Title: Did We Agree To Be Arch-Rivals?
Original Title: 说好成为彼此的宿敌呢[穿书]
Author: 轻风白杨 (Qingfeng Baiyang)
Translated by: ~PurpleLy~
Su Yang took the luggage and hairband, brushed past Gu Feidi, and was about to step out the door when Gu Feidi called out to him all of a sudden.
“Su Yang.”
The young man raised his face and looked at him with eyes as bright as stars.
His voice was very low, but his words were extremely clear: “I would like to apologise to you for covering up the matter earlier.”
Su Yang was taken aback.
Immediately, he remembered that, according to the character of the script, Gu Feidi was indeed a clean and transparent protagonist with almost no dark side. He was extremely talented but never arrogant or complacent, and he was even more hardworking than others. Even if he occasionally made mistakes because of his youth, he was brave enough to admit them and assume responsibility. He was practically… the embodiment of all positive energy.
Like now, Gu Feidi clearly still didn’t like the Devil Sect’s Young Saint, but he wouldn’t shirk and still submitted to the punishment. Furthermore, he had earnestly apologised to him.
Facing this Gu Feidi, Su Yang suddenly became a little bit uncomfortable.
How could he be so cruel to sneer at this youngster who looked at him so meaningfully?
He couldn’t wait to pull him into his arms and rub his head again and again!
Fortunately, there was no such plot in the script, and Su Yang did not have to mock Gu Feidi.
He tried his best to resist the urge to reach out to rub Gu Feidi’s head. He raised the corners of his mouth slightly and revealed a harmless, encouraging smile to Gu Feidi. Then he walked out of the room without saying a word, leaving the situation in a state of uncertainty.
Gu Feidi was dazzled by Su Yang’s sudden smile. As Su Yang left his line of sight, he felt a sense of emptiness wash over him.
He recovered in an instant, took a deep breath, and then walked out the door. He was quickly followed by Su Yang towards the group of young martial artists on the mountain road.
Seeing the two return to the group, the middle-aged man glanced at Su Yang, a smile appearing in his eyes; however, he didn’t say anything, turned around, and called out, “Everyone is here; let’s go.”
This time Old Qi did not say anymore, and the group of youngsters followed the middle-aged man to walk up the mountain flagstone road.
Fan Xi approached Su Yang, “Fortunately, Young Saint was noticed by the old man last night; otherwise, it would have been all for naught! I really couldn’t tell that the boastful, Martial World’s righteous Gu Feidi would actually resort to this kind of manipulative—”
Su Yang threw Fan Xi a dry look: “He has already received the punishment, so don’t bring it up anymore.”
Fan Xi was stunned for a moment. Seeing from Su Yang’s expression that he wasn’t joking, he immediately changed his tone: “Young Saint is right, anyone can make mistakes; not to mention he’s already learned his lesson.”
Su Yang made a ‘mmm’ sound and stopped talking.
With the middle-aged man leading the team, even if there were still people who were dissatisfied with Su Yang in their ranks, no one dared say anything. The group hurried quietly up the road and soon arrived at a plateau on the mountain.
This plateau was located halfway up the mountain, and the area was about twice the size of the previous farmhouse. It was covered with white stone bricks and was very neat and clean.
Everyone was led to the end of the plateau by the middle-aged man, only to realise that it was a cliff.
A dense fog swirled under the cliff, making it hard to see how deep it was. Opposite the plateau was a mountain resembling a chopped tree stump that stood upright in the clouds. The plateau and the cliff wall of the tree stump mountain were connected by an iron chain that was as thick as a man’s arm. Another mountain peak could be vaguely seen rising into the sky a distance away from the tree stump mountain.
All the young martial artists were stunned to view the scene before them.
Since their youth, their seniors and family elders have spoken of the Jianghu legend of the Lesser Jade House, which was situated on a solitary peak isolated from the rest of the world and could only be reached by a huge chain connected to a tree stump.
However, when they witnessed this scene with their own eyes, they realised that no matter how detailed their elders’ narrative was, no matter how life-like Lesser Jade House was depicted in paintings, in the end, nothing could prepare them for this moment—standing there and experiencing the true feeling of shock from seeing this solitary peak firsthand.
The middle-aged man stood at the edge of the cliff and addressed the group, saying, “You’re all here to participate in the selection process at Lesser Jade House. You don’t have to traverse this cable bridge alone. I will take you across the bridge one by one. If it’s not your turn yet, wait here first.”
After he finished speaking, he reached out to tap the young man nearest to him and tossed a rope over, saying, “Wrap the rope loop on your wrist and use your light footwork skill to cross the bridge. I will assist you when you can’t support yourself anymore. Come on.”
The young man was a little nervous and attached himself to the rope. He nodded to his friend next to him and took his first step onto the iron chain.
The middle-aged man grabbed the other end of the rope, maintained a reasonable distance, and followed gently and skilfully behind the young man.
Su Yang stood at the cliff’s edge, looking out at the fantastic colours of the scenery before him, and couldn’t help sighing.
At the time he was filming and came across this kind of vast scenery, it would be shot before a green screen in the studio. The post-production team would later include and render fabulous model scenes into the shots. Therefore, it was the first time that he saw what the ‘Arch-Rival’ world’s solitary peak of Lesser Jade House looked like.
If such magnificent cliffs, plateaus and peaks actually existed in reality, they would undoubtedly be world-famous scenic spots.
Immersed in his reverie, Su Yang took a step forward, standing practically at the cliff’s edge, letting the canyon wind blow his long, unbound hair into a mess and causing the hems of his clothes to billow and flail around him.
He had a temperament that was not of this realm, so when he stood in the wind, it appeared as if his whole person was drifting in the clouds. He displayed no sorrow or joy, as if he did not belong to this world or cared for it, like he could leave it at any time and become an immortal.
Gu Feidi contemplated Su Yang and suddenly felt a little out of sorts.
Unexpectedly at this very instant, this impossibly beguiling scene was suddenly marred by a jade-green figure.
Fan Xi abruptly leapt into his field of vision. Grinning cheekily, he leaned close to Su Yang to say something.
Su Yang nodded and handed over the red hairband he was holding. Fan Xi took the hairband, walked behind Su Yang,, and reached for a small comb from his waist. He then helped Su Yang comb his hair, fastening it into a simple braid.
Gu Feidi let out a snort.
Xu Yunzhan followed Gu Feidi’s gaze and frowned. He mumbled in a low voice, “Ho, that Fan Xi is really attentive and would even stoop to do this type of inferior task like combing hair.”
Gu Feidi wet his lips, turned around and stopped looking at them. He spoke indifferently: “If he’s willing to help him comb his hair, maybe he’s also willing to assist him in his dressing…”
Xu Yunzhan was surprised: “What makes you say that?”
Gu Feidi was silent for a moment: “…It’s nothing.”
As the middle-aged man left and returned again and again, the remaining youngsters on the plateau finally started to discuss the previous assessment, which had caught everyone by surprise.
Some rejoiced their good fortune at always being diligent; others were grateful that their friends had woken them early; and a few murmured how sorry they’d felt for their few acquaintances that had failed the assessment.
This topic went round and round until it finally settled on Su Yang.
“Those from the Devil Sect have such weird ways. Others will practise ‘early to bed, early to rise’, but he doesn’t sleep for most of the night and instead goes to practise martial arts in the yard. We don’t even know whether or not he might be practising some sort of improper technique.”
“The Devil Sect’s martial arts are 80% unorthodox methods.”
“I’d like to add, maybe he didn’t practise all night. Perhaps Young Hero Gu happened to notice him right when he was in the middle of his practise. When everyone was resting, he could have gone back to the house to sleep. Who would know?”
“What you said does makes sense…”
Su Yang listened quietly to the youngsters’ private discussion, but he wasn’t angry. Instead, he pretended that he didn’t hear anything.
Perhaps it was because the gossip from the group were all criticisms of the Devil Sect’s Young Saint, so he felt that it had nothing to do with him.
His current state seemed more like an exclusive bystander. While he had taken on Su Yang’s identity, it didn’t feel like he’d completely embraced it, so it was as if he was watching a holographic movie. Although everything had happened to him, he knew that he was just a fictional character, and this was just a fictional story.
Suddenly, a certain youth in the crowd turned his head and lowered his voice: “However, Gu Feidi’s previous attempts to conceal Su Yang’s practice really surprised me.”
Another person immediately chimed in: “Yes, that’s right. I still thought that a person like Gu Feidi would not resort to petty schemes.”
Someone else interjected: “How can it be? Although Leader Gu is upright, the Tengyun Pavilion family is so affluent that they must definitely have many shameful secrets. I think Gu Feidi may not be as virtuous as he seems…”
Hearing this, Su Yang couldn’t help frowning. He turned his head to the direction of the group who were whispering.
That group was still oblivious and continued gossiping softly about Gu Feidi, Leader Gu, and Tengyun Pavilion.
“Speaking of that, I heard when he was younger, Leader Gu entered Lesser Jade House in the same year as the current leader of the Devil Sect. The two of them were really close at the time. However, after leaving Lesser Jade House, they suddenly turned against each other for some reason. Because of that, the leader of the Devil Sect bathed the Central Plains in blood and cemented his reputation as the Devil Sect’s Leader.”
“I’ve heard about that too!”
“It’s true. It is said that the two of them fell out because of a woman. They parted ways. It’s just that there are very few rumours about the woman. Some people say that the woman was kidnapped by the leader of the Devil Sect, but later she faked her death and fled. After that, she reappeared as the personal servant girl of Leader Gu and hid in Tengyun Pavilion.”
“Yes, that’s right! Some people say that the woman was pregnant when she escaped from the Devil Sect!”
“Huh! She was pregnant?!”
“Then… is this Gu Feidi the son of the Leader Gu or the son of the Devil Sect Leader?”
Su Yang suddenly laughed aloud.
Hearing the laugh, someone finally noticed that Su Yang was glaring at them, and he poked the one next to him who was still talking. The man turned and looked over. When he saw Su Yang’s expression, he immediately shut up.
Su Yang raised the corner of his mouth and threw an evil grin at the group.
“I told you, it’s not a good habit to talk about others behind their backs. I carelessly developed too much internal strength, and it’s easy for me to hear offensive things. If you’re not careful, you might bump into me when I’m not in a good mood. I’ll take on all of you even if I’m eliminated by Lesser Jade House, then I’ll remove all your tongues.”
The author has something to say:
Su Yang: You can scold me, you can’t slander my little wolf cub!
What a ferocious little shou! Quite unusual in these types of novels…