Chapter 155: A Pleasant Conversation
Li Huai slept in late, not wanting to get up even when the sun was high and beating down on his backside. The bed was simply too comfortable, like sleeping in a ball of cotton. The child groggily opened his eyes, sat up, and looked around, momentarily disoriented. It took him a while to remember that this was neither the hard plank bed at home nor a wilderness campsite under the open sky. His first thought was how nice it was to be rich; his second was no wonder Chen Ping'an had become such a money-grubber.
Li Huai actually wanted to go back to sleep for a while longer, but since Chen Ping'an wasn't anywhere in sight, he felt a pang of panic. He quickly put on his clothes and boots, grabbed the painted wooden puppet from the green bamboo book chest, and rushed out of the room. There he saw Lin Shouyi playing chess with a shabby old man, and even the naturally restless Li Baoping was sitting obediently on a stone bench, intently watching the game. Yu Lu and Xie Xie stood beside Lin Shouyi, offering advice.
Chen Ping'an sat across from Li Baoping. When he saw Li Huai, he waved him over. As the child ran up, Chen Ping'an gave him his seat. Li Huai was about to sit down when he noticed the white-robed youth standing behind Chen Ping'an, staring at him with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. Li Huai thought for a moment, silently placed the painted wooden puppet on the stone bench, and decided not to sit himself, only daring to crouch by the table.
The red-moled youth Cui Chan turned his gaze to Yu Lu and Xie Xie. His murky eyes flowed like stream water, shifting uncertainly over their faces.
The girl Xie Xie keenly sensed Cui Chan's gaze but didn't look up to meet his eyes. She was puzzled, though. Usually, when the Great Li National Teacher's gloomy eyes fell on her, her skin would prickle with goosebumps. But today was different—it was just the gaze of an ordinary scholar, without the oppressive pressure from before. Was it because of the gentle autumn sunlight?
Yu Lu raised his head calmly and gave a slight smile to this "young master of theirs."
Cui Chan first hooked his finger and said, "Yu Lu, Xie Xie, you two come here."
Then he said to Chen Ping'an, smiling, "Can we go chat by the Stopping Pavilion? There are some things that need to be discussed openly."
Chen Ping'an nodded, and the four of them headed for the pavilion. Before leaving, Chen Ping'an patted the coward Li Huai on the head and teased, "Now you can sit down without worry."
When they reached the pavilion, Cui Chan glanced at the wind chimes under the eaves and said to Yu Lu and Xie Xie, "Introduce yourselves truthfully. No need to hide anything. Don't worry, there's no conspiracy. Even if you don't trust me, you trust Chen Ping'an, don't you?"
Yu Lu and Xie Xie exchanged glances, neither eager to speak.
Since emerging from seclusion, the tall, plain-clothed youth Yu Lu had been serving as a coachman, hardworking and uncomplaining—the one who helped Chen Ping'an the most in the group. He was even remarkably dexterous with needle and thread. A clean freak, he was obsessed with washing clothes and cleaning straw sandals. If he saw anyone's clothes or sandals stained with mud or torn from mountain paths, he would feel extremely uncomfortable. Even seeing the messy arrangement inside Li Huai's book chest would make Yu Lu's face twitch with distress. Whenever they stopped near a water source, he would wash the carriage until it was spotless.
Chen Ping'an himself had to admit he couldn't match this. Was there anyone else in the world this restless?
As for the dark-skinned, stern-faced, slender girl Xie Xie, Li Baoping for some reason harbored an unprecedented childlike hostility toward her, regarding her as an enemy. Lin Shouyi had a neutral impression—neither good nor bad, at most just a few games of chess in their spare time. Li Huai, however, got along well with her, and the two enjoyed playing war games.
Cui Chan said impatiently, "Speak freely. I'll wrap things up later."
The handsome youth strode out of the pavilion, wandering around. He bent down to pick up small stones from the ground, gathered a handful, then sat bored by the old well, dropping stones in to listen to the splash.
Thinking about how truly boring he had become, Cui Chan's eyes grew distant, as if from another life.
He looked into the dark well. Now that he was truly a mortal with ordinary eyes, he could no longer see what lay beneath. At that moment, Cui Chan almost felt like leaning over and jumping in to end it all.
Inside the pavilion, Yu Lu spoke first. "I am the former crown prince of the Lu Dynasty. Yu Lu. Before this, I hid among the pioneering team of Lu remnants under another alias, Yu Shilu. Read backward, it means 'I am a remnant of the Lu.' Every time someone called me that, it served as a reminder to myself that the past is past."
The girl erupted in fury, standing abruptly and pointing at the tall youth's nose. "Past?! Your Highness makes it sound so easy, so breezy, more detached than a mountain cultivator seeking immortality! But my entire sect, hundreds of lives, shed blood and gave their heads for your Lu Dynasty, dying for the nation! How is that 'past'?!"
Tears streamed down her face as she trembled. "Place your hand on your heart—how many Qi refiners in the world who seek the long life would be willing to fight to the death for a country's fate? Only us! Since the existence of states and dynasties on Eastern Bottle Gourd Continent, history records only our people who neither retreated nor surrendered, who let their Longevity Bridges shatter just to prove the legitimacy of your Lu Dynasty!"
Yu Lu's expression remained calm. "Then what do you want me to do? I was indeed the crown prince, but my father was always autocratic. He was afraid of groundless prophecies and folk songs, worried that the Eastern Palace would grow too powerful, so he sent me to study at an academy in the enemy state of Great Li. I never held power, never had any connection to court or martial world. I only devoted myself to reading the sages' texts. Xie Xie, tell me, what do you want from me?"
The girl was even more agitated by Yu Lu's indifferent attitude, shaking with rage and gnashing her teeth. "My surname is Xie, but my name is not Xie Xie. I am Xie Lingyue, the youngest Qi refiner in your Lu Dynasty to break through the fifth realm bottleneck! I am a descendant of the Wind God Xie Clan! I hate the muddled mediocrity of the Lu royal family, but I hate even more your drifting with the current, Your Highness! Serving as a servant to the Great Li National Teacher, our great enemy, and even seeming content! If your Lu ancestors knew in the underworld..."
Yu Lu's face was as usual, his tone still flat as he cut off her accusations. "If you, Xie Lingyue, have the backbone of a Wind God Xie descendant, then why don't you die? If you think suicide isn't heroic enough, you could openly assassinate National Teacher Cui Chan and die a glorious death. How nice."
Yu Lu turned to look at the straw-sandal-clad youth standing nearby watching coldly, and asked with a smile, "Chen Ping'an, can I borrow a hundred taels of silver from you? I'd like to build a grand tomb for Miss Xie, the chivalrous fairy, to express my admiration."
Chen Ping'an looked at the tall youth, then at the slender girl. "If you want to keep living well, why not just live well?"
He thought for a moment and then continued, "Let me share a thought or two. Might not make sense, but just listen. If some accounts can't be settled right now, set them aside. Don't forget them. One day, you'll be able to sort them out and make things clear."
Chen Ping'an looked at the two noble Lu remnants—one a crown prince who nearly sat on the dragon throne, the other the most talented mountain immortal in the dynasty. He knew his attempts at mediation might fall on deaf ears. Why should they listen to a mudflat hick from Mud Vase Alley?
But right now, watching them show true emotion—Xie Xie no longer cold and distant but crying in anger, Yu Lu no longer perpetually amiable but using sharp words—Chen Ping'an felt, though not gleeful, that this was when the two people before him seemed more human, more familiar.
So Chen Ping'an, who considered himself the worst at reasoning, racked his brains and reluctantly added, "You're both far more learned than I am. I don't know how you think about things. For me, what I fear most is when I gain some ability to decide others' fates—especially when I'm afraid that what I think is right might not actually be right. Only when there's no other choice, like at life-or-death moments, do you have to act. But in other situations, never just follow your current impulses, don't be led by 'I think this is how it is.' A-Liang once said to always think about 'why' about everything. I think that's very true."
"So I need to study and read. I know that when I ask Li Baoping and Lin Shouyi for lessons, or practice writing on the ground with Li Huai, you two secretly look down on me. I need to study to learn principles from books. I need to see more people, travel more places, like A-Liang, who can thump his chest and say he's seen more great rivers than you've eaten salt. Only then will I be able to—I'm just saying if, by some chance—if one day I have the strength of a land sword immortal like Wei Jin of the Snow Wind Temple, then when I draw my sword, whether to kill or save, that one thrust will be fast! Or if I'm no good at swords but decent at fists, then when I throw a punch..."
At this point, Chen Ping'an's face lit up, as if imagining his "day."
Striking with the sword freely, punching with abandon!
Once, a man in a bamboo hat had often teased Chen Ping'an, "You're a handsome young lad, can't you show a smile now and then? Why so heavy-hearted?"
Chen Ping'an had always been frustrated, wanting to shout at that guy, "I want to too, but I can't right now."
Yu Lu had remained seated throughout. Xie Xie angrily sat back down, but no longer looked ready to fight Yu Lu to the death.
Yu Lu looked at the calm Chen Ping'an and asked with a curious smile, "Chen Ping'an, you're quite good at talking. Why don't you ever say these things to Li Baoping and Li Huai?"
Chen Ping'an replied, "I'm familiar with them. No need to explain principles."
The implication, of course, was that since he wasn't familiar with Yu Lu and Xie Xie, he had to say all this nonsense.
Yu Lu was momentarily speechless.
Xie Xie's face was cold, but the corners of her mouth lifted slightly, then she forcibly suppressed the slight curve.
She cautiously glanced at Cui Chan, who was sitting on the well edge in a daze. After a moment's hesitation, she spoke slowly, "I was originally a Qi refiner at the Observation Sea Realm within the Mid-Five Realms, only half a step away from the eighth realm Dragon Gate Realm. But after becoming a remnant, a vicious palace consort sent a famous Great Li sword cultivator to use a secret technique, driving Dragon Trapping Nails into several of my acupoints. This made it excruciating to circulate true qi, and even if I endured the severe aftereffects, I could only display the strength of the fourth or fifth realm."
After revealing these crucial secrets of her fate, she stared hard at Yu Lu, who was pretending to be mute. He asked, "What?"
Xie Xie sneered, "Stop pretending. Chen Ping'an catches fish through his accumulated experience, through the 'slow bird flies first' approach..."
At this, she paused slightly, noticing from the corner of her eye that the boy she'd just subtly insulted wasn't angry but actually looked a bit pleased. She relaxed and continued, "But if you, Yu Lu, weren't relying on your martial arts cultivation to catch those fish, I'll take your surname!"
Yu Lu smiled faintly. "Oh, you mean that. I thought such a trivial skill wasn't worth mentioning. The martial world and its fighters—what's there to talk about? Back in the Eastern Palace, since my status as crown prince forbade me from cultivating the path of longevity, I could only read the martial arts secret manuals hidden in the palace. As I said before, my father feared those folk songs, not a son who wasted time familiarizing himself with martial arts."
Yu Lu's smile faded, replaced by genuine self-mockery. "Besides, how many people truly understand the state of the martial world and its fighters? You, Xie Lingyue, might not know, but it's just a pond at the foot of a mountain. How big can the fish in it grow? Not to mention elsewhere, just in our former Lu Dynasty—there were many ninth realm cultivators, but not a single ninth realm martial artist. So I learned martial arts purely for fun. You might think I'm being glib, but I still say: in the dreary Eastern Palace, if a lecturer accidentally farted, that counted as a noteworthy event."
Xie Xie sneered, "Oh? From your tone, it sounds like your martial realm isn't low."
Yu Lu sighed, his expression sincere as he shook his head. "Not high, just the sixth realm."
A glimmer of shock appeared in Xie Xie's eyes, and her face stiffened slightly.
Climbing the martial artist's realm requires one step at a time, often a slow accumulation leading to late bloomers. Freaks like the Great Li prince Song Changjing were so rare that calling them once-in-a-century across all of Bottle Gourd Continent was no exaggeration. So when a young cultivator reached a high realm, others envied their talent and fortune, calling them geniuses—that explained everything.
But martial arts were different.
A fourteen- or fifteen-year-old sixth realm martial artist was a genuine monster!
And don't forget, Lu Dynasty Crown Prince Yu Lu had grown up in luxury in the Eastern Palace, likely never having been in a life-and-death battle.
He read his way to the sixth realm?
Seeing the girl's eyes and expression, Yu Lu silently swallowed the words on the tip of his tongue.
He was about to reach the seventh realm, give or take three to five years.
The thought of being so close to a sixth realm martial artist made Xie Xie extremely uncomfortable. She always felt that Yu Lu might suddenly attack and punch her head off.
A sixth realm Qi refiner could vary wildly in strength, but when facing a pure martial artist in this world, it was best not to entertain that thought.
Chen Ping'an stood up, first looking at the dark-skinned girl, and said cheerfully, "Lin Shouyi is also a Qi refiner. Miss Xie, although your cultivation is limited now, your insight remains. Please, in the future, talk to him more about cultivation matters. Um, Lin Shouyi is a bit cold, so please bear with him. Oh, and Lin Shouyi yields to softness but not hardness. He's thin-skinned and can't resist kind words. Miss Xie, work on him gradually. For example, discuss cultivation while playing chess—I think that's excellent."
Then he looked at the tall youth. "Yu Lu, since you're a sixth realm expert, I won't worry about tiring you with trivial matters like washing clothes and brushing straw sandals in the future. Just ask—there's plenty of laundry to go around!"
Finally, Chen Ping'an shouted to Cui Chan in the distance, "I'm done talking with them. You can come back. Um, to use a scholar's phrase... it was a pleasant conversation!"
Chen Ping'an left the pavilion with a light step, clearly happy.
Inside the pavilion, the boy and girl looked at each other, feeling something was off but unable to figure out what.