The Right Guardian Just Wants to Retire - Chapter 4

After Mu Yun entered the Tianyan Sect, Zhang Gao sent me messages from time to time.

【Mu Yun’s swordsmanship is improving incredibly fast. Given time, I’m afraid he’ll be my equal.】

【First place among the new disciples! I told you I knew how to read bone structure!】

【I actually lost to Mu Yun in sword practice today. That’s all! I need to calm doooooown!】

【His cultivation broke through! He’s only been here three months! A normal person needs three years! Even the elders call him a monster.】

Mu Yun came home on a rest day.

I hadn’t seen him for two years. He had shot up and filled out, half a head taller than me now, with all his childishness gone. But his face was black and blue, and he was putting on a brave front.

I poked the bruise at his temple and laughed at him. “Did you get that cultivating, or did someone beat you up?”

He said nothing.

“Oh? Got into a fight? And you didn’t even win?”

The grown boy kept his emotions under tight control. “I’ll handle it.”

I tilted my head. “Couldn’t win, or didn’t dare to fight?”

His gaze flickered. He turned and went into the kitchen for water. I followed at an easy pace. “You didn’t dare because you were afraid you’d make trouble for me? So what? I have no money, and as for my life—”

He frowned and glanced at me. I laughed even louder, but stopped teasing him. I dug out the medicine chest and pulled him over to treat his injuries.

The wounds on his face weren’t too bad. But when I lifted his clothes, his body was a patchwork of black and purple bruises.

My hand paused as I applied the medicine. My temper was beginning to sour. “Tell me in detail how you plan to handle this.”

Like a young beast lying in wait, he answered with measured calm, word by word. “Sooner or later, I’ll make them pay.”

“Later? How many ages will that take? Xiaoyun, there’s a saying: ten seconds is too long for a gentleman to wait for revenge.”

I put away the medicine chest, stood, and looked at him. “Where are they?”

Mu Yun said that three fellow disciples had joined forces to ambush him on his way down the mountain.

All three came from Lingyun Hall.

I didn’t know what kind of background Lingyun Hall had, but a hint of wariness entered his voice when he mentioned it.

Everyone went home during the break. Those three had returned to Lingyun Hall as well.

How convenient.

Mu Yun and I hadn’t even reached Lingyun Hall when we ran straight into them on the road.

The pointy-chinned leader looked at Mu Yun with open disdain.

“Well, if it isn’t the Tianyan Sect’s great celebrity. Last time’s beating wasn’t enough for you, so you’ve come back for another?”

Mu Yun’s voice was quiet but cold. “We still have a debt to settle.”

Pointy Chin sneered. “A powerless orphan like you thinks you’re worthy of challenging us?”

The other two jeered along. Pointy Chin’s gaze shifted and landed on me. “This must be your sister. She’s quite a beauty. Why don’t—”

He never finished.

Beside me, Mu Yun shot forward like a gust of wind.

He slapped the man across the face, then brought his sheathed sword down on his head and body in a merciless hail of blows.

One against three, he beat them until they wailed for their parents without giving them the slightest chance to fight back.

I was watching with great interest

when demonic energy suddenly churned around Mu Yun. Black vapor seeped from the seams of his bones.

I frowned. “Xiaoyun.”

Mu Yun froze and stopped. The demonic energy slowly withdrew.

Pointy Chin clutched his broken nose and wailed, “He… he was clearly trying to kill me just now!”

I crouched to meet his eyes. “That’s right. He was trying to kill you.

“So the next time you meet him, you’d better remember that.

“And remember that I didn’t stop him either.”

Lingyun Hall took the matter to the Tianyan Sect.

They said Mu Yun had maliciously injured others and violated sect rules, so he should be expelled and have his cultivation destroyed.

Lingyun Hall wielded considerable influence. Elder Dai’s younger sister was the wife of its hall master.

In his message, Zhang Gao said Mu Yun had originally asked him to hide the matter from me, but after thinking it over, he had decided to tell me everything.

Ordinarily, he said, even injuring a fellow disciple would not warrant such a punishment. But Lingyun Hall was relying on its connection to Elder Dai, and the other elders were all turning a blind eye.

Elder Guan was kind and upright. Zhang Gao had appealed to him as well, but after several twists and turns, it still came to nothing.

In a few days, Mu Yun would receive his punishment in the council hall. For now, the only thing they could do was endure the sentence, carry him out afterward, and have me waiting below the mountain.

Zhang Gao said he regretted it. Maybe he should never have brought Mu Yun to the sect in the first place. Farming wasn’t bad, really.

Excellent.

Wonderful.

He had successfully made me angry.

A crow perched atop the archway at the entrance to the Tianyan Sect.

I walked toward the council hall.

Zhang Gao was drenched in sweat, tugging at me and pleading all the way. “Listen to me, this can’t be changed! The elders decided it together, Elder Dai gave the final word, and it’s already carved into the Admonition Stone. It’s set in stone!”

“Yes, he’ll have to endure the punishment, but at least he’ll still be alive. Take him home and nurse him properly. I’ve saved some money, and in a while I’ll hunt down a few medicinal pills and send them over. He should recover in ten years or so—”

“Oh, come on! Stop! You’re an unarmed young woman. Going there will only make more trouble!”

I stopped and raised my head.

Beneath the council hall, a thousand stone steps rose like a ladder thrusting straight into the clouds.

Step by step, they formed the towering majesty of the greatest sect under heaven.

Zhang Gao finally had a chance to catch his breath. “I’ve been telling you, coming here is useless. There’s an array on these thousand steps. Apart from elders with profound cultivation, everyone has to climb one step at a time. Forget you—even sect disciples need quite a while to reach the top.

“By the time you finish struggling up there alone, Mu Yun will already have been released.”

In a daze, I remembered

the first time Ji Xian and I came here. He had gazed up at the lofty council hall with a thoroughly unserious grin.

I asked what he was laughing about.

He said mischievously, “I was just wondering: if someone missed a step up there and rolled all the way down, how many hours would it take?”

Me: …

My thoughts returned to the present, and I couldn’t help smiling. Zhang Gao looked at me in despair, convinced I had gone mad.

I stepped onto the first stair. The dense web of restriction patterns covering all thousand steps lit up at once.

I paid them no heed. My figure flashed.

Every array went dark.

My second step carried me into the council hall.

At last, my ears were at peace.

Zhang Gao, left below: ???