“Wei Lan”, Xu Yan said, mildly surprised.
“I heard you wanted to go to the city. Would you mind me coming along?”, she asked shyly, brushing her hair out of her face.
Zhi Nan had a thoughtful face but agreed. “Why not? You two would not mind, would you? It’s better for Wei Lan to have someone accompany her when she goes outside.”
Xie Yi used his spiritual energy to transmit his voice directly to Xu Yan. Since they were standing right next to each other, it was not too hard. (For him, at least.)
“I don’t understand”, he asked in confusion. “He is after me, right? Isn’t an additional person a hindrance then?”
Xu Yan shakily tried to keep the connection until Xie Yi noticed and stabilized it, keeping it up for him. He hid his surprise of Xie Yi knowing how to do this at all, the young man did not obey the rules of common sense after all.
“There are people who… don’t mind sharing the bed with several people at once”, Xu Yan coughed. “Since Wei Lan is good-looking, he probably doesn’t mind the thought.”
Xie Yi stared at the ground in a blank daze.
Ehh… Surrendering your body not only to one, but two people, at the same time? …Those guys sure had no trust issues, didn’t they…
The two other cultivators before them had no noticed the exchange, their cultivation was much too low for it.
Xu Yan was torn between laughter and crying constantly. It was hilarious in a way, but also very sad. There were two people who were convinced they could get a threesome with a person who was only barely holding back on tearing them apart and he, himself, was the outsider watching it all.
If Xie Yi was anyone else, the two weirdoes might have gotten their happy ending.
Wei Lan was beautiful, Zhi Nan was handsome. Both wanted to conquer the other. How had they not landed in bed yet? Was this Wei Lan’s tactic of making herself scarce to appear precious?
Either way, Xiao Yi would be impossible to seduce. The only person he would ever surrender to was most definitely Master Li.
…Uwaaaah! Now he had gotten his imagination running! Bad, bad! He did not need to see that kind of thing, he didn’t have an interest in that!
Clothes, clothes!
The master and disciple pair looked good enough together, okay, but he did not need to imagine anything more explicit!
However, Xiao Yi was such an adorably obedient person once Master Li was around and the Grandmaster himself was the epitome of comfort, so it actually wasn’t that hard to imagine it. Despite his high strength, he was so easy to get along with.
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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“P wlrr Zjrafg Ol.”
Wlf Tl’r ojmf aegcfv vjgx.
We Tjc oilcmtfv. “P wfjc, P wlrr rfflcu sbe lcafgjma klat tlw.”
Pa ilutafcfv jujlc.
…Xbaaj yf mjgfoei.
“Zjrafg Ol lr atf vlrmlqif bo atf Nlgaeber Vfma’r ifjvfg, lr tf cba?”, Itl Rjc jrxfv, tjnlcu qjgaljiis tfjgv atflg kbgvr.
Xu Yan nodded. “Yes, he’s also Xiao Yi’s master.”
The faces of both cultivators underwent a few funny changes.
Obviously they were remembering Xie Yi’s identity and thus also the rumors. They ended up looking at the black-haired young man in confusion.
Xie Yi blinked blankly, then stepped back and behind Xu Yan with a lowered body to hide himself.vHe quivered a bit, looking scared under their scrutiny. (No, no. He was just disgusted with their stares.)
“I see, you must be a really amazing cultivator then”, Zhi Nan coaxed, looking around Xu Yan.
Xie Yi flushed awkwardly. It wasn’t played. He really was awkward.
“I’m… really bad with spiritual arts”, he mumbled, embarrassed. It was one of the most basic things of a cultivator’s training, but he failed constantly! Wasn’t he shaming his master here!
“Don’t worry about it”, the cultivator said with sparkling eyes. “I will protect you when we go out.”
“Brother Yi, let’s walk together. Senior Brother will make sure we are safe”, Wei Lan spoke up, hurrying around to shyly take Xie Yi’s hand as if they were fellow disciples suffering from the same problems.
Xie Yi blankly stared at her hand, wondering if he had a feasible excuse to squash it.
Xu Yan tried to hold the balance between not laughing out loud and not holding it in too much so that his body wouldn’t be shivering, but the whole situation was too ridiculous.
Were they forgetting he was around?
“Xu Yan”, Xie Yi desperately called out, wanting nothing but to get rid off the two people encircling him.
Xu Yan took a quick step forward to open up a gap and wrapped an arm around the young man’s shoulder to tug him out of the imprisonment.
“Xiao Yi, I know it’s awkward, but let’s not hesitate to rely on him okay?”, Xu Yan ended up saying. “It’s good that we have a guide.”
Zhi Nan’s eyes flashed with suspicion at Xu Yan’s sudden cooperation.
“Let’s keep to the back and make sure we don’t get in his way of fighting.”
The suspicion faded. Just another disciple taking the easy way out by letting someone else do the fighting. Nothing abnormal, especially since Xu Yan had the makings of a Gatherer.
Xie Yi nodded his head like a chicken.
They walked towards the gate. To their surprise, the Honourable Sect allowed their disciples to roam more freely, meaning that no pass was needed. Maybe it was because the city close-by was very large and in direct cooperation with the sect, contrary to the Virtuous Sect that was right on a mountain.
Xie Yi stuck to Xu Yan and Wei Lan stuck to Xie Yi; the one in the middle wanted to cry in disgust.
Zhi Nan walked in front but often turned back to check on his two presumed sweethearts.
Xu Yan pressed his lips together to keep his face straight.
As they entered the city, Xie Yi took his time to look around for once. People were staring at them with envy and whispered behind raised hands. While many girls were staring at Xie Yi, a lot of them were also staring at Zhi Nan.
“Xu Yan”, Xie Yi called, using his spiritual energy again. Who had thought he’d ever be using this so much? It was because he had to stay hidden.
“Here.”
“How good is Zhi Nan? I mean… as in… Well, like, people going after the good ones-” Xie Yi struggled but Xu Yan patted his hand in understanding.
“He’s pretty outstanding. He looks good, has great cultivation and although it’s completely fake, he acts like a gentleman towards those he’s interested in. Generally, he’s a great catch.”
Xie Yi’s eyes wavered.
“Why are you asking?”, Xu Yan questioned. Was Xie Yi… getting interested? No way!
“Could it be”, Xie Yi started, unsettled, “that my master is an absolutely overwhelming man?”
Xu Yan choked and coughed.
“Are you only noticing it now? Of course! He’s still young, is a genius, is super handsome, has a great character and would definitely be a devoted lover. He’s a dream catch for w-… Yeah. He’s definitely a perfect catch.” Xu Yan caught himself saying ‘women’. Who had let his friend be a guy, ah.
Slowly, Xie Yi began to hum.
Xu Yan felt uncomfortable at the sound. Something in Xie Yi’s eyes had changed at hearing that.
He couldn’t tell what – it wasn’t a violent change, but there was one, and even without being able to identify what exactly was happening, he had a very weird feeling.
Xie Yi’s eyes looked so calm, it was weird.
“Xiao Yi…?”
The normal look returned. A bit nervous, Xu Yan thought about asking more when Xie Yi already cut the connection. Xu Yan did not know how to establish it and somehow had a feeling he wouldn’t have the spiritual energy to keep it up anyway, so he sulkily postponed the talk.
With Xie Yi’s sad face of longing, the group decided to visit the bathhouse first.
Early evening was the fullest time but Xie Yi, who wanted the full experience, wanted to go for that exact reason. His expectant expression made everyone swallow their words.
“I’ve never seen anything like this”, he said in excitement upon entering the huge building at the border of the city. There was a subtle scent of herbs in the air and he could feel the raised humidity.
“We don’t have something like this in our small town”, Xu Yan awkwardly agreed. “This is something for the bigger cities.”
Author’s Note
Trivia: GWD’s length had completely gone out of control during writing. There were so many scenes and things I wanted to include that I just somehow ended up writing and writing and writing. I mean, originally, GWD was supposed to have a romance focus, but then it turned into a slowburn.
To make it a bit more clear – when I had started writing it, I had hoped for the story to reach around 150-200k in length.
….In total, GWD has reached almost 450k in wordcount.
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
No lie I’m glad it’s longer than you intended! I’m sure I’ll be so sad when it’s finally complete 😭❤
Well i wont complain if its long. The story is wonderful and i want it longer.
Thanka for the update!
♡
slow burn is my favorite!!!
Yayyyy🎉🎉🎉the longer, the better😏😏😏
And I shall be reading all words no matter how long 😭