Lanke Chess Edge -
Chapter 199: How Did He Survive Until Now
Hu Yun was stunned. The Old Turtle in front of him had changed from kind to suddenly even more terrifying than his impression of Lu Shan Jun.
Despite racking his brains a couple times, he couldn’t remember how he had offended this Old Turtle.
‘Could it be that Mr. Ji offended him? ’
According to Hu Yun’s analysis, this was the only possibility. After all, he was born in Niu Kui Mountain, and had never held a grudge against anyone. It was only after he had mentioned events related to Mr. Ji that the Old Turtle’s mood changed drastically.
‘Mr. Ji, you caused me so much trouble! ’
Hu Yun was terrified and he trembled as he spoke. He pressed his front paws together and begged, bowing several times to the Old Turtle so close to him to show his weakness.
“Turtle, Master Turtle, I, I’m just a little fox… Mr. Ji may have provoked, you but that’s none of my business…!”
Ji Yuan, hearing these words from over ten feet away, nearly felt like vomiting blood. Even the old turtle on the river was obviously shocked.
“Hahahahahaha…fox, why are you so lucky… Crunch…”
The last sound was the remaining willow wood in the Old Turtle’s mouth being ground into powder under the force of his jaw. He was literally gnashing his teeth… Although the old turtle had no teeth,1 that phrase illustrated these actions quite vividly.As soon as the Old Turtle finished his words, Hu Yun realized that the problem might not lie with Mr. Ji, but with himself.2
Turtles were normally very slow animals with a very low breathing rate, especially an old turtle like this one who had already nurtured a spirit. However, this Old Turtle’s breathing was not only very frequent and very heavy, but the old-blooded animal’s eyes had actually gone a little bloodshot.
A demonic aura that utterly terrified Hu Yun slowly rose. Although Lu Shan Jun had been very scary in the past, he had never revealed this side himself in front of the red fox.
Fortunately, the monstrous aura of the old turtle always stayed near the river, otherwise it might have attracted the attention of the underworld nighttime patrols. Even so, it was still terrifying enough for Hu Yun. He even had the illusion that not even Ji Yuan would have been able to do anything to this turtle monster if he had arrived.
“Let me ask you, how many years have passed since the day you gained clarity in spiritual enlightenment and your spiritual senses were no longer dull?”
The old turtle’s voice was a little hoarse and cold, but at least he sounded a lot calmer, which made Hu Yun breathe a sigh of relief.
“It’s been about fifteen years since my senses stopped being dull…”
“Fifteen years? Only fifteen years! Hahahahaha… Only fifteen years… I guess those first nine years were just to clear up your senses, and your life was still pretty much the same as that of an ordinary fox, right?”
The old turtle smiled desolately, staring at the red fox so intently that the latter subconsciously didn’t dare to look at him, and avoided his gaze.
“How did you know?”
The old turtle sneered again.
“Six years, six years to refine the horizontal bone. Although the spiritual energy and monstrous aura in your body are weak and your power is shallow, it took six years for you to refine the horizontal bone. This is truly worthy of an immortal’s guidance! Fox, can you guess how long it took me, this Old Turtle, to refine the horizontal bone and gain the ability to speak?”
Hu Yun was actually not that stupid. It must have taken a long time to reach the Old Turtle’s current state, he could tell even just by looking at him. And although Lu Shan Jun never said it, Hu Yun could sense the big tiger’s surprise when he first encountered him after refining his horizontal bone.
“You’ve been trying for…for decades?”
“Haha, thank you for thinking highly of me, but my turtle spirit cultivation is extremely difficult, and I am alone and weak. It took me 230 years to refine my horizontal bone. Your six years of ‘natural talent’ are simply not comparable.”
When these words heavy with the weight of time passed rang out, even the big black carp trapped in the waves below quieted down. In truth, it had also been cultivating for decades.
Hu Yun was stunned again. This period of time was just too long, so long that Hu Yun couldn’t even imagine it. Even Lu Shan Jun was under two hundred years old.
“You were given the name Hu Yun by the immortal. I’m afraid that while you were recovering from your injury, you gained many benefits that you didn’t even know about. It’s true that your name is now your own, and now you are rising to the top. Hahaha…”
The old turtle looked at the crescent moon in the sky, said a few words with emotion, then suddenly turned back to stare at Hu Yun coldly again, making the red fox tremble violently.
“If that were all, then it would be fine. Each monster has their own aspirations and their own destiny. But you, fox, knew in your heart that this was a rare opportunity, and yet you still ran away. Do you know how many monster cultivators have practiced hard for hundreds of years but couldn’t even get one tenth of your opportunities? Do you know how many monster cultivators have been killed by immortal cultivators, when they simply wished to ask for guidance? You were lucky enough to meet a Taoist master, but… Ahh…”
As he spoke, the Old Turtle sighed heavily.
“It’s too late to say these things now. You gave up the opportunity yourself, and it will be difficult to meet him again in the future. But at least you received the name Hu Yun, which means you were accepted and recognized by his own words. If you had faced me one hundred years ago, I would have already directly bitten off your head in a jealous rage!”
“Is… is that so…?”
Hu Yun muttered to himself in a daze, very afraid.
“Haha, do you think the path of cultivation is always so smooth? By the way, was this Yin wood plaque also given to you by that Mr. Ji?”
“Oh… yes, yesterday… Mr. Ji did…”
Hu Yun was a bit muddled at the moment, and almost misspoke, but even just one word and the Old Turtle sensed something wrong.
“Hm!?”
The Old Turtle let out a heavy nasal sound.
“What did you just mean by ‘yesterday’?”
Sweat broke out from behind the red fox’s ears. He suddenly pointed at the surface of the river and shouted out, “Mr. Ji!”
When the Old Turtle subconsciously turned to look, he suddenly rushed towards the shore. But a wave immediately rose in front of his face.
“Bang!”
The two-foot-wide water wave rose ten zhang high from the river bank, directly covering the roots of the willow. The red fox slammed into the wave wall head first and was directly swept into the water.
“Crash… Crash…”
Hu Yun and the big black carp were trapped in the whirlpool current next to the Old Turtle. The enormous turtle head was almost pressed against the fox, less than a fist’s distance away.
However, after a moment of extreme fear, Hu Yun suddenly discovered that the Old Turtle’s expression was not as ferocious as before. Instead, it displayed a strange feeling of uneasiness, and the latter spoke cautiously.
“You… have you seen that Mr. Ji again recently? This wooden sign… did this old turtle… did I scare you just now?”
Seeing the Old Turtle’s expectant and anxious look, for some reason Hu Yun felt even more of a shock than he had when he had suddenly jumped up and chomped on the tree trunk previously. He felt a little inexplicable pity.
Before their “conflict” had broken out, the Old Turtle had chatted about his experiences, most of which revolved around spiritual practice and “seeking experience in the Tao.”
How many years had he spent on this? Several times he had tried to make good connections by helping mortals, but each of them failed and ended in disaster. He had tried to approach a certain immortal cultivator, but he was beaten and had to run away. In the end, he didn’t even dare to go ashore.
At that time, Hu Yun had mostly laughed and found it interesting, and the Old Turtle had also laughed it off. However, now that he was thinking about it, he suddenly understood the kind of desolation contained in his words.
This kind of enlightenment was very subtle, but due to the heightened connection with his spiritual senses, Hu Yun felt it very clearly.
There seemed to be a lot of words he wanted to say, but in the end only one came out of Hu Yun’s mouth.
“Um…”
A little further away, Ji Yuan lay motionless on a tree trunk. He did not look in the direction of Hu Yun and the Old Turtle, but instead gazed thoughtfully at the moon reflected on the river in the distance.
‘Flowers in the mirror, the moon in the water…’3
On the other side, after Hu Yun answered, the Old Turtle was a little excited.
“Then… do you know where Mr. Ji is? Is he also in the city?”
Hu Yun subconsciously looked back at the city, and nodded to the Old Turtle.
“Splash… shh… shh…”
The water stirred. Hu Yun felt himself rising slowly out of the river and being carried to shore by a stream of water. The water that had drenched his fur also flowed back into the river along with the current, and the fox’s body became fresh and dry once more.
At the same time, the black carp in the water was also released from its restraints, allowing it to swim freely.
The Old Turtle wanted to ask Hu Yun for an introduction, but he felt that he was a little bit difficult to continue that conversation due to what he had just done, so for now he planned on getting better acquainted with him.
“Can you tell me about your next encounter with him? And about the tiger spirit you mentioned before…”
The red fox lay quietly by the riverside, looking at the big black carp and then at the Old Turtle, and thought for a while before speaking.
“Some time ago, I went down the mountain and snuck into Ning’an County to see if Mr. Ji had returned…”
Hu Yun only recounted the trivial matters that had occurred during this period. In accordance with the principle of not showing off one’s fortune, although he spoke of the magical jujube tree, he did not mention the fire jujubes. He continued in this manner until he reached Ji Yuan’s lecture atop the moon-glowing platform in the mountains.
The old turtle’s breathing grew noticeably heavier. His feet under the river surface were agitated, causing bursts of water to splash nearby.
Hearing Hu Yun recount the events atop the promontory on Niu Kui Mountain, where Ji Yuan was seated alongside the tiger spirit, the Old Turtle was eager to hear what he had said.
“And then? And then? What did he say? Tell me, what did he say?”
Hu Yun tilted his head to look at the crescent moon in the sky and tried to recall it for a moment.
“It seems to have been a very strange passage. I remember it was called ‘Xiaoyao You.’”4
As soon as the Old Turtle heard the words “Xiaoyao You,” he instinctively sensed that it was not simple. He grew even more impatient, not caring about breaking any unspoken rules whatsoever.
“What about the content? What was the content of what he said? Please, Fellow Taoist Hu, I beg you, be more specific. Even reciting a few words will do!”
Hu Yun scratched his head thoroughly with his fox paws, thinking hard for a long time, before he finally gave up.
“It was too hard to pronounce, and it was too long, I forgot it all…”
“You! You! You you you you… AAAAAHHHH—“5
Boom…
Enormous waves rolled up onto the riverbank. The terrified Hu Yun leapt towards the shore in several bounds to escape. The big black carp also swam far away in a flash.
The fox and the fish both gazed at the Old Turtle’s crashing waves in fear and cried in horror. The atmosphere was extremely tense, but there was nowhere for them to escape.
‘This damn fox has let go of God-given opportunities time and time again, how did he survive until now?!’
The Old Turtle was in a frenzy, and he was so depressed he nearly wanted to vomit blood.
T/n: I’m back! Sending all of you hugs. ❤
for those of you wondering why I dislike Hu Yun, may I present Exhibit A: “Oblivious Entitlement,” curated by Mr. Old Turtle
- That is correct: turtles to not have teeth, they have beaks. Baby turtles have an “egg tooth” that they use to break out of their shell and which subsequently falls out, which I find absolutely adorable
- T/n: YoU dOn’T sAy
- A phrase used to express how everything is illusory, not real, or just out of reach. It looks beautiful on the surface, but you can’t attain it
- Reference ch. 179
- T/n: yeah me too buddy
If you find any errors (non-standard content, ads redirect, broken links, etc..), Please let us know so we can fix it as soon as possible.
Report