Translator: Scrya
Editor: Faith
Since Senior Brother Mo Chen and the rest of them insisted on not receiving his goodwill, Ning Yu decided to drop the idea of using the message talisman. Ning Yu said with a smile, “If Junior Brother Yun does not despise my inferior skills, I wish to try using my own method to divine for Junior Brother Yun.”
Mo Chen suddenly felt joyous and said to Xiaodong, “Hurry and thank Senior Brother Ning. Your Senior Brother Ning is someone with true capabilities.”
Xiaodong hurriedly stood up and bowed seriously as thanks.
Ning Yu immediately held him up and shook his head at Mo Chen. “Geez. Everyone says that you have great social etiquette, but I think you have gone overboard with this social etiquette thing. I have yet to do it, and here you have Little Junior Brother thank me for it already. Since he has already thanked me, what else can I do but put my utmost effort into this? If I can’t do this well, how can I live up to the expectations he has of me?”
“You’re the one that’s thinking too much. Even if this doesn’t work, we all still have to thank you for your efforts.”
“You make it sound so great, but now that you have all thanked me, how can I possibly not use every ounce of my strength to do this?” Ning Yu sat down heavily. He glanced at Xiaodong, who was standing at the side, looking a little confused, unsure if he had made a mistake with his bow. Ning Yu simply felt that this child indeed had a very pure heart.
It could be seen that the people on Returnflow Mountain had definitely pampered this Little Junior Brother of theirs. Otherwise, Spiritual Master Li would not have sent a letter to Spiritual Master Hu to ask for help, even though he was still busy with his own tasks. All in order to help his youngest disciple look for his lost object. Other people might say that Spiritual Master Li pampered his disciple too much, and was not considering the severity of the issue. However, the moment Spiritual Hu received the letter, he said that Spiritual Master Li was really an emotional person. People often weigh out their priorities, and usually, those with higher merits would be prioritized first. When encountering an incident, people would first think of the potential gains, and whether the benefits sufficient enough to lend a hand.
However, Spiritual Master Li was not like that.
Ning Yu thought to himself that it was no wonder his master had such a deep bond with Spiritual Master Li. Spiritual Master Hu was the same, otherwise Spiritual Master Li would not have made such a request, to have the top divination Spiritual Master of Heavenly Secrets Mountain to help find his disciple’s inexpensive accessory. The moment Spiritual Master Hu received the letter, he immediately treated this as a serious matter.
As expected, for people to come together, they must have similar personalities. Can people with polar opposite personalities be intimate to the point where they could completely understand each other? It might be possible, but these people would definitely be a minority. Spiritual Master Li and Spiritual Master Hu were often mocked by others, both often told that they were silly and did not understand the ways of the world. Ning Yu himself had experienced several such jeers and cold stares.
However, he did not really care.
From his point of view, it was great that people like his master and Spiritual Master Li were still able to hold onto this rarest form of naivety. To have someone like this as his master, no matter where he went, Ning Yu did not feel any less capable than anyone else.
“I don’t dare to praise myself for anything else, but if it’s searching for an object, I can still give a try.” Ning Yu said with a smile, “When people visit our Heavenly Secrets Sect, the largest number of requests we receive are for searching for people and lost items. My senior uncles and senior brothers do not tend to small matters like these, so most of the time we younger siblings are the ones who handle them. So when it comes to searching for objects, I’m definitely not considered a newcomer.”
Xiaodong obediently stood at the side and watched as Ning Yu pulled out a jade box. Speaking of which, Xiaodong was really curious. Senior Brother Ning was empty-handed when he came over, and he was only wearing a single layer too. Just how could he endlessly pull things from his sleeves? Of course, people often tucked small objects inside their sleeves, for example, a letter, a handkerchief, or a money pouch. However, this jade box that Senior Brother Ning pulled out was squarish with clearly defined edges. Just how did he pull that out from such thin sleeves?
Though Xiaodong did not find it appropriate to ask, he could not help but stare at Ning Yu’s sleeves. He wondered if Ning Yu would pull out anything else.
His behavior was something that the other three had clearly spotted.
Jiang Fan secretly laughed.
Little Junior Brother was after all still young and he did not have much experience. He had never seen some things that people did not find strange, and so would naturally feel curious.
While he watched his Little Junior Brother’s behavior, Jiang Fan began to recall as well. When he first met the people at Heavenly Secrets Sect, he was also stunned over and over again like this by those mysterious phenomenons. He might not have been any better than Little Junior Brother right now.
The jade box was embedded with a silver wire that formed an auspicious cloud mark. The things that were stored in the box weren’t anything strange though. There were just a brush and a very small ink box.
“Please bring paper and a slab.” Ning Yu passed the ink to Xiaodong. “This ink has to be ground by Junior Brother Xiaodong himself.”
Xiaodong did not understand, but Mo Chen understood this unique technique of Ning Yu’s. “This technique is called ‘Asking the Brush’, and its reputation is even comparable to Spiritual Master Hu himself.”
Ning Yu waved his hand with a smile. “It’s all blind nonsense. It can still work for small matters, but it won’t be useful for large incidents.”
“Just how many large incidents are there nowadays? The things you help Spiritual Master Hu manage are not small matters either.”
Ning Yu simply smiled.
Xiaodong was really obedient. Though he did not understand the meaning behind this, since he was told to grind the ink, he obediently ground it. In the past when he followed his uncle around, the things he learned were all fragmented, and he barely had any experience in grinding ink and writing words. It was only when he came to Returnflow Mountain and Master and his senior siblings taught him, did he finally pick these skills up. Even now the words he wrote were not that good-looking, but grinding ink was no longer a difficult task for him.
Ning Yu watched from the side. Seeing that the ink had been ground enough, he said, “That’s fine enough.” He pulled out that brush and dipped it into the ink. Then, he passed the brush to Xiaodong.
Speaking of which, this was strange too. Usually, ink would drip down from the brush after being soaked. However, after being soaked with the ink, there were no signs of ink dripping from the tip of this brush at all.
Xiaodong clutched the brush. Ning Yu did not tell him to do anything else, and so he simply stood there blankly. After a while, Ning Yu said to him, “Release your hand now.”
Release?
Wouldn’t the brush fall then?
Seeing that Ning Yu did not look as if he was joking, Xiaodong released his hand.
The moment he released it, his eyes widened in shock. His jaw also dropped half-open with no signs of closing.
That brush did not fall. It simply stood straight right above the paper, as if there was an invisible thread keeping it hanging.
Jiang Fan said, “People outside have done tricks like this too, where they use strings to hold the brushes up. This isn’t it.”
His words struck right through Xiaodong’s thoughts, and Xiaodong began to feel a little embarrassed.
After that, not only did the brush stand on it own, it began to move too. The tip of the brush lightly drew on the paper, leaving behind a thin trail of ink.
Xiaodong cried out a confused “eh?”, as he stared at the brush and the ink trail it drew, not willing to blink even for a single moment.
The thin trail curved and bent. At first, he could not understand what it was drawing, but as time went by, it began to look like a picture.
Jiang Fan softly explained, “Senior Brother Ning’s ‘Asking the Brush’ is very famous, and it seems to work nine out of ten times. When looking for a person or an object, it can roughly paint out their location. Using the drawn picture as a guide, you can find your lost pendant even if it is thousands of miles away. In the past, there are people who often talk about treasure maps. With these rumored torn cloths in hand, people would search all over the world, hoping to find some celestial records or secret treasures, but most of them are fruitless endeavors. Senior Brother Ning’s, however, can be considered as a true treasure map.”
Xiaodong’s heart was set ablaze from his words, and his expectations of the picture on the paper grew.