CH 44

In the end, the both of them decided to study the set of swordsmanship in the stone chamber.

Firstly, the swordsmanship itself wasn’t difficult and secondly, even though he and Su Yang didn’t feel that this set of swordsmanship was anything fantastic, with regards to the martial arts circles, if they didn’t include Lesser Jade House, they were actually ranked ahead.

But, it seemed that the will of Heaven had played them for fools.

Just as Gu Feidi and Su Yang were preparing to practice the swordsmanship according to the sword marks in the stone room, a butterfly with near-transparent wings and indigo pearl-powder-like lustre landed quietly on Gu Feidi’s shoulder.

Shortly after that, there was a chaotic sound of footsteps outside the stone room.

Mei Shisan led a team of flower aides and rushed into the stone room after the Scent-Seeking Butterfly.

At first glance, he saw Su Yang, he was taken aback, then knelt on one knee and respectfully called: “Young Saint!”

The little transparent butterfly settled on Gu Feidi’s shoulder for a while, then took off and landed on Su Yang, flickering its wings.

The flower aides noticed that their Young Saint was wearing clothes with a bird pattern embroidered on the neckline belonging to Tengyun Pavilion. Judging from the material and style, it appeared to be the inner shirt.

Thus, everyone’s eyes fell on Gu Feidi again and scrutiny flooded their gazes.

Su Yang should have breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the Devil Sect, but he didn’t know why he felt a little unhappy in his heart.

But he couldn’t show it in front of the loyal subordinates here, so told Mei Shisan to get up and asked, “How is the fighting outside?”

Mei Shisan glanced at Gu Feidi, then stepped forward and removed the thin sword at his waist, handing it back to Su Yang—Su Yang received the thin sword and then realised that it was the one he had lost on the battlefield.

Mei Shisan said with a solemn expression: “Although the Central Plains martial world came to offer their support but Eluo Ghost Tent had already retreated before their arrival. When another team from Tengyun Pavilion arrived, a Central Plains fighter tried to plant the Eluo Ghost Tent conspiracy on our Sect. Fortunately, the Mei Hall Elder rushed over in time to assist, only then was I able to withdraw from the melee and head out with a search party.”

At this time, Gu Feidi suddenly spoke up and asked, “Did you use Scent-Seeking Butterflies to find him or to find me?”

Su Yang realised that he did not have the fragrance of Lianxiang Rejuvenating pills on his body, therefore Mei Shisan’s order to follow the lead of the Scent-Seeking Butterfly would have only led them to Gu Feidi.

Mei Shisan addressed Su Yang: “At the beginning, the Young Saint fell off the cliff with him, this subordinate guessed that you might have been travelling together. If only he was found this time, he would have been captured and tortured by the Devil Sect to determine your whereabouts.”

This argument was reasonable. Su Yang nodded and then asked, “How did you locate us?”

Mei Shisan said, “The Scent-Seeking Butterfly entered into a crack in the ground and the inside was pitch black. I surmised that there might be a different type of place below, so I dug up the crack in the ground and lowered it into this place by rope. There were a lot of poisonous snakes on the way here and it took some time to exterminate them all.”

After speaking, he cupped his fists, nodded and asked, “Shouldn’t Young Saint be rushing back to the Sect?”

The thought of returning to the Devil Sect and all the official paperwork he needed to face made Su Yang’s head ache.

He hesitated for a moment, cast a depressed glance at Gu Feidi and said, “That… here, um, there is a Sword Sage legacy that needs to be comprehended and it may take a few more days…” 

The Sword Sage legacy was naturally an excuse. He simply didn’t want to return to the Devil Sect. Those official documents and paperwork was one, on the other hand… he was still some ways away from his next storyline and he could continue to dawdle outside for a while.

However, Gu Feidi seemed to have another storyline to run and he had to leave earlier.

“Since the Divine Sect’s subordinates have located it, I can’t continue to stay here.”

Gu Feidi glanced at him as if he knew what Su Yang was thinking and said: “As for the legacy of swordsmanship… I leave it to you. This Gu* shall take my leave.”

(*TN: Gu Feidi is referring to himself in ancient formal speech)

After he finished speaking, he took the long sword and turned to go.

But his departure was blocked by two Devil Sect flower aides.

“Since Young Pavilion Master has come to the Wasteland, why don’t we detour and come to our Yin Tan Divine Sect as our guest?” Mei Shisan said, “Also, let us do our best to be hosts.”

When this was said, Gu Feidi’s expression remained unchanged, but Su Yang was stunned.

Wait a minute, why hold Gu Feidi back?

After the Dubious Tomb of the Sword Sage story arc, Gu Feidi still had his own storylines to run. The bunch of you acting on your own wanting to make him a guest at the Devil Sect. What’s going to happen to the storyline?!

Su Yang pressed his aching forehead and said to himself: Without the heroine Pu Lingyun, the unexplainable circumstances of including the Devil Sect’s Young Saint into the storyline still brought about the aftermath.

In the end, he was forced to give an order: “Let him go, all of you.”

Mei Shisan frowned and said: “Young Saint must not be too merciful. The Central Plains fighter tried to plant this dispute on our Sect. Tengyun Pavilion and Leader Gu have yet to make a statement. If we don’t hold something in our hands, the Central Plains martial world will probably use this as an excuse and take the opportunity to make a move on us!”

Su Yang made a stern face and said, “If you capture him back to the Sect, wouldn’t that be giving Tengyun Pavilion more reason to attack us?”

Mei Shisan said: “Gu Feidi is the only son of the Martial Alliance Leader. The Central Plains martial arts circles will also think twice before attacking us. With Gu Young Pavilion Master as a guest in our Sect, perhaps Gu Ruohai can represent the Central Plains martial arts circles to reach an agreement with our Sect.”

Mei Shisan said these words unscrupulously in front of Gu Feidi. After all, there were many Devil Sect flower aides here and even if Gu Feidi was strong in martial arts, he would be isolated and helpless, making it difficult for him to resist.

Gu Feidi coldly snorted and looked back at Su Yang; his gaze tortured.

Su Yang’s scalp began to tingle seeing this look.

He clenched his teeth and said angrily: “Go ahead and torment repeatedly! What can happen if you let him go? We are all classmates who came from Lesser Jade House. As long as he goes back to explain to the Martial Alliance Leader, do you think he would just casually decide from there?”

Furthermore, even if the Central Plains martial art circles came over to do battle, the annihilation of the Devil Sect was originally where the storyline should progress to!

Although progressing through the storyline this way would do away with many matters, but… but since the heroine’s emotional story arc in the Dubious Tomb of the Sword Sage was no longer there, wasn’t it alright to quickly destroy the Devil Sect and let him return back to his reality…?

“Young Saint! Please think carefully!” Mei Shisan knelt down anxiously and said, “You would hold onto the feelings of being Lesser Jade House’s classmates, but Young Hero Gu may not consider the significance! Back then, Sect Leader and Gu Ruohai had the same kinship since leaving Lesser Jade House, but they were also no match for the waves of the Jianghu and finally turned against each other! This is a lesson from the past, please take it as a warning!” 

This was his first time hearing about this and Su Yang couldn’t help frowning.

Gu Feidi lowered his eyelashes and chuckled: “It seems that your status as the Devil Sect’s Young Saint is nothing more than this.”

Mei Shisan said angrily: “Sowing discord, he is malicious!”

Su Yang was irritated and couldn’t stand the quarrelling. He ‘tsk’-ed, strode forward to grab Gu Feidi’s wrist, pushed away the various flower aides and personally led him out of the Devil Sect encirclement.

“Just leave.” Su Yang said, “If I look at them, they dare not act against you.”

Mei Shisan did not step forward, he could only shout disapprovingly behind Su Yang: “Young Saint!”

Gu Feidi glanced at him, his footsteps were slightly wrong and using Su Yang as a cover, he transmitted his voice over in secret and said to him: “The guards pretend to respect you, but in fact they do not obey you. Maybe the Devil Sect Leader placed them at your side as informers, be wary.”

Su Yang was taken aback.

Gu Feidi was silent for a moment, took a step back and cupped his fists, saying, “Thank you, Young Saint for your help, this Gu shall take my leave.”

Seeing Gu Feidi turning around and was about to leave, Su Yang suddenly felt a bit of reluctance in his heart.

He unexpectedly came up with a thought, perhaps it would be a good choice capture Gu Feidi to the Devil Sect… But the idea came without warning and in a short time, it was suppressed by Su Yang’s logic.

Su Yang clenched his fists and thought: According to the progress of the plot, after the protagonist and heroine leave the Dubious Tomb of the Sword Sage, there were still some heroic storylines in the Central Plains they had to run through. Because of a little trouble, the two separated briefly and the heroine was captured by the Devil Sect. The protagonist, Gu Feidi, had to go deep into the Devil Sect.

After that, following a great battle, the two were trapped in the Forbidden Area of ​​the Devil Sect. There were also a series of storylines that promoted the emotional arc such as the heroine’s detoxification of the poisoned protagonist…

Although he had not read the script thoroughly and did not know the details, but based on that, he could still guess somewhat on the development of the future storyline.

But now Pu Lingyun’s part in the Dubious Tomb of the Sword Sage story arc has been destroyed by him, he can no longer hold Gu Feidi back from leaving, the storyline might collapse even further! Although he sometimes felt that there was no way to bring the storyline back, when there was a chance it could be rescued, he still wanted to do his best to save it.

As such, Su Yang did not hold him back.

However, the instant that Gu Feidi turned around—one of the Devil Sect flower aides violently pushed in front and aimed at Gu Feidi’s heart with a sword!

In fact, Gu Feidi had been on his guard for this Devil Sect flower aide, since he had already noticed the strangeness of this person. He flipped his hand and swung his sword to block the next blow.

Who knew that the flower aide had a death wish and hurled himself directly onto Gu Feidi’s sword!

The blade was sharp, passing through the chest and was plunged in all the way.

When this unforeseen event suddenly occurred, everyone there was shocked. Even Gu Feidi did not expect this person would use this method and stood frozen for a while.

Su Yang held his sword and was about to step forward to intervene but was stopped by Mei Shisan: “Young Saint beware! That person is fishy!”

Sure enough, the flower aide raised his hand and firmly grasped Gu Feidi’s sword-holding wrist. The blade in his chest had clearly not been withdrawn, but threads of black blood scattered forth. The black blood turned into strange thin threads, slithering and winding along the hilt of Gu Feidi’s sword and quickly clawed up Gu Feidi’s arm.

The flower aide turned his head slightly and cast a weird smile at Su Yang.

All this happened in a flash, Gu Feidi snorted and activated his internal force to knock the flower aide to the ground and extract his hand from his grasp.

However, it was too late.

The black blood turned into tough strands, rapidly piercing Gu Feidi’s skin seeping into his body along his blood vessels and disappearing without a trace.

Su Yang shook off Mei Shisan and stepped forward to support Gu Feidi’s arm. He didn’t notice that his voice was trembling: “What’s going on? Where are you unwell? Does it hurt?”

Gu Feidi hurriedly gasped for breath. Nevertheless, he had been startled by the earlier events.

He raised his hand and pressed onto his pulse for a long time, then closed his eyes and said dejectedly: “Looks like it was harmless.”

Su Yang didn’t think so.

How can such things be good! In the world of martial arts, there must be a purpose for these sort of weird things! Otherwise, why would it appear just to scare people? It doesn’t make sense.

At that time, Mei Shisan stepped forward to examine the flower aide who was killed by Gu Feidi and suddenly said: “Young Saint, come and see. Do you think he looks familiar?”

Su Yang looked back and eyed the flower aide. He was young and his face was still a little immature. Although he was dead at the moment, his eyes were still half-open, but the expression in his eyes was one of total exhaustion.

“Young Saint, can you recall the little slave that Ju Hall arranged for you as your bedwarmer on the night of your return to the headquarters?” Mei Shisan asked.

For a moment, Gu Feidi stood and trembled.

Su Yang didn’t realise this, his attention was drawn over to the flower aide. He carefully identified the memories for a long time and then replied, “…forgotten.”

Gu Feidi withdrew his arm from Su Yang’s grasp.

“Didn’t I ask Ju Hall Elder to send those people back to their original homes? How did he infiltrate Mei Hall?”

Su Yang frowned, “You aides often train together, didn’t you notice someone had sneaked in?”

One of the flower aides stood up and said: “Young Saint, this person was indeed just promoted by the Mei Hall Elder a few days ago and had trained with us. This time when we came to search for traces of your lordship, he volunteered himself saying… saying…. “

Su Yang was impatient: “Speak!”

The flower aide bowed: “He said that he admired Young Saint and begged Mei Hall Elder to allow him to join the search party.”

Su Yang was silent for a moment and asked Mei Shisan: “Doesn’t Mei Hall check on the background of those they select?”

Mei Shisan respectfully replied: “Naturally, they would check but this group of people… had been checked at the time when they first entered Ju Hall. I’m not sure if Mei Hall does an additional check. Moreover, those people were indeed brought back from the Central Plains martial world by Young Saint and their identities were very clean. As for the exact origin of this person, I am afraid that we’ll have to wait until we return to headquarters and go through the archives of Ju Hall to find out.”

Su Yang didn’t know what to say for a while.

“Although we cannot determine his identity, this subordinate has an inkling.” Mei Shisan continued, “This person’s blood is strange. This subordinate surmises that it is possibly Eluo Ghost Tent’s standard blood Gu poison. “

Su Yang: ???

……hang on a minute.

Blood Gu?

Isn’t this the poison that Gu Feidi would be infected with in the major battle a few months later when he went to the Devil Sect to save the captured Pu Lingyun?

What does it mean if it has appeared now?!