Chapter 3 Adventures on Mt. Huang Part 3-1
The night grew cold, Yuesong leaned against the tree, without any urge to sleep. He kept looking toward the small room, worried about Ye.
Before long, it was late in the night and Yuesong finally grew tired. A slight yelp came from inside, followed by sounds of Ye’s rapid breathing. Yuesong panicked and got up to check, before he went inside, he hesitated, finally he just asked outside the door, “what’s wrong? Did you have a nightmare?”
Ye’s stubborn voice came, “no!” later, “you aren’t cold out there?”
Yuesong’s heart warmed, “mystics are used to suffering, this is nothing to me.”
Ye was silent for a while, “you can sleep inside. The bed is small, but we can share.”
Yuesong took a deep breath, he was touched and almosted wanted to say yes, but he changed his mind, “you’re scared to sleep alone?”
Ye huffed, ”no, I’m a man, I’m not afraid of anything. It’s better you don’t come inside, I’ll sleep better on my own!”
Yuesong smiled a little as he walked back to the tree, mumbling to himself, “Little Mei, thank you!”
He didn’t sleep at all. The next morning, before dawn, he made Ye a big breakfast, but Ye ignored all the food, only asking, “are you teaching me anything today?”
Yuesong was silent for a while, “have you learned anything with your parents?” Ye said proudly, “I’ve studied with them since I was five.” Yuesong nodded, “that’s great. Watch carefully, I’m only teaching you once. It’s up to you to focus and learn.” He picked up a metal rod as thick as an arm and talked about breathing. Ye’s eyes glittered as he watched and nodded.
When Yuesong finished his lecture, he slashed his right hand at the rod, “This is my invention, ‘The White Moon Knife,’ if you practiced the way I just talked about, you can do it too one day,” he then handed the rod over to Ye.
Ye held the rod, looking it over, but didn’t see anything extraordinary, and that’s when the rod broke in half, scaring him. When he noticed how neat the break was, he was shocked, musing to himself, just one swipe with the hand could do this? So even if the enemy had weapons, they’d be destroyed. He tossed the rod aside and began to practice in earnest.
Yuesong sat by the tree and quietly watched Ye practice without comment. When Ye was puzzled by something and couldn’t find a solution, he didn’t ask Yuesong, he just tried to solve it himself. When he did figure something out, he’d be overjoyed, or frowned as he got stuck.
After days of practice, Yuesong still sat by and watched Ye do things on his own. When Hengwu came to visit, she asked, “you’re just letting him practice on his own?”
Yuesong remarked, “this kid is just like me and Little Mei when we were young. He’s stubborn and wants to do everything on his own, he won’t like lectures. The more tips you give him, the harder it is for him to improve. It’s better for him to learn on his own.”
Hengwu was surprised, but seeing Ye’s improvement, she had to agree with the method.
After a month of hard work, Ye became stronger and stronger. One swipe of his hand could even make energy swirl around him. One day, he found a wooden stick about an arm’s width and tried to slash it in half, which he did. He was so elated he ran to Yuesong, “I’m done with this, teach me something else!”
Yuesong shook his head, “you have a long way to do. Keep practicing!”
Ye stared at Yuesong and Yuesong stared back. The two were at an impasse, and neither one was willing to give in. This was when Zhaoshan came in the door, “what are you two teacher and student doing?”
Ye was sick of the staring contest, so he turned to say, “who’s his student?”
Zhaoshan waved his hand, “fine, it’s my mistake. I apologize. What are you doing though? Practicing staring?”
Ye stiffened his neck and stayed silent.
Yuesong felt pressured all of a sudden, “you don’t have to practice if you don’t want to. This is how I teach people. You don’t have to learn.” He then left the yard. Zhaoshan called after him but got no reply, so he shook his head, “You two are both stubborn, no wonder you would fight!”
Zhaoshan patted Ye’s shoulders, “why won’t you practice? You’re only making him mad.”
Ye shrugged, “it’s none of your business.”
Zhaoshan replied, “fine, I have no right to tell you what to do. No one would be happy staying in this deserted yard. C’mon, let me show you around.”
Ye huffed, “I’m not going!” Zhaoshan grabbed his hand, ”let’s go. There’s plenty of sights in the Blue Cloud clan, it’d be a pity if you didn’t see them all.”
Ye yelled again, ”who wants to be part of your clan? It’s not that amazing.” Zhaoshan didn’t disagree, just dragging him out the door.
Ye was a 10-year-old kid after all, at first, he pretended to be bored, but the spectacular sights in the Blue Cloud Clan soon impressed him with their stunning waterfalls, elaborate rocks, and exotic plants and flowers, etc. Ye felt as if he didn’t have enough eyes. Before long, he wanted to explore. As he followed Zhaoshan, his curiosity was piqued. When Zhaoshan talked about all the scenery, Ye felt enchanted.
As the two walked near a cave, Ye wanted to know why the cave had a five-colored glow. He asked, “what’s this place?” Zhaoshan took a look and tried to get him to leave, “nothing much to see here, let’s go!” Ye struggled and stayed in place, “I want to see this!”
Zhaoshan laughed, “see this? You’d be so scared! C’mon, let’s get out of here.” He made another grab for Ye.
Ye ducked, “you’re the one who’s scared! What’s the big deal? It’s just a cave!” I want to see what’s inside!”
Zhaoshan was worried, “listen, I know you’re not afraid, but this is really not a good place to see!”
Ye rolled his eyes, “fine, take me somewhere else then.” He pointed to another spot, when Zhaoshan looked over, however, Ye has gone inside the cave. Zhaoshan yelled and followed him.
The cave wasn’t big, so Ye moved freely while Zhaoshan had trouble catching up. Ye kept going forward; when he saw all sorts of colored lights coming out, he was very curious and wanted to find the source.
When he ran quite a distance inside the cave, he saw a clearing. Inside the dozen or so meter wide space were numerous gravestones, and the colored lights actually came from the graveyard. Ye had thought the lights pretty, by now, however, the glow was more eerie, and he shivered.
Suddenly, a cold wind came, and many grotesque ghosts crawled out of the gravestones, who howled as they flew inside the cave. Ye was terrified at the sight, his face paled. Before he could run, however, his legs gave out and he couldn’t move at all.
The ghosts shrieked some more before they all turned toward Ye with their blood red or dark green-colored eyes; they howled as they all charged toward him, making him fall on the ground.
Just as the ghosts got close to him, six strands of purple energy came from Ye’s back, and turned into giant purple claws who snapped at the ghosts. As soon as the ghosts were hit with the claws, they disappeared into balls of phosphorus gas. In moments, a whole cave of ghosts had all been destroyed and the six claws also retracted inside Ye.
It took Ye a while to come back to himself, and he had no idea the claws came from within himself. He looked back in a rush and only saw Zhaoshan, who had caught up to him, so he assumed the man helped him.
As Zhaoshan ran toward Ye, he saw the young man was very shaken, so he picked him up. “Are you alright? Are you freaked out?” Ye wanted to act tough but his teeth chattered too much. Zhaoshan didn’t make fun of him, and carried him out of the cave.
Once they were out of the cave, Ye took a deep breath and got out of Zhaoshan’s arms. “I don’t want to play anymore, I want to go back!” Zhaoshan nodded and was about to leave when he saw the lights inside the cave had dimmed and then completely went out. He panicked, “oh no, what did you do? You’ve made a mess now!”
Ye was already terrified, after hearing the comment, he was more nervous than ever. Ignoring Zhaoshan, he turned and fled, while yelling, “I don’t know, I want to go back!”