After Breaking Off the Engagement, I Started Pursuing My Master - Chapter 238

Chapter 238: Poems

“Is this your first time at Ziyun’s main pavilion?”

“Yes,” Jiang Huai nodded in response to Luo Yueguan’s question.

Suddenly, she seemed to remember something, “Have you seen the Ziyun Stele?”

“The Ziyun Stele?”

Jiang Huai was taken aback, “What’s that?”

“It’s said to have been left by the master of Ziyun Pavilion. Many are half-lines of poetry. If you can complete them neatly and gain unanimous approval, you can have your name inscribed on it.”

“What’s the use of having your name inscribed?”

“There are gifts. Ziyun Pavilion will present some pills or women’s jewelry. Many cultivators who enjoy poetry like to ponder over the Ziyun Stele. The gifts they receive, if given to a woman, would make her the envy of many.”

“Do you want it?”

“Whether you can complete it is another matter.”

“I have a strange intuition…”

“What?”

“It probably won’t be too difficult.”

“I just love that shameless look on your face.” Luo Yueguan said, laughing softly, and then led Jiang Huai into Ziyun Pavilion’s mechanism lift.

In just a few breaths, they arrived at the top floor of Ziyun Pavilion.

The top floor was open-air, shrouded in clouds and mist, but the visibility was clear due to a special spiritual energy mechanism. As Jiang Huai and Luo Yueguan stepped out of the mechanism lift, he quickly spotted the huge Ziyun Stele in the distance, covered in half-lines of poetry—exactly one hundred. Next to the poetry were special rankings, with many people currently gathered beneath the stele, looking at the list.

Jiang Huai and Luo Yueguan approached the Ziyun Stele. The moment he saw the text on the stone, Jiang Huai smiled with relief.

He quietly gazed at the stele, while Luo Yueguan stood by, noticing that Jiang Huai wasn’t actually looking at the Ziyun Stele but at the sentences completed by others, which were recognized for having the best Artistic Conception and were listed at the forefront.

“Aren’t you capable? Why don’t you complete one?”

“I’m looking at what they’ve completed.”

Jiang Huai softly replied, admiring the sentences completed by countless people from the Eastern Region, marveling at the endless wisdom of humanity. Many sentences were cleverly and neatly completed, with flawless Artistic Conception, but…

He knew all one hundred half-lines on the Ziyun Stele. In his past life, he was terrible at science, scratching his head at the sight of various formulas, but these rhythmical texts were unforgettable at a glance.

Jiang Huai didn’t rush to answer, instead taking his time to seriously look at the half-lines of poetry completed by the people of this world, gradually becoming lost in thought. Luo Yueguan didn’t disturb him, simply looking around out of boredom. Women always pay extra attention to beautiful women, and Luo Yueguan’s gaze fell on a girl in a white palace dress in the distance.

She seemed to have seen the girl once before. Her features were inherited from her mother, gentle and delicate, smiling without smiling, making anyone who looked at her feel as if bathed in a spring breeze. Her figure was slender, not yet voluptuous like a woman’s, but had the delicate and upright stature of a young girl, like a budding willow.

The girl was also engrossed in the poetry on the Ziyun Stele, but when she felt Luo Yueguan’s gaze, she turned her head to look at Luo Yueguan. However, when her eyes moved again and saw Jiang Huai beside Luo Yueguan, she was first startled and then her pupils suddenly brightened, as if pleasantly surprised.

Luo Yueguan’s eyes became wary in an instant, but the girl had already approached, her silver earrings gently swaying. She came to Luo Yueguan’s side and respectfully greeted her, “I have seen the sect master Luo.”

“Are you… the girl from Guangxue Sect?”

“Yes, my mother, Pei Ning, often speaks of the Luo sect master.”

Xu Qing from Guangxue Sect spoke softly, then turned her gaze to Jiang Huai, who was lost in thought. Luo Yueguan quietly observed her expression, feeling that her look towards Jiang Huai was somewhat unusual.

Hearing the movement, Jiang Huai came back to his senses and looked at the porcelain-white-cheeked girl in front of him, slightly startled, “Xu Qing?”

“Jiang Huai.” Xu Qing smiled brightly, softly calling his name.

“Are you here too?” Jiang Huai was slightly surprised but subconsciously took a step back.

If he remembered correctly, the system had once hinted that Xu Qing might have a bit of affection for him, but after so long without seeing each other… her infatuation should have cooled down, and perhaps the affection should have been cut off?

Jiang Huai remembered telling her before that he only had two years to live and advised Xu Qing not to dwell on it.

Please don’t dwell on it, young girl.

“I came with the Sect master Luo to buy some things at Ziyun Pavilion. Hearing her mention the Ziyun Stele, I wanted to come and see it. What about you?”

“I’m here to attend an auction at Ziyun Pavilion tonight and took the opportunity to look at the Ziyun Stele. I’ve always liked these poems and verses.” Xu Qing replied softly, but her gaze avoided him strangely.

Luo Yueguan felt increasingly puzzled, sensing that Xu Qing’s eyes… were like those of a girl in the throes of spring.

“Oh, okay.” Jiang Huai nodded, his tone exceedingly polite and perfunctory.

Xu Qing glanced at Jiang Huai and then at Luo Yueguan, her mind inevitably beginning to harbor strange speculations. She clearly remembered that in Guangxue Sect, she had asked someone to collect news from the Eastern Region. Jiang Huai had clearly broken off his engagement with Luo Yueguan’s biological daughter, Luo Qingyu.

So why was he standing with Luo Yueguan now?

“How is your body feeling?” Xu Qing asked softly.

“Ah, I’ve received many life-extending elixirs, but my body is too weak to benefit from them. Even if I make medicinal pills, I won’t live much longer. Oh, right.”

It was only then that Jiang Huai remembered among the elixirs he had received, the most valuable was the thousand-year Orange Blood Flower sent by the Guangxue Sect.

He took out the Orange Blood Flower and said, “I have no use for it, so I’m giving it back to you.”

Xu Qing was initially startled, then she bit her lip and hurriedly shook her head, “No need, no need, it’s what I should do… Back in the secret realm, if it weren’t for you, we might all be dead by now. This is just a small token of appreciation, you should keep it.”

“Since my body can’t take nourishment, this thousand-year Orange Blood Flower is no different to me than one that’s a year or two old. It’s a waste for me to keep it, you take it back.” Jiang Huai spoke with a commanding tone, leaving no room for doubt, and forcefully stuffed the box containing the Orange Blood Flower back into Xu Qing’s arms.

When Xu Qing tried to give it back to him, Jiang Huai had already stepped away, “You take your time here, I’m off to write poetry.”

Xu Qing stood still with the box in her arms while Jiang Huai hurried away. She wasn’t a fool who couldn’t read the atmosphere, so for a moment she felt heavy-hearted and didn’t dare to follow him. Suddenly, she felt a sourness in her nose and her eyes began to redden slightly.

Luo Yueguan followed Jiang Huai with composure, lowering her voice. It was then that she remembered Jiang Huai must have met Xu Qing in the Daoji Ancestral Land. She teasingly said, “Guangxue Mountain holy maiden, why do I feel there’s something strange about the way she look at you?”

“Perhaps it’s gratitude towards a lifesaver, which is reasonable.”

“Why are you so indifferent then?”

“Guess how the others, Qingyu and Wanwan, would feel if I talked too much with another woman and couldn’t resist temptation, leading to some ambiguous relationship? Would they want to skin me alive?”

“You do have some self-awareness,” Luo Yueguan said, holding back a laugh, as she accompanied Jiang Huai to the base of the Ziyun Stele.

The stele had a special array inscribed on it that allowed one to inscribe poetry with spiritual energy, and the verses written could be seen by others.

But Jiang Huai had no spiritual energy, and he suddenly asked curiously, “Do you get a reward for writing a good poem?”

“Every month, Ziyun Pavilion prints all the inscribed verses in a booklet and invites many cultivators who also enjoy poetry to appreciate them together, then they vote to determine the quality of the poems. If a verse you wrote during that month is considered the best by everyone, Ziyun Pavilion will give you a gift. You can choose medicinal pills, even five hundred spirit stones, or some specially customized jewelry to give to a woman.”

“What do you want? I’ll get it for you.”

“It’s not certain yet whether you’ll be ranked first,” Luo Yueguan’s fingers tensed slightly.

When she heard Jiang Huai ask this, she didn’t know why, but suddenly her heartbeat quickened, and she felt her cheeks burning hot.

She bit the tip of her tongue to regain her composure.

“I don’t have spiritual energy, I’ll recite, and you help me inscribe it.”

“Okay.”

Jiang Huai looked at the hundred verses on the Ziyun Stele. Thankfully, he hadn’t copied any poems since he came to this world, except for the occasional one or two lines, and luckily none of them were among those hundred. Otherwise, if he confidently recited one and it was discovered the poem had existed for thousands of years, he would lose face completely.

Luo Yueguan softly recited the first half of a verse, “To enjoy a cup of wine in life before us?”

Jiang Huai replies immediately, “Why seek fame after a thousand years when we’re gone.”

“I’m drunk and wish to sleep, you may leave?”

“Come with a purpose and bring your zither tomorrow.”

“Don’t worry about not having friends ahead?”

“Who in the world does not know you.”

“To be happy in life, one must enjoy to the fullest?”

“Don’t let the golden cup face the moon in vain.”

“If life were only as it is at first sight?”

“Why would autumn winds lament a painted fan.”

“Is it easy for an old friend’s heart to change?”

“But they say the heart of an old friend is prone to change.”

“Mountains and rivers doubt there’s no path?”

“But willows dark and flowers bright, another village appears.”

…

Luo Yueguan used her spiritual energy to inscribe verse after verse on the Ziyun Stele. She turned her head in astonishment to look at Jiang Huai, who was innocently gazing into her eyes.

She began to recite the next line, but Jiang Huai could effortlessly continue with the second half of each verse as if he had thought it through in advance, without any hesitation. Luo Yueguan’s spiritual energy left marks in front of the Ziyun Stele, and at this moment, all the people on the rooftop of Ziyun Pavilion were focused on the inscriptions she left, gradually becoming mesmerized.

Luo Yueguan continued to recite, and Jiang Huai kept up with quick replies. The originally noisy and argumentative crowd, who were disputing which word in which verse was better, had now all quieted down. Everyone closed their mouths and pricked up their ears, listening to Luo Yueguan recite one line and Jiang Huai answer the next. The hundred verses were neither too fast nor too slow, and in the time it took for an incense stick to burn, Luo Yueguan had filled in all the missing parts of the previous poems.

The last verse.

“If heaven has emotions, heaven too will age?”

Jiang Huai had two answers for this line.

After pondering for a moment, he said softly, “If the moon holds no grudges, it remains full.”

Jiang Huai looked around and realized that everyone was watching him. He felt a bit guilty as he had simply recited from memory without any difficulty. It wouldn’t be easy for him to match his own lines.

“Getting a small piece of jewelry… shouldn’t be a problem, right?” Jiang Huai looked at Luo Yueguan in front of him and cautiously said.