Chapter 20 – Countless Ruthless People in the World
“I also think I’m kind-hearted,” Chou Bodeng lamented, “to let you two still be chattering here.”
There was killing intent!
Zuo Yuesheng and Lu Jing instantly sat up straight, their eyes on their noses, their noses on their mouths, their mouths on their hearts, and their ears listening in all directions.
“Student Ye, your thinking is very problematic.”
Chou Bodeng poured himself a cup of tea to cool his temper, completely baffled.
“Qing Province and the East Continent are separated by a hundred and eight thousand miles. You’re passing up the Mountain Sea Pavilion to travel thousands of miles to join Taiyi. What’s wrong with you, choosing the far over the near? Hmm…”
Chou Bodeng glanced at Zuo Yuesheng.
“Could it be that after seeing this Young Pavilion Master Zuo, you’ve lost faith in the future of the Mountain Sea Pavilion? Well, that’s understandable.”
“Young Master Chou, you’re wrong to say that,” Zuo Yuesheng said, unconvinced. “By your logic, after seeing you, Taiyi’s Little Martial Grand-Ancestor, wouldn’t one think the entire Immortal Sect is doomed? But now that you mention it… Ye Cang! Tell the truth! Why won’t you join our Mountain Sea Pavilion? In terms of strength, although the Mountain Sea Pavilion is not as good as Taiyi, it can easily beat Medicine Valley. In terms of wealth, ha! Who in the world dares to call themselves rich in front of the Mountain Sea Pavilion?”
“My mother said that whatever you do, you should do the best.”
Ye Cang knelt motionless on the ground, his eyebrows thick and black like two sabers. Since waking up, he had been in a daze, not saying a word, just sitting blankly in front of the Divine Fu Tree and Ge Qing’s corpse all day.
The former City Diviner’s surname was Ge, and his given name was Qing.
To this day, his body, split in two, still knelt before the Divine Fu Tree. He did not deserve a burial, did not deserve to be interred. If not for the fact that he should kneel before the Divine Fu Tree for a thousand, ten thousand years, he wouldn’t even deserve to remain on the land of Fu City. Zuo Yuesheng and Lu Jing had to keep a close watch, lest Ye Cang go mad and grind Ge Qing’s bones to dust—that would be too easy for that old scoundrel.
“Of the Eight Prefectures Immortal Sects, Taiyi is first.”
“Ye Cang, ah, what your mother said is not wrong,” Lu Jing said earnestly, “but the matter of a sect concerns one’s entire life. Joining the wrong sect is like a woman marrying a heartless man. You must consider it carefully. Although Taiyi is the number one Immortal Sect, do you know how they got to be number one? As the saying goes: there are countless ruthless people in the world, and the Taiyi sect has half of them.”
“That’s right, that’s right,” Zuo Yuesheng recalled, a look of fear on his face. “It is said that Taiyi disciples have to wake up at four in the morning to cross a great river on a rope to train their courage and spirit. There’s a small competition within the peak every five days, a contest between two peaks every month, a grand competition of the entire peak every season, and a grand competition of the entire sect every half a year. And usually, if any elder is in a good mood, they’ll conduct a surprise test…”
“Actually, they wake up at two in the morning,” Chou Bodeng corrected. “And the small competitions are now every three days.”
Zuo Yuesheng’s face twitched.
The time he spent at Taiyi as a child had left him with a lifelong trauma. Once, the old man had planned to send him to Taiyi for a period of training, which scared Zuo Yuesheng so much that he took off his belt and tried to hang himself from a beam.
He would rather die than go.
“In other sects, if your cultivation talent is poor, and you’re a piece of rotten wood that can’t be carved, the senior brothers, sisters, elders, and sect master will just let you rot. But at Taiyi… hehe, there’s no such thing as ‘rotten wood’ at Taiyi. Your talent is poor? Then you train, train to death. They’ll drag you and hammer you until you’re turned from rotten wood into hard wood.”
“I’ve always felt that the old geezers at Taiyi have a real ‘dean of students’ vibe,” Chou Bodeng said.
The teachers at the prestigious boarding school he had attended back then would wave their arms and shout all day, “Never give up on any student!” “Underachievers are also future achievers!”… Using every trick in the book, from emotional appeals to empty fort strategies, from soft persuasion to relentless pressure, they could forcibly straighten out even the most unruly scion of a noble family.
The only failure was Young Master Chou.
“Once you enter Taiyi, it’s as deep as the sea; from then on, a carefree life is a thing of the past,” Zuo Yuesheng said, pointing at Chou Bodeng. “The only exception is this one, here, the Little Martial Grand-Ancestor. His seniority is so high that for now, no one dares to hammer this piece of rotten wood.”
Lu Jing imagined the miserable life of a Taiyi disciple and shuddered. “…This, Chou Bodeng, do you Taiyi disciples even have time for romance?”
“I think, probably not.”
Chou Bodeng recalled.
In the early days after he transmigrated, he had thought that his daily life would be filled with scenes of “cannon fodder provoking, profligate face-slapping,” but it was incredibly peaceful… Forget romance, they didn’t even have time to come and bother him, the profligate.
Zuo Yuesheng let out a mocking laugh. “Taiyi? Romance? Don’t you know that Taiyi is known as the second monastery for monks and nuns?”
“That’s not right,” Chou Bodeng corrected again. “Dancing with a sword under the moon is also moon, discussing the Dao among the flowers is also flowers. The proportion of Taiyi disciples with Dao Companions is still very high.”
It was just that…
Out of ten Taiyi disciples, nine were gay, and the last was a big orange cat.
There was no helping it. Who could stand a Dao Companion whose mind was full of cultivation twenty-four hours a day? Taiyi disciples could only find partners internally, developing feelings through their morning and evening training together… and those they spent their days and nights with were mostly of the same sex, weren’t they? Over time, it was said that when the few straight male and female disciples of the sect went out on missions, they would introduce themselves like this: “So-and-so from Taiyi, not a sword-swallower, not a mirror-polisher.”
The genuinely straight Ye Cang was on the verge of collapse.
“I want to join Taiyi!” Ye Cang stubbornly persisted. “I want to become the world’s number one saber master!”
He clenched his fists.
He hated.
He hated the old City Diviner, hated how he could do such an ungrateful thing. He hated himself, hated how he had been in a slump after being expelled from the City Divination Department, muddle-headed and unwilling to even pay his respects to the Divine Fu Tree for the sake of some meaningless face. He only dared to climb the Divine Fu Tree again in the dead of night, taking the opportunity when Zuo Yuesheng and Lu Jing came looking for him.
When the Divine Fu Tree and the city were on the verge of being overthrown overnight, it was Chou Bodeng and the others who turned the tide, while he did nothing. The conspiracy behind the scenes was long and drawn out, and he didn’t want to be so weak and powerless anymore.
“I want to find out the truth.”
To atone for his own cowardice and incompetence.
Zuo Yuesheng threw up his hands and winked at Chou Bodeng. Well, he knew it would be like this.
Chou Bodeng sized up the original book’s protagonist kneeling in the main hall and thought, You’ve been investigating for ten million words, and the final mastermind is still nowhere in sight. Who knows how many more millions of words the author plans to pad it with.
A newborn calf doesn’t fear the tiger.
He didn’t know what thorny path lay ahead of him.
“Letting you join Taiyi, I can still make a decision on such a small matter,” Chou Bodeng thought for a moment. “However, you’ll still have to make up for the entrance trial of ‘treading the suspended rope and crossing the nine rivers’ later. There are no exceptions, unless you want to become the public enemy of all Taiyi disciples overnight. Hmm… There are quite a few guys who use sabers in Taiyi. You can go find those old geezers and ask to be their apprentice yourself.”
In fact, in the original book, Ye Cang was supposed to become a disciple of Elder Jun.
He was born with a Saber Soul. In the early stages of the plot, a group of shameless old men had even fought several times to get him as a disciple.
However, Chou Bodeng had burned Elder Jun’s phoenix tail last time, and Elder Jun had gone to the sect master to complain, causing him to be nagged by the sect master for several days. Young Master Chou remembered this and had no intention of helping Elder Jun lighten the pressure of fighting for a disciple.
Ye Cang didn’t say a word.
Thud, thud, thud.
He gave Chou Bodeng three loud kowtows.
Zuo Yuesheng and Lu Jing were both a little stunned.
They were both second-generation sect members. Letting a few people join the sect was just a matter of a few words.
They hadn’t expected Ye Cang to be so sincere, so stubborn.
He had even kowtowed.
Chou Bodeng sat still and accepted the three kowtows.
He was a Martial Ancestor of Taiyi. Forget three kowtows, even nine kowtows and nine prostrations would be nothing.
“Since you’ve joined Taiyi,” with no other Taiyi members present, Chou Bodeng had to reluctantly act as a disciple of the disciplinary hall and give Ye Cang his entrance lecture. “First, my Taiyi… forget it, this part is tens of thousands of years of sect history, go read it yourself in the library later. Skip. Second, the sect rules… forget it, the ninety-nine sect rules, go look at them on the wall of the Law Enforcement Hall yourself. Skip. Third, the disciples of this sect… this part is the experience of the senior brothers and sisters, go ask someone yourself. Skip.”
“…Skip.”
“…Skip.”
At first, the Taiyi sword was so angry it was banging on the floor, but later it just became numb.
Zuo Yuesheng numbly poked Lu Jing. “This is definitely the most improper entrance lecture I’ve ever seen.”
Lu Jing coughed lightly. “At least it’s being presided over by the sect’s Little Martial Grand-Ancestor personally. The pomp is one of a kind.”
“Finally,” Chou Bodeng suddenly shed all his carelessness, sat up straight, and his gaze as he looked down at Ye Cang suddenly became sharp and aggressive. “There’s only one thing—”
“Ye Cang!”
Chou Bodeng shouted coldly.
The Taiyi sword left its scabbard and hung in the air, its broken blade glinting like snow. The snowy light reflected on Chou Bodeng’s face. Zuo Yuesheng and Lu Jing, who had been joking around, suddenly stopped laughing and unconsciously sat up straight. Although it was just the main hall of a mortal’s residence, the scene suddenly became solemn.
“Disciple is here.”
Ye Cang responded.
“For ten thousand years, my Taiyi has had no abandoned disciples, no traitors.”
No abandonment.
No betrayal.
Even though it was spoken by such a young man, the pride of Taiyi was palpable, as if thousands of mountains and rivers were unfolding, and from the mountains and waters walked sect disciples with fluttering robes. Behind them were the majestic sect gates, and the trailing tails of Kui Dragons and divine phoenixes.
Ten thousand years of Taiyi, first among the Immortal Sects.
“Those who enter Taiyi, if they have a second heart,”
“The entire sect will execute them.”
“Yes!”
Ye Cang responded loudly.
The Taiyi sword hummed lightly.
“Alright, alright, it’s finally over,” Chou Bodeng’s back, which had been straight for less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, instantly slumped again. He leaned back in his chair, lazy and informal. “By rights, I should give you a Taiyi waist token, but I didn’t bring one. If you mind, go find a piece of wood and carve one yourself. Carving your own waist token is also an old craft of Taiyi.”
Ye Cang, who had been invigorated by the last two sentences: …
For some reason, he suddenly had the feeling that he had boarded the wrong pirate ship.
Zuo Yuesheng was already snickering. “Hehe, did you think Taiyi was very rich because our Young Master Chou wears gold and silver and is all flashy? Let me tell you! Except for him, this special case, nine out of ten Taiyi disciples are poor. A bunch of sword and saber masters don’t even have enough money to get married, hahahaha. Serves you right for looking down on the Mountain Sea Pavilion!”
“That Zuo fellow is right,” Chou Bodeng said, propping up his chin with a smile. “Last month, the sect master was still discussing with the elders about starting a sewing class and making sewing sect uniforms part of the curriculum… commonly known as cutting costs. You can start making clothes now. Practice a bit, and maybe when you get back to Taiyi, you can use this to trick a few saber techniques out of your senior brothers and sisters.”
“…Disciple understands.”
Ye Cang said with difficulty.
Chou Bodeng remembered something else, clapped his hands, and added, “As for being the number one saber in the world, you don’t have to think about it! Work hard and aim for number two.”
“Why do I feel like there’s something wrong with his ‘number one saber in the world’?” Zuo Yuesheng leaned over and whispered in Lu Jing’s ear. “Who is he talking about?”
“You don’t even know this?”
Lu Jing felt that he might be able to write the second act of his story tonight. Wasn’t that certain unknown Oracle Master a saber user?
“This is ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’… hey!”
A teacup, water and all, came flying over.
Lu Jing ducked and dodged it.
Zuo Yuesheng clapped his hands. “Look, look! He’s angry from embarrassment!”
Chou Bodeng raised an eyebrow and skillfully ordered his newly minted Taiyi disciple, “Go, this Martial Ancestor commands you to beat up that fatty surnamed Zuo.”
The corner of Ye Cang’s mouth twitched, and the feeling of regret grew stronger.
At Chou Bodeng’s urging, he reluctantly got up, grabbed a chair, and began to chase Zuo Yuesheng around the hall. When Zuo Yuesheng saw this, he quickly grabbed a chair himself and started fighting back.
Seventeen years of peaceful life came to an end, and the young man from Fu City, Ye Cang, began to gallop wildly on a road of no return.
***
When Lou Jiang came in, he saw that the entire main hall looked as if it had been hit by a tornado. Tables and chairs were overturned, and it was a mess. His own Young Pavilion Master was lying on the ground, and Young Master Lu was squatting next to him, enthusiastically drawing dark circles under his eyes with a brush. Ye Cang was sitting on the other side with two black eyes, and even Taiyi’s Little Martial Grand-Ancestor was frowning, patting wood chips off his clothes.
“…”
He really wanted to be transferred to the Undying City.
“Elder Chou,” Lou Jiang stepped over his Young Pavilion Master and handed a letter to Chou Bodeng. “A letter from the Pavilion Master for you.”
“Eh?”
Zuo Yuesheng, lying on the ground, opened one eye.
“Are you sure it’s not for me?”
While Zuo Yuesheng was still complaining about his father, Chou Bodeng had already opened the letter Lou Jiang handed him, somewhat puzzled.
In a region under the Miasma Moon, it was difficult to contact the outside world, unless one used a secret technique like “Sound Listening.” But to use such a technique, both parties needed a common medium. When Chou Bodeng was brought to Fu City by the Taiyi sword, he had nothing on him, let alone a Sound Listening medium to contact the Taiyi Sect.
“What did the old man say?” Zuo Yuesheng asked curiously.
Chou Bodeng read ten lines at a glance. “Hmm, he said that Taiyi already knows I’m in Fu City, and Elder Jun will be in the East Continent soon… Why doesn’t the sect master send someone else, he’s such a nag. Then he also said ‘I have ordered all branch pavilions to provide whatever is needed,’ listen, Comrade Zuo Yueban, your father is much more knowledgeable and courteous than you are.”
“That’s not right!” Zuo Yuesheng sat up. “That stingy old man of mine, he’d say that? Either he’s been possessed or you, surnamed Lou, brought a fake letter.”
Lou Jiang couldn’t be bothered to even look at him.
“Is there any mention of me? Like telling me to go back to the Mountain Sea Pavilion or something,” Zuo Yuesheng asked hopefully.
“There is, actually.” Chou Bodeng finished the last line. “He wants you to fulfill your duties as Young Pavilion Master, act as a proper host, and lead the distinguished guest to the Mountain Sea Pavilion. The distinguished guest being Taiyi’s Martial Ancestor—that is, me.”
“Huh?” Zuo Yuesheng was shocked. “I have to rely on you to get back to the Mountain Sea Pavilion? No, wait, why are you going to our Mountain Sea Pavilion too?”
“Something big happened a few days ago, so the Taiyi sect master asked your dad to take care of me for a bit,” Chou Bodeng turned the letter over. “As for what big thing…”
“The Hundred Clans are crossing south to attack the Witch Clan.”