CH 16

Based on the Jianghu legend, those that came from Lesser Jade House would never mention the secrets of this weirdly, wondrous place.

According to rumours, the master of Lesser Jade House’s mountain was a heroine going by the name ‘Immortal Qingbo’. Her real name was unknown, her age was a mystery and her martial arts were unfathomable.

However, the past achievements in the Jianghu of this heroine were extremely rare. It seemed that she had not done much except to establish Lesser Jade House.

Following Lesser Jade House’s rules, once passing the selection to enter the House, all the martial artists must worship the Immortal Qingbo as their teacher. But in fact, there were very few who had really met this immortal since ancient times.

However, when the disciples were training in the House, they could often see a small emerald-green bird bearing a letter in its beak, conveying information between the master and the disciples.

Up until now, the Lesser Jade House had already been established for hundreds of years and countless martial artists had long since turned into dust, but the emerald green bird was still coming and going within the House. There was no change in the handwriting of the letters it brought.

All this made those who were fortunate enough to enter Lesser Jade House to wonder if Immortal Qingbo was really an immortal? Otherwise, how could there be so many rare inner strength mental cultivation methods, martial arts classics and extraordinary books in Lesser Jade House? 

Of course, those who came from Lesser Jade House did not want to mention it, but it was not because of the mystery of Immortal Qingbo. It was because… if the real situation of Lesser Jade House was revealed to the outside, many young martial artists would be disillusioned.

Take now, for example—

Including Su Yang, eight young martial artists had finished paying respects to a hanging painting. When they stood up, the expressions on their faces were a bit tragic.

The enchanting woman couldn’t help but laugh: “I know, you all must be wondering if this is a scam. But in fact, Lesser Jade House is a place of few rules. Shizun is busy and she will occasionally pass on a message to tell us how we should cultivate next. The ones who will really tutor you are us: your shixiongs and shijies.”

“Since ancient times until now, Lesser Jade House has had too many graduates and it’s too much of a hassle to distinguish everyone’s seniority. Therefore, regardless of when you joined or your age, during your time in the House, everyone is to treat each other as fellow disciples and address one another accordingly. My courtesy name is Lui Li, you can call me Li shijie.”

She then introduced several others to the group: “The one clothed in black is Mo Yun. He likes to be called Mo shixiong. The one in white clothes, Shizun chose the name Di Ling for her. You can call her Ling shijie. The one beside—”

“Just call me Chi Tong!” The one in red immediately interrupted Li shijie and continued to speak on his own, “Anyway, we are about the same age, so just call me by my courtesy name and we’ll all be even closer!”

Li shijie smiled: “Chi Tong and Di Ling are both excellent martial artists who had entered the House in the previous round and they are not very much older. It’s alright if you want to address them by their courtesy names.” 

Su Yang blinked and his gaze fell on Chi Tong, whom he still couldn’t tell whether was a man or woman. He wondered inwardly: So, is this person actually a man or a woman? Not letting people address him… or her as shixiong or shijie, are they deliberately covering up their gender?

It was a pity that so many interesting, supporting characters had been omitted from the script.

Chi Tong noticed something, turned to look at Su Yang with raised eyebrows and threw a wink at him.

Su Yang: …

Well, better to omit this kind of character, otherwise the show may not pass the censorship approval board.

Li shijie introduced several other shixiongs and shijies in Lesser Jade House, then asked the youths to introduce themselves. She then said leisurely: ‘So, shall we begin to determine who will tutor them?”

Mo shixiong nodded, Di Ling and Chi Tong also nodded.

Li shijie said: “Pu Lingyun practices the Folding Feather Sutra, it is a dexterous method and her weapon is a light, double sword. It’ll be best for me to tutor her. Qinglian Sect’s Fan Xi as well. His cultivation method is also graceful and elegant, so he’ll be tutored by me too.”

After Li shijie had finished selecting, Mo shixiong stepped forward and said, “I’m good at heavy swords and my mental cultivation approach is also on external skills. Xu Yunzhan, you can train with me.”

Following that, he picked another two martial artists who had walked out of the stone forest formation later, both of them also used heavy weapons and similar strength methods.

Once Mo shixiong finished selecting, Di Ling, who was completely dressed in white, slowly spoke with indifference: “Gu Feidi’s Restoration Scripture focuses on internal force cultivation. It is the mental method of urging swift sword moves by a flexible internal force. Let me tutor him.”

After speaking, her gaze was slightly slanted towards Su Yang’s direction, but in the end she didn’t say a word.

Chi Tong said excitedly: “Aa, I know Li shijie is partial towards me. Little bro Su Yang, you will follow me from now on—”

Suddenly, an emerald-green bird flew in from outside through the window of the main hall and interrupted Chi Tong’s words.

The little bird held a palm-sized letter in its beak and hovered in front of Di Ling. Once Di Ling reached out and took the letter, it turned and flew back out the window.

Di Ling opened the letter silently. Both Chi Tong and Li shijie beside her leaned forward at the same time and together, they read the message in the letter aloud:

“Xiao Ling’er, personally tutor Su Su, don’t give him to the unreliable Xiao Hong*. I’ve found an advanced mental method for Su Su and I will send it to you tomorrow. By the way, Su Su’s martial arts training requires a place with flowers, Fei Fei’s martial arts training requires a place with birds. All of you can move to Zhichun Garden together. Although there aren’t many rooms, but there are flowers and birds, the environment is the most suitable.”

(*TN: Hong = Red; referring to Chi Tong who wears red clothes)

Gu Feidi: …

Su Yang: … 

Su Yang said to himself: How come this Shizun’s letters are in informal speech?

And what kind of weird nickname did she give them?! Su Su, Fei Fei? If you just heard the names and didn’t read the words, you would think that they were calling out to escort girls in a brothel!

Di Ling seemed to have been used to Shizun’s tone as there was no expression on her face. She folded the letter and kept it in her sleeve: “Then Su Yang will come with me.”

Chi Tong was not happy: “… Aa?! Why does Shizun say that I am not reliable? When am I not reliable?! Everyone’s already been divided up, what should I do?”

Li shijie pulled Chi Tong and pointed her finger at the group in the hall, “Isn’t there another one? I remember that he is a self-study martial artist from no faction. If he manages to pass the selection, he should definitely be inordinately talented and won’t ruin your reputation.”

The last person who was picked was named Luo Yin and he was only a few days away from the championship. Fortunately, he was not excluded by the formation in the Meizhu Mountain Forest.

That man had plain looks, but wasn’t ugly and he had no characteristics that could be remembered. It was easy for others to turn away and immediately forget what he looked like. He hadn’t spoken since he entered the hall. His presence was extremely weak, the skills he practiced were also quite satisfactory and his previous performance had no highlights. Like his name, he was hidden in the crowd.

Chi Tong glanced at Luo Yin, who was expressionless and standing still in the group. Chi Tong pressed his temples and said: “Okay, okay, your situation is special enough, let me study—tutor you.”

After all the selected young martial artists had been allocated, the shixiongs and shijies led their respective charges out of the Lesser Jade House’s main hall.

At this time, the sky was completely dark and the moon had not yet risen high into the sky. The winding mountain roads were all pitch-black.

Su Yang and Gu Feidi followed Di Ling, walking side-by-side up the narrow mountain road.

None of them carried lanterns. One side of the mountain road was densely forested and the other side was a high cliff. Fortunately, Di Ling was completely dressed in white and her figure could still be faintly seen in the dark, so Su Yang and Gu Feidi would still not lose their way.

After walking to a section of mountain steps, the ground below Su Yang’s feet suddenly became empty and he was about to fall down the cliff. Before he could use his Prized Flower Steps, Gu Feidi instinctively grabbed his sleeve and dragged him back.

Su Yang grabbed Gu Feidi’s arm and started yapping in a low voice: “Crap! Scared me to death!”

In the next instant, Gu Feidi suddenly shivered all over and pulled his arm out of Su Yang’s grasp. Unexpectedly, Su Yang didn’t let go, but was pulled in by the sudden force. He staggered and crashed into Gu Feidi’s arms.

It was a close call and in the end Su Yang still reached out over Gu Feidi’s shoulder to grab a shrub on the other side of the mountain road for support.

A light but strong floral scent emanated from Gu Feidi’s body, filling Su Yang’s nasal cavity. The scent was so appealing that Su Yang subconsciously took a deep breath and inhaled twice.

Gu Feidi gritted his teeth: “You don’t have to reach for a yard after getting an inch!”

Su Yang’s reaction was to immediately stop and straighten up.

“I’ve been careless.” A chilly female voice came from the front of the mountain road, “It makes no difference to me whether there is light or not, but I’ve forgotten that you would need a lamp. Wait here for a while, I will get a lantern.”

After speaking, Di Ling turned around and glided quickly down the mountain.

On the dark mountain road, the two of them stood side by side, close enough to hear each other’s breaths.

In this silence, Su Yang suddenly wanted to explain to Gu Feidi that he had used Lianxiang Rejuvenating Pills on him in the first place, was actually not to mark him for the convenience of chasing and killing him in the future, but it was just him trying to save his life.

However, after deliberating rationally, he really didn’t see a need to give this explanation.

Firstly, the personality of the Devil Sect’s Young Saint would not allow apologizing to others. Secondly, he and Gu Feidi needed to be hostile in the future and the storyline had to develop to the point where Gu Feidi leads the righteous martial arts factions to encircle and suppress the Devil Sect. Then only would it result in his battle scene with Gu Feidi at the top of the mountain.

Therefore, instead of explaining the original intention of using the pill, he should use this misunderstanding to lead Gu Feidi to imagine the worst.

Having contemplated this for a long time, Su Yang sighed almost inaudibly and looked up at the bright starry sky that was not marred by city lights.

“Su Yang.”

It was Gu Feidi who spoke first.

He paused and said in a low voice: “It is rumoured that you left the Devil Sect three times when you were younger and every time you would abduct several beautiful youths from the Central Plains…”

Su Yang pursed his lips when he heard this and stopped himself from refuting it.

Gu Feidi continued: “Actually, those people were not… were not set aside for your pleasure, right?”

Su Yang was stunned for a moment, wondering why Gu Feidi wanted to ask this. However, the flower aide had mentioned before that his cultivation required him to keep himself pure before he achieved a significant breakthrough, so he probably hasn’t ‘enjoyed’ anyone yet.

But given the character of the Devil Sect’s Young Saint, he would definitely not admit it obediently.

So Su Yang performed the character and laughed in a low voice: “You ask this, could it be that… you’re jealous?”