The twenty-first century was a realm of forced smiles and forced conversations. Although Gui Yin had technically lived twenty-eight years here, he much preferred the atmosphere of the xianxia world. With enough power, you could tell it to people straight. There, he was the proud and unmoving lord immortal. He had no idea why he even thought it was a good idea to send himself so far in the future in the first place.
That’s right—Gui Yin thought to himself as he traversed the subway—he had sent himself to the twenty-first century, hadn’t he?
He had come to this realization a while ago, but the thought wasn’t able to form fully in his mind. Like a word or a sentence that he knew, but simultaneously forgot, hanging on the tip of his tongue and acting as an itch that he couldn’t scratch. With this sudden illusion that showed Gui Yin the twenty-first century, and with the impeccable timing of the Fire Weed’s amnesic side effects wearing off, Gui Yin could finally grasp these thoughts.
There was only one thing wrong. He really could not remember why he did such a thing.
Gui Yin’s brows were tightly furrowed as he entered the office building.
“Mr. Gui, you’re late today!”
Gui Yin glanced at his manager. With a curt nod, he sat down at his desk, only for the man to stalk over to him.
“Why are you sitting here? You have a meeting right now! You’re three minutes late!”
“Just three minutes,” Gui Yin murmured as he pulled out his laptop and headed for the meeting room.
He ignored the way the manager’s eyes widened incredulously, red veins threatening to pop out at any second. He let out a sigh as the doors slid open in front of him.
He was Lord Immortal Ninglan, but he put up with such nonsense for almost a decade of his life. Really, what was he thinking?
“Mr. Gui.”
“Miss Shen, my apologies for keeping you waiting,” Gui Yin said, giving her a polite smile.
Although this was an illusion, Gui Yin didn’t know how much of it was a projection of his mind and how much of it was played by something real. If he didn’t play along and said something wrong, he feared the repercussions.
“No need to worry. I came here a bit early,” Miss Shen said. She glanced out the door and lowered her voice. “I hope I didn’t cause you too much trouble.”
“He’s always like that,” Gui Yin said with a soft scoff. He set his laptop down and opened it to log in. “Anyway, we were here to discuss your new story?”
“That’s right. The draft you sent me last night was amazing!” Miss Shen exclaimed.
Gui Yin’s fingers froze over the enter key. He glanced at Miss Shen and readjusted his glasses. “Forgive, Miss Shen, which draft was that again?”
“Oh, right! You sent multiple versions. I mean the one that went into more detail about Yunjing Pavilion. The world building was absolutely genius! And it was in line with my vision for it too,” Miss Shen said excitedly.
“Right. That one. Forgive me, Miss Shen, I had a bit of a rough night,” Gui Yin said. He pressed enter and opened up the corresponding files.
The discussion lasted for what felt like an hour within the illusion. As Miss Shen was about to leave, Gui Yin stopped her.
“Miss Shen, I have a few questions,” Gui Yin said.
“Oh, for me?” Miss Shen sat back down.
Gui Yin had placed his laptop on his lap, his legs crossed over one another as his fingers lightly tapped the surface of his laptop. “I do a bit of writing on the side myself.”
“Oh!” Miss Shen’s eyes sparkled curiously. “I’m sure you’re amazing at it!”
“I’m average,” Gui Yin said with a sheepish smile. “But there’s a plot point I can’t get around, so I was hoping you could help me.”
An illusion was a projection of one’s mind. No matter how perfect it seemed, in reality, every thought and every action was taken from some part of Gui Yin. If he asked an illusion a question about himself, the illusion has the possibility of giving an answer that even Gui Yin didn’t know.
Gui Yin slowly explained the “plot”. He recounted everything that happened from him living into the twenty-first century to him being tossed into a xianxia world and then to him (anti-climatically) remembering who he originally was with a miraculous twist that he forgot why he had done all this in the first place.
Miss Shen frowned. “How would you describe this main character?”
“He…” Gui Yin frowned slightly. How would he describe himself? “Well, he’s…conniving, I would say. He’s intelligent, but it isn’t without the price of arrogance.”
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.
“I suppose it’s expected if he’s such a powerful person,” Miss Shen said with a small giggle. She fell silent. After a round of fidgeting, she finally looked at Gui Yin. “The effects of the medicine have worn off, so he anti-climatically remembers himself, but still can’t remember the reason, right?”
“Tfr.”
“Po tf’r j tecvgfv qfgmfca gfmbnfgfv, atfc atfgf jgf j ofk bqalbcr lo sbe ralii vbc’a kjca gfjvfgr ab oluegf bea kts tf mtbrf ab rfcv tlwrfio ab atf oeaegf jcv atfs’gf jii nfgs rlwlijg,” Zlrr Vtfc rjlv. Vtf tfiv eq atgff olcufgr: “Ycf, rbwfbcf ktb lr tlr fcfws jmaejiis rfca tlw ab atf oeaegf yea ibmxfv tlr wfwbglfr. Kkb, rbwfbcf ktb mjgfr jybea tlw jmaejiis rfca tlw ab atf oeaegf ab qgbafma tlw ogbw rbwfatlcu, yea atja rbwfatlcu lr ralii j vjcufg, rb lc bgvfg ab mbcalcef ab qgbafma tlw, tf ibmxfv tlr wfwbglfr. Yg, atgff, tf vlv la ab tlwrfio.”
“But why would he do that?”
“You say he’s a prideful person, yes?” Miss Shen said. “Maybe he made a mistake or maybe he was hurt by something, so he figured it would be better to just forget it.”
Just forget it. It made sense. The more Gui Yin dwelled on the subject, the more he found that it made sense. And if that were the truth then…well, what was the point of worrying about it anymore?
Gui Yin smiled. “Thank you, Miss Shen.”
“My pleasure!”
To be honest, although Gui Yin detested the twenty-first century, he was still fond of his clients. He hoped they were saddled with another version of him or they had found another editor who truly cared.
Gui Yin carried out the motions of a nine to five and left promptly without bothering with overtime. Once he was back in the discomfort of his tiny apartment, Gui Yin looked around and glanced at the clock. There had to be a way to destroy the illusion.
In his knowledge, there were two broad types of illusions and many smaller subcategories underneath. The first kind depended on the memories of its victim while the second kind depended on the mental fortitude. Seeing as these were all events that never happened, Gui Yin could safely assume that it was the latter kind. Illusions crafted from the victim’s mental fortitude were normally mundane and made to trap the victim inside until they experienced a death they weren’t even aware of.
“It makes sense,” Gui Yin mumbled to himself.
Erlang had theorized that this place was a demon that had just gained its sentience. If the labyrinth truly had gained sentience from the energy of the Heavenly Weapon, then the next step would be to absorb the two cultivators who were at or above Nascent Soul. At this stage of its cultivation, it would be the hungriest, so crafting an illusion to trap its food in to slow sap out their cultivation would be a good plan.
Unluckily for this newborn labyrinth demon, Gui Yin’s life in the twenty-first century was anything but roses and butterflies.
“Now, how do I get out?” Gui Yin murmured. He began to pace his living room.
An illusion of mental fortitude was the hardest to get out of because the illusion forced the victim to work against themselves. The stronger the mental fortitude, the stronger the illusion. It was like an escape room. If Gui Yin wanted to escape, he would have to find a crack—a mistake—to convince himself this was all fake. Even if Gui Yin didn’t fall prey to it, it would still take a lot of time and energy to get out.
The easiest method was actually for someone to break in and pull him out. But if that happened, then it might cause a mental break.
Gui Yin let out a sigh and sat down on the floor. What was inaccurate? What was odd? Gui Yin looked around. It was like looking around in a spot the difference book. Was there even a difference to be spot?
Within the illusion, eight hours had already passed. Gui Yin couldn’t even fathom how long it had been outside. He frowned and sprawled out on the ground. Was Erlang done? Had he found the claw? Or was he trapped in an illusion like this one? Hopefully he was luckier—that way, Gui Yin wouldn’t have to lift a finger getting out of the illusion.
Just as Gui Yin was going to drift off to sleep, he heard a voice that sounded like it was coming from the next room. The voice became louder and louder. For a split second, like in the movies, the sound was abruptly amplified until it was right beside Gui Yin’s ear.
“Gui-xiong!”
Gui Yin clicked his tongue irritably and sat up. He ran his hand through his short hair, gave it a tussle, and sighed. “You’re finally here.”
Erlang fell silent. “You…”
“I got tired of looking around, so I waited for you to come,” Gui Yin said. “Hurry and break this thing.”
“But if I forcefully break in, you’ll get hurt,” Erlang said.
“You’re not forcing anything,” Gui Yin said. “I’ll let you in. Then, upon seeing you, I’ll be able to grasp that this illusion is fake and I’ll be able to leave.”
Erlang hesitated for a long time before finally doing as Gui Yin said. A moment later, a large slit emerged in front of the television. Erlang looked around blankly before turning back to Gui Yin, but Gui Yin wasn’t worried. As an illusion built from Gui Yin’s own mind, Erlang wouldn’t have seen anything.
Slowly, the images around him melted away. His robes replaced his modern clothes and his hair grew past his shoulders again. He felt tired since he had been trapped in the illusion for so long, but he still happily walked over to Erlang and patted him on the shoulder.
“Thank you!”
“You…did you really wait for me? For how long?” Erlang looked Gui Yin over worriedly. He reached into his sleeve and pulled out another pill body. “Take this. It’ll rejuvenate your energy.”
Gui Yin obediently ate the pill without a second question. “Mm…within the illusion, it was over eight hours?”
“Over eight hours?”
“But in reality, it shouldn’t have been that long, right?” Gui Yin pointed out.
“That doesn’t matter,” Erlang said. “You were trapped for eight hours in the illusion. Why didn’t you do anything?”
“You said you’d come get me. After trying for so long, I was already tired,” Gui Yin said. He looked Erlang up and down before a smile started to slowly creep onto his face. “Hey, are you angry?”
“That was reckless. What if something had happened to me?” Erlang exclaimed. “Lord Immortal Gui, you—”
“Lord Immortal Gui?” Gui Yin repeated. He chuckled. “Erlang, calm down. You and I are both fine. What are you getting worked up about?”
Erlang met his gaze speechlessly. He took a deep breath and forced out the words, “You’re right. My apologies, Gui-xiong.”
“You keep it in well.”
“I have no idea what Gui-xiong is talking about,” Erlang said. He glanced at Gui Yin. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine. Just a little tired. Say, can we leave now?” Gui Yin yawned.
“You were the last thing sustaining this labyrinth. Once its connection with you is broken, it should—”
The walls began to crumble as the floors shook again. Erlang quickly grasped Gui Yin by the waist, pulling him close. Gui Yin was once again shocked by how hard the arm around his waist was. He looked at Erlang quizzically, but knew this wouldn’t be the time or place to ask.
Erlang flicked his sleeve. A burst of energy directly broke through the top of the cave, allowing sunlight to come in. With a light kick, the two of them emerged onto the surface. Just as their feet touched the ground, they could feel the vibrations down below as everything seemed to crumble within itself.
Gui Yin and Erlang glanced at each other. Erlang released Gui Yin’s waist and took a step back with a light smile. “Thank you for helping me.”
“Thank you for saving me. So, I guess we’re even,” Gui Yin said.
“For this round,” Erlang replied. “There are still four more times.”
“…Are you really going to be like this?”
Erlang smiled. “I have other business to take care of now. I will be heading off first.”
“Wait.”
Erlang paused and looked over his shoulder patiently.
“Are you giving the Scorpion Claws back to the ghost cultivators?”
“Will you stop me?”
Gui Yin silently debated doing so for a moment. It’s what an upright lord immortal would do, after all. But he wasn’t someone who bought into the righteousness that came with his identity. After a tense second or two, Gui Yin shook his head.
“I just have a question.”
“I don’t know if I’ll have an answer.”
Gui Yin scoffed. “Why are you trying to get close to them?”
Erlang fell silent. After a moment, he smiled. “It’s always good to have friends in every place, even if those friends will eventually become enemies.”
Gui Yin was hesitant to accept this answer. However, a thought flashed through his mind. A smile slowly crept onto his face when he thought of what Erlang had previously said. He was the last thing sustaining the labyrinth? Then, that meant the claw…
Erlang chuckled. “Seems you’ve thought of something.”
Gui Yin shrugged. “You won’t say, so I also won’t confirm it. Anyway, thank you for answering. I wish you all the best, Huigu Palace Lord.”
“Oh, don’t say that,” Erlang sighed. “We made so much progress in the cave. What happened to calling me Erlang?”
“I wish you all the best,” Gui Yin paused, “Erlang.”
Erlang smiled, but whether there was friendliness or mockery behind that smile, Gui Yin couldn’t tell.
Once Erlang left, Gui Yin returned to the inn himself. He received odd looks along the way, but he ignored them all until he was back in his room. He closed the doors behind him and was faced by four shocked faces.
“Shizun!” Qin Siyi and the others ran up to him.
“Shizun, what happened? You didn’t return last night!” Shan Yu exclaimed.
“Last night?” Gui Yin paused. “I’ve been gone for a full day?”
“Just about,” Li Yan nodded.
“Were you four okay while I was gone?” Gui Yin asked with a tight frown.
Gui Linghuo nodded. “Shizun needn’t worry. Er-ye’s maid stopped by to take care of us. She just received a call from him and left.”
“Did that man leave already?” Shan Yu asked, curiously looking around. “Did he finish his business?”
“Yes, he’s gone. And we should be leaving too,” Gui Yin said. He glanced down at himself and awkwardly cleared his throat. “We’ll leave tomorrow morning. I’m a bit…tired right now.”
The disciples glanced at each other before reluctantly nodding.
When morning came, Gui Yin could still feel the four children hovering around him, as if he were a fragile flower. Luckily, nothing out of the ordinary happened and when they returned, Gui Yin was pulled aside by Jiu Jingyi.
“Sect Master-shixiong still isn’t back yet,” Jiu Jingyi whispered.
Gui Yin glanced behind him. He cleared his throat. “You four go back first. Siyi, clean up a place for Li Yan to stay.”
“Yes, Shizun.”
Once the children were dismissed, he turned back to Jiu Jingyi. “Isn’t that normal? It’s only been two weeks, hasn’t it?”
Jiu Jingyi shook her head. “He didn’t send a letter back this week or last week.”
This made Gui Yin freeze. Sect protocol stated that whenever a peak lord leaves, they would have to send back weekly reports—not necessarily to monitor their movements, but just to make sure nothing bad happened to them. Although Gui Yin was notorious for ignoring this rule by sending reports back once every two weeks, Liu Cangyuan was not that kind of person. Not to mention, this trip was only supposed to last one week.
“Something must have happened to him,” Gui Yin concluded.
Jiu Jingyi nodded. “I was thinking of going to check on him a few days ago, but you hadn’t returned—”
“You go. I’ll stay with Ye-shidi,” Gui Yin agreed.
Jiu Jingyi breathed a sigh of relief. “Alright. I’ll pack and head out tonight.”
“Be safe. If things don’t look right on the way there, turn back immediately. If anything happens, send a distress signal,” Gui Yin said.
Jiu Jingyi nodded. After a moment of hesitation, she smiled awkwardly. “Have you fully recovered?”
“Is it that obvious?” Gui Yin asked with a light laugh.
“You’re more authoritative again,” Jiu Jingyi said. She sighed. “Just as well. I don’t know what I’d do if I had to leave the sect to an amnesiac and…that guy.”
“Oh, come on. Ye-shidi is plenty capable. He’s just a little lazy,” Gui Yin said.
“Lazy. Right,” Jiu Jingyi rolled her eyes. She lightly patted Gui Yin’s shoulder. “Anyway, I’ll be going now. Mengmeng will be by with the sect master’s memorials that I haven’t finished.”
“Alright,” Gui Yin nodded. He watched Jiu Jingyi leave Shuangye Peak before returning to his own residence.
There’s a plot point I can’t get around, and I hope you could help me. It seems you still don’t want readers to figure out why he sent himself to the future and why he chose to seal his memories.
While I appreciate the plot-answering inception through miss Shen, it’s still not enough 🙄🙄
… And what about the claw???????????? 😭😭😭
Mm…okay, so, the story is told through Gui Yin’s unreliable narration for most of it, so some plot points will be inferred or obscured because we only know information that Gui Yin knows. Even when it’s not Gui Yin, it’s told through other characters who don’t know the full picture (because no one knows the full picture, no matter how much they want you to believe they do). This story doesn’t have an omnipotent narrator, so it’ll continue to be like this. Until the current narrator (whichever character is telling the story) solves the mystery, the readers also won’t know it ¯_(ツ)_/¯ The reason the “Miss Shen” in the illusion could do any “plot-answering inception” is because Gui Yin is basically digging through his consciousness and discussing it with himself. It’s an illusion and not really Miss Shen. Gui Yin is kind of smart, so a lot of cases and “problems” and such will be dug out through this way and the validity will be confirmed later.
As for the claw, Gui Yin’s already given his inferred answer, so that is all we’ll be given until Erlang shows something or decides to give Gui Yin a proper answer. Unfortunately, the relationship between the two of them is like this for the rest of the story–Gui Yin thinks he knows the answers and Erlang lets him thinks what he wants. Usually Gui Yin is right, sometimes he’s not so lucky.
If you don’t like this style of storytelling, I’m afraid this story isn’t for you. It’s a long series too, so the mystery will be quite long. If there are specific sections in the chapter that you’re confused on, I’m more than willing to explain. But if you’re going to be rude, then I won’t be answering your questions again. I’ll assume you’re joking with the eye roll this time, but since we don’t know each other personally, it would be better if you didn’t do that next time lol It comes off as a bit…provoking? And I don’t want to accidentally get angry at you when you’re just joking ==;;
Oops the comment got a bit long LOL Anyway, THANK YOU for taking your time to read and to write a comment!!
Also I come back to my gui yin disappearing is inevitable theory. Mister erlang is now known to be able to probably see mister gui yins future, kinda? So he probably is the type to not interfere with the Heaven’s way if something tragic were about to happen no matter how much he probably likes gui yin, right? Also tht feeling gui yin got while flying over the ghost valley and then subsequently erlang tryna get a favour owned to him by them is…..sus, and it seems that more trouble is brewing in the background and i’m guessing linghuo is almost 14 and isn’t that the perfect time to suffer a tragedy and start one’s life as a protagonist? As you say, this is going to be a long, long story 🙂
Also there’s a typo: so crafting an illusion to trap its food in to slow(slowly) sap out its cultivation…
Ok replied to the wrong comment
ALSKFKKRKALA pls double check next time 😭😭😂 but also your comments 👀👀 hm. Hmmmm. THANKS FOR READING!
FFFFF- i forgot about time travel alxbakxhaj i wanna archive and refresh the theory board later.
but mmmm of the three possible reasons given, i feel like it could be a mix of the 3. not much evidence beyond my gut, notoriously half right….
also bye bye for now Erlang :’> i enjoyed seeing you and look forward to your return
time travel? 😳 THANKS FOR R EAD
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
thanks for reading!!!
If we knew the answers, the story would be done! Figuring things out is part of the fun and not knowing everything all at once keeps us on our toes… Enjoying trying to catch clues! Thanks for the interesting story! 🤣❤️🤣 (I was scared for a minute he’d gone back to his boring life!!)
That do be true. The story isn’t even halfway done yet ;v; hng I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying the clue hunt 😭 it’s fun reading people’s interpretations too, cuz sometimes I thought I made things super obvious, but they latch onto something I didn’t even realize was there instead LMAO always interesting to see wkekfhg.
Thanks for reading!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!