The senior looked over to his son and asked him instead "Are you willing?"
Yelong looked at his father. He felt troubled at this moment.
"Speak your throughts," his father said.
"Father, your grace of raising me has allowed me to enter the path and... your and mother’s love has always been with me. I do not wish to separate myself.
But senior Fu’s teachings... they have cleared the cloud in front of him. After his words last time, I felt like I gained a path, a path of my own..."
The senior smiled, rubbing his child’s head "I know son. Just because you commit to the Dao doesn’t mean you forget your parents.
Haha, for all we know, we might still outlast you!
To make sure this fate doesn’t happen, I will take this step.
From now on, you, Ruan Yelong, are no longer part of the Ruan family!"
Fu Xian, who listened on the side, nodded when he heard this.
He looked at Yelong and said "Are you willing to take me as your master?"
"Greetings to master!" Yelong’s eyes had just teared up, but he quicky regained himself and knelt down to Fu Xian, his head hitting the ground.
Fu Xian smiled "Pour me a cup of tea," he asked.
Yelong did as we was told and poured the cup of tea, a symbol for paying his respects to his master.
Drinking the cup, Fu Xian nodded and said "From now on, you shall be my disciple named Ye Long.
Ye like leaf, of wood element yet flying in the wind for the Feng in your thought.
Long like dragon, mighty divine beasts of the water for the Shui in your heart.
I wish for you eternal grace and a free thought able to accept the world, yet with a calm heat carrying the might of a dragon to face the deep waters beyond."
In front of Ye Long, two symbols appeared.
One was a Leaf on which the character ’Feng’ was written. The other was an intertwining dragon forming the character ’Shui.
These symbols fell down on the blank talisman of before.
Feng became the front side and Shui became the back – yet every second, the positions changed.
The mighty dragon roared across the sky and came to the front side while the leaf drifted along the wind and fell to the back.
Swirling in the wind, forming a tornado, the leaf leaped to the front while the dragon entered the deep waters, awaiting the next ascension.
A divine light blessed the talisman at this moment.
To the senior on the side, it seemed like a lightshow.
But to Ye Long, looking at it, he suddenly felt a sense of inspiration and enlightenment!
At the core of this talisman was his own prototype of inspiration as well as the path defined from his talents by Fu Xian. It aligned extremely well with him.
Yet, even though he looked at it, he couldn’t fully comprehend it.
Fu Xian shook his head "Don’t be greedy. The dao isn’t easy to learn. This inspiration, after all, is just based on your own. It’s outline has been created by me, only the inner working are truly yours.
In the future, you will have to study it.
Whether you give it life or change it depends on your thoughts.
For now, just keep it by your side!
No matter what, it’s at least a second-grade talisman. Although its effect is auxiliary or even non-existent, it’s still a nice souvenir."
When the senior heard this, he asked curiously "A second-grade talisman? With no effect?" he was confused, this didn’t seem to make sense.
"Of course! This is something we talisman masters should all be able to do. It just depends on how talented our disciples are and how deep our own attainment into other paths are.
If I were to create an inheritance talisman based on my path, I might directly push Ye Long to enlightenment.
But that would be forced and is more suitable for lesser disciples.
A talented disciple like Ye Long should find his own path.
What I’m doing is basically just manifesting it ahead of time and helping him learn it faster.
Haha, as I said, I am a talisman master.
Those lousy talisman drawing cultivators can only draw some talismans to sell. They are far from the real core of talismans!
Anyways, little Ye Long, why don’t you take this talisman and go to my study?"
Fu Xian smiled as he waved his hand "It’s that way. You may enter the first floor and study the texts and scrolls there. It contains the books of talismans I’ve gathered over the years, with my own annotations added on the side.
It may come in handy."
Ye Long bowed once more before he headed to the direction Fu Xian pointed, the talisman still in his hand.
Then Fu Xian turned to his father, as if waiting for something.
The senior seemed to understand and smiled "Haha, the disciple taking fee won’t be skipped! My brother Helong has prepared it beforehand!"
Although he said so, to be honest, initially he wanted to give something else.
But looking at the situation, he felt that his brother’s gifts were too little, so he added his own on top.
Even then he felt it wasn’t enough...
While taking a disciple seemed to be a matter of wits and such, and even the previous matter of giving up the name was dramatic, in the end, it came down to benefits.
Fu Xian’s move to take a disciple before exchanging benefits meant that he truly took the disciple with good intentions.
As for further moves and investment? That depended on whether he gained enough benefits this time.
No matter how generous he was, he couldn’t possibly be asked to feed this disciple on his own.
While Ye Long might have given up the family name, he was still related. They would interact and also benefit from this, so in the end, they had to pay now to benefit later!