Chapter 350: White Ape Drags Blade, A Noble Man’s Word
(To readers who accidentally subscribed to Chapter 349 twice yesterday, Zongheng has already returned double in the form of Zongheng coins and book vouchers today. Still, I must apologize to everyone: the updates in the first half of this month were a mess, but I worked hard after that. In the end, I managed to update nearly 140,000 words this month. I should also give myself a little praise.)
On the road of life, there will always be a few storms, as if the heavens are reminding mortals that they are living under someone else’s roof and must bow their heads obediently.
For instance, Chen Ping’an encountered a Cai Jinjian at his own doorstep on Mud Bottle Alley, met the original owner of the Dharma robe Jin Li at Dragon’s Trench, and stumbled into the depths of Lotus Flower Paradise, where he faced a joint siege by grandmasters.
It all depends on whether one can endure it.
Endure it, and the rain clears to sunshine; fail to endure, and at best one can only shout like a martial artist, “I’ll be a good man again in eighteen years.”
The master leads you to the door, but cultivation is up to the individual.
Zhong Kui was like this today.
Before today, Zhong Kui of Dafu Academy’s cultivation had been too good, too fast, too astonishing. He left everyone far behind on the Great Path, so much so that no Confucian scholar in Tongye Prefecture could even see his dust.
But today, the White Ape appeared.
A life-or-death enemy.
Compared to Mr. Zhong Kui, the Mountain Master of Dafu Academy faced an even more perilous task: intercepting the great demon lurking near the Fuji Sect.
This went against the Mountain Master’s original intention.
Zhong Kui’s current situation could be called a place of certain death.
The White Ape looked with indifferent eyes at this young scholar, regarded as having the potential to become a Grand Sacrificial Priest of some academy.
Zhong Kui took a deep breath.
Even if it hadn’t broken through the Immortal Realm bottleneck, even if it wasn’t a demon race naturally renowned for physical toughness.
The White Ape before him, carrying an ancient sword on its back, was still a genuine Jade Realm sword cultivator.
If Qi refiners are the most rebellious thieves under heaven, daring to challenge the cycle of life and death dictated by the Heavenly Dao, then sword cultivators are undoubtedly the most unreasonable beings among Qi refiners.
A noble man does not part with his jade without reason.
With the first sword drawn, the White Ape shattered the protective jade pendant that Dafu Academy had given to every noble man, reducing it to dust.
Between the noble man and the great demon, after the jade pendant—containing the true meaning of Confucian sage texts—was shattered, hundreds of golden characters slowly faded from the world, like a golden rain.
In an instant, Zhong Kui retreated to the edge of a well-prison dozens of zhang away. His sleeves billowed, autumn wind killingly sharp. Within the narrow sleeves of his blue scholar’s robe, there was a majestic aura like a battlefield muster in autumn.
This well-prison of Taiping Mountain was a building shaped like a giant well. A spiral staircase was carved into the well wall, descending continuously, filled with eerie cold yin energy, like a bottomless pit leading straight to the netherworld.
Even cultivators below the fifth realm, if they merely approached the well-prison, would have their Qi disturbed and their bodies corroded by the evil energy accumulated there over countless years.
Taiping Mountain had a specific ascetic practice for novice Daoists: sitting in forgetfulness and breathing near the well-prison, tempering their bodies, an excruciating ordeal.
The female Daoist Huang Ting was considered a dazzling jewel of cultivation precisely because when she first approached the well-prison with senior disciples, while everyone else was struggling to prevent evil energy from flooding their Qi palaces, she didn’t notice anything amiss and sneakily walked to the edge of the well-prison’s entrance. If not for the old Taiping Mountain Daoist in charge of watching the juniors, who quickly grabbed the little girl by the back of her collar, Huang Ting might have entered the well-prison at the age of nine.
After that, Huang Ting engaged in a battle of wits and courage with Taiping Mountain elders. Finally, at the age of eleven, she managed to sneak into the well-prison, but nearly died in its depths—unable to go down or come up, she fainted.
In the end, she was thrown out of the well-prison by a black-robed White Ape.
The old ape walked slowly, with the leisurely air of a stroll, and arrived at the edge across the well-prison.
The unsheathed ancient sword had such heavy sword energy that its true form was completely obscured. After shattering the jade pendant—equivalent to a top-grade Dharma treasure—the flying sword was no longer on Taiping Mountain. In the distance, a white rainbow could be seen darting like lightning, like a slender white snake swimming across a large black curtain.
As a result, the Taiping Mountain protective formation, which was about to be activated, instantly stopped functioning and displayed unusual disorder.
Zhong Kui was unable to successfully drive the formation to suppress this demon.
The Patriarch was on his way to Lotus Flower Paradise to retrieve Huang Ting, the Sect Leader had gone to the Fuji Sect to intercept that twelfth-realm great demon, and the Nascent Soul Earth Immortal in charge of Taiping Mountain’s affairs, before descending the mountain, had unreservedly handed over central control of the protective formation to Zhong Kui—an outsider. This was not because of his status as a Dafu Academy noble man, but simply because he trusted Zhong Kui. In truth, this act bordered on usurpation and could have leaked the secrets of Taiping Mountain, yet everyone on the mountain had no objections.
A sage once said that the Daoists of Taiping Mountain had always possessed ancient chivalrous spirit.
Indeed, they deserved that praise.
But “as virtue rises one foot, vice rises ten.” This White Ape, who had served as Taiping Mountain’s guardian patron for three thousand years, was indeed able to temporarily halt the formation.
Zhong Kui’s expression was grave. Silently in his heart, he recited a text of the sages.
The autumn wind in his sleeves was of even higher quality than the unattainable “page-turning wind.”
When Zhong Kui was not yet capped and had early become a Worthy of the academy, his unrestrained behavior throughout the year made him quite “notorious” in Dafu Academy. Many rigid old scholars disliked him. If not for the Mountain Master’s almost doting protection, he would have lost his Worthy title long ago. Becoming a Worthy and then a Noble Man of the academy was not a permanent achievement; every few years there was a major examination. Zhong Kui once got drunk, slept for three days and nights, and directly missed the exam. The older teachers of Dafu Academy, either disapproving of his willfulness, angered by his waste of talent, or harboring the intention of “heaven bestows great tasks and must first torment one’s mind,” jointly petitioned to strip Zhong Kui of his Worthy status.
On that day, it was heavy winter snow. Zhong Kui walked barefoot in the snow, reciting aloud a moral text by a certain sage, and with the arrogant posture of looking up to heaven, he questioned the sage about doubts in the text. Finally, he answered himself, looking quite pleased.
When Zhong Kui stopped, in the dead of winter, a gust of autumn wind arrived, carrying the sage’s personal word of praise—“Good”—resounding through Dafu Academy.
The autumn wind entered his sleeves.
That very day, Zhong Kui became a Noble Man, and no one dared question it.
Legend says that when sages created characters, ghosts wept and gods cried.
Words indeed have power, especially for academy disciples.
The most supreme manifestation is the “life-bound characters