Cw; near noncon
“Yin-gege…Gege, it’s the afternoon. Get out of bed!”
The curtains were thrown aside, revealing a blinding light. Gui Yin squinted his eyes and rolled back onto his stomach. He buried his head into the pillow and refused to let go even as the blankets were pulled from him. It revealed him to the chilling winter mornings, but he only shrimped up. The young man standing beside his bedside and reached out in an attempt to pull the pillow away from him.
Instead of succeeding, the young man’s wrist was caught and he was swiftly trapped under Gui Yin.
Upon requiring his new body pillow, Gui Yin expertly wiggled himself on top of Erlang and settled there unmoving.
The soft laugh vibrated against Gui Yin’s chest, waking him up a little more. He felt gentle hands caressing his head and a soft kiss press itself against the side of Gui Yin’s head. Gui Yin’s brows furrowed. He shifted closer, his hands insistently clinging to Erlang, but his lips still moved to ask a silly question.
“Did you just kiss me?”
“Me? No,” Erlang said with a cheeky smile. “Are you still asleep, gege?”
“…I don’t know,” Gui Yin mumbled. He tucked his head against Erlang’s shoulder. “But I’m so sleepy…”
“This is what you get for drinking so much,” Erlang said. “But you kept insisting that it was the weekend, so it was fine. Now look at you. It’s the afternoon and you haven’t even changed out of your pajamas.”
Despite his nagging words, Erlang’s voice was soft and gentle. Gui Yin’s drowsiness increased again as he basked in Erlang’s gentle massaging service. His lips curved in a small smile and he let his eyes drift shut again.
“I think…it’s because I had a bad dream…” Gui Yin muttered.
After all, when people have bad dreams, it’s very difficult to have a restful night.
“Bad dream?” Erlang echoed. “What dream?”
“Don’t remember…” Gui Yin said. “It was very long…very upsetting. No matter how loudly I called for you, you wouldn’t come…”
“I wouldn’t?” Erlang frowned. He shook his head. “That doesn’t sound like me.”
Gui Yin’s lashes fluttered slightly. He stared ahead blankly and hummed. “It sure doesn’t.”
“If that were the real me, I would fly to your side in an instant,” Erlang boldly claimed.
“What if you can’t?”
“I can’t? Why can’t I?” Erlang shook his head. “The only reason I wouldn’t be by your side is if I were on the verge of death. Otherwise—”
Gui Yin’s grip on Erlang tightened.
“…Gege?”
“…You’re still alive. Don’t say something so unlucky.”
Erlang was stunned for a moment before he laughed again. He squeezed Gui Yin in a tight hug and hummed. “I’m still alive. And you’re perfectly fine. It was all a bad dream.”
“…But then what if this is the dream and that was my reality?”
Erlang frowned slightly. He wanted to say that it wasn’t true, but he somehow felt that these weren’t the words that Gui Yin wanted to hear. “How are you so sure that one’s reality?”
Gui Yin remained silent.
“…If reality is so difficult, just pretend it’s the opposite,” Erlang suggested. “After all, isn’t it easier to wake up from a nightmare than to wake up to one?”
Gui Yin chuckled. He cuddled closer to Erlang and hummed. “You’re right.”
“Don’t worry,” Erlang whispered. He hugged Gui Yin just a little closer. “I don’t know what the me in your dream is doing, but I’ll definitely come to you. Just hold on a little longer, okay?”
Gui Yin hummed. He smiled and closed his eyes again. “I’ll see you soon.”
“Mn. I’ll see you soon.”
A bucket of cold water greeted Gui Yin as he woke up. He felt fingers fumbling to unlock the shackles at his wrist, then his ankles and finally his neck. His vision blacked at the edges and he nearly fell forward. He quickly steadied himself and leaned back against the wall instead. The eyes that looked up at the guards still contained a rebellious fire in them, making the younger of the guards step back.
“Still have some fight in you, don’t you?” the guard asked with a scoff.
Another roughly grabbed Gui Yin by the hair and tugged him over. “Even with your face all bruised up like this, you’re still quite the looker, Lord Ninglan.” A rough, calloused hand pinched Gui Yin’s chin. “If you promise to spend a night with me, maybe I’ll think about letting you slip away.”
Gui Yin scoffed. He pulled his head away and glared at the second guard. Despite his hoarse voice, his way of speech did not lack its previous power. “My apologies, good sir. But I have high standards in who I spend the night with, even if my life is on the line.”
The second guard’s companion snickered, making the man begin to fume.
Gui Yin held his head high with a lift of his brow. “Or you could just make me.”
The amusement of the first guard stopped. The two guards shared a tense glance as Gui Yin laughed.
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.
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Gui Yin rolled his eyes and allowed himself to be dragged out of the prison.
The moment the doors opened, Gui Yin couldn’t help but squint his eyes. He tilted his head up and watched as a flock of birds covered the cloudless skies. It was a sunny day and the snow beneath glistened beautifully. Gui Yin stilled for a moment as he took in the scenery. As expected, it really was nowhere near any city.
Gui Yin glanced at the rickety carriage that was prepared and let out a contempt scoff.
“Such a primitive way of traveling,” Gui Yin muttered. “I suppose we’re not in a rush to be anywhere, are we?”
The guards ignored Gui Yin. They dragged him to the carriage, opened the doors and tossed him inside without a second glance. Gui Yin flinched as the shackles that protruded through his shoulders hit the back of the carriage. He drew in a painful breath and closed his eyes as stars painted his blackening vision. A moment later, he finally managed to catch another breath. He forced himself to sit up and braced himself for a bump ride.
He didn’t know how many days had passed since he had fainted from his last session of torture. It would most likely take a few days to get off of this mountain. A week, plus another three days, and maybe another two? It would be at least two weeks since Gui Yin had gone missing and since Qiao Ceng had broken out of his prison.
Two weeks was a long time. He feared what the state of the world would be in by the time he arrived at his trial.
Gui Yin closed his eyes for a moment of rest, but his eyes snapped back open right away.
Two weeks was a long time.
Li Huanwei had set up this big fiasco and performed this large play all in an attempt to frame Gui Yin and potentially bring down Yunjing Pavilion, as well as the Zhengyang Shan Sect that relied on Gui Yin’s support. However, in two weeks, won’t everyone have figured out that the great demon god had broken out of prison? Since Li Huanwei was working with Qiao Ceng, at that point, Qiao Ceng just needed to raze everything to the ground and claim it all as his own. Why were they still doing playing this charade?
Had Li Huanwei gone rogue? Or was Qiao Ceng too weak to give out commands?
After all, it had been a premature escape. According to all the digging Gui Yin and Langxia did, as well as Yankui’s personal intel, the ritual clearly needed more resentful energy before Qiao Ceng could be transferred to another body and escape the Whirlpool Prison.
Then, was all this just to stall time? However, it wasn’t in line with Qiao Ceng’s cut throat was of doing things. Everything wasn’t organized well and was too sloppy. There were too many inconsistencies and holes within their plan.
Gui Yin clicked his tongue and leaned his head back. He allowed his head to thump against the wall as the creaky carriage moved downhill.
He hated not having any answers. He hated even more that he didn’t even have the ability to investigate anything at the moment.
Gui Yin glanced out the cracks of the carriage at the moving scenery before closing his eyes again. Well, one thing was for sure—whatever he was going to face next was about to be an absolute shit show, so he might as well rest up for it.
The pavilion hadn’t seen so much activity since before the war against ghost cultivators. Perhaps the last time anyone had used it was actually Lord Immortal Ninglan, when he was trying to stifle the slave trading of spirits. Now, the cultivators sat around restlessly. They knew little of what this conference was for, yet everyone was subconsciously on edge.
Rumors of Qiao Ceng’s escape had spread far and wide in a matter of three weeks. Although Yunjing Pavilion had yet to say anything about, their disciples that had been sent to the lower realm to observe the Whirlpool Prison was enough of a confirmation. Now, the entire pavilion was filled with chatter. However, this chatter isn’t the worrying murmur that so many would suspect it to be.
Instead, it was delighted gossip.
“Do you think they’ll actually show up?” one cultivator mused.
“Why not? If anything, this conference was probably called because of all the rumors. If they don’t show their faces, it’ll be like they’re ignoring responsibility,” another pointed out.
“Who do you think they’ll send this time?”
“I hope it’s Lord Ninglan.”
“What’s wrong with you? Shouldn’t you be hoping for Lord Immortal He Ying?”
“See? This is where you have no taste. It should be Lord Caowen you guys are searching for!”
Another person interrupted their bickering with a sigh. “But I heard a rumor that Lord Immortal Liaosu had awoken. Shouldn’t he be coming instead?”
“Isn’t that just a rumor?” someone else rolled their eyes. “Then, if we’re talking about rumors, I heard a rumor that he’s crippled! How could a cripple have the guts to show his face?”
A more reasonable cultivator frowned. “How can you say that? Lord Immortal Liaosu was injured because he was stabilizing the border. If he really is crippled, he was crippled for that reason. How could you be so disrespectful?”
“To be honest, isn’t it Yunjing Pavilion’s fault for wanting to play the hero?” someone whispered. “If they had just reached out for help, most people would fly over to do so! But they just had to wait until the last minute to say anything.”
“That’s right! Besides, it’s one thing to be thankful to them, but everyone in Yunjing Pavilion thinks they’re all that. They don’t know anything about propriety,” another person said with a roll of their eyes. “Personally, I think Lord Immortal Liaosu deserves to be crippled. That’ll bring him down a few notches.”
“What are you even—”
“It’s nice to see that everyone is lively as usual.”
The familiar voice caused the conversation to still.
Silence first fell over one portion of the pavilion, but it soon seeped to the rest.
Lin Cangyuan ignored the sudden attention they drew and lightly patted Deng Yenuo’s shoulder. “Let’s sit over there.”
Deng Yenuo lowered his head obediently and carried Lin Cangyuan to the empty seats to their lift. Jiu Jingyi glared at the gossiping people with a disgusted expression and Ye Liuxing purposely flicked his hair in their faces as they turned to follow Lin Cangyuan.
Those who had been talking loudly about Yunjing Pavilion suddenly shrank back. Those who had been irritably listening in showed a pleased expression.
Deng Yenuo set Lin Cangyuan down and habitually placed a blanket over Lin Cangyuan’s legs. He began to stand again, but Lin Cangyuan placed a hand on his arm and guided him to sit again. Jiu Jingyi and Ye Liuxing took their seats beside Deng Yenuo as Gui Linghuo and Meng Meng went to sit in the row behind them.
“Shizun, I should—”
“It’s cold,” Lin Cangyuan said. “Where do you think you’re going when I need you?”
Lin Cangyuan’s words made Deng Yenuo fall silent. He stopped protesting and remained obediently beside Lin Cangyuan. He even took Lin Cangyuan’s hand into his and began to silently massage them to help keep the cold away.
Jiu Jingyi clicked her tongue. “If Gui-shixiong saw this right now, he’d definitely tease you.”
Ye Liuxing smirked. “What a good disciple you have, Sect Master-shixiong.”
Deng Yenuo’s ears reddened. Lin Cangyuan glared at his martial siblings. “You two sure have a lot to say, don’t you? I don’t see you two saying so much whenever we have meetings.”
“It’s because meetings are boring,” Ye Liuxing said.
“Gossip is always more fun,” Jiu Jingyi added.
Gui Linghuo suppressed his own laughter as Meng Meng giggled.
As the peak lords argued amongst themselves, Meng Meng glanced at Gui Linghuo. She nudged him with her shoulder until the young man glanced at her.
“How are you feeling? We haven’t been able to talk much since you returned,” Meng Meng whispered.
Gui Linghuo smiled. “I’m doing fine, Meng-shijie. Thank you for worrying.”
“That’s good. When you suddenly left, everyone was quite worried,” Meng Meng said. She observed Gui Linghuo silently for a moment before giving him a thumbs up. “But it seems like you’re actually feeling better. Now if only Gui-shibó …”
“He’s fine,” Gui Linghuo muttered. “He…probably had something else to do and didn’t have time to tell us.”
“That’s true. I feel like he always gets scatterbrained when he’s concentrating on something,” Meng Meng said with a small, reluctantly smile.
Despite saying this, Meng Meng knew how horribly Gui Linghuo and his martial siblings had been dealing with this situation. It was as if Gui Yin had disappeared off the face of the earth again. They couldn’t track down even a sliver of his spiritual energy and the help the four of them enlisted still couldn’t find him. If it weren’t for Yue Weiqing so confidently proclaiming that Gui Yin wasn’t dead yet, everyone would have come to the same wretched conclusion as before.
“Anyway, I wonder what this conference is for today. It came so abruptly,” Meng Meng whispered.
“Maybe it’s the Beidou Alliance trying to interrogate us,” Gui Linghuo said, his eyes darkening.
Meng Meng scoffed. “What can they say about us? We properly reported that Whirlpool Prison had been destroyed and that the prisoner had escaped. If they wanted to interrogate us, they should have done so when the sky suddenly started to go through the colors of the rainbow. The Beidou Alliance chose to keep silent about this matter because they didn’t want to worry the public. Don’t listen to those gossip mongers. They don’t know anything.”
Gui Linghuo huffed in agreement. The entire situation was ridiculous. From the gossiping cultivators, down to the horrendous phenomenon some of the seaside villages had experienced.
But it was quite odd. Clearly, the birth of a new demon god was an earthshattering event. Some people had already died, but those at the Beidou Alliance insisted on keeping it under wraps, save for a few of their board member sects. In Gui Linghuo’s opinion, they should have long told the public so that everyone could prepare for war. Even Lin Cangyuan had insisted on telling the public, but was shut down by everyone else in the alliance.
Their letters had been vague and cryptic, saying that they didn’t shake the grass to alarm the snake. But wouldn’t it be more suspicious that the Whirlpool Prison had clearly been broken into, but Yunjing Pavilion did nothing?
Gui Linghuo wasn’t sure what the boarding members of Beidou Alliance had said to Lin Cangyuan, but the matter was eventually abandoned. Still, this left the members of Yunjing Pavilion on edge. They continued to investigate around Whirlpool Prison, in hopes of finding any clues, but the scene was so clean that it was odd.
After Yunjing Pavilion’s untimely arrival, the gossiping of the cultivators had quieted down a bit. Soon, people became restless, but the person who called the conference had yet to arrive.
“What’s taking him so long?” Lin Cangyuan grumbled irritably. “If he doesn’t show up soon, we’re leaving. I have better things to do than sit around and wait for a pompous fool.”
It seemed that other cultivators had the same thought in mind. After another half hour, the crowd began to shift. It was then that someone appeared at the podium.
Jiu Jingyi scoffed as Li Huanwei entered the stage. She leaned over to Ye Liuxing and murmured through gritted teeth, “He made us wait half an hour and now he’s going to make a speech for another half an hour.”
Ye Liuxing gave Jiu Jingyi’s shoulders a massage. “Bear with it, Shijie. Just treat him as wind beside your ear.”
However, contrary to their beliefs, Li Huanwei got straight to the point.
“My apologies for the delay, ladies and gentlemen.” As Li Huanwei got onto the stage, there was a slight skip to his step that made Lin Cangyuan narrow his eyes.
He sat forward a little and waited for what this little rat had to say.
“As you all might have heard, there have not only been demonic activities to the north of the lower realm, but also signs of Qiao Ceng’s reawakening,” Li Huanwei slowly said. His gaze settled on Lin Cangyuan and the others. “Although Yunjing Pavilion has tried their hardest to cover up this fact, we at Yin Hua Palace have already uncovered the truth.”
The statement was like a bolt of lightning on a clear day. Several pairs of eyes turned towards Yunjing Pavilion and Lin Cangyuan let out a low, incredulous laugh. Ye Liuxing frowned and turned to the others uncertainty.
“We definitely wrote a report, didn’t we?” Ye Liuxing mumbled.
“We did,” Deng Yenuo said, his expression darkening. “I was the one who delivered it.”
Jiu Jingyi was the first to shoot up. She pointed and accusing finger at Li Huanwei. “Li Huanwei, what the hell are you talking about!? You’re saying our Yunjing Pavilion didn’t report the happenings of Whirlpool Prison? Did you fall into the lake on your way here or are you just stupid?”
Ye Liuxing and Meng Meng quickly reached to pull Jiu Jingyi back down, but the woman pushed their hands away.
Li Huanwei looked at Jiu Jingyi with an utterly shocked expression. “Are you saying you did report it?”
“Of course, we did!” Jiu Jingyi said, her gaze burning as she looked at Li Huanwei’s fake acting.
“Indeed, we have sent in our report,” Lin Cangyuan said. “It was my own disciple I entrusted with the document and he has already verified that it was given to the Beidou Alliance. We have also received a response from the board members of the alliance, confirming that they will begin their own investigation as well.”
Li Huanwei raised a brow. He laughed sardonically and pressed a hand to his chest. “Sect Master Lin, aren’t I also a board member of the alliance? How come I’ve never read your so-called report.”
“Maybe it’s because you’re—”
“Jingyi.”
Jiu Jingyi closed her mouth at Lin Cangyuan’s warning. She pushed the hands of Ye Liuxing and her own disciple away from her before begrudgingly sitting down.
“Then, perhaps there was a mistake,” Lin Cangyuan said.
It was clear that Lin Cangyuan was offering Li Huanwei a ladder to step off of the podium he had arrived at, yet the man’s arrogant look remained.
Suddenly, an elderly man cleared his throat. He stood and turned to face Lin Cangyuan. “Sect Leader Lin, I’m afraid, This Old Man has also never received your report.”
A few other people, all familiar faces, began to stand. “Nor have I.”
“I haven’t either.”
Among the ten familiar faces, only about three of them looked apologetic. The others looked either indifferent or smug.
Jiu Jingyi felt anger rush to her head, she immediately turned to face Lin Cangyuan, but after seeing her shixiong’s darkening expression, she seemed to understand something in her heart. Ye Liuxing’s heart slowly sank.
Deng Yenuo’s eyes narrowed. He straightened. “Perhaps there was a mix up. I gave the report to Ouyang Chun. If you have any questions, then you can ask her.”
“Ouyang Chun?” Li Huanwei echoed. He turned to the nearest administrative member next to him. “Can you bring in Miss Ouyang Chun? Let’s see what she has to say about this young man’s words.”
The pavilion waited with baited breath for this third-party witness.
Soon, a young woman returned, following the other administrative member. Her expression was calm, but in Deng Yenuo’s eyes she was far too calm. He began to feel a bit uncomfortable and nearly stood. When his eyes met Ouyang Chun’s, he felt as if he had been splashed with cold water.
“Indeed, I do know this young gentleman,” Ouyang Chun said. She looked at him with an apologetic, but distant expression. “However, I don’t remember seeing any report from him.”
Deng Yenuo’s hands shook at his side. He heard himself laugh in disbelief. “Jie, what are you saying?”
Ouyang Chun’s expression became even stranger. “Jie? Young man, we don’t have that kind of relationship.”
“Young Master Deng, could it be that you’re trying to pull on people’s heartstrings now?” Li Huanwei asked with a small frown on his face.
The crowd began to murmur.
The sinking feeling in Deng Yenuo’s chest grew more and more. He turned to Lin Cangyuan and was relieved to find that the accusatory eyes weren’t pointed at him, but at Ouyang Chun and Li Huanwei.
“Enough,” Lin Cangyuan suddenly said.
This one word silenced the entire pavilion and turned their attention back to him.
Lin Cangyuan’s eyes were gloomy as he stared at Li Huanwei. “Alright. Fine. Say that our report hadn’t been delivered. So, what? Exactly what investigation have you been conducting, Palace Master Li?”
Li Huanwei smiled. His eyes narrowed and his lips pinched up unnaturally. “I’m glad you asked.”
He shifted and gestured towards the back entrance of the pavilion. “We have already find the culprit who is guilty of setting the great demon god, Qiao Ceng free.”
Curious murmurs mixed with skeptical chatter flew over the entire stadium. Some people, who were part of Yunjing Pavilion’s faction, showed their confusion. Madam Shan, who was attending in place of Shan Yu, glanced at Lin Cangyuan with a raise of her eyebrow. Lin Cangyuan subtly shook his head, showing that he didn’t know what Li Huanwei was going on about.
“Today, we will bring on the criminal, as well as listen to the testimonies of the witnesses and go through the evidence we have collected against the criminal,” Li Huanwei calmly said. His fingers flexed on the podium as he looked Lin Cangyuan dead in the eyes. “Since this is a matter that concerns Yunjing Pavilion, I trust that Sect Master Lin will cooperate with us, correct?”
Lin Cangyuan’s eyes narrowed imperceptibly. “Of course, Palace Lord Li. Our Yunjing Pavilion has always prided ourselves in leaning towards the side of justice. However, Palace Lord Li, if this evidence does not add up with reality, I hope your Yin Hua Palace will also take responsibility.”
More murmuring rippled through the previously hushed audience.
Gui Linghuo felt a blinding rage building up within him again.
Whirlpool Prison’s destruction and the rebirth of the Great Demon God, Qiao Ceng, was tantamount to the destruction of the mortal realm. Yet, here these people were, just sitting back and waiting for a good show. It was the same when the ghost barrier had broken. Not one of them had thought to step out first to ensure the common populace’s safety. They all sat back and watched as the larger sects took the brunt of the hits with the excuse that they weren’t strong enough to help. Meanwhile, they had completely neglected to acknowledge the brave deeds of the cultivators in the lower realm.
This was the arrogance of the cultivators in the upper realm. It was disgusting, two-faced, and rotten from deep within.
Gui Linghuo tried his best to push back his temper. He knew that if he let it explode now, most of the efforts he had spent to get rid of the ghostly qi within his body would have been for nothing. However, the look on Li Huanwei’s face kept him alert. Anxiety nibbled at the back of his mind and his fingers couldn’t help but twitch towards the hilt of his sword as a sinking feeling took a hold of him.
It shouldn’t be.
It couldn’t be.
Gui Linghuo’s tightly gripped the hilt of his sword. He closed his eyes as the crowd fell silent. He listened to the sound of wood wheels, rolling on the marble floor, as they wheeled out the supposed criminal.
When Gui Linghuo opened his eyes, he fell into shock. He could feel Meng Meng tugging him frantically back down, but his vision was already blurring. He could feel his veins pulsing with a familiar, dark matter.
His burning gaze stared at the cage in front of him and the crippled person who sat at the bottom of the cage.
“Linghuo, sit—”
“Shizun,” Gui Linghuo whispered. His reddened gaze slowly shifted to Li Huanwei. The temperature in the arena dropped significantly as Gui Linghuo’s quiet question rang out loudly in everyone’s ears, “What did you do to my Shizun?”
(⇀‸↼‶) you go beat everyone up, Gui Linghuo, cause i cant akxhsjdhw;;;;;
Gahhhhhhhh kill them all please and that ouyaun something hiw could you do that to us ?? Is she drugged or is she wanting to be killed herself .. fcking piece of shits these all high end cultivators
HOLY SHIT SORRY FOR SWEARING BUT SHIT HIT THE FAN OMGGGGG