Tang Jie looked at the golden carp flesh and asked Li Yu, “Why?”
“Why? Because I like you. Kid, you’re courageous and daring, a real impressive person. I already took a liking to you last time, and I like you even more now. Moreover, even after entering Tempered Will, you’re still able to last until now. You’ve got tough bones and are truly a good block of jade, so I have to carve you into something good. As they say, seeing someone go hunting inspires one to go hunting as well!” Li Yu stuffed the carp meat into Tang Jie’s mouth. “What are you still jabbering about? Hurry and eat! Every moment this flesh is away from my body, its essence dwindles away. Don’t go wasting it now. It will take this old man ten days to half a month to recover from such a large chunk of flesh!”
Ten days to half a month of cultivation for him was as much as an entire year of cultivation for Tang Jie!
As the golden carp meat was stuffed into Tang Jie’s mouth, it instantly transformed into a rush of spiritual energy that nourished Tang Jie so much that he moaned in pleasure.
Li Yu shouted, “Don’t relax! Hurry and cultivate!”
“Yes!” Tang Jie firmly said.
He stopped hesitating around Li Yu and sat cross-legged on the ground to begin cultivating the Parting Classic, trying to absorb as much medicinal power as possible.
The Parting Classic originally required a bath to absorb medicinal power, but after entering Tempered Will, his entire body had been emptied out so this process was not required. The medicinal power would naturally enter his body to swiftly restore Tang Jie’s lost power. Tang Jie felt his exhaustion beginning to fade, replaced by unprecedented energy and limitless strength…
“Eh? This kid doesn’t seem to be cultivating a mantra of the Basking Moon Sect,” Li Yu remarked as he watched. “It seems like Old Xie was right. This guy really is quite strange. But what does it matter? What cultivator doesn’t have a secret? Without secrets and without killing, it will be difficult to live through the storms. Whatever! Not my business, not my business!”
As he was thinking, he felt a sharp pain, upon which he realized that he had torn away a little too much of his flesh in his excitement. But as Tang Jie had already consumed the flesh, it wasn’t like he could open up Tang Jie’s mouth and take it back. Ah, forget it. I’m happy today and drank a little too much. I won’t be so haphazard next time.
After taking one last glance at Tang Jie, he jumped into the lake and left. Truly, he embodied the phrase “Disappearing without a trace once the deed is done”.
(TN: A line from Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai’s poem, “Ode to Gallantry”.)
The ship made several circuits around the lake, and only when Tang Jie finished cultivating did it casually approach the shore.
“Tang Jie! Tang Jie!” Two people ran down from the mountain.
It was none other than Wei Tianchong and Shi Meng. When he saw how spiritless the two of them looked, Tang Jie felt his heart sink.
Jumping onto shore, he sternly asked, “Did something happen? Tell me if you finished the mission or not.”
“Haaa, don’t even talk about it,” Wei Tianchong sobbed. “The moment you got into trouble, I wanted to go and save you, but Shi Meng insisted that I come back and turn in the mission. But the moment we arrived on shore, we ran into Ye Tianshang…”
“Ye Tianshang took the mission from you?” Tang Jie was stunned. Had he been the one who had ultimately completed the mission? If true, that would be a huge problem.
Given his talent, there was basically no chance for Wei Tianchong, even if he completed both of the remaining missions. Even if Yan Changfeng was blind, he would never pick Wei Tianchong.
“It’s not that. The first young master managed to arrive in time and fend off Ye Tianshang,” Shi Meng replied.
“And after that?”
“And then, just when I had gotten the head, I suddenly ran into Cai Junyang’s group,” Wei Tianchong sobbed.
“You’re saying that it was Cai Junyang’s group that got the head?” Hearing that it was Cai Junyang and company who had taken action made Tang Jie feel a little better. “If it’s like that, then at least it’s still among friends, so there’s nothing to feel bad about.”
“No,” Wei Tianchong unexpectedly replied. “They wanted to take it from us, but then they talked about how you were fighting down there and that the slightest delay might cause you to lose your life. So that you wouldn’t die, they decided to not waste time fighting… thus, I still managed to complete the mission!”
Wei Tianchong suddenly shouted.
Tang Jie was startled. “What? They let you go… Hold on. Then why were you crying just now?”
“I was teasing you! I wanted to see what you looked like when you heard I failed the mission. You always seem so self-assured that some people are sick of it and want to see what it’s like when you’ve failed!” Together with Shi Meng, Wei Tianchong threw his head back and laughed.
“Bastards… playing a trick on me!” Tang Jie was seething mad at these two laughing at his expense, and aimed a kick at Shi Meng.
Shi Meng hastily dodged to the side, shouting, “Hey, hey, this wasn’t even my idea! It was Cai Junyang who said he wanted to play a trick on you. He wanted to see if your reaction was worth him giving up.”
What?
Tang Jie looked up the mountain in surprise.
Midway up the mountain, Cai Junyang, Ping Jingyue, Liu Hongyan, and Shu Mingyang were smiling as they looked at him.
A talisman in Shu Mingyang’s hand was glowing. It was obvious that the four of them had been listening in on the conversation this entire time.
From a distance, Cai Junyang gave Tang Jie a thumbs-up.
That was saying that he had been satisfied by Tang Jie’s words.
A resounding voice drifted about the mountains. “Tang Jie, you owe us a favor! We let you go this time, but in the next two missions, I’ll definitely still fight with you over it! When that time comes, I won’t be standing aside again!”
It was Cai Junyang’s voice.
Tang Jie’s eyes started to get moist.
He nodded and shouted back, “I will return this favor, I swear!”
Cai Junyang laughed, and then the four of them waved at Tang Jie and left.
At this time, Tang Jie, Wei Tianchong, and Shi Meng looked at each other. One of them suddenly shouted, “We did it!”
“We did it!” all three of them shouted, hugging each other.
On the Clear Sky Mountains, Wei Tianzhi quietly watched from behind a tree.
He finally said, “Mother was right… You have an excellent little brother.”
“Young Master, you’ve changed your mind?” Wu Xing asked.
“No… it’s just that you win some and you lose some. But this is only the beginning. The path to becoming a disciple is still very long,” Wei Tianzhi sighed.
“Yes. After all, there are still two more missions. Those students won’t give up.” Wu Xing also sighed.
The struggle of True Inheritor was a heavy burden carried over a long journey. Who would give up on it so easily?
But Wei Tianzhi shook his head and replied, “No, they don’t have to face only the other students.”
“What?” Wu Xing was taken aback. “Young Master, do you mean…”
“There are some other people that might not let them succeed.”
“Who is it?” Wu Xing didn’t understand. Wei Tianchong’s character was pretty good, and he hadn’t really offended anyone in the school. Other than the schoolmates he was competing with, there shouldn’t have been anyone who deliberately wanted to make him fail.
“Who else…” Wei Tianzhi chuckled and whispered a name into Wu Xing’s ear.
Upon hearing this name, Wu Xing was aghast. “How could that be? He’s…”
But he realized something and then whispered, “Ooooh… I get it. Yes, for him, the younger master succeeding would be bad news. Young Master is truly wise!”
Wu Xing bowed to Wei Tianzhi.
“Me?” Wei Tianzhi scoffed. “How could I have thought of any of this? My mother wrote a letter specifically mentioning it.”
“So it was the lady.” Wu Xing was enlightened. It was no wonder the first young master had seemingly become so smart and understanding. The lady had been giving him pointers.
“But this will be a problem. Shouldn’t we warn the younger master?”
“That won’t be necessary. Mother said that if she could see it, then Tang Jie must have noticed it even earlier. Since he’s made this choice, it naturally means that he’s not afraid. Let’s just let him do what he wants. Regardless, my younger brother has become one of the True Inheritor reserves. This alone is an enormous honor for our Wei Clan, and it won’t be long before the Canglong Prefecture Weis take another step upward.”
With one last glance at his excited little brother, he departed.
Down below, the excited trio were gradually calming down.
Wei Tianchong energetically said, “Now, we wait for the second mission to be issued. Tang Jie, with you here, I’ll definitely become a True Inheritor!”
He had gone from being hopeless to being sure of success. His mental state had completely changed.
Tang Jie chuckled. “Just becoming a candidate is enough to make you the center of attention. The future missions will be even harder… Many people won’t want to see us succeed.”
“What can those people do when you’re around?” Shi Meng excitedly said.
“You’re wrong there. Some people… are truly beyond my abilities,” Tang Jie coolly replied. “I can only hope that you work hard from now on, because I might not be able to help you that much.”
The two of them were stunned by what they were hearing and were mystified as to why Tang Jie was speaking in this way.
They wanted to ask, but Tang Jie simply shook his head and began to walk up the mountain. Too much had happened, and had exhausted Tang Jie in both body and mind. While that large amount of spirit food had restored his physical strength, it had done nothing for his mental state.
He really wanted to go back to his house and rest, bearing little interest in anything else.
Pushing open the door, Tang Jie entered his house.
“Big Brother!” A voice elated at their reunion came from the courtyard.
A moment later, a little figure jumped into Tang Jie’s embrace.
And then a wolfhound-sized figure lunged at Tang Jie and began to madly lick his face with a barbed tongue, almost tearing off his skin.
“Bao’er?” Tang Jie looked at the tiger that had lunged at him and cried out in surprise, “Heavens, you’ve gotten big!”
Westwatch Pavilion.
Long Dao and a large number of students anxiously waited in front of the gate.
After a long while, the gate opened.
A student came out from the pavilion.
The other students rushed up and began to question him.
“Senior Brother, what did the headmaster say?”
“Has the headmaster issued his judgment?”
“Tang Jie killed someone, so he must be punished!”
“A life for a life!”
The students were all in a tizzy.
The messenger student swept his gaze over the others, his gaze so cold that their hearts shivered.
Long Dao stepped forward. “Senior Brother Li, could it be…”
The messenger student raised a roll of white silk. “The headmaster’s words are within.”
He threw the white silk into the air, and it unrolled and manifested three large words:
“Serves him right!”
Serves him right!
This was Basking Moon Academy’s reply.
Everyone felt their hearts sink to rock bottom.
Long Dao stared in shock at the words, crying out in unwillingness, “No, I won’t accept this! Even if Lu Fei made a false accusation, Tang Jie killing a student in public goes against the school’s rules. Headmaster Xie is protecting him! I’ll tell my father and have him report this to his superiors!”
The messenger student looked pityingly at Long Dao. “Then you had best look more carefully. Those words… were not written by Headmaster Xie.”
“What?” Everyone raised their heads again.
Those words gradually dissipated into countless dots of light. Suddenly, they gathered together into a fiery phoenix. With a boom, it began to explosively expand.
“Headmaster Feng (Phoenix)!” Long Dao shouted as he dropped to his knees.
All the other students prostrated, not daring to even glance up.
In the Carefree House, Tang Jie hugged Yiyi. As he played with the little tiger, he told her about his journey.
A look of longing appeared in Yiyi’s eyes as she listened to this adventure. “Big Brother, can’t you bring me with you next time?”
“I wanted to, but Bao’er needs someone to take care of him. It’s still not proper for him to appear in public.”
“But you promised me that we would always be together.”
“I know. Just wait a little longer. I will think of a way to allow him to appear in public.”
“What would that be?”
“One will turn up eventually,” Tang Jie replied. “At worst, I’ll just buy a tiger and switch it out.”
Suddenly, Tang Jie sensed something.
Raising his head, he saw a fiery phoenix opening its wings above the Clear Sky Mountains.