CH 7

This lady in white clearly epitomized the unpredictability of Lesser Jade House.

Upon hearing her question, Su Yang and Gu Feidi looked at each other again.

There was no tacit understanding in this look; unlike the previous one. Instead, there was a faint hint of provocation, as if neither of them were willing to back off and neither intended to appear cowardly before this lady in white.

“I’ll go first!” Gu Feidi took a step forward.

“He’s going first!” Su Yang stepped back at the same time.

Gu Feidi: ……

The crowd of onlookers: ……

“You—” Gu Feidi couldn’t hide the disbelief in his eyes at all and he frowned, “…what’s the matter with you?!”

“Ah, it’s…”

Su Yang was starting to have a headache.

If he adhered to the character of the Devil Sect’s Young Saint, he should not be retreating at this juncture. But his brain had yet to change course and his thoughts were still stuck on the reasoning of: ‘you-must-let-Gu-Feidi-pass-the-test-before-you-can-stabilize-the-storyline’, so he casually gave Gu Feidi the opportunity to be assessed first. He had just spoken the words. If he retracted them now, it would mess up his performance even further. Better to find some excuse to bring things back on track.

As a result, Su Yang blinked once, raised the corners of his mouth to display the Devil Sect’s Young Saint’s standard reckless smile and drawled: “…I am perfectly happy to let you go first!”

The crowd of onlookers: How shameless!

Gu Feidi’s cheeks flushed with anger at these words and he turned his head away with a cold snort, refusing to acknowledge him.

Su Yang withdrew back to the cliff edge, resisting the urge to scratch his head. He crossed his arms, exhibiting the Devil Sect’s Young Saint’s posture.

Fan Xi stepped ahead and said: “Young Saint’s preference varies from that of the average person. I used to think that this fella, after being under his Leader dad’s tutelage, had become a little dull and extremely boring. Young Saint, you have such great tactics. Who’d have thought that the little uptight dude could be so entertaining! Just look at him, his ears are all red…”

Su Yang chuckled in character, expressing his disdain, but deep down he groaned : Fan Er, don’t trouble trouble if trouble doesn’t trouble you. If you make the protagonist anxious, it’s not good for either of us.

While the two of them were busy whispering on one side, Gu Feidi had already prepared his stance.

He manipulated his internal strength, condensed it all in his palm and lightly struck the lady in white.

The difference between Pu Lingyun and the two martial artists in black earlier compared to Gu Feidi was that when he slammed his palm to the front, the extra energy radiating vigorously all around him was nearly invisible. It was almost like he was an ordinary person without any internal strength stretching out his palm to strike the lady in white. The tender leaves of the surrounding shrubs remained unmoving. The only subtle abnormality was the slight wafting of dust on the mountain road before Gu Feidi’s feet.

The lady in white’s expression finally changed.

Her eyes were still glazed, but her eyebrows were slightly raised, revealing some interest.

Gu Feidi palm struck the lady’s shoulder. Both were stunned and took a step back.

The lady in white smiled and said: “A good ‘Young Eagle’! You control your internal force well and your reputation is deserved. You have also advanced to the third level of the ‘Restoration Scripture: Askance’. Will you be achieving a breakthrough soon?”

Gu Feidi was momentarily surprised. He cupped his fist and nodded: “Feidi is incompetent and has yet to make a breakthrough.” 

The lady in white nodded and said: “I heard that for some reason, Tengyun Pavilion’s Restoration Scripture is missing it’s last volume ‘Return To The Nest’. Why do you still choose to practice it?”

Gu Feidi replied: “Although the Restoration Scripture has it’s deficiencies, this set of inner strength mental cultivation method suits me very well. The first three volumes are extremely difficult to practice, but I’m diligent. Furthermore, rumour has it that the final ‘Return To The Nest’ volume only has level and the absence of it will not affect the use of this mental cultivation method.” 

The lady in white’s relaxed gaze went past Gu Feidi’s shoulder towards the distant horizon. She remarked leisurely: “The weary bird flies and returns… one of the profound tenets stated in the Restoration Scripture. You will need to carefully decipher it. Perhaps, you may be able to reap some benefits in Lesser Jade House.”

After she finished speaking, she turned around and stepped aside, unblocking the path leading to the gate of Lesser Jade House’s mountain.

Gu Feidi saluted the lady in white. He couldn’t help glancing back at Su Yang before taking big strides to enter through Lesser Jade House mountain gate.

Su Yang wasn’t aware Gu Feidi had looked at him.

He had lowered his head and was deep in thought: In the script, Gu Feidi obtained the Restoration Scripture: Returning to the Nest volume in Lesser Jade House, but he didn’t know how the mental cultivation skill of Tengyun Pavilion’s Gu family came to be there. Su Yang’s scenes were originally much further along in the storyline and he wasn’t clear about Gu Feidi’s exploits after he had suppressed the Devil Sect, so could not deduce anything.

He was still mulling when suddenly, he felt his waist being poked twice from behind by Fan Xi.

“Hey, hey! What are you doing?!”

Su Yang was ticklish and sprang away at once. He didn’t even have time to maintain his demeanor and he glared at Fan Xi angrily.

Fan Xi tilted his chin up and winked at him.

The flower aide who was waiting on the side spoke up: “Young Saint, it’s your turn.”

Su Yang looked over and saw that the lady in white’s ethereal eyes were locked on him and that look terrified him.

Su Yang raised his hand and was about to scratch his head, when he realised that this action wasn’t very ‘Young Saint-ly’, he moved to brush his hair away instead. He made his way to the mountain path and turned around to face the lady in white.

He wasn’t yet proficient with the internal forces of his own body, so he could only guess and speculate that the core method using palms was roughly more or less similar to the light footwork skill. However, it required that the focus of internal force from the lower limbs be converted into the palm of the hand. In his attempt to comprehend this point, he tried to shift his internal forces and converge them all in his palm.

The bushes around the mountain road suddenly began to rustle and the stones and gravel on the ground also began to quake. They did not appear to be swept up by the wind, but seemed to be caused by some sort of frequency linking the extreme resonances in the atmosphere.

The lady in white’s expression instantly changed. For the first time, her empty gaze focused directly on Su Yang’s person. Even her grip on her book tightened and her posture straightened a little.

Su Yang didn’t know what he had triggered, so he stepped forward and rushed at the lady in white. He focused all his monumental internal power in his palm and used all of his strength to strike. 

The lady retreated half a step. She raised a hand, flitted it lightly and sent a palm strike towards Su Yang, neutralizing the air current from his palm.

Su Yang felt that his own strike was like a ballistic missile piercing a small clump of cotton. Instead of exploding, it made a ‘puff’ sound and disappeared completely; without a single shock wave or any traces of impact.

“Profound internal strength; such a rarity. However, it lacks control and requires diligent practice.” 

The lady in white retracted her hand and remarked indifferently: “If this was an actual fight and not an assessment, your lower body would be unstable since you had gathered all your internal strength into your palm. Your opponent would take advantage of the opening to attack your vulnerable points.”

There was no way Su Yang could refute that. After all, the way he manipulated his internal forces was through his own assumptions. It was understated to say that he ‘wasn’t good at manipulating’, but the fact was that he simply couldn’t!

However, since the dignity of the Young Saint’s public image was at stake, he could only exhibit his arrogant demeanor; refusing to acquiesce verbally or physically.

The lady in white continued: “The Six Underworlds Inter Flower technique of Yin Tan Divine Sect is extremely difficult to practice. You are indeed truly talented to have mastered it when you are only seventeen years old. However, this mental cultivation method is unique and cannot support your progression. What are your aspirations with regards to advanced mental cultivation methods?”

Su Yang was dumbfounded by the question.

Based on his recollection, the Devil Sect’s Young Saint, Su Yang’s character, had trained exclusively in the Six Underworlds Inter Flower technique from the beginning until the end of the script. Therefore, he wasn’t aware of any other inner strength mental cultivation methods from the Devil Sect that he could train in. Furthermore, in line with his understanding of martial arts ways, wasn’t a person only able to practice one type of internal strength method?

Seeing that he couldn’t answer, the lady in white didn’t press him further: “No matter, you will be able to find something suitable in Lesser Jade House.”

After finishing, she stepped aside, allowing Su Yang to access the way to the mountain gate.

Su Yang walked into the gate of Lesser Jade House with a multitude of questions on his mind. As he climbed up the steps, he began to ruminate. He suspected that it was highly probable that he had transmigrated into the original script instead of the film one.

Hey, I really shouldn’t have been so lazy at the time.

If he had read the original work, he might have been able to better grasp the direction of the plot.

He was engrossed in his thoughts and walked ahead without paying any attention; even passing by Gu Feidi. When this happened, Gu Feidi discreetly clenched his fist.

When he was a few steps in front, Su Yang suddenly heard a young man speak out in a low and angry tone.

“Su Yang.”

Su Yang turned around and looked blankly at Gu Feidi who was standing several steps below, staring up at him unwaveringly.

Gu Feidi gritted his teeth and said: “I will surpass you. Without a doubt!”

Su Yang blinked. He surmised that his earlier palm strike against the lady in white had triggered the little wolf pup, and with that notion in mind, he couldn’t help laughing out loud.

“Oh, you have set up a lot of fla…flags* today.” He paused, his facial expression was not ruined due to a mistake in his lines and he curled his lips into a smile, “Nevertheless, I believe what you say. There’ll be a day when you can surpass me… maybe even kill me. Don’t worry, none of the flags you’ve set up will topple.**”

(TN : *立flag = Chinese online slang. It is to have one’s words turn out to be tragically prophetic)

(TN : **none of the flags you’ve set up will topple = referring to earlier explanation of “flag”. In this context Su Yang is goading Gu Feidi that there’s no way all those outcomes would change.)

Once he was done speaking, Su Yang laughed twice and turned back around to continue making his way up the mountain path.

Gu Feidi stared at Su Yang’s back as he departed, his jaw was tense and his fists were clenched tight.

Pu Lingyun released a puff of air and snapped angrily: “What’s with that tone? Is he mocking you, telling you not to have wishful thoughts?! What a load of nonsense, downright ridiculous!” 

Gu Feidi did say anything, he retracted his gaze and lowered his eyelashes.

Pu Lingyun said: “Xiao shixiong, don’t be disheartened. Your achievements in the future will definitely be better than his! Don’t let his words get to you.” 

At the gate of the mountain, Fan Xi had just passed the test. He strode casually uphill, twirling his little braid between his fingers.

Seeing Gu Feidi and Pu Lingyun still standing on the steps waiting for Xu Yunzhan, he leaned forward and smiled: “This little beauty is…”

Fan Xi didn’t manage to finish as he was stumped all of a sudden.

He sniffed around for a while, then narrowed his eyes and inhaled deeply: “Mmm—that’s a lovely smell!”

Fan Xi raised his eyebrows and his whole face broke into a smile. He surveyed Gu Feidi’s face for a moment, moving around to get a good look from all angles. He lowered himself and clicked his tongue: “He actually gave you the Devil Sect’s divine medicine? Young Saint’s preferences are truly wicked. You are a young man, your figure and features are rather appealing. No wonder, no wonder…”

When he finished speaking, before anyone could beat him up, he exercised his light footwork and fled hastily up the mountain road like a gust of wind.