"Excellent aptitude!"
Chen Chong said with absolute certainty: "Xu Yao is definitely prime material for martial arts!"
"Mm... we'll have to see."
Ning Weiyu gave Chen Chong a meaningful look, and found Chen Chong staring back with burning eyes — this time Chen Chong did not look away.
His meaning was plain at a glance.
Ning Weiyu withdrew his gaze and considered for a moment.
"Brother Xu Yao."
He called Xu Yao over and pressed into his hand a blood-red jade the size of a thumb, shaped like a brush tip. "Grip it hard."
Xu Yao did as told and clenched it tight.
Chen Chong's breathing quickened; he stared fixedly at Xu Yao's hand.
The time it takes to burn a stick of incense passed.
Before they set out, Ning Weiyu had Xu Yao open his palm.
The blood-red jade showed. Its rich red had faded to pink, and the tip was faintly white.
Ning Weiyu glanced at it and sighed softly. "A pity. Among ordinary people this counts as very good aptitude — above the middle grade for martial aptitude in the mortal world. It's just a shame he's a bit old, his foundation was never laid at all, and some of it has been ruined."
There was weight in his words, and he stressed the terms "ordinary people" and "mortal world."
Chen Chong slammed his fist into the ground. "Damn that Qi Yougen!"
The words "his foundation was never laid at all, and some of it has been ruined" stung Chen Chong to the very core. In that moment he truly had the urge to charge into Black Mountain City and kill Qi Yougen.
Ning Wuxia, too, gave Xu Yao a pitying look. Aptitude like this would not have crossed the threshold of the Tianshu Purple Mansion, but had he been a child of seven or eight, by the standards of an ordinary sect he could have been taken in and raised as an outer sect disciple.
But Xu Yao was nineteen now. It was impossible.
It was Xu Yao himself whose eyes lit up. Looking at the blood-red jade, he smiled. "Actually, this is already very good. Maybe my body really was uncoordinated before, and my aptitude only improved recently. I'm already quite satisfied."
He knew perfectly well that all of it came from the changes in his body after his eyes mutated and absorbed that mysterious energy from the mountain demons and wood demons those few times.
And his aptitude before had definitely not been as good as it was now.
So while everyone looked at him with pity, his own heart was filled with elation.
"No matter." Full of hope, Xu Yao said, "I can absolutely work hard!"
This assessment was far, far above "good for nothing in letters or arms." Xu Yao, who had been knocked down by his peers since childhood, now felt a confidence stronger than ever before: such an important person actually says I'm strong among ordinary people! Woo-hoo!
Xu Yao was almost giddy: the first time in my life I've heard praise like that!
Before, at the academy, at the martial arts school, all he had ever heard was "lacking in cleverness — bottom of a hundred" or "poor natural gifts — no hope in martial arts."
Over there—
Chen Chong lowered his head in disappointment. Could it be... he wasn't taken? What if it were a different direction... a different approach? A different request...
Ning Weiyu glanced at Chen Chong and thought for a moment, then said quietly, "This time we're staying on to search the mountains, and Brother Xu Yao will obviously be with us the whole way; he's been a considerable help to us. We found the senior's remains thanks to him as well. So whenever we leave, we can't simply go without giving some account of it."
Chen Chong's eyes blazed; his head snapped up, his gaze fixed on Ning Weiyu, full of anxious hope. His lips moved slightly, but he didn't dare speak.
Ning Weiyu smiled and turned to Xu Yao. "Brother Xu Yao, if we don't find what we're looking for this time, I'll give you a sum of money. If we do find it, I'll leave you a cultivation method."
Before Xu Yao could speak, Chen Chong's palm flashed out and slapped him on the shoulder. "Hurry up and thank Sir Ning!"
"Thank you, Sir Ning!"
Xu Yao was overjoyed too; he hadn't expected a real fortuitous opportunity.
After saluting Ning Weiyu, Xu Yao bowed deeply to Chen Chong as well. "Thank you, Uncle Chen."
Chen Chong roared with laughter. "You child... hahaha, what are you thanking me for? I didn't do anything! Hahaha... thank Sir Ning, thank Sir Ning!"
His laughter was easy and open, his whole beard quivering, as though some great matter of his life had suddenly been set down. Just hearing his laugh and seeing his face, one caught his feeling of "what more could I ask for in this life?"
Seeing Chen Chong like that, Xu Yao's eyes reddened.
Ning Weiyu watched uncle and nephew with a smile, and deep in his eyes something warm slipped past. His gaze toward Chen Chong grew gentler still.
A touch of feeling showed on his handsome face. "Captain Chen, there's no need for courtesy. In this world martial arts flourish, factions stand everywhere, sects are beyond counting, experts are innumerable — that's one side of it. But these poor remote parts, these wicked mountains and black waters, these desolate, out-of-the-way places — they are still guarded by you. Without you, the hundreds of millions of frontier folk on this continent could not live. Our hands cannot reach so far, and we cannot sit quietly in places like this waiting to see when a mountain demon or wood demon will appear."
"The mountain patrol squads may be the lowest rank, but they are one of the cornerstones of the continent."
Ning Weiyu was full of feeling.
Ning Wuxia laughed behind her hand. "Brother, the way you are now, you're just like Dad — always pitying the world, always sighing."
Ning Weiyu glared at her: "..."
"Jianghu is everywhere! What do you know!" Ning Wuxia beat him to it.
Sure enough, at the same instant Ning Weiyu's own words came out: "...Jianghu is everywhere! What do you know!"
Then Ning Weiyu's face twisted, and he looked at his sister with smoke all but rising from his head.
Ning Wuxia splayed her claws and cackled, delighted beyond measure. Now that she saw her brother being friendly and growing more familiar with Chen Chong and the others, she was indeed beginning to show her true colors.
Ning Weiyu was beside himself. "You wretched girl, carrying on like this — how will you ever have hope of having your name inscribed on the Heavenly Stele! How will you have hope at the Seven Leagues Martial Meet! How can I ever feel at ease letting you roam the Demon Mist Sea and fight for your life in the Heavenly Demon Ruins! How... your teeth! Your teeth! They're showing! Remember to smile without showing your teeth, don't say whatever comes into your head, observe the Precepts for Women, train hard, put away this flighty nature of yours and be a proper young lady of a good family, you you you..."
"Here we go again..."
In an instant Ning Wuxia wilted entirely and groaned as though life had nothing left to offer: "Heavens... that familiar lecturing... all our ancestors put together couldn't nag the way you alone do..."
"Shut up! Proper young lady! Remember — a proper young lady!" Smoke rose from Ning Weiyu's head.
"...Ha ha."
Ning Wuxia made a show of roaring with laughter.
Ning Weiyu raged helplessly, wanting to erupt but unable to bear it, unable to let it pass either; he raised his palm and couldn't bring himself to swing it...
Chen Chong spoke up in good time: "All of you! Move out!"
Ning Weiyu whooshed off to the front.
Ning Wuxia walked beside Xu Yao. Having quarreled with her brother, she seemed to have broken some seal on speech, and she was all eagerness: "Big Fatty, why do they call you Big Fatty? You're obviously so thin."
"...Ahem, Big Fatty is my childhood name."
"Why is your childhood name Big Fatty?"
"..."
"Big Fatty — pfft hahaha, that name is great. Hey, what was I going to say?"
"..."
"Your eyes, the black and the white are so distinct — they're lovely. Why so distinct?"
Ning Wuxia actually produced a hand mirror, examined her own eyes, then compared them with Xu Yao's, clicking her tongue in wonder, then pouting in dissatisfaction and asking all the more.
"How do you take care of them?"
"Teach me."
"..."
In the end Xu Yao could only fend off this young lady's endless strange questions, and he nearly collapsed.
So tiring.
As Ning Wuxia observed and observed, she made a great discovery.
"These are single eyelids, aren't they? Then why is there a line there?" Ning Wuxia was very puzzled.
"Single eyelids. I don't know what's going on either — it's been like this since I was little. Normally single, but the moment I cry they turn double. After I finish crying they stay double for several shichen, then they're single again."
Xu Yao was puzzled about his own eyelids too, because it really was so.
"Normally single, and double when you cry?"
Ning Wuxia suddenly brightened with surprise. Unconsciously she clenched her little fist, eager to try.
How novel — she really wanted to see those double eyelids...
Should she beat him until he cried?
Suddenly sensing a surging ill will, Xu Yao's eyes went wide with terror: "...??"
I must have said the wrong thing...
Once this young lady had broken the seal, her lively nature was plain to see: a chatterbox to the bone, and a curious child at that, with violent tendencies besides.
At long last, they reached the hilltop.
Xu Yao was finally freed. He gasped for breath, drenched in sweat — mostly from lingering dread. The whole way there had been a pair of eyes beside him, itching to beat him into tears, so that... Xu Yao had spent the entire journey wondering when he would get hit, and had quite forgotten the exhaustion of the long march!
The sub-compass of the demon-catching compass pinpointed the cliff exactly.
"Big Fatty, how many do you see?" Chen Chong asked, a little expectant.
He couldn't see them; Liu Zhen and the others couldn't see them; even a personage like Ning Weiyu couldn't see them — but Big Fatty could! That was his value!
Xu Yao lay down at the cliff edge and looked over. The moment he looked, he almost thought history was repeating itself; he had the sense of time flowing backward.
Below, three balls of green glow rippled quietly against the cliff wall!
Xu Yao's scalp prickled. "Brigade Captain, this time they're triplets again."
Chapter 15