Yan Nantian said, “Our little cultivation world is already poor in resources. We can't afford wanton destruction, so I laid down strict rules to restrain those fools who don't know when to quit. I won't allow cultivators to interfere in the lives of mortals, much less slaughter them. My intentions were good, but I can't do enough on my own. Now that you've appeared as a mortal, you can help me keep those vermin in line. You and I can work in the open and in the shadows, then spend another two hundred years killing them until peace returns to the world.”
Good heavens! This number-one cultivator under heaven really lives up to his reputation. The moment they meet, he wants to drag me into slaughtering my way across the world. Fourth Master had no idea what to say, so he could only keep nodding, then shaking his head.
Yan Nantian said, “At first, when I heard you were my junior brother, I had my doubts. But when I heard your surname was Sikong and your given name was Zheng, I was eighty percent convinced. Master once told me that in the Sikong clan, only the most outstanding members earned the right to have a one-character given name. Then I looked into you, and in just a few short years since entering the world, you'd risen to the highest rank in the civil service. You're experienced and decisive, and you achieved all this without relying on cultivation. Your senior brother truly admires you. You deserve that one-character name.”
Before Fourth Master could reply, Yan Lantian said, “Let's go inside.”
Sikong Xiao sat in the courtyard, drinking tea and listening to Yan Nantian recount what had happened outside over the past few centuries. Sikong Xiao also shared many stories from the past that Fourth Master had never heard.
Fourth Master stood quietly to one side, listening carefully and pondering. So this world was truly wondrous. There was so much he didn't know.
It is slow-burning, the plot is compact, and the explanations are clear. It is not a cookie-cutter routine. You can guess the beginning of the story, but not the end.