Gui Yin flicked his fan. Blood splattered on the dirt as Shan Yu flew in from the skies. Gui Yin frowned, deflecting a sword that flew his way and blocking a spear that headed for Shan Yu. He pulled her behind him and glanced over his shoulder.
“What are you doing here?”
“We received urgent news from Sect Master that they’ve apprehended the ones tampering with the ghost barrier,” Shan Yu said, allowing herself to be steered by Gui Yin as he fought.
“Something like that could have waited. Besides, are you the only one free? Where’s your da-shixiong?” Gui Yin snapped.
Shan Yu pouted. She sighed slightly as she scratched her cheek. Even while he was fighting, her shizun still had time to lecture her.
“Well?”
“Da-shixiong led backup to Li-gege’s side,” Shan Yu said.
A large shadow towered over them, only to bounce back from the barrier created with Shui Meng. Shan Yu remained behind Gui Yin as he danced across the battlefield.
“Shijie is picking up the fallen,” Shan Yu said. “I was the only one free today.”
Gui Yin glanced back at Shan Yu and hummed. “Fine. But you still shouldn’t have flown into the middle of a battlefield just to tell me news that you could have given me later. What would I do if you got hurt?”
Shan Yu smiled. “Shizun, I’m already fourteen. I can technically fight. I—”
“You’re the heir to the Zhengyang Shan Sect. Even if you wanted to fight, I won’t let you fight now.”
“But I’ve already fought! I was by Grandpa’s side and—”
“You’re my youngest disciple,” Gui Yin interrupted, his sword piercing through a ghost cultivator. He flicked his wrist and glanced behind him again. “If I don’t want you to fight yet, you won’t fight.”
Shan Yu pouted.
When she was with her grandfather, she hadn’t had a day of rest. Now that she was back by Gui Yin’s side, all she did was help around the camp. It wasn’t that she enjoyed fighting, but seeing her martial siblings and her shizun return so tired every night, she figured she could at least help with a few foot soldiers.
The score used to disrupt the ghost cultivator’s mind no longer needed Gui Yin’s disciples to play. The music piece spread quickly through the musical cultivators of the lower realm, freeing the cultivators of lesser cultivation to work behind the scenes instead of working up front.
“Da-shixiong started fighting around this age.”
“When he was fifteen.”
“And I fought last year!” Shan Yu protested. She kept up with Gui Yin’s steps. “Even my mother says that I’m a talent and my grandfather agrees that only I can succeed the clan. Shizun, why won’t you let me fight alongside you? Do you not trust my abilities?”
Gui Yin sighed. He flicked his sleeve, sending back a wave of ghost cultivators. He turned to Shan Yu.
“Fight if you want to.”
Shan Yu’s expression brightened.
“However, you will not leave your shijie’s side.”
Shan Yu’s smile immediately faded. “I can take care of—”
“I know,” Gui Yin said. “Great talents are found amongst the young. But what can you do? You pledged with a shizun who believes the young should take their time to prove themselves rather than rush head first into danger.”
“That—” Shan Yu followed Gui Yin in an aggrieved fashion. “But I can do it!”
Gui Yin reached behind him, his warm hand gently rubbing Shan Yu’s hair until her ponytail produced fly aways. He glanced back, a small smile on his face as he watched the little girl fuss over her hair.
“If Su Wen and Shijie can fight by your side, then so can I,” Shan Yu protested, feeling more and more wronged the longer she thought about it.
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.
Xel Tlc ifa bea j rboa rlut. Pa tjv yffc j ibcu alwf rlcmf tf tjv tfjgv remt qfaeijca mbwqijlclcu. Zlgjmeiberis, lcrafjv bo offilcu jccbsfv, tf ofia delaf tjqqs.
“Alright, alright. Didn’t I say you could fight by your shijie?”
“P kjca ab oluta ys sbe!” Vtjc Te lcrlrafv.
Gui Yin raised a brow. He flew into the air, with Shan Yu held tightly to his side. His fingers flew over the strings of his qin, blasting fifty cultivators to the side. He landed and placed Shan Yu back on the ground. The teenager stared at the scene before her, flabbergasted.
Her shock disappeared only when Gui Yin rubbed at her head again. She looked up with a pout. “Shizun…”
“Does this master look like he needs your help?” Gui Yin asked, raising a brow. “Fight with your shijie. She’s not as experienced on the battlefield.”
Shan Yu pouted. She was ready to accept when her mind slowly analyzed Gui Yin’s words. Her eyes slowly lit up again. She turned to Gui Yin excitedly. “Wait! Does Shizun mean that by helping Shijie, this disciple will be helping you?”
Xel Tlc tfrlajafv. C wbwfca ijafg, tf yfugevulcuis cbvvfv. “T…Tfr. Ktja lr ktja atlr wjrafg lr rjslcu.”
Shan Yu straightened happily. She patted her chest. “Don’t worry, Shizun! Leave it to this disciple! I won’t let Shijie get hurt!”
Shan Yu excitedly spun into the air, her feet using the ghost cultivator’s heads as platforms as she searched for a shadow of Qin Siyi.
“Her qinggong is really good for someone her age,” Su Wen said.
Gui Yin jumped. He glared at Su Wen, who always appeared and disappeared like the rise and fall of shadows. Su Wen lowered his sword and bowed his head in apology.
“It is. That’s what Zhengyang Shan Sect is famous for, so it’s a given,” Gui Yin said. The shrieking sound of the pipa burst onto the field. Gui Yin smirked. “That’s what I taught her though.”
Su Wen glanced at Gui Yin. “My master always says that a mother bird who is too overprotective of her nest is only harming them instead.”
Gui Yin paused. He looked at Su Wen. “What did your master see to have him make you tell me such a thing?”
“He—”
“Tell him that I’ll raise my kids how I want. If he wants a say, then he should just marry into my family,” Gui Yin scoffed.
Su Wen lowered his gaze. How could he possibly relay such a thing?
Of course, Gui Yin knew that what Erlang said was reasonable. But he still had the memories of a man from the twenty-first century—even if he wanted to, he couldn’t so easily abandon what was considered “moral” of those days. And having a thirteen-year-old child fight in a battle against monsters is not exactly “moral”.
Gui Yin laughed softly to himself. One side, he was saying how amoral it was to send children into the battlefield, the other side he had no problem cutting down any living being that flew at him. He didn’t know when he had become so hypocritical.
The battle lasted three days. By the time Gui Yin returned to the camp, Lin Cangyuan and Deng Yenuo had already returned.
“Why are you always right?” Lin Cangyuan asked.
“Say I have a crow’s mouth,” Gui Yin shrugged. “So? What happened?”
“Because it involved two elders of a monastery, we had to contact someone from the Beidou Alliance to escort them back and allow the monastery to deal with them,” Lin Cangyuan said. He smiled bitterly. “As for how they’re going to handle it…we weren’t told.”
“Probably lock them up for a while. But what’s that going to do to them?” Jiu Jingyi scoffed. “They can just continue to try and reach Nirvana.”
“If it was in a cultivation sect’s hands, they would have killed them,” Gui Yin said. He sighed as he flourished his fan. “Well, as long as they keep a tight lock on those traitors, it should be fine.”
“It’s just not fair they got off so easily. So many people died because they helped drag out the war,” Jiu Jingyi said. She paused and then lifted her head to look between Gui Yin and Lin Cangyuan. “But…a lot of ghost cultivators were also lost, right?”
“Comparatively, they might have lost more. Thanks to Gui-shidi.”
“Not at all, not at all. I don’t want to be the only one carrying such a heavy burden,” Gui Yin said.
Jiu Jingyi frowned. Her brows were tightly furrowed as she spoke: “Then, how come they were so determined to drag the war out?”
Gui Yin and Lin Cangyuan glanced at each other.
It had been eight years, but the objective of the ghost cultivators was still unknown. Of course, having an earth polluted with resentful energy would help their cultivation, but being so persistent to this end was foolish. They were losing their forces left and right. For a group of people who never cared for allegiance or loyalty, they were strangely persistent.
“But it isn’t like we can stop,” Gui Yin murmured. He sighed and waved his hand. “Whatever it is, we—”
“Shizun.”
Deng Yenuo jogged over. In his hand was a letter. His brows were tightly furrowed. “Shizun, we received a letter from Ye-shishu.”
“Ye-shidi? But we just came back,” Lin Cangyuan murmured. He took the letter and read it over. His expression quickly darkened.
“What is it?” Gui Yin peered over Lin Cangyuan’s shoulder.
What he read made his blood run cold.
“How could this be?” Jiu Jingyi spluttered. “The ghost barrier was created by an immortal who ascended to godhood. It—”
“It’s been so long already. And it’s been years since it stopped working properly. It’s no surprise that the barrier is about to collapse,” Lin Cangyuan said, sighing in acceptance. “Now we have to figure out what to do.”
Gui Yin fell silent. Unknowingly, everyone had laid their eyes on Gui Yin. The man still hadn’t noticed, but when he looked up, he found himself faced with four pairs of hopeful eyes. Gui Yin awkwardly gulped.
“What? Why are you staring at me for?”
“Do you have any ideas or…?”
“Why would I have any ideas? This is the ghost barrier we’re talking about. It’s technology that’s older than me—I have no idea how to repair it,” Gui Yin said. He tilted his head thoughtfully. “The only way I can think of to fix it is to slap a new barrier on there temporarily before we can figure out something stronger.”
“And can you invent a barrier that can keep ghosts out?” Lin Cangyuan asked, his voice pitching upwards hopefully.
Gui Yin glanced at him, then to Jiu Jingyi and Deng Yenuo. “…Should I?”
“Gui-shixiong, if you dared to claim second best inventor in our generation, no one would dare claim first,” Jiu Jingyi said. “If not you, then who?”
Gui Yin shook his head. “No, no, no. I’m sure there are plenty of people more capable than.”
“Perhaps. But they’re still sleeping in the womb,” Lin Cangyuan said. “Gui-shidi, this isn’t the time to sell yourself short. Not only did you take your shizun’s unfinished cultivation methods and ran with it, you also invented the first teleportation systems. And flying boats? What about the barrier between us and Kunlun? If you can derive a barrier to keep cultivators out, why not ghosts?”
“But that was in development for a while,” Gui Yin protested.
“We’ve been at war for eight years—who cares how much longer you take?” Lin Cangyuan said.
Gui Yin felt the pressure rising. He pursed his lips. “It’s not that I can’t. I can. But—”
“If you can, then do it!”
“Listen to me first,” Gui Yin said, clicking his tongue. “I can easily fiddle with the barrier keys I made for Kunlun and insert the array the monks are currently using into it. But it’ll be weak. If we want to fortify it, it’ll take a lot of strength from high-level cultivators. Which is fine! I know. There’s us three and Ye-shidi, but after that we’ll be incapacitated. It’s very risky.”
“We just call down backup from the upper realm. Easy,” Lin Cangyuan said. “Isn’t there that Li Huanwei and Elder Shan? Not to mention the countless other lord immortals who are twiddling their thumbs up there. We’ll just bring them down to fight, distract the ghost cultivators, and prop up the new pseudo ghost barrier.”
Gui Yin frowned. It sounded so easy in theory, but there was still a nagging voice at the back of his head. “You say it like this, but—”
“Don’t,” Lin Cangyuan held up his hand. “I don’t want to hear it. You’ve proven yourself to have a crow’s mouth. If whatever you say is about to be pessimistic or unlucky, I don’t want to hear it.”
Gui Yin swallowed his words. After a moment, he sighed. “Well, it isn’t like that idea won’t work out.”
“Exactly,” Lin Cangyuan said. He patted Gui Yin’s shoulder. “You’re Lord Ninglan! When did you become so hesitant and unsure of yourself? Where’s your confidence? Where’s your stubbornness?!”
“…I…Well,” Gui Yin shook his head. “I…never mind. I’ll work on it. Send a letter back to Beihua Town and tell them to make sure the barrier doesn’t get any worse. I’ll send a prototype over to act as a bandage for now and I’ll try to work something out.”
Lin Cangyuan and Jiu Jingyi breathed a sigh of relief.
Gui Yin left the conversation still feeling as if something was off. He looked over his shoulder. “Did your master say anything?”
“About?”
“You don’t expect me to believe he doesn’t know what’s happening with the ghost barrier, do you?”
Su Wen awkwardly cleared his throat. “Matters of Heaven cannot be divulged.”
“…Is that what he says?”
“It is,” Su Wen said. He smiled awkwardly. “Even if Master knew something, he wouldn’t say it. He’s always been like this though. If it has anything to do with anything that doesn’t pertain to the mortal realm, then his lips are tightly glued shut. Even in front of the spirits of Kunlun he was like that.”
Gui Yin huffed. “Is he still busy?”
Su Wen nodded. “I’ve only been getting letters from Wu Feng and A-Qi. But if you want to contact him, I can try.”
“Forget it. If he’s busy, I won’t bother him,” Gui Yin mumbled. His steps slowed and he turned to Su Wen. “Hey, he isn’t avoiding me on purpose, right?”
“W-what?! Why would you think that?”
“How many years has it been since he’s last dropped by? He won’t even send me a letter from himself,” Gui Yin said. “Is it because he saw something or whatever and realized he shouldn’t intervene, so now he’s avoiding me all together?”
Su Wen opened his mouth to deny the allegations against his master, but slowly closed it again. “That…could be possible…”
“But you don’t know.”
Su Wen shook himself. He shouldn’t allow himself to be swayed. If he did, who would be around to defend his master?
“If that were true, then Master wouldn’t have left me by your side. Aren’t I still somewhat of a connection to him? If he really didn’t want to intervene, then I also wouldn’t be here,” Su Wen said surely.
Gui Yin hesitated. What Su Wen said made sense. And Gui Yin still didn’t know what this odd ability of Erlang’s truly was, so he couldn’t just make an assumption that it really was something about reading the future.
He sighed and turned away. “Forget it. If he doesn’t want to talk to me, then I’ll leave him be.”
Su Wen felt panicked. “He wants to! He’s just been too busy.”
“Forget it,” Gui Yin said, adding emphasis to his words.
Gui Yin couldn’t place what he was feeling at this time. For several years, Erlang had been Gui Yin’s only place of contact to a person outside of war. He would be lying if he said he hadn’t grown attached. But as he asked for news year after year, he felt upset that Erlang hadn’t taken the initiative to find him. And even more bitter that he couldn’t even send a letter to Erlang.
Huigu Palace’s Palace Lord sure was busy. He didn’t even have time to entertain a lowly cultivator like him.
“My Lord, I’ll try to get in contact with my master,” Su Wen said.
“I said forget it,” Gui Yin said. He lifted the flap to his tent. “I’m going to be busy as well. I have better things to do than talk with him.”
Su Wen looked at Gui Yin helplessly. He soon left the tent and returned to his own. He thought about directly contacting his master, but if his master was truly in the middle of something, then he would be punished. He sighed and propped his chin against his palm.
If his master cared so much about Lord Ninglan, then why hadn’t he contacted him himself? Was Lord Ninglan’s crow’s mouth really so accurate that he had even guessed his master’s intentions?!
Shan Yu you’re so precious, head pats and forehead kisses
hm… Erlang whatcha doing…. i think i recall smth about 8 years… mmmmm but this is important, Su Wen go contact him!!
every time i see shan yu again i want to squeeze her 🙁 yeah erlang GET YOUR MAN smh
thanks for reading!!
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
thank Y O U for read 😌
I think it’s about time for my mans gui yin to have a brush with death. I’m so excited!!!!!!!
This comment is s funny
Is so* 😭
Thank you!!
Oh no my poor baby 😭 come to me i’ll take care of you ;))))