Luo Qiang almost laughed when he heard that long suffering sigh and the real reason that the Bai would no longer be guests at his estate for the remainder of their stay in the city, but he held himself back lest he give his son the wrong impression about his mood right now.
“I understand Miss Bai, just know that my estate will always welcome members of the Bai Clan.”
Bai Yue bowed slightly. “Thank you for your hospitality Patriarch Luo.” Before she turned and looked in Li Ruoshan’s direction. “Shall we race, Sister Ruolan? Don’t worry, I will restrict my cultivation to match yours.” Not even giving a reply Li Ruolan simply disappeared from the estate in a flash, presumably already on her way to the House of Heavenly Respite. Bai Yue laughed and disappeared shortly after.
After they had both left the grounds, Luo Qiang sat back in his seat with a sigh, before turning to his youngest and pointing to the seat that Bai Yue had previously occupied. “Sit.”
He watched as his downcast son shuffled over to the chair and gingerly sat down with his back ramrod straight and his fists balled up and resting on top of his thighs, on high alert about what was about to happen.
“So Son, you find yourself in the enviable position of having the ability to watch a perfect recreation of a monumental disaster that you almost brought down upon yourself, I hope after watching that you can at least tell me what the obvious mistakes you made were.”
Looking at the ground in front of him Luo Jian answered. “I lost my temper and called a Dao Seeking Realm expert that had just saved my life an ‘old hag’.”
“That you did, and judging by the look on your face not long after you said it I imagine I don’t need to impress upon you just how stupid that was. But in that exchange you also threatened her with our family name, apparently unaware that you were standing in one of the few buildings and threatening one of the few people in this entire city to whom that threat is meaningless.”
Luo Jian seemed to lower his head even further. “I don’t have an excuse father, I know all of that, I just lost myself when I realized that I had almost been killed by that filthy blind peasant.”
“I suppose that brings us handily to your second obvious big mistake.”
“I disregarded that peasant and was taken by surprise.”
A stern look on his face, Luo Qiang raised his voice for the first time in this tete-a-tete with his son. “You disregard him still, is your ego so fragile that you can not even admit what is before your very eyes. That young man is both not some random peasant and is certainly not blind, if I had to guess from what little I saw, I would say he is an aspiring Sword Immortal, a good one too.
“But we will move on for now to the less obvious mistakes, one in particular that was possibly your worst mistake of the entire encounter, so what do you think they might be?”
Luo Jian wracked his brain, he knew that his father was testing him, but he was struggling to come up with other things he should have done differently.
Seeing his son was not going to pick up on it, Luo Qiang decided to just put the boy out of his misery. “You catastrophically misjudged Bai Mei, you picked up on some superficial talk that everyone has heard, that she loves spirit beasts, and grossly underestimated just how much. You envisioned her to be enamored with them and somewhat of a collector, someone who would keep them as pets like so many other cultivators. When in fact, the rumors mean just what they say, she loves spirit beasts and treats them like they are her equals. So, your very first comment not only set this whole chain of events in motion, it also did the exact opposite of what you were hoping to achieve and destroyed any infinitesimally slim chance you may have had with her.”
For the first time since the conversation began Luo Jian looked up at his father, an obvious look of anger on his face from that last comment.
“Oh, you disagree that you only had an ‘infinitesimally slim chance’? Well, allow me to finish up this list of mistakes you made and then I will explain my reasoning.
“Your final mistake can hardly be blamed on you, you merely missed something that is completely understandable for you to have missed, but it is probably the most consequential piece of information that this projection revealed, which is the identity of the old man who was sitting at the table that you barged over to and who provided this projection. That was Old Wu. I doubt you have heard that name before but you have almost certainly heard his other name, Thunder God Wu.”
Luo Jian went a little pale when he heard that.
“Any hope that you were harboring in your heart about retaliating against this young man Xu Long via means of the Luo Clan should be thoroughly crushed, it is never going to happen.”
Luo Qiang watched the emotions play out over his son's face, first he was about to object, then realized how ridiculous that would be, then he felt despair. Not wanting to let his son wallow in his self pity for too long Luo Qiang decided it was time, he was hopeful that this disaster could be turned into a catalyst for his youngest son and that the mistakes of the neglect of his upbringing could be remedied.
“Now we come to the point that connects all of this together and hopefully clears up why I am patiently explaining all of this to you instead of just throwing you in a dark hole to think about what you have done.
“Right now, as you are about to enter an Academy and start your cultivation journey proper, you stand at a crossroads, two paths that will lead you to very different places and affect your entire life going forward.
“The first path is a continuation of the one that you have obviously been walking down for quite a while now, the path of borrowed power. The path of the indolent son of a powerful family who doesn’t focus on his cultivation but rather prefers to strut around wielding the power of his family name, which as you have discovered this evening is a path that has quite a few pitfalls. Most notably, your own lack of personal power when you meet someone who is not cowed by your name, but also the fact that while the Luo Clan are indeed a powerful force, especially when combined with the Han and Zhang when it comes to outside forces encroaching on our city, we are by no means all powerful and still must tread carefully when it involves the true powerhouses of the realm.
“The reason that I told you that you had an infinitesimally slim chance with Bai Mei is very simple, the potential of all cultivators is a mixture of two things, talent and effort. Bai Mei is a prodigy of the Bai Clan, when young cultivators are called prodigies it is not just because they have exceptional talent but also because they have the will to strive forwards relentlessly. Whereas you on the other hand, have the talent, but are walking down the path of minimal effort. Anyone who wants to pursue a woman like Bai Mei, at minimum, has to be able to keep up with her and if they can’t even do that then they need to charm her to the point that such considerations don’t matter. I don’t think I need to tell you that that door is closed to you, in fact I would say you should give up on pursuing Bai Mei altogether.”
Luo Jian sunk his head lower. While his father plowed ahead.
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“Then we come to the second path. The path of personal power. Ultimately following this path sounds very simple but is in fact very difficult in practice, hence why so many children of powerful families walk down the same path as you have begun to. It involves but a few simple tenets to live your life by, to start with, you never threaten anyone with your family name, ever. Besides knowing that we stand at your back if someone is trying to do the same with their family name to you, you live your life as if you do not have a powerful clan backing you. What do such people, who wish to succeed in the cultivation world, do? They focus on their own power, they cultivate with conviction and will, and they seek out true brothers and sisters who will have their back through all the trials and tribulations of life, not surround themselves with people who are looking for an in with their family.
“Should you continue to follow the path you are on you will be fortunate to reach the Nascent Soul Realm. Should you choose the second path and you have the will to persevere, then there needn’t be a ceiling to the heights that you can reach. I hope you choose wisely.
“And speaking of choosing wisely, we come to your first choice at said crossroads, namely what you are going to do with your hatred for this young man Xu Long. Any hope you may have had of utilizing someone of a higher realm to deal with him, which I wouldn’t have approved of regardless, is thoroughly off the table with the inclusion of the Thunder God as his sponsor to the Academy. So you are left with two options, which incidentally line up perfectly for the purposes of this lesson.
“Firstly, the path of borrowed power, in which you attempt to wield the influence of the Luo Clan in the Academy, assuming you are both enrolling in the same Academy, and assemble allies to gang up on him and exact your revenge with numbers. I am sure you can extrapolate the scenario to you being in opposing Academies.
“Secondly, the path of personal power, which will involve swallowing quite the bitter pill. You let go of your hatred, you put him out of your mind entirely, pretend he doesn’t exist, and you focus on your own cultivation. The fact that he is being sponsored by Thunder God Wu implies that he is at the very least just as much a prodigy as Bai Mei. So you let go and focus on yourself, perhaps you end up matching or exceeding his strength, perhaps you don’t, either way it doesn’t matter to you, all that matters to you is that you are stronger than the you from the day before.”
Luo Qiang paused here to hopefully let the gravity of this decision sink in to his son’s head, he had a lot riding on this, if this talk at this pivotal point in his son’s life doesn’t work then he will likely just have to accept that his youngest son is a lost cause and minimize the damage that he causes. When he thought his son was ready, he decided he would finish it here and just hope it would have the impact he desired.
“Now, I am not going to punish you for this evening's events, whatever your shortcomings are, they are just as much my responsibility as they are yours. When I watched the events that transpired this evening I had a revelation, I have not been much of a father to you since I took over from the previous Patriarch, I have neglected your upbringing and have basically left you to your own devices, for that I apologize and I hope you will forgive me. I realize that right now this event is probably feeling to you like an unmitigated disaster, but I firmly believe that if you take the lessons of this experience to heart you will look back on this moment as the most important of your entire life.”
At some point Luo Jian had looked up from the ground and started watching his father intently as he lectured him, when he delivered that last part however he was frozen in place, at a complete loss, this was not how he saw the aftermath of this whole thing playing out.
Luo Qiang got out of his seat and placed a hand on his stunned looking son’s shoulder. “Think well on everything I’ve said, Jian.” Then he walked inside their rather spacious villa and left his son to his thoughts.
…
Bai Mei just sat there deadpan staring at the young man when she heard his answer of ‘I am Xu Long’. It was difficult to read his facial cues as to whether he was being serious or not with that blindfold covering his eyes. After a few moments she decided to take him seriously until it became obvious he was not.
“I assume you are enrolling into one of the two Academies given how strong you are and the fact that you are in this city at this time, given all of that, how is it possible that you lack even the most basic of information on the major clans of the realm.”
“Let me answer your question with a question, why is it that you do have this information?”
Looking more than a little frustrated, Bai Mei decided to humor him. “Because like most children who will enter the cultivation world in this realm I was taught at a young age about all of the major clans and sects.”
“No, I asked why. Why is that particular information considered important for young aspiring cultivators to learn?”
Bai Mei actually blanked for a moment trying to answer that question, the immediate answer that came to her mind was ‘because that is what everybody does’, as soon as that answer crossed her mind it jumped out at her how inadequate that answer truly was. After thinking it over for a while she settled on an answer. “I have never really thought about it but I imagine it is so that young cultivators can more safely navigate the treacherous world of cultivation and the sometimes venomous social and political jostling that it can entail.”
She watched as the young man smiled at her answer. “And that is why I don’t have that information, because my mother always considered that aspect of the cultivation world to be ridiculous and the domain of those who have given up on the Dao, thus I imagine such information was dismissed as unimportant where my education was concerned.”
Bai Mei felt the overwhelming urge to once again ask this young man just who he was, but she stopped herself, knowing that she would once again be told that he was Xu Long. Just when she was about to try and pry some more details from the mysterious young man in front of her, her thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice.
“Mei Mei, do have any idea how ridiculous I felt having to tell Patriarch Luo that we would no longer be guests of his to appease a small spirit fox.”
Bai Mei instantly turned a little pink when she heard what the woman had said, she shot her head around rapidly to admonish her. “Big Sister Yue! I have asked you repeatedly not to call me that, at least out in public.”
“I know.” The beautiful woman answered flippantly before she turned her attention to Old Wu, who had been sitting quietly the entire time sipping spirit liquor. She clasped her hands and bowed in his direction. “Elder Wu, it is an honor to meet you.”
Old Wu raised an eyebrow at her. “I take it Luo Qiang activated the projection in front of you then…first of all, call me Old Wu and second of all, I would prefer if you kept to yourself what you deduced after watching that projection.” He then looked momentarily at Bai Mei then added. “I suppose you can tell little Mei Mei here when you are in a more private setting since Xu Xing seems to like her so.”
While Bai Yue was nodding her head in acknowledgement of Old Wu’s request, Bai Mei scrunched up her face when she heard this obviously powerful Senior making fun of Bai Yue’s pet name for her. “See what you have done now Big Sister Yue.” She then turned her attention to see the slight smile on Xu Long’s face. “Don’t you even think about it!”
Still smiling at her, Xu Long replied. “It is a very cute name, but you have nothing to fear from me, I will only ever call you that when you ask me to.”
She squinted her eyes at him, not missing the subtle implication that she would eventually ask him to call her that. “Don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen.”
Their conversation was interrupted by Bai Yue. “Come Little Sister Mei, we had better go and beg for accommodation from your Aunt considering you have rendered us homeless.”
Bai Mei looked a little guilty when she heard that, she then looked towards both Xu Long and Old Wu before bowing her head slightly. “Gentlemen, it was nice to meet you both.” she then looked down to the small spirit fox on her lap. “Xu Xing, it was an absolute pleasure to meet you.” She then lifted the small fox and hugged her before placing her on the table before she left with her Big Sister Yue.
After they had well and truly departed, Old Wu opened the conversation. “Well that was certainly an interesting evening’s entertainment.”
Xu Long chuckled and replied. “That it was.” Before turning his attention to Xu Xing. “You had me worried for a moment there Xiao Xing, I thought you were going to abandon me for a beautiful woman.”
Xu Xing yipped as if to confirm that she was, Xu Long laughing at her reply.
Old Wu then interjected. “How could you tell that she was beautiful? I didn’t feel you sneak a peek.”
Xu Long looked in his direction. “I don’t know, it was just a feeling.”
Old Wu laughed and took a big sip. “Good instincts, kid.”