Wenchang True Lord's Gift

Wang Chong nodded on instinct, then abruptly realized something was wrong. Startled, he turned toward the voice. Zhou You stood smiling behind him and raised a hand in greeting. He had eavesdropped for a good while through his paper figure. He felt that once the talk had reached this point, the next step would be him passing the alley and getting hemmed in on every side. So he showed himself. "Zhou—Zhou You?!" Wang Chong's eyes went wide, as if he had seen a ghost. How could Zhou You possibly appear here? He had planned this operation with great care and kept it strictly secret. There was no way Zhou You could have known! "Discussing how to deal with me right to my face—you really don't take me seriously at all!" Zhou You said, indignant. He was a man who did what he said. Just as had been agreed a moment ago, he drove a heavy punch straight into Wang Chong's face. Blood sprayed from Wang Chong's nose, and he crashed to the ground with a clang. Before he went down, Wang Chong had only one thought. Who was discussing how to deal with you to your face? Where did you even pop out from?! "Boss!" "Brother Wang Chong!" The man they were supposed to deal with had shown up early and knocked their employer down with one punch. The sports school students fell into chaos and charged Zhou You without another word. "Good, come on!" Out of the goodness of his heart, Zhou You kicked Wang Chong off to one side, lest the pack of sports school students trample him to death when they rushed in. The first to come at him was the student who trained in weightlifting. Every line of muscle in his arms stood out, and his fists, big as sandbags, were thick with power. From elementary school on he had shown extraordinary talent for strength. Among those his age, no one could beat him at arm wrestling. By junior high, even grown men could not match his strength. After he entered the sports school, he had won gold again and again in the weightlifting event at the city games. In strength, he was confident he was second to none! "Take my punch! Yah!" he suddenly shouted. This was a technique his coach had taught him. A loud shout could unleash greater strength than usual. Zhou You answered with a punch of his own, no technique at all, a pure contest of strength. The two fists collided. As expected, the student was sent flying and knocked down several people behind him in a row! His eyes went wide. He could not believe it. The other boy's body was thin and frail—how could his strength be greater than his own! "That's all?" Zhou You clapped his hands and recovered a bit of confidence. Yesterday, when he had matched strength with Lishi, he had actually lost. Looking at it now, his own strength was pretty great after all. It was just a pity he had run into Lishi, who was no ordinary person. Another student came past the last one and charged in, taking a professional boxing stance as he attacked Zhou You. An ordinary person could throw two punches a second at most. A boxer who had just started could manage three a second, and he could do four a second. So what if the other guy was strong! An ordinary person with no training simply could not react to his fists! He felt he was everyone's hope. His condition was excellent, and he surpassed himself outright—five punches a second! Yet every punch was precisely blocked by Zhou You. The last was even caught. A light pull dragged him to the ground. Zhou You shook his head. In punching speed, this one was not even as fast as yesterday's Lishi. With the two main fighters easily beaten by Zhou You, the remaining sports school students looked at his thin, frail frame and went cold with fear. Only one thought was left in their heads. "Run!" The fastest was the student who trained in sprints. He ran like the wind and left everyone else far behind. Except Zhou You. "You're not that fast either." Zhou You caught up with him, and that alone startled him so badly that his breathing hitched. His steps tangled. He failed to keep his balance, dropped to his knees, and was hauled back by Zhou You. The greatest taboo in a sprint was talking. The other had caught up with him and could still speak in a perfectly even tone. What kind of terrifying physical condition was this?! Su Tingxue, who had been watching the fight from the mouth of the alley the whole time, was also surprised by Zhou You's showing. Usually, cultivators who had just stepped into the Qi Refining stage found their coordination unable to keep up, because their bodies had improved too much. Zhou You showed no such problem. That meant his talent for cultivation was absurdly good. Zhou You went back into the alley, squatted down, and looked over these foes he had beaten while he turned the matter over. How to put it? So weak. They were not on the same level at all as the two he had run into yesterday. If Lishi and Nianshi had been sent by Wang Chong, then today Wang Chong ought to have found even stronger people. He patted Wang Chong's face without ceremony. "Did you send people to teach me a lesson yesterday?" On any ordinary day, whoever dared treat Wang Chong like this would long since have been answered with a heavy slap. Facing Zhou You, he could only wear an ingratiating smile. "No. How would I dare provoke you?" Zhou You frowned. If they were not people Wang Chong had sent, then who could it be? Seeing him frown, Wang Chong broke into a sweat, terrified that Zhou You would give him another punch. All his life he had been pampered. He had never taken a beating. "Out with it. How were you planning to deal with me?" Wang Chong explained with a mournful face. "I—I just saw how perfectly matched you and Su Tingxue were, and jealousy got the better of me. I had the boys find a few student athletes to block the road you had to take and teach you a lesson. But it's summer vacation now, and student athletes are hard to find. It took several days to find nine. These were all brought in from nearby sports schools, three hundred an hour each..." "Three hundred? Wasn't it a hundred an hour?" one student athlete cried. That did not match the price they had been given. Three hundred an hour? Wasn't it a hundred and fifty an hour? The student athletes sprawled nearby stirred at the sensitive number and realized what was going on. That bastard under Wang Chong had been skimming a cut! "All right, all right, shut up. What a mess. Su Tingxue and I aren't in that kind of relationship." Zhou You cut Wang Chong off. Nianshi and Lishi clearly had not been sent by Wang Chong. Zhou You had not truly meant to ask for the money. Asking for money would make it robbery, and then Wang Chong could turn the charge back on him. Even with right on his side, he would not be able to explain himself clearly. Helpless, he walked out of the alley and called to Su Tingxue, who was keeping watch at the mouth. "Let's go. It wasn't him." Seeing Su Tingxue and Zhou You walk off together, Wang Chong was struck dumb. And you still say there's nothing between you two? This late, skipping evening self-study, you came to the alley mouth to stake me out! "If it isn't Wang Chong, who is it?" Zhou You could not puzzle it out. He had thought he had found the true culprit behind it all, only to rejoice in vain. He could hardly string the suspects up one by one and beat them, asking who exactly had sent the men. After the business with Wang Chong, Su Tingxue felt all the more that she was the reason Zhou You had been attacked. She offered a word of comfort. "I'll watch those people's movements more carefully from day to day. The moment anything is unusual, I'll let you know." "As it happens, the thing ought to have arrived too. Will you come to my house and pick it up?" "What thing?" Zhou You was puzzled. "Wenchang True Lord sent it over. It should be a cultivation method, divine abilities, something of that sort. I don't know exactly what." "Wenchang True Lord sent it to me?" Zhou You was greatly surprised. He did not seem to have done anything. He had only offered a suggestion offhand. Su Tingxue nodded. "Your suggestion was very workable. Wenchang True Lord has already gone abroad. Before he left, he made a point of saying he would send you a gift." Wenchang True Lord had been impatient to go abroad. He felt it was the hidden will of heaven. Sure enough, the old saying was right: it is hard to leave one's native soil. In the end, he had to return to his old home before he could advance another step. Su Tingxue felt Zhou You was underestimating his own importance. If Wenchang True Lord succeeded, it would be nothing less than pointing out a clear path for the literary-path cultivators of the older generation. Zhou You was overwhelmed by the favor. "Wait a moment. I'll call a cab," Su Tingxue said. She always rode a bicycle to and from school. But this time she was bringing Zhou You home. It would hardly do for Zhou You to ride her bicycle while she unlocked a shared bike. That would be rather hard to justify. ... The two got out of the taxi, passed the strict security gate, and entered the villa district. Su Tingxue's home stood right there among the houses: a detached villa. "This is your house?" Zhou You was struck dumb. So the rumor was true, that Su Tingxue's family was rich beyond measure? When he walked into the villa, the first thing to meet his eye was the living room's vintage copper ceiling chandelier. Zhou You had only ever seen a hanging lamp like this in hotels. It was like an exquisite pagoda hung upside down. The tables, chairs, and tea table were all wood, and felt smooth as silk to the touch. Zhou You did not understand what furniture was worth, but he instinctively felt these pieces were very expensive. Zhou You clicked his tongue. Truly rich. No wonder she could afford shaved ice at sixteen yuan a bowl. If he were this rich too, he would definitely order three bowls of the sixteen-yuan shaved ice: one for himself, one for Chu Xiaoyao, and one for Nuomi. "No one's home. No need to be so formal." Su Tingxue invited Zhou You to sit in the living room for a moment. Zhou You waited, full of anticipation. What would Wenchang True Lord give him? A pen that could score full marks on every exam? A cultivation method for the literary path? A relic of the Qing or the Ming? Money would be best of all. Before long Su Tingxue came out of the bedroom, carrying a pigeon that flapped its wings. Zhou You froze. "This is what Wenchang True Lord means to give me... a pigeon?" What was this supposed to be, a spirit beast? Or would roasting it and eating it make one's power surge? Su Tingxue, still holding the pigeon, looked it over a few more times and clicked her tongue in wonder. "This is the spell Flying Pigeon Messenger. An item can change into the form of a pigeon and fly over, then change back to its original form once it reaches the destination. I heard my master speak of it before. Ancient cultivators all sent things this way. Hardly anyone sends things this way now." "What do they use now?" "The post." "...Fair enough." The pigeon drew in its wings, shrank into a ball, and with a bang turned into white mist and vanished, leaving only an ancient book and a few white feathers drifting about in the air. "Here. Your book." Su Tingxue handed the ancient book to Zhou You. Zhou You took it in both hands. The title was written in traditional regular script, the brushwork bold and sweeping. At a glance, it was clearly from the hand of a master. "Mingwang Body Refining Art?" Zhou You was puzzled. Why a body-refining cultivation method? It sounded related to Buddhism's Immovable Wisdom King. Was old Senior Wenchang cultivating both the literary path and Buddhism? This was the gift Wenchang True Lord had sent Zhou You. Su Tingxue had deliberately not looked at what was sent. Hearing Zhou You read the title aloud, she was greatly surprised. "It's actually this one." "You know this book?" "Of course. This is the body-refining art that made Wenchang True Lord's name. How many cultivators have sought it and failed to obtain it." Zhou You was silent for a moment, then could not help asking, "Isn't Wenchang True Lord a literary-path cultivator? Why was it a body-refining art that made his name?" Su Tingxue thought for a moment, then explained, "If you've studied history, you should know that in the middle and later Ming, for all sorts of reasons, civil officials were forever coming to blows." "If the civil officials had all been mortals, Wenchang True Lord would have had nothing to fear. Mortals could not hurt him. But he was not the only literary-path cultivator among the officials, and they were all rivals." "To hold the upper hand when it came to fighting, he specially studied a body-refining art. One man beating three or five was often no problem." "Because he could fight better than anyone, the literary-path cultivators of the Ming all called him Mingwang in private." "Somehow this nickname reached the emperor's ears and stirred his suspicion. After that, he was stripped of his post." Zhou You: "..." So this was how literary-path cultivators fought among themselves? If a contest of letters would not do, they used their fists; if fists would not do, they spread rumors?