Stranger Danger

“My lord… what happened?”

While Yu Longzi was still trying to process his shock, Yun Chaoyu, Zhao Yuanrong and Yu Ningxin stepped into the Dragon Hoard Hall and voiced their concern. Clearly, they could feel the shockwaves as well.

Yu Longzi did not answer them. He simply stared at the private room with a complicated expression on his face.

The three elders[1] subconsciously traced the shockwaves to its origin and turned to look at the private room. At first, they were confused and puzzled. When realization finally struck them, they exchanged shocked glances with one another.

“Did that man… actually learn something from the ‘Dragons Memoir’?!”

“Impossible! He’s an outsider! How could he possibly learn anything from the founder’s notes?”

They were all late-stage Spirit Masters, and they had all read the “Dragons Memoir” as a matter of course. While they couldn’t say that they hadn’t learned anything from the travel notes, their gains were trivial at best.

If even they, people who had had decades to study the “Dragons Memoir”, was unable to glean much from it, how could an outsider possibly do better? Or so they thought. They could not help but feel amused and saddened by their own naivety.

“There is no such thing as impossible in this world.”

A long silence later, Yu Longzi finally spoke up, “The jianghu has existed for countless years, and geniuses are born every year. The one thing this world does not lack are geniuses.”

“From the moment they are born, they already hang in the sky like the moon. We are but fireflies compared to them. That is why the saying, ‘There exists Man who shines like the moon and makes you feel like a firefly’ exists.”

Yun Chaoyu, Zhao Yuanrong and Yu Ningxin did not say anything. No one liked to admit that they were mundane, but in the end, one must accept reality.

“We’ve been cooped up for so long that we are like frogs who view the sky from the bottom of the well!” Yun Chaoyu said with a bitter smile.

Zhao Yuanrong and Yu Ningxin looked a little depressed as well.

Yu Longzi advised seriously after giving his elders a moment to process their thoughts, “I did not mention this so as to expound your or my inferiority. Admiring the moon is one thing, undervaluing yourself and wallowing in self-depreciation is another. So long as you affirm your heart, keep your feet on the ground, and relentlessly toil toward your dream and goal, who is to say you cannot join the heavens one day?”

“We obey your lesson, my lord.”

His advice was most enlightening. The three elders solemnly saluted Yu Longzi in thanks because of it.

“Engrave your goals in your heart and work toward them with your body and soul. That is the martial way.” Yu Longzi gave them one last piece of advice before instructing, “You may go. Have the disciples lock down the Dragon Hoard Hall temporarily. No one is to come near without my express permission.”

“As you command, my lord!” The three elders saluted him and left to carry out their orders.

After the trio were gone, a complicated expression overcame Yu Longzi once more. It was a blend of shock, envy, jealousy, admiration, and dejection.

It was always easier to say something than it was to do it, and the human heart was the hardest hurdle to overcome of them all.

That said, Yu Longzi was a Half-Step Grandmaster with a tenacious will. His loss of composure only lasted a brief moment before he regained his calm and sat down on the floor, meditating.

Did the thought of creating some sort of commotion and interrupting Ye Qing’s enlightenment cross his mind? Of course it did. Humans naturally envied others for what they have and desired to deny them their objects of desire. Not everyone could overcome that natural instinct and cultivate magnanimity, and people who naturally enjoyed sharing and took joy in another’s happiness were even rarer.

At the very least, Yu Longzi did not consider himself to be such a lofty breed. If he was younger, he would be seething with jealousy at the thought that his “Dragons Memoir” had benefited another far more than it ever benefited him.

He did not succumb to his baser nature though. For one, the consequences Dragonrider Mountain would suffer even if he succeeded was unbearable. Some things could not be done no matter how much you desired to do it.

Since it could not be done, then why not be magnanimous and look for the silver lining? For example, compromising here would generate some good karma for Dragonrider Mountain, and that was good enough, was it not?

And so Dragon Hoard Hall returned to silence once more, though the profound shockwaves continued to spread out of the private room Ye Qing was cultivating in.

The ancient poets once praised that some music were so divine that they could reverberate in your ears for three days straight. The shockwaves washing out of the Dragon Hoard Hall were similar in that sense. It lingered like divine music and elicited many thoughts like the most profound dao.

The shockwaves would continue for nine days straight. On the first three days, the shockwaves were like a mountain fog; ephemeral and invisible. In the next three days, it felt like the birth of a new dawn. The fog had faded, and the sun was bright. And in the final three days, the sun reached the center and its maximum intensity. Its light was strong, all-encompassing, and all too profound.

To Yu Longzi’s surprise, he actually gleaned something from the shockwaves. He could feel the bottleneck that had trapped him in the Half-Step Grandmaster stage for over a decade loosening a little.

Overjoyed, Yu Longzi did not hesitate to fall into cultivation.

Another nine days later, the shockwaves suddenly disappeared like a curtain call.

It so happened that Yu Longzi was at a critical moment of his cultivation, and the disappearance of the shockwave instantly jolted him back to reality.

“Sigh…”

Yu Longzi could not help but sigh as he glanced at the private room. For obvious reasons, he hoped that the shockwaves would last longer.

He had only cultivated for nine days, but he could tell that this one session was more useful than his tireless effort for the past decade. He had a feeling that he could have welcomed a tribulation and become a Grandmaster if the shockwaves had lasted another ten days or so. Just ten more days, and he could have achieved his lifelong dream!

For the first time, Yu Longzi sincerely wished that Ye Qing would glean more from the “Dragons Memoir”. That way, the shockwaves would also last longer.

Unfortunately, what-ifs only existed in fiction.

Still, this unexpected breakthrough had given him hope. Once upon a time, he had no idea how he could ascend to the next stage, and his efforts had felt as futile as fighting against the march of time. But thanks to this experience, he had glimpsed some of the sights of that peak and found his direction.

Although the experience was no Dragon Gate that would transform him into a Grandmaster, he now had hope and direction. So long as he kept his feet on the ground and worked toward his goal, he might yet scale that impossible peak and become one of the giants!

So yes, Yu Longzi was disappointed, but it wasn’t a big disappointment at all.

In fact, he found himself no longer resenting Ye Qing for what he did. Instead, he was grateful and impressed.

It was true that Ye Qing had scaled their mountain and humiliated them in a way that only the celestial woman from centuries ago could compare. However, it was equally true that he would never have glimpsed the sights of that peak called Grandmaster via his own efforts. He could have toiled his whole life and never even reached the starting line.

It was said that fortune and misfortune are two sides of the same coin. Who could say that a humiliating disaster wasn’t a blessing in disguise?

His thoughts were still racing when the door to the private room suddenly swung open, and Ye Qing appeared.

Right now, Ye Qing felt like a paradoxical existence to Yu Longzi’s senses. The young man was standing right in front of him, yet for some reason, he also felt as far away as the horizon. His presence felt ordinary, but it was also vast, ephemeral, and profound at the same time.

Before Yu Longzi could probe further though, Ye Qing withdrew his aura like the clouds covering up the sky. This time, he truly felt no different from an ordinary person.

The first thing Ye Qing said after offering Yu Longzi a smile was, “Congratulations on piercing the veil and glimpsing the stars above, mountain lord. Given enough time, you will surely become a Trueman.”

Yu Longzi was surprised. He did not think that Ye Qing would see through him at first glance. He quickly gathered himself and replied with a slightly complicated expression, “It was all thanks to you. Speaking of which, congratulations on your enlightenment and taking yet another step toward greater heights.”

“I wouldn’t call it a step. It is at most a small gain.”

Ye Qing said smilingly, “I definitely have to thank you and Trueman Dragonrider for the ‘Dragons Memoir’ though. His martial arts challenges the heavens, and his dao encompasses both heaven and earth. This junior is most impressed.”

“Your talent is also one of a kind, warrior,” Yu Longzi replied sincerely.

“You flatter me, mountain lord. I’m well aware that I possess outstanding talent, but one of a kind? That is not a compliment I am willing to bear,” Ye Qing replied with a carefree smile on his face.

A moment of silence later, Yu Longzi asked suddenly, “You mentioned that you are a wanderer with no background before, warrior. Is it the truth?”

“That is correct.” Ye Qing nodded. He wasn’t surprised by Yu Longzi’s sudden change of topic. It was almost as if he could read the older man’s mind.

Yu Longzi asked with the utmost sincerity, “In that case, would you like to join Dragonrider Mountain?”

1. Is Yue Hualong still bedridden? Is he dead? Or maybe the author just forgot the sect has a fourth elder. It was left unexplained in the raws, and now you can suffer that uncertainty with me… forever. Man, I love it when I can make others suffer with me! ☜

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