Chapter 2: The Breakthrough After Ten Years
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
In this early morning, Yun Shu’s shout was loud and penetrating, which instantly caught the disciples’ attention, and they were all appalled. Elder Chen Sheng had a rather exalted position in the sect, after all.
Yun Shu just showed such great disrespect to Elder Chen Sheng in public. He would be in big trouble!
It took Fan Wen a short while to realize what just happened. After coming to his senses, he pointed at Yun Shu and scolded aloud, “Are you out of your goddamn mind?!”
Yun Shu tilted his head to one side and grinned. “You just said I wasn’t qualified for being sent to the valley, but now I think I’ve met the requirement. If you think this is not enough, I have more…”
Fan Wen’s face had turned dark with rage. “You can’t wait for your death, right?!”
He was about to smack Yun Shu. However, at this time, Yun Shu hurriedly cried for attention, “See! Fan Wen is going to kill me for Elder Chen Sheng! He’s taking revenge on me!”
Any punishment had to be approved by the sect first according to the rules.
After staring at Yun Shu for a while, Fan Wen snorted and announced to the crowd, “Disciple Yun Shu humiliated the senior and thus severely violated the sect’s laws. On behalf of Elder Chen Sheng, here I shall exile Yun Shu for eighty years to the Valley of Crime. No remission! No pardon! The sentence will come into effect right away!”
He knew that Yun Shu was not yet a cultivator, so he would soon die in the valley.
“I’ll be back, Dad!” Yun Shu looked up at his father and smiled.
Yun Wanli was surprised by his son’s bright smile. It was so dazzling, it even cheered him up. He now seriously wondered if his son could really decipher the inscription as he had claimed.
The valley was located to the north of the sect, between the extremely high, steep cliffs. To its north was the notorious Forest of Deadly Wind.
There was a single way to get in and out: the opening to the valley was also the only exit. In front of the entrance, there were two bearded, elderly men guarding the place: one fat and one skinny, one on the right and the other on the left.
It was said that more than fifty years ago, a riot took place in the Fire Mystic Sect. A dozen superior cultivators tried to get a serious sinner out of the valley. However, they never even managed to step inside because of the two elderly men. Ever since then, the duo became well-known in the sect.
The fat elderly man slightly looked up at Yun Shu and asked, “For what? How long?”
Zhang Bao suddenly got nervous, and his face turned pale. He opened his mouth but couldn’t produce an answer. Yun Shu, however, grinned and answered politely, “Humiliating an Elder in public. Eighty years!”
The fat old man was a bit surprised at first, then he laughed out loud. “Bold. But I suppose you already know this place isn’t a playground, right?”
Yun Shu smiled. “I think I do.”
The fat elderly was astonished again, but this time, it was by Yun Shu’s calm smile and composed attitude. He nodded and said, “Then behave yourself in this place. We will not show any mercy if you’re planning on anything bad.”
Yun Shu struggled to free himself from the two disciples and gave the elderly men a palm-hold-fist salute. “I’ll keep that in mind, and I’ll surely behave myself.”
The fat elderly man burst out laughing. “Interesting. I’ve been guarding this place for years, but you’re the first one to talk to me with a smile. I like you, boy. Here, I’ll give you a gift!”
He rummaged around in his sleeve, found a key, handed it to Yun Shu, and said, “Thirty miles away from here in the valley, there’s a stone shelter. It belongs to you now. Not everyone here can enjoy a place to live in, you know. Well, actually, very few do.”
Not expecting such a big gift, Yun Shu gave the elderly men the same salute once again and said, “Thank you very much, sir. I’ll work hard!”
“Work hard? For what?” The fat elderly man didn’t know what the boy was talking about. He shook his head and smiled. “I like this boy.”
The thin elderly man finally made a comment, though only a snort.
Yun Shu directly headed for the three stone steles.
Once inside, Yun Shu directly headed for the three stone steles. He did not want to spend his whole life in this godforsaken place. And the steles were his only chance to extricate him from this sentence.
However, the real situation was totally different.
The three old stone steles stood tall and upright. But the square was empty.
After a second glance, Yun Shu finally saw a person with messy hair sitting in front of the stele in the middle.
However, the person quickly reached out an arm and grabbed the wooden sword in the front. With it, the person drew a line on the ground ahead of Yun Shu.
“Trespass, and you’re dead!” warned the person coldly.
It was a woman!
Yun Shu looked down at the wooden sword. It was not sharp at all, but he had no doubt that it could snuff out his life.
“Sorry.” Yun Shu stepped aside.
After his failed attempt to start a conversation, he sat down in front of the first stele. However, what he saw was totally out of his expectation: the stele was indeed cut with many strokes, and they were well aligned, but they didn’t form characters.
Having no choice, Yun Shu walked to the stele in the middle where the woman was. He made sure to keep a proper distance from her, though. He then looked up at this stele, on which the strokes appeared to be even messier than the other two. The jumbled strokes were still beyond him, yet somehow, he could feel something just by staring at them.
His eyes kept tracking the strokes as he read the lines further. Unconsciously, the Qi in his meridians also started getting active and gathered together. Then the warm stream slowly flowed into his dantian.
What was going on? Was it…?!