Yan Lin could never have imagined that the answer he would receive would be this: “Hmm?”
Ye Huaiyao said, “You shouldn’t have come over here alone to ask a question like that. Or rather, you shouldn’t have asked it at all.”
“When a person discovers a weakness in someone else, there are only two possibilities. One is that the other person is trying to conceal some secret, and you have inadvertently exposed it, in which case you may well have placed yourself in danger. The other is that the other person deliberately revealed that weakness to lure you into speaking first, in which case you’ve taken the bait.”
“Walking the martial world like this…” He remained perfectly calm as he patted Yan Lin on the shoulder. “It’s very dangerous.”
At his age, Yan Lin was already modest, courteous, quick-witted and thoughtful, making him an exceptionally intelligent young man. However, he ultimately lacked experience. With Ye Huaiyao putting it to him so plainly, he could not help feeling a sudden chill.
Just as he was wavering, the other man’s hand had already landed silently on his shoulder.
This was no trivial matter. At this moment, he did not know whether the other man was friend or foe. When speaking to Ye Huaiyao, he had been fully on his guard, yet the other had still been able to touch his shoulder with such ease. If Ye Huaiyao had possessed even the slightest murderous intent, Yan Lin might well have lost his life already.
But from this, it could also be seen that Ye Huaiyao should have no ill intentions towards him.
With just a few words and a single gesture, he had inspired Yan Lin’s admiration, while also making him realise that the other man was certainly not as simple as he appeared.
Yan Lin said solemnly, “This junior has been enlightened. Thank you for your guidance, Senior.”
Ye Huaiyao smiled faintly. “Do you still want to ask the question you had just now?”
Yan Lin said, “I…”
Before he had even decided on his answer, he saw the other man place a jade tablet, about half a finger in length, into his hand. “Take this back to your elders. When the time comes, you’ll naturally know what you want to know.”
The jade tablet was exquisitely carved. On the back was a solitary tree amid clouds and mist, while on the front, the three characters “Ye Huaiyao” had been engraved in small seal script. This was the tablet his master had given him when he first joined Xuantian Tower. It had still been on him when he was found, and because of this, Ye Huaiyao had continued using his former name on the Chensu Sect’s side as well.
Yan Lin did not understand what it meant, but he acknowledged this and carefully put it away.
Just then, a commotion broke out not far away. A woman’s voice cried out in alarm, “Seventh-shixiong, he doesn’t know any martial arts at all! How could you strike him so hard?”
Ye Huaiyao abruptly turned his head, only to see that, at some point, a crowd had gathered in the place where A-Nan had just been standing.
He hurried over.
The moment he arrived, he saw Ji Lanying standing there helplessly, his face full of guilt, while Yan Jin stood coldly beside him. Facing the two of them was the Leopard King that Ye Huaiyao and A-Nan had just killed together.
Ye Huaiyao was worried that something had happened to A-Nan. He swept his gaze over the area but did not see him, and frowned slightly. Taking another step forwards, he finally discovered that A-Nan had rolled behind the dead leopard.
A young woman in a pale pink robe was half-kneeling beside him, trying to help him up. But A-Nan was clinging tightly to the dead leopard and refusing to let go, while his other hand pushed wildly at anyone who tried to come near him.
Ye Huaiyao shot Yan Jin a glance, then hurried over, placed a hand on A-Nan and said, “Get up first.”
As he spoke, he gave the young woman beside him a hurried nod and said softly, “Thank you.”
The female cultivator was called Dai Qian, and she was Yan Jin’s shimei*. She had originally come over simply because she felt sorry for the child and wanted to help, but at this moment she instantly lost all composure, completely dazzled by that one gesture and those two words from Ye Huaiyao.
(*TN: junior sister)
When she got a clear look at his face, her mind went completely blank, leaving only the six words “I’m done for, I’m done for” endlessly circling through her head.
The young woman stood there in a daze for a moment. A-Nan recognised Ye Huaiyao’s voice and obediently stood up, but there was a bloody hole in his forehead. He was pressing it with his hand, yet blood was still oozing out.
Head injuries could be serious or minor. Quite apart from whether there were any other severe consequences, even leaving behind a scar would be unsightly.
Ye Huaiyao massaged several of the acupoints around A-Nan’s injury, stopping the bleeding. Someone nearby handed him some golden wound medicine. He thanked them and accepted it, then asked, “What happened?”
A-Nan answered concisely, “They wanted to touch the leopard. I wouldn’t let them.”
Yan Jin’s shimei hurriedly said, “Young Hero Ye, I’m sorry. My shixiong had a few words with this young man, and he has a quick temper, so he struck too hard in the heat of the moment. I apologise to you on his behalf…”
She had already felt that Yan Jin’s actions were inappropriate, but he was arrogant by nature and a strong candidate to become the future head of the Yan family. Everyone in the Yan family feared him to some degree, and no one had been able to do anything about it.
At this point, the female cultivator also felt that a mere “apology” sounded far too feeble. Her face reddened slightly as she said, “I’ll go and find some spiritual medicine later…”
Before she could finish, Yan Jin impatiently cut her off: “Fifth-shimei, are you finished with your nonsense? The person isn’t dead. What’s the big deal? Come back!”
After listening to everyone talking over one another for some time, Ye Huaiyao had more or less pieced together what had happened. The root of the matter still lay with that Leopard King.
Just as recorded in the original novel, Ji Lanying really had been thinking of taking the Leopard King’s heart blood to use as spiritual medicine.
When Yan Jin had asked him earlier about the situation inside, Ji Lanying had mentioned this. He knew that the credit for killing the Leopard King belonged to Ye Huaiyao and A-Nan, so he had discussed with Yan Jin the possibility of asking the two of them for some of its heart blood later.
Yan Jin, however, had thought nothing of it.
He had always remembered the humiliation Ji Lanying had suffered because of Ye Huaiyao’s face. How could he possibly let his beloved lower his head to Ye Huaiyao again? It was only a little blood. If they wanted it, then they could simply take it. They had all encountered these Leopard Demons together. Ye Huaiyao and A-Nan had merely been lucky enough to come across the Leopard King. Strictly speaking, the spoils should have been divided equally anyway.
Yan Jin had never regarded two such insignificant people as worthy of his attention. He therefore smiled at Ji Lanying and said, “You want it? Then I’ll go and get it for you. Why bother with all those unnecessary steps?”
With that, he went to take the blood. Who would have thought that the ignorant little brat would simply stand in front of the Leopard King and refuse to move, stubborn as though he could not understand human speech?
Yan Jin had no idea how much weight Ye Huaiyao’s casual instruction, “Keep an eye on our spoils,” carried for A-Nan. He scolded him several times to no avail, and eventually, overcome by impatience, simply kicked him away.
As for A-Nan rolling away and hitting his head against a rock hard enough to break the skin, that had not been Yan Jin’s intention either.
When Ye Huaiyao had first hurried over, he had already been quite angry. But after hearing the whole story and seeing the patch of ground stained with blood, he gradually calmed down.
He handed the medicine to A-Nan and told him to apply it himself, then turned to Yan Jin’s shimei and said, “Thank you, miss. This is your shixiong’s matter, and has nothing to do with you. Please go back first.”
Yan Lin stood to one side without saying anything for the moment. He felt that, given Ye Huaiyao’s abilities, the man had probably already made up his mind about what to do, so there was no need for him to interfere unnecessarily.
Now, hearing what Ye Huaiyao said to the female cultivator, Yan Lin thought to himself that this expert was actually a gentle and considerate man who valued and protected women, even remembering to send Yan Jin’s shimei away first so that she would not be placed in a difficult position within her sect.
Ye Huaiyao then turned towards Yan Jin and said, “Third Young Master Yan, may I ask whether you acknowledge that this Leopard King belongs to me and the young man beside me?”
Yan Jin paused before saying, “Now that all the sects have joined forces and come to Ghost Wind Forest to eliminate demons, the treasures and medicinal herbs we obtain naturally belong to everyone. Distinguishing between what is yours and what is mine is rather petty.”
Cheng Yuan had noticed that Ye Huaiyao had come into conflict with Yan Jin and had been waiting nearby for an opportunity to speak. Upon hearing this, he immediately said, “Oh? When we first entered Ghost Wind Forest, I saw several of Young Master Yan’s shidis picking quite a number of herbs. According to your reasoning, shouldn’t those be brought out and divided among everyone as well?”
Yan Lin said, “If everyone wishes to divide things equally, Xuantian Tower has contributed nothing, so we would not dare take a share. You needn’t count us in.”
There was a subtle edge of malice in his words, delivered with perfect timing. The others who had originally been standing by and watching the spectacle could no longer keep silent. Yan Jin’s casual remark was tantamount to saying that everything everyone present had obtained should be taken out and divided equally. Who would be willing to accept that?
They had initially been somewhat wary of the Yan family’s influence and had been reluctant to speak up, but with Xuantian Tower taking the lead, it became much easier. One after another, they said:
“Brother Yan, that isn’t right. Whatever someone obtains should naturally belong to them. If everything is taken out and divided equally, wouldn’t everyone be unwilling to put in the effort? The Leopard King should rightly belong to Young Hero Ye and this young man.”
Yan Jin was accustomed to having the final say within his sect. When had he ever been publicly contradicted like this? His temperament was arrogant and hot-tempered to begin with, and the more others spoke against him, the more it inflamed his temper.
He gave a cold laugh. “Oh? So that’s how everyone sees it? In that case, this Leopard King should belong to me even more. The strong prey upon the weak. That is the law of survival under Heaven. We can all hunt the strange beasts of Ghost Wind Forest, so naturally I can also take the spoils from the hands of the weak. What’s the problem with that?”
Cheng Yuan said heavily, “Our original reason for coming to Ghost Wind Forest was to slay demons and monsters, so that the people living nearby could live in peace. According to your reasoning, Third Young Master Yan, it seems everyone has come here for treasures and strange beasts instead. That is rather narrow-minded.”
Although Cheng Yuan had crippled Ye Huaiyao’s spiritual power, he had spoken up for him time and again, making his intention to protect him increasingly obvious. Even if Yan Jin had not noticed it before, he now realised that Cheng Yuan harboured some other feelings towards Ye Huaiyao.
Apart from Ji Lanying and himself, Yan Jin had never regarded anyone in this world as worthy of his attention. Cheng Yuan was always sinister and inscrutable, and certainly a troublesome opponent, but in Yan Jin’s eyes, the things he said were just as worthless.
He said coldly, “Why we came here is irrelevant. The principle remains the same.”
Seeing that the matter was becoming increasingly heated and would only leave everyone looking bad, Ji Lanying quietly glanced at Yuan Xian. The other man merely wore an enigmatic smile, and Ji Lanying had no idea what he thought of the situation.
He stepped forwards to smooth things over. “Everyone has misunderstood. We didn’t actually intend to take the Leopard King away. We only wanted to obtain a little blood. Who could have expected that we would accidentally injure this young brother…”
“Third Young Master Yan was right just now.” Ye Huaiyao suddenly spoke, cutting Ji Lanying off.
The verbal battle between Yan Jin and Cheng Yuan was, in the end, all for his sake, yet Ye Huaiyao remained completely unconcerned. Facing the sympathetic and inquisitive gazes of the crowd, he gave a faint smile.
“Since you and I have entered the martial world, our lives are already as precarious as eggs balanced in the wind. There is a natural order between the strong and the weak, and one ought to follow the will of Heaven. If Young Master Yan and Young Master Ji have taken a liking to this Leopard King, then you should prove that you are stronger than me. Naturally, I would offer it to you with both hands. But taking something without asking is against the rules… You both come from prestigious families. Surely you wouldn’t stoop to being thieves?”
Those words stripped away all the pretence of harmony they had maintained moments earlier. If they genuinely believed themselves to be completely justified, they would never have waited until no one was paying attention before sneaking over to take the blood.
Put simply, they were guilty themselves.
Ji Lanying still wanted to say something, but then he met Ye Huaiyao’s gaze.
The other man’s eyes were very calm. There was none of the infatuation or admiration that could be seen in the eyes of others, but neither was there any disgust or disdain. Yet for some inexplicable reason, Ji Lanying felt as though the other man were standing atop an extremely tall tower, looking down upon him from above.
That sensation once again brought back the suffocating oppression he had experienced before. Yuan Xian frowned slightly. A chill suddenly appeared in Yan Jin’s eyes, and he shouted, “You’re asking to die!”
He had sworn that he would never again allow Ji Lanying to suffer such humiliation. Yet now, this useless nobody actually dared to humiliate his beloved to his face!
What right did he have?
Yan Jin suddenly struck out, sending a palm towards Ye Huaiyao. He held nothing back in this attack, having made up his mind to beat his opponent until he vomited blood and lay sprawled on the ground, unable to rise.
He truly deserved his reputation as one of the most outstanding talents among the younger generation of the Yan family. This attack was incomparably swift, and the force behind his palm was immense, leaving a person with nowhere to dodge within such a confined space.
And so Ye Huaiyao did not move at all.
He stood where he was, completely at ease, silently counting in his heart. Three, two, one…
Author’s Note:
Yesterday I changed the title to Born Noble, and a whole bunch of people laughed at how terrible I am at coming up with names, so I sheepishly changed it back again. I really have no talent T_T.
Yaoyao is about to hit someone. Hmph.
