LWSL Chapter 131

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

Wu Yuxue glared at the four of them with a sinister and ruthless expression. The reason why she would turn back was because she hadn’t agreed on a time and location to meet up again with them just now. However, she never expected that she would hear them gossiping about her.

The Song family’s young mistress was so frightened that both her legs had gone soft. If it wasn’t because she was also someone with a status, she definitely would’ve been frightened till she fell to the ground on her butt.

The Shang family’s young mistress forced a hint of a smile onto her face: “Yuxue, didn’t you have something else to do and wanted to go off separately? How come you came back?”

Wu Yuxue said with a dark expression: “Biaojie, I came back because I wanted to tell all of you to meet up by the main entrance of the city at youshi¹5pm to 6:59pm..”

The Shang family’s young mistress was the eldest daughter of Wu Yuxue’s mother’s ninth tangge²堂哥 (tang ge): your older male cousin from the paternal side of your family., so she had to be addressed as biaojie³表姐 (biao jie): your older female cousin from the maternal side of your family..

The Shang family’s young mistress nodded in agreement: “Alright, we’ll meet you by the main entrance when the time comes.”

Wu Yuxue’s cold gaze turned towards the Song family’s young mistress and the others: “When we were on the way here, I already said it before, if you don’t believe me, you can get off of the carriage at any time. Now that you’re here, what’s the meaning of you gossiping behind my back? I, Wu Yuxue, never forced any of you to come together with me.”

The young mistresses of the Song, Shang and Zhang families: “…”

When the Yao family’s young mistress saw Wu Yuxue’s lofty, condescending expression, in that instance, she was so angered that she couldn’t hold back: “Wu Yuxue, if it wasn’t because your grandfather is the Lord State Tutor, do you think we would come along? Don’t think so highly of yourself. If you want to talk about status, actually, we’re all the same. Don’t keep looking at us as if you’re someone high and mighty, it makes other people feel that you’re especially repugnant.”

The young mistresses of the Song, Shang and Zhang families: “…”

These words had really voiced out their internal thoughts. Every time they went on an outing with Wu Yuxue, everything had to be done according to her wishes, putting her on a pedestal. On top of that, she always looked at them with a patronizing kind of gaze. However, if they were to talk about status, they were actually all of the same status. Everyone was the young mistress of a legitimate wife from a major family clan, without being bestowed with any title by the Emperor. On what grounds did they have to be meek, subservient and try to please Wu Yuxue when they were in her company? It had to be said that in places where Wu Yuxue was not around, there were also a lot of other people putting them on pedestals, trying to curry favour with them.

Wu Yuxue’s gaze flashed with fury, then she said mockingly: “Yao Yiru, are you sure that our statuses are equal? If I wasn’t more superior than you, then why would all of you need to act like dogs and follow after me, fawning after me? So, don’t you think your words are a bit contradictory?”

Yao Yiru was boiling with anger: “You…!”

The Song and Zhang family’s young mistresses were also infuriated beyond their limits by Wu Yuxue’s words.

When the Shang family’s young mistress saw that they were about to break into a fight at any time, she hurriedly spoke up: “Everyone came out to have fun, why do we have to argue and make things so unpleasant? Yuxue, don’t you have something else to attend to? Then aren’t you going to go quick and attend to it?”

When Wu Yuxue thought of Hei Xuanyi, she snorted coldly, turning around and leading her people away with her.

“This person is simply…!”

Yao Yiru wanted to curse and swear at her loudly, but she was stopped by the young mistress of the Shang family: “She’s always been this way. What’s the point of getting bothered? It’s rare that we were able to come to the Gui clan, let’s have a good walk about the place and see if there’s anything we need to buy.”

Yao Yiru thought about how she wouldn’t be able to benefit even if she swore until her lips ripped apart, and it would even be beneath her to behave this way, so she took a deep breath and nodded in agreement.

As they turned around and started seriously browsing through the jewelry, Ling Zisheng, who walked over to the centre of the shop’s entrance from the side, watched them with a grin.

After Wu Yuxue left the jewelry store, she anxiously looked around all over for any trace of Hei Xuanyi.

At this moment, Hei Xuanyi was currently leading Wu Ruo to the sparring grounds outside of the city gates.

The sparring grounds had been constructed just outside of the northern main city gate. The location was extremely spacious but its construction was extremely simple and crude. It was only made up of piles of different kinds of bones, then there was a black and white signboard with the words ‘Sparring Grounds’ written on it stuck at the main entrance.

Inside the sparring grounds, it was extremely crowded. There were some who were placing bets as they fought, then there were those who were spectating fights as they waited. Everyone had an imposing manner, as if they were all very certain that they would definitely be the final winner.

Wu Ruo swept a look around curiously, then asked quietly: “What are we doing here? Are we going to spar with them?”

Hei Xuanyi didn’t reply, instead asking: “After absorbing my spiritual energy and Ji Xi’s spiritual energy, did you feel unwell anywhere?”

Wu Ruo shook his head no: “No, on the contrary, the spiritual energy in my body is very abundant.”

Following that, he seemed to have thought of something, then his gaze brightened: “Do you want me to…?”

Hei Xuanyi nodded nonchalantly: “In a bit, there’ll be a free-for-all fight. When the time comes, I’ll protect you. You’ll just focus on absorbing their spiritual energy, but don’t push yourself. Once you reach a certain limit, you must immediately stop⁴The overal principle is: If one’s spiritual field is overloaded with more spiritual energy than it is capable of storing, there is a chance of internally combusting from overabundant amounts of spiritual energy. The higher your cultivation level, the larger your spiritual field, the more spiritual energy you can store internally. A slight overabundance of spiritual energy is usually required to break through from one cultivation level to the next, higher level, but the practitioner needs to make a conscious effort to ascend to the next level. It’s not an automatic process done within the body, but we’ll see a little more of how it works in a bit. Basically, Hei Xuanyi is worried that Wu Ruo will accidentally over-absorb spiritual energy and injure himself..”

“Alright!” Wu Ruo happily held onto Hei Xuanyi’s waist: “I was previously still vexed about who I should absorb spiritual energy from to improve myself, but you immediately thought of such a good idea for me. You really are my good husband.”

When Hei Xuanyi saw that Wu Ruo was so happy, he grinned, covered Wu Ruo’s mouth, and said: “Don’t shout so loudly, other people will hear what you’re saying⁵Hei Xuanyi isn’t chiding Wu Ruo for praising him, he’s talking about Wu Ruo mentioning that he’s able to absorb spiritual energy from others. This is an extremely rare skill in LWSL’s setting..”

Wu Ruo’s smile widened; he pouted his lips and kissed the center of Hei Xuanyi’s palm.

Hei Xuanyi’s gaze flashed with complex emotions; he really wanted to press this person against the wall and kiss him firmly on the mouth.

Hei Xuanyi brought the person to stand in the shade, where no one else was: “You should take a look if there’s any light flowing through their bodies first, then test if you can watch more than two people at the same time.”

Wu Ruo nodded, seriously watching the Gui clanspeople fighting on the sparring grounds. Only after a long while did he say: “I can only look at two people at the most.”

“In a little bit, you can only absorb a little bit of spiritual energy from each Gui clansperson, don’t absorb all of the spiritual energy from inside of a single person. It’ll easily attract the attention of others.”

“I know.”

When it was three ke after chenshi⁶刻 (ke): another one of those old-timey measures of time that vary across history, general consensus on this is about 15 minutes. Chenshi is 7am to 8:59am., the free-for-all competition started. Whoever could stand on the sparring field till the end would be the winner and be rewarded with the final prize. During the competition, no magical equipment were allowed at all. Only the use of magic to compete was allowed, otherwise it would result in an immediate elimination.

Hei Xuanyi and Wu Ruo stood in a position that was toward the center, so that it would be more convenient for Wu Ruo to absorb the spiritual energy of others. The Gui clanspeople around them were getting restless; when they noticed that even humans had entered the sparring grounds, the Gui clanspeople couldn’t help but pin their focus on them. Their expressions looked as though they wanted to beat these humans out of the competition first.

With the sound of the gong, the surrounding Gui clanspeople immediately attacked Hei Xuanyi and Wu Ruo.

Wu Ruo believed in Hei Xuanyi’s ability to deal with them, so he focused on the people moving about in front of him. When he was able to absorb the other’s spiritual energy, he would immediately shift positions, letting his shadow overlap with the other person’s shadow, immediately absorbing the other’s spiritual energy for himself.

In the beginning, his control wasn’t very good. In one breath, he would absorb a huge portion of the other person’s spiritual energy, causing the other person to be kicked out of the competition in an instance. If it wasn’t because the other person’s reaction was fast, running out of the competition grounds, otherwise, they would definitely die at the hands of others.

Gradually, Wu Ruo learnt how to control his ability, absorbing spiritual energy bit by bit from the Gui clanspeople. On the contrary, the Gui clanspeople surrounding them weren’t able to gain any benefits. One after the other, they were struck out of the competition by Hei Xuanyi.

After roughly half a shichen, it was as if Wu Ruo had consumed two top grade shenling pills⁷Previously mentioned in Chapter 128, it wasn’t specified what they do but we can assume that these are pills that give you a huge boost of spiritual energy so that you can break through to the next cultivation level.. His internal spiritual energy was overflowing, and he said excitedly to Hei Xuanyi: “Xuanyi, I need to find a place to break through to the next cultivation level.”

“Hn.” Hei Xuanyi picked him up by the waist and flew out of the sparring grounds, finding a secluded location with no one else for Wu Ruo to raise his cultivation level.

Wu Ruo didn’t care about whether the floor was dirty either and just sat right down to begin meditating.

Hei Xuanyi sat down across from Wu Ruo, watching him without turning his gaze away. It was as if he would never be able to get enough looking at Wu Ruo; he only blinked a long while later.

After more than half a shichen, Wu Ruo completed breaking through to the next cultivation level. The moment he opened his eyes, he met Hei Xuanyi’s gaze. He blinked a few times, then teased Hei Xuanyi: “You weren’t staring at me this whole time, were you?”

“Hn.” Hei Xuanyi didn’t deny it either.

Wu Ruo’s smile widened, he shifted to sit next to Hei Xuanyi and planted a kiss onto his lips.

Hei Xuanyi pulled the other person into his lap and embraced him, kissing Wu Ruo’s earlobe: “Which level now?”

“The fifth level.” Wu Ruo said happily: “There are only four more levels until I catch up to you.”

In his previous lifetime, he had spent seven to eight years’ time before he rose to the fifth level. Yet in this lifetime, he had only spent a few months’ time. If he progressed accordingly, in maybe one or two years, he would definitely be able to rise to the ninth spiritual level. This was something that he wouldn’t even have dared to imagine in his previous lifetime.

“It’s not that easy in the later parts.”

“In the future, during the Four Clans Festivals, we’ll come here more often to absorb spiritual energy. I should probably be able to catch up to you very quickly!”

Hei Xuanyi raised an eyebrow: “You want to catch up to me that badly?”

Wu Ruo leaned against Hei Xuanyi’s body: “You’re just one person. No matter how powerful you are, there will be times when you can’t get away from a situation to come and protect me. I don’t want you to still have to think about protecting me when you’re going up against other people. When I’m more capable in the future, then when you’re going against your enemies, I can help you. Besides, I’m still a man; how can I just be someone useless?”

When Hei Xuanyi heard these words, it wasn’t clear what he thought of but he nodded in agreement: “It’ll be best if you’ve risen to the ninth level by the time you follow me back home.”

Wu Ruo turned his head around and looked at Hei Xuanyi: “Listening to these words of yours, it seems like there’ll be danger when I go home with you.”

“There will be people going after you because of your identity as my wife.”

From Hei Xuanyi’s words, Wu Ruo could tell that Hei Xuanyi’s enemies were not easy to handle. Otherwise, Hei Xuanyi would already have killed the other party a long time ago.

“Hn, in the future, I’ll work hard to raise my cultivation level.” Wu Ruo changed into a half-lying down position, looking at Hei Xuanyi as he asked: “Xuanyi, aren’t you curious why I’m able to absorb other people’s spiritual energy to increase my own cultivation level?”

Hei Xuanyi lowered his head to look at Wu Ruo: “You yourself don’t know the reason, how would I ask you?”

Wu Ruo: “…”

These words were very logical.

At this moment, the sun shone towards them.

Wu Ruo stood up: “It’s almost wushi, let’s head back.”

Hei Xuanyi helped him to pat away the dust behind his back: “Want to head back to the sparring grounds and try out your abilities before heading back?”

No matter how high one’s cultivation level was, it would all be in vain if one didn’t have the practical fighting experience to go along with it. An eighth level practitioner would still be able to overpower a ninth level practitioner in a fight.

“Alright!” It had also been a long time since Wu Ruo had fought with anyone. He wasn’t sure how his ability to react was anymore.

The two of them headed to the sparring grounds; at this moment, the free-for-all had already ended. There were only one-on-one fights going on.

Wu Ruo was about to find a Gui clansperson of the same cultivation level as him, when he heard someone shouting for them: “Xuanyi, Xiao-Ruo!”

When he turned around to look, Wu Yuxue and her servant girl were walking over with a few bodyguards.

Wu Ruo frowned; why were they always running into her no matter where they went?

Hei Xuanyi’s expression darkened and he looked away, looking in a different direction.

When Wu Yuxue, who was walking towards them, saw that the two of them were wearing robes with matching styles and embroidery, her beautiful gaze flashed with a hint of ruthlessness. She said quietly to Zhi Tao, who was behind her: “You know what to do later on, right?”

Zhi Tao nodded: “I know.”

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• 1
  5pm to 6:59pm.
• 2
  堂哥 (tang ge): your older male cousin from the paternal side of your family.
• 3
  表姐 (biao jie): your older female cousin from the maternal side of your family.
• 4
  The overal principle is: If one’s spiritual field is overloaded with more spiritual energy than it is capable of storing, there is a chance of internally combusting from overabundant amounts of spiritual energy. The higher your cultivation level, the larger your spiritual field, the more spiritual energy you can store internally. A slight overabundance of spiritual energy is usually required to break through from one cultivation level to the next, higher level, but the practitioner needs to make a conscious effort to ascend to the next level. It’s not an automatic process done within the body, but we’ll see a little more of how it works in a bit. Basically, Hei Xuanyi is worried that Wu Ruo will accidentally over-absorb spiritual energy and injure himself.
• 5
  Hei Xuanyi isn’t chiding Wu Ruo for praising him, he’s talking about Wu Ruo mentioning that he’s able to absorb spiritual energy from others. This is an extremely rare skill in LWSL’s setting.
• 6
  刻 (ke): another one of those old-timey measures of time that vary across history, general consensus on this is about 15 minutes. Chenshi is 7am to 8:59am.
• 7
  Previously mentioned in Chapter 128, it wasn’t specified what they do but we can assume that these are pills that give you a huge boost of spiritual energy so that you can break through to the next cultivation level.