The Attack of the Wastrel

It was this serious yet foolish expression that made Gu Lingzhi unable to reject him every time.

Gu Lingzhi could only hold in her laughter as she saw Yan Liang’s serious face, and accepted his praise, “Thank you…”

“You’re welcome.” Yan Liang’s response was as serious as his expression.

Lu Feng silently covered his face; he had lost all hope in Yan Liang. 

Fortunately, Gu Lingzhi was saved from this stiff and awkward dialogue by Rong Yuan, who interjected in an unkind tone, “Why have all of you come again?”

He had obviously hired some people to secretly block these two people from coming, how were they still able to come here? It looks like he has to change the team of guards assigned to stopping those two people. 

In one corner of the Royal School, three Martial Artists who were unaware of their jobs being threatened, wore depressed faces as they were held up over ten Martial Artists who were of similar cultivation levels. In their hearts, they spurned Yan Liang for being overly cautious despite being the son of a Demigod General. He actually hired over ten guards to protect him and let them fight when he detected something abnormal, while he himself left.

As though he felt the grievances of the three Martial Artists, Yan Liang’s heart was filled with happiness as he drank the tea given by Gu Lingzhi. He wondered if the Third Prince’s men had been taught a good lesson by his hired guards.

He was inflexible and slow regarding his emotions, but it did not mean that his intellect was bad. He had long guessed that the Third Prince would take action once he had enough of Yan Liang’s daily visits. He had requested for a few secret guards from his father and within two days, they were already put to good use. A general’s son could not follow in his father’s footsteps with just brute strength. It was a basic requirement to become a general to understand the enemy and strike first.

Completely unaware that Yan Liang had already classified Rong Yuan as an enemy in his heart and was utilising war tactics to analyse his actions, Rong Yuan decided that next time, he must find an excuse to get Gu Lingzhi to stay behind after class.

Just as he thought so, another visitor arrived at Gu Lingzhi’s dormitory. Su Nian stepped into the hall with a face as bright as sunshine. He first looked warily at Rong Yuan and the others, then approached Gu Lingzhi to deliver a lunchbox.

“I heard you like to eat sour food, so I specially made this jujube cake for you. Try it and see if you like it.”

“Thank you… Since everyone is here, let’s all try it together.” Gu Lingzhi hesitated for a moment, then accepted the lunchbox. She took out the cake and placed it on the table.

She had learned from her previous experiences that even if she rejected Su Nian’s gifts, he would still come up with various ways to get her to accept it. In that case, she might as well accept his gift now and share it while there were so many people present.

Rong Yuan secretly struck a black mark against Di Huan. If it was not for him going crazy and sending food over every day, Su Nian would not have thought of using food to get Gu Lingzhi’s affection. Although, he was quite pleased that the food would mostly be going into their stomachs instead.

Gu Lingzhi hardened her heart and ignored the hurt expression in Su Nian’s eyes. She poured another two cups of tea and quickly found an excuse to leave the room.

She looked at the people fighting in the hall and decisively jumped out of her opened window.

Since they liked her dormitory so much, then she would let them continue to enjoy it.

Gu Lingzhi took delight in this prank of hers as she used the same old method of going to the Alchemy Tower to switch her identity. When she emerged again, she had already turned into Black Thorn.

During this period of time, she had been surrounded by those few stubborn pursuers of hers and did not have the time to go to the Town of the Brave. She also did not know if any opponents who could make her eyes light up had appeared.

In the Town of the Brave, Ye Fei and Tianfeng Jin were delighted to see the Black Thorn.

“What a pity, Gu Lingzhi did not come today. The two of you really don’t have affinity with each other. Every time, either she doesn’t have the time, or you can’t come because you have something on. We have already known each other for a few months, yet we can’t find an opportunity for the two of you to get to know each other. What a joke.”

“Yes, I think so too.” Gu Lingzhi laughed. Her eyes twitched underneath her mask. The real joke would be if she could really make the Black Thorn and Gu Lingzhi appear at the same time.

“Oh right, this is the Spirit Cleansing Pill that I refined over the past few days by following a pill recipe passed down from my ancestors. It’s for all of you,” Gu Lingzhi took out a jade bottle from her Storage Ring. It contained four Spirit Cleansing Pills that had better effects than the Yuli Snow Lotus. They were refined with the Palm Lotus as the main ingredient, in addition to several other medicinal herbs that were difficult to acquire.

“Spirit Cleansing Pill? The Spiritual Medicine that cleanses your Spiritual Roots?” Ye Fei asked as she accepted the jade bottle. She opened the bottle and sniffed. Instantly, she felt such an intense refreshing feeling that her mind blanked out.

“What was this Spirit Cleansing Pill refined with? Its purification effects are extraordinary!” Ye Fei exclaimed. She greedily inhaled a few mouthfuls of the medicinal fragrance before passing the jade bottle over to a doubtful looking Tianfeng Jin, “Tianfeng Jin, quickly smell it. This medicine is amazing. Just by smelling it a few times, I can sense that my Spiritual Roots are already purer than before. If we really consumed this, I am sure that its effects are better than the Yuli Snow Lotus.”

Shocked, Tianfeng Jin looked at the jade bottle more seriously.

With Ye Fei’s status, her words were comparable to the evaluations of Jianbao Pavillion. If she said that the pill’s effects would not lose to the efficacy of the Yuli Snow Lotus, then it was at least eighty percent true.

Tianfeng Jin carefully sniffed the jade bottle. A refreshing fragrance that cannot be described assaulted her and invigorated her spirit. Her Spiritual Roots also felt refreshed, as though that had been cleansed.

“This is…” Tianfeng Jin was astonished.

Ye Fei looked at Gu Lingzhi with the same look of astonishment. With the Ye Family’s influence in business, they had never even heard of the appearance of such a pill. This good friend of theirs who had appeared from nowhere, had way too many secrets on her.

Exquisite Martial Skills, cultivation talent that surpassed normal people, overly weird Weapon Forging techniques, and now, a mysterious Spiritual Medicine that had never appeared before… the Black Thorn’s existence was simply subverting all of their preconceived notions of the world!

“It is not suitable to talk here. Let’s find a safer place before talking.” Gu Lingzhi glanced around and noticed that Ye Fei’s surprised exclamations earlier had attracted the attention of passers-by.

“Of course! Shall we head to a nearby branch of the Ye Store? It is safe there.”

Ye Fei quickly led the way, she was afraid that Gu Lingzhi would regret her decision. If Gu Lingzhi did not have a good understanding of Ye Fei’s character, she would be suspicious that Ye Fei was thinking of bringing her somewhere to kill her and snatch her treasures.

The Ye Clan’s branch store here was the Jubao Pavillion. In the bottom right corner of its signboard, was the symbol of a leaf that represented that Ye Clan.

Ye Rong had already retired many years ago and he had since detached himself from mundane matters. Hearing that Ye Fei was bringing some friends over, he decided to make a rare appearance. However, he never expected that this impulsive decision of his would give him such a surprise.