Chapter 48: Looking at Each Other in Dismay

The Sword Alliance?

The Sword Path Grand Tournament?

Lin Yuchu stood outside the schoolhouse. After hearing Gu Daozi’s words, he was immediately startled.

Seeing the expression on his face, Gu Daozi explained, “The Sword Path Grand Tournament is hosted by the Sword Alliance. It is held once every ten years on the Stargazing Platform in Bright Moon Capital. Young sword cultivators from all across the world are widely invited to come and discuss the Dao through the sword, to determine who stands above the rest. It is a grand gathering of the Sword Path.”

“To cultivate the rising talents of the Sword Path, young heroes of the next generation.” Gu Daozi looked at the thoughtful expression on Lin Yuchu’s face, his gaze softening as he continued, “A century ago, the Sword Path Grand Tournament added a youth division. Any young sword cultivator above twelve and below twenty years of age may participate.”

“This year happens to be the once-every-ten-years Sword Path Grand Tournament. Our Dao Academy may recommend one person to attend.” Gu Daozi said this, then looked deeply at Lin Yuchu before him and asked, “I have chosen you. Do you dare go?”

After saying that, without waiting for Lin Yuchu to answer, he continued on his own. “You are only just twelve this year, barely meeting the minimum age requirement. You have only entered the Dao for a mere two years, and from the day you first entered the Dao Academy and picked up a sword until now, it has only been five years.”

“And those you will face are seniors nearly ten years older than you. They have cultivated the Dao for longer than you, their cultivation is higher than yours, and the time and experience they have with the sword far surpass yours as well.” Gu Daozi said slowly, “If you do not dare…”

“What is there not to dare?”

Lin Yuchu interrupted him and raised his head, his eyes bright, astonishingly bright.

He looked at Gu Daozi before him, the corners of his lips curving upward. An incomparable radiance bloomed across his fair and beautiful face, his expression full of excitement and longing. In a firm and decisive tone, he said, “I want to go.”

“I can win!”

Hearing his words and seeing the expression on his face, Gu Daozi could not help but smile too.

He looked at the youthful, tender face of the boy before him, a face brimming with vigor and boundless vitality. The expression and gaze on it were full of excitement and longing, the look of someone who yearned to compete against experts, yearned for battle, yearned for victory.

That expression, that gaze.

Gu Daozi understood it too well. He had once seen it on the faces of countless people, and every one of them had been the most dazzling, most brilliant star of their era. Or perhaps, they had been the bright moon.

All stars surrounding the moon.

There were countless stars, but only one bright moon.

Whether one became a star among the host surrounding the moon, or that one and only bright moon, depended entirely on one’s own strength.

“Then I will look forward to it.”

Gu Daozi smiled at the boy before him and said so.

He looked at the surging fighting spirit on the boy’s face and the yearning for victory in his eyes, and could not help but smile.

The spirit of youth, bold and unrestrained.

Originally, his choice had not been the twelve-year-old Lin Yuchu. The boy was too young. For him, sending him to the Sword Path Grand Tournament would put him at a disadvantage.

But Zhengyang Sword Immortal’s final choice had made him change his mind.

He thought that perhaps, for this boy, what he needed was a broader world, one that could contain his natural gifts and talent, a world where he could display his abilities to the fullest and shine brilliantly.

And the Sword Path Grand Tournament would be the best entrance for him, allowing him to come into contact with and step into that world of swordsmen.

…

After school.

The evening sun slanted west, and the sunset clouds were brilliant. Nothing was more beautiful than the red glow of dusk.

The fiery clouds in the distant sky seemed to have set the entire heavens ablaze, brilliant and intense, as bewitching and moving as flames, with a beauty that shook the heart.

Lin Yuchu walked with light steps and a smile on his face, stepping on his own shadow as he skipped and hopped home.

On the way, he passed by the Lin family’s medicine firm.

He happened to see a medicine firm clerk moving crate after crate of medicinal materials off a pushcart all by himself.

Lin Yuchu quickened his steps and walked over. He reached out to steady the wooden crate the clerk was carrying down from the pushcart and said, “Let me help you.”

Hearing the voice, the medicine firm clerk turned his head. When he saw him, a rescued smile immediately appeared on his face, and he laughed heartily. “I’ll have to trouble you again this time, Little Young Master.”

“No trouble. We’re family,” Lin Yuchu said readily as well.

After spending half an hour helping the medicine firm clerk unload this batch of medicinal materials, Lin Yuchu held the payment the clerk had given him in his hand: a small pouch of spiritual stones.

Then he turned and went to the pastry shop next door. With that small pouch of spiritual stones, he bought a box of exquisite, delicious pastries. Then he went to the wine shop across the street and used the remaining spiritual stones to buy a jar of spiritual wine. Finally, just as he was carrying the pastry box and the wine jar and preparing to go home, he saw an old man by the roadside selling candied hawthorn skewers.

So he used the last little bit of broken spiritual stones to buy one candied hawthorn skewer.

In the end.

Lin Yuchu bit into the candied hawthorn skewer, carried the pastry box, held the wine jar, and went home happily.

Lin estate.

“Grandpa, I bought your favorite Wenji pastries!”

In the pavilion, Lin Yunheng was playing chess with Lin Fengqing. From far away, before he had even seen Lin Yuchu, he heard this shout and immediately felt a little sour inside. His own precious child only thought about his grandfather.

When Lin Yunheng raised his head and looked at the old man sitting before him, at the smug expression on his own father’s face and the upward curl of his lips, he felt even more sour at once. It was as if a jar of aged vinegar had been knocked over, sour in a most unpleasant way.

“My son.”

Lin Yunheng said to Lin Fengqing before him, his tone very sour and aggrieved.

Hearing this, Lin Fengqing raised an eyebrow and looked at him, then said meaningfully, “Yes, I don’t have such good fortune. I can’t eat pastries bought for me by my son.”

“…” Lin Yunheng.

“No matter. Fortunately, I have a filial grandson!” Lin Fengqing abruptly changed tack and immediately said, exceedingly pleased with himself.

After saying that, he did not forget to throw Lin Yunheng a newly smug and boastful look. My grandson remembers me!

“…” Lin Yunheng.

This old man!

“My son. I gave birth to him.”

Lin Yunheng emphasized this to Lin Fengqing before him. “Without me, where would your grandson come from?”

Hearing this, Lin Fengqing immediately wore an undisguised look of disdain, and his tone was also very disdainful as he said, “I only want my darling grandson. As for you, go back wherever you came from.”

“…” Lin Yunheng.

Infuriating!

Utterly infuriating!

So furious he puffed up like a pufferfish!

Just as Lin Yunheng was both sour and angry, jealousy distorting him beyond recognition—

“Father, I bought wine for you!”

Lin Yuchu’s voice came again.

This one cry made Lin Yunheng’s heart blossom with joy, delight rising all the way to his brows.

“Did you hear that? My son!”

Lin Yunheng showed off to Lin Fengqing before him. “My son bought wine for me!”

Hearing this, Lin Fengqing raised an eyebrow and looked at him.

He simply could not stand seeing Lin Yunheng so smug and happy, so he said coolly, “Yes, I don’t have such good fortune. I don’t have a son who buys wine for me to drink.”

“I do have one rotten brat who steals wine to drink, though.”

“…” Lin Yunheng.

This father was unusable.

Lin Yunheng looked at his own father with a face as if his teeth ached, then turned his head and glanced at Lin Yuchu in the distance, who was holding a pastry box and carrying a wine jar as he walked this way. He leaned closer to Lin Fengqing before him, looked at him, and said, “Father, can we discuss something?”

Hearing this, Lin Fengqing immediately looked at him from the corner of his eye.

“When my son comes over later, could you not bring up those things? That’s my son. I’m a father now, after all. Don’t I need some face?” Lin Yunheng said. “You have to let me preserve my image in front of my son.”

Hearing this, Lin Fengqing immediately gave a snort of laughter. “Image? You? What image could you possibly have?”

“…” Lin Yunheng.

Now this was not something he liked hearing.

“No, Father, I’m saying you…” Lin Yunheng opened his mouth, about to speak to Lin Fengqing before him.

“Enough, enough!”

Lin Fengqing impatiently waved his hand at Lin Yunheng before him and said, “I know what I’m doing. Talk less. Don’t delay me from looking at my grandson.”

“…” Lin Yunheng.

I really was picked up from somewhere, wasn’t I?

Right? Right!

Over on that side, the moment Lin Yuchu returned home, he ran off happily to present his treasures to his grandfather and father.

He trotted into the pavilion.

“Little Chu is back!”

When Lin Fengqing saw him, he immediately waved at him and said, his face full of affection, “Come here quickly and let Grandpa take a look at you.”

“Look at you, sweating all over from running. Don’t run so fast next time. Grandpa isn’t going anywhere.” Lin Fengqing looked at Lin Yuchu ahead with an affectionate expression and spoke in a gentle tone.

Lin Yuchu ran straight over and sat down with a plop in the middle seat beside Lin Fengqing and Lin Yunheng.

He placed the pastry box and wine jar in his hands on the table before them. Then he turned his head, looked at Lin Fengqing beside him, and showed him a sweet smile. “I wanted to see Grandpa sooner.”

“When I came back today, I saw Brother Qian unloading goods all by himself. It looked really hard, so I went to help him!” Lin Yuchu said. “Brother Qian gave me a pouch of spiritual stones as payment, so I bought gifts for Grandpa and Father!”

After saying this, he pushed the pastry box before him toward Lin Fengqing.

Then he placed the wine jar by his hand in front of Lin Yunheng beside him, raised his head to look at him, and said sweetly, “This is your favorite Green Bamboo Wine, Father.”

Hearing this, Lin Yunheng immediately looked at him with a sour expression, and his tone was sour too. “Glad you still remember your father.”

“I thought all you could see was your grandfather.”

As soon as Lin Yuchu heard this, he knew his father was jealous.

So Lin Yuchu immediately soothed him with practiced ease, saying earnestly, “Father, we’re already so grown up. We have to respect the old and cherish the young!”

“…” Lin Yunheng.

After hearing Lin Yuchu’s words, he then compared the three people present with a deep expression on his face and discovered…

Of the three people here, Lin Fengqing occupied the old, Lin Yuchu occupied the young, and only he…

Lin Fengqing at the side gave him no face at all and snorted with laughter, mocking Lin Yunheng without the slightest courtesy. “Did you hear that? Respect the old and cherish the young.”

“You aren’t even as good as Little Chu, and you still want Little Chu to buy you wine!” Lin Fengqing said with a cold laugh. “Yet you can’t even vent your son’s anger for him and make him happy.”

Lin Yunheng knew that he was pointing at the mulberry while cursing the locust, saying that Lin Yunheng had not gone to stand up for Lin Yuchu and beat up Zhengyang Sword Immortal to vent his anger. Lin Fengqing was becoming more and more unreasonable with age. He also did not think about it. Zhengyang refusing to accept Little Chu was indeed not entirely proper in terms of moral obligation, but in terms of reason, there was nothing wrong with it.

He was accepting a disciple. What kind of disciple he wanted, what kind he was willing to accept, was his own business.

They could not go looking for trouble just because he did not accept Little Chu.

Otherwise, what had originally only been a trivial matter, something that would be over once it passed, would instead become a case of them being unreasonable if the adults of the family truly went knocking on his door. That would not do. If word of that spread, how would their Little Chu conduct himself in the future?

Lin Yunheng could only say in a tactful and roundabout way, “There will be time enough in the future…”

“People can’t be beaten, but the days ahead are long,” Lin Yunheng said meaningfully. “There will be plenty of opportunities.”

Hearing this.

Lin Fengqing immediately gave a snort of laughter. “You’re the one with all the schemes in your belly.”

Lin Yuchu, at the side, listened to their conversation, looked at his fox-spirit father and his old fox grandfather, then blinked.

He pretended not to understand a single word they were saying.

In an innocent and pure tone, he loudly said, “Father, Grandpa, I have good news to tell you!”

At the sound of his voice.

Lin Yunheng and Lin Fengqing both turned their heads at the same time and looked at him.

“The headmaster recommended me to participate in this year’s Sword Path Grand Tournament!”

Lin Yuchu said this in a joyful, delighted tone.

“…” Lin Yunheng.

“…” Lin Fengqing.

They were immediately frightened.

“Our Little Chu is only twelve this year, right?”

Lin Yunheng hurriedly turned his head and asked his own father.

He felt a little panicked inside.

Lin Fengqing, who likewise felt a little panicked inside, immediately rebuked him in a tone of hating iron for not becoming steel. “Isn’t he your son? Don’t you know how old he is? Why are you asking me?”

After scolding him, he said in a hesitant tone, “Our Little Chu is twelve this year, right?”

Then the two mature, steady adults looked at each other.

And looked at each other in dismay…

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