บท 84: 6.8
To be exact, You Daolin shot out two balls of fire, aiming one back toward the protagonist with his left hand and one forward toward the open doorway with his right hand.
At the sight, Chen Yu raised his eyebrows. Oh? He hadn't realized the child was ambidextrous. What a skilled little monkey.
Naturally, as he'd been musing, he'd also narrowly avoided the strike so that a scorch mark remained on his arm while, inside the room, Zhuo Biming stepped back with plenty of spare time to ensure his safety. Behind the protagonist, the wall which had taken the brunt of the blaze smoldered.
From that alone, their strategy became fairly clear to Chen Yu: the simple version of the story would likely be that Ning He had come by and one-sidedly started to waste his fire spiritual energy to throw his weight around, as evidenced by the mark on the inner wall; unfortunately for the bully, Zhuo Biming's new friend You Daolin, whose element was also fire, had been with him, and he had reflexively defended the protagonist by releasing his own power; when the flames had just happened to reach Ning He's face due to the overconfident young master's carelessness, Zhuo Biming would no doubt have 'woken up' from his daze and wielded his water spiritual root to direct the liquid in the various refreshment containers strewn around the room to try to put the fire out, but he would have only succeeded once the youth's previously exquisite features had been melted down.
At that point, whatever Ning He might claim had been the sequence of events wouldn't make a difference, since the peak masters would neglect the disfigured boy and he would soon be permanently eliminated during the battle with the demonic animals.
Although this spiel wouldn't work anymore because Ning He had surprisingly managed to evade their sneak attack, the current situation was a remote possibility which the pair inside the room had nevertheless considered, so neither of them panicked. In fact, You Daolin even grinned; the extra few steps it would take to subdue that idiotic young master would give him a greater opportunity to shine, since in the revised narrative, their assertion would be that when You Daolin had responded in a volley of fire balls to preserve their lives, he had eventually overwhelmed the older disciple and ultimately ravaged his face, et cetera et cetera.
According to this version of the story, not only would Zhuo Biming be presented as the exemplary youth who'd immediately rushed to help his tormentor, but also, You Daolin would become the fifteen-year-old who'd defeated an older disciple in the same element. Anyway, the important point was that he would be able to prove how outstandingly talented he was.
Thus, having been blinded by his dreams of glory and reputation, the teenager unconsciously maximized his power when he aimed, contrary to what had been asked of him, causing the Zhuo Biming who knew the consequences that would certainly follow if a peak leader's son really died due to them, whether they'd been acting in self-defense or not, to twist his brow tensely.
In contrast, Chen Yu lazily watched the flames flying toward him, his mouth faintly curved. The protagonist and his sidekick's plans might have worked rather well, if not for three factors.
First of all, this whole scheme was predicated on the assumption that the Moqi brothers cared for Ning He solely based on his looks and that they would therefore directly desert him if his features were ruined, when in reality, the twins would probably pamper him even more out of sympathy for his suffering and as an apology for not defending him completely. Secondly, what these two imaginative authors hadn't been aware of as they'd been drafting their plot was that he'd broken through to the Core Formation stage, making him far stronger than either of them. Lastly, the original owner who had been embarrassed by his inferior dual spirit roots had a hidden, weaker talent in controlling the wind, which Chen Yu had developed to be equally as strong as his publicly exposed fire element.
So, not constrained to meeting fire with fire, Chen Yu simply stayed in the hallway and dodged the barrage of blazing strikes then, once he was content with the charred evidence around him and his critique of their scheme, blew the flames back onto You Daolin.
Of course, under regular circumstances, a cultivator's own offensive moves couldn't be used against him due to an innate immunity. What allowed Chen Yu to do so in this case, however, was that while he'd been playing catch-me-if-you-can, on the side he'd been quietly evaporating one of the cups of water stationed around the room. Left inside it was, as expected, a white powder which could burn through anything after it was ignited and was therefore a popular tool for fire users. If, as they'd intended, Zhuo Biming had soaked Ning He with this infused water to 'save' him, he would have likely lost more than a layer of skin. Well, Chen Yu shrugged, at least the protagonist had cared enough to be meticulous.
But Chen Yu wasn't a greedy person, since the powder had probably belonged to You Daolin to begin with, he'd returned some of it. With his precisely maneuvered air currents, he'd funneled the powder into the boy's mouth which had called him a 'scrawny loser,' across the arm that was still throwing flames at him, and...hm...oh, over half his face, since the duo's objective had been to torch Ning He's looks.
Then, satisfied that by targeting these specific body parts he would be acting in line with original owner's petty character, he'd finally blown a spark of You Daolin's flames back onto his finger, so that the fire roared over his hand, climbed up his arm, and skipped to his cheek.
Initially, You Daolin couldn't believe what was happening. He was the most talented up-and-coming seedling in Golden Lion Valley, everyone acknowledged that he was an expert at manipulating fire, how could he possibly be burning? Besides, all he'd wanted to do had been to perform his duty as a Righteous Path practitioner to help his fellow disciple overthrow the oppression of his peak master's son, so how could his reward be a punishment like this?
Of course, in his frenzy, he entirely forgot the tricks he'd pulled in his attempt to play the part of a hero, as well as his determination to destroy someone based merely on the accounts of a day-old acquaintance.
In any case, the teenager could no longer suppress the pain that was searing through his muscles and bones and, overwhelmed with fear of the very weapon whose destructive potential he was most familiar with, started to scream uncontrollably, thereby drawing a crowd of annoyed neighbors out.
Due to their generally individualistic mindset, the disciples in the surrounding area hadn't checked on the origin of the commotion despite how long it'd been continuing, unwilling to get involved and assuming that if anything, the room's occupants must be engaging in a match. Once You Daolin's wild shouts reached their ears, however, they couldn't help but to converge in the hallway outside the source of these overly disruptive noises, only to find Ning He standing in a charred area with an angry expression. From the doorway, the smell of roasted flesh and miserable, oddly guttural wails drifted out, and they could vaguely discern someone splashing water on a burning body.
Almost instinctively, the onlookers glared at Ning He. Who could be responsible for this mess if not this overbearing nitwit? Having all tacitly agreed in this way that he must be the culprit, an outspoken disciple among them aggressively stepped forward, then demanded, "What have you done now, Young Master Ning?"
Although these people were, of course, correct in that he'd had somewhat of a hand in You Daolin's current straits, Chen Yu felt that he'd only acted as a Righteous Path cultivator should by returning what he'd been given. With this conviction, he huffed, "What did I do? All I did was lower myself to come bully Zhuo Biming! But when I arrived, that You Daolin was attacking Zhuo Biming and charged at me once he realized I was here, and then he suddenly set himself on fire!"
Without prompting, Chen Yu continued to bluster until, as if remembering who the real guilty party was, he turned to point his finger at the now-doused teenager. "You there, what do you have against my Jade Sword Mountain, ah, trying to kill both of us!"
Despite his fury at his certainty that Ning He had somehow caused his agony and that the freak was lying about everything, the inside of You Daolin's mouth had been burnt to ashes, he could barely even grunt in denial now. Still, Chen Yu stubbornly responded to each of these unintelligible rebuttals with a prolonged rant, while Zhuo Biming silently stood by, observing the situation.
At this scene, the other disciples gaped incredulously. What kind of idiot openly says his intention in visiting his shidi was to bully him? Actually, what kind of moron would seriously argue with a mute? No, no, reminding themselves that they'd always been aware of how little there was in Ning He's brain, they collectively focused on denying that what he'd claimed could be true. How ridiculous was it that a fire user, and a talented one like You Daolin at that, would 'set himself on fire'?
As they were preparing to question Ning He further, however, two tall figures cut through the murmuring crowd to surround the boy. While Chen Yu didn't startle like the others at the Moqi brothers' appearance, he did secretly congratulate himself on doubling the dosage in the tea. As he'd predicted, their aberrant, top-quality bodies had processed the drugs far more quickly than any reasonably normal cultivator's would have, so with his adjustment, they'd arrived right on time to wrap up the show.
The instant they spotted Ning He, the twins' hearts which had been hanging since they'd discovered he was missing finally dropped down, but they didn't have time to scold the boy for his disappearance before they noticed the singe marks on his arm. A swift scan of the surroundings later, their glares bore into You Daolin and Zhuo Biming.
They didn't require an explanation to perfectly understand what had happened. Their tender shizhi must have come to check on his fellow disciple only to face yet more unfounded abuse, and from what they'd heard just now, he'd even had to paint himself as a villain, claiming he was a bully and what not, in order to keep his sacrifices hidden. Blood boiling, they wavered, struggling between letting another false charge be marked on Ning He's record and wasting his efforts by exposing his experience here, but at the end of a long internal debate, they gathered the youth up to leave without a word.
When, as Chen Yu had hoped however, a reckless youth withstood the peak masters' imposing momentum to mutter, "Pei, what is that empty vase worth, I bet he's the one who did all this!" their progress stopped and Chen Yu hopped down from Moqi Lirong's embrace to plant his hands on his hips.
Disregarding the twins' anxious hands which were reaching for him, Chen Yu arrogantly tilted his chin up and glanced around, snorting, "Hng, what, you think this young master's so weak that this is the best I can do? If I wanted to, I could wipe out this whole town, all right?" With this statement, he tossed his head and pulled out a necklace from within his robes, holding up the transparent crystal pendant in clear view.
This was a collar which every member of Heavenly Saber Sect was obligated to wear at all times—the crystal would fill with color if someone had wielded any spiritual energy and could therefore be submitted as proof of innocence if there was a physical fight between disciples, which was strictly prohibited. Although Chen Yu had indeed used his wind element, this wasn't evident at the moment since as a little tyrant, the original body had removed the second crystal that would have indicated this in order to hide that he didn't have a pure spiritual root. With this move, none of the teenagers could deny that even if Ning He's boasts had overestimated himself, he hadn't lied in that he wasn't to blame for this wreck.
Having thus shut up the bystanders, Chen Yu then stared down his nose at the protagonist, his eyes narrowed, and commanded, "You tell the truth, too!"
And Zhuo Biming showed that he understood reality, recognizing that this was a chance to wash himself clean, he didn't hesitate to agree, "Brother You did go a bit overboard." Seeing that even this relatively mild boy was supporting Ning He's account, the public's outrage fell squarely on the stunned You Daolin, who couldn't understand what had just happened.
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