Oy! Don’t Randomly Change the Lines!

When he heard the request, Su Yang froze.

He was discovered? 

“Young Master, you were very strung out earlier and made too many movements.” His petal retainer reminded him.

That made sense.

Although the world was fictional, it had a martial arts setting. The martial artists in this world were keen and alert. And the one below the tree was the protagonist with astonishing talent, Gu Feidi.

In a moment of panic, he stood up and grabbed hold of a branch, so it was reasonable, with all the racket he made, that Gu Feidi would notice.

If this continued, this plot scenario would certainly spiral further into chaos. 

Now the next question was, whether or not to show himself.

With nothing to chew on, Su Yang could only bite his nails. He thought to himself, ‘This scene actually won’t deviate too much from the script, right?’

In the script, as the Young Master of the Evil Sect, and the antagonist, he would confront Gu Feidi for the House of Jade’s official admission ticket—the jade bell. He would join hands with a servant of the Evil Sect to force Gu Feidi into desperate straits. However, because of the ever-so-popular ‘villain trope’, he would monologue a bunch of gibberish, and successfully assist Gu Feidi by dragging the time for him to be rescued.

At present, although he didn’t force the protagonist into a desperate situation, it could be worse.

Maybe...one he jumped down and finished a line or two, Gu Feidi’s Xiao ShimeiYounger martial sister. would come to the rescue with reinforcements. According to the script, she would soon magnificently appear?

There was no movement in the tree, but Gu Feidi did not relax his posture.

The young man weakly clenched the hilt of his sword, leaned against the tree trunk until he stood up straight, and carried a dignified expression.

Su Yang couldn’t bear looking at Gu Feidi, who was trying to stay firm.

Indecisive on what to do, he turned to his petal retainer for help. “Since we have been found, what’s to be done other than going down, read the screenplay and continue the story. So it doesn’t matter if I go down and maybe show my face, right?”

His petal retainer ignored the bizarre words that the Young Master picked up five days ago and respectfully said, “Whatever pleases the Young Master.”

Su Yang felt at ease internally after receiving a positive confirmation. 

He raised his hand and pressed down his hair—a habit he picked up from constantly checking if his head full of fine, black hair was a wig or not. He subsequently poked fun at himself after learning it was not, in fact, a wig the first time. Then he worked up his internal energy and jumped from the high branch.

He planned it like this:

He would use the light movement skill, Cherish Flower Steps, a prominent signature skill of the Evil Sect among the Wulin, and land on the small, open space in front of Gu Feidi. As the idiotic kid witnessed his Evil Sect outfit in a dumbstruck trance, he would try to exude the Young Master’s malefic aura, and begin his lengthy talk—reciting all his lines out.

Moreover, for the sake of piquing Gu Feidi’s interest in him, he would put his acting skills to the test and leave the most profound impression on the young man!

The plan was perfectly flawless in his head, but what he didn’t take into account was that he didn’t fully master the internal energy and martial arts of this body.

As soon as he landed, his vision blurred.

He used too much force when he took off and rushed too far forward. 

Seeing that he would crash intimately into Gu Feidi who was still standing under the tree, he immediately used Cherish Flower Steps to steer his body and to decrease his momentum. Then he slapped his palm on the tree trunk beside Gu Feidi’s ear to stabilize himself...

Casually give the other a solid tree slamTree slam: 樹咚, a word derived from Kabedon or wall slam, but instead of slamming a wall, our Su Yang slammed the tree trunk. Image by Hush..

Su Yang: “...”

Fuck, he failed like a shipwreckShipwreck: 翻船, direct translation is ‘flipped boat’. A word that means meeting a failure or setback in the middle of an affair..

The two of them, including the petal retainer who was still hiding in the tree, were all momentarily stupefied.

Supported by the tree trunk, Su Yang was in a slightly awkward and embarrassing situation. He wondered whether to recite his lines, or get up from this strange position. Which should he do first?  

According to the Young Master’s iniquitous character, he should not step down when he had the person trapped under him. However, there was nothing in the story about the antagonist giving the protagonist a tree slam, and he didn’t dare to improvise at will.

But wouldn't it be a little strange saying the original lines in the scripts in this position?

While his thoughts were traveling like the speed of lightning, he saw that the young man pinned against the tree trunk suddenly coughed up another mouthful of bloody foam before he came up with a solution.

Gu Feidi looked at Su Yang, and his pupils slightly dilated. His lips trembled as he murmured, “Cherish Flower Steps...”

People in the Jianghu knew that the number one light movement skill, Cherish Flower Steps, came from the Evil Sect. It was the best quality secret move of the Sect, which would never be passed down except to inner, direct disciples.

Gu Feidi recognized Cherish Flower Steps, and his gaze fell on Su Yang’s face. He stared at Su Yang’s face for a moment and finally pulled out a bitter smile. “...It’s you.”

It was said in the Jianghu that the Young Master of the Evil Sect was both wicked and very attractive. Upturned eyes, accompanied by a little, scarlet mole on the outer corner of his eye, which looked like a tiny blood bead splashed from a slaughter. 

It was rumoured in the Jianghu that the Young Master of the Evil Sect had a perverse temperament and an unpredictable character that was hard to grasp. 

Although the young man hadn’t reached his coming of age at twenty yet, he practiced Six Night Flower Burial skill to gain internal energy as deep as any robust youth who had immersed in more than a decade of martial art. He could perform the Divide Lotus Technique with his thin whip-like swordThin sword: Also known as soft sword, whip-like sword, and thin sword. A flexible sword that's not meant for chopping and stabbing, but slicing and cutting. The speed it slices could rival that of whip. It aims to slice arteries, especially for armour with the neck part exposed. For reference, think of the sword used by Zhou Zishu from Word of Honor or Jin Guangyao from The Untamed. in a very deceptive manner, causing his opponents to tremble with fear.

It was also said in the Jianghu that in this generation of new, youthful martial artists, only the Wulin Alliance Leader’s son, Gu Feidi, could compete with the Evil Sect’s Young Master, Su Yang.

But that was assuming that both of them were in their prime physical state.

Now, Gu Feidi, who was seriously injured, was against Su Yang, who was waiting leisurely for his enemy to be exhausted. Let alone putting all his effort into fighting, even performing a move was not possible. Gu Feidi could literally die on the spot.

Gu Feidi recognised Su Yang. His gaze, which was tenacious and obstinate, darkened. He narrowed his eyes slightly, trying to cover the helpless bitterness and despair in them.

However, being in such close proximity, Su Yang was still acutely aware of the fact that the young man, who was still half enclosed by his arm, seemed to have given up resisting. There was a sense of ‘accepting his fate’ in those penetrating eyes. 

Su Yang completely did not expect Gu Feidi would have this reaction. 

In the script, Gu Feidi was a hothead who feared nothing in heaven or earth. No matter what kind of desperate situation he encountered, he could face it bravely. Even if he had only one last breath left, he would never show this kind of…fragile expression. 

At this moment, Su Yang suddenly felt that the Gu Feidi standing before him was more like a sixteen-year-old young man in flesh and blood than the Gu Feidi in the script.

Although he was vigorous and spirited, he would also lose heart and have some fear in the face of irresistible enemies.

Su Yan almost playfully slapped Gu Feidi on his shoulder and said, “Don’t be afraid little bro. Follow me and I will protect you!”

It shocked him to have this kind of thought that would definitely make the Young Master’s image crumble into pieces. A horrified shudder hit him, and he thought, ‘NO, STOP! I can’t lead my thoughts astray. I have to recite my lines quickly, in the event that more things might go wrong.’

He decided to stay calm and execute the sinister aura that the Young Master should carry. Narrowing his eyes, he grinned at Gu Feidi.

“Ah, isn’t this the legendary ‘young, rising martial star’, the ‘young righteous hero’? I didn’t expect that you, carrying the entire Righteous Sect’s high hopes, are also interested in receiving an inheritance from the House of Jade?”

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly felt that something was wrong—this was the line he would say when he first encountered Gu Feidi in the dense forest.

After he said this, they would fight for the jade bell. In the storyline, when they fought, he would have to mumble a bunch of nonsense, inflict serious damage on Gu Feidi, and chase him all over the forest…besides pursuing, he still has many lines to tease Gu Feidi with.

But now that Gu Feidi was heavily injured and unable to fight back, why would he start with this line? He should start from the moment when the Young Master forced Gu Feidi into a corner!

He clicked his tongue, ‘I miscalculated.’ 

He blinked, skipped a series of dialogue between the two during their fight scene, and jumped to the ending scenes. 

“What? No…more energy?”

He finished the lines, thinking, ‘Phew, close save!’

The original wording of the script was ‘No more energy to escape already?’, but now the chase scene was skipped, the lines would naturally be altered. 

Seeing that Gu Feidi did not react to his strange pause, he felt relieved and began to recite the following line, “I still wish to continue…”

To trade moves with you.

…Hold it! The next part of the line would be inaccurate! He didn’t fight with Gu Feidi at all so there was nothing to continue!

He quickly whipped up the following sentence, “...To examine your exquisite figure.”

The screenplay had come full circle and the Evil Sect’s Young Master’s persona wasn’t in a crumpled heap. He admired his own capability to adapt to any change.

But when he gave it some thought, it was still somewhat odd.

—What? No more energy? I still wish to continue to examine your exquisite figure!

Gu Feidi raised his gaze sharply to meet Su Yang’s eyes. An indignant blush spread across his whole face and his glare was sharp as a dagger.

“You…kill me if you want, but why insult me?” He said, gnashing his teeth.

Su Yang: “...”

Okay, he knew where the error was.

It was no wonder that Gu Feidi would be so angry that he recited his lines incorrectly.

He was at a loss for words for quite a while, and somewhat irritated, thinking, ‘This scene is not considered collapsed right? Although the protagonist was misled and said the wrong lines because of me, as it turns out, he is also brimming with hostility toward me. Basically…it appears it didn’t collapse?’

Successfully hypnotising himself, Su Yang decided to continue his screenplay according to the script.

“In fact, you don’t have to work this futilely.” He continued with a smile, “Every time the House of Jade opens its gate, sixty-six jade bells would be scattered across Mount Mei Zhu. Only those who have successfully arrived at the gate with a jade bell can enter the official evaluation. So hand over the jade bell you have and take another’s jade bell like I have. There are plenty of people who you can take down in two moves in this forest, is it worth the trouble to protect…”

“You just want the…jade bell?”

Before Su Yang finished, Gu Feidi interrupted him.

Gu Feidi was clearly out of breath, but he was still holding up and not toppling down. He looked up with his bloodstained face, stubbornly surveyed at Su Yang and asked, “Only want the jade bell?”

Su Yang blinked again.

What was happening?

Shouldn’t Gu Feidi’s classic reply be “Even if I am buried here, I will not hand over the jade bell to someone of the Evil Sect!” right?

Oy! This little bro, don’t randomly change your lines just because you are the leading role!