My Wife Is A Sword Immortal
Chapter 280 - 223 Can I Beat Her?

Chapter 280: Chapter 223 Can I Beat Her?

In the predawn hours, before the time of Mao.

At Nanxuan Academy, inside East Fence Small House, the atmosphere briefly sank into a silent quagmire.

The north room was pitch black, and the south room, which had also been dark, suddenly lit up. The dim light, filtered through the window screen, vaguely illuminated three Shuaixing Hall students standing silently at the courtyard gate.

One female, two males.

The female student, frail and slight, blocked the path of the two tall male students.

At that moment, Zhao Rong’s smile remained, but he halted, his head still, his eyes slightly shifting right, glancing at Ye Huaijin standing to his front right.

This strict woman’s behavior was peculiar.

She held a white porcelain bowl in her left hand in front of her belly and carried a three-tiered lacquer box in her right hand as she emerged from the shadows at the gate.

Inside the white porcelain bowl, there seemed to be a clear liquid, with a dim moon at the bottom of the bowl.

The lacquer box was murky, its specific color indiscernible.

Zhao Rong temporarily ceased observing Yu Huaijin’s dazzling white jade-like hands and noticed the undisturbed moon at the bottom of the bowl.

His vigilant peripheral vision shifted and confirmed that it was indeed just the Nine Heavens Cold Palace, slowly setting in the night sky, reflected in the bowl, not something bizarre...

But what are you doing here at the male student’s dorms in the middle of the night, dressed like this?

Serving late-night snacks and warm greetings to the students at the academy?

Zhao Rong, glancing sideways, couldn’t help but look at Ye Huaijin’s expression.

The faint light leaking from the south room’s paper window illuminated her expressionless face, which was as stern as during the day. She wasn’t looking at him; instead, she stared straight ahead.

Just now, she had done the same, speaking out without turning her head to him who had tried to slip away.

Seeing this, Zhao Rong straightened his gaze and continued onward, maintaining his smile as he walked forward.

One step, two steps, three steps.

The girl behind him remained motionless.

He felt a slight relief in his heart, then resolutely took a bigger stride forward as if he hadn’t heard Yu Huaijin’s words just now.

Creak————

Zhao Rong arrived at the gate and pushed open the courtyard door.

Ye Huaijin still hadn’t moved.

Zhao Rong left.

Within East Fence Small House’s courtyard.

Fan Yushu, who initially displayed a somewhat gleeful expression under Yu Huaijin’s direct gaze, had already withdrawn it. At this moment, he stood drooping like a wilted eggplant, his eyelids drooping.

He glanced up briefly, saw Zhao Rong closing the courtyard door, and his mouth twitched slightly.

Just then, Yu Huaijin finally moved.

She didn’t turn to chase someone but leisurely walked forward, bowl in one hand, box in the other.

Yu Huaijin arrived in front of the north room, where Zhao Rong resided, and gently placed the bowl of clear water, which she had scooped up from the Mochi along the way, on the northmost esteemed spot, right on the front steps of the house.

Immediately turning around, she opened the three-tiered lacquer box and took out another white porcelain bowl containing another liquid, continuing her leisurely stroll in the courtyard.

Yu Huaijin set down bowls of sweetly flavored liangjiu and a murky white zhanjiu near the doors of the courtyard.

Another comparatively clear light red tidjiu was then placed in the center of the courtyard, where a ritual would soon take place.

Finally, she carefully set down the clearest chengjiu on the east side of the courtyard, not far from the fence Zhao Rong had recently erected.

A crude Confucian ritual of sacrifice was ready.

Yu Huaijin walked to the center of the courtyard, stood in front of the bowl containing light red tidjiu, and stared expressionlessly at Fan Yushu, whose expression wilted. Receiving her gaze, he promptly nodded like a pecking chick.

The strict woman then turned around and retrieved a small ordinary-looking guitar from the roomy sleeves.

With a gentle toss, the guitar returned to its normal size, floating in the air in front of her.

Yu Huaijin faced north and murmured some words.

"At the dawn of time, offering millet, splitting swine, using murky jars for drinks, and striking clay drums with bamboo sticks were still enough to respectfully venerate the spirits and gods..."

At that moment, following the ancient rites meticulously, she performed a ceremonial salute.

Fan Yushu, who was already prepared, hurriedly followed Yu Huaijin in performing the salute.

Meanwhile, not far behind them, the south room’s door, which had unknowingly been opened, framed Jia Teng Ying, also bending to perform the ritual.

For they were saluting the Supreme Sage within the Central Continent Confucian Temple to the north.

After the ceremony, the courtyard remained silent, unchanged.

Yu Huaijin rose, extended an index finger, and hooked it on a string of the guqin.

She plucked it gently.

Zheng————!

In front of her, inside the white porcelain bowl, something seemed to fall into the center of the calm water, suddenly causing ripples.

A light red watermark, circular, spread from the center towards all directions.

Inside the bowl, the watermark reached the circular walls simultaneously, then in the next instant, ignoring the walls, it passed through the bowl.

The circular watermark continued expanding, growing larger and larger.

The corners of the students’ robes, vegetables, fences, stone steps, courtyard walls...

Everything it touched while spreading seemed illusory, either ignored by the watermark or merely a phantom itself.

The circular watermark showed no signs of stopping, quickly leaving the courtyard.

Yu Huaijin’s gaze lowered, observing the surface of the water in the bowl that had just created a ripple, seeming to gauge something. Her finger, which had just plucked the guqin, still lightly touched the string.

The crystal-clear fingertips and the dragon tendon strings both remained motionless.

The old-fashioned woman patiently waited.

The yard was silently quiet, the sporadic chirping of the night insects that was heard not long ago had, at some moment, ceased entirely.

Fan Yushu witnessed this scene with not a hint of surprise but rather sighed, looked up at the sky with a lifeless stare towards the stars and moon that seemed dimmer than usual, as if he had no desire to continue living.

He sighed again, only regretting why he had come to find his brother Ziyu so early with a stroke of wishful thinking, and now he had to start reading while it was still not light, and that too in this terribly dusty vegetable garden.

In front of the southern house, Jia Tengying watched Yu Huaijin’s frail figure standing silently with the instrument and thought for a moment, then walked into the vegetable garden, squatted down, and began to tend to the vegetable beds.

At that moment.

Clang————

The string sounded for the second time.

In the center of the yard, Yu Huaijin’s gaze moved away from a white porcelain bowl and at the same time withdrew her pale clean fingertip.

She brought her hands together into her sleeves, turned her head to look at the overly dramatic Fan Yushu, and said softly,

"Today, you will make up the lessons you missed before going to Taiching Prefecture. If you finish early, you may rest earlier."

Fan Yushu quickly did away with his melancholic expression, stared wide-eyed at Yu Huaijin, directly ignoring the earlier part of her statement "If you finish early," his eyes filled with hopeful anticipation, "What if I can’t finish? What then?"

Yu Huaijin thought for a moment and said seriously, "Then, the same time tomorrow."

Fan Yushu: "..."

——————

Zhao Rong shut the gate of the yard and strode away.

He looked up at the sky where a streak of dawn was about to break at the horizon where the dark mountain ranges met the night sky.

With a slight smile on his lips, Zhao Rong’s thoughts floated between the two women and the way to contact Lu Wan, the driver from Chen’s Carriage Shop, as he walked out of the Nanxuan Academy.

Just as Zhao Rong was about to pass by the Ji Quan Pavilion, a sudden cool breeze swept over him from behind.

It was slightly cold.

Zhao Rong tightened his Confucian robe and then suddenly felt something brush across his ankle.

Above him, the pre-dawn darkness seemed to deepen.

Zhao Rong frowned slightly, looked down to find his trouser leg slightly wet with morning dew, glanced around him, then shook his head and continued on his way...

About fifteen minutes later, Zhao Rong arrived at the Ji Quan Pavilion for the fourth time.

He looked severe, turning to gaze intently at the nearby pavilion.

Now that dawn had fully broken, the early sun was rising gradually, and the dew on the leaves was about to fall.

Yet, the surroundings were devoid of any sounds of insects or birds.

The morning around Zhao Rong was as silent as a dead room.

Initially, he thought this was the tranquility before dawn that enveloped all things, but he slowly changed his mind.

Throughout that quarter hour, Zhao Rong kept walking straight forward, yet he kept ending up back at Ji Quan Pavilion as if he were caught in a looping path.

"You have entered an array," Gui’s voice echoed in his Heart Lake.

Zhao Rong frowned, "What array, who set it up?"

Gui replied lazily:

"What’s there to worry about? Inside the Linlu Academy, what can truly harm you... About the array, I can’t perceive it in my current state, but since it’s here, it’s probably an array set by your Confucian rite and music. As for who set it, think about who you’ve upset recently?"

Zhao Rong folded his arms, pondered for a moment with a furrowed brow, then his expression cleared and the red maple leaf he held in his sleeves was tucked away.

Zhao Rong turned around to return to Nanxuan Academy.

Soon after, Zhao Rong emotionlessly pushed open the gate of the East Fence Small House.

He glanced around, ignoring the three people within the compound, and immediately noticed the white porcelain bowls arranged in cardinal directions and the ancient musical instrument in the center.

"It’s a simplified but clever setup of the small Ji ritual among the Gathering Rituals of the Five Confucian Rituals, suitable to trap someone without Spiritual Energy Cultivation like you," commented Gui after a glance from his spirit wheel.

Then, sensing Zhao Rong’s thoughts, it continued, "The obvious focal point of the array seems to be that white porcelain bowl in the center of the yard, but that’s just an Eye-blocking Technique’s focal point, and it might even be a trapping spot... The hidden focal point is the levitating ancient musical instrument. Confucian sacrificial rites emphasize harmony through rites and music, and the array is set in the same way."

Zhao Rong listened to Gui’s words while turning his gaze.

Jia Tengying was holding a basket, crouching at the water well in the northeast corner, washing vegetables.

Fan Yushu was sitting by an outdoor stone table in the yard, buried in a pile of books, but every so often, his shoulders would slump as he chewed on his pen cap and slumped over the table like a lifeless fish. Yet in the next moment, he would jerk upright, continuing to write furiously since a ruler was already swinging beside him.

Yu Huaijin stood in front of the stone table, holding a ruler, watching over Fan Yushu.

At this moment, she looked up, their gazes meeting in the air.

In Yu Huaijin’s hand, the ruler paused, her gaze calm.

Zhao Rong raised an eyebrow and twisted his mouth into a smirk.

At the same time, in his Heart Lake,

"A serious question, Gui, can I beat her?"

The Sword Spirit thought for a moment, sincerely replied, "It’s worth trying on this side."

Zhao Rong quietly nodded his head.

Then he turned and ran.

However.

An hour later, at the stone table in the yard.

One more person was added under the discipline of the ruler.