Just as Liu Ying had predicted , that night everyone was startled awake by a loud whooshing sound emanating throughout the whole village. Some curious folks decided to go take a look , but they all respected Liu Ying's warnings and stayed in the green zone to observe the geysers. The full moon illuminated the sky and ground providing them with enough light to see the geysers clearly.
Li Cheng rushed to see the geysers , he was too excited so he didn't want to stay till morning to go see them. On his way , he met up with Jin Wei , Da Xiong and Zhang Anying. The group reached the geysers and the disciples made space for them , together they all watched in fascination as the geysers sprayed a tall column of boiling water into the air.
Li Cheng watched with his eyes sparkling , one could easily understand why some people considered them to be gateways to the netherworld.
Zhang Anying soon looked around and walked over to Li Cheng, " Brother Li , I was just wondering where oldest senior brother, second senior brother , brother Mo and Ms. Liu are ? " he asked. Ever since he messed up , his senior brother was cold towards him , often ignoring him and giving him no tasks. So when he didn't see the four of them , he was on alert.
" Brother Yang is asleep , I tried to get him to come , but he said that he'll just see it tomorrow. Brother Zhou is busy building the waterway Ms.Liu designed , he sure is fast he's almost halfway done with it. As for Mo Ling , he was exhausted after the scouting so he fell asleep as soon as he came back. I don't know about Ms. Liu." Li Cheng answered half distracted by the magnificent sprays.
Jin Wei , who was listening nearby , decided to jump in , " Senior is the same as Mr. Yang , when I went to wake Senior up , she just told me to leave her alone to sleep . Her exact words were ' Jin Wei , the geysers aren't going anywhere , was it really necessary for you to wake me up for this insignificant thing ? I can always see it tomorrow. Now go away and let me get some sleep.'
Li Cheng smiled and shook his head , " I can't say I'm surprised . That's exactly what I expected from Ms.Liu."
Zhang Anying just looked back towards the camp and sighed. He desperately wanted to prove himself to his senior brother again , but he wasn't giving him any chances. Then Zhang Anying had an idea , Senior brother Zhou was helping Ms. Liu build a waterway under oldest Senior brother's request . maybe he can go help him.
Zhang Anying rushed to the second senior brother's tent . Even from afar he spotted Zhou Zilong's shadow sawing some wood. He approached the entrance and called out , " Second senior brother, it's Zhang Anying. Can I come in ?"
" Anying ? Come in , what do you need? I don't have much time , I have to finish this by tomorrow so hurry up." Zhou Zilong said, now hammering away at the pieces he just finished cutting.
" Second senior brother, I'm here to lend you a hand , I heard you have to finish this fast so I'll help , it'll be faster like that." Zhang Anying explained.
Zhou Zilong stopped for a moment to think and nodded his head, " Okay , I have some work for you , see those bamboo poles there ," he said pointing to a pile of bamboo poles ." Split them in half and use this knife to scrape off the thin wall between the nodes. Be sure to just scrape the thin wall off , don't damage the rest of the bamboo, I need it to be whole." he instructed.
" Okay second senior brother ." Zhang Anying replied happily . He skipped over to the bamboo poles and began to split them into two. After a few hours he was done . From the corner of his eye , he saw Zhou Zilong's head falling down , when he looped clearly he saw that he had fallen asleep. Smiling to himself , Zhang Anying decided to let his senior sleep , if he were to go there to help Zhou Zilong into a more comfortable position , he would be startled awake , his second senior brother also had sharp senses just like his oldest senior brother. So it was better to let him wake up with a sore neck tomorrow than letting him be sleep deprived.
Zhang Anying began to focus on his task, he made sure to smoothen all the bumps and ridges inside the bamboo to make it pretty , soon he was done and it was close to daybreak. Zhang Anying exited the tent and stretched before walking back to his tent to get some sleep. Zhang Anying reached the tent he was sharing with the other disciples. By then the disciples were still asleep , they all had gone to see the geyser yesterday, so they missed out on their sleep.
Since he was still a younger disciple he had to share with other junior disciples despite being a direct disciple. Da Xiong and Jin Wei shared a tent , Yang Changtian and Liu Ying had their own tents for obvious reasons , Li Cheng also had his own tent, but he had to share with Mo Ling yesterday because he was kicked out his shared tent by Zhou Zilong who needed the space to work freely.
Zhang Anying collapsed onto his bed and almost immediately fell asleep as the exhaustion of helping his second brother out caught up to him.
Yang Changtian woke up early next but when he stepped out of the tent , he was surprised to see no one except Mo Ling awake. Mo Ling was using the stream to wash his face , and when he stood up Yang Changtian noticed that his eyes were still sleepy .
Yang Changtian walked over and washed his own face .
" Senior brother Yang , " Mo Ling greeted him .
Yang Changtian greeted him back . " Didn't sleep well ? " he asked.
Mo Ling shook his head , his eyes were beginning to swell. " Brother Zhou kicked me out of our tent so that he could work in peace , so I had to share a tent with my Senior brother," he explained.
Yang Changtian just smiled and patted his shoulder, " You can go and get some more sleep now , you don't have anything to do today." he sent Mo Ling off to get some more sleep , and when he turned around he spotted Liu Ying coming out of her tent , dressed to impress as usual. " She still didn't run out of clothes huh … I'm 100 times better compared to her, yet people were complaining about my luggage." he muttered under his breath before greeting Liu Ying.
Liu Ying was decked out in her usual colour blue , but this time her robe has green embroidery , reminiscent of a peacock. Her hair was pinned up in a bun held up by a golden hair pin carved to look like a twig. She spotted Yang Changtian and greeted him back with a nod. She walked over to him.
" Ms. Liu, everyone else is still asleep , what do you suggest we do ?" he asked.
" All of them likely went to see the geysers last night , so let's let them rest for a bit longer. After we flood the village with smoke today there's going to be a few long days ahead for us so let them be well rested." she voiced her opinion.
" I agree with you Ms.Liu , I would like to go see the geysers , but I must admit I'm not too familiar with them. Would you care to join me ? ." Yang Changtian asked .
Liu Ying gazed at him for a while before accepting his invite , " I accept Mr. Yang , allow me to show you around."
For some this would seem like a courtship , but to the ones who know these two individuals well , it was anything but. Yang Changtian is in love with Hei Jingyou , though he is yet to discover that. And Liu Ying … well she was Liu Ying.
Yang Changtian and Liu Ying walked upstream , their paths illuminated by the rising sun. They soon arrived at the site , and as if to welcome them the geysers started to spray water. Yang Changtian and Liu Ying watched as these marvels of nature brought both life and death to the surrounding area. The area close to the geysers were bare due to the high temperatures rendering life impossible. While the further area surrounding the geysers were wet with nutrient rich water. In a few days time , the bare , lifeless ground would surely be covered with various plants. Yang Changtian and Liu Ying stood silently watching the geysers spray .
" Ms. Liu , how is the North treating you so far ? " Yang Changtian tried to initiate a conversation.
Liu Ying stared at him for a while with her eyebrow raised , " Mr. Yang , I must inform you that I am more than comfortable with the silence , so you do not have to initiate a conversation, and answering your question , it hasn't exactly been easy, but it is manageable." Liu Ying answered.
Yang was relieved at her answer , he only insisted on the conversation because he thought Liu Ying might find it rude , but he was glad to know that she didn't mind the silence at all. So the two of them ended their ill-fated short-lived conversation and once again sank into a silence that was now comfortable.
After a while the two of them decided to return back to camp. By now the sun was bright and round. Once they reached camp , they were surprised to find that no one was up yet , as the both of them were about to return to their respective tents , they were startled by a crash coming from a tent nearby. Without thinking the both of them rushed into the tent only to find Zhou Zilong frantically tearing through a pile of split bamboo poles. " No , no , no , No ! " he yelled, pulling his hair , " It's all ruined."
Yang Changtian rushed to his side, " Zilong what's wrong ? What happened ? " he questioned.
" These are all ruined, " Zhou Zilong replied while pointing at the bamboo halves. " Something must've happened when I fell asleep."
Liu Ying walked over to the bamboo halves and studied them carefully, Zhou Zilong was not in a state to explain things clearly so he was waiting till Liu Ying explained what the problem was.
After a while Liu Ying finally stood and turned to Yang Changtian and Zhou Zilong, " These are all damaged , they can't be used anymore , someone damaged them while removing the wall that separates the bamboo into nodes. They filed it down too thin , so these bamboo poles are not sturdy enough to carry cold water let alone boiling hot water." she stated simply.
Zhou Zilong stopped freaking out after hearing that , he stood up and rushed out of the tent. Yang Changtian followed behind. Zhou Zilong reached the area where the disciple tents were located and yelled , " Zhang Anying, come out ! "
All the disciples who were still sleeping were all startled awake by Zhou Zilong's yell , they shook their sleep off and hurriedly lined up outside , they hadn't heard who specifically , but they knew that Zhou Zilong was calling someone.
When they all gathered outside they were confronted with Yang Changtian trying to calm down a very angry Zhou Zilong. The disciples had not seen Zhou Zilong get angry before , as he rarely gets angry , but when he does , only god could save that person ,so they all swallowed their saliva , praying that he wasn't angry at them.
After scanning all of them , Zhou Zilong pointed at a disciple , " You ! Go and bring Zhang Anying here."
The disciple immediately complied and came back with a sleepy Zhang Anying. Zhang Anying spotted Yang Changtian , and he was immediately happy. " Senior brother, you were looking for me ? " he asked joyfully. Before he could react , someone punched him from the side. In his haste to ask Yang Changtian what he could do for him , he had completely ignored Zhou Zilong who was getting increasingly angry at him. Finally , being unable to take it longer , Zhou Zilong threw a punch , landing directly in Zhang Anying's face , sending him reeling backwards.
After the bolt out of the blue Zhang Angying looked at Zhou Zilong bewildered, " Second senior brother ! What was that for ? " he asked.
" That is for ruining all the bamboo , I knew I shouldn't have allowed you to help , you always mess up." Zhou Zilong yelled at Zhang Anying.
Yang Changtian dispersed all the other disciples who were curious about the drama but they didn't dare to eavesdrop as Yang Changtian could easily notice them with his all-seeing eye skill. After all of them left Yang Changtian turned his full attention back to Zhou Zilong and Zhang Anying who were yelling at each other now.
" Second senior brother, I just did what you asked me to do !" Zhang Anying whined.
" Then why are all the bamboo damaged? I clearly asked you not to use too much force and just remove the wall separating the nodes, but you completely filed it down." Zhou Zilong retorted.
Yang Changtian sighed , while he didn't know what happened completely , he knew instantly. Zhang Anying had messed up again.
" Second senior brother, I just wanted to help you ." Zhang Anying was still whining.
" Well you just doubled my work for me , now I have to find more bamboo poles again, that is if there are any left." Zhou Zilong yelled back. " Gosh I shouldn't have trusted you especially after that whole medicine fiasco."
Zhang Anying got angry at this , he tried so hard to erase that mistake but here his second brother was, bringing it up in front of the oldest senior brother. " Well if you had so many problems about me , why did you fall asleep while I was working second senior brother ? You should've watched me ." Zhang Anying scoffed.
" Zhang Anying , that's enough." Yang Changtian's voice was cold and hard. " Zilong go back and try to find an alternative solution , I'll take care of the things here, " he instructed .
Zhou Zilong nodded and glared at Zhang Anying one final time before going back to see if he could salvage the bamboo.
After Zhou Zilong left Yang Changtian turned and looked straight at Zhang Anying.
" Oldest senior brother I just- " Zhang Anying began to explain himself but he was silenced by Zhang Anying.
" Anying , just what else are you going to mess up ? " Yang Changtian asked him directly. Ever since they set off, Yang Changtian has come to the realization that Zhang Anying needs more training. He clearly wants up to the standard of a junior disciple , let alone a direct disciple.
" Oldest senior brother I just wanted to help , you weren't giving me any tasks so I … " Zhang Anying began .
" So you what ? " Yang Changtian snapped , " Look at what you did , do you really think I can trust you with anything after that ? "
Yang Changtian stopped himself before said something worse, he took a deep breath in to calm down. " You said you wanted a task right ? Well good for you , from now on you are to stay in camp and do nothing , that is your task." Yang Changtian ordered while turning to walk away.
Zhang Anying was left shocked , and he chased Yang Changtian to ask him to reconsider. But he was shut down hard, so he could only dejectedly return to the tent. The other disciples were already out working on the tasks assigned to them while he was banned from doing anything , ever since they set off on this journey , the oldest senior brother had become less indulging with him , in the past he wouldn't raise his voice let alone be this harsh with him.
On the other side Zhou Zilong rushed back to his tent , he found Liu Ying and Tao Su discussing something . They both turned when they noticed him enter the tent. " Mr. Zhou, I have good news. We can still use these bamboo poles. " Liu Ying informed him.
Zhou Zilong stared at them in disbelief , " But how ? "
Liu Ying glanced at Tao Su and nodded. Tao Su stepped forward. " Allow me to explain , Mr.Zhou…."