Record of the Missing Sect Master

Chapter 14

TN: So I’ve decided to change Sect Master Ge’s title to Academy Master Ge. Previous chapters have also been edited to reflect this change.

The reason is that his son makes an appearance in this chapter, and the text refers to him as either 葛少幫主 or 少幫主 with the 少 meaning “young”. So while it’s not confusing in the original text because Dingtian Academy is the only one who uses 幫主 for their leader, I felt that using “Young/Junior Sect Master” might be confusing since there are so many other sect masters. So henceforth, Academy Master. (I considered using “Headmaster” for a while, but “Junior Headmaster” sounds strange, and I thought it might make Dingtian Academy sound more like a traditional school than it really is.) Hopefully a 幫主 doesn’t pop up that isn’t the leader of an Academy because that would throw this all out of wack.
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Since obtaining this book, Academy Master Ge had not had a single night of good sleep.

Originally, he had been frightened half to death by the Lantern-Extinguishing Poison, then he was again frightened half to death by the rush of Jianghu people coming over. He was like a weak old man who fished up a pearl and then happened to end up on the same road as a crowd of robbers. All day long, he was anxious and uneasy, afraid that his treasure would be discovered and that he would end up incurring a fatal disaster.

Afterwards, when a thief appeared in his home, he began to understand the other party’s intentions. He felt suspicious of Manor Lord Wei and the others, guilty towards Elder Wang, and tortured by his hesitation about whether to be forthcoming, while anxious day and night about the future. It was only when he had the truth forced out of him by Wenren Heng today that he felt that the incredible burden that he had carried alone on his back for a million miles had fallen to the ground.

With a boom, the burden left, and he felt free from head to toe.

On this earth, the overcautious were probably those who were, in large part, lacking that one push forward, but the moment that first step was taken, they would discover that things weren’t quite as frightening as it looked from afar.

Right now, he had no shortage of peace of mind as well as a renewed vigor. His mind was once again turning quickly.

He knew that those present were all prodigies who had already considered the possibility that he had presented a fake in order to deceive them. In an effort to prevent misunderstandings, he straightforwardly brought up the matter himself, “When my son brought home the book, it was already like this, along with the box.”

Everyone glanced at the wooden box.

This box was very small, fitting the book exactly, as if it was made for it, making carrying it very convenient.

Academy Master Ge continued with, “The box uses the best kind of insect-repelling wood, while the paper is famous Xuancheng paper[1] from the previous dynasty, waterproof and extremely sturdy, very difficult to find nowadays. And from the ink marks, one can see it’s almost been eight, nine years. Therefore, there’s no way I dared to trick everyone. It really is that book.”

Of the people present, there really were some who suspected him and only now had those misgivings dispelled.

Academy Master Ge only recently obtained this rare book, so even if he had the desire to trick them, he wouldn’t have been able to produce something that was several years old. If one wanted to claim that he had written this book in a fit of boredom a long time ago and only now coincidentally found a use for it, it was even more impossible. As everyone knows, Dingtian Academy’s people held writing tools[2] to be of the utmost importance, so to waste Xuancheng paper like this, they’d feel more pain than death.