Chapter 58 - The Plot
In the Gravity Room.
From the bag at the corner, Shi Yan took out a yellowish broken picture and handed it to Shi Jian, “Here, this is it.”
Shi Jian, Zuo Xu and Zuo Shi all looked at him with faces full of suspicion.
Shi Jian took that broken picture, and started to scan it carefully, when his eyes gradually lighten up, “Good, this picture doesn’t look fake. It is quite old, as some of the patterns on it have already blurred.”
“Let me have a look!” Zuo Xu was a little hasty, as he quickly took the broken picture. After touching it, he cried, “It can’t be fake! We have the same paper in the Zuo family which is made of the soft skin from the belly of a demon beast from remote ages. It’s fire, water and wear proof; basically indestructible.”
“Tell me in detail about what happened between you and Karu. And how many people know about this?” Shi Jian looked rigid as he took a deep breath, but he couldn’t hide the happiness in his eyes.
“You, weirdo, are really strange.” Zuo Shi’s beautiful eyes were also focused on Shi Yan. She was becoming more interested in him.
“Well, this is the thing...”
Shi Yan noticed the seriousness of it after seeing Shi Jian and Zuo Xu’s reaction, therefore, he quickly explained how he got that picture and how he escaped from the ancient cave.
“So the Mo family knows about it too?”
Zuo Xu’s face changed. After a pause, he sneered, “No wonder the people from the Mo family are still lingering in Silent Town. They must be searching for you.”
“The Mo family!”
Shi Jian grunted and said angrily, “Thank goodness Shi Yan is fine. If he was hurt by them, I would destroy Mo Tuo even by sacrificing myself! The Mo family has done too many evil things! They are going to look down upon the Shi family if we don’t teach them a lesson soon.”
“Mu Yu Die and Di Yalan were taken away by Beiming Ce, and they don’t know who you are?” Deliberating for a while, Zuo Xu asked again.
“No matter if it is Mu Yu Die, Di Yalan, or the people from the Mo family, no one knows who I am. I told the two girls that my name was Ding Yan.”
“Good boy! Cautious enough! Or it would be very tough!” Zuo Xu complimented.
“Now that we got this half of the picture, we should get the other half!” Shi Jian said firmly to Zuo Xu, “Brother Zuo, we can take the risk. Once we got the other half of the picture from the Misty Pavilion, we two families can open the Sky Gate and enter the God Area to search for treasures!”
Narrowing his eyes, which were blinking brightly, Zuo Xu sank deep into thought. He then said, “There are many experts in the Misty Pavilion. We have to make a good plan if we want to grab the picture from them.”
He added after a pause, “I will write a letter right away to Chi Xiao and let an eagle take it to Cloud Mountain. Chi Xiao is at the Sky Realm. We will be safer if he is here with us. After all, that old man Beiming Shang is eager for the picture too, and was already planning on getting it.”
“Great! We have larger chance of winning if Chi Xiao attends too!” Shi Jian was joyful.
Chi Xiao was Zuo Shi’s teacher, and close to the Zuo family. As a Sky Realm Warrior, he could help a lot once he came to Tianyun City and allied with the two families.
Zuo Xue didn’t fear that Chi Xiao would keep the secret of the Sky Gate to himself. Though there were many treasures in the God Area, this was also accompanied with incredible dangers. The journey would be much more secure if a Sky Realm Warrior was with them.
The most important thing was; Chi Xiao was an individual!
However greedy he was, he couldn’t possess everything in the God Area. On the contrary, a big family like the Beiming Family would take all the advantages.
“Kid, you’d better not attend this year’s Martial Competition.” Zuo Xu said after some deliberation, “If the Mo family recognizes your face, they would know that we already have half of the picture. Once the other half in the Misty Pavilion is stolen, they will know it was us. Then our two families would be assaulted by everybody.”
“Well, this...” Shi Jian hesitated, but at last he nodded helplessly, “Hmm, for the Sky Gate’s sake, we have to do this.”
“Not exactly; He can attend the Martial Competition once he changes his appearance. No one from the Mo family has seen him before. Just change his face. Who would know that he was the boy who killed Karu.” Zuo Shi suggested with a big smile, blinking her eyes.
“Hey! Good idea!” Shi Jian’s eye’s blinked. After examining Shi Yan for a while, he said, “His appearance has changed a lot in the past few months, and the people from the Mo family won’t identify him if we put a little makeup to him.”
“And you better take action during the Martial Competition. Han Zhong said the Misty Pavilion will also send some people to the competition. During the Competition, if you send some experts with Chi Xiao to the Misty Pavilion to steal the picture, you may not be suspected.”
Shi Yan thought for a while, and also uttered his opinion.
“We can take action in the middle of the Martial Competition...”
Zuo Xu mumbled something and then replied loudly, “Sounds great! Let’s do it during the Martial Competition! We will also be present then, and no one will know it was us who robbed the Misty Pavilion! Hmm. Once Chi Xiao helps us, we will have an eighty percent possibility of getting the other half of that picture.”
“Will Chi Xiao help us?” Shi Jian was not sure.
“Don’t worry. He definitely will. That old guy is very interested in the Sky Gate, thus he will come right away from Cloud Mountain as soon as he gets the news.” Zuo Shi didn’t worry at all, “I know him too well. He is more curious than anyone about unknown things.”
“Then it’s fixed!”
Shi Jian was assured, he then took the picture back from Zuo Xu, and put it into his own pocket happily, “Brother Zuo, it’s time for you to go back and make preparations. I’ll be waiting for Chi Xiao to get the other half and come to complete mine. Hahahahaha!”
“Great!” Zuo Xu nodded with satisfaction. He pulled Zuo Shi, “Let’s go, we should plan on it.”
“Let me keep the picture. You should do nothing but training! I will find someone tomorrow to come and change your appearance. You should beat the Mo descendants hard!” Shi Jian yelled.
“Okay.”
...
In the Mo family.
Mo Tuo was strolling around the Thunder Palace with a rigid face. Beside him stood Mo Chaoge and Mo Yanyu.
Mo Yanyu’s pretty face was full of bitterness, so was Mo Chaoge, as he lowered his head.
“Why can’t we find him? Are you so useless? You can’t even find a boy who has no background! We have so many people in every city! Do they only know how to waste our resources?” Mo Tuo berated loudly. He pointed at Mo Chaoge and Mo Yanyu and yelled furiously, “You two! You have made so much trouble over such a small task! You are more like two rice buckets!”
[TL note: a ‘rice bucket’ is a chinese slang term for a useless person]
“Father, I’ve sent people to search, and our people in Silent Town never took a single day off. But the Merchant Union is too vast. Who knows where that boy has gone? I did my best!”
“Useless! All useless!”
Mo Tuo cursed loudly for about ten minutes, before finally tiring, and he sighed helplessly, “Seems I have to pay a visit to the Beiming family in person.”
“Father, will we not receive anything if Beiming Shang knows about it?”
“Do you have any better ideas?” Mo Tuo looked so gloomy that he could swallow a monster, “Do you think I want to? If you hadn’t let that guy escape, I wouldn’t need to visit Beiming Shang! Only Mu Yu Die knows who that young boy who killed Karu is! Only her! And only she may know where that boy is now. Do you think I would need to do this if you weren’t so useless? Crap!”
“Father, sorry, I was wrong.” Mo Chaoge pleaded miserably. Then he turned and stared at Mo Yanyu hard, “If you can’t win the Martial Competition, your father can’t help you either!”
Mo Yanyu nodded hastily with her face full of fear.
...
In the Beiming family.
At the centre of an artificial lake, there was a medium sized island covered with bamboo houses.
In the garden of one of the bamboo houses, Mu Yu Die was sitting, feeling soft breeze on her skin and focusing her nimble fingers on the zither.
The melodious zither melody rippled out slowly, attracting the birds on the clear lake, which gathered in the garden and forgot to leave.
Di Yalan was in the training field of another garden. With a long sword in her hand which was splashing fire, she was training with a certain Martial Skill. Her hot figure was sending out intoxicating charisma in the sunlight.
At the bank of the lake, every passing warrior would stop and stare, gazing at the island with eager eyes and a captured face.
“Sister Lan, how is this Fire Cloud Sword?” After a piece of music, Mu Yu Die approached Di Yalan with a big smile, “The Beiming family is known for its expertise in making weapons. Even in our Fire Empire, no one is better at it than the Beiming family.”
“The Fire Cloud Sword is a Mystery Level weapon, which can really help me release all of my strength when accompanied with the Fire Cloud Formula. More specifically, it can bear the fire from my Blue Magic Flame. It’s really good.” Di Yalan nodded. Apparently she was very satisfied with her new weapon.
“So, are you still regretting coming with me?”
“Alas...”
Di Yalan shook her head and an image appeared in her mind again. She barely smiled, “It’s useless to say these things now. I’m afraid I won’t see him again in this life. For revenge, for our family’s prosperity, I have to do this. It’s just… just can’t...”
“Can’t let it go?”
“Yeah.”
“Sometimes, I miss him too...”
Mu Yu Die let out a rare sigh as well, “I feel that I owe him. But what could we do? We are only two girls who have lost their family and are saddled with a heavy mission. We have to be realistic and choose a powerful party. Or we will spend our whole life as a commoner and live a boring life.”
“He is not common at all! Sometimes I feel he is more horrifying than Beiming Ce! He won’t be any worse off than others if he has the opportunity.”
“Unluckily God didn’t give him an opportunity. If he wants to succeed, he needs to advance step by step since he doesn’t have a big family supporting him. We can’t wait for too long.”
“I know. That’s why I’m here with you, and not with him.”
...
“Miss Mu, the family head has invited you and Miss Di Yalan to the Ice Pavilion. It is an important talk!” At the centre of lake, a warrior was standing on a boat and shouting at the island.
“Okay.” Mu Yu Die replied, as she frowned in puzzlement, “Why does he ask for us? We never made an appearance since we arrived at the Beiming family. This unexpected invitation is very strange...”
“He is going to talk about your marriage with Beiming Ce?” Di Yalan assumed.
“I won’t marry Beiming Ce if they don’t help me get my revenge!” Mu Yu Die humphed coldly, “I came to the Beiming family for their ability to help in my revenge. I feel nothing for Beiming Ce at all. Even if I fall in love with him in the future, I will leave sooner or later. Humph!”