Little Alpaca – Chapter 45

Volume 1: Little Alpaca

How could he lose?

Yi Qiu, oh Yi Qiu, aren’t you a fool!

He Xiuzhu is the Zither Immortal’s most prized disciple; within the Xianlu Sect, he is on par with Jiang Yuyao and Chao Yun.

Of the two hundred-plus people present, as long as their brains haven’t been fried by the scorching sun, none of them could possibly think He Xiuzhu would lose.

Now this is great. Disaster comes from the mouth¹. How should the alpaca explain?

“I, I…” Yi Qiu turned her head to look at You Yan, her gaze timid, yet filled with wishful thinking.

She thought, perhaps You Yan wasn’t angry.

At least on the surface, there was still a hint of a smile in You Yan’s eyes.

Yi Qiu tried hard to recall; she felt her voice just now probably wasn’t loud.

Maybe, just maybe, there was a tiny possibility that You Yan hadn’t heard her sentence very clearly.

She told herself in her heart: Don’t panic, be calm. The more it’s a situation like this where your cover is half-blown², the more you need to pretend nothing happened to muddle through more easily.

“I, I was saying…” Yi Qiu stammered, organizing her words for a long time, and finally managed to force out a sentence, “That kid Luo Mingyuan, he’s really run into a ghost… Hai, I’m begging him to stop running into it, how ugly will his loss be later, it’s tragic just thinking about it…”

A flash of displeasure seemed to cross You Yan’s eyes, but after a brief silence, she returned to normal, only saying faintly: “I wonder who signed him up.”

Yi Qiu mumbled in a small voice: “You…”

You Yan asked in return: “Me?”

Yi Qiu shook her head repeatedly: “I, I suggested it! I just feel… feel his luck is just too bad…”

She said in a small voice, turning her head back as if to escape, casting her gaze toward the youth below the Trial Stage whose face was filled with bewilderment.

Obviously, he didn’t know when he had signed up for this Trial Assembly. Everything that was happening at this moment was like a huge joke to him.

Those senior and junior brothers standing around him were either urging or mocking him. Even those with a bit of conscience only had surprise or pity in their eyes; not a single person gave even a word of encouragement.

“I did not sign up.” Luo Mingyuan was silent for a moment, then raised his head. Amidst the countless taunts and jeers from those around him, he said, one word at a time, each word clear, “I did not, I have never signed up.”

“You didn’t?” Someone at the side laughed. “What, you didn’t sign up, so someone is deliberately playing a prank on you?”

“Luo-shidi, after so long without cultivating, do you still remember you are Shizun’s disciple?”

Another person deliberately raised their voice and asked, “You haven’t lost your disciple seal, have you?”

“I haven’t…” Luo Mingyuan frowned.

“You haven’t lost it, so did someone snatch your disciple seal to sign up for you?” the person beside him continued to ask.

“No…” Luo Mingyuan said, his fingers unnaturally clenching.

“Then what else is there for you to say?” That person said with a contemptuous smile, “You signed up yourself, and now you’re scared because you had bad luck and ran into He-shixiong?”

When the others heard this, they all felt it was reasonable and chimed in one after another.

“If you’re no good, then don’t sign up! Now that you’ve run into He-shixiong, are you afraid of losing too badly?”

“Who could he face without losing badly? After so many years, he can’t even learn the entry-level heart method.”

“Luo-shidi is so hardworking. Back then, he practiced the heart method until he coughed up blood in the wind, so delicate that Shizun saw him and couldn’t bear to tell him to continue.”

The unpleasant words grew more and more numerous.

Yi Qiu could clearly feel that the expressions of the three Honored Ones on the high stage were not very good.

And that youth, unable to defend himself against the accusations³, just clenched his fists bit by bit amidst the malice of others who were unwilling to understand.

For a moment, Yi Qiu couldn’t help but tense up, her eyes filled with unconcealable guilt.

It was different. Everything that was happening now was, in the end, still different from the novel.

Luo Mingyuan hadn’t signed up voluntarily. He knew nothing, had no determination, no preparation, and was just inexplicably pushed into the eye of the storm⁴.

Putting herself in his shoes, if she were the one standing there right now, she would probably wish she could dig a hole and bury herself on the spot.

The west-slanting sun quietly hid behind the clouds. The piercing sunlight suddenly dispersed, and a cool breeze brushed past every emotionally agitated person present.

Jiang Yuyao couldn’t help but take two steps forward, her brow tightly furrowed. She seemed to want to say something, but the words wouldn’t come out.

In such a situation, no matter what she said, it would be trampling on that youth’s self-respect.

But just as she hesitated, Luo Mingyuan suddenly unclenched his fists, walked out of the crowd, and leaped onto the suspended Trial Stage.

“He knows qinggong⁵?”

“I thought he wouldn’t be able to get up there.”

“So what if he got up? He’ll just be knocked down immediately…”

Luo Mingyuan stood firm and gave He Xiuzhu a deep bow with cupped fists.

Afterwards, the youth straightened up and said, neither servile nor overbearing⁶: “Shixiong, please enlighten me.”

He Xiuzhu: “I said I would give you a ten-move handicap. You may strike first.”

Luo Mingyuan: “Shixiong, would you give others a ten-move handicap?”

He Xiuzhu was speechless for a moment. The disdain in his eyes had been replaced by a trace of surprise.

“If not, there is no need to give me special treatment.” Luo Mingyuan took a step forward, his gaze stubborn. “Shixiong, please enlighten me!”

He Xiuzhu couldn’t help but frown: “Where is your sword?”

Luo Mingyuan replied: “I don’t have a sword.”

A burst of roaring laughter instantly erupted from below the Trial Stage.

He Xiuzhu was silent for a moment. A bit of respect surfaced in his eyes. He slung the qin he was holding onto his back and said: “Shidi, be careful.”

“Now this is more like it.” You Yan stood up, a bit more interest in her eyes.

Yi Qiu subconsciously glanced back at You Yan. Seeing that her attention was finally off her, she let out a huge sigh of relief in her heart.

In the novel, this part where Luo Mingyuan faced He Xiuzhu was written to be exceptionally brutal.

To summarize it simply, he couldn’t withstand a single move, but he kept getting knocked down and getting back up again. With an indomitable spirit, he forced He Xiuzhu, who had originally wanted to act cool bare-handed, to use his magical artifact on him, wanting to throw him directly off the Trial Stage.

But the protagonist is the protagonist, after all. How could he not have a decent cheat?

The scene at that time was actually Luo Mingyuan, on the verge of defeat, looking at the indifferent or disdainful gazes of the crowd, listening to the surrounding sarcasm and mockery. All the pain and unwillingness suppressed in his heart for so many years finally erupted at that moment like a flood from a broken dam.

Only, at this very moment… it seemed to be not quite the same as what was written in the novel again.

What happened to not being able to take a single move?

In just a dozen seconds, that kid had already exchanged seven or eight moves with He Xiuzhu. Although he was retreating with every step, he didn’t show the slightest disadvantage, already exceeding everyone’s expectations.

After all, before this, no one thought he could last three moves against He Xiuzhu.

Unfortunately, Xianlu Sect was a cultivation sect after all. Although Luo Mingyuan’s martial arts were not bad, he ultimately had no magical arts to augment them.

He Xiuzhu intentionally tried to save him some face, not using spiritual power in their initial exchange. Now, seeing that he couldn’t win with just fists and feet, he finally stopped holding back, and a stream of spiritual energy was added to the wind from his palms.

Luo Mingyuan fell into a disadvantage in that instant. Yi Qiu watched from afar, holding her breath in concentration, looking forward to the moment the protagonist’s halo would shine and blind everyone.

However, on the Trial Stage at this moment, the chunibyo⁷ scene from the text of “constantly falling and constantly getting back up” did not appear.

Three moves. In just three moves, He Xiuzhu forced Luo Mingyuan to the edge of the stage.

The next second, he struck out with a forceful palm and knocked Luo Mingyuan off the stage.

Yi Qiu: “Cao!”⁸

In the time it takes to tell, at the instant He Xiuzhu sent Luo Mingyuan flying with a palm strike, he took the yaoqin⁹ from his back, stroked the strings in mid-air, and played a sound wave that floated above the cold pond.

In that same instant, Luo Mingyuan stepped on the sound wave, using its force to leap back to the shore. He steadied himself, looked up at He Xiuzhu, his eyes full of respect: “Thank you, Shixiong!”

A trace of affirmation appeared in He Xiuzhu’s eyes. He raised his lips in a smile: “You are not weak, you just have bad luck.”

At that moment, there seemed to be a light in the defeated youth’s eyes, and the woman not far away who was tightly gripping her sword hilt also relaxed her brow.

Disbelief was written in everyone’s eyes.

The alpaca was no exception.

It was just that what others were unwilling to believe was that the publicly acknowledged number one good-for-nothing of Xianlu Sect had received He Xiuzhu’s praise.

What Yi Qiu was unwilling to believe was that Luo Mingyuan had lost.

He’s the male lead! How could he lose?

No, what about the indomitable spirit? What about the pain and unwillingness completely erupting on the verge of defeat?

Where was his Golden Crow power?

Where was his protagonist halo that could blind everyone’s eyes?

Just because he ate a little less of the villain’s brainwashing pack, how did everything turn out like this?

“How is that possible… He, he lost just like that? In only three moves!”

“Only three moves?” You Yan let out a light laugh and said faintly, “If the Zither Immortal’s most prized disciple couldn’t subdue a person who hasn’t even mastered the entry-level heart method in three moves, he might as well go sever his own meridians¹⁰.”

“But, but he…” Yi Qiu’s words faltered. She hesitated for a long time before continuing, “Master, didn’t you say that kid is a half-demon? Inside his body, isn’t, isn’t there any demonic power…”

“There is indeed a power inside his body, but if he used it at this moment, would he still be able to live?” You Yan smiled. “Those three sitting up there, not a single one of them is blind.”

Yi Qiu was instantly choked up, unable to come back to her senses for a long time.

The competition on the Trial Stage continued, and those who had been jeering and mocking all shut their mouths.

Defeated but still glorious, this was undoubtedly the best result for Luo Mingyuan.

But for Yi Qiu, it was like a bolt from the blue, leaving her unable to recover for a long time.

Yes, You Yan was right.

All the Xianlu Sect disciples present, as well as the three Honored Ones on the high stage, none of them were blind.

The power inside Luo Mingyuan’s body did not belong to the mortal realm. Mortals would see it as demonic power. If he used this power to harm He Xiuzhu, it would be impossible for him to win successive victories after proving himself and finally obtain a spot to descend the mountain for training, as was written in the novel.

Obviously, that was unreasonable.

Not to mention, it was simply impossible for Luo Mingyuan to last that long against He Xiuzhu by relying on a spirit of refusing to admit defeat, as was written in the novel.

A novel is a novel, and reality is reality.

Can you not lose just by refusing to admit defeat?

Perhaps only a protagonist with a wide-open golden finger¹¹ could do that…

But, she understood all the reasoning…

This little pig trotter lost the competition just like that, so how is the subsequent plot supposed to proceed!

Little Bird Coo Coo Fly! My goodness, you’re amazing! How many chapters into the original text is this, and you can already write so many bugs to screw me over!

You really have no heart!

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