“So, what brings you here, Gui-shidi?”
“Me?”
Lin Cangyuan met Gui Yin’s surprised gaze. He slowly averted his eyes and looked around. After making sure he hadn’t been sleepwalking and this was, indeed, his Li Hua Peak, he turned back to Gui Yin with an unreadable expression.
“Yes, you. Or is there a specter here that I’m unaware of?” Lin Cangyuan asked, looking around curiously. “Or are you trying to convince me that you frequent my peak now?”
“I was just…taking a walk,” Gui Yin said with a shrug. He clicked his tongue, lightly tapping Liu Cangyuan’s chest with the edge of his fan. “Sect Master-shixiong, I don’t have to have business to come over and visit you, do I?”
Lin Cangyuan opened and closed his mouth for a moment. His brows furrowed and he reached out his hand towards Gui Yin. Gui Yin took a step back, his gaze turning quizzical.
“Are you okay?”
“What do you mean?” Gui Yin asked.
“I was just thinking, unless you discovered you had an incurable disease or you were delirious from illness, there’s no way you would say such a thing,” Lin Cangyuan said.
“I…I just realized that I don’t leave my peak that often,” Gui Yin said. He gestured around vaguely. “I wanted to explore. Maybe it’ll help…jog my memory or something.”
“Then, that shouldn’t be my peak you’re visiting. You should be going to Zi Cao Peak,” Lin Cangyuan said, his eyes still narrowed skeptically.
“See…I didn’t know that,” Gui Yin said, an easy-going smile on his face. He fanned himself as he laughed. “Now, I do.”
“So…you’ll leave now?”
“Leave? No,” Gui Yin shook his head. He snapped his fan closed and looked Lin Cangyuan up and down. “Unless Shixiong has something to hide?”
“I don’t,” Lin Cangyuan replied honestly. “I just think it’s extremely weird that you’re visiting my peak.”
“Well, stranger things have happened,” Gui Yin said. “Besides, Li Hua Peak isn’t that bad. I like the…trees.”
“…You always made fun of my peak for having pear trees,” Lin Cangyuan said.
“I was just saying things,” Gui Yin threw out a flattering smile. He cleared his throat. “Anyway, I just thought about taking a stroll. Sect Master-shixiong needn’t escort me.”
“You saying that makes me want to follow you.”
“You really don’t need to.”
“I’m getting suspicious, Gui-shidi,” Lin Cangyuan said.
“Well, stop it. Have I ever done anything bad in my life?” Gui Yin asked.
Lin Cangyuan paused. “Indeed, you haven’t.”
“Precisely. So, why would I start now?”
“Alright,” Lin Cangyuan said. He lowered his voice, “Can you tell me why you’re here later?”
Gui Yin glanced around before nodding.
Lin Cangyuan straightened and cleared his throat. “I’ll see you another time, then.”
“Most likely at dinner,” Gui Yin said, flourishing his fan as he stepped back onto the path.
Once Lin Cangyuan departed, Gui Yin looked around curiously. Although he had made fun of Li Hua Peak before, it had an undeniably beautiful garden. In fact, each peak in Yunjing Pavilion had something noteworthy about them. Zi Cao Peak was known for its herbal farms; Lin Hua Peak was known for its thriving lakes and lotuses; Shuangye Peak was known for its maple trees. Li Hua Peak always had a bountiful harvest of pears, but because that wasn’t as great for decoration, Lin Cangyuan had invested in other foliage to make the peak look livelier.
There were many types of flowers that lined the path—most of which Gui Yin could not name. He looked on with great interest as he traveled further down the garden’s cobbled path. He stopped only when he saw someone coming into view.
On a bench, looking somewhat distraught, was a young man in the standard yellow uniforms. His hair was bound by a turquoise ribbon, held up in a ponytail. In his hand was a cultivation manual, bent oddly as he wrung it back and forth while he was lost in thought. His normally boyish face was creased until he looked like a yaksha, but it didn’t detract from his handsomeness.
Did all cultivators have to look good? Was it a requirement? Gui Yin wondered, as he approached the young man. Thinking about a few other cultivators he had met during his time here, Gui Yin promptly dismissed the idea. There were plenty of ugly cultivators too. They weren’t vampires that naturally became good-looking upon transformation.
A light clearing of the throat interrupted Wei Ze’xi’s thoughts. He looked up abruptly. Upon seeing who it was, his eyes widened and he nearly tripped as he hurriedly stood.
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.
“G-Gui-shishu! How come you’re here?” Wei Ze’xi asked.
“P kjr offilcu j ilaaif raeoos, rb P vfmlvfv ab ajxf j ragbii atgbeut atf ujgvfc,” Xel Tlc rjlv. Llr fsfr vgloafv vbkc ab atf mgewqifv wjceji lc Qfl If’zl’r tjcv. “Ccv sbe’gf tfgf yfmjerf…?”
“Ktf kfjatfg lr clmf,” Qfl If’zl rjlv jyrfcawlcvfvis jr tf aglfv ab rwbbat bea atf mgfjrfr bc atf wjceji. “Ccv P tjv j iba bc ws wlcv, rb P vlvc’a kjca ab rajs lc ws gbbw ab raevs…”
“A lot on your mind?” Gui Yin asked.
“Mn…” Wei Ze’xi glanced at Gui Yin.
“Would you like to talk about it? If it’s a secret, rest assured—I’m quite tight-lipped,” Gui Yin said.
Wei Ze’xi was still hesitating when Gui Yin sat down. The two men made eye contact and Gui Yin lightly patted the empty spot beside him. The young man eventually sat down. He sighed and pressed his head into his hands.
“Gui-shishu, have you ever been in love?”
“In love?” Gui Yin tried his best to play the part of a surprised elder. He fiddled with his fan. “So this is an issue of love?”
Wei Ze’xi’s face flushed slightly. “I know, I shouldn’t be thinking about these things. As a member of the immortal path, this should be the last thing on my mind. I shouldn’t be so distracted by the mortal world. I—”
“Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” Gui Yin said. He observed Wei Ze’xi’s shock, before continuing. “I mean, the door to the Celestial Realm has long been closed to mortals. Sure, we can obtain immortality, but to follow the path of Dao so strictly is…” Gui Yin cleared his throat before lowering his voice. “It’s not exactly required anymore, is it?”
Purity of the heart and mind, distance from the mortal path—these were all things required if one wanted to ascend to godhood. However, the path to godhood hat been closed off for thousands of years, ever since the last Celestial and Demonic War. Things such as “abandoning the red dust” were only things that the older generation wanted to drill into their heads. And this was (usually) a way to make sure their young disciples didn’t get too distracted by matters of love.
Wei Ze’xi’s eyes sparkled. Gui Yin could almost hear the intimacy points rising. But was what he said so special? There was a reason Yunjing Pavilion was so looked down—they abandoned most of the old beliefs, thus causing others to nickname them “beggar sect” behind their back, due to their lack of… “propriety”.
Perhaps Lin Cangyuan did things differently with his disciples.
Gui Yin silently recalled Lin Cangyuan’s relationship with Deng Yenuo and sighed. He looked back at Wei Ze’xi. “Love is one of human’s core desires. You’re not a god, so why are you trying to avoid it?”
Wei Ze’xi’s embarrassment was staved off by Gui Yin’s gentle reassurances. Still, he felt a bit ashamed. “I…accidentally kissed a girl.”
Although this girl’s name was omitted, Gui Yin already knew most of what happened. As expected, Wei Ze’xi recounted what Ye Liuxing had already told Gui Yin. What came next was why Gui Yin had ventured to Li Hua Peak.
“I tried to find…this girl to apologize,” Wei Ze’xi said. “But I feel like she’s been avoiding me. I don’t know how to get to her. When I ask others about where she might be, they pretend like they don’t know anything.”
“Hm…I see…” Gui Yin frowned slightly. He tapped his folding fan against his chin before glancing at Wei Ze’xi. “And you just want to apologize to her?”
“I—well—yes,” Wei Ze’xi said, nodding emphatically. “What happened was an accident. Besides, she’s a pure, proper lady. It must have been such a shock for her. Especially since it happened with someone like me…in front of a bunch of people.”
“Someone like you?” Gui Yin echoed. “What do you mean by that?”
Wei Ze’xi’s face flushed again. He made a mess of his hair before sighing. “I don’t know. I would say my cultivation is above average, but that’s a low bar already. I’m handsome, but there’s a lot of handsome people in the cultivation world. My personality is kind of bad, but if I try anything else, then I’m just being someone I’m not. There’s no way P—that…girl would like me.”
“Is that what you personally think?” Gui Yin asked, raising a brow.
Wei Ze’xi glanced at Gui Yin. “Does Shishu have other thoughts?”
“What do you think of me?” Gui Yin asked, straightening his robes. “As a romantic prospect, that is.”
“Gui-shishu is a person fitting to hold the title ‘lord immortal’—you’re talented, peerlessly attractive, and stand above the rest. Anyone would be lucky to have you,” Wei Ze’xi said enthusiastically.
If Gui Yin hadn’t known about the present situation, even he would mistakenly think Wei Ze’xi had a crush on him. Luckily, he was able to keep his mind out of the gutter. After a brief shock, he lightly cleared his throat, his expression remaining the same.
“You think that, but I have other thoughts,” Gui Yin said. “I’m impatient, I have a short-temper, I tell lies just as easily as I can eat two bowls of rice. I wouldn’t say I’m unattractive, but saying I’m a peerless beauty is a lie. I think that anyone who ends up with me must have done something horrible in their past life.”
Wei Ze’xi shook his head as Gui Yin spoke. “That’s not true!”
“But this is what I personally think. Who are you to tell me what’s right or wrong?” Gui Yin asked.
Wei Ze’xi’s eyes widened, but he eventually kept his mouth shut.
“What I’m trying to say is,” Gui Yin sighed, “you may think one thing, but the other party may think another.”
Wei Ze’xi watched his feet kick up the dust below them. “I suppose.”
“Do you like this girl?”
“…I do.”
“If you just go and apologize and accidentally say something like ‘it was an accident’ or ‘it shouldn’t have happened’, what do you think will happen?”
“We can go back to how we were?”
Gui Yin lightly knocked Wei Ze’xi over the head with his fan. “For her to be so embarrassed, it must mean she likes you.”
Wei Ze’xi stared at Gui Yin.
“So, if you say all those things, she’ll be hurt, because she’ll think you never even thought of her in that way,” Gui Yin said. “What will you do then?”
“I—but she probably doesn’t?”
“On the off chance she does,” Gui Yin said, baiting the boy little by little. “Are you really willing to live like this for the rest of your life? You don’t want to see her again—is that it?”
“N-no…”
“Do you want to hear what I would do in your situation?” Gui Yin asked.
Wei Ze’xi nodded.
“I would tell her how I really feel,” Gui Yin said. “At least, at that point, I won’t end up saying something wrong when I’m trying to spin lies.”
Wei Ze’xi fell silent.
It was rare for the peak lords of Yunjing Pavilion to accept direct disciples. Jiu Jingyi only had one while Gui Yin had only accepted three in the past few years. Wei Ze’xi and Pan Die’an had arrived around the same time for the sect’s entrance trial. As if it were fate, during their trial, the two of them met, worked together, and eventually passed. Seeing how well they worked together, and their talent that shined in that small spark of rivalry, Lin Cangyuan had decided to accept both of them as his direct disciples. At the moment, it only felt like a miracle, but years later, it turned out that it was the fortune of a lifetime.
Wei Ze’xi abruptly stood and pumped his fists. Gui Yin flinched in surprise and quickly schooled his expression. Wei Ze’xi turned and met Gui Yin’s completely composed expression.
“I got it, Shishu! Thank you for listening! I know what to do!” Wei Ze’xi said excitedly.
“Alright, that’s good. That’s good,” Gui Yin nodded. After a moment, his smile stiffened slightly. “So…what is it you plan to do?”
“I plan to confess my feelings,” Wei Ze’xi said, obviously fired up. He nodded to himself and walked off, mumbling all sorts of nonsense under his breath.
Gui Yin watched until Wei Ze’xi had disappeared down the grassy path. He stood and frowned, his fan providing a bit of wind as he contemplated the end of their conversation.
Did he help the child or did he just create another problem?
The wind tickled his ears, seemingly laughing at him. Gui Yin clicked his tongue and frowned at the skies. “Well, what would you have done?”
The instinct to ask for an invisible person’s opinion made Gui Yin freeze. Embarrassment slowly crept up onto the back of his neck, but he knew he wasn’t wrong. He definitely felt that there was another person in his presence, watching him once Wei Ze’xi had left.
His brows furrowed and he looked around, his heart rate rising as he did so. His gaze scanned the foliage. He even walked to the edge of the mountain and looked down.
A sharp click of his tongue escaped his lips. “This is distasteful. If you want to talk, just come out and talk! Why must you follow me around like a ghost who still has lingering attachments to this world?”
Gui Yin was only met with silence. He flourished his fan, the speed at which he produced wind progressively grew faster. “You’re making me seem like a complete lunatic! And you’re making a fool out of me.”
The fan abruptly snapped shut. He pointed to the skies. “If you don’t show up now, don’t ever think about showing up around me, do you hear me? If I ever see you with my own eyes, I’ll beat you up.”
As he turned sharply on his heel, he found a neatly folded note resting just behind him. He suppressed the annoyance that was shooting up towards his head. Alright. This Huigu Palace Lord was great—really great! No wonder he was so well praised by Elder Shan. He truly was someone who could appear without a trace and disappear without a shadow.
Gui Yin begrudgingly bent down and picked up the piece of paper. He unfolded it, his eyes narrowing.
“You never told me how I could repay you, so I’m waiting for my chance.”
Gui Yin crumbled the piece of paper in his hands. “I already said I don’t need you to repay me!”
Instead of throwing it out, Gui Yin shoved the paper into his sleeve and began to stomp away. Another piece of paper floated down, as Gui Yin made his way down the steps of Li Hua Peak. He snatched it from the air and unfolded it again.
“You are my benefactor, whether you like it or not. This lord is never one to allow a debt to go unpaid.”
“Arrogant,” Gui Yin spat out this one word and folded the slip of paper, slipping into his sleeves again.
As he began to cross the bridge of clouds, another piece of paper appeared in his line of vision. This time, it had taken on the form of a crane, flapping its wings until it got Gui Yin’s attention. Against his will, Gui Yin found it quite cute. He hesitated before unfolding it.
“Why are you keeping the notes, Lord Immortal?”
Gui Yin could almost hear the teasing tone through the scribbled words. His face flushed and he stuffed it into his sleeve. He glared at his surroundings, which were nothing but clouds, drifting between the peaks.
“Then, shall I throw them on the ground willy-nilly?” Gui Yin snapped. “I’m not an irresponsible person.”
Although another note did not arrive, Gui Yin felt his ears begin to redden. That bastard—that Huigu bastard—was definitely laughing at him!
Gui Yin stopped just before his peak. He turned around, crossly looking around. “Do. Not. Follow. Me. In.”
There was no answer once again, but Gui Yin didn’t wait. He stomped past the gates of his peak, threw his sleeve behind him to enact an array outsiders could not enter, and traveled tranquilly up the stairs until he reached the main area of Shuangye Peak.
“Making me feel like I’m losing my mind,” Gui Yin grumbled. He pulled out the few notes from his sleeve as he neared his room. He pushed the doors open and closed it.
He sat down at the tea table and pressed the notes down, smoothing them out until they returned to their previous state. He read over the notes again, his brows frowning slightly at the characters on the page. While they weren’t illegible, he had to say they were ugly. He placed a teacup on the notes as a paperweight, and went to his desk and pulled out a box, made from dark rosewood. He returned to the tea table, opened the box, and placed the notes in.
After returning the box to its rightful place, Gui Yin grabbed a light novel from his shelf and sat down at the divan.
At around noon, there was a frantic knock at the door. Gui Yin set the book aside and looked up, just as Ye Liuxing and Jiu Jingyi came crashing in.
“Shixiong, hurry, hurry!” Jiu Jingyi rushed forward and began tugging at Gui Yin.
“Wait, where are we going?” Gui Yin asked as he stuffed his feet into his shoes.
“There’s no time to explain!” Ye Liuxing said. He clicked his tongue. “Why didn’t you come down to eat lunch?”
“We’re immortal cultivators! Why would I go down to eat lunch?” Gui Yin asked as they pulled him from his residence. “Where are we going?”
“To the dining hall!” Jiu Jingyi said. She turned to Gui Yin and smacked his chest three times. “Just teleport there, okay? If we don’t hurry, we’ll miss it?”
“Miss wh—”
“Hurry!”
Gui Yin watched Ye Liuxing and Jiu Jingyi both turned into puffs of white smoke before disappearing to the main peak. He only hesitated for a moment before he followed his martial siblings. When he reappeared in front of the dining hall, he found himself standing behind a crowd of disciples. They were all pointing and looking up at the roof. For a moment, Gui Yin ignored them to stand beside Lin Cangyuan and the others. He flourished his fan and tilted his head up.
The moment he did, his jaw fell to the ground. With his folded fan, he pointed speechlessly at the figure on the roof. He turned to Ye Liuxing and the others, words unable to even begin to form at the back of his throat. They looked at him, all obviously trying to suppress the mortified secondhand embarrassment they felt in their hearts.
“A-are we not…will we not tell him to get down?” Gui Yin finally asked, his voice just a whisper amongst the crowd of clamoring disciples.
He looked at the crowd. Never had he seen this big of a group. He didn’t even know Yunjing Pavilion had this many disciples! Where did all these people come from!?
“You’re going to let him be up there when there’s over a hundred people watching?” Gui Yin hissed.
“What can I do? Grab him by the scruff of his neck and drag him down? We may be his elder, but he’s already a grown man,” Lin Cangyuan said.
“You’re going to watch your disciple embarrass himself to death?” Gui Yin asked, absolutely appalled.
“You can’t die of embarrassment,” Lin Cangyuan said. After saying so, he lifted an orb.
Gui Yin stared at the familiar object. It was familiar. So familiar. After staring at it for a few more seconds, he loudly clicked his tongue. He snatched the orb from Lin Cangyuan’s hand. It was actually his own invention! The Record Orb!
“You’re going to film it?!” Gui Yin snapped.
“Give it back. I need something to commemorate this,” Lin Cangyuan said, patiently waving his hand. “I’ll show it to their children in the future.”
“You—”
“Gui-shixiong, it’s not that serious!” Ye Liuxing comforted, gently tugging the orb from Gui Yin’s already loose grip. “Everyone embarrasses themselves once in a while. He’s already gotten to this old and this is his first embarrassment? It’s quite rare. Quite commendable!”
“I…I don’t care if that kid embarrasses himself or not,” Gui Yin said. “I just don’t want it on my head!”
i feel like i spent half of this chapter setting it down to bury my face in my hands for cuteness or embarrassment akxbskxbsm
look at Gui Yin being so Responsible and not tossing the notes uvu
that was me when i was editing cuz Damn– of COURSE GUi Yin is being responsible he LOVES nature he would never litter bc he LOVES it so much…….thanks for reading!!
+1
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
thanks for reading!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
kicking and squealing right now!! This chapter was so cute and wholesome!! ❤️❤️
Thanks for the chapter!!!!!
It’s cute sweet .. makes you blush and all but but – I’m waiting for the angst !!!! The way it will all unfold will surely be wonderful and make my heart hurt too probably.. I love this tho