My Junior Chapter 18: Sneak Attack

Translated by Rikko of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis, WagahaiFujoshi

As ZhongYan’s internal vital Qi had levelled and his shoulder wound had relatively recovered during their four days of stay in Even Sun town, in the morning of the fifth day, they headed to Long River City, situated in the northwest, with Gu XuanYan leading the way.

ZhongYan took his time sword riding with Gu XuanYan. Having never been to Long River City, an affluent city of the Great Wilderness, he was brimming with curiosity about the city. Still, he didn’t pose any questions about it to Gu XuanYan.

ZhongYan only stopped himself as he felt that Gu XuanYan’s memories of Long River City weren’t all that pleasant, so he didn’t want to get him to recall those poverty-stricken days just to satisfy his curiosity.

As ZhongYan was not fully recovered, their journey was slow-paced. During the late afternoon, they stopped by a woodland for a break. After handing over some rations to ZhongYan, Gu XuanYan got up, “Senior Brother, I’ll find us some water. Don’t wander around.”

Utterly immune to such commands Gu XuanYan repeatedly gave throughout the journey, ZhongYan gestured a yes with a wave of his hands. When Gu XuanYan’s silhouette vanished into the distance, the obedient ZhongYan sat cross-legged under a tree, regulating his breathing.

Due to the lack of wind, the woodland was deadly silent, heightening the senses of anyone within it. Not long after ZhongYan shut his eyes, he felt an abrupt change in the air behind him, as though something was darting straight at him.

Instantly, ZhongYan flipped over and dodged to his left. The missed strike annoyed his attacker, who turned his wrist in an attempt to strike once more. Since ZhongYan had already detected the danger approaching him, he naturally had his defences up. He drew his sword before his attacker could strike and lunged ahead!

Seemingly surprised by the retaliation, the assailant took a few hurried steps back.

Instead of giving chase, ZhongYan remained standing on his spot with his sword after forcing him back, shooting him a provoked look, “Which Daoist sect are you from? How could you attack others at random?”

ZhongYan only realised his attacker was a Daoist cultivator when he received a strike from him.

Initially, he assumed the sneak attack was from a demonic cultivator roaming around the central plains to steal others’ cultivation base. However, not only did he feel no demonic aura from the attack, but he also detected the sword style used was that of Daoist cultivation.

Before his attacker could reply, two cultivators whizzed over to them, their tone teasing, “Now that you can’t even manage to kill someone in the Essence Condensation stage, are you still not going to admit defeat, Junior Brother?”

The ambusher let out a hmph coldly, a little unwilling to admit defeat, “No way. Let’s bet one more time on how many strikes I take to kill him.”

By the looks of it, the few of them got bored and so, when they noticed ZhongYan was alone, they made a bet on killing him.

In recent years, the number of cultivators had grown to be as numerous as stars in the skies. With just a bit of negligence, even lowlifes like them could slip in the cultivation circle.

ZhongYan sneered in fury, “What’s the fun in that? Why not bet how many strikes I’ll take to kill you?”

Enraged, the attacker was just about to draw his sword when someone in the middle of the group stopped him, “Junior brother, hold on.” His line of sight turned to ZhongYan, “May I ask for your name? From your outfit, may I assume you to be a rogue cultivator?”

As it wasn’t appropriate to continue donning Green Summit’s robes after their expulsion, the two bought a few sets of clothes during their stay in Even Sun town. At the moment, they wore moon-white robes that were void of any sect symbols.

Apparently, the group guessed he was a rogue cultivator and so decided to pick on the weak.

ZhongYan snarled, “Qin MingXi.”

Once they registered his name in their mind, they froze momentarily before bursting into a series of sneers. One of the trio couldn’t help himself from adding, “So you are Gu XuanYan’s Dao partner? We’ve heard so much about you.”

All of them started breaking into gales of laughter.

With his sword in hand, ZhongYan shot a cold glare at them. Being referred to as a Dao partner didn’t bother him all that much; he simply felt Green Summit had released the news rather swiftly, allowing even scums like them to make a mockery of his relationship with Gu XuanYan now.

The trio in front of him seemed to be unaware of his glare. After giving ZhongYan a shady once over from head to toe, the leader of the group mocked, “He neither has the looks nor high cultivation base. I wonder what’s so good about him to make Gu XuanYan walk out of his sect?”

The other two shifted their line of sight towards ZhongYan as well, snickering.

Guessing Gu XuanYan would be back soon from the time he went off, ZhongYan let out a sigh, “It’s best for you all to stop it.”

As all of them had much stronger cultivation bases than ZhongYan, with one of them being in the early Golden Core stage, no way would they heed his advice. On the contrary, their mocking became cruder and more explicit. The attacker from before smirked, “Isn’t that obvious? Of course it’s when they are practising dual cultivation…” ¹

Before he could finish, an azure sword aura streaked towards him and pierced his abdomen from behind! Caught off guard, he vomited a mouthful of blood instantly before plunging his knees onto the ground!

Despite the materialisation of sword aura, no presence could be felt. A mixture of shock and anger clouded over the other two as they helped their injured companion up in a flurry before hollering, “Who goes there?!”

Gu XuanYan landed beside ZhongYan. Instead of looking at the group, he chided ZhongYan gently, “Senior Brother, didn’t I tell you not to wander around?”

ZhongYan felt begrudged, “…It seriously isn’t me this time.”

The addressing of ZhongYan as Senior Brother revealed Gu XuanYan’s identity right away.

Despite fear creeping up to them, they still couldn’t find it in them to stomach the humiliation. One of the trio scoffed, “Gu XuanYan is just one of those unscrupulous scoundrels who are only capable of sneak attacks, I see?”

ZhongYan couldn’t help but laugh, “So you know sneak attacks are unscrupulous too?”

The checkmate soured the group instantly. Still, one of them yelled in preservation of his pride, “No matter what we do, we are disciples of the Dark Mountain Sect, while you two are just ex-disciples Green Summit expelled. How dare you rogue cultivators injure us?”

Not only did his warning point out their sect, but also mentioned Gu XuanYan’s current status. Essentially, he just wanted to highlight the two having no sect to back them up, while they were legitimate disciples of a sect. If Gu XuanYan dared to hurt them, their entire sect would regard them as their enemy.

Basically, it was just an empty show of strength out of fear.

Only then did Gu XuanYan sweep a glance at them. To their surprise, he asked curiously with a hint of a smile on his eyes, as if unaware of the meaning hidden behind the warning, “Dark Mountain? Is that a Sect?”

His question darkened the trio’s faces.

Instead of waiting for their answer, Gu XuanYan continued, “Well, it’s not like any connections to sects would matter for you all after today.”

Within the millisecond he took to lift his gaze, his pressure began brimming out, his killing intent about to emerge right after.

Seeing things going south, ZhongYan hurriedly reminded, “You promised…”

Gu XuanYan cut him off with a reply as gentle as a breeze, “Alright.”

The trio had no idea what their short conversation meant.

In a blink of an eye, a long sword darted right in front of them, its sword aura overwhelming.

The Golden Core disciple gnashed his teeth while parrying the blow, his mouth began seeping blood immediately. Under a life and death crisis, the two of the trio ended up choosing to abandon the injured, backing away at top speed individually!

Nonetheless, outrunning the sword of a cultivator in the Lesser Vehicle stage was impossible for them. Gu XuanYan’s sword didn’t pierce them during his second strike. Rather, its surging sword aura plunged with the strength of a tsunami, knocking down the trio continually.

Instantly, the three of them crashed their knees onto the ground.

Still, Gu XuanYan did not withdraw his mountain-like pressure, which ended up breaking their vital energy!

The moment their vital energy broke, their cultivation base began pouring out like a stream of water, dispersing to the earth.

Not only did the cultivation base of the Golden Core disciple seeped out, but his one and only golden core that was formed not too long ago flowed out along with it too. The moment it left him, it was crushed into smithereens under Gu XuanYan’s pressure.

In no time, the unconscious bodies of the trio were empty of any cultivation base.

Although the sudden change of events was swift, it concluded even faster.

ZhongYan’s jaws hung open, not knowing what to say.

After sheathing his sword, Gu XuanYan returned to ZhongYan’s side. Noticing his gaze on him, Gu XuanYan started, “Senior Brother, I didn’t kill any one of them. They will wake up a bit later.”

There was even a hint of smugness in his tone.

Yeah. When the trio wake up, they will realise there isn’t even a drop of cultivation base left within them. Daoist cultivators who had their cultivation base utterly depleted are worse off than civilians.

ZhongYan was at a loss for words. You might as well kill them at this point

Still, the emotionally exhausted ZhongYan had no choice but to negotiate with the system. [Like he said, they didn’t die, so points won’t be deducted right?] Even he felt guilty for saying that.

After staying silent for a while, the system replied. [You two sure are geniuses in finding loopholes…]

Overwhelming strain blanketed ZhongYan. Although no points would be deducted, ZhongYan still tossed a heavy-hearted look at Gu XuanYan.

Whenever ZhongYan thought he was about to lead Gu XuanYan back to the right path successfully, he would always stir up some trouble, making ZhongYan feel he was just a step away from turning downright evil.

Having no idea what was weighing down ZhongYan, Gu XuanYan suggested gently, “If Senior Brother has rested up, let’s continue with our journey.”