Cangxuan Realm, Nine Yang Dynasty.
Cangxuan Calendar, Year 998.
Divine Wind Mountain Range.
"Bird brother! Lord Bird! My living daddy!!! Anceeeestor!!! Please take a break, I beg you!!!"
Above the dense, cloud-like canopy of the deep forest, a giant bird large enough to blot out the sky flapped its broad wings, frantically chasing a white "bug" fleeing at top speed through the trees.
In the eyes of anyone, this bug could also be called Chen Wuyou.
"Come on, out of all those people just now, why did you have to lock onto me?!" Chen Wuyou yelled with a grimace as he ran for his life. "Targeting me like this, watch out for wetting the bed tonight!!!"
I'll draw a circle and curse you!
Screech!
The giant bird let out a sharp, piercing shriek from its beak, then used claws the size of a house to uproot two massive trees, hurling them like cannonballs at the youth amidst a gale-force wind.
Fleeing for his life, the youth had no time to look back, but he could feel the whistling wind rushing up behind him, so he instinctively rolled forward.
In an instant, dust and gravel flew everywhere, unleashing absolute devastation.
A moment later, the smoke cleared, the youth's figure had vanished, and the spot where he had just been standing was completely flattened.
Screech! Screech-screech!!
The giant bird circled above a few times, inspected the area carefully, and seeing that Chen Wuyou was indeed nowhere to be found, it let out a human-like huff and flew off with satisfaction.
The debris-strewn ground suddenly sprouted a small hole, and then a head slowly poked out like a blade of grass.
Chen Wuyou stretched his neck as far as it could go, looking around. "Is it gone?"
A few fallen leaves that hadn't managed to make it into the hole earlier fluttered down onto the youth's dust-covered shoulders, followed by a rare, gentle breeze.
"Hahahaha, you stupid bird, you never expected this young master to dig a pit... pfft... to use earth-escape, did you?!" Chen Wuyou crawled triumphantly out of the hole and laughed up to the heavens. "Heh heh, I told you people can't stay down on their luck forever!"
"A beast is a beast."
"So dumb."
His unbridled laughter echoed through the air.
Roar?
"Uh, what's that sound?"
Chen Wuyou's expression instantly froze.
Then, the ground beneath his feet experienced a localized earthquake.
"What is it this time?"
An earthquake?
Chen Wuyou suddenly felt a furry sensation brush against his back.
Drip.
A crisp sound of dripping water followed right beside Chen Wuyou's foot.
He reached up to touch the top of his head.
And so, a crystalline yet extremely viscous liquid flowed down his hair.
"Uh, if I'm not mistaken..."
Chen Wuyou's mouth twitched violently. Then, he stiffened, lowered his head, and stared in utter despair at the reddish-golden light suddenly glowing on the ground and that vague, massive silhouette.
"I was wrong, Big Brother."
"You're much smarter than that bird, way smarter."
Roar~
"And... smarter than me. I'm a big dummy."
(*^ω^*)
ROAR!!!
ヽ（?＿?；)ノ
"Run for your lives!!!"
Roar~ Roar!!!
An enraged tiger roar shook the mountain forest.
...
A moment later, the Rift Abyss.
As an abyss known to the people of the Nine Yang Dynasty as the most perilous place in the Divine Wind Mountain Range, it had swallowed countless lives. Over millions of years, the piled bones at the bottom of the abyss had not only exuded an aura of ferocity capable of sending beasts fleeing in terror, but had also nourished countless wandering lonely souls, shrouding the place year-round in ghostly wails.
Yet today, a somewhat abrupt voice broke the silence here.
"Mu Qingwan, you are truly a disaster!"
"This young master must really owe you in a past life!!!"
Hanging from the cliff edge, Chen Wuyou shouted in utter despair.
...
Ten days ago.
Nine Yang Imperial City, Mu Family estate.
The luxurious and imposing front gates were swung violently open, and a youth dressed in white was rudely shoved out.
Following right behind him, a middle-aged woman in plain attire slowly stepped out.
"Oh, Young Master Chen, please don't come back anymore. Our young miss really doesn't want to see you."
The woman said to the person in front of her with a helpless expression on her face.
"You can't put it that way, Steward Li." Chen Wuyou grinned. "As the saying goes, a modest and virtuous young lady is a good match for a gentleman. For a woman of both peerless talent and beauty like Miss Shuying, Chen simply cannot suppress the deep affection in my heart."
"This..." Steward Li forced an awkward smile upon hearing this. "Still, Young Master Chen, no matter what, there's no need to come seven times in three days..."
"Especially since you swaggered in and brought away the top courtesan of Tianxiang Pavilion just a couple of days ago..."
Steward Li didn't dare say those words out loud.
Hearing this, Chen Wuyou unexpectedly rubbed his chin and pretended to ponder seriously. "Well, listening to Steward Steward Li put it that way, it does sound like there might be a slight problem."
"Right, exactly." Steward Li breathed a sigh of relief, not forgetting to compliment Chen Wuyou. "Young Master Chen, you certainly are a reasonable person."
"Well, in that case, I'll visit a few more times tomorrow."
"Alright, alright, then Young Master Chen, you... what?"
Steward Li froze on the spot.
How on earth did she manage to persuade him into being even more persistent?
To her astonishment, Chen Wuyou looked at Steward Li with complete sincerity and said, "I think you're entirely right. Coming seven times in three days is still way too few; it failed to show Miss Shuying my sincerity. So, starting tomorrow, I'll come... five times a day!"
"Five times?!" Steward Li nearly jumped in exasperation.
Why don't you just move into the Mu Family estate permanently?!
"Hehe, but I'll still have to trouble Steward Li to put in a good word for me in front of Miss Shuying."
With that, Chen Wuyou shoved a palm-sized cloth bag into Steward Li's twitching hands.
Then, amidst countless complicated gazes, he swaggered away from the Mu Family estate.
Yet before leaving, he still didn't forget to shout out loud at the entrance.
"Miss Shuying, don't miss me too much. See you tomorrow!"
A somewhat chaotic wave of energy suddenly erupted from somewhere deep within the Mu Family estate.
Steward Li glanced toward the interior of the mansion and sighed helplessly. "The young miss is going to be driven to death of annoyance by Young Master Chen sooner or later."
"Steward Li, just what kind of person is this Young Master Chen?" A furry head suddenly popped out from behind Steward Li. "Howling like a ghost here day in and day out, it's so annoying."
Steward Li turned her head and was somewhat surprised to see Luoyun, Mu Shuying's personal maid. "You don't know him?"
"Is he famous?" Luoyun puffed out her rosy cheeks. "I asked the young miss about him before, but she wouldn't tell me."
Hearing this, Steward Li silently rolled her eyes.
That wasn't a case of not wanting to tell you; the young miss was simply too annoyed to even bring him up!
"Besides, we've had plenty of suitors for our young miss in the past, but most of them knew when to give up after being rejected. Even some high-and-mighty nobles didn't seem this relentlessly pestering."
Steward Li looked in the direction where Chen Wuyou had departed and gave a bitter smile. "Speaking of this Young Master Chen, he can indeed be considered a unique and legendary figure in our Nine Yang Dynasty."
"Luoyun, do you know how high his cultivation is?"
"I don't know, but it's definitely not as high as our young miss's!"
As one of the top aristocratic clans in the Nine Yang Dynasty, the Mu Family boasted countless outstanding disciples. Mu Shuying, as the daughter of the Mu Family head, was hailed as a once-in-a-century prodigy, so Luoyun thinking that was entirely reasonable.
To her surprise, Steward Li shook her head with a hint of hesitation.
"He is merely at the age of youth, yet his cultivation has already reached at least the Spirit Entering Ninth Layer."
"Uhm, Steward Li, although I don't quite understand these things," Luoyun frowned, "I heard the young miss say that many prodigies our age in the dynasty are stronger than him, right?"
Steward Li shook her head. "The Spirit Entering Ninth Layer is precisely what makes him legendary."
"Because ten years ago, he was already at the Spirit Entering Ninth Layer..."
...
After leaving the Mu Family estate, Chen Wuyou lingered longingly outside Tianxiang Pavilion for quite a few rounds. He hesitated several times, wanting to go inside, but ultimately decided to head straight out of the Nine Yang Imperial City.
Don't ask—it definitely wasn't because he was broke.
A man must practice self-discipline!
~
Tianxiang Mountain, Xuanyang Sect.
"Senior Brother Chen is back."
"Mm... Oh, it's been a few days, Junior Sister Ye, you're getting prettier and prettier. Hehe, I wonder which lucky bastard is going to benefit from this in the future."
"No way, Senior Brother is just talking nonsense."
In front of the cloud-shrouded mountain gate, Chen Wuyou flirted with a passing female disciple while nimbly leaping down from his Spirit Sword.
"Senior Brother Chen."
Several patrolling disciples greeted Chen Wuyou.
"Ah, junior brothers and sisters, thank you for your hard work on patrol."
Chen Wuyou responded to each of them one by one, taking the opportunity to appreciate the "dashing demeanor" of the female disciples.
At that very moment, however, Chen Wuyou noticed a disciple wearing yellow robes running over in a flurry.
In the Xuanyang Sect, outer disciples wore gray robes, while inner disciples wore yellow robes.
As for Chen Wuyou, he had a custom-made exclusive uniform, guaranteed to be top-tier.
"Junior Brother, what happened?" Chen Wuyou asked with a smile. "Why are you in such a rush?"
The disciple ran up to Chen Wuyou, braced his hands on his knees, and took several heavy gasps for air before hurriedly saying, "Senior Brother, you better run."
"Huh?" Chen Wuyou blinked, feeling a bit lost. Why wasn't this guy playing by the rules?
Trying to chase him away before he even entered the gate?
Seeing the bewildered look on Chen Wuyou's face, the disciple first glanced back with a hint of terror in his eyes, swallowed hard, and then said in a hollow voice, "Senior Brother, didn't you carry a soul imprint when you went out? The moment you were still a hundred miles away from the sect, the old sect master already knew you were back."
Chen Wuyou's expression abruptly stiffened.
"So..."
"So right now, he's holding a blade and coming to find you..."
"He said he wants to slaughter a pig to celebrate..."
As soon as those words were spoken, the previously bustling mountain gate instantly grew much quieter.
"Uh, Junior Brother, I suddenly remember I have unfinished business to attend to. Otherwise, you..."
"Senior Brother, I haven't taken a wife yet," the disciple said with a troubled expression.
"Heh." Chen Wuyou gave an awkward smile, though in his heart he was screaming to the heavens.
He hadn't taken a wife either!
Even with his lower half doing the thinking, he could figure out why that old baldy was looking for him.
Slaughter a pig, my foot! He was going to slaughter *him* like a piglet!!!
"Well, I heard the fruit trees outside the sect just ripened recently, maybe I should go pick a couple to taste..."
"Senior Brother~" The disciple drew out his tone helplessly.
Chen Wuyou's steps paused.
Then, he took a deep breath.
"Oh, I was just joking with you... Forget it, forget it."
As if suddenly coming to a realization, Chen Wuyou waved his hand magnanimously. "I won't trouble you, Junior Brother. I figure the old man is all bark and bite anyway."
"He surely won't have the heart... to beat me to death."
Mhm.
Such great self-awareness.
A gaze of pity was cast toward Chen Wuyou.
And so, watched by the disciple, Chen Wuyou slowly flew into the sect on his Spirit Sword.
"Heh, Senior Brother really is... carefree."
The disciple looked at a stone tablet by the mountain gate and admired Chen Wuyou from the bottom of his heart.
"Sect disciples are strictly forbidden from flying through the inner and outer areas."
...
"Except for someone."