Chapter 61: The Anomaly

Seeing that Xie Peiling showed little interest, Lin Miaohu spoke up once again.

"Little brother, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! You may not have heard of my name, Lin Miaohu, but surely you must have heard of the 'Flying Mantis' of Homing Prefecture, right? If you join our Martial Palace now, no matter how poor your innate talent might be, your future achievements will not fall short of mine!"

Xie Peiling hesitated for a moment. How was he supposed to respond to this? Apart from cultivators at the absolute pinnacle of Homing Prefecture, he genuinely did not know many people.

Lin Miaohu remained silent for a long while, yet he still refused to give up. Maintaining a forced smile, he continued, "My friend, I wager you are not a native of Yu'an Prefecture City, are you?"

Xie Peiling nodded and replied, "I am indeed not from Yu'an Prefecture City. My surname is Du, and my given name is Honggen—Hong as in the great flood, and Gen as in the root of a tree."

Lin Miaohu chuckled and said, "Do you know, Brother Du? There are five peerless martial artists of the younger generation in Yu'an Prefecture City. Everyone says their strength is formidable and that they might become great martial arts masters in Homing Prefecture in the future. But in reality? They are still far too green. If I were of the same age and cultivation realm as them, I could knock them flat with a single punch. Listen to me..."

Xie Peiling was speechless, finding it somewhat amusing. Judging by the big man's words, it seemed as though Xu Yuanming would soon be trampled beneath his feet.

At that moment, Ye Zhuying looked at their retreating backs and sneered.

"Leaving aside the strength of this Martial Palace, their discernment is not bad at all. You are not as simple as they appear to you, Brother Xie. The moment you introduced yourself just now, they had already looked you up and down, and the instant they caught sight of the sword at your waist, they prepared themselves for this."

Xie Peiling asked, perplexed, "Why?"

Ye Zhuying's gaze turned ice-cold.

"Anyone with even a shred of strength would not mistake this sword in Yu'an Prefecture City. The moment they saw it, they assumed you were lying. This sword is the very lifeline of the Chu family. They do not care how or by what means you managed to get your hands on it; they only know that if word gets out, they can make a great public fuss and seize this sword for themselves."

Upon hearing this, Xie Peiling let out a clear *clang* as he drew the hidden-edge sword directly, intending to track down those martial artists.

Ye Zhuying stopped him, glanced at him, and then said, "Do you honestly think you can defeat them? Although I don't know the strength of your Yingtiandao Temple, at the very least, it would be extremely difficult for you as you are now to defeat even one of them. The only reason they didn't notice you right from the beginning is most likely related to your cultivation technique."

Xie Peiling looked at the sword in his hand in lingering silence. As expected, once something became entangled with the Chu family, no matter what it was, it would inevitably become immensely complicated. He should have returned this precious sword first thing in the morning.

Ye Zhuying softly spoke at that moment, "However, there is still one way to remedy this."

"What is it?"

"Sell this sword."

"?"

Xie Peiling widened his eyes and stared at Ye Zhuying in disbelief.

Ye Zhuying nodded. "Find a very ordinary shop and sell this sword for a pittance. That way, it will no longer belong to you."

Xie Peiling explained, "But this sword never belonged to me in the first place. I am supposed to return it to them tomorrow."

"Not yours? How could the people of the Chu family be so naive? The moment you accepted it, you had already fallen into their trap. Although I do not know why that young miss of the Chu family chose to privately hand a hidden-edge sword comparable to an 'immortal weapon' into your keeping, I do know this: your trouble is far from small."

Ye Zhuying looked in the direction of the Chu family estate, his gaze seeming to pierce through everything.

"Right now, you either sell it or wait for those challengers to arrive, in which case you will have to defeat them one by one. And no matter how many people come, or how severe your injuries may be, Brother Xu will not lift a finger. It was like that in the past, and it is like that now."

Xie Peiling asked, "What?"

Ye Zhuying continued, "You should know that Brother Xu is not the first person to bring you down the mountain. Many others have made this journey during this period, yet only a handful survived. It is not because Brother Xu could not protect them, but because his demands are far too harsh. This trial of descending the mountain is a genuine trial, one that truly exists between life and death—it is not merely an outing to broaden your horizons."

Xie Peiling fell silent for a moment, then thought aloud, "When I first arrived, Senior Brother Xu hardly ever left my field of vision. But as those days passed, now he is practically invisible. Aside from when we were cultivating, he no longer offers me even a shred of advice."

Thinking further, he finally understood why the wind in Yu'an Prefecture City had turned so biting cold.

Ye Zhuying's voice carried no emotion, merely stating a fact as ordinary as could be.

"A flower in a greenhouse can never grow into a towering tree. Those trained by Brother Xu are both fortunate and deeply unfortunate. The person he wants to teach must measure up to his own standards and surpass him. If one only possesses ordinary standards, one might as well just die—since they are bound to die in the future anyway, they might as well go reincarnate into a good womb; perhaps in the next life, they will become the blessed child of some great, accomplished divine existence."

Xie Peiling glanced at him, remained still, and simply smiled, uttering, "Indeed... how could that be?"

Ye Zhuying raised an eyebrow. He did not know what else to say, or rather, he no longer knew what Xie Peiling was thinking. He was beginning to find it impossible to fathom what lay in the heart of this youth who was nearly ten years younger than himself.

"What are you making such a racket for? My young miss can't even rest!"

Xie Peiling and Ye Zhuying turned their heads to see a voice echoing from behind the wall.

Xie Peiling gave a powerful leap, landing atop the courtyard wall. Within the courtyard below, two young maids were carrying a ladder as they walked toward the wall, followed by a young miss holding a folding fan and dressed in gorgeous attire.

After propping up the ladder, one of the maids glared at the martial artist perched atop the wall, gnashing her teeth as she spoke.

"Well, well! Where did this martial artist crawl out from? Chirping away like a baby chick in the middle of the night without end, and so loudly at that! Not only did you disturb my young miss, but now you've even climbed up onto the wall!"

The maid beside her nudged her waist and whispered urgently, "Stop talking! With a voice as loud as yours, how could the master fail to hear it? If he hears this, it will be bad enough if the two of us get a sound thrashing, but the young miss will probably be grounded as well. Keep your voice down! Why are you even paying attention to that Che Zhihuan? The more you talk to his kind, the more carried away they get!"

Xie Peiling was just about to apologize when he realized they were not talking about him, but rather the middle-aged man perched on the wall right beside him.

"Hehehe..."

The martial artist whom the maid had called Che Zhihuan scratched his head, giving off an honest and simple-minded air. Yet, his smile left people with the distinct impression that he was far from what he appeared on the surface.