171 Chapter 170: Redo (1/2)
After the attack from Black Shadow, Elder Zhao let me out.
”Well, your sentence is over. Three days are up. It's too much trouble to find you a cell to stay for the next few hours, so do us a favor and get back to the dorm.”
”Yes, sir.”
With that, I headed back toward the Blood Blades dormitory, feeling as if I was at a loss at what to do next. Well, I could just start inscribing the martial arts manual that I just discovered through the recordings in my glasses.
The alternative was to go to the base of Flame Volcano, sit down underneath a Spirit Engraved Pillar and start shouting out the names of whatever Spirit Diagram I was inscribing into a Spirit Tablet. I assure you, the tablets we used were a lot more hi-tech. we were using electronic tablets with stylus, screens and computing components, not some random piece of stone like the one Qin Lie was using. You would think that with nine hundred years, their world would progress in terms of technology, but no, for some reason most fictional fantasy stories remain in historical stasis, stuck in medieval levels of technology for millennia.
It made no sense, but whatever. That wasn't my problem. Those were unrealistic fiction. This was reality. There was no use trying to look for logic in fiction.
Besides, I wasn't Qin Lie. I didn't have ”talent that was peerless and unparalleled.” That was the problem with not being a Mary Sue protagonist. I had to do things the hard way.
Unfortunately, when I reached my apartment, I realized something was amiss. A small disturbance in the surrounding qi, almost imperceptible to anyone who had not mastered Heavenly Flow and Earthly Paths. Fortunately, because I had learned that technique, my Heaven and Earth sense had sharpened to the point where I could detect even the most miniscule of changes. Of course, understanding what those changes were was another thing entirely.
However, the qi I was sensing was way too obvious to be anything else.
”Seriously, guys? You're watching me from the shadows? I'm a Blood Blade too, you know? I can defend myself.”
”Begging your pardon, Junior Fei, but it's safer this way.”
Four of my Blood Blades seniors materialized in a circle around me, kneeling. I stared at them, astonished, and quickly gestured for them to get up.
”Oi, stand up. Seniors, please don't be like this!”
”No,” the lead senior – I recognized him as Senior Zhu Zhang – replied. ”You've to be aware of your status right now, Junior Fei.”
”What status?” I grumbled. Okay, maybe Tang Qi Hong and Liang Shao Yang had the same status, and I was aware that they were sometimes protected by Blood Blades bodyguard, but it wasn't all the time. Come to think of it, Zi Xiao Ji always had Da Ge and Zhao Shi protecting her as well, following her wherever she went, so it wasn't unusual.
That didn't mean I wasn't uncomfortable with it. I preferred having my privacy, so I made a mental note to put a stop to this nonsense once and for all.
”You triggered a response from the Spirit Engraved Pillars,” Zhu Zhang pinted out. ”Three of them, in fact. So…”
”That means nothing. I don't see Qi Hong or Liang Shao Yang being shadowed by bodyguards 24/7.”
”Oh, the situation is a little different this time. We're just temporarily guarding you for the time being. You see…you kind of complicated the situation by killing Liang Shao Yang.” Zhu Zhang hesitated a little. ”The Great Elders are concerned that you would be targeted by the Divine Shadow Sect for revenge. Even Sect Leader thought it was a good possibility.”
”I hope he didn't order a purge,” I muttered, recalling what a certain retarded sect master in a specific story did.
”No, we're not murderous barbarians,” Zhu Zhang assured me. ”We don't make enemies unnecessarily and kill innocent people just because they're associated with a particular sect. But we're not going to risk your safety either, so we'll be keeping an eye on you.”
”…right.”
I sighed and was about to open the door into my apartment when my smartphone buzzed. Suppressing a second sigh, I swiped the screen and saw that I received an email from Sect Leader Zi.
”Hmm? Isn't this…?”
I frowned. Sect Leader Zi was asking me to meet at my earliest convenience…which meant he wanted me to meet him immediately. Being the sect leader, it was only natural that he was aware that my sentence was up and I had just been released.
”I'm going to meet Sect Leader Zi,” I informed the Blood Blades who had been detailed to be my bodyguards for now, and then moved immediately. Using my footwork techniques, I sprang ahead of them. Even though I was moving pretty fast, credit to the four of them, they managed to barely keep up with me.
I did have to slow down a little for them to maintain the punishing pace. As unenthusiastic as I was about having bodyguards, I knew that they were acting under orders, and as a fellow Blood Blade, I didn't want to make their lives difficult.
We managed to reach the top of Flame Volcano in short order and I pulled to a stop right in front of the gigantic villa in which Sect Leader Zi Shou De and his immediate family resided in. Tang Qi Hong didn't seem to be present, but then again, with the main threat to her life (Liang Shao Yang) gone, there was no need for her to stick around and rely on her adopted mother's protection. I was sure that her parents had assigned a few bodyguards to keep an eye on her, just in case.
The guards at the entrance of the villa, fellow Blood Blades who I recognized instantly, immediately lowered their weapons. One of them seemed to be listening to his com bead, and he nodded after a few seconds, pulling back to open the gates.
”Sect Leader has been expecting you,” he told me.
”Thank you, Jing Wei,” I told him, and then stepped into the courtyard between the gates and the main house.
As I expected, I found Sect Leader Zi waiting for me inside the house, studying a tabet. I recognized the tablet as being of the same model and brand (Android) I was using during my time in prison, though I couldn't tell if it was the same exact one I used. Sect Leader Zi glanced up from the screen when I stepped into his study room, a faint smile on his face.
”Fei Wu. Good to see you. I hope you're all right?”
”Yeah, I'm fine.” knowing that he didn't summon me just to check on my condition, I fell silent and waited for his next line.
”I've been looking through the Spirit Diagrams you copied from the Spirit Engraved Pillars.” Sect Leader Zi waved the tablet. Ah, so it was the tablet I was using during my stay in Fire Prison Cliff. ”And you certainly are very fast.”
”Thanks.” Even as I responded uncertainly, I could hear a ”but…” trailing off at the end of his sentence.
”I'm very sorry to ask this of you so soon after you've been released from Fire Prison Cliff, but can you redo them?”
”…eh?”
Of all the requests, I never expected this one. Redo the Spirit Diagrams? Why? The guy obviously hadn't watched Rebuild of Evangelion. You can (not) redo.
”Did I screw up?” I asked nervously. Sect Leader gave me a somewhat kind smile, and nodded wryly.
”To put it simply, yes. You only copied the Spirit Diagrams without understanding them. As such, they are pretty…powerless. They don't contain the enchanged abilities that Spirit Diagrams normally possess. You need to comprehend them before you replicate them, or these diagrams are pretty, uh, worthless.”
He sure as hell didn't hold anything back. I felt as if I was being stabbed in the chest several times as he tried to inform me as gently as he could.
”It's understandable. You tried to replicate all of them in three days. But Spirit Diagrams and Spirit Engraving aren't something so simple. Don't be impatient.”
Standing up from his desk, he glanced at the huge window behind him, which gave him a great bird's eye view of Tushan City below, at the foot of Flame Volcano.
”Fei Wu. In the past, those who comprehended the wonders of the Spirit Diagrams were neither impatient to understand the true meaning behind them, nor were they in a hurry to immediately inscribe them on a tablet.”
Ouch. That was exactly what I did. No wonder I screwed up. Wincing, I asked hesitantly, ”So I'm supposed to take a bit more time to understand them?”
”Correct.” Sect Leader Zi clasped his hands behind his back. ”The people of the past would first commit the Spirit Diagrams to memory – though you have an advantage there because of your video recordings and photographs – and then proceed to slowly comprehend it. Usually they take a few months to study and comprehend the Spirit Diagrams, or even years if necessary. Only then would they slowly begin to understand the mysteries of the Spirit Diagrams concealed within the Spirit Engraved Pillars. Such understanding cannot be achieved in merely three days.”
”Whoops,” was all I could manage.
Sect Leader Zi turned back to me, his voice soothing.