“Fancy seeing you here.”
Gui Yin glanced at the cheery Li Fangyin as his hand absentmindedly rubbed Li Yan’s head. He drawled out a long sigh as their two armies converged and began to set up camp. “I would rather not have run into you.”
“Gui-qianbei, how could you say such cold words? I deliberately requested you to come up north so that I could fight alongside you,” Li Fangyin said.
“And it was foolish,” Gui Yin said. He glanced at Gui Linghuo and Li Yan as they excitedly walked off to the side, chattering as if they weren’t in the middle of a war.
“Let them be. It’s been a year since they’d last seen each other,” Li Fangyin said. He paused. “Right, how old is Linghuo now? Yan’er just turned fifteen.”
“Linghuo became sixteen a while ago,” Gui Yin said. After a moment, he realized the meaning behind Li Fangyin’s words. He clicked his tongue and knocked his fan against Li Fangyin’s head. “What is going through your little brain? Is it good to pick up your father’s bad habits?”
Li Fangyin rubbed his head with a small pout. He was already twenty-five, but he was still being scolded like this. “I’m not trying to set up two friends randomly. Look at them. Don’t you see…something else?”
Gui Yin frowned, but reluctantly turned towards the two teenagers instead. If Li Fangyin hadn’t said anything, Gui Yin would have just thought they were particularly close, but after Li Fangyin pointed it out, Gui Yin could no longer unsee it.
As the two youths huddled together, Gui Yin could see a certain sweetness in their shy appearances. He felt Li Fangyin nudge him and he finally jerked away.
“So, what do you think?”
Gui Yin cleared his throat. “If they get together in the future, I wouldn’t oppose.”
Li Fangyin clicked his tongue. “You don’t want to have them be affianced?”
“What’s the point of that? Young hearts are fickle and we have long lives. Just let the children sort it out themselves,” Gui Yin said, turning away as he and Li Fangyin went to check on the battle plans for the upcoming night.
“It’s predicted that the ghost cultivators will be attacking from the east tonight,” Li Fangyin murmured. He let out a sigh. “They keep coming back stronger and stronger. Some cultivators are getting impatient. They want us to go on the offensive.”
“But they’re not the ones fighting, are they? If we leave our defensive position, then what about the common people? It will become a full-on slaughter,” Gui Yin said as he tapped the map. “We have to keep the ghost cultivators busy until the monks figure out how to seal up the crack for good. Besides, no matter what, I keep feeling as though the ghost cultivators are hiding something from us.”
“Such as?”
Gui Yin hadn’t mentioned the Stygian Claw. The last it was seen was with Erlang, but if Erlang truly had returned the claw, then he was sure they would have seen its magnificence on the battlefield. Of course, from his last words on the matter, he most likely had destroyed it or at least kept it. Gui Yin shook his head indecisively.
“I don’t know. It’s just a feeling. I could be wrong.”
“But your instincts are always spot on,” Li Fangyin said.
Gui Yin smiled wryly. Most would say he had good instincts; more pessimistic people would just say he has a crow’s mouth. When he was younger, he remembered a time when he was scolded by his mother for saying unlucky things about his older siblings. Neighbors even gossiped that he was just jealous they were better than him, so he set out to curse his siblings with misfortune.
Jealous? Gui Yin was gifted with the ability to naturally absorb spiritual energy and cultivate from a young age—so much so that his shizun, the great Kui Wanming nearly begged Gui Yin to become his first and head disciple. Not to mention, in terms of cooking and cleaning, Gui Yin had been number one.
Ahem, of course, those cooking skills had long been forgotten after so many years of being the venerated Lord Immortal Ninglan, but at the time he had been great!
From time to time, when his past comes to haunt his memory, Gui Yin wondered how those gossipy neighbors and gloating siblings of his felt when he quickly ascended to become the cultivation world’s most talented youth.
“Gui-qianbei?”
Gui Yin pulled himself from his thoughts. He looked at Li Fangyin, who was holding out a bowl of soup for him. He accepted it and frowned slightly. He suddenly thought of the roasted rabbit Erlang cooked for him. The taste still lingered in his mouth, coming back to smack him once in a while. If he hadn’t been so tired and upset that day, he would have made Erlang cook for him again. It had been a long time since he had proper food.
Wu Feng and Su Wen glanced at each other.
“Lord Immortal, if you want, we can go find some game,” Su Wen whispered.
Gui Yin waved Su Wen’s suggestion off. “If I’m going to complain about food in these circumstances, then what would that make me?”
Li Fangyin, catching the tail of the conversation, let out a sigh. “But we’re really pitiful. We’re still made of flesh and blood, so we have to worry about food. Those ghost cultivators are already dead or have transformed their dying body, so they don’t have to eat. Lucky bastards.”
“They don’t have to eat regular food, but they have to continue cultivating or else they won’t survive,” Gui Yin said. “Such a tortured existence—I would rather be chained to food.”
“That’s pitiful, somehow,” Su Wen said, a small frown on his face as he accepted the bowl from Wu Feng.
“Pitiful indeed. What would lead you to such a horrendous decision?” Li Fangyin mumbled against the lip of his bowl.
“When you’ve felt as if you’ve been forced into a corner, you would do things you never thought you’d do,” Gui Yin said, stirring his soup absentmindedly. He sighed. “Well, it’s useless to feel sorry for them. They were the ones who made the decision. No one forced them.”
Li Fangyin nodded along. After a moment he turned to Gui Yin curiously. “Gui-qianbei, I heard that there were children amongst the ghost cultivators.”
Gui Yin’s brows furrowed. “Children?”
“There are,” Su Wen confirmed. “A while ago, Master…had some dealings with ghost cultivators. At the meeting, we saw children.”
“Children ghost cultivators? They didn’t just take the form of a child?” Gui Yin asked in alarm.
“Some were children of the ghost cultivators. Others were children who were abandoned by their parents that were taken in. I’m sure there were also some that were stolen,” Su Wen said. He frowned slightly. “Some of them could barely be called human, while others…”
“Others?” Li Fangyin prompted.
“There was one in particular I remember,” Su Wen said. He smiled bitterly. “I felt bad for that child. He obviously despised it there, yet he was supposedly a child directly related to one of the demon heads.”
“I didn’t know there were children in Yinfeng Valley,” Gui Yin mumbled.
“My guess is that they’re forced to cultivate the ghost path once they’re old enough. They would make prominent figures in the future,” Su Wen said. “Imagine being raised in that environment and you already had a Yin body by virtue of being birthed by half-ghost, half-human beings.”
“It’s difficult though,” Wu Feng said.
Su Wen nodded. “Master told us that for ghost cultivators to have children, they had to go through a grueling process, so, actually, most of the children are already dead and were brought back to life through the ghost cultivation process.”
“Then, what about that one child?” Gui Yin asked curiously.
“That one? Oh. That one was definitely alive,” Su Wen said.
Li Fangyin sighed. “What a shame. Poor child. They didn’t even ask to be born, yet they were given such a horrendous life.”
“If you have the time to worry about others, worry about yourself,” Gui Yin said. He tilted his chin towards the sky. “The sun is beginning to set.”
“No!” Li Fangyin groaned as he flopped against the hapless Wu Feng. “Please, not again! I’m so tired.”
“Young Palace Lord Li, we must get ready to depart,” Gui Yin said, standing as he smoothed out his robes.
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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Su Wen and Wu Feng giggled behind the two men as more and more soldiers fell in line, all dreading the battle tonight. Li Fangyin pouted. He clicked his tongue irritably.
“Why can’t those monks at Beihua Town work faster?”
“Arrays and barriers are tricky things,” Gui Yin said comfortingly. “It shouldn’t take more than another year or two though, I would say.”
“Then that’s already five or six years of war,” Li Fangyin murmured. “How are we supposed to recover?”
Gui Yin shook his head. “Let’s not think about that for now. Just think about how we’re supposed to survive onto the next day.”
The peaceful conversation was interrupted by a bright red firework. It splayed against the darkened night, like flecks of maple leaves on the surface of an unmoving pond. Gui Yin stood immediately. The other soldiers abandoned their meals as well. Without the command of their generals, everyone took to the sky in an orderly fashion, landing at the scene of the battle just as the guards were pushed back behind battle lines.
Gui Yin flourished his fan as a crowd of white petals revealed Shui Meng. With one clean flick of his wrist, the crowd of ghosts were pushed further back from their encampment. The sound was a signal of the beginning.
Soldiers from either side clashed as Gui Yin landed, his fan morphing into a sword, and entered the battle as well.
To take on one Gui Yin, there needed to be at least twenty ghost cultivators, each individually wielding about twenty ghosts. The number of ghosts wasn’t because Gui Yin was superior, it was to take care of the two tails that were tacked to Gui Yin’s side. As Gui Yin fought the ghost cultivators, Su Wen and Wu Feng fought the oncoming ghosts, securely protecting Gui Yin from any underhanded attacks.
After three years fighting on the battlefield together, Gui Yin, Wu Feng, and Su Wen knew each other as well as they knew the back of their hands. An opening was not allowed, leading the ghost cultivators to quake in fear whenever they saw it was Gui Yin leading the charge. Now that Gui Yin had joined up with Li Fangyin again, the opposite army that Li Fangyin had been going against couldn’t help but panic. As such, most of the forces were gathered around Gui Yin.
Li Fangyin watched on in amusement. He was used to an even battle from both sides—a tug-of-war that seemed like it would never end. But with just the entrance of Gui Yin and his two attendants, the battle had already become so skewed. But his attention couldn’t be focused on them for long. Soon, he heard the ghostly growl of a phantom dog. He turned his head, slashing in front of himself to just narrowly avoid the attack. He glared at his opponent, who smirked and only surged forward for an attack.
The sounds of ghostly howls and shrieks from the living cultivators filled the battlefield. A mix of red blood and scattered bones painted the previously peaceful field. The stench of rotting corpses and the coppery smell of blood invaded their senses, but they could only continue fighting until the morning sun rose again.
Gui Yin mercilessly plunged his sword through whatever ghostly creature lunged at him. If his sword couldn’t penetrate them, then he would fluidly switch back to his fan, using the wind laced with spiritual energy to slice them into pieces. It was a technique that he hadn’t used before, since he hadn’t had the need to use both versions of Fenghua in succession. But after practicing for so many years, the switch between fan and sword was nearly seamless.
The sound of the qin accompanied the escalation of the battle. The louder the howl of the ghosts, the louder the sorrowful tune became. Gui Yin’s chest heaved as he slowly caught his breath. The respite was short lived. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see ghostly wolves, piling one on top of each other as they chased rabidly after one person.
Gui Yin’s body reacted faster than his mind. He was still registering what was happening when his fingers were flying across the strings and as his fan cut the air around them. He was only to get rid of half the wolves, which showed just how condense the pack had been. Su Wen and Wu Feng jumped in to help, allowing Gui Yin to shove past the wolves to Li Fangyin.
He had watched the way the wolves gripped onto the edge of his robes and dragged him down. Gui Yin’s eyes fell on the abandoned sword, his heart hammering against his chest as his finger became cold. The wolves vanished continuously with yelps of pain, crumbling into plumes of smoke. If they were tangible, Gui Yin would have already grabbed them by the scruff and thrown them off.
After what felt like an eternity, the pile finally vanished, leaving an unmoving Li Fangyin at the bottom.
Gui Yin stilled. His ears rang as he stared at the bloodied mess. His hands shook. Shui Meng vanished in a flutter of white petals and he nearly dropped Fenghua as he reached out to support Li Fangyin. His hand had almost grasped Li Fangyin’s robes when a sharp scream entered his ears.
He whirled around, Fenghua already in its sword form, and blocked the wolf-like claws that slammed down. Gui Yin’s heels ran into the ground as the man above pressed him down. He flipped his wrist, pulling his sword from the other man’s vice grip, and drove the sword upward.
The man bounced away, seemingly intrigued by Gui Yin’s fighting style, and long lunged forward again.
As he fended off the crazed man, Gui Yin shouted over his shoulder: “Wu Feng, take Fangyin back to the camps!”
Wu Feng quickly acted as he was told. Su Wen hesitated to follow, but when he saw the way Wu Feng was already getting swarmed, he abandoned his post, and quickly went after his friend.
Gui Yin wanted to follow, but at the rate the battle was going, if he abandoned his post as well, then this part of Quanjing Continent would fall into the ghost cultivators’ hands.
When morning came, the ghost cultivators retreated with an injured general and a new fear of Lord Immortal Ninglan.
Without waiting for the rest of his troops to follow, Gui Yin hurriedly flew back to the camp. His gaze was concentrated on the medic camp, which was still busy in the crack of dawn. He ran over, completely abandoning his image of an upright and cold lord immortal. Just as he was about to enter, he was caught by a pair of arms. He looked to his right, towards Gui Linghuo and Li Yan.
“Why are you two holding me back?” Gui Yin could hear himself ask.
“Shizun, you’re also injured,” Gui Linghuo said, his gaze scanning the horrific mess of blood and cuts that riddled Gui Yin’s armor. He lifted his head up. “They’re still working on Fang-ge. They said he’ll be fine, so let’s also get you—”
“Then, I can see him,” Gui Yin said, pushing aside Gui Linghuo’s hands. He paused again when Li Yan stopped in front of him. He forced a gentle smile. “Li Yan, be good. I just want to see your brother.”
“My brother is fine,” Li Yan said, stubbornly standing in front of Gui Yin with her arms outstretched. “Laoshi, we have to tend to your wounds first.”
“I’m fine. I just want to take a look,” Gui Yin said.
“Laoshi—”
“I just want to make sure he’s alive,” Gui Yin snapped.
When he realized he had raised his voice he took a deep breath and placed his hands on Li Yan’s shoulder. “Just a quick look.”
The two children glanced at each other reluctantly and moved aside for Gui Yin.
The tent flap was raised. There were several medics surrounding one table and the basin of water beside them was red from the blood. He trailed into the tent and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the wounds. Although they were horrific, it was clear that he hadn’t been poisoned.
“Lord Immortal,” one of the less timid cultivators greeted him.
“Will he really be okay?”
“He’ll be fine,” the cultivator replied. “There’s just a lot of wounds and a lot of blood loss. He won’t be able to fight for a week, but he’ll be fine.”
“That’s good,” Gui Yin murmured. He patted the shoulder of the cultivator and turned dazedly to exit the tent. He smiled at Gui Linghuo and Li Yan. “See? Just one look. Now, I—”
“Shizun!” Gui Linghuo caught Gui Yin.
Gui Yin lightly pushed Gui Linghuo off. “It’s just flesh wounds. I’m not poisoned.”
“This, still—”
“Lord Immortal, we should still see to your wounds. You’ve lost a lot of blood,” Su Wen said, quickly grabbing Gui Yin before he could fall on his face.
Gui Yin wanted to protest, but when he saw Gui Linghuo and Li Yan’s pale expressions, he stopped his words short and mutely nodded.
The two youths watched in silence as Wu Feng and Su Wen stripped Gui Yin of his armor and began to apply medicine to Gui Yin’s wounds.
“Shizun, does it hurt?” Gui Linghuo asked, his gaze seemingly burning holes through Gui Yin.
“It doesn’t hurt. Your worried expressions hurt more,” Gui Yin said. He shifted slightly, straightening as Su Wen wrapped the gauze around his torso. “I know my limits, you silly children.”
“Right, you know your limits. That’s why you almost collapsed,” Su Wen murmured. He shut his mouth upon receiving a glare from Gui Yin.
“Perhaps it was a little more blood loss than I had anticipated,” Gui Yin said, clearing his throat awkwardly. He looked back at Gui Linghuo and Li Yan. “But I promise it’s nothing bad.”
Gui Linghuo had lowered his gaze silently. His fist clenched tightly as Gui Yin continued speaking. Li Yan glanced over at him. Before she could ask him if he was okay, he turned abruptly and left the tent. Li Yan looked between Gui Yin’s shocked expression and the absconded Gui Linghuo.
“I…Laoshi, I’m going to go after him,” Li Yan said. After a nod of approval from Gui Yin, the girl quickly ran after the young man.
Gui Yin let out a soft sigh as he fiddled with the tatter robes around his waist. “I let myself get too emotional.”
“I think you didn’t let yourself get emotional enough,” Su Wen murmured.
Gui Yin raised a brow. “What’s this? Deciding to talk back now?”
Su Wen tightly tied the gauze around Gui Yin’s forearm, causing the man to flinch. He began to pack up the supplies. “Not at all. I finally realized why Master told us to keep an eye on you, Lord Immortal.”
“Why?” Gui Yin asked, a brow raising.
“You can be too reckless,” Su Wen said. He straightened with the box in hand. “It was our mistake this time. I hope Lord Ninglan can forgive us both for leaving our posts.”
“I told you to help Li Fangyin. That was my order,” Gui Yin said. “If that man gets upset when you report it to him, just tell him I said that.”
Su Wen nodded. He hesitated a moment, but left without another word. Instead, Wu Feng remained behind. He shifted slightly, as if he were unsure about whether or not he should speak. Gui Yin leaned back against his arm and raised a brow.
“What is it?”
“I hope Lord Ninglan is more careful next time. Even if you were in a hurry,” Wu Feng said, his voice barely audible. He gave Gui Yin one last glance and quickly followed Su Wen.
Gui Yin let out a soft sigh. Sure, the image looked horrifying, but he really was fine!
He remained in the medicine tent until Su Wen returned with a set of fresh robes. Once Gui Yin was dressed, he was helped back to his own tent and made to rest.
When Gui Yin woke again, it was already the afternoon. His head was heavy and he felt rather sluggish as he sat up. He looked around and drowsily slipped into his robes. He walked to the front of his tent, only to find that Su Wen, Wu Feng, and Gui Linghuo were not there.
With a small frown, Gui Yin first decided to check on Li Fangyin’s condition.
As he went towards Li Fangyin’s tent, he caught whispers from the woods nearby. They would have been completely inaudible to the average human, but Gui Yin could catch several words and he most definitely recognized the voices.
It wasn’t Gui Yin’s hobby to spy on others, but when he remembered how emotional Gui Linghuo had been the day before, he couldn’t help but get a bit curious. He was worried about whether Gui Linghuo was better now or not. On top of that, he recalled Li Fangyin’s words from yesterday. His interest was piqued. Were Li Yan and Gui Linghuo truly in a relationship?
He was quiet as he walked towards the back of the tents. Soon, the conversation could be heard clearly, even with their distance.
“I think this is amazing!” Li Yan exclaimed. “I don’t know why you wouldn’t take this idea to your shizun!”
“Shizun…I don’t know. I stalked out on him yesterday and I still haven’t gone to apologize. Besides, what if this doesn’t work? Then, I’d be bothering him and wasting his energy. He already has a hard enough time trying to drive the ghost cultivators back,” Gui Linghuo said.
Li Yan clicked her tongue. “It’s like you don’t know Gui-laoshi! He cares so much about you, there’s no way he’d think this was a waste of time! Besides, he’s so intelligent, he’ll definitely find a way to get it to work even if your rough draft doesn’t do anything.”
Gui Linghuo was still hesitant. “But—”
“Ling-ge, do you trust me?”
“…I do.”
“Then, that’s all you need! I have faith in you, so have some faith in my faith!” Li Yan said. She sighed and cupped his face. “Honestly, how did you grow up to be so unconfident in your own abilities? Everyone thinks you’re a prodigy—which you are. Can’t you have a little more faith in your talents?”
Gui Linghuo flushed under Li Yan’s hands. He averted his gaze and lightly cleared his throat. “Well, I mean…it’s not that I don’t have faith in myself. This is just something I’ve never done before.”
“Have you kissed other people?”
Gui Linghuo’s eyes widened. He spluttered incoherently. “Wh—what are you talking about?! No, I haven’t!”
“Then, how come you were so confident when you kissed me last night?” Li Yan asked with a raised brow cheekily.
“Because—I—I was nervous, I wasn’t actually—”
“But you did it anyway, didn’t you?”
“…Yeah.”
“And why was that?”
“…Because I really wanted to.”
“Then, think about it this way,” Li Yan said. “Don’t you really want to help your shizun?”
Gui Linghuo nodded, his head still being held by Li Yan.
“Then, summon that same confidence you used to confess to me and give him this music score!” Li Yan said, squeezing Gui Linghuo’s face. Her determined expression melted slightly as she leaned in to give him a light kiss on the nose. “Your shizun loves you as much, if not more, than I do. Don’t be afraid of him.”
Gui Linghuo’s face turned even redder. He gently tugged Li Yan’s hands away and nodded. “Alright. I’ll do it.”
Gui Yin pulled himself away from the conversation and walked to the other side of the camp. He wandered from one end to the next, as his mind reeled.
His baby was in love. His son was in love! My goodness! At such a young age, he found such an adorable sweetheart already! And their love was so precious!
Was Gui Yin bitter? Perhaps? Was he angry? Of course not! He was happy! He was very happy for Gui Linghuo. But still, a sense of bitterness took a hold of him. At least someone’s first love was working out well.
Gui Yin quickly made his way to Li Fangyin’s tent. Upon seeing that the young man was still comatose, a frown came to his face.
“He just needs rest,” the cultivator nearby quickly said. “He should be up by tonight. And we’ve made sure nothing else is wrong with him. Luckily, everything was mainly flesh wounds—save for a few broken bones. But those are already mending.”
Gui Yin nodded. The irritation in his heart finally calmed back down. “Thank you.”
After exchanging a few more words with the medic, Gui Yin left the tent. On his way back, he ran into Wu Feng and Su Wen. They had gone out to fish and do a bit of hunting. With their new finds, a large pot of fish congee would be served tonight for dinner.
Gui Yin was still exchanging a few words with them when he heard a set of footsteps stop beside him. He turned around. His eyes landed first on the interlocked hands before he looked up at the two teens.
“Um, then…we’re going to go cook,” Su Wen said, awkwardly holding up the basket of fish.
“I’ll help you!” Li Yan exclaimed.
She glanced back at Gui Linghuo and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek for good measure.
“You got this,” Li Yan whispered into Gui Linghuo’s ear before running off to help Su Wen and Wu Feng.
Gui Linghuo and Gui Yin stood opposite of each other, silence filling the space between until Gui Linghuo finally cleared his throat.
“This disciple apologizes for my rudeness last night,” Gui Linghuo said.
His head was lowered still, as if he were prepared for a scolding. Instead, the familiar warm hand encompassed the back of his head and gave his hair a careless toss. With a ruined ponytail, the youth looked up, eyes wide as he looked at the soft smile on Gui Yin’s face.
“It’s okay. I was never angry. This master should have been more careful, but instead I caused you to worry,” Gui Yin said.
“No! No, not at all, I…” Gui Linghuo pursed his lips and lowered his head again.
Gui Yin chuckled and raised a brow. “Is there something else?”
Gui Linghuo slowly stiffened. He shifted from foot to foot, his eyes still adamantly avoiding Gui Yin. “I…that is…Shizun, I…”
Gui Yin watched Gui Linghuo shift about uncomfortably. When there was no progress to the boy’s stuttering, Gui Yin finally cleared his throat. Gui Linghuo sheepishly looked up.
“Huo’er.”
“Yes?”
“You know, I care about you, right?”
“Yes.”
Gui Yin sighed. “In fact, I also have a few things I wanted to say.”
Gui Linghuo’s eyes widened. He hesitated before asking: “What about?”
“I haven’t been a good shizun,” Gui Yin admitted. “I said I wanted to care for the three of you, but I’ve left you so many times. I was even absentminded at the beginning of our mentorship. I left you three alone for three years. I can only be grateful that your natures are kind, so you all turned out fine.”
Gui Linghuo’s heart skipped. “Wait, Shizun—”
“I’m not asking for you three to treat me as a parent or anything but, at the very least, I hope you won’t treat me as a stranger. I’m your teacher, after all. If there’s something you want to talk to me about, you can and—”
Gui Yin’s words were interrupted by a strong hug. He froze, but his gaze fell to the arms around his waist.
“F-Father,” Gui Linghuo stuttered. A beat of silence hit them. Gui Linghuo quickly spoke to cover up the awkwardness. “Father, I know I speak for all of us when we say we’re grateful. Your absentmindedness didn’t mean neglect. And we all know you didn’t want to leave us behind. It was for our own good. You wanted to protect us. I…I know I can talk to you about anything. You adopted me and gave me a home. To me, you’re my father first before you’re my shizun. I’m just…not very good with words.”
Gui Linghuo heard Gui Yin chuckle. He quickly released the man, his face flushing horribly. Gui Yin turned to look at his little disciple and couldn’t help pinching his cheeks. It was the first time Gui Linghuo had been so candid about his feelings and their relationship.
Although Gui Yin didn’t remember why he made the decision to send a part of his soul to other worlds, he did remember the aftermath.
After so many years and so many reincarnations, the spell had worn off and Gui Yin’s soul had slowly merged back with his original body. Around the time of his mentorship with these three children was when Gui Yin’s memories of his life in his original world were the clearest. He remembered the conscious decisions he made. After so long, Lord Immortal Ninglan was no longer a puppet that was just run by a fourth of his soul. He was thankful for the timing. If he had missed the opportunity for such an adorable disciple, he would have regretted it for the rest of his life.
Gui Linghuo allowed Gui Yin to knead his cheeks as he wished, but his embarrassment was beginning to grow unbearable.
“Shizun!”
“Yes, my lovely disciple?” Gui Yin sang, his hand still working on Gui Linghuo’s cheeks.
“I-I have something to say.”
“If you’re going to tell me you want to propose to the little miss of the Li family, you’re going to have to wait a while. You’re still too young.”
“That’s not it!”
Teasing Gui Linghuo gave Gui Yin an odd satisfaction. Seeing that Gui Linghuo was on the verge of exploding, he finally released Gui Linghuo’s face and laughed.
“Alright, alright. What is it?”
Gui Linghuo cleared his throat, trying his best to compose himself after that round of humiliation. He pulled out a piece of paper and unfolded it slowly.
“Last night…last night, I lost my temper, but it also got me thinking. There are many ways to use musical cultivation, such as to capture ghosts and weaken demons. So, isn’t it likely that we could somehow loosen the ghost cultivators’ control of the ghosts as well?”
Gui Yin’s eyes slowly lit up as he received the music score from Gui Linghuo.
“It’s rough and I don’t actually know how to do it, but this melody came to mind when I came up with that theory,” Gui Linghuo said nervously. “Shizun, do you think…it could work?”
“You’re a genius,” Gui Yin said. He looked at Gui Linghuo excitedly. “Why didn’t I think of this?”
“Shizun has been overworked recently, so—”
“This would help us tremendously!” Gui Yin exclaimed. He frowned. “But this would require more music cultivators, and musical cultivation has always been looked down upon.”
Aside from Yunjing Pavilion, everyone else practices musical cultivation for peace of mind or to calm the heart. Only Gui Yin and his shizun had been crazy enough to use it as an offensive method.
“Then, we can just use it,” Gui Linghuo murmured. In all honesty, the people who looked down on musical cultivation annoyed him. This was to make his shizun’s life easier. He didn’t care about the others.
“Linghuo, do you think your shimei would be okay if we brought them out here?” Gui Yin asked. He was completely lost in his own thoughts now. “I have to fight, but you three don’t have to. I will start tinkering with this tonight. I can also try to make a device that will amplify the sound. You three can just remain at the camp while you play.”
Gui Linghuo’s eyes lit up. He nodded. “They’ll be fine! Shan Yu has grown a lot. Siyi…well, you know her.”
“Great,” Gui Yin said, his gaze still concentrated on the score. “Genius…you’re a genius. Alright, you go write a letter to your Jiu-shigu. I’m going to go make this work.”
Gui Linghuo smiled, content that his little idea made his shizun so excited. A second later, he realized that something was off.
“Wait, Shizun, you haven’t eaten!”
“I can eat later!” Gui Yin said, excitedly running back to his tent.
A/N: ♡ (￣З￣) muwah muwah muwah to gain strength and courage
!!!!!! gotta keep patting my heart, father and son moment!!!!!! ٩( ᐛ )و
also two different screams about Li Fangyin (CONCERNED) and Gui Linghuo/Li Yan (kids move fast ajfhakdh) but i’m gonna squeeze my cat [paused in commenting to squeeze her and she immediately wiggled out of my arms] ….everything will be fine :>
yep, everything will be fine uwu THANKS FOR READING!!!
Scammmmm the title was a scam. Even though I knew it wouldn’t happen so soon. The exclamation mark is a scam. I knew there wouldn’t be any !’s when they kiss 😤
Also gui yin feeling bitter that his son’s first love worked out while his love life is currently personifies a blind mouse running from a blind cat is just chefs kiss
WLSLLFKEKLA 😭😭😭😭 (truer words have yet to be said lmao) thanks for reading!!!
It’s no scam 🥺👉👈 there was a kiss 🥺🥺 cheek kiss from the babies 😌
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
Thanks for reading!!!!!
Ahhhh Gui Linghuo called gui yin his dad omg so cuteeeeee
I just love this kid. I really hope he has a good life. He so deserves it. Such a good boy ! Thank you.
HE CALLED HIM FATHER 😭😭❤️❤️