The sunlight shone gently down. A man was bathing in the crystal clear water among glinting reflections of the sun. The brilliance of the reflections upon the pool’s surface backlit him, obscuring his appearance, so only his silhouette was visible. But, judging by his bearing, he had to be astonishingly beautiful.
Despite his stunningly gorgeous appearance, the man’s heart was in turmoil. He was precisely Su Mujin, and he was thinking about an incident that had occurred a year ago.
One year prior, feeling that the the poison had been acting up more and more frequently, Su Mujin had begun to panic. He was terrified that if this continued to develop, one day the poison would kill him. As a result, he hid from Gu Feng and snuck out to see a doctor. Listening to Su Mujin detail all his symptoms, the doctor’s expression grew subtle. Ultimately, he didn’t prescribe any medication, but only suggested that it would be a good idea for Su Mujin to go purchase some volumes of ‘Caizi-Jiaren’ romance novels.
Su Mujin followed the recommendation without delay, and purchased quite a few of those books to study. He read and read, and came to understand that he had never been poisoned at all, but rather he was in love with his gege? Su Mujin was definitely not brave enough to just come out and confess to Gu Feng. He feared that Gu Feng would slap him.
He resolved to slowly seduce Gege until Gege liked him back. So, he summed up the methods deployed in the novels and determined that there were eighteen main strategies for catching a man. If he tried each of them in succession, inevitably one would prove successful! However . . .
“Gege, would you like Xiao Jin to cook for you every day?” The books had written that the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach. This approach was estimated to be about 70 percent effective.
“No, I don’t need to eat. What about your cultivation? Do you even have time to spend cooking instead of cultivating?” As he replied, Gu Feng’s expression showed his impatience for Su Mujin’s indulgence in distractions.
“Gege, tonight let’s live and sleep together, okay?” According to the books, a man and woman staying together in the depth of night would inevitably lead to something occurring. The success rate of this scheme was seventy five percent. With two men, it should surely be the same, right?
“Do you still have time to sleep? Have you already comprehended the theory I imparted to you the day before yesterday?” Gu Feng was completely bewildered.
“Gege, the moon is beautiful tonight. Why don’t we sit under the moonlight and chat?” In the books, a beautiful environment of the kind that inspired poetry and song would set the mood for a tryst. The success rate of this arrangement was eighty percent effective.
“Now there’s no moonlight. You should cultivate.” Gu Feng was unperturbed as he deployed an art to block out the moonlight.
“Gege, Xiao Jin has some good wine today. Let’s drink ‘till it’s gone, okay?” According to the novels, when a man became tipsy, it was easier to do ‘something’. This tactic was eighty five percent effective.
“Xiao Jin, you have wine? Alright!” Drinking through a whole barrel of wine with no problem, Gu Feng looked over to see Su Mujin, who was dead drunk and felt incomparably melancholy, letting out a deep sigh.
. . .
In short, having already attempted seventeen approaches, with each ending in exactly the same tragic failure, there was just one final approach left — seduction. Allegedly, if you were beautiful enough, this method alone was one hundred percent effective. I’m quite beautiful, right? This time will definitely be a success! Su Mujin silently repeated that last sentence as a mantra to convince himself.
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As soon as he exited the dongfu, Gu Feng saw the soul-stirringly beautiful Su Mujin in the middle of bathing in the spiritual pool.
After coming of age, Su Mujin had already left behind his adolescent androgynous beauty. A single glance revealed his peerless grace and elegance. He had a pair of peach blossom eyes you could lose your soul by looking into, and the teardrop mole beneath the corner of his right eye had grown redder and lovelier, giving him a perilous beauty reminiscent of the sirens who had lured men to their doom.
But, still too immature, Gu Feng silently commented. He honestly couldn’t make sense of the other person. When a simple spell would take care of a task, why did he always fool around and make things complex? Certainly it was because he was too lazy to cultivate. Sigh. The more that kid loafed around, the more spoiled he got. It seemed that the matter of revenge would still have to be handled by Gu Feng himself. That’s right. Gu Feng had already completely given up on his hopes and plans for Su Mujin, since he himself was able to accomplish what he had set out to do. Better to let Su Mujin be responsible for living a carefree life. Gu Feng was already at the late stage of golden core and had again begun to hover above the ground as he cultivated.
“Xiao Jin, finish quickly. Today we’re returning to the sect.” Gu Feng’s face remained expressionless as he spoke.
Su Mujin: “. . .”
How can he still be so unperturbed? Am I not beautiful enough? Impossible! Today I must succeed . . .
Suddenly a gale arose, and blew fiercely past Gu Feng, completely covering him in a layer of grime.
“Gege, you got dirty, wouldn’t you like to come join Xiao Jin . . .” The latter part of the sentence stuck in Su Mujin’s throat, because Gu Feng had already used a cleansing art to make himself neat and tidy.
Su Mujin looked at Gu Feng, his gaze momentarily seething with hidden bitterness. . .
At this exact moment, Gu Feng suddenly smirked, causing Su Mujin to stare at him, completely taken aback. Compared with five years prior, Gu Feng had matured a great deal, and his face had become even more perfect, taking on the appearance of white jade — exactly the countenance that would make women blush as soon as they saw him. The corners of his mouth slightly turned up, his masculine aura was overwhelming. As a matter of fact, he was an outstandingly handsome specimen of a man.
A second later, Su Mujin nearly cried out in alarm when Gu Feng suddenly jumped down into the spiritual pool. Shockingly, Gu Feng didn’t even use Water Repulsion as he made his way toward Su Mujin.
Was this final method actually a success? Seeing Gu Feng draw closer and closer, Su Mujin grew more and more anxious. What? Was? He? Going? To? Do?
Before Su Mujin had the chance to react, Gu Feng had already pulled him into his arms and dragged him onto the shore. Gu Feng rapidly cast an art to dress him, and after that, he released him. Performing this sequence of events, Gu Feng was unhurried but constantly in motion, like the movement of clouds or flow of a river.
“Okay, We can set off now.” Gu Feng was silently bemused. This kid thought he didn’t know that the wind just now was his doing? He’s just like a spoiled toddler begging to be picked up and carried. Nonetheless, as a responsible elder brother, Gu “unromantic straight guy” Feng still felt he should satisfy the minor requests his didiasked of him.
Su Mujin: “. . .”
Hmph! I refuse to admit defeat. If these eighteen methods have failed, I’ll just try one hundred methods . . .
Gu Feng chose to return to the sect via a shortcut. Unfortunately, the saying is true that an upright person must not be lazy. As they drew near the road, it was inevitable that they would encounter a tragedy about to occur.
In the distance ahead, he caught sight of several people engaged in a battle of magic. Among them, two wore the robes of the Taixu Sect disciples, while the rest of the group seemed to show the faint fluctuations indicative of demonic qi, and were probably people from Devil’s Fortress. Gu Feng’s gaze swept over them — of the Taixu disciples, one was a man whose cultivation level Gu Feng could not determine, likely because he was at the peak of the late stage of golden core. In contrast, the other much less advanced disciple was a woman in the late stage of the foundation building period.
Devil’s Fortress had a group of ten people all at the summit of the late stage of the foundation building period. The two sides were actually well balanced in terms of real power, but the man from Taixu Sect was not only fighting for himself, but trying to protect his companion, and had to constantly be on guard. Little by little, they were clearly more and more at a disadvantage. If this continued, that pair of disciples would probably be in peril.
To rescue? Or not to rescue?
Gu Feng didn’t hesitate for long before choosing to help. Since deciding to take revenge, it was inevitable he would come into contact with Mo Ran and the Devil’s Fortress. Even if he and Su Mujin had impressive cultivation, they were still just two people. It was impossible to ignore the reality of what would occur should they confront the Devil’s Fortress alone. Therefore, they needed to befriend other cultivators.
The previously mentioned pair were already in a desperate situation — the woman’s heart was about to be hit with a piercing blow by a Devil’s Fortress adherent. She had already resigned herself, when all of a sudden a leaf flew by. That leaf first took down a sword, then changed its trajectory to fly up into the sky and disappear. With that, the Devil’s Fortress disciple was taken care of. Seeing this, the woman’s companion took the opportunity to finish off the remaining Devil’s Fortress members.
After Chu Feng took care of the rest of the people, he caught sight of a man standing to the side with his back turned. Though that person merely stood there motionless, he still gave off a cool and confident aura. Chu Feng silently questioned, who is that? He never expected there was still someone who was more of an ostentatious ass than himself.
“Thank you, brother, for your kindness in rescuing us. May I ask for your honorable name?”
“No need for this brother to be so polite — we’re fellow disciples, after all. How could I see you in distress without. . .” Gu Feng spoke with a hint of a smile as he slowly turned around. Mid-turn, he was able to clearly distinguish the face of that guy, and the corners of Gu Feng’s mouth briefly twitched before he completed his sentence, “coming to assist?”
This person in front of him had skin the color of wheat, and a finely chiseled face. His disposition was tough and manly, appearing to be a person who would respond with violence no matter the circumstances. He was altogether masculine. Gu Feng knew this guy, Chu Feng, was his cheap father’s personal disciple, and Gu Yunxi’s second shixiong. Gu Feng had mixed feelings about this guy from his past, and time had yet to erase the psychological shadow of that incident.
In the past, the first time he ran into Chu Feng, Gu Feng had been only fourteen years old, and his looks were that of an androgynous adolescent. Chu Feng had a woman on each arm, but as soon as he caught a glimpse of Su Mujin he pushed the two women aside, and in an attempt to win him over, said the following:
“Xiao meimei, I’ve never seen a woman more beautiful than you in my entire life. From today on out, I’ll protect your honor and wait for you to grow up.”
At that moment, Gu Feng had nearly died of anger. On the spot, he punched the guy, after which the other party realized that he was a man. But Gu Feng had gone out of his way to avoid Chu Feng from thereafter, as the situation had given rise to a forever unresolved psychological shadow.
Chu Feng saw Gu Feng’s eyebrows furrowed in consternation. This guy was his xiao shimei’s little brother who was said to be lacking potential, but Chu Feng could see that he had already reached the late period of golden core cultivation. Clearly the rumors were not to be believed!
In this manner, with secret worries weighing on their hearts, the two men stared at each other for a time, unsure how to proceed, and the scene sank into an uneasy silence.
“Gege, where did you run off to in such a hurry? Xiao Jin was nearly unable to catch up.” Su Mujin appeared at just the right moment, and broke up the awkward scene.
Gu Feng suddenly had an ominous premonition.