Power's been out since this morning... Please vote!
***** Before long, a crowd of bleary-eyed Lingxiao Pavilion disciples had gathered in Su Mu's room.
"Young Su, what's going on?" one of them asked, rubbing his eyes.
"Nothing much. Same old thing from this morning." Su Mu struggled to calm down. "I just wanted to get you all together so you could help me come up with a plan. I need to figure out how to get my revenge and settle this score."
Another one spoke up: "Young Su, why not just wait four more days? Once the four days are up, I'll challenge that Yang Kai and beat him into a pig's head, guaranteed."
Su Mu scowled. "If I could wait until then, do you think I'd bother dragging you all out here?"
The group had been yanked from a perfectly good sleep, and they clearly had no energy. Nobody paid much attention to what Su Mu was saying — just a chorus of yawns. Seeing their reaction, Su Mu grew even angrier. He slammed his hand on the table and barked, "All of you, think hard! If nobody comes up with a decent plan today, nobody's going back to sleep!"
Everyone startled. Only then did they realize Su Mu was genuinely furious. Sleepiness vanished in an instant as they scrambled to rack their brains and come up with strategies.
Before long, a Lingxiao Pavilion disciple named Li Yuntian's eyes lit up with an idea. He turned to Su Mu and said, "Young Su, we could do this..."
He leaned in and whispered his plan in Su Mu's ear, explaining step by step how this and that would lead to such and such a result.
Su Mu was overjoyed, clapping Li Yuntian on the shoulder repeatedly. "Not bad, not bad — that's a great idea! Leave this to you!"
"Young Su, don't worry!" Li Yuntian beamed with delight.
"Go back to sleep, all of you," Su Mu said, waving his hand dismissively. The group felt relieved and quickly dispersed.
Staring into the pitch-black night outside, Su Mu let out a sinister laugh. "Yang Kai, Brother Yang — we'll see what happens at dawn."
Moments later, Su Mu drifted off to sleep, fully satisfied.
The next morning, Yang Kai got up, ran through the Tempering Body Chapter once, then headed out to sweep.
He had spent the whole previous day training with the incense burner. Although it had nearly killed him — his back and waist still ached to this day — the results were remarkable. The most obvious improvement was that when he practiced the combat techniques from the Tempering Body Chapter, he could clearly feel the pressure from heaven and earth had lessened. This made perfect sense. The incense burner's strange fragrance had subjected him to tremendous pressure, and training with the Tempering Body Chapter brought its own massive pressure. Once he adapted to one, naturally he could adapt to the other.
The incense burner was a real treasure! Yang Kai felt his spirits lift, eager to finish his work and get back to training.
But he had only swept about half the path when someone suddenly blocked his way. Yang Kai looked up and thought the face looked vaguely familiar. The man stood there smiling pleasantly at him.
Li Yuntian had given Su Mu his plan the night before and earned today's assignment. Though he already had his strategy worked out, he didn't dare let his guard down. Dealing with Yang Kai — he was confident that was in the bag. The main objective now was to get the other party to fall for it and agree to fight him.
Fortunately, when he had gone with Su Mu to cause trouble yesterday, he had stayed at the back of the crowd and kept his mouth shut. Yang Kai probably hadn't noticed him, which made things much easier.
Li Yuntian had arrived early and positioned himself along the path where Yang Kai swept. After a short wait, sure enough, Yang Kai appeared in the distance. Li Yuntian put on his brightest smile, adopted the most harmless expression he could manage, and walked over.
This face should look friendly enough! Li Yuntian encouraged himself.
"Can I help you, Junior Brother?" Yang Kai didn't bother with pleasantries. After all, every disciple currently in the Body Tempering Realm was technically his junior brother. His cultivation might be low, but having entered the sect earlier definitely had its perks — he could call anyone in the Body Tempering Realm "junior."
"Are you Brother Yang Kai?" Li Yuntian asked, even though he already knew the answer.
Yang Kai nodded. "I am."