Chapter 314: Losing Her Mind
Ji’an lost her mind.
She let out a high-pitched, hysterical shriek of pure panic, scrambling off the wooden deck so fast her boots skidded across the dirt.
She sprinted toward the towering stone retaining wall at the very edge of the courtyard abyss, violently vaulting herself onto the top of the petrified wood.
"MASTER, WHAT DID YOU DO TO WANGCHEN?!" Ji’an screamed, her silver-flecked eyes wide with terror as she leaned precariously over the ten-thousand-foot drop, desperately trying to track the distant, fading silver twinkle in the night sky. "HE JUST BROKE THROUGH HIS BOTTLENECK! HE IS IN THE CONSOLIDATION PHASE! YOU CANNOT YEET THE PROTAGONIST ACROSS A MOUNTAIN RANGE! WHAT IF HE HITS A JAGGED PINE TREE?! WHAT IF HE RUPTURED HIS SPINAL SEA?!"
She braced her hands on the stone, fully, recklessly preparing to deploy her Wind-Step technique and launch herself off the cliff into the freezing abyss to hunt for his shattered, diamond-embroidered remains.
Before her boots could even leave the stone, a heavy, calloused hand clamped firmly around the thick canvas cross-straps at the back of her gray apron.
With a single, effortless yank, Master Jiu Zui hauled her entirely off the wall, spinning her around and dropping her unceremoniously onto her backside in the soft dirt of the courtyard.
Oof!
Ji’an sat in the dirt, coughing up a cloud of dust, glaring up at her Master with wide, tear-filled eyes.
"Why did you do that, Master?!" Ji’an wailed, pointing an accusing finger at the ancient immortal. "He was just... he was just tired! He has separation anxiety! You are a deeply abusive peak lord!"
Master Jiu Zui did not look abusive.
He looked more like an ancient, supremely intelligent being who was currently dealing with the single, dense, hopelessly oblivious idiot in the history of the orthodox world.
He took a slow, heavy swig from his clay wine jar, wiping his chin with the back of his hand.
He stepped forward, towering over her fallen form, casting a long, majestic shadow in the moonlight.
"You are an idiot," Jiu Zui rumbled, his deep voice echoing in the quiet courtyard, devoid of any comedic slurring.
This was the raw, unvarnished wisdom of a Second Generation immortal.
"A monumental, hopelessly blind, utterly defective idiot!"
Ji’an opened her mouth to argue, to loudly assert her superiority, but the gravity of his dark eyes silenced her.
"You treat that boy as though he were made of spun sugar and fragile glass," Jiu Zui scolded, pointing his wine jar at her. "You feed him with your own chopsticks. You brew him custom broths. You let him sit in your kitchen for hours. You let him lean his head upon your shoulder, and you comfortably pat his silver hair exactly as one would pat a domestic mouser."
The old man snorted, a deeply arrogant, highly objective sound of pure martial assessment.
"Fragile?" Jiu Zui scoffed loudly, gesturing broadly toward the distant, frozen summit where Wangchen had landed.
"Lin Ji’an, open your eyes and look at the reality of the vessel you are babying! He is not a ’puddle’! He is the Soon-to-be New Sovereign of the Eternal Cloud Peak! He possesses the Flawless Ice Root! He achieved divine physical consolidation at nineteen years old! He can freeze the blood in a dragon’s heart from five miles away! He is an apex, world-class, weapon of war!"
Jiu Zui leaned down, planting his free hand on his knee, bringing his sharp, handsome face right down to her level, pinning her to the dirt with his gaze.
"A predator of that magnitude, a starving, hyper-fixated wolf who actively scales the sheer cliffs of my mountain in the dead of night specifically to steal the plumpest, loudest, most obnoxiously seasoned chicken from my backyard, is not fragile!"
The old man tapped her forehead firmly with his index finger.
"If Xie Wangchen hits the solid granite bedrock at the bottom of the Eternal Cloud Peak at Mach 4... the granite bedrock will fracture into dust! He will merely stand up, brush the dirt from his diamond-embroidered silk, and immediately begin calculating how to bypass my newly reinforced perimeter wards tomorrow night! You are projecting mortal vulnerability onto an immortal calamity!"
Ji’an sat in the dirt, her mouth comically open, her cheeks burning a furious red.
"We..." Ji’an stammered weakly, frantically trying to deploy her ingrained denial. "We are just bros! He thinks I am a guy! It’s a... a sworn brotherhood! He just likes my cooking!"
"Do not insult my intelligence, or your own retinas," Jiu Zui growled softly, cutting through her nonsense with unyielding finality.
He stood back up, looking down at her with a deeply ancient mixture of exasperation and protective, filial gravity.
"You gave that boy an inch, Ji’an," the old master stated softly, delivering the central, inescapable thematic parable of the evening.
"When he entered the sect together with you a year ago, freezing and newe to everything, you gave him an inch of your fire. You gave him a bowl of hot soup. It was a charitable, deeply human gesture."
Jiu Zui shook his head slowly.
"But because you are too cowardly to draw a boundary, because you hide behind your gray apron and your sarcastic jokes, you have failed to monitor the yield of your own investment. You gave him an inch of fire... and he took the yard. He took the prep tables. He took the balcony. And tonight, he was actively preparing to seize the deed to your mattress!"
The old man turned away, walking slowly toward the bamboo path leading back to his private manor.
"It is your fault for leaving the courtyard gate open, cook," Jiu Zui called out over his shoulder, his purple robes swishing in the moonlight. "If you do not learn how to wield your cast-iron spatula as a physical shield against the starving wolves on this mountain, you will find yourself draped in a red bridal veil before you even realize the trap has been sprung."
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