Zhang Chen, Li Chen whoever it was, they couldn’t possibly have made more enemies than he already had. Better to agree first and worry later.
But who exactly was this Chen Chen?
The two Ding-character Formula disciples continued: “Junior Brother Yin, it’s no wonder you’ve never seen him. Though he entered Immortal Feather Peak under the Yin Family’s outer-surname disciple status, he had no talent whatsoever, was old for a disciple, and dull-witted besides. You, Junior Brother Yin, are exceptionally gifted and have studied under the Peak Master at the First Peak since childhood, so naturally you’d have had little chance to meet him. Besides, you were young at the time, and his appearance has changed somewhat in the years since he left Immortal Feather Peak. He only ever did things that couldn’t see the light of day even I would need a moment to recognize him.”
But Yin Xiaoyang seemed not to have heard a word of what the two said. He looked at Cen Yuchi and said, his voice trembling slightly: “So you knew all along who I was. You knew all along I was returning to Immortal Feather Peak. You’ve been… using me all along?”
The person most in the dark among everyone present was Cen Yuchi himself. Faced with this accusation, he had no way to defend himself and could only steel himself and say: “If I said I didn’t, would you believe me?”
The two disciples kept talking, their voices full of mockery and contempt: “Out of regard for an old friendship, the Peak Master placed him in the Ding-character Formula to cultivate with us. But instead of gratefully training hard, he spent his days studying crooked paths and indulging in delusions of grandeur, trespassing into forbidden grounds, attempting to imitate Cen Yuchi by secretly cultivating dark arts to lord over everyone with low-level power. In the end he fled the sect and became a thief of the jianghu, bringing shame upon Immortal Feather Peak! As for the rest, you probably already know after all, the things he stole were all sent to your Yin Family.”
Cen Yuchi roughly pieced it together. This Chen Chen was, in plain terms, a delinquent disciple the Yin Family had sent to Immortal Feather Peak, who had run off halfway through his training to become a thief. He’d never caused any major trouble, just embarrassed both families, and no one had pursued the matter. And because he had always acted in secret and his appearance had changed somewhat over ten years, Yin Xiaoyang and others like Su Yuan, who cultivated year-round at the First Peak, naturally couldn’t recognize him. Only these two Ding-character Formula disciples, who had studied alongside him for years and knew him well, were able to identify him.
Cen Yuchi had stumbled upon Yin Xiaoyang by chance and followed him to Immortal Feather Peak. Though there had been a sliver of intent behind it, it was mostly coincidence hardly deserving the word “using.” But from Yin Xiaoyang’s perspective, whether from the standpoint of Immortal Feather Peak or the Yin Family, Cen Yuchi was the black sheep, the rotten fish in the soup. And connected with all his earlier actions, he became a villain who had exploited Yin Xiaoyang’s identity, won his trust, deceived his affections, and stopped at nothing to achieve his goals.
At the Ding-character Formula disciple’s final words, Yin Xiaoyang finally looked at the two of them and said, enunciating every word: “My uncle never accepted any of those stolen goods. Everything he sent to my Yin Family was returned in full to its rightful owners.”
Uncle? The uncle Yin Xiaoyang spoke of must be Yin Yunluo. Cen Yuchi thought: this little thief was quite something, stealing things and sending them to the Yin Family, whether helping people or harming them, who could say. No wonder Yin Xiaoyang’s earlier look had made him want to skin him alive.
The disciple with the lower cultivation said, “What are you so worked up about? Immortal Master Yin is upright and honorable, we all know his character. It’s you we’re talking about. Never mind how this treacherous thief sneaked into Immortal Feather Peak, but the fact that you walk around with someone of such poor character, anyone who didn’t know better would think your Yin Family really is in league with thieves. We’re only offering a friendly warning.”
Yin Xiaoyang was about to say something when Cen Yuchi spoke first: “What do you mean, ‘sneaked in’? Everyone has the right to attend the Immortal Feather Gathering. Which rule says I can’t come?”
“Chen Chen, Immortal Feather Peak requires an invitation for entry. Where’s yours?” asked the Ding-character Formula disciple.
Cen Yuchi replied, “Immortal Feather Peak only accepts those of virtue and conduct as disciples. Where’s yours?”
“You!” The Ding-character Formula disciple, having suffered this retort in silence, snapped furiously, “Take a look at yourself before you speak!”
“I have no virtue, which is why I stopped being an Immortal Feather Peak disciple long ago. But I do have an invitation.” Cen Yuchi pulled out the white card and waved it. “I properly submitted my invitation at the front gate. How big must your faces be to bar me from entry bigger than this invitation?” Cen Yuchi then studied the two men across from him carefully, then clicked his tongue. “Hard to say which is bigger, but as for thickness, yours is certainly thicker than this.”
The two were enraged and humiliated, but they turned their ire on Yin Xiaoyang, saying, “Yin Xiaoyang! You gave him this invitation? What’s the meaning of this? Fine, you’ve always been arrogant and looked down on everyone at Immortal Feather Peak, but today you actually bring this treacherous thief into Immortal Feather Peak! What exactly are you plotting?”
Yin Xiaoyang shot Cen Yuchi a warning glare, then retorted, “Since he is Chen Chen, I’ll settle the Yin Family’s accounts with him myself. But who I bring in here is none of your business!”
The Ding-character Formula disciple laughed at this. “Ha! Wonderful, Junior Brother Yin. So you’re protecting this thief. It seems your Yin Family has grown accustomed to keeping company with scoundrels! Truly a family tradition!”
That remark seemed to touch Yin Xiaoyang’s bottom line. His fists clenched tightly, and the sword on his back hummed with vibration.
This is bad, Cen Yuchi thought. Fighting was strictly forbidden on Immortal Feather Peak, especially here on Yike Peak, the guest-receiving peak that represented Immortal Feather Peak’s public face. If disciples attending the gathering saw this, wouldn’t it shame Immortal Feather Peak? And none of the three brats would get off easy.
The Ding-character Formula disciple continued, “Chen Chen, we just heard a while back that you were going to steal the Jade Chariot, and then word came out of that shabby little village that someone had seen it. Hahahaha! So where’s your Jade Chariot? Don’t tell me you were the one who spread that rumor yourself!”
Cen Yuchi’s heart jolted at these words. Does this little thief announce his thefts to the whole world beforehand?
The other Ding-character Formula disciple laughed as well. “Hahaha, hilarious! And you still have the leisure to come to Immortal Feather Peak? Shouldn’t you be off searching for that broken chair that flew who-knows-where? I bet Immortal Master Yin is sitting at home right now waiting for you to bring it back for some ritual to summon his soul!”
At those words, Yin Xiaoyang finally lost his composure. Cen Yuchi hurriedly stepped forward to hold him back. But the two across from them, seeing him take a step, assumed he was about to flee. One of them shouted, “Don’t even think about running!”, and a palm strike was already bearing down on Cen Yuchi.
Cen Yuchi instinctively reached out to block the palm strike, but suddenly remembered that this body’s Dharma power was far too weak, one blow would likely cripple his entire arm. In that moment of stunned hesitation, Yin Xiaoyang slid sideways in front of Cen Yuchi and deflected the strike with a horizontal sweep of his long sword.
It would have been fine had no one made a move, but once the fighting started, it spiraled out of control. Both sides had been holding back their full strength, and now they traded blows in a fierce, unrelenting exchange.
Blades flashed and swords gleamed in a dazzling blur. Having failed to break up the fight, Cen Yuchi didn’t know whether to join the battle or slip away in the chaos. Though the two Ding-character Formula disciples were slightly inferior to Yin Xiaoyang in cultivation, their footwork was remarkably skilled. Coordinating with each other, dodging left and right, they actually managed to push Yin Xiaoyang to the brink. And just then, the weaker of the two disciples, seeing that Yin Xiaoyang was already pinned down, set his sights on Cen Yuchi standing off to the side.
With a flick of his sleeve, he launched an attack straight at Cen Yuchi’s face. However low that disciple’s cultivation, he was still a fifth-rank cultivator, while Cen Yuchi was unarmed and afraid of aggravating his injuries. Though he carried all manner of hidden weapons on his person, he dared not use them lightly on Immortal Feather Peak, and could only dodge awkwardly. On Yin Xiaoyang’s side, his opponents pressed in relentlessly, leaving him no room to spare a thought for anyone else, but Cen Yuchi wasn’t giving his attacker any easy openings either. Yet the disciple apparently felt that a dignified fifth-rank disciple of Immortal Feather Peak being stalemated by a fourth-rank petty thief was a blow to his pride, and tried to salvage some face with his tongue, shouting: “Chen Chen! It’s been so long, and your cultivation hasn’t improved one bit but your skill at greasing your heels has gotten quite refined! Seems like all those years of thieving, you must have been chased by dogs plenty!”
Cen Yuchi shot back at once: “You bet! House dogs, stray dogs, mangy dogs! And one rabid dog wearing human skin that can speak human words!”
“You! Such insolence, such audacity! For the Ding-character Formula to have a traitorous disciple like you is a disgrace to our sect! I’ll exterminate you, you mongrel cur, on Master’s behalf!” Unable to out-insult his opponent and instead getting insulted himself, the disciple flew into a rage and, in a sudden burst of viciousness, slammed a palm into Cen Yuchi’s chest.
The blow knocked Cen Yuchi flat on the ground. A searing pain shot through his chest, and blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.
Worse, the disciple showed no intention of stopping, he drew his sword and thrust it at Cen Yuchi.
Cen Yuchi had never imagined this little bastard had such audacity, and for a moment there was no way to dodge.
Across the way, Yin Xiaoyang heard the commotion and realized something was wrong. Ignoring his opponents’ attacks, he turned to block the strike but he was still some distance away, and no sword could travel that fast. The blade was about to pierce Cen Yuchi. His heart tightened as he thought, This is bad, and instinctively squeezed his eyes shut, forming a finger seal in front of himself.
The next moment, with a crisp ring of “qiang,” the expected crushing blow never came. Instead, a gentle yet powerful Sword Qi brushed across Cen Yuchi’s face like a soothing caress, and for no discernible reason, he felt a wave of calm wash over his heart.
Cen Yuchi opened his eyes to see a long sword standing before him, having blocked the strike for him.
The sword had not left its sheath; its master had not yet arrived.
But everyone present knew exactly whose sword this was. All of them hastily withdrew their attacks and bowed their heads in advance, as if they had committed some grave offense. Even Cen Yuchi stared wide-eyed at the sword.
The sword that had blocked a fatal blow for him was none other than Bumu.
Mu Linchuan’s Bumu.
From a distance, where the tree shadows dappled, a white figure came sweeping toward them.
“The Peak Master…”
Stones piled like jade, pines arrayed like emerald, standing as steady as a mountain with divine light held within Mu Linchuan truly lived up to his title as Peak Master of Immortal Feather Peak.
Following behind him was a woman, the First Venerable of the Ding-character Formula, Wei Kong.
Though Mu Linchuan’s steps were steady, they were remarkably swift. As if he hadn’t seen the several people standing nearby, he walked straight up to Cen Yuchi. The wind lifted his dust-free hem, which drifted past before Cen Yuchi’s eyes. Through the fine gauze, Cen Yuchi seemed to catch a barely perceptible ripple in Mu Linchuan’s gaze, but the moment the hem fell completely, the man’s expression returned to normal as if all those emotions that had flickered through his eyes had been nothing but a momentary illusion Cen Yuchi had conjured under the interplay of light and shadow.
Mu Linchuan sheathed his sword, and his usual warm affability vanished as he asked gravely, “What happened?”
The two Ding-character Formula disciples exchanged glances, and then one of them stepped forward and answered, “Peak Master, Master, the two of us were here visiting friends and family when we happened to see Junior Brother Yin sneaking around with this person, up to who knows what. We meant to go over and check on them, only to discover that this person is none other than Chen Chen, the traitorous disciple of the Ding-character Formula who fled our sect. Not knowing why Junior Brother Yin had gotten involved with someone like this, we asked him a few questions, but to our surprise, Junior Brother Yin attacked us. In our desperation, we had no choice but to draw our swords in self-defense. We beg the Peak Master and Master to punish us as they see fit.”
Yin Xiaoyang seemed entirely unsurprised that they would say such things. He merely gave a scornful snort, then hurried over to Cen Yuchi to check his injuries.
“Chen Chen…” When Mu Linchuan heard the name, he tilted his head slightly and murmured it under his breath, looking somewhat puzzled. But Wei Kong, upon hearing the name “Chen Chen,” frowned as if deeply concerned and looked at Cen Yuchi carefully.
Though Wei Kong was a woman, she was notorious for her terrible temper. Mu Lian was also usually stern and unsmiling, but he had a cold disposition, if you went and made a nuisance of yourself in front of him, he would simply ignore you. Wei Kong was another matter entirely: cross her even slightly, and you’d suffer for it. That was why, back then, Cen Yuchi had feared this Martial Uncle Wei even more than he feared his own master. Now, being stared at like this, his whole body prickled with unease.
What a run of bad luck, why did all the difficult people keep crossing his path? Cen Yuchi grumbled inwardly. He shook his head at Yin Xiaoyang to signal that he was fine, then looked up to meet Wei Kong’s scrutinizing gaze, narrowing his eyes into a cheeky grin.
In any case, playing dumb was the way to go.
But at the sight of him like this, Wei Kong seemed to suddenly remember something. Her brow furrowed as she said, “So it really is you, you brat!”