LWSL Chapter 106

Big thanks and a shout-out to biki for sending me a laptop so that I can translate LWSL more conveniently!

Special thanks to saitohimea for the tips on ko-fi!

Hei Xuanyi saw that Wu Ruo’s head was drooping like a little puppy that had been injured, then he realized that his words had given Wu Ruo a heavy blow. He pulled Wu Ruo into his embrace and comforted him: “I’m different from you. A large portion of my spiritual energy was given to me by my great-grandfather before he passed away; that’s how I managed to ascend to the 9th level in such a short duration of time.”

When Wu Ruo heard him bringing up personal matters, he looked at Hei Xuanyi, shocked: “Your great-grandfather passed all his spiritual energy to you? Wouldn’t he implode and die?”

It was the same with eating top grade spiritual energy pills; if one consumed too many of them consecutively in a short period of time, their body would definitely swell and explode from the massive amounts of spiritual energy. This was why, even if one had many spiritual energy pills, they couldn’t be recklessly consumed. One had to space apart the consumption of the pills by at least half a year, and during that period, they would need to concentrate on diligently cultivating. This was because rising quickly in one’s spiritual energy level didn’t mean that their foundation would be stable. In a situation where everyone was of the same spiritual energy level, it would easily show that such an individual would have an obvious gap in their spiritual energy compared to others.

“My body is a little special.”

Wu Ruo frowned, thought for a while, then asked: “When your great-grandfather passed his spiritual energy to you, what was his level?”

“9th level.”

“With his 9th level spiritual energy and your own innate spiritual energy, it shouldn’t just be the 9th level, right? Is it possible to rise to a 10th level? Although, I’ve never heard of anyone’s spiritual energy surpassing the 9th level.”

In his past lifetime, Wu Ruo had never encountered a 9th level practitioner, so he wasn’t very familiar with the situation regarding the 9th level of spiritual energy.

Hei Xuanyi explained: “There isn’t a 10th level. Once your spiritual energy level reaches the 9th level, you still need to cultivate a sufficiently vast spiritual field to store more spiritual energy, in order to be able to exhibit your clan’s top grade secret skills to its full extent at important junctures, just like the Night Flight of Infinite Gui. You saw this secret skill when you were leaving Gaoling City; it was because of insufficient spiritual energy, that’s why it wasn’t able to reach its full, true extent. The real Grand Banquet of Infinite Gui is extremely horrifying, you would need to expend an immense amount of spiritual energy to be able to invite the top grade vicious gui.”

“…” Wu Ruo was suddenly silent, quietly staring at Hei Xuanyi in a daze.

Hei Xuanyi’s gaze flashed with uncertainty: “What’s wrong?”

“You…”

“Hn?”

Wu Ruo looked at him with a complicated expression: “This is the first time you’ve spoken so much to me.”

If this person could’ve spoken this much in their previous lifetime, then they wouldn’t have had so many misunderstandings occurring between the both of them.

Hei Xuanyi: “…”

It was true that Hei Xuanyi didn’t speak that much on an average day, but it didn’t mean that he didn’t like to talk. It was because, in the past, there weren’t that many people to accompany him to chat, converse with and confide in, so as time went by, he got used to keeping quiet and not speaking.

“I’ll talk to you more often in the future.”

This sentence was clearly just a normal, simple one, yet Wu Ruo’s heart seized viciously in that moment, out of the blue. It was so painful that he wanted to hug Hei Xuanyi tightly.

In actuality, he also really did that as well. He buried his head into the crook of Hei Xuanyi’s neck, smelling the fragrance that was emanating faintly from the other party’s body.

Hei Xuanyi felt a bit of coolness at his neck, it seemed like the person in his arms was crying?

He was a little stunned, not knowing quite what to do. He was just about to do something, anything at all, when he heard Wu Ruo murmur: “Don’t move, and don’t look at me. And all the more, don’t ask me anything.”

Wu Ruo himself was baffled about why he was so anguished.

Hei Xuanyi: “…”

After an unknown duration of time had passed, Hei Xuanyi felt that the breath tickling his neck became more and more even.

With gentle steps and tender hands, he pulled the person in his arms away from him, and he saw that Wu Ruo’s thick and lovely eyelashes were covered in crystal water droplets. With an aching heart, he lowered his head and gently kissed away the tears on Wu Ruo’s eyes. Afterwards, he maintained that position and hugged Wu Ruo to sleep.

After three days, Wu Xi had gone out for a stroll every single day, and she had finally strolled to some results. When she returned to the manor, she immediately told Wu Ruo and the others the story about running into a strange man.

“That man looked a few years older than Dad, he was extremely good-looking, but who would’ve thought that he was a nutcase? The moment he saw me, he rushed towards me, very agitated, and grabbed me by my arm! He said that the jade pendant on my waist belonged to him, and he wanted me to return it to him. He even called me a thief and accused me of stealing his jade pendant!”

Wu Qianqing and Guan Tong turned to look at Wu Ruo.

Wu Ruo asked: “Then what did you say to him?”

“I said, the jade pendant was given to me by my erge who spent 5,000 silver taels buying it. If he didn’t believe it for himself, then he could go to the shop where erge, you, bought it from and verify it. Then he would know whether or not I stole his jade pendant.”

Wu Ruo nodded his head, satisfied. Nothing was out of his expectations; Wu Chenliu had very quickly found his way to them.

Sure enough, two shichen later, Wu Chenliu who had investigated and clarified the matter showed up on their doorstep with gifts to apologize.

Wu Ruo got everyone else to return to their residences, only leaving Hei Xuanyi and Hei Xin at the main hall.

When Wu Chenliu was invited to the main hall, he heard that there were Hei Manor servants currently reporting the situation to the owner of Hei Manor: “Master, furen, this old servant has already researched that Xuanhai Academy is the best academy within Huangdu City. It’s only that the disciples that the academy accepts are all from prestigious clans; if someone without much standing enters Xuanhai Academy for education, they’ll very easily be a target for bullying. However, if she enrolls into any other academy, this old servant worries that Miss Xi won’t be able to learn much…”

The servant ushering in Wu Chenliu interrupted Hei Xin: “Master, furen, the guest has arrived.”

Wu Ruo, who was currently listening to Hei Xin speak, raised his head and saw Wu Chenliu, and immediately stood up to welcome him: “Senior, please come in.”

Before coming, Wu Chenliu had already asked around and clarified the situation regarding Hei Manor, so he wasn’t surprised by Hei Manor having a male mistress of the manor, however, he was very astonished by the beauty of the two manor owners’ physical appearances.

Before coming, he had already heard that the two masters of Hei Manor had appearances akin to celestials descending to the mortal realm; unparalleled beauties. At that moment, he’d thought that everyone was exaggerating. But with a single look today, it truly was like setting sights on celestials.

Wu Ruo invited Wu Chenliu in to take a seat, then he poured Wu Chenliu a high grade medicinal tea, before he asked: “What brings Senior to our humble abode today¹Wu Ruo doesn’t actually say ‘our humble abode’ in Chinese, but he is using a manner of speech that is much more polite and formal, which demonstrates his deference towards Wu Chenliu’s seniority.?”

Wu Chenliu knew that his late wife’s treasured item was right in Hei Manor, so, he didn’t hurry to state his reason for visiting. Firstly, he picked up the teacup and took a sip of tea, praising: “This is excellent tea. This old man²If I recall correctly, Wu Bofang also used this phrase to refer to himself when Hei Xin visited the Gaoling City Wu estate. In Wu Chenliu’s case, he doesn’t have any relations to Wu Ruo and is thus using a neutral title for himself as a first-person pronoun to be courteous. has never had such excellent tea before. I wonder what kind of tea leaves this tea was prepared with?”

Wu Ruo pursed his lips together and smiled: “It was only brewed with five types of herbs and regular tea leaves, and isn’t any kind of precious tea. I hope Senior won’t take offence.”

“Herbs? Then it should have benefits for the body, shouldn’t it?”

“Yes, it has properties that refresh the mind and strengthen the body. If Senior does not mind, I’ll get the servants to pack a bag of the tea for you to take home with you.”

Wu Chenliu didn’t reject his hospitality either: “Then I’ll thank you here first.”

Following after, he sighed and said: “This old man has come this time because of an incident. It was just this morning, when this old man went out to visit an old friend, I ran into a little young lady who was wearing a blue jade pendant on her waist. Upon closer inspection, I realized that the jade pendant actually happened to be the jade pendant that was left behind by my wife, who has already passed on. Therefore, in my agitation, I grabbed this little young lady, and said some impolite things…”

Wu Ruo feigned ignorance about the matter: “This little young lady that Senior speaks of is…”

“It happened to be your esteemed younger sister, Wu Xi. This old man knows that you spent 5,000 silver taels to purchase that jade pendant, and this old man can return you that 5,000 silver taels, no, I can pay you 10,000 silver taels to buy that jade pendant from you. What do you think?”

Wu Ruo considered the matter: “If it’s really something left behind by Senior’s wife, I can return it to you, but I’m not sure how we could go about verifying that it’s your wife’s jade pendant?”

“There’s a ‘Lan‘ character carved onto the jade pendant. There is also a crack on the upper right hand corner of the jade pendant. That year, my wife was very severely ill, when she fainted, she accidentally cracked it. Furen, please sell the jade pendant back to me.”

Wu Ruo got Hei Xin to bring Wu Xi to the main hall.

Wu Xi arrived at the main hall, saw Wu Chenliu, and in an instance, her eyes widened: “It’s you! Erge, he was the one who said I stole his jade pendant!”

“Xiao-Xi, don’t be rude.” Wu Ruo explained Wu Chenliu’s situation to her.

Wu Xi’s opinion of Wu Chenliu immediately changed. She hurriedly took off the jade pendant and returned it to Wu Chenliu: “So, it was something your late wife left to you, then I’d better return it to you. You have to take good care of it! Don’t lose it again!”

Wu Chenliu withdrew a silver note from his chest pocket, but he was rejected by Wu Ruo.

“How could I just take it back for free? You spent 5,000 silver taels to purchase this jade pendant. If this old man takes this jade pendant now, I should at least return you your money, shouldn’t I?”

Before coming, Wu Chenliu had already decided, if the other party didn’t want to return him the jade pendant, then he would take out his status as a former member of the Wu family, so that Wu Ruo would sell the jade pendant back to him on account of that bit of prestige. He didn’t expect that Wu Ruo would be so agreeable, not only returning him the jade pendant, but also not accepting his money.

Wu Ruo said: “To us, 5,000 silver taels is just a small sum of money. Senior need not take it to heart. Since it’s our first time here, settling down in this area, please take it as a greeting gift from us.”

“This…” Wu Chenliu could tell that they really weren’t short of money, but it still wasn’t polite to simply accept the jade pendant, so he said: “Just now, when this old man was coming in, I heard that you were looking for an academy to enroll in.”

Wu Ruo’s gaze brightened: “Yes. Does Senior have any good recommendations?”

“I don’t have any recommendations, however, this old man used to be an instructor and has taught countless of students. Although I haven’t established an institution, but I teach as well as any academy. If you don’t mind, I can take Miss Wu Xi in as my personal disciple. On top of that, my manor is just nearby, it’ll be very convenient for her to attend lessons.”

Of course, Wu Ruo knew that Wu Chenliu lived nearby. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have told Wu Xi to walk around within the vicinity: “Of course we wouldn’t mind, it’s just that my younger sister practices the Yin Yang arts style, and can’t quite pick up other styles of practice…”

“This old man teaches just that: the Yin Yang arts style.”

Wu Ruo looked at him, pleasantly surprised: “Really? Could it be that Senior is…?”

“This old man’s name is Wu Chenliu.”

Wu Xi’s eyes instantly widened: “Your surname is Wu? The same as us? Then are you from the Wu family?”

Wu Chenliu shook his head no: “Because of some personal issues, I’ve been expelled from the clan. I don’t count as part of the Wu family.”

“But Senior still has the Wu family’s blood, and you’re from the ‘Chen’ generation, then wouldn’t you be brothers with our great-great-grandfather?” Wu Xi said excitedly, “Senior, we’re also from the Wu family! But we’re the Wu family’s side branch, from Gaoling City.”

Wu Chenliu said: “I know. Before I came here, I’d already looked into your family.”

Wu Xi asked cautiously: “Do you really wish to take me as your disciple?”

Wu Chenliu nodded.

“That’s amazing!” Wu Xi ran out of the main hall, wild with joy: “I must tell my father and mother about this!”

When Wu Qianqing and Guan Tong found out about this matter, they could only stare dazedly, disbelieving, in their original spots. They never would’ve thought that the shifu that Wu Xi was about to take on would be brothers with their great-grandfather; what kind of honor would it be? On top of that, when Wu Qianqing had gone for his experience training, he had already heard of Wu Chenliu’s reputation. He would definitely be an excellent instructor, so, without another word, they allowed Wu Xi to take on this person as her shifu.

• 1
  Wu Ruo doesn’t actually say ‘our humble abode’ in Chinese, but he is using a manner of speech that is much more polite and formal, which demonstrates his deference towards Wu Chenliu’s seniority.
• 2
  If I recall correctly, Wu Bofang also used this phrase to refer to himself when Hei Xin visited the Gaoling City Wu estate. In Wu Chenliu’s case, he doesn’t have any relations to Wu Ruo and is thus using a neutral title for himself as a first-person pronoun to be courteous.