A Will Eternal

Hey guys, I'm excited to let you know that Physician's Odyssey is now out of sneak peek and available for everyone to read, with 60 chapters to start!  This is a modern wuxia novel that is part of our big 2019 kickoff to more genres.  Authored by Smoking Pipe Bro and translated by Wuxiaworld veteran Thyaeria (who is also working with us on The Great Ruler and Tales of Demons & Gods), this Zongheng novel brings us the story of the brilliant physician Su Tao.  Su Tao is a medical genius, but just wants to maintain...

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It was at about this time that a hubbub of voices rose up outside the honor guard station. Confused, Bai Xiaochun pushed open the door, and saw a host of north bank disciples congregated outside of the spell formation.

He edged backward, his face flickering as he tried to figure out what he might have done to cause something like this. However, even after a long moment of thought, he had no clue what might have gotten the north bank into such a commotion.

Despite not being sure what was going on, he started to get nervous, and immediately called out “What are you people doing?!”

Instantly, the disciples locked their gazes on him standing there on the other side of the spell formation.

“Sect Uncle Bai, please open the spell formation so we can come inside and perform a search!”

“We’re not just searching here, we're searching everywhere on the north bank.”

“During the past month, a lot of female disciples have had their bras go missing. A sex maniac is on the loose! If you’re innocent, then there’s no reason not to open the spell formation and let us perform a search!”

“Hmph. Even if they’re hidden in a bag of holding, we have our ways of finding them!”

Bai Xiaochun sighed, and immediately felt a lot better. In fact, he even started to get a bit angry. Clasping his hands behind his back, he looked out at the north bank disciples.

For once, he knew that was on the side of right, and there was no way he would just give in to their demands so easily. Looking out with righteous anger, he said, “Quit making such a scene! I'm a Prestige disciple, the Junior Brother of the sect leader, I would never do something like that!”

“It was definitely you! In all the north bank, you’re the only person who could do something like this!”

“That’s right! Bai Xiaochun is the most suspicious of all. He already secretly took other disciples’ battle beasts away for contributions. That’s the perfect example to show how skilled he is! The Junior and Elder Sisters’ bras were all stolen without anyone detecting a single thing!”

Looking at the clamoring crowd, Bai Xiaochun chuckled coldly and then waved his sleeve, opening the spell formation.

“Very well, then. You may enter and perform your search. When you come up empty-handed in a few moments, I'll be very curious to see how you’ll compensate me for this little charade!” Bai Xiaochun felt utterly calm, and completely in the right.

His pure and unwavering confidence got many in the crowd to doubt their suspicious. After all, they had absolutely no evidence to support their claim; then, Bai Xiaochun suddenly opened the spell formation. At first they just stood there exchanging awkward glances, but then the female disciples whose bras had been stolen gritted their teeth and stepped inside. First they clasped hands toward Bai Xiaochun, then began to search around. One of the female disciples even procured a crimson squirrel from her bag of beast raising.

The instant the squirrel appeared, it let out a high-pitched shriek and burst into motion. Everyone in the crowd was taken aback. During the past several days of searching for the missing bras, they had relied on this special squirrel to help them. It had a very acute sense of smell, and would be able to detect even the slightest whiff of its target, even if it were in a bag of holding.

Moments ago, many in the crowd had been wavering in their determination, but now their eyes went wide, and they rushed into the area protected by the spell formation. Bai Xiaochun looked on blankly, truly confused by what was happening. He also followed along with the crowd, until the squirrel reached one of the side rooms in the honor guard station. When the door was pushed open, a whooshing sound could be heard as a cascade of brightly colored bras of all types spilled out, thousands of them....

“Bai Xiaochun!! Are you still gonna try to convince us you didn’t do it!?”

“So, it was you after all!!”

“Bai Xiaochun, y-y-you... you are so completely shameless!!”

As for the male disciples in the crowd, their rage burned particularly hot.

Bai Xiaochun gasped, and instantly began to shiver.

“Impossible!!” he shrieked.

Even as the words left his mouth, the female disciples’ gazes came to fall upon him, and they seemed to contain bloody murder. Bai Xiaochun’s scalp went numb, and he immediately tried to offer an explanation.

“I really didn’t do it! I had no idea those were there....” Swallowing hard, he began to back up, feeling more wronged than ever. He really wasn't sure how to explain the situation. The female disciples were glaring at him furiously, and some of them were even starting to perform incantation gestures, as if they were going to attack him right on the spot.

“Dammit, what’s going on!?” he thought, feeling like he was going mad. He had spent all his recent time in secluded meditation, focused completely on cultivation. He hadn’t even left the honor guard station, nor had he even opened the door to the side room. It was at that point that he looked out and noticed Bruiser running along, holding a red bra between his teeth, looking intoxicated.

However, before he reached the spell formation, Bruiser suddenly stopped in his tracks. When he saw the mob that had formed, he quickly dropped the red bra.

At that same moment, countless eyes turned to look in his direction.

As for Bai Xiaochun, he immediately felt a headache coming on. After all, no other disciple could go in and out of the spell formation while Bai Xiaochun was in secluded meditation.

Not even the big black dog could do that. The only one who could freely enter or exit the spell formation was... Bruiser!

Bruiser began to tremble, not out of fear of the anger of the other disciples, but because he feared getting Bai Xiaochun mad. Bruiser seemed to be on the verge of tears as he prostrated himself on the ground and began to whimper.

Strange expressions appeared on the faces of the disciples in the mob. As for the female disciples, they almost couldn’t believe their eyes. Inside and outside the honor guard station, everything was completely silent.

After a long moment passed, one of the female disciples murmured, “Bruiser wouldn’t do something like this. He’s so cute! Someone must have put him up to it!”

Immediately, people began to echo her words.

“Yeah! Bruiser is way too charming and pure. Someone must have put a spell on him and forced him to do it!”

“It was Bai Xiaochun! He’s Bruiser's master!”

It didn’t take long before almost all of the female disciples were convinced, and looked over angrily at Bai Xiaochun. Although some people knew the truth, Bruiser was normally so cute, and currently looked so scared, that he had won over the hearts of all present.

However, the situation was simply too odd, so those disciples didn’t say anything. Instead of causing any further trouble, the disciples glared at Bai Xiaochun, then made their way off.

Soon, things quieted down again, and Bai Xiaochun took a deep breath and stared up into the sky, looking like he was about to cry. Considering the blank look in his eyes, Bruiser knew that he had made a mistake; he quietly slunk over to Bai Xiaochun and started rubbing up against his legs.

Bai Xiaochun sighed and knelt down to pat his head. “Bruiser... you’re usually so smart. How could you have been so dumb this time? You, you... you can steal bras if you want, but you can’t screw me over in the process. I created you! I'm kind of like your father. You definitely can’t screw your father over!

“Okay, remember, don’t screw over the people who are close to you.... As for all those bras, hiding them in that room isn’t gonna work. You can’t hide stuff like that in your own home! Silly Bruiser! You have to be a bit smarter! Think things out ahead of time, and make sure you don’t get caught.” Bruiser bowed his head and whimpered a bit, aware of his mistake.

Seeing him act in such a way softened Bai Xiaochun's heart, and he decided not to reprimand him any further. With that, he returned to the honor guard station, a bit down, but just as focused on meditation and cultivation.

Outside in the courtyard, Bruiser lay there whimpering for a bit. But then, a fierce look appeared in his eyes as he glared off in the direction of the north bank disciples.

When the night was dark, he crawled to his feet and then vanished, headed out to the north bank.

The following morning, as the first rays of dawn were just beginning to spread out, a miserable shrieks could be heard coming from one of the disciples’ residences.

“Dammit! Who was it? Who stole my Beast Spirit Pill!? I had a hard time getting my hands on that pill! I was gonna give it to my battle beast to advance his level!!”

As soon as the cry rang out, more similar cries could be heard.

“Aghhh! My Myriad Spirit Grass! I’ve been growing it for five years, and now the only things left are the roots! Gone. All gone.... Somebody ate it up!”

“A thief! This is unbelievable! All of the battle beast food in my immortal's cave is gone! That was three years’ worth of food!”

“Heavens! It was just yesterday that I finally got that third order bloodline beast bone from Elder Li! I was going to extract the bloodline power from it, but now it’s gone. Gone!!”

Similar cries could be heard in both the Outer and Inner Sects. In the end, several hundred people were crying out in anger. Without exception, all of them were male, and all of them had been to the honor guard station the day before.

As they cried out in pain and anger, they suddenly caught sight of Bruiser, running along with a blood-colored bone in his mouth, crushing it to pieces.

A miserable scream rose up from one disciple. His hair was disheveled, and his eyes bloodshot as he wept, seemingly crazed.

“Noooo! I borrowed that third order bloodline beast bone from an Elder! Agghhhh. Don’t eat it....”

Crunch crunch.

Holding his head proudly, Bruiser was a blur that none of the disciples could even come close to catching. Speeding off into the distance, he continued to munch on the bone until it was gone. The disciple with the disheveled hair started to grow faint at the thought of Elder Li’s rage when he didn’t return the bone. With a howl of fury, he shot off after Bruiser.

He wasn’t the only one. Hundreds of enraged disciples began to chase Bruiser, and yet, none of them were fast enough. They could only watch with wide eyes as he sped toward Irispetal Peak. Even as the crowd chased after him, a cold snort suddenly echoed out like thunder.

The peak lord of Irispetal Peak, the old woman, appeared. Coldly staring at the hundreds of disciples, she said, “What shocking behavior! Look at all of you, scaring poor little Bruiser half to death! Seems to me you people need something better to do to occupy your time!”

The disciples shivered and clasped hands in greeting. As for Bruiser, he cowered behind the old lady, looking very charming with his wide eyes as he rubbed against her leg.

The disciples raged inwardly, but none of them dared to say a single thing. Their hatred for Bruiser continued to rise to new heights.

“So what if he ate a few things here and there?” the old woman continued. “Big deal! Whatever he ate, I’ll compensate for. Now get out of here and stop bullying Bruiser!” After giving the disciples a final glare, the old woman looked down kindly at Bruiser and pet him on the head. Bruiser responded by looking even more charming than usual. He even licked her hand like a puppy might.

The disciples could only grit their teeth in their anger. In their minds, they weren’t bullying Bruiser, he was bullying them!

However, considering that a peak lord was siding with him, there was nothing they could do. They could only swallow their anger and give up any thoughts of causing any trouble. Of course, their fury was quickly transplanted onto Bai Xiaochun.

“It’s all Bai Xiaochun’s fault. He’s the one who created this abominable battle beast!”

“This battle beast is repulsive! Fine. Steal bras. Pilfer our food. The female disciples are the same as the elders and the peak lords. They spoil that thing to death!”

In the middle of his meditation, Bai Xiaochun suddenly sneezed. Opening his eyes, he looked around for a moment before going back to his breathing exercises. As for his cultivation base, it was inching ever closer to the great circle of the tenth level of Qi Condensation.

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Translator: Deathblade. Chinese language consultant: ASI a.k.a. Beerblade. Editor: GNE. Memes: Logan. Meme archives: Tocsin