Chapter 53
After the test, the students paired up for combat exercises in which they could only use physical attacks and defense. Using special powers was not allowed. Since there were seven of them, naturally, Bai Rui paired up with Cheng Nuo while the other six trained with each other.
Cheng Nuo was somewhat agitated by this. In fact, he had been training in this sort of thing, but compared to geniuses like Liu Guang and Bai Rui, his skills were nothing special.
However, seeing the serious and focused expression of the eyes under the mask, Cheng Nuo calmed down and tried his best to go on the attack, throwing out a punch and kicking out with a foot. Bai Rui easily fended off his punch with one hand and blocked his foot with the other hand.
Cheng Nuo lost his balance and fell over but after he landed on the ground, he realized that he was actually not hurt at all. He didn’t know how Bai Rui had managed to do that, so he jumped back up and continued the combat exercise.
Bai Rui didn’t call a halt to the training session until night had fallen. Cheng Nuo couldn’t even remember how many times he had been defeated. He felt utterly exhausted but he also knew that he had made a lot of progress and insight in his combat skills.
Bai Rui was clearly a very good teacher. In the past, Cheng Nuo had tried asking Liu Guang to train him, but Liu Guang was too afraid of hurting him, so their training sessions were always too short and perfunctory.
It was late at night when they finally stopped training, but Bai Rui still didn’t give them time to rest. He pointed at a wooded hill and said in a monotone voice, “I’ll give you one incense stick’s worth of time to hide in the forest. Those with wood elemental energy should have an advantage there. The first one I find will be ‘out’.”
Are we playing hide and seek?… Cheng Nuo watched the others scatter as they ran up the hill.
Cheng Nuo leaped on top of the trees to look for a good hiding place. Although Bai Rui didn’t have a beast’s sharp senses like Liu Guang, his perception was probably almost as keen. When Cheng Nuo judged that the incense stick’s worth of time was over, he picked an ordinary tree to hide behind. He leaned on the tree’s trunk, palms touching it, as his wood elemental energy pulsed through his body and through the tree, hiding his presence by merging his aura until it was one with it.
Due to this forest’s close proximity to Yongchun Hall, there were very few dangerous magical beasts here. When Cheng Nuo closed his eyes, all he could hear was the sound of leaves rustling in the wind and the buzzing of insects.
Sensing the presence of a person, he opened his eyes, only to realize that Bai Rui was falling down from above.
****! He hadn’t even heard Bai Rui moving and it hadn’t even been that long at all!
Cheng Nuo felt frustrated as he got up, his head hanging down in despair, “Am I the first one you found?”
“No.” Bai Rui’s eyes seemed to sparkle with good humor. “You’re the fifth.”
Cheng Nuo perked up and smiled, saying, “Then I don’t have to be eliminated.”
Bai Rui didn’t say anything more. He just stared unblinkingly at Cheng Nuo, with a soft, gentle expression on his face. Cheng Nuo was stunned to see that now Bai Rui was no longer surrounded by a cold, oppressive aura. Even so, Cheng Nuo still felt very nervous so he tried to act natural and asked, “Aren’t you going to look for the last two?”
Bai Rui took off his mask and sat down, leaning his head against the tree. “No hurry.”
Cheng Nuo inwardly scolded himself – why the **** are you nervous?!
Although Bai Rui was training him now, Cheng Nuo was still his elder. He should be acting his age!
Cheng Nuo pretended to be at ease as he sat down and glanced a few times at Bai Rui’s profile. He realized that his observation earlier had been correct. Bai Rui was indeed thinner.
“Bai Rui… have you been injured recently?” Cheng Nuo said hesitantly, “You look thinner than last time I saw you.”
Bai Rui was slightly surprised. He hadn’t noticed. The truth is that he was indeed recovering from the side effects of the medicine he had taken last time. His life or death was on a knife-edge for many days before he recovered and his cultivation had also been affected. Of course, he had no intention of revealing that. He turned his face and said softly, “Really? Maybe it’s because I’ve been busy. Is your injury healed?”
When their eyes met, Cheng Nuo was dumbfounded and his heart skipped a few beats but, when he thought of Liu Guang, he quickly regained his senses. He turned away, gazing in front of him with a smile. “My injury healed a long time ago. That’s good, we were in a hurry the last time we parted. I was afraid you would be in trouble…”
Bai Rui’s eyebrows knitted together slightly. Why was Cheng Nuo so nervous? He also seemed to be trying to put some distance between the two of them… He took a sword out of his storage bag and threw it at Cheng Nuo. “Didn’t you lose your weapon last time? I recently refined this, but it’s useless for me to just keep it, so why don’t you use it instead?”
Cheng Nuo reflexively caught the knife and was a bit surprised when he looked at it. The blue sword that Bai Rui had given him before was quite beautiful. It was something that one would know was out of the ordinary at first glance. In comparison, the sword Bai Rui gave him now looked ordinary. He tested the sword out a few times and found that the weight was just right, neither too light nor too heavy.
He put it into his storage bag, then smiled and said, “Thank you.”
Cheng Nuo scolded himself again. He and Bai Rui had gone through life and death situations together. Now that he had decided to be with Liu Guang, although he was too shy to tell even an old friend about it, there was no need for him to be so nervous. He just needed to act like he normally did…
When Bai Rui saw that familiar smile, he turned his face away uneasily, but the doubt he had been feeling in his heart immediately faded away and a faint feeling of joy replaced it. He stood up and said, “Go back down to the training ground and wait. I’ll find the last two people.”
By the time Cheng Nuo stood up, murmuring a soft “mmm” sound of agreement, Bai Rui had already disappeared. Unbeknownst to Cheng Nuo, Bai Rui paused to watch him walk out of sight before continuing on his way.
By the time Bai Rui returned to the training ground with the last two people, he had reverted to his previous cold and steely image as an instructor. He only gave them an hour’s rest before he started training them again.
The next few days on the training ground were extremely arduous. There were times when they were hardly allowed to sleep or rest, but Cheng Nuo felt that it was worth it since both the speed and strength of his wood elemental skills had greatly increased. He and Bai Rui were able to talk to each other a few more times and now, perhaps because he had more time to think about it, Cheng Nuo was able to act more naturally.
One week later, the group had been pared down to sixteen and had been tasked with an actual combat mission. Four disciples with wood elemental abilities plus four others with combat-oriented skills were grouped together to complete lower to mid-level missions. Cheng Nuo and Li Jiu were in the same group while four were all newly selected disciples from different departments.
Bai Rui was leaving to resume his regular duties with the other covert guards. Their parting was in public so they couldn’t say goodbye to each other. Cheng Nuo’s heart beat faster because he felt as though the way Bai Rui’s eyes rested on his face was filled with a mysterious significance. Cheng Nuo secretly pinched his hand. What the heck was going on?
Cheng Nuo was both excited and nervous now that he was going on his first mission. They were tasked with escorting a noble’s offspring to his wedding in Lincheng. Since the wedding party had to pass through a bandit-infested area in the middle of the journey, they needed an escort team. It would take about a month for Cheng Nuo’s team to finish the mission and return.
Fearing that Liu Guang would be worried when he didn’t find him, Cheng Nuo wrote a note and fixed it to his table. These days, Cheng Nuo was always busy, but whenever he had time to relax, he would miss Liu Guang terribly.
The noble’s wedding party was quite grand, with dozens of magical beasts hitched to wagons containing the dowry gifts along with more than a dozen beautiful young female attendants. In addition to Cheng Nuo’s group of eight disciples, the noble family had also sent hundreds of guards to accompany them.
This was the first time that Cheng Nuo saw such a large wedding party. He secretly sighed when he saw that, fortunately, although the brides in this world wore red wedding clothes, they didn’t wear the phoenix crown and veil.
He glanced curiously at the wedding sedan chair. The bride was sitting upright on the sedan, which had translucent white gauze curtains hanging on all sides. Although Cheng Nuo couldn’t see the bride’s face clearly, he looked like he was only fifteen or sixteen years old. Sure enough, this was a world where early marriages were the norm…
Cheng Nuo felt like a real bodyguard when the party set off. He was riding a bull-headed magical beast and felt excited about this novel experience, especially since he hadn’t left the city in a long time.
The first few days were calm. The wedding party traveled quite slowly and the scenery was boring. The only person Cheng Nuo was acquainted with was Li Jiu who was a very quiet and gloomy person, so Cheng Nuo didn’t want to talk to him.
The more experienced guards were on alert because they were now getting closer and closer to the dangerous area. Although it was unlikely for bandits to attack such a well-guarded convoy, they still didn’t want to be too careless and possibly lose some people or things.
Today everyone stopped to make a fire and cook. They only started eating after Cheng Nuo and the other wood elemental disciples had checked to see if the food was safe. Cheng Nuo sat in the middle of the crowd, absentmindedly chewing on a magical beast’s hind leg. He was bored of eating meat all the time. In this world, most people loved to eat meat and drink wine, even females were no exception. Only a few people liked to eat vegetables like Bai Rui. When they had all finished their meals, they immediately went back on the road.
While the others were eating, Cheng Nuo took the opportunity to go to the surrounding forest to forage for some fruits that were growing in the wild. He threw the fruits into his mouth to get rid of the greasy aftertaste of the meat he had eaten.
Halfway up the mountain, most of the people in the wedding party fell off their magical beast mounts and panic ensued. Cheng Nuo was stunned. Were they poisoned? But that was practically impossible! He jumped off his mount and checked one of the fallen’s pulse. His mind racing, he quickly deduced the cause.
Two drugs that cause unconsciousness must have been added to the food but it wasn’t detected because they were harmless if taken separately. Their soporific effect would only appear if the wine and meat were eaten together. It could be easily cured by giving the stricken people the juice of the Ling Grass… The thing he was worried about was: who could the poisoner be?
Their food was prepared by a few trusted people and it was checked by the four disciples in Cheng Nuo’s group, so it must be one of them!
He quickly took out the Ling Grass from his storage bag, but a loud commotion broke out before he could prepare the detoxification medicine. Hundreds of bandits brandishing weapons and mounted on magical beasts rushed to surround the wedding party. Cheng Nuo saw that one of the bandit leaders looked familiar but it took a few moments before he remembered that this was Chu Yunxuan, who had fought with Bai Rui and was forced to sign a blood contract.
Although around eighty percent of the wedding guards had fallen, the rest were not to be trifled with and quickly started fighting the bandits. Cheng Nuo, wielding the sword that Bai Rui had given him, quickly ran over to the bride’s wedding sedan. Of course, the most important thing they had to protect was this little boy who had been pampered and spoiled since childhood. Cheng Nuo was worried about one thing in particular. Will the traitor also take advantage of the chaos to go there?
Although the level one disciples were also poisoned, their high cultivation allowed them to suppress the effects somewhat. As Cheng Nuo passed them, he threw some Ling Grass over to them and shouted loudly, “Chew this to detoxify the poison!”
Unfortunately, the Ling Grass that was still in the air was shot down by an arrow from a hidden enemy. Cheng Nuo turned around in shock, only to realize that a plant was rapidly growing on the ground and wrapping itself around him. Li Jiu was not far away and he was staring at Cheng Nuo with an icy expression in his grey eyes.
Looks like Li Jiu was the traitor! Li Jiu was from Lingyun Pavilion, from a sect that has been under the direct control of Liao Ji’s City Lord. So if they could capture Li Jiu then the rest of the group wouldn’t be suspected!
Cheng Nuo took a deep breath, then started cutting off the plant that had entangled him, but the more he cut, the more it grew. In the meantime, Li Jiu had already ridden away to the forefront of the battle. Cheng Nuo anxiously called out, “Who can make a fire?”
A guard with a fire ability ran over and burned the plant off. Some of the other guards who were behind them rushed over to follow Cheng Nuo.
Many of the bandits were clearly more skilled than Chu Yunxian and had reached the bride’s sedan, frightening the female attendants.
The guards fought on, forming a circle of protection around the bride’s party and frantically blocked all sorts of ice, thorn, fire, lighting, etc. attacks. The wedding sedan was on fire and many of the magical beasts had panicked. Who knew how many unconscious people on the ground had been trampled?
Cheng Nuo knew that Li Jiu had a certain target in mind. When he saw Li Jiu rushing towards the bride’s sedan, Cheng Nuo quickly used a sticky vine on him. An eye for an eye! This was to pay Li Jiu back for the plants earlier.
The guards didn’t know that Li Jiu was the traitor so they let him pass when they saw his sect disciple’s uniform, just as Li Jiu had secretly planned.
The sticky vine stopped Li Jiu’s magical beast but Li Jiu simply jumped down and shot a few arrows behind him. This time Cheng Nuo was prepared and cut down all the arrows with his sword.
Li Jiu had already reached his target. Jumping into the wedding sedan, he ripped the veil around it then placed a poisoned arrow against the young boy’s neck, shouting, “Don’t move or I’ll kill him!”
Cheng Nuo ground his teeth in frustration. Why was he always so unlucky?! To think that he would encounter such a problem on his very first mission! Chu Yunxuan’s bandit group used to live near the slums, when did they move here?
Cheng Nuo didn’t know that, because of the discovery of energy stone deposits around the slums, the slum residents were all dispersed by the city lord. The bandits in the area also moved away.
In the distance, Chu Yunxuan waved his folding fan and laughed. “This kid Chang Chun did a good job, this time he’ll get most of the credit! Everyone, surrender! As long as you surrender, our boss won’t kill those who haven’t offended him!”
Only twenty to thirty guards were left facing hundreds of bandits. Seeing the bride captured and many of their companions dead or unconscious on the ground, they all hesitated and stopped fighting.
When Cheng Nuo heard Chu Yuanxian’s words, his vision momentarily turned black. ****! Li Jiu is Chang Chun?! The children of the slums were often covered in grime from head to toe, so he hadn’t seen their faces too clearly. He would’ve never thought to connect Chang Chun to Li Jiu…