CH 100

The Tengyun Pavilion guard carried his heavily wounded, unconscious comrade on his back as he and Pu Lingyun followed behind Gu Feidi and Su Yang to advance deeper into Devil City.

Since they’d parted ways in the Wasteland, this is the first time Su Yang had met Pu Lingyun again.

When he recalled the previous time that he was in the Wasteland, he was still clueless and had attempted to play matchmaker between Gu Feidi and Pu Lingyun. He’d also wanted to bring them both together back to the Devil Sect to detoxify the poison. Su Yang felt a type of puzzling awkwardness deep down.

Before this, when they were facing trouble and fighting, he didn’t feel any different. However, they were calmly walking together right now, the awkwardness was amplified and he didn’t know how to face Pu Lingyun.

The shixiong-mei over there clearly hadn’t sensed the discomfort from Su Yang’s heart. They hadn’t met for some time and chatted about the on-goings during that period.

Gu Feidi smiled at Pu Lingyun and asked, “I noticed Fan Xi had also come along. Has my father approved the matter between the two of you?”

Pu Lingyun said, “He has, but Shifu* has also presented Fan Xi with a difficult problem……”

(*TN : Shifu = Master; Pu Lingyun is referring to Gu Ruohai)

Gu Feidi: “What difficult problem?”

Pu Lingyun pursed her lips and lowered her voice: “I don’t know what Shifu is thinking, He insists on having Fan Xi marry into the family——and not merely to reside in Lanyang City. He means for it to be like an orphan girl from an influential family taking in a son-in-law; that sort of ‘respectable marrying-in’. Do you get it?”

Gu Feidi looked at Pu Lingyun in amazement: “What of it?”

Pu Lingyun nodded and hung her head, mumbling to herself : “I don’t know what Shifu is thinking and my yimu* actually agrees with him……” 

(*TN : yimu = married maternal aunt)

Having spoken for a while, Pu Lingyun caught sight of Su Yang at the side who was following silently and nudged Gu Feidi with her elbow as she lowered her voice : “Earlier, I felt it was odd. What’s going on with you and Su Yang?”

Gu Feidi raised his eyebrows and asked: “Didn’t Fan Xi didn’t tell you? Neither Wei Qi nor my father have mentioned it to you?”

Pu Lingyun said: “They won’t speak to me about these, but there are quite a lot of Jianghu rumours……xiao shixiong, could you and he truly be……?”

Gu Feidi smiled and asked, “Be?”

Pu Lingyun was bewildered.

Gu Feidi turned and held Su Yang’s hand, interlaced their ten fingers before smiling back at Pu Lingyun: “We’re in love with each other. I wasn’t coerced by him like what the rumours say.”

Pu Lingyun’s eyes couldn’t help widening as she observed their closely held hands.

Gu Feidi said: “Last time in the Wasteland, you said I didn’t understand what it’s like to have feelings for someone who won’t be accepted by the elders……As a matter of fact, I do.” 

After being stunned into befuddlement for a while, Pu Lingyun sighed: “……Can’t blame you for following him and running away from home! Shifu surely won’t agree. It’s better not to go to the Devil Sect, and definitely don’t let him catch you!”

Gu Feidi: ……

Su Yang: ……

Both of them looked at each other quietly and couldn’t help laughing.

“Father honestly didn’t tell you the matter of my feigned desertion?” Gu Feidi said, “The circumstances were tricky at the time. I needed to accompany Su Yang to seek medical treatment in the Snow Mountain. For the sake of emphasizing the relationship between Tengyun Pavilion and Devil Sect, he outwardly proclaimed that I had rebelled against Tengyun Pavilion. Besides, my father might have purposely made me stay away from this dispute, which is why he acted like that.”

Pu Lingyun was relieved: “So it was a feigned desertion…… I also found it peculiar. Xiao shixiong definitely wouldn’t turn your back on Tengyun Pavilion for the sake of love.”

Gu Feidi dismissed that sentence with a laugh.

Pu Lingyun continued: “Since Shifu intentionally made you to evade this annihilation, why did you rush over?” Having said that, she eyed Su Yang dubiously; clearly still somewhat suspicious.

Gu Feidi said: “That’s a long story……” 

As all of them hurried on their way, Gu Feidi told Pu Lingyun a shortened summary about what had happened after they’d separated in the Wasteland.

Once he’d finished telling about the ins and outs about going to the Devil Sect to detoxify the poison Gu, why they needed to go to the Snow Mountain, why they subsequently headed to Lesser Jade House and how they’d obtained Shizun’s letter, the expression in Pu Lingyun’s eyes as she looked at them had completely changed.

“The fairytale couples in stories are nothing more than that…” She muttered to herself.

“I’m astonished that you can accept this.” Gu Feidi smiled. “Sure enough, you’ve grown up some. You’re no longer the little missy who used to cry and kick up a fuss at the slightest thing.”

Pu Lingyun was silent for a moment and said, “Both of you are so compatible, even your lives are bound together. What does it matter if it’s a man or woman? Anyway, it’s just skin…… Why can’t I accept it? I’m even envious of you……”

Gu Feidi smiled and threw a glance at Su Yang. Their clasped hands tightened.

……

Soon after, everyone was again alarmed by the sounds of fighting and decided to investigate it.

Xu Yunzhan managed to free himself with much effort from the joint attack of three Devil Sect flower aides. He had no time to ascertain Devil City route markings and he wasn’t aware where he was at this time.

The skills of the three that he was up against weren’t too poor. They acted as a unit, mutually and tacitly cooperating with each other. He couldn’t salvage the situation by himself and had suffered a lot of injuries on his body. His most severe injury was on his leg, half his pants were bloodstained and it had gravely affected his capacity to move.

The three flower aides weren’t much better off. They also had wounds on their bodies. All in all, there were three of them acting together to attack Xu Yunzhan and it was evident that they were more than up to the task.

As he fought, Xu Yunzhan moved around the wind-eroded stone pillars in an effort to shake off his pursuers……Unexpectedly, at this time he’d encountered another two Devil Sect flower aides who were patrolling in Devil City.

Xu Yunzhan couldn’t help secretly clenching his teeth, clutching the heavy sword in his hand and intending to make a last-effort fight.

Just as the flower aide’s blade was about to slash Xu Yunzhan’s back, a long sword suddenly entered the battle, firmly obstructing the sharp blade. Soon afterwards, there was a streak of light and a thin sword received all strikes from the three people in front of Xu Yunzhan.

With her clothes fluttering around her, Pu Lingyun’s twin swords lashed one after another, forcing the last Devil Sect flower aide to retreat. She turned and called out: “Biao ge!”

Seeing who had arrived, Xu Yunzhan finally breathed a sigh of relief and took a few steps back to lean against a stone wall with his sword, panting heavily.

The few Devil Sect flower aides recognised that the situation was amiss, exchanged looks, paid no heed to Su Yang and turned to flee.

In order to avoid being alone in the labyrinth-like Devil City, Gu Feidi and the others didn’t give chase. Moreover, Xu Yunzhan was hurt and needed tending to.

Su Yang turned to Xu Yunzhan and asked, “What happened to the lot of you? Weren’t you all in groups? How did you come to be isolated one after another?”

Gu Feidi also thought that the matter was odd. He frowned, “How’s Tengyun Pavilion’s troops? Why did you depart from the group?”

“We were ambushed in an exceedingly cramped terrain. The troops were spread too far apart. There were Devil Sect flower aides dogging the rear troops and they’d intruded to cut them off.” Xu Yunzhan said, “I was ordered to assist them to cover their retreat……They should have safely caught up with the front troops, don’t worry……” 

Gu Feidi took the medicine powder and helped Xu Yunzhan apply it to his cuts, but he was still a little worried: “What about the casualties?”

Xu Yunzhan shook his head and tugged out a slight smile: “The casualties are actually fewer than we’d supposed…… There may be internal issues within the Devil Sect. After a few fights, I observed that some flower aides were stealthily preventing their comrades from killing people……While the techniques were brilliant, it happened many times, so it seemed strange.”

Upon hearing this, Gu Feidi turned to look at Su Yang.

Su Yang hurriedly said: “Don’t look at me, I still haven’t figured out what’s going on!”

Gu Feidi hesitated for a moment and said, “Therefore, we still need to go to the Devil Sect headquarters to validate it before we can determine what’s actually going on. “

After speaking, he turned to Xu Yunzhan and asked, “Can you still go on?”

Xu Yunzhan propped up his big sword to push himself up, “It’s alright, I can still handle one more fight……”

As he regarded the injury-covered Xu Yunzhan, Su Yang didn’t know why but he suddenly recalled the storyline in the script where Xu Yunzhan had sacrificed himself to help Gu Feidi get out of trouble——and it had occurred during this annihilation.

Despite the fact that he had already made a thorough mess of the storyline, it certified that there were still many things that were not within his capacity to control, since the Devil Sect’s annihilation had also emerged during this winter festival.

Presently, he noticed Xu Yunzhan’s complexion had turned pale and he could barely stand up, let alone get involved in a fight…… Su Yang’s heart felt perturbed.

“Xu Yunzhan,” he frowned as he called out, “There’s no need for you to go to the Devil Sect headquarters.”

Xu Yunzhan looked at Su Yang in amazement and asked, “Why not?”

Su Yang said, “You’re injured all over. Your movements will be constrained when you fight, it’ll be awfully……dangerous.”

Xu Yunzhan couldn’t help laughing, “Given that I’ve come to join the annihilation, how can I cower because of some minor wounds? If I wasn’t aware that you and Feidi were close, I would wonder about your intentions for persuading me like that……”

“I’m not doing it for the Devil Sect……” Su Yang said, “You……I merely……have some bad vibes.”

When they heard this, Gu Feidi was the first to frown even before Xu Yunzhan could say anything.

“What sort of vibes?” He looked at Su Yang and asked bewilderedly, “Is there any danger?”

Su Yang couldn’t answer.

He looked at Gu Feidi for his support and said in a low voice: “Trust me……”

Gu Feidi deliberated for a moment before turning to Xu Yunzhan and asking: “Yingniang didn’t accompany you to join in the annihilation this time?”

Xu Yunzhan’s eyes darted between Gu Feidi and Su Yang as he didn’t get what they were communicating ambiguously with each other. But since Gu Feidi had asked this, he answered truthfully: “Before setting off, Yingniang discovered that she was pregnant……and stayed in the villa for the safety of our unborn child.”

Gu Feidi was astonished: “You’re actually……going to be a father?”

Xu Yunzhan was somewhat embarrassed: “Now’s not the time to talk about this……”

Gu Feidi shook his head and said, “On that account, you’d better return to the outside of Devil City and garrison with Fan Xi. Granted that there are ulterior motives to the Devil Sect’s annihilation, even so, swords and blades have no eyes*. Besides, you’re wounded and it’s surely inconvenient for you to move around. What if you have some unfortunate accident, how’s Yingniang going to handle it?”

(*TN : meaning accidents can happen/ chances of getting hurt are high)

Xu Yunzhan was speechless.

Pu Lingyun crossed her arms and sighed: “I agree with xiao shixiong. Go back, biao ge. We don’t carry much wound medicine. You should be more careful with those injuries on your body…… moreover, there’s another Tengyun Pavilion guard here who is severely injured. Why don’t you and him return to the outside of Devil City together. Fan Xi will look after both of you.”

In the face of everyone’s urging, Xu Yunzhan at last resolved to bring the severely injured Tengyun Pavilion guard together with another and return to the outside of Devil City.

Su Yang’s anxiousness did not lessen at all as he watched them depart until they disappeared from view. There were still Devil Sect flower aides patrolling within Devil City and the return journey was not completely devoid of peril. At that moment, he wasn’t sure whether or not he had made the correct decision and he didn’t know if this method could save Xu Yunzhan from dying.

“You have been quite troubled since entering the Wasteland,” Gu Feidi stroked Su Yang’s nape and frowned. “You’ve been even more distracted after entering Devil City…… Is there something you’re worried about?”

Su Yang shook his head: “It’s nothing.”

Seeing that he was unwilling to say anymore, Gu Feidi didn’t go on questioning him.

The three of them followed the route signs set up by the Devil Sect. As night approached, they finally exited Devil City and arrived at the Devil Sect headquarters.