Teasing Emotions IV

Teasing Emotions IV

The new inner skill had brought Lu Sheng more than just an internal breakthrough. The Black Tiger Jade Crane Skill and the Black Fiend Skill had not conflicted in the first place. Now that it had been enhanced, Lu Sheng felt vitality surging endlessly from within him, and his essence, energy, and spirit had all grown far stronger than before.

He rose to his feet, casually using his palm as a saber as he unleashed a Tiger's Ferocity strike ahead.

Hiss! Roar!!

A tiger's roar seemed to emerge and vanish in the air, and the atmosphere instantly turned scorching hot.

This was with Lu Sheng using less than a quarter of his strength. To achieve this effect with his former cultivation, he would have needed to unleash at least half his inner qi and force.

The effect of my inner qi has increased by at least twofold! Lu Sheng was exhilarated. He recalled the martial arts realms Uncle Zhao had once told him about.

"In the martial world, it is said that in the Central Plains, the Power Through Realm only makes one an ordinary expert. Beyond that lie the two great realms of Spirit Intent and Spirit Focus. Most renowned masters stand at the Spirit Focus level. They cultivate both within and without, their spirit and intent becoming solid. Every movement embodies the essence and grand path of their martial arts. Thus, their inner qi flows without end, and their combat power surges greatly. I wonder what level I have reached now."

Lu Sheng silently assessed himself.

"I inadvertently reached Spirit Intent back in Nine Links City. The Black Tiger Saber is my only martial art at the Spirit Intent level. But even without reaching Spirit Focus, the density of my inner qi far surpasses that of ordinary Spirit Intent experts.

"If I encounter someone at Spirit Focus, the outcome of an actual fight may not be certain. So I can be considered a Spirit Focus expert now, on the same level as those renowned Central Plains masters."

He was confident. Both the Black Fiend Skill and the Black Tiger Jade Crane Skill had reached the peak of the third level. If an ordinary person practiced them, they could forget about it without forty or fifty years—and that was with exceptional talent, along with an endless supply of tonics and medicinal baths.

"I'm only nineteen this year, yet I already possess such a solid foundation and cultivation. If not for ghosts, I could go anywhere under heaven. What a pity." Whenever Lu Sheng recalled the demons and ghosts he had encountered before, he could not help but sigh.

As he was lost in thought, a rooster crowed outside the window.

Lu Sheng looked out the window. Dawn was already breaking faintly. A whole night had passed just like that.

He got out of bed, quickly went out to fetch water and wash up, dressed himself in his robes, and strode out of his room.

He first went to a nearby tavern for breakfast. As usual, he had meat buns, millet porridge, and a plate of stir-fried greens. The fare was simple, but the quantity made the other diners click their tongues in amazement.

The palm-sized meat buns had thin skins and abundant filling. Lu Sheng swallowed them one at a time without minding the heat. Ever since he had cultivated the Black Fiend Skill, his resistance to heat had risen greatly. Even if he held his hand over a candle flame, it took five or six breaths before he felt the heat.

There were six buns in each steamer. Lu Sheng ate five steamers in one go—thirty meat buns. The plate of greens was the final dish to cleanse his palate. He picked it up with one hand, tipped it into his mouth, chewed twice, and swallowed.

It was like an ordinary person taking a sip of water after a grand feast.

Beside him sat a basin of millet porridge as high as his forearm, enough for five or six people. Lu Sheng lifted the washbasin-sized bowl and drank it in three gulps.

When he set the basin down, the porridge was gone.

Oh!!! The onlookers around him immediately cried out in astonishment. Their daily lives had little diversion; seeing such a curiosity once was enough for them to boast about it for three days.

Lu Sheng's expression did not change. After finishing, he elegantly wiped the corner of his mouth with a silk handkerchief, rose, and left. The contrast before and after left the surrounding customers and waiters dumbfounded.

Inner qi was refined from essence, and essence came from food.

He bore two great inner skills: the Black Fiend Skill and the Black Tiger Jade Crane Skill. The Black Fiend Skill had an extraordinary origin. Though incomplete, its effects were anything but simple—it could actually harm ghosts. The Black Tiger Jade Crane Skill, meanwhile, was a new Life Nurturing Technique that Lu Sheng had deduced to the utmost limit, inherently governing the body's transformation, nourishment, and recuperation.

Combined, the two made Lu Sheng able to eat even more.

After breakfast, Lu Sheng hired a carriage to East Mountain Academy. The horses never paused along the way, and when he arrived at the academy, the morning bell was ringing.

Lu Sheng got out of the carriage, quickly rushed into the academy, and headed for his School Hall.

East Mountain Academy covered an enormous area. It lay at East Mountain Foot outside Yan Mountain City. Though close to the city district, it was not actually under the city's jurisdiction. It had its own private soldiers and administrative system. Its headmaster was called the Cave Master, an official with a proper rank appointed and dismissed by the imperial court. It operated under a separate system from Yan Mountain City.

Legend had it that this place had once been an academy founded in his hometown by a great Confucian scholar after he rose to the position of Minister. It gradually expanded and flourished, becoming East Mountain Academy only many years later.

Lu Sheng made his way with practiced ease to his School Hall. Their instructor was Elder Lu Rao, who had passed the Huiyuan examination.

Elder Lu had already arrived and stood at the Lecture Platform, preparing to open the Books and call roll.

Lu Sheng and several other students who had arrived just in time gave him slight bows, then quickly found their seats.

The School Hall was a rectangular room, with a dozen or so students scattered sparsely within. These were all the students Elder Lu was responsible for.

Lu Sheng's seat was beside Song Zhenguo's. After sitting down, he straightened his robes and posture, then pulled out the historical text they would be studying from his book cabinet.

Before each student arrived at the School Hall, someone had already placed that day's Books in their book cabinet. The cabinet was their desk; since everyone sat cross-legged, it was simply a shortened version of one.

"Du Zhenxu." "Present."

"Wang Dao." "Present."

"Zhao Banyue." "Present."

"Yan Song." "Present."

Elder Lu called each name expressionlessly. It was soon Lu Sheng's turn.

"Lu Sheng." "Present."

"Zhao Zhenguo." "Present."

"Wang Ziquan."

"Wang Ziquan?"

Elder Lu's brows lifted as he sternly swept his gaze over the students. With only a dozen or so students, he had long memorized every face and name. With that glance, he sought to determine whether Wang Ziquan truly had not arrived.

"Has Wang Ziquan not come?" he asked once more.

Song Zhenguo looked strangely at Wang Ziquan's seat. There was indeed no one there.

"Perhaps something urgent happened at home, and he returned to his hometown first?" he muttered softly.

Lu Sheng looked over as well. Wang Ziquan had indeed not come. For some reason, he suddenly thought of the strange painted pleasure boat he had seen last night.

"Perhaps he overslept?"

At that, Song Zhenguo was startled. Remembering something, a peculiar smile appeared on his face.

Neither of them spoke further. Seeing that the man truly was absent, Elder Lu snorted and marked Wang Ziquan's name with a charcoal pencil.

"Now we shall begin today's lesson. Last time, we reached: 'When the people act by law, they are upright; when merchants act with sincerity, they prosper.'" Elder Lu ignored everything else and began focused instruction on the meaning of the historical text.

After listening for a few lines, Lu Sheng looked again at Wang Ziquan's seat. He always felt that Wang Ziquan's absence might be connected to that painted pleasure boat.

About an hour later, class ended, and Elder Lu hurried away with the Books in his arms.

Lu Sheng and Song Zhenguo rose from their seats.

"It seems Young Master Sheng is completely confident about the Yearly Examination." Song Zhenguo grinned at Lu Sheng. "I observed that nothing in the lesson hindered you in the slightest, without even the faintest pause. Clearly, you understood the principles and mysteries long ago. First place in the Yearly Examination is within reach!"

"Enough, Brother Zhenguo." Lu Sheng smiled. He rather appreciated Song Zhenguo's character. He was bold and magnanimous, and though his family was wealthy, he did not look down on classmates inferior to him. More importantly, he was loyal. Whenever friends asked him for help, if it was something he could do, he agreed without a second word.

"Chen Yunxi is here. You stood up for the beauty yesterday; it seems her tender heart is now firmly tied to you. Go on, go on." Song Zhenguo glanced toward the School Hall entrance and waggled his brows at Lu Sheng.

Lu Sheng turned around and saw Chen Yunxi standing prettily at the doorway. She had changed into a pure white gauze dress, its white cloudlike sleeves hanging low and concealing something she held in her hand.

Her long hair was coiled into a small bun atop her head and pinned with a white jade hairpin, with only a strand of black hair hanging beside her chest. Her legs were long, her waist slender, her skin like jade; she was tall and full-bosomed.

She looked pure as an immortal, and for an instant, Lu Sheng's heart stirred.

"Who is this woman? Her legs are so long—they are simply hideous!" A scholar beside him muttered, instantly ruining the mood.

"Indeed, indeed. Legs that long are unbearable to look at. If not for that, this young master would have pursued her long ago."

"Chen Yunxi? If her legs were not so ugly, and her wealthy family not famous throughout Yan Mountain City, she would have had countless suitors already. What a pity, what a pity."

"Those legs are too ugly!"

"Yes, yes!"

"Say less, all of you. It is not as if she chose to grow that way. Our bodies, hair, and skin are gifts from Heaven and our parents. Who would wish to be born so crippled? We are all academy classmates. Is it not improper to pass judgment on a fellow student like this?" Unable to stand it any longer, a female student spoke up in admonition.

With sighs, the students dispersed in a rush.

Lu Sheng looked at Chen Yunxi's exceptionally pleasing long legs, then at the students in the School Hall, each wearing an expression as though they could not bear to look. He was utterly speechless.

"Hurry up. Yun Xi dressed up especially for you." Knowing something of the matter between Lu Sheng and Chen Yunxi, Song Zhenguo gave Lu Sheng several pushes.

Lu Sheng strode over, grabbed Chen Yunxi's hand, and led her out of the School Hall toward the Lecture Platform.

The Lecture Platform was where the academy invited famous scholars to give lectures at intervals. It was usually sparsely populated, so it had become a place for academy students to court one another.

In this world, both men and women had the right to receive an education and to enter official service. Though their status was not entirely equal, it somewhat resembled the Tang dynasty of ancient China as Lu Sheng remembered it.

The two jogged all the way to a grove beside the Lecture Platform. The grove was near the mountain wall, its light dim and its air somewhat chilly.

Only then did Lu Sheng stop and turn to Chen Yunxi.

"Why did you come? Is everything all right after what happened yesterday?"

Chen Yunxi smiled and drew her other hand from her sleeve. In it, she was holding a vivid red peony, lush and ready to drip.

"This is for you."

Lu Sheng froze for a moment before accepting the flower. Though women in this world were often bold, women as forward as Chen Yunxi were still rare.

Chen Yunxi smiled. "My family previously wanted to arrange a marriage between me and the man from yesterday, so they had my elder brother flatter and beg him in every possible way. In the end, it still did not work out. He did not even think me worthy of becoming his concubine."

There was a faint sorrow hidden in her smile.

"I know I am not pretty. It is perfectly normal that people do not like me because my legs are too long. Every time I hear people talk about how long my legs are, my heart aches, and I cannot help lowering my head, unable to bear hearing more."

The corner of Lu Sheng's mouth twitched. Something about these words felt wrong. A thick sense of incongruity lingered in his heart and would not disperse.

"But there is nothing I can do. Who told me to be born with such long legs?" Chen Yunxi raised her head, gazing at him with a face full of sorrow. "I know you may look down on me, but I truly like you."

Gritting her teeth, she took a roll of paper bearing a bronze seal from her Waist Pouch and gently unfolded it.

"My father said that he heard Big Brother Lu's family intends to move to a major city. Why not move here instead? If you are willing, these are the business deeds for fifteen taverns in Yan Mountain City. They will all be yours. They are enough to let the Lu Family gain a firm foothold."

Thanks

Thanks to Yiqi, Storm Warlord, Luobogeng, Vest Line, I Am a Lewd Dragon, Zhang Zhongxiao, Must This Old Man Take Action, Drunk Loser, and reader 20170318171831488 for the ten-thousand-point rewards. Hehehe, although I cannot add extra chapters, Lao Gun can only work hard to improve the quality and ensure steady updates, to repay everyone for recognizing me~~~ It's decided: four updates tomorrow and the day after tomorrow!!