THE GUIDE AND PROTECTOR, VOLUME 10 - Season 14 Episode 6

“Brother Chu Feng, you…” Seeing that Chu Feng had actually chased after him, Li Xiang was at a complete loss.

He was unable to understand why Chu Feng would still select their Discarded Bamboo Forest even after the elders from the Copper and Iron Bamboo Forests were personally inviting him and even spoke to declare all the generous treatment they would give him. This was truly against common sense.

After all, not only was the strength of the Discarded Bamboo Forest greatly inferior to that of the Iron and Copper Bamboo Forests, they were also unable to provide Chu Feng with anything beneficial to him. When compared with the Iron Bamboo Forest and the Copper Bamboo Forest, there was simply no advantage in him joining the Discarded Bamboo Forest.

“Senior brother Li Xiang, could it be that you are against me joining the Discarded Bamboo Forest as a nominal disciple?” Chu Feng asked with a smile.

“No, of course not, we would love to have you,” Even though he was extremely confused, Li Xiang still ended up nodding his head repeatedly. He feared that he would miss out on a good sapling like Chu Feng.

“In that case, you should write my name on the register of the Discarded Bamboo Forest,” Chu Feng pointed to the scroll on Li Xiang’s hand. As long as Li Xiang wrote Chu Feng’s name onto it, Chu Feng would become a nominal disciple of the Discarded Bamboo Forest.

“Yes, yes, yes, I’ll do it right away,” Li Xiang naturally did not hesitate. He immediately opened the scroll and began to write.

“Halt!” However, right at this moment, that elder from the Copper Bamboo Forest suddenly shouted. Immediately afterward, he walked over to Chu Feng and earnestly advised him, “Little friend Chu Feng, the Discarded Bamboo Forest is a place with only trash. Even the elders there are nothing more than trash. They are unable to provide with you anything. If you are to go there, you will simply be ruining your own future prospects.”

“That’s right, little friend Chu Feng, you must carefully consider your decision and not ruin your future,” The other elders also swarmed to Chu Feng. None of them wanted to miss out on a genius like Chu Feng, and thus they all began to earnestly advise him against joining the Discarded Bamboo Forest.

“Heh… there is no need for you all to concern yourselves with this,” However, Chu Feng merely laughed lightly at their advice. He did not even want to bother talking with them. His attitude was extremely cold.

After he finished saying those words, Chu Feng actually snatched away the scroll and writing brush that Li Xiang held in his hands and wrote his own name onto the scroll.

This scene shocked everyone present. No one imagined that Chu Feng would insist on joining the Discarded Bamboo Forest to such a degree. That was because the Discarded Bamboo Forest was a place that not even trash was willing to go.

Chu Feng completely ignored the reactions from the crowd. With a smile, he said to Li Xiang, “Senior brother Li Xiang, let’s go.”

“Eh… right…” At this moment, Li Xiang was also stunned, and only manage to react and begin leading the way after hearing Chu Feng call for him.

Just like this, Chu Feng and Li Xiang left the recruitment area and began to proceed toward the Discarded Bamboo Forest, leaving a bunch of disciples with shocked expressions and elders with ugly expressions behind them.

Under Li Xiang’s guidance, Chu Feng was finally able to see exactly what sort of place this Discarded Bamboo Forest, a place that even trash looked down on, was.

This place was actually a very large, vast region of land. However, its scenery was not up to much; it did not possess either the miraculousness of the Holy Land of Martialism nor that of the Fallen Leaves Bamboo Forest.

Not only did the bamboo of the Fallen Leaves Bamboo Forest flicker with light, they were also so tall that they reached the skies. However, the bamboo of this Discarded Bamboo Forest was neither thick nor tall, nor did it possess any distinguishing features or qualities. In fact, all of the bamboo here had a withered yellowish color; it was as if they were extremely malnourished and were about to dry up and die.

In fact, this place really did appear like a discarded land. Compared to the beautiful bamboo forests of the other regions, this place was truly a tragic sight akin to ruins.

Not only was the scenery here not pleasing to the eyes, even the buildings in this place were extremely tattered by years of neglect.

Furthermore, on his way here, Chu Feng did not manage to see a single person. It was as if Chu Feng and Li Xiang were the only people in this desolate area.

“Senior brother Li Xiang, could it be that there are only the two of us in this Discarded Bamboo Forest?” Chu Feng asked curiously.

“Of course not. Although our Discarded Bamboo Forest has very few people, we still have several tens of martial brothers,” Li Xiang replied with a smile on his face.

“Several tens?” Chu Feng seemed to have realized something.

“That’s right, you’ll come to meet them later,” Li Xiang nodded his head with a smile.

After that, Chu Feng stopped asking questions. When they arrived at an ancient palace, Li Xiang uttered a signal. After that, all of the senior and junior brothers of the Discarded Bamboo Forest appeared before Chu Feng.

Excluding Li Xiang, there was a total of fifty-nine people. Their ages ranged from children in their early teens to old men approaching a hundred years of age.

Among them were cripples, mutes and blind men. However, there was not a single normal person. Essentially, they would either be missing legs or missing arms; each and every one of them was crippled.

As for their cultivation bases, they too were extremely tragic. The majority of them were in the Martial Lord stage. As for the weakest among them, they were actually still in the Profound Realm.

While this sort of cultivation would be considered to be normal in the Eastern Sea Region, and some of them could even be considered to be experts in the continent of Nine Provinces, they were simply unimaginable in the Holy Land of Martialism, in a large power like the Fallen Leaves Bamboo Forest.

That was because they were truly too weak, simply incapable of even obtaining footing.

Furthermore, based on what Li Xiang said, these people were all of the members of the Discarded Bamboo Forest, all disciples. Not a single one of them were elders, as the only elder was the head of the Discarded Bamboo Forest, Hong Qiang.

As matters stood, Chu Feng finally realized why even those trash were looking down on the Discard Bamboo Forest. That was because this place was indeed extremely tragic.

“Do you know where Elder Hong Qiang is?”

Chu Feng asked. He did not care about how utterly weak this Discarded Bamboo Forest might be, since the reason he had joined the Discarded Bamboo Forest was Hong Qiang. He had come to this place so that he could meet Hong Qiang.

“Lord Hong Qiang is in closed-doors training all year round. I have been here for three years and only managed to meet Lord Hong Qiang once,” Li Xiang said.

“In closed-doors training all year round? In that case, do you know where he’s undergoing his closed-door training at?” Chu Feng asked.

“Regarding that, we don’t know about it,” Li Xiang shook his head.

At this time, Chu Feng shifted his gaze to the other disciples. As for those disciples, they too shook their heads one after another to tell Chu Feng that they did not know where Hong Qiang was undergoing closed-door training at.

At this time, Chu Feng became depressed. He had traveled so far to this place and racked his brains to sneak into this Discarded Bamboo Forest all so that he could meet Hong Qiang.

Yet now that he had managed to get in, he was told that Hong Qiang would be in closed-door training all year round and no one knew where he was undergoing closed-door training at. Thus, how would Chu Feng be able to meet him?

“Senior Hong Qiang!!!”

“Senior Hong Qiang!!!!”

“Senior Hong Qiang!!!!!”

Without any other option, Chu Feng started to shout loudly.

His voice was extremely resounding and louder than even thunder. It caused the bamboos to sway back and forth and the ground to tremble.

His voice shocked some of the Discarded Bamboo Forest’s disciples so much that they hurriedly covered their ears and began to draw back repeatedly. The gazes with which they looked to Chu Feng were filled with fear and reverence.

Unfortunately, although Chu Feng had shouted for a very long time and frightened all of the disciples, the birds and the beasts, he did not manage to get any response from Hong Qiang.

Suddenly, Li Xiang asked. “Junior brother Chu Feng, could it be that you’ve come here for the sake of meeting Lord Hong Qiang?”

“Mn,” Chu Feng nodded his head; he did not try to deny it.

“Junior brother Chu Feng, what sort of relationship might you have with Lord Hong Qiang?” Li Xiang asked curiously.

“I met him once,” Chu Feng replied.

“So that’s the case. Although I do not know what matter junior brother Chu Feng has that makes you want to find Lord Hong Qiang, if you are not in a rush, you can try waiting at this place for a while. As Lord Hong Qiang is the head of this place, he will definitely show himself eventually.”

“I said that because I’ve heard that although Lord Hong Qiang would be in closed-door training all year long, and no one knows where he would be undergoing his training at, he has never once left the Discarded Bamboo Forest,” Li Xiang said.

“Based on what you said, senior Hong Qiang is still in the Discarded Bamboo Forest?” Chu Feng asked.

“That should be the case,” Li Xiang replied.

“Senior brother Li Xiang, thank you for your pointers,” After hearing those words, a trace of hope emerged in Chu Feng, who had previously been filled with disappointment.

He decided to search for Hong Qiang in this Discarded Bamboo Forest. With his Heaven’s Eyes, if Hong Qiang was truly in the Discarded Bamboo Forest, he would definitely be able to find him.

However, if he could not find Hong Qiang even with his Heaven’s Eyes, then it would mean that Hong Qiang was most likely not in the Discarded Bamboo Forest, and that Chu Feng was not fated to meet him. Thus, even though he would be unwilling, he would have no choice but to give up on meeting Hong Qiang.

In that case, Chu Feng would not stay here and squander his time. Instead, he would leave the Discarded Bamboo Forest. After all, he still had very important things that he had to do.

Thus, Chu Feng began to wander the Discarded Bamboo Forest and observe his surroundings with his Heaven’s Eyes, carefully searching each and every corner.

The Discarded Bamboo Forest was extremely large. Even for Chu Feng, it was very time-consuming for him to completely travel through each and every corner of the Discarded Bamboo Forest.

At this moment, the sky had darkened. Chu Feng had searched the Discarded Bamboo Forest for several hours. Yet, he was still empty-handed.

It seemed that he had truly reached a dead-end and was unable to obtain what he desired, unable to meet with Hong Qiang.

“Sigh, it would appear that I have truly come here in vain.”

At this moment, Chu Feng was standing in the night sky and looking at the Discarded Bamboo Forest below him. Helplessness and disappointment filled his face.

“That is…”

Suddenly, Chu Feng’s pupils shrank, and his eyes shone. He immediately began to carefully inspect the place below him.

“Heavens, is this for real…?”

Upon close inspection, Chu Feng’s expression changed greatly. His disappointed expression changed to one of shock and ecstasy as a brilliant smile bloomed on his formerly-depressed face.