Laughing at His Own Stupidity.
Listening to the man who referred to himself as ‘this one’ made all of Gu Feidi’s hair stand up. He drew his sword and unconsciously prepared his internal energy that was engraved into him during battle.
Which triggered the Gu Poison and his complexion turned pale as he coughed up a mouthful of blood.
Su Yang hurriedly supported him and whispered, “Stop using your internal energy! Why are you always like this…”
Gu Feidi grabbed Su Yang’s hand. “Su Yang, he is—”
The figure in white dashed like flashes of lightning and before Gu Feidi could finish, he went flying backwards with a strike of great force at his chest. He slammed against the cave wall.
He slid down the cave wall, and once he fell down on the ground on his knees, he couldn’t summon the strength to get back up. During his struggle, he spewed out another mouthful of blood.
Su Yang was shocked.
Watching Gu Feidi getting hurt with his own eyes, he wanted to rush to him and check his injuries.
However, before he could turn back, a hand closed around his neck in an iron grip, then he was hoisted up and rammed into a standing stalagmite with a great force.
Su Yang used his internal energy and drew out his blade to perform one of the simplest attacks from the Divide Lotus Technique, Cleanse. He raised his sword upward in a slanted angle, toward his opponent’s heart.
With an indifferent expression, the man released the hand around Su Yang’s neck and twirled to the side, out of harm’s way.
Using the Cherished Flowers Step, he chained three of the Divide Lotus Techniques into a combo: Cleansing Ripple, Glimmering Jade, and Pouring Crimson. But the man seemed to be very familiar with the sword technique and avoided his every move effortlessly.
His opponent was very strong.
Su Yang gripped his sword handle tighter with determination. He switched his technique into the Gliding Blossom Art. First, the Spiced Autumn Osmanthus, a series of rapid blade movements like wielding a brush painting, then quickly followed by Jade Peony’s downward slash, and finished with Treasured Winter Plum’s piercing thrust.
—He learned the Gliding Blossom Art during his time in the House of Jade. Against someone from the Evil Sect, it should be an easy cleanup, as the man would never know how to counter such a technique.
Unexpectedly, the man in white took a single glance at Su Yang’s attack and dodged the three sequences that Su Yang compacted and connected seamlessly with ease.
So far, the mysterious figure still has not drawn his own blade.
With both the Divine Lotus Technique and the Gliding Blossom Art being easily dodged by the man, Su Yang clenched his teeth and transformed Treasured Winter Plum into his own creation, Drunkard’s Plum Wine Slash.
Pouring out his internal energy, Su Yang’s movements were fast as lightning as he blocked all the man’s escape routes.
With no wiggle space, the man’s expression remained unchanged as he—what it looked to be—used his bare hand and caught Su Yang’s sword.
Hearing the clash of metal, Su Yang found that the man was not without weapons.
The man held a very thin needle between his index and thumb, a needle with two inches of length. The man managed to stop an attack that Su Yang poured all his internal energy into without a hitch.
A feeling of dread filled Su Yang’s heart.
Now he was sure of the man before he could be on the same level as Di Ling Shijie.
Before the other side started to attack, he had already shut down all of Su Yang’s strikes. Su Yang feared that even if he had Gu Feidi at full strength fighting alongside him, they still would not be this man’s match.
What should he do?
Run?
But…if he runs now, how would he save Gu Feidi without learning the treatment?
Su Yang continued his onslaught, but none of his sequences could touch the man, who hadn’t counter-attacked, staying only on the defensive side.
Since the brute-force attack would not work, Su Yang sheathed his thin sword.
“Oi, who are you?” He acted as his persona at full force. He demanded, with a raised chin, “Why did you not salute when you saw this Young Master!”
The man in white stared at Su Yang quietly, making no movement or saying a single word.
Su Yang continued to maintain his superior air and cautiously took two steps backwards. “Since the Sect Leader had you guarding here, this Young Master needed to find a skill…Step aside!”
The man remained in place.
After a while, he asked, “Who are you?”
Su Yang carried his act. “I am this Sect’s Young Master! You don’t recognise me?”
The man threw out another question. “Since you are the Sect’s Young Master, why didn’t you recognize me?”
In the corner, Gu Feidi was still struggling to stand up as he looked at Su Yang in disbelief.
But he couldn’t speak at all. If he tried to make a sound, he would surely vomit out more blood.
The man came closer to Su Yang and murmured, “You have the courage to speak to me like this.”
The man’s intense intimidation suffocated Su Yang as all the hair on his body stood upright. A cool chill crept from his heel to the top of his head, which he could even feel in his soul. He couldn’t move a single muscle in his body.
The man reached out his hand and loosened Su Yang’s collar.
Su Yang woke up from his paralyzed state and suddenly made a turn to escape, but was held down by the person behind him. His back was against a stone pillar and quickly followed by a painful jab to the joints between his arm and wrist.
Su Yang was sweating cold sweat from the pain drilled into his wrists. He couldn’t hold back his pained cry as he tried to break out of the man’s hold using other parts of his body.
Gu Feidi was holding on to his robe’s lapel and did his best to stand up, but the Poisonous Gu didn’t stop its torment, making him unable to straighten his legs as he fell back down to his knees.
The way the man temporarily disabled Su Yang was without mercy. Now locking his prey in place, he reached out and pried open Su Yang’s robe with both hands, and stopped once he could see Su Yang’s elbow. The cuff wrapped around and further irritated Su Yang’s dislocated wrists, making his entire body tremble and covering his vision with black spots. Showing no sympathy for the pain he was in, the man flipped Su Yang’s body over and caressed the flame-like tattoo on his back, the red epiphyllum tattoo.
The man’s fingers were like ice.
Yet his touch was so gentle.
This action should have no reason for Su Yang to fear, but he was scared witless.
He was shaking all over, and he couldn’t tell whether it was from the pain or his fear. But his throat was closed up, and both legs were boneless. He wanted to talk but no words could escape from his throat; he wanted to break into a run but he couldn’t even summon the power to walk.
After the man had the time to study Su Yang’s tattoo, he turned Su Yang to face him. He pinched Su Yang’s jaw and lifted his face so they could see eye-to-eye.
Su Yang jerked his head away and swung his leg to kick the man.
The man simply blocked the kick and punched Su Yang in the stomach. Su Yang curled into himself and knelt down, reaching to the ground and dry vomiting.
Then, the man grabbed Su Yang’s short hair to force him to lift his face. His other hand used the same amount of force to do the same thing to Su Yang’s jaw, like his wrists.
Su Yang gasped from the pain and tears rolled down his face. His breathing became uneven as he lost every ounce of his strength.
At the corner not far away, Gu Feidi witnessed everything on the ground. His eyes were full of hatred and fixed on the man in white. He clenched tighter on his clothes as he tried to climb back up.
The man reached into Su Yang’s mouth and closely touched all the teeth. Once he was done, he drew his fingers out and set Su Yang’s jaw back in place.
Opening and closing his jaw to test it was functioning properly, he humphed at the man as tears continued to rain from his eyes.
“Not an imposter…” The man picked Su Yang’s jaw back up and gazed at him with an indifferent expression. After a moment of thinking, he said, “...If you are the genuine one, could it be that there is such a thing as taking a host through rebirth?”
Hearing this, Su Yang felt his head was about to explode!
He shrunk back into himself with his back hitting against the stone pillar, shivering and not replying.
The man asked, “Which sect sent you?”
Su Yang closed his mouth tightly, not uttering a single word.
When he received no reply, the man said as if to himself, “It doesn’t matter. Looking at you, you probably don’t know your origin either. According to Mei Shisan, you have become a completely different person since you completed the Six Night Flower Burial. From your recklessness and without orders, you are a wandering ghost without a single ally in all likelihood.”
Su Yang laughed bitterly in his heart. Gu Feidi was right…Mei Shisan was not loyal to him!
Since he transmigrated, he always thought that he was acting flawlessly like the Young Master. Now he knew how wrong he was. Mei Shisan saw the difference and just pretended to be a fool!
Su Yang wanted to weep at his own stupidity.
The man watched as Su Yang lowered his head and asked after a moment of silence, “The reason for trespassing here. Do you plan to take the burden of his Blood Gu yourself?”
Su Yang was startled. How did this man know?
But his surprise ended as he recalled Mei Shisan, who was with them when Gu Feidi was hit with the poison. He was a fool.
Seeing that the man had no intention to end his life now, Su Yang immediately answered weakly, “That’s right…He is good to me but ended up getting hit with the poison. I wanted to save him. That’s why we are here…”
The man informed, “Your life will be forfeited once you save him.”
In the distance, Gu Feidi immediately looked at Su Yang.
Su Yang was silent, but the answers were in his head: To carry the burden of the Poisonous Gu was indeed a risk. But the snow mountain arc next will treat the poison completely. The man in white did not read the script, so he didn’t know this.
So he stared into the man’s eyes and said firmly, “I want to save him even at the cost of my life.”
Gu Feidi’s fists clenched tighter at his clothes. His eyes fixed on Su Yang were red. A layer of water gradually condensed in his eyes, and it was gathered at the bottom of his eyes. The water glittering under the lamp in the cave.
The man asked again, “Why are you trying so hard?”
Su Yang couldn’t tell the man that it was to save the protagonist’s life, nor could he say because they were fellow disciples. This was a life and death situation. The latter’s relationship was not deep enough to justify him saving Gu Feidi. To risk one’s life to save another, other than being family, there was only...
“I love him.”
Su Yang shouted.
The man speechlessly didn’t move an inch.
The silence between the three men lasted what it felt like until daybreak. The man finally made a movement as he reached forward and drew Su Yang’s thin sword.
“My Yantan Divine Sect does not need a Young Master who is blinded by love.” He stood up quietly and tapped lightly on the side of Su Yang’s neck with the edge of the blade. “If you insist on saving him, you leave me no choice but to kill you here and now.”
Su Yang was stupefied.
But before he had the chance to regret it, the man raised the sword upward, and swung it toward Su Yang’s neck with his internal energy!
Up to this point, Su Yang still didn't have the strength to lift his arms. Coupled with being stuck in his robes and the man’s immense pressure, he was immobile.
In a split second, before the sword landed on its target...
A figure flew from the side and embraced Su Yang tightly in his arms, trying to use his body to block the deadly attack.
Gu Feidi endured the agonizing poison and lowered his head. He buried his head on top of Su Yang’s head, his lips touching the soft hair, as he waited for death to come quietly.
However, the sword stopped in mid-slash.
The sword tip was suspended inches from Gu Feidi, and the blade trembled slightly.
Waiting for the hit that didn’t come, Gu Feidi bravely opened his eyes and turned back his head.
The man in white stared into Gu Feidi’s eyes with his emotionless eyes, yet they were red. His determination was not on par with Gu Feidi’s.
After a long time, he slowly let go of his grip and let the thin sword drop to the ground.
“The mental skill you are looking for is called Half-Withered Crimson.”
The man added calmly, “It’s not a difficult mental skill. In its appendix, you will find the method of extraditing all kinds of Poisonous Gu.”
After that, he turned around and walked out of the karst cave, leaving the stunned Su Yang and Gu Feidi.
When he exited slowly out of the cave, Su Huaizhu, the man dressed in white, gazed at the peaceful lake. Then he bent to the side and supported himself to the stone wall, coughed a few times.
Blood splashed on his scarf, which he pulled off of his face and wiped his lips with. Once he got all the bloodstains off, he clutched the scarf in his palm.
“Gu Ruohai…” He murmured. “...I didn’t have the heart to kill you in the past, and now...I couldn’t kill your son either…I must have owed you so much for our past lives…” He couldn’t stop coughing.
“Sect Leader!”
An anxious cry came from his side.
Mei Shisan arrived in front of Su Huaizhu like the wind. He supported the Sect Leader before asking in concern, “Is your Gu’s poison acting up?”
Su Huaizhu commanded with his eyes closed, “Give notice to the Green Forest Hall and summon Ju Rui.”
Mei Shisan whispered, “Ju Rui is at his limit…he was already assigned to the Orchid Hall.”
Su Huaizhu frowned. “Then, summon Ju Si. I will rest while you hurry.”
Mei Shisan nodded, “Right away.”
Once Mei Shisan passed the order to his underling, he returned to the Sect Leader. He had something on his mind but didn’t have the courage to ask.
Su Huaizhu watched Mei Shisan’s expression and reassured, “Don’t worry, I didn’t kill him.”
Mei Shisan was relieved, and the Sect Leader raised an eyebrow. “He was really something. To have someone like you worrying over him after just a few months of interaction.”
Mei Shisan immediately cupped his hands. “This subordinate will only obey your orders.”
Su Huaizhu's eyes squinted as he chuckled. “Coming out of seclusion was not in vain. That little one is interesting…”
Without further explanation, he settled down and changed the topic. “I was absent for two years, and I saw many people exploiting my Sect’s vulnerability. I think it’s time for me to clean out the rats.”
Hearing this, Mei Shisan was worried. “But, Sect Leader, your body…”
Su Huaizhu sneered, “It makes no difference.”
This chapter was really something… While Reading it my imagination went far away….& the sect leader su’s story
Translator sama thnx for these detailed Translator’s notes❤️