Deng Yenuo sat silently beside Lin Cangyuan’s bedside.
It had already been a week. The events ended anti-climatically. The bodies of those in Beihua Town did not show any abnormalities, so they were buried as usual. Everyone who was left returned to their respective places. Ye Liuxing and Jiu Jingyi slowly recovered from their injuries. The world seemed to right itself again. Everyone seemed to have readjusted.
But there were still some odd things.
Like how Gui Yin was never found. Like how Shan Yu didn’t return to Shuangye Peak. Like how Qin Siyi left without a word after not seeing Gui Yin. Like how Gui Linghuo sat in silence every day, with no one to coax him. Like how, whenever Deng Yenuo cried, there was no one to gently wipe away his tears. Like how, when Deng Yenuo called out the word “Shizun” there was no one there to answer.
A lot of things had returned to normal, but like a mirror that had been shattered, no matter how perfectly its repaired, there will still be cracks. Not to mention, their mirror was missing two large pieces.
Ye Liuxing stood behind Deng Yenuo with fatigue painted across his visage. “Yenuo…at least eat something. Your shizun wouldn’t want to see you like this.”
“But what if he wakes up?” Deng Yenuo asked. “If he wakes up, he’ll want to know I’m okay. So, I have to stay by his side.”
“You…you’re right. But if he wakes up and sees that I haven’t been taking care of you, he’ll blame me,” Ye Liuxing said, his voice softening at the end of his words. He swallowed the lump in his throat.
“If he blames you, then I’ll defend you,” Deng Yenuo said, a small smile rising on his lips. “Shizun always listens to me.”
“Yenuo—”
“He won’t wake.”
The two men froze.
The door was closed behind him as Changyuan walked forward with a bowl of congee, set on a tray. He stood expressionlessly beside Deng Yenuo.
“You’re human. No matter how powerful you are, you still need to eat.
“…I won’t eat.”
“You have to eat,” Changyuan said. “What are you doing, tormenting yourself over a half-living corpse. You—”
The tray was smashed to the ground. The bowl broke into shards. A few nearly bounced up and hit Changyuan, but the koi spirit dodged in time. He turned back to Deng Yenuo.
“Shut your mouth,” Deng Yenuo growled.
Ye Liuxing pushed Deng Yenuo back. “Yenuo, you can’t be so rude to our guest.”
“An uninvited guest. You have no name or place in our Yunjing Pavilion, so who are you to just step into my shizun’s room?” Deng Yenuo shouted. His eyes were beginning to rim red again. “Get out!”
Ye Liuxing pursed his lips. He turned to Changyuan. “Changyuan-dashi, please—”
“Just Changyuan is fine.”
“How could that be proper? You—”
“I no longer belong to Linxing Temple,” Changyuan said as he knelt down and carefully picked up the broken bowl. Under the shocked expressions of the others, Changyuan stood. “They never liked me anyway. If you don’t want to eat this, I’ll come back later with something else.”
The two men watched Changyuan leave. A swarm of questions remained only in their minds.
As he walked to the kitchen, he ignored the curious gazes of those around him. At the beginning, he had thought these little humans were staring at him because his head was bald. But that was no matter. Since he had left monkhood, he could use his magic again. And since he could use his magic again, he could just grow out his hair quickly.
But despite his change in appearance, those humans continued to look at him. There was no malice in their gaze though, so Changyuan eventually just let them be.
Once he discarded the bowl, he made his way to the mountain with the maple leaves.
This had become his routine recently. He would try to get Yenuo to eat. If Yenuo didn’t eat, then he would go to the mountain with the maple leaves. There, he would find an idiot, staring blankly at the sky from sunrise to sunset in the same place at the gazebo.
This was another human who didn’t eat.
Changyuan sat down beside Gui Linghuo and set down a bowl of congee.
“I got yelled at,” Changyuan said.
In a rare show of emotion, Gui Linghuo glanced over. “Why?”
“Apparently, I wasn’t supposed to go into Lin Cangyuan’s room. But I had been there before, so I’m not sure why he was so angry this time.”
Gui Linghuo’s brows pinched slightly. “You can’t call Sect Master by his full name.”
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.
“Qts?”
“Pa’r cba qbilaf. Tbe wera mjii tlw Vfma Zjrafg Olc bg Obgv Pwwbgaji Oljbre.”
Jtjcusejc rlutfv atgbeut tlr cbrf. Lf ralggfv atf mbcuff jcv abbx j rlq. “Tbe tewjcr tjnf rb wjcs geifr.”
Xel Olcuteb aegcfv jkjs jujlc, cb ibcufg ybatfglcu klat atf ilaaif xbl rqlgla.
“Kgs atlr,” Jtjcusejc rjlv, qeaalcu atf rqbbc yfibk Xel Olcuteb’r ilqr. Qtfc tf rjk atf kjs atf sbecu wjc uijcmfv ja tlw ijhlis, tf abbx atf rqbbc yjmx jcv yifk ja la ilutais yfobgf qeaalcu la yjmx abkjgvr tlw. “Pa’r mbbifg.”
This was something he had learned last time, when he forced Gui Linghuo to taste test his food. He had thought humans liked hot food, but it seems like there was a limit.
Gui Linghuo sighed, leaned forward and took a sip. He frowned and swallowed with much difficulty.
“Your opinion?”
“It’s very salty,” Gui Linghuo said. He glanced at Changyuan, looking for any trace of sadness. He quickly added, “But the flavor is better.”
Changyuan nodded. “Noted.”
Gui Linghuo watched Changyuan stand. For the first time since they returned, he felt an itch to ask a question. “Changyuan.”
Changyuan paused and looked at him, waiting for him to continue.
“Why did you come to Yunjing Pavilion?” Gui Linghuo asked.
Changyuan fell silent. After a moment, he met Gui Linghuo’s gaze again. “When I was younger, my shifu told me that in the future, I would meet my fated one. When I do, I must follow him no matter what.”
“And your fated one is Deng-shixiong?” Gui Linghuo asked, a small frown on his face.
Changyuan nodded.
“But…he’s with our Sect Master. You can’t—”
“Do not be confused,” Changyuan said. “A fated person does not necessarily mean a romantic interest. For me, my fated person is just someone who will lead me to a way to help me grow my emotional root. Nothing more, nothing less.”
Gui Linghuo fell silent.
Seeing as Gui Linghuo no longer had anything to say, Changyuan left. Gui Linghuo returned to watching the leaves fall.
Maybe another week had passed. Or perhaps it was a month.
There was still no news of Gui Yin, but an uninvited guest appeared.
Soft steps stopped beside Gui Linghuo. The young man lifted his head, taking in the appearance of the teenager, dressed in white. Her face, which was once so lovely, was emotionless for a moment, but when her eyes clashed with Gui Linghuo’s, he could finally see the semblance of the little girl he had grown up with.
He shifted and opened his arms. Shan Yu’s expression finally fell. She collapsed against Gui Linghuo and cried. But her cries weren’t as loud as they were a year ago. They were silent. She had long learned to control her emotions.
“Where’s Shijie?” Shan Yu asked an hour later, when she was trying to dry her tears.
Gui Linghuo averted his gaze. “She’s not here.”
“…Not here? Why?” Shan Yu asked. “I heard she was okay though—”
“She is. She’s fine,” Gui Linghuo said.
Shan Yu’s brows furrowed. She leaned back to get a better look at Gui Linghuo. “Did you two get into a fight again?”
“We…yes. We did,” Gui Linguo nodded.
“What is it about this time? Shizun is missing, Sect Master is comatose. At a time like this, you two should be supporting each other. I can’t be around right now, but…” Shan Yu’s voice trailed off. She paused and slowly looked around. “…Where’s…Li-jiejie?”
“…She says it’s my fault.”
Shan Yu frowned. “What?”
“She…said it’s my fault A-Yan died,” Gui Linghuo said. His nails dug into the palm of his hand. He let out a shaky sigh. “But she’s not wrong. If I hadn’t been so useless, she wouldn’t have had to sacrifice herself to protect me. I killed her. And I couldn’t even save the prisoner we were trying to save.”
Shan Yu listened to Gui Linghuo silently. The way he spoke was not the way one would if they were mourning a loved one. He spoke methodically, while blaming himself all the way. His eyes seemed to have turned red, but no tears spilled out. He only stared ahead silently without a flicker of emotion on his face.
Shan Yu averted her gaze. She closed her eyes that were beginning to sting again. “I don’t know what happened, but I’m sure it wasn’t your fault.”
“It was,” Gui Linghuo said, more like he was stating a fact. He laughed mirthlessly. “I’ve always been this useless. I couldn’t protect the one I loved and I couldn’t save a person who was about to be sacrificed. I’m so useless that I can’t even summon the energy to go out and try to find Shizun.”
Shan Yu remained silent.
“Every day, I get up and I walk until I make it here. And then I can’t seem to walk any further,” Gui Linghuo said. “I want to look for him, but my body feels so weighed down. I know if I remain like this, Siyi will just be angrier at me. Shizun would probably hate me too. But every day, I try to leave, but I can’t.”
He turned to Shan Yu. “I can’t seem to leave.”
Shan Yu slowly opened her eyes again, meeting Gui Linghuo’s gaze. Her chest felt stuffy. What Gui Linghuo described was exactly how she felt the first few months her grandfather passed. Without Gui Yin by her side, she would have stayed in that state a lot longer. But she had a sect to look after. She had things to be responsible for. But what about Gui Linghuo?
The war was over. There was peace. He should be looking for Gui Yin, but maybe it all still feels unreal. Every day he wakes up, maybe hoping to hear Shan Yu and Qin Siyi arguing again in the room next door. Maybe he comes to the lake every day in hopes of finding Gui Yin, silently reading as he waits for his disciples to wake up.
But it’s all subconscious. He was going through the motions of a life that had already passed.
“It’s okay,” Shan Yu said, forcing her voice to sound normal. “You don’t have to go out and look for Shizun.”
“…What? I should—”
“If you leave, who’s going to look after Shuangye Peak?” Shan Yu asked. She straightened and tilted her head arrogantly. “I’ll go look for him and Shijie. It might be a bit unbelievable, but I have the sect under my control now. I have a lot of time. Just leave it to me.”
Gui Linghuo stared at Shan Yu blankly. “But—”
“Or you can let me stay here and watch over Shuangye Peak,” Shan Yu provoked, a cute smile on her face. “You’ll be giving me the easier job.”
Gui Linghuo wasn’t sure how to respond to Shan Yu. His brain felt sluggish and he could only stare at her blankly. He didn’t register the way Shan Yu’s smile wavered under his gaze. He hummed and looked away again.
“I’ll go look for him then.”
Shan Yu stilled for a brief moment. She clicked her tongue and gripped Gui Linghuo’s shoulders, forcing him to look up. “What are you saying? You’re still injured! You’re supposed to say that I should go!”
“But I’m not—”
“I’m going,” Shan Yu said, giving him a light shake. She took several steps back and crossed her arms over her chest. “You should be thankful this Young Miss is doing your work for you. I’m very busy, you know.”
Gui Linghuo finally let out a small chuckle. He reached up to rub her head. Shan Yu lowered herself for him to reach and grinned when his gentle touch rubbed her head. “Thank you, Shan Yu.”
“And I’ll stop by to visit,” Shan Yu said, bumping against Gui Linghuo’s hand. She pouted. “And also, Da-shixiong, you shouldn’t stay in this empty Shuangye Peak day in and day out! Even if you aren’t sick, you’ll get sick. Go out and talk to everyone else more. What are you doing just staying cooped up in here?”
Gui Linghuo’s smile became a little more genuine. “Alright. I’ll try and talk to them more.”
Shan Yu nodded in approval. She put her hands on her hips. “Then, I have to go back to Zheng Yu Lake to tell them where I’m going before I go find Shijie.”
Gui Linghuo’s hard-earned smile faltered. “Are you sure you can go? If not, then I—”
“I’m going,” Shan Yu said, determinedly. She lowered her head shyly with a well-placed pout. “I haven’t seen Shijie in so long. I miss her.”
Gui Linghuo hesitated a moment longer before humming. “Alright then. Just…keep me updated, I suppose.”
“And you take care of Shuangye Peak,” Shan Yu said. She gave Gui Linghuo a tight hug before breaking off. She ran a few paces before turning around and waving again. “I’ll be back soon!”
Gui Linghuo nodded and waved, watching as Shan Yu left Shuangye Peak.
The moment she was halfway down the stairs, Shan Yu suddenly stopped walking. Her smile faded from her face and she crouched to the ground. She hugged her legs and placed her chin on her knees. Tears tickled the edges of her eyes, but they were quickly rubbed away. She couldn’t make too much noise or Gui Linghuo might hear.
Another ten minutes passed before she stood again. She took a deep breath and began to walk down the stairs, but not too far away she found that someone had already spotted her.
“…Jiu-shishu.”
Jiu Jingyi forced a smile. “Shan Yu. Are you okay?”
Shan Yu shook her head honestly.
Opposite her, Jiu Jingyi was still wearing the customary white robes of a mourning Zhengyang Shan sect member. Her hair was placed in a topknot, completely unlike her usually flowing hair. The two walked side by side, slowly leaving the sect.
“Jiu-shishu, can you visit my Da-shixiong more often?” Shan Yu asked.
Jiu Jingyi nodded. “I will.”
“Make sure he eats. He’s gotten really skinny,” Shan Yu said. “He likes really salty things. He’s kind of weird like that. If he doesn’t eat salty stuff, then try something spicy. Bitter melons are his favorite dish. If he still doesn’t eat, then can you buy some cakes at Tianyue (甜月) Bakery? He likes the things they make there.”
Jiu Jingyi nodded along. “Alright.”
“He’s never liked it when it was too quiet, so maybe get him a pet too,” Shan Yu murmured. She looked at Jiu Jingyi excitedly. “He likes cats! He’s always said he’s wanted a cat, but he was afraid to ask Shizun. Jiu-shishu, if you can find a cat for him, that would be nice.”
Jiu Jingyi hummed. “I’ll try.”
Shan Yu smiled, but when she looked away again, her expression seemed to sour slightly. “…It must be so hard on him.”
Jiu Jingyi’s brows furrowed. The two women paused on the steps. Jiu Jingyi brought Shan Yu into her arms and gently swept her hand up and down her back. “It’s hard on all of you.”
Shan Yu shook her head slightly as she leaned against Jiu Jingyi’s shoulder. “He lost the one he loved and now Shizun’s gone. Shijie also seems to hate him. I don’t know how she could say such things to him! He didn’t want her to die either. I know she’s sad, but she should still…”
Shan Yu’s voice trailed off and she closed her eyes. “Forget it. She’s also very pitiful.”
Jiu Jingyi hummed quietly.
“They both loved one girl and now that girl is gone,” Shan Yu whispered. She rubbed at her eyes again. She pulled back. “Jiu-shishu, I should find Shijie and Shizun and bring them home, right?”
Jiu Jingyi smiled at the fire in Shan Yu’s eyes. While the entire Yunjing Pavilion was covered in gloom, this little firecracker still continued to shine. She nodded and squeezed Shan Yu’s shoulders.
“I believe that you can,” Jiu Jingyi said. “And when you get tired, stop by Lin Hua Peak and have a snack or two.”
Shan Yu nodded determinedly. She glanced at Jiu Jingyi for a second and lightly cleared her throat. “Um…Mother’s doing well. So is the sect. So…you don’t need to worry. I promise I won’t ruin Grandfather’s legacy.”
“Silly,” Jiu Jingyi fondly ruffled Shan Yu’s hair. “I know we don’t know each other well, but I trust in my Gui-shixiong’s teachings. I’m sure you’ll be perfectly fine.”
Shan Yu giggled. “That’s true!”
She took another deep breath. Her determination had already washed away her tears. She pumped her fists and looked at Jiu Jingyi. “Then, I’m going, Jiu-shishu!”
“Ah? Wait, you don’t want to visit your Deng-shixiong first?”
Shan Yu’s steps faltered. She glanced at Li Hua Peak, which was just in front of them and hesitated. “Then…alright. I’ll take a peek.”
Jiu Jingyi chuckled and ruffled Shan Yu’s hair. She slung an arm over her shoulders and steered her towards Lin Cangyuan’s room.
Even when they were just at the courtyard, they already heard sounds of bickering. Shan Yu and Jiu Jingyi shared a glance.
The doors burst open and a crazed looking Deng Yenuo spilled from the room. It had been a long time since he had shaved. His normally neat appearance was nearly comparable to a beggar on the side of the street. When he looked up at Shan Yu, she could only look into his bloodshot eyes.
“Yenuo!” Ye Liuxing rushed after him. “The Demon Realm is a dangerous place! Even if you manage to get in, the Crystal Frost Butterfly is extremely difficult to find. You can’t go!”
“Then, what do I do?” Deng Yenuo asked, his voice carrying a shaking quality. “It’s been a month and Shizun hasn’t awoken. Do I just continue to leave him like this? What if he never wakes up? Rather than having him remain in a comatose state, should I just kill him myself then? Even you said yourself, the chances of him waking up are slim to none. What do you want me to do?”
“I—” Ye Liuxing turned helpless to Changyuan, who was behind them.
“I’ll come with you,” Changyuan said simply.
“Not you too,” Ye Liuxing said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I just said that the Crystal Frost Butterly had the ability to restore one’s cultivation but that’s only if their cultivation had been completely obliterated. Sect Master’s case is special—his cultivation is still intact, he just expended it all and part of his life force. Even if you manage to get the Crystal Frost Butterfly, it might not help him.”
“We still need to try,” Deng Yenuo said. He stared at the ground absent-mindedly. “It’s only been a month, but seeing him like this…”
The courtyard fell silent.
“The Demon Realm is a place of many rare herbs and medicines,” Changyuan said. “If the Crystal Frost Butterfly doesn’t work, then we can look for a few more things that might heal him.”
“The border between the Mortal Realm and the Demon Realm is a vast ocean. Even if you want to fly through, you won’t be able to. One trip there and back will take two years,” Ye Liuxing said. “And the rate of survival is slim. You don’t think you’ll get lost? Also, do you think the demons will take well to humans intruding on their territory? It’s too dangerous.”
“…Then, what can I do?” Deng Yenuo asked.
Ye Liuxing released Deng Yenuo’s arm. He lowered his gaze and shook his head. “I also want to know.”
Shan Yu let out a soft sigh. She turned to Jiu Jingyi sheepishly. “I’ll come back another time.”
Jiu Jingyi nodded, her lips pursed sadly. “I’ll walk you out.”
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
thanks for read!!!!1
Thank you so much for this chapter! 🤧🫶🏽
thanks for read!
[shocked out of sadness] Changyuan…. did this koi spirit just go “alright, my fated one is here so i live here now” !?!? akxbskdbns!? instead of humans feeding koi, it’s a koi feeding humans!! (im love him a lot)
also SHAN YU, SO HANDSOME!! i see the arrogance training has gone well (im love her a lot too)
changyuan is raising the incompetent humans for now since he needs fate to run its course, so he still needs them alive uwu AND YES SHAN YU IS THE MOST HANDSOME. BEST GIRL. MOST PUT TOGETHER. MUWAH MUWAH
THX FOR read.
Dang everything is so sad man! Why hasn’t Erlang gone or send anyone to the sect to say that their shizun in fine bruh
This is not the kind of tension that I like in my romance.