Enemies Chapter 4: Anything that WuQing didn’t like had to go immediately!

Chapter Four: Anything that WuQing didn’t like had to go immediately!

Translated by Jouissance of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

This haze formed into a figure, young beyond belief. Distant and handsome, standing tall and straight, like the bright moon or crisp breeze. He was an embodiment of murder, feared by even ghosts and demons, yet he stood like the holiest god that all living creatures would worship.

“WuQing,” a thin, shapely, but firm finger lifted Chu WuQing’s chin, wiping away his tears. Gently, a voice spoke up, “Tell daddy, who made you cry?”

Chu WuQing was made to look up at Chu HuanZhi, seeing himself reflected in the depths of Chu HuanZhi’s dark eyes.

This familiar tone, this familiar unconditional, unquestioning protection had him trembling, all his suppressed emotions spilling over at once, consuming him. He threw himself into Chu HuanZhi’s arms, hugging him tight like driftwood in the river rapids.

Chu HuanZhi went still in shock. Ever since his QingQing had gotten past his years of dependency, he had not shown such affection to his dad anymore.

Soon he realized he could feel WuQing nuzzling his chest, his trembling eyelashes like two soft brushes, sweeping against his heart through his clothing.

“QingQing?” Chu HuanZhi’s voice was like the artic, frozen and clear without any emotion.

Yet to Chu WuQing’s ears, these two syllables held an indescribable emotion, pure and primal, like a sword that sliced through past and present lives, lodging itself straight into Chu WuQing’s heart. His tears, which had stopped, once again began to slide down his cheeks. He had a hundred thousand things he wanted to say but couldn’t even squeeze one word out. Soon enough, Chu WuQing realized that he had created a large wet patch on his father’s usually pure, white, immaculate robes.

“QingQing?” Chu HuanZhi called out his name again. “What’s wrong? Why are you crying like a young child?”

As his father’s words registered, embarrassment rose in Chu WuQing. He was already a full-grown man, yet here he was like a child, unable to control his emotions, crying into his father’s chest, seeking comfort. How embarrassing.

“What should I do?” Chu HuanZhi lowered his head slightly, one arm around the young man’s slim waist, and the other hand brushing over the younger one’s lashes. His cold fingertips slid from the corner of Chu WuQing’s eyes down the curve of his cheeks to the tip of his nose then approaching his red lips, wiping away the tears on his face.

The thin column of his neck and the slight bump of his Adam’s apple, and the collar of the robes carefully hiding the beautiful scenery beneath.

“QingQing’s crying face is adorable.” Chu HuanZhi chuckled, bowing slightly, his breath brushing against Chu WuQing’s ear as he asked, voice filled with doting affection, “Tell daddy, what’s wrong?”

Chu WuQing stopped crying, calming himself and adjusting his breathing. His eyes became clear and bright, his expression cold as he said with seriousness, “I want to break off my engagement.”

After the trials in the Lower Realm in his past life, Lin Yi had cut off both his arms, turning him into a cripple who couldn’t even hold a sword. His Spiritual Resolve was, naturally, badly damaged as well, his cultivation stagnating. His fiancé, DanTai ZiYan, immediately sent a representative to the Chu Clan to break off their engagement, verbally humiliating him and turning him into the joke of the cultivation world.

He, obviously, couldn’t accept this. Back then, he was so deeply in love with her; to him, she was the apple of his eye, and all he wanted was to give her the grandest, most elegant dual cultivation wedding. How could he accept it?!

However, DanTai ZiYan would rather risk her life and start a clan war than maintain their relationship.

A clan war! The disciples of cultivation clans received resources from their families, so naturally, they had a responsibility to uphold. They weren’t meant to break off engagements, but emotions still existed outside of this law.

When something like this occurred, the disagreeing party could choose to challenge the other party to a deathmatch. If they won thrice in a row, then the engagement would be broken. The disagreeing party wasn’t allowed to send any fighters at a cultivation level that was at a higher stage than the two involved.

This situation was extremely troublesome. Though their cultivation levels would be similar, in reality, it was unfair. The other party could easily send a top tier assassin to fight for them, or even have a powerhouse cultivator suppress their cultivation level and compete. And even if you could defeat one, defeating another two opponents while injured from the first fight was practically impossible.

Too few people were able to survive the deathmatches. It seemed like a way out but was actually a dead end.

DanTai ZiYan might not have valued her own life, but the past him valued her life, so he could only accept the break off their engagement, even though it would mean that he would be pushed into despair. Not only was he a joke whose fiancé refused to marry, but he was also such worthless scum that said fiancé would rather die than marry him.

Yet, the past him was willing to suffer this for his beloved. It wasn’t until half a year later when Lin Yi formed his Golden Core, becoming a core disciple of a top tier sect and no longer needing to worry about the Chu Clan coming after him, that he made everything public and Chu WuQing found out that his fiancé had gotten together with Lin Yi in secret a long time ago.

Since DanTai ZiYan was with Lin Yi, she naturally would want to break off their engagement. Compared to Lin Yi, who was sure to rise to the top, what did the love between childhood sweethearts matter?

“I want to break off the engagement with DanTai ZiYan,” Chu WuQing repeated, determined. He would return all the humiliation he suffered in his past life because of DanTai ZiYan tenfold in this life.

Chu HuanZhi was surprised. “I thought WuQing adored that child from the DanTai family.”

The entire Chu Clan knew how much Chu WuQing loved the DanTai Family’s brat. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have gotten engaged so young. They wouldn’t spend a fortune each year so they could exchange letters by flying sword monthly, sharing every little detail of their daily lives despite DanTai ZiYan being all the way in the QingBo Higher Realm. Yet now, all of a sudden, Chu WuQing’s hatred had grown so much that it spilled over into his voice when he mentioned DanTai ZiYan’s name, his pitch rising at the end in disgust.

“I used to, but not anymore,” Chu WuQing said emotionlessly.

“Okay,” Chu HuanZhi agreed.

A single word of acceptance, clear and brief, had Chu WuQing, who was trying to figure out how to convince his father that his request wasn’t unreasonable, stop in his tracks.

“But, uniting two clans in marriage… the patriarch…” Chu WuQing stuttered.

“I’ve already compromised on the issue of the clan successor,” Chu HuanZhi said, “If he dares to try and interfere with this…”

With that, Chu HuanZhi immediately lit a high-grade messaging talisman, ordering the Chu Clan elder who was stationed in the QingBo Higher Realm, “Go to the ShangYuan Sect and break off Chu WuQing and DanTai ZiYan’s engagement.” Once the talisman burned out, it turned into a beam of light, vanishing into the skies above them.

That was… so fast. In his shock, Chu WuQing didn’t even have time to register that the “Yan” ¹ sounded a little different.

Seeing Chu WuQing’s shock, Chu HuanZhi explained, “Anything that WuQing doesn’t like, it has to go immediately.” Then he continued, “I’ve gotten the word about the trials in the lower realm. Don’t worry, though this will be difficult, I’ll find you a death sworn at Peak Foundation Establishment Stage, half a step to Golden Core, to protect you and aid you. Once you arrive at the lower realm, you can use a high-grade spirit stone to have him form his Golden Core immediately.”

Chu WuQing shook his head, saying, “There’s no need, father, I’ve found someone. With him, I’m basically halfway to victory. Though having a Golden Core cultivator is a good idea, we can only bring one follower, so I’ll, unfortunately, have to give up on that.” It would truly be harder without a Golden Core Stage cultivator’s help.

Chu WuQing’s words were full of mystery, but Chu HuanZhi didn’t pry. He believed in his son’s ability and in the idea that each cultivator had to carve out their own path. A cultivator could lack anything, but the one thing they had to have was the resolve of ambition. He wasn’t afraid of his son taking the wrong path, because he could guide him back. He wasn’t scared of his son getting into trouble either, because he would protect him from it all.

“That’s good, but not enough. Don’t worry, I’ll do everything, no matter the cost, to find out an artifact that can conceal a live person from detection and give it to you in three days.” Chu HuanZhi waved a hand, and a high-grade storage bag appeared between them.

“There are five-hundred high-grade spirit stones inside this storage bag. Go to the XianQi Pavilion Auction and buy a top tier killer. With a Golden Core cultivator to overwhelm enemies, a killer to open up a path and the one you’ve found to help, you’ll have nothing more to worry about.”

—　

QingBo Higher Realm, ShangYuan Sect.

 

The area outside of the forbidden area XiaoWu Peak was filled with Foundation Establishment disciples, and many Golden Core Stage deacons were also heading this way.

There were even quite a few Nascent Soul Stage cultivators watching afar with their divine sense.

Soon enough, an immense whirlpool of spiritual energy appeared on XiaoWu Peak. A maelstrom of energy like that would only appear when a cultivator with vast cultivation reserves formed their core; thus, their Golden Core was certain to be far stronger than average.

All the watching disciples perked up in excitement but didn’t dare come forward.

XiaoWu Peak was a blessed place for cultivators with its extremely dense ambient spiritual energy. It had become a forbidden area because the patriarch of the ShangYuan Sect Artificer linage’s heir, DanTai ZiYan was in secluded cultivation to establish his cultivational foundations.

“The young patriarch is only just entering the Foundation Establishment and managed to summon a phenomenon that appears for core formation! Amazing! As expected of the inheriting disciple of the Patriarch!”

“The young patriarch really is a prodigy among prodigies. I can’t imagine what he’ll achieve in the future!”

“Of course! The last cultivator that summoned core formation phenomena when establishing foundations was FangMu Zhen Jun five-hundred years ago. Then Fang Mu Zhen Jun went on as top ten in the Golden Core WenXian Rankings, breaking the QingBo Realm’s Nascent Soul records.”

Just as they prepared to praise their young patriarch further, Tribulation Clouds appeared above the whirlpool of spiritual energy.

“Wh-what’s going on? The young patriarch is only establishing foundations, how come the Heavenly Tribulation appeared?” Shock spread through the crowd, grasping hold of even the smiling, laughing Golden Core deacons.

The Nascent Soul elders watching from afar also frowned. No one could bear the burden of letting anything happen to their young patriarch inside the sect. Just as they planned to report this to their higher-ups, a powerful voice rang out. “Don’t worry, ZiYan is merely crafting an artifact. You can all watch and hopefully learn something.”　　

That was the voice of the Patriarch!

Upon hearing this voice, they all knelt down in respect, at the same time all looking at the XiaoWu peak in terrified shock. Using a heavenly tribulation to craft? That was incredulous.

Only one Nascent Soul elder of the artificer linage understood. The young patriarch was confident about his own strength. Knowing that his establishing foundations would summon a core formation phenomenon, he used the ambient power from his foundation establishment to craft an artifact, something far beyond a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s ability to craft!

And with the high-level artifact being created, it would undoubtedly summon a heavenly tribulation. The young patriarch was most likely crafting a lightning type artifact, planning on imbuing the artifact with the heavenly tribulation’s divine lightning as the last step. This final step was also the most dangerous. The slightest mistake, and then the heavenly lightning would strike a killing blow! What spirit and ingenuity! And more importantly, what courage!

The young patriarch was genuinely talented.

As if trying to prove the Nascent Soul elder right, after one strike of heavenly lightning, the tribulation clouds dispersed, and the XiaoWu Peak was illuminated by the light that symbolized the appearance of a high-level artifact.

In the blessed immortal’s abode on XiaoWu Peak, a young man dressed in purple robes sat, his sleeves, embroidered with onyx patterns, resting upon layers of divine clouds. In his hands, he held a five-inch-long men’s hairpin.

The white hairpin glowed a faint light blue as if made from the purest ice, and streams of electrical current speared from time to time, a most exquisite piece of art.

The young man’s lips curled into a smile. “I hope A-Qing likes it.” The pride in his eyes was evident.

“Since you’re done, hurry and get your ass over to ZiXiao Peak. A representative from the Chu Clan is here.” The Artificer Patriarch’s voice echoed through the abode.

“The Chu Clan? Thank you, shizun, this disciple is on his way now.” Hearing this, the young man immediately stood, gusts of wind helping him up, and flew towards ZiXiao Peak. “It must be that A-Qing misses me and wants to send me a gift again. This time I’ll write back asking him to give himself to me.”

This person was Chu WuQing’s wife-to-be, DanTai ZiYan, or rather, Chu WuQing’s husband-to-be, DanTai ZiYan.