When a Scholar Is Enraged

"When a Scholar Is Enraged"

"Uncle Cen, this is Hua Erge. He's my friend."

Su Yun nudged the unconscious Flower Fox with his foot. Flower Fox did not wake. After hesitating for a moment, the youth said, "Uncle Cen, Mister Shuijing taught me the Great Furnace Transformation: Qi Cultivation Chapter. He said that once I master it, I'll be able to heal my eyes."

Uncle Cen fell silent for a moment. "You used to enter the Night Market to search for a way to cure your eye disease. Now that you have sufficient confidence in curing your own eyes, you no longer need the Night Market. You came this time to tell me that this will be your last visit to the Night Market."

"Though I don't need to go to the Night Market anymore, I'll still come here often. Uncle Cen has always looked after me. You were the one who told me to move to Tianmen Town, who told me about time scales, and who told me I could climb this hemp rope into the Night Market to find someone to treat my eyes. Every time I went to the Night Market, Uncle Cen waited below for me to return safely..."

"I don't need you to remember my kindness."

Uncle Cen coldly cut him off. Rising from atop the grave mound, he walked before Su Yun with his hands clasped behind his back and his hunched back bent over. Tilting his face up at him, he said, "You're just an annoying little brat living near my house! You wouldn't stay quietly in your little house, always making such a racket that I couldn't sleep. I wasn't being good to you. I merely wanted to drive you away."

Su Yun smiled.

Uncle Cen snorted and circled him once. "You were irritating when you were blind. If you're no longer blind, you'll be even more irritating. I'm leaving, going on a long journey—a very, very long journey. I won't be coming back, so I won't have to get annoyed every time I see you."

Su Yun's eyes reddened. "Uncle Cen, you..."

"I'm leaving tonight."

Uncle Cen still looked at him coldly, his voice carrying that distant indifference that kept others a thousand miles away. "Since we were neighbors, I'll leave this rope to you. Consider it something to remember me by."

Su Yun's nose stung, and he could not help but feel tears welling up. His heart was filled with melancholy and loss. "Uncle Cen, won't you wait until after I heal my eyes before leaving? I want to see you. Uncle Cen has cared for me like my parents..."

Uncle Cen looked at him, and the coldness on his face gradually faded. Beneath those icy eyes seemed to hide a blazing heart. "Seeing you annoys me. It's better if we don't meet. After you return from the Heavenly Market, tug the hemp rope, and it will descend by itself."

He walked into his own grave. Suddenly, endless, immeasurable rays of splendor surged from that tiny grave. In an instant, ten thousand beams of light, ten thousand zhang high, coiled, roared, and crashed through the sky before rising ever higher!

That radiance was made of countless words. The words rushed into the heavens like a sheer cliff so lofty that one could only look up in reverence. A buzzing chant rose as well, as though countless voices were reciting together.

Within the light, Uncle Cen walked upon those stacked layers of words, as if striding across an ocean of books.

He was no longer a hunched old man. As he walked higher and higher, he grew younger and younger, like a sage filled with classical learning and poetic brilliance, yet unable to realize his ambitions and left with no choice but to withdraw from the mortal world.

He went farther and farther away, until even the books vanished from sight.

At last, Uncle Cen and his words disappeared amid the Milky Way and the vault of heaven.

What a pity that Su Yun could not see this scene.

Hundreds of miles away, in the Northern Frontier, jade towers pierced the clouds and grand buildings stood in dense rows.

Qiu Shuijing stood atop the tallest building in Shuofang City. Seeing from afar the curtain of light flowing in reverse like water, rising from the ground and ascending into the sky, he could not help but be moved.

"A soul pure and bright, its radiance like the splendor of the moon; words hanging down like magnificent celestial signs. The Confucian Sage, one of the four great legends of the Yuanshuo Kingdom, has set down the obsession of his life, departed the world, and returned to the divine path."

Qiu Shuijing raised his cup from afar. "Farewell, Sage Cen."

Flower Fox secretly opened his eyes and glanced at the sky. Only after confirming that Uncle Cen had left did he breathe a sigh of relief and scramble to his feet.

Su Yun found the rope and said, "Hua Erge, come here. Let's climb this hemp rope into the Night Market."

"That rope is that old ghost Cen's hanging rope..." Flower Fox shivered. He did not dare say it aloud and could only steel himself as he came to Su Yun's side.

Su Yun reminded him, "Erge, grab the rope. It will carry us into the Night Market by itself."

Flower Fox grabbed the hemp rope. Suddenly, with a whoosh, the rope seemed to come alive and began growing wildly toward the sky!

All Flower Fox could hear was the howling wind. When he looked down again, not only the willow tree, but even Tianmen Town in the night had become an insignificant little dot!

"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid."

He vaguely heard Su Yun comforting him. "We'll be there soon."

Flower Fox's body stiffened. He clung desperately to the rope, his mind completely blank.

Finally, the rope stopped growing. Su Yun gave a light swing and landed on the ground, then turned and grabbed Flower Fox by the back of the head, trying to pluck him off the rope.

Flower Fox still held the rope in a death grip. Only after Su Yun forcibly pried open his claws did he manage to pull him down.

Flower Fox landed and remained stiff where he stood, still maintaining the posture of hugging the rope.

"Hua Erge, if you don't start walking, you'll get lost and won't be able to find me." Su Yun walked forward.

Flower Fox hurriedly moved his two stiff legs to follow. His two forelegs remained clasped before his chest, making him look quite ridiculous.

Some people had already arrived at the Ghost Market. Each remained silent as they surveyed the stalls of the Ghosts and Gods.

Leading Flower Fox, whose two legs moved with great difficulty, Su Yun wandered around the Ghost Market with keen interest. Since he could not see, he had to ask Flower Fox to describe the shapes of those treasures to him.

Flower Fox inwardly groaned, hating only that he had pitied Su Yun and followed him to this cursed place.

"Mister Wild Fox once said that what the Ghosts and Gods of the Ghost Market loathed most was fox talk and wild words. And I just happen to be a fox. Fox talk and wild words—that means me..."

Flower Fox stood beside Su Yun, reared up on his hind legs, tucked in his head, and hugged his own tail. He stared wide-eyed at the Ghosts and Gods in the shadows, utterly at a loss.

Beside him, though Su Yun could not see, he faced him with an encouraging look in his eyes.

Thud.

Flower Fox fell flat on his back, the back of his head striking the ground as he fainted dead away.

"Erge, did you suffer qi deviation while practicing? You've been fainting all the time lately."

Su Yun shook his head, grabbed Flower Fox by the tail with one hand, and dragged him through the Ghost Market. Flower Fox quietly opened his eyes and let out a breath of relief.

"Following him to a place like this is simply fatal!"

Flower Fox's eyes darted about as Su Yun dragged him by the tail. Though his head kept striking the ground, at least his life was safe.

Just then, he suddenly stared fixedly at a figure in the Ghost Market. Flower Fox's face first went blank, then twisted with gnashing hatred.

"Little Yun..."

Flower Fox's voice was hoarse and choked with tears. "I saw the person who killed Xiaomei!"

Su Yun's body trembled faintly. He stopped, released Flower Fox's tail, and turned around. His tone was so calm that it inspired fear. "Erge, did you truly see that person? Are you sure you haven't mistaken him?"

"I could never mistake him!"

Flower Fox gritted his teeth and stared fixedly at a youth in the Ghost Market. The youth had delicate features and wore blazing red clothes, as though his body were on fire.

Su Yun started toward the red-clad youth.

Flower Fox froze, then hurriedly stopped him. "Little Yun, that day I saw flames burst from behind him, and divine birds fly out of the fire. That means what he cultivates isn't the Great Furnace Transformation: Qi Cultivation Chapter, but another divine-bird-type art. Moreover, he has already achieved the third attainment and reached Qi-Blood Manifestation. You're no match for him."

Though Su Yun had diligently cultivated these past days, he had currently only reached the second attainment of Crocodile Dragon's Roar.

The Great Furnace Transformation: Qi Cultivation Chapter was one kind of Foundation Establishment art. Most Foundation Establishment arts were similar. Although that red-clad youth in the Ghost Market did not cultivate the Great Furnace Transformation, his attainment of the third stage, Qi-Blood Manifestation, showed that he had cultivated his Foundation Establishment art to the sixth level!

The red-clad youth was about to enter—or might even have already entered—the Primal Motion Realm!

"Qiu Xiaomei was also my classmate."

Su Yun moved forward, swimming like a Crocodile Dragon through water. He went around Flower Fox directly, his expression calm. "All of you were my classmates, while Mister Wild Fox was the teacher who taught me how to be a person. Though I cannot see you, in my heart, every one of you is a living, breathing person."

In his heart, those who had studied with him in that ruined schoolhouse were not foxes one after another, but vibrant boys and girls.

They were fellow students and classmates, friends and companions.

The bonds accumulated over six years as classmates were beyond measure in their preciousness.

He was not one of the Fox Demons, yet the Fox Demons had accepted him.

Yet overnight, his classmates had become Fox Demons, becoming one cold corpse after another.

In Su Yun's heart, it was not Fox Demons who had died, but those classmates in his heart, each with their own distinct personality.

"Don't act rashly!"

Flower Fox blocked him again. "There are too many of them! There will be time in the future!"

At that moment, Flower Fox vaguely seemed to see not Su Yun approaching, but an incomparably ferocious Crocodile Dragon. Its sinewy body was savage and grotesque; whoever dared block its path would be crushed to pieces by the Crocodile Dragon!

Flower Fox's mind went blank. By the time he came to, Su Yun had already passed him. His steps were steady as he headed straight for the red-clad youth from the city.

When a scholar was enraged, blood would splash five paces away!

Su Yun had already taken his first step.

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