Chương 122: Confrontation

I stood there in front of Wu Kangming and tried my hardest to find words to defuse everything since it was rapidly turning into a classic cultivation novel scenario.

"Brother Wu," I said, giving him a smile I hoped looked disarming, "I was looking for you. I have something I want to clarify with you before we have any misunderstandings." Wu Kangming narrowed his eyes at me while his hand rested on that plain looking sword sitting at his side.

"Are you here to talk about your relationship with my fiancée?"

"Ex-fiancée," Azure corrected in my head, though thankfully Wu Kangming couldn't hear him say that. I shook my head.

"What relationship are you talking about? That's what I wanted to clear up with you; I don't have any relationship with Senior Sister Wu Lihua at all. I barely know her." I spread my hands out so he could see I was harmless.

"We only had two conversations and both of them were mostly me trying to politely excuse myself so I could leave." Wu Kangming went still when I said that, and his eyes seemed to lose their focus for a second like he was listening to someone I couldn't hear. I had to bite my lip to stop myself from smiling. If my theory about him having some old Sword Saint's ghost acting as his mentor was right, then hopefully the ancient spirit was talking some sense into him now.

Heaven knows protagonist types need all the common sense they can possibly get. After waiting for what felt like an eternity, though it was probably a few seconds, his eyes refocused on me. He studied me carefully and I got this strong feeling that I was being evaluated by more than one set of eyes. He finally gave me a slow nod.

"I have been watching you both. You don't seem like you are lying." I let out a breath that I had forgotten I was holding in.

"Look, I have zero interest in getting involved in whatever is happening between you two. I'm trying to focus on cultivating so I can survive long enough to see the next festival season. So, we don't need to have any bad blood between us."

"I appreciate you being honest with me," Wu Kangming gave another slow nod.

"I would prefer avoiding bad blood as well..." A huge surge of relief washed over me. Did I actually manage to resolve a deadly misunderstanding by simply talking? That almost never worked in cultivation novels since it normally takes at least three life-or-death battles and some jade beauty dying tragically before anybody decided to listen to reason.

"However," he kept talking, which crushed all my hopes, "none of that changes the reality of our situation. We are going to fight, and I am going to win." I blinked at him a couple of times.

"I mean if we end up being matched up against each other in the tournament then yeah, we'll fight. That is kind of the whole point of doing tournaments. But if we don't, then there is no reason to—" He shook his head and cut me off.

"If we do not meet in the tournament, then we will fight after it."

"But... why though?" I asked him while I tried my hardest to process the lack of logic in what he said.

"If you already know I'm not interested in Wu Lihua at all, then what is the point of fighting me?"

"Because defeating you is the only possible way she is going to return to me." I fought back the urge to smash my head into the closest wall.

"That does not make any sense at all. If she is using me to make you jealous or whatever this whole thing is, wouldn't fighting me mean you are playing into her hands?"

"You do not understand," Wu Kangming interrupted me and for the first time I saw some real emotion crack through his mask.

"We grew up together, did you know about that? Our families arranged for us to get married when we were children, but it wasn't politics for us. We were friends first. We were best friends." His voice became softer and it took on a nostalgic tone that made him sound younger than he actually was.

"She wasn't always like this. She used to be kind, and honest too. She loved helping people and she spent hours working in her family's herb garden to test out different growing techniques. She wanted to become a medicine cultivator; can you believe that?" Yggy sent me this huge feeling of confusion through our soul bond. The thought of somebody choosing not to work with plants seemed to confuse my buddy.

"So, what changed then?" I asked him though I already had a pretty good feeling I knew what the answer was going to be. Wu Kangming's face grew dark.

"She started cultivating. Or I should say she started practicing this specific cultivation technique." If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"What kind of cultivation method is she using?" He shook his head at me.

"Nobody knows. One of the sect elders who became her master gave her a unique method, and it is something she isn't allowed to tell anyone about. After that..." he trailed off and his hand gripped tighter onto his sword hilt.

"She changed. She became obsessed with gaining power and status. The girl that I used to know disappeared and was replaced by somebody who only sees people as tools she can use to advance herself." An elder who belongs to the Azure Peak Sect gave a disciple a cultivation method that aligned more with the demonic dao?

"Did you ever consider that her cultivation method might be the real problem?" I suggested to him carefully.

"There are techniques out there that feed off of emotions, and they require the cultivator to manipulate how other people feel so they can progress their own cultivation. If she was given one of those..."

"It does not matter," he cut me off there.

"I don't care who she became now. I remember who she used to be. And who she could be again if..." If he could manage to defeat the person, or get enough power, or prove he was worthy enough to her. I could fill in the rest of that sentence myself since it was the kind of thinking that launched thousands of cultivation novel revenge plots.

"Love does make people act crazy," Azure observed.

"Although I suppose saying that is redundant when it comes to this world."

"And even if it wasn't about how I feel about her," Wu Kangming kept going, "I would challenge you anyway."

"Are you doing it for face?" I asked him, though I knew the answer already because it always came back to face. He gave a nod and I braced myself for what I knew was coming next, the tragic backstory monologue. I wasn't disappointed.

"When I first entered the sect, everybody deemed me as talentless. My engagement was broken off and my future was destroyed. Then Zhou..." his hand clenched around the hilt of his sword.

"He didn't just cripple my cultivation base. He took everything from me. My own clan turned their backs on me and called me an embarrassment to the bloodline. All the other disciples wouldn't look at me anymore. Do you know what it's like to become invisible? To have all these people who used to smile and call you young master suddenly start treating you like you don't exist?"

"Your clan sounds like a lovely bunch of people," I murmured before I could stop myself. Wu Kangming actually let out a laugh at that though it didn't sound like a happy sound at all.

"They are incredibly ambitious. Status means everything to them, so having a crippled cultivator for a son? They decided it was better to pretend I never existed." His eyes got this familiar gleam shining in them, it was the look of somebody who transformed all their pain into purpose.

"But I am going to make them remember me. I will make all of them remember. Every single person who ever turned their back on me and every fake friend who suddenly couldn't see me anymore... they are all going to regret it." Well, that didn't sound ominous at all… Yggy sent me an impression through our bond that translated roughly into 'the sad sword man needs a hug... or maybe a swift beating.' It was honestly hard to tell what it meant sometimes with vine emotions. I held back a sigh.

I tried my best to avoid any conflict here, but if he was determined to fight me and wouldn't listen to any reason at all then I didn't have much of a choice.

"Alright," I finally told him.

"If that is how it has to be then I'll honor your wishes. We'll fight." I threw my hand up quickly.

"Although I hope we can both agree that there is no need for this to turn into a death match? Because whatever happened between you and Zhou—" Wu Kangming's smile turned surprisingly gentle.

"Thank you for understanding this. And no, I only ended up killing him because he was scum who took too much pleasure in crippling people who were weaker than him. Somebody had to put a stop to him. You are different."

"Well, I guess that's... reassuring?"

"I am going to be leaving the sect for a little while," he kept going on while his smile took on this sharp edge that made me incredibly glad that I wasn't sitting on his revenge list.

"When I finally return... let's say that your chances of achieving victory will be non-existent." After making that declaration, he let his aura flare out fully, which revealed the unmistakable heavy pressure of the Seventh Stage of Qi Condensation. Then he was gone in a movement that was too quick for most normal eyes to follow, which left me standing there with a lot to think about.

"Well, that was dramatic."

"It indeed was," Azure agreed.

"But if he is already sitting at the Seventh Stage now, then by the time he returns..."

"He is going to be at least at the Eighth Stage or higher," I finished up the thought for him.

"Especially if he is going off on one of those classic protagonist training journeys. Because those things never end with a single little realm increase." Yggy sent me this image of itself growing much stronger by absorbing a bunch of sunlight, and it came along with a feeling that was suggesting we should go do some serious training of our own. My buddy wasn't wrong about that. I started walking back toward my own quarters.

The tournament was still weeks away from happening, but seeing Wu Kangming's current power trajectory... I was going to need every single advantage I could possibly get my hands on. Having the Two Suns world was going to help out a lot with the time differential, but I was going to need more than that to win.

"Well at least we managed to clear up that massive misunderstanding about Wu Lihua," I murmured.

"That counts as something good?"

"Master, I believe we replaced one problematic situation with a different one. Because instead of fighting him over a jade beauty, you are now fighting him over his intense need to prove himself to that same jade beauty. I am not sure if this counts as an improvement."

"Hey look, at least doing it this way means I don't have to sit around worrying about him thinking I am actively trying to steal his love interest away. That would have ended up being messier for us. Situations like that almost always end up with somebody getting killed... brutally."

"You do have a very good point there." When I finally reached my quarters, I couldn't stop myself from wondering what Wu Lihua was going to do when she found out about the little conversation we had. Something told me she wouldn't be happy about Wu Kangming and I reaching any kind of understanding, even one that still ended in a fight.