A Wager, a Fight

"Let's go." Cai Shu curled her lips and did not want to bicker further with Zong Zhen, a disciple of Jingshen Peaks.

Luo Bei nodded, then suddenly seemed to remember something and paused. "Wait, Senior Sister Cai Shu."

Before Cai Shu could say, "What are you dawdling for?" she saw Luo Bei ask Zong Zhen and the other two with great humility, "By the way, three Senior Brothers, did you happen to see any Ci Tong Grass along the way?"

"Ci Tong Grass?" Zong Zhen and the other two exchanged glances. Then Zong Zhen suddenly burst into triumphant laughter and pulled a dark-leaved plant from the cloth pouch at his waist, its fruit resembling red chili peppers. "So you were looking for Ci Tong Grass. What a coincidence—I happen to have several stalks here."

"Luo Bei, let's go!" Cai Shu's voice abruptly sharpened.

She had already heard the mockery in Zong Zhen's words. Though she was only thirteen or fourteen, among people her age, she could easily see through others' childishness and shallowness. She knew that if Luo Bei answered him, the arrogant Zong Zhen before him would surely say something like, "If you apologize to us and show some respect for your elders, I might consider giving you one stalk."

If Luo Bei answered him and actually begged these people for Ci Tong Grass, she would never speak to that fool again!

"Mm." Luo Bei nodded. Without saying anything more, he turned and prepared to return by the way they had come.

What made Cai Shu feel a faint trace of delight was that he had never entertained any thought of gaining something for nothing. They had already seen what Ci Tong Grass looked like, so perhaps they could still find some on the way back.

"You two newcomers, stop right there!" Zong Zhen's freshly risen pride vanished in an instant. Feeling utterly scorned by Cai Shu and Luo Bei's attitude, he could not help shouting.

Luo Bei turned back and looked at Zong Zhen and the others in surprise. Born into hardship, and even after coming to Luofu still burdened with Luofu's fate, he had struggled against destiny every day and had never possessed the slightest sense of superiority. He simply could not understand why Zong Zhen was so enraged. Cai Shu, walking beside him, did not even turn her head. Her lovely lips curved in disdain as she coldly said, "You are still looking for medicinal herbs like Water Chestnut Fruit. I imagine you have not been initiated for very long either."

"I never expected Disciple Geli to be so arrogant." Zong Zhen laughed in extreme anger. "If I do not teach you a lesson today, I fear you will be walking sideways through Shushan from now on."

"What talisman is that?" Luo Bei saw that a green talisman had appeared in the hands of the furiously smiling Zong Zhen.

"Yimu Green Lightning Talisman? So you have a talisman like this." Cai Shu looked at Zong Zhen, then suddenly smiled again. Her delicate nose wrinkled slightly as she pointed at Luo Bei. "But do you know who he is? It would be nothing if you hurt me, but if you hurt him, I fear the three of you would be unable to bear the consequences."

Zong Zhen froze when Cai Shu immediately recognized the talisman in his hand. He looked at Cai Shu and Luo Bei with suspicion. "Who is he?"

"He is the famed Luo Bei, hailed as Shushan's most gifted disciple in decades. Don't tell me you have not heard of him." Cai Shu winked at Luo Bei and smiled.

Luo Bei's face reddened slightly in embarrassment.

He was Luo Bei?!

Zong Zhen and the other two exchanged silent looks.

By now, everyone knew that Geli had recently accepted a disciple called Luo Bei, who was said to possess exceptional talent. Even the Acting Sect Leader and the others thought highly of him.

If they injured him, they would surely receive a severe reprimand.

Besides, if he achieved great things in the future, he might well seek revenge for today's grievance.

These thoughts flashed through Zong Zhen's mind like lightning. Though the Yimu Green Lightning Talisman had been ready to fly from his hand, he could no longer throw it. His expression shifted between dark and bright, leaving him utterly awkward.

"Forget it, everyone is..." Seeing Zong Zhen's incomparably awkward expression, Luo Bei could not help trying to smooth things over. He had meant to say that they were all fellow disciples and should not make things so tense that swords were drawn and bows bent. But before he could finish, he suddenly felt Cai Shu tug at the corner of his robe. As he stopped in bewilderment and looked toward her, Cai Shu had already narrowed her eyes and smiled again. "But this fellow disciple who wants me to call him senior brother has no particular background. He cannot be taught a lesson, but there should be no problem with teaching me one."

"What did you say?" Zong Zhen narrowed his eyes at once, cold light flashing wildly within them.

"Let's make a wager." Cai Shu paid no heed to the icy gleam in Zong Zhen's eyes. Smiling, she raised her fair little hand and pointed to the cloth bags holding her and Luo Bei's herbs. "If you beat me, our Water Chestnut Fruit will be yours. If you lose to me, your Ci Tong Grass will be ours."

The air reeked of gunpowder.

"Fine! You stirred this up yourself, so do not blame me for bullying the young!"

Beside himself with rage, Zong Zhen began chanting an incantation. Like Zi Xuangu, he had possessed some foundation in cultivation before entering Shushan. Among the new disciples of the Jingshen lineage, he could be called a king among men. Relying on his incantation, he swiftly calmed his mind and focused his spirit. A faint clear light soon radiated from his hand. But just as he prepared to throw out the green talisman, everyone felt their vision blur, and Cai Shu was suddenly before him. Then he saw a fist rapidly enlarging before his eyes.

With a bang, blood and tears nearly burst forth at the same time. Somehow, Cai Shu's seemingly frail body was suddenly behind him again. With another bang, a delicate black footprint appeared on his backside, and his entire body shot forward, his face making an intimate and thorough acquaintance with the damp ground.

The moment his nose bridge was struck by that punch, the faint clear light in Zong Zhen's hand had already vanished.

As his body involuntarily fell forward, Cai Shu reached out and caught the green talisman as it slowly drifted down through the air, having lost its support. She then turned to look at the monkey-thin youth and the youth with a conspicuous black mole on his face, both of whom stood there dumbstruck.

After staring blankly for a moment, the two youths heard Zong Zhen's agonized howl and seemed to snap awake. Without prior agreement, both reached into their cloth pouches, took out their Ci Tong Grass, and handed it to the lovely young woman who seemed like a witch.

Without even looking at Zong Zhen sprawled on the ground, Cai Shu handed one stalk of Ci Tong Grass to Luo Bei. As he followed her and turned away, she smiled until her nose wrinkled slightly. "Since you behaved fairly well today, I'll give you this thing too."

Luo Bei stared blankly. The green talisman had appeared in his hand.

On a distant mountainside, atop a towering ancient cedar, Ming Yuan stood in a dark long robe, his complexion slightly pale. He frowned, anger appearing on his face. "That little girl from Geli has gone too far."

As he muttered to himself, purple radiance lit beneath the feet of this martial uncle to Zong Zhen and the others, one of the Jingshen lineage's foremost experts. Yet he abruptly turned around.

"Senior Brother Ming Yuan." Duan Tianya, clad in a black robe with an icy face that seemed never to smile, stood atop a tree some distance behind him. His gaze was also directed toward Luo Bei and the others. "There is nothing wrong with children fooling around. We cannot expect them to be as lifeless as we are, can we?"

"Junior Brother Duan, your cultivation has improved again." Ming Yuan looked at Duan Tianya for a moment, then suddenly sighed softly. "It seems that this batch of new Jingshen disciples may still be unable to defeat your Geli disciples."

"Senior Brother Ming Yuan, you are too attached." Duan Tianya looked at Ming Yuan. "But mutual encouragement may not be a bad thing."

"Junior Brother Duan is right." Ming Yuan smiled. Riding the wind through the sunset, he came to Duan Tianya's side and stood beside him. "For these past twelve years, I have always wanted to surpass you."

A streak of red light shot skyward beside the iron-chain bridge on the mountainside, which had already been shrouded in a thin mist. Dozens of rays of radiance exploded and dyed Duan Tianya's cold face red.

Ming Hao had released a Flying Flame Talisman ordering all Geli disciples to return and gather.

"Junior Sister Cai Shu, is Zong Zhen seriously hurt?"

"Why do you care whether he lives or dies? He will not die anyway. At most, his nose will collapse and he will look uglier from now on. Hehe."

"This... Junior Sister Cai Shu, does this count as robbery?"

"Pah! Then do you not want them? If you do not, throw away the Ci Tong Grass and the Yimu Green Lightning Talisman."

"Throw them away... then we really did rob them. Forget it, I'll keep them and study them."

"So you are not completely stupid after all?"

"Junior Sister Cai Shu, how do you use this Yimu Green Lightning Talisman? Is it like a Flying Flame Talisman? Before one has Dao power, can one use it by dripping a drop of blood onto it?"

"Honestly, are you done yet? You keep asking question after question. Aren't you supposedly the most gifted? Why don't you understand anything? Do you think your blood is all-powerful and can activate every talisman? Just remember that this Yimu Green Lightning Talisman is an exceptionally powerful talisman. I have no idea how that fellow got hold of it. Put it this way: this isn't a talisman that can be refined as easily as a Flying Flame Talisman. Even someone with Martial Uncle Ming Hao's cultivation would likely find it extremely taxing to endure. So hide it well for me. As for how to use it, Martial Uncle Ming Hao and the others will naturally teach you later..."

"Junior Sister Cai Shu, what Dao technique did you use just now to injure Senior Brother Zong Zhen?"

"Luo Bei, you are so annoying! Why are you like Senior Sister Yanran, asking about everything? Luckily, you are not like her in that you do not get lovesick so easily..."

"Junior Sister Cai Shu..."

"So annoying! Aren't you thirsty?..."

During their cautious journey back, Cai Shu kept her pretty face stern and repeatedly said Luo Bei was annoying. But no matter how much she called him annoying this time, she never once told him not to speak to her.

Some disciples who had returned earlier to the iron-chain bridge, including Ming Hao waiting there, were astonished to hear Luo Bei calling Cai Shu Junior Sister. Why was Cai Shu letting him call her Junior Sister without getting angry? What surprised them even more was that Cai Shu and Luo Bei appeared in their sight almost shoulder to shoulder.