It’s Rude to Take Advantage During a Danger!

(Three Chapters in One)

Hearing her cry, Su Yang snapped his head back toward the Jade Mirror Lake’s chaotic water surface.

The collapsed frozen waterfall had already shattered into countless large pieces of ice floating in the body of water. A slow whirlpool appeared in the center from who-knows-where, and it slowly gathered the debris toward its center.

Su Yang surveyed the surface frantically, and his keen eyes zoomed in on the bloodstains on a piece of broken ice. In that split second, his mind suddenly turned blank.

No!

This absolutely can’t happen!

A voice like a thunderclap sounded in his ears, occupying all of his thoughts.

—Gu Feidi couldn’t die.

—He was only a child. He. Absolutely. Cannot. Die here!

Without giving himself much time to think, Su Yang subconsciously released Xu Yunzhan and turned back to the raging lake. 

Just as Fan Xi set Chi Tong down safely to the ground. He turned and spotted Su Yang’s action, and he immediately rushed to grasp Su Yang’s sleeve. 

“Don’t go! It is dangerous—!” Fan Xi’s eyes wide, filled with fear.

Su Yang drew out his soft sword from his belt and cut off part of his sleeve without hesitation. He sheathed his blade, used the Cherish Flower Step, and jumped back into the lake.

Fan Xi bit down hard and was about to follow, but Pu Lingyun hurried forward and hugged his ankle tightly. 

“You said it is dangerous yourself!”

Her eyes were red, and he couldn’t distinguish if the water stains on her face were the lake water or her tears. She cried incoherently, “Don’t go! My cousin is still unconscious…I- I don’t know what to do! Please don’t go!!”

Fan Xi didn’t have the heart to shake her off. 

During his hesitation, Su Yang’s shadow disappeared into the lake covered with floating ices.

The vortex’s strength wasn’t very powerful, but it still carried Su Yang towards the direction of the current. 

He tried very hard to keep his eyes open, not caring for the sharp pain from the chilling water as he searched through the objects under the water.

It was not until he got close to the center of the most turbulent current that Su Yang spotted the white figure curled up against a crack in a stone under the water. Luckily, Gu Feidi was dressed in white today, making him eye-catching in the dark water. There was a large gash on his back and one of his legs was stuck in the crack. He was struggling to free himself from the boulder by sparing no effort trying to lift the rock. During the movement, the wound on his back was irritated and more blood flowed out, dying the surrounding water in crimson. 

Su Yang quickly swam along the current, trying to figure a way to help Gu Feidi move the boulder. However, he found that the crack in the stone that caught Gu Feidi’s leg was the source of the vortex in the lake!

Every time Gu Feidi tried to move the boulder, the current would push him into the crevice and dragged him deeper. After several unsuccessful attempts, Gu Feidi looked up at Su Yang and stopped his struggles.

Su Yang didn’t know why, it could be the blurry vision in the water, but he saw a touch of despair on Gu Feidi’s face crystal clearly. Just like the expression he made when he was heavily injured back at the forest—fragile and helpless, he could only quietly wait and accept what fate had arranged for him.

Su Yang swam closer and tried to pull on Gu Feidi’s arm to free him. 

Gu Feidi, however, reached out and pushed him away. He waved in the direction of the water surface to sign for him to leave.

Su Yang swam closer again.

Only for Gu Feidi to push him away again. 

Su Yang bit down hard, tried a different approach, and went behind Gu Feidi. He held onto Gu Feidi tightly in his arms and pushed his back against the other side of the stone crevice. 

Sending all his internal energy to his feet, he gave a hard kick on the boulder that blocked Gu Feidi’s leg.

The boulder swayed but did not move. Instead, Gu Feidi was sucked in deeper.

Su Yang reached out and patted Gu Feidi’s leg and then pointed to the boulder under his feet. He opened his five fingers wide in front of Gu Feidi’s eyes, then folded his thumb, then his index finger down, until he made a fist. Gu Feidi understood what he meant. He will push hard with Su Yang at the same time. With the combined force of the two, they kicked the large stone hard and moved it less than a meter. 

The next second, they were swept into the cave behind the boulder by an unstoppable current. 

With the rapid flow of water, the boulder was shoved back to its original spot, blocking the underground cave once again, a cloud of dust quietly stirring in the aftermath. 

Su Yang felt like his chest was about to burst.

He resisted the discomfort caused by the cold and the lack of oxygen as he carried Gu Feidi along the cave channel filled with water. Gu Feidi had not yet lost consciousness. He was average at swimming, but with the narrow passage, he could only paddle along the cave. They couldn’t communicate in the water, but that didn't stop their cooperation as they progressed forward at a decent pace. 

However, Gu Feidi had been underwater for a longer time. He gradually stopped as they progressed further.

Su Yang clenched his teeth. He switched to putting his arm in Gu Feidi’s underarm and dragged them both on.

Hang on!

He cheered himself on in the dark.

—Come’on Chen Suyang, you won’t die! You transmigrated here. You tried to kill yourself so many times alright. As long as you don’t give up, you will come out alive along with Gu Feidi!!

Hang on! Persistence is victory!

In the end, just as Su Yang was about to faint and could only struggle by instinct, the cave wall vanished. He used his own buoyancy to distinguish the correct direction and emerged from the water with his last strength. 

As soon as his head was out of the water, he took a deep breath, followed by violent coughs. The inside of his mouth tasted and smelled like the rusty flavor of blood.

He held Gu Feidi’s unconscious form toward the water's surface and swam forward aimlessly. 

With no hint of light in this cave, Su Yang couldn’t see a single thing, he could only explore by luck.

The cold water was rapidly swallowing his physical strength, which made him slowly see black spots in his vision. But he knew he could not lose his consciousness yet. Once he fainted, not only he but also Gu Feidi, sleeping in his arms, would be buried here. 

Losing track of how long he was swimming for, his knee finally hit a hard stone bank.

He climbed onto the bank and dragged Gu Feidi up. Once he settled the both of them, he immediately went to check his unconscious companion’s breathing and pulse. 

He was fine, still breathing, and there was a pulse. 

Su Yang breathed a sigh of relief, and then he noticed that his whole body was chilled to the bone.

His drenched clothes were stuck to his body, mercilessly stealing his body heat. He hastily removed all the fabric on his body, twisted them to get most of the liquid out, then wiped the excess water on his body. Feeling in the dark, he helped Gu Feidi take off his clothes and dried his body. Then he flipped him over to examine his back wound. 

Maybe it was the cold, but the wound wasn’t bleeding as much. Su Yang took out a random soft middle robe and wrung it as dry as possible, and pressed it on the gash to stop the bleeding.

In the vast darkness, a human’s other senses become extremely sensitive with the absence of sight. Su Yang suddenly realized that he had not heard Gu Feidi’s breathing for a while now. 

So he put a finger under Gu Feidi’s nose. 

This time, his heart almost jumped out of his mouth. 

—Gu Feidi had not only stopped breathing, but the pulse at his wrist was almost gone. Su Yang could only feel a faint tremor from the other’s neck.

Not knowing if it was because Su Yang couldn't feel as well with his hands from the cold or what. 

He suppressed his panic and turned Gu Feidi over. Not caring for the back wound, he put his knee on Gu Feidi’s abdomen to help him spew up the accumulated water he swallowed, and started performing CPR. 

This skill was taught in a mandatory class in his high school. In the beginning, all the students thought this was unnecessary, but in order to pass the class’s CPR exam, they could only practice on the dummy repeatedly. 

Su Yang tried hard to recall his time practicing on the dummy, and extracted fragments of memory from the blurred image as much as possible—the position used, the strength behind each press, and the rhythm. The key points of artificial ventilation were the speed and strength that one used to blow the air. All of these were closely related to saving the person, making any mistake was unacceptable. 

Su Yang felt he had never been so serious and focused in his life.

Even when he was on the stage for the first time, he wasn’t as serious as he is now.

He repeated four cycles of chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth breathing, again and again.

With no emergency line to call, he could only rely on himself, and pray that Gu Feidi’s protagonist halo would activate faster. 

As the protagonist, how could he die in such a place?!

Even if he floated here alone, it was impossible for him to die, not to mention there was someone here to do CPR on him!

Gu Feidi must live!

Su Yang repeated the CPR process while reciting those words inside his head like a broken record.

For a long, long time.

Gu Feidi suddenly trembled. 

Su Yang raised his head away from Gu Feidi’s face. Full of excitement, as he was about to call out his name, Gu Feidi suddenly hit him hard in the chest. 

Su Yang wasn’t ready to respond to the forceful internal energy in Gu Feidi’s palm, Feeling as if his internal organs were stabbed by a blade, not only that, the blade also started to twist and turn violently while it was still embedded in his body. Su Yang spat out a mouthful of blood.

The impact hit him against the rough rock wall behind him. He was speechless for a moment.

“You…” Gu Feidi clenched his teeth, as his voice rang loudly in the dark, “...Dared to take advantage during a dangerous situation!” 

Su Yang coughed a few times and tasted the blood in his mouth. 

He said, wronged, “I was trying to save you…”

Gu Feidi sneered, “Oh? Save me? How can taking off my clothes be saving me? Not to mention the…the rude act you were doing!”

After swallowing a new mouthful of blood, he said in a hoarse voice, “You…you weren’t breathing and your heart wasn’t beating. I could…I could only give you CPR…And I took off your clothes because they were wet. It was too cold…you were going to freeze to death…”

No reply from Gu Feidi’s side for a long time.

Su Yang leaned against the stone wall and finally slowed down his breathing. He was ready to open his mouth to continue to explain. However, Gu Feidi asked, “Just now, I was not breathing?”

“That’s right…” Su Yang replied, “Not even a single heartbeat too.”

“That was ‘Oblivion’”. Gu Feidi clarified. 

Su Yang was dumbfounded. “What?”

Gu Feidi humphed once and explained, “There is a tortoise style healing method in Path to Home. It forces the user into an unconscious state when they are heavily injured. Then ‘Oblivion’ would automatically start. At that time, my breathing would vanish, my heartbeat would weaken, but my internal energy would cycle itself to help me heal.”

Hearing this, Su Yang was stupefied in the dark.

Gu Feidi sneered and mocked, “If you said you were searching for my tortoise-like heartbeat or breathing to determine if I needed air transfer to be saved. Why not search for my internal energy? If you did, you would know that you didn’t need to save me.”

Su Yang stayed silent for a long time before muttering in a quiet voice, “...I didn’t know.”

He didn’t know that there was a way to slow down breathing and heartbeat to the point of stopping in this world! In his understanding, being without breathing and a heartbeat was the same as dying. Who had the time and effort to also check for internal energy during a near death crisis?!

This single face slip was too wronged and uncalled for!

Thinking of this, Su Yang coughed out a mouthful of blood again.

The cave fell into silence. 

For a moment, Gu Feidi seemed to drag his clothes that had fallen on the ground, fumble in the dark, and began to cover himself. 

Su Yang quickly advised him, “The clothes are still wet. You will lose your body temperature faster if you put them on. You will freeze to death!”

Gu Feidi ridiculed Su Yang but ultimately ignored him. 

After a while, he suddenly sucked in a quick breath, as if out of anger, and hissed, “You…you also took off your clothes!?”

Su Yang mumbled, “I already told you, it’s easy to freeze to death if you wear the wet clothes here…”

Before he could finish, Gu Feidi charged forward and pressed him against the stone wall.

Gu Feidi’s voice was filled with rage as if he was about to explode, “What did you do to me?! You…did you actually?!”

Su Yang rolled his eyes.

He used his internal energy to push Gu Feidi away, also gave him another kick just because he could, and rebuked, “What else can I do to you! Even if I was GAY, I wouldn’t want to do anything to a kid! I was really saving you! Saving you! Aw, fuck 阿西吧 is word adopted from Korean word, it means dang or shoot.…You really piss me off! Cough…cough…”

He turned over and knelt on the ground, coughing painfully. 

The internal energy circulating in his body actually couldn’t bring him any warmth. When he used it, he felt colder, which brought shivers all over his body.

Gu Feidi, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly humphed again and threw a piece of cloth onto Su Yang. 

Su Yang caught the corner of the cloth, and was stunned for a moment. 

—This cloth was dry and warm, how could this be possible?

“With your internal energy, it is very simple to dry your clothes and hair.”

Gu Feidi’s tone was ice cold, like their current environment. He threw another dry cloth from the dark and added, “Don’t make excuses for your actions. Fortunately, you like to wear silk material clothes, so I made no mistake in separating our clothes out. Otherwise, I might accidentally wear your clothes, just thinking about it is distasteful...” 

The hands that caught the clothes paused. 

Su Yang scoffed at Gu Feidi in his heart as he put on his clothes in disorder. Then he raised his hand to cover his mouth and coughed in a muffled voice. 

The slap Gu Feidi gave him was considered holding back, but to him it wasn’t held back enough. Even now, his lungs still felt like they were burning. 

Tsk, such an ungrateful brat. 

He got beaten up for trying to save him. What was the saying? Bite the hand that feeds him?

Su Yang curled his lips, stumbled around, and put on all the clothes Gu Feidi had handed over, but he continued to shiver. 

He was still freezing as if he drank a gallon of cold water that filled all his internal organs. No matter how much he used his internal energy, he could not drive out the chill. His wet hair was clinging to his shoulder. He tried to dry it with his internal energy, but it had the opposite effect to what Gu Feidi described. The hair even crystallized fine icicles.  

“Hey.” Su Yang asked Gu Feidi in a trembling voice, “Anyone could dry their clothes and hair with internal energy, right?”

Gu Feidi scorned, “Naturally, anyone could do it. Don’t dodge the issue!”

Su Yang rolled his eyes and demanded, “If you don’t believe me, then feel my hair!”

Gu Feidi did not utter a word for a long time. 

After a moment, he slowly moved beside Su Yang and raised his hand. From Su Yang’s body, he moved up along the shoulder until he touched the frozen hair.

“You…” Gu Feidi said in surprise, “...Why is ice forming?”

Su Yang sighed, “I did what you said. Used my internal energy to dry my hair.”

Gu Feidi: “...”

He hesitated and said, “...I am afraid it might be tied to what you practiced for your internal energy. Six Night Flower Burial and Blooming of the Nine Glacial are cold nature mental skills. Combined with cold water, they formed ice.”

Su Yang suddenly burst into laughter.

Gu Feidi, who was just humiliated, snapped. “What are you laughing at?”

Su Yang blurted, “Do you believe me now when I said I took off your clothes not for the sake of indecency?”

Gu Feidi obstinately said, “Who would believe you!”

Su Yang continued, “Furthermore, I didn’t know what this ‘Oblivion’ is. When I saw you not breathing, the first thing that popped up in my head was C…air transfer to save you. I did everything out of good intentions, but you ended up hitting me as soon as you woke up. You made me sad…”

Gu Feidi snorted coldly and did not reply.

After the cave stayed peaceful for a while, Su Yang laughed again. “Believe it or not, I am not the kind of person who would assault and force other people to do immoral acts. Now I have no idea where we landed, or whether the people from the House of Jade are looking for us. For now, we can only rely on each other, so you better trust in me this time. We need to think up an idea to get out of here.”

“We can get out.” Gu Feidi said calmly, “If there is a draft in the cave, there must be an exit.”

“...Huh?” Su Yang was dumbfounded.

Gu Feidi snorted. “Spoiled brat.”

Finishing that, he stretched out his hand and pulled Su Yang off from the ground. “I got the general direction. Come with me.”

The two ventured forward, they groped in the dark to advance, and occasionally they had to wade toward the exit. Unfortunately, about hundreds of steps later, their formally dried clothes were drenched. 

Su Yang attempted to drive away the cold with his internal energy, but instead, he was hit with a chill enough for him to tremble uncontrollably. When they finally stepped on dry ground, he felt a sense of lethargy.

“Gu Feidi, could you do me a favour?” Su Yang stored his persona into his pocket and pleaded, “Would you help me dry my clothes? I am freezing…”

He said this while his teeth were chattering.

Gu Feidi snorted discontentedly. He reached out and held onto Su Yang’s waist to use his internal energy to help him dry his clothes. 

He felt Su Yang’s shudder under his palm, then he suddenly retreated his hand and reached back toward Su Yang’s forehead instead. 

“Tsk, why are you so cold!” Gu Feidi scolded.

“I…I what?” Su Yuan questioned, “Very cold?”

Gu Feidi pondered a bit before saying, “Like a dead person.”

Su Yang exclaimed unhappily while stroking the spot Gu Feidi touched, “What are you talking about! But I don’t feel cold.”

Gu Feidi took Su Yang’s hands and spelled out, “Because your hands are just as cold.”

After drying their clothes and shoes, they continued into the cave. 

Finally, thin cracks appeared at the top of the cave, leaking faint light which barely illuminated the two’s vision. 

Gu Feidi stopped and stared at the dark red clothes on him, silently. 

Su Yang sluggishly looked down at himself in a daze. Great, he was covered in Gu Feidi’s white clothes, which were so dirty it could be mistaken as a brown color. 

Gu Feidi turned around and demanded, “Switch it back.”

Su Yang thought: ‘It’s only the outer clothes that were swapped, we are still wearing our own inner robes. Why do we need to change it back? I didn’t know Gu Feidi was such a mysophobe…’

Ending his inner complaint, he raised his hands slightly to remove his collar, but he was hit with a dizzy spell that was hard to resist. 

Gu Feidi’s expression suddenly shifted, and he stepped forward to support Su Yang. 

“Hey, you—”

Dark spots crept in his vision, and without a warning, he fell softly into Gu Feidi’s arms. 

Gu Feidi’s body stiffened for a moment. 

He settled the person in his arms and stood still for a moment before he laid the man flat on the ground. He grasped the unconscious man’s wrist to examine his internal energy. 

As soon as his internal energy entered Su Yang’s meridians, a freezing chill washed over Gu Feidi. But he didn’t let go, his face became more and more grave. In the end, his eyebrows furrowed tightly and his eyes were very dark. 

He sighed and embraced Su Yang back into his arms to stimulate his internal energy, trying to warm Su Yang’s freezing body. 

“Su Yang, you better not die on me…” Gu Feidi murmured, “If you die here after working so hard to save me, I’m afraid…”

After a long time, Su Yang’s body finally stopped feeling like a block of ice. 

Gu Feidi carried the man on his back. Even when the sleeping figure rubbed against his wound, and made him frown, he did not put Su Yang down. He only clenched his teeth and searched for the source of the breeze and followed it along the cave.

* * *

At the Jade Mirror Lake...

The broken ice floating on the water surface refroze under the harsh temperature, but it did not return to its original smoothness. 

Wang Ke stood on the lake surface under the original ice waterfall, looking down at the ice layer under his feet. Mo Shixiong, Li Shijie, and Di Ling stood behind him without saying a single word.

Fan Xi and Pu Lingyun already changed into a set of clean clothes and were now standing by, waiting for the seniors’ decision. 

Pu Lingyun had cried several times, obvious by her puffy red eyes and nose. She felt very remorseful, choked with sobs, “This is all my fault…I shouldn’t have acted so unrestrained, especially shouldn't have started the fight at the time…I-I didn’t expect things would turn to this.”

Li Shijie held the crying girl in her arms, stroked her hair and smoothed, “This will be a learning experience. You are not a child anymore, you should think more about your actions in the future. Avoid being capricious all the time.”

Pu Lingyun threw herself on her mentor and cried bitterly.

Fan Xi lowered his head and murmured, “I was the one who made the proposal first. This was all my fault…”

Li Shijie patted Pu Lingyun on the back and urged toward Fan Xi, “That’s enough, it’s not all you two’s fault that this happened. No one could have expected that the frozen waterfall would break. Chi Tong as the senior not only did not stop you all, but also joined in on the activity. That is punishable!”

Fan Xi’s face was pale, he said as he gritted his teeth. “Since the seniors are here, I-I will head back first. Both Yunzhan and Chi Tong are injured, not to mention Luo Yin in a feverish state. I should go back and look after them. I will accept any punishment once they are better...”

This stunned Li Shijie for a moment before she nodded in agreement. 

Pu Lingyun also straightened up, wiped away a handful of tears and determined, “I…I will go too. I am the same as Fan Xi, I will accept any punishment once everyone is well...”

Li Shijie stroked Pu Lingyun’s hair, and sighed, “Alright, go.”

When they left, Wang Ke suddenly turned around and cautioned, “Prepare to break the ice. We need to search the entire lake no matter what. We need to find their bodies, at least...”

Di Ling, who had her eyes closed the whole time, slowly opened them up and said in a low voice, “I can’t hear anything. It’s too chaotic underneath, I can’t locate them.”

Mo Yun put his hand on her shoulder and reassured, “Don’t force yourself, go rest at the shore. Shou Chu Shixiong and I will search under the ice.”

But of course, they found nothing in the lake.

This lake’s size was not too large, and it was a little over ten meters in depth. But Wang Ke and Mo Yun searched under the water for most of the day until the sun was slanted to the west. They came out empty-handed.

“They may have found a way out of the predicament.” Wang Ke pondered for a moment and added, “The waterfall pours into this lake all year around, but it never overflows. There must be passages under the lake that we don’t know about. Fan Xi also said that during all the chaos, he saw a whirlpool in the lake. The two must have found an underwater tunnel.”

Li Shijie agreed, “If that’s the case…I can only pray they find a way back.”

They had no choice but to return to the House of Jade and meet up at Chi Tong and Luo Yin’s residence.

This large incident resulted in two disciples missing, two injured, and three that were more or less sick from falling into the frozen lake. All three burned with high fever. 

Wang Ke requested Old Qi to visit from Mount Mei Zhu as he was proficient in the medical art. After a quick diagnosis, he prescribed medicine for the ailing. He also carefully examined the unconscious Chi Tong, who he determined had sustained a heavy blow, thus why they fell into a coma and remained unconscious.

After a long discussion, they decided to leave the injured Xu Yunzhan with Chi Tong, and have Mo Yun and Di Ling watch over them. Pu Lingyun and Fan Xi were taken back by Li Shijie without mentioning the matter of punishment. 

Luo Yin had been sitting by Chi Tong’s side the whole time. No matter what others urged, he refused to leave their side. In the end, Old Qi stabbed him unconscious with a silver needle coated with medicine, and they carried him to rest on the bed beside Chi Tong’s.

This kept them busy till the moon reached its peak, when the chaotic day finally quieted down a bit. 

Di Ling stood in the yard. Her unfocused eyes looked up at the sky, appearing like she was lost in her thoughts. 

Mo Yun came forward and put his hand on her shoulder and encouraged, “Since the two children are no longer in the lake, they must be on some sort of special adventure. You don’t have to worry.”

After a long silence, she replied, “I am not worried about them. According to Fan Xi, when Su Yang went back to the frozen lake, if it wasn't for the unexpected encounter, he wouldn't have disappeared with Gu Feidi. What I am thinking is, why didn't Shizun predict this disaster?”

Mo Yun narrowed his eyes and said, “What Shimei said was very logical.”

Di Ling continued, “Five years ago, a fire started in the pottery creation hall, or two years ago when Chi Tong almost went into qi deviation. Shizun’s incoming letters foresaw both events. Even in seclusion, she knows everything happening within the House of the Jade like the back of her hand. But why didn’t she intercept this large calamity that happened to the young disciples?”

Mo Yun asked, “Are you blaming Shizun?”

Di Ling shook her head and clarified, “No, but I have a guess…could it be that Shizun knew this incident wouldn’t be dangerous? Could it be that she wanted this to happen to Su Yang and Gu Feidi?”

* * *

Gu Feidi carried Su Yang, who was dead to the world, and walked along the cave for a whole day.

He had only a thin middle robe on him, as his outer robe was wrapped around Su Yang, who was breathing weakly behind him. But even his weak breath brought a coolness that could not be ignored on the back of Gu Feidi’s neck.

He lowered his gaze and used his internal energy to warm up the ice cold Su Yang.

Since Su Yang fell unconscious, his body temperature has been dropping. No matter how much Gu Feidi warmed him up with his internal energy, as soon as he stopped, Su Yang’s body temperature would start to drop again. 

Gu Feidi didn’t know whether this resulted from Su Yang’s internal energy, but if Su Yang’s breathing and pulse fell as weak as his body temperature, this would turn into an extremely dangerous situation. 

So he had to send his internal energy over and over to maintain Su Yang’s body temperature. Once he used up all of his energy, he would regulate his breathing to recover quickly, before he sent it all toward Su Yang’s way.

It wasn’t until dusk that Gu Feidi finally saw a sky full of sunset clouds in a narrow crevice in the distance.

He immediately quickened his pace toward the exit of the cave.

Outside the cave was a quiet valley.

Under the glow of sunset, a shadow covered the valley in the midst of the sunset in the west, and only a piece of orange-red sunlight was left on the high mountain peak in the distance. Under the sun stood a pavilion with white walls and black tiles inlaid on the cliff which was the same style as the buildings in the House of Jade.

Seeing the pavilion, Gu Feidi’s eyes burst into a brilliant light. He reinforced Su Yang on his back, tightened his lips, and walked toward the mountain wall where the pavilion was located. 

Along the steep mountain wall was a plank road which was less than one meter wide. When Gu Feidi finally arrived at the pavilion platform, the mountain completely hid the sun. The whole building fell into darkness, and it looked gloomy under the grey-blue sky.

“Excuse me, is anyone home?” Gu Feidi raised his voice and asked.

There was no response from within the pavilion. 

He asked again, twice. Seeing that the building remained quiet, he went forward, opened the door, and entered.

In the dark room, he set Su Yang on a random spot on the ground and searched all over the place for a moment. He found a flame stick under the lampstand of the side room and lit the two lamps in the main hall. 

This pavilion was not large, but it was divided into two floors. The lower floor had a main hall plus two side rooms. One side of which was filled with bookcases and antique-and-curio shelves. The tables and the chairs in the main room were spotless, and the ink on the desk had not dried up. Obviously, someone lived here.

He hesitantly rushed upstairs and called for the owner, but still, no one answered. He took a lamp and went to explore the second floor. 

There were two bedrooms on the second floor, one large and one small. The two rooms were complete with furnishings and bedding. There were even wooden buckets filled with water and dressing tables completed with different appliances, showing obvious traces of life.

Gu Feidi finally decided to stay temporarily. 

He put the lamp on the smaller bedroom dresser table and went downstairs to carry Su Yang back upstairs. He then removed the dirty clothes, shoes, and socks.

He saw a large bloodstain on Su Yang’s white middle layer, making his fingers tremble. 

An unknown thought went through his head. With a gloomy look, he held out his hand and carefully lifted the front of Su Yang’s clothes stained with blood.

Unexpectedly, there was no wound on the body.

Gu Feidi released a breath of relief. 

He rubbed his fingers for a moment on the blood that had already solidified and then wrapped the clothes back on Su Yang. He laid Su Yang on the bed and covered him with a heavy quilt.

That night, Gu Feidi hardly slept.

After he regained more of his internal energy, he slipped into the blanket to help warm Su Yang up, whose temperature still did not recover and was still out cold. Gu Feidi dared not underestimate the situation. 

As the morning sun rose, the sky gradually lit up. He caressed Su Yang’s hands again. Those hands no longer felt like the ominous cold from last night.

He was completely relieved at last.

He helped cover up Su Yang and went downstairs. 

There was still no one in the pavilion.

With the help of sunlight, he searched the whole house carefully and found no way back to the House of Jade.

Finally, he stood in front of the bookcase and looked down at a set of mental skill manuals on the lower case.

“Scarlet Feather Phoenix Tree?” He mumbled out the four words on the cover of the manual and gently opened the title page. 

After reading only the first two lines from a general chapter of the mental skill manual, he was completely shocked. Without obtaining the consent of the house owner, he held up the manual with both of his hands and read it carefully. 

Immersed in the manual, he lost track of time until he heard a sound behind him, as he awakened from a dream-like state. 

“This Scarlet Feather Phoenix Tree is a righteous sun mental skill. It took me a few years to create it, and just as I completed it, the manual got its first reader.”

He snapped his head to look at the speaker, and he dropped the manual, but it was quickly picked up by a small bird before it hit the ground. The bird brought it back to the woman dressing green leaning against the door of the side room. 

His eyes landed on the bird resting on her shoulder. After a brief moment, he cupped his fist and saluted, “Shizun.”

Qing Bo, being greeted, said with a smile, “Maybe it was your fate that you found this place.”

Her statement stunned Gu Feidi, but he did not ask what this fate was. Instead, he immediately informed her, “Shizun, Su Yang is also here. There is something strange happening to him, I was wondering if you can…”

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that. He practices more toward the cold. As he tried to use internal energy inside the cold water, a cold energy from the cold lake entered his body, unable to be discharged.” Qing Bo explained, “You have helped him through the most difficult time. Once he wakes up, it will be a blessing in disguise. Having this Apparition of the Frozen Lake in his body, he will get twice the result with half the effort in the future as he practices cold nature skills.”

Gu Feidi was silent for a moment and said, “But he hasn't woken up yet. I am really worried.”

Qing Bo looked at him for a long time before saying brightly, “You care about him.”

He looked down at the ground and said nothing.

She continued, “Su Yang was born in the Yantan Divine Sect. The whole martial arts community of the Central Plains dubbed them the ‘Evil Sect’ and always wanted to eradicate them. Yet, why did you…willingly carry him on your back, care for him the entire night? Has the thought of letting him die to the cold energy ever cross your mind? To get rid of the great calamity that has yet to appear on the Central Plain?”

Hearing these questions, he frowned. He answered without the slightest hesitation, “The House of Jade doesn’t talk about the forces residing outside of its wall. Su Yang is my fellow disciple, how could I abandon him?”

Qing Bo asked again, “If both of you finished your apprenticeships, return to the Jianghu, and end up crossing swords with each other to the death. If that happened, what would you do?”

The new question stunned him for a moment.

Then he lowered his gaze, the emotion in his eyes turned very serious. 

“If he is really like the rumours floating around the Jianghu, abducts and plunders, behaves unscrupulously…I won’t be merciful.” He answered.

Qing Bo laughed. “But he saved you at the lake.”

Gu Feidi said full of determination, “I will repay him with my life.”

“If that’s the case…he never abducted or plundered anyone and did nothing bad. He is just standing on the opposite side, believing in different beliefs, and aiming to clash against you in life and death. What are you going to do?” Qing Bo asked with a smile.

He opened his mouth, but words did not come out. 

After a long time, he murmured, “Shizun, Su Yang, he…perhaps he is without the freedom to act independently.”

The master was surprised. “Is that so?”

He looked back down at the ground, not speaking.

She blinked slowly. And as if she remembered something, she couldn’t help bursting out laughing.

She cast a sidelong glance at Gu Feidi and said lazily, “During that time when the Evil Sect's Leader rampaged on the Central Plains without any obstacle, he also collected and had many male courtesans. Therefore, a rumour started that…whatever practice he was studying, he required many male attendants as human cauldrons nightly for dual cultivation to complete his training…”

He suddenly raised his head to look at her, expression strange. 

She went on, “...It is also said that every person he did dual cultivation with, would have a poison like, blood-red spider lily tattooed on their back. They are shackled by the curse of the flower. If the person who dual cultivated with the leader leaves him for too long, they would gradually weaken and die…Is that what you mean by Su Yang is without freedom to act independently?”

Gu Feidi lowered his eyelashes again. After a long time, he asked in a low voice, “Does Shizun know that he has a tattoo on his back?”

Who knew that when she heard his question, she burst out laughing again. 

After laughing enough, she seized him up with a mysterious expression and questioned, “Why do you care so much about his tattoo?”

After a short silence, he replied, “I am just...very curious.”

She raised an eyebrow.. “Oh?”

He explained, “Living with him in the past six months, I saw that he was not as unbearable as the rumours say he is. During the chaos at the Jade Mirror Lake, he came to my rescue. I-I felt like he is not the kind of person who would act ruthlessly and use vicious means like the Leader of the Evil Sect. He has a gifted talent—if that's the reason he is being controlled by the Evil Sect’s Leader…Honestly, this would make anyone wring their hands...”

“This is the only reason…”

Qing Bo looked disappointed for some reason. But she suddenly turned around and inquired, “You are sixteen this year?”

After a moment of shock, he replied, “I will be seventeen in the first month.”

She nodded and smiled. “The manual you were reading, Scarlet Feather Phoenix Tree, did you enjoy it?”

He was shaken by the fast change of topic for a moment, and admitted after a short pause, “This mental skill is exquisite, and it really complements Path to Home. I enjoyed it very much.”

She chuckled and suggested, “That’s even better than. Why don’t you stay here in the future? I will guide you through the manual.”

This was too sudden, he was beyond surprised and had no time to show an expression of appreciation, but could only be stunned and stupefied on the spot.

She added more, “You don’t have to worry about Su Yang. I will send him back to the Lively Spring Garden so he can continue to study the Blooming of the Nine Glacials under Di Ling. Although the House of Jade doesn’t care about the forces outside of its wall, you and Su Yang shouldn’t have any more involvement. You stay here and don’t go seeing him until you finish your apprenticeship.”

He was at a loss when he heard this.

But he quickly recovered his senses and took a half step back, cupping his fists to give her a salute before saying solemnly, “I will follow Shizun’s instruction.”

She chuckled. “I will send someone to fetch your clothes and daily necessities soon. Now you are going to read Scarlet Feather Phoenix Tree. I will check on Su Yang, you don’t have to follow.”

He nodded his head in agreement. 

Watching her go upstairs, he secretly clenched his first, before turning around to sit down beside the manual, and began reading the first chapter.

He was soon immersed into the marvelous subtlety of this mental skill and once again forgot the passage of time. Once he finished through the first chapter and looked up from the manual, he discovered that the twilight glow from the sunset shone in from the window.

It was quiet in the pavilion. 

He put down the manual and went upstairs to the small bedroom. However, he found that both Qing Bo and Su Yang were no longer there, leaving only a folded blanket in a corner of the bed.

A note was left on the dresser in the small bedroom: I will take Su Yang back to the Lively Spring Garden. The small stove in the north side hall contains simmered porridge. Eat some if you are hungry.

Gu Feidi put down the letter and walked slowly toward the window. He pushed it open and looked at the red sunset sky.

His dark pupils were dyed with a layer of golden crimson by the setting sun, but there was something indescribably complicated on his face. No one in the world knew what was on his mind.