MJWCATFPITWOC Chapter 42

Chapter 42: Sick?

As night fell, lights shone brightly in a row of houses in the Lingfeng Sect.

“Young Master Shen, is it alright to put this coat here?”

Bai Guchen held an outer robe in his hands, gently placing it on the table. Shen Yucheng glanced at it briefly before nodding, turning his attention back to the golden threads in his hands. He had observed the Golden Core group’s competition today, and felt that there was still much room for improvement in his golden threads.

“Are Young Master Shen’s golden threads a magical artifact?” Bai Guchen somehow snuck up next to Shen Yucheng, staring intently at the golden spiritual power.

Since they had already seen the form of the golden threads that night he arrived, Shen Yucheng didn’t plan on hiding it, only giving a light “Mm.”

“Young Master Shen’s magical artifact is quite rare. I’ve traveled for many years, but I’ve never seen such a unique treasure. May I be so bold as to ask, where did you obtain it?” Bai Guchen’s eyes flashed with curiosity towards the golden threads.

Shen Yucheng glanced at him; the other’s gaze was still sincere. After a moment, he indifferently said, “Bought it from a magical artifact shop.”

Anyone could sense the perfunctory nature of this reply, and stopped pressing. However, Bai Guchen didn’t take it to heart, still smiling as he stared at Shen Yucheng: “Is that so? Then Young Master Shen, there’s one more thing I’d like to ask…”

Shen Yucheng: “…” How come the people around him were always the type who couldn’t read the atmosphere?

Bai Guchen then continued to ask many questions on his own, from Shen Yucheng’s birthplace, to how he embarked on the path of cultivation, even being particularly persistent about which Dao he cultivated. Shen Yucheng gave a few casual, fabricated replies, but Bai Guchen wouldn’t let up, continuing to question him.

Shen Yucheng could only emphasize his familiarity with and love for artifact cultivation before finally managing to get rid of this talkative roommate.

He had originally thought that Bai Guchen was quiet, but he didn’t expect him to be hiding it so deeply; in reality, he was even more talkative than anyone else.

However, Bai Guchen didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping. Just as Shen Yucheng’s lies were about to fall apart, a loud crash suddenly came from next door, interrupting this endless Q&A.

Bai Guchen, hearing the noise, asked: “What was that sound?”

Shen Yucheng finally felt a rare sense of relief.

Fu Lingxuan and Li Juemu lived in the room next door; at this disturbance, he immediately understood.

Sure enough, Fu Lingxuan’s voice came from next door, laced with a hint of helplessness: “Haven’t you fought enough today?”

Li Juemu’s roar immediately followed: “When you were on the stage, you were so good at pretending to be injured, weren’t you? Why don’t you keep pretending now!”

“Hiss—no, I’m really hurt.”

“…Hey, get up… Are you really in pain?”

Then came a brief silence.

“Hey, you surnamed Fu… Damn! You’re faking it again!”

Fu Lingxuan chuckled softly: “Shh, I’m really hurt. I told you to hit me to death, that’s why the elders did that… Hmm—don’t move.”

The most exciting competition of the day was undoubtedly the duel between Fu Lingxuan and Li Juemu. They fought from the afternoon until dusk, almost tearing down half the Golden Core arena. They were both covered in injuries and were ultimately forcibly stopped by the elders, who declared a tie, with the points split evenly.

However, in this competition, Li Juemu had fallen into many of Fu Lingxuan’s traps, and was filled with resentment. Upon returning to their residence, he had given Fu Lingxuan a good beating.

But judging from the sounds now, the result still seemed unsatisfactory.

As the sounds next door gradually faded away, Bai Guchen noticed the lack of noise from the opposite side. The room became quiet for a moment, and he asked, “Where did Mo Yifeng and Shi Wen go?”

“They went to get cotton blankets,” Shen Yucheng replied blandly. Although it was now entering winter, cultivators could withstand the cold with their spiritual power, the Lingfeng Sect still prepared cold-weather clothing for the arriving spectators and disciples. Mo Yifeng had just taken the initiative to get blankets, and Shi Wen had also gone along.

Speak of the devil, a muffled thud came from outside the door, as if something heavy had fallen over.

Shen Yucheng frowned, thinking that they couldn’t even handle such a small matter. When he used to work as a menial worker, he would carry several buckets of water in one hand, firewood on his shoulder, and miscellaneous items on his back, with steep mountain roads under his feet. If he returned late, the day’s food would be snatched away by his colleagues.

The greatest taboo in their line of work was to treat themselves as human beings.

Shen Yucheng got up to open the door, and what came into view was a large pile of cotton blankets, stacked like a small mountain at the doorway.

“…” What was going on here?

Something suddenly moved in the pile of blankets. Then, Mo Yifeng poked his head out, still covered with a layer of cotton blanket, looking at Shen Yucheng with watery eyes, tilting his head and calling out, “Brother Yucheng…”

Shen Yucheng looked on expressionlessly.

At this moment, another figure also stirred on the other side of the white pile. Shi Wen poked his head out from inside. Who knows what they had been doing just now, Shi Wen’s cheeks were flushed slightly red, and he had a smile on his lips, making his already handsome face even more charming.

Shen Yucheng stared at the two of them coldly, still not saying a word.

Mo Yifeng sensed Shen Yucheng’s gaze and instinctively pushed Shi Wen away, quickly standing up, busily gathering the blankets on the ground, not even having time to brush off the dust on his body: “Brother Yucheng, I was carrying the blankets just now, and he suddenly bumped into me, and then… it became like this.”

It was rare to see the always high-spirited Mo Yifeng reveal such a side of himself, and the atmosphere in the room suddenly became a little subtle.

Bai Guchen stood to the side, glancing at Shen Yucheng meaningfully.

But it seemed that no one noticed any of this; Shen Yucheng still stood coldly, his gaze like water. Seeing this, Shi Wen hooked his lips, casually leaning closer to Mo Yifeng: “It was my fault. Brother Mo didn’t want me to get tired, so he didn’t let me carry the blankets.”

As he spoke, his eyes intentionally or unintentionally swept towards Shen Yucheng, as if expecting the other’s reaction. However, Shen Yucheng’s expression didn’t change; he wasn’t affected by his words in the slightest.

Mo Yifeng pushed the person away: “You’re overthinking it. Brother Yucheng doesn’t like strangers touching his personal items.”

The two bickered with each other, and Shi Wen wanted to say something more, but Shen Yucheng interrupted: “Stop talking, come in.”

“Young Master Mo, just put the blankets over there,” Bai Guchen said, sizing up the subtle relationships between the three of them.

Shen Yucheng went back to continue focusing on the golden threads in his hands.

Mo Yifeng tentatively poked his head in to look at him, asking in a low voice: “Brother Yucheng? Are you alright?”

As a result, Shen Yucheng didn’t say a single word to anyone for the rest of the night.

Late at night, at an hour when they should have been asleep, there were still three people awake in this room.

Shen Yucheng’s bed was near the window. The moonlight was like water, pouring into the room, becoming the only source of light in the room. He gazed dazedly out the window, taking a deep breath.

He didn’t know what was going on tonight.

Seeing Mo Yifeng and Shi Wen falling down outside the door was clearly nothing more than a common occurrence, but

His fist unconsciously clenched, pressing against his heart. His gaze aimlessly fixed on the ceiling.

What was this feeling?

.

The next day, while going out to wash up, Shen Yucheng unintentionally saw Mo Yifeng and Shi Wen by the river again. The two were talking by the bank, Shi Wen’s expression particularly cheerful. Shen Yucheng didn’t deliberately avoid them, his gaze directly on them.

Mo Yifeng bent down to fetch water, and the wooden basin was dipped into the river, half of his clothes soaked through. Shi Wen said something, and then Shen Yucheng saw Mo Yifeng’s expression. His heart suddenly tightened, and his right foot unconsciously took a step back.

It was a bright smile. The morning sun shone on him, illuminating his entire being. That smile couldn’t be described with any words.

“You really like it,” Shi Wen suddenly raised his voice.

Mo Yifeng looked down at the wooden basin in his hands, seeming to have thought of something, and nodded with a smile.

A cool breeze swept across the river’s surface, and Mo Yifeng looked up at the forest not far away: “Were there other people just now?”

“Is that so?” Shi Wen leisurely looked at the empty field, unable to hide the triumph in his eyes, smiling as he leaned closer to Mo Yifeng again.

The next second, he was pushed away by the other party.

Shen Yucheng went to the other side of the river to wash up. The icy water splashed on his face again and again, and all he could see when he closed his eyes was the scene of the two laughing, completely unable to dispel the stuffiness in his heart. The indescribable bitterness from last night spread again. He touched his chest, wondering if he was sick.

In a forest, Bai Guchen was playing with a paper fan in his hand, thinking to himself: “As a puppeteer, your greatest failure is that your heart is like empty paper. If someone takes advantage of this one day, I’m afraid you won’t even realize it.”

Birds were attracted to the paper fan, flying towards him and chirping.

Hearing the sound, Shen Yucheng looked directly at the forest, his tone cold: “Who’s there?”

Bai Guchen was slightly startled, then immediately put the paper fan back into his sleeve, slowly walking out of the forest: “Young Master Shen, the competition is about to begin today. I saw that you hadn’t appeared yet, so I came to find you.”

Shen Yucheng looked at him quietly. Bai Guchen’s expression was as usual, without a trace of panic.

Finally, Shen Yucheng wiped the water droplets off his face, and said in a low voice, “Sorry, let’s go now.” Having said that, he turned and walked towards the venue.

Bai Guchen followed unhurriedly behind him, his gaze falling on Shen Yucheng’s snow-white neck, his pupils flashing, instantly turning into a deep red. The plants he passed through in the forest instantly withered, losing their vitality.

Arriving at the venue, the spectator stands were already bustling with noise. After yesterday’s fierce competition, the crowd’s emotions were even more heightened. And the two protagonists of yesterday, Fu Lingxuan and Li Juemu, undoubtedly became the focus of the entire venue, with spectators expressing their support for them.

But today, Li Juemu was standing unusually quietly among the male cultivators, while Fu Lingxuan was standing not far away.

The arena, which had been beaten into a bumpy mess yesterday, had been completely restored by the elders overnight, without delaying today’s competition.

Shen Yucheng and Bai Guchen were not far from the arena. Bai Guchen occasionally threw out a few words, and Shen Yu replied absentmindedly.

“Brother Yucheng!” Mo Yifeng ran over, panting.

Hearing the sound, a burst of discussion immediately rang out from the crowd behind Shen Yucheng.

“Is that Mo Yifeng? He’s even more handsome up close!”

“Yeah, he’s the youngest genius swordsman!”

Mo Yifeng walked up to Shen Yucheng, panting softly: “When I went back just now, I found you weren’t there anymore.”

“Brother Mo!” Shi Wen followed from behind, saying with a smile: “There’s no need to be in such a hurry.”

Shen Yucheng didn’t look at the two of them; he didn’t know how to react.

“Heavens, is that Young Master Shi? How did he get to know Mo Yifeng?”

“I remember Young Master Shi is only sixteen years old, right? He’s already a Golden Core stage cultivator!”

“Those two seem to have a very good relationship.”

“Who’s the ‘Brother Yucheng’ that Mo Yifeng called out to just now?”

“It should be that guy, the one who lit up the golden light on the Stone of Discernment and got into the Golden Core group by luck.”

“You’ll know what kind of person he is after he goes on the arena for a match. The Golden Core group isn’t a place where just anyone can stay.”

Listening to these idle gossips, Shi Wen looked at Shen Yucheng again, his eyes smiling.

Hearing these words, Mo Yifeng’s face turned ashen. He was about to shut those people’s mouths when the roulette in the air stopped, pointing to a name. Bai Guchen glanced at it, raising an eyebrow: “Oh?”

Bai Guchen turned and walked onto the arena, then slightly raised his hand, pointing at Shen Yucheng.