Chapter 3355: Five Month’s At The Binggan Clan

Every evening the clan aggregated for a story circle. Lin Mu reckoned Tao Yinsu might learn better with other children around and might develop some connection with them. he would read from a thin volume about virtue and patience.

Tao Yinsu would be placed between Little Shrubby and Cattaleya so the child could be entertained and restrained simultaneously. Sometimes Tao Yinsu would interrupt the story to correct the moral. Sometimes the moral was improved. Sometimes the moral became a recipe for an insult nobody wanted to make.

In all of it Lin Mu saw the progress. Small, chaotic, messy progress.

By the end of the third week the clan had new rules, three very different baby songs, and a carved wooden plaque by the gate that read WATCH YOUR STEP, EXPECT INSULTS.

Tao Yinsu had learned how to request things politely sometimes, and Lin Mu had learned the exact point at which Tao Yinsu’s outrage would tip into genuine laughter.

The monks had also began learning some things from Lin Mu, which helped them progress in their own cultivation, which they were glad for. Cultivating while Lin Mu chanted the Calming Heart sutra was incredibly beneficial to them and increased Lin Mu’s greatness in their hearts by a lot.

Cattaleya also had some fun as she began keeping a small box where she could deposit the toys Tao Yinsu had stolen for from other kids. He didn’t even have a reason for it, as he didn’t play with the toys in the first place.

Little Shrubby meanwhile had perfected the stew meant for Tao Yinsu to fall asleep faster..

Lin Mu made a quiet note to himself. He would continue guarding the child for as long as necessary... or at least until he could tolerate it.

The world could be dangerous to a reincarnated immortal who forgot how small the world looked through a baby’s eyes. If Tao Yinsu grew into someone civilized and useful, it would be a credit to the clan and to those who had tolerated the three weeks of chaos.

If he did not, then the world would be livelier for having had him.

At night, after the clan had settled and Tao Yinsu had been lulled into a fitful sleep by the Twelve Fold Doze, Lin Mu sat beside the infant and traced a finger over the small, fierce hand.

Tao Yinsu muttered in his sleep, something about crowns and a very unfair chair, and then his breathing evened out into the gentle rhythm of a child. Lin Mu allowed himself to breathe, and somewhere in the Sleepscape Little Shrubby dreamed of a stew that contained all the flavors of a calm morning.

Still, under Lin Mu’s guidance, changes began to happen with Tao Yinsu.

Five months passed in the Binggan Clan, and during that time the chaos known as Tao Yinsu gradually transformed from a curse-spewing goblin baby into something that could, on a very generous day, pass for a person.

He still made remarks sharp enough to cut stone. He still muttered curses under his breath that made passing elders twitch. But he no longer screamed nonstop, no longer demanded imperial wine before dawn, and no longer tried to recruit household pets into his imaginary army.

Lin Mu had applied the carrot and stick method with absolute precision. And the stick came first.

He realized early on that Tao Yinsu understood power. He recognized strength instinctively, having been an immortal in the past life. He bowed only to force or to someone he admired. Words did not scare him. Threats did not restrain him. Reasoning only made him laugh.

So Lin Mu prepared something unforgettable.

The Binggan Patriarch was quietly terrified when Lin Mu asked him to accompany them to a nearby bandit hideout. But he obeyed. This was Lin Mu after all. The bearer of the White Jade Ruyi. The man who had calmly handled spatial rifts and sea curses.

When such a man asked you to follow, you did.

Tao Yinsu was carried in Lin Mu’s arm like a sack of flour. The baby bickered the whole way. He demanded snacks. He threatened to report Lin Mu to the Immortal Court. He cursed the wind for blowing into his face. But Lin Mu did not respond, not this day.

The hideout was in a gorge, one valley away. A hundred bandits lived there, and they were notorious for their brutality. They had robbed travelers, destroyed caravans, and even destroyed a nearby village.

The local rulers had long ignored them. Killing them caused no political trouble.

Lin Mu walked into the gorge as if entering a garden.

The bandits looked up.

"What is this? A random man and a baby?" one laughed.

Another, more powerful man, stepped out from behind a tent. He was at the Fourth Tribulation Stage, just like the Patriarch. He smiled with rotten teeth and cracked knuckles.

"Leave the baby and go. We sell good prices for cute ones."

Tao Yinsu inhaled sharply, eyes going wide.

Lin Mu looked at the man. That was enough.

The first bandit died without seeing Lin Mu move. One moment he was taunting, the next his head hit the ground like a dropped melon. Lin Mu’s fist had passed through him so fast the air had not yet realized it should split.

The bandits froze.

Then all hell erupted.

Lin Mu stepped forward, and the gorge turned into a slaughterhouse.

The Fourth Tribulation bandit roared and charged. His aura swelled. Stone cracked under his feet. His fist swung down like a falling hammer.

Lin Mu met it with a casual punch.

The bandit’s arm shattered from shoulder to wrist and exploded into dust. The man screamed as Lin Mu grabbed him by the skull and slammed him into the rock wall so hard that the stone cratered inward. The body slumped like a broken puppet.

Tao Yinsu whimpered. He had no idea what he would see today would change his entire view of life. And Lin Mu had brought him along, exactly for that very same reason.

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