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~
No one spoke for the entire night.
Early next morning, Su Yang and Gu Feidi ate something simple and then set out to fill in the sword marks on the wall of the stone chamber.
The two had an inexplicable quarrel last night.
No, it wasn’t actually a quarrel. In Su Yang’s view, he reasoned that Gu Feidi was unilaterally angry with him and hadn’t candidly told him yet on the reason for his anger.
But from just a few words, it sounded like it had something to do with the Devil Sect Leader. Su Yang couldn’t act with the shell of the Devil Sect’s Young Saint to ask Gu Feidi about his own sect’s leader’s matters. He was really aggrieved at not being able to express the unhappy, stifled feelings in his heart.
Forget it, just forget it. Besides, the protagonist and the villain should be opposing each other like this anyway. Now they were forced to proceed in the same storyline. Maybe Gu Feidi was also vexed.
Su Yang could only console himself this way.
Surprisingly, Gu Feidi took the initiative to apologise to him.
“It was my fault last night. I shouldn’t have treated you like that.” Gu Feidi stared seriously at Su Yang without evading his eyes. “In any case, you’ve helped me a lot and never did anything to harm me. You even… you didn’t hesitate to sacrifice yourself in order to save me. I shouldn’t have had unwarranted thoughts, but I reproached you in anger.”
Su Yang had been resentful for some time last night and wanted to adopt the Devil Sect’s Young Saint’s demeanour to taunt Gu Feidi with a few choice words, but seeing Gu Feidi’s dark and exhausted eyes, he couldn’t say what he’d been intending to.
In the end, Su Yang just playacted. He snorted, then turned his head to ask: “So what were you mad about yesterday? Was it because I said I didn’t want to leave the Devil Sect?”
Gu Feidi pursed his lips and said, “I understand, you are the Devil Sect’s Young Saint. It’s due to your status and also it’s your responsibility.”
Sure enough, Gu Feidi, a rookie talent of the martial arts’ Righteous Way still disapproved of his status as the Devil Sect’s Young Saint.
For some reason, Su Yang heard a voice in his heart in that instant——he didn’t want Gu Feidi to erroneously believe that he was colluding with the Devil Sect’s Leader.
This idea was unreasonable and it wasn’t in keeping with the personality of the Devil Sect’s Young Saint, but the voice aggravated uncontrollably in Su Yang’s heart and finally lingered becoming a demon-like echo.
After hesitating for a moment, Su Yang finally decided to be wilful and follow his heart. Anyway… anyway in the end, Gu Feidi wanted to destroy the Devil Sect and kill him.
He clenched his teeth, looked at Gu Feidi and spoke seriously: “Actually, I don’t like the Devil Sect and it’s not because of the Devil Sect Leader that I insist on staying. I’m not close to him and have only seen him a handful of times. I’ve never assisted him in his ‘whatever’ martial arts practices. I remain in the Devil Sect… for some other reasons, but I can’t tell you.”
Initially, Su Yang predicted that Gu Feidi would ask him what his reason was. But surprisingly, Gu Feidi was startled when he heard these words. He grabbed Su Yang’s arm with both hands and simply asked: “You’ve never assisted the Devil Sect Leader in his martial arts practices?”
His eyes seemed to have been instantly lit up by something. In a split second, he was filled with hope and he stared straight at Su Yang. He couldn’t help but confirm it again: “Truly?”
Su Yang was taken aback and automatically asked, “Why would he need my assistance when he practices his skills?”
Gu Feidi continued: “You don’t know the skills that he practices…”
Halfway through, his expression changed as if something had come to mind and he said with a laugh: “…That’s right, it was a Jianghu rumour after all. It’s just that this rumour appeared too early and remained for too long, I actually took it seriously…”
Su Yang had seen how powerful the rumours of this fantastic Jianghu were. He couldn’t help but inwardly roll his eyes after hearing what had been said: “The Jianghu rumours also said that I was dismissing the harem for you! They also said that you and I had a private meeting at night, and definitely had an illicit love affair! Why don’t you believe those?”
Gu Feidi frowned slightly when he heard this and fell deep into thought.
Su Yang: ……
Hey, don’t be like this, okay? It’s scary!
After a long while, Gu Feidi asked, “Back then, those youths that you kidnapped, were they really meant to be your bedwarmers?”
When faced with such a strange question, Su Yang was speechless and supported his forehead with his hand.
Well, the original Young Saint may really have abducted those youths for the sake of forming a harem. Unfortunately, the original Young Saint’s skill practice didn’t allow him to touch those children. Later, he’d completed his skill breakthrough, but the transmigration had occurred.
As a good man who’d transmigrated over from the 21st-century, he would naturally not be so perverse as to retain those bedwarmers, so he’d simply dismissed them.
It was impossible to start a harem; not to mention those were still young boys. Although he didn’t scorn it, he simply had no interest in trying.
But based on his assumptions of the Devil Sect’s Young Saint’s character, he should display a wicked smile to affirm and proclaim that those youths were part of his own harem—and so what if they were.
Su Yang exhibited the haughty demeanour and was about to speak, when he collided into Gu Feidi’s deep eyes.
He was just on the verge of saying what was on his mind when it took an unexpected turn and became: “…No.”
Gu Feidi smiled.
The smile at the corner of his lips was very shallow, but his eyes were sparkling as if the spring breeze had entered the water, billowing ripples on the pond.
“Sure enough…” He smiled, “…You’re not what the rumours make you out to be.”
Su Yang flinched—had he boosted his favourability with Gu Feidi by mistake?!
What the heck was he doing… you can’t be that unruly, how was the subsequent storyline where Gu Feidi destroys the Devil Sect and stabs his heart on the top of the mountain going to proceed?
So he lifted his chin, curled his mouth and said, “Heh, although this Young Saint is not as rumoured in the Jianghu, I’m definitely not what you imagine. Don’t pretend to comprehend this Young Saint. If I tell you what this Young Saint has done, I’m afraid it’ll scare you to death…”
Gu Feidi shot a glance at Su Yang, but didn’t expose him. He smiled: “Alright, we should get to work.”
As he spoke, he raised his finger and pointed at the sword marks on the wall of the stone room.
……
In a flash, five days had passed. All the sword marks on the walls of the stone room had been repaired except for those ancient traces left by the original owner.
As he stood in the stone room, Su Yang regarded the sword marks on the wall in astonishment and said in a stunned voice: “So simple? Are you sure you didn’t read it wrong?”
Gu Feidi nodded, “Definitely. Although these sword marks are simple, they are indeed also…… some mysterious principles.”
Su Yang looked at Gu Feidi with admiration and said to himself: As expected of the protagonist. He can discern the mystery from this mess of sword marks.
Gu Feidi continued: “You go to the door of the stone room first, let me see if my guess is constructive.”
Hearing Gu Feidi’s words, Su Yang obediently took a few steps back and stood by the door of the stone room, holding a torch to help Gu Feidi illuminate.
Gu Feidi held the sword in his hand and slowly brandished it along the direction of the sword mark on the wall. He occasionally looked for the next sword mark that matched it and then returned from there… Every now and then he paused to carry on thinking, perhaps reversing the previous move or maybe altering it slightly.
After a long time, Gu Feidi broke into a smile.
“This is indeed a set of swordsmanship.” He said, “The sword moves are simple and straightforward. They are a great approach to opening and closing. It should be pretty suitable for facing an opponent…”
Su Yang was uncertain and asked, “Based on your tone, this set of swordsmanship is actually not that impressive?”
Gu Feidi said: “You and I have graduated from Lesser Jade House. Having witnessed the Flying Flower Art and Returning Geese Sword Art, how many of the sword techniques in today’s martial arts world would you and I even consider? Besides, even if the master here was indeed the Sword Sage Bai Jinghong… all in all, a hundred years have already passed.”
He laughed lightly and went on, “There have been countless talents born in the world during these hundred years but how many martial artists have risen based on the foundation stone laid by their predecessors? The martial world has always been one wave after another and there’s no way that the legacy of a hundred years ago can match the current martial arts. Even the techniques of Tengyun Pavilion are not static. They will be revised, perfected and even innovated every once in a while.”
After hearing this, Su Yang surmised that… it did make sense!
Even in the real world, the training methods of the military a century ago were certainly not as scientific as the training of modern special forces. This reasoning should also be applicable in the world of martial arts!
But if this was the case, wouldn’t the Sword Sage legacy become a redundant plot point? Could it be that the original arrangement of this plot was to actually give Gu Feidi an emotional arc for him to get married?
Then his arrival had accidentally fanned Pu Lingyun away. How.…… how-how-how should he fix this?
How was he going to produce a wife for Gu Feidi?!
Seeing that Su Yang hadn’t spoken for a long time and had a stunned expression, Gu Feidi laughed, “That’s why I didn’t have much interest in the rumoured Sword Sage legacy from the beginning, but my father deliberately made this arrangement, so I undertook it. I wanted to persuade you to give it up from the start, but you insisted… If you want, why don’t you learn this sword technique?”
Su Yang was stupefied and supported his forehead.
He asked: “Since you’ve seen through this a while back, why did you spend so much time repairing the sword marks?”
Gu Feidi didn’t answer for a long time.
He looked at Su Yang for some time, his eyes drooping slightly and the corners of his mouth curled up reveal a bitter smile.
He whispered: “I just… didn’t want to get out of here so soon…”
Su Yang couldn’t help being taken aback when he heard Gu Feidi say this.
He didn’t understand: “Why don’t you want to go out?”
Did the storyline also control the thoughts of the characters, making them unconsciously stick to the correct timeline?
No, no, if it was really like that, Pu Lingyun would have completed her discipleship at Lesser Jade House by now.
“Perhaps, it’s because when we return to the martial arts world…… we would have to confront the responsibilities of our respective roles.” Gu Feidi said, “Procrastinating here is a respite that is hard to come by, we can be with…… we don’t have to mull over a lot of complicated matters.”
With regards to this point, Su Yang sympathised and promptly nodded in agreement: “Yes, once we return to the martial arts circles, there will be no less troublesome matters. You’re the Young Master of Tengyun Pavilion and there must be countless paperwork for you to deal with and social engagements. These things are so annoying. I also brought the flower aide along to find the Tomb of the Sword Sage in order to avoid these issues.”
Curiously, Gu Feidi shook his head, “I don’t think paperwork and social engagements are too cumbersome.”
Su Yang asked, “Then why don’t you want to go back?”
Gu Feidi stared at Su Yang for a long time without answering, then he asked: “Are… you going to get your crown?”
Su Yang thought for a while. When he wears the crown, he would be twenty-years-old. That time for this ‘shell’ of his was indeed fast approaching, so he nodded.
Gu Feidi muttered to himself for a moment, his expression became a little more complicated and he asked in a low voice, “Then… the Devil Sect Leader… has already arranged a marriage for you?”
Su Yang was dumbstruck.
Then he realised.
——The ‘responsibility’ mentioned by Gu Feidi must be that he was being pushed to marry!
No wonder he wants to stay in this isolated cave to hide away. Throughout the ages, older men and women have been most afraid of being hastened to marry. Years ago, when his grandmother was still around, she’d started to ask him if he’d been looking for a girlfriend yet at the time he was facing the college entrance examination and was only eighteen-years-old. Now Gu Feidi also seemed to be eighteen. These are ancient times and it was normal to be pushed to marry.
No, that’s not right.
Gu Feidi and Pu Lingyun had always been on good terms. They aren’t only shixiong and shimei, but also childhood sweethearts… Even if he was being pushed to marry, he should be happy and shouldn’t want to dodge.
Could it be that… this current Gu Feidi doesn’t actually like Pu Lingyun?
That’s right, if you considered it that way, then it made sense—the Tomb of the Sword Sage story arc was originally meant for the two of them to cultivate feelings!
Think about it: Gu Feidi and Pu Lingyun were both at the age of being urged to marry. They were a normal shixiong and shimei relationship to begin with and weren’t willing to marry each other. However by God’s will, they fell into the water together and rushed to the Dubious Tomb of the Sword Sage. Seeing true sentiments during times of hardship, spending time alone day and night, sharing meagre resources… gradually, affection emerged.
This was reasonably plausible within the storyline!
But now, Pu Lingyun’s emotional arc had been slapped away by his butterfly wings.
Su Yang: ……
What should he do now? He truly hadn’t meant to!
Even though it wasn’t his fault, he felt extremely guilty about it.
Su Yang resolved to persuade Gu Feidi not to be wilful and dodge, instead he should treat Pu Lingyun well.
So he said: “Pu Lingyun is actually a fine lady…”