Breaking the Day

Chapter 158 Dignity Comes From Self-Respect

Chengfeng decided to wrap it up here. He gave Su You and the rest a look, implying that they leave with Qu Tongqiu and Zhao Yibai.

Everyone had ‘arrived with high hopes’ but left hopeless, walking like dead corpses to the teleportation array. Chengfeng sighed, shaking his head at them.

The group left with ashen faces amidst curses and insults thrown at them by the Hidden Brocade Court disciples. When they left the Hidden Brocade Court territory, the entire group no longer held their anger back and shoved Tongqiu and Yibai to the ground, rushing to kick and punch them.

Zuo Fei was especially furious, throwing punches like rain. “It’s all your fault! Idiots! It’s all your fault! You’re the reason for all of this!”

Su You clenched his teeth and kicked them. “You’re both utterly useless! I don’t care if you two kept to yourselves but why did you have to drag us down with you!”

Tian Jun’s eyes were bloodshot as he kicked them. Only Blockhead stood aside and advised them, “That’s enough, that’s enough. Guys, we’re all of the same court. Don’t do that.”

Zuo Fei raged and grabbed Blockhead by the collar, roaring as he looked upwards. “Motherf*cker! I don’t care if you’re dumb, do you think we’re dumb too? Do you even know what just happened?!”

Before Blockhead could answer, he continued to roar, “We’re dead, we’re dead! Do you know what that means? We can’t stay in Hidden Sword Court, we can’t go to Hidden Brocade Court so what do we do now? TELL ME!”

Blockhead scratched his head and grinned without a word.

Zuo Fei raged, “What are you laughing at! Tell me! What should we do?”

Blockhead thought for a moment. “What if we all go to Hidden Beauty Court?”

Su You and Tian Jun were so angry all they could do was laugh. “F*ck you!”

Zuo Fei shoved Blockhead aside hopelessly as he roared, “How did an idiot like you even get into Hidden Sword Court?!”

Blockhead recalled solemnly. “When Grand Senior Brother was at my village, he saw that I was especially strong so he told me to come.”

Zuo Fei clenched his fists, roaring at the heaves. “OH MY GOODNESS! WHY IS THE WORLD SO UNFAIR? Why did I have to suffer so much just to be recruited, and then this idiot was recruited just because he’s strong? Why? WHY?”

Zuo Fei’s roars echoed across the vast skies like angry waves, disappearing into oblivion.

Blockhead was not angry either. He smiled apologetically, “Senior Brother Zuo, you can always get stronger. Maybe you’ll be stronger than me in the future!”

Zuo Fei looked at him then heaved a long sigh. How could he vent his anger in the face of such a kind, stupid fellow?

Chengfeng studied Blockhead, silently comparing him to the three idiots at home. All four idiots actually had their own strengths, though they were so unbelievably stupid no one could expect what they’d do next.

Zuo Fei looked at the duo hopelessly, who were clutching their heads and curled up. Fury welled up within him as he glared murderously. “If I can’t live, you two must die too!”

Then, a ball of flames burned in his palm as he strode murderously towards them.

Both of them immediately shrieked in agony, kowtowing vigorously, “Mercy, mercy!”

“Mercy? If I show you mercy, who will show me mercy then?” Clenching his teeth, his eyes bloodshot, Zuo Fei lifted his hand and readied to blast flames at the both of them.

“STOP!”

Zuo Fei was about to attack when a hand gripped his arm. He turned to see that it was Li Chengfeng shaking his head.

“Let go!” sneered Zuo Fei.

“Senior Zuo, killing them won’t help with our situation! Let’s discuss our next move first!”

Zuo Fei roared, “Our next move? What can we do? These two piles of trash have already ruined our plans!”

He twisted his wrist, breaking free of Chengfeng’s grip and readied to fire at the duo.

Chengfeng quickly grabbed his arm again and yelled, “Senior Brother Zuo, didn’t you notice that Senior Zhou at Hidden Brocade Court was only mocking us? They never would have recruited us anyway!”

Zuo Fei trembled slightly. He obviously knew that, he was just so filled with anger and hatred that he needed somewhere to vent it all. Qu Tongqiu and Zhao Yibai were his punching bags.

He roared, “How would you know that?”

Chengfeng sighed. “Senior Brother Zuo, some things are like business deals. Once you miss the opportunity, even the best goods are worthless! Their objective was to wipe out the Hidden Sword Court. Now that they have achieved their goals, why would they take in the rest of us?

“And from their perspective, they will suspect our loyalty and sincerity since we are latecomers! It’s likely our fates will be worse than the other Hidden Sword defects if we were recruited. At least… at Hidden Sword Court… we won’t be treated as spies!”

Su You listened silently then spoke up, “I feel like Junior Chengfeng has a point.”

Zuo Fei gave a terrible smile and slowly extinguished the flames in his palm. He heaved a long sigh and turned to leave dejectedly.

Qu Tongqiu and Zhao Yibai sighed and quickly kowtowed at Chengfeng. “Thank you… Senior Chengfeng! Thank you Senior Chengfeng!”

Chengfeng was so angry he laughed, kicking them both and then lifting them up by their collars. “A man’s knees are worth more than gold! Don’t you know? How could you kneel in front of anyone? How will you ever stand tall?”

Both of them shuddered while Yibai smiled apologetically, “Senior Chengfeng, we…”

Chengfeng cut them off angrily, “It’s JUNIOR! JUNIOR BROTHER! Do you hear me?! Do you even have self-respect? Do you have any dignity? Where is your self-respect as cultivators, as men? If your parents knew you knelt for random people, what would they think?”

Their lips trembled as they collapsed on the ground while Qu Tongqiu sobbed and wiped his tears, “Junior Brother, I wish I could stand tall too! But everyone looks down on me! So what choice do I have?!”

Zhao Yibao cried, “Yeah, we want to be strong too! But what choice do we have if we want to continue living?”

Chengfeng grabbed Zhao Yibai up. “GET UP! GET THE H*LL UP! Let me tell you this, I’m also like you two, I’m only here to become a cultivator to protect my family, to become stronger! There are certain things we can sacrifice to attain these goals but there are some things we cannot! And that is self-respect!

“If you don’t even respect yourself, how can you wish for respect from others? The whole world can look down on you but you must never look down on yourself! Do you hear me?

“If you don’t even respect yourself, how will you become powerful? Will you be able to wield the best weapon in the world? Will you know how?

“If you don’t even respect yourself, will your parents respect you?

“If you want respect from others, you must respect yourself, prioritise yourself! Do you understand?

“Becoming powerful, survival and protecting our family are all important goals! But loving yourself is most important! You look down on yourselves, look down on Hidden Sword Court, so what makes you think Hidden Brocade Court will respect you?!”

Chengfeng blurted out a string of lectures as he scolded them, every word as deafening as a city bell, hitting everyone in their hearts.

Qu Tongqiu and Zhao Yibai were shaken to their cores. When Chengfeng let go, they both collapsed on the ground and wailed loudly.

Su You’s eyes were red too. He stepped forward, as if seeing this junior for the first time. “Junior Brother Chengfeng! Tomorrow… will you still go to the morning classes at the precept hall? Will you still go for the array practice sessions at Yanjian Hall?”

Chengfeng gazed deeply into the senior’s eyes, which were red and filled with tears, then smiled and nodded hard. “I will! Not just tomorrow, I’ll go the day after, then the day after that, I’ll go every day!”

Su You nodded slowly. “Alright, I’ll go with you!”

Blockhead broke into a grin. “I’ll go too!”

Chengfeng put out an arm and looked at them with resolution in his eyes. “Senior Brother!”

Su You, Tian Jun and Blockhead looked at his arm and stacked their hands on his, hard. “Junior Brother!”

Zhao Xiaobao’s blood was equally filled with passion. He wanted to put his hand in too but dared not, until Chengfeng looked at him and signalled for him to do so. Xiaobao smiled and placed his hand forward. All five of them looked at each other and started to laugh heartily. At that exact moment, it was as if the gloomy skies had broken to reveal the sun once again.