Chapter 166: When the Teacher Has Matters, What Should Be Done
Li Changying watched the tall young man walking toward him. Though his heart was filled with vigilance, a surge of righteous qi welled up from within, filling his sleeves and causing them to billow slightly. This youngest Confucian sage of the Great Sui still spoke with a gentle countenance, "I know you are a fellow traveler on a distant journey together with Li Huai and the others. If you are here to fight for justice on their behalf, that's fine, but can we first finish our discussion before coming to blows? If you can convince me in debate, I won't even retaliate—I'll let you land two punches willingly."
But Yu Lu kept walking without stopping, his smile unchanged, though he uttered some words that left Li Changying baffled. "During our travels with the book case on our backs, I was always the one to keep watch during the latter half of the night. So as for discussing truths, let's set that aside for now. If you ever get the chance in the future, go ask Li Baoping's little uncle yourself. Tonight, I'm not going to talk about such things with you."
Only five paces apart.
Yu Lu took one step forward, his stride slightly longer, and laughed as he said, "Fight's starting. Be careful—don't let me beat you half to death with one punch. If that happens, I'll end up running up too much of a tab. Borrowing money from a certain someone and not paying it back? You'd have to be a very close friend of his. I'm not qualified for that."
The arrogant words had barely fallen when Yu Lu's second step landed heavily. Li Changying felt a dull thud from the ground. Because the force only penetrated into the earth without dissipating across the surface, the momentum on the surface wasn't particularly startling. But the more that was the case, the more shocked Li Changying felt. From this single step, he could gauge the caliber of the tall young man before him—he was absolutely a pure martial artist at the fourth realm at minimum, not to be underestimated.
Though his thoughts raced, it didn't hinder Li Changying's internal qi from bursting forth like a flood breaking through a dam. Qi refiners cultivated both nurturing qi and refining qi, giving them an innate advantage in internal martial arts and longevity far surpassing that of martial artists. Moreover, Li Changying had possessed a great fortune since childhood. After showing his brilliance early on, he quickly won the favor of a Great Sui qi refining master, who taught him secret arts of longevity, allowing his realm to soar by leaps and bounds. Though not yet twenty, he had already reached the sixth realm—the Cavern Dwelling realm—with outstanding cultivation. If Lin Shouyi of the Cliff Academy was merely a piece of fine jade yet to be verified and carved, then Li Changying was already a fully formed jade disk, crystal clear inside and out.
The gap between the fifth and sixth realms for qi refiners, and between the third and fourth realms for martial artists—both were vast chasms.
Seeing Yu Lu charging before him, Li Changying first made a hidden gesture, then gracefully retreated several steps. He pressed his two fingers together before his chest, assuming a sword stance like a sword cultivator. With this simple gesture, Li Changying already exuded a hint of grandmaster bearing, radiating an aura of righteousness.
Not only that, but within the book pavilion, strands of pale azure qi suddenly came alive, moving as if in water, surging madly toward Li Changying.
The sixth realm, the Cavern Dwelling realm, meant opening the dwelling's gate—opening the apertures to absorb qi from heaven and earth. The three hundred and sixty-five apertures of the human body were like three hundred and sixty-five naturally formed blessed lands. This was why humans were said to be the most spiritual of all living beings. Why did all spirits and monsters in the world struggle desperately to first assume human form before continuing their cultivation?
The root was here.
Apart from the "seven apertures" that opened naturally at birth, a male only needed to open nine more apertures to advance to the next realm, while a female required twelve. Many female cultivators didn't reach high realms, and those in the latter half of the middle five realms were relatively scarce, precisely because many were blocked here. However, fortune and misfortune were interdependent—once a woman succeeded in opening more apertures at this realm, the benefits in the subsequent middle five realms would be even greater.
Li Changying said softly, "Activate the formation."
With the academy sage's utterance, a circle of translucent, sheathless long swords appeared around the young man, hovering at different heights. A dozen or so sword qi rotated slowly. These "three-foot green peaks" were condensed from Li Changying's qi. Though not yet solid, they already presented a forest of spears and halberds, awe-inspiring.
Yu Lu's response was both simple and domineering—his fist moved in a straight line.
Like an iron cavalry charging through a formation.
Li Changying smiled dismissively and pointed his two fingers at Yu Lu.
Three of the sword qi before him tilted, aiming to meet the tall young man with their tips.
Yu Lu, who had previously displayed fourth-realm cultivation, suddenly accelerated. One step shattered the floor tiles, and his fist broke through the air.
The sword qi shattered instantly.
The three streaks of sword qi hadn't even had time to form a sentry formation before Yu Lu smashed them apart with three punches.
Li Changying felt a slight stir. He sidestepped horizontally several paces, still unhurried. His steps were filled with the effortless elegance of a Confucian scholar. Meanwhile, the remaining sword qi simultaneously arrayed themselves at his side.
Yu Lu swept a leg across.
All the sword qi on Li Changying's left exploded at once, causing ripples in the air that blurred Li Changying's vision—like looking into a cheap, common copper mirror used by ordinary townsfolk.
Li Changying grew a bit annoyed. Why was Yu Lu so ruthless? So relentless?
Li Changying snorted coldly. Within the narrow space, he stepped out with a magic pace. Before that fierce, swift sweeping kick struck his shoulder, he had already shifted positions, appearing where Yu Lu had started. Their positions were reversed. Yu Lu, spinning midair, sank his qi sea and landed instantly. Touching the ground with the tip of his foot, he darted forward like a dragonfly skimming water, silent and swift.
The speed was beyond imagination, to the point where Li Changying found it hopeless to even borrow qi from heaven and earth. He had to temporarily rely on the qi nurtured within his own body. Instead of avoiding the sharp edge, he advanced instead, both fists slamming toward the relentless tall young man. Though he was a qi refiner, at this moment Li Changying's momentum was like a rainbow. Whether in killing intent or physical robustness, he was in no way inferior to a full-force strike from a pure martial artist of the fourth or fifth realm.
Li Changying had first defended with sword cultivator techniques, then used Daoist earth-shrinking magic to reposition, and now he employed military combat techniques to meet the enemy head-on—a display that truly opened one's eyes.
His approach seemed to gather the strengths of a hundred schools, melting them into one furnace.
His ambition was great. His aspiration was high.
Two plain, unadorned fists met—fist against fist.
Only a single thunderous sound in the air.
Yu Lu stood unmoving. Li Changying staggered back several steps, arms hanging limp, his face pale, filled with disbelief.
Yu Lu closed in again, with no sign of stopping.
An old, weary sigh sounded within the book pavilion.
It came from not far away—over twenty zhang—separated by many bookshelves, starting from beneath a wall.
Then a streak of snowy-white sword light flashed. A three-foot white light sped forward, rounded a row of bookshelves, flew along the corridor, rounded another shelf, and, like a whirlwind, passed by Li Changying's side, lunging straight at Yu Lu.
The tall young man didn't stop. At the critical moment, he sidestepped and dodged that white rainbow flying sword, continuing his charge in a bizarre posture.
The aged voice carried a hint of anger, "Will you not stop yet?"
The three-foot rainbow that brushed past the tall young man paused briefly, not turning its sword tip. Instead, it flew backward with the hilt as its tip.
Clearly, the elderly sword cultivator hidden in the shadows knew that even with his well-practiced flying sword arts, if he turned the sword around, the slight delay might cost him the battlefield and cause real injury to that Great Sui scholarly seed. So, disregarding any sword technique elegance, he sent the flying sword racing even faster toward the tall young man's back.
Yu Lu leaped, stepped onto a bookshelf on his right, borrowed the momentum to lunge forward, dodging the sharp sword coming straight from behind, and smashed his fist down toward Li Changying's head.
After the sword cultivator decisively struck, Li Changying had already prepared for the worst. Reciting silently a Confucian classic from the Sage of Rites, as Yu Lu stepped onto the bookshelf, many bookshelves on this floor of the pavilion shook slightly. Scattered across all directions, ancient books inscribed with that sage's teaching all flew out a string of white characters, which instantly converged before Li Changying. The characters varied in size and script—regular, seal, running—and in an instant, they all arrived before Li Changying.
Eventually, they formed a stream of characters in front of him, flowing slowly, gleaming brightly. Though the stream was small, it exuded a sacred and majestic aura.
The tall young man, descending rapidly through the air, wore a calm expression as he threw another head-on punch.
He snapped the stream in two!
One punch cut the stream in half, smashing all the characters to pieces!
Yu Lu kicked Li Changying in the abdomen. Li Changying, recognized by academy students as the foremost in both knowledge and cultivation, was kicked flying several zhang away, crashing into an aisle between two rows of bookshelves. After landing, he slid another zhang or more, showing the force of that kick.
A gray-robed old man appeared beside Li Changying. The flying sword, having failed its mission, hovered near the old man's shoulder, its tip aimed at the culprit across the aisle. The old man crouched down, his face panicked, and quickly felt Li Changying's pulse. The injury was serious but not life-threatening. Yet this young sage, now fallen and unable to rise, was a rising star whom even the high ministers of Great Sui treated with courtesy, and undoubtedly a future pillar of Great Sui!
Unable to restrain his fury, he glared at the tall young man. "So young, yet with such a venomous heart! Do you know—"
The old man quickly stopped his reprimand.
Because the tall young man was still walking forward slowly. Even after injuring someone, even after the old man had come forth, he showed no intention of stopping.
Yu Lu shook his wrists, letting his sleeves flutter slightly, then tucked his hands back into his sleeves. Strolling leisurely through the aisle, he smiled and said, "The truth of the matter lies in the clay figurine Li Huai couldn't find. It lies in the insults Li Baoping heard with her own ears. It lies in those who should have apologized but didn't utter a single word."
Yu Lu paused briefly. Though his steps seemed slow, the distance closed rapidly. "It does not lie in Li Changying's dismissive remark about not fighting for pride. And certainly not in this old senior's—a Gosperating Sea realm swordsman—this flying sword of yours that always comes late, always a step behind."
The old man was so infuriated by the tall young man's provocative, insolent words that his beard and hair stood on end. He quickly fed Li Changying a pill, then stood up, laughing in anger. "Fine, fine, fine. Let's see when you're lying on the ground yourself, if you still have truths to tell."
Yu Lu shook his head with a grin. "If I lose, I won't waste a single word. Then naturally, someone will come to argue for me. Hmm, he might be a bit late, since he's not here right now."
As the old man stood up, his flying sword also slowly rose, hovering beside his shoulder—that of this famous Great Sui sword cultivator.
But the old man still seemed uneasy about Li Changying. He looked down, his expression worried.
The young man's fist technique was extremely bizarre. Initially, Li Changying seemed not to have damaged his bones or vital energy—even the old man thought it wasn't a severe injury. But after feeding him that high-grade pill, the true mystery revealed itself. Li Changying's qi sea showed no signs of slowing down; instead, it grew more turbulent and uncontrollable.
Seawater flooding inland—extremely dangerous!
For qi refiners, the Cavern Dwelling realm was hard to cultivate and even harder to consolidate. Once one decided to open apertures, while the body's apertures accepted external qi, they also faced a dangerous situation of "seawater flooding inland"—because drawing in external qi meant extracting it from the myriad chaotic qi of heaven and earth. Opening apertures was like a battlefield in the mortal world: the defending side abandons its only advantage and opens the gates to meet the enemy, easily crushed by a powerful foe.
Once seawater flooded inland, the body's apertures and meridians became like towns and roads flooded by disaster, the land desolate, never to recover. Thus, the Cavern Dwelling realm was the true first threshold on the path of cultivation, even harder than breaking through from the lower five realms to the sixth realm. Many cultivators—especially those with no background or from small sects with no backing—feared that failure in the Cavern Dwelling realm would completely destroy their foundation for immortality, so they remained stuck in the last realm of the lower five.
Cultivation went against the Heavenly Dao, moving against the current. The term "against the current" truly encapsulated all the hardships and bitterness.
The old man, assigned by the Great Sui court as Li Changying's secret personal guard, knew that if Li Changying's realm suffered damage and his path to the great Dao was ruined, he would be the first to be guilty!
Yu Lu asked with a smile, "Old senior, aren't you in a bind? Do you save Li Changying first, or take me down?"
The old man's teeth itched with anger. The tall young man's question had hit the snake's vital spot, making the experienced old man even more furious and embarrassed.
He was a Gosperating Sea realm qi refiner, and a sword cultivator. "Gosperating Sea" meant "I ascend the tower to view all rivers, and the sea enters my embrace." At this realm, the qi of heaven and earth begins to expand the body's meridians, like rivers finally entering the sea, or like expanding post roads and official highways in the mortal world. Qi gradually condenses and sublimates, beginning to nourish the physical body, thereby extending the cultivator's lifespan.
An ordinary qi refiner of this realm could live to a hundred years in good health.
A Gosperating Sea realm sword cultivator could already claim the title of sword master within the entire Bottle Gourd Continent.
In Great Sui, even a high-ranking minister like a Vice Minister of the Six Ministries might not necessarily have a sword cultivator of this realm as an escort when leaving the capital.
He took a deep breath.
The old man made up his mind: he must end this quickly, within three moves.
"Since the old senior doesn't know how to choose, I'll make the choice for you." The tall young man was even more arrogant and overbearing, still wearing that infuriatingly smile. He took three accumulating steps, each more shocking than the last, the floor tiles cracking underfoot.
You don't know whether to fight? I, Yu Lu, will force you to fight—just like that.
The old man's pupils contracted, his mind shaken. He saw the tall young man's already formidable momentum climb further, as if the soul of an ancient battlefield war god had taken residence within him.
Even the old man's face showed a hint of shock. "A sixth-realm martial artist?"
Qi refiners had fifteen realms; martial artists had nine. When a qi refiner and a pure martial artist of the same realm fought, unless the qi refiner was a sword cultivator or a military cultivator—both outliers—and unless the qi refiner used some heaven-defying magic treasures, the outcome was almost a foregone conclusion. Even a martial artist one realm lower could heavily injure or even kill a qi refiner one realm higher.
But though the old man was startled, he felt no fear.
Because he was a seasoned, well-established sword cultivator, a seventh-level qi refiner at the Gosperating Sea realm!
If he left no retreat and was determined to kill, even facing a sixth-realm martial artist…
One move was truly enough.
So the old man sneered, "You want to court death? The academy's rules prevent me from truly killing you, but I can leave you half-dead—no problem!"
The tall young man, charging forward, looked like he was risking his life, but his eyes were playful. He silently thought, "I hope you're really strong."
---
Having abandoned the official road and post route, Chen Ping'an led the two children over mountains and across valleys. More precisely, the blue-clad child had revealed his enormous true form—dozens of zhang long—carrying Chen Ping'an over mountains and rivers. A pleasant surprise was that Chen Ping'an discovered he could practice the Mountain-Splitting Stance on the water serpent's back. At first, he often slipped and stumbled, moving awkwardly, but over time, he could even keep his footing perfectly when the water serpent deliberately swayed.
The pink-skirted girl wasn't allowed to ride the water serpent. She could only carry the book case and run alongside, clapping for her master.
One day, Chen Ping'an found a mountain peak to rest. The three gathered around a campfire. The blue-clad child started chattering again. "Master, you're not young anymore. Don't you want to take a few concubines, beautiful maids, or bed-warming maids?"
Chen Ping'an held his hands near the fire, the flames casting light on his dark face. He shook his head. "No."
The blue-clad child reached into the fire, grabbed a flame, and slowly pinched it out, producing a crisp sound like breaking soybeans. "Why not? Master, rest assured, they won't ask for a bride price. They'll bring generous dowries! A deal like this—how can you not be tempted?"
Chen Ping'an smiled. "Not tempted."
The blue-clad child was baffled. He put out one flame and grabbed another. "Why the heck not?"
Chen Ping'an smiled without speaking.
The blue-clad child clicked his tongue. "So master has a girl he loves."
Chen Ping'an shot him a glare.
The blue-clad child muttered quietly, "Master liking a girl isn't embarrassing. Liking men would be creepy…"
Suddenly his face lit up with exaggerated emotion, and he twisted coyly. "Master, look at me—I'm actually quite handsome and delicate…"
Chen Ping'an's scalp tingled. He waved his hand and ordered, "Disappear."
The blue-clad child ran off into the distance, shouting fiercely at the pink-skirted girl, "Silly girl, did you secretly bring any rouge and powder? Lend me some!"
Chen Ping'an put his hand to his forehead. This was getting hard to bear.
Afterward, as usual, Chen Ping'an sought out the blue-clad child to spar, honing his physique.
Though the blue-clad child's words and actions were flippant, dealing with a second-realm martial artist like Chen Ping'an was more than enough. Even though Chen Ping'an's realm far exceeded that of ordinary martial artists, for a true dragon descendant with innate resilience, Chen Ping'an's rain-like punches were nothing. But one punch from the blue-clad child, if it landed, struck like a mountain splitting. At first, the blue-clad child didn't control his strength well, sending Chen Ping'an flying far away, snapping a thigh-thick tree. The blue-clad child was terrified, thinking he'd surely face death, but after Chen Ping'an recovered, he still insisted the blue-clad child continue feeding him punches.
Today, Chen Ping'an had just started a fist stance, not yet throwing a real punch, when the blue-clad child already rolled on the ground, tumbling dozens of times.
The blue-clad child got up, dusted himself off, and praised, "Master's fist aura is so fierce, so terrifying!"
The pink-skirted girl crouched in the distance, watching with a stunned expression.
She had only heard this bully of the Imperial River was violent, simple-minded, and profound in cultivation—not that he was such a shameless scoundrel.
Chen Ping'an was used to it. He sighed and said seriously, "Stop messing around."
The blue-clad child immediately struck a crane pose, flailing his arms and making weird noises.
Chen Ping'an's face darkened. He turned and sat back by the fire.
The blue-clad child scrambled back to his side, smiling apologetically. "Master, don't be angry. I'll take it seriously next time."
Chen Ping'an waved his hand. "It's not about you. I'm just thinking about something, and I can't calm my heart."
The blue-clad child said, "Oh. Wait until your heart is calm, then."
---
Late at night, at the foot of East Mount Flowery of the Cliff Academy, a young man in white began to ascend the mountain slowly, sighing repeatedly.
A voice sounded silently in his heart. "What are you doing here?"
Cui Chan replied irritably, "When my teacher has matters, his disciple handles the labor."