Jin SeCh16 - Conspiracy

All Shi Wuduan knew was that the emperor was very important and that all the commoners had to listen to his orders, but he didn’t know that emperors were supposed to be respected and revered, so he didn’t think that seeing the emperor was a great honor or anything. All he knew was that he had a very large entourage, so he left his hiding place and slipped into Jiulu Mountain.

The sight shocked him to his core — if that guest was so important that all the disciples were seeing him off, plus the huge commotion in the back mountains, then how come he hadn’t seen his shifu? rDVYFP

He hadn’t seen Kuruo-shishu either. Shi Wuduan’s heart sank as he slowly turned his gaze to Bitan and Banya. An ominous guess began to surface in his mind. If his shifu was gone and all the guards on the mountain were dead, what were these two doing, proudly sending off the imperial carriage? What was it all for?

His hands and feet became icy cold the further he followed that train of thought.

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Even the Cuibing bird and the rabbit seemed to have sensed his change in mood. Both the dumb creatures laid quietly by his side.

The carriage train following the imperial carriage was very long but very orderly. But no matter how neatly they marched, it still made for ample distraction. When the lengthy carriage train passed in front of him, he used the cover to crawl out of the bushes. He’d learned a few concealment spells, though he couldn’t hide himself completely. The most he could manage was make someone’s eyes blur over. nBNxWZ

He thought for a while, then scooped up a handful of pebbles. He silently incanted the concealment spell and stealthily left a trail of pebbles in his path.

He wasn’t just scattering stones for fun. In seconds, Shi Wuduan’s forehead was covered in the sheen of sweat — this was a very simple yet very complicated array he’d learned from Jiang Hua called the camouflage array. It could be cast using any random objects, but required that the caster have a deep understanding of divination. The placement of every object had to be calculated extremely precisely.

Shi Wuduan couldn’t take out his astrolabe to help him calculate, so he could only do it by heart. And he had to make sure that he remained crouched among the underbrush as well. He only walked a dozen or so steps, but to him it felt like he’d walked half a lifetime. By the time he’d snuck past Xuan Sect’s defenses, his ragged clothes were soaked through with sweat.

Still, he didn’t dare let his guard down. He was now only three or four meters away from Bitan and Banya. These two shishu were powerful cultivators on his shifu’s level. Their skill and cultivation was unimaginably immense. Even though the imperial procession hadn’t fully left yet and the situation was still a bit chaotic, he tried his best not to make noise as he took a deep breath and forcefully pressed a stone against his chest. He placed down the stone in his hand and backed away.

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He’d tied the bird and rabbit to his waist sash. Many years later when Shi Wuduan would tell others of this story, when the past was already dust on the wind and he himself had forgotten the feeling of fear and terror he’d experienced in his youth, he told the story over tea as an entertaining anecdote, though mindful listeners would always be appalled.

How did a child like him, sheltered by the sect master deep in the mountains, who aside from cultivating only knew how to play and make mischief, who’d never even glimpsed the darkness of the human heart, manage to keep his composure and act so rationally in that kind of situation?

Old people said that kids who were especially clever were all made out of the scraps of humanity, they didn’t often make it to adulthood. But if one of them was born with great fortune and managed to survive, they’d go on to make great waves in the human realm.

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.

Shi Wuduan didn’t know where he found the strength to keep going. Maybe it was that Bai Li, the collapsed valley, and the murder of his fellow sect member, had all turned into a red-hot iron that seared against his heart and enveloped it in a thin but resilient armor. 1z9J3V

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Shi Wuduan’s thoughts had never spun so fast before, he felt like his brain was stuffed full.

As he infiltrated into Xuan Sect, he thought: who knows what that old emperor came here to do. Those people were all wearing ceremonial robes, they must have just left from the altar. If I try to find shifu now, I won’t even know where to begin, it’d be too easy to tip them off. I might as well go to the altar and see what they were doing.

The memory of the seven mountain lanterns resurfaced in his mind. He recalled what the sect master had taught him before: where there’s a large connotation, great winds and rains, when things are deeply wrong, someone must have been going against the laws of nature. EbaWl5

Seven lanterns…. seven lanterns…..

Shi Wuduan remembered an excerpt he’d read in a collection of obscure texts: the lighting of seven lanterns is the borrowing of fate, at its greatest it can save nations, at its least it can restore a single life. With all the ruckus they made, what had they borrowed from heaven?

Most importantly, Shi Wuduan remembered how angry the sect master had been when he caught him reading that book. He’d smacked his hand harshly and said that those were wicked arts, and to “never bring it up again, for one must eventually return what they borrow, and the arts that interfere with karma and fate are most dangerous of all. If humans defy heaven in their greed, they will bring ruinous calamity upon us all.”

Was shifu here on the mountain? If so, how could he allow them to carry out such a ritual? V9wH4o

He proved he had the skill to be worthy of his place as a closed-door disciple, as he cautiously dodged all the patrols and used his knowledge of the mountain to successfully reach the ceremonial altar undetected.

He took one look and subconsciously covered the Cuibing bird’s eyes. Something had happened to the altar, charring the middle pitch black. The surrounding trees and plants hadn’t escaped unscathed either, they’d all withered to death already. The lanterns he’d seen floating above the mountain yesterday were already lowered, they surrounded the altar in a circle. Their wicks were nowhere to be seen and they were damaged beyond repair.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Shi Wuduan passed by the altar and entered the ancestral hall. Past the wide open doors, a coffin laid in the middle of the courtyard.

Shi Wuduan clenched his fist as he examined every inch of the scene. He saw, on the table behind the coffin, a simple plaque inscribed with the words — The three hundred forty ninth leader of Xuan Sect. dwH9IS

His vision blackened, he nearly fainted right then.

The disturbance caught the attention of the guards at the altar. One of them yelled, “Who’s there?!”

Shi Wuduan, startled, came back to his senses. His gaze swept across the sword-bearing guards and knew he was caught. It’d be impossible for him to escape relying on the mere kiddy tricks he had.

He took a deep breath to steady himself, and with courage beyond his years, stepped out of the camouflage array. He gave himself a vicious pinch on the leg; he didn’t manage to cry on the spot, but his eyes reddened immediately. IpVPkv

His hair was messed up, his face was dirty, and his nose had a splotch of dust on it. He looked like a pitiful little creature. As the guards all looked at him, he plopped down on the ground and started bawling, though still no tears came.

At the same time, he stuck out a foot and destroyed the camouflage array.

The guards recognized the sect master’s littlest disciple, of course. They exchanged glances with each other. Through the gaps between his fingers, Shi Wuduan saw one of the guards run out to report, but though there were so many people, not one of them came to help him up or reassure him. His heart sank even further.

Shortly, Master Bitan rushed over. Shi Wuduan hesitated a moment before throwing himself at Bitan in a hug, crying, “Bitan-shishu!” mxI2ZT

A calculating gleam flashed in Bitan’s eyes. He slowly raised a hand and patted his back, but the moment his hand made contact, he felt how tense the youth was.

An idea formed in Bitan’s mind as he extricated Shi Wuduan from the hug and gently pushed him away. He half-crouched to look him in the eye and said gently, “Wuduan, where did you run to? Us shishu have been worried sick, and your shifu, your shifu, he….. Ai!”

“I… I only went to the back mountain to play for a while, I just….” Shi Wuduan’s eyes reddened even further at Bitan’s show of affection and actually began to tear up. He said nonsensically, “I stole shifu’s bird so Bai Li could play with it, I was afraid he’d beat me… shishu, where’s shifu?”

Bitan narrowed his eyes. Shi Wuduan felt a surge of panic, fearing he’d discovered something. He made a show of wiping his eyes with his sleeve, “Shishu, where’s my shifu?” W0 snB

Bitan gently patted his head and sighed, “Did you see the plaque in the ancestral hall?”

Shi Wuduan looked up at him.

Bitan stood up and gently pushed him in the back, saying, “Ah well.”

He brought him into the hall. The coffin hadn’t been covered yet. Shi Wuduan took a glance inside then backed three steps away, his whole body trembling. LSWZdb

The shifu who’d raised him, taught him, scolded him and hit him for more than ten years, who’d furiously chase him around with the punishment ruler whenever he got into trouble, who’d twist his beard and smile every time his cultivation improved, was lying there lifelessly in the coffin, like Lu Cheng ….

He was dead.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Bitan placed a hand on his shoulder and half hugged him. He said softly, “Your master was in closed cultivation when he suddenly heard you’d disappeared. When you couldn’t be found, he came out of closed cultivation in worry; his sudden anger damaged his body and he fell gravely ill… ai! Us shishu were all too busy, we failed to notice that he was having a qi deviation. He… he….”

Clearly the sect leader had personally sent him to go find rogue cultivator Jiang Hua! 7y0CFO

Shi Wuduan felt like a venomous snake was curled on his shoulder. He trembled even more violently.

Bitan was saying something again, but he couldn’t hear him anymore. Bitan noticed his unusual state and looked down, a dark look flashing across his face. He spoke a few more words and instructed a few disciples to take Shi Wuduan to wash up and rest.

Shi Wuduan savagely bit his tongue and gathered his wits about him. He found that he’d been put in the courtyard he used to live with his shifu in.

All the stars in the huge astrolabe in the middle of the courtyard had turned into grains of sands, all the star strands were dead and withered. 18FbSv

Shi Wuduan took only a single glance before woodenly shifting his gaze away. His last shred of hope, borne from his unwillingness to accept reality, had died at what he’d seen.

His shifu once said that astrolabes, with their ability to glean the future, were the most spiritual of all things in the world; some of them could even take on masters. Those that did, lived and died with their masters. If even a sliver of its master’s soul remained in the human realm, then it’s light would not vanish completely.

But it seemed now that this world had nothing to do with his shifu anymore.

tNXRwz

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9 comments

  1. Your translations are so good. It brought out all me emotions 😳🥺💔😢

    Thank you so much for your hard work 👏🙏💐🧨

  2. I totally don’t remember how old Shi Wudan is….

    But he’s really smart for his age regardless