Zanxing (Retranslated)

Chapter 39 - Gu Baiying (1)

Zanxing stared at the person in front of her.

The Taiyan Sect had seven senior martial uncles, which she knew. But in the original text, there didn’t seem to be such a character. With a name and face like that, if she had seen it before, it would be impossible not to remember.

Seeing her only paying attention to Baiying absentmindedly, Ziluo quietly tugged at Zanxing’s sleeve and whispered, “Junior Sister.”

Zanxing snapped out of it.

“Yang Zanxing, Hua Yue,” Xuan Lingzi stared at the two of them sternly, “Who allowed you to fight here?”

Hua Yue innocently replied, “Senior Uncle, it wasn’t me who started it. I just got up and saw Junior Sister Yang coming at me aggressively. All fellow disciples can testify for me.”

The other disciples nodded in agreement, saying, “That’s right, I swear, it was indeed Yang Zanxing who attacked first.”

“Senior Brother Hua Yue didn’t do anything.”

Xuan Lingzi turned to Yang Zanxing: “Yang Zanxing, why did you attack your fellow senior martial brother?”

Zanxing glanced at Hua Yue and replied, “Yesterday, I went into the mountains with my fellow disciples. While I was on the way to find the Night Vine Branch, Hua Yue ambushed me with the intention to harm me. Is this how fellow disciples treat each other?”

“It’s impossible,” said Xuan Lingzi, “To prevent any harm among fellow disciples, before entering the mountains, I placed a heart-linking curse on each of you. If anyone attacks a fellow disciple, the curse will activate, leaving a mark on their forehead. Hua Yue’s forehead is clean, without any mark.”

“That’s right,” Hua Yue said firmly, “Junior Sister Yang, don’t slander others due to personal grievances.”

Zanxing furrowed her brow, but quickly realized that Hua Yue hadn’t actually attacked her. None of his sword strikes had landed on her. He simply forced her to grasp the Night Vine Branch, which broke. In a way, Hua Yue wasn’t the mastermind.

However… looking at the satisfaction in his eyes, Zanxing felt frustrated. Hua Yue must have known about the heart-linking curse early on and deliberately found a loophole.

Was this also a test from the original text?

“Sixth Senior Uncle,” Ziluo smiled, “Junior Sister Zanxing might have stayed in the mountains overnight and become a bit confused. Look, her clothes are dirty too. Whatever it is, let’s wait for Junior Sister Zanxing to change her clothes and rest before discussing it.”

Xuan Lingzi then noticed Zanxing’s unique and stylish robe, feeling a bit embarrassed. He waved his hand, “Go quickly, after you’ve freshened up, come to the hall to find me.”

Ziluo hurriedly led Zanxing away.

After they left, the disciples outside the wooden building dispersed, and Hua Yue returned to his own room. Xuan Lingzi and Gu Baiying walked together towards the hall.

“Junior Brother, I’m really sorry,” Xuan Lingzi apologized, feeling embarrassed, “As soon as you arrived, you witnessed such a farce. These young ones, full of youthful vigor, resorting to violence at the drop of a hat, who knows who they’re influenced by.”

“At least not by you,” Gu Baiying chuckled casually, “But, that fellow just now couldn’t even see through the illusion. The new inner disciples we recruited this time don’t seem to have much talent.”

“That’s not entirely fair. Wasn’t Yang Zanxing just returning from Mount Gufeng?” Xuan Lingzi sighed and shook his head, “To stay overnight on Mount Gufeng and come out unscathed, it’s the first time since Taiyan established the sect. Just on this point, she’s not ordinary.”

Gu Baiying continued up the stone steps, unimpressed. “Maybe she encountered some stroke of luck in the mountains, managing to preserve her life. A chance occurrence once doesn’t amount to anything special.”

He took a few steps forward, noticing no movement behind him. Turning back, he saw Xuan Lingzi had stopped in his tracks, standing behind him, lost in thought.

“What’s wrong?”

“Junior Brother,” Xuan Lingzi lifted his head, his expression somewhat hesitant. After a moment, he stuttered, “There’s something I haven’t had a chance to tell you.”

“What is it?”

“Why do I say Yang Zanxing is special? It’s because earlier, in the martial arts hall… she found the ‘Qing’e Flower-Picking Staff.'”

The young man’s expression suddenly froze. “What did you say?”

“Your mother… the technique written by Fairy Qinghua, was found by Yang Zanxing,” Xuan Lingzi said.

*

Inside the small wooden building, Zanxing sat comfortably in a wooden tub, soaking in a hot bath.

As Ziluo brought in a clean robe, she said, “Wait a bit, I’ll have someone bring some spirit grass over later. You spent the night in the mountains yesterday, and it seems like your vitality has been depleted. You need to replenish yourself properly in the coming days.”

“Thank you, Senior Sister,” Zanxing leaned against the edge of the tub. The Xiao Yuan Pearl seemed to have stabilized after last night, nourishing her vitality, and there were no signs of injury from the marsh other than fatigue. It was truly fortunate amidst misfortune.

However, this time, she had thoroughly made enemies with Hua Yue. Now that he was convinced she was hiding treasure on her, if one plan failed, he would inevitably come back with another. Thinking of this, Zanxing couldn’t help but sigh.

Ziluo thought Zanxing was worried about not being able to explain herself to Xuan Lingzi and comforted her, saying, “Junior Sister, don’t worry. Sixth Senior Uncle is usually easy going. When you go to see him later, just portray yourself as being in a dire situation, and he won’t hold it against you. Fighting with fellow disciples will at most get you punished with some chores in the outer courtyard.”

Zanxing was taken aback for a moment but then remembered another matter and asked, “Senior Sister, the Seventh Senior Uncle who appeared today, is he skilled in the Art of Preserving Youth? He seems to be around our age. Why doesn’t Master teach him?”

Upon hearing this, Ziluo chuckled and said, “What Art of Preserving Youth? Seventh Senior Uncle is quite young, he’s not even twenty this year.”

“Nineteen?” Zanxing was puzzled. “Then how did he become a senior uncle at such a young age?”

Xuan Lingzi looked to be in his fifties, old enough to be Gu Baiying’s father, yet they were senior brothers. Although this is a cultivation novel where logic isn’t always applied, this setup seemed a bit too arbitrary.

“Seventh Senior Uncle may be young, but his cultivation is high. Moreover, his mother is Fairy Qinghua, who is a fellow disciple of the sect master. According to seniority, he’s naturally on the same level as the senior uncles.”

Zanxing’s heart skipped a beat. “Fairy Qinghua?”

She did have an impression of this name. If the founder and sect master, Sage Yushan, was the only cultivator in the land of Duzhou to successfully ascend and thus became the living symbol of the Taiyan Sect, then Fairy Qinghua, Sage Yushan’s disciple, was the enduring icon of everlasting youth for the Taiyan Sect over the years.

In the original text, although there were only a few mentions of Fairy Qinghua, those sparse descriptions outlined an image of a highly skilled, cold-hearted, and exceptionally beautiful goddess.

However, it only described the goddess. It never mentioned that the goddess had a son, did it?

Ziluo glanced at Zanxing, smoothing out the last fold in the robe, and said, “The ‘Qing’e Flower-Picking Staff’ you found in the martial arts hall is written by Seventh Senior Uncle’s mother, Fairy Qinghua.”