Chapter 27
Chapter 27 Getting Started
The small town near Linlan’s Yuhua Sect had always been more prosperous than other places. There were a lot of people at the pubs, and since there was a lot to talk about as of late, many of the less educated and unemployed people chose to express their views of current events there. They would spend their time, incidentally, complaining and embellis.h.i.+ng stories about the sinister, deceitful ways of the demonic path cultivators.
News had just arrived from the frontlines — the Demonic Path’s Mei Yin Gu1 had used a dirty trick and a Righteous Path’s sect master’s senior disciple had been seriously injured.
In a corner, a young man who had been listening quietly for a long time raised his eyebrows and asked: “Who is this senior disciple?”
A number of cultivators who had been chatting looked at each other and then looked at the person who had spoken with a twinkling now present in their eyes.2
The man sitting in the corner was wearing a snow-white gown decorated with a cloud pattern. His facial features were delicately beautiful but he looked too cold, especially those dark pair of eyes that were like pools of black water. It was as though with one glance he could make a person’s entire body cold.
His bearing was extraordinary. With just one look it was easy to tell that he wasn’t an ordinary person.
Several of the cultivators immediately replied: “Don’t you know? I was told that it was Song Jingyi, the head disciple of Tian Yuan’s sect master. I heard that almost all of his Yang energy has been sucked dry, tsk tsk”3
That man immediately clicked his tongue in disapproval, saying: “What a pity.”
The other cultivators urged him on, dumbfounded: “What?”
That man let out a dry cough and smiled slightly: “I mean, it’s genuinely pitiful.”
Several cultivators murmured among themselves that they should invite this young man, who looked out-of-place here, to join their discussion group. However, the man just nodded at them and then took off.
Outside, the sky was clear and the air was pure. In the cloudless blue sky, a bird in flight flitted across the sky; the whole world seemed full of vitality.
Chu Yu gazed into the distance around him for a moment then stretched his body: “It’s good to see the sky outside.”
He had stayed alone in the gloomy Mausoleum Ruins for almost ten years. If he hadn’t found a way out a month earlier, Chu Yu felt that he might have gone insane at some point.
Even so, the current cultivation world was truly chaotic.
Listening to the people chatting in the tavern for a long time, Chu Yu learned and understood what had been happening these past few years.
Ten years ago, war had suddenly broken out between the two factions of the Righteous and Demonic Path cultivators. It had lasted for over a year. Everyone’s Qis had suffered an injury and, after six months of truce, the cultivators of the Righteous Path formed an Immortal Alliance headed by the eight great sects. They had vowed to fight the Demonic Path cultivators, to beat them up until their
own mothers wouldn’t be able to recognize them before they would allow them to live peacefully in Yun Cuo.
Unfortunately, before the Immortal Alliance cultivators could valiantly attempt to cross the Jinhe River to ambush the enemy, their plans were leaked by the Danyang faction. The Immortal Alliance was the one who were then taken unawares by an ambush, and they suffered heavy casualties. The Danyang faction then defected to Demonic Path side. The Cang Liao guarded the frontlines of the war at Jinhe River, therefore when the Danyan faction of Cang Liao defected, it wasn’t long before the Jinhe River was lost to the enemy.
Over the past few years, the two sides had been watching each other and there have been many small skirmishes. No one knows if the outcome will be the same as it was a hundred years ago when a large-scale war had erupted.
… It seems as if the original novel’s story really has collapsed.
Chu Yu was almost in tears. At first all he wanted was news of Tian Yuan Sect but now he did not dare to ask any more. The Chu family was still in good condition. He had already sent them a message so he didn’t have to go, but now that he had a clearer picture of what was happening at the frontlines, he had no choice except to go.
When this war broke out, Lu Qingan was likely going to partic.i.p.ate.
As for that other person … Chu Yu really couldn’t bear to think about it.
It has been 10 years since he had been back to the stud channel.
Linlan and Jiao Xia are far behind the frontlines and Chu Yu dared not delay. While still in the Mausoleum Ruins, Chu Yu had desperately cultivated but had remained stuck in the late phase of the Foundation Building stage for a long time before he was able to successfully form his Core. Right now his speed and spiritual strength were the same as before because the distance between Foundation Building and Core Formation is much too far. Even though he had already formed his Core, it will still take him a while to get any further.
Along the way, Chu Yu had heard a lot of rumors.
For example, he heard that Tian Yuan Sect’s Elder Lu had killed a bunch of Demonic Path Nascent Soul cultivators to the satisfaction of everyone. He also heard that Elder Lu had sat down with his second disciple to kill the enemy, cutting them down like wheat.
Wherever he went, Demonic Path cultivators were annihilated until not even a single blade of gra.s.s could grow.
Chu Yu began to feel apprehensive.
Ten years ago, he had been in a hurry and had cheated the protagonist out of the Mausoleum Ruins. But now, he had heard that the protagonist’s life was still on the right track. His strength had not been reduced even though he didn’t stay inside the Mausoleum Ruins like he had done in the novel …
****, if they meet, will Chu Yu be killed …?
Chu Yu, who was about to step into a clear area of the map,
map, hesitated.
Actually …. ten years have already pa.s.sed. Even if the protagonist had felt any resentment, it should be long gone by now. That kind of affection that he had felt should also have faded away.
As he was comforting himself with these thoughts, he let a tear out of his eye as he pondered. Chu Yu was carelessly traveling on his flying sword, only to realize that he had been going in the wrong direction. When he turned back, he suddenly saw a flash of light in front of him.
A cultivator?
Chu Yu silently took out a dozen talismans to prepare for any unexpected situation. A man quickly ran forward and yelled loudly: “There’s an ambush in front of you!”
Chu Yu saw that it was a man. The expression on his face was extremely dark,4 and his eyes were bloodshot. In addition, his clothes were damaged. All in all, he looked quite pitiful.
Although his clothing was damaged and torn, Chu Yu was still able to see that he wore the robes of a disciple of Tian Yuan Sect.
Hurriedly, Chu Yu put away his talisman and approached the man. That person saw Chu Yu and then stared at him blankly as though he had just seen a ghost.
Chu Yu stopped in front of him, stretched out his hand and shook him: “Oi!”5
That person was in a daze, staring at Chu Yu for a long time before he started to cry: “Da, Da s.h.i.+xiong! Da s.h.i.+xiong … Did I summon your spirit? Da s.h.i.+xiong, have you come back to see us?”
Chu Yu: “…”
The corners of Chu Yu’s mouth twitched for a moment. But then, he quickly pulled out a piece of cloth and wiped that man’s tears away. Seeing this person’s pathetic appearance, he couldn’t help but sigh. “I’m still alive. I’m sorry to inconvenience you, Third s.h.i.+di.”
He hadn’t expected that the first person he would encounter when he returned would be this s.h.i.+di, a minor cannon fodder character who was always a little unhinged.
Regarding Chu Yu’s return, surely the Chu family’s soul jade should have indicated that he was still alive. Why did Third s.h.i.+di think that he was dead?
(TN: A soul jade is a magical item that s.h.i.+nes as long as a cultivator is alive. The Chu family had Chu Yu’s soul jade so they could tell if he was alive or not based on it.)
As though he was still not ready to believe it, Third s.h.i.+di grabbed Chu Yu and flew back in the direction he had come from. He said: “The soul jade’s imprint disappeared. You must be a ghost … even so, whether you are a ghost or not, Da s.h.i.+xiong still needs to help Second s.h.i.+xiong! We were ambushed by a group of Demonic Path cultivators. There was a Nascent Soul cultivator with them. s.h.i.+xiong was desperately fighting the Nascent Soul cultivator when I escaped …”
The volume of information he was forced to process was a bit much.
Chu Yu took a deep breath and, ignoring the sudden vexation he felt, he tried to think calmly over the matter.
This was unexpected… the Mausoleum must have cut
have cut off his connection to the outside world so that even his soul jade had turned black.
He had thought that since they had the soul jade, that there wouldn’t be any problems. Ten years ago … his soul jade had been extinguished. How did the princesses of the Chu family react? What did that brocon Chu Sheng do? And Xie Xi, who had been deceived by him …
Chu Yu couldn’t imagine how they must have felt.
Listening to what Third s.h.i.+di said, Xie Xi seemed to be in big trouble. While the difference between Core Formation and Nascent Soul stages was only one realm, it made a world of difference in terms of strength. Many talented geniuses were able to enter the Core Formation stage but it was difficult for them to raise to the Nascent Soul level. Can it be that those who have been able to reach the Nascent Soul are those cultivators who have been granted heavenly insight, those who are of rare extraordinary talents and genius abilities?.
But those rare talents are generally hundreds of years old …
That child Xie Xi wasn’t even one-tenth of that. In the original novel, Xie Xi could stand toe to toe with Nascent Soul cultivators but,here, he hadn’t stayed in the Mausoleum Ruins. Things may have changed. If he accidentally gets killed …
Chu Yu rubbed his forehead; he had a headache.This was his fault so he had to fix it.
Having a kind of “the protagonist absolutely cannot be allowed to die. But, if he dies, then I die and at least then I won’t have to play this role anymore” att.i.tude, Chu Yu was resolute and prepared himself. He simply ignored those little worries floating around in his heart.
Third s.h.i.+di led the way and they soon arrived at the place where they had been ambushed by the Demonic Path cultivators.
There were obvious signs of a fight. The surrounding trees were cut and the ground was cluttered with blood and corpses.
Was I too late?
Seeing those shocking bloodstains, Chu Yu’s heart missed a beat and his hands and feet turned cold. He collapsed onto the ground and his hands shook as he turned the bodies over.
About Xie Xi, the System did not give him any unusual hints.
.
Chu Yu breathed a sigh of relief then heard Third s.h.i.+di shout from the other side of the clearing: “Da s.h.i.+xiong! Second s.h.i.+xiong is here!”
Chu Yu turned to look.
Third s.h.i.+di dragged a man out from under a small mound of corpses. Chu Yu had missed him since he was on the other side.
With just one frightened glance, he saw that Xie Xi was covered in blood.
Chu Yu stopped and tried to resist the surge of strange feelings that came more and more from his heart. He examined the protagonist carefully.
He looked just like he had done in the illusion but his whole body was bathed from head to foot in blood at the moment. Chu Yu didn’t know if it was his blood or other people’s. His face was wet with blood and his cheeks were frighteningly pale. His eyes and mouth wereand mouth were closed as though he was in a deep sleep.
Chu Yu lacked the courage to check: “Is he still alive?”
Third s.h.i.+di was even more scared than before. Trembling and with shaking hands, he checked Xie Xi: “Yes, he is still alive …”
That’s incredible! To think that the protagonist killed all of these Demonic Path cultivators who ambushed him and even fought a Nascent Soul stage cultivator. For them to have fled the scene, the Nascent Soul must have been badly injured…
Third s.h.i.+di’s voice quavered: “Da s.h.i.+xiong, Second s.h.i.+xiong is so badly hurt, what should I do?”
It seems that the moment the words “Da s.h.i.+xiong” were heard. Xie Xi’s eyelids twitched and the hands inside his sleeves clenched. Chu Yu had been watching Xie Xi. When he saw this reaction, he immediately pulled out Xun Sheng and looked at the sword’s hilt.
This sword ta.s.sel had been a gift from Xie Xi.
It was during the Double Seventh Festival. Xie Xi had behaved like a spoiled kid. He asked Chu Yu to give him an embroidered sachet. He was then so happy that he secretly made two sword ta.s.sels.
Chu Yu involuntarily turned his gaze to Duan Xue that was on Xie Xi’s waist. He saw that his sword had exactly the same ta.s.sel. Even though Xie Xi’s body was covered in blood, the sword’s ta.s.sel was pristine.
With a gloomy heart, Chu Yu stepped back and said dryly: “What can you do? Bring him back to the camp.”
Third s.h.i.+di’s IQ went back online. He said in a worried tone of voice: “What about Da s.h.i.+xiong? s.h.i.+zun is in the camp. The Chu family head, his wife, and son are at Jiao Xia. Do you not want to go and see them? Second s.h.i.+xiong hasn’t woken up yet. You don’t understand how Second s.h.i.+xiong had collapsed in despair when you were trapped inside the Mausoleum Ruins that day …”
Chu Yu felt extremely guilty when he heard this. He swallowed and looked back at Xie Xi’s miserable face. He remembered how Xie Xi’s smile had looked on his round dumpling face that was as snow-white as jade when he was young. Chu Yu inexplicably felt a little anxious. He hesitated for a long time but then shook his head: “I won’t return. You should quickly bring Xie Xi to the camp. Don’t tell other people … especially Xie Xi, that I’m back.”
When he said that last sentence, Xie Xi suddenly opened his eyes. The pupils of his eyes were blood-red and unwavering as he fixed his gaze on Chu Yu.
Before he saw Yu-er, it seemed as if his heart that had been frozen under a thick layer of ice, finally melted. Spring had arrived in the instant that he saw his greatest desire.
However, in the eyes of Chu Yu, that expression on Xie Xi’s face was indescribably terrifying.
Chu Yu’s face turned white and his knees felt weak. Scolding himself fornot being able to live up to other people’s expectations, without the least bit of hesitation, he took Xun Sheng and ran away.
A hoa.r.s.e cry came from behind: “Chu Yu! Stop!”