Shen Youran found Sun Yixie's gesture utterly baffling.
Everyone knew that secret martial arts manuals, especially internal cultivation methods, were not things to be shown to others lightly.
This was nothing like studying in a schoolhouse, where if you didn't recognize a word or understand a line of poetry, you could simply show it to someone and ask for help...
If one had to make a comparison, martial arts manuals were akin to blueprints for high-tech weaponry. One might hesitate to share them even with closest kin or dearest friends, let alone hand them to an outsider.
*No way...* Shen Youran muttered inwardly. *Could this kid really consider me one of his own?* He was not so naive, and he quickly dismissed the thought. *No... that can't be right. He might be testing me to see how I react. Or perhaps there's no cultivation method written on that paper at all, just utter nonsense... Or maybe it's some run-of-the-mill, bottom-tier art that doesn't matter if I see it.*
At this thought, he waved his hand in a hurry, refusing to take the sheet. "Worthy Brother, this isn't appropriate," he said, pausing before assuming a solemn tone. "You're new to the jianghu and may not understand how things work. Your elder brother must give you a word of advice... Anything recording martial arts must never be shown to others casually. Even before someone you trust implicitly, you must think twice before doing something like this."
"Aw, come on! Look at you talking like that!" Sun Yixie had long anticipated this response. He immediately replied in a hearty, generous tone, "Brother Shen, you *are* someone I trust. Before I brought this out for you, I naturally thought it through... Besides, the very fact that you gave me this warning just now proves you are a true gentleman!"
As he spoke, perhaps worried that Shen Youran still wouldn't take the bait, he glanced at Huang Donglai and added, "Right, Donglai has seen this cultivation method as well... We're all brothers here. Brother Shen, stop treating us like strangers!"
His demeanor seemed entirely natural, leaving no room for argument.
Shen Youran figured that since the boy had gone this far, there was no harm in taking a look.
With that, Shen Youran feigned a conflicted expression, dragged his feet for a few seconds with modest hesitation, and only then took the paper and unfolded it to inspect.
As he looked, Sun Yixie explained from the side, "This is the secret divine art of my Sun Clan—the 'Reversing Heaven and Earth Formula.' My father gave it to me specifically after I decided to attend the Youth Heroes Assembly. The original text was carved on a massive stone slab, but finding it inconvenient to read, I copied it down on this."
"Mmh..." Shen Youran hummed noncommittally. Shrewd and scheming as he was, once he had the paper in hand, he was in no hurry to read the text. Instead, he first inspected the paper and the ink, trying to deduce when the thing had actually been transcribed.
Naturally, he found nothing amiss, for this sheet was indeed the very one Sun Yixie had copied long ago.
It was just that... Sun Yixie had omitted certain details from his explanation. He hadn't told Shen Youran that the Sun family possessed a whole vault of martial arts, mentioning only this Reversing Heaven and Earth Formula.
Just to be safe, before coming here, Sun Yixie had trimmed a sliver off all four edges of the paper and frayed them into a ragged, worn state. That concealed the fact that one of the edges had once been bound.
Indeed, some might recall that back in Hangzhou, Sun Yixie had Huang Donglai help him transcribe all the arts from his family's stone slabs onto paper using simplified Chinese characters, binding them together. Now, to prevent Shen Youran from deducing from minute traces along the margin that the paper had once been bound—and thereby deducing that there was more than one page and more than one art—Brother Sun had made meticulous preparations.
Moreover, in those times, there was no International Organization for Standardization to regulate paper sizes. No one could tell how many times a sheet of paper had been trimmed from the moment it was produced to when it was brought home.
Thus, from the paper alone, Shen Youran could find no flaw.
With mixed feelings of belief and doubt, he began reading the content.
"Hiss... Worthy Brother, these characters are..." Looking at the cluster of simplified characters, Shen Youran recognized some, but more than half were completely foreign to him. He voiced his doubts with a perplexed look.
"Ah, beats me!" This time, it was Huang Donglai's turn to chime in and hoodwink him. "I've seen the stone slab that recorded the method too, and it was written in this exact script." He shrugged. "If we actually recognized these characters, I would've been more than enough to coach Brother Sun."
Shen Youran pondered for a moment. "Could it be... that you missed something when transcribing?"
"Impossible," Sun Yixie answered resolutely. "With martial cultivation methods, a difference of a single word can lead you a thousand li astray... I know that much at least. That's why I drew every single one of these characters stroke by stroke, copying the slab's appearance without the slightest discrepancy... While I was copying, I even had Donglai keep watch beside me to ensure I didn't make a mistake."
"That's right," Huang Donglai said. "I can guarantee that the content on this paper matches the original on the stone slab entirely."
"Then..." Shen Youran mused further. "Could there be some secret in the stone slab itself?"
"I looked into that too," Sun Yixie said. "I roasted that slab over fire, soaked it in water, poured mercury over it, tossed it in an ice cellar... all to no avail. In the end, I gritted my teeth, stomped my foot, and simply smashed it open to check the inside, but I still found nothing..."
Hearing this, Shen Youran desperately wanted to curse. *You idiot,* he thought. *Some secrets are hidden with great subtlety! What if the method to translate these characters was actually on that slab? Wouldn't you have utterly destroyed it?!*
Yet thinking it was one thing; he couldn't utter the curse aloud.
"Worthy Brother, can that slab still be pieced back together?" Shen Youran asked, clinging to a sliver of hope.
"Pieced back together?" Sun Yixie blinked, then chuckled. "Ha! Brother Shen, you jest. Back then, after smashing it open and seeing nothing special inside, I decided to finish the job once and for all—I pounded it into fine powder and scattered it across West Lake! Since I had already copied the text onto paper and memorized it in my head, keeping the slab around would only invite thieves to covet it, wouldn't it?"
Hearing this, Shen Youran cursed silently: *This clever-clever fool... For all you know, your family's ancestral divine art was lost forever by your own hand!*
Little did he know... every word of that was a lie. Moreover, truth and falsehood were woven together so seamlessly that he had no way to tell them apart.
Sun Yixie's move was a double safeguard: First, wasn't Shen eyeing his family's secret treasure? Well, today he was delivering it right before his eyes to see what Shen would do. Second, he made it abundantly clear that aside from this sheet of paper, the art was backed up solely in his own head. If Shen suspected there was an issue with the paper's contents, he would be even less inclined to harm Sun.
Of course, this series of stratagems was merely an expedient measure. It could buy time and constrain Shen Youran for a while, but it couldn't ward him off forever.
If Shen Youran's grand scheme truly succeeded, he could easily send men to Hangzhou to turn the Sun residence upside down, at which point he would discover that Sun and Huang had been lying.
For now, however, Shen Youran had indeed fallen right into their trap.
"Brother Shen, we're all brothers here, so I'll be direct." A breath later, Huang Donglai exchanged a look with Sun Yixie before speaking to Shen Youran. "With the capabilities of the two of us, I doubt we could fathom what's written on this paper even in ten or twenty years. Leaving this cultivation method in our hands makes it no better than scrap paper. But your martial arts cultivation is far superior to ours, Brother Shen, and you have greater experience and broad connections... If it's you, you might be able to unravel its mysteries, or at least find someone who can translate these characters..."
At this point, Sun Yixie smoothly took over. "So our intention is... to leave this divine art in your care, Brother Shen. The two of us ask for nothing more than this: should you decipher the divine art one day, you share it with us brothers."
By this point, Shen Youran no longer harbored any doubt regarding the authenticity of the cultivation method. First, judging by the paper itself, unless Sun Yixie had planned to deceive him months ago and forged this false art back then, he couldn't possibly have produced this sheet. Second, there were countless ways to forge a martial art—writing it backward, omitting lines, modifying words... Any minor tweak could prevent someone from mastering it or trigger qi deviation; there was no need to invent a bizarre script that made it utterly incomprehensible from the start.
All things considered, Shen Youran felt their motives were entirely reasonable...
The Sun Clan had long stayed away from the martial world. If Master Sun knew the secret of this martial art, he would have taught it to his son long ago. As for the Huang Clan, though they were friends with the Sun family and knowledgeable in martial arts, their family fortune had declined, and talent was scarce. Even Huang Donglai, the young master of the Huang Clan, admitted his own inadequacy...
Viewed this way, it was no surprise that these two had come to curry favor with him, the influential leader of the Justice Sect.
*Hmph... So that's how it is,* Shen Youran thought to himself. *And here I thought you were fools who truly regarded me as an elder brother. Turns out you have half a brain after all... Knowing that I, Shen Youran, will soar to great heights, and believing that I hold you in high regard, you want to use me... Once I decipher this Reversing Heaven and Earth Formula, you can learn a divine art you couldn't fathom on your own, and you'll have done me a favor in the process. When the time comes, calling me your brother and relying on my mountain of influence, making a name for yourselves will be just around the corner...*
Believing he had seen through their schemes, he nearly chuckled in derision.
Yet he kept his smile in check, assuming an expression of noble righteousness as he spoke, "Worthy Brothers, what are you saying? I, Shen Youran, view the two of you as my very own blood brothers! When my brothers ask something of me, I will naturally do everything in my power, even if it means taking a blade to the ribs..." His voice rose with emotion as he stood up. "Rest assured, from this day forth, I will do all I can to decipher this cultivation method. Once it is unraveled, I will place it in your hands first. If you two do not nod, I will not cultivate even half a stroke of it!"
"No, no, no... If it's to be practiced, naturally the three of us brothers will practice it together," Sun Yixie said. "I can make the call on this, so there's no need for you to refuse, Brother Shen."
"Indeed, Brother Shen. Between brothers, what need is there to keep secrets?" Huang Donglai chimed in.
"Then..." Shen Youran showed a face full of conflicted reluctance. "Your elder brother will obey rather than show false modesty."
"Brother!"
"Brother!"
Calling each other brothers, the three of them stood up one after another, clasping hands and looking into each other's eyes with great emotion. The gaze in every one of their eyes appeared utterly upright and sincere.
Yet deep down, Shen Youran regarded Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai as clever-clever fools, while Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai viewed Shen Youran as a hypocritical bastard.
These three shameless knaves stood there putting on an acting masterclass, until the very air around them seemed to thicken with a suffocating stench of hypocrisy.
After carrying on their act for quite a while, they finally sat back down.
Without batting an eye, Shen Youran slipped the paper recording "Reversing Heaven and Earth" into his sleeve, then spoke again, "By the way, Yixie, you mentioned earlier that you had two matters to discuss with me. What is the other?"
Sun Yixie replied, "Right, Brother Shen. There is one more thing I'd like to ask of you..." Pausing for half a second, he continued, "I'd like to introduce a brother with the surname Lei and request a spot for him at the Youth Heroes Assembly."
Chapter 40