A/N: an extra chapter courtesy of of the monthly supporters and one-off supporters over on ko-fi! thank you so much for your continued support!!
Langxia held the feather up to the chandelier’s light. A hand supported the back of his head as the doors creaked open and slowly shut. The man beside him shuffled off his shoes and laid down. His hair, which was still moist, lightly tickled Langxia’s face.
Gui Yin shuddered and buried himself under the blankets.
“Wipe your hair properly or you’ll catch a cold,” Langxia murmured.
“Mm,” Gui Yin groaned and buried himself deeper. “Nights in Kunlun are so cold. I despise it.”
“Should I bring out braziers?”
“No, no. There’s no need,” Gui Yin mumbled. He glanced at Langxia, who was watching him steadily. He didn’t have the guts to tell him that he was plenty warm even if they weren’t pressed up against each other.
Langxia hummed and turned away. “You should still dry your hair better. Right now, you’re susceptible to illness. You ought to be careful.”
“I’m not that fragile,” Gui Yin said.
Gui Yin met Langxia’s indifferent gaze and slowly sat up again. “Fine, I’ll dry my hair better.”
He had a habit of lazily toweling it off without giving it a second though. Langxia would normally let him do as he wished, but it seemed like he was taking the case of madness quite seriously. Gui Yin couldn’t help but feel his heart flutter a little.
Now, if it was only like the shows, where the love interest would offer to dry off his hair.
Naturally, the offer did not come up.
Gui Yin snapped his fingers and laid back down. His hair was silky and dry again. Langxia reached over and held a strand to test whether Gui Yin had truly dried it.
“Why not do this in the first place?”
Gui Yin turned. He squished Langxia’s hand beneath his back and pouted. “Drying off with a towel and letting it air dry is less effort than using spiritual energy to dry it.”
“It’s a snap of the fingers compared to several patting motions,” Langxia said. He opened up his hand that was under Gui Yin and did a scratching motion with his fingers.
Gui Yin squirmed and fell into Langxia’s arms. He shifted and glared at him as a hand came to naturally rest between his shoulder blades.
Langxia raised a brow and waited for Gui Yin’s protest.
Gui Yin scoffed and laid his head down. He closed his eyes. “I’m going to sleep.”
“Like this?”
“Push me away if you don’t like it.”
Langxia settled and didn’t move another inch.
Gui Yin’s lips unconsciously curved at its edges. He indulged in the other’s warmth and felt that it was slowly lulling him to sleep. In his half-asleep state, he thought he felt Langxia turn, opening his arms more as he tugged Gui Yin closer.
Langxia glanced at the man that was sleeping in his arms and slowly closed his eyes as well.
He hoped the lucky feather worked.
When morning came, Langxia left temporarily to deal with things within his territory. Gui Yin, with nothing to do, went to find Yankui.
The young man was at the empty training grounds. There was a sword in his hand and the straw dummy had been beaten until its head had flown off. Su Wen was already ready with another dummy when he noticed Gui Yin approaching.
“Lord Ninglan!”
Yankui looked back. His eyes lit up, but his entire person remained restrained. He shifted the sword from one hand to the other and finally walked over.
“Laoshi.”
“What are you up to?” Gui Yin asked as his hand raised to habitually rub Yankui’s head.
Yankui dodged Gui Yin’s hand. He stilled at Gui Yin’s shocked expression and quickly explained, “I-I’m sweaty.”
Gui Yin scoffed and rubbed his head anyway. “What? You think I’m not used to sweat?”
Yankui shrank slightly, but remained where he was until he was “taught his lesson”. His face flushed from something other than the heat and he awkwardly shuffled his feet.
“Lord Xun suggested I exercise a bit more,” Yankui mumbled.
“Lord Xun did a health check up on the Young Master recently,” Su Wen explained. “He’s not only malnourished, but because of all the experiments in the past, he has a weaker constitution. Lord Xun says that it’s fine to have a Yin body, but now that he can no longer return to Yinfeng Valley, he can’t rely on ghost qi to survive. He has to find other ways and maybe even cultivate a different path. However, because of the experiments the Void Saint had done to make the Young Master’s body accept the devil path, his cultivation root has been corrupted and damaged.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Gui Yin glanced at Yankui. He hadn’t been aware of Yankui’s precarious situation at Yinfeng Valley, but it was clear that the Void Saint had never treated this child as his own son. Probably more like something to be used, then discarded. It was a miracle that Yankui had lived for as long as he did.
“It’s true that you shouldn’t be reliant on ghost qi,” Gui Yin said thoughtfully. “But suddenly switching to the righteous path would be more difficult on the body, wouldn’t it?”
Ve Qfc jcv Tjcxel rajgfv ja Xel Tlc.
“Ofa’r rff,” Xel Tlc wewyifv. “Qts vbc’a kf ibbx jgbecv Sg’ijcu’r ilygjgs? P’w regf atfgf klii yf rbwf tfjiatlfg xlcv bo vfnli meialnjalbc sbe mjc ags.”
“Qjla—”
“Yg vlv Obgv Wec reuufra tf ags rqlglaeji meialnjalbc?” Xel Tlc jrxfv.
“He…well, he wasn’t specific. He only said that the cultivation path that used ghost qi to survive is no longer viable,” Su Wen explained.
“Then, let’s find something else to try,” Gui Yin said. “Is there anything you’re interested in?”
Yankui lowered his head as Gui Yin rubbed it back and forth again. “Um…not particularly…The devil path is what I’m used to, but it seems like it always requires hurting people or living beings. I…don’t really want to do that anymore.”
Gui Yin nodded. “Then, shall we try a path that is neither evil nor righteous?”
Yankui glanced at him skeptically. “Is that real?”
“Who knows?” Gui Yin shrugged. He hooked an arm over Yankui’s shoulder. “But we won’t know until we try to find out. Su Wen!”
“Yes, My Lord?”
“Where’s the library?”
Su Wen happily tossed the straw dummy aside and brushed his hands together. “This Servant will show you immediately!”
The library was in the lower levels of Huigu Palace where the sun didn’t reach. To reach it, one must go down a series of sloping hallways and then travel down a set of spiral steps until they reached a set of mahogany double doors. The doors weren’t locked, but they required a special spell to get in. Su Wen pressed a hand to it, murmured the chant, and the doors naturally opened.
“Each person has a special spell,” Su Wen explained. “It’s to keep track of who enters and leaves. This servant will ask Master to give one to Lord Ninglan and the Young Master.”
Gui Yin shook his head. “I don’t need one.”
Su Wen stared at him. “But why not? It’s not a difficult thing to do.”
“I’m not a member of Huigu Palace. Wouldn’t it be improper if I were given access to something so well-protected?”
Su Wen and Yankui glanced at each other.
“I don’t think Yìfù would mind,” Yankui said.
“That’s right,” Su Wen agreed. “Lord Ninglan, you’re practically a member of our sect! You’re the first person that Master has given full access to every door in the sect!”
Gui Yin awkwardly fanned himself. “Mm, well, then, isn’t that already fine? If I need to visit the library, I can just ask you two or Er’lang. I really don’t need my own spell. Um…ah, over here seems to have cultivation manuals.”
Su Wen frowned slightly as Gui Yin ran off. Yankui sighed. “He should take this chance to cement himself as one of the masters of the sect!”
Su Wen glanced at Yankui’s determined expression and silently nodded to himself. He agreed.
Lucky for them, Gui Yin had already walked off far enough to not hear what they were rambling about. His gaze scanned the manuals from top to bottom. There were quite a few techniques that he had thought were lost to the throes of time that appeared here. Others were repeats or other variations of rather simple cultivation techniques used by rogue cultivators. There was an entire section on cultivation techniques of those in the desert. They were not too in-depth, but there were notes carefully scribbled into the margin.
Gui Yin raised a brow and read through the notes. They were thoughtful and carried a great amount of detail.
“Su Wen.”
“Yes?”
“Who wrote in the margin of the books?” Gui Yin curiously asked.
Su Wen recognized the handwriting immediately. “Well, that would be our family’s Master!”
Gui Yin stared at Su Wen and then looked back at the handwriting.
The calligraphy was four points similar to his own. It reminded him of how Gui Linghuo and Qin Siyi’s own handwriting resembled his own. But that was natural, wasn’t it? He had been the one to teach them.
“But your Master’s handwriting doesn’t look like this,” Gui Yin said.
Su Wen raised a brow. He took another look. “It is. This is his. Any notes made here are from him. Most of the manuals were written out by him too.”
Gui Yin frowned slightly. “That can’t be right. Clearly, his handwriting is really bad.”
“Bad?! Lord Ninglan, what are you saying? Lord Xun says that everything about Master is crooked, but his handwriting is the straightest and neatest there is!” Su Wen exclaimed. “I hear that Lord Xun barely had to teach Master how to write and he got it right away. This—”
“It’s because of his hand, isn’t it?” Gui Yin realized.
Su Wen stilled.
Since Langxia had lost his right arm, he hadn’t written anything. The documents and such that required writing were orally dictated while A-Qi or the others wrote it out for him. Just like how he was unwilling to pick up his swords again, he had never picked up a writing utensil again. It was as if he was afraid to face the ugliness in the things that he was previously so proud of.
But, if that were the case, how could Gui Yin know what his writing currently looked like?
“He has to write with his left hand now,” Gui Yin said. He looked up at Su Wen with a smile. “That’s probably why his writing looks so bad. But before…it was quite handsome.”
Each stroke carried an arrogant vitality and confidence. Even though the shape of each stroke was a little odd, the words were still readable. Gui Yin wondered if the odd shape of Langxia’s writing stemmed from Mandarin being his second language.
“Do you know when he wrote this book?”
“Huh…uh…the books up here were from Master’s younger years. The ones at the bottom floor are more recent.”
Gui Yin hummed. He held onto the book for a moment longer before he stored it away.
Su Wen and Yankui expected Gui Yin to rush down to see Langxia’s writing before he had been crippled, but instead, he leisurely browsed the entire wall of cultivation manuals. He frowned and shook his head.
“There doesn’t seem to be anything suitable. Were the ones I handed you interesting?”
“Not really,” Yankui admitted.
“Alright, let’s move down a floor then,” Gui Yin sighed.
On the second floor, Langxia’s writing was a bit more mature. The odd sharp edges and curves had smoothed out, but there was still a unique flavor to his writing. The parts that were similar to Gui Yin’s had also disappeared a little. His strokes became longer and less neat. His brush seemed to have dragged across the page and lingered as he fell into thought. Shortly after, his writing would become bunched and be more scribbled. Although it was still neat and legible, it resembled his current writing more. Along with notes in hanzi, there were also words in a language that Gui Yin didn’t know.
“Desert tongue,” Su Wen explained.
Gui Yin softly nodded.
Langxia’s native language was mixed in among the words he knew. It was amusing and clearly showed how rushed he had been in writing down his thoughts.
“Is desert tongue hard to learn?” Gui Yin asked.
“I wouldn’t say it’s difficult. It might be a struggle though, since the sounds they use are so different from the languages in the Central Plains.”
“I see,” Gui Yin mumbled. He put the book back and sighed. He turned to Yankui with a small frown. “Anything catch your eye?”
Yankui sheepishly shook his head.
“That’s fine! Choosing a cultivation method is the same as choosing a spouse—you have to consider everything very carefully and make sure it matches your own temperament. After all, you wouldn’t want to choose something like the Heartless Path, right?”
Yankui nodded.
“Exactly. So, let’s just take our time and look through everything,” Gui Yin said.
After the second floor, was the lowest level. The lowest level still carried small balconies with books. Although the staircase led downwards, the walls stretched up higher still. Su Wen pointed out the sections with cultivation manuals and the three of them broke off to find things that could potentially match Yankui.
Gui Yin’s gaze skimmed over the handwriting in the manual. A small smile set on his lips.
The writing had clearly matured. The quick strokes were more prominent, but Gui Yin still couldn’t shake his curiosity. He really couldn’t think of a reason why Langxia’s handwriting resembled his so closely. Could it be that Lord Xun’s writing was similar to his? That could be a possibility.
When night time settled, Yankui was also close to giving up.
He sat down at the table and sprawled out. “It’s impossible.”
“What’s impossible?” Gui Yin scoffed as he thumbed through a book. “We’ll find something eventually.”
Yankui lifted his head. “I think I’ll die before that happens.”
Gui Yin lightly smacked the top of Yankui’s head. “Don’t say such unlucky things. Are you trying to make my disciple a widow?”
Yankui blushed and lowered his head to the book he had been laying on. “There’s just nothing in these books for me…either I completely switch or I have to do some immoral things. I don’t want to.”
Gui Yin glanced at Yankui. He sighed and closed the book he was reading. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way. You don’t have to be too hung up on it, alright? If Huigu Palace doesn’t have the books you want, we’ll just search elsewhere.”
Yankui pursed his lips. He nodded dispiritedly.
“Now, now, don’t look like that. Where’s the boy that’s always bouncing off the walls?” Gui Yin said. He rubbed the top of Yankui’s head. “Let’s wait for Su Wen to come back with our dinner and we’ll try searching again another day.”
“Have you read all the books here?”
Yankui’s head shot up. Gui Yin turned and watched as Langxia walked over with Su Wen following closely behind him.
“We’ve read most of the cultivation manuals,” Gui Yin said as Langxia set the tray of food down. He looked at Langxia closely. “Are you done with your business?”
“It was hardly business,” Langxia said. “Just some people needlessly making trouble. Where have you read to?”
Yankui pointed out the walls. “Just about that many.”
Langxia hummed. He turned to Su Wen. “Have you taken them to the forbidden section?”
“This servant wouldn’t dare,” Su Wen protested.
“Little coward,” Langxia murmured. He touched the top of Gui Yin’s head lightly. “Let’s eat first. Then, I’ll take you to see the forbidden section.”
Yankui had already grabbed his bowl of noodles. He looked at Langxia quizzically. “Forbidden section? Is it anything bad?”
“Not necessarily bad. It’s just difficult and there is a higher rate of Qi Deviation,” Langxia said. He sat down beside Gui Yin. “Though, if it’s you, I’m sure you’ll be fine. With your mixed constitution, you’ll be able to master it in no time.”
Gui Yin glanced at Langxia. “You even have those kinds of techniques?”
“I’m a bit of a collector,” Langxia said with a small shrug. He smiled and leaned a little closer. “This is why people despise owing me.”
Because Langxia’s condition for a favor was to give up parts of their cultivation technique.
Gui Yin scoffed. What a sly snake this man was.
Langxia smiled at Gui Yin’s judgemental gaze, but didn’t say anything else.
When the forbidden section was brought up, Su Wen quickly excused himself. Langxia told Yankui to stay outside and brought Gui Yin along with him. Gui Yin glanced at Langxia curiously as he followed him up a set of stairs.
“Is this okay?”
“The manuals in the forbidden area are complete. There is no need to worry about only being able to cultivate halfway.”
“I’m not talking about that,” Gui Yin said. “Is it okay for me to see?”
“What isn’t okay for you to see?” Langxia asked. He glanced at Gui Yin. “Do you think I have any secrets?”
“I think your secrets are enough to fill the entire ocean,” Gui Yin said.
“I meant to ask if you think I have any secrets that I need to hide from you?” Langxia asked. “I already said we’re fated to be together. That means we’ll be with each other for the rest of our lives. I think it’s tiring to keep secrets from someone who is meant to be my closest person.”
Gui Yin was glad the hallway had dim lighting. He gulped as quietly as he could as his fan moved faster. “Then, can I ask a question?”
“Ask.”
“Have we met before?”
Langxia’s steps slowed. Gui Yin also halted as Langxia turned to look at him.
The lamps cast a subtle glow, only allowing Gui Yin to see half of Langxia’s face. The other was obscured in shadow, making his entire person seem more serious than usual. For a moment, Gui Yin wondered if he had been too hasty. Langxia said a lot of flowery words, but who knew how much he meant. Besides, he himself still didn’t know how or if Langxia knew him in the past. There was always just a sense of familiarity that lingered around him, making Gui Yin unconsciously trust him.
Although Gui Yin had been denying it and ignoring it for a long time, even he knew that this wasn’t natural.
Now that his feelings had evolved to the stage that it had, Gui Yin couldn’t hold back any longer. The question fell out with little consideration, but Gui Yin’s mind reeled as he quickly began to backtrack.
“Never mind. It’s just that sometimes I feel like I’ve met you before. And because I’ve gone through so many reincarnations my memory’s gone bad, so—”
“You taught me how to write.”
“…Excuse me?”
“When I was little,” Langxia said. “It was you who taught me how to write.”
Gui Yin stared at Langxia.
“You won’t remember him,” Langxia said. He glanced at Gui Yin and slowly looked down. “It’s fine. I’m nothing like the little boy from back then anyway. You can just treat us as two different people.”
Gui Yin watched Langxia head down the hallway a little further. The name sat at the back of his throat, stirring up the vague dreams and broken memories in his mind. His heart hammered against his chest. He took several steps forward and caught the edge of Langxia’s sleeve.
“A-Xia?”
Langxia froze.
“I’m right, right?” Gui Yin said. His hand trembled slightly as his grip on Langxia’s sleeve tightened. “When I was sixteen, there was a little boy I saved from the river. The boy who couldn’t speak Mandarin properly and whose throat had been ruined—that was you, wasn’t it?”
Langxia’s hands slowly tightened into fists.
His heart hammered against his chest. It was a clean, clear feeling that was unobstructed by the usual fogginess he had when it was Gui Yin’s own emotions. His throat rolled and he slowly turned to Gui Yin.
“…You remembered.”
God, Er’lang patting Gui Yin’s head is the best thing ever
And he remembered!!!
thanks for reading!
<3<3
He remembered. 🤧
Thank you for this chapter!
thanks for reading!!!
OH MY GOD IT WAS HIM!!!!!!
Omg yesss he finally remembered 😭😭
Also SW and YK being matchmakers are the cutest