FIMA Ch163: Test

Gu Siyuan and Xie Xueyi stepped through the palace gates.

In the original novel, the Xianling Secret Realm had not been described in much detail, but one thing was beyond question: the greatest inheritance and opportunities obtained by the two protagonists had both come from this place.

Now, that little ice dragon was already wrapped around Xie Xueyi’s wrist. So next, what remained was the inheritance of the Xianling Ancient City.

The first place they encountered was a library hall, inside of which stood two enormous bookshelves.

The shelf on the right had several wooden boxes arranged on each row. At a glance, it looked far more high-end than the one opposite. Quite a few of the boxes had already been opened, while the rest remained tightly shut.

Apparently, there was a limit on how many each person could open.

Gu Siyuan and Xie Xueyi stepped forward and each opened one.

Xie Xueyi’s eyes widened in delight. “This is good stuff…”

Gu Siyuan tossed the contents of his own box over to Xie Xueyi. “For you. These boxes all have formations set on them. Each person can only open one.”

“Gege, you’re so good to me…” Xie Xueyi took it happily.

Then he could not help pouting a little, looking at the remaining closed boxes with obvious regret.

The shelf on the left was scattered with all sorts of cultivation methods and inheritances, though all of them were rather shallow and simple, far inferior to the Jiutian Xingchen Jue that Gu Siyuan cultivated.

The people who had entered before them had not thought much of them either. One by one, they ignored the shelf and instead sat cross-legged before the wall ahead.

Xie Xueyi, on the other hand, picked through the scrolls and stuffed several into his storage ring.

Gu Siyuan looked at him. “Like a goose plucking every feather.”

Xie Xueyi glared at him irritably. “A pampered genius from a great sect like you just doesn’t understand the hardship of ordinary cultivators’ lives. If these techniques were taken outside and auctioned off, rogue cultivators would fight each other bloody for them, alright? I’m working hard to support the family here.”

Gu Siyuan refuted him calmly. “Nonsense. Are you not now the person of a heaven’s favored one?”

Xie Xueyi froze, then laughed. He leaned close to Gu Siyuan’s ear and said in a voice only the two of them could hear, “Good gege, how did you suddenly get so good at talking? Are all men like this—change into a different person once they’ve slept with someone? Ah, if I’d known earlier…”

Gu Siyuan asked, “Known what earlier?”

Xie Xueyi licked his lips, fox-like. “If I’d known earlier, when we first met, I would’ve gone to get some good stuff from Hehuan Sect.”

Gu Siyuan caught his chin and gave his lips a light bite. “That truly is a pity.”

The smile on Xie Xueyi’s face only grew wider. “Good gege… I knew it. Before, you were always holding yourself back, weren’t you?”

Gu Siyuan did not answer him. Instead, he walked a few steps forward and narrowed his eyes at the words and paintings on the wall ahead.

Xie Xueyi read aloud, “Choose any one spirit technique. Only those who master it within three days may pass. Otherwise, they’ll be eliminated.”

At once, they understood why the people who had entered earlier were all sitting in front of the wall, frowning in thought.

The wall stretched out endlessly. On it were all kinds of martial arts—sword arts, palm techniques, blade arts, spear arts, whip arts, and dozens more. Clearly it had been arranged with fairness in mind, since different people specialized in different weapons.

Gu Siyuan looked at Xie Xueyi. “What do you want to study?”

Xie Xueyi puffed out his cheeks. “Whip techniques, I guess. I used a whip for more than ten years before, and it’s obvious this challenge is time-limited. The sooner I learn it, the better. So I should pick something I’m already good at and shorten the time.”

Gu Siyuan pinched his cheek and pulled him down to sit. “Mm. Not bad. Start comprehending it.”

Some unknown amount of time passed.

Among the people sitting before the wall, one after another began to open their eyes. A flash of sharp light glimmered in their gaze.

Compared to before, there were also more people sitting there now—those who had just managed to pass the hundred-step stairway outside and enter the hall. Among them were Yi Qianqiu, Yan Miaomiao, and other disciples of Taixuan Immortal Sect.

The first ones to awaken from comprehension began using their hands in place of swords, sabers, and the like, practicing against empty space before the wall.

And after successfully leaving traces behind, everyone could not help glancing at Gu Siyuan.

They wanted to know just how the youth whose battle talent so obviously crushed all of them was progressing in his cultivation.

Yet Gu Siyuan showed no movement at all. He still maintained the same posture as at the beginning, quietly looking at the wall, as though he had not comprehended anything whatsoever.

It was at that moment that Xie Xueyi also opened his eyes.

His long fingers lifted and sliced swiftly through the air. A pale white trace appeared and vanished, carrying a faint but unmistakable meaning of the whip path.

Everyone was startled.

None of them had expected that Gu Siyuan’s little lover would actually possess such high talent. In such a short time, the flavor of that one move was already not much worse than the first people to awaken earlier, like Yu Haofeng and Yin Xiaojue.

Could it be that all the good things under heaven had gone to Gu Siyuan’s household alone?

Just then, however, Gu Siyuan—who had still been looking at the martial arts on the wall—finally moved. He said to Xie Xueyi in a calm voice, “Not bad. It can count as a basic understanding and entry level. But it’s too shallow. Go back and comprehend and practice it a few more times.”

Everyone froze for a moment, then inwardly began to mock him.

You’re a swordsman, aren’t you? And you’re giving instructions to a whip-path genius on how to learn whip techniques?

Showing off had its limits…

Yet Xie Xueyi, instead of doubting him, smiled with complete trust. “Alright, gege, I’ll try again.”

“Mm.” Gu Siyuan stopped looking at the wall, sat cross-legged on the ground, and watched Xie Xueyi’s practice without blinking.

From then on, with each practice attempt Xie Xueyi made, Gu Siyuan constantly corrected him aloud.

“This part is wrong. The spirit techniques on these walls are all fairly foundational. The phrase ‘strike with regret, fullness cannot last’ means control over release and withdrawal. Sending the strike out is important, but drawing it back lightly is even more important. You’re paying too much attention to the force going outward…”

“Mm. Not bad. Better than last time. With something as flexible as a whip, control over points of force is extremely important. You need to calculate it before releasing it.”

“Good.”

Xie Xueyi thought in silence for a moment, then nodded hard.

After that, he began to alter his practice according to Gu Siyuan’s directions.

The people around them were stunned.

And yet, from just those few brief lines of dialogue from Gu Siyuan, they themselves seemed to gain some vague and unclear enlightenment.

Whether they practiced the sword or something else, when they moved again, it all seemed to mature a little.

A while later, Yu Haofeng of the Demon Sect stood up and struck a fierce palm at the wall. The technique he had chosen was palm arts, which were also his strongest specialty.

A white glow flashed over the wall, and Yu Haofeng’s entire body was covered in white light, then vanished before everyone’s eyes.

“He passed…”

“Yu Haofeng is the first one through.”

“That was within expectations, though.”

At that moment, Xie Xueyi also rose to his feet. “Gege, I’ll try.”

Gu Siyuan nodded.

Xie Xueyi drew out a long whip from his storage ring and lashed it hard toward the wall. The whip cracked loudly, white light flashed, and his long slender figure disappeared from the spot.

And it was clear that the force of his whip was actually even stronger than Yu Haofeng’s earlier palm strike, which meant his mastery of the spirit technique was even higher.

Gu Siyuan’s expression did not ripple in the slightest. He stood up and casually lifted a hand to slap the wall.

Then, like wind passing without trace, his green-robed figure vanished as well.

The people remaining behind stood there dumbfounded.

What Gu Siyuan had just used seemed to be a palm technique, right?

So not only had he not chosen the sword art he specialized in, he had even guided his little lover through whip techniques, and then passed the trial himself using palm arts. In that short amount of time, exactly how many spirit techniques had he mastered?

Was he even human?

The second hall looked much like the first—still two large wooden shelves and a long painted wall.

Only, with a glance, one could tell that the number of boxes on the shelves was slightly fewer than before.

Yu Haofeng, who had arrived earlier, stared wide-eyed in shock at the two people who came in right behind him.

How could they be this fast?

Gu Siyuan and Xie Xueyi paid him no mind. They went straight to the shelf, opened the boxes, and took the rewards for this stage.

Xie Xueyi’s eyes widened. “Gege, the rewards here are even richer than the last stage!”

Gu Siyuan remained calm. “They’ll only get better the farther we go.”

“Exactly.” Xie Xueyi immediately pulled Gu Siyuan down to sit before the wall in excitement. “Let’s hurry and comprehend it, then go to the next hall and get more treasure. Ah, if only this entire palace belonged to me—that would be even better. There are still so many unopened boxes.”

Gu Siyuan narrowed his eyes. “Perhaps.”

“Ah? Gege, what did you say?” Xie Xueyi had not heard clearly and blinked as he asked again.

Gu Siyuan shook his head and looked at the patterns on the wall. “Start comprehending. The whip art in this stage belongs to the same set as the previous one.”

According to the legends of the Xianling Ancient City, there were a total of nine trial halls. Each one set a different challenge, and the rewards for passing were exceptionally generous.

But in truth, each test itself was also a reward. For instance, the spirit techniques on the walls—each wall was not a standalone thing, but rather one layer of an extremely complete top-tier spirit technique broken into stages. Every time one passed another wall, one learned the next layer.

After studying the wall for a while, Xie Xueyi also saw through the trick and smiled. “Mm, mm. Then I’ll keep practicing.”

Gu Siyuan nodded and resumed his earlier posture, elegant and upright, then began leisurely scanning the entire wall from beginning to end as if without focus.

Cultivation methods and spirit techniques naturally became harder and harder the farther one went.

Whether it was Yu Haofeng or Xie Xueyi, this time their time spent in comprehension lasted much longer than before.

“They passed…”

“Even faster.”

No one knew how much time had passed, but when the people in the second hall saw Gu Siyuan and Xie Xueyi’s figures disappear, they were shocked to the extreme.

Yu Haofeng’s face looked even uglier. In the first hall, Xie Xueyi’s speed of comprehension had clearly been a little slower than his own. But now he was faster—only because he had Gu Siyuan guiding him.

Only because he had Gu Siyuan…

That was exactly what everyone else in the hall was thinking as well. They had never before realized that in the world of cultivation, being beautiful could actually carry such a huge advantage.

…

“The fifth hall.”

Looking at the techniques on the wall, Xie Xueyi puffed out his cheeks unhappily.

His talent in cultivation was actually quite high. Before Gu Siyuan began instructing him, he had not been much worse than Yin Xiaojue and the others. Otherwise, he would never have ended up being captured by the demonic path in the first place.

But the spirit techniques in these halls were indeed extremely profound.

For the first wall, he had spent a bit over half a shichen. Then for the second wall, nearly two shichen. After that came half a day, then more than a day. This fifth wall would probably take up the entire three days.

If the later walls continued like this, his time would definitely not be enough. He would not be able to keep going together with Gu Siyuan.

Gu Siyuan gently rubbed his hand. “Don’t worry. The later challenges probably won’t continue to be comprehension of techniques.”

Xie Xueyi widened his eyes. “Really?”

Gu Siyuan nodded. “Mm. In the fourth hall just now, I only had time to comprehend around seven or eight kinds of spirit techniques myself—sword, palm, whip, and so on. If the difficulty continues increasing at the same rate, then by around the eighth hall, even I would definitely be stopped. In that case, the value of setting these tests would not exist.”

Xie Xueyi looked blank for a moment. “Why… would the value not exist?”

Gu Siyuan looked at him in puzzlement, as though the answer were perfectly obvious. “There are nine halls and nine layers of trials in total. But if even I cannot fully clear them, then who in the world could? And if no one can pass them, what’s the point of setting them up?”

“…” Xie Xueyi.

Alright.

That reason was just too damned powerful. Too damned reasonable.

Three days later, almost right on the time limit, the two of them passed the fifth hall.

And just as Gu Siyuan had said, the sixth hall was decorated differently from the earlier ones. There were still wooden boxes containing treasures, but there were no longer any spirit-technique murals on the wall, so naturally the challenge method had changed.

Xie Xueyi excitedly rushed over to claim the treasure first.

The previous stage’s difficulty had clearly been a dividing line, so the treasure here was bound to be even more worth anticipating.

Yet the instant he opened the wooden box, a faint fragrance spread through the room. Then his eyes flashed, and the entire scene around him abruptly changed.

Gu Siyuan also felt his vision blur.

The moon hung high. Wine and song filled the night.

The Xie Xueyi before him still had the same face, but at some point, a pair of adorable little lion ears had appeared atop his head, while a long thin tail swayed constantly behind him.

Then he came forward, lay across Gu Siyuan’s lap, and blinked at him cutely while acting spoiled and asking to be petted.

The corners of Gu Siyuan’s lips curved upward, and, quite honestly, he raised a hand to pet him. The touch felt even better than he had imagined.

Only after petting him to his heart’s content—

did sword intent swirl through his eyes in the very next moment, and clarity returned completely.

Gu Siyuan smiled, then turned to look at Xie Xueyi, who was still trapped in the illusion. On that pale handsome face, his expressions shifted richly—smiling one moment, blushing shyly the next. It was extremely entertaining.

Gu Siyuan watched in silent appreciation for a while before finally making a slicing motion with one hand.

In an instant, sharp sword qi flashed through the hall. Sword dao and sword intent were among the most upright and imposing of all paths, naturally suppressing all delusion, corruption, and emptiness in the world.

Xie Xueyi’s body shuddered, and he jolted awake from the illusion. His bright, slightly reddened eyes met Gu Siyuan’s half-smiling gaze, and he instinctively scolded, “How dare you act so rudely toward your master…”

Gu Siyuan narrowed his eyes. His voice turned low. “Master?”

That tone was far too dangerous.

Xie Xueyi had still been half-lost in confusion, but in that instant he was scared completely awake.

His dark eyes darted around several times, and looking at the familiar surroundings before him, he suddenly realized what was going on.

Damn it. So the test of this stage was human desire…

Everything just now had been an illusion.

Hmph. The image of Gu Siyuan clinging to his thigh, pitifully acting spoiled and begging for his touch and favor—of course that kind of scene could never possibly exist in reality.

Gu Siyuan reached out and caught his chin, and the two of them looked directly at each other.

Xie Xueyi felt guilty. “W-what?”

Gu Siyuan raised one brow and said slowly, “Master and pet, hm? That actually sounds like a pretty good idea. Next time we’ll play it that way.”

“…” Xie Xueyi was stunned. “You’re willing?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Gu Siyuan’s expression was completely坦然. His other hand gently stroked the top of Xie Xueyi’s head, and his voice turned low and magnetic. “Good boy. I’ll take very good care of you.”

Xie Xueyi: “…”

He just knew it.

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