CH 9

“Let me go.”

Changming tapped him on his arm, hinting that he should loosen his grip.

Zhou Keyi released him at once and took a few steps back.

This felt wrong again.

He has already rebelled against his teacher many years ago, why should he obey his damn shifu now?

Damn: lit. ‘dead ghost’, used to curse someone in different situations from usual scolding to a nickname for a husband, also a ‘devil’, or used to describe a dead person.

Zhou Keyi laughed grimly.

“I’ve just checked, you have no cultivation, your dantian is destroyed. Aren’t you a useless person now? Old thief, that serves you just right. And you still dare to show up in front of me? Do you really believe I wouldn’t kill my teacher?”

Dantian: the region in a person’s body where qi is concentrated.

Old thief: old wicked man; sometimes used in a conversation between friends.

After he finished speaking, he raised his hand slightly, and dense red flames of surging qi appeared on his palm. He could just throw one attack on Changming to smash all his bones in one moment and make him die in agony.

“Don’t you want to know where I’ve been all these years, why I am still alive, and what has happened to me?”

Changming was calm and unruffled in the midst of the chaos. He took a look around, trying to find a clean praying mat to sit on, but they were all soaked in blood, so he could only choose the cleanest one and sit on it cross-legged.

Zhou Keyi looked down at him only to see that his shifu’s hair was as thick as it was before.

He really wanted to know how this ghost was still alive.

The whole world believed Changming to be dead. It’s been so many years, and now he turned out to be fine and was standing right in front of him. When Changming called him ‘my disciple’, he really thought he was seeing a dream.

Better to say a nightmare.

“I don’t want to know.” Zhou Keyi said in a cold voice.

“You were always like this. You say you don’t want to know, yet you actually do. If I had really lost my cultivation completely, would I have come here to find you? In truth, I spent these years in the Yellow Springs.”

Zhou Keyi was bewildered for a moment and said with some doubt: “Those lands of the Yellow Springs that have an entrance but no exit?”

Changming nodded: “I’d had a fortunate adventure there and started cultivating anew. You thought you saw that my cultivation is gone, but actually it’s reached a higher level that you can’t detect. After I had broken through to the next realm, I managed to reach the state of ‘regaining the natural state’. In other words, you think I am a waste, but in reality I’ve reached a level where you can’t see my realm.”

Regaining the natural state: also returning to the void; comprehending the Dao. Everything started with nothingness and should return to it again.

Zhou Keyi: “Are you implying that you have already reached immortality?”

Reached immortality: became a dixian, an Earth immortal.

Changming: “I don’t know whether this is immortality or not, but I did advance to the next level.”

His expression was carefree, without a shred of deception.

Although cultivators don’t age fast, even the ones that break through to the Immortal Realm only achieve a lifespan of a few hundred or thousand years, but they still grow old and perish eventually, while Changming—

Zhou Keyi looked at him carefully. His hair was just as shiny and black as the day when he accepted Zhou Keyi as a disciple; only his expression was not as strict anymore, it was almost gentle instead. Zhou Keyi saw no hints of him getting older.

But he was always mistrustful, and a couple of Changming’s words could not dispel his doubts. He thought he should put Changming’s claims to the test.

And just as this thought crossed his mind, a white ray of light suddenly flew out of Changming’s sleeve, aiming right at Zhou Keyi!

The latter’s expression changed slightly, and he leaned to the side to avoid it, but the white light brushed his face. His cheek was pierced by the ice-cold light ray. Zhou Keyi felt it with his hand, and realized that it was frost.

He turned around and saw the light transform into a fierce white tiger that angrily fluffed its fur and roared at him, ready to pounce any second. Zhou Keyi struck without even thinking, and the red flames met the white tiger in the air. The radiant fire suddenly burst, and a loud noise almost shook the ground; the flames fell to the ground in a cluster of shining sparks, and the ice tiger was ripped to shreds.

The people outside heard the noise and rushed towards the room. But because of how harsh Zhou Keyi usually behaved, no one dared to barge in without his permission.

“Everyone get out!”

As soon as this one sentence from Zhou Keyi reached the ears of the people outside the room, the footsteps went down and disappeared into the distance.

He turned back to Changming.

“I didn’t expect that after all these years you would master the technique of turning the void into substance and reach this level in the art of control!”

You: fun fact: ZKY switched to polite speech

Changming only smiled, his expression unfathomable.

Zhou Keyi was starting to believe his words. Just as Changming expected, Zhou Keyi didn’t dare to act blindly without thinking first.

“I thought that if you were to ever return to this world, you would surely look for my dashixiong first.”

Zhou Keyi also found a praying mat to sit on and started probing him.

Changming: “Why can’t I come to see you first? Do you have no faith in yourself?”

Zhou Keyi: What does it have to do with my self-confidence? I earnestly wish you had died in the Yellow Springs and never appeared in front of me again!

He put on a fake smile: “If I had known you were coming, I would have definitely decorated this place with lanterns and colored banners, and the beating of gongs and drums would have resounded to the skies upon your arrival; my people would have greeted you outside the sect and escorted you here!”

Changming: “That would be a waste of money and manpower. We haven’t seen each other for years. I see that you have managed to achieve success and win recognition through your hard work, rising your head and shoulders above others.”

Zhou Keyi sneered: “I suppose you’ve heard about how ruthless and bloodthirsty I am and climbed up this mountain just to punish the evildoer, eliminate the traitor. So you visited the Yellow Springs once and became all tolerant and tender?”

Changming nodded: “Indeed. I have encountered a lot of deadly adventures and realized that there is nothing insoluble in this world, you just need to find the right approach. And this is true for things and people alike.”

Zhou Keyi: “Ah, that sounds great, looks like you intend to use the same words to resolve your conflicts with my dashixiong. Had you been that broad-minded decades ago, would your disciples have left you one after another? This venerable one should really give you the joy of speaking with my dashixiong first, congratulate you two on a refreshing rain after a long drought, a spring coming to an old tree. I must send him a note and free him from his ignorance of your survival.”

He was deliberately speaking in an ambiguous way, gloating and looking forward to seeing his dashixiong’s wrath. Even though he was polite in every word, anyone who heard him would understand that their discord only lacked a violent fight.

Changming was indifferent about this: “It is not correct to use either of the sayings ‘a refreshing rain after a long drought’ or ‘a spring coming to an old tree’ here. You clearly didn’t study enough when you were young. Since you have founded a clan now, you should read a lot in your free time and broaden your horizons.”

Zhou Keyi: …

The corners of his mouth twitched. He was struggling to control his murderous intentions.

“You are the one who should be reflecting upon yourself! You carelessly gave me this name! Do you know how many people laughed at me after I had left your sect? They all said I was your disciple that you picked up randomly, my foundation was not worth mentioning, so of course the name was chosen thoughtlessly! Would I have received all this humiliation if it weren’t for you?”

This name: ZKY’s name, ‘keyi’, literally means ‘can’ (as in ‘I can do smth’) or ‘passable’.

…and ZKY gave up on being polite.

Zhou Keyi’s intonation was deep and low, he was stressing each word. The longer he was talking, the slower his speech became; his strong resentment and desire to kill were almost revealed in his eyes.

Changming didn’t take it seriously: “Greatness lies in simplicity. The simpler the name of a person is, the more profound his inner qualities are. If someone laughs at your name, their heads are empty, minds pitiful. You should keep going even more vigorously to let them know how ridiculous they are themselves.”

Zhou Keyi gloomily said: “There is no use for them to know it. Those who dared laugh at me and haven’t yet reincarnated are already on their way to reincarnation.”

Changming: “If you thought this name was bad, why didn’t you change it?”

Zhou Keyi coldly laughed: “Because I want everyone in this world to get used to my name, rather than yield to them myself!”

Changming clapped his hands: “Good, so aggressive, you really deserve to be a disciple of Jiufang Changming!”

Zhou Keyi was happy for a moment, but then quickly came to his senses.

Why was he happy? What was there to be happy about? This old thief treated him as a three-year old child and lied as soon as he opened his mouth. Did he still see him as that punching bag that didn’t strike back when attacked, a spineless coward who couldn’t utter a sound when scolded?

“Why on earth did you come here? To restore our master-disciple relationship from the past?”

Changming said: “I came to reclaim my Sifei Sword.”

Zhou Keyi raised his eyebrows: “Must I give it to you because you want me to? What if I don’t return it?”

Changming: “Those who walk different paths cannot make plans together. This sword’s path is not for you, so you can’t control it.”

“Here we go again!”

Zhou Keyi violently interrupted him all of a sudden.

“You are always talking in this tone, looking down on me, but what is the truth now? I am the head of a clan, thousands of people worship me on bended knees, and there are lots and lots of other sects that dream of having my support, but you? You’ve lost all your standing and reputation. If you just enter the land of the Jianxue Clan, anyone can attack you. If I say that you are wicked beyond redemption, that you are the main cause of the disaster that led to evil spirits appearing in this world, everyone will hate you hundreds of times more than they hate me! Jiufang Changming, hahaha, do you still believe that you are that first talent under the Heaven, the one no one would dare torture?”

Changming was a bit puzzled: “How can I lose my standing and reputation? Wasn’t my reputation already disastrous? As long as I am strong and the others either respect or fear me, why should I care about it? My disciple, you are delusional.”

Zhou Keyi laughed. He was ready to kill Changming and was looking at him as if he was already dead.

“Jiufang, I am no longer that disciple you could roll into a ball or squash into jelly.”

Roll into a ball or squash into jelly: beat heavily.

Changming didn’t object: “I apologize, Clan Master Zhou.”

Zhou Keyi: …

He felt that this Jiufang Changming who appeared now was a totally different person.

He has changed so much that now all the comments Zhou Keyi was making were in vain, like he was hitting cotton.

Zhou Keyi has never felt so helpless.

In the past, Jiufang Changming was discreet in his speech and manners, and his demands for his disciples were especially high. During those years, Zhou Keyi was half dead because of Changming’s guidance, and his heart was full of concealed bitterness. He was determined to get his revenge and make Changming pay twice as much as he had received one day. But soon after he had left his master’s sect, when he yet had no power to match Changming’s strength, he heard about his master’s death.

Zhou Keyi never knew that deep in his heart he could not reconcile with this fact, not until he met his damn shifu again.

It seemed that Changming had guessed his thoughts.

“You want to kill me, yet you don’t; you want to defeat me, but you don’t, because of the circumstances.”

Zhou Keyi had a gloomy expression: “Do you think you can manipulate my thoughts the way you did before?”

Changming: “I never wanted to manipulate you, those are your own ideas. You’ve progressed in cultivation, and your level now is as different from how it was before as the sky is far from the earth. If you want to kill me, this is the right time. You may not get a chance like this in the future.”

He looked calm, as if there were pale clouds and a light breeze around. Changming appeared to be completely defenceless.

Pale clouds and a light breeze around: a peaceful situation.

But the more his opponent behaved in this way, the more Zhou Keyi felt that the whole matter was not that simple.

Changming was like a sly wily old fox, scheming and calculating, no doubt he had an escape route and some secret conspiracies and hidden traps on him, and was only waiting for him to make the first move.

Zhou Keyi sized him up with suspicion, and Changming gave him a calm smile.

He was even more sure in his guesses.

Zhou Keyi suddenly retracted his ready-to-attack hands into his sleeves and couldn’t help but laugh thinking about his new good decision.

“I won’t kill you, but there is another person who definitely will; he is just itching to cut you into a thousand pieces as soon as possible. You want to retrieve the Sifei Sword, right? It is not here with me, but it is very likely in Yun Weisi’s hands. This venerable one will send you there and let you see that dashixiong!”