Chapter 50: The One Who Chases the Light

Kunlun Dao Academy.

It was just at sunset, when the westering sun shone in through the classroom windows. The whole room sank into a golden halo, and amid countless refracted rays of light, dust motes could be faintly seen in the air.

The classroom was filled with row after row of seats, but at this moment, it was empty and deserted. In the entire classroom, only Ruan Mingzhao remained, sitting beside his desk, expressionless, his gaze fixed the whole time on the desk by the front window that had belonged to Lin Yuchu and had been empty from morning until now.

And…

Jiang Yu, who was sitting in the front row beside him, sprawled over his desk and sleeping soundly.

He was even drooling!

Jiang Yu, who did not love studying to begin with, was especially uninterested in studying today. From the moment class began, he had planted his head on the desk and slept soundly all the way until now, still not awake.

So much so that even after class ended and school was dismissed, everyone in the classroom had left, yet Jiang Yu was still asleep.

Ruan Mingzhao’s gaze remained fixed, fixed, fixed on that seat that had been empty since morning.

He had once stared at that seat for a very long time, many times.

So many times that he could no longer count them, could no longer remember how many there had been.

Every time, as long as he turned his head, he could see that person.

That person whom he had chased from long ago, from the very beginning, all the way until now.

It seemed that from that time onward, from the very start, his eyes had been chasing that person.

As if…

The golden sunlight shining in through the front window stained the whole room with a bright glow, dazzling enough that Ruan Mingzhao instinctively narrowed his eyes.

That was right…

He thought, that person was like light.

And he was the one who chased the light.

The one who chased after light’s footsteps, who vainly tried to grasp the light.

He had once thought he could clutch sunlight in his hand. He had closed his fist around it, only to discover—

Light slipped away between his fingers. It was light that could not be grasped.

It was light that would shine bright forever, light that would never go out.

The person who thought he had grasped the light had merely been arrogant in his own self-importance.

Light that could not be held.

A road chasing light that would never come to a stop.

—

Ruan Mingzhao lowered his eyes, his dark, thick lashes casting a dim shadow over his face.

He pressed his lips together, his expression firm.

He made up his mind.

He shot to his feet, pushed his chair aside, and strode forward.

Then he stopped beside Jiang Yu’s desk.

Ruan Mingzhao stood in front of Jiang Yu’s desk, looking down from above at Jiang Yu, who was sprawled over the desk and sleeping so deeply he had no idea what time or day it was.

Then, without the slightest hesitation, he stretched out a finger and knocked hard on Jiang Yu’s desk several times. “Thump, thump, thump!”

“Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump!”

“Bang!”

Seeing that Jiang Yu still had not woken after so long, the impatient Ruan Mingzhao finally simply punched the desk, and with quite a lot of force…

“Gah!”

Jiang Yu, who was in the middle of a beautiful dream where he had everything, was instantly startled awake by that thunderous crash. He abruptly lifted his head, his eyes not yet open, still bleary with sleep, and snapped in a soft, weak voice, “Who is it? Are you trying to die?”

“You dare disturb my sweet dream? Do you not want to live?”

“It’s me.”

Ruan Mingzhao stood before him and said in a low voice.

“Who are you?”

Jiang Yu, who had just been forcibly woken from his sleep, stared blearily at the person before him and spoke in a limp voice with no deterrent force at all.

He tried hard to blink, attempting to see the person in front of him clearly.

Blink, blink.

At last, under his unremitting efforts, the countless figures swaying indistinctly before him finally overlapped into a single person.

The image gradually became clear as well.

Finally, Ruan Mingzhao’s distinct figure was reflected in his eyes.

“It’s you…”

After seeing him clearly, Jiang Yu said in sudden realization.

Then, immediately afterward, he flew into a rage. “Ruan Mingzhao, are you looking for death? Why did you wake me up when nothing’s wrong?”

Faced with his anger and hostility, Ruan Mingzhao’s expression did not change. His face remained dark as he asked in a low voice, “Where is Lin Yuchu?”

It would have been better if he had not asked. The moment he did—

He instantly lit the fuse.

Jiang Yu exploded on the spot. As soon as he heard Ruan Mingzhao mention Lin Yuchu’s name, Jiang Yu immediately slapped both hands on the desk and rose, standing up in fury, his eyes blazing as he glared at Ruan Mingzhao before him and said angrily, “You still have the nerve to ask!”

“How do you have the nerve to mention his name?”

“After something like that happened!”

Jiang Yu furiously questioned Ruan Mingzhao.

Hearing his words, and faced with Jiang Yu’s anger, Ruan Mingzhao’s gaze was cold and heavy. His face was expressionless, and his tone was calm as he said, “That was Zhengyang Sword Immortal’s decision. It has nothing to do with me.”

It would have been better if he had not said that.

The moment he did, Jiang Yu’s entire body seemed to catch fire. Rage surged out and swept through the whole room, as if vowing to burn the culprit, Ruan Mingzhao, to death. “You really dare say that!” Jiang Yu glared viciously at Ruan Mingzhao and said through gritted teeth, “It has nothing to do with you. What a fine ‘nothing to do with you’!”

With that, Jiang Yu, driven by anger, clenched both fists tightly as if venting, then swung a fist toward Ruan Mingzhao’s face with heavy force.

Ruan Mingzhao stood there without moving, his gaze watching his movement.

Until—

Bang!

The punch smashed hard into Ruan Mingzhao’s face, and his cheek instantly turned bruised and dark.

“Why didn’t you dodge?”

Jiang Yu said angrily, “Don’t think I’ll spare you just because of that.”

“If you’ve got the guts, then keep standing there without moving and let me beat you up properly to vent my anger!” Jiang Yu said. He had always been someone who did exactly what he said.

As soon as those words fell, he threw his whole body at Ruan Mingzhao and swung his fists at him fiercely.

“Damn it! I knew you had no guts.”

After Jiang Yu had punched him hard in the face, Ruan Mingzhao silently swallowed down the bloody saliva rising in his mouth.

Then, just as Jiang Yu lunged at him and swung his fist, he reached out and blocked Jiang Yu’s fist.

That made Jiang Yu curse again in fury.

“One punch.”

Ruan Mingzhao stared at Jiang Yu before him and said in a cold, heavy voice, “That’s enough for you to vent your anger.”

“If you keep making trouble, I won’t be polite.”

“…Who wants you to be polite!”

Jiang Yu said angrily. He glared at Ruan Mingzhao before him. “Today, I’m going to teach you a lesson on Lin Yuchu’s behalf! He treated you so well, but you treated him like that!”

“You stole his chance!”

“It wasn’t easy for him to finally gather his courage!”

Jiang Yu shook off Ruan Mingzhao’s grip on his hand, then charged at him savagely and wildly.

Like an enraged alpha wolf.

Biting, roaring.

“He has always worked that hard, that seriously, giving everything he has to everything he does. Whether it’s studying, Sword Path, or anything else…”

“How sad must he be!”

Ruan Mingzhao, who had originally been continuously raising his hand to block and stop him, instantly froze when he heard those words.

Then Jiang Yu seized the opening, took the chance, and pressed him down hard onto the ground before giving him a fierce beating.

As Jiang Yu punched and beat Ruan Mingzhao, whom he had pinned to the ground, he roared, “How could you? How could you treat him like this?”

“How could you bear to do it?”

And Ruan Mingzhao, pinned to the floor and being beaten by him, did not move at all.

His face held a somewhat stunned, absent expression.

Would he be sad?

Would he feel hurt too?

The moment he thought of that, Ruan Mingzhao felt a stabbing pain in his chest. Violent spasms of pain surged up one after another, hurting so badly that even his heart cramped and twitched.

Then Ruan Mingzhao’s eyes quickly turned red, his entire eye rims flushing.

With reddened eyes, his expression like an enraged lion whose sore spot had been stepped on, he suppressed his voice and roared, “This was not what I wanted!”

Then he grabbed Jiang Yu, who was pinning him down and beating him, and flung him to the ground.

“Huh!?”

Jiang Yu, who had been beating someone up and enjoying himself, was completely baffled, his face blank.

He still had not understood what had happened.

Then…

Then Jiang Yu was brutally beaten by Ruan Mingzhao, whose breaking point had been stepped on and who had erupted, his eyes scarlet and his expression furious.

“!!!!!” Jiang Yu.

Understand this for a moment…

Ruan Mingzhao came from a Sword Path family and practiced the sword all year round. Whether in build, strength, or fists, he was not someone Jiang Yu, the little weakling heir to the Array Path, could compare to.

The two of them were simply incomparable, not on the same level at all.

One punch from Ruan Mingzhao was not the same as one punch from Jiang Yu.

If that punch landed, it might take Jiang Yu’s life…

Faced with Ruan Mingzhao, whose eyes were red, expression furious, and whole person seemed to have gone mad, Jiang Yu’s heart instantly thudded. Secretly crying out that things were bad, he hurriedly said to Ruan Mingzhao, “Calm down. Calm down, Ruan Mingzhao, good brother! Awooo—”

“Awooo, awooo, awooo awooo!”

“Fuck your mother, awooo awooo awooo, it hurts! It hurts so much, ahhh—”

—

After being thoroughly beaten up by Ruan Mingzhao, Jiang Yu lay weakly sprawled on the ground.

I am already dead.

From now on, please call me Jiang Dead Fish.

Jiang Yu lay on the ground with the whites of his eyes showing, bruised and swollen all over, weak and powerless, just like a dead fish.

In his heart, he pitied himself beyond measure.

Why exactly? Why exactly had you lost your mind so badly that you provoked that male lion, Ruan Mingzhao?

Why did you have to clash with him head-on?

Why didn’t you throw a burlap sack over him from behind instead?

And Ruan Mingzhao, whose face was likewise bruised and purplish, sat expressionlessly on a nearby chair. He seemed to have calmed down.

“I did not agree,” he said coldly.

“What?”

Jiang Dead Fish, sprawled on the ground, did not react for a moment and asked instinctively.

“I refused Zhengyang Sword Immortal’s offer to take me as a disciple.”

Ruan Mingzhao’s voice was cold and heavy, without any emotional fluctuation.

“…”

After a long silence.

“Why did you refuse?”

Jiang Yu asked.

“Because I felt I wasn’t worthy. I lost.”

Ruan Mingzhao said calmly, “The loser has no right to receive a reward.”

Hearing his words, even Jiang Yu could not help clicking his tongue at his arrogance. So Zhengyang Sword Immortal taking a disciple, something everyone envied, was in his eyes nothing more than a reward for victory?

But then Jiang Yu thought again. For Lin Yuchu, was that not also the case?

Perhaps, for these Sword Path geniuses, who they took as master was not important.

In this world, there were things far more important than that.

For example, Lin Yuchu to Ruan Mingzhao.

And for example, the Lin family to Lin Yuchu.

To Lin Yuchu and Ruan Mingzhao, the most important things were themselves and the people beside them.

Sword Path, in the end, was only an external thing.

Because their hearts had attachments, everything else became secondary.

Lying on the ground, Jiang Yu’s eyes suddenly flashed with confusion. But Teacher had also said that the great Dao was heartless, and one walked it alone.

Who exactly was right, and who was wrong?

Feeling, or no feeling?

—

A long time later.

“Lin Yuchu is going to Bright Moon Capital to take part in the Sword Path Grand Competition held by the Sword Alliance, so for a long period of time after this, he won’t be coming to the Dao Academy for school,” Jiang Yu said.

As for how long this long period of time would be, no one knew.

Perhaps it would only be one month. Perhaps it would be forever.

The top three in the Sword Path Grand Competition could be admitted by special exception to the greatest sword sect in the world, the strongest sword peak of the Kunlun Sword Sect, Purple Firmament Sword Peak, to cultivate Sword Path.

“And also…”

“I’m sorry.”

“I shouldn’t have taken my anger out on you,” Jiang Yu said. “I was just too angry to accept it.”

He paused, then said heavily, “Good brother!”

“From now on, you’re my good brother for life!” Jiang Yu said. “There won’t be a next time.”

“In the future, I’ll believe you.”

Ruan Mingzhao, sitting on the chair beside him, shot to his feet after hearing his words. Without another word, he walked outside.

“Where are you going?”

Seeing what he was doing, Jiang Yu hurriedly asked.

“To find Lin Yuchu!”

Ruan Mingzhao said without looking back.

—

Lin estate.

“Young Master, someone outside is looking for you.”

A guard of the Lin estate came to the courtyard and spoke to Lin Yuchu, who was sitting in the cool pavilion reading books related to Bright Moon Capital.

Hearing this, Lin Yuchu immediately stopped reading. He lifted his eyes, looked at the newcomer, and asked, “Who?”

“It’s Young Master Ruan.”

The guard said this, then hesitation and uncertainty flashed across his face. In the end, he still did not describe Ruan Mingzhao’s battered, bruised, swollen, and disheveled appearance, nor how his handsome face was so swollen it had changed shape. He only said, “Young Master, you should go take a look. Young Master Ruan’s condition doesn’t seem very good.”

When Lin Yuchu heard this, thought flashed across his face.

Then he closed the book in his hand and said, “I understand.”

With that, he rose.

He walked outside.

When Lin Yuchu arrived outside the main gate of the Lin estate,

he stepped out of the estate and saw from afar Ruan Mingzhao waiting outside the gate.

Lin Yuchu lifted his eyes and looked toward Ruan Mingzhao outside, while Ruan Mingzhao, who stood outside, noticed the movement behind him as well. He turned around and raised his head to look at him.

“…” Lin Yuchu.

Gah!

Once he saw the state of Ruan Mingzhao’s face clearly, even Lin Yuchu, who had already sensed something from the guard’s hesitant words, was still instantly startled.

Lin Yuchu looked at Ruan Mingzhao’s… face and blurted out, “What happened to your face?”

“Who hit you?”

“They’re really capable!”

“…” Ruan Mingzhao.

Ruan Mingzhao, who had just become emotionally stirred because he had seen Lin Yuchu after such a long absence and had wanted to say something, was instantly choked speechless by that one line.

Then, as if realizing something,

he hurriedly raised a hand to cover his face.

After finishing this movement, he seemed to realize something else, and immediately turned around, putting his back to Lin Yuchu.

“…” Lin Yuchu.

Lin Yuchu was stunned by this whole series of actions.

Utterly dumbfounded.

“You… don’t look at me.”

With his back to Lin Yuchu, Ruan Mingzhao spoke in a muffled voice. “I don’t look good.”

“…” Lin Yuchu.

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