Martial Cultivator

“Wei Xu, being born into such a Wei Family, are you joyous or sorrowful?”

The fact that the Wei family were traitors was something known to many of its core members. As the direct heir of the Wei family and a Nepenthe cultivator, Wei Xu should have known as well, yet no one had ever told him.

“All these years, the Wei family kept you away from every dark deed, never let you get involved, never told you the truth. Every day, you were only asked to study the classics and cultivate well. Speaking of which, it's laughable, really. How did a pure white lotus grow out of this muddy mire of the Wei Family?”

The Wei Family Head chuckled. The words should have been cutting, but for some reason, he said them with genuine sincerity.

Wei Xu smiled bitterly. “Why does the Family Head choose to tell me all of this now?”

The Wei Family Head looked at Wei Xu with some pity and said softly, “Wei Xu, oh Wei Xu. You're not the same as us, not the same as the Wei Family. But you were born into the Wei Family, and that wasn't your choice. Even so, at this point, I want to give you a chance.”

Wei Xu looked at the Wei Family Head in confusion.

“Leave this place. Sever all ties with the Wei Family henceforth. If the Wei Family wins, I'll consider you already dead. If the Wei Family loses, I presume Chen Che will also spare your life once he knows you had no part in these matters.”

The Wei Family Head's voice was calm, yet his gaze was layered with complexity. His feelings for Wei Xu had always been conflicted, even tinged with some personal bias.

“Wei Xu, you're actually a fine scholar, someone who might have achieved even greater things.”

Wei Xu appeared dazed, staring blankly into space.

Today, the Wei Family Head had laid bare the Wei Family's greatest secret to Wei Xu. Yet it was not an attempt to drag Wei Xu onto their path. This was a very strange thing indeed.

After a long silence, Wei Xu shook his head. “I was born with the surname Wei. It's already been so many years, can it really be changed?”

Hearing this, the Wei Family Head's eyes brimmed with even greater pity. Looking at Wei Xu, he said, “Wei Xu, oh Wei Xu. You've achieved Nepenthe[forgetting worries], what worries can you truly forget?”

Wei Xu burst into maniacal laughter, as if possessed.

The Wei Family Head said no more to Wei Xu. Instead, he stepped past Wei Xu and pushed open the ancestral hall doors. Standing outside, he saw the gathered elders and powerhouses of the Wei Family.

With his hands clasped behind his back, the Wei Family Head looked at the members of the Wei Family and smiled. “Everyone, the Wei Family has borne this mission for a thousand years now."

"There are many nights when I wake up and don't even know who I am anymore. To be honest, I'm a little tired too.”

Hearing these words, the members of the Wei Family remained silent. Clearly, being traitors required immense mental resilience. Yet even with such fortitude, maintaining this facade day after day, year after year, made it easy to lose oneself. Furthermore, the Wei Family had been traitors for more than just a few decades.

It had been too long, far too long, so long until they had grown tired of it.

“This time, no matter the outcome, we must bring this mission to an end.”

The Wei Family Head took a deep breath and said calmly, “Everyone, follow me one last time.”

……

……

The academy, there was no moon tonight.

The Dean, who had remained hidden for a long time, appeared at his residence. This leader of the world's scholars slowly pushed open the door to his courtyard, stepped inside, and casually took down a lantern from the corridor. He murmured to himself, “To be a lantern in the night, though it shines bright, it can never illuminate the entire world. No matter how extraordinary one person may be, they cannot bear the weight of the world alone.”

He walked a few steps and fetched a wine jar from the house. Carrying the jar, the Dean returned to the courtyard. At the stone table in the yard, he poured himself a bowl of wine. The wine was crystal clear, its fragrance rich - it was genuine sorghum wine.

Staring at the sorghum wine which had a layer of foam in the bow, the Dean murmured again, “Seeking perfection in this world is almost as absurd as daydreaming. The saying ‘gold is never pure, and no man is perfect’ holds true.”

Looking into the bowl, at his reflection in the clear wine, the Dean sighed wistfully. “I've grown old. Even my hair is starting to turn white.”

The Dean was indeed advanced in age, it was just that his cultivation realm was so high that he had maintained his youthful appearance. Without his cultivation, he would likely have been an old man with a head full of white hair by now.

Setting the lantern aside, the Dean picked up the bowl of wine and took a sip. Yet, instead of satisfaction, a trace of melancholy and pain surfaced in his eyes.

In his lifetime, the Dean had outshone other scholars in the same era in the first half of his life, earning the favor of the previous Dean and taking charge of the academy to become the leader of the world's scholars. His prominence during that time was unmatched. In the latter half of his life, like the previous dean, he began preparing for the academy's future, seeking a suitable successor. His luck was better than his teacher's, his teacher had found only one person in his lifetime barely qualified to lead the academy, but he had a different fortune, having taken on seventy-two disciples, several of whom were extraordinary scholars of rare talent.

But his luck was also worse than his teacher's. The previous dean had only chosen once, and only chose one person, passing the academy down to a single individual. By contrast, he had chosen multiple candidates, several times over, yet still had no definitive successor.

Even this might have been tolerable, but the situation of the students in whom he had placed the greatest hope was now far from what he had envisioned. Truthfully, this only left him disappointed, nothing more.

What made him despair the most was that among his disciples, there was actually a sense of mutual enmity.

What teacher under heaven would be willing to see such a result?

Draining the bowl of wine in one gulp, the Dean let out a bitter laugh. He had failed as a teacher.

The solitude of drinking alone was hard to endure, but tonight the Dean did not stop, and he was already somewhat intoxicated.

Through his blurred vision, a hazy figure seemed to appear before him. It was Wei Xu, who currently looked utterly dejected.

The present Wei Xu no longer carried the demeanor of a scholar. His steps were unsteady, and he resembled a wandering vagabond more than anything else.

Yet, this was still a meeting between teacher and student.

The Dean's eyes were filled with pity.

No matter what the Wei Family was, in the end, the Wei Xu standing before him was still the student he had personally taken in back then. It was he who had brought Wei Xu to the academy, and it was he who, bit by bit during those years, guided this young man from a noble family into a brilliant scholar.

In those days, the relationship between teacher and student was sincere and heartfelt.

Teacher and student, they could be hailed as a model example.

Wei Xu stood at the entrance to the small courtyard, hesitating to step inside. He merely stood in place, his gaze complicated as he looked at his teacher, who now appeared much more haggard.

The Dean also looked at him, saying nothing for a long time.

Wei Xu suddenly said self-deprecatingly, “Teacher, back then, when Liu Banbi left the academy to train in the sword, you must have been very disappointed. When Zhou Xianshan was forced to leave the Divine Capital, you were probably also very disappointed. But this time, I'm afraid none of it can compare to right now, to how disappointed Teacher must be feeling about having chosen me, Wei Xu, as your student back then.”

The Dean did not speak, he just looked at him like this.

Wei Xu spoke as if to himself, “Who would have thought? I, Wei Xu, born of the Wei Family, turned out to be one of the greatest traitors in the world. Teacher, you think about all the people under heaven, but my Wei Family, for generations, has only thought to make sure they remain subjugated forever!”

The Dean remained sil

“Tutor Zhang's four lines, this student has silently recited them in my heart countless times over the years.”

"To establish one's heart for heaven and earth, to establish the life for the people, to carry on the lost teachings of the sages, and to bring peace to all generations.”

“All these years, not a single day has passed when this student hasn't longed to be such a scholar!”

Wei Xu clutched his head and said painfully, "But Teacher, it turns out that this student was never able to become a scholar like that, nor accomplish something like that."

Back at the ancestral hall of the Wei Family, Wei Xu had remained silent. However, his silence did not mean he had nothing to say. There were many words he could not share with other people, words that could only be spoken to the Dean before him.

To this teacher who had imparted knowledge to him.

The Dean finally spoke. "Wei Xu, where you are born isn't something you can choose, but the kind of person you want to be is something that you can choose. It is not too late, even now."

Wei Xu spoke in pain, "But Teacher, the Zhou Family was slaughtered entirely at the hands of the Wei Family. The fact that this student's surname is Wei cannot be changed."

Some things are impossible to ignore. Could Zhou Gouji simply let go of the destruction of the Zhou Family? Though Wei Xu had never known of this matter from the beginning to the end, the Zhou Family's demise was ultimately because of him. How could he say it had nothing to do with him?

Faced with this matter, the Dean found himself at a loss for words.

If he were merely an outsider, it would be one thing, but not only was he no outsider, he was one of the most important figures in this affair.

From Wei Xu's perspective, the Dean could fully understand the pain his disciple was enduring. But in this world, there is no such thing as truly sharing someone else's feelings.

“The situation has come to this, you must make a choice,” the Dean sighed deeply.

Suddenly, Wei Xu knelt down. This scholar whose face was streaming with tears solemnly kowtowed to the Dean.

Each kowtow resounded loudly.

“Teacher, this student's surname will always be Wei. This is something I cannot change. I hope Teacher can understand."

Wei Xu continued sorrowfully, “Teacher, please remain here. If you insist on leaving, this disciple will die right here.”

Hearing these words, the Dean erupted in fury. “Wei Xu, must you persist in your mistakes?!”

Wei Xu knelt outside the courtyard gate, looking at the Dean without saying another word.

The Dean looked back at him and murmured, “Wei Xu... oh, Wei Xu...”

The Dean shut his eyes in pain. He had experienced many letdowns in his life, but it was at this moment that this leader of all the scholars in the world felt perhaps the greatest disappointment in his lifetime.