***
Things were already heating up at the inn. At first, everyone was still intimidated by She Wenjie’s authority and didn’t dare cheer too openly. But the moment Little Shopkeeper Wu announced, “Five guest rooms, first come, first served,” many of them could no longer hold themselves back…
Besides, no matter how fierce She Wenjie was, he was still only a spoiled young master from Meishan City.
There were plenty of outsiders in Meishan City these days. They would watch the Lotus Contest and then leave… They weren’t going to stay for long, so who was afraid of offending him?
For a time, the scene became extraordinarily lively. At some point, Little Shopkeeper Wu had climbed onto a table. Her two long ponytails swayed left and right as she hopped about.
“Don’t rush, don’t rush! Everyone will have a room, and everyone will have a place to practice! I’ll just collect the room fees first… Yours after his, his after yours, yours after his…”
She Wenjie: “…………”
She Wenjie: “………………”
The muscles on She Wenjie’s face twitched continuously.
The Second Young Master of the She clan of Meishan, She Wenjie, the Little Tyrant of Meishan City—he had actually suffered a silent loss!
But today, this was a loss he had no choice but to swallow!
Seeing that everyone’s attention was no longer on him, Chu Yingfeng also turned and went back into the inn. She Wenjie clenched his teeth, scrambled awkwardly to his feet, and turned to leave.
A long saber suddenly swept out and blocked his path!
The setting sun rolled across the sky. A bone-chilling gleam of snow flashed along the blade, held in a hand with thick joints and protruding knuckles.
That hand was steady and dry; the arm was solid and powerful. A thick tendon bulged beneath the skin with the movement, yet the saber flourished in his grip with astonishing lightness and playfulness.
Smack!
Smack! Smack!
The blade struck She Wenjie’s face three times in quick succession, each blow landing solidly!
Three red, swollen slap marks immediately appeared on his cheeks.
“What? You hurt someone and now you want to leave?”
The man spoke lazily, his bamboo hat still concealing most of his face.
“Wen… ren… Ying!”
She Wenjie’s voice sounded as though it had been forced up from the depths of hell.
Wenren Ying said, “Bring me some medicine!”
Although She Wenjie had suffered a silent loss, the matter of his injuring Lu Datong was not over yet. Sun Deng had already helped Lu Datong back into the inn to rest. Even while being tightly surrounded by the guests, Little Shopkeeper Wu had not forgotten to widen her eyes and signal for Wenren Ying to follow.
Of course, Wenren Ying had intended to do so anyway. He didn’t need her signal.
She Wenjie glared at the Vagabond Swordsman with venomous eyes. After a long while, he finally said, “I will never forget the grudge over those three saber strikes today!”
Wenren Ying smiled, then raised the hand holding his saber.
A line of saber-light flashed!
She Wenjie felt the blade-shadow tear through the air toward him. Saber qi spread across the heavens and earth, sweeping him completely into terror. It seemed that in the next instant, his head would be severed from his body!
“Ah!!!!”
She Wenjie let out a great cry and fell flat on the ground.
“Don’t make me say it again. Bring me some medicine.”
Wenren Ying’s voice remained lazy, but his smile had vanished completely. The line of the Vagabond Swordsman’s jaw now looked so cold and hard, so utterly devoid of human warmth, as though nothing in the world could move his heart.
“Give it to him! Give it to him!”
She Wenjie suddenly shouted. His attendants had been standing less than ten yards away, but were so frightened that they had frozen in place. They hurriedly pulled out the finest Lotus Dipsacus Paste from their robes and shakily handed it to Wenren Ying.
Wenren Ying snatched it, stuffed it into his robes, and walked away without sparing She Wenjie another glance.
She Wenjie suddenly felt something wet around his neck.
Only belatedly did he raise a hand to touch it, finding his fingers covered in blood.
“Ah!!!!”
He screamed again, rolled his eyes back, and fainted dead away.
***
Naturally, news of She Wenjie and Chu Yingfeng fighting over rooms at a certain inn did not remain known only within the city.
On the immortal mountains of Meishan, stretching endlessly beneath swirling clouds and mist, the news had already spread as well.
A young woman dressed in a palace-style robe, her hair arranged in a high coiffure, stood amid a sea of flowers.
The flowers of spring had long since faded from the human world. Autumn was almost upon them, yet peach blossoms still bloomed in profusion here.
Peonies, begonias, golden-yellow peonies, green-snow peonies… Every rare and beautiful flower in the world, every exotic fruit beneath the heavens, seemed to be found within this small realm.
This was Hundred Flowers Valley, and the woman was Baili Yuling.
Baili Yuling, the young mistress of the Baili clan of Hundred Flowers Palace, belonged to one of Meishan’s most distinguished families. Master Lingbo, the sword-wielding elder of Azure Cloud Grotto-Heaven, had also come from the Baili clan.
“Hmph. That useless She Wenjie is incapable of accomplishing anything and excels at ruining everything. I knew he would cause trouble like this sooner or later. He deserves it!”
Baili Yuling lifted her chin proudly as she spoke.
Baili Yuling was about the same age as She Wenjie. They had both entered Azure Cloud Grotto-Heaven in the same year. As the young mistress of the Baili clan, how could Baili Yuling possibly look favorably upon the conduct of a useless, spoiled young master like She Wenjie?
And to make matters worse, She Wenjie expected everyone to bow to him!
The two of them had fought several times in earnest, with victory and defeat evenly divided between them. In any case, their grudge had long since been forged.
Now that she had heard She Wenjie had made a fool of himself in the city, how could Baili Yuling possibly pass up the opportunity to comment on it—and mock him?
As she spoke, the young ladies beside her naturally chimed in one after another.
“But do you really believe he fought over rooms at the inn west of the city?”
She suddenly smiled, her expression filled with disdain and contempt.
“I think someone probably set him up… Still, for the innkeeper to arrange such a scheme, she must have some ability! Very well. Let me go take a look at her!”
She spun around abruptly. Her gold-and-crimson armlet gleamed faintly beneath her palace robe, losing none of its warmth or vividness.
She was bold and impulsive, the sort who left the moment she made up her mind. In less than half an hour, Miss Baili had already arrived on Qihua Road—though, of course, she had kept a low profile and brought only a modest retinue.
Hmm… This place…
Five out of every ten bluestone paving slabs were cracked, making the road extremely uncomfortable to walk on. The lintels and signboards of the various shops and households were also badly weathered and old-fashioned.
Baili Yuling rarely came to a place like this. In her view, people who lived in such surroundings were usually lifeless and lacking in vitality.
Yet now, to her surprise, she discovered that this was not the case at all.
Although the lintels were shabby, the people themselves looked full of spirit. The shop assistants, dressed in worn but clean clothes, bustled about welcoming customers and seeing them off. From time to time, someone pushed a handcart piled with snacks commonly found in Meishan City—fried cakes, yellow-rice cold cakes, and various chilled drinks—waiting for passersby to buy one or two.
And without question, the liveliest place on the street was that inn.
Sounds drifted from within in wave after wave: the clinking of cups, plates, and bowls; the scraping of tables and chairs being moved… But the most attention-grabbing sound of all was a strange kind of music, accompanied, during the pauses between its notes, by the crowd’s cries of either approval or regret.
How noisy…
Baili Yuling did not particularly enjoy such a chaotic, raucous place.
This was probably the inn where She Wenjie had suffered his humiliation, wasn’t it? Its name was…
The young mistress lifted her head to look at the sign above the entrance—and promptly fell silent.
At that moment, the inn’s front doors opened. The inn was packed with people, with only the servers from the various food stalls weaving in and out, baskets in hand, hawking their wares… Compared to an ordinary inn, this place seemed more like a teahouse—a place where people gathered to listen to stories.
And yet it also seemed far more immersive than simply listening to stories.
Hmm…
Baili Yuling stood some distance away, eyeing the inn’s weathered signboard with undisguised disdain. In the end, however, her curiosity proved stronger than her reservations. She lifted her foot and walked over.
…She’d only take a look.
The moment she entered, Baili Yuling spotted the curtain of water hanging in the middle of the inn’s main hall.
Of course… water screens were nothing new. What was new, however, was the picture displayed on it!
The drawings were so crude that Miss Baili suspected someone had drawn them with their feet. Under normal circumstances, a work of this quality would never have been displayed before Baili Yuling’s eyes… Yet now, she was completely captivated by it!
Because the picture was moving!
A strange, ugly, bipedal cat advanced and leaped across the water screen, dodging all sorts of unexpected obstacles. At the end, it reached the finish line, pulled down a flag, and entered an entirely different adventure.
And that ugly, upright cat was being controlled by the cultivator standing in front of the water screen, using spiritual energy!
Could this be… Cat Mario?
That was right! This was the brand-new form of Cat Mario invented by Wu Guanyue!
When one person was tormented, it was merely torment. But when a group of people watched one person being tormented—well, everyone except the person suffering got to enjoy themselves!
Besides, Cat Mario was actually a serious test of skill.
At first, the difficulty of Cat Mario lay in not knowing what traps awaited you along the way. But as one played more rounds, the traps gradually became familiar. After that, the real challenge was control.
How could one quickly dodge the mushrooms dropping from above? How could one land precisely on the single tile that would not collapse? All of this required the cultivators to coordinate their hands and eyes… while precisely controlling their spiritual energy to manipulate the character.
Otherwise, the slightest mistake would send them a thousand miles off course.
After she opened the inn’s Cat Mario hall, it naturally received an enthusiastic response.
After all, cultivation was the act of climbing a road filled with hardship and suffering. Anyone who could persist on that road could not possibly be frightened away by setbacks. The more challenging something was, the more it stirred their competitive spirit.
Cat Mario was indeed the perfect game!
Baili Yuling was a bona fide cultivator herself, and at this moment, her attention had been completely captured. Her eyes, usually narrowed in disdain as she looked down on others, had opened wide and round. Her heart rose and fell along with the ugly upright cat as it jumped up and down.
She had heard that She Wenjie had gotten into a fight with Chu Yingfeng because he was addicted to Cat Mario… At first, she had assumed it was nothing more than a rumor.
But now, after only one glance, she was already captivated by this novel game.
“Hiss—who would have thought there’d be a hidden block here!”
“Oh, you have to lure the mushroom monster out first before moving on!”
“You already died here once just now. How are you making the exact same mistake again?”
Miss Baili could not help complaining.
The young ladies beside her tried to suppress their laughter. Only then did Baili Yuling realize that she seemed to have lost a little too much composure.
She raised her chin and said haughtily, “This thing isn’t interesting at all… I simply can’t stand watching people make foolish mistakes! If it were me, I certainly wouldn’t make the same mistake twice!”
She had just made the classic “I could do that too” declaration.
Her companions continued to smile as they asked, “Then… want to give it a try?”
Baili Yuling replied solemnly, “Although indulging in amusements can distract one from the Dao, I must admit that Cat Mario seems capable of improving one’s control over spiritual energy. The shopkeeper here truly is an ingenious person… I admire her very much. In that case, I’ll play one round, if only to show my support.”
Miss Baili purchased a game slot for herself and stood before the water screen, infusing it with her spiritual energy.
Naturally, she was nothing like that good-for-nothing She Wenjie. She had not piled up her cultivation through heavenly treasures and earthly riches. She Wenjie had stuffed himself with enough rare treasures to fill a basket, and although he had reached the Great Perfection of the Foundation Establishment realm, his techniques and control had failed to keep up. He had no idea how to use his spiritual energy in actual combat.
Baili Yuling, on the other hand, had advanced one steady step at a time, laying a solid foundation as she progressed.
As a result, her control over Cat Mario was indeed exceptionally precise. She had said that she could do it too—and she really could. She sailed smoothly through the first stage, only crashing and burning in the second. But that was because she had not known what obstacles awaited her there, so it was perfectly normal.
It was nothing special.
Baili Yuling said nothing. A faint smile merely appeared on her face.
Low-key. Low-key.
Just then, Little Shopkeeper Wu, who had been sprawled over the counter, suddenly rang a bell and called out loudly, “The new leaderboard is up～～!”
The images on the water screen suddenly changed!
Rows of names appeared, followed by their completion times: one stick of incense, half a stick, a quarter hour, half a quarter hour…
At the very top of those rows of tiny characters were three extremely easy-to-understand words—
Leaderboard.
Baili Yuling’s gaze immediately glued itself to the screen!
In first place was Chu Yingfeng. His time for clearing the first stage was one lesser heavenly cycle… As expected of the genius renowned throughout the Nine Provinces. He had actually achieved such an impressive result.
Second place, third place, fourth place…
And her ranking was—
Eighth place!
There were actually seven people who had played faster and better than her!!!
Without the leaderboard, it might never have occurred to her to improve her completion time. But the instant she saw it displayed before her eyes… a fierce desire to win suddenly surged up from the depths of Baili Yuling’s heart!
Baili Yuling: “…………”
Baili Yuling: “………………”
With a blank expression, Miss Baili rolled up her sleeves.
“Again!!!”
None
