Flying Dust - Chapter 20

“Huh?” Lu Qingmo’s words were a bit odd but Mo Fei Chen couldn’t figure out what was strange about it.

“So I’ve thought of a trick,” Lu Qingmo lightly tapped his fingers on the table, “Let’s become sworn brothers. I’ll be your big brother and you’ll be my little brother, so that you, the younger brother, will always be good to me, this older brother.”

Mo Fei Chen’s hand on his wine glass stopped where it was, “What? Then you might as well marry a wife! Your wife must be good to you all your life!”

Lu Qingmo didn’t seem to hear what Mo Fei Chen said at all, he stretched out one of his fingers, held it up to his face and bit it hard.

“Ah——” The sound of Mo Fei Chen’s miserable scream continuously rippled across the river for a long time.

Lu Qingmo put the blood from Mo Fei Chen’s fingertip into the wine jar. Then, he squeezed his own fingertip’s blood into it, “Okay, let’s drink the wine and after that, considerably, we have become sworn brothers.”

Mo Fei Chen’s chin was pinched by him, as he poured the wine into his mouth. Mo Fei Chen was furious in his heart, ‘You think this kind of tie of becoming sworn brothers can be forced1[强买强卖: force sb. to buy or sell; monopolize the trade/ to trade using coercion]?’

Lu Qing Mo touched his head and said, “Don’t look like you’ve eaten shit. I am at least considerably a top-notch master in the martial arts, so if you are ever bullied, I, Lu Qingmo will definitely protect you!”

Mo Fei Chen thought so and considered that by becoming a sworn brother with him was just like buying insurance.

Two people, in the course of time, Mo Fei Chen became dizzy because the other party kept pouring him wine to drink. He drank too much and needed to answer the call of nature. There was only one solution to this problem on the boat, so Mo Fei Chen stood at the prow of the boat, as he unbuckled his trousers and peed on the moon by the side of the boat. Not only that, but he also shouted out loud, “The stream of water—— dashes down three thousand feet from high. It’s like the silver river fell from the azure sky!”2[‘The flying waters cascade down from three thousand chi above, like the heaven’s silver river dropping from the top.’ It quoted from another poem of Li Bai

After saying this, he fell to one side.

Lu Qingmo hurriedly rose up in one bound and took him into his arms. The little monkey fell against his chest as if it were a pillow and fell over. Lu Qingmo looked at ‘his little brother’ shaking in the wind and couldn’t help but ‘Pfft’ and laughed, pulling his trousers up as quickly as possible.

The little boat drift with the waves, Mo Fei Chen leaned into Lu Qingmo’s arms, while Lu Qingmo held his head up and looked at the unchanging landscape of the river, repeating in a soft voice the two lines of the poem Mo Fei Chen had said, “To gain is to sing heartily and to lose is to rest, many sorrows and many hatreds are also lasting for ages. Enjoy your drink while you can, tomorrow’s sorrow will become tomorrow’s sorrow…”

The moment Mo Fei Chen woke up again, he saw Li Du’s big face.

“Mom——!” What a shock!

“What are you shouting for? You scared the shit out of me yesterday! Why didn’t you tell me that your friend was Lu Qingmo?” Li Du had an excited look on his face.

“Coincidence, I also don’t know how and why I suddenly became friends with him.”

If you find out that I’m being forced by him to become his sworn brother, then will the citizens in the whole world scream like when Mars hits the eastern hemisphere?

“Anyway, just get up quickly! In an hour, it’s time for the invisible sword Qi competition!” Li Du looked excited, “Maybe I’ll get to see Lu Qingmo use his sword! You can tell me why you’ve become friends with him when we get back!”

Invisible Sword Qi! Ah that’s right, today’s participants in the ring are supposed to be those who have achieved a little in their sects. However, what Li Du said about wanting to see Lu Qingmo’s invisible sword Qi is really unrealistic. The fact that ‘that guy’ is willing to come and see is already giving such a great respect to Wen Qian Liu.

Of course, He Yunfeng once said that he was already among the second-rate martial artists, so the disciples fighting today should be somewhere between second and third rate, therefore he could observe, inspect and learn from others.

The time Mo Fei Chen and Li Du arrived at the arena where the contestants had fought the day before, all the major sects had already taken their seats. Mo Fei Chen had to sit with Li Du at the very end. Among the disciples of Xiu Shui Palace in front of them, Jun Wushuang looked back at him and raised an eyebrow, however he couldn’t see clearly what he was trying to say. It seemed like he was asking where he had been last night.

Mo Fei Chen made a funny face at him but Jun Wushuang seemed somewhat angry as he directly turned his head away from him and no longer paid attention to him.

On the stage was the disciple from Xiu Shui Palace, Jun Wushuang’s Shi Di. It would make more sense if Liu Feiying sent Jun Wushuang to the stage instead. However, perhaps she was thinking the same thing as He Yunfeng, that a young and talented man who revealed his talent too soon was likely to become a target for others with unfathomable motives and evil intentions.

On the other side, his opponent is Geng Yue, the last disciple of Qingyi Hou from NanLing3[南岭: Nanling mountain, on the border of Hunan, Jiangxi, Guangdong and Guangxi]. Mo Fei Chen could not remember the sect leader’s name but he knew that his surname was also Qing. His Wang Chuan4[忘川 : Wang mean forget while Chuan mean river] Sword was one of the ten famous swords. Mo Fei Chen suddenly remembered that the sword of the island master of Bi Yan Island was called ‘Biluo Sword’. The swords of these two people were quite a match…. If they were a man and a woman, Mo Fei Chen would have misrepresented that the two of them had been so much in love when they were young, but they ended up with no luck or come to nothing, so they named that pair of swords as ‘碧落忘川5[碧落忘川 explanation:  1. 碧落 (Biluo) :  Biluo is refers to the first layer of heaven. It generally refers to the sky and the green sky that we see everyday.  2. 忘川 or Wang Chuan  In Chinese mythology, after death, a person has to pass through the Ghost Gate, via the ‘Yellow Spring’ road, which is divided between the Yellow Spring Road and the Underworld by the River of Forgetfulness. The water of the River of Forgetfulness is blood yellow in colour. At the top of the river is the Naihe Bridge, which is guarded by Mengpo. Each soul who wants to cross the bridge will be asked if they want to drink the soup or not. If you do, you will forget everything about your past life and reincarnated again. ]‘… meaning that they still would like to get entangled together again even after death.

Mo Fei Chen trembled6[Probably from holding back from laughter?], not only was the island Leader of Bi Yan Island in seclusion, even Qingyi Hou was also in seclusion. What a coincidence for the two of them!

Jun Wushuang’s junior martial brother’s swordsmanship flowed smoothly while Geng Yue was also very calm and could handle it very well. Mo Fei Chen secretly wondered whether he could beat them. He was watching from below the stage secretly guessing and comparing in his mind. Then he suddenly realized that although their sword qi was different and had their own strong points, none of them could be drawn out and lasted as long as his. Each of their swords Qi did not extend beyond the ring. Mo Fei Chen thought about it carefully and realized that it was because He Yunfeng had been using the game to train and toughen his internal energy, therefore, his own internal strength should be higher than theirs.

Through the light of the overlapping swords, Mo Fei Chen caught a glimpse of Lu Qingmo smiling and looking at himself from the seat opposite the ring. Mo Fei Chen was about to glare back at him yet at this time, Lu Qingmo lifted his cup of tea and covered his eyes with the lid of the cup.

Hundreds of moves had passed and the winner was Geng Yue, a disciple of Qingyi Hou, while Liu Feiying, still as before, nodded and smiled at the losing disciple.

Maybe it was because He Yunfeng’s sword technique was too excellent that none of the people on the stage were as good as him. This was probably due to the fact that when he faced He Yunfeng, Mo Fei Chen would subconsciously begin to analyze and counter his every move, this doubled by the training he had when he tried to sweep down the leaves on his waist. The subtlety of He Yunfeng’s stance was that it formed a connecting link between what came before and what came after. You broke his first move, then the second one came; it was impossible to defend effectively, as if it couldn’t be prevented. However, a person’s character could also be revealed from his sword; for example, the disciple of Wu Liang Chanshi, every of his sword’s moves always left some leeway or allow for the unpredictable. His desire for victory was not so strong, it was precisely because there was no desire for victory or defeat that he was unyielding and strong. He had a clear and sober mind so he was able to see his opponent’s movement or tricks clearly.

After quite a while, Mo Fei Chen’s eyes slightly grew dim or saw things in a blur because of the sword’s aura, but Li Du, next to him, was still watching with great interest. He then stood up and whispered, “I’m going to take a rest, my eyes hurt.”

Li Du didn’t pay any attention to him, he just nodded his head.

Mo Fei Chen crawled on the ground and slowly left the martial contest arena.

Arriving at a quiet place, he took a long breath. At this moment, it was time to prepare lunch in the manor. He went to the kitchen and saw the chefs dripping with sweat like rain. Mo Fei Chen smashed his lips.

I wonder why the food is sometimes so salty in the manor, so it’s because of the sweat…

A little girl came in with a few cups of tea, Mo Fei Chen recognised her, the maid was one of the maids in charge of serving tea to those sect leaders, although she was not very pretty, she looked really pleasing to the eyes.

That maid said, “Shi Fu, how long will it take for the food to be ready?”

“Probably not that soon!”

“Since that’s the case, I will bring some more snacks and tea over.” The maid smiled and went out carrying the basket.

Mo Fei Chen opened the window and easily took the pastries that were placed under the window. As he ate, he thought to himself, would it be better for him to take a break or go back to watch the tournament, in case Liu Feiying or Wen Qian Liu showed their invisible sword Qi, he would like to gain some insight and not waste time while he was still in Jiang Hu.

Having just finished a mung bean pastry, Mo Fei Chen raised his head and saw a familiar figure standing in front of him, leaning against a tree but unfortunately, only his back facing him so he was not sure who that person was.

“Mo Shi Di, where are you planning to go?”

That voice was very heavy and low, stern but with a faint sense of doting in it.

Mo Fei Chen dropped the pastry in his hand to the ground, “Yu…Yu Shi Xiong?”

Sure enough it’s really Yu Jin. He slowly walked out and came in front of Mo Fei Chen. He never displayed his smile ostentatiously, there was one kind of restraint in it, “Last time, it was too dark at night so I couldn’t see clearly, it turned out that the little monkey had grown so much.”

“Last time it was so late in the day that I didn’t see it clearly.

“Why are you here? Didn’t Jing Shui Sect not participate in this martial arts tournament?” Mo Fei Chen was somewhat baffled.

The other side gave him a soft laugh,”Fool, I’m not here to watch such a boring and troublesome martial arts general assembly. I also didn’t miss anyone from Kun Yun Shan Zhuang, it’s just that you were following me that day and you seemed to miss me, so it seemed that I didn’t dote on you for nothing.”

Mo Fei Chen looked at Yu Jin carefully. He had not seen him for seven years and he looked more and more mature, his facial features had sharpened and taken on an overbearing look, although ‘real men do not easily cry’ yet his nose was sore when he thought of Yu Jin who was speaking so gently to himself just now.

“Yu Shi Xiong…” He ran over and stood in front of Yu Jin.

“Lazy Monkey… don’t tell me you’re going to cry?” Yu Jin reached out and hugged him, patting him on his back.

“Ha ha…” Mo Fei Chen raised his head, “Then that means Yu Shi Xiong, you secretly sneak in.”

“Wen Qian Liu indeed didn’t invite me.” Yu Jin put one of his hands on Mo Fei Chen’s shoulder, “Let’s go to your room and have a chat! It’s quite troublesome if I run into other people.”

“Indeed.” Mo Fei Chen led him to the guest room and the two of them sat down as they talked.

Mo Fei Chen was extremely excited that he chatted continuously and asked Yu Jin a lot of questions, such as whether anyone bullied him when he first ventured into Jiang Hu? How did he get involved with Jing Shui Sect and also how did he become the Guardian of Jing Shui Sect?

Yu Jin answered all of the questions very patiently, “Mo Shi Di, you don’t blame me for being the guardian of a cult?”

“You’re Jing Shui sect’s guardian, not the guardian of a demonic cult.” Mo Fei Chen shrugged his shoulders.

At that moment, suddenly the sound of fighting was heard from afar. Mo Fei Chen frowned. He was just about to get up to see what was going on, but Yu Jin stopped him and put him on the chair. He then raised his head to look at him.

“Yu Shi Xiong…what’s going on out there?”

Yu Jin smiled, “Outside is in a mess right now, so don’t go out and stir up more trouble!”

“But… don’t tell me that something bad had happened over there, in the martial arts stage?” Mo Fei Chen looked into the other party’s eyes and suddenly had a bad premonition.

Translator’s Note:

I remember that this chapter is the starting point that I think the story piqued my interest, beside the ‘harem’ and ‘wu xia’ theme’s promises.

Btw, this chapter is a bit difficult to translate.

Extra Poem (Read if you want, just skip if it’s not)

Here’s taken from a blog:

【望廬山瀑布】 唐 • 李白

日照香爐生紫烟，

遥看瀑布挂前川。

飛流直下三千尺，

疑是银河落九天。

[WANG LU SHAN PU BU] (“Admiring the Waterfall at Lu Mountain”)  — by Li Bai (701-762)– Translated by Frank C Yue.

Purple mists rise from the Incense Burner Peak in the sun;

The waterfall seems to hang above the stream, seen from far away.

Straight down three thousand feet the white spraying torrent does run.

Descending from Ninth Heaven, could this be the Milky Way?