"Not Much Time Left to Live" Is Your Lie... Good Job, My Beloved Disciple, You Didn't Disgrace Yourself

"Old sir, you certainly have an appetite!"

As night fell, the Du family laid out a grand feast. Half the occasion was to celebrate Du Wanyi regaining consciousness, and the other half was to properly reward the white-haired old man who had saved her.

The white-haired old man did not stand on ceremony at all. He alone ate the portion of nearly ten people, eating nonstop from the afternoon well into the evening, with no sign of slowing down. Anyone who did not know better would have thought he was a refugee fleeing a famine. His stomach was rounded and bulging, looking like a small hill.

The Du family members watching by the side were clicking their tongues in amazement, and Old Master Du in particular was visibly flustered.

This man really can eat...

He's definitely no ordinary person!

Unfortunately, Old Master Du had stepped out to take care of some matters earlier that afternoon, so he missed the whole "flying right before their eyes" incident that the others had been chattering about. When Old Master Du first heard the news, he could barely believe his ears. You mean to tell me someone flew away right in front of you all, in broad daylight?

Is that really what happened?

Old Master Du: "..."

He had met plenty of people with unusual skills over the years, and even those with special abilities only operated within reasonable, controllable bounds. Someone who could fly out of thin air without relying on any external tools? That was a first for him.

Where did this old man even come from?

Old Master Du did not ask, though. That was unnecessary, and against the unwritten rules of this line of work. If the other person did not volunteer to share his background, that meant he did not want to talk about it. Pressing him for answers would get him nowhere, and would only end up offending the man. If fate allowed for it, he would learn the old man's identity eventually. If fate did not... well, then he would just have to nudge things along a little.

Case in point: right now, Old Master Du had received a strict order from his own devoted daughter, insisting that he must get this old man to take her on as his apprentice. Otherwise, she warned, their old Du family line would die out.

Old Master Du: "..."

She was not wrong. The main Du family line only had her as the sole remaining descendant. If she did not carry it on, their family really would be finished. That was no joke.

Old Master Du had already gotten the full story from the old madam of the house. Turns out, they had turned the old man away at first, but the second they saw him show off his incredible supernatural feat, they immediately changed their tune.

That is a little too shamelessly opportunistic...

But then again, that fits their little troublemaker's personality perfectly.

What else could he do? They only had this one precious child to carry on the family name. He had to step up.

Old Master Du thought over his words carefully for a moment, then raised his wine glass to toast the white-haired old man. "Sir, you clearly possess extraordinary abilities. My Du family would very much like to form a good karmic bond with you. I hope you will not find us too unworthy."

This so-called "good karmic bond" was, of course, none other than his devoted daughter, who had just snuck up on the old man earlier and whacked him over the head with a wooden stool.

"Ah, I get it, I get it! You are too kind, Mr. Du. Just for these few great meals alone, our karmic bond is more than solid. No more words needed. Cheers!"

The white-haired old man was completely unpretentious, eating everything put in front of him with no obvious tell of what sect or school he might belong to. His personality was free and unrestrained, utterly unconcerned with formalities.

But...

That response caught Old Master Du completely off guard. The "good karmic bond" he had referenced was supposed to be about taking Du Wanyi as an apprentice. How did it suddenly turn into just a few meals?

Old Master Du: "..."

This is going to be tricky...

While Old Master Du was still racking his brain for a way to bring the conversation back around, Du Wanyi snuck over from an inconspicuous corner. She looked left and right furtively, then pulled out a packet of knockout drops, and slipped the whole thing into the wine bowl when no one was looking. She then tossed the empty paper wrapper aside like nothing had happened, and stood there whistling, putting on a perfect "I have no idea what's going on, this has nothing to do with me" act.

She silently counted down the seconds in her head, and then...

Thud, thud, thud...

Several dull thuds rang out across the table. Du Wanyi, who had been pretending to mess around, immediately dropped her innocent act, a mischievous grin spreading across her face.

"Me, me, let me do it!!!"

She practically pounced forward, eager to help the white-haired old man to his room to rest, putting on a show that said no one else was allowed to touch him or she would throw a fit.

Then she turned around, and froze.

Everyone else at the table had passed out cold, but the white-haired old man was still standing there, shoveling food into his mouth nonstop.

For the white-haired old man, this was... a golden opportunity! Now that all these other people are out for the count, all this food is mine!

This is amazing!

Du Wanyi: "???"

"Why haven't you fallen asleep yet, you old coot? Just go to sleep already! How am I supposed to rummage through your things if you don't pass out? You ughhh..."

Furious, she started yelling at him, but before she could finish her sentence, the old madam of the house clamped a hand over her mouth and dragged her to the side.

"Sir, please do not take those words to heart. The child is still young, she did not mean a single thing she said..."

"Ah, it's no problem at all. I would never hold a grudge against a kid. Let her be, let her be..."

The white-haired old man went right back to munching on a chicken leg.

When Old Master Du finally woke up the next day, he was completely disoriented.

"Huh? Why am I in bed? I was at the feast, wasn't I?" He climbed groggily out of bed, noticing he was still wearing the same clothes from the night before.

"Did I drink too much and just pass out right there at the table?"

He thought about it for a while, but could not piece together what had happened. He tidied himself up a bit and headed out into the courtyard.

"Ugh, you old coot, can't we practice literally anything else? What's even the point of me hauling this thing around?" Du Wanyi was grumbling loudly, hefting a stone lock while holding a horse stance.

"My dear apprentice, you will understand the point soon enough. Besides, don't you want to be Spider-Man?" The white-haired old man raised an eyebrow at her.

Du Wanyi went silent.

Du Wanyi thought it over for a long moment.

Then Du Wanyi kept right on lifting the stone lock.

Old Master Du: "???"

Wait a second... something is really off here. How did we jump straight to this point? Last I remember, we were still at the dinner table. I hadn't even figured out how to convince him to take her as his apprentice yet, and now... this is already a done deal?

The missing part of Old Master Du's memory went like this:

Du Wanyi, refusing to give up, decided to stage another sneak attack. She could not back down now after all the big talk she had spouted earlier, how else was she supposed to keep her tough reputation around here?

Even if she could not take back all the things she had said, there were still other ways to get what she wanted. You old thing, take this! Another sneak attack!

And then, she got caught red-handed.

She did not get to steal anything, and the white-haired old man had grabbed her by the back of her collar and lifted her right off the ground like a misbehaving little puppy. Even when she was caught, she still had the audacity to act tough.

"Hey old man, I suggest you put me down right now, pretend you saw nothing, and let me try to sneak up on you a few more times until I finally succeed. Otherwise... do you believe I could give the order to have you hacked into mincemeat in two seconds flat?"

"You better learn what 'four hands are better than two' means. If you don't get the idea, I've got a Thompson submachine gun back here that can teach you the lesson real quick..."

The white-haired old man: "..."

She is a total unruly little devil.

But the more stubborn and unruly Du Wanyi acted, the more certain he was that he had found the right person. That was her.

She was the extremely rare "Heaven's Jealousy" genius.

Aside from the downside that she would be cursed by the heavens to suffer from severe illnesses or run into unexpected accidents, there were still a bunch of hidden special traits about her that had not even awakened yet.

For instance, these heaven-blessed yet ill-fated individuals only emerge from two extreme backgrounds: the extremely wealthy families, and the extremely impoverished families.

Those born into affluence have everything you could ask for, in every sense of the word. Behind immense wealth and status lie countless karmic ties and sins... all debts left behind by generations past, that end up dragging down their descendants.

Then there's the other end of the spectrum, the extreme poor. They are born into utter misery, with nothing at all: no parents, no money, no food to eat, not even a name to call their own.

The odds of the former group surviving are overwhelmingly higher than the latter.

Since they come from extremely wealthy households, as soon as trouble arises, their parents will pour massive amounts of manpower and resources into finding a way to break the curse. That's exactly when they easily catch the eye of certain opportunistic people...

The white-haired old man used to come from just such a wealthy family. But alas, time waits for no one, and the world has moved on.

Now his entire family is gone, leaving only him.

Oh, and by the way, the white-haired old man once joined the Boxer Rebellion, and even landed a solid elbow strike on a foreign devil...

No one can pin down his exact age, but just looking at that full head of white hair makes it clear he's at least a hundred years old, yet his energy and spirit are still astonishingly robust!

At the end of the day, he's one of those heaven-defying favored ones too. Both his body and mind far outstrip those around him, even people from his own era.

Their sect has no name, no formal title, born of the earth and raised by the heavens. Even the white-haired old man's own master didn't know where he came from, because that master himself was only brought in by the master before him...

Who knows, that master of his master might still be active somewhere in a foreign country right now...

Anyway, the first time he saw his own master, the man looked like a white-haired, red-faced immortal, full of unworldly bearing. The sight was so imposing it immediately cowed his parents, who dropped to their knees and kowtowed begging the master to take him as a disciple on the spot.

And then, well, here he is today.

After he finished learning all the skills, his master vanished off to who knows where. Probably ran off somewhere to have fun, right?

He spotted him once some sixty or seventy years ago, and the guy looked like he was busy blowing up a bunker... No idea if he survived that.

He must have, though.

And you wanna know why?

Because the white-haired old man himself once blew up a bunker too, and he thought it was no big deal. Barely hurt at all, just left him with a bit of ringing in his ears, that's it.

That covers the wealthy side of things. Then there's the other, far rarer type: the heaven-fated ill-starred souls born into abject poverty. Compared to their rich counterparts, their lives are nothing but pure suffering.

Most of them die the second they're born into that nightmarish starting line. The few that barely survive still end up losing their lives to all sorts of random accidents, like a trivial cold, or a sudden unforeseen mishap...

And if they manage to get through all that? There's still some totally inexplicable, bizarre fatal illness waiting for them. There's no way out, they're doomed for sure.

At least in all his years, the white-haired old man has never once seen a single one of those poor ones make it. He has come across a few of the wealthy heaven-fated souls, but every time he got there too late, they were already gone.

What a tragedy, what a pity. They were born with every possible advantage at their fingertips, only to get taken away in the most brutal way imaginable.

"Dear disciple, would you like to learn cultivation under me?"

"Pah! You old coot, your lady here doesn't care for that garbage at all. I suggest you let go of me right now, or else..."

"Hmm, wonderful, my dear disciple. I can already feel your wholehearted devotion. Starting tomorrow, we'll begin your cultivation. Oh right, stock up on plenty of chicken legs, ginseng, deer antler velvet, the works..."

"I get why ginseng and deer antler velvet are on the list, but what on earth do they have to do with chicken legs?"

"Oh, nothing at all. I just plain like eating them."

"..."

...

"Hey old coot, aren't we training today?"

"No, no need to train anymore. There's nothing left for you to learn. Dear disciple, you're born with superhuman strength, you'll definitely go much further down the path of cultivation than I ever could. Now, I've got one last difficult mission to pass on to you!"

"A mission? No way, that's way too much hassle. Go kick the bucket already, you old geezer."

"Hmm, outstanding! That's my beloved disciple, agreeing to it right away like that!"

"You old thing, are your ears broken?! Do you believe this lady will show you exactly what a mean punch to the back of the head feels like!"

"Dear disciple, I've already passed on every single skill our sect has to offer. I only have one request left for you: you have to keep our lineage going. I don't have much time left to live. I'm just so lucky I got to meet you before I close my eyes for good..."

"I hope you'll do the same, and find the next heaven-fated ill-starred person before your own time runs out..."

...

"Click, click, click..."

The crisp spinning of the compass came to a halt, pulling Du Wanyi's wandering thoughts right back to the present.

"Ma'am? Ma'am? Hey, are you even listening to me?" Ye Cheng waved a hand right in front of Du Wanyi's face.

"Little Cheng Cheng, wouldn't you like to change how you address me, the 'ma'am' part? Like..."

"Password ma'am?" Ye Cheng blurted out, testing the waters.

Du Wanyi: "???"