Chapter 741: Chapter 723: Extra: Days in Ancient Times

The new apprentice is only half a year old, and Tantai Yan feels capable again. Such a young apprentice, if nurtured well, surely won’t provoke him like those previous apprentices when they grow up.

Unaware, his gradually extinguishing heart after the family’s downfall is revived by these apprentices, even starting to think about the future.

Having obtained the Inner Strength of his grandfather and father, he himself is also a master. He can live for a long time, watching the apprentice grow up.

The young apprentice was already frail and weak, coming from the Otherworld, unaccustomed to the environment, and fell into the river with a persistent fever. He had to impart some Inner Strength to help clear the meridians.

At this moment, Tantai Yan didn’t consider what repercussions might arise from transmitting a bit of Inner Strength to the young apprentice.

Watching the young apprentice grow bit by bit, healthier every day—crawling, rolling, calling out.

He named her Miaomiao.

Partly because they met in the Miaomiao River, and because of his exploration of Martial Arts, vast and boundless, and also because compared to the forces of heaven and earth, mankind is indeed tiny.

That day, Tantai Yan received a letter from a friend, learning that certain sects in the Jianghu had organized a group of people to defend a State against bandits.

He was a bit dazed.

Emperor Jianhe still rules the land, and when everyone sees the Xia Dynasty’s end, Emperor Jianhe remains engrossed in pleasure, using the power of the whole nation for personal satisfaction without ever bowing his head to the common people.

The downfall of the Tantai Family was orchestrated by the previous emperor for Emperor Jianhe’s rise, fearing this monarch might be manipulated by their family. Several families followed closely after the Tantai Family’s destruction.

The previous emperor had good intentions, but Emperor Jianhe let down this effort and the dead as well.

In his daze, Tantai Yan didn’t see the one-year-old child lying on the bed, staring at a small flower on the chair opposite.

Tantai Yan casually plucked it, intending to place it in a vase in the little apprentice’s room.

He himself has forgotten the elegance and nobility of his years as State Preceptor; now, seeing the flower, he simply wants the little apprentice to see it too.

The round-faced, big-eyed child has yet to seriously look at a flower.

Her bright, watery eyes curiously fix on the pale purple flower.

She reaches out with her small chubby paw, grasping at it, but she doesn’t manage to grab the flower several feet away.

Her chubby round head lowers.

She stares at her empty little paw, apparently puzzled as to why she didn’t catch the flower.

The little child attempts a few more times, still unable to catch it.

She is a bit upset, lying on the bed, staring at the flower, her chubby limbs moving like a turtle, as if she could swim to the flower.

Swim and swim, yet the distance to the purple flower remains unchanged; the little child, now angrier, extends her little paws once more.

Extending out, grasping, extending out, grasping, the purple flower remains unchanged.

As her anger rises, so does a warm flow from her Dantian.

Though only one year old, Gu Miaomiao doesn’t understand what this means, but she instinctively moves the warm flow, nudging her chubby paw forward.

The small purple flower resting on the chair falls to the floor.

Her bright eyes widen even more.

Her flower is gone!

The little child continues to swim and swim.

This time the commotion is much bigger, catching Tantai Yan’s attention.

"Miaomiao, what happened?"

Tantai Yan rose and saw the flower on the ground, not thinking much of it.

"The window shouldn’t be left so wide open."

He brushes off the dust from the flower, handing it to the little apprentice.

Gu Miaomiao had worked hard for the flower, quickly using her small paw to hold it, reminiscent of the moment she held onto the fish after falling into the water.

A few days later, Tantai Yan specially had someone sew a cloth pouch to carry the little apprentice in front of him as he went down the Mountain.

Everywhere along the way were scenes of desolation, displaced refugees with numb expressions.

The wars stirred rebellions or uprisings everywhere, taking strong young men for battle, leaving only the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled.

As long as bandits came down the Mountain, they were undefeated.

Night falls.

Tantai Yan holds the apprentice standing high on a tree branch, watching with complex emotions as villagers captured ascend and hastily descend the Mountain.

They trample over the bandit corpses without care.

The little child watches with equal curiosity, her small hands waving excitedly, unclear what she means to express.

Tantai Yan seems to speak to her, yet also to himself, "Miaomiao, one must discern clearly who should be killed and who shouldn’t. Those who turn to banditry, looting, killing when the world hasn’t even fallen apart yet—they are the ones who deserve death."

"Hoo, hoo!"

The little child utters a single character.

Tantai Yan doesn’t understand, assuming she has remembered.