Ch38 - Tooth for a Tooth

Translator: transcendentwings

Editor: teaff

Upon the first encounter, the fifteen-year-old Wen Xuechen hated the thirteen-year-old Xu Xingzhi very much.

It could be said that ever since he was born, he’d never seen such a disrespectful and brash lecher.

Even when he was seriously ill, there were two housekeepers around young Wen Xuechen, who took care of him day and night. He used a jade pot and bowl to drink medicine; Then after entering Qingliang Valley, he was treated differently by his shifu, Fuyao-jun, due to his outstanding talent and was promoted to the seat of the leading disciple within three years.

Qingliang Valley respected and worshiped one’s betters and there was a clear stratification between those of higher and lower status. There were Qingliang valley disciples who cultivated for more than ten years without success and when they chanced upon Wen Xuechen, they would all have to politely address him as Wen-shixiong.

Before meeting Xu Xingzhi, Wen Xuechen had never met anyone who was born in the slums.

One day, Fuyao-jun ordered him to travel together with Xu Xingzhi, the leading apprentice of the new leader of Fengling mountain, Qingjing-jun, to apprehend a ghostly practitioner who was operating around the junction of Fengling mountain and Qingliang valley.

When Wen Xuechen, accompanied by two shidi and supported by a Nanmu crutch, exited the sect gates, they only saw two young disciples in attire belonging to Fengling mountain waiting before the gate, with no trace of Xu Xingzhi.

His brow furrowed slightly: “Where is Fengling Xu Xingzhi?”

“. . . Ai.”

Wen Xuechen turned his head in response and looked at the stone tablet by the entrance of Qingliang valley.

A youth sat on top of the stone tablet with one leg hanging down. The rays of the afternoon sun cast a thin pale gold glow on his body.

The youth’s lips, which held the mouth of a wine jug, was raised in an incomparably flamboyant arc: “I’m here ne.”

The expression on Wen Xuechen’s face sank, but he didn’t comment on the other’s behavior.

He had always been pretty self-disciplined. When coming across conduct he was unaccustomed to, Wen Xuechen would reprimand them if they were from the same sect, but Xu Xingzhi was a peer of the same generation, thus since he didn’t look favorably upon the other, then he would just not look at him and save himself the trouble.

However, when he met the ghostly cultivator who they came to arrest, Wen Xuechen’s demeanor and poise completely dissipated. He impulsively abandoned all accompanying disciples and pursued the other with murderous intent.

That ghostly cultivator’s strength was average, but the martial prowess of his legs and feet were really good. When Wen Xuechen chased him into a stretch of mountains, his energy and blood flow were already a mess, and the color of his face and lips interchanged between a purple tinge and a pale countenance. His heavily burdened heart pounded against his ribs making a terrifying loud peng peng sound.

Even so, he still refused to stop until a great force came from behind and locked him into an unbreakable hold.

Xu Xingzhi, who was following him, scolded: “Do you want to die?!”

Wen Xuechen frantically attacked Xu Xingzhi’s ribs and waist with his elbows. Xu Xingzhi took the beating without saying a word and placed his palm on the back of Wen Xuechen’s head, activating his spiritual power abruptly.

Wen Xuechen immediately felt dizzy in response and fell forwards, unconscious.

When Wen Xuechen woke up again, he was in a cave with the plain robes of Fengling Mountain draped over him.

Xu Xingzhi squatted at the mouth of the cave with a pile of stacked wet wood. He used his spiritual power to dry them then added them to the flames as fuel.

Noticing that Wen Xuechen was up, he yo-ed: “Awake la? You sure run fast, neither the Qingliang valley nor the two Fengling disciples could catch up with you.”

Just as Wen Xuechen was about to speak, he felt a muffled pain in his heart that was hard to bear. He stooped down and forcibly swallowed the gasp of pain: “Where is he?”

“That ghostly practitioner?” Xu Xingzhi tossed a golden bell in his hand upwards and caught it, “. . . Probably still in the mountains ba. Shifu gave me a spiritual weapon before I left. Big or small, it can cover an area of five hundred cubic meters and can also net a butterfly. I used it just now to seal off five hundred cubic meters of this mountain range. Although our disciples can’t enter, that ghostly cultivator can’t escape either. Once your body has recovered sufficiently, we can just slowly comb through the mountains and will eventually find him one place or another.”

Wen Xuechen didn’t say a word. He supported himself against the stone wall to steady his body and with one hand holding the crutch and the other braced against the wall, he staggered towards the outside.

Although Xu Xingzhi was young, he was already long limbed. When he saw that the situation didn’t look good, he pressed his back against one side of wall by the mouth of the cave and used his left foot to brace himself against the other, blocking Wen Xuechen’s way with his leg.

“Where are you going?” Xu Xingzhi questioned.

Wen Xuechen didn’t even spare him a glance as he retorted coldly: “None of your business.”

Xu Xingzhi nudged him back a little: “It won’t be too late to find that ghostly cultivator after you’ve recovered. My shifu alerted me earlier that you have a heart condition, I need to look after you.”

Wen Xuechen interrogated with a frigid voice: “Then do you know how my heart ailment came to be?”

Ever since Wen Xuechen lost his composure, Xu Xingzhi already had some conjectures in his heart: “It’s that ghostly cultivator?”

“My parents’ murder was something I saw with my own eyes.” Wen Xuechen bit every word with bitterness and pain, “The Hanchan jade my father wore with him at all times just happened to catch his eye when he passed by the alms booth my father was operating.”

“He trespassed into my house, gouged out my father’s heart and humiliated my mother. My mother hid me under the bed before he entered so I was fortunately spared. . . . Later, my mother’s blood flowed between the crevices of the bed boards, and dripped onto my face. . . . He did all this just for a simple piece of jade that was worth less than a thousand taels.”

Xu Xingzhi gasped loudly: “. . . A thousand taels ah.”

Wen Xuechen glared at him.

Only then did Xu Xingzhi realize that what he just uttered was wildly inappropriate. He hurriedly raised a hand in apology: “Sorry, I’m inexperienced in life.”

“Don’t get in my way.” Wen Xuechen no longer wanted to continue talking to Xu Xingzhi as the blue veins on his forehead pulsed.

“With your body in such a weak condition, you will die if you encounter him.” Xu Xingzhi was very blunt, “. . . I’ll go.”

Wen Xuechen raised his crutch and struck the tibia bone of Xu Xingzhi’s left leg.

Xu Xingzhi was caught off guard and received the hit solidly. It hurt so much that his face blanched as he hugged his leg and leapt around several times.

Wen Xuechen ignored him and brushed by to exit the cave.

Xu Xingzhi wasn’t angered and hopped after him on one foot: “Ai, ai. Let’s go together ya.”

Wen Xuechen no longer had the strength to ride his sword into the sky. He had no choice but to trek through the mountain and forests to seek the whereabouts of the ghostly cultivator who slaughtered his entire family.

Xu Xingzhi followed behind him, carefully avoiding the ants and insects under his feet while he chatted with Wen Xuechen: “It’s very tiring for you to walk, how about I carry you ya.”

Wen Xuechen tried his best to control his turbulent breathing and snapped icily: “No need.”

Xu Xingzhi piped up again: “Ai, you have a lot of white hairs.”

Wen Xuechen was starting to feel somewhat impatient.

Ever since he contracted this heart ailment, his hair had been dyed with these frosty colors and no one had ever dared to be so rude as to bring it up to his face.

Xu Xingzhi muttered: “Three thousand-zhang locks of white, it is due to grief that it seems so long. . . . Wen-baimao, why torture yourself like this ne.”

Wen Xuechen paused his stride, thinking that he heard wrong: “. . . What did you call me?”

Xu Xingzhi bounced around to avoid the ants and answered without raising his head: “Wen-baimao ah.”

A nameless fury shot straight to the crown of Wen Xuechen’s skull, which he managed to suppress before it exploded: “. . . I’m your elder.”

“So what?” Xu Xingzhi quibbled, “Fatty Zhou of Yingtianchuan is also two years older than me.”

. . . Wen Xuechen didn’t want to converse with Xu Xingzhi anymore.

For the first time, he experienced what it felt like to feel his heart ache when he spoke a word too many.

Xu Xingzhi seemed to have sensed Wen Xuechen’s emotions and ceased his banter before walking ahead of Wen Xuechen.

He cleared the road before them with a branch while engaging in small talk: “Others get heated but not me, no one will care when I fall ill from getting angry. If I die from fury who will it please? Besides, it taxes one’s mind and wastes energy. . .”

His enemy was right before his eyes, but he just couldn’t find him anywhere. Wen Xuechen was already extremely vexed, then to hear Xu Xingzhi chant this now, he finally couldn’t bear it any longer: “Shut up!”

Xu Xingzhi was a little stunned by being told off and looked back at him to explain: “I just wanted to tell you not to be agitated, it’s not good for your health.”

Of course Wen Xuechen knew that Xu Xingzhi had no malicious intent, but at this time, his temper had already reared its head so he directly took his anger out on Xu Xingzhi: “What does my condition have anything to do with you? Who are you? Are you qualified to control me?”

“Why are you getting mad at me?” Afterall, Xu Xingzhi was also only a teenager. Hearing these words, he snapped back mercilessly, “If you really are unhappy, why don’t you just run into a tree.”

Wen Xuechen gritted his teeth and glowered at Xu Xingzhi: “If you saw your family die before you, you will naturally understand how I feel now!”

Xu Xingzhi paused and stood still with his back to Wen Xuechen for a while, then he continued forward without a word, leaving Wen Xuechen several hundred meters behind in a blink of an eye.

When Wen Xuechen admonished the lesser disciples in Qingliang valley, no one dared to disobey him. Xu Xingzhi, who entered a sect later than he did and was also younger than he was, was not only rude, but also disobedient to discipline. This made his temper explode. Gripping, the Nanmu crutch in the middle, he threw it viciously at Xu Xingzhi’s back, hitting his shoulder blade.

The Nanmu crutch was extremely heavy and Xu Xingzhi was unguarded against Wen Xuechen. He clutched his shoulder and knelt down directly from the impact.

Wen Xuechen never expected to hit home and just as the heated blood in his brain was beginning to ebb, Xu Xingzhi reached out, picked up his crutch, straightened his stance, and violently brought the crutch down on his knee, instantly snapping it in half.

Xu Xingzhi didn’t even look as he tossed the broken Nanmu crutch over the edge into the gorge beside him and stalked away.

Wen Xuechen was so incensed that he almost vomited blood: “. . . You!”

Without his crutch, it was even more difficult for Wen Xuechen to move.

Due to recalling the past and then quarreling with Xu Xingzhi, the stuffy feeling in Wen Xuechen’s chest increased as he advanced.

Before he could even cover 250 meters, he had to lean against a peach tree and rummage through his lapel for the medicinal pill that relieved pain and soothed his heart. After swallowing the medicine, his strength slipped away from him completely and he fainted.

. . . He was awoken by a jolting movement.

When he fully roused, Wen Xuechen realized that he was lying on someone’s back. The sky had transitioned from evening to midnight.

They were leaving the mountain range while riding on a sword and the brilliant golden glow that had shrouded the mountain range had already faded away.

Wen Xuechen became anxious and grabbed the shoulder of the person in front of him: “Stop!”

Xu Xingzhi, who was carrying him, almost tumbled off the sword with this grasp. He gasped loudly in pain: “Are you trying to kill me ah, let go!”

Only now did Wen Xuechen recognize that the person carrying him was Xu Xingzhi and where he clutched was exactly where the other was struck by his crutch.

Furthermore, it was obvious that that wasn’t the only injury Xu Xingzhi carried. There were scorch marks of ghostly flames on his waist, legs, and chest. Originally, some hemostatic herbs found on the mountain and in the forests were applied simply on the back of his neck, but Wen Xuechen’s actions when he woke up made the herbal mulch slide down with a rustle, revealing a shocking injury caused by a blade.

The expression on Wen Xuechen’s face froze: “This is. . .”

“It’s good that you are awake.” After Xu Xingzhi recovered from the pain, he selected the nearest hill, halted his sword and descended. Lowering Wen Xuechen from the position on his back then digging around in his sleeve, he pulled out a golden bell: “I captured the b*stard for you. He’s locked in this golden bell.”

Wen Xuechen stared in astonishment at the golden bell that was presented to him, and took a long time to find his voice: “You. . .”

Xu Xingzhi scratched his head: “This thing was very cunning, it took me a lot of work to capture him alive. After imprisoning him, I sealed all of his meridians so even with the sorry state you’re currently in, it’ll still be enough to kill him slowly.”

“Why did you want to detain him alive?” Wen Xuechen noticed that his voice trembled unnaturally, “Shifu mentioned before that if he refused to obey the law, just kill him.”

Xu Xingzhi offered up the golden bell to Wen Xuechen again, his tone relaxed: “I thought, if I were you, I would definitely want to take his life as revenge. Nuo, he’s right here, if you want to get vengeance then take it ba.”

Wen Xuechen was speechless for the moment.

The wounded Xu Xingzhi held the golden bell in his hand and looked at him with a thankless smile.

After a long while, Wen Xuechen finally opened his mouth: “Since he had been arrested, I can no longer avenge my personal grudge in the name of public offense. . . . Escort him back to Qingliang valley ba.”

Xu Xingzhi wondered: “Why?”

Wen Xuechen: “This is regulation.”

“What regulation?” Xu Xingzhi cast the golden bell into Wen Xuechen’s arms, forcing him to catch it, “Paying with one’s life for murder is the rule. Let me ask you, would you feel better if you personally killed him?”

“My parents can’t return to life anyway. . .”

Xu Xingzhi pressed: “Who was asking you about this? I’m asking you if it would make your heart less burdened?”

Wen Xuechen pondered for a moment and nodded slightly.

“Then go ba.” Xu Xingzhi held Wen Xuechen’s shoulder, made him turn around and gave his lower back a little shove, “. . . I’ll give you two hours, take care of him slowly. Deal with him however you need to relieve your rage.”

Wen Xuechen discovered that he had only come in contact with him for half a day and he was already used to the slum’s vernacular. He chuckled and murmured: “. . . How would I be capable of tormenting him for that long.”

Xu Xingzhi sat down on a nearby rock: “Don’t tell me that you didn’t plan how to torture and dismember him in your nightmares.”

He lamented: “. . . If I could catch the ghostly practitioner who killed my mother, I would find it inadequate to crucify him even for just a mere day and night. Unfortunately, I was too young that year and didn’t get a good look at that ghostly cultivator’s appearance.”

The expression on Wen Xuechen’s changed minutely, remembering what he had accused Xu Xingzhi of when he clashed with him.

“If you saw your family die before you, you will naturally understand how I feel now!”

He felt slightly choked. Gritting his teeth a few times, he still couldn’t make the two words “thank you” leave his mouth. Reaching into his lapel, he retrieved a medicinal bottle containing pills for wounds and flung it into Xu Xingzhi’s arms with a wave of his sleeves: “It heals wounds.”

Xu Xingzhi was taken aback, then immediately laughed heartily: “Thanks la!”

Wen Xuechen flushed slightly: “No need for thanks.”

“You’re not that bad of a person ah.” Xu Xingzhi uncorked it and took a whiff, exclaiming in surprise, “This is a Baihui pill? I heard that in the mortal realm, one is worth a hundred gold. . .”

Wen Xuechen interrupted him stiffly: “You’re not allowed to stash it away and sell it.”

After his sly intentions were seen through, Xu Xingzhi coughed twice and replied sternly: “Who said I was going to sell it. It’s just that this thing is really precious, you’re really willing to let me use it ah.”

“I can see that you are very good at holding grudges.” Wen Xuechen turned his face away and argued with an indifferent face, “I don’t want to be skinned and have my tendons stripped by you in your nightmares.”

Xu Xingzhi was taken aback, touched his injured shoulder and promptly broke out into peals of laughter: “Relax, I never delay my vengeance to the next night, I usually take care of it on the spot.”

Wen Xuechen: “. . .”

Xu Xingzhi explained cheerfully: “When you hit me, I broke your crutch and already got my revenge. Later, when I returned after capturing the ghostly cultivator, I found that you actually fainted because of how mad I made you. I still feel pretty apologetic to you for that, hahahahaha.”

Wen Xuechen: “. . .”

He didn’t correct him that it was because of a heart attack that he fainted and just turned around and left with the golden bell in his hands, disappearing into the woods.

Harrowing screams rang out throughout the hills for a long time and Xu Xingzhi just turned a blind eye, letting him do as he pleased. After applying medicine, he used a branch to sketch in the dirt.

Only when the light of dawn grew brighter did Wen Xuechen return from the trees with blood decorating his hands.

When he handed the golden bell back to Xu Xingzhi, what the other was scribbling on the ground caught his eye: “. . . What is this?”

Xu Xingzhi was biting on a piece of straw and shared with excitement when he noticed Wen Xuechen approach: “You came at the right time. . . . I was thinking ba, your heart condition was so serious and it’s hard to get out and about. When I return to Fengling mountain, I’ll make a wheelchair for you so that it’ll be easier for you to get around in the future.”

Wen Xuechen felt moved: “. . . You. . .”

Xu Xingzhi cut him off bluntly: “Don’t give me that look, I’m not doing this for you for nothing. . . . Help me get some more of those Baihui pills ba, it really works. Look, my shoulder doesn’t hurt anymore.”

Crouching there, he rotated his arm in a huge circle then glanced up at Wen Xuechen with a bright grin on his lips and a brilliant light in his eyes, his young face seemed extremely dazzling and pure bathing in the morning light.

Wen Xuechen unconsciously broke into a smile with him: “Okay, I promise. . . . Let’s return ba.”

Xu Xingzhi didn’t get up and just pointed at his own shoulder: “Since the injury is healed, then come up quickly ba.” The smile in his eyes radiated a strange sense of warmth and gentleness, “. . . I’ll carry you home.”

The author has something to say:

Today was the special memory stage of little Wen-baimao and little Shixiong~

The second day of Chongguang’s absence, miss him√

Author’s Chapter Summary:

Dispute, vengeance, overnight feud

The translator has something to say: WXC is a tsundere, verification complete. And I think our author-dada has a thing for hearts and it not being in people’s chests. . . maybe to show that these villains are heartless?

The editor has something to say: Omg that was so heartwarming :’)