Chapter 34: Protect the Little One

“Of course, I’m the cleverest koi... person.” Yu Jinli almost exposed his identity. Thank god he was quick enough to cover that up. Though he thought Ah Sheng was also a spirit beast, his sect-brother and master shifu told him not to speak to anyone about his true identity, not even to another spirit beast. It was dangerous to do so. Nowadays, not only humans but also some spirit beasts were dangerous. Yu Jinli did trust Jiang Mosheng, but he didn’t want to go against his master shifu and sect-brother. “Ah Sheng, this method is passed down in my family. I can teach you so that you can work on your toxin by yourself, but before that, you must swear that you won’t use it against me in the future.” Yu Jinli said to Jiang Mosheng seriously. Jiang Family was a family of great achievements with the protection of virtue golden glow. Members of such a family were normally good and wouldn’t willfully slaughter the innocent. Yu Jinli had faith in that. However, he still wanted Jiang Mosheng to swear an oath since his master shifu and sect-brother told him so. Better safe than sorry. Humans were complicated creatures after all. No one could guarantee that humans would stick to their words. Therefore, just in case. His master shifu told him that when he was going to pass his cultivation method to another person, he must make that person swear in case he would be hurt by that person. Swearing an oath was normal among humans, which usually wasn’t binding. However, it worked completely different for spirit beasts. Once a spirit beast took an oath, it was bound by heavenly law. A breach of oath would only mean a punishment. That in turn protected the safety of the other spirit beast who was the teacher in this relationship. This was the first time Jiang Mosheng saw Yu Jinli being so serious. He knew that method must be something valuable. That Yu Jinli was willing to give him something so valuable was even sweeter. He didn’t like sweets but he felt like he had been eating a lot of sweets today. “Little Chestnut, you don’t have to make such a big sacrifice. Keep it to yourself since it’s passed down in your family. I feel better now. Besides, I believe you can help me get rid of the toxin,” said Jiang Mosheng with a gentle smile. Yu Jinli said, a bit divided: “But it will take me a very long time to do that. It will be different since it will take you less time to cultivate, by then you’ll be able to get rid of the toxin yourself.” “Cultivate?” Jiang Mosheng caught the point in this conversation. At first, he thought the method to get rid of the toxin was some kind of family treasure. “Right, you can get rid of the toxin as well as restore your inner core if you can cultivate,” said Yu Jinli smilingly. Jiang Mosheng didn’t understand the part of the conversation about the inner core, but he knew the toxin. He had to say that it was a very tempting offer. Though Jiang Family remained as one of the most powerful families in the Federation, once he died and his father retired, it would decline rapidly, even disappearing from the capital star. By then, he would be the one that destroyed his family which had lasted over a thousand years. He didn’t care about reputation, but he had to consider for all the people in this family. If there was a way to get rid of his toxin and to recover, Jiang Family wouldn’t decline, nor would anyone dare to take advantage of it. “What oath do I need to swear?” asked Jiang Mosheng. He must get better in order to protect Jiang Family and... this little one. The translator has something to say about ML’s name: The more I translated this novel, the more compelled I feel to explain Yu Jinli’s name. Yu Jinli 俞[yú] 谨[jǐn] 栗[[lì] 俞[yú] has the same pronunciation as鱼, meaning fish, in Chinese. 谨[jǐn] 栗[lì] sounds quite similar to the two Chinese characters for koi fish, 锦[jǐn]鲤[lǐ] In addition, the second character of his name, 谨[jǐn], means sincere or cautious. While the last character of his name, 栗[lì], means chestnut. Little chestnut, little one, little koi, little... Be prepared, my dear readers, he is going to have a lot nicknames. PS: Our ML is a fish to the core, every word of his name says so lol…