I Fabricated the Techniques, but my disciple really mastered them?

Li Xuan's heart was secretly astounded.

"A few years old? Ha, I'll tell you, this Domain from birth..."

The purple-robed youth suddenly counted off on his fingers, "How many years was it again? I can't count them all, anyways, it's been a lot, a whole lot of years!"

Yet, inside, he was exclaiming, "That was a close one, almost let it slip; good thing, good thing I'm quick-witted."

Li Xuan watched the other party counting off on his fingers, feigning ignorance and puzzlement, feeling exhausted at heart.

Such poor acting skills.

"Forget it, I won't expose him, too wary, no need to rush things; I'll hoodwink him slowly, first thing is to figure out his identity."

"He doesn't seem to be a normal creature, nor a Divine Soul, truly bizarre; since he's as old as the Domain, his strength must be enormous, surely beyond what I can match right now."

"Some tactics can't be used on him, and besides, there's no need; just slowly hoodwink him, and perhaps I could even take a disciple?"

"He looks like a youth who has not long since reached maturity, easy to hoodwink."

The purple-robed youth was still counting on his fingers when he suddenly asked, "How old are you?"

Li Xuan, bearing an aura of mystery, gazed deeply, suddenly showing a kind of vicissitude as if recalling something from long ago, and spoke leisurely, "Me? I was before the ages, beyond any reckoning of years."

The purple-robed youth listened, stunned, feeling that the other's words were profound and unfathomable.

"So amazing, really inscrutable, too mysterious, too profound."

His heart felt a small shock.

"My little friend, what's your name?"

Li Xuan asked amiably.

"I don't know, I've forgotten my name, what about you? What's your name?"

The purple-robed youth scratched his head, pretending to be utterly bewildered as if he had truly forgotten his own name.

The acting was just a bit poor.

"My name, the karma is too great; you, as a little friend, cannot bear it, it's better not to know."

Li Xuan smiled and didn't expose the other's poor acting.

"Just tell me, I can surely bear it; there's no karma I cannot bear."

The purple-robed youth looked curious.

"Come, little friend, have some tea!"

Li Xuan pushed a cup of tea to the purple-robed youth, continuing, "The Domain is very small, my karma transcends the Domain, even if you, my little friend, are as old as the Domain itself, you cannot withstand it."

The purple-robed youth looked bewildered, thoughtful.

He glanced at the tea in front of him, took a sip, and immediately made a face of distaste, "Your tea is too terrible, utterly undrinkable; how can you drink such terrible tea?"n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Li Xuan's face maintained its smile while his heart was extremely helpless; the leaves brewed for this pot of Spiritual Tea were a gift from Emperor Da Yue, belonging to the highest tier of Spiritual Tea in the Qinghua state, extremely rare.

Even Emperor Da Yue himself could not afford to drink it daily; he had taken out his stored treasure to please this exalted individual.

This was the highest grade of Spiritual Tea Li Xuan had on hand, and it was being scorned!

For a peerless expert to be drinking such terrible tea was damaging to his image.

"You, my little friend, your Realm is too low; precisely because it's too low, you care about the grade of Spiritual Tea, about drinking what rare treasures from the Domain."

"At my current Realm, even an ordinary cup of water is flavorful."

"Do you know why? Because I've transcended the stage of pursuing rare treasures from the Domain – it's not tea I'm drinking, it's savoring the ways of the world, it's drinking the undefeated loneliness..."

Li Xuan spoke with an undiminished smile, starting to brag.

The purple-robed youth was stunned once more, feeling another small shock within.

"Not drinking the tea, but savoring the ways of the world? Drinking undefeated loneliness?"

The purple-robed youth, puzzled, scratched his head, feeling it all to be too mystical and involuntarily took another sip of tea, still finding it unpalatable.

"But, I still feel this tea is just terrible!"

The purple-robed youth looked morose.

"My little friend, it's because your Realm is low, you can't taste the way within it; but once you transcend beyond the material, when all the Domain and everything becomes an illusion, you won't care about the grade of tea you drink."

"Because, you are tasting the way of the world, not the tea in the cup."

Li Xuan poured himself a cup of tea, took a sip, and continued, "This sip of tea, what I taste is the greed of all living beings in the Domain, the thirst of Martial Artists, the desire to be invincible, the longing for eternity."

"This sip, what I am tasting is the storm, pouring between heaven and earth..."

The purple-robed youth blinked, his head swimming in confusion, and could not help but take another sip of tea. For some reason, this sip did not taste as bad as before.

"What did you taste in this sip of tea?"

Li Xuan asked with a smile.

"It tasted bitter, horrible!"

The purple-robed youth smacked his lips.

"Your heart is troubled, and you are ill at ease, so naturally, what you taste is bitterness,"

Li Xuan said, enigmatic as ever.

Being locked up here for who knows how many years, it would be strange if my heart wasn't heavy.

"Is that so?"

The purple-robed youth tilted his head and passed his cup forward, "Give me another cup."

Li Xuan poured him another cup of tea.

The purple-robed youth gulped it down, his entire face scrunching up, as if he had swallowed a mouthful of bitter water.

Seeing him like this, Li Xuan looked at the tea in his hand and also started to find it hard to drink.

Before this, he had been enjoying his tea, but now suddenly realized, was this tea actually garbage?

Gulping!

The purple-robed youth struggled to swallow the tea, "This is too disgusting, what kind of tea is this? If I hadn't run out of the tea I stored before, I would have let you taste what good tea is really like."

Li Xuan's face remained smiling, saying, "Young friend, with your current state of mind, even the finest of teas would be tasteless to you.

"You, your realm is too low, still fixated on the grade of the Spiritual Tea you drink. When the day comes that you transcend worldly attachments, you will no longer be stuck on this matter.

"The way of Dao is natural, close to the Dao, tasting the myriad ways of the world, everything in the world is included within it, even simple tea and plain rice can taste of the flavor of Dao..."

Li Xuan emphasized repeatedly that the other's realm was too low, which is why he was fixated on the quality of the Spiritual Tea.

The purple-robed youth blinked, contemplating, an image flashing in his mind.

He too was like this, detached and without possessions, as if all the treasures of the Domain no longer caught his eye.

All the Supreme Treasures, delicious food and drink, had been given to him.

"Taicang was like this as well? But Taicang is dead, what's even more terrifying..."

Scratching his head, the purple-robed youth looked somewhat agitated.

Seeing this, Li Xuan instantly understood that the other had thought of something and asked with a smile, "Young friend, if you have any troubles, feel free to talk about them, just like chatting about everyday life."

"Are you very powerful?"

The purple-robed youth suddenly asked seriously.

"I don't know if I count as strong, but up until now, no one has been able to withstand my slap,"

Li Xuan shook his head with a bitter smile, then added, "Being too strong is actually not a good thing. When a slap can solve all problems, there's no challenge at all, it can be quite boring!"

The purple-robed youth looked at him suspiciously, feeling as though this person might be flaunting his own strength!

Yet his expression seemed to carry the woes of being too strong, not like it was an act.

"His strength, it must be greater than Taicang's, perhaps even stronger than the one with the eyes?"

The purple-robed youth was inwardly shocked. Taicang's strength was immeasurable, and the being with the eyes seemed even more formidable than Taicang.

This is a senior figure! Discover stories at empire

Thinking thus, the purple-robed youth's expression grew a bit more respectful and he asked, "Senior, is it that the stronger a person is, the greater their greed becomes, the more they thirst to become stronger, wanting to have control over everything, to be peerless above all others?"

Li Xuan savored the tea, leisurely in his demeanor, but was secretly delighted that things were progressing, convincing himself that he could eventually coax out the answers he sought from the other's lips.

"As for me, that's not a strong person. A true strong person doesn't have a fierce desire to become stronger but returns to the ordinary, nearing the Dao, playing in the mundane world.

"For being invincible is a lonely affair. On the path of Martial Arts, there are no more peers in sight, and the heart for strength has long since faded.

"Only the weak desire to continuously grow stronger. The invincible long to figure out how not to be lonely..."

The purple-robed youth listened, perplexed, looking at Li Xuan with suspicion as though he was trying to tell him, "Get it? I am that kind of strong person!"