CH 7

Flying Dust [Fei Chen]

Chapter 7

“Who the hell is in there?!” Li Bilian shouted as her formless sword energy swept across the ground, almost cutting off Mo Fei Chen’s leg. However, he could only cover his mouth and keep quiet. The fire was now extinguished and it was all darkness in the cave. 

Li Bilian let out a cold snort, she wanted to hit him again with her palm. Mo Fei Chen managed to dodge the wind palm but not the rock that was hit by her attack and fell on his back. He was hit on his back and a mouthful of blood spurted out. 

It hurts …hurts so much…! 

He struggled to move but the pain was so severe that he could not turn his body over.

Li Bilian walked to the side of his feet, “Brat, that’s you right?”

She lifted him up. Don’t be fooled by the fact that although this woman is petite, her physical strength is incredibly strong. Mo Fei Chen’s collar was strangling his neck and he was soon to be suffocated.

Li Bilian threw him onto the ice coffin with one grip, the severe hit causing him to spurt up blood again.

You want Shi Zu’s sword seed, I know that I cannot stop you.

You won’t let me off even if you get the sword seed, so I willfully and persistently won’t let you have it!

Mo Fei Chen was lying on the ice coffin with his legs spread out, feeling as if his skin had mixed together with that thousand-year-old ice.

“Brat! Get down from there!”

Li Bilian wanted to grab him up as she stretched her hand but she found that Mo Fei Chen’s body had sunk into the ice.

She was getting impatient in her heart as she struck Mo Fei Chen’s back with another palm strike. In a flash, a rebound of true qi forcibly broke her left arm. She was sent flying and crashed into the cave wall.

Mo Fei Chen felt that he was slowly losing his consciousness and even the wound on his back didn’t seem to hurt as much as before. 

Yu Mutou*1[Wooden head Yu], you better drink the wine yourself! I, your Shi Di, am going return to the west2[to die or pass away]* ... 

He didn’t know if it was his illusion or not, but the cold ice seemed to be melting and Mo Fei Chen felt a hand slowly move up along his waist, holding him tightly inside his embrace.

“Shi Zu… this must not be your corpses coming to life right…?” Mo Fei Chen muttered.

“That’s right, it’s me!” The voice that came into his ears sounded indistinct, yet it was gentle and warm. The person seemed to say it with a smile.

Suddenly, a warm feeling came pouring into Mo Fei Chen’s limbs and bones. His originally short breathing subsided. The man beneath him hugged him as he sat up. With a light leap, a cool breeze passed by Mo Fei Chen’s face.

The moment he opened his eyes, he saw a sword qi passing around the valley. The fog in the valley was suddenly cut open while the silver moon in the sky and the glittering stars appeared at this point, before finally the sword qi rebounded from the stone wall and went straight into Dian Ling’s right arm, who was fighting with Wen Qing Yuan. In an instant, Dian Ling let out a hiss of pain, his right arm was already broken.

Wen Qing Yuan turned his head and looked at the man who was standing at the entrance of the cave.

The corners of his mouth were smiling and his eyes as warm as jade. He was holding Mo Fei Chen with one of his hands, his clothes dancing lightly as if he was riding in the wind. 

Inside the cave, Li Bilian woke up and crawled over to the man’s body, kowtowing repeatedly, tears streaming down from her face.

“This little girl is guilty of the most terrible crimes, seeing the sword seed of this senior and has bad intentions… I just beg you to let us, this husband and wife, live… We will definitely never dare… to do it again in the future.” Li Bilian’s every kowtow hit the stone. Mo Fei Chen was really afraid that Shi Zu probably didn’t want to kill her but she herself might have badly injured her own head. 

“Are you the one who injured him?” The man leaned down and looked attentively at Li Bilian’s eyes while he gently stroked the back of Mo Fei Chen’s head with his palm.

Li Bilian was dumbfounded, Mo Fei Chen also dumbfounded.

Li Bilian stared blankly because she had injured Mo Fei Chen and He Yunfeng probably would not spare her.

Mo Fei Chen stared blankly, simply because the man who carried him right now was really He Yunfeng, the man who had written a legend in the martial arts world, that He Yunfeng, who has been lying in an ice coffin for nearly a hundred year without moving even a little?

Looking around again, Wen Qing Yuan, who was not far away, also knelt down. His expression that had always been indifferent to anything, unexpectedly had a somewhat respectful feeling and awe in it. 

“This disciple greets Shi Zu, I never thought that in this lifetime I would be lucky enough to see Shi Zu break through (overcome the difficulty).”

He Yunfeng raised his hand, gesturing for Wen Qing Yuan to get up, before then he looked sideways at Mo Fei Chen, “Little guy, what is your name? Usually, I only hear you call yourself ‘this disciple, this disciple’ but Shi Zu still doesn’t even know your name yet.”

Mo Fei Chen looked at his smile, his ears seemed to have several thousands of birds singing in the mountain forest. He swallowed his saliva and slowly said, “Mo…Mo Fei Chen…”

He Yunfeng’s smile deepened, “Fei Chen… Fei Chen…”

He read aloud Mo Fei Chen’s name, word by word in detail, as if in this name, he was able to read it to another world. 

“Your name is well chosen, now Shi Zu asks you. This woman, you want me to spare her? Should I spare her?”

Mo Fei-Chen slowly lowered his head and looked at Li Bilian, “The two of them wanted to steal Shi Zu’s martial arts’ ancient books or records and sword seed. They also bring the people from Ling She Gang to hurt my fellow Shi Xiong and Shi Di…”

“So you don’t want to let them off?” He Yunfeng looked up to look at the boy lying on his shoulder.

“Actually at first, this disciple wanted to say ‘if revenge breeds revenge, will there ever be an end to it?’ but this disciple does not have that kind of broad mind.”

“Okay, I got it, so you neither want to kill them nor let them go easily.” He Yunfeng turned around and leapt with a light leap which was the “Ride the Wind” stance, but he used it in a much more impressive and graceful way than Mo Fei Chen. When he looked back, he looked at Wen Qing Yuan and said, “Throw this couple into the snake cave and let them taste the same suffering of our disciples!”

Sure enough, Li Bilian looked pale, knelt in place and didn’t know how to get up. 

He Yunfeng gently landed on the cliff path and put Mo Fei Chen down.

With a twist of his wrist, a sword blustered out, leaving a long lasting echo sound in the mountains and wherever it went, the people of Ling She Gang were attacked and the wandering around poisonous snakes were crushed into mush.

He Yunfeng’s fingertips clicked in the air, and all of his sword energy returned to his fingers like a hundred birds returning to their nests.

Mo Fei Chen just looking at him with his mouth slightly open, He Yunfeng lowered his head and touched his head with his palm, “Your hair tie, why is it gone?”

“It was…cut off by Li Bilian’s sword…”

The rest of the disciples turned their heads to look at He Yunfeng, who was gracefully poised beneath the night sky. The wounded disciples supported each other, gasping for breath as if they did not yet understand what had happened.

Wen Qing Yuan welcomed He Yunfeng to the main hall of the manor. The disciples knelt down, starting from the nearest place to He Yunfeng to the terrace outside the hall.

Mo Fei Chen was not a senior disciple, so he naturally knelt at a distance point. 

The solemn and quiet night was gradually being drawn back by the first glimmer of the morning sun’s scenery behind them as the thin sunlight shone upon the hem of He Yunfeng’s coat. He did not look at his disciples who were kneeling before him, but raised his head slightly and looked towards the sky.

“How long have I been asleep?” His voice was soft.

“One hundred and twelve years.” Wen Qing Yuan replied to him. 

“That long? Why do I feel as if I was lying in Lianyun’s arms yesterday…?” He Yunfeng nodded his head and smiled, “All of you get up! What is the point of kneeling to me, an ‘ancients’ who has been dead for over a hundred year?”

The disciples were still kneeling there with their heads bowed. Originally, Mo Fei Chen wanted to stand up but seeing that no one was moving, it was no good for him to just suddenly stand up too. 

He Yunfeng stood up and walked past the disciples, neither too fast nor too slow, “Qing Yuan, I see that you are also the loose type of person and your character is quite similar to mine. I haven’t taught you a single move or even a half of it. In the future, you don’t have to call me Shi Zu anymore! It makes me feel like an old man who is about to be buried on the ground when I hear it.”

Mo Fei Chen nodded in his heart. That was only natural. He Yunfeng looked like he was at most 31 or 32 years old. How strange it was to be called ‘Shi Zu! Shi Zu!’? 

“Then how should this disciple address you?”

He Yunfeng turned his head back and said indifferently, “Just call me He Shi Xiong! You are still the Manor Leader of Kun Yun Shanzhuang. I just want to spend my days carefreely and leisurely here in the back of the mountain. Oh yeah, that’s right, it would be good to have this little monkey as my company.”

Mo Fei Chen was still thinking in his heart that there were indeed many flying squirrels on the mountain but where was the monkey in the area? He was already picked up by someone, by his collar as he already stood up.

“I am the monkey…?”

“Fei Chen, if you are willing, you can call me Shi Fu in the future. Every day, you just have to eat, sleep and accompany this master to play around and have fun. No one will ask you to get up early to practice your sword, be free and enjoy a happy life, are you willing?”

“Willing! Of course I am willing to!” These days, he had been practicing his sword so that he couldn’t sleep well. He even still felt pain in his hands from holding the sword for a long time. 

He YunFeng just laughed it off, “Qing Yuan, the news about me, inevitably will spread out soon. Of course there will be many people from Jiang Hu who will come3[慕名而来 literally mean to come to a place on account of its reputation (idiom); attracted many people to visit a certain famous location]*. Tell them that I have no intention of re-entering Jiang Hu, nor do I wish to see people from Jiang Hu. If they still have some respect for me, then give me peace.”

“Qing Yuan understands.”

Mo Fei Chen’s hand was held up by He Yunfeng as he drew an arc at the first glimmer of the morning sun towards the depths part of the valley. 

He Yunfeng stood on the cliff path and looked at the deep water in the valley, “Fei Chen, do you think it’s good or not if we built a hut in here?”

“A hut?” Mo Fei Chen raised his eyebrows, “Shi Fu, you don’t live in the manor but you want to build a hut on this cliff path?”

“That’s right, I4[為師/ Wei Shi: This Master/Teacher] once had a wish to build a hut in the peaceful and quiet place in the mountains. It doesn’t need to be big, but as long as…”

“As long as I can live with the person I love then I can live free and unfettered day after day, listen to the motion of the wind and watch the flowers blossom and fall into nothing.” Mo Fei Chen tilted his head, he knew that He Yunfeng probably was thinking of Luo Lianyun. 

“That’s right, it’s just that…”

Mo Fei Chen looked at those full of melancholy eyes where the corner of his mouth were smiling but actually he was helpless, “Flowers may look the same as the time goes by, but people are not the same with each passing year.”5[ 年年歲歲花相似, 歲歲年年人不同: The flowers bloom the same in this season as in the last one, while people get older this year than the last one. Or in other words; The flowers are similar every year, but people are different from year to year.]

Luo Lianyun was already gone, the difference between him and her was one hundred and twelve years.

He Yunfeng touched Mo Fei Chen’s head, “Are you sleepy? If you’re not, we’ll build the house now.”

“Fine, first we have to choose a tree to build a house…Shi Fu, it’s too hard for me to cut down the tree. Can this disciple prepare the thatch for the roof?”

He Yunfeng’s fingertips swept past the bridge of Mo Fei Chen’s nose, waved his hand and said,”Go, just go then! You, this lazy monkey.”

Mo Fei Chen was happy as he laughed ‘He he’ and asked where he could find plenty of thatch, naturally it was the stove room.

When several Shi Xiongs saw him coming, they asked him what kind of person He Yunfeng was. They were too far away to see Shi Zu’s face clearly and how he had returned to life after death and so on, questioning Mo Fei Chen till he felt dizzy.

“Ai, Shi Zu is also the same with us, doesn’t he also have two eyes and one nose?”Mo Fei Chen put the thatch together, “Shi Xiongs, please use the firewood when you are going to make the fire! These dried grass, left it for me ba!”

One of the Shi Xiong came over and slapped him on the back, “You’re lucky, kid! Shi Zu has taken a fancy to you. If he teaches you any advanced kung fu in the future, don’t hide or conceal it!”

“Well, Shi Xiongs, it’s not like you guys don’t know that I, Mo Fei Chen, do I look like the type of disciple who likes to practice martial arts? The reason Shi Zu ordered me to go with him is because he sees me as a monkey and is looking for me to relieve his boredom…”

Translator’s Note : 

Since I kind of skip reading when I read the raw so I just realized when I was translating it that He Yunfeng is really a good guy, his role in the past with Luo Lianyun, kind of similar to Lu Qingmo hahaha. Both pitiful in love and the type that tends to sacrifice a lot. 

I am also amazed by the author’s description of He Yun Feng’s sword Qi in this chapter.