Don't Cause Trouble Chapter 77: Cultivator-Style Rocket Launcher

Ever since the junior brother got his wooden fish, he had been knocking on it more and more frequently. He completely changed from his previous laziness and was even more diligent than when cultivating.

Over a month passed, and everyone gradually got used to the sound of the wooden fish echoing at night.

The west-facing window of the room was open. Moonlight shone in through the edge of the window frame, spilling into the room. A breeze stirred the curtains, and a faint, almost undetectable fragrance slowly spread inside.

The half-drawn curtain blocked the view of the person lying on their side on the bed. Only a pair of long legs beneath a thin, black robe could be seen. Further up, You Fushi's eyes were half-closed, a thin layer of sweat covered his forehead, and his fingertips unconsciously curled into the edge of the pillow, slightly pale.

"What is this?"

You Fushi heard his own voice. It sounded a bit raw and clumsy, like someone who rarely spoke.

He looked over in that direction, seeing only two blurry figures. But instinctively, he knew the person facing him was… himself.

"Wooden fish."

The person facing away from You Fushi pushed the wooden fish toward the other version of him, then pulled out a book.

"And a Heart-Cleansing Mantra. I flipped through it, there are more than thirty versions. Knock while reciting. It should help a little."

"I won’t knock, and I won’t recite."

The other You Fushi rejected the idea and swept both the book and the wooden fish to the floor.

The wooden fish hit the ground with a deep, steady sound. Just from the tone, it was obvious it wasn’t an ordinary item.

The other person quietly picked up the wooden fish and the mantra book again and said with a hint of helplessness,

"You’ve just transformed into human form. The mating phase is hard to endure. If you had a partner, you wouldn’t need any of this."

Perhaps to make it easier for him to understand, the speaker slowed down their pace significantly.

"For now, just try it. I’ve already placed an order with the Pill Sect for a Yao-Calming Pill. Once you take it, it’ll suppress your mating period."

You Fushi watched the man open the book and slowly teach him how to recite the Heart-Cleansing Mantra, line by line, while knocking on the wooden fish.

He began subconsciously repeating the words, and the surging heat within him did seem to be slowly settling down.

……

You Fushi suddenly opened his eyes on the bed, staring at the pattern on the curtain for a long time. He propped himself up with one hand, reached to the bedside, found the wooden fish, and began slowly knocking on it, silently reciting the Heart-Cleansing Mantra he had been taught in his dream.

In the next room, his senior sister was still staying up late practicing talisman crafting: "…"

The junior brother was at it again, knocking every night to the point she felt she was becoming a monk herself.

There were only a few days left before the preliminary rounds of the sect competition. Ye Su wanted to study as many offensive talismans as possible. After she finished drawing the talismans that had merged into a wall inside the Dark Realm, a golden talisman did flash briefly. However, up to this point, she still couldn’t manage to draw it completely.

So Ye Su began studying formation arrays at the same time, trying to use the talismans she already knew to construct an array. She had even read the formation manual written by Tu Shi.

Ye Su paused and listened for a moment to the sound of the wooden fish from the next room. In the end, she could only shake her head helplessly and continue burying herself in her study of arrays.

……

On March 1st, the preliminary rounds of the sect competition officially began, and countless cultivators made their way to the arena site set up in Tushou City.

"Senior sister is still in the early stage of the Golden Core Realm," Xia Er let out a deep sigh. "It’s been months already."

Hearing this, Ma Congqiu, who was passing by, rolled his eyes. "...It’s completely normal for cultivators to go years without advancing."

"But Third Senior Sister and I are already in the mid-stage Golden Core Realm," Xia Er said, punching his own palm, suddenly enlightened. "I get it! Senior Sister is going to jump several stages all at once! Just like Lian Lian from the Wuxing Sect!"

Ma Congqiu waved his hand, indicating he was leaving: "You two take your time with that idea."

There’s no point trying to reason with someone singing Ye Su’s praises, it’s just asking to fall into a trap with them.

During this period, the only ones who advanced were Xia Er and Xiyu. Maybe it was because they were surrounded by sword cultivators, Xia Er had two moments of insight while forging swords, which allowed him to directly break through to mid-stage Golden Core. He hadn’t even handed the sword he made to Huang Erqian yet when it was bought by a fellow disciple of the Sword Sect.

As for Xiyu, she broke through during meditation.

"Senior Sister is just up ahead," Xiyu motioned for Ming Liu Sha and Xia Er to move forward. "The preliminaries are about to start."

As they squeezed their way through, Xu Chengyu was distributing jade slips.

"Engrave your name and sect onto this jade slip," he explained to Ye Su and the other disciples behind her. "It’ll track your points during the competition. The arena is open all day, and you can choose any platform to challenge. Lose once and you lose a point, win once and you gain a point."

"As long as you maintain the initial score, you can keep competing. Also, the preliminaries will last for two months. During the final month, there will be mixed matches if you want to participate, keep in mind the scoring rules are different."

Ye Su used a bit of spiritual energy to inscribe "Qianji Sect" onto her jade slip, then wrote her own name. When she activated the slip, she saw it displayed one point.

"The rankings update daily, but only the top thousand are shown," Xu Chengyu said, pointing to a stone monument several meters tall at the front of the arena. "If your name is still on the monument during the final update, you’ll receive a pass."

Standing beside Ye Su was Lu Jiu. As she listened absentmindedly to Xu Chengyu’s explanation, her peripheral vision caught the large "Qianji Sect" on Ye Su’s robe and without thinking, she wrote down "Qianji Sect" on her own jade slip.

By the time she realized what had happened, it was already too late the jade slip had linked her name with the Qianji Sect.

"…What…" Lu Jiu froze.

Ye Su seemed to sense something and glanced over, catching sight of the jade slip in her hand. She chuckled and said, "If you don’t mind, you can join our Qianji Sect."

"I…" Lu Jiu looked a little embarrassed. "Can I?"

She was just a rogue cultivator with no sect.

"The sect master might not officially take you as a disciple, and probably won’t be able to teach you," Ye Su said with a smile. "But when the Qianji Sect returns to prominence, maybe you’ll get to open your own peak and take in students. Then our sect will finally have a sword cultivator as a master."

Just imagining that scene made Lu Jiu’s heart race, and her eyes grew misty with emotion. She nodded vigorously. "Okay!"

Having successfully "sold a dream," Senior Sister Ye then went to check on her junior brother. He also had a jade slip in hand, which he had somehow wrestled away from Xu Chengyu.

"You’re joining the competition too?" Ye Su glanced at the faint redness around the corners of You Fushi’s eyes and warned, "It’s a two-month-long competition. It’ll be exhausting."

Lately, her junior brother had been knocking his wooden fish through the night. His energy seemed off. He didn’t sleep in anymore, and there was a strange sharpness to his otherwise delicate demeanor.

You Fushi raised the Chongming Sword that was dragging along the ground. "Let it be exhausted."

Ye Su: "…"

Beneath the stone monument stood a massive bronze bell. When the first chime rang out, everyone knew the preliminaries had officially begun.

Many cultivators rushed to the arena stages, hoping to get a head start and earn some quick points. But those who jumped in early were also the most likely to be eliminated quickly.

At this point, everyone only had one chance.

The smarter cultivators would watch a few rounds to assess the situation before acting. Of course, those with real power didn’t need to worry about that.

Ye Su walked around for a while, then casually picked a platform. The opponent who stepped up across from her happened to be another talisman cultivator, he looked young and wasted no time pulling out two talisman sprayers, wildly firing talismans at her.

Down below, Ming Liu Sha and the others watching the match all fell into silence.

"He’s actually using talisman sprayers against Senior Sister," Xia Er sighed. "If you’re looking for the definition of showing off in front of a master, this is it."

The young talisman cultivator looked smug as he saw his talismans fly out. He had paid a hefty price for those two sprayers and was confident they’d help him land in the top thousand!

Ye Su moved lightly, dodging the barrage. She took out a brush and a stack of yellow talisman paper and began drawing on the spot.

"You’re a talisman cultivator too?" the young man shouted, furious. Who draws talismans on the arena stage? What is this, a Nascent Soul-level competition? And this was a solo match!

His anger only made his sprayers rattle even harder.

Ye Su gracefully dodged his flying talismans, as if she could predict their exact paths in advance. After quickly drawing a stack of talismans, she suddenly stopped and turned to face him directly.

The young man thought she had finally run out of energy. Delighted, he raised both talisman sprayers and blasted them at her.

Pop, pop…

All he heard was a rapid series of explosions. His talismans burst apart mid-air, scattering into yellow paper flakes that quickly burned into ash.

The young talisman cultivator stared in shock at Ye Su. She had talisman sprayers too and was using them better than he was!

Ye Su had loaded hers with explosive talismans that could obliterate spells from cultivators of the same level, especially since he hadn’t even reached the Golden Core stage.

"You might want to start dodging now," Ye Su said calmly.

But the young man was still too stunned by the fact that she had sprayers too. He didn’t hear a word she said.

Ye Su shook her head, then pulled a cultivation-style rocket launcher out of her qiankun bag, rested it on her shoulder, inserted a talisman into it, and aimed it directly at the guy.

BOOM!

The young talisman cultivator was blasted off the stage, landing embedded in the base of another arena. He blinked dazedly and asked with great difficulty, "Wh-What was that? Where… did you… buy it…?"

Ye Su lowered the launcher and turned to the crowd of dumbstruck cultivators. "Talisman cannon. Fifty thousand mid-grade spirit stones. Anyone interested?"

No one answered. Everyone was still too stunned to react.

The young man, still wedged into the platform base, ignored his internal injuries and struggled to raise one hand. "Me! I want one!"