There is Still Such A Good Thing? - Chapter 8

Fengyu Academy.

Wu Lingchan was led by the Fifth Elder to a low desk in the back row.

Fengyu Academy had never hosted such a large child before, so they had not prepared a desk that could accommodate him. As Wu Lingchan sat cross-legged, his knees were so high that even a slight movement threatened to tip the desk over. Needless to say, he felt incredibly cramped.

The other students turned their heads to look at him, their eyes full of innocent curiosity.

Wu Lingchan did not feel embarrassed in the slightest. Instead, he raised an eyebrow to scare them. “What are you looking at? Keep staring, and I will eat the lot of you! Roar!”

The children let out a terrified “Wuwah!” and quickly turned away.

The Fifth Elder: “…………”

The Fifth Elder pretended he had not seen anything and continued teaching the children how to write horizontal strokes.

Wu Lingchan was not very familiar with the Kunfu script, though he knew how to write the characters. Being too lazy to learn the basics, he confidently grabbed his brush and began scribbling on the paper.

The Fifth Elder stood with his hands behind his back, looking around the room. He let out a soft “Hmm” and remarked, “Young Lord, are you drawing talismans?”

Wu Lingchan: “…”

Wu Lingchan crumpled the character “Dust” and tossed it aside, then began to write the horizontal strokes properly.

Half an hour later, the Fifth Elder went off to rest. The children in the classroom immediately turned into a flock of chattering sparrows, huddling together in small groups, snacking on pastries and whispering glances at Wu Lingchan.

“What a big child! He is so tall!”

“Is he really going to eat us?”

Wu Lingchan propped his chin up, glanced over, and gestured with his hand. “Come here. Bring your snacks over here for me to taste.”

The “sparrows”: “…”

Wu Lingchan narrowed his eyes. “I am the Young Lord. I am noble.”

The children did not know what a Young Lord was; they only knew that being noble could not buy pastries.

Wu Lingchan scoffed. He spun his brush between his fingers, dipped it in ink, and with a swift flick of his wrist, drew a few sparrows on the paper.

Although he only had the cultivation of the Qi Refining stage, his ability to shape-shift birds remained intact.

The group of children watched in awe as the birds on the paper let out a few chirps, detached themselves from the page, and took flight.

“Wow!”

When the Fifth Elder returned to continue the lesson, he found the room filled with flying birds, dragonflies, and butterflies. The students were wildly excited, and in the corner, Wu Lingchan’s desk was covered in snacks, including several gold ingots.

The Fifth Elder: “…”

Wu Lingchan practiced his writing while he ate.

He decided he would write one thousand elegant and dashing “Dust” characters to give his elder brother a huge surprise, then roll up his sleeves to return with a mountain of demonic beast cores.

Once he fully understood demonic energy, successfully recovered his Golden Core, awakened his artifact Xuanxiang, defeated Meng Ping at the Penglai Grand Assembly, and returned to the top of the Heaven’s Pride Ranking, he would be infinitely glorious.

Splendid, simply splendid.

As Wu Lingchan wrote happily, he suddenly sensed a sinister, chilling intent.

He frowned, instinctively twirling his brush between his fingers. He pointed the brush toward a certain direction. The ink on the tip did not drip, but floated in mid-air as if dissolving in water.

The Fifth Elder: “…Young Lord?”

Wu Lingchan focused, only to realize the ink was pointing directly at the Fifth Elder’s face. He flinched, and the ink instantly scattered, splashing all over the Elder’s face.

Wu Lingchan: “…Eh?”

Wu Lingchan hurriedly set down his brush. “Elder, why did you rush into my brush’s path? You are so careless! If I had been holding a sword, you would be dead.”

The Fifth Elder: “…”

He is blaming me!

The children in the room saw the state of the Elder and erupted into fits of laughter, chirping like birds.

The Fifth Elder’s face was pitch black, and the ink stains would not come off.

However, even though the Young Lord had no real power, he was not someone the Elder could punish. He could only endure, his lips twitching: “Young Lord, this ink…”

“Xuanxiang ink is usually used for marking; it does not wash off with ordinary means.” Wu Lingchan gave him a “Don’t worry!” look. “But do not worry, the ink marks will disappear naturally in three months. By then, Elder, you will be fair-skinned again.”

The Fifth Elder: “…”

Once the Fifth Elder left, however, the feeling of being watched by something strange persisted.

He frowned and scanned his surroundings. The last time he had this feeling was last night, when the void fissure in the Danjiu Palace opened and the demonic beasts crawled out along with the demonic energy.

Wu Lingchan’s pupils narrowed.

All the birds in the Fengyu Academy let out a synchronized cry, as if to deter an intruder.

Even though the Immortal-grade artifact’s spirit was shattered, it still contained spiritual power. Soon, the feeling of being watched vanished without a trace.

Wu Lingchan fell into deep thought.

Xun Ye said the Danjiu Palace had a barrier and that void fissures should not appear, yet there were problems on his very first night. Recalling the peculiarities of those demonic beasts and half-demons, could it be the blood?

It makes sense, he thought. The Child of Destiny, the pure bloodline of the Demon Abyss; it was fated to be coveted and hunted.

Wu Lingchan did not feel any panic or fear about his blood being targeted. He simply continued writing “Dust,” intending to make his brother admire him.

The Fifth Elder, now splattered with ink, probably would not be able to show his face in public for three months.

At noon, a new teacher arrived for the next lesson.

Wu Lingchan was chewing on the tassel of his brush, struggling to write “Dust,” when he heard the little ones cheering. He looked up, an eyebrow arched.

The new teacher was Jiang Zhengliu.

“Elder Jiang! It is Elder Jiang from the Great Academy!”

“Elder Jiang is here to teach us!”

“Does that mean we are part of the Great Academy now?”

Jiang Zhengliu, dressed in white, possessed an elegant demeanor. His refined, scholarly manner was very popular with the children, who looked at him with bright, reverent eyes.

Elder Jiang bowed politely.

For a teacher who usually instructed the prodigies of the Four-Cut Academy to come to Fengyu Academy was a waste of talent. Fortunately, Jiang Zhengliu had a good temper, gently and patiently instructing them on how to write a horizontal stroke straight.

Wu Lingchan kept his head down, writing.

Jiang Zhengliu walked over to him, watching the crooked and wobbly “Dust” characters, occasionally interspersed with a “Ying,” and the corner of his lips curled slightly.

At 3:15 PM, classes at Fengyu Academy ended.

Wu Lingchan stuffed the leftover pastries from his desk into his sleeves, rolled up the hundred “Dust” characters he had written, and shouted, “The Young Lord is going home!”

The children of the academy quickly knelt and called out, “Noble! Respectfully sending off the Young Lord, the Master of the Academy!”

Jiang Zhengliu: “…………”

Jiang Zhengliu chuckled and walked out of Fengyu Academy.

Wu Lingchan sat in the pavilion in the courtyard, waiting for Xun Ye to pick him up. The sun had not yet set, and the strong light filtered through the layers of leaves, casting shadows on his face, making him look like a person from a painting.

Jiang Zhengliu stepped forward slowly and smiled, “Young Lord, your cultivation is already at the Qi Refining stage. Why play with these children? Was this arranged by Lord Chen?”

The moment Elder Jiang opened his mouth, he was masterfully attempting to sow discord.

Wu Lingchan did not realize it.

“You are a teacher at the Four-Cut Academy. Why have you come to this small academy? Was this arranged by my brother?”

Jiang Zhengliu: “…”

Jiang Zhengliu always wore a hint of a smile. He replied gently, “I am only here as a temporary substitute. During this time, the students of the Four-Cut Academy are hunting demonic beasts in the back mountain, so I had some spare time.”

Wu Lingchan’s eyes brightened. “Demonic beasts? Does that not mean there is demonic energy?”

“Does the Young Lord want demonic energy to increase your cultivation?”

“No, I just want to see the cores and broaden my knowledge.”

Jiang Zhengliu’s eyes darkened with hidden currents. He has only been back at Kunfu for three days, and he is already sneakily asking about demonic energy. What great ambition.

Jiang Zhengliu had suspected that Wu Lingchan’s behavior yesterday was a stroke of luck, that he had been overthinking it. But this morning, word came that the Young Lord had used some unknown method to move directly into the side hall of the Bihan Terrace.

For the past ten years, countless factions in Kunfu had tried every method imaginable to plant people in the Bihan Terrace, yet not one had succeeded.

Wu Lingchan had managed it in a single night.

The little Young Lord was truly playing the pig to eat the tiger; he was deeply calculating. Well, it makes sense. Lord Zufushi and Chen She were both people with profound depths; it stands to reason that Wu Lingchan would be the same.

“No,” Jiang Zhengliu said. “The demonic beasts in the back mountain used for student training are not the fierce beasts from the Tomb of Regret; their inner cores do not contain demonic energy.”

Wu Lingchan said “Ah” in disappointment, but he remained interested. “What exactly is demonic energy?”

“It is a product of the Blood Sea in the Tomb of Regret,” Jiang Zhengliu said, as if giving a lecture, sounding very literary. “The beast tides have been sealed for thousands of years, yet they still seize opportunities to break out. They can even crack the barriers laid down by the Heavenly Dao, all because they cultivate using demonic energy.”

Academy Master Wu, who had only attended one day of class, understood only half of it.

Jiang Zhengliu smiled and said, “If demonic energy could be used by the demonic cultivators of Kunfu, perhaps the Immortal Alliance would have been conquered long ago.”

Wu Lingchan understood that part, but he did not quite get it: “You are just an Elder. Why worry about that? That should be my brother’s concern.”

Jiang Zhengliu: “…”

Having been told to his face that he was meddling, Jiang Zhengliu’s expression remained unchanged. “Does the Young Lord not wish for your cultivation to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage soon?”

“What is Foundation Establishment? I want to break through to the Nascent Soul stage.”

“…A noble ambition.” Jiang Zhengliu became even more certain of his ambition. He reached out and handed him a grey, dusty silver leaf. He smiled and said, “This object contains a sliver of demonic energy and is comparable to a Spirit Gathering Array. If you keep it with you, your cultivation will progress much faster.”

Wu Lingchan took it in surprise. Upon closer inspection, he realized this artifact was only of the Profound grade, and the demonic energy inside could not be extracted for use anyway.

Useless.

Wu Lingchan tucked it away casually.

Jiang Zhengliu’s eyes smiled. “The fissures in the Tomb of Regret have been increasing lately. I could look for some fierce beast cores for you to see…”

Wu Lingchan looked at him in surprise, wondering if he had misheard. Is this person really so nice?

“Only,” Jiang Zhengliu said, looking troubled, “Lord Chen used the Demon Lord’s Seal to lock down half of Kunfu today. Any demonic energy that appears will be crushed instantly. Lord Chen despises demonic energy; he has already killed dozens of people in half a day. Your status is awkward, Young Lord. It is better not to touch these cores, lest you be killed by Lord Chen as well.”

Anyone else would have immediately understood Jiang Zhengliu’s subtext.

Wu Lingchan, however, was clueless. What is he rambling about? Something about Chen She killing people over demonic energy, and then what?

Wu Lingchan was about to ask when a cold sneer sounded from the side.

Xun Ye had arrived, arms crossed, looking at Jiang Zhengliu with a mocking expression. “Elder Jiang, I heard that your life-bound artifact, Leihuang, fell into Fu Yu’s hands because you were secretly collecting demonic energy. Your life is being held in someone else’s hands; should you not be busy saving your artifact spirit instead of here fear-mongering?”

Jiang Zhengliu glanced at him coldly. “I was merely chatting with the Young Lord.”

Xun Ye sneered. “Chatting done? If you are not satisfied, do you want to go to the Bihan Terrace and chat in front of Lord Chen?”

Jiang Zhengliu ignored Xun Ye’s provocation and looked at Wu Lingchan with gentle, worried eyes. “Young Lord, do be careful.”

Seeing that he still dared to sow discord with hidden meanings, Xun Ye was so angry he laughed. “Your father!”

Wu Lingchan asked, confused, “Careful of what?”

Jiang Zhengliu: “…”

Xun Ye: “…”

Ha.

Xun Ye put away his sword, feeling a sense of relief.

Jiang Zhengliu gave a meaningful look at Wu Lingchan, who was playing the fool, bowed, and left.

Xun Ye walked over, his face dark. He pressed his hand on Wu Lingchan’s shoulder and said coldly, “What else did he tell you?”

Wu Lingchan glanced at him. “It is one thing to make the Young Lord wait here for you, but to open your mouth with that attitude, do you treat my brother so rudely too?”

Xun Ye: “…”

“He is not a good person.” Xun Ye warned, “That old fox; you will be lucky if he does not leave you with nothing but bones.”

Wu Lingchan glared at him. “I am not a fox. If you insult me again, I will tell my brother.”

Xun Ye: “…”

Forget it. Jiang Zhengliu just spouted a bunch of literary nonsense; the little Young Lord probably did not understand a word of it.

Xun Ye felt relieved again. He summoned the Giant Kite and let the noble Young Lord climb on.

Wu Lingchan had a fiery temper, but he was easy to coax, and he soon forgave Xun Ye’s impudence.

He sat cross-legged on the softest feathers on the Giant Kite’s back, his ink-black hair blown by the wind like dancing clouds. “Has my brother returned home?”

“Yes, he is already at the Bihan Terrace.”

Wu Lingchan was instantly delighted.

Upon returning to the Bihan Terrace, he did not go to see Chen She immediately. Instead, he returned to the side hall, stripped off his ugly clothes, and found his favorite red maple-leaf brocade robe with gold embroidery.

With accessories clinking and clanging, topped with a cloak, he looked just like a fire-red fox.

Wu Lingchan searched through Xuanxiang’s space for a long time, wanting to find more pretty things to wear, but he was already draped in so much that he gave up.

Just as he was withdrawing his divine sense, he saw the silver leaf Jiang Zhengliu had given him.

A mere Profound-grade artifact, and ugly too.

Wu Lingchan was not well-versed in social norms and was not familiar with the Kunfu language, but he was not truly a five-year-old. By now, he realized that Jiang Zhengliu was likely not one of his brother’s people.

Otherwise, Xun Ye would not be so hostile toward him.

Wu Lingchan said “Hmm,” thought for a long time, and then picked up the silver leaf and tossed it into Xuanxiang’s sea of consciousness.

The artifact spirit Xuanxiang was broken and instinctively devoured anything with spiritual power. The ink marks turned into sharp claws, entangled the silver leaf, smashed it into powder, and swallowed it.

“Ah!”

Wu Lingchan did not know if it was his imagination, but it felt like Xuanxiang let out a scream while chewing the silver leaf, and then it vanished instantly.

What a strange noise. Whatever, not important.

At least there were no more ugly things cluttering up Xuanxiang’s space.

Confirming once again that he looked magnificent, Wu Lingchan trotted happily toward the main hall.

Bihan Terrace.

Chen She sat upright on the jade platform, his indigo robes draping around him. He placed a chess piece on the board with a nonchalant air.

Before long, the familiar sound of footsteps approached.

“Brother! Brother! Brother!”

Chen She placed his piece. He did not turn Wu Lingchan away, instead waving his hand to slowly open the gates of the Bihan Terrace.

The entire Bihan Terrace looked as if it were carved from jade; in the ice and snow, it shone like a piece of clear crystal.

A streak of fiery red rushed in, breaking through the frost and stopping instantly beside Chen She.

Chen She’s hand, holding a chess piece, paused.

Wu Lingchan was panting, his face slightly flushed, and he held up a stack of paper excitedly. “Brother, brother, brother! I spent the whole day writing. I just counted, one hundred pieces! Not a single one missing.”

Chen She was not particularly interested. “Hmm. Leave them there.”

Wu Lingchan was not discouraged by the cold reception; he looked at him with wide, hopeful eyes. “Aren’t you going to check them, brother? I wrote for an entire day. I promise I will never misidentify your name again.”

Chen She took the stack of papers and flipped through them one by one.

Wu Lingchan waited until he reached the last page, then asked quickly, “Brother, was I obedient?”

Chen She said indifferently, “You wrote the character ‘Chen’ one hundred times, forty-nine of them are correct. The rest are either ‘Ying’ or ‘Tuo’. Not bad. I suppose you can be considered half-obedient.”

Wu Lingchan: “…………”

Wu Lingchan said dryly, “Then… then I will definitely write better next time.”

Half-obedient is still obedient.

Wu Lingchan’s peripheral vision scanned the room, and his eyes nearly popped out of his head.

On the desk in the Bihan Terrace sat a pile of miscellaneous items. The most striking was a box marked with the character “Fu,” filled with bloody demonic beast cores that looked as if they had just been extracted.

Clinging to the cores was pure demonic energy.

Chen She rose slowly.

Wu Lingchan pulled his gaze away, becoming even more attentive. He ran up and grabbed Chen She’s hand: “Brother, let me help you! You are so noble!”

Chen She paused.

Xun Ye, waiting on the side, felt his scalp go numb, his face full of horror.

Chen She had always despised being touched; even if someone came within half a yard, they would be repelled by invisible winds. Is Wu Lingchan not afraid that Lord Chen will flick his sleeve and toss his small frame to the ends of the earth?

Chen She looked down and glanced at Wu Lingchan, his voice calm. “Even if you show such devotion, you still must finish one thousand characters at Fengyu Academy before you can enter the Four-Cut Academy.”

Xun Ye: “?”

He did not push him away?!

Wu Lingchan’s eyes widened, feeling he had been done a great injustice. “Jibber-jabber, the Demon God is my witness! My affection for you, brother, is from the bottom of my heart; there is not a shred of selfishness in it!”

Chen She nodded. “Hmm. Absolutely no selfishness. You do not want anything at all.”

Wu Lingchan did want the cores. He immediately forgot his grievance and said joyfully, “I do! I do want something! Will you give it to me, brother?”

Seeing Wu Lingchan’s desperate attempt to cling to him, Chen She smiled. “Did you not say there was no selfishness?”

Wu Lingchan said righteously, “I just want to be closer to you, brother. My selfishness is only a tiny bit.”

“In that case,” Chen She smiled, “when you enter the Four-Cut Academy, I will give you what you want.”

Wu Lingchan: “…………”

That will take until the year of the monkey!

Wu Lingchan looked at him in disbelief, and after a while, unable to give up, he spun around a few times in front of Chen She.

Clink, clank.

Am I not pretty?

Chen She, acting as if blind, asked gently, “Is there anything else?”

Wu Lingchan: “…”

How heartless.

“No, that is all.” Wu Lingchan tried one last time, “Then can I stay here with you tonight, brother?”

Chen She smiled. “I have to go out tonight.”

Wu Lingchan was refused again. Just as his face was about to fall, he seemed to realize something. His eyes glanced back at the cores on the desk, and the corner of his lips curled upward.

If Chen She is not in the main hall, does that not mean I can sneak in?

Wu Lingchan’s despair vanished instantly, and he scrambled up. “Oh!”

Leaving behind a “Brother, be careful,” he trotted away.

Once the fiery red figure left, the Bihan Terrace returned to its icy, snowy state.

Chen She smoothed out the sleeve that Wu Lingchan had creased and asked, “What did Jiang Zhengliu say to him today?”

Xun Ye recounted everything he had heard. “I did not hear too much, only that they seemed to be chatting quite happily.”

Chen She then asked, “Did Jiang Zhengliu give him an artifact?”

“Yes, a silver leaf. The grade was not particularly high.”

Chen She paused, then suddenly smiled.

Jiang Zhengliu has many artifacts. There is one silver leaf that, while low in offensive power, has the ability to teleport three hundred miles.

Xun Ye was startled.

Teleportation?

No wonder every time a fissure appeared in the Tomb of Regret, Jiang Zhengliu could always successfully seize demonic energy and escape despite being surrounded by beasts.

Chen She asked, “Did he accept it?”

Xun Ye’s expression was ugly. “…He accepted it.”

Click.

A chess piece fell onto the board and was instantly crushed into powder.

Xun Ye cursed himself viciously for being deceived by Wu Lingchan’s clumsy act and losing his vigilance.

Beside the box containing the demonic beast cores, Jiang Zhengliu’s life-bound artifact lay, wrapped in a few yellow talismans.

No wonder Wu Lingchan kept looking at the desk!