Chapter 5

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.\n

<figure class="wp-block-gallery columns-0 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1"></figure>\nElder Brother: Chapter 5\n

It seemed like the entire mountain cave was collapsing.\n

Xu Feng didn’t have much experience in Jiang Hu, so he hadn’t realized until that moment that he’d mistakenly touched a mechanism. He wanted to escape from the cave but there wasn’t enough time left, and amidst the chaos he was only able to protect his head and face with his hands. The rocks from the mountain wall cascaded down, smashing into his body, and into his back, every impact was incredibly painful.\n

Originally, Zhou Yan was already at the mouth of the cave, but when he saw the misfortune that suddenly arose, he turned around at once and threw himself over Xu Feng’s body.\n

Xu Feng felt his body become heavy, and all he could hear was the pounding sound of someone’s heart. The falling rocks smashed into Zhou Yan’s body with a ‘pu’, ‘pu’, yet he didn’t even groan at all.\n

Who knew how long had passed before the ground which had been moving unceasingly gradually began to calm down.\n

The mountain cave was dark and void of sunlight. Xu Feng felt a hand touch the side of his neck, the owner of the hand asked him in the darkness, “Xu Xiong Di, have you been injured?”\n

Because of what he’d experienced in the past three years, Xu Feng wasn’t used to being close to others, so he scooted off further towards the side, and said, “It is no bother, many thanks to Zhou Xiong for protecting me just now.”\n

Zhou Yan was quiet for a while before speaking, “It was as easy as lifting a finger.”\n

He was carrying a fire stick^[1] on him, so he pulled it out just then and lit it, everything around them became illuminated. All that could be seen was that the originally small, narrow cave was piled high with rubble, and even worse, the only exit was completely blocked by rocks.\n

Zhou Yan reached out and pushed, but the rock didn’t budge an inch.\n

Xu Feng asked, “How is it? Is it possible to get out?”\n

Zhou Yan muttered to himself, “If I wasn’t injured, I could use my internal energy to shatter the rock, how unfortunate…”\n

The glow of the leaping flames illuminated his body, and it was at that time Xu Feng discovered, the clothes on his body were heavily damaged, there were even some places that had impressions of blood seeping through, which were most likely caused by injuries from being hit by the rubble in the chaos just before.\n

“Zhou Xiong, by rescuing me, have your injuries become more severe?”\n

Zhou Yan didn’t care about it much, and said, “Only a few flesh wounds, nothing more.”\n

“You and I are strangers who met by chance, was there a need for Zhou Xiong to protect me?”\n

“I…” Zhou Yan’s eyes seemed to contain what looked like the traces of a dim flame, he looked at Xu Feng then said, “I’m older than you, and I’m more skilled in martial arts compared to you, taking you as if you were a little brother, of course, you should be protected.”\n

Xu Feng would’ve never guessed that he would be a chivalrous person too, and felt very grateful, feeling somewhat remorseful for doubting his story from before and being vigilant against him in all respects.\n

Zhan Yan saw the mouth of the cave was impassable and asked what had caused the severe shaking, Xu Feng recalled the moment he’d touched the round rock, and hurriedly led Zhou Yan over to take a look.\n

Zhou Yan lit a torch, then bent down and carefully studied the smooth, round stone, he stuck his hand out to touch it, and carefully turned it sideways.\n

‘Click, click, click.’\n

Once again, a different noise was heard, but this time there weren’t any landslides nor did the ground split, only the ground near the rock shook slowly, and a pitch-black tunnel entrance was revealed.\n

Xu Feng cried out in surprise, “It’s a hidden path!”\n

After he’d spoken, he turned his head to look at the person next to him and could see Zhou Yan’s waxy face still held a wooden expression, his expression hadn’t changed a bit. He thought to himself that this person must really be used to the wind and the waves, and couldn’t help but secretly admire him. When he used to read huaben, he would often read about a chivalrous hero entering an underground palace, a story about finding a secret collection of martial arts books or an outstanding collection of hidden treasures, but when it came to his turn, he was still slightly hesitant. He asked Zhou Yan, “Zhou Xiong, shall we go down to explore?”\n

Zhou Yan replied, “The exit is blocked anyway, rather than being surrounded by worries, it would be better to go down and take a look.”\n

As he spoke, he passed a small dagger he carried on his person to Xu Feng, “You don’t have any bladed weapons on your body, take this to defend yourself with.”\n

Xu Feng had already used his dagger when he was preparing the pheasant and knew it was a hard-to-come-by, sharp blade, it was only because of the compelling situation, that he hadn’t even tried to refuse. He grasped the dagger in his hand and was about to twist his body to enter the secret path when Zhou Yan beat him to it by a step.\n

Zhou Yan raised the torch, and said, “I will walk in front.”\n

The tunnel entrance only allowed one person to pass through at a time, it was winding and meandering, so much so a person wouldn’t know where it led. In the very beginning, the two people could only make their way through by crouching, but as they neared the end, it became much roomier.\n

The mountain walls on either side were polished to extreme smoothness, and it was evident that it was man-made, just like the shallow notches that were cut into the side of the steep cliff. Droplets of water dripped down from the top of Xu Feng’s head and fell onto his neck, making him quiver with chills. A thought suddenly occurred to him, this situation was absolutely not by chance.\n

Who would waste so much heart’s blood^[2] for no cause or reason, and create a path on a steep cliff? It must have something to do with the hidden path in this cave. No matter where this hidden path leads to, presumably it must have something to do with the Ji Le Palace.\n

Xu Feng composed himself and continued walking with increased care.\n

Of course, the secret path wouldn’t be without mechanical traps, fortunately, Zhou Yan was quite experienced in the ways of Jiang Hu, and countered every trap on the path, one after the other, peril turned to safety. Xu Feng followed behind him, experiencing shock and fear again and again.\n

They had walked for more than an hour when Xu Feng heard the sound of babbling water.\n

Zhou Yan turned around, and said, “This should be an underground river, we are already in the heart of the mountain.”\n

“When do you think we’ll reach the end of the hidden path?”\n

“Should be soon.”\n

Zhou Yan had guessed correctly and momentarily they’d reached the end of the hidden path. There was a rock wall at the end, blocking the way completely, and not a sliver of light could be seen.\n

Xu Feng released the breath he’d been holding, then spoke with disappointment, “Looks like a dead end.”\n

Zhou Yan replied, “Not necessarily.”\n

He raised the torch and illuminated the stone wall blocking the way.\n

Against the glow of the fire, Xu Feng could see an erotic picture painted on the wall. Because it was old, the colors in the painting had already become mottled, but a picture depicting a group of naked men and women having an orgy could still be made out.\n

Xu Feng had seen these kinds of obscene, and nefarious acts at the Ji Le Palace, so seeing it now, his entire face flushed a deep red, but soon after it became deathly white, and he turned his head away, unwilling to continue looking.\n

Zhou Yan glanced at him, his lips moved, but he didn’t say anything, he just walked forward to look carefully at the painting. After looking for just a moment, he noticed a peculiar spot, there was a person who had a dark red nipple, like blood[1] , in the picture, moreover, it was slightly bulging upwards, and was not the same as the others in comparison.\n

He reached out and pressed the red spot.\n

This started up a mechanism and sure enough, the stone wall slowly opened.\n

Beyond the wall, it was still pitch-black. Xu Feng heard something move and turned around, he saw the paint had actually started to peel off by itself, and a thin layer of vapor diffused from the seams in the wall.\n

Zhou Yan gasped, and called out at once, “Xu Xiong Di, quickly hold your breath!”\n

Xu Feng reacted a little slowly and had already inhaled a couple of mouthfuls. His body swayed, and he became aware of a cloyingly sweet smell at the tip of his nose, it was extremely similar to the aphrodisiac the Palace Master had once used on his body.\n

Xu Feng’s hands trembled.\n

The Palace Master considered himself to be distinguished and accomplished and preferred not to use these kinds of methods, but he had relied on them occasionally just so he could humiliate him. He only had to close his eyes, and he could remember suffering from the control of the drug, the scene of him lying underneath that person’s body and wantonly begging for sex.\n

The white mist gradually dissipated, Zhou Yan relaxed his breath, and asked him, “Xu Xiong Di, are you still okay?”\n

The effects of the drug arrived fiercely and violently, and Xu Feng already felt his body burning up, but he forced himself to suppress it, then said, “Nothing’s wrong.”\n

Scared that Zhou Yan hadn’t believed him, he followed up with another sentence, “Many thanks for Zhou Xiong’s warning, how do you know if this mist was poisonous?”\n

Zhou Yan paused for a moment, then replied, “It should be harmless. But walking in Jiang Hu, one must always be a little careful.”\n

After he spoke, he continued to walk forward, still rushing to be in front of Xu Feng.\n

There was a stone room behind the stone wall, the place wasn’t large, erotic paintings were drawn across all four walls, they followed several rows of wooden shelving, with the shelves themselves crammed full of various porcelain bottles. There were labels written on the porcelain bottles, Xu Feng shot them a glance, they comprised of labels such as “chunqing powdered medicine”^[3], and “taohua nectar”^[4], he didn’t have to guess to figure out what they were used for.\n

Xu Feng was already finding it difficult to control his state of mind and could bear it even less when he saw these, so he simply refused to look any closer. On the other hand, Zhou Yan studied them carefully and very quickly found a new mechanism on the erotic painting.\n

The mechanism opened up a rock wall on the other side of the room[2] , there was yet another stone room behind the wall, the room contained glittering jewels that delighted the eye^[5], they were all exquisitely handmade lewd devices. Xu Feng hurriedly swept his gaze around the room, there were male genitals made of jade, items such as mian bells^[6], there were some that he himself had used, and there were some that he had never seen before.\n

Zhou Yan went straight to find the mechanism on the erotic painting.\n

The effects of the drug on Xu Feng’s body had already completely taken effect, making his entire body unbearably hot and dry, the sweat on his forehead trickled down, one drop at a time, and he couldn’t even stand steadily anymore. Everything he saw before him appeared blurry, there was only the sound of the other person’s breathing, which could be heard more and more clearly.\n

He felt the slightly cool dagger in his hand.\n

He gritted his teeth. And in order to avoid losing his self-control in front of someone else, he quietly pulled out the dagger and pressed it against his right hand which had very little strength. The meridians on his right hand had already been destroyed, but he could still feel pain. The dagger was incomparably sharp, he only slashed his palm lightly, yet he felt a sharp pain.\n

Xu Feng shivered from the pain, and his palm quickly moistened with blood, but he had also become a bit more clear-headed. Next to him, Zhou Yan had already opened the door to the next stone room, so he quickly hurried along behind him.\n

In the next stone room, the smell of books assailed the nostrils, it was crammed full with a variety of books, Zhou Yan randomly flipped through them, and saw that they were all about the method of dual cultivation between two married ones. His expression didn’t change as he put it back, and said, “It looks like this place really is an area with hidden treasure, for someone to gather all of these things together, who knows how much heart’s blood was spent on this.”\n

Xu Feng had already guessed that these were all the Ji Le Palace’s things, and said angrily, “They are merely objects used to hurt people!”\n

As he spoke, he grabbed Zhou Yan’s torch and set fire to the many books on a nearby shelf.\n

Zhou Yan reached out as if he wanted to block him, “Xu Xiong Di…”\n

Xu Feng’s throat tightened as he asked, “What?”\n

The hatred in his eyes was like a raging inferno.\n

Zhou Yan retracted his hand, and sighed as if to say, “As long as burning them makes you happy.”\n

Xu Feng still had some reason left, scared of truly starting a fire, and burning down the whole stone room, he only set fire to two or three books then stopped. When he gave the torch back to Zhou Yan, he stumbled sideways and fell into Zhou Yan’s arms.\n

Zhou Yan hurriedly supported him, and asked, “Xu Xiong Di, are you okay?”\n

Xu Feng couldn’t speak anymore, and just nodded his head, he struggled, wanting to stand firm by himself.\n

Being so close to him at that moment, Zhou Yan felt his complexion was off, his breathing was also a little more hurried than normal. His heart flipped as he realized what had happened, he asked, “Did you inhale the white mist from earlier?”\n

“Just a little…” Xu Feng said, “Only a little bit…”\n

As he spoke, he used the dagger to slice his palm.\n

Zhou Yan turned pale with fright, and quickly seized the dagger, when he looked at his hand, the cutting of the knife’s blade had already badly mutilated the hollow of his palm. Zhou Yan’s gaze trembled, he spoke astringently, “The dagger I gave you wasn’t for you to hurt yourself with.”\n

After he spoke, he threw the dagger far, far away. That sort of rare, bladed weapon, he didn’t even look at it, he just tore some clothes apart and then used them to bind Xu Feng’s wounds.\n

When it was partially bound, Xu Feng Xu Feng gripped his hand with his other hand. The hollow of his palm was scalding, and when he spoke, his breath was frighteningly hot and he spoke in broken sentences, “Zhou Xiong… I can’t bear it…”\n

Zhou Yan had even tossed away the torch, he stiffly supported his arm, then said, “No problem, it will pass soon.”\n

The torch rolled around on the ground twice, and with a hiss, the flame went out, the stone room was so dark nothing could be seen. However, Xu Feng felt as if the burning fire had entered his chest, he said in the darkness, “So hot…”\n

Zhou Yan said, “You are suffering from a potent aphrodisiac, wait for the effect of the drug to be resolved and it will be better.”\n

Xu Feng asked, “How to resolve it?”\n

Zhou Yan immediately became silent.\n

Xu Feng was muddle-headed one moment and clear-headed the next, when he was slightly more clear-headed, he begged him, “Zhou Xiong, you should give me back the dagger still, I can’t bear it anymore…”\n

He clearly wanted to use pain to suppress the sexual desire, how could Zhou Yan give it to him? He didn’t make a noise and just held him tighter in his embrace. The two men’s bodies were stuck so closely together, that Zhou Yan quickly realized his lower body’s passion, he coaxed him, “Xu Xiong Di, bear with it for a little longer, it will soon pass.”\n

Afterward, there was the sound of rustling.\n

When Xu Feng was gripped by Zhou Yan’s hand, the sliver of reason that had remained was scattered like ashes and dispersed into smoke. His body felt both cold and hot, and with the movements of his hand, it was as if water and fire had strangely blended together. He leaned closely into Zhou Yan’s body, and cried out absently, “Zhou Xiong… Nn, Zhou Da Ge^[7]…”\n

Zhou Yan concentrated on pleasing his body, but when he heard him call out, “Zhou Da Ge”, it felt like something was ruthlessly stabbing at him, and he suddenly pushed the man in his embrace away.\n

Xu Feng’s legs already turned weak, given such a push, and no longer able to stand up, he immediately toppled onto the floor. Zhou Yan didn’t even look at him, and walking so fast it looked as if he were flying, he quickly left the stone room.\n

Xu Feng lay on the floor by himself and curled his body up. The ice-cold floor allowed him to recover some sanity, but the heat within his body rushed forth, wave after wave, tormenting him so that he both wanted to live and die. He knew how to relieve this sort of suffering, but he wasn’t willing to submit to the control of the drug’s effects no matter what, so he just gritted his teeth tightly and firmly endured.\n

The dagger that had been thrown to the side by Zhou Yan wasn’t very far away, Xu Feng moved his body, crawling over bit by bit, he reached out his hand to grab the dagger. His fingertips had just bumped into the blade of the knife before someone’s foot kicked the dagger away.\n

It turned out that Zhou Yan had returned some time ago, and he picked him up off the floor with a calm, collected face.\n

Xu Feng was able to bear it when he was by himself, but as soon as Zhou Yan touched him, his body involuntarily moved closer. He leaned into Zhou Yan’s embrace, his lips lightly touching the chest of the person’s flimsy clothes, almost like a kiss.\n

Zhou Yan’s breathing became a little more rushed, but he didn’t make a sound throughout, he just carried him through several stone rooms, then the footsteps stopped. The aphrodisiac had tormented Xu Feng into a daze, so he had no knowledge of where they had ended up and was only aware of Zhou Yan suddenly releasing his hands. His body plummeted straight down, and with a ‘splash’, he fell into piercingly ice-cold water.\n

Xu Feng shivered and trembled from the cold. He wasn’t bad at swimming, but he struggled to thrash out of the water, when he had just inhaled a breath of air, Zhou Yan pressed his shoulder, and he was pushed into the water once more. Xu Feng even ingested a couple of mouthfuls of water, and it wasn’t until he felt like he was almost drowning that he released his hand.\n

After repeating this several times, the fire that burned within Xu Feng’s body had been thoroughly extinguished by the cold water. The next time he floated up from the water, his whole body was drenched, and the water droplets rolled from the ends of his hair into his eyes. He wiped his face and looked at Zhou Yan through a hazy mist.\n

Who knew why, but there was a somewhat faint light in this stone room, Zhou Yan’s expression was unclear in the lighting and appeared to be dark and gloomy. But in the blink of an eye, the gaze became like ice and snow beginning to melt once again, decidedly dripping onto Xu Feng’s face.\n

Xu Feng cried out with a sound, “Zhou Xiong…”\n

It was as if Zhou Yan had just awoken from a dream, he hurriedly pulled him out of the water, then asked, “Have the effects of the drug been resolved?”\n

Xu Feng was freezing to the point that his lips were turning purple and could only nod his head.\n

Zhou Yan took off his outer garment and wrapped it around his body, then said, “I’m sorry, this was the only method I could think of.”\n

Xu Feng naturally couldn’t blame him, “It should be me…  giving many thanks to Zhou Xiong for it to be so…”\n

“Thanks for what?” Zhou Yan smiled bitterly, then said, “Thanks to me for throwing you into the water?”\n

Xu Feng didn’t say anything, and thought to himself, that rather than showing a shameful performance under the effects of the aphrodisiac, he was willing to drown in the water. He originally had some doubts about Zhou Yan’s origins, but now the suspicions were dispelled, and he felt that apart from his slightly strange temperament, all-in-all, he could be considered a man of honor.\n

Zhou Yan bustled about and started a fire. Xu Feng spread his clothes out then sat on the side to warm himself by the fire, looking all around him, he saw that the stone room was completely empty, furthermore, there were no erotic paintings or any other related toys, as for the small amount of light, they were the result of several bright jewels that hung in all four corners of the room.\n

“How strange, why is there only a pool in this room?”\n

Zhou Yan paused for a moment, then said, “This place… is a place for bathing to purify one’s body before practicing dual cultivation.”\n

Xu Feng’s face turned red, then cursed, “Shameless!”\n

Zhou Yan didn’t respond and just reached out to grab his right hand. The wounds on his hand hadn’t been well wrapped to begin with, and then they were soaked in the water, which made the blood drip all the more frighteningly. Some of the wounds were so deep, the bone could even be seen, Zhou Yan noticed them, and couldn’t help frowning, then  asked, “Xu Xiong Di, how did your hand become this severe to begin with?”\n

Xu Feng didn’t mind, and said, “This hand was already crippled long ago anyway.”\n

Zhou Yan held his hand and couldn’t help but tremble a bit. Even though his face held no expression, his movements were very gentle, he spread the wound medicine onto Xu Feng’s palm and started to tear off another cloth to bind his wound.\n

After binding it, his fingers moved down slightly and touched an old scar on Xu Feng’s wrist.\n

Xu Feng immediately withdrew his hand, and said, “My hand is no longer a major hindrance, thank you for your trouble, Zhou Xiong.”\n

Zhou Yan’s hand remained rigid in that pose, then after a bit, he slowly withdrew, and said, “Is that place an old injury?”\n

“Mn, it is an injury sustained from several years ago, nowadays it has already gotten better.”\n

“But your hand…”\n

“For those who walk down Jiang Hu, who wouldn’t have any injuries on their body? Even though I can no longer use my right hand, my left hand can still practice the sword.” Xu Feng wasn’t very willing to bring up the past, and just arbitrarily spouted a couple of perfunctory sentences.\n

Zhou Yan didn’t dig deeper either, he looked at the open fire before him, his expression was as unfathomable as the glow of the fire. Who knew how long had passed, when he suddenly made a sound, “Xu Xiong Di.”\n

“What?”\n

“If someone inadvertently did something and regretted it too late to do something about it, do you think… he would still have an opportunity to make up for it?”\n

As Xu Feng listened to these words, he knew he was definitely a person with a story. However, within Jiang Hu, who didn’t have some past matters they weren’t willing to mention? Just as he, himself, also had a time in the past he couldn’t bear to recollect. Thus, he never asked Zhou Yan what he’d done, he thought for a moment, then said, “My Master has always said, known mistakes can be fixed, the most important factor is improvement. Since it was an unintentional mistake, if no effort is spared to make up for it after the matter, then how could it be too late?”\n

He had merely spoken in general terms, randomly saying some consoling words. Who would’ve thought that after listening, Zhou Yan’s gaze would actually stir, and he would suddenly stand up?\n

Xu Feng was startled by him.\n

Zhou Yan was aware he had lost his sense of propriety, but he still paced back and forth a couple of times, before slowly sitting back down, and saying, “Xu Xiong Di, many thanks to you.”\n

He looked at Xu Feng past the glow of the fire between them, and said, “If my little brother… were like you, it would be good.”\n

Xu Feng sincerely said, “Naturally, your honorable little brother is a lot better than me.”\n

At the very least he had this sort of elder brother, who was constantly concerned about him.\n

Although he had a big brother too, he didn’t know whether he was dead or alive; although he had a Master, he feared burdening his Master’s school and didn’t dare go back and visit. The land under the sky was vast, and he had no choice but to walk alone in solitude.\n

Xu Feng continued to sit beside the open fire and warm himself, and soon his clothes were half-dry. He wanted to give the outer garment back to Zhou Yan, but Zhou Yan wouldn’t take it and walked over to open the door to the next stone room without consulting anyone.\n

Although Xu Feng had long been prepared, after waiting for the stone door to open, the moment the stone bed in the middle was revealed, he still cursed, “Shameless.”\n

The stone bed was built quite large. It was wide enough for four or five people to lie on and the surface was slightly uneven. Xu Feng went in to take a look and realized that an erotic drawing was carved into it. It was unclear what kind of skilled craftsman there was, to be able to portray the people in the drawing in such a vivid and lifelike manner, there was even extra elaboration on some obscene toys that were used to liven things up.\n

Even though the aphrodisiac in Xu Feng’s system had dissipated, his face still turned red.\n

Zhou Yan didn’t pay it any mind, and not only did he look at it carefully, he even reached out his hand to touch it, afterward he contemplated for a short while, then simply turned over and lay down on it.\n

Xu Feng cried out, “Zhou Xiong!”\n

Zhou Yan gestured with his hand, and said, “Do not make a sound.”\n

He closed his eyes tightly, his eyeballs moved around rapidly, it was unclear as to what he was thinking. After a while had passed, he sat up swiftly, feeling a place on the stone bed with his fingertips, he then struck down three times with the utmost regularity.\n

He jumped off the bed after striking it, and soon after a ‘ka’ sound could be heard, the bed actually flipped over, and several stone steps were revealed.\n

Xu Feng asked strangely, “How is Zhou Xiong so familiar with the mechanisms in this place?”\n

Zhou Yan didn’t look back at him, and said in a low voice, “These are just some qimen dunjia^[8] techniques, all mechanisms are about the same.”\n

Xu Feng still felt unconvinced, but he didn’t have enough time to dwell upon it, he then heard Zhou Yan ask him, “Xu Xiong Di, do you want to go down and check it out?”\n

Xu Feng saw that each stone room was becoming more unsavory than the last, and feared that by continuing to make their way down, who knew what kind of lewd matters would appear. But the two still hadn’t found a way out, and he couldn’t give up halfway, so he could only bite the bullet, and say, “Let us go down and take a look then.”\n

Zhou Yan still continued to walk in the front like before.\n

These stone steps were easier to walk along compared to the hidden path from before, but it was similarly complicated and winding, it became colder as they continued down as if filled with bursts of cold air.\n

Could it be that there was an ice cellar below?\n

As Xu Feng thought that, they eventually reached the end of the stone steps. He didn’t see any chunks of ice, there was only a stone platform, with a sword stuck into the stone platform.\n

The sword didn’t have a scabbard, and the blade of the sword looked as frail as a cicada’s wings, underneath the weak glow of a night-luminescent pearl, flowing rays of light lurked on the sword’s blade, like an expanse of limpid water in autumn.\n

With one look, he could tell that this was a treasured sword that could cut through iron as if it were mud.\n

In every case, for those who studied martial arts, when looking at this kind of treasure, there wasn’t anyone who wouldn’t be tempted. Of course, Xu Feng was a normal person too, but once he thought of this being a possession of the Ji Le Palace, he broke off this kind of thinking again.\n

Zhou Yan walked several steps forward, then reached out his hand to grip the handle of the sword. But just as he’d managed to pull the sword out[3] , flying arrows shot out at him from the surrounding walls.\n

Xu Feng quickly called out, “Zhou Xiong, be careful!”\n

Zhou Yan reacted very quickly, and immediately swung the sword, cutting down the flying arrows. Xu Feng already knew that his martial arts was very strong, and looking at it now, he carried himself quite elegantly indeed, his body movements were agile, even when he swung the sword, it was as beautiful as floating clouds and flowing waters.\n

But the mechanism was extremely strange, and the flying arrows continued without stopping, they kept shooting at Zhou Yan from all around, unceasingly from beginning to end. Even though Zhou Yan was very skilled at martial arts, there would still come a time where he would completely exhaust his energy, and Xu Feng couldn’t help but secretly feel anxious on his behalf.\n

Zhou Yan also realized the key to shut it off, and with both feet, he stepped onto the stone platform, then stuck the treasured sword back from whence it came.\n

The mechanism immediately stopped.\n

Xu Feng sighed, then said, “Looks this sword can’t be removed.”\n

Zhou Yan looked around, then lightly snorted, and said, “Not necessarily.”\n

He addressed Xu Feng, “Xu Xiong Di, move back a bit.”\n

Xu Feng was already pretty far away, but he listened to what he said and moved back onto the stone steps.\n

Zhou Yan closed his eyes, then took hold of the sword, once again pulling it free. It was the same as before, the arrows shot towards him. Zhou Yan didn’t dodge and used his top-notch qinggong instead, he welcomed the flying arrows whistling past, repeatedly swing[4] ing the sword, he wielded the treasured sword sharply, and straightforwardly destroyed the mechanisms.\n

Xu Feng could only see the flutter of his sleeves, and numerous shadows of the sword, when Zhou Yan floated to the ground as light as a feather, the mechanisms had already been broken in several locations. He sincerely praised him, “Zhou Xiong is indeed skilled at martial arts.”\n

The corners of Zhou Yan’s mouth pulled up, and a smile appeared on his expressionless face, as he tossed the sword to him, he said, “Xu Xiong Di, catch.”\n

Xu Feng used his left hand to catch the sword and felt a strand of cold air emanate from the blade of the sword. He wanted to take a closer look, but then he heard Zhou Yan say, “You aren’t carrying a bladed weapon by your side to protect yourself, use this sword in the meantime.”\n

Xu Feng was surprised, and said, “This is something Zhou Xiong took risks to obtain, how would it be right for me to seize this?”\n

“I usually don’t use a sword, so it would be of no use to me if I had it.” Zhou Yan held his hands behind his back, and said in an unconcerned manner, “If Xu Xiong Di doesn’t like it, then just throw it away.”\n

Where existed a person who would throw away this kind of treasured sword for fun?\n

Xu Feng originally wanted to refuse, but after hesitating for a moment, he still accepted it in the end. He thought to himself, this sword was a possession of the Ji Le Palace, wait for when he had mastered martial arts in the future, then he would go back and attack the Ji Le Palace, and personally stab the Palace Master in the chest with this sword. But, what kind of happiness would that bring him?\n

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

English Proofreader: Grumpykit\n

QC: Xiao\n

<hr class="wp-block-separator">\nXiao’s Comments: Am I seeing some foreshadowing?\n\n

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

^[1] Fire stick – 火折子, similar to the modern-day lighter. It’s a magical stick made with some hollowed out piece of wood stuffed with easily light-able materials. A fire is lit inside of the piece of wood, and then it is capped so that the fire won’t burn, then if people want to start a fire, they take off the cap and blow on the top of the stick, and boom, we have fire.\n

^[2] Heart’s blood – 心血, meticulous care, or expenditure\n

^[3] Chunqing powdered medicine – 春情散, literally “amorous | feelings | medicine”\n

^[4] Taohua nectar – 桃花露, literally “peach | blossom | nectar”, but “peach blossom” can be used figuratively to mean “love affair”\n

^[5] glittering jewels that delighted the eye – 琳琅满目, a dazzling lineup\n

^[6] Mian bells – 缅铃, apparently they are ancient Chinese sex toys. They are ball-like, and you can shove ‘em in your vag and they will vibrate, or stick your peen between ‘em and, again, I think they vibrate.\n

^[7] Da Ge – 大哥, big brother, but more intimate :9\n

^[8] Qimen dunjia – 奇门遁甲, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qimen_Dunjia, some sort of Chinese divination\n

<hr class="wp-block-separator">\nChapter 4 Chapter 6\n

Table of Contents

Like this:Like Loading...