Chapter 55
Chapter 55: Horse-Roping Young Lady, You Are Mighty and Majestic
After being scolded by Jun Xiu Ran, Rong Shu walked out of the Hall of Heartlessness and saw Qin Yuan and Yu Ruan Ruan waiting at the doorway.
Yu Ruan Ruan, catching sight of her, showed worried concern: junior sister, are you all right?
She added, voice soft with persuasion: do not feel hurt or wronged, master only spoke in a moment of anxiety, he is afraid you will stray from the path, do not take it to heart, she said, reaching to take Rong Shu’s hand.
Rong Shu stepped back half a pace and cupped her hands: thank you for your concern, Senior Sister Yu; I think master was right, and I do not feel hurt or wronged at all.
Yu Ruan Ruan froze, a thought flashing through her mind: [Not hurt or wronged? How could that be?] She nearly blurted out her doubt.
Qin Yuan walked over and looked at Rong Shu with a meaningful gaze: Junior Sister Rong, if there is any difficulty, you can speak with me and Ruan Ruan.
Qin Yuan also had doubts in his heart: [How did Rong Shu come to know Cheng Bu Fan? And why, knowing she was mocked in the outer sect, would she insist on a clownish challenge match with Cheng Bu Fan?] A trace of impatience crept into his eyes. He had thought Rong Shu would keep her head down and cause no trouble; who knew the outer sect would now be in an uproar. In the past, whenever anyone mentioned Immortal Venerable Ze Yu’s personal disciple, hearts would race with admiration and respect, yet because of Rong Shu’s spectacle, they too were criticized. The three of them, all men at Foundation Establishment or Golden Core, did not have much to worry about; outer-sect disciples dared not chatter recklessly. Ruan Ruan, however, was still at the Qi Refining Stage and suffered the most by association.
Letting Senior Brother Qin worry for nothing, I have no difficulty, Rong Shu said as she glanced at the darkening sky and remembered her back-mountain task; she took her leave: Senior Brother Qin, Senior Sister Yu, I will be going first. We can talk again another time.
With a task on her hands, Qin Yuan and Yu Ruan Ruan could not very well detain her and had to let her go.
Over the next few days, Rong Shu behaved herself and attended lectures at Spirit Gathering Peak without causing any more trouble. Limitless Peak summoned her only that once, and the sect leadership issued no statement. On the surface, everything seemed calm.
Yet the stir Rong Shu caused was not so easily quieted. Each day at lectures she could not avoid complicated looks from all directions, curious, probing, or disdainful. Rong Shu acted as if she did not notice and continued to listen in her own way.
By day, she attended lectures at Spirit Gathering Peak and asked Senior Brother Lin Dao at the inner peaks to guide her blade practice. By night, she went to the back mountain to do her tasks. To others, this three-point routine might have seemed dull, but Rong Shu enjoyed it.
Seven days later, at night, in the Spirit Beast Garden behind the mountain, Rong Shu, as usual, first took a Tendon and Bone Pill, then sat in meditation to cultivate, fully absorbing the pill’s medicinal power.
When she finished, she stood and looked at the herd of horses galloping not far away. The spirit beasts under her care in the Spirit Beast Garden this time were a herd of Moon Chasing Horses. This species had a herd trait: they loved to run wild at night, chasing the moon across the sky, and only when they were tired would they stop to graze.
Rong Shu had to follow the Spirit Beast Garden’s timetable and strictly control the horses’ running and resting periods. If the running time exceeded the schedule, it would be up to her to make every Moon Chasing Horse stop.
She loosened her limbs and, smiling, called to the galloping herd: I’m here, my precious ones.
Sensing her, the Moon Chasing Horses quickened their pace.
Wind spiritual energy surged into Rong Shu’s legs, a thin, membranous blue sheen covering her as she stepped out; afterimages bloomed beneath her feet as her body turned light as the wind. In a few breaths she had run more than ten zhang.
Gale Step.
She unfolded an extra, streamlined screen-like barrier around her body, aligning herself as closely as possible with the wind’s flow to reduce resistance. To her, wind ought to be her companion, not her stumbling block.
Soon she caught up to the tail of the herd. Her fingers brushed the surface of the Storage Pouch at her waist, and a wooden horizontal blade slipped into her right hand.
Seeing the wooden blade, the galloping Moon Chasing Horses seemed to recall some terrifying memory of domination and ran even faster.
But Rong Shu was faster.
The faster she ran, the more she felt her fifth-layer wind-aligned Qi Refining cultivation straining against its shackles, as if a great pot were coming to a boil; so long as energy kept pouring in, the next instant might blow the lid clean off.
She slapped the flat of the blade on the rumps of several horses at the back of the herd. Each struck horse neighed and, reluctantly, slowed until it came to a stop.
When chased from behind, Moon Chasing Horses only grew happier and more excited, galloping all the harder. Their intellect was high; though they could not speak human words, they could understand them. So earlier, Rong Shu had made a bargain with the herd: she would play the driver, and any horse whose rump she tapped would, by the rules she set, stop on its own.
As for those that refused to stop of their own accord, Rong Shu had once taken the wooden blade and shaved the tails and manes of those troublemaker stallions. For Moon Chasing Horses, who used their manes to woo mates and display their charm, that punishment was nothing short of a thunderbolt from the heavens.
After that, every Moon Chasing Horse obeyed the rules. Losing face was tolerable, and a swat on the rump did not matter, but no one wanted to lose a mate or their stallionly allure.
Time slipped by. The galloping herd dwindled by half, with the rest still driven on by Rong Shu.
Not enough, not enough, faster, she told herself, eyes bright as she fixed on the little leader at the very front. Her best record to date was catching half the herd; the rest she could not catch. The front-runner was more clever and self-controlled; when the time came it stopped on its own, never troubling her. Still, she had a tiny knot about it. The little leader of this herd was a very vain stallion. Rong Shu had long wanted to smack its rump.
Faster. Faster. Tonight I am definitely going to smack Little Hong’s rump.
Riding the momentum, she accelerated again, like an arrow loosed from the string. The wind raised by her sprint turned into an invisible force pushing her forward. In the air, faint popping crackles could be heard.
Smack. Smack. Smack.
Her wooden blade flicked and landed on rumps. With each crisp report, the galloping herd thinned.
In the end, only three Moon Chasing Horses remained.
Seeing this, Rong Shu grew even more excited and shouted to the three ahead: Little Hong, Little Lu, Little Hua, I am going to smack your rumps, hahaha.
A furious whinny rolled in the wind.
Smack. Smack. Smack.
Three clear sounds rang out as Rong Shu caught up to the last three as well.
Qi Refining sixth layer, she murmured, feeling the sudden surge of wind spiritual energy within her, and a light smile as soft as a breeze touched her face. [At last.]
After mastering Refining the Bone and Tendon Pill and achieving freedom with the Tendon and Bone Pill, Rong Shu had been taking them without interruption to strengthen her foundation. At last she was confident she could break through to the sixth layer of Qi Refining in one go. With medicinal power still lingering within, once she fully digested it and paired it with training in the secret realm, she believed she could reach the seventh, even the eighth layer of Qi Refining.
Thinking of this, Rong Shu spread her hands and let herself fall back onto the grass, eyes on the night sky above. The cold moon, shy and coy, slipped into the clouds and hid its face. With the moonlight fading, the stars, each giving off its faint but undying glow, released their own light bit by bit.
Her thoughts drifted. She suddenly remembered what Senior Brother Lin Dao had once told her, when they rested from blade practice, about stars and the moon: people only praise the flawless bright moon, because it is the brightest, most dazzling, most eye-catching; yet beneath that bright moon, the little stars do not lose their color in hidden corners, and they still strive to shine with their insignificant light.
With a little time left before dawn, Rong Shu did nothing else, just lay on the grass and watched the star-strewn sky, feeling a peace and ease she had never known. Until, at the horizon, the first strand of sunlight cut through the lingering darkness, its light that would brighten the world falling fairly upon every inch of earth, every blade of grass, every breathing, living thing.
A month later, when Rong Shu and Cheng Bu Fan returned to the arena, they received a notice of a rule change from the sect. Not just the two of them; every disciple’s identity token displayed it at the same time: in response to requests from elders and disciples, some rules for the arena’s challenge matches have been amended. To prevent disciples from slacking in cultivation and to promote friendly exchanges between inner and outer sect disciples, the original rule that personal disciples must not refuse challenges from inner- or outer-sect disciples, and inner-sect disciples must not refuse challenges from outer-sect disciples, now has a precondition added: when a personal disciple’s cultivation is lower than that of the challenger, the personal disciple has the right to refuse the challenge. This is announced to all sect disciples; take note.
After reading the notice, Rong Shu and Cheng Bu Fan looked at each other, a simultaneous thought between them: [Uh, this…]
[Cheng Bu Fan: Are we still putting on the act?]
[Rong Shu: We came all this way; quitting now would be rude. The audience is already impatient.]
[Cheng Bu Fan: Then… shall we?]
[Rong Shu: Let’s.]
Disciples inside the arena, upon receiving the notice, all thought of Rong Shu at once. It was rare in decades for the sect to alter its regulations, and now it had done so because of a first-layer Qi Refining disciple… well, a personal disciple.
When they saw the calmly arriving Rong Shu and Cheng Bu Fan, their eyes widened. The sect had changed the rules for them, so why had they still come?
One disciple asked on the spot: did you not receive the notice? Why are you still here?
We received it, Rong Shu said with a calm nod.
Then why did you come, the disciple asked.
With a solemn face as if engaged in some grand undertaking, Cheng Bu Fan replied: I am a principled perfo… a principled disciple of Heaven’s Evolution Sect; since I promised to spar with Junior Sister Rong, I must keep my word. Not a single session less.
Rong Shu, right on cue, showed a moved expression: Senior Brother Cheng, you are so good.
No need for thanks, Junior Sister Rong, he said.
The nearby disciples fell silent.
Thus, under their stupefied stares, the two walked onto the platform with faces composed and began the day’s sparring.
Some disciples could not bear to watch and wanted to leave. Yet the pair on the platform were so “hardworking,” shouting with great vigor, that even knowing these two were only playing house, people could not help but be influenced, glancing again and again until they forgot they had meant to go.
Some had already adapted, not only pulling a small stool from their Storage Pouch to sit, but also taking out a handful of sunflower seeds to crack while watching.
On the platform, as they traded blows, Rong Shu’s aura suddenly shifted. Cheng Bu Fan sensed it and ceased his attack. A ball of flame bloomed in Rong Shu’s palm, hot and bright, as large as a watermelon. Compared to the pinch of flame she had once been able to summon, it was like the difference between a watermelon and an egg.
Junior sister, your cultivation, Cheng Bu Fan exclaimed, eyes wide in exaggerated shock, his finger trembling as he pointed at Rong Shu.
The crowd realized something too.
Damn, did Rong Shu just advance?
No way, no way.
Just like that? She advanced just like that? It has to be fake.
Cheng Bu Fan gathered himself, joy on his face as he cupped his hands: congratulations, junior sister. You are now at the second layer of Qi Refining; Foundation Establishment is just around the corner.
Thank you for your auspicious words, senior brother, Rong Shu said politely as she extinguished the flame. As for Foundation Establishment and even Golden Core, Senior Brother Cheng will surely step into those realms with ease.
Hearing them resume their familiar ritual of mutual praise, the crowd’s earlier shock at Rong Shu’s sudden advance ebbed away.
Senior brother, I lost this bout, Rong Shu declared, conceding of her own accord. Her goal was achieved. She had publicly displayed a normal-looking cultivation of Qi Refining at the second layer, so there was no need to continue.
She raised her voice deliberately so the crowd could hear clearly: thank you for your help these days, senior brother. I felt a moment of enlightenment just now and then… broke through.
Think nothing of it, junior sister, Cheng Bu Fan said modestly.
The crowd below swore under their breath. No way, right? There is no way a breakthrough comes from this child’s-play sparring. Impossible.
Yet doubts crept in. While reaching the second layer of Qi Refining was not especially hard, one did not simply trip into it. Could it be that this play-acting style of challenge really had some wondrous effect?
Maybe I should try it too…
By the time Rong Shu and Cheng Bu Fan left, satisfied, everyone finally snapped out of it, only to find the two gone.
If I had known, I would have asked Rong Shu just now.
Do you think this kind of fighting could push me to the seventh layer of Qi Refining?
I was going to ask if it could take me to the ninth…