Chapter 7 — Taking a Master
劍問蒼天 · Page 1 of 5
Zhang Qingyue slowly came to. He sat there dazed for a long while, then gradually sat up, and the past surged over him like a tide.
Like a nightmare!
"So you're awake. That's good." A voice came from the doorway, and a man stepped in.
Zhang Qingyue looked up and recognized Song Dayi, whom he had seen on Jietian Peak—a tall, powerfully built man with rough, hearty features. In his present state of mind, he could not say why, but the sight of a familiar face stirred a certain warmth in him.
"Brother Song," Zhang Qingyue called.
Though Song Dayi was a big, burly fellow, even his heart was moved to pity now. He walked to the bedside, reached out and patted Zhang Qingyue's head, and said gently, "Little junior brother, don't be sad. From now on we are one family."
Zhang Qingyue was taken aback. "What do you mean, one family?"
Smiling, Song Dayi told him how Tian Buhui had taken him as a disciple. Of course, he knew nothing of the small dispute that had arisen that day among the elders of the Canglan Sect in the Yuheng Hall on Jietian Peak.
Hearing this, Zhang Qingyue felt lost. To a farmer's son like him, the Canglan Sect was truly a gathering of immortals, and he would never have dreamed that one day he might have the chance to enter the Azure Cloud gates. Only, the price was not one he was willing to pay.
He gritted his teeth. In the end he knew that thinking more was useless, and he opened his mouth and said, "Senior Brother Song."
Song Dayi smiled and nodded. "Good, good. Little junior brother, you've slept a whole day and night—you must be hungry by now?"
Zhang Qingyue had not felt it before, but at his words his stomach at once gave two loud growls.
Song Dayi laughed. "Come, little junior brother. Let's go eat something first, and on the way I'll tell you a little about our sect. Then we'll go together to pay our respects to Master and Mistress, and meet your other senior brothers."
Zhang Qingyue nodded and got out of bed. Only then did he notice that the room he was in was much like the quarters of the Azure Cloud disciples on Jietian Peak, though it seemed somewhat more spacious.
Song Dayi led him out as he spoke. "Our Dazhu Peak is not like the other branches. We're very thin in numbers—even with you added now, there are only ten of us in all, which is why the rooms are more spacious." They came out the door into a small courtyard much the same as before; a few steps more and they left the courtyard for a covered walkway. But here everything was plain at a glance—only a dozen or so rooms, far inferior to the scale of Jietian Peak.
Zhang Qingyue followed Song Dayi toward the kitchen. From him he learned that the Dazhu Peak lineage, beginning with Zheng Tong, the fourth disciple under Patriarch Qingye, had passed down to Tian Buhui, now the sixth generation, and that conditions had always been so—the line was never prosperous. Among the elders there was now, besides Tian Buhui himself, only another martial uncle, Su Wan, who was Tian Buhui's wife. They had a daughter, Tian Lingsu, thirteen this year and two years older than Zhang Qingyue—so Zhang Qingyue was, in the truest sense, the little junior brother here.
And among Tian Buhui's disciples, Song Dayi was the eldest senior brother; below him in order came Wu Dayi, Zheng Dali, He Dachuan, Lu Daxin, and Du Biyan.
Zhang Qingyue committed them to memory carefully. "Oh—Senior Brother Dayi, Senior Brother Dali, Senior Brother Dazhi, Senior Brother Daxin, Senior Brother Dashu…"
Song Dayi laughed. "It's Senior Brother Du Biyan."
Zhang Qingyue blinked, then understood, and could not help asking, "How is it that only this sixth senior brother is different?"
Song Dayi said, "Originally his name really was Dashu. But say it a couple of times and see."
Zhang Qingyue murmured, "Du Dashu, Du Dashu, Du Dashu…" Then he caught the meaning and burst out laughing.