Volume 4, Chapter 131 – Opportunity

Not long after Bai Xiang returned to the Listening-to-Rain Tower, the sky gradually brightened.

Zhu Sheng was used to rising early. The moment he came out of the washroom, he had a visual hallucination. He vaguely saw a beautiful young woman in a green dress standing inside the room, carrying the ripe charm of a married woman, studying him with an appraising gaze.

“Before this, I was always seeing from the main perspective, so I never really took a careful look at your face,” the woman murmured to herself. “Not bad… my bloodline really wasn’t passed down for nothing.”

???

Zhu Sheng’s head filled with question marks. He felt an odd sense of familiarity from her, but he truly did not remember anyone like her among his relatives.

When he rubbed his eyes and looked again, there was no woman in green anywhere to be seen. There was only the bunk bed beside him, with Zhang Donglai and Liu Yong sleeping soundly on it.

After morning drills, when they went to the dining hall for breakfast, Zhu Sheng told the other two what had happened. Unsurprisingly, he was met with Dongzi’s merciless mockery.

“So Zhu Sheng, this day finally came for you too!” Dongzi said around a mouthful of meat, his speech slurred. “You act all lofty every day! So many senior sisters show interest in you, and you never react! Look at that! Look at that! The karmic backlash is here, huh?”

Dongzi thought Zhu Sheng was only aloof with his mouth. His body, like Dongzi’s own, was clearly much more honest.

After all, they were young men. The medical scriptures stored in the sect all said so: young men had abundant fire. Holding back yang for too long was not a good thing. It could damage the body and might even lead to mental hallucinations.

Dongzi felt this explained why Zhu Sheng could get up early every single day.

He must have been afraid people would notice him leaking yang. That also explained why he washed his bedding so often.

“Cut the crap,” Zhu Sheng said, his face darkening as he began borrowing internet slang as well. “It wasn’t a hallucination! I really saw a woman in our room!”

But let alone Dongzi, even Liu Yong did not believe this flimsy defense.

Who would dare believe something like that? Liu Yong even warned Zhu Sheng to lower his voice, because if what he said were true, then perhaps it was some sect elder hidden within the dojo. Was that really the sort of thing one could say carelessly?

Wasn’t he afraid the person might grow ashamed and angry and kill him to keep him quiet?

Clang.

A tray was suddenly set down beside them.

Under the puzzled stares of the three, Lian Feng sat down calmly, and only after a moment did he speak to them in a cold voice. “When you pass the small square later, keep your eyes open. Don’t look at someone with an unusual appearance and think you can go bully them.”

What did that mean?

All three were baffled, but Lian Feng had clearly come over specifically just to say that. After speaking, he actually picked up his tray and slipped away again.

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Dongzi sat there with his mouth hanging open. “His acting is way too bad, isn’t it?”

“Don’t talk behind senior brother’s back,” Liu Yong said, tugging at him, then poking Zhu Sheng on the arm.

Zhu Sheng curled his lip, stood up, and headed for the female disciples’ dining section. Relying on his looks, he made some inquiries among the senior sisters, then came back and told them, “Apparently some lunatic showed up by the small square. No one knows where he came from. He’s just squatting there doing some kind of health-preserving boxing.”

That was all?

The other two did not understand.

If it was only that, then it should not have been enough for Lian Feng to call him “unusual.”

“Of course that’s not all,” Zhu Sheng said, and even he looked amazed. “A lot of people thought he was a guest of the dojo. Seeing that he moved so slowly in his boxing, and that it looked like pure flower-fist showmanship, they eagerly went up to offer him pointers.”

“And then?” Dongzi asked.

“And then he cursed them out and told them, ‘Stinky people, don’t come near me,’ and after that he threw them down the mountain.”

That terrifying?

Not just Dongzi, even Liu Yong shrank his neck.

“He really threw them down the mountain?”

The Shenming main peak was quite high above sea level. If someone fell from there, would they still be alive?

“Ah, and that’s the other strange thing,” Zhu Sheng said again. “This person is bizarre enough that he even throws female disciples the same way. But among all the people he threw, not a single one died from the fall.”

“If they didn’t fall to death, then did they get scared to death?” Dongzi stared wide-eyed.

That terrifying?

It even came with mental damage?

“If they didn’t fall to death, that means they didn’t die at all!” Zhu Sheng glared at him. “Everyone who got thrown only felt the world spinning, and when they came back to themselves, both feet were already on the ground, without the slightest serious injury.”

Then that was a real expert.

Dongzi and Liu Yong were both absorbed now.

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Throwing people off the mountain without harming them at all meant his physical power had been trained to the absolute extreme. He might even be able to influence and control whatever he threw.

He was definitely an expert.

A great expert.

“It’s just that this expert old fellow clearly has a terrible temper,” Zhu Sheng said, shaking his head. “From how they described him, his actual age has to be at least eighty. Maybe he’s got one of those delusions old people often get. Senior Brother Lian is right. We should stay away from him.”

Dongzi got curious again. “I always hear people talk about actual age… and then there’s something called nominal age too, right? What do those two actually mean?”

His background had been miserable. No one had really taught him these things before.

Zhu Sheng clearly knew that, and a trace of sympathy immediately appeared on his face. He explained to Dongzi in all seriousness, “Actual age starts being counted from when you come out of your mother’s body.”

“Then what about nominal age?”

“Nominal age? Nominal age starts being counted from when you come out of your father’s body.”

The filthy talk was too much for Liu Yong to bear. Ignoring Dongzi’s expression of sincere curiosity, he dragged the other two, who had basically finished eating, off to return their trays, then prepared to head back to that little courtyard and continue practicing swordsmanship.

After all, the internal tournament would begin today.

And there were now disciples from both Benling and Shangqing as well. So many people, and fewer than a hundred would be selected to go. He felt immense pressure.

Actually, Liu Yong had more or less thought things through by now. On one hand, he practiced the sword in order to strive upward and not let down the dream he once had. On the other, he also wanted the dojo to bring him to the martial exercise competition grounds. He wanted to use that opportunity to see the Qingping Sword Lord again.

Even if the other party did not acknowledge him and had no intention of taking him as a disciple, he still wanted to offer thanks for the gift of the sword.

On the way back to the courtyard, Dongzi was still muttering.

“This is really strange. Our route doesn’t even pass through the small square. So why did Senior Brother Lian come warn us?”

“Hm?” Zhu Sheng froze for a moment, then his brows drew together.

Just then, a sudden commotion broke out among the disciples behind them. Countless people began arguing excitedly, their faces flushed and their expressions animated, as if something wonderful had happened.

What was going on?

This time Zhu Sheng did not need to go sell his looks for information, because the commotion was simply too large. The three of them quickly found out. Someone had just spread a piece of gossip saying that Benling and Shangqing had not come for joint exchanges at all. They were planning to merge their Dao lineages into Shenming.

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“Could that really be possible? Those are two of the Nine Prefectures!”

“Wasn’t Yuming the same way?”

“That’s different. Peak Lord Xiang is the Dao Lord’s master!”

“If it’s true, then who would take the leading role?”

“Naturally the Dao Lord. Otherwise it wouldn’t be them coming here, it would be us going there!”

“Hey! Then wouldn’t that make the dojo twice as big again?”

“Twice? It’ll be more than triple!”

“Is it really that exaggerated? I don’t think their disciples are all that numerous.”

“What do you know? The key isn’t the disciples, it’s the connected relationships! Just think how many people are tied to those two schools alone, plus all the people who came out of them in the past… Do you believe that once this news spreads, huge numbers of people from the Ze and Qi regions will migrate into Maozhou?”

The disciples were so excited that they all began voicing their opinions on the matter. The entrance to the dining hall immediately turned as lively as a market street, and even many of the older senior brothers were no exception.

Liu Yong and his two companions looked at each other.

This development really was… genuinely too stimulating.

It made one want to imagine whether one day all nine prefectures and nine Dao lineages might come under Shenming, becoming the nine peaks beneath the dojo’s rule.

“Liu Yong? Where’s Liu Yong?”

Just then, it seemed that someone ahead was calling for him.

Liu Yong hurried forward and saw that it was an older senior brother. The man had come to deliver a message. “Peak Lord Xiang wants you to go to the back mountain.”

Then he patted Liu Yong on the shoulder and said politely, “Maybe she’s taken a liking to your aptitude and wants to accept you as a personal disciple.”

How could there be such a good thing?

Liu Yong did not dare believe it at all. After thanking the senior brother, he returned to discuss it with Zhu Sheng and the other one, and they immediately realized that if he was going to the back mountain, then he would inevitably pass the small square.

“Senior Brother Lian already knew about this?”

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Dongzi was shocked.

“She really wants to take you as a personal disciple!”

“Don’t talk nonsense!”

Liu Yong frowned.

“There isn’t even the beginning of anything yet. Shut your mouth!”

But inwardly he did feel hope. He told his two good friends and brothers to go back to the courtyard first and wait for news from him, then he set off alone along the mountain path. As he passed the small square, he indeed saw an old man practicing boxing there.

He really was old.

And the boxing was really slow.

The old man had been acting as though no one else existed, but when Liu Yong drew near, he suddenly let out an oh, turned his head, stared at Liu Yong’s back, smacked his lips, and said, “Again this sort of thing… no fun at all!”

Liu Yong passed through the small path and leaped up the back mountain in a few bounds. All he could see before him was a sea of clouds and white mist. He could barely make out the scenery even within three meters.

Afraid of stepping wrong and falling off the cliff, he edged forward cautiously.

Then suddenly, the sea of clouds parted like a curtain, revealing a woman in white seated at the edge of the cliff ahead, facing him.

That… white hair!?

Liu Yong froze.

Never in his dreams had he imagined that the person waiting here would not be Xiang Xian, but the white-haired Dao Lord who had left such a deep impression on him and had even saved his life.

“Circulate your qi for me to see.”

Bai Xiang opened her golden eyes.

She had already given him the opportunity.

Whether he could seize it or not would depend on his own true ability.