Big thanks and a shout-out to biki for sending me a laptop so that I can translate LWSL more conveniently!
The three of them chatted until it was close to zishi111 pm to 12:59am. before they each got up, preparing to return to their own rooms for the night. Suddenly, Hei Yang appeared in front of them and collapsed to the ground.
“Hei Yang, what’s happened to you?” Wu Ruo was about go and help him up, when Hei Yin suddenly appeared in the room and anxiously propped up the person on the ground.
With a solemn expression, Hei Xuanyi took a small medicine pill from his sleeve for Hei Yang, poured the medicine pill out and administered it to him, then he gave all the leftover pills inside the bottle to Hei Yang.
After Hei Yang had taken the pill, the pain in his body eased up a lot. He finally had the strength to lift his head and look at Wu Ruo and the others, he said weakly: “There are a total of fifty three people in Sang Lun’s group and they’ve all split up, staying in the houses of a few different families. Just before this, I brought a few dozen Gui clanspeople to assassinate them but we never expected that they had made preparations. They had Buddhist magical equipment to defend against us.”
With their capabilities, the average seventh level practitioners might not be able to handle them. However, if the other party had high level Buddhist spirit talismans and magical equipment, then it could very well take their lives.
Since ancient times, the Gui clanspeople were more afraid of Buddhist practitioners than others. The Buddhist aura from their bodies would make Gui clanspeople feel fear.
These words made Wu Ruo think of his previous lifetime when he had been injured by the Buddhist magical equipment, and his body couldn’t help but tremble lightly.
Hei Xuanyi noticed that he was trembling, and grabbed his cold hand: “Why is your hand so cold?”
Wu Ruo held onto his hand tightly, shaking his head.
Nu Mu said furiously: “I’ll bring my people with me and deal with them.”
Wu Ruo spoke up to stop him: “Xuanyi sending people to destroy Ba Se’s manhood probably made them more cautious, otherwise, they wouldn’t have prepared Buddhist magical equipment beforehand. On top of that, after experiencing Hei Yang’s assassination attempt, they might already have guessed that Ba Se’s incident was done by us. If we send people now to deal with them, then wouldn’t they be on guard against us and have already left that place? If you go now, then you’ll only be throwing yourselves into their trap.”
Just as he spoke, one of the Gui clanspeople came to report: “Master, Sang Lun and his people have already escaped from a route that they had prepared beforehand. Now, they’ve already gone in an unknown direction.”
Nu Mu slapped a hand on the table in anger.
Hei Xuanyi instructed Hei Yin to bring Hei Yang to rest first, then he sent people to look for Sang Lun and his people.
Nu Mu said: “Sang Lun is especially crafty, I’m afraid it’ll be difficult to find them again now.”
Hei Xuanyi glanced at him, then said lightly: “Ba Se is coming.”
Nu Mu was stunned, then very quickly understood what his words meant and laughed out loud: “That’s right. Why didn’t I think of that? As long as we keep an eye on Ba Se, then we won’t have to fear that Sang Lun and his people won’t show themselves.”
“Shifu, it’s getting late…”
Wu Ruo hadn’t finished speaking, but Nu Mu smiled and said: “I’ll go back and rest now, I won’t disturb you love birds anymore.”
After he left, Wu Ruo asked: “Xuanyi, do you fear the Buddhist aura and magical equipment like the Gui clanspeople?”
Hei Xuanyi frowned: “Why do you ask?”
“I always see you controlling either Gui clanspeople or Gui spirits like the corpse servants, so I was wondering if the Buddhists were your natural enemy.”
“No, they aren’t.”
Although Hei Xuanyi responded with much certainty, however, Wu Ruo still had a lingering fear in his heart due to the events of his previous lifetime. He felt that the Buddhists having a celestial equipment was a hidden danger towards them and that they definitely needed to destroy it.
The next morning, Wu Ruo instructed the bodyguards and Gui clanspeople to purchase Beast-rearing Grass 2养兽草 (yang shou cao): literally translated here, but JYB isn’t super consistent with its name sometimes., as much as they could get their hands on. It would be best if they could buy all of the Beast-rearing Grass in the entire country. After that, without anyone else noticing, they were to deliver it to Huangdu City.
The Beast-rearing Grass was actually a kind of medicinal herb, but it didn’t have a lot of uses. On average, only practitioners who reared little yao beasts would buy Beast-rearing Grass to feed their yao beasts. On top of that, Beast-rearing Grass’s growth period was as quick as regular weeds, so it was extremely cheap. With just one or two silver taels, it was possible to buy a big cart full of it.
In the short period of just half a day, Beast-rearing Grass had piled up in more than half of the residential quarters. Afterward, Wu Ruo became extremely busy. Every day, the moment he woke up, he would hole up inside the medicine room to refine the Beast-rearing Grass as well as refining other medicine pills. He also dragged Nu Mu, who currently had nothing to do, to refine pills with him.
The two of them became as busy as spinning tops3陀螺 (tuo luo): For those who aren’t familiar with spinning tops, you might recognize it as Beyblades (is that too dated of a reference too?). It’s basically a toy with a needle tip at its bottom, and you need to wrap some string around its body. When you toss it out, it should land on the needle tip and spin nonstop with the momentum of the throw. JYB is basically saying they’ve been busy refining medicinal pills nonstop, because spinning tops can only move with the initial momentum of its throw and once it stops, it falls over., everyone could only see them at dinner time.
“Xiao-Ruo, I get it if you want me to refine medicinal pills, but why are we also refining Beast-rearing Grass? What use is there? Could it be that you want to nurse newborn yao beasts?” Nu Mu thought about it: “Is that huge bird yao4RIP he’s referring to Jiujiu. The femme coded Jiujiu allegations are never going to stop LMAO about to give birth? Do you want to nurse its child?”
“Jiujiu is male, he won’t give birth to children.” Wu Ruo’s hands stopped in their motions: “Shifu, I don’t know how to explain it to you right now. When the time comes, then you’ll know what the Beast-rearing Grass is for.”
“Alright, I won’t ask anymore.”
Nu Mu glanced towards the outside. He had only just refined the Beast-rearing Grass that took up half of the courtyard with much difficulty, but now they were piled up in the entire courtyard again. It was really depressing.
It was at this moment, ‘dang dang’ gong noises came from outside Hei Manor, it continued without stopping; it was informing the citizens about something.
“The gong outside is ringing so urgently, did something happen?”
Nu Mu put down the medicinal herbs in his hands and walked out to ask the guards about it.
The guards were also unsure about the situation, so they went to the main entrance to inquire about it. It was only then that they found out that the gongs were meant to inform the Huangdu City commoners that in three days time, the Four Clans Festival would be held. On that day, the average commoners would need to avoid the festival to prevent accidents from happening.
When Nu Mu heard of the Four Clans Festival, his interest was piqued: “When I was in the South, I’d already heard that Huangdu City holds the Four Clans Festival every three months. But I’ve never encountered it before, it’ll be a good chance to see what’s all the fuss about this Four Clans Festival.”
Wu Ruo filtered the medicinal herbs in his hands and said, without raising his head: “The more fuss, the more trouble.”
“That’s true too, when people from different clans are in one place, there will definitely be a lot of trouble. If it wasn’t for buying necessities from the other clans, Lord State Tutor wouldn’t take such a big risk to open the paths to the three other clans either. Oh, that’s right, I heard that the Four Clans Festival only lasts for a day. Most people probably won’t be able to visit all three clans, unless you leave right after buying your necessities. Xiao-Ruo, which clan do you want to visit? I’ll go with all of you.”
“If it’s not the Mo clan, then the Gui clan.”
Nu Mu asked curiously: “Why not the Yao clan? I heard that the Yao clan has the most precious treasures, most practitioners choose to go to the Yao clan.”
Wu Ruo smiled, but didn’t respond.
At this moment, the voice of a guard came from outside: “Furen, we’ve brought another 15 carts of Beast-rearing Grass.”
When Nu Mu heard this, he howled: “In this lifetime, I5老子 (lao zi): Fun fact, this is actually Lao Tzu’s name written in Chinese. It has become an arrogant way of referring to oneself. hate Beast-rearing Grass the most!”
How long would it take for them to refine so much Beast-rearing Grass?
Wu Ruo said meaningfully: “In just a little while, you’ll fall in love with it.”
“Hopefully there’s such a day.” Nu Mu continued to bury himself in the tedious work.
In the blink of an eye, three days had passed, the residential quarters were still piled full of Beast-rearing Grass. There was even more than before. When Nu Mu looked at the courtyards full of the herb, he felt like his head was about to explode6一个头两个大 (yi ge tou liang ge da): literally ‘one head is the size of two heads’. According to Pleco, this is a Taiwanese colloqualism. I noticed that JYB uses Taiwanese colloqualisms a lot, so they must have a lot of influence from Taiwan.. Fortunately, Wu Ruo wanted to participate in the Four Clans Festival, so Nu Mu was able to get the opportunity to take a break.
“Let’s go to the Gui clan today.” Wu Ruo announced to everyone after they had finished breakfast. This was something that he had only decided on the night before. Firstly, everyone around them were Gui clanspeople. Secondly, Hei Xuanyi was able to control Gui clanspeople, so it was safer for them to visit the Gui clan and they would be able to protect his family.
Wu Qianqing and the others all didn’t have preferences for where they wanted to go. They didn’t have any items that they wanted in particular anyway. Their only purpose for participating in the Four Clans Festival was to relieve their boredom, and to view the scenery at the other clans.
Wu Xi and Dandan were the two most excited people. The two of them had never gone to play at the other clans. The moment they heard that they would be able to have fun during the Four Clans Festival, they were so happy that they practically couldn’t sleep the whole night.
Wu Ruo, Hei Xuanyi and the others only boarded their carriage and headed to the western main entrance of Huangdu City when it was almost time for the paths to the three clans to be opened. As long as they exited from the western main entrance, it would lead them to the Gui clan. The other eastern and southern main entrances were the main entrances that led to the Yao and Mo clans. The northern main entrance was where the other three clans would enter from.
When they arrived at the western main entrance, there was a ten zhang long queue of other groups waiting. The number of people couldn’t be considered many. Compared to the mountains and seas of people at the eastern main entrance7Leading to the Yao clan, which apparently has the most stuff to buy., this place could be said to be extremely peaceful.
The carriage kept waiting in its place; Dandan lifted up the carriage curtains and looked outside, a little impatient: “Daddy, when can we go to the Gui clan?”
“Almost.” When Wu Ruo saw Dandan’s little excited self, he couldn’t help but feel that it was funny. He was about to cradle Dandan back to his side, when he heard someone from the carriage opposite them calling out: “Young Master Wu Ruo.
When Wu Ruo looked up, he saw Wu Yuxue’s servant girl Zhi Tao waving at him.
Zhi Tao smiled and asked: “Young Master Wu Ruo, are you going to the Gui clan with Young Master Xuanyi? What a coincidence! Our young mistress is also going to the Gui clan.”
Wu Ruo: “…”
Was it really a coincidence?
To him, Wu Yuxue had probably come this way after finding out that they were heading for the Gui clan8Carriages in the past would often bear the insignia of the family they belonged to, if they were owned in particular by someone and not just a vehicle that could be rented for use. They might have a lantern or pennant flags bearing the surname of the owner hanging by the entrance into the carriage. The gear the horses wear and the curtains might also be customised with a distinctive style. So Wu Yuxue probably had someone watching out for the movement of Hei Manor’s carriages, rather than having a spy or something.. However, he was quite surprised that Wu Yuxue would be let out so quickly. It was clear to see that Wu Chenzi really couldn’t bear to punish her.
“Young Master Wu Ruo, is the little child that you’re carrying Young Master Xuanyi’s child? Young Mistress, come quick and take a look! The little child looks exactly like Young Master Xuanyi!” Zhi Tao turned around to tell Wu Yuxue, who was inside the carriage.
Wu Yuxue poked her head out as she asked, with a very curious tone: “Xuanyi brought his child to participate in the Four Clans Festival?”
When she saw the child, she was stunned. The child was simply cut from the exact same cloth as his father.
Wu Yuxue was firstly delighted that she was finally able to meet the child. After that, she felt jealous of the woman who was able to bear a child for Hei Xuanyi. On top of that, the child actually looked so much like Hei Xuanyi9It’s generally a point of pride for a mother to bear a son who looks a lot like his father, in Chinese culture. Do other cultures have this sort of thing too?.
“Erge, who are you talking to?” Wu Xi snuck a peek outside. When she saw that it was Wu Yuxue, she returned back to her seat in a huff.
When Guan Tong saw this, she asked: “Who is the person outside?”
Wu Xi was about to respond, when they heard someone from outside saying sarcastically: “Miss Wu, after disfiguring your niece, you actually still have the heart to participate in the Four Clans Festival. I have a whole new level of respect for you.”
Zhi Tao immediately refuted: “Don’t spout nonsense! Our young mistress didn’t do that sort of thing!”
“The whole Huangdu City knows about this incident, but you still won’t admit to it. The young master over there, you look so good-looking, you had better be careful! Don’t get too close to the young mistress from the Wu family. She will use huarong liquid to destroy your face!” After that person said that, they realized that there were other people sitting inside Wu Yuxue’s carriage, so they hurriedly called out: “And the people who came together with Miss Wu should watch out too! If she’s unhappy, there’s a chance she might pour huarong liquid on all of you too!”
The ones who had come together with Wu Yuxue were all the precious young mistresses10千金小姐 (qian jin xiao jie): qian jin literally means ‘a thousand gold’. You can tell Chinese people really love gold because they always describe precious things with gold metaphors. of the other prestigious families. They had all reluctantly agreed to come along because Wu Chenzi had invited them. When they heard that person’s words, everyone’s expressions changed one after the other.
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