Where is Our Agreement to be Each Other’s Arch-Rivals?

When Gu Feidi followed Di Ling to Lesser Jade House dining hall, they happened upon Li shijie who had arrived with Pu Lingyun and Fan Xi.

As soon as Pu Lingyun saw Gu Feidi, she immediately stepped forward and called out, “Xiao shixiong!”

Fan Xi looked around and raised an eyebrow, “Where is Su Yang? Why didn’t he come with you?”

Gu Feidi turned his head and said keenly: “Don’t you address him as ‘Young Saint’?”

Fan Xi raised his hand to rub his chin and smiled: “You are very idle, you care about these little things?”

Gu Feidi heard the words and replied: “Your attitude towards him has changed since you left the stone forest. Qinglian Sect is the best at seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages. At the beginning, you respected him but it was not from your heart and I can still see this.”

Fan Xi said: “I don’t speculate as much as you do. I just think that the rumours about him in the Jianghu are probably from the righteous sects to frame him!”

Gu Feidi hadn’t yet replied but Pu Lingyun was already unhappy.

“There’s proof of the things he did, how could that be framing him!” She glared at Fan Xi, “There’s been no news of the youths he kidnapped; no one knows whether they are alive or dead. Whatever his reason for kidnapping those youths, blatantly breaking up families is unforgivable!”

That bit was correct. Fan Xi opened his mouth to say something but decided against it.

Pu Lingyun proudly smirked: “Nothing to say, right?”

Fan Xi sighed with a smile and met Pu Lingyun’s gaze: “How do you know that Su Yang is not being forced?”

Hearing this question, Gu Feidi abruptly raised his eyes and looked straight towards Fan Xi.

Pu Lingyun raised her chin and said, “He is the Devil Sect’s Young Saint. Who else can force him? Just looking at his appearance, I think—“

“Lingyun.” Gu Feidi interrupted suddenly, “It’s pointless to keep arguing. We came to Lesser Jade House to cultivate. You have already made a breakthrough for your Folding Feather Sutra and will be going to Wanyuan Pavilion today to select advanced mental cultivation methods. Don’t tarry because of minor matters.”

Pu Lingyun flattened her mouth and muttered: “What xiao shixiong said is right. I will go and eat now.”

After speaking, she flung back her head and walked to the long table where breakfast had been prepared.

Gu Feidi gave Fan Xi a profound look, didn’t say much, turned around and followed Pu Lingyun to leave.

Fan Xi narrowed his eyes and stared at Gu Feidi until he took a seat and then he sat down at the other end of the long table.

Having finished breakfast, Gu Feidi followed Di Ling to Lesser Jade House’s Wanyuan Pavilion and happened to meet Xu Yunzhan who had come to find heavy sword art skills. The two greeted each other and entered through the door.

Wanyuan Pavilion building was used by Lesser Jade House to store books. Although it occupied a small area, it had five floors in total and the book collection was vast and immense. The arrangement of the books here were also very orderly—the first floor of the Wanyuan Pavilion were mostly Yin and cold mental cultivation and martial arts. The higher the levels, the more Yang and fiery the skill sets became.

Xu Yunzhan went down to the east side martial arts book area under the guidance of Mo shixiong. Gu Feidi did not hesitate, heading straight to the building’s third storey, walking towards where the ‘Righteous’ sign was erected and into the corridor of mental cultivation scrolls.

Tengyun Pavilion, Gu family’s inner strength mental cultivation was mostly partial to righteous and upright practices. Gu Feidi’s Restoration Scripture that he was cultivating in was an even more worldly recognised upright method. If he wanted to study an advanced mental cultivation method that complemented Restoration Scripture or practice martial arts moves that suited him, it would be better for him to continue to follow the upright and righteous methods.

There were many mental cultivations and martial arts of the righteous and upright sects. Fortunately, the shelves here were organized clearly and the list of books were also marked on the edge of the shelves, making it convenient to locate.

Gu Feidi walked back and forth between the bookshelves for a while, raised his hand and took out a copy of ‘The Three Wonders of Peregrine Falcon’ from the top of the bookshelf in front of him, turned a few pages and put it back. He walked along the Righteous corridor, from the outermost bookshelf to the lowest and perused dozens of different mental cultivation books, but none of them caught his eye.

Outside the window, the sun had gradually risen higher. The noon heat invaded the Wanyuan Pavilion, but Gu Feidi was still empty-handed.

Xu Yunzhan came over with a set of scrolls in hand.

“Feidi, haven’t you found a suitable methodology?”

His face was calm, but the edges of his eyes and eyebrows couldn’t hide his joy. Clearly, the set of martial arts classics he had found pleased him very much.

Gu Feidi returned the mental cultivation books he was holding back onto the bookshelf, shook his head, a trace of sadness forming between his eyebrows.

“The mental cultivations available in Lesser Jade House are truly vast and extensive,” he said. “But… compared to Restoration Scripture, there aren’t many which are more remarkable. How can they be studied as an advanced mental cultivation to Restoration Scripture?”

Xu Yunzhan frowned: “Feidi, you are extraordinarily talented. Moreover, with Restoration Scripture as your internal strength foundation, having this problem is inevitable. Leader Gu knows this and that’s precisely why he let you come to Lesser Jade House to study.”

He paused and then added: “Besides, the drawback of Restoration Scripture is that its final volume is missing, so you can only count on 70-80% of its efficacy. If you take that into account, the mental cultivations available here can still be studied its advanced level.”

Gu Feidi gazed at the bookshelves in silence for a moment: “If only I could find the Return To The Nest volume, I would be completely satisfied even if I wouldn’t be able to study other mental cultivations in this life. It’s a shame……”

Xu Yunzhan felt a bit disappointed when he heard this: “Yeah, it’s a shame that even the Leader Gu doesn’t know the whereabouts of Return To The Nest volume. If Return To The Nest volume is still available, Restoration Scripture would definitely surpass the Devil Sect’s Six Underworlds Inter Flower technique and it would be the most powerful inner strength method of the martial arts circles.”

“Devil Sect……”

Gu Feidi hesitated and said: “Yesterday in the stone forest formation, Su Yang inadvertently disclosed some information to me.”

Xu Yunzhan raised his eyebrows: “Oh? What information?”

Gu Feidi: “He said that Return To The Nest volume is in Lesser Jade House.”

Xu Yunzhan: “What? How would he know?!”

Gu Feidi shook his head, “It seemed to have slipped from his mouth. Then he tried to cover up his mistake and didn’t disclose his source. I have no way of determining whether it is true or false. But at the mountain gate, Ling shijie also mentioned Return To The Nest volume, saying that I might be able to gain something in Lesser Jade House. So I’m guessing, would the Return To The Nest volume really be here?”

For a while, neither of them spoke again. 

After wavering for a bit, Xu Yunzhan said: “But if the Return To The Nest volume is really here, why didn’t Leader Gu study it during his time in Lesser Jade House??”

Gu Feidi didn’t answer and merely shook his head.

Seeing Gu Feidi’s slightly desolate expression, Xu Yunzhan coaxed him, “You don’t need to be anxious. Although Restoration Scripture is still a righteous school method, if you want to choose an advanced method, you can also go to Xuanqing and Zhengyang. Maybe you can gain something from there. The True Hawk Sword technique created by Leader Gu also has leanings to the Zhengyang school and may be worth a try.”

Gu Feidi sighed lightly: “If there’s no other choice then, so be it.”

As he spoke, he observed the scrolls that Xu Yunzhan was holding and exclaimed: “It’s actually ‘Wufeng Suppressing the Peak’! According to legend, centuries ago a martial arts genius of the Western Regions named Yue Wufeng had an epiphany for a heavy sword technique while he was cleaving rocks to clear the mountain. That set of techniques have not been seen in the world for many years. It turned out to be in Lesser Jade House’s private collection!”

Xu Yunzhan grinned, “I was lucky to be able to find it.”

Glancing out the window at the colour of the sky, he said, “Let’s go have lunch together. We can return to Wanyuan Pavilion another day since we already know the way here. You have not broken through ‘Hubris’ volume, so there’s no hurry to find an advanced mental cultivation method at this time. Maybe the next time you come, you’ll have better luck. Who knows.”

Gu Feidi mulled for a while, then finally smiled and nodded: “That’s true, let’s go.”

.…..

Su Yang woke from starvation.

He turned over and sat up in a daze. After sitting blankly for a while, he slowly got out of bed. Dressed in only his undergarments, he went to the water vat outside the house to rinse his mouth. It took immense effort for him to dress himself in the Devil Sect’s attire.

No one combed his hair this time, so Su Yang simply let his long hair hang loose and walked around in the small courtyard to try and find the location of the kitchen.

However, apart from two residences in Zhichun Garden, there wasn’t even a well, let alone a kitchen.

Su Yang pressed on his hungry stomach while he looked into Gu Feidi’s room and also listened carefully for any movement from the main house at the north side. He was sure that he was the only one left in the entire compound.

He finally couldn’t help groaning in hunger and said in his heart: Just because he didn’t get up in the morning, you’re not letting him have lunch!

Maybe Di Ling and Gu Feidi should be back by noon?

Thinking about this, Su Yang hung his head dejectedly, turned around and went back into the house.

It was only when he stepped into the bedroom again, did Su Yang realise that there was a pile of books on his desk.

He leaned forward curiously and saw that the cover of the book bound with twine had four large characters written in flourishing calligraphy on it. The four characters were not in traditional Chinese, so it was still easily recognizable, but Su Yang was still stunned for a moment before muttering: “Nine Cold Surging Shoots…?”

He conveniently picked up a book and turned the pages, but before he had time to read properly what was written, a letter suddenly dropped out from the title page.

Su Yang picked up the letter and saw a few familiar informal words written on it:

“SuSu aa I heard that you have made great achievements with the breakthrough your Six Underworlds Inter Flower this set of Nine Cold Surging Shoots technique is for your advanced mental cultivation study if theres anything you dont understand please ask Ling shijie to teach you” 

“Oh thats right when FeiFei comes back remember to tell him that the thing he was looking for is at the bookshelf in the southeast corner of the top floor of Wanyuan Pavilion caught between the pages of the Flawed Phoenix Craft Fire book”

Although it was informally written, the letter was devoid of punctuation marks. Su Yang managed to figure out the sentences with some difficulty. When he understood the meaning of the letter, he couldn’t help being speechless.

This Shizun’s heart was too generous, right?

Instructing Gu Feidi to locate the Restoration Scripture: Return To The Nest volume by letting him, the main villain Devil Sect’s Young Saint, spread the word?

If he had any selfish motives, he’ll just not tell Gu Feidi, then wouldn’t Gu Feidi be unable to find the Return To The Nest volume for the rest of his life?

Even though he criticized it like this, Su Yang still put the letter back into the book and decided to tell Gu Feidi about the Return To The Nest volume when he came back.

However, he had nothing to do at the moment so he thought he might as well open the first volume of Nine Cold Surging Shoots intending to take a good look at this world’s inner strength technique to see what was so miraculous about it.

…Five seconds later.

Su Yang snapped the book closed and massaged his aching temples.

As a scumbag, he was still a little self-aware.

This inner strength mental cultivation was really different from the martial arts moves. With no one to guide him, don’t mention two years; even if they gave him twenty years, he may not be able to figure out the way on his own.

Or… find time to seek out Ling shijie and ask her about it.