AU Extra Story: “A Boy’s Dream” (Part Three)
At night, the moon hung low and heavy with dew.
On a trial platform in front of Yanbie Hall, four cultivators were fighting so fiercely that sparks flew everywhere.
More precisely, three people were fighting one.
Yet the one being attacked moved with astonishing grace. His lithe, supple body was like a little boat drifting along a river. With nothing more than a tap of his toes, he could float dozens of yards away.
He did not even strike back.
He simply held two fingers together before his chest and maintained a deep-blue barrier, keeping all three fellow disciples’ attacks outside it.
The person in question was none other than Gu Mang, who had been bored and decided to fool around with his senior and junior brothers.
And among those sparring with him was Lu Zhanxing, the same person who had gotten into a dispute with Young Master Sun earlier.
Gu Mang smiled.
“You said that if you joined forces, you’d be able to break my barrier in ten moves. Now each of you has already hit it a hundred times. Does your big brother still need to keep playing with you?”
Lu Zhanxing said, “Try blocking this one!”
With that, a fireball the size of a wagon wheel suddenly roared into existence in his hand and came crashing down at Gu Mang.
BOOM!
Flames surged upward.
The tongues of fire instantly swallowed the deep-blue barrier, followed by rolling waves of heat and thick black smoke billowing in every direction.
The other two stared in shock and stopped attacking.
They turned toward Lu Zhanxing.
“Whoa! We were just sparring! You went way too hard! What if you hurt Senior Brother Gu?!”
Lu Zhanxing wasn’t worried in the slightest. He raised his brows.
“There’s no way Mang’er could get hurt that easily. You two are seriously underestimating him.”
The moment he finished speaking, someone laughed from within the flames.
“Thanks for having so much faith in me. But that was already the hundred-and-first attack, brother. Do you still want to continue?”
The three of them were startled.
Then a brilliant streak of blue light burst from the sea of flames, cutting through the wind.
The seemingly thin defensive barrier had not suffered the slightest damage.
Gu Mang stood in midair, riding the wind. His disciple’s robe, blue-edged and white beneath, fluttered beneath the moonlight. The dying sparks drifted down behind him like scattered fireworks.
Gu Mang smiled.
“If you want to fight, I’m happy to oblige. If you don’t, then a bet is a bet.”
The two younger disciples immediately sheathed their weapons and conceded wholeheartedly.
“We’re done! As agreed, we’ll wash all of Senior Brother Gu’s clothes for the entire month!”
“Zhanxing, what about you? Are you still fighting?”
Lu Zhanxing stood stiffly for a moment before waving his weapon away as well. He turned his handsome face aside and snorted.
“You’re just a damn cheater. None of us know this barrier technique. Compete with me at something else!”
“Sure.”
Gu Mang landed steadily on the ground. With a sweep of his sleeve, the barrier and flames all dispersed into smoke and dust.
He raised his eyes.
“What shall we compete in?”
“Lightness techniques.”
Gu Mang glanced at his legs.
They were still slightly lame from the beating he’d received from Young Master Sun earlier.
He raised a brow.
“…Are you sure?”
“…Forget it! Swordsmanship!”
The junior disciple beside them quietly reminded him, “Senior Brother Lu, you were just beaten flat by him with swordsmanship last month. How did you forget already?”
“…Ahem. Wait! I think hand-to-hand combat would be better!”
Gu Mang smiled.
“Sure.”
And so two high-level cultivators actually began competing with nothing but their fists and feet, like street brawlers.
Lu Zhanxing was tall and powerfully built. Every punch he threw was fierce and forceful, his movements creating sharp gusts of wind.
Yet even so, every one of his attacks merely brushed past Gu Mang’s clothes.
After three or five exchanges, Lu Zhanxing grew irritated.
“Why do you keep dodging?! Are you just running me around for fun?!”
Gu Mang didn’t answer.
Instead, he suddenly asked, “Are the injuries Young Master Sun gave you almost healed?”
Lu Zhanxing froze.
“They’ve been almost healed for ages—why are you asking?”
Gu Mang smiled and sighed, his voice lazy and soft.
“Good big brother, I’m just worried you’ll be in pain.”
As he spoke, a sharp gust of wind suddenly swept up.
In the blink of an eye, his long leg rose high and slammed down like lightning against Lu Zhanxing’s waist and ribs.
The kick was viciously fast and hard.
Lu Zhanxing cried out and crashed to the ground.
Before he could even get back up himself, Gu Mang had already grabbed him with one hand and hauled him upright.
Gu Mang patted the dust off his clothes while smiling.
“See? I wasn’t lying. Does it hurt?”
“…”
The one who had kicked him was actually standing there with the most sincere expression imaginable.
Lu Zhanxing’s face flushed red with suppressed rage. Finally, he waved his hand and stubbornly said, “Pain? My ass! It’s like getting tickled!”
“Oh.”
Gu Mang smiled and nodded.
“Hero, then let’s fight again.”
Lu Zhanxing nearly coughed up a mouthful of blood.
He hurriedly cupped his fists toward Gu Mang.
“Forget it, forget it. My, uh… my waist hurts. I’m done. You win today.”
Gu Mang was delighted.
“I won, so you have to buy me candy. Milk-flavored. Two bags.”
“Wasn’t it one bag before? You fucking bandit! The moment your lips move, you raise the price!”
The bandit Gu Mang gave him a rather reproachful look and explained, “I’m an honest and straightforward person. How could I raise the price? Clearly, you were the one who kept crying and begging me to fight you, then lost two matches in a row, and now you still want to welsh on the bet…”
The more he talked, the more merciless he became.
Lu Zhanxing couldn’t bear to listen anymore and hurriedly waved his hand.
“Fine, fine, fine! I’ll buy them! I’ll buy them, all right?! Eat yourself to death! How come you never get cavities?!”
The group was still talking animatedly when the young attendant who served tea to Elder Qianling arrived.
He called out to the shameless person who was currently stubbornly demanding candy from his junior.
“Senior Brother Gu Mang!”
Gu Mang turned at the sound of his voice.
Seeing the tea attendant, he nodded and smiled.
“Ah, the immortal attendant under Elder Qianling.”
“Senior Brother Gu has a good memory.”
The boy spoke obediently.
“Elder Qianling wishes to see you about something. Please come with me for a moment.”
By now Lu Zhanxing wasn’t hurting or angry anymore.
He widened his eyes and muttered from the side, “What could Elder Qianling want…? Ah, that’s right. He must’ve drawn your name to accompany a new disciple on a trial.”
He shook his head.
“You’re famous for being lazy. Last time you went demon-hunting with me, you didn’t do a damn thing the entire time. You even sat beside me eating watermelon while I was capturing the demon. I don’t know what unlucky new disciple drew your name this time, but they’re seriously doomed.”
“You can’t put it that way. When I went demon-hunting with you, besides eating watermelon, I clearly cheered you on.”
“Don’t mention the part where you cheered for the female fox demon.”
Gu Mang rubbed his chin.
He felt that Lu Zhanxing’s accusation was impossible to refute, so he changed tactics and agreed.
“Fine, you’re right. I’m ridiculously lazy, and these assignments for new junior disciples are tedious as hell.”
He suddenly turned to the tea attendant.
“Immortal attendant, look at my attitude. I’m neither properly diligent nor properly serious. By the time we get there, who knows whether the junior disciple will be taking care of me or I’ll be taking care of them. Why don’t you send this senior brother instead? He’s the most diligent person around.”
As he spoke, he pointed at Lu Zhanxing without the slightest shame.
Lu Zhanxing: “…”
The young attendant said, “Senior Brother Gu, you’re joking again. Elder drew your name, so naturally it has to be you.”
“Really?”
Gu Mang blinked and sighed.
“Ah, what a curse.”
The attendant comforted him.
“Senior Brother, don’t think of it that way. Being able to look after a newly admitted disciple is also a kind of bond between fellow disciples.”
Gu Mang sighed again.
“Ah. A cursed bond.”
Lu Zhanxing watched gleefully from the side.
Then he folded his arms.
“Mang’er, don’t be discouraged. I heard several graceful young ladies have entered the academy these past few days. I wish you the best of luck.”
“Don’t talk nonsense. I’m a respectable man.”
Then he immediately turned to the attendant and asked, “Am I escorting a delicate and helpless junior sister?”
The boy shook his head.
“It’s a junior brother.”
Gu Mang: “…………”
The attendant seemed to be holding back laughter.
But he was still young, and after struggling for a while, he couldn’t hold it in anymore.
“Senior Brother Gu, don’t worry. I haven’t finished speaking.”
He grinned, revealing two rows of baby teeth.
“Although there isn’t a junior sister for you to escort… because the commission you’re receiving this time is rather special, there will still be a young woman accompanying you on the journey.”
He paused.
Then he suddenly burst into laughter.
“Senior Brother, do you want to know who?”
Gu Mang glared at him.
A sudden, ominous feeling rose in his heart.
The next morning, dawn broke.
Several immortal cranes flew high above the cultivation academy, soaring through the cool morning breeze.
Mo Xi had always been punctual. He was already waiting outside Elder Qianling’s residence at the appointed time.
Before long, Elder Qianling opened the door and stepped out.
He wore a snow-blue Daoist robe, his black hair tied up neatly, a horsetail whisk resting in the crook of his arm.
When he saw Mo Xi, he nodded.
“Young Master Mo may be the son of a military family and the descendant of a heroic martyr, with a noble background, but you are very disciplined. You haven’t been late once.”
Mo Xi lowered his eyes.
“As I should be. My respects, Elder Qianling.”
Elder Qianling smiled.
“Likewise, Young Master Mo.”
Mo Xi waited for a while.
When Elder Qianling did not say anything else, he asked, “May I ask when the trial will begin?”
“No rush.”
Elder Qianling said, “We’re waiting for one more person.”
Mo Xi knew that another senior brother or sister would be accompanying him for protection.
Although he felt it was unnecessary, he knew this was academy procedure, so he said nothing and waited patiently.
That wait turned out to be nearly an hour.
The water clock was almost at Mao hour. Elder Qianling had already finished his fifth pot of tea.
Mo Xi said nothing, but his face had become as dark as the bottom of a cooking pot.
Only then did a figure flash up the mountain steps like a gust of wind.
“I’m here! I’m here! I’m here! I made it!!! I wasn’t late, was I?”
Mo Xi: “…”
Elder Qianling glanced at the water clock.
“No. It’s still Yin hour.”
“That’s wonderful.”
The gust of wind came to a stop.
In the morning light stood a figure wrapped in a white cloak with gold trim. A large hood covered his head, concealing his face completely.
Only his voice could be heard.
It was low and sexy, slightly muffled beneath the hood.
“I really am incredibly punctual.”
Mo Xi’s eyes widened.
How could anyone in this world be this shameless?
Elder Qianling remained expressionless.
“You are very punctual. You arrived in the final moment of Yin hour.”
The cloaked figure asked curiously, “What about the junior brother? When did he arrive?”
“He was also very punctual. He arrived in the very first moment of Yin hour.”
“Tsk, tsk. Such a diligent junior brother. Truly, the waves behind drive on those before them. Each generation’s waves are bigger than the last.”
Mo Xi: “………………”
Elder Qianling set down his teacup and rose from the stone table beneath the banyan tree.
He spread his hands.
“Let me introduce the two of you.”
He gestured toward the cloaked figure.
“This is one of the academy’s senior disciples, and your sen—cough, senior sister. Her name is Gu Mang.”
The other person smiled and pulled down the hood, revealing a handsome face with a slightly sun-kissed complexion.
His eyes were black and bright, the outer corners long and elegant. His nose was high and straight, and his lips naturally curved into a smile.
“Hello,” Gu Mang said. “Junior brother, little wave behind.”
Mo Xi had initially thought the name “Gu Mang” sounded somewhat familiar, as though he had heard it somewhere before, but he couldn’t remember where.
While he was thinking about it, he suddenly heard the bizarre form of address, “little wave behind.”
His brows twitched, and he looked up at the other person with a distinctly unfriendly expression.
This rather familiar-looking fellow, however, didn’t care in the slightest.
Instead, he winked at him.
His smile rippled outward from the corners of his long eyes like waves on water.
“You can call me Gu Mang. Or you can call me the wave in front. In this vast, floating world, names are just like gender—both are ever-changing and impossible to predict…”
Elder Qianling suddenly coughed twice and reminded him in a low voice.
“Gu Mang.”
“Pretend I didn’t say that.”
Elder Qianling glared at her—or rather, at him.
That’s right.
Because this trial was special, either the new disciple or the person accompanying him had to disguise himself as a woman.
Elder Qianling had plenty of Shape-Shifting Pills that could temporarily alter one’s appearance.
But there was no way he would make Young Master Mo take one.
Naturally, Gu Mang had to suffer the inconvenience instead.
When Gu Mang had first learned about this the previous night, he had nearly run away on the spot.
After Elder Qianling had reasoned with him at length, Gu Mang had finally agreed to cooperate today.
Although, technically speaking, the “reasoning” consisted entirely of Gu Mang declaring that he could change his appearance, but his emotional damages could not be ignored.
Once the matter was over, Elder Qianling would have to buy him ten bags of milk-flavored soft candy.
“The kind from Cui Zhi Pavilion in the north of the city. Ten bags, three hundred pieces per bag, for a total of three thousand pieces. I’m going to count them one by one. Not a single piece can be missing.”
Elder Qianling then introduced the other party.
“This is Young Master Mo Xi, descendant of Lord Fuling. I already told you about him yesterday.”
Gu Mang smiled.
“I remember, I remember.”
Now that they had been introduced, there was no need for further pleasantries.
Elder Qianling got straight to the point.
“Let me briefly explain the details of this trial to the two of you.”