Chapter 775: These People of the Fuyao Kingdom Speak Like They're From the Shu Territory (II)

Yan Yingluo then shifted her gaze to Chu Liang. "It's truly all thanks to you for assisting, Young Hero Chu. If not for your efforts, this matter wouldn't have been resolved so smoothly."

Chu Liang quickly replied, "Not at all, Esteemed Senior. Miss Xue once saved my life, so I merely did what I could to help her with a small favor."

Yan Yingluo smiled. "This was far from a small favor."

She turned her hand over and revealed a strange object that was shaped like a beast egg and resembled a ceramic instrument. Its surface was adorned with intricate ancient carvings of flower patterns, and it had several holes, making it look like some kind of wind instrument.

"This is the South Melody Conservatory's Wisdom Wind Xun[1]," Yan Yingluo explained as she held the object out to Chu Liang. "With this, you will always be the South Melody Conservatory's guest of honor, no matter where you go. If you ever need assistance, simply play the xun. Its melody can be heard up to five hundred li away. Any disciple of the conservatory who hears it will come to your aid."

"This…" Chu Liang uttered hesitantly, feeling stunned.

This treasure is essentially the South Melody Conservatory's official friendship badge!

He ultimately replied, "Conservatory Master, this is far too precious. I don't deserve such an honor…"

"

Haa.

" Di Nufeng rushed over and shoved the Wisdom Wind Xun into his hands. She said boisterously, "Yanyan and I are close, so there's no need to be so polite! Just take it. We're practically family anyway."

Haha,

Chu Liang chuckled inwardly.

Esteemed Teacher, I can tell that you feel quite close to her, but… she doesn't seem to feel the same way about you.

Nevertheless, Chu Liang hadn't meant what he said; he truly was just being polite. Now that Di Nufeng had shoved the Wisdom Wind Xun into his hands, he naturally accepted it without hesitation.

"If the South Melody Conservatory ever has a need for me in the future, don't hesitate to ask. I will do my best to assist you."

Yan Yingluo noticed that the people gathering around them were quickly increasing in number. Some of the older folks had recognized her.

After all, the Fuyao Kingdom held the South Melody Conservatory in extremely high regard. Some of its citizens had gone to the nine provinces and seen her in her youth.

Now, some people in the crowd were even kneeling down to worship her.

Yan Yingluo turned back to Chu Liang and the others. "If there's nothing else, let's go. The Fuyao Kingdom's affairs are no longer our concern."

Before Xue Lingxue could even respond to her teacher, Di Nufeng climbed onto the Golden Phoenix and sat cross-legged as she waited for Yan Yingluo to join her.

She exclaimed, "That's true! Disciples, you head back first. I'll stay behind and catch up with Yanyan."

Chu Liang couldn't help but laugh. "All right. You don't need to worry about us, Esteemed Teacher."

Even the most noble woman would be afraid of being bothered by a certain phoenix. Looks like Conservatory Master Yan is in for quite the headache today.

…

Now that the issues involving the Fuyao Kingdom were settled, Chu Liang and Lin Bei boarded the Lianglong and returned to Mount Shu.

By the time they arrived, a curtain of darkness had been drawn over the sky. It was nightfall, and just as Chu Liang had expected, his teacher had yet to return. So, Chu Liang made a trip to Heaven-Reaching Peak to check on Jing Wuya's interrogation.

Wang Xuanling was just stepping out of the Boundless Palace. Seeing Chu Liang, Wang Xuanling told him about how the interrogation had gone.

"He confessed to everything. At first, he tried to put up a strong front and stayed quiet. But after the Discipline Master used a few of her methods on him, he ended up recounting his entire life story—all one hundred-odd years of it."

Chu Liang laughed.

As the only person in the Mount Shu Sect—and perhaps the entire world—who could make Di Nufeng yield obediently, the Discipline Master was certainly extraordinary. Though the elderly woman had mellowed somewhat in temperament over the years, her ruthlessness had not diminished in the slightest. When it came time to act, she showed no hesitation or mercy.

Now, as an undisputed member of the Mount Shu Sect's upper ranks, Chu Liang had no trouble getting access to read Jing Wuya's confession. All he needed to do was go inside the Boundless Palace and ask, and he obtained the written confession.

It turned out that Jing Wuya had been born into a small, insignificant sect in the Fuyao Kingdom. His father had been the sect leader. However, because Jing Wuya was short and unattractive, he faced constant discrimination in the Fuyao Kingdom, which placed great value on appearance.

The discrimination was so bad that even his own father refused to pass the position of sect leader to him. Instead, his father found a way to adopt one of his disciples to become his son and prepared to hand the position to him instead.

Jing Wuya never protested. He simply worked on his cultivation quietly, working hard to hone his skills with relentless dedication. He had exceptional talent for cultivation, and after training for some time in a secluded corner, he became the most powerful cultivator in his sect.

Then, one rainy night, he severed the legs of everyone in his sect—including his father's.

It was no surprise at all that Jing Wuya, a talented and ruthless person with immense hatred for the world, was later recruited by the Celestial Charm Sect.

At that point, which was around eighty years ago, the Celestial Charm Sect had just failed to complete one of its plots to sow chaos in the Yu Dynasty's imperial palace. In the wake of that failure, the imperial court and the immortal sects launched a massive purge of the Celestial Charm Sect members from the nine provinces. All Celestial Charm Sect members were slaughtered on sight, creating bloodbaths everywhere.

The Celestial Master temporarily fled to the Fuyao Kingdom to lay low, and while he was there, he decided to plant a pawn—Jing Wuya. Even the Celestial Master likely hadn't expected that this randomly planted pawn would rise to power decades later, eventually becoming the General of the Royal Wave Bureau.

It was only afterward that the Celestial Master gave Jing Wuya more resources and even sent Liao Yuexian to work alongside him.

However, it seemed that the Celestial Charm Sect was unaware of Liao Yuexian's relation to the Dark King Sect. The upper ranks of the Mount Shu Sect strongly suspected that the Dark King Sect might have orchestrated her collusion with the Celestial Charm Sect. It was very possible that she was a spy that the Dark King Sect had planted within the Celestial Charm Sect to gather intelligence on their activities.

As for the Aoshan Divine Armor and Mirror of Captured Light, the Celestial Master was the one who had given them to Jing Wuya.

Nevertheless, both Jing Wuya and Liao Yuexian were merely peripheral figures within the Celestial Charm Sect. Located across the sea, they were isolated and not closely connected to the sect's main forces.

It was the first time the Mount Shu Sect had captured a member of the evil Celestial Charm Sect alive, yet they were unable to extract any crucial information about the sect's deeper workings. It was truly regrettable. Of course, there had been previous opportunities to capture Celestial Charm Sect members alive, but a certain peak master of Silver Sword Peak had been too heavy-handed and ended up killing them all instead…

"Hmm?"

As Chu Liang reviewed the confession, he noticed something unexpected.

It turned out that in order to prevent the Penglai Supreme Sect from interfering, Jing Wuya had bribed Daoist Cangqiu and other high-ranking members of the Penglai Supreme Sect. He had even committed numerous acts of treachery that humiliated and weakened the Fuyao Kingdom.

For example, there were several small islands in the East Sea that were rich in Mountain-Suppressing Rock, a valuable resource. These islands had historically belonged to the Fuyao Kingdom.

However, when the Heavenly Star Divine Cult split, Starhold Island pledged allegiance to the Penglai Supreme Sect. In response, the Penglai Supreme Sect casually redrew the map and granted Starhold Island control over vast maritime territories, including those rich in Mountain-Suppressing Rock deposits. This included the tail end of the mineral veins, which extended into the small island where the Fuyao Kingdom was located.

The Fuyao Kingdom had been outraged, but it was too powerless to resist. The Penglai Supreme Sect saw Starhold Island as a favored son with strategic value, whereas the Fuyao Kingdom was no more than a pet dog. Naturally, the Fuyao Kingdom's protests meant nothing.

Despite that, the Fuyao Kingdom never officially relinquished its claim on those islands and continued to assert that they belonged to it. However, Starhold Island was the one actually operating the mines; the Fuyao Kingdom did not have any control over them.

Over the years, the Fuyao Kingdom and Starhold Island had gotten into numerous conflicts, and the Fuyao Kingdom would always lose.

After Jing Wuya gained power in the Fuyao Kingdom, he sought to build a good relationship with Starhold Island. It was all in the hope of raising his standing in the eyes of their dear father, the Penglai Supreme Sect.

So, with a wave of his hand, he relinquished the Fuyao Kingdom's claim over the disputed islands, even renouncing the kingdom's nominal sovereignty over them.

He sacrificed the kingdom's interests to secure his own position.

Among all the heinous acts that Jing Wuya had committed, this particular one was relatively minor, yet it had caught Chu Liang's attention.

A warm, innocent smile appeared on his face.

…

Starhold Island.

On this particular day, Hong Jufeng, a young man with a massive build, had just woken up.

Before he even got to wash his face, someone banged on his door urgently.

His subordinates called out frantically from the door. "Young Master! Bad news! Young Master!"

Annoyed, Hong Jufeng replied, "Come in. What's got you wailing like a funeral procession?"

Several Starhold Island disciples staggered into the room, covered in blood from head to toe. They cried out, "Bad news, Young Master! Some people have seized the northern islands from us—the ones with the mineral deposits!"

Hong Jufeng shot up from his bed. "What?! Who in the entire East Sea would dare steal from Starhold Island? Do they have a death wish?!"

His subordinates answered anxiously, "It's… a group of people from the Fuyao Kingdom that speak in the dialect of people from the Shu Territory!"

1. A Chinese ocarina-like wind instrument made of clay or ceramic. It is one of China's oldest musical instruments, dating back over 7,000 years. The xun has a round or oval shape, resembling an egg or gourd, and usually features six to ten finger holes for adjusting pitch. Go here for more info. ☜

GLTD Alternate Universe's Thoughts

Translator: LD

Tidbit from GT:

The Shu Territory, in today's context, refers to the territory of present-day Sichuan Province and Chongqing. Thus, the dialect Hong Jufeng's subordinates mentioned is the Sichuan dialect. It matches what we know of the people of Mount Shu because it just so happened that Sichuan is a place that is famous for hotpot and mahjong.

When you think about the main characters, such as Chu Liang and Di Nufeng, speaking to each other, you can imagine them speaking to each other in a Sichuan dialect. Refer to Link on the difference between the Sichuan dialect and Mandarin. I believe this additional knowledge allows you to picture the world that they live in even better and how the different cultures come together.