WBICDPH Chapter 16 Part 2

His eyes lit up as he spoke.

“Not really,” Lin Jin said modestly with a smile. “I just grew up without anyone to take care of me, so I picked up a few basic skills.”

“If Master wants to change things up, I can find a way to cook something for you. It’s not difficult.”

Hearing the first half, Mo Yuzhi looked a little saddened; hearing the second half, his eyes filled with emotion.

He nodded, then suddenly seemed to remember something. Raising his hand, he pulled out a booklet from his storage pouch.

Since Lin Jin was busy eating his chicken, the old man flipped through it for him.

“Perfect timing. Let’s pick out some uniform styles. I’ll have someone make a few sets for you. Look at you—such a handsome kid, yet you dress like a little beggar every day. What kind of appearance is that?”

He flipped through the pages. The first few showed several standard Misty Rain Mountain uniforms; the latter dozens of pages were color samples.

“Cultivators like to dress elegantly, to look immortal and refined,” Mo Yuzhi explained. “So most of them wear plain white, like they’re in mourning. Or other pale colors. Do any of these appeal to you?”

Lin Jin shook his head and kept flipping, finally escaping the pale-colored vortex and coming upon a riot of vivid hues.

Choosing was difficult. Lin Jin hesitated for a long time, then thought: since his little dog had green eyes, he himself ought to look somewhat harmonious standing beside it.

After a moment’s thought, he pointed to one color on the page.

“That one. It’s fairly bright.”

In the corner of the page, a color that almost no one chose slowly unfolded, revealing two characters beneath it—

Green Mountain.

—

Mo Yuzhi only knew how to make roast chicken, along with simple things like roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes. Lin Jin felt sorry watching him, and more importantly, he was getting tired of the food. Determined to change things up for his beloved master—and himself—he began visiting the markets around Misty Rain Mountain whenever he had free time.

But cultivator markets sold spiritual herbs and magic artifacts. Who sold food and seasonings there? After searching everywhere to no avail, Lin Jin turned his attention to the mortal world.

“Lin Jin, you’re seriously inhuman! Don’t you have anything better to do every day? Doesn’t your master teach you anything? You come running over here all the time to watch me work myself to death—unbelievable!”

At the Southern Qian Sect’s training grounds, Han Ao had just finished practicing a full set of sword techniques under his senior brother’s supervision and finally earned a brief incense-stick’s worth of rest.

While he was exhausted from training, a boy in a green-mountain-colored robe lounged comfortably under a tree in the shade, cracking sunflower seeds and enjoying Han Ao’s miserable state. It made Han Ao grind his teeth in rage.

“Sigh, can’t help it. My master feels sorry for me—thinks that attending theory lectures with the instructor every day is tiring enough, so aside from basic cultivation methods, he doesn’t require me to train anything else. Unlike some people, who listen to lectures in the morning and still have to squeeze in sword practice and body refinement in the afternoon. Just watching that makes my heart ache.”

Lin Jin’s breezy tone made Han Ao want to stab him twice.

Han Ao pointed at him. “Just you wait. I’ll call Hua Nanzhi over to torment you.”

At the mention of her name, Lin Jin stiffened and commented, “You’re vicious.”

The elementary classroom hadn’t been open long; one month was enough to finish all the theory courses. Today was the final class.

Only heaven knew how Lin Jin had survived this month under Hua Nanzhi’s hands.

Mo Yuzhi’s assessment of her was absolutely correct—she was a bona fide little demon.

After a string of incidents, Lin Jin had absorbed all her hatred. Every day during lectures, she found ways to target him; after class, she tried to catch him and drag him to the martial field for a duel.

But Mo Yuzhi was right: if you couldn’t provoke a little demon, you could still avoid her. Feeling sorry for his disciple, Mo Yuzhi had generously given Lin Jin an earth-tier artifact. With its help, Lin Jin vanished the instant class ended, successfully dodging Hua Nanzhi for an entire month—she hadn’t even managed to grab a corner of his clothes.

Just thinking about her made Lin Jin tired. He sighed, tossed a sunflower seed into his mouth, chewed it, then suddenly sat upright and beckoned to Han Ao.

“Let’s talk business first. The elementary classroom is done. If I remember correctly, shouldn’t your first dungeon be coming up?”

At this, Han Ao instinctively glanced around to make sure no one was nearby, then walked over and lowered his voice.

“Yes. Why?”

Lin Jin handed him a handful of sunflower seeds. “Nothing special. Take me with you this time.”

Han Ao looked him up and down exaggeratedly. “Hey, man, this isn’t a casual trial anymore. This time we’re really going to slay demons. With your scrawny body that gets winded after running two steps—are you sure you can handle it?”

“Why not? I’m not the protagonist—I don’t need to charge into blades and fire. I just want to take a trip to the mortal world and buy some things. If there’s real danger, won’t you protect me?”

Lin Jin smiled, pulling out a blank notebook from his robe and striking a note-taking pose.

“Come on. Let’s review it. Do you still remember the general details of this dungeon?”

Han Ao immediately pulled a long face. “Honestly? Not really. You know how padded this novel is. I was one of the earliest readers following the serialization. When I read this part, I was still in middle school. Now I’m a college junior—almost ten years have passed. How would I remember? I just recall that the male lead wanted to earn some money during the break after classes ended, so he took a third-tier mission. Then he discovered the monster was far stronger than third tier—but he still killed it thanks to protagonist halo and leveled up again.”

Lin Jin nodded as he listened. “That’s about what I remember too. But there’s a problem—choosing missions is probabilistic. Can we be sure we’ll find the exact one from the plot?”

Han Ao waved it off casually. “We already know it’s a third-tier mission—how hard can it be to find? We’ll just go check the mission hall. We’ve both read the story; we’ll definitely recognize the place and events. We’ll find it for sure!”

He said it with absolute confidence, his smile utterly relaxed.

That is, until evening fell, and the two of them stood inside the mission hall, staring wide-eyed at the bamboo slips for third-tier missions covering three entire walls.

Lin Jin looked at Han Ao, whose smile had frozen stiff, and raised a hand politely.

“Brother Han,” he said, “after you.”