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There were two mountains on the opposing sides of Azure Dragon Island. On the ridge of the back mountain, the dense forest was far away from the waves of the sea. The figure of a person made its way quickly within the forest, moving so swiftly it was like a gust of wind, and went straight for the edge of the cliff.

The tips of his feet tapped lightly on the uneven side of the crag as he made his way up, eyes set on a ‘withered herb" with neither flowers nor leaves at the edge of the precipice. In a single swipe, he plucked it out cleanly with its roots. And then he did a flip in the air, fingers digging into the mountain rock. His arm went taut and swung his body onto the mountain slope.

This person"s movements were so graceful and agile that there was an air of carefreeness around them. Only when he had landed did his appearance become apparent: it was a young man, about fifteen to sixteen years old. He looked back to quickly sweep his eyes over the cliff, then he turned around with a faint smile and continued on his way.

Only then did the giant eagle guarding the ‘withered herb" realize that its treasure had been stolen. It immediately began screaming, its feathers all ruffled up in anger. And yet, despite its ire, the beast was very intelligent. As if knowing that it stood no chance against the perpetrator, it stayed where it was, hesitating for a moment. In the end, it didn"t dare to give chase. Only a short while had pa.s.sed, but the young man"s figure had disappeared into the thick forest without a trace.

Suddenly, the long and loud shout of a man was heard. Startled, the giant eagle took off into the sky, away from the cliff. Other shouts rang out in response, signaling the forming of a siege in the dense forest, clearly arranged beforehand.

The birds in the forest flew straight to the sky, their cries resonating, and dispersed quickly as they fled.

When the young man heard this, his expression remained the same. He carefully patted off the soil clinging to the roots of the ‘withered herb", tucked it into his robe, and swung the ordinary-looking wooden sword in his hand twice. He clicked his tongue. “Clingy b.a.s.t.a.r.ds [1].”

Turns out, this young man was Cheng Qian.

Five years had pa.s.sed in a heartbeat. The young child from back then had grown into a dashing young man. True to the blessing from his Eldest Shixiong, which was gifted to him on their first meeting in the Land of the Tender back then, he had not grown ugly.

In the blink of an eye, four to five people appeared from within the forest to surround Cheng Qian. Their leader did not have a pleasant appearance, his face like charcoal. It was Zhang Dasen.

Before coming to the Azure Dragon Island, Zhang Dasen had already made some progress with his cultivation base, so he had a bit of a reputation among the rogue cultivators. His weapon was a two-headed halberd. He was already quite proud to begin with, and with the good-for-nothing rogue cultivators constantly sucking up to him, he became increasingly arrogant.

“It"s you again, brat,” In the past five years, not only had Zhang Dasen"s grudge with Cheng Qian not lessened in the slightest, it had become even deeper instead. The moment he saw Cheng Qian, he couldn"t help gritting his teeth. “Hand over the thing obediently.”

Cheng Qian held both hands behind his body, wooden sword hanging at his side, occasionally tapping on his leg. There was an apt amount of puzzlement on his face, as if saying ‘I don"t understand what the dog is yipping".

Zhang Dasen had always been the type to put on a threatening act. If others had traded insults with him, he would feel a little more at ease. But each time he went up against Cheng Qian"s complete indifference to worldly temptations, he always felt so angered he might instantly sprout a faceful of beard.

One of the men who had come with Zhang Dasen gave Cheng Qian a cold smile. “Little fellow, if you"re a sensible one, hurry and hand over the ‘Wupeng Herb". If you continue to resist, we"re going to drop all courtesy.”

Hearing this, Cheng Qian immediately turned to him. The youth held his sword levelly, lowered his head in a respectful bow, and cupped his fist with his other hand in obeisance. “I wouldn"t dare, please.”

Seeing the uncooperative att.i.tude, the men around Cheng Qian exchanged a look and immediately charged forward with perfect coordination.

When they attacked, it was easy to tell which of them were responsible for being the main attackers, supporters, sneak attackers, and which were the ones cutting off the enemy"s retreat. Against this challenge, Cheng Qian remained calm and composed, displaying his great skill.

It was obvious that both parties were very familiar with this kind of one-against-many fight.

Zhang Dasen"s two-headed halberd produced a powerful wind with one swing, completely locking Cheng Qian among them. Three people followed up closely, the last of them circling behind Cheng Qian. With a loud howl, his long sword came down toward Cheng Qian"s spine.

Cheng Qian didn"t even turn around. The wooden sword in his hand was like an agile snake — Without missing a beat, it accurately pressed down on the sneak attacker"s wrist. And then, supporting his entire weight on this point, Cheng Qian leapt into the air. The sawdust his opponent had sliced from the wooden sword was agitated by this move, so it immediately dispersed in the air like broken nails.

Zhang Dasen"s group hurried to back off, their coordination messed up by this action. Making use of this opening, Cheng Qian found a gap amid the three people"s Qi. He raised his hand to grasp a tree branch, took a leap, and went straight up like a bird, his clothes fluttering behind him.

Zhang Dasen"s men instinctively tried to give chase, but none of them were as agile as Cheng Qian was. When they had finally recomposed themselves, they realized that there was a large distance in between them and Cheng Qian.

This very brief instance was all Cheng Qian needed.

With the move ‘Sentimental Wind amid Rolling Tides", there was instant clamor on the treetop, twigs and leaves creating a loud commotion. Zhang Dasen couldn"t move his two-headed halberd freely in that s.p.a.ce, so he was directly hit with the sword aura.

And then, Cheng Qian ignored the pursuit of one of the men, who had a demon-vanquishing club, and dropped from the air. He immediately took off at a high speed after landing and struck the root of a large tree at the same time.

There is a saying, ‘When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter [2]". The ones further up who were trying to beat Cheng Qian didn"t have time to react before finding danger right overhead, so they hurried to scramble out of the way. By the time they"d fought their way out of the mess of twigs and leaves, Cheng Qian was already far away, impossible to catch up to.

In the distance, Cheng Qian brushed off a small leaf on his clothes and courteously cupped his fist with his other hand for Zhang Dasen, as if saying ‘Thank you for your hospitality, your pointers are much appreciated". His figure quickly blended into the glow of the setting sun, disappearing without a trace.

In the past few years, the Fuyao Sect had fully settled on the Azure Dragon Island. Fortunately, the troublesome Zhou Hanzheng who kept bothering them still had to carry out his duties as the Protector, so after appearing once in the first lecture, he never came to offend their eyes again.

Of the two Main Protectors of the Lecture Hall, one was Tang Wanqiu from Mulan Mountain. Zhou Hanzheng, as the other Protector, was also not from the Azure Dragon Island. But his origins were hidden more carefully than Tang Wanqiu, so it wasn"t something that could be dug up by Han Yuan"s kind. Tang Wanqiu had rushed to arrive at the Azure Dragon Island with Yan Zhengming"s group when the Celestial Market was about to open, but Zhou Hanzheng had arrived even later than her. After the first day at the Lecture Hall, he had hurriedly left the following day.

Most of the masters who went up the platform afterward were quite reserved. They only went to give their lecture and left immediately after they finished, paying little to no attention to the audience of rogue cultivators.

Yan Zhengming had thoroughly learned his lesson from acting ostentatiously. From then on, on the days when the Lecture Hall was open, they would go there before the sun had risen to look for an inconspicuous spot. They didn"t really speak much among each other, each of them meditating, carving charms, or reading sword manuals on their own as they waited for the others to arrive. After the lecture had ended, they would silently take their leave again.

As time pa.s.sed, the Fuyao Sect was finally forgotten by those who weren"t involved with them. The young men had practically become unnoticeable… Oh, of course, Cheng Qian was an exception. Cheng Qian showed his face with his martial brothers in public less and less often, basically always doing things by himself.

He still wasn"t strong enough, so he couldn"t protect the entirety of his sect. He could only attract all the hostility others felt for the sect toward himself, carrying the burden alone.

The previous year, Yan Zhengming had sent away a large ship to return most of the Daoist children and the young maidens that had grown up, including Xiao-Yue"er, back to the Yan house. After all, they were only common people. The peaks of their youth would only last for about a decade, it wouldn"t do for them to waste it here.

Only a few of them, like Xueqing and Zheshi, had chosen to stay, accompanying them for the long journey ahead.

Thus, the large crowd of Fuyao Sect had been reduced greatly, so they all decided to move to the same courtyard and truly began to cultivate peacefully.

The changing of the four seasons didn"t exist on the Azure Dragon Island, so it was easy to forget how much time had pa.s.sed. The people here often lost themselves, because if they let their guard down, they might lose track of how many springs had gone, how many autumns had pa.s.sed out there.

In those five years, Yan Zhengming and Cheng Qian had finally transcribed all five forms of the Fuyao Wooden Swordplay through many discussions and deliberations. They pa.s.sed it to Li Yun, who then pa.s.sed it to Han Yuan.

Either because ‘teaching was the best way to learn", or because Yan Zhengming"s mentality had changed, he had finally settled down and become more mature. The swordplay that he had spent eight years to learn less than three forms of back in Fuyao Mountain, he had finally mastered completely on the Azure Dragon Island.

Shuikeng had also grown from a toddler learning how to speak into a young maiden. Probably because she had encountered a great calamity even before hatching from her egg, this little girl was very cool-headed, though it was unclear whom she had taken after. As soon as she"d learned how to speak, Shuikeng never cried anymore. No matter what kind of problem she encountered, she would just calmly lay out the situation to her Shixiong and use her technique of ‘chattering endlessly". This was a time-tested technique that had always proved to be effective. As long as she could irritate one of her Shixiong enough, she would always have her wish granted.

Because of this, her Shixiong had secretly discussed the Yao Queen"s mysterious lineage many times. They collectively believed that she might have been the incarnation of a myna. How else could she have produced such a talkative egg?

With the dead-looking Wupeng Herb, Cheng Qian returned to their courtyard. He had only come to stand in front of the entrance when his face contorted against his will — While he was on the tree earlier, he had been struck on the back with the demon-vanquishing club by one of Zhang Dasen"s men. He hadn"t dodged in time back then. Now, he most probably had the ‘Centipede Mark" on his back, which caused him great pain even with the slightest move.

Cheng Qian originally wanted to turn around for a look, but with just a slight twist of his neck, his back felt like it might be split in two. He could only be grateful that he"d worn dark clothes that day, so he could keep things hidden.

After recomposing himself with some difficulty, Cheng Qian entered the courtyard, still a little tense.

Little Shuikeng was standing in the courtyard with a miserable face. Someone had drawn a circle of charms around her feet, turning the ground into a cage to keep her in place. The fine and close-knitted carving, which only used the minimum amount of strokes, were most probably the Eldest Shixiong"s work — From his method of educating their Shimei, too, it was clear that the Sect Leader was strict with others but lenient on himself.

A scroll of charms was hanging on Shuikeng"s neck. It was the exact same Scriptures on Clarity and Stillness that had made her Shixiong wish for death all those years ago. This object was truly a baneful existence for them, its influence going back to a long time ago. It was said that Han Yuan"s head would hurt just by looking at it now.

“Third Shixiong!” Seeing Cheng Qian, Shuikeng looked like she had seen her lifesaver and hurried to call out, “Third Shixiong, help!”

Cheng Qian gave her a glance and walked up to her. “Is your Second Shixiong in his room?”

With her heart full of hopes, Shuikeng hurriedly nodded her head, “Yes, yes, the Second Shixiong is…”

From a building not too far away, Li Yun"s voice was heard, “Why did you come back so late, what were you up to?”

Cheng Qian made a sound in response. Without a care for Shuikeng, he turned toward that building.

Shuikeng cried out, “Ah! Third Shixiong don"t go, let me out, I need to go to the latrine, I"m going to wet my pants!”

She had used this trick so many times, none of her Shixiong ever fell for it anymore. Cheng Qian shook his head. A window flew open from a distance away. Li Yun poked his head out and mercilessly rebuffed Shuikeng, “Do it, then. Clean things up yourself afterward.”

Shuikeng was practically close to tears, “No! Second Shixiong, Third Shixiong, I"m still so young, I don"t want to memorize these troublesome scriptures! You can"t treat me like this, our master up in the heavens would be heartbroken!”

Cheng Qian couldn"t move his head, so he had to turn his whole body around. He sent her a smile and cajoled her in a gentle voice, “He wouldn"t, Little Shimei. Master had treated us exactly like this back then.”

Shuikeng, “…”

Cheng Qian ignored his howling Shimei and went straight into Li Yun"s room, closing the door behind himself to keep the noise out. When he turned around, he immediately changed stances and spoke in her favor, “She"s only six or seven years old, why would you restrict her like that? The charms were that Niangniang"s doing, weren"t they? Our master had never locked him in the Mission Hall back then.”

Li Yun"s room was completely filled with all sorts of torn up paper and messed up books, spiritual herbs and charms scattered all over the place. Hearing those words, Li Yun poked his head out of the pile of trash and said, “Haven"t you realized? Our sect has no proper cultivation method, but we learned to absorb Qi into our body at around the same time other people do. Think about it. Back then, our Eldest Shixiong only ever cared to play around, but he successfully began cultivating in three to four years. Why do you think that is?”

Cheng Qian, “It can"t have been those scriptures?”

“Don"t say that,” Li Yun procured a diagram of the meridians from some corner. There were circles and dots on them, notes left all over the place, which made Cheng Qian"s head throb just by looking. Li Yun said, “I noticed a few days ago, there might be some kind of clandestine secret in our master"s Scriptures of Clarity and Stillness.”

Only then did Cheng Qian realize that all these years, he"d been so disrespectful to the ‘Scriptures of Clarity and Stillness which hid clandestine secrets". He immediately asked, “What secret?”

“I don"t know yet,” Li Yun said irresponsibly, “It"s something that had acc.u.mulated in our sect for thousands of years, how could it be so easy to figure out? I made Shuikeng recite it to try things out for now.”

Cheng Qian, “…”

When he looked out the window, he saw Shuikeng, who was meant to ‘try things out", with her head lowered dejectedly in the circle of charms, lips pursed as she flipped the book of scriptures in her hand. Her figure was as pitiful as it could possibly be.

Cheng Qian sighed, “Alright, it"s not the first time you use us to ‘try things out" anyway. She won"t lose anything just from reciting those scriptures, but… What about her yao aura?”

Li Yun scratched his hair in frustration. “I was about to tell you this. She"s grown bigger and bigger now, those charms might not be able to keep suppressing things for long. If we"re going to create medicines, I still need the ‘Wupeng Herb". I"ve been searching for the past year, but still couldn"t find it. If it really can"t be helped… I"ll have to figure out a way for people to search outside the island.”

Hearing this, Cheng Qian gave him a smile.

Li Yun was confused, “What?”

Cheng Qian reached into his robe, pulled out a small paper package, and placed it on the table. The tip of the dry Wupeng Herb peeked out of the wrapping.

When Li Yun"s eyes fell on the package, he was instantly surprised. He grasped the Wupeng Herb in his hands, voice changing with his emotion, “Where did you get it? This is the main ingredient in medicines to absorb energy. If the island has it, people must"ve set their eyes on it ever since it first sprouted… Wait.”

“Nn, I s.n.a.t.c.hed it away,” Cheng Qian waved it off, “Stop asking. All is good as long as it can be used. I"m leaving.”

When he finished speaking, he turned around, about to leave, but Li Yun suddenly reached out to grab his shoulder. Cheng Qian immediately suppressed his responding groan, the pain from this light contact almost making him keel over.

Li Yun was practically freaking out, “Wait! What happened?”

As Cheng Qian grew in the past few years, his ‘bad habit" in this respect had also become more and more apparent. If he"d caught wind of anything, he wouldn"t discuss it with the others and would take care of things himself in the next few days, so he almost constantly had wounds on his body. He would only come to ask for medicines in secret, never saying anything even when he was asked. It was only because he often relied on Han Yuan to ask around for some specific information that Yan Zhengming and the others could figure out what he was doing, his reasons, and whom he had crossed.

“Nothing… Ow.” Cheng Qian bit back his pain and moved his shoulder slightly for Li Yun to see, “Maybe I"d woken on the wrong side of the bed today, plus I"d been tapped with a club for a bit. Don"t tell the Niangniang, I"d rather not have him nag at me…”

It is said that one must never badmouth people during the day, and never badmouth ghosts in the evening. Before Cheng Qian even finished speaking, the door curtain of the inner room had moved slightly. With a book in his hand, Yan Zhengming emerged gracefully.

Yan Zhengming looked at him with a fake smile and asked, “Who were you talking about?”

Cheng Qian, “Ahem… Eldest Shixiong.”

Fortunately, Yan Zhengming didn"t seem interested in pursuing the issue for now. He put down the old book in his hand and turned to Li Yun, “What you mentioned earlier — I was actually planning to go back to Fuyao Mountain in the near future. I"d gained some insight recently, so I wanted to look for confirmation in our ancient records. Even though the things in our Library were messy and unsorted, we should be able to find some information from the things inherited in our sect. Besides…”

He frowned slightly, “Last year, I saw that Xiao-Yue"er and the others had grown up quite a bit, so I sent the girls back. At the time, I"d asked them to deliver a letter back home, but there"s still no response until now. The Azure Dragon Island doesn"t forbid sending and receiving letters. There"s no wind from them after all this time, something might have happened along the way. I want to go back home and check things out.”

“But you might not be allowed to leave the island so freely after entering the Lecture Hall.” Li Yun muttered in a low voice, “How about this, let Xueqing or Zheshi go back in your stead. I heard Xueqing had acquired his energy feel some time ago? Won"t he be able to enter the Library?”

“Not everyone with energy feel can enter the Library. Back then, Tong Qian and I had been guided by Master himself,” Yan Zhengming shook his head, “Forget it, we"re in no hurry to sort out our sect"s cultivation method. We"ll have plenty of time when we return in the future. I"ll let Xueqing send a letter home and go to Fuyao Mountain to check things out for now.”

As they discussed this, Cheng Qian was about to escape without their notice. But he had only reached the door when Han Yuan suddenly burst in, almost slamming the door in his face.

“Aiyo Xiao-Qian what are you doing!” He very openly announced Cheng Qian"s location, followed by a very loud exclamation, “Eldest Shixiong, two great news!”

Yan Zhengming gave Cheng Qian a cutting look, stepped back with a frown, and raised his hands slightly, “Speak slowly, your spittle is spraying all over my face.”

Han Yuan gave a short carefree laugh and said, “Charcoal Zhang"s been beaten by someone. His face was swollen like a mantou, you can"t even see his neck anymore.”

Yan Zhengming and Li Yun"s eyes spontaneously turned to Cheng Qian. Cheng Qian only coughed drily and pretended to look at the view outside the window.

Han Yuan continued, “Also, a big boat had come to the port. I"d gone to look for a bit. It seems like that pretty boy named Zhou is back.”

Zhou Hanzheng?

Cheng Qian finally dropped his plans of leaving. He leaned against the door and stood silently at the sidelines, fingers subconsciously resting on his wooden sword.

“Last time he came back was when the Lecture Hall first opened, I"m guessing something important must be coming up on the island this time too,” Han Yuan said confidently, “What do you think it is?”

Each time he reported anything, he would always act like he was a storyteller. All three of his Shixiong didn"t care to indulge him, so Han Yuan could only smile in ridicule and revealed, “I heard that the Lecture Hall is going to hold a grand compet.i.tion, in which the victors can enter the inner halls of the Azure Dragon Island"s disciples to train.”

[1] ‘Clingy b.a.s.t.a.r.ds" The phrase used here is 「陰魂不散」. In a literal sense, this means ‘the soul of the deceased has yet to disperse". In a less literal sense, this means ‘the influence of a doctrine still remains". Cheng Qian is saying that Zhang Dasen and his men were like resentful spirits haunting him and refusing to leave him alone.

[2] ‘When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter" The phrase used here is 「樹倒猢猻散」. It"s an idiom that means ‘When an influential person falls from power, his supporters disperse; An opportunist abandons an unfavorable cause".

New terms in this chapter:

Wupeng Herb: 烏篷草 (烏: ‘crow; raven; black"; 篷: ‘sail of a boat"; 草: ‘herb")
Sentimental Wind amid Rolling Tides: 潮卷有情風 (潮: ‘tide; current"; 卷: ‘roll"; 有情: ‘to be affectionate; to be in love"; 風: ‘wind")

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