TL Note:
I will be changing the court names to reflect their meanings:
Cangjin Court > Hidden Brocade Court
Cangxiu Court > Hidden Beauty Court
Cangjian Court > Hidden Sword Court
Cangqing Court > Hidden Modesty Court
I realised pinyin made it rly confusing in English, might as well change it now
this does the actual name justice & you'll know what they represent at first glance. (btw I've got a glossary here)
Spiritual Mountain, Hidden Sword Court, Eagle Mountain.
Within the front hall of Green Peak Hall, the Grand Senior Brother of Hidden Sword Court was in a rage.
“What?!” A cultivator in grey robes and one green stripe embroidered on his sleeve glared at two juniors in front of him.
“Say that again!”
“Calm down, Senior Brother!” One of the juniors had two yellow stripes while the other had one. They both looked at him, so frightened their legs shook.
This Grand Senior Brother had average looks and average height. He paced around frustratingly then blurted, “Didn’t we reach an agreement already? Why was it called off?”
The cultivator with one yellow stripe looked down subserviently. “Grand Senior Brother, I don’t know either. That was what I told Senior Sister Ouyang too but she told me that the pill cauldron broke during last month’s cultivation, destroying many spiritual stones in the process... “
Grand Senior Brother raged, “That’s Hidden Beauty Court’s own magical item, what has their pill cauldron breaking got to do with us? Ouyang Nan, are you working with your family on this? To cheat us?”
Ouyang Nan was so startled he fell on his knees. “Grand Senior Brother, I’m innocent! Don’t you know my situation? I don’t hold any power in my family, how can I ever compare to my sister, who is the pride and joy of the family? Even if I wanted to work with her, she might not even be willing!”
“So that means if she’s willing one day, you won’t hesitate to cheat us?”
Ouyang Nan quickly slapped himself. “Calm down, senior! I shouldn’t have said that! I made a mistake!”
The cultivator with two yellow stripes had a long face, triangular eyes and droopy eyebrows- he had a naturally melancholic expression. With his shrill voice, he said, “Grand Senior Brother, panicking now is futile anyway. Might as well gather what we have and prepare to strike a deal with Senior Sister Ouyang. We don’t want this to affect the major examination. If Hidden Sword Court receives a smaller share of resources again, we will be at a disadvantage.”
“How much are we lacking from the one hundred thousand we need?”
“Thirty thousand silvers.”
Grand Senior Brother slammed his palm into the hard redwood table, which instantly pulverised. Ashes drifted unto the ground. “Thirty thousand? How will I get you thirty thousand silvers in three days?!”
Sad-eyes and Ouyang Nan looked at each other. Ouyang Nan then said carefully, “Calm down, I have already told our junior brothers to raise some funds.”
“Them? How much can they raise?” Grand Senior Brother laughed coldly.
Ouyang Nan smiled apologetically. “There’s a saying- even snakes and rats have their ways. While our disciples are not the most competent, they are still quite good at raising funds.”
Grand Senior Brother looked at him in contempt. “More like swindling, cheating and stealing!”
Ouyang Nan’s expression did not change. “It does not matter if it’s a black or white cat, as long as it catches the rat, it is a good cat!”
Grand Senior Brother glared at him. “I’m warning you now- although our martial uncles don’t really care about us for the moment, if this matter gets out, I won’t be able to protect you!”
Ouyang Nan grinned. “Of course not! Those greenies are all cowards anyway!”
Grand Senior Brother paused, then gasped, “You’re targeting the newcomers?”
Ouyang Nan smiled timidly, “They’re not necessarily our junior brothers!”
Grand Senior Brother lifted him by his collar, yelling, “Do you want our court to have zero recruits this year?”
“Even if we don’t do anything, they still won’t come to our court1”
Sad-eyes blurted, “Grand Senior Brother, the other three courts did not even let us participate in the great ceremony, what do you think that implies? This means they don’t want Hidden Sword Court to receive new recruits! They want us extinct!”
Ouyang Nan also said, “Grand Senior Brother, they don’t want us to live so why do we need to be so courteous to them? If we don’t steal a little from them, we’ll be dead soon!”
“If the martial uncles hear about this, we’ll be kicked out of the sect!”
“They won’t, the newcomers are all cowards and soft! Definitely not…”
As he spoke, they heard a voice from outside. “Is this the Hidden Sword Court? Is anyone here?”
Grand Senior Brother paused, then looked at Ouyang Nan and Sad-eyes. All three had not reacted when an energetic young man stopped in with a sword in a hand and some rope in another. Beside him was a beautiful girl, and the rope tied to two other people. One had a swollen, bruised face and stumbled in while the other guy was completely naked, he covered his crotch with his hand, utterly embarrassed.
All three of them watched, speechless, as this young man swaggered in. “Aiya, it’s so difficult to find Hidden Sword Court! Are you the senior brothers here? I’m Li Chengfeng, a new recruit of Hidden Sword Court! Ah, you’re all looking at these two? Sigh, I’m getting angry just from talking about them! Can’t believe of all the people they could impersonate, they had the guts to impersonate Hidden Sword Court senior brothers!”
Li Chengfeng continued to rant in front of the stunned group. “My three senior brothers, don’t you think these people have a death wish? Well, thank goodness I caught them both so you can deal with them!”
As he spoke, he slashed his sword at the naked man’s butt, making another cut. “You must punish these two little criminals so they’ll never do this again, or it’ll ruin our reputation!”
Grand Senior Brother: “...”
Ouyang Nan: “...”
Sad-eyes: “...”
Green Peak Hall was completely silent. None of them could have even dreamed of this.
The naked man looked up pathetically and wailed, “Grand Senior Brother, save me!”
Li Chengfeng turned and yelled sternly, “You’re still acting huh? You’re a bold one!”
Grand Senior Brother did his best to suppress his rage, his eye twitching as he turned to Ouyang Nan. In a low voice, he asked, “Who the h*ll is this guy?”
Ouyang Nan’s eye twitched as his eyes darted at them. He was about to shake his head to deny knowing them when the guy with the swollen face yelled loudly, “Senior Brother Ouyang, you must save us! We were the one who told us to do this!”
Ouyang Nan leapt up immediately and raged, “Nonsense! Zhao Yibai, do not accuse me of such nonsense!”
Li Chengfeng stood speechless as his eyes darted back and forth between these people.
Zhao Yibai wailed at the skies. “Senior Brother, didn’t you speak to us a few days ago, saying we’re lacking money and us juniors must think of ways to raise funds? We’ve had an awful few days, forget about the money, we were beaten up!” Zhao Yibao thought about how although his cultivation was incompetent, at least he was still a Spiritual Mountain cultivator!
The worst cultivator here was still a cultivator! He could not believe he was bullied by this punk.
Zhao Yibai felt very wronged, continuing to rant as tears fell from his eyes.
Ouyang Nan panicked while Grand Senior Brother’s face turned green. Li Chengfeng and Su Yuehan looked at each other, watching the situation carefully.
Something’s… not right!
These two people are really seniors from Hidden Sword Court? And these people are all working together?
Is this a cultivator sect or a criminal gang?
Isn’t Hidden Sword Court known as ‘the sword of Spiritual Mountain’? This is quite embarrassing!
I knew Hidden Sword Court was bad but not this bad!
Li Chengfeng turned to whisper to Su Yuehan, “You think it’s too late for us to go back to Hidden Brocade Court?”
Su Yuehan’s eye twitched and smiled drily, forcing a few words through her teeth, “Is… it… too… late?”
Hey, I’m the one asking you the question!
Li Chengfeng glared at her, then turned to see himself greeted by several hostile glances. He laughed drily. “There seems to be a… misunderstanding!”
The rest did not speak, merely watching Li Chengfeng. The hall fell into complete silence, tense awkwardness in the air.
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