Chapter 28: Past Images
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Bang! 

“Ahhh!” 

“Arh!”

Xiao-Kai sat on the ground in shock. He first looked at Yuelong, who was now standing up and had one hand covering his nose. Next, he looked at the now awakened Mengjun, who also had a red mark, but rather than on his nose, it was on his forehead.

Mengjun had woken up with the sound of people calling him and jolted violently upwards in response. The result was an accident between Yuelong’s nose and Mengjun’s forehead. Mengjun smiled nervously, a round, curved line replaced his eyes. “I’m so sorry! Hah hah hah, it’s a bad habit of mine!”

“What kind of bad habit do you have that requires you to jolt up like that?” Yuelong said coldly, still covering his nose.

“Well… when I was an opera student, we were woken up by our teachers, and trust me!” Mengjun’s voice suddenly became animated. “You do not want to get woken up by them!”

Yuelong responded with a glare. Despite the fact that the morning frost had melted, that one glaze from Yuelong emitted an aura of winter. Mengjun felt that his breath had become visible to the eye and icicles formed in his lungs.

“Hmph.” Yuelong walked away. When he was a couple meters away from the other two, he pressed his eyes close. Dear Heavens! How embarrassing! He tried looking down at his nose. At the bottom of his vision, he saw a blob of pink. 

Without turning back to face the other two, he called out, “Come! Lest you want to stay here to feed the wolves and surrender to the masked people!” A scampering noise rustled behind him. Yuelong smiled in satisfaction.

For the entire morning, they journeyed without words. Mengjun felt awkward after what happened that morning and decided to keep his mouth closed. Xiao-Kai felt pressured by the silent aura around them and also followed in Mengjun’s footsteps. Even though the two communicated behind Yunelong’s back with their hands, Yuelong nonetheless enjoyed the peaceful trip.

A cry from above caught the attention of Yixiao Zhenjun, like Yuelong, the flock of geese flew south and away from their homeland. Apart from the hint of jealousy, he also felt an uncomfortable spot at the bottom of his heart. It was the feeling of homesickness. No matter how old a person gets, no matter how mature they think they are, their home will forever have a spot in their hearts.

Mengjun also looked up at the flock of geese. He paused a minute in place, his eyes deep in thought. The south flying geese flew from the north. Where does my home lie?

Finally, when the sun was at its highest in the skies, Yuelong stopped next to a lake. “We’ll stop here for a break, after the sun goes down a bit more, we’ll continue.”

Mengjun and Xiao-Kai looked at each other with relief. “Finally, we can talk!” their glances exchanged. They both bent down at the lake. Mengjun whisked out his water flask and filled it with the cold waters of the lake. The ripples on the lake washed away the colours of autumn, a kaleidoscopic of gold, crimson, orange and the crystal blue of the waters, truly a magnificent sight. Tall emerald pines stood tall and firm, like the only supporting pillars of the mirage in the waters. 

A voice called from behind, “Xiao-Kai, come here!”

Mengjun looked behind him, only to see the teen accepting a tree branch from his teacher. Xiao-Kai followed his teacher’s orders and performed a stance one after another. After filling his water flask, he leaned back against a tree and watched the teen suffer at the hands of his teacher. 

Yuelong whipped at Xiao-Kai’s joints every time he performed a stance to make sure his muscles were all tight. Mengjun scoffed at the rigorous training and received a death glare from Yuelong. He immediately shut his mouth and pretended to look at the flying flock of geese in the skies. 

“Point out with the branch! You have to feel that it’s a part of your body! What are you going to do when you hold a real sword? Your grip is flimsy!” Yuelong lectured. His words burned with the acidity of his jealousy. Though it wasn’t much, it was enough to hurt Xiao-Kai’s feelings.

Yuelong shook his head. “That’s enough for today,” he sighed.

Mengjun came up from behind Xiao-Kai and patted him on the back. “Don’t worry, it takes time just to master one thing, your teacher just has high standards.”

“I guess…” Xiao-Kai shrugged.

The teen received another pat from Mengjun, this time on his head, telling him “you did a great job”. Xiao-Kai nodded in response and started to review the stances he was just taught. 

Mengjun came up to Yuelong and questioned him, “Don’t you think you were going a bit harsh?”

“Harsh?” Yuelong asked, rather aggressively. “You, out of all of us here, should know what true harshness is. And I’m already lenient towards him.”

“Yeah, I know, but he’s just a boy.”

“Yeah, and who knows what evil cults do to young boys?” Yuelong said sarcastically. “Maybe feed them candy and let them go on their merry way!”

Mengjun sighed and looked off in the distance. Xiao-Kai was completely focused on reviewing the stances and movements that he was taught earlier. 

“I have to get this right!” Xiao-Kai thought to himself. “I can’t let my teacher down! I have to be able to defend myself one day!” The scenes of the masked gang flashed before his eyes. The feeling of hopelessness wore his spirit down. A voice at the back of his head told him, you can do it, boy! Do not fall to fear! He gritted his teeth and continued his movements.

“How about this,” Mengjun suggested. “I can help you train him.”

“You?” Yuelong raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, you just want him to be capable of self defense, right?”

“Mhm.”

“Then I can help,” Mengjun smiled. 

“Why would you want to help? And why are you following us anyways?”

Mengjun put a hand on his hips and said, casually, “It was my last performance that you saw with that troupe, I want to make my own performance troupe. But before I do that, I have to travel around and see the other performers and how they do their job. And Xiao-Kai and you seem like good companions so I stuck around.”

Yuelong turned around, crossed his arms in front of his chest and lowered his head in deep thoughts. It does seem like logical reasoning. Traveling in a group is definitely beneficial for him, and from what I’ve heard, Peking Opera originated from up north, so maybe he can find other performers there…

“So? What’s it going to be?” Mengjun asked.

Woosh!

A tree branch launched straight at Mengjun’s face. Like a graceful dancer, he spun to one side and caught the branch between his index and middle finger. 

“What the—”

Before another word came out, a shining sword aimed for his face. Using the branch as a sword replacement, Mengjun fought head-on with Yuelong. Yuelong deliberately held back his energy but his swings were still as fast and sharp as a whirlwind. Each of his pierce struck at weak points of the human body.

To Yuelong’s surprise, Mengjun fended off the attacks pretty effortlessly. Perhaps it was his dance training that allowed him to have a relaxed expression no matter how challenging the movement was. He parried and blocked every attack with smooth and fluid movements, it was like he was familiar with Yuelong’s attack patterns and knew where he would strike next. 

Clash!

Their weapons crossed with each other. Yuelong released a steady flow of his spiritual energy into his sword, in hopes of pushing back Mengjun. Mengjun grinned and held his ground against his power. The two forces of power clashed and swirled with each other. Like oil and water, the two didn’t mix and fought for the top position. 

The still waters of the lake were now vibrating with ripples. The stones on the bank shook from the immense energies that the two emitted. 

Exerting more energy into Cangming, Yuelong managed to push back the fending Mengjun. With a downward slash, he dissipated the remaining energy from the air. He looked at Mengjun and resumed a fighting stance. 

Pushed by the immense force from Yuelong, Mengjun flipped backwards and landed with a graceful kneel. He could feel the immense energy from the force trying to break into his organs. He looked at his temporary weapon, the branch had a couple cracks running through the bark. This branch can’t handle anymore energy, I guess it’s back to swordplay from now. 

Xiao-Kai stood stunned at the sight of the duel. It was almost like watching Yuelong fighting against himself. Yuelong struck swiftly multiple times but Mengjun easily defended himself. 

The two quickly engaged in swordplay. Yuelong played offensive and tried to find Mengjun’s weak point. Mengjun blocked every single attack right before the sword was within an inch of his clothes. 

Finally, Yuelong slash diagonally and turned along with the sword. He quickly stabbed his sword backwards, performing “The Rainbow Pierces the Sun”. It usually throws the opponent off guard and allows him to successfully land a strike. 

But a flying shape flew right above him. Mengjun had leaped above him. Their faces were inches away from each other and their eyes locked. A similar scene appeared before Yuelong. Lanyue was also the first one to dodge this move. Usually, people would either step back or to the sides to dodge it, but Lanyue would always use extra strength to jump over the opponent so he would get the advantage of having Yuelong’s weak side exposed.

However, that was a long time ago. Before Mengjun could land, Yuelong twisted his body in the air and kicked Mengjun in the chest. The man fell back on the pebbles of the bank. He tried to break the fall with the branch in his hands but the branch snapped in half and he tumbled on the ground.

“Not bad…” Mengjun said, patting the dust off of his robes as he stood up.

“You too,” complimented Yuelong. He studied Mengjun’s face for a minute, attempting any signs of the Lanyue from his memories.

“What is it?” Asked Mengjun, snapping Yuelong back to reality. “Do I have something on my face?”

“No, it’s nothing…” Yuelong turned around and grabbed his belongings. “Let’s get going now.”

Xiao-Kai closed his gaping mouth and flung his bag over his shoulders. A smiling Mengjun threw the broken branch into a bush and followed behind Yixiao Zhenjun.

Yuelong walked a couple steps and paused his steps. He said to the man behind him, “Fine, you can take the role of his second teacher.”

As Mengjun and Xiao-Kai clapped their hands together in celebration, Yuelong took a quick glance at Mengjun. He really does seem like you, Lanyue.

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