smile.

The disciples, who had just managed to pick up their swords, had to drop them again, causing a dissonant cacophony.

Senior Sister, haven’t you noticed? You were just rejected!

“Where’s Grandfather?” Zhu Minglang asked.

“Here, and Uncle Xue Hen is also present,” Zi Miaozhu replied.

“Good.”

Zi Miaozhu’s mood was equally capricious; a moment ago she was brimming with animosity, but now she was like a little sister chattering non-stop intimately beside her long-lost brother.

The accompanying Sword Sect disciples were all agape, probably having not heard so many words from Senior Sister Zi Miaozhu in their many years at Yaoshan Sword Sect.

Is this really what the goddess is like in front of others??

Granted, this man had a noble and elegant presence, but he didn’t seem to be much different from any of the disciples; instead, it was the veiled woman beside him, with her ethereal demeanor and graceful poise. Even with her face concealed, she radiated a captivating beauty, likely surpassing even the Senior Sister…

But as Sword Cultivators, how could they merely focus on someone’s appearance? Women are but beautified skeletons. It’s Senior Sister Zi Miaozhu, strong, decisive, and virtuous, who is the moon among the stars!

“So, Senior Brother, do you feel that no Divine and Mortal in this world is your match anymore, and thus you’ve discarded this dull ability to become a Dragon Shepherd, to experience a different kind of extraordinary life?” Senior Sister Zi Miaozhu asked with sparkling eyes.

“…” Zhu Minglang truly didn’t know how to respond.

In fact, he left the Yaoshan Sword Sect when he was fifteen, and Zi Miaozhu was only fourteen at the time. Although they had seen each other occasionally over the years, they had not spent much time together.

The problem is, no matter how many years have passed, it seemed her self-awareness was still stuck on the belief that she was always outshined by others, as if she had always been the legendary youth of the Sword Sect.

But once she stepped out of the Sword Sect, the world became unimaginably vast.

Moreover, the world people saw was just the tip ot the iceberg. Even it they shone brilliantly for a period, time kept passing, so how could one truly be invincible forever?

When they arrived at a mountain pass, there were several long forest paths paved with broad white jade steps. On each side of every path were stone lanterns that would emit a bright light at night, illuminating the entire path leading up the mountain.

However, one of the paths clearly lacked these carved stone lanterns and was instead covered with fallen leaves. There was even some overgrown grass in the distance, as if it hadn’t been cleaned for a long time.

A stele stood at this path’s entrance, with three characters etched on it: “Abandoned Sword Forest.”

Zhu Minglang stopped here, his gaze trying to penetrate deeper into the likeness of the forest.

But with the dense growth of pines and bamboos, arranged in a haphazard beauty, it was hard to see further.

“Big brother, strange things have been happening in the Abandoned Sword Forest, scaring away the souls of who knows how many disciples, and even I dare not enter rashly. The revered masters of the Sword Sect also went to investigate, but they found nothing, as if the odd occurrences hid themselves,” Zi Miaozhu said.

“That’s right, the Abandoned Sword Forest is like a haunted place. No one has lived there for many years. Once, some of us young Sword Disciples threw some broken, rusty swords into it, and when we came back, we fell unconscious for several days…” the long-eyebrowed disciple said.

The Abandoned Sword Forest was all too familiar to Zhu Minglang, so much so that standing at this entrance, vivid images of past hardships flooded his mind. Practicing over and over again, exhausting oneself time after time, starting anew time and time again…

Childhood, adolescence. If you were to talk about the deepest memories, it might not be Zhu Minglang’s own home at Zhu Gate, but rather the Abandoned Sword Forest, which felt more like the ancestral house, filled with many memories.

Every rusty sword had been stained with the blood that flowed from his own calloused, broken hands.

“Big brother, do you want to go in for a look?” Zi Miaozhu asked.

“In a little while, let’s go see Grandfather first,” Zhu Minglang replied, managing to calm his somewhat unsettled emotions.

“Mmhmm.”

Upon entering the main peak, one could see many layers of mountain villas built from various precious woods, with eaves like white clouds and pillars tall as pines – majestic and full of classical charm.

Inside White Cloud Mountain Villa, a few Sword Cultivators were competing on a large mountain flat. They were not using any Sword Qi, merely swordplay, yet it already offered an exciting and pleasant sight to behold.

Walking into the hall of the villa, Zhu Minglang saw an elderly man with a full head of white hair sitting upright in a Taishi Chair. His face was full of wrinkles, and his eyes were half-closed.

“Grandfather, Zhu Minglang is here to see you,” Zi Miaozhu said.

“What!” The white-haired elderly man nearly leaped from his chair, exclaiming, “All I did was take a nap, how did I end up getting my soul hooked by the messengers of Yellow Springs? Minglang, Minglang, your old man doesn’t need your visitation, go where you need to go, Grandfather still wants to live a few more years!”

Zhu Minglang’s face turned dark.

So Grandfather thought he was meeting him in the Yellow Springs?

Originally seeing the old man’s hair whiter, his vigor diminished, his nose a bit sour, feeling guilty about not visiting for so many years, and saddened by the worries he added to his family with his long disappearance, now all that sentiment was gone..