Yan Tianhen began to appreciate the hidden meaning behind this sword technique as soon as he started practicing it.
Perhaps it was due to his talent, perhaps it was due to finding a sword style that truly suited him, or perhaps the realizations and understanding he gained from this secret manual stirred up his insensitive nerves–
In short, it could be said that practicing 《Decline and Prosperity》went smoothly and easily, and his cultivation advanced a thousand miles a day.
Yan Tianhen suddenly discovered that practicing swordsmanship was actually such a fun matter, especially when the more he practiced, the more he could observe the law governing the growth of all living beings. The calmer his heart became, the more excited he was to practice this sword technique.
Although decline and prosperity alternated, in the end, prosperity was still the aspect that thrived and flourished.
When Yan Tianhen was happy, he sent someone to buy wine, and he chugged wine directly into his mouth while performing a sword-dance. He was in a surprisingly good mood, and these days, he was hardly ever in a bad mood.
It was ten days later when Gu Ruyu found that something was wrong with Yan Tianhen.
He was reading late at night beside a lit lamp when he suddenly heard a loud bang coming from the dormitory area of the East Courtyard. He suddenly stood up and ran towards the direction of the sound.
The disciples of the East Courtyard ran out one after another and asked each other what had happened. The sound had come from the courtyard where Yan Tianhen was located.
Gu Ruyu immediately flew into the courtyard and saw Yan Tianhen’s wild behavior — his clothes were slightly open and his steps were unsteady. However, the sword seals he formed were excellent, and his movements were very natural, flowing like water and moving like clouds. His moves exercised proper control and restraint, and from time to time, he also stabbed the trees and rocks in front of him into pieces, heedless of the fact that it was already night.
Gu Ruyu stared blankly. When Yan Tianhen stopped, Gu Ruyu finally saw that his eyes were completely bloodshot. He already seemed exhausted beyond measure, and his eyes showed faint signs of suffering a Qi deviation.
Gu Ruyu was very shocked. He grabbed Yan Tianhen, who was still in high spirits, pinched his pulse, and circulated his spiritual Qi throughout Yan Tianhen’s body. Moments later, he practically roared, “Where did you get this secret script?”
Yan Tianwen seemed to have smoked a hallucinogenic devil’s snare. He smiled excitedly with a flushed face and answered, “It was given to me by a senior martial brother.”
Gu Ruyu squeezed his wrist tightly. “What senior martial brother? Which one? What’s the name of the person who gave you this sword technique?”
Yan Tianhen said, “He…I can’t tell you his name, but that elder martial brother is always in the library, is dressed in blue Confucian robes, and treats me very kindly. He looks very scholarly.”
Gu Ruyu gritted his teeth so hard that he almost broke them. “Damn it, are you aware that your blood and spiritual Qi are all flowing backwards right now? If you keep practicing like this, you will suffer a Qi deviation!”
Yan Tianhen was stunned. “No way? But I don’t feel anything myself ah.”
Gu Ruyu cursed some swear words.
Yan Tianhen blinked, shook his head, and tried to throw out some of the ideas that were inexplicably poured into his mind these days.
Gu Ruyu sealed several of Yan Tianhen’s major pressure points in quick succession, temporarily halting the reversal of spiritual Qi and blood in his body. He took a deep breath and calmed himself down. “I’ll take you to Sword God Hall.”
Yan Tianhen’s scalp became numb as soon as he heard the words ‘Sword God Hall’. “I don’t want to go.”
Gu Ruyu thought he was afraid of losing face. He glared at Yan Tianhen and suggested, “Then you’ll follow me to Little Penglai. Huarong Sword Immortal is so powerful; he must know how to help you.”
Yan Tianhen’s eyes widened, as if frightened. “Then I don’t want to go even more. I don’t want to go to Sword God Hall precisely because I don’t want him to see me like this.”
Sometime during the conversation, Yan Tianhen had secretly taken out a mirror from his storage ring and used it to study his face, only to see that his face all the way to his exposed chest was very red. This was an unnatural red. No matter how good-looking someone was, when fair skin became this color, they would all appear awkward.
Gu Ruyu was so angry that he was about to explode. He finally couldn’t restrain himself any longer and roared, “Yan Tianhen, can’t you be more reliable? Is face more important or is your life more important? You’re already like this, yet you’re still worried about so many useless things?”
Yan Tianhen whispered, “Even if I die, I still can’t lose my dignity in front of beauties and my sweetheart. It just so happens that the beauty is my sweetheart — what should I do?”
Gu Ruyu, “….”
Gu Ruyu asked expressionlessly, “Are you going or not?”
Yan Tianhen panted heavily and shook his head desperately. “Not going.”
“Very good.” Gu Ruyu coldly curled his lips and suddenly stretched out his hand unexpectedly, dealing a heavy blow. Yan Tianhen let out a cry and fell on his back.
Gu Ruyu wasted no time in grabbing Yan Tianhen, who didn’t even have time to fully fall onto the ground. He carried Yan Tianhen on his shoulder and rode his sword, flying toward the Sword God Hall that was far away in the mountains.
The disciples of the East Courtyard looked at one another, and they couldn’t understand what kind of fuss Yan Tianhen was making so late at night.
The members of the night patrol only felt that something had flown over their heads, and when they looked up again, the air was again calm and quiet.
“Did you see anything just now?”
“It seems that a big bird flew by, but I seem to have also sensed some spiritual Qi fluctuations.”
“It can’t be that a disciple dared to fly on their sword in the middle of the night, right?”
“That shouldn’t be the case. The sect rules and regulations are right here — disciples cannot roam about at night, let alone fly on their swords. Furthermore, recently the Judge is trying to catch someone and make an example of them. Who would dare to touch this bomb right now?”
“That’s also true…”
Gu Ruyu headed straight for Sword God Hall.
He didn’t even look for those gentlemen teachers. He came directly to kowtow to the Sword Saints.
After all, Yan Tianhen had a special constitution and a mixed heritage. Not everyone could resolve the problem of reversed blood and Qi flow for him.
At the entrance of Sword God Hall, someone would stand watch on night duty every day. Sometimes these people were disciples, and most of the time, they were inner hall disciples of Sword God Hall. The person Gu Ruyu met tonight was precisely Yan Huanyu, Yan Tianhen’s nemesis.
A flash of sword light flew across and stopped Gu Ruyu’s path. Yan Huanyu narrowed his eyes. “It’s deep at night when the dew is heaviest. No one can wander around at night. What are you doing in Sword God Hall?”
Gu Ruyu was so anxious that his mouth bubbled. Behind him, Yan Tianhen had already woken up. His hot body kept rubbing against Gu Ruyu’s back, and his mouth kept moaning, “I don’t feel well”. His whole person seemed as if he were about to catch on fire.
Gu Ruyu’s heart sank at the sight of Yan Huanyu. He thought, Enemies will inevitably clash. Blessings never come in pairs, but misfortune does not come singly. To think we’d actually meet this evil spirit. I’m afraid that it won’t be easy to enter today.
Gu Ruyu said, “Can’t you see that there’s something wrong with the person behind me? Prince, no matter how your relationship with Ah Hen was before, this time it really concerns Ah Hen’s life and death. I ask Prince to please give priority to important matters and let us through. Gu Ruyu will definitely repay your kindness in the future.”
Yan Huanyu’s gaze sank, and he swept a glance at Yan Tianhen, who was constantly rubbing his body against Gu Ruyu. He said, “What a scandal.” He then stepped forward, grabbed Yan Tianhen’s collar, and pulled the person off of Gu Ruyu without any explanation.
Yan Tianhen’s pair of eyes had become scarlet, as if they were about to drip blood.
He glared at Yan Huanyu, stiffening his neck even as he panted heavily. He even said weakly, “If you want to kill me….”
“Shut up!” Yan Huanyu admonished sternly, “Hugging people in public with such disheveled clothing, running around at night, not knowing how to properly practice your sword, and even letting yourself fall into such a dangerous situation. After this is resolved, you will copy the sect rules ten times. Do you hear me?”
Yan Tianhen was stunned. He stared with a pair of wide almond eyes and felt his chrysanthemum tighten. He felt a sense of nervousness, like he’d been caught doing bad things by his parents.
Yan Huanyu narrowed his eyes. “Do you still want to go in?”
“He will copy it!” When Gu Ruyu saw the situation, his mind turned very fast. “He will definitely copy it; I’ll force him to copy it in the future.”
Yan Tianhen whimpered and tugged at his clothes, about to cry. “It hurts ah.”
Yan Huanyu took a deep breath, fought back the veins bulging out on his forehead, and carried Yan Tianhen on his back. “You, come over here.”
Of course there was more than one night watchman in Sword God Hall.
Yan Huanyu had someone send a report. When he carried Yan Tianhen into Sword God Hall, someone had already reported the situation to the Sword Saints who were still in dreamland. Although they were Sword Saints, in reality, they had never shown off their might and awe-inspiring prestige in front of their disciples.
One of the rules of the sect was to put disciples’ safety first.
The number of times that Sword Saints had been woken up in the middle of the night because there was a problem with a disciple’s cultivation was at least 180 times a year. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have specially sent someone to be on duty outside the hall gates, waiting to report to them at any time.
Yan Huanyu thought that only Esteemed Yao Guang was here, but he didn’t expect that Sword Saint Tianshu was also here.
Before Yan Huanyu even opened his mouth, Sword Saint Tianshu’s expression changed greatly. “How did he become like this?”
Yan Tianhen felt that the voice sounded familiar. When he looked up, he saw Tianshu’s familiar face.
Yan Tianhen felt like he was about to cough up blood and almost spat it out.
“It’s you!?”
Yao Guang looked at Tianshu suspiciously, then spoke, “Let him down first. This symptom seems to be reverse blood and Qi flow, as well as Qi deviation. What did he do just now?”
While Yan Huanyu put Yan Tianhen on the big futon brought by a disciple, Gu Ruyu explained, “A few days ago, Yan Tianhen obtained a secret manual from who knows where, and he became like this after practicing it.”
Sword Saint Tianshu just about to speak when he heard Gu Ruyu angrily say, “He said that it was given to him by a senior martial brother, but he refused to give that senior martial brother’s name. Now I have reason to suspect that this ‘senior martial brother’ deliberately made a trap for Yan Tianhen and tried to murder the second heir. This is treason! I ask the Esteemed Ones to investigate to the end and give us an explanation!”
Yan Tianhen coughed violently, and at the same time stretched out his claws and tugged hard on Gu Ruyu’s sleeve.
Tianshu was also somewhat embarrassed. He touched his nose. “I gave it to him.”
Gu Ruyu suddenly looked up, and a pair of sharp, knife-like eyes looked like they were about to stab Tianshu to death.
Yao Guang was very shocked. He glared at Tianshu. “What the fuck did you do again? Why can’t you just grow flowers every day and do nothing?”
Tianshu became even more embarrassed. “At least save me some face in front of the disciples.”
Yao Guang suddenly became angry, pointing to Yan Tianhen. “What in the world happened to him? He was such a healthy child; how did he suddenly become like this?”