The Ghost King was stunned for a moment, then smiled vaguely and said nothing.
For some reason, the young cultivator’s joking words gave him the illusion that the other party seemed to be aware of his purpose for this trip.
After Shi Wuzheng conducted a spiritual search in the swamp, he found nothing unusual. At this time, the town’s rescue vehicles and horses also came over, and the group decided to return to HongShui Town with the rescued girls.
“Shizun, when will we set off back to Mount Dongji?” Cheng Miao asked.
Shi Wuzheng thought for a moment and replied, “We will consider returning after seven days. Firstly, we don’t know the situation of these girls after they’re rescued, so we can stay for a few more days to observe; secondly, we are not yet sure the danger is completely cleared. If there are any other threats around HongShui Town, it is better to wait and see.”
“Besides, it is a rare opportunity to have a trip down the mountain. You guys can take this opportunity to practice more and gain more knowledge,” Shi Wuzheng said.
After the group returned to HongShui Town, they found that the lobby of the originally deserted inn was crowded with people. Cheng Miao stepped forward to ask, and the waitress at the inn informed, “Fushui City, which is adjacent to our town, will hold a Thousand Maple Lanterns Sighting Banquet in three days. Passing-by tourists and businessmen have all come to stay. The inn is crowded and noisier than usual, I hope the guests can forgive me.”
Chi Huo stepped forward and said, “It’s alright, we just wanted to ask if there are any extra guest rooms. A friend of mine also wants to stay here today.”
On the way just now, the Ghost King said that he would stay in HongShui Town with the cultivators from Dongji Sect for the next few days to observe the situation in HongShui Town. He suggested they could also talk about scriptures and Taoism together and exchange practice experiences.
Shi Wuzheng seemed to be somewhat interested in this wandering casual cultivator. He wanted to learn more from what he had seen and heard, and he also wanted to thank him for his help, so he invited the Ghost King to stay at the inn with them.
The plot was exactly the same as in his previous life. This was how Chi Huo gradually became familiar with Shi Wuzheng.
The waiter at the inn let out a low “ah” and said apologetically, “Unfortunately, because of the Fushui City Thousand Maple Lanterns Sighting Banquet, our inn is fully booked, and the nearest inn is about thirty miles south. I don’t know if it is full now, though your friend can try his luck.”
“If you have no choice but to share a room with your friend, we can add an extra screen partition for the guests who share a room.” The waiter at the inn said enthusiastically.
Chi Huo raised his eyebrows imperceptibly. He remembered that in his last life, he stayed at the same inn as Shi Wuzheng, but he was lucky enough to have the last available room.
…it seemed like he had taken over his own room.
The unaware Ghost King walked up to Chi Huo and said to the waiter, “Then, we’ll share a room.”
“Okay,” the waiter at the inn looked at them with a smile, “May I ask which room you want to share?”
The waiter asked the Ghost King.
The Ghost King first looked at Shi Wuzheng, then lowered his eyes and looked at Chi Huo beside him, “Qi-gongzi, do you mind staying with me for a few days?”
This cultivator who knew his true identity was a hidden danger. As far as the Ghost King was concerned, it was safer to keep him under his nose at all times.
Chi Huo also expected “himself” to take this into consideration.
Chi Huo, “Of course it’s no problem. We haven’t seen each other for so long, we can also catch up.”
What could go wrong? Originally, that was the room that the Ghost King was supposed to stay in, but he just occupied it.
But it was only him and himself. Strictly speaking, it did not count as crowding.
And since he claimed the Ghost King to be an old acquaintance, it would be most logical for the other party to choose him as a roommate and not arouse suspicion among his Shizun and the disciples.
Shi Wuzheng originally wanted to check his little disciple for injuries, but seeing him yawn repeatedly, he hesitated for a moment and brushed it off, and asked Qi Wang to go back to his room to rest early.
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.
Chi Huo had the habit of bathing before bed. As long as conditions permit, no matter how sleepy he was, he would insist on washing himself before going to sleep.
Ktf uefra gbbw kjr cba ijguf. C megnfv rmgffc rfqjgjafv atf yjataey jcv atf yfv. Ktf Xtbra Blcu kjr vglcxlcu afj bc atf rboa yfv, erlcu j qbgmfijlc mbnfg ab rxlw boo atf objw bc atf afj ogbw alwf ab alwf.
Ktf rxs kjr jigfjvs ygluta ja atja alwf, jcv atf reciluta qbeglcu lc ogbw atf klcvbk liiewlcjafv atf gbbw yglutais.
The screen was backlit against the sunlight, and the silhouette of Chi Huo bathing was clearly reflected on the screen. The sound of rushing water echoed in the room; in the late autumn morning, it had a kind of moist ambiguity flowing.
“When did you enter the peak under Suizheng Xianjun?” The Ghost King averted his gaze from the screen with flowing outlined shadows, and asked casually.
Chi Huo answered truthfully, “Just a few days ago, I was promoted from the outer sect to the inner sect, and I happened to become Shizun’s disciple.”
The Ghost King paused slightly, “Did he choose you?”
Chi Huo, “No, I chose him. Since no elder was willing to take me in at that time, Zhangmen handed over the choice to me.”
The Ghost King, “Why did you choose Suizheng Xianjun?”
Chi Huo frowned, his body wet. He shook the moisture out of his hair and said with a smile, “Because no elder would be as kind to his disciples as Shizun.”
There was a hint of something hidden in his words, although it was undetectable at the moment.
But, honestly, Chi Huo was taking advantage now. Shi Wuzheng treated his disciples much better than he treated his partners.
The Ghost King tried again in a joking tone, “This is a bit beyond my expectation.”
Chi Huo, “Are you referring to the fact that Shizun is good to his disciples?”
The Ghost King shook his head, “I thought you must have been his disciple since a long time ago. In my opinion, among Suizheng Xianjun’s disciples, your Shizun pays you the most attention.”
“Really?” Chi Huo was stunned for a moment and said with a smile, “I’m afraid the Ghost King may have seen wrong.”
Chi Huo thought to himself, when he was young, he didn’t know that the world was a book and that everyone’s choices would follow the character. Naturally, the person Shi Wuzheng cared about most could only be Xiao Guo, just like when he was young. He traveled thousands of miles to HongShui Town just to meet the right Taoist companion specified in the Book of Heaven.
Everything was set in stone.
But he wanted to break the rules that bound him.
After the time it took to brew tea, Chi Huo was so sleepy after bathing that he didn’t even bother to dry his wet hair, and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
Half asleep and half awake, the sound of water rushing sounded behind the screen. The little kid, just like him, must take a bath every day, otherwise he, too, would always feel like there was something wrong…
The morning light was dim, and the calm and continuous sound of water had a slumbering effect. Time was like the light and shadow on the curved screen, intertwining and overlapping, then gradually blurred and faded. Soon, Chi Huo fully sunk into the depths of slumber.
Maybe it was because they talked about Shi Wuzheng before going to bed, but Chi Huo actually dreamt about his past with Shi Wuzheng for the first time.
In his previous life, it was also the season when red maples were blazing. According to Chi Huo’s plan, he and Shi Wuzheng stayed at the same inn and went to Fushui City to participate in the Thousand Maple Lanterns Sighting Banquet.
At that time, when he was young, he did not know the so-called “Tiandao” was all lies, and that he was just a pawn of “Tiandao”. He followed the prompts of “Tiandao” and, like completing a monastic mission, passed the HongShui Town incident and he and Shi Wuzheng got to know each other and tried their best to gain each other’s favor during the Thousand Maple Lanterns Sighting Banquet.
Chi Huo, a young man, heard that the daily practice of famous cultivators was boring, so he racked his brains and carefully selected tens of thousands of maple leaves with unique colors and shapes from the maple forests hundreds of miles away, and rushed to personally make 365 lanterns with different shapes within three days.
The young Chi Huo thought that practicing in Mount Dongji was always boring day after day, year after year, so he used the maple lanterns he made by himself to try and add some fun to Shi Wuzheng’s boring daily practice.
One lamp every day, and each was different. Although the small maple lantern was not worth mentioning, it could always bring some liveliness.
But as a young man at that time, he seemed to take it for granted.
Suizheng Xianjun was known to be cold and indifferent. After receiving the 365 maple lanterns made by Chi Huo himself, he showed a rare expression of surprise.
Only surprise, no joy.
In other words, Chi Huo, who was still young at the time, failed to read “happiness” from the other person’s expression.
Rather than being happy, Shi Wuzheng seemed a little unbearably embarrassed and apologetic, although in the end he politely accepted the 365 maple lanterns carefully prepared by Chi Huo.
It was difficult to figure out Shi Wuzheng’s thoughts, so young Chi Huo could only find ways to attract his attention.
But throughout the Thousand Maple Lanterns Sighting Banquet, they maintained a distant and polite relationship. Chi Huo thought there was no hope for the time being, but unexpectedly, the night before Shi Wuzheng decided to return to Mount Dongji, he took the initiative to come to Chi Huo, indicating that he was willing to try and get along as a quasi-Taoist couple.
This time, the young Chi Huo showed a surprised expression.
Again, only surprise, no joy, since he couldn’t figure out what prompted Shi Wuzheng, who had always been calm, to make such a decision.
But it didn’t matter. Since the Book of Heaven indicated that Shi Wuzheng could be the right Taoist companion to help him cultivate the Passionate Dao, then the other party’s sudden change seemed to become reasonable.
For a long period of time after that, Chi Huo and Shi Wuzheng maintained a “Taoist companions” relationship that was neither strong nor light.
Every three months, Shi Wuzheng would come down from Mount Dongji to share a cup of tea and talk about Taoism with Chi Huo, and travel for several days. It seemed that he did this in order to fulfill his previous promise to the other party to get along as Taoist companions, no matter how deep their relationship was.
Chi Huo once mentioned the matter of joint marriage registration ceremony, but seeing how Shi Wuzheng avoided answering, he gave up. The delay lasted until they parted ways, and other people’s names appeared in the Book of Heaven.
During their time together, Chi Huo knew that Shi Wuzheng was absent-minded, and Shi Wuzheng also knew that Chi Huo was hiding something.
Both of them seemed to have completed their respective tasks, leaving each other enough personal space and staying politely distant.
They broke up peacefully back then. Perhaps because Chi Huo didn’t actually start “practicing the dao” during the relationship, he wasn’t upset.
But it was also the first time he experienced the feeling of loss, as if he thought he had caught something in his grasp, but it was all an illusion.
At that time, he bought liquor at a store called Xiangshan Yunwu, thinking that this was probably what the world would call a happy event in vain.
What he experienced was not actual joy, so the “emptiness” at the end was also expected.
So much so that when these past fragments appeared in Chi Huo’s dreams, they all had a gray and cold undertone.
In his sleep, Chi Huo shivered subconsciously and muttered in his sleep.
After sliding the screen, the Ghost King, soaking in hot water, took off his disguise, revealing his natural white hair.
Strands of white hair spread out in the water, like white snakes diving into a deep pool, meandering and moving, spitting out poisons.
He heard the sound of sleep talking coming from the bed behind the screen.
The Ghost King’s hand combing his hair paused abruptly, as did the sound of rushing water behind the screen.
Immediately afterwards, splashes sounded as the person in the tub suddenly stood up.
The Ghost King hurriedly put on his clothes and walked around the curved screen to the bed. He squatted down and listened carefully to the young cultivator’s murmurs in his sleep—
“Shi Wuzheng…after the maple banquet is over…are you really in such a hurry to go back…to Mount Dongji…?”
The little cultivator’s words were vague, but the Ghost King’s five senses were sharp and he could naturally identify his vague murmurs.
Why did this young cultivator call his Shizun like this in sleep? In their respectable master-disciple relationship, this was already an act that violated the rules, right?
And the maple banquet he mentioned was the upcoming Thousand Maple Lanterns Sighting Banquet in Fushui City?
The Ghost King decided to tease the sleeping cultivator and take the opportunity to explore their relationship.
“If I don’t go back to Mount Dongji, what am I supposed to do here?” The Ghost King lowered his voice and whispered in Chi Huo’s ear.
Chi Huo frowned in his sleep and did not answer the Ghost King’s question.
Just now he dreamt about the fragment of Shi Wuzheng when they first met in the previous life, but now the dream had progressed further again.
The Ghost King waited for a while, but when he didn’t get a response, he finally gave up and continued his bath.
After the time it took to brew a cup of tea, the Ghost King had cleaned himself up thoroughly. He walked around the screen and found that the sleeping cultivator had turned over—
“Xianjun, let’s hold our marriage ceremony someday, how about it?”
Chi Huo said in his dream. Here, he dreamt about the day when he mentioned the marriage ceremony to Shi Wuzheng. At that time, he had mentioned it casually on a whim and did not expect the other party to respond.
The Ghost King who was sorting out his clothes was stunned.
He brushed the damp white hair on his shoulders, squatted down and replied cheerfully to the man in his sleep, “Okay.”
The sleeping little cultivator frowned.
“Seriously…?” he was still mumbling vaguely in his sleep.
The Ghost King, “Yes.”
He guessed that the ‘Xianjun’ Qi Wang mentioned was Shi Wuzheng, whom he mentioned in his sleep talk before, who was also his Taoist companion shown in the Book of Heaven.
Chi Huo’s brows furrowed even more bitterly, and he was silent for a moment before saying, “Forget it.”
The Ghost King raised his eyebrows, “Hm? Why forget it?”
Chi Huo, “You won’t be my Taoist companion.”
The Ghost King thought it kept getting more fun. He asked, “Why?”
He thought that the other party would give reasons such as the relationship between master and disciple was unethical. Unexpectedly, Qi Wang’s answer was completely beyond his expectation—
Chi Huo, “It’s a lie.”
“The Book of Heaven…is all a lie.”
AaAAah it’s getting interesting between them~
But damn, these cliffhangers get me every time
Uwahh!!>< Thank you for the update!!!💓
Will little ghost king misunderstand the relationship between master and disciple?!😱😱 Also the Book of Heaven was mentioned!!!