Chapter 2

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<figure class="wp-block-gallery columns-0 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1"></figure>\nAs an Elder Brother: Chapter 2\n\n

The inside of Xu Feng’s mind went blank, he still hadn’t realized what the phrase meant before he saw the sword’s blade flash before him, and felt a strange, severe pain radiate from his right wrist.\n

The Palace Master kept smiling, using the same unrivaled facial expression as before.\n

Xu Feng watched as pearls of blood trickled down the tip of the sword, at last, he realized the meridian^[1] in his right hand had been broken off, which meant… he wouldn’t be able to use a sword anymore.\n

Just then, the subordinates the Palace Master had sent out had also returned, two of them had sustained injuries. They bowed and reported back, “Palace Master, we subordinates are incompetent, and were unable to locate Young Master Mu Rong.”\n

The Palace Master glanced at the injuries they’d sustained on their bodies, and asked, “Did you guys encounter people from the Mu Rong family?”\n

“Yes.”\n

“How many people have been lost?”\n

“Three people.”\n

The Palace Master scowled.\n

Liu Yue said, “Palace Master, allow this subordinate to go meet with them.”\n

“No need, the people of the Mu Rong family are very powerful and great in size, they have probably already found Mu Rong Fei, so there is no need for us to take unnecessary risks.”\n

“But…”\n

The Palace Master said blandly, “It can’t be helped. Let’s go.”\n

“The Palace Master took such pains to plan this all out, and it wasn’t easy to attract Mu Rong Fei to come to us. If we leave right now, will all our previous efforts not have been in vain? There will never be such an opportunity again…”\n

The Palace Master didn’t say anything, but his dark gaze slightly deepened, and his lips slowly widened into a smile.\n

Liu Yue already understood the Palace Master’s temper, and she knew that he always hid his feelings of joy or anger from being exposed upon his face. And so, although he had a wide smile on his face just then; he had, in fact, already flown off the handle in anger, and she didn’t dare speak immediately. The Palace Master hadn’t given instructions on how to deal with Xu Feng, but how could any of them venture to let him go? Liu Yue thought for a moment, then snatched Xu Feng up onto the horse’s back, taking him along with them as they left.\n

Xu Feng had lost quite a bit of blood, and the wounds on his body had already become numb. He was dizzy the entire ride and was unaware of how much time had passed. Everyone stopped once they were in front of a yuanzi^[2] consisting of three sections. At first glance, the yuanzi looked average, but the inside consisted of what appeared to be a wealthy and high-ranking household. After the Palace Master dismounted the horse, he went straight to the main room.\n

Liu Yue followed behind and asked, “Palace Master, how do you plan on dealing with that boy who was driving the carriage?”\n

“Just throw him outside the doors.”\n

“Is that all? That boy was the one who ruined the Palace Master’s big plans.”\n

The Palace Master didn’t even look back, and spoke indifferently, “Did he not sustain a few injuries? Wait until he has fully bled out, then naturally he will die.”\n

At this, Liu Yue understood what he meant. He intended to let Xu Feng die a slow and painful death. She thought to herself, “The Palace Master is indeed as ruthless as expected,” but she didn’t dare ask for mercy on Xu Feng’s behalf. She only felt slightly sorry for him as she glanced at Xu Feng, then tossed him outside the Palace Master’s living quarters, inside of the yuanzi.\n

The sky gradually darkened. Since Xu Feng had suffered for so long, he had long since lost all the energy in his body, making it impossible to get up off the ground. But also, after a while, he was unable to die, he only felt his body becoming debilitated; bit by bit, the sort of taste of waiting for your death, it was truly way harder to bear than being pierced through the heart with a sword.\n

He thought about how he’d been raised by his Master since young, how he hadn’t been able to repay him for his great kindness yet, how he had been separated from his elder brother since childhood, how he still hadn’t managed to find the whereabouts of that member of his family, and the unavoidable feeling of fear bubbled up from within his heart. But then, he thought of the brave heroes he had read about in huaben stories, every one of them was awe-inspiringly righteous, they all saw death as casual of an event as returning home. Even though he’d been crippled from using martial arts, he couldn’t just die a coward. Immediately, he felt a burst of heroic spirit, he didn’t know where that energy came from, but he started to scream at the tightly shut door.\n

At first, he couldn’t let himself go, so over and over again, he cursed at how dirty and shameless the Palace Master was, saying that the Ji Le Palace did all sorts of evil deeds. It could be said that practice makes perfect, even when it came to cursing out people. As he kept cursing, it gradually flowed out more smoothly by the end. Using what he’d learned from the books he’d always read, and from what he’d heard his sect brothers say, he thoroughly and completely threw out any, and all curses and abuses.\n

After he had finished swearing, even he didn’t know exactly what he ended up saying and only thought that even if he didn’t survive, as long as he could curse at them like this, it wouldn’t be considered a loss in his book.\n

At that moment, he heard a ‘creak’ as the room’s door suddenly opened.\n

The Palace Master had already taken a bath and had changed into some dark-colored clothing. His black hair was still dripping wet, draped casually over his shoulder. He walked in the moonlight and stopped in front of Xu Feng’s body, using the tip of his shoe to lift Xu Feng’s chin, he asked, “Who did you say resembled a woman, and liked to be pinned down by others the most?”\n

Xu Feng was dizzy and confused, and he couldn’t remember if he had expressed such a curse, but he didn’t dare show any weakness and responded at once, “You put in so much effort to capture Young Master Mu Rong, was it not for this purpose? How shameless!”\n

The Palace Master glanced at him, then smiled instead of getting angry, and said, “You are quite brave. To let you die like this would cheapen you.”\n

As he spoke, he reached out and hit several of Xu Feng’s acupoints^[3], and temporarily stopped his bleeding, then dragged him into the room by his feet.\n

Xu Feng suspected that this person had thought of another way to torture him, but since he didn’t know what he intended to do, the fear within his heart grew. To his surprise, after the Palace Master dragged him into the room, he flung him onto the bed.\n

Xu Feng knew that he wouldn’t just let him rest nicely like this, and when his back made contact with the soft bed, he felt a chill run through him, so much that even his teeth chattered. He asked, “What… What are you doing?”\n

The Palace Master smiled at him, and asked in return, “Say, on this bed, what else would I, a perverted bastard do?”\n

As he spoke, he reached out and started to undo Xu Feng’s clothing.\n

Xu Feng suddenly jumped up, wanting to struggle as if his very life depended on it.\n

But his martial arts had been crippled, and he had suffered great injuries, how could he stand a chance with the Palace Master as his opponent? Soon, all four of his limbs were pinned down. The other person’s fiery hot, vigorous body overlapped his. The Palace Master softly licked the rim of his ear, which made him both scared and nauseous.\n

“Since you’ve let Mu Rong Fei run away, I will reluctantly have you replace him.”\n

Once the words sunk in, Xu Feng felt a breeze on his bottom half as his legs were roughly forced apart. Soon after, he felt a hot, stiff object press against his body, and it ruthlessly tore his body apart.\n

“Ah… Ahh. Ah….”\n

Xu Feng couldn’t contain it and screamed out miserably. His bottom half felt as if someone took a knife and was slicing him apart, bit by bit, his whole body seemed to be in hell. It was at that moment, he finally understood why Mu Rong Fei would’ve rather died than been willing to fall into the hands of the Ji Le Palace.\n

“Ah…”\n

Xu Feng screamed and finally woke up from his nightmare. Even though it was early in the Autumn season, he was soaked with sweat, and the old injury on his wrist had begun to ache dully.\n

Jin Shu heard the ruckus, and pushed the door open to enter, then said, “Young Master, what’s wrong? Did you have a nightmare again?”\n

Xu Feng waved his hand, and said, “It’s nothing.”\n

“Would you like to get up, Young Master? It’s very lively outside today.”\n

“What’s happening?”\n

Jin Shu smiled mischievously, and said, “The Palace Master has sent several people over, all waiting to attend to the Young Master.”\n

Xu Feng stared at him blankly but didn’t get to question him thoroughly. He could hear bits of what sounded like footsteps, and several green-clothed girls holding a water basin, towels, and other things, walked into the room single file. They were led by a woman with a benevolent gleam in her eye. Her name was Su Xin, who was, in fact, He Tingzhou’s head maid, and usually, she was the most useful. She was the one who arranged almost everything necessary for everyday life, and he would’ve never thought she would have been sent here.\n

Xu Feng was a bit confused, and couldn’t figure out what He Tingzhou’s intentions were.\n

The group of girls faced him and greeted him in sync, then they all surrounded him, one-by-one so that they could serve him to wash his face and rinse his mouth.\n

Xu Feng only ever had Jin Shu as his servant and had never seen such a show of extravagance. He continued, “I can do it by myself. I would not dare to make several young ladies work on my behalf.”\n

Su Xin pursed her lips and smiled, “We sisters will be serving in the Cui Zhu Pavilion from this day onward. Young Master need not be so courteous.”\n

As she spoke, she wrung a towel with warm water and handed it to Xu Feng.\n

Xu Feng could only accept it, however, he felt a jolt of pain on his palm, and didn’t know if something had pricked him. When he looked down to check, he saw that the palm of his hand was bleeding. Su Xin swore and quickly took back the towel. She said that she was unable to perform satisfactorily, and pleaded for the young master to punish her.\n

Xu Feng was originally a martial arts practitioner, so this kind of small injury wasn’t worth paying attention to, especially not enough for him to make things difficult for a woman. With a few words, the matter was resolved.\n

Su Xin heaved a sigh of relief, and quietly hid the towel. She then told someone to retrieve the medicine to give to Xu Feng to apply to his wound.\n

After such hectic events, he finally finished washing his face and rinsing his mouth. Once Xu Feng had dressed neatly, he left to go check out the central room and saw that breakfast was already prepared. It was much more extravagant than what he usually ate. Although the events over the past two days were all kinds of weird, he’d managed to keep his calm in the face of the unexpected, and thought to himself it could be taken as if the sky was falling. As long as he could die with a full stomach, it would be okay, so he sat down to eat without worry.\n

Even though it was just breakfast, the porridge was cooked so that it was both fragrant and thick, there were also several types of sweet and salty side dishes, all were dishes Xu Feng enjoyed eating, the chopsticks in his hand never stopped moving, and he kept eating until he was full. After he finished eating, he heard Su Xin chuckle, and say, “As expected, what the Palace Master said was right.”\n

Xu Feng was puzzled and looked over at her.\n

Su Xin explained, “The Palace Master had to go practice his martial arts this morning and is not able to dine with Young Master, so he told us to bring what he usually loved to eat and make them the same way to send to Young Master. It looks like the Palace Master’s expectations were right, sure enough, the Young Master likes them too.”\n

Xu Feng learned he had the same tastes as that person, and couldn’t help but feel awkward for a brief moment. Usually, after he finished eating breakfast, he would always practice a round of fists inside of the yuanzi, this time there was a group of young girls on the side smiling and watching him, nevertheless, he couldn’t fully demonstrate his skill, so he had no choice but to bring out a book to read. Su Xin and the others all found something to keep busy with and didn’t try to bother him. Only Jin Shu continuously had his brows raised in delight, and said loudly, “Once the bitterness ends, the sweetness begins^[4], at last, Young Master is being favored.”\n

Xu Feng didn’t believe he earned any favor at all, according to He Tingzhou’s temperament, he was afraid there was going to be some sort of conspiracy trap lying in wait for him.\n

The early morning passed quickly. When it was almost noon, He Tingzhou came again. Arriving with him was a middle-aged scholar in his forties, a person from the Ji Le Palace, so of course, his appearance was excellent, especially the three locks of long beard underneath his chin that had a hint of the demeanor of a transcendent being.\n

Xu Feng didn’t recognize this person at all and only heard He Tingzhou call this person Martial Uncle^[5]. To be addressed like this by He Tingzhou, it could only be the elder named Song Wen, whom he heard was one of the best when it came to the art of healing, but he practiced closed-door training^[6] all year round and people usually didn’t get to see him, so he had no idea why he would also come to the Cui Zhu Pavilion.\n

He Tingzhou commanded the people who didn’t have fixed duties to leave, and still using the strange expression he’d had yesterday to glance at Xu Feng, he asked Song Wen, “Martial Uncle, about that matter… there is no doubt about it?”\n

Song Wen said with a stiff face, “Since Palace Master does not believe, what is the purpose of finding me to confirm it?”\n

He Tingzhou didn’t speak any longer and tightened his right hand, which was balled in a fist.\n

Because of that, Xu Feng just realized that his hand was wrapped with a white cloth as if injured.\n

He Tingzhou remained quiet for a bit before he said, “I beg of Martial Uncle to help check his pulse.”\n

Xu Feng asked strangely, “Check what pulse?”\n

He Tingzhou smiled at Xu Feng, and said, “Nothing more than an examination, it’s a harmless matter.”\n

Xu Feng felt like he was a piece of meat on a chopping board, not to mention his meridians, even his life was squeezed between the hands of others, so without better alternatives, he could only sit down beside the table, and extend his right hand for Song Wen to measure his pulse.\n

Song Wen narrowed his eyes and examined him for a short time. He twirled the long beard below his chin with his fingers, and said, “The qi and blood are insufficient, and the energy channels are blocked, I believe it may be due to taking medicine that suppresses internal energy^[7].”\n

He Tingzhou said, “I’m already mixing the antidote, after a couple of days, the poison within his body can be released, allowing him to recover his internal energy.”\n

Song Wen nodded his head, “Young people’s bodies have great foundations, and there are no other critical conditions, so the most important thing is the injury on his right hand…”\n

Xu Feng’s heart tightened. He didn’t notice that He Tingzhou’s face had also changed slightly and waited for Song Wen to continue.\n

He saw Song Wen sigh, then say, “The meridians on his right hand have already been destroyed, since the injury is also many years old, even if Hua Tuo^[8] was to come alive, he too would have a hard time providing treatment.”\n

At that time, He Tingzhou had been so ruthless and accurate with his sword, all for the purpose of crippling his martial arts to begin with, such was the conclusion Xu Feng had already come to, and didn’t feel disappointed in the least, on the contrary, He Tingzhou pressed his hand into the table, and asked, “Even Martial Uncle has no solution?”\n

“If he’s able to recover well, he’ll still be able to hold chopsticks, but if he wanted to use a sword… the fact is that he would no longer be able to.”\n

He Tingzhou was expressionless for a long time, and slowly turned his head to face Xu Feng.\n

Xu Feng met his gaze and felt a shiver shoot through his heart, it wasn’t clear what kind of expression he had. It was as if… as if he had been stabbed through the chest by someone else, which was painful enough to lose self-control.\n

But how could that be?\n

Xu Feng was the one who couldn’t use a sword anymore, it definitely wasn’t He Tingzhou.\n

Xu Feng was distracted for a moment, and as soon as he refocused, the person in front of him had already recovered his usual smiling, calm demeanor. Xu Feng dimly laughed at himself for being blind, as he patiently endured listening to Song Wen prattle away for several more sentences, then he had Jin Shu receive the prescription, although his right hand couldn’t hold a sword anymore, it would still be okay if he could use chopsticks.\n

Song Wen took his leave once he finished examining his meridians, He Tingzhou accompanied him to the gate entrance, and asked in a low voice, “Could Martial Uncle think of some other solution?”\n

Helplessly, Song Wen said, “I shall go back and search through the medical books, but this matter is most likely difficult to resolve, Palace Master should not wrack his nerves over it too much.”\n

He Tingzhou didn’t make a sound after he saw Song Wen out, becoming spellbound by the hibiscus flowers in the courtyard.\n

Su Xin approached him, and asked, “It is almost noon, will Palace Master be dining here?”\n

He Tingzhou looked at Xu Feng, and saw he was currently holding a book and reading it, without even a sideways glance towards him, he smiled bitterly and said, “I have matters to attend to elsewhere, you guys should accompany the Young Master to his meal.”\n

He paused for a moment, then said, “Excellent work today regarding this matter, there will naturally be a reward for you someday in the future.”\n

Of course, Su Xin knew what matter he was speaking about, so she quickly thanked him, and saw He Tingzhou out of the Cui Zhu Pavilion.\n

Xu Feng heard that he didn’t need to eat with He Tingzhou, and heaved a sigh of relief, he thought to himself that without having to face this person, he could even eat two more bowls of food.\n

He Tingzhou had just left when a ‘pa’ sound came from within the room, the table that they had just been using earlier to measure his pulse unexpectedly split from the center, and after touching it lightly, it turned into a pile of wood.\n

Jin Shu said strangely, “It was perfectly fine, how could the table have broken?”\n

Su Xin said, “I’m afraid maybe because it was used for so long, the inside had already been eaten clean by insects, I’ll send someone out in a little bit to exchange it for another table.”\n

Xu Feng had studied martial arts, and with one look he could see that the table was broken by someone who’d hit it with their internal energy. If that strike hit an ordinary person, he feared that even their core would’ve shattered. He Tingzhou revealed this card to him on purpose, but for what purpose in the end?\n

Xu Feng remained perplexed despite much thought, so he simply stopped thinking about it. After he’d eaten lunch, he enjoyed the cool air underneath the grape trellis as he’d done before, and was quite content within himself.\n

After two short days, his position within the Ji Le Palace could be viewed as if heaven and earth had switched places. Previously, the Palace Master wouldn’t favor him with a visit for two or three months at a time, giving the gates to the Cui Zhu Pavilion the cold shoulder, and they had to deal with having barely enough expenses to cover their food and clothing. Now, he even had his most trusted personal servant girl entrusted to him, and other things were being sent to his room like running water, as for news that Xu Feng had become the favorite, it hadn’t even taken half a day before this matter had been spread around.\n

Some people were jealous, and there were those that were envious, but there were also people who were happy… such as Jin Shu, who had been walking around like he was on cloud nine these past few days.\n

Xu Feng knew that this matter must have some inside story behind it, thus he prepared more than 100% of his mental power, and waited for He Tingzhou to make his move. After a few more days like that passed, sure enough, He Tingzhou came around to give him the medicine he had prepared to restore his internal energy. After Xu Feng ingested the medicine, he felt the inside of his dantian^[9] vacillate with threads of heat, along with power circulating throughout all of his limbs and bones, it was uncomfortably warm.\n

When He Tingzhou would ask, Xu Feng purposefully hid the truth from him and only said that his internal energy was recovering extremely slowly, all so that he could make preparations for escaping from the Ji Le Palace in the future. He Tingzhou didn’t suspect him in the least and would visit the Cui Zhu Pavilion pretty much every day, there were times he would join him for a meal, and there were times he would briefly speak with him, but there were also times he would stand to the side and watch him tend to the flowers and plants. There was one exceptional matter, and that was the fact that He Tingzhou never stayed overnight at the Cui Zhu Pavilion, every time it was about that time, he would rush out.\n

Xu Feng couldn’t have asked for anything better, and naturally, let him leave freely.\n

This day He Tingzhou had had some free time, and idled away in Xu Feng’s room for a whole evening after he’d eaten dinner, he leisurely relaxed on the couch, and fetched the book Xu Feng was always reading to read for himself. Recently, he had been coming every day, so much so that he pretty much read through all of Xu Feng’s collection of books that he had compiled with much difficulty.\n

Xu Feng noticed this, and couldn’t help but say, “If the Palace Master likes them, then these books can be taken back to be read slowly, so there would be no need to come to my place every day.”\n

He Tingzhou raised his head and gave him a quick look, then continued looking down, and asked indifferently, “Do you think I come here every day just to read books?”\n

Xu Feng was stumped for words and momentarily couldn’t respond.\n

Cast in the pale yellow candlelight, He Tingzhou’s exceedingly beautiful face seemed to resemble a painting, his eyelashes seemed especially thick and dark and fluttered softly like the wings of a butterfly. He spoke in a low voice, “Whether I am here to read books or see people, you seriously do not know?”\n

Xu Feng listened to him ask in this way, and immediately became so scared that he didn’t dare speak.\n

He Tingzhou didn’t want to press much further either, so he swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue, and changed the subject, “How much of your internal energy have you been able to recover?”\n

Xu Feng had already recovered more than half, yet he replied, “Maybe around twenty or thirty percent.”\n

“Matters like these must be taken step by step, there is no need to be anxious about it.”\n

“…Mn.”\n

The two chatted for a bit until there was nothing left to be said. Xu Feng thought about what He Tingzhou had just said and felt an indescribable nervousness from within. He Tingzhou was also absent-minded, and he had stared at one page in the book for a long time, and yet still did not flip to the next.\n

Coincidentally, at that moment, there was a popping sound, and the wick of the lantern suddenly exploded, then petered out.\n

The room was plunged into darkness.\n

Xu Feng stood up to leave and said, “I shall get Jin Shu to come and change the lantern.”\n

In the darkness, it was hard to distinguish things, and after he’d taken a step, his wrist was grabbed by another hand, He Tingzhou spoke into his ear, “Wait a moment.”\n

Xu Feng stopped walking, he could feel those slender fingers grope along his wrist for some time, at last, they ended up pressing on the old scar from the past, and the fingertips gently caressed it, then what came after was He Tingzhou’s sighing-like voice asking, “Do you hate me in your heart?”\n

Xu Feng broke out into a cold sweat.\n

This question was asked quite awkwardly, how should he respond?\n

If he was still the young boy who first set out into Jiang Hu three years ago, he would’ve definitely jumped up and berated He Tingzhou to no end. How could hate be the only thing? He would’ve been overjoyed to eat the flesh of his enemy and sleep on his skin^[10]. But he’d already endured three years of torture, and already lost the spirit he had at that time, he knew what he should say, and what he shouldn’t. He still wanted to escape the Ji Le Palace, so he couldn’t die here, no matter what.\n

At that moment in time, Jin Shu’s footsteps could be heard coming from outside the door, and a faint sliver of light passed through the door to the inside.\n

Xu Feng carefully hid what he was feeling, so he let his gaze drift down, and said, “Why would the Palace Master need to ask such a thing? In any event, I’m already a part of the Ji Le Palace, for my entire life, I will always be by the Palace Master’s side.”\n

Those words were not sincere at all.\n

He Tingzhou didn’t try to expose him at all, and merely revealed a faint smile, within his expression there was an unexpected hint of sadness.\n

<hr class="wp-block-separator">\nXiao’s Comments: Ho, ho, ho, He Tingzhou is deeply regretting his actions now.\n

<hr class="wp-block-separator">\nTranslator: God\n

English Proofreader: Grumpykit\n

QC: Xiao\n

<hr class="wp-block-separator">\nTranslator’s Notes:\n

^[1] Meridian – 筋脉, channels where vital energy circulates\n

^[2] Yuanzi – 院子, a courtyard or compound, like this:  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siheyuan\n

^[3] Acupoints – 穴道, There are several hundred of them on the body, mostly located along the meridians. Knowledge of acupoints can be used in healing (through acupuncture or similar practices) or in combat by deliberately striking them to achieve certain effects.\n

^[4] The bitterness ends, and the sweetness begins – 苦尽甘来, an idiom that means that good things happen after difficult times end\n

^[5] Martial Uncle – 师叔, the sect brother of a person’s master\n

^[6] Closed door training – 闭关, training done in seclusion, usually to focus on breaking through a bottleneck or to avoid becoming distracted at a crucial moment and suffering a backlash as a result.\n

^[7] Internal energy – 内力, the cultivated energy within a martial artist’s body. Utilizing it, a martial artist can accomplish superhuman feats, heal wounds, and nullify poisons.\n

^[8] Hua Tuo – 华佗, a famous doctor at the end of the Han Dynasty, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hua_Tuo\n

^[9] Dantian – 丹田, literally translates as “Cinnabar Field” or “Elixir Field”. Refers to the region in the body where a person’s Qi is concentrated.\n

^[10] Eat the flesh of his enemy and sleep on his skin – 食肉寝皮, to swear revenge on a hated person and to hope they are utterly destroyed\n

<hr class="wp-block-separator">\nChapter 1 Chapter 3\n

Table of Contents\n\n

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