Cw; implied previous sexual abuse
Gui Yin ran his fingers through the tassel as he looked up at the large mountain in front of them. He coughed lightly once, but suddenly felt that something was lodged in his throat. His coughing became more persistent until Langxia stepped in front of him and handed him a canteen of water.
Langxia lightly touched the top of Gui Yin’s head as his coughing fit subsided. “We have to act quickly.”
Wu Feng had gone to stash away their belongings while Su Wen and A-Qi had gone on ahead to do some reconnaissance. This left Langxia and Gui Yin not too far from Yinfeng Valley, but not close enough for the ghost cultivators to sense their presence.
Gui Yin awkwardly cleared his throat. He capped the canteen and handed it back to Langxia. “I’m fine. Something just got lodged in my throat.”
“If you get caught in an asthma attack on our way back, I really don’t know what we’ll do,” Langxia said.
“My asthma isn’t even that bad,” Gui Yin said. He lightly smacked Langxia’s shoulder. “It’ll be fine.”
Langxia showed a rare expression of doubt and worry. Somehow, whenever Gui Yin emphasized how “fine” it would be, it only worked to make others more worried.
Su Wen and A-Qi returned not too long later.
“Master, they say Young Master Yankui is really in the Water Prison,” Su Wen reported.
“The Water Prison isn’t so heavily guarded, but the people in front won’t be easy to get rid of,” A-Qi added.
“Is there a clear way out?” Langxia asked.
Su Wen and A-Qi both shook their heads.
The two of them had just stepped in briefly to peek around, but the path that led to the Water Prison seemed to be an endless maze. It might be easy to get in, but there was also the fear that the pathways could be controlled. If that were the case, it would be even more difficult to get out.
“Do you know when the cycle of five hours begins?” Langxia asked.
“According to what we heard, it seems like they just stopped,” A-Qi said. “They’re giving him lunch soon.”
Langxia glanced at Gui Yin. “How are you with swimming?”
“I won’t drown,” Gui Yin said.
Langxia nodded in understanding. “In that case, please remain outside on lookout.”
Gui Yin was flabbergasted, but didn’t argue.
“Do we know what the chains are made out of?” Langxia asked.
“There are a few options,” A-Qi said. “It could be made out of Millenium Ice, which could freeze another person on close contact.”
“But Young Master Yankui’s cultivation is fire based. That is the main reason the Void Saint put him in the Water Prison. I don’t think he would use Millenium Ice as the chains,” Su Wen pointed out.
A-Qi nodded in agreement. “Then, there’s the Immortal Binding Cable. There’s also Stygian Chains, which is said to prevent the prisoner from using their cultivation.”
“A-Qi and I both think that Stygian Chains is the most likely contender,” Su Wen said. “The bars and structures were laced with a similar material.”
Gui Yin frowned. He glanced at Langxia. “Then, wouldn’t that make it even more difficult to break out?”
Yinfeng Valley was already a place that had very thin Dragon Veins. Once they stepped into that prison, their powers would be further suppressed. Although Gui Yin and Langxia were both powerful, they would definitely not be able to win against the Void Saint in a place like that.
“More reason to act quickly,” Langxia said. He turned to Gui Yin. “We’ll head into the prison together. Su Wen, you guys remain at the opening. We’ll get Yankui as quickly as we can, then you three must run back to Huigu Palace immediately. Only when you pass the borders into Kunlun will you be safe.”
“Yes, Master.”
“Qinle, you and I will act as a distraction to give them enough time to get away,” Langxia said. He looked around the group. “Remember this—evade; do not fight. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, Master.”
Gui Yin peered at Langxia over the top of his fan as Su Wen and the others hurried off. Langxia met his gaze and raised a brow.
“You were a bit cool just then.”
Langxia laughed. He shook his head helplessly. “Let’s go.”
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 obiibkfv Ojcuzlj meglberis. “Pr atja atf kjs bo Lelue Ujijmf?”
“Qtja?”
“Snjvlcu.”
Ojcuzlj uijcmfv ja Xel Tlc. “Gb sbe kjca ab xcbk?”
“C ilaaif,” Xel Tlc jvwlaafv.
“Pa’r Lelue Ujijmf’r rfmgfa afmtcldef,” Ojcuzlj rjlv. “Po sbe kjca ab xcbk, sbe’ii tjnf ab yfmbwf j qjga bo Lelue Ujijmf olgra.”
Gui Yin scoffed. “I’m not going to recognize you as a teacher.”
“There are other ways to be a part of Huigu Palace,” Langxia said.
The two men exchanged glances. Gui Yin rolled his eyes to the Heavens before lightly smacking Langxia with the leaf of his fan. “Let’s go!”
Langxia laughed and swiftly followed after Gui Yin.
The sun crept slowly over the horizon, allowing shadows to elongate like gnarled fingers, stretching out to its victims.
Although there should be a sense of urgency and adrenaline running through his body, Gui Yin couldn’t help but be distracted.
Since they had started their mission ten minutes ago, Gui Yin had been pressed up against Langxia. His ear was full of Langxia’s steady heartbeat and the hand around his waist held him even closer. While the distance between them was somewhat uncomfortable, Gui Yin was thoroughly distracted by Langxia’s power.
As they walked through Yinfeng Valley, teleporting every few steps, not a single ghost cultivator had noticed them.
Langxia had given Gui Yin a pill that hid his living breath, but he hadn’t taken one himself. Instead, the way he breathed seemed to have changed in a way that Gui Yin couldn’t quite understand. And even while he was pressed up against him so tightly, Gui Yin even lost sight of him once or twice. It was unexplainable, but it really seemed like Langxia had disappeared and become invisible.
Soon, they made it to the front of the Water Prison.
Gui Yin couldn’t help but glance around, looking for Su Wen and the others.
Langxia’s voice sounded in Gui Yin’s ear clearly. “They’re already in place. Are you ready to go in?”
Gui Yin nodded silently.
They had arrived just as the people who came to deliver Yankui’s lunch was about to enter the prison. Langxia’s grip on Gui Yin tightened. In one step, they were already ahead of the guards. Gui Yin held his breath despite himself and watched silently as they walked past them without so much as glancing their way.
Langxia craned his neck to look around the corner. “We’ll follow him to the entrance, then wait until he leaves.”
Gui Yin nodded again.
The guard ambled forward, in a slow, awkward walk. Gui Yin couldn’t help but glance down. When he did, he slowly dragged his gaze back up. Langxia glanced at him in amusement.
The guard wasn’t actually walking. It was more like he was dragging himself. His leg had been snapped at some point, yet was never reattached. The leg dragged behind him, making a loud scraping noise. Gui Yin didn’t even want to know what the guard’s face looked like now.
They soon reached the cell.
The room was caged, with a large pit in its center, leading downwards. Pipes were pointed towards the pit and residual water lingered in the sloped sides of the prison. The guard unlocked the cell and stepped in. He ambled over to an area not too far from the door and pressed a switch. Soon, loud creaking filled the room. Gui Yin flinched and watched in part horror and part awe as the dais rose from below.
Chained to the dais, dressed in clothes that hadn’t even been dried, was a man who was about as young as Shan Yu. His face was deathly pale and his eyes were unfocused. His hair stuck to his cheeks and neck. His lips carried a slight, bluish tint. The blood was clearly not circulating properly to his hands and feet, making them turn purplish. This was a young man who was clearly on the verge of death, yet when the guard approached him, a new fire seemed to be lit from the bottom of his soul.
The guard flinched when the chains rattled. He carefully set the food down, not too far away and pressed his palms together in a pleading motion.
“Forgive me, Young Saint. This is the Void Saint’s orders!”
“Cut your crap,” the young man said, his voice hoarse and scratchy. “How much longer until I can leave?”
“A-about a week.”
“A week? Does he want my body to rot and bloat?” the young man scoffed. He kicked over the food, causing it to splatter across the guard’s face. “If that happens, Qiao Ceng won’t be happy, will he?”
The guard trembled. It wasn’t clear if he was trembling out of fear for the young man, the name that had been spoken, or out of anger from being mistreated by a mere prisoner.
In the next second, to Gui Yin’s surprise, the guard got down on his knees and began to slam his head to the ground. The young man’s eyes narrowed coldly.
“Get out of my sight.”
“B-but, Young Saint, your me—”
“Do you want me to eat off the ground!? Bring me another!”
“Y-Yes!”
The guard hobbled out quickly. In that time, Langxia and Gui Yin slipped in.
The door closed slowly with a loud bang.
Yankui took a shaky breath and finally collapsed to the ground. He breathed heavily as he glared at the food that had been smashed by him. He couldn’t eat it anymore. If he ate it again, he was sure he would be vomiting his innards next.
It was already bad enough to be drowned every five hours a day. It would be worse if he started drowning in his own vomit.
Just the thought made his stomach churn, but he had nothing to vomit. He pressed his feverish forehead against the cool ground and breathed out slowly. Just as he was about to fall asleep, his eyes snapped open.
He sat up and scooted back.
Two unfamiliar men had appeared in his cell. One was dressed in navy robes, with a snake crown in his hair while the other wore soft yellow robes. Their appearances were completely different from the ghost cultivators that Yankui had gotten used to seeing. His mind spun. He wondered if he was hallucinating again. It wouldn’t be so surprising. Recently, Yankui had been seeing more and more of Gui Linghuo and his martial siblings. But this…he clearly didn’t know these two men.
“Calm down,” Gui Yin whispered. He held out his hands. “We don’t mean any harm. We’re here to take you out.”
Yankui’s gaze cooled. He glanced at the fan in Gui Yin’s hand and shifted back even further. “Is this some sick joke?”
“…Huh?” Gui Yin stared at him in surprise.
Yankui clenched his jaw. “It’s not enough to torture me, now you want to make it seem as if I’ve gone mad?”
“No, thi—”
“It’s quite intricate,” Yankui smirked. He tilted his chin to the fan in Gui Yin’s hand. “You even have a replica of his shizun’s fan. But I won’t fall for it.”
Yankui lowered his gaze and murmured softly, “There’s no way anyone would try to save me.”
Gui Yin lowered his hands. He pursed his lips, but was unable to offer any comforting words. Langxia glanced at Gui Yin and stepped towards the young man. Yankui flinched and moved back even further, but had reached the edge of his range of motion. He was strapped to the dais. If he moved any further, he was afraid his hands would fall off.
“What are you doing?” Yankui snarled.
“Stay still,” Langxia said.
Yankui pursed his lips. His fingers curled into his palm, but there was really nothing he could do. He lowered his head in a silent resignation. His shoulders trembled slightly as he waited for the inevitable.
However, instead of the man’s unpleasant warm hands on his body, he felt the heavy shackles fall from his wrists with a loud clang.
Yankui opened his eyes and stared in shock.
Langxia looked up at him and tilted his chin to his legs. “Can I see your ankles too?”
Yankui dumbly shifted his wait and presented his feet to the mysterious man.
Clank. Clank.
The chains at his ankles also fell away. Yankui could feel the usual heat filling up his body once again. He shuddered at the sudden temperature change, but before he could really process what was happening, he had suddenly been lifted up.
“Good job,” Gui Yin said as he haphazardly tucked his fan against his belt. He readjusted Yankui on his back. “Let’s go. The guard might come back soon.”
“Alright,” Langxia said with a small smile.
Yankui trembled slightly. “How…?”
“He took the key from the guard’s waist before that guy left,” Gui Yin said. He glanced back at Yankui with a small frown. “He’s the person who delivers your food, right?”
Yankui nodded silently.
“Good, then it wasn’t a trap,” Gui Yin said as he breathed a sigh of relief. “Xiao Kui, you have to listen to my next words carefully—once we leave, there will be three people waiting for you. Follow them and you’ll be able to meet Huo’er again.”
Yankui’s pupils trembled. His grip on Gui Yin tightened. “Sir, are you…”
Gui Yin glanced back at Yankui. After seeing his imploring expression, he smiled gently. “I’m Linghuo’s Shizun. This is my friend—he’s the Palace Lord of Huigu Palace. You can call him Sun-shushu. That’s what the other kids call him.”
Yankui’s grip on Gui Yin’s shoulders tightened slightly. He pressed his lips together and glanced at Langxia.
Langxia met his eyes and raised a brow. “What are you looking at?”
“I…”
“Save your breath,” Langxia said. He pressed a hand to Yankui’s forehead with a frown and checked his pulse. “You’re running a fever. And god knows what else is in your body.”
“Huh?” Gui Yin turned to Langxia in alarm. “What do you mean?”
Langxia softly shook his head. When Yankui was set back down, Langxia quickly hit a few accupoints. “This will stop the poison for now. Tell Su Wen that I said to take you to Lord Xun. He’ll understand.”
Yankui gripped at his clothes silently. He watched as Langxia and Gui Yin started to leave and quickly grasped their sleeves.
“You two…where are you going?” Yankui softly asked.
Langxia rubbed Yankui’s head. “Leaving you here for now. You know Shadow Manipulation, right?”
Yankui nodded.
He took out a pill bottle and naturally popped a pill into Yankui’s mouth. The young man started, but Langxia’s next words distracted him.
“Do you see that tree all the way over there?” Langxia asked.
Yankui turned to look at where he pointed. He nodded.
“Go there. You’ll see those three people,” Langxia said. He rubbed Yankui’s head again. “The pill I just gave you will help suppress your fever, but remember to get proper treatment when you head back.”
Yankui looked between the two men. His lower lip trembled slightly as he asked, “Then, what about you two?”
“Us? We’ll be out soon,” Gui Yin said reassuringly.
A loud alarm began to blare around Water Prison. It was clear that the guard realized his keys had gone missing.
“B-but it’s too dangerous!” Yankui said. He glanced around and quickly grabbed their hands. “You two have to leave first. I…I’m not afraid of dying, but there are a lot of people who need you two. If you leave me, then they won’t come after you two!”
Gui Yin and Langxia glanced at each other.
“Mm,” Gui Yin glanced around at the ghost cultivators who were beginning to gather. “You know, there are a lot of people who miss you too. Everyone in Yunjing Pavilion is very concerned about you.”
Yankui squeezed their hands with more urgency. “But that doesn’t matter! I’m no one to you two. You shouldn’t so stupidly risk your lives for me!”
“No one?” Gui Yin echoed. He turned to Langxia with a thoughtful expression before turning back to Yankui. He grinned. “Hardly! You’re my son-in-law!”
“Wh—?”
“And you’re my godson,” Langxia said. He rubbed Yankui’s head leisurely, as if ghost cultivators were not rushing towards them. “Be good. Quickly go find Yìfù’s attendants.”
“Yìfù—?”
“Hurry, hurry,” Gui Yin said. He turned Yankui and shoved him into the most shadowed part of the building. “The adults have to play now. Children can’t watch.”
Yankui hesitated only for a moment longer. He watched as the ghost cultivators began to swarm them. A well-placed shield caused those who were throwing themselves in Yankui’s direction to bounce off and fly in an opposite direction. A fan was raised, the sound of a guqin rang throughout the lifeless valley, and a flash of gold encompassed them all. Yankui took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and teleported away.
Once Gui Yin and Langxia were sure that Yankui had departed, they quickly moved their battlefield.
“Go back,” Gui Yin said with a nudge to Langxia’s lower back.
Langxia jerked back, glanced at Gui Yin with a hint of complaint, but began to guide them deeper into Yinfeng Valley as he was requested.
“How long do you think we’ll need?” Gui Yin asked as a series of notes flew out and hit the ghost cultivators in the chest.
“Several hours?” Langxia suggested.
Gui Yin glanced at him. When Langxia met his gaze, he smiled. “Let’s try for thirty minutes?”
Gui Yin turned back to the swarm of skeletons, corpses, and other miscellaneous unfavorable creatures with a better peace of mind.
Thirty minutes? He could drag it out for that long.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA YANKUUUUUUIIIIIIIIIII
thanks for the chapter!!!!!!!!!!
thanks for reading!!!
Goodness… I’m nervous 😩
buckle in for the ride : D thanks for reading!
Yankui needs to be protected at all costs