Chapter 6 – The Young Man Who Stirs the Whole City
Zuo Yuesheng flinched.
That voice sounded a bit familiar!
He turned his head stiffly. A young man in white, leading a group of people, stood on the first floor. His handsome face was flushed with anger as he pointed at them and cursed, “Fatty! I’ve caught you!”
“Looks like they’re here specifically for you,” Chou Bodeng helpfully reminded him. “And there are quite a few of them!”
“What the hell?! How did I run into them here!” Zuo Yuesheng’s face changed. “Chou Bodeng! You damn jinx!”
The young man in white was charging over. Without a second thought, Zuo Yuesheng turned and leaped onto the table with a swoosh. He grabbed the slender window lattice of the private booth and, with a creak of wood, squeezed his enormous body through the frame. Chou Bodeng, with lightning speed, snatched a plate of fruit tarts he rather liked from the table, saving them from the fat man’s destructive path.
Crack.
The wood on both sides of the window lattice shattered, and Zuo Yuesheng successfully launched himself outside.
“Brother Zuo, take care!”
The laughing voice of that bastard Chou came from behind. Anger rose in Zuo Yuesheng’s heart, and malice grew in his gut. As he ran swiftly across the eaves, he threw something back at Chou Bodeng.
Chou Bodeng was enjoying the show. Seeing something fly towards him, he instinctively flicked his sleeve to knock it away. Swept by the gust of wind, the object Zuo had thrown exploded in mid-air. It was as if a million spice shops had opened at once, and the intense, suffocating smell of cheap perfume exploded in Chou Bodeng’s nostrils.
Young Master Chou’s nose was as delicate as his tongue, accustomed to being served by elegant and famous fragrances. Caught off guard by this “filthy” smell, his stomach churned, and he was so overwhelmed he nearly threw up on the spot.
Outside, Zuo Yuesheng ran off, laughing heartily.
He had known that Chou was in Fu City and had hastily prepared this “secret weapon” that very night.
“Fatty! Are you trying to die?!”
Chou Bodeng covered his mouth and nose with one hand, and with a flick of his robe, he stepped onto the window lattice and gave chase. The young man in white who had arrived later followed suit and jumped out as well.
Zuo Yuesheng glanced back and was shocked. That Chou fellow hadn’t been knocked out by the smell and was still chasing him? He shivered, a bad feeling creeping over him. Without a second thought for his pride, he opened his throat and let out a long shout.
“Lou Jiang—”
“Where the hell have you run off to, you bastard—”
“If you don’t come out, I’m going to be beaten to death—”
He was fat, but his lungs were large and his spirit strong. His howl was as mighty as a river, startling a flock of birds into flight.
The guards following the young man in white stumbled and nearly fell off the roof. Seeing is believing; the shamelessness of the Mountain Sea Pavilion’s Young Pavilion Master was truly unparalleled. For some reason, they felt a wave of sympathy for the famous genius of the Mountain Sea Pavilion, Lou Jiang of the Azure Sword.
What a disgrace. It was truly a disgrace to follow such a Young Pavilion Master!
As Chou Bodeng ran along the rooftops, the wind dispersed most of the cheap perfume’s smell, and he felt a little better. Hearing the fat man’s cry for help, he sneered.
Others might not know, but Chou Bodeng was well aware that Lou Jiang was probably busy investigating the Shadow Puppet with Daoist Priest Xuanqing. How would he have time to care if their Young Master from the Mountain Sea Pavilion was about to be beaten to death?
The echo of his voice faded, but there was no sign of anyone named Lou.
Zuo Yuesheng had no choice but to keep running.
His cultivation was low, but he had plenty of strange and miscellaneous treasures. He had just dug out a pair of Cloud-Stepping Boots while rummaging through his things. He skillfully put them on as he jumped, looking as if this wasn’t the first time he’d been cornered and chased all over the city. Once the Cloud-Stepping Boots were on, Zuo Yuesheng made a few leaps and bounds along the roof ridges, fleeing faster than a rabbit, skillfully using the terrain to his advantage.
The group of them flew like kites from East Street to West Street, and from West Street to South Street.
Normally, cultivators would soar through the air with grace and style, but the ancient Fu tree acted like a silver birdcage, completely enclosing the entire city. The space above the rooftops was crisscrossed with a confusing web of drooping branches, making it impossible to fly high.
The once peaceful and serene small city was once again thrown into a boiling pot.
One fleeing, a group chasing. Wherever they passed, tiles fell and eaves shattered, chickens flew and dogs barked, interspersed with the noisy curses of men, women, old, and young.
Zuo Yuesheng leaped over a small courtyard, shattering a patch of tiles on the roof.
A young woman washing clothes in the courtyard heard the noise, looked up, and saw the decorative beast on her roof’s ridge shaking precariously. She cried out in alarm.
“It’s going to fall, it’s going to fall! Don’t step on it!!!”
Just as the words left her mouth, another youth swept over, treading on the roof tiles.
Hearing the shout, the youth glanced over. Sunlight filtered through the countless overlapping leaves of the Fu tree, landing on him and creating a star-like glint in the corner of his eye. His hair was like a jackdaw, his skin like pure snow, his clothes like red maple—so vibrant it was as if all the rich colors of the world had been used on him. In an instant, the youth reached the end of the roof ridge and leaped up, pushing off the decorative beast.
In that leap, his red robes billowed like fire, like a sunset cloud, like all the breathtakingly gorgeous things one only glimpses for a moment.
The latter half of the young woman’s words got stuck in her throat.
With a cracking sound, the teetering decorative beast finally met its end. Accompanied by a flash of gold thrown from the red-robed youth’s sleeve, it tumbled down and landed in a patch of weeds in the courtyard. The young woman went over and pushed aside the weeds to find a piece of gold that had been casually tossed there. She was both shocked and delighted, and after taking a sharp breath, she ran outside the courtyard, but she could no longer find that figure.
She only heard an old man from next door shouting loudly:
“Hey—”
“Don’t hit the Divine Fu Tree—”
Zuo Yuesheng’s plan was quite clever.
The rooftops of Fu City were covered with the branches of the old Fu tree. To chase someone, one had to be extremely careful to avoid crashing into a tree trunk. Cultivators were tough and not afraid of a bump, but if they broke a branch of the Fu tree, all the people of Fu City would come out to fight them to the death. The guys behind him, if they didn’t want to be chased by the entire city, would have to duck and dodge every so often. He, on the other hand, with the help of his Cloud-Stepping Boots, could achieve the feat of “passing through a forest of a thousand branches without a single leaf touching him.”
After running for a while, Zuo Yuesheng estimated he had put enough distance between them and looked back.
He shouldn’t have looked. The moment he did, he nearly crashed headfirst into a tree trunk in front of him.
The cultivators with the young man in white had been mostly shaken off, yes, but Chou Bodeng and the young man in white were still in hot pursuit.
Especially Chou Bodeng.
Damn it, did that guy have a pair of Cloud-Stepping Boots too? How was he so fast!
Zuo Yuesheng immediately resumed his desperate flight, shouting as he ran, “Young Master Chou! I was wrong! I was wrong! You’re a magnanimous person, please spare me! I’ll have my old man remove you from the Profligate Rankings when I get back!”
“No need! I’m quite comfortable at the top of the list!”
Chou Bodeng shouted back.
Carrying the Taiyi Sword, he ducked under a low-hanging Fu branch from a memorial archway and landed like a swallow on a high wall.
Chou Bodeng didn’t have Cloud-Stepping Boots, but he was skilled in this area.
In both his past and present lives, Young Master Chou had never done a single proper thing. From birth, he had devoted himself entirely to finding pleasure. In elementary school, he wanted to hunt on the great plains; as he got older, he became proficient in horse racing, car racing, paragliding, and extreme jumping. He played so wildly that people thought he simply didn’t value his own life.
However, Chou Bodeng’s proficiency in climbing walls and leaping over ridges was not by choice.
That was a rare dark chapter in Young Master Chou’s life.
At sixteen, after Chou Bodeng had caused trouble one too many times, the old men of the Chou family decided to make an all-out effort to save this precious sole heir. Without consulting him, they enrolled him in a prestigious boarding school known for its upright academic atmosphere. It was said that everyone from the principal down to the gatekeeper was a graduate of a top university, came from a privileged background, and never gave preferential treatment based on a student’s background. After Chou Bodeng enrolled, the teachers of his entire grade watched this black sheep like hawks, 24/7. Later, they even specially raised twelve well-trained military dogs for him. The moment he got near a wall, they would immediately flank him. This forced Chou Bodeng to develop the skills of a parkour expert.
After transmigrating, with the help of the spiritual energy of a xianxia world, he ran as if he were riding the wind.
Zuo Yuesheng thought for a moment and decided that if he kept running on the rooftops, he would definitely be caught by Chou Bodeng. So, with a roll like a fat ball, he tumbled from the roof to the ground, planning to lose them in the maze-like alleys.
He had been “exiled” to Fu City by his old man for a year. That Chou fellow had only been here for two days. His familiarity with the geography couldn’t compare.
Chou Bodeng was chasing when the figure in front of him suddenly disappeared.
He paused for a moment and immediately looked down. Sure enough, a fat man was sprinting on the ground, about to dart into a fork between two alleys.
His mind raced. Chou Bodeng weighed the Taiyi Sword in his hand and deliberately raised his voice to shout to the young man in white who had caught up behind him.
“You block the left, I’ll block the right.”
The fat man cursed, “Fuck,” but didn’t stop running. He scrambled up a wall and leaped back onto the roof ridge.
He had just appeared on the wall when a strong gust of wind came from behind him with a swoosh.
He’d been tricked!
Zuo Yuesheng cried out in alarm, wanting to dodge, but it was too late. The Taiyi Sword flew like a meteor and accurately hit him in the back of the head. With a loud thud, Zuo Yuesheng fell flat on his face.
The Taiyi Sword wasn’t done yet.
Today, it had almost been melted and then used as a dart. It had a belly full of anger it didn’t dare vent on the troublemaker Chou Bodeng, so it bounced up and whipped the fat man who had dared to covet it.
Only someone with Zuo Yuesheng’s three layers of fat could get up so quickly after such a solid hit and fall. He turned to try and dive into the alley on the left.
Swoosh.
A large, glittering golden net descended from the sky, trapping him completely.
The young man in white was quite clever and had guessed the intention behind Chou Bodeng’s shout. The moment Chou Bodeng’s sword hit its mark, he threw his net.
One from the left, one from the right.
The two of them descended from the sky and pinned Zuo Yuesheng down firmly.
“You damn crooked merchant!” the young man in white roared. “Have you decided where you want to be buried?!”
“Comrade Zuo Yueban,” Chou Bodeng said softly, “have you thought of your last words?”
Zuo Yueban managed to flip over with great difficulty inside the net.
The next moment, he started begging for mercy with a stream of snot and tears, his expression exaggerated, his crying voice absurdly dramatic. “Spare me, you two! I’ll apologize to you right now. For the sake of my old father, who is advanced in years and needs someone to handle his funeral arrangements, please don’t be rash!!!”
Not only did he cry, but he also tried to rub his face on them.
Chou Bodeng quickly withdrew his hand, feeling as if he had just pressed down on a pile of greasy lard. He was so disgusted he almost wanted to chop his hand off.
But it was his own hand, after all, and he couldn’t just chop it off. So he looked around for some water.
The young man in white was stunned.
He had never encountered someone like Zuo Yuesheng before. For a moment, he didn’t know whether to hold him down or let him go.
There happened to be a well nearby. Chou Bodeng frantically drew water while watching Zuo Yuesheng howl and take the opportunity to wipe his tears and snot on the young man in white’s robe.
It was a truly awe-inspiring sight.
Chou Bodeng had heard that the Pavilion Master of the Mountain Sea Pavilion used to visit the Buddhist Sect every so often. The reason must have been this troublesome son. In recent years, the Mountain Sea Pavilion and the Buddhist Sect had some conflicts. Without the monks’ heart-calming sutras, the Pavilion Master simply sent his only son to the most remote places, out of sight, out of mind.
Seeing him today, the Pavilion Master of the Mountain Sea Pavilion was truly wise and brilliant.
Such a Young Pavilion Master was truly a disgrace.
The white-robed young man’s attendants were nowhere to be seen; they hadn’t caught up yet. He rolled up his sleeves for a while but couldn’t bring himself to personally strike this astonishingly greasy pile of fat.
While he was hesitating, Zuo Yuesheng was already spilling the beans on his father’s unknown side like beans from a bamboo tube. The Pavilion Master of the Mountain Sea Pavilion, seen by the world as a “benefactor to all,” didn’t actually like books on righteousness and classics at all. His favorite books were erotic art with slender waists, long legs, and ample bosoms. His most common pastime wasn’t playing chess, but dressing up as a woman and singing in brothels…
Chou Bodeng, having washed his hands, came back and stood to the side, listening with great interest, occasionally interjecting to ask for details.
The young man in white listened with a pounding heart, feeling it was very likely he would be silenced one day by the Pavilion Master of the Mountain Sea Pavilion in the dead of night.
“Cut the crap,” the young man in white kicked Zuo Yuesheng. “Give me back my Yin-Yang Pendant, and I’ll let you go.”
“Uh, uh, uh…” Zuo Yuesheng got stuck.
“Are you a rooster? You even crow? Hurry up!”
“Brother Lu Jing,” Zuo Yuesheng said with a fawning smile, “I accidentally lost your Yin-Yang Pendant.”
Lu Jing, that name sounded a bit familiar. After a moment’s thought, Chou Bodeng remembered. Wasn’t this the youngest son of the Medicine Valley Master who had chased the protagonist in Chronicles of the Gods? Lu Jing, ranked eleventh, nicknamed Eleventh Master. The Medicine Valley Master’s medical skills were god-like, capable of reviving the dead and growing new bones. His other sons were all talented and promising, destined to be great healers. Only this Lu Shiyilang, forget about saving people, even treating a minor illness was a struggle for him.
Once, a courtesan Lu Shiyilang fancied fell ill.
To show his sincerity, Lu Shiyilang personally prepared and decocted the medicine, simmering it for six hours to produce a bowl of something that was neither black nor red. The courtesan, probably blinded by love, actually drank it! The moment the medicine went down, the beauty, who had been languishing in bed like a frail willow, immediately jumped up, vomiting and suffering from diarrhea. Her eyes rolled back, and she fainted on the spot. In the end, it was Second Brother Lu who came with a dark face to save Medicine Valley’s reputation.
The story spread, and everyone in the martial world said that while others charged money for treatment, Lu Shiyilang charged a life.
It was said that when the Medicine Valley Master heard about this, he blew up two furnaces of pills in a rage—something his enemies had never managed to do, his youngest son had accomplished with ease.
Chou Bodeng was thoughtful.
Did the Taiyi Sword bring him to Fu City because it was a “treasure” basin for gathering profligates?
“Aww! It’s true! Brother Lu! I swear on my father’s entire private collection!” Zuo Yuesheng insisted the Yin-Yang Pendant was really lost. This enraged Lu Jing, who, forgetting his disgust, gave him a sound beating, making him squeal like a pig being slaughtered.
Chou Bodeng, carrying his sword, jumped onto a nearby wall. He took out a fruit he had snatched when he jumped out the window and began to munch on it while enjoying the scene.
After watching for a while, Chou Bodeng felt that Lu Jing’s beating technique was really clumsy, so he offered some expert advice.
“No, a little lower. Yes, yes, the ribs there. Hit it with your elbow.”
“That kick needs to be three inches to the left.”
“…”
Zuo Yuesheng’s previously full-throated fake howls instantly turned into genuine wails of agony.
“It’s really lost!” he shrieked, desperately trying to dodge. “The day I scammed… no, bought it, I was ambushed two streets later! Damn it, I don’t know which demon bird slapped me hard. When I woke up, all I saw was a pile of bird feathers.”
Lu Jing cursed between breaths, “Snatched by a bird? Are you kidding me! If you’re going to lie, at least make it believable, you fatass. I’m telling you, if you don’t give me back the jade today, I’m going to turn you into a human lantern!”
“That’s right,” Chou Bodeng fanned the flames. “The poor bird, flying peacefully in the sky, and you throw a black pot at it from the ground. Little classmate Zuo, don’t bully the bird just because it can’t talk. Brother Lu, move that last kick a little lower. He probably won’t shed a tear until he sees his coffin.”
“It’s true! Truer than true gold!”
Zuo Yuesheng’s hair stood on end, and he rolled desperately to the side.
“I’ll compensate you! I’ll compensate you! It’s just a Yin-Yang Pendant, right? My old man’s private treasury is full of treasures. I’ll steal seven or eight for you!”
Chou Bodeng let out a sound of surprise.
Given Fatty Zuo’s stingy and cowardly nature, to be beaten to this point and even offer to steal his old man’s treasures as compensation…
“It’s really lost?”
Lu Jing, who also seemed to know what kind of person Zuo Yuesheng was, stopped, panting, and asked in disbelief.
“And I even gave you a stalk of Soul-Returning Grass for it… I didn’t even make a single copper coin. I lost big time.”
Zuo Yuesheng was in utter despair.
“It’s really lost.”
Lu Jing stood there stunned, as if his soul had been sucked out.
Zuo Yuesheng winced, trying to move himself away, looking utterly dejected. “…I really lost out. Even though the Soul-Returning Grass I gave you was fake Nine-Ring Yang Grass, it was still worth a thousand silver taels…”
He was still trying to haggle with Lu Jing about returning the Nine-Ring Yang Grass when Lu Jing suddenly burst into tears.
Chou Bodeng, on the wall, nearly fell off.
This perfectly fine young master, crying just like that, crying without any regard for his image, his voice hoarse and piercing, more terrifying than a funeral wail. It was loud enough to wake the dead within a five-kilometer radius.
Zuo Yuesheng was dumbfounded.
“It’s just a jade pendant! I’ll compensate you! A Dace Pendant, a Green Emperor Mirror, a Ringed Crow Seal… which one do you want! I’ll pay, I’ll pay!”
“Who the fuck wants your stuff!”
Lu Jing shouted back.
“You took a fake Soul-Returning Grass and scammed me out of my mother’s keepsake!”
Zuo Yuesheng’s wide-open mouth froze. His face, already bruised and swollen from the beating, now wore a particularly comical expression. Sitting on the wall, Chou Bodeng suddenly felt irritated.
Keepsakes, keepsakes.
Why did people have to leave things behind when they died?
If you’re going to die, then die cleanly, leaving nothing behind.
The person is gone, so what’s the point of leaving behind a pile of junk, a fragmented shadow? Isn’t that just sticking a needle in someone’s heart, deliberately causing them endless pain? Chou Bodeng hated keepsakes, hated all fragmented things. From a very early age, he had decided that when his day came, he would burn himself and all his belongings to a crisp beforehand.
Turning to ash wasn’t enough; it all had to be scattered in the sea.
Dust to dust, earth to earth. Come and go cleanly.
Lu Jing squatted down into a ball, buried his head in his arms, and through his muffled sobs, it sounded like he was still calling out for someone. Chou Bodeng jumped down from the wall, and in two strides, he was there, raising his sword and whipping it down.
“Who! Don’t you want to live?”
Lu Jing, choked with tears, looked up and cursed.
“If you lost it, then find it.”
Chou Bodeng stood against the light, holding his Taiyi Sword, looking down from above. When he wasn’t smiling, his eyes were deep black, and for some reason, they were frightening.
“If you howl again, I’ll beat you.”