Chapter Ninety-Two: Storms Gather at the Returning Goose Inn from All Directions

"You do not understand, Junior Sister," Yue Buqun said softly, patting Ning Zhongze’s shoulder. Then he looked at the departing figure of Feng Qingyang and let out a long sigh. "You were absent in the depths of winter; who are you when spring blossoms and the flowers are in bloom?"

At his sigh, Feng Qingyang’s receding silhouette visibly trembled, then vanished even more quickly from everyone’s sight.

According to each disciple’s aptitude, Yue Buqun arranged for them to cultivate the Heaven Frost Fist, the Wind God Leg, the Cloud-Piercing Palm, and other divine arts. Among them, the first form of the Wind God Leg, Chasing the Wind and Seizing Shadows, was mandatory for everyone to learn, and they had to master it to perfection. The same old principle: if you cannot win, you must at least be able to run faster.

Linghu Chong remained confined on Jade Maiden Peak to cultivate the Purple Mist Divine Art. All meals were delivered by Lao Denuo, and no one else was permitted to keep watch over him. Yet Lao Denuo discovered that, for reasons unknown, Linghu Chong had secretly gotten entangled with Feng Qingyang, and hurried back to report it to Yang Xin and Yue Buqun. Yang Xin and Yue Buqun did not care; they simply had Linghu Chong remain in seclusion at Repentance Cliff.

Linghu Chong still did not tell Yue Buqun about how the wind uncle had taught him the Nine Swords of Dugu, nor did he mention the lost sword techniques carved on the wall of the secret cave at Repentance Cliff. Yue Buqun gave up on him completely, withdrew the Purple Mist Divine Art, and left him to sink or swim on his own.

The Mount Hua Sect entered a frenzy of cultivation, until a flying message arrived from the Mount Heng Sect.

"Uncle-Master, the Mount Heng performance is about to begin," Yue Buqun said as he gently handed the letter to Yang Xin.

"Truthfully, I have never understood this Liu Zhengfeng. Has his mind gone bad? How could he do something so foolish, so naive?" Yang Xin found the man’s thought process in the original story utterly incomprehensible.

"Perhaps it has something to do with his background," Yue Buqun said after some thought.

"His background?"

"Junior Brother Yue is from an old hereditary family of the Mount Heng Sect. His family once held great power, his household was wealthy, and he had never tasted the sordid realities of the martial world. The name of Mount Heng’s Third Master Liu was earned through ancestral favor and lavish spending. Born into wealth and comfort, how could he know the cruelty of the Jianghu?"

Hearing this, Yang Xin roughly understood. Liu Zhengfeng was likely a bona fide second-generation official and second-generation rich man of the Mount Heng Sect, raised in a greenhouse and never exposed to the dangers of the martial world. Come to think of it, only someone with far too much free time would fail to train properly, as if kicked in the head by a donkey, and instead go off to play music, even with people from the Demon Cult.

"In your view, Uncle-Master, when should we set out? Or perhaps..." As Yue Buqun spoke, his right hand made a circle.

"Spatial transport is convenient, but it is not beneficial to the disciples’ growth. You know that reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles. Let them temper themselves through this chance. You simply protect them too well. It is time they learned how dangerous the martial world truly is. This journey would be best spent wiping out bandits or some such, to let them taste blood," Yang Xin said calmly. Then he added, "Bring Linghu Chong along this time as well. There are some things that really cannot do without him."

Yue Buqun gave a bitter smile. In the past, he truly had protected his disciples too much, but that was because his fists had not been hard enough. He had feared that if they wandered the martial world, they would fall prey to the sinister hands of Mount Song Sect or the Sun Moon Divine Sect, so he had kept them confined to Mount Hua, under his own watchful eye.

But now their strength had greatly increased, and as Yang Xin said, it was indeed time to let them see blood.

The Mount Hua Sect set out in full force. The vast Mount Hua compound was left only to a few servants and Feng Qingyang to guard the home, and everyone traveled light, for their supplies were all stored in Yang Xin’s pocket dimension.

Linghu Chong was also released. Yue Buqun, who had utterly lost hope in him at the bottom of his heart, began deliberately making him work. He was assigned every hard and dirty task there was, from cutting paths through mountains to building bridges over rivers. Yet whenever they encountered bandits and the time came for steel to be stained with blood, Yue Buqun would not let Linghu Chong take part, but instead sent the other disciples.

Linghu Chong could not understand why Yue Buqun treated him this way. If Yue Buqun was good to him, then all the filthy, backbreaking labor fell to him; if Yue Buqun was bad to him, then he would not let him take part in the bloody work of suppressing bandits.

Of course, Linghu Chong did not know that this was Yue Buqun’s subtle way of carving away at him with a soft knife, quietly slowing the growth of his strength. As the journey continued and bandits were crushed along the way, the Mount Hua disciples who had seen blood were obviously nothing like those who had stayed on the mountain. Their spirit and energy had risen by more than one level.

At last, after the long road, they arrived in Hengyang City.

Transportation in the Ming Dynasty was extremely underdeveloped. Although the news of Liu Zhengfeng’s retirement ceremony had spread months earlier, the people of the martial world were scattered all over the land, and travel took a great deal of time. The fact that the Mount Hua Sect had arrived did not mean that everyone else had arrived as well.

Yang Xin and his party reached Hengyang City and first paid their respects to Liu Zhengfeng. Afterward, Yang Xin, accompanied by Yue Buqun and the others, strolled through the city. As for Linghu Chong, Yue Buqun had already dismissed him.

"Master Yue, would you be interested in visiting the Wild Goose Tower?" Yang Xin suddenly asked.

"Has Tian Boguang appeared?" Yue Buqun’s eyes lit up. He immediately understood what Yang Xin meant and said, "Uncle-Master, please lead the way."

Yang Xin, Yue Buqun, and the Mount Hua disciples wandered along at an unhurried pace, and before long they came to the Wild Goose Tower. Even before entering, they could hear the clash of blades and swords.

When Yang Xin and the others stepped inside, they saw Linghu Chong locked in fierce battle with Tian Boguang, along with Yilin hiding behind Linghu Chong, and the Taishan Sect disciple Chi Baicheng, who had been hacked to death by Tian Boguang.

"Chi Baicheng, a heroic youth. Such a pity," Yang Xin said quietly. Chi Baicheng’s death had added a touch of gold to the Taishan name. Though it might enter the history books, for the dead man there was nothing at all to be gratified by.

What made it even harder to accept was that Chi Baicheng had died saving Yilin, yet Yilin did not so much as spare him another glance. Her eyes held only her Brother Linghu. And at this moment, Linghu Chong, forced by Yue Buqun to practice the Purple Mist Divine Art and also taught the Nine Swords of Dugu by Feng Qingyang, had already surpassed Tian Boguang in strength.

Yet he not only had no intention of avenging Chi Baicheng; he had instead become blood brothers with Tian Boguang, drinking bowl after bowl and eating meat in great mouthfuls. For Linghu Chong, perhaps anyone who could drink bowlfuls of wine was a brother, and everyone else was merely a passerby.

"So this is the united spirit of the Five Great Sword Sects? Heh, Old Yue, Linghu Chong really is a walking disaster. If I weren’t relying on him to push the plot forward, I’d have slapped him to death already," Yang Xin said disdainfully. At the same time, he made a gesture, and Chi Baicheng’s body floated over.

Yue Buqun’s face was equally dark as ink. He shot a cold glance at Linghu Chong. At this moment, Linghu Chong had just defeated Tian Boguang and was in high spirits. With Tian Boguang’s flattery adding fuel to the fire, he did not even remember his own surname, and was merrily drinking with Tian Boguang again and again, never noticing Yue Buqun and the others.

"Does Uncle-Master intend to give the Taishan disciple a proper burial?" Yue Buqun asked, puzzled, when he saw Yang Xin place Chi Baicheng’s body on the table.

"I’m only seeing whether he can still be saved. People like Chi Baicheng are rare in the martial world," Yang Xin said with a sigh. Then he raised two fingers on his left hand and activated a healing art. First he smoothed Chi Baicheng’s wounds, then slit open the side of his chest. With his right hand, he formed a claw and reached into Chi Baicheng’s chest cavity, gripping his heart to manually restart it.

He was imitating Sakura’s method of saving Naruto from the story of the Hidden Leaf, but by this point Chi Baicheng had already been dead for several minutes, and Yang Xin was unable to bring him back.

"As expected, that still won’t do. Then let’s try the reincarnation art." Of course, Yang Xin was not using the self-reincarnation technique to save Chi Baicheng with his own life; instead, he would use Tian Boguang’s life.

"Lin Pingzhi!"

"Your disciple is here!"

"Seize Tian Boguang!"

"Your disciple obeys the command of the Grand Elder!"