I Have One Pattern

Staring at Wei Gaoyuan like a statue, never did Gu Qianqian expect that Wei Gaoyuan would dig out a wooden sword under the tree, "Is that one… just your sword?"

"Exactly!" Wei Gaoyuan nodded, serious and looked like not telling a joke.

Gu Qianqian still didn't believe it, "You always use that wood stick…I mean…that sword…. to fight?"

This time, Wei Gaoyuan shook his head and said, "I've never fought with others before. This sword was only used when practicing swordsmanship alone."

"You've never fought with someone?!" Gu Qianqian's big eyes turned bigger, full of disbelief.

A rookie who had never fought with someone could defeat herself with only a kick? No way, she can't accept it absolutely and had to take back her lost face in the next swordsmanship competition.

She turned back to the three men, "Who can help me cut a wooden sword now…Hmm… the same as his."

"…"

That really stumped all the three men behind her. It hardly took a short time to cut a wooden sword. The sun was setting in the sky, a wooden sword could not be made until the moon was rising.

Wei Gaoyuan shook his head, "It's getting dark, I have to go back, shall we save our competition for the next meeting?"

"No way!" Gu Qianqian did not agree.

She'd suffered a failure today. For a genius noble, a failure might not be remembered but could not be forgotten. Who knew when to meet him next time?

Thinking of this, she turned her head and ordered, "Get me a sword!"

The three men looked at each other and hesitated for a moment. One of them took the long sword from the waist and handed it over.

Gu Qianqian took and passed it to Wei Gaoyuan, "You can use this sword, I don't want to take advantage of you."

Wei Gaoyuan stared at the sword in her hand for a moment. That was a delicate sword with a fancy scabbard and a blue gem on the hilt.

He shook his head again, " Thank you, but I am used to using my own wooden sword."

Gu Qianqian felt helpless. Neither did she want to take advantage of him, nor to force a swordsman to change his sword.

After thinking for seconds, she said, "Okay, then I will take your three patterns before my attack!"

(take your three patterns first / let you give three patterns first: it is one kind of polite concession that one part of martial artists make while in fighting or competition, which means, in the story, that Gu Qianqian can only begin her attack after she's taken or defended three patterns from Wei Gaoyuan.)

Wei Gaoyuan still shook his head, "I have one pattern in swordsmanship. You can defend, you win; you can't, I win."

He was not lying. Only one pattern in swordsmanship he'd learnt from the scroll of the woman in white.

What an arrogant boy! She thought. And her temper and competitive ambition was stirred up successfully by his "one pattern".

She drew up her sword, "I've said I'll take your three patterns first, just do it!"

"Okay," not explaining more, Wei Gaoyuan raised his wooden sword, "Be careful!"

With a cold disdain in her heart, she hadn't even planned to use her sword to take that ugly wooden sword, worrying that wooden stick would be smashed by only a hit of her sword.

But, all the thoughts in her mind turned into a blank in the next second.

Gu Qianqian only saw that Wei Gaoyuan's whole body suddenly fluttered as his wooden sword flashed, and next moment the wooden sword had been clearly in front of her eyes, but who'd seen how it moved just now?

Then the wooden sword turned into a few hazy sword shadows! In a great astonishment, her mind fell into a flurried chaos…

Just as soon as she was petrified in a flash, the wooden sword was flying past by the close side of her cheek. In the meantime she only heard a crack!

Gu Qianqian was standing where she was,

stunned, not thinking, not seeing…

Wei Gaoyuan had broken out in a cold sweat. For the first time he'd used the first pattern of swordsmanship in that scroll to fight. Not knowing Gu Qianqian's real strength in swordsmanship, he stabbed the point between her eyebrows with all his strength. However, why didn't she have even a slight reaction, just standing still where she was to wait for his stab?

Apparently, she was not his enemy, so all the while Wei Gaoyuan didn't intend to kill her. Seeing her standing motionless like getting possession, he tried hard to change the path of his flying sword, only to find that he could not control its path at all! let alone pulled it back!

Just In the last second when Gu Qianqian was going to be stabbed through, he clenched his jaw and pushed all his streams of Internal Qi to flow in reverse, forcing his sword to move sideways only by half a foot from the target!

Thank god there was no tragedy in this competition. However, due to excessive reversed force applied on its body, his wooden sword was finally broken in a crack, and the Internal Qi like the free wild horse was boiled and running in disorder through the meridians around his body.

After secretly using the breathing techniques in the scroll to force the raging Internal Qi to calm down, he looked at the broken sword in his hand and sighed with a slight regret. He threw it aside and held his fist in the other hand to Gu Qianqian, "That was a good competition!"

His greet just pulled back Gu Qianqian's soul. Having had a close contact with Death, she was still in a great terror with her voice trembling, "You...who are you…"

To the same question he'd answered already, Wei Gaoyuan still responded with patience, "A student, in the East Mountain Sword club."

"Oh, it's dinner time…" looking up at the sky, he thought, "I don't wanna eat the wreckage on the plates…" so he murmured, "See you around!" then just ran away into the distance in the blink of an eye before Gu Qianqian could reacted…

Gu Qianqian, with her head down, was now immersed again in Wei Gaoyuan's "one pattern" just now, with no response at all,

She could hardly imagine what kind of force on earth might drive that overwhelming pattern of swordsmanship. Moreover, that boy looked like her age…

Thinking of this, she raised her head, only saw the trees in the distance.

"Where is he?" she looked around.

"Your ladyship, he's gone…" said a man behind her.

"What!?... When?" Gu Qianqian turned to them and frowned. "You just let him go?"

" Sorry, we dare not act rashly without the command of your ladyship," said another woman.

Gu Qianqian just remembered that she'd ordered the three persons to stand behind and not to bother her. She sighed with depression, "Well, we go. Go back…"

For the first time Gu Qianqian was skeptical about herself, as the genius of geniuses for the last 50 years in Qizhou City. Her aura of the genius was just smashed by only one pattern with one wooden sword.

What was that boy if she was the genius of geniuses? The genius of monsters?

For the first time she'd got interested in such a common poor boy, as a noble girl who'd grew up in the aristocratic circle for 16 years. The East Mountain Sword club… in Qizhou City, less than half an hour walk from the City Lord House, not too far… she thought and decided to visit this club today, and by the way, to find out that guy.

...

Wei Gaoyuan flew back to the club and caught up with the last hot meal finally.

When picking up the chopsticks, he remembered that he had forgotten to bring a bunch back. The wooden sword that had been cut for several nights was broken in one pattern. In order not to affect his swordsmanship practice, he had to cut another one.

After the meal he walked aimlessly in the backyard, wondering if he could break a branch form the big tree in the club when he saw Hu Xiaoshu and a girl of his age walking towards him.

"Hey! Gaoyuan, what are you doing here?" Hu Xiaoshu took the initiative to greet.

Wei Gaoyuan just stared at the long swords swinging at their waists and suddenly came up with an idea: Could I have a sword of my own someday?

"Hi, Brother Hu!" He asked, "Could you tell me how much that sword at your waist is?"

Dazed by his question, Hu Xiaoshu stared at his ex-roommate for a long time then replied, "This sword is allotted by the club in the first year, already included in our tuition fee. You didn't get it?"

Wei Gaoyuan was amazed as well. He did study with other students just in the first few days, and then disappeared from the training field. Naturally he wouldn't know the sword distribution.

After a moment, he smiled and asked, " Is it okay to ask for a sword now?"