Chapter 14 — The Talisman Painter Who Guards the Village

Cold Wind Training Ground

That morning, the wind on Vân Tiêu Peak blew unusually strong, carrying cold air, making the entire outdoor practice field shiver, even though it was late spring. Diệp Sương's class of outer sect disciples was transferred to practice outdoors for the first time - no longer drawing on a fixed stone table, but having to draw in wind-moving conditions, a small test of the ability to maintain brush strokes against external influences.

"The wind will make your pen strokes tremble, causing the ink to dry unevenly," Nhiêu Bá Tường explained, standing in the middle of the yard, his robe flapping in the wind. "But in reality, you won't always be able to cast spells in ideal conditions. Rain, wind, smoke, fire, panic all around — that's the real environment you'll have to face."

Diệp Sương tightened her grip on the pen, tried to keep her breathing steady as she had practiced during the meditation session, and began drawing a talisman according to the assignment's requirements. The strong gust of wind made her hand tremble slightly and the drawing deviate from the plan, but she persevered to complete it, even though she knew the result would not be perfect.

While concentrating hard, Diệp Sương heard a loud noise from the corner of the yard—laughter and the sound of something breaking. She raised her head and saw Wei Bá Tuân and several other disciples standing around a small, seemingly shy boy who was bending to pick up the broken pieces of a dropped inkstone.

"I was just passing by, who told you to leave the inkstone in the middle of the aisle?" Wei Bá Tuân smiled faintly, obviously intentionally, his voice full of contempt. "You're so clumsy and still want to learn how to draw spells."

The small boy bowed his head, not daring to argue. His trembling hands picked up each broken piece. Some sharp pieces cut his fingers, causing blood to leak out, but he still did not dare to complain.

*

Diệp Sương intended to step forward to intervene, but before she could do anything, another figure was faster than her. The young man with the upright posture that she had seen briefly twice before stepped forward without a word, bent down to help the boy pick up the remaining fragments, then stood up straight and looked into Wei Bá Tuân's eyes.

"Apologize to him," he said, his voice low, not loud but with a weight that silenced the surrounding crowd.

"Cố Thanh Việt," Wei Bá Tuân frowned, his voice was less overbearing but still tried to maintain a defiant look, "this has nothing to do with you."

"You deliberately bumped into his inkstone, I stood here and saw it clearly," Cố Thanh Việt replied, his cold eyes unflinching. "If you don't apologize, I will report it to the instructor in charge of discipline."

Wei Bá Tuân glared at Cố Thanh Việt for a moment, weighing the pros and cons, then finally reluctantly mumbled a quick apology to the boy, before pulling his friends away, not forgetting to glance angrily at Cố Thanh Việt.

Diệp Sương stood at a distance, observing the whole incident, her heart filled with admiration mixed with curiosity. She stepped closer, intending to say thank you on behalf of the still-trembling boy, but Cố Thanh Việt had already turned around and was about to leave.

"Thank you," it blurted out, making him stop and turn his head to look at it.

His eyes glanced at Diệp Sương, without any special curiosity, just a brief look of assessment. "There's no need to thank me. I just did what was supposed to be done."

"But not everyone is willing to stand up and do what should be done," Diệp Sương said, somewhat surprised by her own boldness.

Cố Thanh Việt stopped for a moment, his eyes flashed something unpredictable, then he replied, his voice still cold but no longer completely indifferent like before. "You are Chu Diệp Sương, right? People from Tùng Lĩnh Village."

"You know my name?" it's surprising.

"The whole sect knows," he replied, without explaining further, then turned and walked away, walking straight and decisively, leaving Diệp Sương standing there with a mixed bag of emotions that was hard to name.

*

"Did you just talk to Cố Thanh Việt?" Âu Bội Nhi asked repeatedly when Diệp Sương told this story at lunch, her eyes wide with surprise.

"Yeah, what's wrong?" Diệp Sương was surprised at your overreaction.

"You don't know?" Âu Bội Nhi lowered her voice, leaned close to your ear and whispered. "He is the son of Great General Cố Bạt Nguyên, guarding the capital Lệ Dương! Coming from a prestigious military background, he was sent here to practice spiritual talismans to supplement the family's military career. It is said that he has a cold personality and rarely interacts with anyone. Even disciples from the same noble background find it difficult to get close to him."

Diệp Sương was silent, remembering Cố Thanh Việt's cold but not emotionless eyes when she stood up to defend the bullied boy. "He doesn't seem as unapproachable as rumored, at least today."

"Maybe you're the exception," Âu Bội Nhi narrowed her eyes teasingly, making Diệp Sương blush and wave her hand to deny.

"Don't say nonsense," he glared at you, although inside he couldn't help but wonder why that joke made his heart beat a beat faster.

*

In the afternoon, when Diệp Sương alone stopped by the library to borrow more reference books for next week's homework, she unexpectedly met Cố Thanh Việt again, sitting alone in the corner of the reading room, in front of her was a thick stack of books about the history of Linh Mạch.

He hesitated for a moment, then gingerly walked over, not daring to sit close but also not willing to miss this rare opportunity. "What are you reading?"

Cố Thanh Việt looked up, slightly surprised to see her, but did not show any discomfort. "A book about the major demon tides in the history of Cửu Vân. I want to better understand the mechanism of their formation."

"Why do you care about that?" Diệp Sương asked, curiously sitting in the chair opposite, even though she had not been invited.

Cố Thanh Việt was silent for a moment, as if considering whether to answer honestly or not. "Because I think, if one day I have to go into real battle, not just practice in the schoolyard, I want to understand clearly what the enemy I'm facing is, not simply relying on brute force."

That answer made Diệp Sương look at him differently, with new respect for someone she had initially thought cold and unapproachable. "I think so too," she said quietly. "I once witnessed a small demon tide in my village. It wasn't just power, but also… I don't know how to describe it—like pain inflicted on the land itself."

Cố Thanh Việt looked at her more attentively, as if that sentence had just touched on something he was also thinking about but couldn't find a way to express. "That's an interesting perspective," he said, his voice softening considerably from its initial coldness. "Most of the disciples here only see the demon tide as an enemy that needs to be destroyed; few people think of it the way you just did."

"The boy from this morning, who was bullied by Wei Bá Tuân, is he okay?" Diệp Sương asked, recalling the image of bloody fingers.

"I took him to the pharmacist to bandage him," Cố Thanh Việt replied, his voice calm as if it were the obvious thing to do. "It's not too serious, just a superficial cut."

"Do you often help weak disciples like that?" Diệp Sương continued asking, unable to hide her curiosity.

Cố Thanh Việt was silent for a moment, his eyes looking down at the stack of books in front of him, as if considering his answer. "I don't think it's a frequent or infrequent thing. I just think, whoever has more strength has the responsibility to protect the weaker, not to show off that strength. My father once taught, a good soldier is not the one who wins the most battles, but the one who protects the most lives."

"Your father was a general, right? Bội Nhi told me."

Something flashed across Cố Thanh Việt's face, hard to guess, perhaps the fleeting fatigue of someone who was so used to being mentioned through his father's reputation. "That's right. Great General Cố Bạt Nguyên, defending the capital Lệ Dương."

"Do you feel pressured to live under that shadow?" Diệp Sương asked, somewhat recklessly, but the question came out naturally as if she really wanted to know the answer.

Cố Thanh Việt looked at her for a long time, as if surprised that someone dared to ask directly a question that most other people only dared to whisper behind his back. "Yes," he finally admitted, his voice much quieter. "But I think, everyone has their own kind of pressure. You should understand that - a child from a small village, personally recommended by an elder, must have felt many times that all eyes were watching, waiting to see if you were worthy of that attention or not."

Diệp Sương was stunned. She had not expected him to see through her mood so accurately, something even Âu Bội Nhi, her close friend, had never managed to do so profoundly. "That's right," she nodded, her voice quiet. "Sometimes I'm afraid I'll disappoint everyone."

"Me too," Cố Thanh Việt said, and in that moment, his usually cold face seemed to soften, revealing something very human, very vulnerable, that perhaps very few people have ever had the opportunity to see.

The two sat and talked for a while longer, not long, but enough for Diệp Sương to feel that, behind that cold and unapproachable appearance, was a person with much deeper thoughts than what the rumors often described - and that, perhaps, this would be the beginning of something more important than a normal friendship between two disciples of the same sect.