CH 14

Su Yang had a headache and massaged his temples, he continued to lean limply on the boulder, refusing to answer.

Xu Yunzhan’s gaze swapped between Gu Feidi and Su Yang twice before he shut his mouth.

For a while, a strange silence returned to the clearing.

Not long after, two figures simultaneously walked out of the stone forest formation; one from the left and the other from the right.

Pu Lingyun looked up, saw Gu Feidi and Xu Yunzhan standing in the clearing and immediately rushed over, smiling: “I knew that xiao shixiong would definitely be the first to arrive! Why don’t you go out? Are you waiting for us so we can leave together?”

On the other side, Fan Xi’s gaze swept across Gu Feidi’s group. When he saw Su Yang at the exit, his expression could not hide a trace of astonishment.

At this time Pu Lingyun also noticed Su Yang. She frowned: “Why are you here?”

Before Su Yang could say anything, Gu Feidi and Fan Xi spoke at the same time:

“He was the first to arrive.”

“Why can’t he be here?”

“He was the first to arrive?!” Fan Xi was really surprised this time. He turned his head to look at Su Yang: “Why didn’t you go out then?”

Su Yang crossed his arms, put on the Devil Sect’s Young Saint’s persona and said indifferently: “Ah, I don’t want to go out. I don’t want to enter Lesser Jade House.”

Both the newly arrived Pu Lingyun and Fan Xi were completely shocked by this answer.

After a while, Fan Xi suddenly regained his senses. He frowned and asked solemnly: “Young Saint, have you given this some serious thought?”

Su Yang nodded: “Yes.”

Fan Xi suddenly smiled and gave Gu Feidi a side eye: “So our Young Hero Gu is going to remain here in the stone forest formation because you refuse to leave it?”

Su Yang pretended to cough lightly, “Mmm, he said he didn’t want to accept my goodwill.”

Fan Xi scoffed and laughed out loud: “Okay then, none of you want to be the leader, I’ll be it!”

As he spoke, he started walking towards the stone forest exit.

Gu Feidi wordlessly stepped forward and stopped Fan Xi midway.

Fan Xi laughed: “I have long heard that Tengyun Pavilion’s Leader Gu stresses on morality and justice, but he does not want Young Hero Gu as his only son. The Young Master of Tengyun Pavilion, acting so domineering. Not only does he want to kidnap the Young Saint, but also obstruct other elected participants from passing through the stone forest formation… this is the conduct of those from Tengyun Pavilion?”

His words stunned everyone there, including Su Yang.

Gu Feidi subconsciously refuted: “I’m not—”

“If you’re not kidnapping Young Saint, then why are you using your own future to threaten him?” Fan Xi asked.

Gu Feidi: “I didn’t—“

“It’s Young Saint’s own business whether or not he wants to enter Lesser Jade House. Since he has already made a decision, in what capacity are you to make another decision for him?” Fan Xi carried on.

Gu Feidi: “I was just—”

“It’s not that you’re unwilling to accept his goodwill; you just don’t want to be condemned in the future with outsiders saying that you can make a name in the world only because he gave up being selected for Lesser Jade House.” Fan Xi laughed: “You’re just worried about your own reputation, am I right?”

Gu Feidi flushed with anger at Fan Xi’s sentence, clenched his fist tightly and rebuffed: “I never had that thought! I only deem it unfair on his behalf! He is very talented and dedicated to martial arts, but the Devil Sect’s leader has… I, I just can’t bear to see him remain as a diamond in the rough…”

Watching Gu Feidi be criticized by Fan Xi and struggling to explain himself, Su Yang suddenly felt like laughing.

He knew that Gu Feidi wasn’t lying—from beginning to end, being extremely cheerful, innocent and courageous were all his characteristics. Perhaps due to his youth, he often thought of what he should do according to his own principles, however, he would fail to consider the feelings of the people around him. Nevertheless, his standpoint would never be selfish or dismal.

Take this matter: Gu Feidi was one hundred percent pure and firmly stands by his belief that ‘whoever’s first, wins’.

In fact, this type of disposition wasn’t bad for a fictional character, but if people saw the current Gu Feidi standing before Su Yang at this moment, they would inevitably find him obstinate, childish and difficult to deal with.

All of a sudden, Xu Yunzhan, who had been quiet all this while, laughed. He stretched out his hand and patted Gu Feidi on the shoulder, “Feidi, don’t be fooled by their unreasonable arguments.”

Gu Feidi was puzzled.

Su Yang also looked doubtful.

Xu Yunzhan continued: “If Young Master Fan was able to clear this stone forest formation, I’m afraid that the long rhetoric earlier didn’t come from his conscience, right? Now I have good reason to suspect that the Jianghu rumours about Young Hero Su, as well as his insufferably arrogant attitude were actually broadcast out on purpose to confuse the world. After all, not everyone can pass through Lesser Jade House’s Stone Forest Bewilderment Array.”

Su Yang: ……

Smart, good-looking guys are so annoying!

Seeing that Su Yang and Fan Xi didn’t respond, Xu Yunzhan smiled and asked: “As long as Young Hero Su is willing to be earnest and not withhold anything when answering some of my questions, I shall persuade Feidi take the first step out of the stone forest formation, how ‘bout that?”

Su Yang pretended to be uncooperative: “Why should I answer you!”

Xu Yunzhan didn’t care and asked directly: “Young Hero Su claims that he’s unwilling to enter Lesser Jade House, but why did you come to participate in the selection? Why did you get a jade bell from Meizhu Mountain? Why did you exert all your internal force to pass the assessment in front of the mountain gate? Why admit to practicing martial arts all night last night? Why… were you willing to step into the Stone Forest Bewilderment Array?”

——Because it was arranged by the script.

However, Su Yang couldn’t answer that way.

Thus, he glared at Xu Yunzhan and felt anger bubbling in his heart.

As I said! Smart, good-looking guys are so annoying!

“I also want to know, little bro, why do you look down on our Lesser Jade House and suddenly refuse to enter?”

Suddenly, an indistinct laughter sounded above everyone’s heads.

The voice appeared without warning and startled the five of them at the clearing.

Atop the huge boulder at the exit of the stone forest formation, stood a person in a red garment with a well-groomed face and hair. However, one could not tell whether it was a man or a woman.

He…or she*, with one hand on a knee and another on a cheek, squinted at Su Yang and smiled, “This handsome little bro, why not explain it to me. You’ve come to participate in the selection, have performed exceedingly well and have even managed to arrive here in less than a stick of incense’s time. What’s the reason you don’t want to enter our Lesser Jade House all of a sudden?”

(*TN : we’ll just refer to this person as ‘he’ from now on just to make it easier)

As soon as these words came out, everyone in the clearing turned their focus on Su Yang.

Managed to arrive here in less than a stick of incense’s time?!

What kind of demon was this naturally gifted?

No, what kind of unrivaled innocence was this?!

According to legend, the fastest person to pass through Lesser Jade House’s stone forest formation prior to this was the current Martial Alliance leader, Tengyun Pavilion’s Gu Ruohai. And it had taken him more than half an hour before he came out.

The person in red couldn’t wait for an answer, he chuckled again and urged: “Say something, little bro.”

Su Yang finally pushed off from the boulder, looked up at the person in red and said: “Since you know when I got here, you should also have heard what I said to Gu Feidi. I am used to being pampered and need beauties to serve my daily needs. Lesser Jade House… has too many rules, I don’t want to enter.”

The person in red smiled and stretched out a finger, pointing at Su Yang’s heart: “I don’t believe these words, because I can hear that your heartbeat is messed up. Little bro, you are lying.”

Hearing the over-dramatized lines, Su Yang almost couldn’t maintain the expression on his face.

The person in red continued: “Fascinating. This little dude can endlessly spout nonsense and lie so casually, but can get out of this Bewilderment Array within a stick of incense… Such an intriguing person, I’m tempted to keep you in my abode and study you properly.”

Su Yang was speechless, his heart pounding as he wondered how he could quickly bring this progressively uncontrollable plot back on track.

Or just maneuver your internal strength to cause a serious injury to yourself!

At this juncture when Su Yang was about to raise his meridian point to stir his inner force, a faint female voice intervened: “Chi Tong, don’t tease him. He has already made it here. He doesn’t have the final say whether or not to enter Lesser Jade House. If one doesn’t focus on cultivating their internal strength to a higher level, no one can pass through the stone forest formation. Su Yang, do you understand?”

Su Yang: …

I don’t want to understand!

How abbreviated was the initial script he received? How many details had been omitted? Why didn’t he know that entering Lesser Jade House was still semi-mandatory! Was the original author so inhuman? How was he to turn around this sort of collapsed storyline when faced with such circumstances?!

The most deceitful thing was that some meddlesome god had carried out the storyline without giving him script lines to refer to!

How could he, a semi-illiterate who had graduated many years ago, speak in the tone and accent of the ancients?

Can you pleeease release me?

Su Yang decided that no matter whom this person doing the talking was, as long as she dared to show up, he would oppose her and leave to ensure that his plans would not be disrupted by Lesser Jade House!

With the sound of almost indistinguishable footsteps, the lady in white who had previously assessed participants’ internal strength in front of Lesser Jade House mountain gate slowly stepped out from the stone forest formation.

Su Yang.….

…became shamefully obedient.

The lady in white’s eyes were still hazy and her voice was still calm: “You don’t have to argue about who is first or last. I know everyone’s performance in the stone forest formation like the back of my hand. Even if someone wants to seize or decline to be leader, they won’t be able to obtain Lesser Jade House’s approval. Therefore, it is meaningless to stay here. Just follow me.” 

The five looked at each other.

Everyone had witnessed the unfathomable internal power of the lady in white, therefore no one dared to stand out and refute her. In the end, they all obediently followed her to walk out of the stone forest formation.

After taking two steps, Su Yang looked at the lady in white and suddenly came up with something. His eyes lit up and he exclaimed, “Earlier, someone provoked Lesser Jade House and was disqualified from the participation. Then, if I make trouble now, will I be kicked out?”

The lady in white paused in her footsteps, turned her head slowly, her eyes erratically locked on Su Yang.

“No.”

The light in Su Yang’s eyes dimmed instantly.

He heard the lady in white say indifferently: “I injured and expelled the two of them because their strength is far from amazing. And a genius like you can do anything in Lesser Jade House and still be tolerated. Even if you want to be surrounded by beauties, it’s not entirely impossible, as long as you have Lesser Jade House’s master’s permission.”

“So, there’s no need for you to struggle.”

Su Yang: …

Lesser Jade House of Jianghu legend. Are your integrity and morals the lowest?!