Chang Wei Longs for Love

Elder Tiluo froze, then subconsciously glanced at the incense burning atop the jade platform.

There was still a small pinch left unburned.

A smile appeared on his face, and the elder set the gong he had just reached for back down.

On the arena stage, Chu Zeming, drenched in blood from head to toe, steadied the somewhat unstable breath he had gained from rushing here. His heart was filled with relief.

Luckily... I made it in time.

The Daoist in azure robes felt somewhat regretful.

He had thought he would get lucky and win without fighting, but he had not expected his opponent to arrive at the very last moment.

He rose from his meditative posture, lightly flicked his horsetail whisk behind him, and saluted Chu Zeming. "I am Dai Shanghu. Forgive my offense this time."

With that, he abruptly flung out his horsetail whisk. In an instant, it transformed into ten thousand feet of white threads, sweeping toward Chu Zeming like the sky itself had fallen.

Chu Zeming swung the Luminous Glaze Sword, its sharp blade effortlessly severing the whisk threads winding toward him.

The Luminous Glaze Sword, having absorbed the remnant sword, differed from ordinary magical artifacts. After being reforged, it had developed a sword spirit of its own. Although Dai Shanghu's natal horsetail whisk was also a rare and precious treasure, before the pressure of the Luminous Glaze Sword's sword spirit, it was simply not worth mentioning.

Retracting his whisk and looking at the cleanly sliced breaks, Dai Shanghu's expression turned ugly. "What kind of monster are you? How are you this strong?"

The man before him was dripping with blood, his presence terrifying. A pitch-black snake hung inside the clothing at his chest, while the longsword in his hand continuously hummed. At a glance, he was clearly no easy character.

Chu Zeming did not answer Dai Shanghu's question.

The recent days of life-or-death struggles had left him with little energy to spare.

He had to end this match quickly. The spiritual power within him could no longer be suppressed, and breaking through atop the arena stage was not a good thing.

Chu Zeming circulated the spiritual power throughout his body. Terrifying force gradually gathered around him, centered on his form. The Luminous Glaze Sword, glowing faintly red, gave a low cry. His tattered dark robes snapped in the wind, and both his body and face were stained crimson, making it impossible to tell whether the blood came from man or demonic beast.

Below the stage, everyone held their breath.

No one spoke.

On the arena stage, a sword strike containing horrifying power came down, hanging above the azure-robed Daoist's head.

Another half inch lower, and he would have died on the spot.

With only one sword strike, the azure-robed Daoist, also at the mid-Golden Core stage, had been defeated.

Chu Zeming desperately suppressed the restless spiritual power within him. The moment the elder in charge of the arena stepped onto the stage and struck the gong for victory, Chu Zeming did not even have time to reassure his junior brothers. He sprinted straight off the stage and flew into the distance.

"What happened to Senior Brother?!"

"Let's catch up and take a look!"

Seeing this, the disciples hurriedly followed after him in a panic, leaving only several disciples scheduled for upcoming matches standing anxiously where they were.

After leaving the Guiyuan Sect, Chu Zeming stopped at a barren mountain a hundred li away.

With one sword strike, he carved out a cave dwelling and entered it. Only after setting up a barrier outside did Chu Zeming close his eyes in relief and allow the spiritual power within him to batter against the barrier.

Before long, a patch of dark clouds appeared in the sky.

Lightning flickered faintly within the clouds as a terrifying tribulation lightning slowly brewed.

Xuan Mo arrived with the other junior brothers and immediately saw the skies above the place where Chu Zeming was in seclusion. He sucked in a sharp breath.

Senior Brother broke through—and even triggered tribulation lightning.

"If I remember correctly, Senior Brother should be advancing to the Jindan Peak Stage next, right?" one disciple suddenly said.

The moment those words came out, everyone was even more shocked.

Ordinary cultivators only had a small chance of drawing tribulation clouds when crossing a major tribulation. Yet Eldest Senior Brother had merely broken through to the Golden Core peak and already summoned tribulation clouds?

Everyone looked at one another, their faces filled with disbelief.

"Rumble—"

A terrifying clap of thunder sounded. A bolt of lightning about half a meter thick viciously struck toward Chu Zeming's location. Immediately afterward, dozens of lightning bolts descended in dense succession. Only after an entire incense stick's worth of time did the lightning disappear. The tribulation clouds overhead slowly dispersed, and the disciples stared with pounding hearts at the cave entrance that had been collapsed by the lightning.

A deafening boom rang out.

All the stones blocking the entrance fell away. A man blackened all over, his clothes torn into strips, walked out from the cave with an overbearing presence. A tiny black four-headed snake was tightly coiled around his wrist. Who else could it be but Chu Zeming?

"Eldest Senior Brother, are you alright?" After speaking, Xuan Mo was about to fly forward, but someone moved faster than him.

—it was Yue Lian.

"Eldest Senior Brother, are you alright?"

Without drawing attention to himself, Yue Lian blocked everyone's line of sight. His eyes were practically glued to Chu Zeming's body.

Chu Zeming was stunned at first. Then he noticed Yue Lian staring at his body, which was covered by only a few strips of cloth and might as well have been bare. With a wave of his hand, a fresh set of dark robes appeared on him once more.

With a dark expression, Chu Zeming said, "I'm fine. I'll go back and wash up first."

After returning to the inn, Chu Zeming took a comfortable bath and became clean and tidy once more. Only then did he put on a brand-new dark robe and head out.

The injuries he had suffered in Devil Forest were not easy to heal. Even though his body had been tempered by tribulation lightning, many wounds still remained. Chu Zeming did not care much about them; they would heal after some time.

Even if they did not heal, it did not matter. Scars were a man's medals.

His junior brothers had already been waiting outside for a long time.

Chu Zeming's miserable appearance earlier had truly frightened them badly. Now that he had returned to normal, they could not help but breathe a sigh of relief. Their unsettled hearts suddenly had a pillar to lean on.

"Come on, let's watch the other junior brothers' arena matches." After saying this, Chu Zeming led the group in a grand procession back toward the Returning Origin Sect's arena.

On the arena stage, the junior brother currently fighting was absent-minded.

Eldest Senior Brother's blood-soaked arrival and equally blood-soaked departure had left him deeply uneasy.

After spending this time together, their senior brother had already become the group's spiritual pillar. If he fell, no one would have the heart to continue competing.

As he barely dealt with his opponent's attacks, the junior brother swept his gaze toward the area beneath the arena.

Suddenly, a group of familiar faces appeared.

At the center of those faces stood a young man in dark robes with black hair, his brows and features strikingly gorgeous. Joy immediately appeared on the disciple's face.

Eldest Senior Brother is alright. Eldest Senior Brother brought the senior and junior brothers to watch my match!

When watched by one's role model, one gained boundless strength.

I can't embarrass myself. I can't let Eldest Senior Brother down...

At that moment, it seemed as though a courage that charged forward without hesitation surged through his body, and his aura abruptly changed.

His opponent on the stage was startled.

Why had he suddenly become so brimming with fighting spirit?

Their moves gradually became fiercer, and the battle between the two officially entered its white-hot stage.

Beneath the arena, Chu Zeming reclined comfortably in the lounge chair Xuan Mo had thoughtfully prepared for him. As he watched his junior brother fight, he silently noted where his moves had gone wrong and where he had made mistakes in his attack angles.

Only after a long while did the match finally end.

The junior brother came down from the stage with his head lowered and said softly to Chu Zeming, "I'm sorry, Senior Brother. I lost."

Chu Zeming rose from his chair, patted the junior brother, who was more than half a head shorter than him, and comforted him, "It's alright. His cultivation was higher than yours to begin with, and you already tried very hard. But you can't lose for nothing. After we return, think carefully and summarize the other reasons you lost. Next time, keep up the effort."

The junior brother gave an affirmative sound, his mood improving considerably.

Chu Zeming looked up at Xuan Mo and asked, "Whose match is next for our sect?"

Xuan Mo carefully recalled the notice board he had seen, excluding himself, excluding Ling Tian, and excluding the other disciples... Only then did he lift his eyes and say to Chu Zeming with some hesitation, "The next match seems to be... Junior Brother Yue Lian's."

After Xuan Mo finished speaking, everyone's eyes turned in unison toward Yue Lian.

He was extremely leisurely, wandering behind Chu Zeming like nothing was wrong, as though he had no idea it was his turn to compete next. When Xuan Mo suddenly called his name, his expression was still somewhat blank. "Huh?"

"..."

Chu Zeming felt his head buzzing. He was terrified of missing a match, yet Yue Lian treated it like child's play. If not for Xuan Mo's excellent memory and reminder, Yue Lian would probably have forfeited by simply not showing up.

After the group rushed to the arena, Yue Lian unhurriedly adjusted his posture and appearance before slowly and elegantly walking toward the stage—as though afraid of pulling something, he moved at a snail's pace.

Though he only needed a light leap to get onto the stage, Yue Lian somehow walked with the bearing of a refined young lady.

Chu Zeming felt his head grow more than half a size larger just watching him.

"Lian'er truly is graceful and willowy, a landscape in a painting. Lotus flowers bloom beneath his feet, drawing all eyes in."

Suddenly, a dreamy voice sounded beside him.

Chu Zeming was nearly struck senseless by the jumble of descriptions. Turning his head, he saw that a tall, burly man in white robes had suddenly appeared beside him, waving a folding fan. Completely mismatched with his clothes were his full beard and a three-inch scar across his face—

Chu Zeming was silent for a long while before calling out, "Chang Wei?"

Chang Wei smiled and cupped his hands toward Chu Zeming in greeting. "Brother Chu, Chang Wei offers you his respects."

For a moment, everyone stood there in disarray, as though battered by the wind.

Chang Wei smiled smugly, using his folding fan to cover half his face as he asked in a low voice, "What do you think of this outfit? The shopkeeper said that as long as I wore these clothes, I'd become refined and elegant, a gentleman of exceptional grace."

Chu Zeming was silent for a long while. Then he raised his eyes, gave Chang Wei a thumbs-up, and said solemnly, "This outfit is... incredible."

Chang Wei smiled bashfully, shielding his face with the fan as he gazed at the person onstage. Like a young maiden pining for spring, he asked sorrowfully, "Will Lian'er like me when I'm so refined and elegant?"

Chu Zeming fell silent again.

Whether Lian'er would like it or not, he did not know. But honestly, he felt a little like vomiting right now...

"Clang—" The gong rang out, drawing everyone's attention away from Chang Wei and back to the arena. The elder in charge of the bye arena raised Yue Lian's hand and announced loudly, "The three-incense-stick time limit has passed, and the opponent has not appeared. I declare—Yue Lian of the Nine-Clear Haoran Sect advances!"

Author's Note:

Chu Zeming's face twisted savagely, his eyes nearly splitting open: This goddamned protagonist halo! Fuck!