Chapter 139: Huahua is a Dog
Translator: Subudai11 Editor: Chrissy
"Brother Wang, it’s been five years since we separated in the Spirit Sword Mountain, how have you been? I know Brother Wang doesn’t like meaningless greetings, so forgive me and I’ll go straight to the point. Two months later, I will follow my Master and my fellow brothers and sister to visit the Spirit Sword Sect. This visit might not be good, and it’s not my personal wish, but it’s a general trend that I have to follow, please forgive me beforehand, Brother Wang."
"On this trip, we come with five elite disciples. Among them, my cultivation time is the shortest. But, because a year ago, by some luck I have successfully reached the Foundation Establishment, I am included as the last one among them. My strength is low, presumably inferior to Brother Wang. However, my Senior Brother Zhan Ziye is a genius. When we meet two months later, he would be Brother Wang's rival…"
Hai Yunfan’s letter wasn’t long, but it seemed like an eyesore. This guy had actually reached Foundation Establishment.
With Wang Lu’s understanding of Hai Yunfan, his claim that he was inferior to Wang Lu was not just a polite statement, more likely was that he truly believed that it was true. In fact, most of the people that came in contact with Wang Lu in the Immortal Cultivation Path felt an inferiority complex towards him.
Unfortunately, this Little Hai’s low self-esteem couldn’t change the fact that he was already a Foundation Establishment cultivator, while Wang Lu was just middle-level Qi Cultivating Stage. Although the over-rank challenge was not impossible, this conviction only spread among the Spirit Sword Sect disciples; it would be strange to people from the Ten Thousand Arts Sect. If there was no accident, there would certainly be this following exchange:
"I have in my hand the spiritual treasure Sword of Mount Kun."
"Hahaha, I have reached Foundation Establishment."
"My Non-Phase Method’s defense is extraordinary, number one in the world."
"Hahaha, I have reached Foundation Establishment."
"My success is astonishing, I’ve even killed Xudan Cultivators."
"Hahaha, I have reached Foundation Establishment."
"I established Wisdom Sect, now it has millions of followers."
"Hahaha, I have reached Foundation Establishment."
If this went on, the end result could only be: F*ck you, f*ck your mother, your sister, and your whole family, and so on. And then there would be a life and death duel challenge.
Therefore, although this so-called activity between disciples is nothing but people trying to be a pain in the ass in Wang Lu’s eyes, if as the letter said that there would be Little Hai, then he had to play a role in this activity—Little Hai really came at a bad time.
But then again, the limit of the participants would be ten years cultivation, and while the Ten Thousand Arts Sect’s ace has eight years of cultivation, he only has five years. This three years gap might not be relevant or it might, but ultimately, he couldn’t be the Spirit Sword Sect’s trump card to contend with Zhan Ziye.
"So, other than me, who else is considered by the Elders as the candidate to be sent to deal with that Zhan Ziye? The number one Successor Disciple, Zhu Shiyao?"
"Zhu Shiyao has already been cultivating for fifteen years, she can’t meet the requirement."
Wang Lu was taken aback. "Fifteen years? So, Senior Sister is already an aunt?"
His Master sneered. "She started cultivating at the age of four, so now she’s nineteen years old, just two years older than you. Moreover, her early cultivation years were mainly spent on consolidating her foundation. So when she truly started training her Qi Cultivating Stage, she was just a few years younger than you. Strictly speaking, even if she’s really been cultivating for less than ten years, Spirit Sword Sect doesn’t need to take advantage of this. After some deliberation, the Heavenly Sword Hall decided to let little Liu Li come forward; as long as her brain doesn’t cramp, that Zhan Ziye is nothing."
"Oh, so in the end, it has nothing to do with me then?"
"How could it not? Wouldn’t the Ten Thousand Arts Sect come with five players? You, as the Sect’s Successor Disciple, must fight several of them. If your luck is good, you can be intimate with your sweetheart Little Hai. But if it’s bad luck, you have to at least contend with two of the remaining three."
"Hey, our Spirit Sword Sect has a galaxy of talents, how come we can’t even come up with the best five amongst them?"
"That’s just it, we can’t. You also know that the threshold in cultivation time is ten years. However, in the last ten years, except for your batch that we accepted at the Immortal Gathering, we only received four or five more, of which, only Liu Li who is especially outstanding. And amongst your group, besides you, we can’t find any other good candidate… they’re still far from reaching Foundation Establishment, so how can we send them to fight others? Our Spirit Sword Sect is an ancient sect that doesn’t pursue speed. Our disciples cultivate slow and steady; we strive for comprehensive development, which is slow compared to the other Five Unique. Thus, making the time limit for cultivation is really disadvantageous for us."
"Then why did you guys agree to this bullshit?"
"Because this is the practice in the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals. Moreover, it’s a relatively feasible approach. Otherwise, do you want to put people’s height as the limit? In short, since the others have made their move, we naturally have to meet them. But then again, although this Spirit Sword Sect’s batch of disciple doesn’t have much accomplishment, among those five disciples of the Ten Thousand Arts Sect, no one is truly a genius other than that Zhan Ziye, so there’s not much difference between the two sects."
While speaking, the two have finally returned to the Non-Phase Peak. When Master had landed Wang Lu and his dog on the entrance, she said, "Why don’t you take a rest first. Tomorrow, you can find your Seventh Uncle to fix your arm. After that, try to reach the high-level Qi Cultivating Stage as fast as possible, and then we’ll have a great show waiting for you."
"What show?"
Master sneered. "Of course it’s the Ten Thousand Arts Sect’s long awaited disciples competition. Since they have been so gracious to come to us, we naturally can’t let them down. They want competition? Fine. But since they’re the guest, they have to follow the host rules, and the Spirit Sword Sect’s rules—is also my rules."
Wang Lu smiled. "Did the Sect Leader hand you the power to organize this activity?"
"Exactly. Because I had successfully organized the Immortal Gathering. At that time, my original idea of the Peach Blossom Village was well received."
Wang Lu nodded. "So it seems. It looks like the Elders of the Heavenly Sword Hall are really tired of this Ten Thousand Arts Sect. They allow you to plan for this activity probably because they thought you would entertain the guests with Aya’s cuisine."
Master’s expression suddenly became somewhat complicated. "You really look down on me."
"Most certainly not. Isn’t there a saying in Spirit Sword Mountain: the guests have arrived, good drink must be served, the wolves have arrived, Wang Wu must come forth; if they let you and Aya receive the guests, then if one arrives, one will die; a group arrives, a group will die."
While Wang Lu was ridiculing his Honored Master, he saw Master’s expression suddenly became unusually strange. At the same time, a cold voice sounded from behind him.
"Oh, thank you for thinking so highly of me."
Even though one year has gone by, that voice was still familiar to him.
Wang Lu coughed to hide his embarrassment and turned around to see the girl’s deep green eyes.
"Aya, what just happened was a misunderstanding."
The cold atmosphere in front of the Non-Phase Peak hut lasted for a while. The white-clad woman giggled and smilingly explained the situation.
Wang Lu guessed it right. Aya was indeed the chef assigned by the Spirit Sword Sect to cook for the guests. Therefore, she came to the Non-Phase Peak to discuss the menu with the Fifth Elder.
Then, Wang Lu suddenly ignited the Heaven Summoning Talisman, forcing the Fifth Elder to desperately fly to the rescue, and when they arrived back at the mountain, there was that dialogue. This angered the always indifferent Western Chef; her deep green eyes could drown people in them, but they could also freeze people with their coldness.
"Aya, what just happened was really just a misunderstanding. My main intention was to attack my Master, and you just happened to get implicated unjustly; it is absolutely not my intention to do so."
A certain white-clad female who was named as the target of that suddenly questioned herself whether she had failed or not as a Master after years of teaching her disciple everything but how to respect and honor the Master?
Aya just looked at Wang Lu and then sighed. She was too tired to haggle over that with him; in her heart, she couldn’t help but feel somewhat disappointed.
A year has gone by, and Wang Lu has become a lot stronger than before. Obviously, this experiential learning was very difficult for him. His left arm was gone, and some other scars were also visible on his body, however, that didn’t make him unsightly. However, over the past year, Aya wasn't idle either. After looking for some directions, her cooking skill had actually improved by a lot. Even though there was still some gap compared to a standard cooking, right now, her craft was already much better than her initial Look Up At The Starry Sky.
Unfortunately, Wang Lu’s few words just now made Aya feel as if all of this year’s effort from her went down the drain.
Seeing Aya’s wronged look, Wang Lu decisively jerked his foot, kicking the stupid dog in the ass.
"Go, act cute in front of her."
Although the dumb mutt might not understand the meaning of act cute, stemming from its animal instinct, it was acutely aware of what it should do now.
Thereupon, it shook its tail, ran towards Aya, and gently nuzzled her leg.
The girl pursed her lips and maintained her posture from moving, trying her best to play the role of a frosty woman. However, there was a flicker of confusion in her eyes, as well as slight shiver on her body, which she couldn’t conceal it from anyone.
Wang Lu inwardly sneered ‘Woman’.
Women were often defenseless towards cute little animals. What was the standard of cute? Perhaps there were many of them. However, there was one that was almost universal: stupid enough. From this point of view, the dumb dog was without a doubt the world’s top lovable creature.
From the appearance department, the stupid mutt was also decent. Although its fur color was mottled and it got some injuries from its fight with the Black Poison Corpse General which caused it to be covered with blood, the aura of its chubby eyes could make up for everything. Aya and the dumb mutt just looked at each other’s eyes, and the former’s heart’s defense had already begun to crumble.
If she were still in the Western Continent a few years ago, she wouldn’t have been shaken like this moment. However, after spending several years living in peace in the Spirit Sword Mountain, the girl wasn’t that ice-cold, no-stranger-could-approach anymore. She reluctantly leaned over and touched the head of the dog. A burst of wind blew over, and she then gently wiped away the blood from the dog.
"Is it your pet?" Aya tried to keep her voice steady.
Wang Lu smiled. "Yeah, I picked it up in the Savage Land."
"Is there a name?"
"Gou Zazhong [1]."
Aya looked up, her countenance suddenly turned fierce. "What did you say?"
"Em, I mean… Quan Zouhua."
"What a strange name."
"You can call it Huahua."
"Hm." Aya gently nodded and couldn’t help but begin to stroke the dog.
"Huh?"
Aya’s eyes suddenly sprang wide in surprise. She then shifted her surprised gaze to Wang Lu. Seeing the latter’s indifferent look, she couldn’t help but slightly furrow her brows. Inwardly, she felt very puzzled.
However, in any case, her previous anger and resentment had been dissipated by the dumb dog’s acting cute charm offensive.
Seeing that the atmosphere had eased up, the white-clad woman decided to step in. "That’s enough. Wang Lu, take a rest here. Aya and I are going to continue to prepare for the welcome banquet; we have a tight schedule here."
While speaking, she pulled the girl out of the hut. While walking away, she asked, "Are you sure we don’t need to prepare some prostitutes at the banquet? I think those gang of nerds must have been looking forward to this scene for a long time."
Aya didn’t say anything but just firmly said, "No."
After the two people have gone away, Wang Lu called the dumb dog—which now has a name Qiqi—feeling very proud of himself—into the hut. Like Wang Wu said, he had just experienced an exhausting and dangerous fight, so he really needed to rest.
On the other side. At the Misty Peak cafeteria, after being silent for a long time, Aya finally couldn’t help but ask, "Fifth Elder, are you not... surprised?"
The white-clad woman curiously asked, "About what?"
"Wang Lu’s pet."
"It’s just a stupid dog…" Wang Wu carelessly browsed a cookbook, thinking that she must give those cultivators from the Ten Thousand Arts Sect a really nice surprise.
Aya had to emphasize. "It’s not a dog."
"Of course, since it was picked up at the Western Mountain, it’s a special breed of dumb dog for sure… "
Seeing Aya’s serious look, Wang Wu put down the cookbook and seriously asked, "Why? What’s the matter?"
Aya replied, "It’s a wolf."
In Wang Wu’s eyes, was there any difference between a dog and a wolf? However, the other side’s point was clearly more than that.
"And then?"
"It’s the legendary terrifying demon wolf from the Western Continent, Fenrir."
"... What the!"
…
[1] (Son of a b*tch)