Under One Person: The Taoist Priest Descends the Mountain

Cheng Mo's lips twitched, and he lowered his head to continue eating his apple.

Erzhuang jumped off the sofa with the food bag in hand: "I'll go pack my luggage!"

She ran into her room, the door was open, and you could hear her rummaging through drawers and closets, opening and closing wardrobe doors and drawers while muttering to herself, "I need this one, I don't need this one, this one is pretty, this one..."

Cheng Mo and Xia He sat on the sofa, watching TV and chatting casually.

On TV, the Journey to the West has already reached the point where Sun Wukong fights the White Bone Demon three times, and Tang Sanzang is reciting the Tightening Spell, causing Sun Wukong to writhe on the ground in pain.

Xia He poked at a piece of apple and suddenly asked, "Little Taoist priest, how did you break that knife?"

Cheng Mo turned to look at her: "Why are you suddenly asking this?"

"I'm just curious," Xia He said, chewing on an apple. "I've been looking into the demon sword Hirumaru lately. The Ishikawa family has always wanted to break that sword, but they've never succeeded. Even back then, so many masters from the Tang Clan couldn't break it."

She looked at Cheng Mo, her eyes full of curiosity: "How did you do that?"

Cheng Mo leaned back on the sofa and slowly began, "When I got that knife, it pulled me into another dimension. Inside was the obsession of a swordsmith..."

He paused for a moment, then said, "That thing is really interesting; it actually speaks the Japanese language."

Xia He tilted her head to look at him: "Can you understand?"

"Then you definitely won't understand." Cheng Mo shrugged.

Xia He: "...And then?"

"Then it switched to Chinese." Cheng Mo poked at another piece of apple, "and started talking about desires and elimination, rambling on and on about all sorts of nonsense, and then it grabbed a knife and charged at me."

He spread his hands: "You'll see the result."

Xia He blinked: "So fragile?"

"Actually, it's alright." Cheng Mo thought for a moment. "They have quite a few tricks up their sleeves. Besides the Japanese ones, there's the Lu family's Ruyi Jin and various moves from the Tang Clan. But no matter how many tricks you have, without life and cultivation, it's all for nothing."

Xia He frowned: "Isn't that the spiritual world? How does it relate to cultivation of life force?"

"Uh..." Cheng Mo scratched his face, "It's pretty much the same thing, you know what I mean."

Xia He: "..."

I don't know anything.

Just as she was about to ask further questions, Erzhuang ran out of the room empty-handed, his food pouch already in his pocket, his little face full of excitement.

"Senior brother, sister, I'm all packed. Let's go."

Cheng Mo glanced at the time: "Aren't you waiting for your parents?"

Erzhuang shrugged, looking indifferent: "They're not in a hurry to come back and see me, so they definitely don't care about me. Let's go straight back to the mountain, pick up our senior uncle, and set off."

The words had barely left his mouth—

Click click.

Insert the key into the lock and turn it.

The door opened immediately, and Gao Lian and Liu Yun walked in together.

Erzhuang jumped off the sofa with a "Wow!" and rushed over with open arms, shouting, "Daddy, Mommy!"

Gao Lian picked her up and kissed her on the cheek.

Erzhuang hugged his father's neck, his eyes crinkling into crescents with laughter. His earlier "I'll leave if you don't care about me" attitude had long since vanished.

Gao Lian, holding Er Zhuang, turned to look at the two people sitting on the sofa, his face apologetic: "I'm sorry, Master Cheng, Miss Xia, for keeping you waiting."

Cheng Mo waved his hand: "Hey, that's no big deal."

He glanced at the clock on the wall—3:40 p.m.

In other words, both of them returned early.

Being a leader is great; you can leave work whenever you want.

Thinking back to my past life, it was common to get off work overtime until midnight, let alone leave work early, and I had to be available on weekends...

Sigh, I don't want to think about it anymore.

Xia He joked from the side, "It's embarrassing that we're here when the host isn't here."

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Liu Yun changed into slippers and came over, taking Xia He's hand and patting it: "Xiao He, what are you saying? You'll feel right at home here."

She turned and nodded to Cheng Mo, then walked towards the kitchen: "You guys sit down first, I'll go get some fruit—"

"Mom, I've already prepared the fruit!" Erzhuang raised his hand in Gao Lian's arms.

Liu Yun peeked at the fruit plate on the coffee table and laughed, "Wow, you've really made something of yourself."

Gao Lian sat down on the sofa with Er Zhuang in his arms and glanced at the TV.

The Journey to the West series has finished airing, and they're showing an anti-Japanese war drama right now. A guerrilla fighter is grabbing a Japanese soldier in each hand and pulling hard—

Tear it in half.

Gao Lian's eye twitched: "If only that war had been as easy as it is on TV."

Cheng Mo munched on an apple and mumbled, "My master said that if the old Celestial Master hadn't come down the mountain back then, he would probably have been just like what's shown on TV."

? ?

Two question marks floated above Gao Lian's head.

He chuckled twice: "Well... the old Celestial Master went down the mountain with his sect to fight the Japanese back then, but the general trend of the world is never changed by a few powerful extraordinary people, not to mention that the old Celestial Master back then was far from having the 'peerless' power he has now."

"Oh—" Cheng Mo's eyes lit up. "So, Master tricked me back then? I'll have to have a good talk with him when we get back."

Gao Lian's lips twitched.

He thought to himself: If Young Master Cheng exposes me, will Old Master Cheng think I'm trying to sow discord between him and his disciple...?

He would never have had this worry before the contact.

But now that his youngest daughter has become a disciple of Master Cheng, and considering what he's learned these past few days—

It's perfectly reasonable for this to happen to this master and apprentice.

Gao Lian coughed twice and quickly changed the subject: "Ahem, well, let's get back to the important matter."

Cheng Mo turned to look at him: "What important matter?"

Gao Lian was speechless for a moment.

It seems that what is considered important to Master Cheng is indeed not important at all...

He rephrased it: "Regarding the demon sword incident, there are a few things I'd like to confirm with Master Cheng."

Cheng Mo nodded: "Go ahead."

At this moment, Liu Yun came out of the kitchen, carrying a large plate of fruit and some pastries, which she placed on the coffee table.

"Don't just talk, eat something," she said, then turned to Cheng Mo and Xia He, "Xiao He, Xiao Cheng, let's go out for dinner tonight, Auntie didn't make any."

Erzhuang frantically raised his hands in Gao Lian's arms: "Mom, Mom, let's go up the mountain, I'll make you something delicious! Super delicious! You'll definitely reflect on yourself after you eat it... uh..."

She almost blurted out, "What I used to make was all pig feed," but at the crucial moment, her tongue swirled around, and she swallowed it back.

Liu Yun raised an eyebrow: "Reflect on what?"

Gao Erzhuang swallowed hard: "It's about reflecting... reflecting on how I never realized your daughter was such a super, super culinary genius!"

Liu Yun laughed and poked her youngest daughter's forehead: "You call yourself a culinary genius? You almost set the kitchen on fire while baking bread."

Erzhuang panicked: "That was an accident! Besides, your ingredients were too poor; they didn't showcase my skills!"

She wriggled out of Gao Lian's arms, grabbed Liu Yun's sleeve, and pulled her towards the door: "Come up the mountain with me, and I'll show you what divine delicacies made from divine ingredients really are!"

Liu Yun patted her youngest daughter's head: "Alright, alright, stop fooling around. I'm talking to your senior brother about serious matters."

Er Zhuang let go and muttered, "I was just saying, it's really delicious."

After the mother and daughter interrupted, the atmosphere wasn't as awkward as when Gao Lian had spoken.

Gao Lian led Cheng Mo to eat fruit and pastries, and then watched TV before slowly saying, "A few days ago, Chairman Zhao personally called to ask me to thank Master Cheng."

With a piece of pear in his mouth, Cheng Mo asked indistinctly, "Thank me for what?"