Chapter 74: Master, Please Accept Your Disciples Respect!
Translator: Subudai11 Editor: Chrissy
At this time, Wang Lu hadn’t realized that he was walking into the Misty Peak Cafeteria, since he was completely engrossed in the swordsmanship deduction. In his mind, there were quite many people, each one of them held a sword and performed a different set of sword art, and some of them fought each other with various amount of wins and loses. As an observer, Wang Lu learned from their performance and extracted valuable experience.
Wang Lu himself had just discovered this ability not so long ago… Perhaps it was because of the Non-Phase Sword Bone, especially since the appearance of that single piece of Emperor Bone, or perhaps since he started absorbing surrounding spiritual energy, resulting in the initial condensation of his Primordial Spirit, that his IQ was effectively enhanced… In short, since he has the ability, he might as well use it. Wasn’t this also a part of the great wisdom?
When Wang Lu was on the fifteenth iteration of deducting the fight between Recline Corpse Sword Art and Loose Style Sword Art, when he was immersing himself in the newly discovered flaw of the Loose Style Sword Art… his body suddenly jolted. Someone had violently shook him, bursting that mysterious realm of deduction.
“F*ck! Who is it!?” he inwardly cursed.
Wang Lu returned to the real world with an indignant face. He then found himself sitting in the Misty Peak Cafeteria, and a petite blonde girl full of heroic spirit was staring at him with her dark green eyes.
“Excuse me, may I have your order?”
Wang Lu looked around a bit and found out that he was the only patron. He inwardly cursed, thinking that he inadvertently burst into the “dragon pond, tiger den” [1].
There were four big restricted areas in the Spirit Sword Mountain: Sect Leader’s Abode, Pink House, Sword Tomb, and… the promoting-new-dishes Misty Peak Cafeteria.
It was suicidal to enter each of those area, especial the last one… Inwardly, Wang Lu silently sang an elegy for himself; he then resolutely said, “Bring me everything new that you got!”
In swordsmanship cultivation, the single most important point was to have a vigor that could not be swept away just like the sharpness of the sword! “You! I don’t care if you have the thirteen or a million fish heads looking up at the starry sky, but you’ve made me angry… Just wait! I, your father, will eat you today!”
Hearing Wang Lu’s request, the somewhat unhappy look on that maiden chef suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a pleasantly surprised smile. “Very good! Today, I just launched a new dish inspired from my faraway hometown which used lake as the main theme. It has a very memorable value!”
“Damn! I, your father, am not from your hometown; why would I want your memorable nonsense!”
“In short, please rest assured. This dish will definitely surprise you!” After making that powerful statement, without saying anything else, the blonde girl turned around and briskly walked back to the kitchen, preparing to take that lake-themed new dish.
A moment later, Wang Lu subconsciously returned to the meditative state, and began deducing the swordsmanship again. At this time, the blond girl plodded out of the kitchen holding a very large porcelain pot relative to her stature. She then firmly placed it on the table with a self-satisfied look appeared on her face.
“Try it. Have faith in me!”
Wang Lu apprehensively looked at that giant porcelain pot which was filled with dark green soup. It has a strange smell and, occasionally, bubbles of air would burst on its surface… Floating in the middle was what appeared to be a very suspicious meat ball. No matter what, it was hard to feel at ease!
Wang Lu cautiously probed. “Dare I ask, is this… Lake Monster?”
The girl frowned. “No, it’s the lake elf.”
“... Don’t you think the shape of this elf is quite strange?”
The girl continued to frown. “Is it?... Why don’t you just eat it, it’s not good to eat if it gets cold.”
“No, I am sure this thing should be frozen to absolute zero first before it’s anywhere near edible!” Wang Lu inwardly exclaimed.
However, Wang Lu gathered his courage and took a spoonful of that soup. To his surprise, the soup didn’t taste so bad! Although it was far from tasty, and could not be compared to Lady Boss’s dish at the Ru Family Inn, it actually could be compared to the craft of a simple farm girl. Nevertheless... this was a considerable progress compared to her “look up at the starry sky” and other dishes.
After repeatedly confirming that his taste bud didn’t betray him, Wang Lu very straightforwardly gave the soup a thumbs up. The young girl’s smile immediately bloomed; so wide was her smile that it almost completely covered the horror of that green soup on the table.
“Thank you for your appreciation. I will continue to try to live up to my customer’s expectation!”
After that, this young chef cheerfully went back to the kitchen to do the other dishes while Wang Lu continued to drink a few spoonfuls of that lake elf. Because the taste wasn’t giving him enough stimulation, Wang Lu quickly wallowed in the swordsmanship deduction.
After several moments, Wang Lu ended his swordsmanship deduction and turned his attention back to the reality. However, he found out that the green-eyed girl was already standing before him. On the table were several dishes, but all of them had already cooled down. As for Wang Lu, he found himself holding a spoon and chopsticks, yet he didn’t move at all.
“Alas, it’s still not good enough...”
The girl very sadly sighed, quietly acknowledging her failure. For a proud person, this was a very difficult thing to say.
Looking at the girl so disappointed like that, to the point where he could feel her pain, Wang Lu thought that he had inadvertently played with the girl’s heart. Which, according to the sect’s regulation, seemed like he was guilty of lewd behavior? Although it was an inadvertent act, but a professional adventurer ought to accept the consequences for his action—since he played with her mind, then he will be responsible for fixing it.
“Actually, I was just distracted.”
The girl firmly nodded in agreement. “I can understand that… A clever warrior will use distraction as a way to alleviate the pain. And to have brought so much pain to you, I am truly at fault here. Sure enough… I really have no talent.”
“Wait a minute, girl, you misunderstood. Actually, it’s like this…”
Wang Lu began to confess that since he struggled in the swordsmanship cultivation, he became distracted all day long trying to solve his problem—this was a relatively easy way to win other people’s trust.
After he had finished baring his problem, he found out that the girl was looking at him in surprise.
“You know swordsmanship!?”
Damn! Wang Lu was upset; that remark seemed to say, Could pigs climb trees!? He thought that no matter how worse he was, he was still a Successor Disciple of a sword sect; if he didn’t know the way of the sword, should he take the Nine-Teeth Rake [2] for her to see?
Although his Void Spirit Root was a pain in the crack, it wasn’t a sufficient enough reason for other people to despise him!
Realizing that her remark had been negatively perceived, the girl quickly covered her mouth and then explained, “No, I’m just surprised that since you know the way of the sword, why do you practice your swordsmanship in this immature way?”
Wang Lu was curious. “Why is it immature? Using extraordinary intelligence to deduct the swordsmanship is a way to improve efficiency and reduce cost; what’s wrong with it?”
The girl thought for a moment, and then somewhat bluntly said, “Swordsmanship... is not something that you think, but something that you apply.”
Wang Lu sighed. “This sword art of mine is different; it needs big wisdom to practice it.”
This time, the girl pondered a lot longer until Wang Lu wanted to get up and check her out. After a while, finally, she slowly said, “I remembered that in your Nine Regions language, wisdom and intelligence are two entirely different words.”
Wang Lu’s jaw immediately dropped.
“Intelligence, wisdom…” Light suddenly appeared at the end of the tunnel.
The girl lightly frowned and then continued, “The greatest thing that factored in intelligence is innate, while wisdom is mostly acquired through experience. Since you need big wisdom to practice your sword art, then you should rely on gaining real combat experience; how could you just blindly fantasize it?”
“... Well said. This has really enlightened me.” Hearing her explanation, the dark cloud that was plaguing his mind finally cleared; all the haze vanished, and it was replaced by the brilliant sunshine.
The truth was indeed just like what the girl said. Unfortunately, he didn’t see through this for many days.
Swordsmanship was about taking action. The only thing that he lacked after several days of deduction, which had already provided him with enough theoretical basis, was the actual fighting experience.
It was just that… practicing swordsmanship obviously couldn’t be behind a closed door; it was best to have a special instructor. This instructor needed not necessarily be powerful, but has to be proficient in the way of the sword. However, where could he find such an instructor?
Among his fellow Martial Brothers and Sisters, their strength, of course, were amazing, with high cultivation level and particularly advanced swordsmanship. However, frankly speaking, their attainment in the way of the sword might not necessarily be profound. Swordsmanship and the way of the sword are two completely different concepts.
Usually, the best candidate would undoubtedly be the Lady Boss. However, in the absence of the Lady Boss...
After he pondered it over, his peripheral vision caught the sight of that pair of deep green eyes; a flash suddenly appeared in his mind.
Hey! Isn’t this a “ready made one”!?
Although he had never seen her fight, nor knew her depth of knowledge, but the fact that she had enlightened the mystery of the way of the sword to him showed that she was an extremely able person.
——
“What? You want me to… help you practice your sword art?”
After cleaning up the dishes, she looked at Wang Lu in surprise after hearing such a request from him.
After a moment of hesitation, the girl shook her head to refuse him. “I am just a cook, and I am busy with my work, so I can’t help you with that.”
How could Wang Lu believe that? He immediately produced his long term meal ticket with a flourish. “Look at this old customer’s face and do me a favor; isn’t this what you call a sincere bargain?”
Being frightened by that long-term meal ticket, the girl muttered irresolutely, “But…”
Still but? Wang Lu didn’t want to argue with her any longer; he simply unsheathed the Purple Soft Sword from his waist and thrusted it at the girl’s shoulder.
The opposite party was taken aback; she didn’t expect Wang Lu to attack her without any preamble. Particularly, the only thing in her hand was the pair of chopsticks, which was inconvenient to use to parry the attack… However, the next moment, the girl firmly clamped that Purple Soft Sword with the chopsticks, while her other hand tried to stabilize the stack of dishes, stopping the attack.
After that attack failed, Wang Lu simply withdrew his Purple Soft Sword, however, his heart was amazed.
She truly deserved to be a hidden expert. Just now, Wang Lu didn’t use the Soft Cloud Sword Art, but rather the first move of the Heaven and Earth Sword Art, which was completely formidable. Combined with the power of his eighth level of Qi Cultivating Stage, even a first class martial artist of the present age has no way to resist it.
However, this blonde girl had easily fended off that sword strike with just a pair of chopsticks! If she wasn’t a master, who is?
Therefore, before the girl had a chance to put down the dishes and the other things, Wang Lu straightforwardly rushed to kneel and bow his head before her. “Master, please accept your disciples’ respect!”
Crash!
The dishes shattered as they fell on the floor.
[1] Dangerous place.
[2] Weapon of Zhu Bajie, the pig in the Journey to The West.