Bu Wei

A young man with gentle eyes sat under the eaves brewing tea, his snow-blue hairband standing out against his dark clothes.

Ning Buwei pursed his lips, sat cold-faced on the cushion opposite the desk, and watched him make tea.

It was late, and it was snowing outside. The distant Chenyue Mountain turned into a touch of cyan in the snow. Outside the eaves, a field of nine-leaf lotuses bloomed. The light green leaves were bent by the snow, and the snowballs hit the dark brown ground along the leaves, making a muffled sound.

The red clay charcoal stove was simple and elegant. The young man picked up the Yushu simmer and poured it into the purple clay pot. The fresh tea fragrance spread with the hazy mist. Ning Buwei frowned, somewhat impatient.

(t/n: Yushu simmer-a kettle for boiling water. It is an ocher-colored thin porcelain flat pot with a water capacity of approximately 250 ml.)

The other party’s actions were still unhurried, and every move was elegant. It seemed that he noticed his impatience, and a smile flashed in his gentle eyes, “The curriculum of Wanxuan Academy is heavy, it’s not easy to come back, why don’t you go out and play?”

Ning Buwei quickly glanced at him, feeling guilty, and his gaze fell on the small stove. After struggling for a long time, he muttered, “Don’t you ask me why I came back?”

“It’s nothing more than getting into trouble with Wen Zaiye and that kid from the Cui family again.” The young man put the teacup in front of him and smiled, “How long did the teacher punish you to reflect at home?”

“Ten days.” Ning Buwei was somewhat unconvinced.

The young man found his reaction interesting, so he asked again, “What did you do?”

Ning Buwei was waiting for him to ask. When he heard the words, he raised his chin, and there was arrogance and defiance in his eyebrows, “Hao Zheng, that old… old pedant insisted that my talisman was wrong and punished me to redraw a hundred. Wen Zaiye and Cui Ci couldn’t restrain their anger, so they drew a talisman exactly like mine and handed it in. Hao Zheng insisted on holding on to this matter.”

“Um, what else?” The young man smiled.

Ning Buwei stared at the small teacup for a long time, then sulkily said, “I drew a turtle behind Hao Zheng.”

The young man laughed out loud, his dark wide sleeves fluttering in the cold wind.

Ning Buwei was angry and ashamed, “Ning Xingyuan!”

Ning Xingyuan still had a smile in his eyes, and comforted him insincerely, “It’s okay, Teacher Hao has a bad temper. Chu Linyuan and I were often punished when we were in Wanxuan Academy. The teacher never holds grudges.”

Ning Buwei sneered coldly, “But I hold grudges.”

Ning Xingyuan did not respond, casually pulled a nine-leaf lotus from outside, shook off the snow on it, and handed him a petal, “Here, cool down.”

Ning Buwei took a bite. He had loved this thing since he was a child. It was sweet with a bit of bitterness. When he first arrived at the main house, he had plucked all the nine-leaf lotuses that Ning Xingyuan had planted in the yard, which almost made his follower almost sob and faint.

Ning Xingyuan didn’t mind, knowing that he loved to eat, he could pluck the nine-leaf lotus in the yard at will, but it was not allowed outside the yard. Even the main family of the Ning family treasured this nine-leaf lotus. If they saw Ning Buwei ruining it like this, the family head would have to resort to family law.

Ning Buwei ate a piece and was not satisfied. He reached out and plucked a big one from outside. A few pieces of snow fell on the back of his hand, which was cool.

After eating most of it, he looked up and saw a small section of green vine poking out from Ning Xingyuan’s sleeve, quietly trying to roll away his piece of nine-leaf lotus.

Ning Buwei reached out and pinched the green vine. The vine immediately struggled, and its tail wrapped around Ning Xingyuan’s wrist for help.

“Why are you making a fuss with it?” Ning Xingyuan said helplessly, “It’s just greedy.”

Ning Buwei had a grudge against this vine since he was a child. Every time Ning Xingyuan wanted to discipline him, he would instruct this hateful green vine to form a ball and trap him inside. If he didn’t admit his mistake, he wouldn’t let him out.

The vine ball was pitch black inside, and sometimes it deliberately shrank to round and flatten him. Ning Buwei was angry and dared not confront Ning Xingyuan, so he vented his anger on this vine. This vine had a spiritual consciousness, no different from a living person. Over time, the feud between the person and the vine was formed, and every time they met, they would fight and make a mess of the Ning family.

Over time, even the big yellow dog guarding the Ning family knew that the two ancestors raised by Ning Xingyuan were incompatible, and it would run away with its tails between its legs when they met.

“It’s only greedy for my things, it’s jealous.” Ning Buwei snorted coldly, maliciously plucked a leaf from the green vine, and wanted to pluck back his nine-leaf lotus.

The vine retracted onto Ning Xingyuan’s wrist, propped up its upper body, and drilled into Ning Xingyuan’s arms in a wronged manner. Ning Xingyuan pinched its leaves to comfort it.

Ning Buwei was most disgusted with this parasitic vine pretending to be, no matter how he looked at this colored vine, it was ill-intentioned towards Ning Xingyuan, thus plucked a leaf and gritted his teeth maliciously, “Your green vine should be about to transform, right?”

Ning Xingyuan used high-quality elixir and the spiritual spring to nourish it every day, and also planted its body on the top of Chenyue Mountain. With the advantages of heaven, earth, and people, it naturally would transform faster than those wild spirits.

“After the New Year, it will be able to transform in early spring next year.” Ning Xingyuan touched the vine, and the small vine obediently wrapped around his fair fingers, as if it was also happy to be able to transform.

Ning Buwei felt that this vine was impure, not for a day or two, and reminded Ning Xingyuan, “You’d better stay away from it, in case it transforms into a woman in the future, wouldn’t it ruin your innocent reputation?”

The green vine wrapped around Ning Xingyuan’s wrist stiffened, and Ning Xingyuan laughed, “What nonsense are you talking about?”

Ning Buwei was so angry that he plucked another leaf from the green vine. The green vine saw that the master ignored Ning Buwei’s bad behavior and retracted into Ning Xingyuan’s sleeve in grievance.

Seeing Ning Xingyuan distracted, Ning Buwei raised his eyebrows, “Is it talking bad about me with you?”

“It says it won’t turn into a woman.” Ning Xingyuan had long been accustomed to passing messages for them. Sometimes one person and one vine could quarrel for half an hour, all relying on him to bridge, and he himself was still happy, watching the tiger fight with great relish.

“It also said that when it transforms, it will definitely be taller and stronger than you.”

Ning Buwei was furious and reached out to pull out the damn vine from his sleeve, “I’m only fifteen this year, a ghost that’s almost a hundred years old dares to compare with me. If it has the ability, let it wait for me to grow up and then transform!”

Two people and a vine were arguing under the eaves, the red clay small stove was boiling tea, the white mist was rising, and the tea fragrance was scattered into the fine snow outside the eaves.

Ning Buwei was punished to go home for reflection these few days, and it happened that Ning Xingyuan was free. Seeing that he didn’t punish himself, he put his heart back in his stomach and took it as a good luck to take a vacation.

(t/n: Putting your heart in your stomack, as the saying goes, means that your heart is at ease, free from worries and worries)

He beat down a few main family disciples who came to stir up trouble, and Ning Buwei tied them to the mountain gate in the back mountain with a rope, patted his hands and was about to leave.

“Ning Chengfeng! You can’t leave!” Ning Hao was hanging upside down on a tree branch, shouting loudly, “You come back for me!”

Ning Buwei turned around and looked at him, the young man with a ponytail laughed triumphantly, “I just can’t.”

After saying that, he summoned his flying sword and jumped up, and even arrogantly circled around the few people who were howling like ghosts and wolves with his sword, making Ning Hao and the few others blush.

The ponytail jade belt drew a sharp arc, Ning Buwei stepped on the long sword and rushed into the sky, the dark robe was blown up by the wind, and the young man and the sword broke through the flowing clouds and passed quickly, startling the immortal crane passing by in the clouds.

He went to the Jinyi Pavilion to get the high-level robes he had ordered a few days ago, and then picked a piece of spiritual jade from Ruogu Peak Treasure Pavilion to make a paperweight, and took it to Ning Xingyuan’s yard to let him carve a nine-leaf lotus for himself.

Ning Xingyuan was wiping a sword in the front hall, and said when he heard the words, “You see this nine-leaf lotus every day, don’t you get tired of it?”

“It’s good-looking and delicious, not tired.” Ning Buwei flew back all the way and was a little thirsty. He disliked Ning Xingyuan’s teacup for being too small. He got up and found a bigger cup on the Bogu shelf. After a small cleaning technique, he poured water into it.

“I wipe that cup every day, you just love to be clean.” Ning Xingyuan put down the Suzaku Sword in his hand, picked up the spiritual jade and looked at it for a while, “The color is good.”

“What I picked is naturally good.” Ning Buwei put down the teacup, and pushed the Suzaku Sword that Ning Xingyuan had placed on the table far away through the teacup. “The knife doesn’t look like a knife, the sword doesn’t look like a sword, really ugly.”

The Suzaku Sword was so angry that the blade body hummed.

“Ring-headed swords are all like this, don’t provoke it.” Ning Xingyuan held down the Suzaku Sword that was about to lose its temper, “Just now Ning Zelong came over and said that you tied Ning Hao and others to the back mountain?”

“They picked things first, asked me to go to the back mountain, and all the traps inside were set by them.” Ning Buwei poked the Suzaku Sword with a cheap hand, and was cut by the irritable Suzaku Sword. He didn’t care about the bloody wound, and after a healing technique, the wound healed immediately, “I didn’t push them in, it’s already benevolent.”

Ning Xingyuan obviously didn’t intend to pursue it, took out a delicate carving knife to carve flowers on his paperweight spiritual jade, “You will return to Wanxuan Academy tomorrow, is there anything else you want to bring? Let Dulu prepare for you.”

“There’s nothing good to prepare–” Ning Buwei suddenly stopped talking, feeling like he had forgotten something, but he couldn’t remember it, and asked him, “Didn’t you bring your treasure green vine back?”

“It needs to retreat to transform, and I won’t let it go down Chenyue Mountain before the spring equinox next year.” Ning Xingyuan said.

Ning Buwei was gloating for a while, and then saw Dulu knock on the door and come in. He first smiled slightly at Ning Buwei, and then said to Ning Xingyuan, “Master, the young master of the Cui family, Cui Ci, is here, saying that he has an appointment with our young master.”

“Yes, we agreed to go back to Wanxuan Academy together today.” Ning Buwei remembered what he had forgotten just now, stood up and was about to run to the reception room, but was stopped by Ning Xingyuan.

Ning Xingyuan looked at him with gentle eyes, “Chengfeng, don’t you want your paperweight?”

“Wait for me to come back when I have a holiday at the end of the year!” Ning Buwei was anxious to see his good friend, and he was about to step out of the threshold.

They agreed to go to Yunzhong Sect to pick up Wen Zaiye on their way back, and the three of them would go to Xingluo Cliff together.

Below the Xingluo Cliff was the dark realm, and adults usually wouldn’t allow them to approach. But the curiosity of young people was heavy, the more they were not allowed to do things, the more they wanted to do it, especially when they sneak around with their friends behind the adults, it was even more interesting.

Ning Buwei was eager to leave, but he heard Ning Xingyuan’s tone sink, “Chengfeng, do you really want to return to Wanxuan Academy?”

In an instant, several broken images flashed through Ning Buwei’s mind, mountains of corpses and seas of blood, fire burning the plains, all broken giant vines, Suzaku killing the master, and the fierce spirits rampaging on the cracked brown earth…

“Chengfeng?” Ning Xingyuan called him.

Ning Buwei suddenly came back to his senses, the images in his mind just now shattered instantly, he couldn’t remember what he had just thought of, but instinctively began to resist the memory.

“I…” He put one hand on the door frame, the long snow outside the vermilion corridor did not stop and the cold wind was bitter, the warmth inside the door was warm and the agarwood was far away.

“Chengfeng, don’t go to Wanxuan Academy, stay and celebrate the New Year.”

He heard Ning Xingyuan say to him.

“Ning Chengfeng! Why haven’t you come out yet? If you don’t go to pick up Wen Zaiye, he’s going to go crazy!” Cui Ci’s voice came through the courtyard wall and thick snow into his ears.

Dulu stood respectfully beside Ning Xingyuan.

The green vine on the distant Chenyue Mountain was spreading its branches and leaves to prepare for the transformation in the spring equinox of the coming year.

A yard away, Cui Ci was shouting at him enthusiastically.

The large Ning family was busy and orderly preparing for the New Year. Outside the mansion, the bustling streets were bustling, and everyone’s faces were filled with the joy of the upcoming festival. Further out, the two states of Can and Shang under the jurisdiction of Xun Prefecture were vast and full of vitality.

He was born in this vast world of mortals, Xun Prefecture, and he was more familiar with the people and every brick and tile here.

Ning Xingyuan knelt and sat in front of the desk, holding a carving knife and a piece of spiritual jade, smiling gently at his back.

Ning Buwei was standing in front of Ning Xingyuan with his back to the light, and his hand holding the door frame was white due to excessive force.

Can’t go.

Stay.

You look back at him.

Look at him again.

Ning Buwei shouted loudly at himself in his heart, his voice bleeding.

In a daze, Ning Buwei really wanted to turn around, take a good look at Ning Xingyuan, and then stay, accompany him through this New Year.

In the next moment, the fragments of the Suzaku Sword shot out from his hand, carrying a strong black mist, and shattered all these illusions in front of and behind him.

When he opened his eyes again, only the weird and sticky peach petals were sticking around, and countless blood basins opened in the flowers, the stamens were attached to his body, and blood flowed to the flowers along the stamens.

Ning Buwei flashed a bit of disgust in his eyes, and the broken Suzaku Sword cut off all those disgusting things, and went straight to the largest peach blossom in front!

“Waah!” A clear cry of a child suddenly sounded in the hollow illusion, and Ning Buwei’s hand that was about to cut with the blade stiffened.

Dulu walked out of the layers of peach blossoms, still holding a crying baby in his arms, it was Ning Xiu.

Ning Buwei’s body was suddenly full of murderous intent, “Give me the child!”

Dulu smiled and said, “Young master, it’s been five hundred years since I saw you, it’s really you.”

Ning Buwei stared at him with cold eyes.

“I’m curious, the Heart Confusion Seed is so perfect, there is no solution, where did you find the flaw?” Dulu seemed to be asking him seriously.

Ning Buwei clenched the broken blade in his hand and said coldly, “Ning Xingyuan has never left me.”

Duluk was stunned, “What?”

Ning Buwei looked up at him, “You don’t understand at all.”

Dulu showed an unhappy expression on his face, and was about to speak, suddenly his back felt cold, and he dodged to the side, but half of his arm was still cut off by the broken blade, and the child in his arms fell down.

Ning Buwei flew forward to catch him, but as soon as he touched Ning Xiu’s swaddle, a peach blossom next to him suddenly opened its mouth and swallowed Ning Xiu in one gulp!

Ning Buwei manipulated the broken blade to split open the closed flower bud, but was blocked by a long sword. The collision of the sword and blade made a teeth-gritting sound.

Dulu firmly blocked him and forced him back several steps, laughing heartily, “I’ve long seen that your meridians are broken and your cultivation is completely lost. You are now a waste person, just relying on the spiritual power in a few pieces of broken blades to support you! Ning Chengfeng, you can’t beat me! Wait until your spiritual power is exhausted, that will be your death!”

Ning Buwei was forced back to the wall of peach blossoms by him. While he was fully resisting Dulu, those stamens twisted into blades and suddenly pierced his ankle.

Ning Buwei’s face suddenly turned white, he bit his teeth hard, gathered spiritual power to throw Dulu away, another piece of broken blade cut off those stamens, not retreating but advancing straight towards Dulu.

Dulu blocked with his sword while shouting loudly, “You have to be faster, or your precious child will soon suffocate to death in the flower!”

The crimson in Ning Buwei’s eyes suddenly scattered, and the two pieces of broken blades intertwined to hold Dulu’s long sword. He turned his head to find the flower bud where Ning Xiu was trapped, but those peach blossoms that made up the wall were constantly moving, making people dizzy. He couldn’t tell where Ning Xiu was trapped at all.

After breaking three, they were all empty inside. Ning Buwei resisted Dulu’s offensive while making a single-handed seal. Dulu was still fanning the flames, “Young master, aren’t you cultivating the ruthless path? Why are you still worrying about a baby?”

Dulu took advantage of his unpreparedness, and a sword pierced his shoulder, “Oh, yes, Ning Xingyuan said that you can’t cultivate the ruthless path, he said you are always soft-hearted.”

“Hahaha, he said that you, a heartless and ruthless demon, are soft-hearted, it’s really funny!”

“You should have kept being a demon well, but you have to come to my Linjiang City to be a chivalrous man with that demon vine. It’s really as hypocritical and disgusting as Ning Xingyuan!”

Ning Buwei held the hilt of the sword in one hand, drew a blood symbol quickly with blood, Dulu saw that the situation was not good and wanted to retreat, but before he could retreat, the sword stuck in Ning Buwei’s shoulder suddenly exploded!

Suddenly, flesh and blood splattered all around.

Ning Buwei took the opportunity to slap the seal in his other hand on the ground, and a strong fragrance suddenly filled the air, and pink mist dispersed to block the line of sight.

Dulu couldn’t find him in the cloud of mist, and laughed loudly, “Don’t resist anymore, your spiritual power is exhausted, for the sake of the past feelings, I will give you a quick death!”

He closed his eyes, the blood symbol flickered between his fingers, and Ning Xiu’s small and weak crying came from his ears.

Ning Buwei suddenly opened his eyes, and the two pieces of Suzaku broken blades struck one and protected the other, and the inconspicuous peach blossom was suddenly split open, and Ning Xiu’s crying suddenly became clear.

He flew over and reached out to hold the crying Ning Xiu, but his back suddenly cooled, and a sharp pain came from his chest. He lowered his head somewhat stiffly, a blood-stained longsword pierced his chest, and the tip of the sword was stained with warm blood, dripping on Ning Xiu’s face.

Ning Xiu’s watery eyes stared straight at Ning Buwei’s heart, scared into forgetting to cry, anxiously stretched out his little hand to Ning Buwei, his voice was full of fear, “Ah! Ah ah!”

Father! Father!

A sweet and fishy taste surged in Ning Buwei’s throat, he reached out and covered Ning Xiu’s eyes, wanting to speak but could only cough, his throat was full of blood foam.

“It’s okay…don’t be afraid.”