Chapter Ten: Procrastination

Su Xiaoxiao exchanged glances and smiles with the four men standing around her, then looked at Chen Hongxu and said, "Originally, I intended to send you up there to tangle with that old ghost and buy us some time. I didn’t expect you to have been suspicious of me all along. Still, I should thank you for giving me plenty of time to explain myself. Otherwise, I might have run into trouble before my team arrived."

Chen Hongxu smiled, ignoring the men he’d seen earlier at the dock. With his back to everyone, he raised his hand toward the exquisitely carved window ledge. With a crisp snap, a membrane-like barrier appeared out of thin air just as his palm touched the seemingly empty space.

Su Xiaoxiao, feeling victory within her grasp, let out a laugh and didn’t rush to act. She watched Chen Hongxu and said, "This pavilion has a barrier, you fool."

Chen Hongxu remained calm, unfazed by her mockery. He turned to Su Xiaoxiao and her companions and said, "Delaying isn’t only for your benefit. I need time as well."

No sooner had he spoken than, beside the Zhenzhen sculpture in the center of the hall, a woman in a red robe suddenly flickered into view. She stood with one hand on her hip and a toothpick in her mouth, eyes darting cunningly as her free hand deftly pried off the Zhenzhen’s vertical eye—the very thing Su Xiaoxiao had come for. Then, before anyone could stop her, she vanished.

Su Xiaoxiao and her group glared furiously, but as they were standing at the stairway entrance, they’d have to get past Sheng to intervene. Judging by Sheng’s demeanor, he was not someone they could easily dispatch, so aside from shouting threats, there was little they could do to stop the Spirit Soldier’s thieving.

But what truly piqued Chen Hongxu’s curiosity was Sheng’s reaction. As the guardian of the pavilion, Sheng should have intervened when someone tried to steal something—but not only did he not stop the theft, he actually seemed to shrink back, retreating a step in fear. Only Chen Hongxu noticed this detail, as the others were focused on the Spirit Soldier.

"Well, well, well!" Su Xiaoxiao, seething with anger, pointed at Chen Hongxu. "So young, yet already playing mind games. But don’t get too cocky. There’s no way up or down from here. Sooner or later, you and your companions will die at my hands."

With that, she turned her gaze to Sheng and said coolly, "Old ghost, the item you’re guarding has been stolen. Let me retrieve it for you. Don’t get in my way, and we’ll settle our business afterward."

Sheng let out a sinister chuckle, casting a meaningful glance at Chen Hongxu before shaking his head. "That vertical eye is indeed the object I’m tasked with guarding. But what you may not realize is that it’s also the thing suppressing me. I can’t quite describe my feelings right now, but I just discovered something more interesting than duty. So, it doesn’t matter if you five are outsiders or monks from the monastery—if you want to kill this kid, you’ll have to get through me first."

With those words, Sheng’s body became ethereal and drifted toward Su Xiaoxiao and her men. Without looking back, he called out to Chen Hongxu, "Kid, after all this stalling, I trust you’ve found the weak point in the barrier. Go now—I’ll find you later."

Chen Hongxu, who had been edging toward the corner, narrowed his eyes. There was no time to ponder Sheng’s words. Taking a deep breath, he silently channeled the Art of War, crimson light flickering across his body.

He paid no mind to the changes in himself. When the faint glow reached his palms, he clenched his fist and struck at the empty air.

With a sound like a bursting bubble, the air around the pavilion rippled like water, and the epicenter of those ripples was where Chen Hongxu’s fist had landed.

The reason he’d played along with Su Xiaoxiao’s stalling was to wait for the Spirit Soldier, with her wealth of experience, to find the barrier’s weak spot. As for taking the Zhenzhen’s vertical eye—he hadn’t done it out of greed, but simply to give Su Xiaoxiao a taste of her own medicine after being toyed with by her for so long.

Unlike Sheng, who found it all quite natural, Su Xiaoxiao was so startled that she stumbled back several steps to evade Sheng’s attack, swallowing hard as she stared in disbelief at Chen Hongxu’s retreating figure. "Impossible! Your strength is on par with Gu Jisong. How could you break the barrier?"

Chen Hongxu exhaled slowly. "You’ve always looked down on me, never really tried to understand who I am. Thank you for your kindness these past days. Farewell."

With that, he turned and left without another word. Pushing off the wooden floor, he leapt straight for the center of the spreading ripples.

This time, there was no sound as he breached the barrier—just a sensation, as if passing through water, a dense resistance that enveloped him as he slipped through the undulating air.

But Chen Hongxu had no time to contemplate the nature of barriers. After all, he was a novice, unable to even name most martial techniques, let alone fathom something as complex as a barrier. More pressing was the strange sensation that, after passing through, he felt as if he were soaring through clouds—yet his line of sight seemed to be dropping lower and lower.

"Ah—!" Realizing he was suspended in midair, Chen Hongxu let out a cry, proving he too could feel fear. He flailed desperately, legs kicking the void, arms thrashing in panic, until—

"This fall won’t kill you, but you could easily end up crippled for weeks. Do as I say: focus your energy in your knees, adjust your posture, and as you hit the ground, roll forward with bent knees. That’ll keep the damage to a minimum. Wherever your body hits the ground, channel your energy there. The rest is up to your luck," the Spirit Soldier instructed calmly.

In this dire moment, Chen Hongxu didn’t dare hesitate and followed her instructions to the letter.

With a thunderous crash, he landed awkwardly, rolling to a stop and sprawling on the ground. He cursed under his breath, "What a rush—this beats any bungee jump. Next time, I’m not doing this again."

After a brief rest, Chen Hongxu glanced at the two large pits his knees had gouged in the earth and shook his head with a wry smile. He knew this was no time to relax—he had to leave immediately. If the monks from the Du Kou Family headquarters returned, it wouldn’t matter if he could jump or even fly; they’d take him down nonetheless.

He pulled a pink women’s phone out of his pocket. Satisfied it had survived the landing thanks to his careful maneuvering, Chen Hongxu looked at the background photo: his head bowed, flanked by two women—one clearly Xue Xi, the other presumably the Spirit Soldier, with only half an arm visible.

He dialed Xue Xi’s number, then, not daring to linger, put away the phone and retraced his steps.