Legend of Fu Yao

Such a meticulous yet vicious battle. Even so, Zhangsun Wuji was still smiling. “Congratulations, Junior Sister. There I was wondering why you would once again step back into the worldly affairs. It must be because of your mastery over the heavenly arts.”

“Right. After you, I have mastered.” Tai Yan’s voice returned to that elegant yet distasteful tone. “It is forever ‘after you’… Zhangsun Wuji, I think that without you, there will be no ‘after you’. Am I right?”

With a flick of a finger, the wind started to roar as the petals on the ground swirled with the wind, forming a giant crimson red spear, dashing towards Zhangsun Wuji’s chest.

“Then, if there is no ‘after’ me, I will be the only one. Am I right, Tai Yan?” Zhangsun Wuji said calmly as he flicked his finger. That string of beads suddenly gathered into a heavy, translucent ball, hitting straight onto the spear.

Bang!

It was hard to imagine that the collision of those fragile petals and soup could result in such a tremendous impact; and even harder to imagine that such breathtakingly beautiful battle could ensue — petals dancing around in the air as the spear was shattered by the pearls of water, creating a purple and red horizon of petals.

Meng Fuyao remained seated. Her gaze was fixated on this battle that did away with all movements except of the finger. Mesmerized by that fast-paced, ever-changing battle, she could feel her adrenaline pumping. Ever since she broke through the sixth level “Cleaving Nine Heavens”, each level could further be subdivided into three sections where she had to get past them. Currently, she had yet to find the method to cultivate the second section of the sixth level, ‘Break of Dawn’. But the battle between Zhangsun Wuji and his junior sister Tai Yan had allowed her to gain enlightenment.

With dust all over her, Meng Fuyao excitedly paid attention to Zhangsun Wuji and Tai Yan’s every movement, contemplating over every movement that brought about millions of changes to life, searching for the origins and process of these changes. Her finger subconsciously emulated the moves, sponging up the miraculous actions. Engrossed, she failed to notice the anger on Tai Yan’s face.

Bam!

Meng Fuyao suddenly felt a burning sensation on her cheek when a force hit here. She staggered backward as Tai Yan laughed coldly. “You scoundrel actually dare to secretly learn the heavenly arts! Go die!”

Zhangsun Wuji turned back and glared with anger.

Meng Fuyao regained her balance and caressed her cheek. She could feel her face heating up and the appearance of a red welt — her blood immediately boiled.

‘Slapped me? How dare you slap me!

‘In my two lives, I’ve never been slapped!

‘How dare she hit a lady in her face. This lass must be looking for death!’

Without a word, Meng Fuyao jumped and rushed out.

But someone was faster than her. Zhangsun Wuji, who remained in the same spot throughout, suddenly moved. With a flash, he dashed across the dancing petals to the opposite rooftop. In mid-air, he waved his sleeves and directly attacked the roof.

Tai Yan had sat on the roof, expecting his attack. His attack came, though was unexpectedly directed at the roof she was sitting on. Tai Yan fell from the roof. She quickly did a flip in mid-air and landed on the floor with much elegance. With a snort, she raised her hand to attack, but Zhangsun Wuji was now on the half-destroyed rooftop. Looking down on her, he prepared to attack once more.

Shocked, Tai Yan subconsciously moved backward on to have the wall behind her collapse. She could only move forward, towards Meng Fuyao rushing towards her direction.

Smoothing her sleeves, Meng Fuyao sprinted forward. Seeing that Tai Yan was being forced in her direction, Meng Fuyao eagerly welcomed her with a slap only for Tai Yan to successfully avoid it.

Tai Yan vanished and appeared right behind Meng Fuyao, with a smirk, she said, “You have no ability to even lay a finger on me.”

Her sentence was barely completed when a purple finger flashed past her eyes and delivered a slap to her. The sound of the slap lingered in the air — a celebratory sound of the stinging pain on Tai Yan’s cheek.

The sound had Zhangsun Wuji grinning. “Me slapping you is equivalent of her slapping you.”

“Zhangsun Wuji, you shameless prick. How dare you join hands with someone to attack!” Tai Yan clutched her face as a sardonic peal of laughter came out of her mouth. “Do you not have the least bit of shame?”

“Since you have learned to pull off sneak attacks, why can’t I surround you?” His icy cold eyes pierced through her. “Tai Yan, you and I have fought for many years, and you still refuse to let the matter go. This is up to you but let me warn you that if you dare to harm the innocent, I will not mind personally killing a fellow disciple.”

“Zhangsun Wuji, let me tell you as well. As long as you are alive, I will forever continue to fight you.” Tai Yan laughed manically. “Since I have mastered my heavenly arts, teachers have allowed me to intervene with worldly affairs once more. Henceforth, I will have all the time in the world to go against you. What you do, I will destroy. What you protect, I will harm. I will prove to the teachers who is the real number one!”

Her finger pointed to Meng Fuyao. “Like this. This slap is merely a prelude. From now on, when I am not in a good mood, and there is time, I will come and slap her.”

Meng Fuyao scowled at her. ‘This vicious… midget!

‘Urgh… Fine, a decently exquisite midget. ‘

Tai Yan actually looked like a kid with a height of a 12-year-old, completed with a round and chubby face with some baby fat. If not for that mature voice and that bright gaze, she would be the epitome of a delicate young girl with rosy cheeks.

Midgets tended to be disgusting and ugly, but she wasn’t. But when Meng Fuyao looked at her face and height and then listening to her voice, she felt as though the voice was incompatible with the rest of her body. It was uncertain if Tai Yan was born with this incompatibility or if it was an after-effect of something else.

‘This Tai Yan seems to be enemies with Zhangsun Wuji right from the start. Does she feel that slapping me is equivalent to Zhangsun Wuji? Then, ain’t I losing out?’

Tai Yan turned a blind eye to Meng Fuyao’s inquisitive gaze, seemingly unbothered by the attention her unique appearance had garnered. She clutched her face and turned to look at Zhangsun Wuji with much disdain.

Zhangsun Wuji looked at her with weariness and exasperation. He was done bickering with Tai Yan and casually blocked in front of Meng Fuyao.

The Lord Yuan Bao that slept through the conflict finally woke up and poked his head out to take a look. To its utter shock, it saw Tai Yan and immediately squeaked.

“Squeak, squeak!”

But that squeak was not from Lord Yuan Bao. A Lord Yuan Bao look alike, albeit a fatter version, climbed out from Tai Yan’s sleeve. It had a glorious black fur, and the moment it saw Lord Yuan Bao, its eyes brightened up and clasping its claws together, it rushed forward. “Squeak, squeak!”

Lord Yuan Bao scurried back into Zhangsun Wuji’s clothes and burrowed in desperately, as deep as it could. ‘I did not see anything, I did not see anything, I did not see anything….’

But this black Yuan Bao refused to let go and was ever ready to dash forward. “Squeak, squeak! Squeak, squeak, squeak!” It struggled as Tai Yan grabbed its tail and shoved it back into her sleeves. “Black Pearl! Stop being such a let-down! It is not as though all male rats have died, why must you go for the ugliest!”

Lord Yuan once again poked its head out and squeaked angrily in response to her false allegations.

Black Pearl immediately turned back with tears in her eyes and scolded Tai Yan. “Squeak, squeak!”

Amidst all those squeaks, Meng Fuyao completely forgot about the slap and almost broke down. ‘My God, the many evils of the world to actually have a black Yuan Bao!’

Tai Yan finally managed to shove Black Pearl into her sleeve — her scolding was still ongoing and even started to recite love poems. The squeaking was absolutely intolerable.

She glanced sideways and people like Zong Yue and Yun Hen, who finally took notice of the commotion, rushed over. Without another word, she turned to leave.

Looking at her back, Zhangsun Wuji asked, “Her?”

“If you have the ability, find her and kill her.” Tai Yan’s lips curled into a smile, and then she leaned in to whisper, “My unprecedented Senior Brother of a genius, if I would say so myself, your skills seem to have gotten rusty…”

Tai Yan laughed heartily. Without waiting for Zhangsun Wuji’s response, she waved her sleeve and walked onto the wall beside her. A neat pair of footsteps appeared as she calmly made her way up the wall and onto the rooftop. She then walked on air, slowly and steadily, as though gravity had no impact on her.

The wall which she had crossed was indented with her footsteps. As everyone was being entranced by the extraordinary display of Qinggong ¹ which defied the usual limits and workings, Meng Fuyao suddenly squatted down, picked up a stone and threw it out.

“What a showoff, what a faker!”

Bam!

That stone actually managed to hit Tai Yan on her back. With a ‘bam’, an assortment of white and grey dust appeared on her back. Tai Yan did not guard against this sudden, shameless attack and swayed unsteadily, almost falling off to the ground. She tried her best to stabilize herself and barely managed to keep the demeanor of an elite martial artiste. With a flash, the white figure vanished from the sky.

Clapping her hands together, Meng Fuyao laughed, unrestrained. “Young lady, I knew that Qinggong exhibition of yours was extremely dangerous. The point in which old power makes way for the new power is the weakest, and there, you have certainly made a fool out of yourself, haven’t you?” Meng Fuyao then touched her face, brushing against her wound. The ends of her hair stood up.

“I’m not done with you either!”

“Zhangsun Wuji ah, Zhangsun Wuji.” Meng Fuyao sat beside Zhangsun Wuji as she looked at him with her head resting on her chin. “Thanks to you, my face has been involved. Shouldn’t you have some explanation regarding this Junior Sister of yours that jumped out of a rock?”

“Tai Yan is the daughter of my teacher’s brother. She is ferociously competitive.” Zhangsun Wuji smiled and pried away her hand on her cheek. Upon seeing that the red mark had more or less faded, satisfied, he then continued, “Before I entered as a disciple, she was the most gifted and highly regarded. But subsequently, when I entered as a disciple, she gradually began to hate me. Just as you have seen, she will go against me with whatever chance she gets.”

“What’s with her height? Born with it?”

“No, it is because she practices the Art of Lady. Tai Yan is too competitive, wanting to get a headstart on everything. Art of Lady will hurt the person cultivating it, and one should only practice it after 15 years of age. But to be first, she started when she was 12. In the end, her body got stuck at that age for eternity. It is pitiful though she personally does not think so. She feels that women taller than her are all ugly.”