Fenghua was returned to Gui Yin and the two girls were eventually coaxed to sleep.
When Gui Yin exited their room, he caught sight of Erlang, who had fallen asleep standing up. A soft chuckle escaped him. He swiftly walked over and tapped the man on the head.
Erlang’s eyes slowly opened. He shifted his gaze over to Gui Yin. His eyes glowed a soft gold in the dark as he looked Gui Yin up and down.
“Happy?”
“Mn. They’re so grown now,” Gui Yin said with a hint of sadness in his voice. But his expression showed his glee. “But they’re still like children.”
“In front of a person they trust, it’s natural that they would show their most vulnerable side,” Erlang said as he slowly approached Gui Yin. He stopped in front of him and brushed a lock of hair behind his ear. “You’ve worked hard. But now, it’s time for bed.”
Gui Yin stared at him dully as he was guided to his room. The door closed and he had absentmindedly followed Erlang’s instructions before he knew what he was doing.
He laid in bed as the lights in his room slowly dimmed. He felt the bed shift and he glanced at the man who laid down beside him.
“What are you doing?”
“Sleeping,” Erlang said, his eyes already closing.
“I meant—why did you climb into my bed?” Gui Yin said.
Erlang’s eyes remained closed, but his voice was directly broadcasted into Gui Yin’s ear despite his lips barely moving. “It’s the only bed here.”
Gui Yin stared at the shameless man for a few seconds before sighing and settling back down. “Forget it. You just do whatever you want.”
Besides, it wasn’t as if they never shared a bed before. Whenever Erlang slept over, he would always end up crawling into Gui Yin’s bed one way or another. At the time, he had been much more comfortable with it because the Erlang of the twenty-first century was like a little puppy. But the Erlang by his side now was a full-grown wolf. Who knew when he’d bite?
Erlang could feel Gui Yin’s inner turmoil, but a relaxed smile remained on his face. “Stop thinking so much. If you do, I won’t be able to sleep.”
Gui Yin stared incredulously at the ceiling. “Why would my thoughts affect you?”
Erlang yawned. “I’ll tell you in the morning. And don’t move any closer to me today. It’s too warm.”
Gui Yin turned slowly, frame by frame as if he were a lagging video. He glared at the back of Erlang’s head and wanted to kick him off the bed. But after thinking about everything he had done for the past few years, as well as just today, Gui Yin held back.
He harrumphed, turned his back to Erlang, and closed his eyes to sleep.
When morning came, the first thing Gui Yin did was head to Li Hua Peak.
Erlang tagged along with half-lidded eyes. He spoke little in the morning and his entire demeanor seemed to curse the morning sun. Even when excited disciples greeted Gui Yin, Erlang barely lifted his head. Thus, following behind Gui Yin was a dark-faced guard.
Gui Yin glanced back somewhat helplessly and could only quicken his pace.
Li Hua Peak was much quieter than it had been in the past.
Since it was also the main peak, there had always been disciples milling in and out. Some would be heading to the dining hall while others were getting ready to receive their lessons for the day. However, the crowd had thinned. There were still familiar faces, but many were missing now. Seeing this, Gui Yin couldn’t help but tighten his grip on Fenghua.
“What’s wrong now?” Erlang’s voice softly touched Gui Yin’s ear.
Gui Yin glanced back. He hesitated for a moment before shaking his head. Erlang watched him walk ahead and followed half a second later. He barely parted his lips, yet his voice traveled to Gui Yin’s ears again.
“They’ve all been laid to rest. You don’t have to feel sad for them.”
Gui Yin pursed his lips and hummed softly.
It was a war that lasted a whole decade. Of course, casualties would be unavoidable.
The closer they got to the center of Li Hua Peak, the less people there were. When they arrived at Lin Cangyuan’s residence, the few attendants stared at Gui Yin as if they had seen ghosts. The atmosphere was awkward, yet delicate. Gui Yin could only scratch his cheek sheepishly, but before any words could come out, a loud exclamation interrupted him.
“Gui-shishu!”
Gui Yin looked in the direction and watched as Wu Ze’xi came barreling over. His sleeves were tied back and there was a large basin of water sloshing about in his hands. He looked a bit silly, as he had always been, but the excitement in his eyes and the smile on his face was genuine.
“Is it really you!?” Wu Ze’xi asked. He gave Gui Yin a once over as emotion welled up in him. “You’re finally back.”
Gui Yin was a bit frazzled. His own children crying in front of him was fine, but Wu Ze’xi was a full-grown man. His hand hovered awkwardly before it landed down on his shoulder in uneven pats.
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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“Shishu, you don’t understand,” Wu Ze’xi sniveled. “It’s been so hard without you or Shizun around. Even though Jiu-shigu and Ye-shishu try so hard, people still have something to say…”
Gui Yin’s expression changed. “What’s wrong with your shizun?”
“He…Shishu, you don’t know?” Wu Ze’xi asked. His expression pinched as tears flowed faster. “He’s hasn’t woken up.”
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The doors to Lin Cangyuan’s room were pushed open.
Ye Liuxing didn’t bother glancing up. He sighed and sat back. “Ze’xi, are you here to wipe down your Shizun?”
He stood and stretched out his waist. “I’ll step out for a…”
Ye Liuxing’s next words were stuck in his throat. He stared straight into Gui Yin, whose gaze was nailed to Lin Cangyuan. Wu Ze’xi carefully set the water basin down at the tea table and stepped out for a moment. He nodded politely to Erlang and scurried off.
Erlang stepped into the room and watched another tearful reunion, but his eyes drifted towards the comatose man on the bed. His brow slowly lifted and he stepped past Ye Liuxing and Gui Yin and sat down on the chair Ye Liuxing had just vacated. He gently tugged Lin Cangyuan’s hand towards him and pressed two fingers to his wrist.
Meanwhile, Ye Liuxing was busily examining Gui Yin. “Where have you been!? It’s been so long. Are you okay? What happened?”
“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you when Jiu-shimei is also here,” Gui Yin said. He smiled as he patted Ye Liuxing’s head. “But I’m fine now. It’s all thanks to him.”
Ye Liuxing hadn’t even noticed that a second person had entered the room. He turned to look at Erlang, who was seriously examining Lin Cangyuan.
“This is…”
Erlang glanced up. He stood, cupped his hands together in the standard greeting, and bowed half-heartedly. “This humble one’s surname is Sun. I am Huigu Palace’s Palace Lord.”
Ye Liuxing showed a flicker of surprise. He glanced at Gui Yin before he bowed and returned the greeting. He smiled brightly as he looked between the two of them.
“I’ve long heard of Palace Lord Sun’s comradery with Gui-shixiong. I should thank you for how much you helped us during the war as well.”
“No need for thanks. I was doing as I should,” Erlang said. His gaze flickered to Gui Yin as an unreadable smile crossed his face. “He is a very important person to me, after all.”
Ye Liuxing slowly turned his head to Gui Yin, his eyes widening dramatically. Because of the angle, Erlang couldn’t have possibly seen the outrageous expression Ye Liuxing was making, but Gui Yin still felt embarrassed. He hastily smacked Ye Liuxing in the arm with his fan and pushed past him.
“What are you looking at? Do you have a way to help him?” Gui Yin asked.
“Well, I’m not god, but I can somewhat figure out what’s wrong,” Erlang said. He placed Lin Cangyuan’s wrist back down and looked up at the two men. “Your sect master here has a variety of afflictions. To say he’s been spending these past five years lingering by the Yellow Springs is not an exaggeration. The longer he remains comatose, the harder it will be to pull him back. Currently, his physical wounds have healed, but his cultivation sea has been ruptured.”
“Ruptured?” Gui Yin echoed.
“Cultivation sea?” Ye Liuxing repeated with a vaguely quizzical look on his face.
It was a concept that is only briefly mentioned in books when someone starts cultivating. It was one of those complicated processes that teachers would not explain to their students, because the student would be able to smoothly progress without even learning about it.
“You’re all familiar with your mental sea, I presume,” Erlang said. Seeing the two people nod, Erlang continued, “The cultivation sea is something similar. The mental sea is, of course, your mind. It houses many things, like the roots of your Seven Emotions, and it shows your state of mind. The cultivation sea is also a part of your mental sea. Your cultivation sea is where a cultivator’s power ultimately lies.
“It’s like a bowl,” Erlang said, his hand making a vague bowl-like motion in the air. “And in this bowl is where your spiritual energy sits. Sometimes holes can develop in this bowl. That’s where you get the phenomena of cultivators who can’t absorb spiritual energy. You can keep refilling it, but it’ll continuously flow out. Right now, the reason your sect master isn’t waking up is not only because his cultivation sea has been ruptured, his primordial spirit has also been damaged, and his Golden Core experienced a harsh impact.
“In the case of strong cultivators falling to this type of injury, the Golden Core is usually there to supplement the energy flow. With enough meditating and careful cultivation, the cultivation sea will heal itself. But your sect master can’t do that. Similarly, if he had his cultivation, such a small impact on his primordial spirit would naturally have healed enough for him to wake in another few years, but he can’t do that either.
“But the main issue right now isn’t any of these things.”
Gui Yin frowned. “Then, what do you mean?”
“Everything wants to flow out, but nothing has a release,” Erlang said. He stood and fixed his sleeves. “Think of a dam with walls that aren’t built high enough. As the pressure grows, water splashes out, but there’s nothing allowed out. The pressure has been building all this time, sooner or later, his cultivation sea will completely burst. He’ll rapidly age and die.”
Ye Liuxing shifted nervously. “How long does he have?”
“Oh, another few years,” Erlang said. He pulled out a jade bottle from his sleeve and held it out to Gui Yin. “This won’t wake him, but it’ll fix his cultivation sea and call back his primordial spirit from the gates of the Yellow Springs.”
Gui Yin took the bottle and turned it in his hand. He glanced at Erlang hesitantly. “What is this?”
“A Reawakening Pill. You don’t have to worry about the validity of it. It’s from an immortal friend of mine,” Erlang said.
Gui Yin stared at him. “You have friends?”
Erlang’s mouth opened and closed before he finally settled with a dimpled smile. “Are we not friends?”
Gui Yin scoffed. He uncorked the bottle and shook out a pill. It was an odd, murky green color. Ye Liuxing looked over Gui Yin’s shoulder curiously.
“So, it’s god’s medicine?” Ye Liuxing asked. He looked at Erlang. “Are you sure Sect Master can use this? Won’t it have a rebound effect?”
“It won’t. Sect Master Lin is close to ascension. There is already immortal energy converging within him. In fact, it’s probably the only thing keeping him alive right now,” Erlang said. He took the pill from Gui Yin’s fingers and stuffed it into Lin Cangyuan’s mouth.
The two men let out worried exclamations, but when Lin Cangyuan didn’t immediately foam at the mouth and die, they both breathed a sigh of relief.
Erlang placed a hand on Lin Cangyuan’s chest and let out a stream of steady spiritual energy. His action was leisurely, but his eyes slowly turned gold. Gui Yin watched him cautiously and shifted closer.
“Don’t push yourself.”
“It’s nothing,” Erlang said. He pulled back his hand and stood. “He should be fine now. As for the rest, well, I think a Crystal Frost Butterfly will do the trick.”
Ye Liuxing was about to thank Erlang, when his smile fell slightly and he looked at him in confusion. “How did you know about the Crystal Frost Butterfly?”
Gui Yin patted Erlang’s arm. “He’s been keeping an eye on things in my stead.”
Ye Liuxing’s eyes flickered in excitement. He glanced between the two of them. “Are you two…”
“Just friends,” Gui Yin said, getting ahead of him before he could say anything outrageous. He gave Erlang’s arm a squeeze. “We’ll be heading back to Shuangye Peak first. Let’s have lunch together later.”
“Alright,” Ye Liuxing said. His barely hidden thirst for gossip followed Gui Yin and Erlang out of the room.
Gui Yin breathed a sigh of relief. He glanced at Erlang and lightly tapped his chest with the side of his fan. “Thank you.”
“It was nothing. I only lifted my hand,” Erlang said. He glanced at Gui Yin with a raised brow. “Is there something else you want to say?”
“Your surname,” Gui Yin whispered. He glanced behind him and shifted closer as they walked down the path back to Shuangye Peak. “Is it real?”
Erlang slowly smiled. “Are you curious?”
“Of c—“ the words remained in his mouth. He slowly puckered his lips and shook his head. “No. I was just wondering. Then, I have something else to call you other than Erlang.”
Erlang chuckled. He watched as Gui Yin put distance between them again. He stared ahead as his lips barely moved; his voice projected directly into Gui Yin’s ears.
“My surname is indeed Sun. Apparently it was my father’s surname.”
“Oh, then—”
“My people don’t use things like courtesy names. However, my given name is Langxia. Sūn Lángxià (孙郎下).”
Gui Yin slowed to a stop.
Langxia turned and looked at him with a small smile. His lips moved, but this time, he produced a clear sound. “What’s wrong?”
“You…told me your name,” Gui Yin said.
Langxia hummed. “What about it?”
“Aren’t you not supposed to tell your name to outsiders?” Gui Yin asked.
Langxia looked at him deeply. “Do you still consider me an outsider?”
“No…but—”
“We’ll be with each other for the rest of our lives,” Langxia said. “It’d be odder if I didn’t tell you my name.”
Gui Yin laughed slowly. He nodded and flourished his fan. “Right, we’re stuck together now, aren’t we? It’d be odd if you never told me your name. Of course.”
Langxia observed him for a moment. Although it was subtle, there was a definite disappointment in his chest. He slowly smiled to himself. Then, this was the perfect time to tell him.
“Right, Qinle, there was something I wanted to tell you.”
“Hm? What is it?”
“I figured out how we’re connected,” Langxia said.
Gui Yin’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
“When I pulled you back to this dimension, I did so at the expense of my own soul. Luckily, I didn’t suffer any heavy repercussions, but our souls are stuck together now,” Langxia said. He pointed one finger to himself, then to Gui Yin: “If I die, you die. If you die, I die.”
Gui Yin blinked blankly. His expression slowly melted one of irritation and anger. He smacked Langxia with the flat of his fan. “Is this what you meant when you said we were stuck together?!”
“I certainly didn’t realize that was the true reason. I knew there was a risk, but I didn’t want to alarm you,” Langxia said.
“This—then, what do we do?”
“There’s nothing we can do,” Langxia said. He smiled breezily. “There’s another thing.”
“What?”
“I can feel your emotions,” Langxia said. He rubbed his chest with a pouting expression that Gui Yin had only seen when this man had short hair and wore jeans. “You seem to be very angry, Lord Ninglan. I’m a bit hurt.”
“You,” Gui Yin couldn’t say anything. He could only point his fan and shake it at Langxia’s nose as he felt his blood pressure rise.
He let out a loud huff as he flourished his fan. He glared at Langxia. “Then, how come I don’t feel your emotions?”
“I don’t have any.”
“…What?”
“When I was a child, I was kidnapped by Qi Du Cult. One of their experiments was to see how a person would become after their emotional root was removed,” Langxia said. He pressed a hand to his chest. “Luckily, the deity friend I had managed to put it back in. But it never took root again, so I can’t experience many things.”
Gui Yin’s anger dissipated. “But…then…”
“But you don’t have to be so worried,” Langxia said. “I’m sure you’ll also be rewarded with some of my weaknesses. This isn’t a side-effect of our souls being latched together. I’m sure it’s a punishment from the Heavens for daring to defy them.”
The sardonic expression on Langxia’s face made Gui Yin feel uncomfortable. It wasn’t because of what he said, but how casual he was about the whole ordeal.
To have your emotional root removed must have hurt, right? Did it traumatize him? Was he even able to be traumatized after it was removed? And if he could only feel part of his emotions, which ones could he feel?
Langxia lowered his gaze. There was a complicated feeling swirling within his heart. He looked at Gui Yin and found himself unable to really ask what was wrong.
“Is it that difficult to accept?” Langxia asked.
Gui Yin’s head snapped up. He came to a slight understanding.
Langxia could feel his emotions, but since it had been a long time since he had experienced any, he would have trouble deciphering them. Ones that were more straightforward came easily to him, but with how mixed Gui Yin felt right now, it was bound to confuse Langxia. This confusion didn’t bother taking the contents he just said into account and only assumed that Gui Yin couldn’t accept the fact that he was now bound to Langxia in such a way.
“It isn’t that,” Gui Yin said with a shake of his head.
Langxia slowly raised a brow. “Then?”
“Trying to figure out how to keep you from spying on me on such a personal level,” Gui Yin lied. He scoffed and turned on his heel. “I’ll have to do some research. Maybe something about masking emotions will come up.”
Langxia smiled. “You can try. But this is through the soul, not the mind.”
“Well, I’ll never know if I don’t try,” Gui Yin said. He glared at Langxia. “I just can’t wait to know what your weakness is.”
Langxia chuckled.
Gui Yin hid his emotions, but what did Langxia hide? He was such a prideful person, yet he rarely lied—it was definitely something to look forward to.
A/N: I will be taking a one week hiatus to catch up on editing and give myself a little break. See you all again soon!
AAAAAA WE GOT A NAME!!!!!! ʕっ•ᴥ•ʔっ im love Sun Langxia so much, just [gestures to his everything] yeah
┻━┻︵└(՞▽՞ └) I love this development!
thank you for this chapter!
Soul blob…your soul blobbed my soul therefore I feel your feels? Pfft! Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️🤣❤️